First+Grade+Information

==First Grade Information  == ==//First Grade will be a wonderful year for you and your children! Please review the information below in order to prepare for the year to come. If you have any questions, feel free to call or e-mail me! //==

¤ Ms. Cavanaugh’s Fabulous First Grade ¤ General Information

Lily Stahler Cavanaugh E-mail: lcavanau@icsd.k12.ny.us Cell: (607) 351-2563

Me – I grew up in Enfield and am excited to be a part of this community again! I attended Wells College as an undergraduate, and received my Master’s from Syracuse University in Special Education. I have taught in New York City in the south Bronx for one year, and have worked as a long-term substitute in 1st grade at Cayuga Heights, in addition to being a classroom aide in Kindergarten at Caroline. I look forward to teaching your children, and am thrilled to be here!

School Day - Our day begins at 7:40 a.m. Children should not be in the classroom before this time without their teacher. All of us teachers are in and out of our classrooms before this time, and we need to ensure the safety of every child. We appreciate your understanding!

Class Work – This year the first grade teachers will be sending the assignments we finish each week home on Friday (or the last day of the school week). The papers will have been checked by me, and may need corrections or to be completed over the weekend. These should be completed and returned to me on Monday. Any papers that are complete and graded can be kept at home. Please feel free to contact me with any questions about your child’s work!

Snack – We will have a small snack each morning. A “Snack and Share” calendar will be sent home each month. Everyone will have 1 or 2 days during the month, as the schedule continues on from month to month to make it as fair as possible. When the Snack Bag comes home with your child, it means that the next day is their day to bring in snack for the class. There are currently 20 students in our class; this number may change, so please plan on bringing more. Families have brought in all kinds of things such as crackers, fruit, graham crackers, snack packs, veggies and dip, yoghurt, etc. I do ask that you try to avoid tremendously sweet or messy snacks—thanks! We ask that you also avoid peanuts and peanut products, as there are children in our school with allergies.

Share/Show and Tell – As mentioned previously, a calendar will come home with your child every month determining her/his day for sharing (and snack). On this day, your child should share an item that the class can learn from (please, no toys). It may be helpful to help your child practice what to say in front of the class!

Lunch – Money is collected every Monday morning. Ice cream will be available for purchase on Fridays.

Birthdays – Birthdays a great day to celebrate your child, and I will certainly provide a time for children to do just that on your child’s special day (children whose birthdays are during the summer vacation will have a special day as well). This time usually will take place in the afternoon. If you plan to send something in, please let me know in advance. Any kind of snack will do—veggies, cupcakes, pasta, whatever! Again, please be aware of how many students are in our class. Also, if your child is planning to have a private birthday celebration, please know that invitations may be passed out in school only if everyone is invited, or all girls are invited to a girl’s party/all boys are invited to a boy’s party. Children are often very sensitive to being left out.

Library – I will be scheduling one library time for our class this year, and it will probably be on Thursday afternoons. The children will also use this time to check out and return books that they may keep for 1 week.

Homework – Children will bring a “book baggie” home each night. Usually the assignment will entail reading a book for 10 minutes. At times I will send additional assignments (as I mentioned earlier). Reinforcing what we’re learning in school through homework is powerful and will help your child become more successful in school. Learning to be responsible for homework in first grade can often be difficult, and I appreciate your help and support!!

Volunteers – I love having regular family volunteers in the room. If you would like to do so, please just contact me so that we can work out a time. Field trips and parties are also times when any family member is welcome to help (and it’s greatly appreciated!). So again, please let me know if you can ever help out.

Book Orders – I will be sending home book orders from Scholastic about once per month. The books from these companies are less expensive than buying them in bookstores, and they can help our class collect points to order even more books for our classroom! You can make payments by writing a check to Scholastic Book Club, or you can send in cash and I will write a check.