Welcome to Room 210!

Hello and welcome back to another exciting school year!  As your child transitions to a new grade, new teacher, new schedule, and different routines, don’t be alarmed if irritability and anxieties surface.  Please be patient as your child adjusts to his or her new environment.

Over the next few weeks we will be establishing classroom routines, rules, and hopes & dreams.  We will continue to reconnect to things learned last year and expand upon them in the upcoming months.  The following will explain some of our routines, schedules and things to know about Room 210:

• Open House is currently scheduled for September 17th. (Please disregard the date of the 19th which was sent home in my welcome letter.  This was the original date but has been changed due to a scheduling conflict.)
• Our Lunch/Recess break is at 11:25 – 12:15 as follows:
            11:25 – 11:50 – Lunch
            11:50 – 12:15 - Recess
• We will be having one snack break in the morning.  Please be mindful that your child eat a complete and healthy breakfast each morning, and pack a HEALTHY snack and drink each day (i.e., fruits, veggies, crackers, cheese, water and/or real fruit juice,etc).  Snacks containing high sugar content, while yummy, will give your child a sugar high and then they will crash and burn.  Empty tummies will not enable your child to reach his or her learning potential.  We would like all children ready for the challenges of learning each and every day.  Healthy snacks are the way to go!
• Feel free to send in bottled water (clearly labeled) for you child as well.
• I have supplied the students with pencils, crayons, colored pencils, markers, glue sticks, erasers, pencil boxes, and folders that should accommodate our needs for most of the school year.  Additional school supplies that your child has purchased for school can be used during his or her Homework time at home. 
• A homework folder will go home with your child every night to facilitate communication between home and school.  On the inside-left is a section for parent notices and/or corrected papers and the inside-right is for homework.  This folder MUST be checked and returned to school each day.  Please place any communication to me in the parent side of the folder. 
• At this point, Homework will consist of reading for 20 minutes each day.  More structured homework expectations will begin soon.   While homework assignments may vary, I will try to keep the routine as consistent as possible.  In addition, your child may have mini projects to complete over time.

• Our “Specials Block” is each morning from 10:40-11:25 at which time your child will be engaged in Art, P.E., and Music.  The tentative schedule is as follows:

                                          Monday – P.E. (Sneakers required)

                                          Tuesday – Art (Art Smock recommended)
                                          Wednesday – Music
                                          Thursday – P.E. (Sneakers required)
                                          Friday – Music

• Computers and library have yet to be scheduled.  Library will be scheduled as a weekly visit while computers will most likely be scheduled at various times throughout the year.
• For Art class you may send in an old shirt for your child to wear.  Your child will be able to keep it in his/her cubby for the year.  Please remember to put a name and room number on the shirt.
• Sneakers should be worn on Mondays and Thursdays for P.E.

Pine Glen School uses a reading incentive program we call Reading Corps.  Information about Reading Corps will be sent home along with some Reading Corps slips once school is in session.  For each 15 minutes your child reads, he or she is able to fill in 1 box on a Reading Corps slip.  Once he or she completes 14 slips, the school celebrates your child’s accomplishment by announcing his/her name over the school PA system, and he/she will receive a prize.

To help facilitate a successful and safe dismissal, it is extremely important that we know where your child is going at the beginning of each school day.  While emergencies do arise, we suggest that you send a note to school with your child each time he or she will be going home a different way, being picked up, or leaving early for an appointment.  The office needs this information by 10:00AM.  If there is a discrepancy as to where your child is going (i.e., your child says he or she is going home a different way, but there is no note to back it up), your child will be sent to the office at the end of the school day.  You will be called and will be responsible for picking up your child if necessary. 

I hope this letter answers some of your beginning of the year questions.  If you have additional questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to contact me.  My telephone number is 781-221-7773 and email address is anderson@bpsk12.org.

I look forward to meeting you at Open House on September 17th!