First & Second Grade Handbook
2009-10
Dear Families,
Thank you for taking the time to read through some important information that will help you, your child and us have an exciting year. Keep this handbook for future use.
Beth, Brian, and Whitney are all excited to be back at school this year. We love working as a team to provide your child with the best personal education we can. This year’s theme is “Time Machine.” We will be learning about our world. We will frame our studies through thematic questions about community, caring for our world, the animals that are there and more. Once again we have a winter performance night planned and an end of the year feast. You will find those dates and more information in the following pages noted below. Thanks for reading this and remember to ask any questions you might have!
Table of Contents
Monday through Thursday Schedule 2
Friday Schedule 2
Supply List 3
Field Trip Information 3
Snack 4
Lunch 4
Conflict resolution 4
Activity Fee 5
TFT 5
SleepUnder and Campout 5
Sharing 6
Birthdays 6
Parent meeting nights & Project Nights 6
Communication 6
Recess, Park and Garden 7
Volunteers 7
Contact Information 8
Monday through Thrusday Schedule
Our typical schedule for the beginning of the year looks as follows, things change as the year progresses and special topics are developed and classes planned. Note that there is a different schedule for Fridays as Friday dismissal is at noon.
Monday through Thursday
8:30 Class begins – Please be on time – Check in, Morning Brain Teasers, Morning Message, calendar, and announcements.
9:00-10:05 Art/P.E./Garden/Science rotations
10:05-10:20 Snack
10:20-10:45 Recess
10:45-11:45 Reading Workshop
11:45-12:45 Lunch – lunch recess
12:45–1:45 Math and Literacy Menus
1:45-3:00 Writing Workshop/Theme Activities
Friday Schedule
8:30 Class begins – Please be on time – Check in, Morning Brain Teasers, Morning Message, calendar, and announcements.
8:45-9:15 All-school meeting
9:15-9:45 Class meeting
9:45-10:00 Sharing
10:00-10:10 Snack
10:10-10:30 Recess
10:30-11:30 Science or Cooking Friday
11:30-11:45 Clean up
11:45-12:00 Story or Closing Activity
12:00 Dismissal - Please be on time
Supplies
We are including a supply fee for your child’s class supplies. You do not need to bring in any regular supplies. We ask that you pay this fee directly to your child’s teacher. It is $30.00. We may ask for special items to be brought during projects, but they should be things you find around the house.
First Day Things to Bring:
Extra clothes in a Marked Zip-loc bag (Mark with child’s name on clothes)
Emergency Contact Information, and all other paperwork.
Activity fee and other forms from website
Old T-shirt to be used as a paint shirt by the class community
Inside shoes (slippers of flip flops) for in-class wearing
Leak proof water bottle
Field Trips
We have planned the following field trips to enhance our learning experiences during the year. Many of these will require drivers. All will require chaperones. They should be great fun and educational as well.
Date Location
Sept. 23rd Back to school Parent Meeting
Sept. 29th OMSI Cardboard Rocket 10:30 am
Sept. 30th SleepUnder- Games & Fun!
6:00 to 8:30
Oct 21st Group Breakfast
Oct. 20th NWCT Alexander & the Terrible … 9:15
Oct. 27th OMSI Hubble Omnimax movie 9:30
Nov. 5th OMSI Fossils – here at Trillium
Dec. 10th Performance night 6:00pm
Mid Jan. Swimming at Mt. Scott
Jan 31st – Feb 4th Intensives
Feb. 9th TOJ Puppet – Bridge of the Gods 9:15
Mar. 8th OMSI PB& J Robot lab 10, 11, or noon
April 7th NWCT “Go Dog Go” 9:15
April 19th OMSI Birds Lab, 10, 11 or noon
May 19/20 Campout, Cape Lookout
June 3rd Project Night - FEAST! 5:30 – 8:00
Snack
We encourage you to pack a healthful snack for your child each day. Please make it something nutritious and fast to eat with no preparation needed. We will not provide class snacks.
Lunch
Lunch is eaten in the classrooms. Lunch should be sent with your child daily or hot lunch may be purchased. Please try not to send food that your child cannot prepare by her/himself. Please remember to send utensils and food that does not require refrigeration or heating. School lunches are available this year made in-house. The cost is $3.25. These lunches are also available at free and reduced cost. Breakfast is also available for $2.50. Please complete the PPS form for eligibility to receive a free or reduced lunch. Even if your child chooses to bring their own lunch, if you qualify for free lunch please complete the form as it qualifies Trillium for additional funding for special programs. Check the Trillium website, http://www.trilliumcharterschool.org/index.php?page=home-visit-packets , for the link.
Conflict Resolution
We use peer mediations as a form of nonviolent conflict resolution at Trillium. We want to give students the tools to solve their own problems. They do so with the support of their teacher and other staff. Please familiarize yourself and your child with our constitution bill of rights and responsibilities. This serves as a foundation for our mediation process and how we frame our responsibilities as members of the community. Mediations are not punitive, but rather a way to fully understand and solve issues.
If the same behavior keeps occurring over and over, then the issue can be taken to Judicial Committee. This is a group of students who ask questions and help to come up with solutions to the ongoing issue. It is much like a multi-mediator mediation. Once again, the goal is to solve issues nonviolently and in a way that works for all members involved. If you have questions about this process, please ask. Please support your child in developing nonviolent conflict resolution skills.
Activity Fee
There is an activity fee that is all-inclusive this year. It covers all field trips, a campout, supplies and cooking activities and art fees for your child. The cost is $115.00. We should not have to ask for any additional money for our class this year. The only other charge could be an intensive your child chooses. Please make the arrangements for payment or work out a payment schedule with the front office. Please give all payments to your child’s teacher so that we can keep our accounts accurate. If you qualify for free and reduced lunch you can receive a scholarship from TFT by filling out the scholarship request form in the home visit packet. You must fill out the scholarship form however. TFT cannot access free and reduced lunch information so you must request the scholarship. These fees make field trips possible. Additional siblings or family members that attend must be paid for separately and in advance.
TFT
TFT or Together For Trillium is a parent organization that supports the school. It sponsors Trillium in Bloom various social activities to enrich the Trillium community. Please consider participating and or attending the Potluck, skating party, swimming party, and Auction. It’s your chance to help the school, be involved and meet new friends.
SleepUnder
We have a SleepUnder on September 30th, beginning at 6:00 with pizza dinner and fun activities and games to be enjoyed by all. Parents are invited to come and play and stay if they want or leave their children in our care for the evening. Children should be picked up by 8:30 and go home to sleep and return for a group breakfast with us the next morning. It will be a lot of safe fun for all.
Campout
We will be having a primary campout on May 19th & 20th. We will go to Cape Lookout State Park at the Oregon Coast, 12 miles southwest of Tillamook. We leave in the morning of the first day and return on the second at about 3:00. A parent is strongly encouraged to come, as this is a community activity and a chance to meet the community members and welcome new families. Between the classes there are 12 yurts. Each yurt sleeps a maximum of 8 people. Three tent sites are also reserved. If you are planning to bring a whole family you will need to make your own campsite reservations since we will not have room for everyone’s families. The cost of the campout and food is included in your child’s activity fee for your child; any additional family members attending will need to pay an additional fee of $25.00 or $10.00 for those 4 or younger.
Sharing
We love to be able to give the opportunity for all students to share each week. In order to make sharing an interesting and valuable part of our day, each class will have a sharing schedule that will be posted in the class. Sharing is not a time to share toys one may own. DO NOT SEND TOYS. We will have a schedule with a theme for sharing. Please make sure the item or story they share is related to the topic for the week. Check newsletters or calendars for the current themes.
Birthdays
We would love to celebrate your child’s birthday in class. Students with summer birthdays can celebrate their birthday on their half birthday or at another time that we can arrange during the year. Please let us know in advance if you are planning on bringing a snack at 10:00 for the class. Snacks should be healthy and not sugar laden. Advance notice is necessary so we can address food allergies.
Parent Meeting and Project Nights
We will have a back to school parent meeting night on Thurs, Sept. 23rd. The parent meeting nights are for parents only. We have two project nights, Dec. 10th and June 3rd. We will focus on classroom support and we will answer questions you have. Project nights are for sharing work!
Communication
All newsletters and important class and school information will be distributed through three avenues: the home files located in/outside each classroom, through electronic emails, and on our blog through the main Trillium Website. Please check your file daily to keep up with all of the new and exciting activities in the primary classes and at Trillium. Talk to your child’s teacher if your family needs more than one home file. Make sure we have the correct email information for your family.
Recess, Park and Garden Activities
We would love to be able to go outside daily throughout the year to play, work in the Trillium garden and play at the park. Please send your child to school with appropriate outerwear/raingear for the beautiful wet Oregon days.
Volunteers
We are looking forward to a year of partnering with all of the adults in the lives of our students. We hope to be able to learn from your experience with your child so that together we can make his/her experience at Trillium a great one. We have a wide range of opportunities to volunteer in and out of the classroom. Please sign up with your child’s teacher to help or talk to the classroom liaison to help. Each class needs volunteers for a few ongoing projects:
Dictation – Either takes dictation from students in class or types up recorded dictation that students have made in class.
Portfolio Assistant – Scans and assists in getting work into electronic portfolio system.
Reading Group Facilitators – Help work with small groups of students in reading groups with guided, leveled oral reading.
Menu Time/Project Time Helper – Help with math and literacy menus so that children have adult support in their small group learning.
Before School, Lunch and Recess Duty Helpers – Help assure safety of children during these times and supervise games.
Project helpers – Help students work on ILP projects.
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Please contact your child’s teacher if you would be willing to work on one of these projects. Your help is incredibly appreciated.
Trillium and PPS have a policy to help ensure the safety of our children and community. If you are planning to help in any way that gives you access to other people’s children we are required to complete a criminal background check. Those forms are available through the school and help us all to feel better about who is working with our kids. Thanks for your cooperation in completing these quickly so that we can all be involved.
When we go on field trips and you choose to chaperone, remember you are there to help and it is okay to reinforce positive behaviors of children as well as remind them of appropriate limits. Check with any of us if you have questions. Remember that if you volunteer to chaperone we are expecting that you make that your priority and that you take care of all children in your charge just as carefully as you would your own.
While we generally have an open door policy when it comes to parent involvement in the classroom, we are requesting that for the first two weeks of school parent volunteer time be limited to work outside the classroom. We would like for the first two weeks of school to give the students an opportunity to form a tight-knit community with one another and allow us to form our own relationships with the children. We are excited to welcome parents in the classroom beginning with our third week of school, September 21st.
If you have time before the school year begins we would really appreciate volunteers for all sorts of reasons. Thanks, in advance, for your help.
Contact Information
Beth, Brian, and Whitney can be contacted by telephone or email for questions and concerns. Since drop-off and pick-up time are usually busy, please feel free to call or set up an appointment if you need a longer time to chat.
Beth Molenkamp 503.706.6742 email: beth@trilliumcharterschool.org
Blog: http://bethk-1-2.blogspot.com
Brian Porter 541-941-0515 email: brian@trilliumcharterschool.org
Blog: http://
Whitney Sweet 503-975-2246 email: whitney@trilliumcharterschool.org
Blog: http://whitneysclass.blogspot.com
Thank you for your dedication to our students and our school. We look forward to working with you.
*Beth, Brian, and Whitney
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