Global Frig Door

Class Information

Items of Interest

Mr. Sigler’s 3rd Grade Class

SPECIAL CLASS SCHEDULE:

8:40 – 9:30    Monday: PE     Thursday: Art     Friday: Music

Wednesday: Library 9:20-10:00    Computer Lab 10:00-10:30

Tuesday: Guidance 10:00-10:40    Computer Lab 10:45 – 11:15
Daily: Lunch 12:15-12:40 Recess 2:30-3:00

Arrival times: 7:45-8:05  Dismissal time: 3:20

TRANSPORTATION:

If your child changes from his or her normal routine, please send a note, or e-mail: jsigler@cjr1org.

DISCIPLINE: We will form our class rules the first day but they usually full into these categories:

1. Follow directions quickly.
2. Raise your hand for permission to speak.
3. Raise your hand to leave your seat.
4. Keep you dear teacher happy.

4. Make smart choices.

The class will earn “Smilies or “Frownies” for following or violating the rules, and may go to lunch or recess early. For repeated violation of a rule, a student will flip a colored card in his or her pocket. A blue card is a warning. A yellow card=15 minutes and a red card=all recess. Good behavior will earn praise and rewards.

The whole class can earn compliments for good behavior. We will keep track of the compliments with a marble jar, and after we fill the marble jar, the students earn a Friday Compliment Movie Party.

BOOK ORDERS:

Each week I will send home Scholastic book orders with your child. They will come home on Monday and are due on Friday. Do not feel obligated to purchase books. They are available if you want to stock your child’s personal library at very reasonable prices. Reading to your child and with your child is one of the best things you can do for your child. We also receive points we can use toward books for the classroom. If you do send a check, please make it payable to ScholasticBook Clubs. You can also order online and pay by credit card by visiting www.scholastic.com/parentordering. The Class User Name is:  mrsigler3rd and the Password is: read.

Some parents have asked me to hold onto books from an order so they can pick them up and use them for Christmas or birthday presents. That is a great idea!

CLASSROOM FREEBIES:

Occasionally Highlights Magazine or others send teachers forms to send home with their students asking parents to subscribe to the magazine. Please sign and return these, even if you do not wish to subscribe! I send the responses in (even the “no’s”) and get all kinds of free “stuff” for the classroom: Stickers, computer software, games, pencils, etc.

SCHOOL SUPPLIES:

Please check with your child regularly to see that he or she has all the necessary supplies, especially in the later half of the year. It is a great distraction to disrupt class to find a pencil, ruler, etc. Additionally, we will make great use of a clipboard each child. If finances for school supplies are a problem, send a note or have your child talk to me. We have resources that might be able to help.

WATER BOTTLES:

It is important to stay hydrated throughout the school day, especially on hot days. Students may bring water bottles to keep at their desks. The kind with closable spouts work best to prevent spills. Bottles may only contain water.

SNACK MILK:

We will be having snack milk in the mornings.

We will  be bringing our own snacks this year.  They can bring snacks for several days at a time and keep them in their lockers.  

Birthday Treats: On you child’s birthday, if you would like to send or bring snack that would be fine. We’ll have it with our snack milk. If you send/bring a “big cookie” on your child’s birthday, it is very helpful if you or the store will cut it into squares for us. Little plates or napkins are also helpful. At this time, we have 22 students in our class.

GRADES:

The grades your child will be receiving this year will be in Reading, English, Spelling, Math, and Science/Social Studies. The grading scale is:

A+ 97-100 B+ 86-89 C+ 76-79 D+ 66-69 F 0-59

A 93-96 B 83-85 C 73-75 D 63-65

A- 90-92 B- 80-82 C- 70-72 D- 60-62

I want your child’s early experiences with grades to be as successful as possible, so assignments that earn a grade less than a 70% (C-) will be redone. Redoing the assignment will raise the score by one letter grade.

4^th quarter will be a little different. We will not redo assignments during 4^th quarter. The 4^th grade teacher will be able to get a more realistic picture of your child’s performance,.

Each quarter, I’ll send home a midterm and final quarter grade report. Our school has a Bulldog Code of Conduct: Our school must be a positive place for learning. I will do my part by being respectful, responsible, and safe. All students are expected to follow the code at all times at school. Your child’s process will be evaluated by our behavior codes.Outstanding, Satisfactory, Progressing, Needs Improvement, Unsatisfactory. Your child’s learning and self-esteem are precious and cannot be fully realized until a child learns to control his or her attitude and behavior.

WORD WORK:

Our Word Workthis year will be Sitton Spelling. We piloted it last year and are kicking it into full swing. It is unlike the “spell and tell” routine that we have had in the past. Each week will have 5 “Core Words” that will demonstrate the 2 or 3 spelling principles we will be working. We will take a pretest on Monday to see whether they have already mastered that week’s spelling rules. We will do activities during to week to practice those spelling rules. On Friday, those to did not ace the pretest will take a 20 word posttest. I do have a link on our class web page to both the core words and the 20 posttest words.

MATH:

We use the Everyday Math program this year. The homework page is called a “Home Link”. The program emphasizes problem-solving and using different approaches to solving math problems to enhance understanding. I’ll send home a math student reference book for you to use if you need to look up how to do something. You will find the sections of the Student Reference Book on our online classroom Moodle site. www.siglersite.com/moodle You are also welcome to call me if you don’t “get” it. I don’t give homework on Fridays.

HOMEWORK FOLDER:

It is very important that you check your child’s homework folder each night. It will be our communication tool between home and school. I will send notes home, graded papers, and anything else that goes home by putting it on the GO HOME side of the homework folder. I will put any homework or permission slips that need to be returned to school on the BACK TO SCHOOL side of homework folder. You are also welcome to place any notes from you to school on the BACK TO SCHOOL side of the Homework folder.

We do not believe 3rd graders should have a great deal of homework each night. They will have some Math homework and 20 minutes of free reading each night, a spelling test on Friday, and other occasional assignments. After they have finished reading for the night, please initial the sheet in their homework folder.

I believe in establishing good work ethics at an early age. This begins the framework for personal responsibility, which we emphasize in third grade. Therefore, if they forget, I ask that you do not bring in their homework. I know it is tempting, but doing it for them does not help teach them responsibility. If they do not have their homework, they will do it at recess. I tell them that missing recess is not the end of the world. Everyone forgets or makes mistakes. We just accept the consequences it, learn from it, and move on.

LUNCH/MILK MONEY:

Snack milk and lunch money are paid out of the same account. When the balance gets close to $0, please send money in an envelope with your child’s name and my name on it.

The Central Office will handle the crediting and debiting of your account. When you are down to $5.00 or less, they will send home a note letting you know that you are getting low. When they reach -$3.00, they will no longer be able to order snack milk. When they reach -$5.00 you will be mailed a notice and he or she will not be able to charge snack milk or meals. They will be given a cheese sandwich for lunch for the 5 days. After that they must bring their lunch until the debt is paid.

You are welcome to apply for free or reduced lunch assistance, but it does not pay for snack milk.

You may contact them or send a note through me if you have any questions.

CLASSROOM TECHNOLOGY

We have a mini-computer lab in our classroom. We are so far the only class to have in the classroom one computer for every two students. We are privileged to have them. They are called “thin client” computers, which are not as powerful as regular computers, but still allow us to do more than we could without. I hope to do several projects this year integrating technology into the curriculum with they must learn. They will also learn 21^st Century Literacies: 1) how to be good Digital Citizens, 2) how to Collaborate with classes around the world, 3) how to think Critically about what they Read, and 4) how to Write for real, Authentic Audiences outside the classroom.

Our classroom web site www.siglersite.com will be the launching point for all our online work, so you can visit the links on our site and follow along with how we are doing. Some places will be open so family and friends can visit our site. Others will be password protected which I can provide to you whenever you wish. We will also have a password protected online classroom called a “Moodle.” www.siglersite.com/moodle Unlike our classroom website, it will be a secure place for us to work. Our classroom web site is also for you. It is called Our Global Frig Door because we will post notes for you and our proudest work for you and others around the globe. Don’t you post work your family has done on your frig door? There will even be opportunities for you to give feedback directly to your child and other students. Not only will we take measures to ensure your child’s online safety, but I will teach your child how to act in a safe and ethical manner.

I will be trying out some new online tools this year. Because of a new law this year, it is a little for complicated to use them. Any electronic communications I have

with my students either have to either be public or available to you and the school. It will be a little more inconvenient, but I will do my best to make all the online tools we use available to you. It will all be linked from our class web page www.siglersite.com.

The main tools we will use will be www.siglersite.com/moodle and www.google.com/a/siglersite.

You can find more information on our class web page at http://www.Siglersite.com, so please check back weekly for updates. In the box below the bulldog on our class web page, you can sign-up to have weekly updates e-mailed directly to you.

Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions or comments. I look forward to working with you and your child. I know it will be a great year! You can contact me by talking to me before school, after school, or during my planning time (during specials), or by:

Phone E-mail

School 649-7034 jsigler@cjr1.org

Class Website: www.siglersite.com Online Classroom: www.siglersite.com/moodle