School starts promptly at 8:50 and ends at 3:30. It is so very important for children to be at school consistently and on time. We have such a short amount of learning time and I would hate for your child to fall behind because of attendance issues. Obviously, events occur and sometimes children need to be absent or late. Please come to me with individual circumstances so that I can ensure your child will not miss anything important from that day.

 

Students will have homework every single night expect for Friday. The district mandates about 30 minutes of homework each night for first graders. Room #509 has homework consisting of a reading and math portion nightly. A paper be sent home on Monday and will be expected to be worked on throughout the week and returned to school on Friday. Children will be receive a sticker for each week of homework that is completed on time. When he/she receives 20 stickers, a celebration will be in order! Last year, the children chose extra recess, salon parties, or an ice cream social as their reward. Children will also receive Oberle bucks each Friday for completed homework. These Oberle bucks can be used to purchase items (snacks, pencils, treasure box etc.) at the end of every week.

We will not start homework until the 2nd or 3rd week of school. At that time, you will be receiving a sturdy homework folder and a composition book. All spelling homework will be done in the composition book. This folder should be returned at the end of the week.

 

Every child at Oberle Elementary will recieve an agenda book at the beginning of the school year. This is a way to communicate important information to parents such as school closing, celebrations, concerts etc. These agendas are also a way for me to communicate with parents daily about your child's behavior.

Each day your child will enter our classroom and place a clothespin with his/her name on it on our stoplight. This stoplight is visual representation of any warning that I need to give individual students. All clothespins are initially placed on the green light. Throuhgout the day, I will move the clothespins up to the yellow or red light if necessary. At the end of the day, I will simply mark your child's agenda with a green, yellow or red marker depending upon where your child's clothespin is at the end of the day. Please remember to sign the agenda each and every night and return it to school the following day. I will be checking this agenda daily and rewarding the children who bring it daily signed with additional Oberle bucks!

Staying on the green light throughout the entire day is the goal. Students who do this will receive 2 Oberle bucks at the end of the school day. Being placed on the yellow light signifies that I had to give your child two warnings about his/her behavior and he/she will receive 1 Oberle buck. Children who are on the red light have had more than 2 warnings during the day and will not receive any Oberle bucks. If this becomes a daily occurence, more serious consequences will be discussed and put into place.

As stated above, each Friday all students will have the opportunity to cash in their Oberle bucks. The more bucks they accrue the 'bigger' and 'better' prizes they can buy! This system has always been a success within my classroom and I am hopeful it will continue throughout this year as well.

 

Birthdays

I love celebrating birthdays in Room 509. We will be singing happy birthday to your child on his or her special day. He or she may also pick from my birthday box which includes cool pencils and erasers. I also have the child wear a colorful visor to recognize his or her birthday throughout the entire day. It is absolutely fine to send in treats with your child. My only rule is that you send enough treats for everyone. As of now, we have 23 students in our room and I will be sure to notify you if that number changes. Please do not send in any knives used to cut a cake. We will provide that here at school!