Dear Parents or Guardians,
I would like to welcome your child to my classroom. I am looking forward to an enjoyable and productive year. I am counting on your support and help. If you need to discuss anything with me, please feel free to call the office at 776-2874 and schedule an appointment to meet during my planning/conference period (9:25 - 10:15) or after school. You may e-mail me at wadkinsj@jackson.k12.al.us and I will get back to you.
It is important to make sure your child is at school on time each day (please read the truancy policy) and to make sure he/she completes and returns homework assignments daily. If your child is late or absent, material will be missed that cannot be made up since so many of the things we do are done as group work. Each Monday, I will send home a fluency passage with your child to be practiced Monday thru Thursday nights. Set a timer (the stove, the microwave, etc.) for 1 minute and have your child read this passage each night and write his/her score (the number of words read) down on the sheet. Please initial the fluency passage and send it back on Friday. The end of the year goal for a third grade student is 110 words a minute. Let this be a contest for your child. If he/she reads 75 words on Monday night, have him/her try to read 80 words Tuesday night, and so on.
Also, have your child try to retell what they read to you. Your child will have math homework almost every night. Let you child do the math sheet by himself/herself as much as possible and then discuss and correct the sheet. This sheet is to be brought back to school the next day. I do not take a grade on these sheets but I will look over your child’s work and have them correct any mistakes. These sheets help prepare your child for the math test he/she will have on Friday. It is also crucial that your child learn his/her multiplication facts this year. Please don’t let your child get behind because he/she will be having timed weekly tests once we get started on these. These tests can either greatly increase or decrease a student’s grade. There are so many math skills that must be mastered for your child to do well on the tests they will take in the spring.
Each Monday, your child will be bringing home a list of spelling words to study all week at home. There will be 20 words on the sheet. I will also dictate 2 sentences to your child using the spelling words. Your child will have a test on these words every Friday. PLEASE help them study. The 20 words will count as a Spelling grade, while the 2 sentences will count as an English grade. I will be looking for capital letters, punctuation, and handwriting on the sentences.
The behavior system I use is the card system. Each child begins the day on a green card. For bad behavior the child moves his/her card to yellow, and finally red. Yellow card is a warning. Red card means detention. A student may also go to detention for being behind on that day’s lessons or failure to do homework. This is done during snack time. When work is completed, he/she may come to snack if there is still time left.
My job is to teach and keep your child safe. Following school procedures will help me do this. Please go to the office if you need to check out your child. The office will then call down to my room, and I will send your child to the office. Return the emergency card with the names and working phones numbers of the people who can pick up your child in case of an emergency. If your child has any health problems or is involved in a custody situation, please let me know as soon as possible. To avoid distracting and interrupting our work, please schedule conferences rather than dropping by the classroom unexpectedly.
If we work together, this will be a good year for all of us. I am available to discuss anything you need to talk about. I have the best interest of all my children at heart. I believe learning should be as much fun as possible, but sometimes it is just plain hard work. Let’s work together to have a good year!
Mrs. Wadkins