Dear Parents and Guardians,

I want to welcome you and your child to First Grade! The classroom is a busy and vibrant learning environment. Every minute is scheduled with learning time.  From past experience, I know you will have a tired child by the end of the day for at least the first month of school. The children do adjust well to our busy first grade schedule and although we do not have the scheduled playtime and rest time as in kindergarten, we do have fun with our work.

I want to tell you a little about myself and some of the things that will be happening in first grade this year.  My name is Darci Rice and I grew up on a farm in Fennimore, Wisconsin.   I worked in Verona, Wisconsin, for a little over four years teaching preschool and kindergarten.  I also am a huge Packers fan.  I taught at Dover-Eyota seven years as a sixth grade teacher and then moved to teach first grade eigthteen years ago.  I am looking forward to working with you and your child.  I live in Elgin with my husband, Sean, and have two children who attend UW-LaCrosse, Noah is a senior and majoring in Elementary Education and Taylor is a freshman and majoring in Psychology.  It is easiest to contact me before school starts between 7:30-7:55, when the students are at specials from 12:00-12:50, after school or you can email me at darcirice@deschools.org. ;

We started a new reading curriculum program five years ago by Fountas and Pinnell.  There are eight parts to this new curriculum:  Interactive Read-Aloud and Literature Discussion, Shared and Performance Reading, Writing About Reading, Writing, Oral and Visual Communication, Technological Communication, Phonics, Spelling and Word Study, and Guided Reading.  There will no longer be spelling tests on Friday if you have an older child in your family who has done first grade at Dover-Eyota.  At the end of the first grade, students should be able to read approximately seventy-one words per minute.  I am always amazed at the gains in reading that students make in first grade.  In math, students will learn a strong sense of a number’s size 

and relationships to each other with numbers to 120.  We will also focus on learning addition and subtraction facts, story problems, and counting pennies, nickels and dimes. In science, we will be studying insects and spiders, living organisms, sound, engineering, and pebbles, sand and silt.  In social studies, students will learn about being a good citizen, how the president is elected, rules and why we have them, why people trade, map work, comparing local places to faraway places,

timelines, asking historical questions, comparing and contrasting now and the past. 

Reminders

*Dismissal change must be made with your child prior to his or her coming to school each day.  I don’t always get to my email during the day and problems have occurred for some families when a sub has been present for teachers in the building.  If emergency situations arise, please call the main office and speak with one of the secretaries.  We will always accommodate emergency situations, but on a daily basis, we are unable to accommodate dismissal changes that do not come with your child in the morning.  Therefore, please send a note to school in the morning with your child giving permission for the end of the day dismissal changes.  If the change involves a bus change, please make sure the note includes the new address where your child is to be dropped off. I will copy the note and give the note to the bus driver.  

Supplies

To help parents, and since teachers can buy things in bulk, we decided to charge parents $25 for school supplies and party money. All students need to bring a container of anti-bacterial wipes, a box of Kleenex, a box of 3 oz. cups, headphones in a ziplock bag with your child’s name on it, tennis shoes that your child can fasten independently and a durable backpack without wheels.  Boys bring the following items: a roll of paper towels and a box of quart or gallon bags. Girls bring the following items:  a box of band-aids and napkins.  

Snacks

Like kindergarten, your child will be assigned a day to bring a snack for 23 students(see snack calendar).  Milk will not be available for snack time this year. Students can bring a water bottle labeled with their name if they want. All snacks need to be store bought.

Show and Tell- Will begin September 11th

Show and tell is every week and we will work students in if it isn’t a 

full week.  Your child can bring one item or a couple of smaller items.  Please don’t send something valuable or breakable.  If a student forgets to bring a show and tell, he/she can just tell something to the class that he/she was going to bring or bring it the next day.

Monday         Tuesday          Wednesday     Thursday       Friday

Callie   Nora             Jaxton Barrett Quetzally

Emily   Addie                   Elliot Kendall Lincoln

Clover           Cameron       Harper Aubrey Audrina

Landon     Teddy             Braxton             Lara                  Kennedy

Scarlett             Mya             Maizee

Tennis Shoes

In order to provide a safe and healthy environment for students and to maximize instructional time, all students will be required to wear tennis shoes to school. 

Take Home Folders/Reading Logs

THE MOST IMPORTANT THING YOUR CHILD WILL HAVE TO DO EACH NIGHT IS READ! The take home folder will travel back and forth from school to home each day.  Please check it EVERY NIGHT for important papers, information, etc. and make sure it’s your child’s responsibility to have it in his /her book bag each morning. Your child will be responsible to take out any notes for me at attendance time. The monthly reading logs are also located in your child’s folder.