If you ever have any questions or concerns please e-mail me @ [email protected]
October 29, 2024
Thursday, October 31st, is a half-day schedule. Please remember that students will only need a lunch- no snack. The cafeteria is closed. Please be aware that students will be eating lunch in the classroom on Thursday, so please DO NOT send anything related to nuts for lunch. I appreciate your understanding.
Costumes: Students are allowed to wear their costumes to school, but please be mindful about how they will be using the bathroom and sitting in class. Students cannot bring in weapons of any kind.
Treats: As per the students handbook, no food may be distributed on Halloween.
October 24, 2024
Beginning next week, we will start giving out Spelling Challenge Lists. A challenge word list will be given to students who get all of their pre tests words correct. The goal is to effectively challenge the students who find the spelling material to be easy. If at any time you feel that a challenge list is too overwhelming or difficult for your child, please let me know and we can discuss. The goal is never to cause anxiety but to challenge the kids who thrive off being challenged. When given the challenge list, your child's homework will be based on that list as well as their test on Friday. If you have any questions or concerns please feel free to email me.
October 16, 2024
Tomorrow is a dress down if you bring in a donation for the victims of Hurricane Helene and Milton.
Friday, October 18th is picture day.
Hello everyone! I just wanted to check if everyone was able to get their child's teams information and add their child's email address to their email. Last year when we had the unexpected snow day that turned into a virtual learning day we felt it was very stressful as it was unexpected and as a grade level we were not prepared as we had not set up teams. I vowed that would never happen again and got us all set up with teams this month. It's another place where I can post information. The great thing about teams is that it is closed to our class so I can share permission slips, class photos and other things relevant to the class. When I post something on Teams it will send an instant notification to your child's school email address so you know something has been posted. If you need help getting anything set up you are always able to reach out to tech support.
October 5, 2024
Just some important upcoming dates to remember:
Monday, Oct. 14 - School Closed for Columbus Day
Wednesday, Oct. 16 - Half Day for Students
Wednesday, Oct. 16 - Parent/Teacher Conferences
Friday, Oct. 18 - Picture Day/PTA Trunk or Treat
Thursday, Oct. 24 - Half Day for Students
Thursday, Oct. 24 - Parent/Teacher Conferences
Friday, Oct. 25 - SLG Color Run & Parish Bingo Night
Thursday, Oct. 31 - Half Day for Students
October 2, 2024
Progress Reports
Dear Parents,
On Friday, October 4, 2024 your child will be receiving a progress report for the first trimester. A progress report is a way to communicate about your child’s ongoing progress. Please be mindful that we are only a month into the school year. The First Grade Progress Report is a skills-based report that assesses first grade ONLY. This report is a representation of your child’s growth. Each child is assessed individually. Please keep in mind that this is not a traditional grading scale. Our Progress report also looks at all of the skills your children will be learning THIS year, not the skills that they should have come in with.
The first section “Approach to Learning” looks at how your child’s work study habits and behavior affect your child’s learning. If your child received a “+”, “*”or “^”, it is an indication that your child has a strength or weakness in this area.
Each child develops at different rates in different times. Academic areas are assessed according to skills taught at the current time of the report. If a skill is not assessed, it has not been formally taught or assessed.
The assessment key represents how your child demonstrates that given skill. If your child receives a four, this is an indication that your child needs teacher guidance to perform this. If your child receives a three, your child is performing this skill with minimal guidance from the teacher. If your child receives a two, your child is capable of performing this skill independently without assistance.
These skills are introduced this year and then revisited next year in second grade. We do not expect kids in first grade to truly 'master' anything. Many of the skills they will continue learning in the upcoming years. We hope that by the end of first grade they will be able to accomplish many of these tasks with minimal guidance or independently.
Fondly,
Mrs. Dorothy Paul
September 30, 2024
Week of Respect
Monday, September 30th Mismatched Uniform Day
Respecting Others Students are invited to mismatch their uniforms to help represent that we all are unique and to celebrate those differences that make our school community so great! Students will begin to complete kindness acts starting today and the rest of the week. *Throughout the week, our Student Council will host a donation drive for the Monmouth County SPCA. The following donations will be accepted from 9/30-10/4: PRE K-Grade 3: Nylabone brand small dog chew toys Grade 4: Pedigree or Science Diet WET dog food (small cans) Grade 5: Friskie brand WET cat food (Non-seafood) Grade 6: Milkbone dog treats Grade 7: Dryer Sheets Grade 8: Unscented Baby Wipes
Tuesday, October 1 st Respecting Ourselves and Others
Affirmation Wall Students will help create an affirmation wall in the cafeteria with messages of respect and encouragement.
Wednesday, October 2 nd Respecting Our Maintenance Staff
Notes of Gratitude Students will create notes of gratitude for our Maintenance Staff to Honor National Custodian Day to honor the work of our custodians and maintenance staff who keep our School clean and organized.
Thursday, October 3 rd . Respecting Our School Community
Lion Strong Dress Down Day Students are invited to celebrate Saint Leo the Great school community and our resiliency by dressing down in their school spirit wear. Together, we are Lion Strong!
Friday, October 4 th Respecting Our World
Blessing of the Animals All are invited to mass (9:00 a.m.) and a blessing of the animals (1:00 p.m.) to celebrate the Feast of Saint Francis of Assisi, which recognizes his devotion to God’s animals. Today is the last day of our MCSPCA donation collection.
September 13, 2024
It was such a pleasure meeting everyone yesterday! Thank you for entrusting your most prized little humans to my care. I truly believe that teamwork makes the dream work and I look forward to being on your team. I also made a copy of the phone number list and sent it home in everyone's red folder so be on the lookout for it.
Today we took our first set of tests. The kids took a spelling test and an auditory reading test. They did great following lots of directions and wrote in their nicest and neatest handwriting. Please be sure to give your kids lots of praise today to help grow their confidence. It can be scary to take tests for the first time. It will only get easier as time goes on because they will feel more comfortable. They really did a great job and I'm very proud of them.
Have a wonderful weekend everyone!
September 11, 2024
Tomrrow is our first school wide mass. Tomorrow evening is back to school night at 6:30PM, I look forward to meeting everyone :-).
Friday, the kids will take their first set of tests. The spelling test is based on the words from the h book which most kids were able to sound out on Monday's pre test. Going forward always make sure your children are sounding out the spelling words and not attempting to memorize. Using sounding out skills will not only help in spelling but also in reading words. The reading test is based on skills that we have been working on this week: the phonics sounds that are listed on the refrigerator copy (short a, s, m and t), the high frequency words am, can and and on and just a few of the vocabulary words listed on the refrigerator copy. We learn these words while reading our in class stories. The early tests are pretty simple and they are all auditory, meaning I read them to the class.
September 3, 2024
Hello 1B families!!! Today was an exciting first day in first grade :-).
Your child's red folder will be their homework folder. This will go back and forth daily. On the inner left side please write how your child will be getting home daily. If you have a bus pass, please tape it in the left side of their folder (I taped in a few today.)
The kids also have homework planners that they will be writing in daily. Please check their planners and initial. The boxes on the right hand side are a great place to write a note if you choose. Today their homework assignment is their ice breaker bag which is due Friday. The parents also have some homework in the red folder :-), a parent questionnaire. If you can please send this back in tomorrow, I would greatly appreciate it. The paperwork form the office is due back asap.
Specials begin tomorrow, Please glance at our specials schedule to know what to anticipate.
If you have any questions for me, feel free to email me anytime.
August 28, 2024
Hello and welcome to a new school year! I can hardly believe that the summer is winding down and on September 3rd we will be starting an exciting year in first grade (1B to be more precise)! In just a few short days we will be exploring a new classroom and making lots of new friends! I'm so excited to be returning to school and I hope you are too!
Our first day of school is Tuesday, September 3rd
(it is a half day and the remainder of the first week are full days).
Prior to the first day of school, please label all of your child's school supplies, including their backpack, lunchbox, waterbottle and fleece.
Please click on the New School Year link, in the menu, for important information about transportation, food, our specials schedule and classroom procedures. Feel free to check out the website. Enjoy the rest of your summer and see you real soon!