Sept. 2, 2025
Dear Parents/Guardians,
Hello, and welcome to First Grade! My name is Gina Caivano and I will be your child’s teacher during the 2025-2026 School Year. I have been a teacher at the Irvington Public Schools District since January 2013, and will be teaching first grade during this school year. Some of you already know me, because I was your eldest child's first grade and/or second grade teacher in past school years.
I am looking forward to your child’s enjoyment and academic growth during his/her time in my classroom. As a teacher, my goal is to promote a comfortable, respectful, supportive, and high academic achievement learning environment for your child.
Please have your child bring headphones, a pencil box, homework folder, 2 marble notebooks, 2 glue sticks, a box of tissues, and an eraser to school during this time, as he or she will need these supplies to perform all assigned classroom work. I will supply each of my students with 2 marble ELA writing journals. Your child will also need an eraser, scissors, crayons, and pencils while at home when completing homework assignments. Please review your child’s completed paper and computerized homework assignments upon completion of them, graded homework assignments, and all other papers brought home from school daily.
In order to learn all that there is to learn in First Grade – and there is plenty – your child needs to first learn how to be a good and attentive student. Please be sure to reinforce such skills as: listening quietly, following directions the first time they are given, and looking at the person who is speaking. These skills are necessary for successful learning in the First Grade.
Please be sure that your child remembers to bring his or her homework folder and homework to and from school daily. Please be sure that your child gets a good night's rest, because the children in my class will work very hard.
This year, your child will be learning Language Arts through the Reading Wonders Reading Program and Magnetic Reading Program on a daily basis. Through these reading programs, your child will spend much time learning phonics, such as sounding out the letters of the English alphabet that were learned in Kindergarten and blending them into various sounds to form whole spoken and written words. By learning how to blend letters into whole words, your child will enhance his or her speaking, word recognition, vocabulary, reading, and writing skills. During most weeks, your child will be assigned a new list of spelling and High-Frequency words to read and study, in which they will use the words in various reading selections. Please also spend some time every week, reading with your child at home.
In math this year, we will be using the Envision Math Program, in which your child will use the skills learned in the previous school year to build upon mathematical concepts on a higher academic level this year. During class, there will be a Guided and Independent math assignment daily, and a homework assignment for your child to complete on most nights of each week.
In regard to grading, your child’s school work, he or she will be graded on a combined percentage of completed classroom assignments, homework assignments, projects, quizzes, and tests in Language Arts, Mathematics, Science, and Social Studies during every marking period of the school year.
I look forward to continuing with your child in their academic learning and having him/her in my class and getting to know you and your child. Please feel free to contact me through ClassDojo and in written notes if you need to discuss a concern and/or share information about your child.
Sincerely,
Gina Caivano