Welcome+Parents!



Dear Parents,

Welcome! My name is Dana LaQuay-Butrym and I will be your child's third grade teacher! I am looking forward to a productive and prosperous year together...

A few things you might want to know about my classroom...

I welcome and invite all of you into my classroom this year. I believe that parent involvement and communication are vital to the success and growth of a child. I welcome you during numerous learning activities and will write home asking for volunteers. After I meet with our room parents, they will be calling on you to volunteer in a variety of ways in the classroom this year! My hope and dream is that each of you will have a keen interest and take an active role in your child's classroom learning activities in third grade!

This year your child will be working on responsibility and organization. I expect papers to be neatly organized in their appropriate folders. I expect clean desks and neat work. I expect children to go the extra mile and give me more than minimal work. Please help me by reinforcing these skills at home.

Each night, your child will bring their homework folder home. Inside that folder will be an assignment tracker where they have recorded each of their assignments with assigned dates and due dates. It will also have grades that show when work is completed. Students are expected to fill out this tracker daily and pack their homework folders according to what they need to have completed. There will also be a weekly homework sheet in order to allow a student to plan their weekly schedule according to their needs. There is also a place on these sheets to write a note to the teacher! If you have any questions or concerns please write me a note! Please send this folder and their tracker back to school everyday. This should be your child's responsibilty but in the beginning they may need some help in establishing the new routine. When homework is not finished, students are asked to complete their homework before playing during recess.

The behavioral plan in my classroom is based on the Responsive Classroom approach. Instead of being "punished" a child will learn to be more reflective on their behavior and how to change it. The first consequence is to fill out a behavior slip which asks them to reflect on their situation during 5 minutes of their recess time. The second time, students miss 5 more minutes--10 minutes of recess to think a little bit longer about their choices. They fill out a second behavior slip. The third time, they miss the whole recess (15 minutes) and stay in class filling out a behavior plan and then meeting with the teacher to discuss what is happening in more detail. Behavior slips can be found on the reverse side of the homework slip. If your child has had to fill one out, they need to ask for your signature and return it the next day to join in recess. This is to keep the lines of communication open between you, your child, and with me. If you should ever have a concern about how the system is working or "not" working for your child, please let me know. Also, as I said this is not a "punishment" as much as it is allowing a child time to reflect on their behavior in order to make better choices for their future. Students are always given the opportunity to tell me if they think that they do not deserve the consequence and I will listen. I tell children one of the wonderful things about being human is that we all make mistakes--kids and grownups alike! However we all have the opportunity when we notice a mistake to fix it and learn from it.

Of course, positive reinforcement is even more important! Your children will of course recieve acknowledgement and compliments for making positive choices! In our classroom, we have a S.T.A.R. Chart (Students That Are Respectful/ Responsible). Often noticing those students who make positive choices--helping a friend pick up a stack of dropped papers, saying "Thank you" when someone helps them, following directions right away, listening closely when their partner is sharing, and many more--by giving them a STAR on this chart. When students earn 10 stars, they have earned 5 minutes of extra recess! They will be allowed out for recess 5 minutes before the other students. After a student has their 5 extra minutes of recess, they begin again with 0 stars. This also eliminates any child being singled out because it is impossible to tell if the student has already had a recess and is beginning on their second or third set of 10 stars.

Each day please send your child with a healthy snack (water is prefered instead of juice/teas/ etc.). If you have any books or items which you would like to add to the comfort of our classroom, donations are happily accepted.

Check out our Wikispace weekly, as I update it quite frequently. This website and my email are my main source of communication. I have everything on here from classroom procedures, to homework assignment, to important dates to remember. Please familiarize yourself with it as a tool to bridge communication between school and home.

I am looking forward to being your child's third grade teacher! This is going to be a great year!

Sincerely, Ms. Dana LaQuay