August 2015

Dear Parents,
Welcome to 3rd grade! My name is Mrs. Schifani and I am excited to have your
child in my class this year. We have a very busy year ahead of us, but I am confident
that it will be a great one! Our class motto this year is Dare to dream, dare to do,
dare to conquer. I believe that if you have a dream, you should follow it; as long as
you believe in yourself, you can do whatever you set your mind to; and as long as
you work hard and give it your best, you can achieve your goals. My personal dream
is that every student in my class succeeds in third grade. I dare to turn this dream
into a reality by helping every child be the best that he or she can be, and I dare to
do whatever I can to help all of the students in my class.
Learning and teaching are two great passions of mine, and I enjoy having fun
while I do both. Consequently, I have many fun and exciting activities planned for
this year. In order to be able to do these things, however, I have established the
following rules:
Rules
1. Be Safe
2. Be Respectful
3. Be Responsible
4. Be the Best you can be!
My discipline system consists of a chart that I keep on my clipboard. Instead of
students pulling their clip when they break a rule, I let them know that I am giving
them a tally mark on my chart. This helps me to better keep track of why students
received consequences on certain days. At the end of every day, I will send home a
daily behavior chart for you to sign. This chart will not only list a conduct letter, but,
if your child received a consequence that day, it will also let you know why.
Alternatively, if your child has had outstanding behavior on a certain day, he/she will
have the ability to move his/her clip up. Moving a clip up means that your child has
been recognized in front of the whole class for going above and beyond concerning
one of three areas: academic effort, behavior, or acts of kindness. This behavior
system will hopefully allow us, as parents and teacher, to work together to help your
child succeed.
Because I believe in positive reinforcement, students who have exceptional
behavior for an entire month (very few to no tally marks) will be rewarded with
special class privileges to thank them for continually doing the right thing. Each
month is a new chance to earn this reward, so students who struggled with behavior
in previous months have a fresh start to try again every month. Every year I see
students who have a rocky start, but with this positive reinforcement, have a
fabulous remainder of the year. I also see students who almost always strive to do
the right thing, even when it is tempting not to, and I enjoy being able to reward
these students, too.
A weekly conduct grade will also be put into the grade book and will be sent
home in your childs Dexter Folder every Wednesday.
Rewards for positive behavior

1.
2.
3.
4.

Verbal praise
Free write or free draw time with friends in our class
Candy
Class money (These can be redeemed on Fridays for fun classroom
privileges.)
5. The joy in knowing that you did your best, and you succeeded
Consequences for inappropriate behavior
1. Verbal Warning
2. Loss of privileges
3. Loss of second privilege
4. Phone call or note to parent and/or Parent/Teacher conference
5. Referral to the office
Conduct Grades: Conduct grades are given on both a daily and a weekly basis.
Every day, your child will bring home a behavior sheet for you to sign. On Tuesday,
students will bring home a conduct sheet that documents his/her conduct for the
week. This is the cumulative conduct for the previous week and goes into the grade
book. Please also sign this sheet and return it to school on Wednesday. Weekly
conduct grades will be assigned as follows:
E = 0-1 conduct mark
G = 2 conduct marks
S = 3 conduct marks
N = 4 conduct marks
U = 5 or more conduct marks
Grading: Grades will be taken each week in all subjects. The grading scale is as
follows:
A 93-100 B 85-92
C 75-84
D 70-74
F 69 and below
Homework: Your child will be given homework almost every night except Friday.
Homework will consist of 2 or so assignments and should not take more than 30
minutes total. Please help to make sure that your child checks his or her agenda, as
well as the homework folder, nightly. The homework folder will also contain:
The weekly newsletter (It will be sent home every Friday and stay in the
homework folder all week.)
Homework Chart
Helpful math resources
Important Notes pocket (This pocket will contain important notes for you, the
parent).
In addition to nightly homework, it is very important that your child studies basic
multiplication facts until he/she becomes proficient. There will also be weekly
vocabulary words and spelling words that your child will be tested on every Friday.
We will soon have curriculum night, where we can discuss the class procedures
more in-depth. I also have a class website up and running that will provide you with
more information about what is going on in your childs class throughout the year,
along with providing many helpful resources.

We have talked about these rules and procedures in class. Please review them
again with your child. Then, you can sign and return the bottom portion of this page
to school by Friday. Thank you for your support. If you have any questions or
concerns, please dont hesitate to contact me.
Mrs. Ashton Schifani
dacusag@scsk12.org
MrsSchifani.weebly.com

We have read and understand the classroom procedures and

policies.
Parent(s) signature:
___________________________________________
Students signature:
___________________________________________
Date: _________________