**Please be sure to read the CCPS Handbook for additional school guidelines.

**

Transportation

Arrival:

You are welcome to walk your child to the classroom the first day of school. After the first day of
school, please drop your child off in the car line, and allow him or her to walk to the room by
him/herself. Your child will come to the classroom when the bell rings at 7:45. The instructional
day begins at 8:00. Students arriving after this time will be counted tardy. You will have to sign
them in at the office, and get a check-in slip. It is very important that your child is on time.
Drop-off is from 7:30-7:55. A school employee will assist your child out of the car and into the
building. Kindergarten children are dropped off at the front of the school. After 7:55, you will
need to walk him/her in the building, go to the office to sign in, and then your child may walk to
the room. Children may be dropped off as early as 7:30. The children will be supervised by a
teacher, in the library, until they can go to the classrooms at 7:45. I will give you a name badge
to let your child wear for the first few days of school. Please be sure they have those on so we
can make sure they get to the right place.
If your child will be eating breakfast at school (this is entirely optional), please drop him or her
off at the back of the school close to the lunchroom door. A teacher will be there to show the
children where to go for breakfast. An adult will see that the children get from the lunchroom to
the classroom on time. Breakfast is served from 7:30 to around 7:45.
Please drop off any forgotten items in the office to avoid disrupting the class.

Departure:

Kindergarten dismisses at 2:35 (the first few days we will begin to load up a little early). Please
be on time to pick up your child. Children become upset when their ride is late. If you are in the
pickup line by 2:20, there should not be a problem getting your child picked up on time. Our
class dismisses at the back of the building.
Each parent will need to go through the car line to pick up their child, rather than parking and
walking up to wait at the front of the school. This is for the safety of the children at school.
The traffic flow at the beginning of the year is very slow. Please be patient!! As we get to know
each childs car, pick-up will be much faster.
Any child not picked up when first grade dismisses at 2:50 will be taken into the building to wait
in the hallway next to the library where you can come inside and pick up your child (this will not
apply the first few days of school).
If you need to pick up your child early, you must first sign him/her out in the office.
The best way to notify me of a transportation change is to email both me and the office
secretary. Her email address is mjohnson@cullmancats.net. This will ensure that the message is
received in case I may have a substitute, or if I am not by the computer. Your child will not be
released to anyone without the car tag or a note from you. This is for the safety of your child.
Early dismissal may take place in case of inclement weather or an emergency. Please make sure
the office has your current phone number for the automated call system.
Car Tags:

Each child will be given a Farm Class car tag.

This car tag needs to be placed in the front windshield in full view. Hanging your car tag from a
childs pants hanger, with clips, is the best way for us to see your car tag clearlythat would be
greatly appreciated!
It is important that you use this car tag each day, all year, so a substitute will know which child
you are picking up in case I am out of school for some reason.
If someone other than the usual person is to pick up your child, send a note or call the school and
give that person the car tag. That person must be listed on the enrollment form/ in the computer
as someone who is allowed to pick up your child, unless I have a signed note from you that gives
them permission. Otherwise, the person will need to go to the office and show some
identification. Again, this is for the safety of your child.

Extended Day:

Extended Day is afternoon care for children who are unable to be picked up at dismissal time. It
lasts until 5:30pm. There is a weekly charge for this service.
If you are interested in the Extended Day services there is a form to fill out. Please visit the
Extended Day table the night of Open House. If your child will be going to Extended Day, they
will be picked up in the classroom by an E.D. worker and escorted to the Extended Day room.

Daycare:
If your child will be leaving CCPS to go to another Day Care in the afternoon, and he or she will
be riding a Day Care van PLEASE let me know before the first day of school (Examples:
KidZone, Extended Day Art, etc.).

Lunch

Lunch Account Number:

Your child will be given a lunch account number. When you send in lunch money it goes into his
or her lunch account. Each day the childs lunch number is entered into the computer and the
money for the days meal is deducted from their account. I will be sending your childs lunch
number home. It will be important for you to teach your child his/her lunch number. In a couple
of weeks the students will learn to enter the numbers into the computer on their own!

Lunch Account Money:

You may pay for your childs lunch by the week, month, or by putting large chunks of money
in his or her account at any time. Student lunches are $2.10. Extra milk is $.50. Breakfast is
$1.30. Free/Reduced lunch forms are inside your childs folder. If your child received free or
reduced lunch in Head Start you must fill out a new form ASAP and return it to me. If you apply
for free/reduced lunches, the forms take time to be processed after you return them to school.
Please make sure you take care of lunch cost until that process is completed.
Please send lunch money to school in an envelope or Ziploc bag. Make sure your childs name,
my name, and the words LUNCH MONEY are on the outside of the envelope or Ziploc bag. I
will be turning these envelopes into the lunchroom, so it must have that information for them to
deposit it into the proper account.

Other Lunch Notes:

If you wish to send your childs lunch to school, please send it in a separate bag or container
from his or her snack.
Let me know if your child has a food allergy.
You are invited to eat lunch with your child at school. However, I would like for you to give us a
few weeks before you plan to join us. We ask that visitors do not come to eat until after Labor
Day. If a child is having a tough time adjusting to school it is difficult for them to see his or her
mom, or any other mom, in the middle of the day.
Please sign in at the office, and then meet us at the lunchroomnot our classroom.
Visitor lunches are $4.00. Fast food is not allowed in the lunchroom.

Yellow Folders

One of the major forms of communication between school and home is going to be your childs
Yellow Folder.
These Yellow Folders will come home to you every day and will include any important notes,
calendars, schedules, newsletters, etc. The information in the folders needs to be looked at,
tended to, and the folder returned to school the next day. The Yellow Folder needs to come
back to school with your child each day.

Illness/Medication:

School attendance is very important! However, please do not send your child to school if he/she
is sick or running a temperature. If your child is absent, you will need to send a note or doctors
excuse when the student returns to school. State law requires a written note for absences. There
are 5 parent notes allowed for the entire year. These notes must be received within 2 days of the
childs absence. Please be sure to read the attendance policies for our school in the CCPS
handbook.
If your child needs to be given medicine during the day, you must fill out a permission form in
the office and leave the medicine with the school nurse. Teachers are not allowed to administer
any medication, only the school nurse.

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 Money

Please do not combine payments that are sent to school. For example, pay for lunches, pictures,
trips, etc. separately.
Put each payment in a separate envelope or Ziploc bag with your childs name, my name, what
the payment is for, and the amount. Money will need to be placed in your childs Yellow
Folder.

School Attire

Children should wear tennis shoes to school. Only tennis shoes are allowed for PE. Students
can bring a change of shoes in their backpacks if they want to wear flip flops, sandals, boots,
etc.; however, they are responsible for tying their shoes. They can change into their other shoes
after PE.
From time to time, the kindergarten child has an accident that in some way or another leaves
their clothes wet. Hopefully this will not happen, but if it does we want to be prepared. Please
pack an extra set of clothes in your childs backpack. Include underwear, socks, shorts/pants,
and a shirt. Put these in a gallon sized Ziploc baggie with your childs name on the bag and
leave it in his or her backpack all the time. Make sure you change out clothes when the season
changes.

Behavior Management

An essential part of an effective classroom is good behavior. Since learning takes place best
when the teacher does not have to take up valuable class time to correct misbehavior, we will
spend the first few weeks learning the routines and rules of both the class and the school. It is
very important that the children learn to get along and work well with all the children in the
class.

Homework

We will begin the year with learning letters, letter sounds and sight words. I ask that you review
these with your child nightly.
Later in the year, your child will start bringing home a reading folder with a book and sight word
list. There will be a reading log for you to record their reading. This will need to be signed,
dated and returned the next day to school. Books are used by everyone in the class and are the
property of the school. Please take care of these books.
Dont forget to tell them what a great job they are doing!

Progress Reports and Report Cards

Each six weeks your child will be given a progress report indicating how he/she is doing on the
skills we are covering. At each twelve-week interval, your child will be given a report card.
CCPS will be using a Standards-Based Report Card. We will be using a I-IV grading scale.
Report card standards will be assessed, and my grades will be a direct reflection of those
assessments.

Visitors/Volunteers

All visitors and volunteers must sign-in at the office and receive a visitor badge before entering
the classroom. This is for the safety of the children.
I will need a Farm Class Committee (Please sign-upbe sure to check in the column that you
are interested in being on the committee!). I will designate one person on the committee to be
the Room Mom and PTO contact, but I would like for the entire committee to be involved with
our classroom parties and events. I also need help from the committee members with some tasks
and classroom projects. The committee will help organize parties/projects on behalf of our class.
The contact person can help to delegate and keep the committee organized. We really appreciate
all of our volunteers!
If you or a relative works for Wal-Mart Distribution, please see me so we can discuss Wal-Marts
Volunteer in Schools program which donates money to the classroom!

PTO

Please join the PTO and support your childs school. The PTO is a wonderful, supportive
organization for the school. We would like to have 100% participation. You may join at Open
House or the first few weeks of school.

Snack

We will have snack every day. You will need to send a snack to school with your child every
day.
Your child will need to drink water at snack time. Please send it in a SPILL-PROOF (pop-up
spout) bottle. Soft drinks and juice boxes are NOT allowed for snack.

Birthdays

You may send in a special snack to help celebrate your childs special day.But, please keep in
mind that we are not allowed to have Birthday Parties at school.
Cookies (chocolate chip, sugar, etc.), doughnuts, and/or some kind of chips (cheese puffs,
Doritos, etc.) are always a great birthday snackJ. We will not have birthday cupcakes in our
classroom. Also, remember to send in plates and napkins with the snack.
If you choose to distribute invitations to off-campus parties through the childrens yellow folders,
please understand ALL students must receive one. Ill be happy to send those out for youJ.
 Parties

We will have two school-wide partiesChristmas and End of the Year. However, we will
celebrate other classroom events and holidays with fun activities and/or snacks!

Field Trips

As field trips approach, you will be notified of all the details. Minimal fees to cover the cost of
the trip will be requested. You will be able to go on almost, if not all, of our trips. However,
preschoolers of chaperones are not to attend field trips. Please refer to the CCPS handbook for
these guidelines, which are set by the school.

Social Media

If you do not wish to have your childs name or picture on any social media, please let me know.
Also, please be respectful when discussing our school, any teachers, students or parents on social
media. We only want to be encouraging and positive to one another.