Classroom Handbook
Welcome to 4th grade and
Mr. Stolt’s classroom! I am so glad that
you are here. The 4th grade is an
exciting and GIANT step for your child.
New concepts are introduced and work responsibilities are
increased. Your child needs your support
and encouragement for this to be a productive year. I am very excited to help your child GROW
into fine young 4th graders. This year your child will learn and do
many exciting things. I encourage you as parents to ask questions about your
child’s day and tell them how PROUD you are of them.
Absences: Regular school attendance is critical to the learning process. When your child is absent, he or she misses valuable instructional time. Please call the office or my classroom when your child is absent. Your Child will be required to make up any work that is during their absence. They will have the same amount of days they were absent to complete the work.
School Phone: 696-4400
Room Phone: 696-4472
Email: mark.stolt@k12.sd.us
Cooperative
Learning: I believe in cooperative learning in the classroom. What is it? Cooperative learning is a successful strategy
in which small teams, each with students of different levels of ability, use of
a variety of learning activities to improve their understanding of a
subject. Each member of a team is responsible not only
for learning what is taught but also for helping teammates learn, thus creating
an atmosphere of achievement. I have
placed the students into cooperative groups. Research has shown that all
students do better when they are allowed to discuss and defend their ideas as
they learn. Working in small groups also helps the students learn
valuable social skills they will need to succeed in life. No students
grade will be raised or lowered based on their performance of others in the
group. I want to assure parents that all grades come from individual
assignments and tests.
“Working together to accomplish shared goals”
Stolt Happenings: I will
keep parents informed each and every week of what is happening in the
classroom. I do this by sending home a
weekly newsletter. In this newsletter
you will find topics that we are covering in class throughout the week. Also, you will find important information and
when we will have a test or quiz. I will
be sending home the newsletter home every Monday with the students. Be on the look out for the Stolt Happenings
on Mondays.
Student Planners: Each and
every day the students will be filling out daily planners. It is the child’s responsibility to have this
completed before they go home each night.
I try to check them before they leave for the day. If not they mush have all completed by
Friday. The students are to take them
home each and every night. I am asking
that the parents look at them each night and sign them only on Friday. I will be checking them each Monday. Please help us out and sign them once a
week. This is also a good way to
communicate and ask questions about your child’s school day.
Accelerated Reader
The Accelerated Reader
program is a reading incentive program. Students read novels from a selected
list and then take short computer quizzes to test comprehension. Students earn
points based on the difficulty of the book and their performance on the quiz.
Incentives are offered to students and classes according to the number of
points accumulated. Although students may participate in the AR program at any
time in order for the students to participate in an end of the quarter
Accelerated Reading party, at the end of each quarter, the students must have
at least 10 Accelerated Reading points.
This year we are going to focus on choosing challenging, high-quality
books. Students will be tested at the
beginning of the year to find out their approximate reading level. This will
allow me to recommend books in a particular reading range for each student.
Students will record their books and test results in their AR Logs. Sometimes students cannot find books that are
AR. If this is the case they may read it
and simply take a non AR paper AR test.
After they complete the nonAR paper test we
will meet and discuss the book. I will
give them points based on their book selection. Out of their 10 AR points required each
quarter only half can be from non-AR books.
Homework/Classwork: I believe that homework is
necessary for practicing skills that have been learned or for enriching the
classroom experience. In many cases
homework is simply classwork that was not
finished. Homework will come home in a
blue folder each and every night. One
side of the folder will be labeled LEAVE
AT HOME another side will say BRING
BACK TO SCHOOL. Students have from
Parent
Portal: You can view your child’s
grades online. I have a link from my homepage
to the parent portal. If you have not
signed up please fill out a form and send it back to the school. This will need to be completed before viewing
any grades on line. This will give you complete access to view the
grades on line. Call if you have any questions.
Parent
Portal
Pen Pals: In 4th grade we
like to have special pen pals for the year.
The pen pals will be responsible for coming into the classroom a couple
times of year. The pen pal can be a grandparent,
someone from church, or a person who lives next door. The children will communicate with the pen
pals throughout the year through letters.
This is a great way to keep the skill of letter writing skills and a
great way to get to know another adult. We
would like the pen pals be of retirement age if possible if all possible.
Spelling Tests: I will have a weekly spelling test
with two different lists. I have a
challenge list and a regular list. Students
get the challenge list or regular lists based on how well they preformed on the
week before and on the pretest on Thursday. The students will take the test on Thursdays
and a new list will go home on Friday.
I have the students write their words in sentences and they are due on
Thursday the day of the spelling tests.
In their sentences the students must have their sentences be at least
SEVEN words in length and CAN NOT begin with the word I. I
believe the student’s give me a better effort on their sentences and they do a
better job with writing their words.
Behavior
Plan: Choice
for Champions
Daily
Observation Data
Information will be kept on a clipboard
A = arguing
B = blurting (vocal interruptions)
FD = not following directions
NPA = inappropriate non-verbal / physical actions
L = inappropriate language
HD = harassment / disrespect of others
LA/M = late assignments / materials
MI = major infractions
Students will record infractions in their
planners which
parents will sign each night
6th check = detention
7th check = ISS (Principal’s
office / partner classroom)
Major infraction = office referral
Regular
reward opportunities can be earned
Ready:
Be on time
Be where you are supposed to be
Be prepared to work with a good attitude
Responsible:
Think safety first
Make good choices
Follow
procedures
Be the best you can be
Respectful:
Respect yourself
Respect others
Respect property
Respect the rules
Knights
of the Round Table:
Our
logo for Camelot Intermediate School refers to students’ quest for success
through character, achievement,
creativity and service.
To help guide our students on this quest we have developed a Camelot
Letter Program where students can voluntarily take an active role in the
community by identifying a need, planning what they can do (in collaboration
with important adults in their lives, and perhaps with other students who also
want to work on the project), actually putting in a minimum of 5-7 hours outside
of their classroom time to accomplish the project, and then writing a short
reflection and evaluation of what they did in order to earn each letter.
The
letters to be earned and the teacher advisors for each include:
C=Character
(citizenship focus)
Mrs. Balsiger, Mrs. Anderson
A=Achievement
(responsibility focus)
Mr. Rasmussen
M=Motivation
(trustworthiness/honesty focus)
Mr.
Hauge, Ms. DeKraai
E=Effort
(perseverance/self-discipline focus)
Ms.
Hofer, Ms. Croymans
L=Leadership
(respect/fairness focus)
Ms.
Moran, Mr. Stolt
O=Others
(caring focus)
Mrs. Newman, Mr. Flint
T=Talents
(courage focus)
Mrs. Books, Mrs. Parmely
