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The Dragon
Details
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Welcome to our first
year at the Ladue Fifth Grade Center! As
a brand new school, we felt it would be important to share a few details about
how our school will run.
Contact Information:
Welcome Center
314-983-5540
Kerry Sollis and Jo
Kitten, Administrative Assistants
Amy Balsavias, School
Counselor
Julie Helm, Principal
- Attendance/Tardies:
If your child is absent, please contact Jo Kitten (983-5540) in the
Welcome Center as early as possible.
If you drive your child to school, they need to be in their
homeroom class by 7:35 am at the latest.
It is very important for all the students to be in class on time
and prepared to begin the day. If
your child needs to be picked up early for an appointment, please send in
a note at the beginning of the day.
We will then have them ready and waiting for you at the dismissal
time.
- Before and After School Care: There is only After Care provided at a
cost by the district. However, at
no cost, you are able to drop your child off starting at 7:00 am. There will be a staff member here to
supervise your child from 7:00 until they are released to their
homerooms. Students will be supervised
in the commons/lobby area.
- Birthday Celebrations:
Student birthdays will be celebrated and recognized throughout the
day by FGC staff members. For the
safety of all our students, birthday treats are not allowed to be brought
from home or store. Chartwell’s
will provide options for birthday treats that your child could share
during their lunch shift. You can
contact Sue Blumm for more information.
- Buses: Buses
will enter from Ladue road and drop off in the circle by front entrance.
Bus transportation information and rules are provided in your packet. FGC will have 8 buses designated just
for our students. Fifth grade will
not ride with any other grades.
- Car Pool: Car
Pool will enter from Ladue road and curve around behind the building by
the athletic fields. Remember to
stay on the far LEFT so other cars can pass around you on the right. Students will exit cars on the left side
and enter school through the gym doors.
Cars will then turn left and exit between the FGC and LECC.
- Cell Phones/Electronic Devices: Students are allowed to bring their cell
phone/electronic device to school.
However, these items need to be locked in their lockers during
school hours (7:35-2:25). If you
need to reach your child during school hours, please contact the Welcome
Center and the message will be delivered during non-instruction time.
- Classroom Holiday Parties: We will continue the regular Elementary
tradition of having classroom parties.
Room parents will communicate the specific dates and times of the
parties.
- Departmentalization:
All of our FGC teachers are certified in teaching fifth grade
students. During the first two
weeks of school, the students will stay in their homeroom classes for all
of their core subjects (Communication Arts, Social Studies, Math and
Science). After Labor Day, the students
will begin to rotate to the other teachers on their team. They will still start and end their day
with their homeroom teacher. Your
child will go to Art once a week.
Other Art opportunities may be available during Intervention Block
time.
- Early Release Days:
There are monthly early release days scheduled into the district
calendar. On early release days,
our students start school at the regular time and are dismissed at
noon. They will eat lunch before
they are released.
- Homeroom: Each
student will be assigned to a homeroom group. The homeroom groups will stay together
throughout all the classes except for the rotation block in the middle of
the day. Homeroom will be at the beginning of the day and then again at
the end of the day. The homeroom
teacher will be main contact for your child, unless there is a question or
concern regarding a specific subject area.
- Intervention Block (IB): IB is scheduled every other day for 40
minutes during the rotation block.
During this time there are various teachers to help your child get
the remediation or enrichment he/she needs. There will be a variety of teachers
available during this time.
- Ladue West Parent Association: This is our newly formed Parent
Association. There is a President
and four Vice-Presidents, one from each elementary school. We wanted to ensure that all our schools
were represented and their voices heard.
We look forward to working closely with our parents for every
child’s success.
- Lockers: Each
student is assigned a locker. The
school provides the lock and combination.
For safety, students should not share their combination with any
other student. If there is a
problem with the lock or locker, the student can tell a teacher or come to
the Welcome Center for help. Students
are allowed to organize or decorate the inside of their locker. There should be no decorations on the
outside of the lockers.
- Lunch: Students
will have a PIN # for their lunch accounts. Parents are able to put money into the
“mySchoolBucks.com” account.
Students will have several choices at lunch. Menus will be sent home monthly or can
be accessed from the website.
- Mascot and School Colors: We are the Dragons and our colors are
Blue and Green. This first group of
students voted on mascot and colors and these were the winners!
- Music: We offer
four types of music classes—Strings, Band, Choir and General Music. All classes will have two performances
during the year, except for General Music, which is a non-performance
class. Music classes will meet
during the rotation block.
- Parent Teacher Conferences: Conferences are already scheduled for
this year. The dates are October
17, 24 and March 6, 13. Our
conferences are being held on the same nights as the high school
conferences to try and avoid as many conflicts as possible. More information on format, times and
sign ups to come.
- Parking: Visitor
and 10 minutes parking spots will be available in front of the
school. There will be a few
reserved spots in the front for the LECC and our district Technology
office, also located on our campus.
Please do not park along the circle drive at any time.
- PE/Spanish:
Students will have PE daily.
Students will not dress out but will be expected to wear
appropriate shoes for physical activity.
Students will also have Spanish daily, which will be opposite of
their PE time.
- Recess: Students
will have recess daily either inside or outside, depending on the
weather. Recess will alternate with
lunch.
- Room Parents: We
would love to have room parents for each homeroom. Room parent sign up will be through the
Parent Association.
- Rotation Block:
In the middle of the day, students are assigned a letter
group. Each letter follows a
certain rotation between lunch, recess, a music class and intervention
block. After rotation block, your
child will return to their homeroom group for the rest of their
classes.
- School Hours:
School is in session from 7:35 am to 2:25 pm. Our Welcome Center will be open during
the school year from 7:00 am to 3:10 pm.
- Stay Connected:
We want to keep you informed and involved. You can get information about our school
from our website, the Principal’s Blog, Twitter and our LWPA website. If you don’t have access to the Internet
and need hard copies of the information, please contact the Welcome Center
for assistance.
- Teams: FGC has
four teams of teachers. Three of
the teams have 2 Communication Art/Social Studies teachers, 1 Math and 1
Science. The fourth team is half
the size and has 1 Communication Arts/Social Studies teacher and 1
Math/Science teacher. The team
names are the 4 Elements of Life—Earth, Water, Air and Fire.
- Visitors and Volunteers: We welcome you to come visit or
volunteer anytime. We only ask that
you check into our Welcome Center and wear the visitor badge at all times
for the safety of our students. If
you would like to volunteer on a regular basis, that can be set up through
our Parent Association or by contacting the Welcome Center.
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