What a fun first day of school! All the students did a great job with our activities planned. We began our morning with reading The Kissing Hand y Audrey Penn. Some were feeling sad and it was a good way to remind us that Moms and Dads were sad too but would soon be back to pick us up. After we finished we began our day with calendar. Learning the day, date, month, and year are a key part of Kindergarten. Then we danced and colored until our fifth grade buddies showed up. The Kindergarten students and fifth grade students were buddied up and sent on a scavenger hunt around the school. Their buddy showed them the art, gym, library, music, enrichment, office, and cafeteria. It was a fun way to learn about the school. After we went to the playground to play together! We ended our day with our Chester poem and heart hand project. The students did a great job today!

For tomorrow:

*Please make sure to pack a snack. Everyone was hungry pretty quickly! We will eat a snack around 10:15 am to hopefully get used to the new timing of lunch.

*Make sure to go to the bathroom before leaving your home! It can be stressful coming in and having to all go at the same time because they ate breakfast right before they left home.

*Lunch needs to be packed or they need to choose a hot lunch from here on out! We are eating lunch before they come home the rest of this week and all of next week.

*Tomorrow’s dismissal is at 12:05 pm at the same door 18. (Kindergarten only- rest of school is dismissed at 3:55). We will do what we did today where the students line up and you come up and tell me your child’s name. It’s a pain right now but it really REALLY helps me learn faces and names! Within a couple weeks I will have it down and just send your child to you!

Thanks for a great first day! And I promised the kids…. yes we will be “playing” soon with the Montessori materials 🙂

Yay! It is finally time for school to start! So excited to see everyone tomorrow morning! 🙂

Mrs. Fournier updated tomorrow’s plans on the school blog. We will still be doing a continuous drop off but staff will come outside to greet the students and take them inside for the first day of school.

Our school PTA has paid for a welcome back sign to be outside of the office for the week! Please plan to have pictures taken if you would like but please do not block the car line for drop off and pick up.

Lastly the district policy is parents are only allowed inside the building for scheduled appointments. So you will need to say your first days goodbyes outside!

Kona ice is cancelled this afternoon due to weather.

Arrival has changed to a continuous drop off. If you would like your child to eat breakfast then please drop off between 8:40-8:45 am. If they do not need breakfast then they can arrive between 8:55 and 9 am and come straight to the classroom where I will be. You still drop off at door 18 in the front parking lot.

Dearborn Public schools has a grant and all breakfast and lunches are free for the students.

https://www.signupgenius.com/go/70A0B4AA8AE2CAAF58-beginning

Please sign up for a time slot for me to test your child!

Thanks!

Hello All! It is so exciting that we are less then a week away from school starting! Below is some important information I thought you should know before.

*Please have a bag with an extra set of clothes in your child’s backpack! (shirt, pants, underwear and socks). Please label this. They will be kept in lockers in case of any accidents.

*Have extra masks in your child’s backpack in case they are needed.

*The first two weeks of school are soft start for Kindergarten students. They will be dismissed at 12:05 pm every day. On Monday they will NOT have lunch. For all of the other half days they will eat lunch before they leave. School lunches are free so your child may choose to bring lunch from home or order from school. I have added the website at the end of this paragraph to see what is offered each day. Please make sure to go over this with your child so that they are not stuck eating something they would not like. https://dearbornschools.nutrislice.com/menu/

*For the second week of half days (Sept 7,8,9th) we will have appointment times for testing from 12:45-3:30. Tomorrow a sign up genius with be posted with time slots. If you are able to bring your child up to school for me to test that is very helpful! It eliminates using class time to do this and gets us going faster with our language and math curriculum. More information will be on the sign up genius that will be posted tomorrow.

*Daily home folders will come back and forth to school each day! Please make sure to check them. On Monday your child will come home with a meet the teacher form, an all about me form you need to fill out, and the calendars for August and September. Please keep the calendars easily accessible for the month so you have reminders. I check folders each morning along with my email. Either a handwritten note or an email is the best way to tell me something.

*Our classroom is peanut/tree nut free this year due to allergies! In the lunch room your child may still eat peanut butter but not in our classroom! Please make sure afternoon snacks are peanut/nut free! It is very important for the safety of our students with allergies.

*Afternoon snack is part of our daily schedule! Howe Montessori promotes a healthy snack policy throughout our building. Please be sure to pack a healthy, and peanut/tree nut free item. Some snacks that students love are apples, oranges, crackers, pretzels. Students will not be allowed to have cookies, candy, or chips during snack time. Those should be packed in lunch boxes. The easiest way to keep afternoon snack separate is to put it on the side pocket of your child’s backpack! This way it is not eaten at lunch. For the first couple weeks we will put snacks in a bin so they are set aside for the afternoon.

*Students should bring a small spill proof water bottle EVERY day to school! Juice is not allowed inside the classroom but we can have water bottles on our desks. The water fountain is not in service right now but the filling station is! If the students have water bottles they can fill when needed.

*Most important—- Arrival & Dismissal–

*Our school day is from 9 am to 3:55 pm. The students should be dropped off at door 18 (front parking lot) between 8:55 and 9 am. When you see me come outside you may leave. The students line up against the wall on the left side while waiting for me. We all walk into the school as a class. The students should be carrying their own backpacks and be ready to learn! 🙂 For dismissal we will be outside between 3:50-3:55 the first couple of days. The students will line the wall like we did for arrival and give me a fist bump and point to you. It will take me a couple days to learn faces so please be patient. I ask that you come under the covered walkway so I can see you clearly and your child is not walking into the car area without a parent. It gets busy and crowded quickly. If your child has an older sibling they may go out the back door with them. More to be said about this once it is announced from the principal. I will email you if your child is going out the back door with an older sibling after the soft start half days are over.

*Arrival and dismissal is not a good time to talk with me about concerns. It is important I am paying attention to the students and who they are coming and going with. An email is a great way to set up a time to chat about concerns so it is not interrupting the process. I am available before and after school or on the phone.

Whew! I think that is everything I can think of! Email me with any questions 🙂

Hope to see many of you on Friday for Kona ice on the Howe Montessori playground from 2-3 pm.

You will get a paper copy for your fridge on the first day of school 🙂

Hello to the new kindergarten class! Thanks for finding the blog and subscribing! More to be posted as we get closer to school 🙂

Reminder that this Saturday is our class park play date! (invitations should have been with report cards). Invitation is attached below with details!