News from the Jungle

News from the Jungle will be our weekly newsletter. This will let you know how our week went and what the children learned in class. Today I sent home this newsletter in paper format. This will be the only paper copy to come home. Moving forward, all newsletters will be posted each Friday afternoon on our classroom blog.

If you have not subscribed to our classroom blog yet, please do so at your earliest convenience. Our classroom blog can be found at:

https://iblog.dearbornschools.org/dimitriou/

We had a great first week of school! The half days during our soft start really worked well for the children. The children are learning our classroom routines and procedures and making new friends!

Upcoming Events

9/14 Open House 6:00 – 7:30pm

(This is a chance for your child to give you a tour of the room)

9/18 Outdoor Movie Night Sale begins

9/20 Scholastic Book Order DUE!!!

(Note and catalog coming home next week)

9/22 No School for Kindergarten students

9/29 Picture Day

(Send your children to school in the outfit you want them in for pictures)

9/29 Outdoor Movie Night

(Orders due today)

Agenda for the Week

We focused on learning the rules of the classroom and school. We also spent a lot of time learning different procedures such as how to walk in the hallway, how to transition from tables to carpet, how to signal for the bathroom during instruction time, and much more! The children are hard at work trying to be the best class in the school by following directions and setting good examples for others.

We read several different books this week all about starting school and kindergarten. We read The Kissing Hand by Audrey Penn, Miss Bindergarten’s Kindergarten Tales (a collection of stories) by Joseph Slate, Kindergarten Rocks by Katie Davis, and Don’t Eat the Teacher by Nick Ward. We began to talk about the parts of the book, front cover, back cover, spine, what the spine of the book does, title, author, illustrator, characters, etc.

The children learned the rules of the playground and had opportunities to make new friends while playing on the kindergarten playground and the bigger playground (which they will play on after lunchtime). We also had some time for play inside the classroom. The children played with playdoh and next week they will learn how to play with our toys and how to properly put them away.

Housekeeping Items:

Lunch Next Week

A calendar came home to everyone about the hot lunch choices at school. Monday the choice will be 1^st – Quesadilla/2^nd – Grilled Cheese. If your child is buying a lunch from school, please make sure you talk to your child about their lunch choices before they come to school. If your child is bringing a lunch from home, please show them where you have put their lunch and talk to them about how they are a “packer.”

If you need to load money on to your child’s lunch card throughout the year, all you need to do is put cash or check in an envelope labeled with your child’s name , place it in their green folder, and I will turn this in to the office for you.

Snack Time

Please be sure to put the snack in a separate place from their lunch. Please show your child where you will put their snack each day in order to foster independence for them. Sometimes, when the snack is packed inside the lunchbox, the children try to eat their whole lunch at snack time. Thank you for your assistance in separating your child’s snack and lunch.

Snacks should be healthy to provide the children with energy for their day. Please send a simple snack such as fruit, vegetables, cheese, and crackers. Please do not send candy as a snack. Juice is not allowed in our classroom. Please do not send any kind of juice box with your child for snack time. The children may have the juice for lunch in the cafeteria.

Folders

Green “home” folders will be coming home starting next week. Please make sure to empty the green folders each night! It is very difficult and time consuming to locate homework or important notes when the folder is full of papers from the day before.

School Supplies

Thank you to those that already sent in their school supplies. The pencil box and folders (green, red, and blue) are key to our everyday organization. Please be sure to at least send in those items as soon as possible.

Water bottles

We have a drinking fountain in the room; however, the knob that turns on the water has to be twisted and it is a little difficult for the children to turn. This means that I am standing at the water fountain twisting the knob anytime a child wants a drink. This can take away a lot of time from the day. If you are able to send in a spill-proof water bottle, that would be helpful! The children can keep the water bottles at their desk and take a drink whenever they like. Please try to avoid screw top water bottles. The lids with a tiny hole or straw are the easiest and cleanest for the children to use.

Change of clothes

Please send in a change of clothes (pants, shirt, underwear, socks) in a gallon bag with their name clearly written on the baggie. My most frequent call home is to ask for parents to bring a change of clothes to school. Even the most disciplined children have accidents at school sometimes. We have so much fun during the day that sometimes the children do not want to stop to use the bathroom when needed. Not only do bathroom accidents happen, but sometimes the playground equipment is wet or the ground is muddy. Having a change of clothes at school makes it easy for me and for you to help your child feel clean and comfortable in the quickest way possible. We will leave the baggie of clothes in their locker at school.

Emergency Cards

Emergency cards came home yesterday. Please check the information to make sure it is correct.  Write in any missing information, sign the bottom, and please return the emergency card as soon as possible.

Thank you for a great first week to the school year! I appreciate all of your help in fostering independence in each of the children. Next week we will begin out curriculum and start learning letters, numbers, colors, Daily 5 routines, and much more! I look forward to a wonderful year with all of you and hope to get to know you all better at our Open House event on September 14^th from 6:00 – 7:30pm.