Author: Melissa Dimitriou

Just a quick reminder that our Open House is tonight from 6:00 – 7:30pm. I will have a quick scavenger hunt for the children to do around the room. There will be a parent sign-in, a computer available for any that have not yet signed up for the blog, and a sign-up sheet for conferences that will take place in November.

Hope to see you all tonight!

There were a few questions about where we are allowed to park during arrival and dismissal times.

Mr. Short just posted a map on the Haigh school blog today.

Here is the link directly to the map, in order to see which areas to park:

https://haigh.dearbornschools.org/2016/09/14/arrival-and-departure-at-haigh/

I hope this helps!

Kindergarten gets out 5 minutes early!  If you have another child at the school, please pick up your kindergarten student first and then get your older child. We will be at our dismissal door every day by 3:30pm.

Paper books –

You will see several of these small paper books coming home throughout the year.  The books will be used for teaching letters, word family words, sight words, reading left to right, punctuation, and much more. The content will cover every day activities, shapes, numbers, social studies topics, and science topics.

You can keep these books in a gallon bag or special place at home and use these as practice while your child learns how to read.

These books may also be read as part of the reading log on our weekly homework.

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.

We had a great first week of school! The half days during our soft start really worked well for the children, especially with the extreme heat.

Upcoming Events

9/12 No School!  *Hope everyone that will be celebrating, has a safe and happy Eid!

9/15 Open House 6:00 – 7:30pm

9/16 “Proud Like a Lion”  (send children to school in Detroit Lions apparel/colors)

9/22 Scholastic Book Order DUE!!!

Agenda for the Week

Introduction to school rules and procedures.

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 learned a few fun song and a few educational ones that we will do every day during our morning meeting time. Two songs that we learned focus on the letters and letter sounds, another song about the days of the week, and another about the months of the year. In a few weeks, ask your child to sing the months of the year song for you, there are fun hand movements we do with this song!

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. We also had some time for play inside the classroom. The children learned how to play with our toys and how to properly put them away.

Housekeeping Items:

Please remember to send your child to school each day with a healthy snack. Our lunch time is not until 12:40. It is a long time to wait from breakfast all the way to our lunch. As a reminder, please do not send juice to school as part of their snack.

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.

Homework packets will start next week. Packets will come home the first day of the week we are in attendance and are due back the last day of the week that we are in attendance. I will always have a front cover to the homework explaining the instructions for each page and stating on which day the packet is due. As stated in the welcome packet which came home the first day (this can also be found on the classroom blog under the tab “Class Info”) homework is due the last day of the week. Late homework will be accepted the following Monday, but no later.

Dear Families –

This year our class will participate in the Scholastic Reading Club. It is a great way to grow your library at home and to help grow our library here at school. Last year, the class enjoyed many free books, book marks, and much more.  It may be hard to believe now, but your child will leave Kindergarten as a reader! Scholastic has many resources for early readers such as BOB Book sets, and Phonics Box sets (which come in favorite characters such as Ninja Turtles, Batman, My Little Pony, etc).

Every month I will set a due date and post it weekly in our class newsletter. All of the information on how to order is posted on our classroom blog under the “Scholastic Reading Club” tab. All orders are processed online and no money is exchanged between home and school. . It takes about a week for the books to arrive. When the books come in, I separate the orders and send them home in your child’s backpack. It is always an exciting time in the classroom when that box arrives!

Our first book order is due September 22, 2016.

Thank you for your support in growing a love for reading at home and in our classroom!

Please enjoy our “First Day of Kindergarten” photos. I cannot wait to look back on these at the end of the year and see how much the kids have grown!

Nathan

Payton

William

Melina

Lamees

Logan

Sasha

Dunia

Connor

Rayan

Layan

Mahdi

Gavin

Julia

Jenna

Roqaya

Maha

Zahrae

Fatimah

Dalal

Lea

Ali

Amar

I hope you enjoyed meeting our class. It is going to be a great school year!

Your child should have come home today with an invitation to our Open House. The children worked hard at making these for you!

Here is a picture of one of the cards:

Open House is on September 15th from 6:00 – 7:30pm. This is an opportunity for you to come with your child and explore the school! Your child will take you on a tour of our classroom and the rest of the school, showing you where their special classes are held.

I will have a simple scavenger hunt for the children to do in the classroom, ending at the treasure box, which I will be holding!

Hope to see everyone next Thursday night at our Open House!

Hello Families –

Thank you so much for helping our first day go smoothly. The children got along well together and are learning how to take turns talking in a group setting!

We learned about the class rules, playground rules, took a tour of the school, played on the kindergarten playground, and made you a “kissing hand” card after reading The Kissing Hand by Audrey Penn. We thought that you may be missing us, so we wanted you to have a kissing hand at home.

This is the “Kissing Hand” card we made for you to keep at home!

If you are not familiar with this book, I have included a link to the story being read aloud on YouTube.

https://youtu.be/4djRXeLudPI

Homework

The children received their very first homework assignment of the school year! The assignment is to create a kissing hand on the half sheet provided. You may decorate this any way you like! You may choose to glue on pictures, draw pictures, add kind words, stickers, etc. I will hang these up in class for the children to look at on days they might be missing home.

Please decorate and send back to school no later than Friday, September 9th.

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 every day 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 is quite tight. It is even hard for me 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 (as pictured below) are the easiest and cleanest for the children to use.

Snack Time

Snack time went fairly well today! Please be sure to put the snack in a separate place from their lunch. Snacks should be healthy to provide the kids 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.

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.

We had a great day today and I look forward to seeing everyone tomorrow!