Category: Blogs

Our Scholastic book order is due tomorrow, Wednesday, September 20th. As a reminder, our book orders are done exclusively online. Please visit the tab at the top of our blog which reads, “Scholastic Book Club” for more information.

Thank you for helping grow our love for reading!

All of the specials schedule information came home today! Please keep the note in a special place at home, in order to know when to send your child with gym shoes and gym appropriate clothing. Lost the note? No problem! The class specials schedule can be found at the link below or by simply clicking on the tab at the top of the page which reads, “Class Specials Schedule.”

Please check out our class specials schedule for the year at the link below:

https://iblog.dearbornschools.org/dimitriou/class-specials-schedule/

**** Due to a peanut allergy in our room, please do not send in any snacks that contain nuts.*****

We had a great week! The children are settling into the school routine and learning how to follow directions. We have a great group this year!

Thank you for coming to open house – it was great to see all of you, and share a little bit about each of our classes! If you have not already done so – please follow your teacher’s blog in order to get the latest information.

We will be going on a field trip to the Apple Orchard in Plymouth on October 3rd. Permission slips and more information will be sent home on Monday, September 18th. Permission slips and money are due on September 29th.

When you send money in for lunches, field trips, etc. please place it in a bag or an envelope and label it with your child’s name. Thank you!

Homework will be sent home next week. It comes home on Monday, and is due by Friday. However, due to a 4 day week, please try and have it in by Thursday.

Upcoming Events

9/18 Outdoor Movie Night Sale begins (note came home today)

9/20 Scholastic Book Order DUE!!!

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

9/29 Permission slip and field trip money due (note coming home on 9/18)

Agenda for the Week

Reading and Writing:  We worked on recognizing and writing the letter A and the letter Z. We learned the sound of each letter and practiced identifying objects that begin with each letter sound. Please continue to help your child correctly hold a pencil and form each letter.

If your child is still struggling with writing their name, please practice at home! If you would like name tracers for your child, visit the website below:

https://www.handwritingworksheets.com/flash/printdots/singleword/index.html

Directions: Scroll down until you see a gray rectangle which says, “Step 1: Enter student name, then type your child’s name in the first box and the second one which says, “word.” Choose the size you would like, size 2 or size 3 are best. Then click print.

Math: We practiced recognizing, writing and representing numbers 1, 2, and 3. In addition, we learned about math centers and learned how to stay in center groups and rotate to new centers.

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.

Science: We are learning about our five senses! This week we focused on sight. We completed the paper book Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? We used this book to talk about things we see and review colors. I also used this activity to begin teaching a writing concept that we will practice all through the year, which is making our pictures match our words.

Social Studies: This week we spent a lot of time getting used to being in kindergarten all day! We continue to go over some rules and procedures. We are also learning what it means to be a good friend to one another in our class.

Housekeeping Items:

Snack Time

**** Due to a peanut allergy in our room, please do not send in any snacks that contain nuts.*****

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

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. Remember to initial the communication log and feel free to add any notes to me!

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.

If you did not sign up last night for our fall conferences, please see me at dismissal or email me and I can send you the available time slots that are left.

Thank you!

We have gym tomorrow afternoon. Please make sure to send your child to school with gym shoes in order for them to participate in gym class!

See you in the morning!

Our first full day went well!  The children continue to learn the routines and procedures for our full day schedule and were able to go to computer class and art class today. Tomorrow we will have gym class. Please be sure to send your child to school in gym shoes in order for them to fully participate in gym class.

There were lots of misplaced items at lunch today from all of the kindergarten classrooms. Please make sure to put your child’s name on their lunch boxes and water bottles. Names on the tags of their coats and sweatshirts is helpful as well.

Tomorrow is Halal Hamburger or Grilled Cheese for lunch. Make sure your child knows if they are buying a lunch from school or if they brought a lunch from home. Please remember to put their snack in a separate place from their lunch and show them where you have put their snack.

Thank you for helping the beginning of our year run more smoothly!

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.

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

Open House is on September 14th 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 all,

Hopefully you have enjoyed your summer and had a chance to read a little bit about me in the post below this one titled “Welcome to the Jungle.” I wanted to send another note to notify everyone that I have moved rooms. For the past 2.5 years at Haigh, I have been in room 42 near the media center. This year I will be teaching in room 8, just off of the Kindergarten playground. I am excited for all of you to see my new room!

Welcome to my class!

My name is Melissa Dimitriou. I love teaching Kindergarten! This is my sixth year teaching kindergarten and each year I learn more about myself as a teacher and more about what five years old need in order to grow and exceed learning goals. I truly enjoy being the person that gets to introduce your child to the world of learning and to help instill in them a desire to be a life long learner!

Before coming to Haigh Elementary to teach Kindergarten, I taught Kindergarten in Hamtramck. I loved my students and their families. It was so exciting to watch former students grow up and to have siblings of former students. I love getting to know the community that I work in and growing with the families I teach! I am very excited to have the siblings of past students at Haigh this year!

I received my Bachelor’s degree from Oakland University in Elementary Education and my Master’s in Early Childhood Education from Grand Valley State University. I am currently working on a second Master’s in Educational Leadership and Administration from Eastern Michigan University. As you can see, I love to learn and love to foster a love for learning in your children.

I got married on October 4, 2014! My husband is truly my best friend. We try to make each other laugh as much as possible and maintain positive attitudes. My husband and I enjoy traveling together and learning about new places and new cultures.

George and I on our wedding day!

My husband is very silly and does lots of impressions and sound effects with his voice. For March is reading month, my husband usually comes in and reads a book to my class using funny voices for each character in the story. The children love laughing at his voices!

George reading during “March is reading month” to my class in Hamtramck

I take pride in creating an atmosphere in which the children feel safe and comfortable. I truly believe that if a child does not feel safe in their environment, they will not learn. I have taken a lot of time to turn my classroom into a jungle! Everything in my room relates to the jungle theme in some way. I have parrots, lions, and gorillas on the wall. My reading groups are named after different jungle animals, and even my classroom jobs are jungle themed with little chameleons! Below are a few pictures of these decorations:

These are the children’s lockers outside of our classroom.

Watch out! It’s a jungle in here!

Reading Hut – This is where the children can look at books from the shelf. The bins to the left are the “book boxes” we will use each day for our Daily 5 reading and writing block.

I look forward to getting to know each and every one of you this year! I consider it a privilege to be a part of your child’s learning career!