Good afternoon!

On Mondays and Fridays we have a student teacher named Mrs. Ross that will be here for the next 6 weeks. Then she will move to a different classroom and we will get a new student teacher that will be here for the following 6 weeks. For the first few days, she will be doing a lot of observing and working with kids one on one. She will then teach a few lessons and work with small groups. Yesterday I sent home a letter that explained that the student teacher will be recording her lessons for her teacher to view. We will only be recording 2 lessons and only for a small portion of the lesson (Maybe 15 minutes). While the focus of the camera will be on the teacher, there is a small chance that your child may be on the recording. Because of this, the letter is a permission slip for your child to be on the recording. If you say no, your child will still take part of the lesson but will be placed outside of the view of the camera.

We appreciate your support!!

We had a terrific first week back!

Some reminders:

1. For birthdays this year, we are NOT allowing cupcakes for birthdays. There are MANY reasons for this decision, but the main one being that the kids just plain don’t eat them. The majority of the cupcakes end up in the trash. They take one bite, or they lick off the frosting, and then they are done. It creates a huge mess, not to mention a sugar rush! So we decided that there were better ways to celebrate. If you want to send in a class snack on your child’s birthday, please do! You can send in individual bags of pretzels, chips, fruit snacks or even fresh fruit! You could also do goody bags (we currently have 20 kids) or donate a book to our classroom. Your child will also get a “birthday bag” from me with some favorite goodies. I appreciate your support in this.
2. The winter is HERE and we can’t fight it any longer! We had indoor recess most of this week due to the wind chill (real feel) but we will be heading out on days that are above 20*. PLEASE send your child to school in the appropriate winter clothes. Hats, mittens, winter coats and boots are a must daily. Snow pants can be kept at school. They may also keep their shoes at school so they don’t have to carry them daily. It makes mornings easier here and at home if the shoes are already here! Every child was gifted a winter hat back before Thanksgiving. If you are unable to get any other winter necessities, please let me know. We have some here at school that I can get for you.
3. Over break, I lucked out and found 4 American Girl-like dolls at Goodwill and picked them up for indoor recess! The kids are over the moon! The only problem is that there was only a small bag of clothes. I have searched other thrift stores and will continue to look, but if you have any that you are willing to donate, we will gladly take them off your hands. They can be any doll clothes or even newborn baby clothes. Thank you! This makes the long winter a little more enjoyable.
4. Today was the 82nd day of school! Can you believe it?!?! We have a special day plan for the 100th day. Notes will be sent home soon!

On Wednesday, December 18, we will be decorating Sugar Cone Trees! If you are able to donate any of the items needed, we would be very appreciative. Please have all items to school by Tuesday December 17th. 

https://www.signupgenius.com/go/60B0D4DAAAF2AA2F94-46796322-lets

If you donate the sugar cones, please make sure they are the regular sugar cones and NOT the waffle cone. I posted a picture below.

Thank you!!

We will be able to do one last visit to the Holiday Shop on Friday! If you want your child to shop, please send in the money in their folder on Friday. I have extra envelopes so if you send it in, I can fill out an envelope for you.

Our class shops tomorrow! If you want your child to shop and you have not sent in the envelope with the money, please be sure to send it in your child’s folder tomorrow. Thank you!

Back in the beginning of the school year, we colored a template of a hat with stirpes. Each child picked the style of hat they liked, picked three colors and then designed their own hat. I sent their designs to my friend and she handmade a hat based on their designs!

THEY ARE SO CUTE!!!

They will be wearing the hat when the go home today! I also included a card in their bag with washing instructions. If your child picked a design with a pom pom on top, you can snap off the pom pom, wash it, then snap it back on! She thought of EVERYTHING!

Have a great Thanksgiving! If you are traveling, please be safe. I will see you all on Monday!

Winter is here!!

I was not super happy to wake up this morning to this white stuff on the ground! But no matter how we feel about it, it is here and we need to prepare!

We WILL be going outside if the temperature is above 20* and it is NOT raining. Dress warm!!

Here are some important things:

*Please send your child to school in winter boots on days that are cold, wet, or snowy. These not only keep their feet warm but dry when we go outside. Please send in a dry pair of shoes to wear IN the classroom. Wet, muddy boots make a wet, muddy classroom! I suggest that you send in a pair that they can keep here. That way, they aren’t forgotten. Also, these need to be easy on/easy off shoes please. We have 3 recesses, plus arrival and dismissal. That’s 8 times they are changing boots/shoes. If they cannot do this by themselves it makes for a VERY LONG day!

*Mittens work WAY easier than gloves! Kinders have a difficult time with 10 fingered gloves. I recommend Dollar Tree or Family Dollar mittens. Kinders have a difficult time keeping up with hats/mittens (any belongings really) so keep it cheap and easy. I always try to keep a supply of mittens here to borrow if they need to.

*Once the snow is here it’s fun to play in! But in order to play in the snow, children MUST have snow pants AND snow boots. If you are able, I recommend leaving the snow pants here so your child does not have to carry them back and forth. We have hooks to hang them up. We can send them home on weekends and breaks so if we have a snowstorm on the weekend they have them to play. Please practice putting these on and taking them off.

*Please practice putting coats on and zipping them up. As I mentioned earlier, we have 3 recesses and with arrival/dismissal that’s a lot of time spent trying to put on coats. Teach them how to turn sleeves right side out when they are wrong. That one is tricky. 🙂

Thank you all for your support. I know it sounds like I am being picky, but when you are outnumbered 19 to 1 it helps if they can do a lot of this themselves!

Fingers crossed we don’t have anymore snow this winter. 🙂

I was finally able to get the letter mats finished this weekend so I was able to send home the reading bags today! Yay!

In your bag, you will find a few things. Please keep ALL items in the bag and return them to school everyday. I will take things out and add things as needed.

In every bag, you will see the following:

1. Dry erase pocket with your child’s first name on one side and numbers on the other
2. Dry erase pocket with uppercase on one side and lower case on the other
3. Dry erase marker (some have an eraser on the lid, some do not, please use a tissue to erase)
4. Laminated word mat with letter tiles
5. Full sheet with some information about UFLI
6. Half sheets with the weekly lessons

They can use the Word Mat and the letter tiles to blend words. If you have any questions, please let me know!

Happy Reading!

Hello!

For those of you that have logged into iReady and have completed some lessons, great job! Please remember that this is optional and keep it to about 10-20 minutes a session.

I will be ‘assigning’ lessons on iReady based on what we have done in class. For example, we have learned about the short o and the letter n sound so I will be assigning those lessons for extra practice. All students will have those lessons. I will also be adding some lessons for kids as I see they need them. If I notice that someone is struggling with something (for example: rhyming) I will assign a lesson or two for them to practice that. Or if I know that a child needs a more challenging lesson, I will assign that. If you notice that the lessons that in their pathway (not the ones that I assign but the ones that are automatically assigned to them) are too easy or too hard, please let me know. I will adjust as needed.

iReady is what we call Computer Adaptive. As they kids pass lessons, they will get harder. If they do not do well in an area, they will reteach it or repeat it. Because of this, it’s important that the students complete this work BY THEMSELVES. If you help them, the program thinks they know it and it moves on and gives them harder lessons. This will make it frustrating for the students. So please, let them do these lessons on their own. You may need to explain directions, help with finding the cursor, etc, but please do not give them answers to help them finish a lesson.