Please remember we are coming to the end of the month and we still have several home projects that have not yet been presented. Please have your child working on these and ready to share in the next few days.
Monthly Archives: September 2013
Montessori Manager
This past week was our first week inputting work into Montessori Manager. We have a good start, but by no means is it perfect. Please be patient as we are finding a routine and balance in utilizing this new tool. If you were already assigned a user name and password for another child in our school, I linked your student to that password. The passwords are meant to be temporary. Please change them once you log in. I will send out an email with your user name and password. If you have troubles please email me.
Reading, Reading, Reading
I wanted to remind everyone to have your child read everyday for 20 minutes. If you are able to read with your child for that 20 minutes even better! I understand how busy life is, I would like to encourage you to find the time to sit and read with your children as often as possible. I have included a link for sight words on our blog. (Right side under reading) I would like for your to print these off and use them with your child. They start with pre primer and go through third grade. Everyone in our classroom is at a different level, your child may be a second grader and need pre primer cards or be a first grader and ready for third grade cards. Have fun with these, maybe print a second set and have your child use them for memory matching or by playing go fish. Be creative!
I also sent home bag books with several students. Please return these Monday morning in order to receive your new book for the week. I did forget to send home reading logs with our other students. Please look for these on Monday night. Thanks for all your support and happy reading!
Our Week
We had a busy week once again. We began our lessons in Geometry this week. We also started our work with fractions. We will be focusing a great deal on these this year. I am also using DWL’s (daily written language) this year in our classroom. The level 1’s and 2’s are doing these in small groups with myself and Ms. Brec and the level 3’s are encouraged to work independently. This is our third week using them and they are proving to be very valuable for mini lessons.
Monday, I will be sending home bag books for some of our first graders, these need to be read every night and brought back on Friday. Every Monday you will receive a new book. I will also be sending home reading logs with several students. I would like for us to have a habit as a class for reading every night for 20 minutes with our children. This alone will improve your child’s reading and help them in all academic areas. I will be working hard to increase our reading performance within the classroom and would ask for your support within your home.
MAPA general meeting is this Wednesday the 25th. This is when background checks can be done for our volunteer drivers. The cost is $60, but will last for 6 years. We are going to have to be creative within our classroom in order to make field trips happen. We are being strongly discouraged from carpools being organized without certified drivers. I know it can be hard with working parents to get your children to locations and I am hopeful that we will have certified drivers to help with this obstacle.
We do not have school Friday, it is Professional Development. We will also be having Parent Teacher Conferences coming up in the middle of October. I will be posting a We Join In link on our blog soon, so you can sign up for a time. I love your children and look forward to chatting with you and working together for their benefit.
Few Things About Lunch
I wanted you to be aware that at lunch we have several students who have lunches they are needing to be heated. We try to limit the students to only 1 minute in order to allow everyone a chance to warm-up their lunch. If we have 12 kids wanting to heat lunch this cuts into a large portion of our lunch. The microwaves in the Kiva are being used by the Jr. High this year and the lines are just as long as they are in the classroom at this time of day. I encourage them to start eating their other food while they are waiting. It is important for your children to eat a good lunch in order for them to be successful, unfortunately in order for this to happen, we are cutting into our academic time when they are waiting for food to warm. We have a full 30 minutes for lunch and clean up. I would like to encourage you to consider healthy alternatives to corn dogs, hot pockets, and such that do not require being microwaved. This will allow for your child to have more time to eat and we will be able to move on with our academics on time. We are limited on space in our classroom for another microwave, but I think if someone wanted to donate one we could stack the one we have. I also want to remind you of school policy of no candy, sodas, and colorful dye drinks. The children are eating in the classroom and these stain the carpet. Also, I am going to ask that you do not send “Flaming Red Hot Cheetos” for your child. We have had that red dye all over the classroom and kids burning their eyes. The students are not to share their lunches with each other, but sometimes their curiosity gets the best of them.
Housekeeping
We had another full week. We started Spanish, proved we could follow directions in P.E., began our classroom reading groups and were very excited to start studio Friday. We are truly getting the feel of what our normal weekly routine feels like. Reading groups with Ms. Kathy and Ms. Brenda will be starting very soon and with this we should be in the full swing of things. We have been very busy with individual lessons and understanding the workings involved in choosing work and recording in our weekly work charts. Ms. Brec is working on getting Montessori Manager up and running. We hope it will not be too long before we can share this information with our families.
I wanted to remind you of dress code. We are having several dress code violations within our classroom. We will have to start writing these violations, and we rather not spend valuable teaching time writing them! No jeans, except on Friday. Shorts, skirts, etc, must go to the knee. Collared shirts must be worn everyday, with the exception of Friday. Hoods are not allowed anytime during the week. Shirts must cover the shoulders. Friday t-shirts can be a bit tricky, no logos, characters, sayings, bands, sport teams, etc. For example, you can wear a shirt that has a plain bear, but can’t be Winni-the-Pooh. You can wear shirts that have wording like “Yellowstone”, but not “Bears Rock”. Clothing needs to be clean and free from holes and tares. Thank you for your support in this.
I have lots of students ask if they can bring in their pets to visit. I always ask them to have their family email me and we can make arrangements. Please let me know in advance of any visitors. This will allow for us to prepare and plan accordingly. We are happy to have them visit.
Along with visits, we have several students who have had or are soon having their birthdays. We would love for you to come and share about your child with our classroom in what we call a celebration of life. You can bring a picture about each year of their life and share with the class somethings about your child. This is a great way for us to get to know them better. We generally can do this at our morning line or our afternoon line. I do have some flexibility, but ask that you would make prior arrangements with me. We ask that you not bring in treats, tokens, etc, when it is their birthday, but welcome a book donation to our classroom library in honor of your student.
Reminder about home projects. We have only had a very small amount of students who have shared. Remind your student to bring in their project as soon as they are completed. We hope to see more soon.
We love sharing in your children’s lives and really feel we are establishing an understanding of their unique personalities and gifts. It is hard to believe we have already been in school four weeks. We have been incredibly busy and are excited to see the work everyone is now doing on their own. We expect this next coming week to only solidify the work we have established and to continue to grow as individuals and as a class.
Moving Forward
The students are gradually getting into the swing of things. We brought out the work charts this past week and started onto individual lessons. We had several of our key grammar lessons and Ms. Nancy came and gave our lesson on articles. It is so wonderful having her in the classrooms this year. We studied the history of written language, as well as the history of math. We are continuing to work on our grace and courtesy and establishing routines that make our classroom run smooth.
We have a big week ahead. We are starting Spanish Monday and will continue with PE this Wednesday with Ms. Julie. Friday, will be the start of our studio classes in the morning. The children will be group by grade level this year and will have classes in art, music and another form of physical fitness. I will be teaching the first grade the elements of art and Ms. Brec will be teaching the third grade music. Did you know she is a trained Opera singer? Your children will be going to other teachers during this studio experience. It will also be a great time for them to make friendships with students outside our classroom.
We will also be starting reading groups this week. We have tested your children and have placed them accordingly. Some of our students will be grouped with children from neighboring classrooms and a few will be reading with other teachers. I have a great deal we will be doing this year as far as reading. I want to emphasize the importance of having your child read everyday at home for at least 20 minutes. This could be done by splitting the time and having you read to them and then having them read to you, however you want to do it, just be reading in some shape or form. I will be creating a page in the near future which will list some home tasks you should do with your child. I will include links for dolce sight words and other helpful tools.
We will also be starting our studies of European countries this week. If you have a connection to any of these countries and are willing to share in some shape or form, we would welcome your help. Just send me a message. Which reminds me, you are free to leave comments here on this blog or just email me.