Field Trip

  The field trip was a success.  The children seemed to love the film and getting to explore a little bit.  They were very well behaved and represented St. Francis well.

Toys in the Classroom

  Bringing ones own toys does encourage many positive things, such as sharing, which is why it is allowed.  Sadly, there have been lots of issues occurring with children bringing toys to my classroom recently:  children are loosing items and becoming upset, things are getting broken, and they are becoming great distractions during lesson time.  Because the other classrooms allow toys to be brought to school, it would not be fair for me to say no toys; however, I am going to ask that you please encourage your child to not bring anything important to school and talk to them about dealing with what happens if it gets lost or broken.  Also, I have been taking toys and returning them at the end of the day if they come out when they shouldn’t.  Just thought you should know in case your child claims that I took their toy.  I promise I am not playing with them :) 

A Note about Grandparents’ Day

Students are in final preparations for next weeks Parent and Grandparent performances.  Remember that Parent Preview begins at 8:45 for Lower School and 9:30 for Middle School, both held in the Multipurpose Room.  We request that your child wear something they might wear to a fancy dinner on Grandparents’ Day.  The children are eager to show off their talents and work in the classroom.  We look forward to seeing you next week!

Tardy

  In case you were curious after receiving progress reports, school starts at 8:00, and thus the reason for a tardy after an 8:00 arrival.  I send attendance to the office around 8:15, so if your child comes in after that, they have been marked absent and need for you to sign them in at the office.  This will change their status in the computer from absent to tardy. Thanks

Word Work:  This week I took all of the words we have covered thus far and created sentences using each.  I then cut the sentences apart and put all of the words in envelopes.  The children worked on taking the words and creating their own sentences out of them.  This really demonstrated each child’s ability to read the words and use them in context.

Writer’s Workshop:  We wrote about our grandparents this week.  We also wrote about our memories, cold weather, and had some free choice.

Guided Reading:  This week we made inferences (basic ones of course).  We talked about the real words on the page and what the author meant by those words. 

Science:   We worked on aging a tree again this week.  The children looked at tree cookies, or cuts from trees, and decided how old they were plus which year had a lot of rain.  They created their own tree cookie and aged it.   

Math:  This week we continued to work on basic addition.  It may seem like we are doing a lot of this, and we are.  It takes a long time for some children to understand this concept and how to write a number sentence.  We played several games, one including dice, to reinforce this concept. 

Social Studies:  We continued our study of long ago and yesterday by talking about memories and what makes a memory.  We discussed how you create more memories with each year of your life, and why some things you remember more than others.

J No newsletter next week.

J Show and Tell will resume after break.

J Buzz will go home with Charlie this weekend.

Hint from me….your children will be on the left side for the performances next week.  I thought you might want to know so that you could get a good seat.  They will also be on the stage for a part of it too.  You have the inside scoop.