Good afternoon. It was so nice to see so many of you on Monday at our back to school evening. For those of you who were unable to attend please feel free to reach out to me if you have any questions.
It is official we have a new teacher in our classroom. Her name is Ms. Kelly. She has jumped right into our routine and has become one of the family already. If you are interested in helping out with any classroom supplies I have a list of wishes on the supply list on this site. It has been our second full week of school and the kids are working hard. It is such hard work to be in school for 6 hours a day 5 days a week. Monday and Tuesday are great days for us. By Wednesday, Thursday and Friday we are tired. We are showing this through our behaviors. Some of us get very teary, some get angry or silly. We are all still getting to know one another and working on building our stamina. Early bedtimes and consistent routines are fabulous tools to help with all of our adjusting. This week we observed and took notes on 6 painted lady caterpillars. They quickly formed their chrysalis and now we are waiting for the metamorphosis. We are hoping for Monday, but as scientists we have to wait and see. Our knitting is getting easier for most of us. Building those fine motor muscles so we will be strong writers. We have been reading our homemade books, playing math games, reading big books and working hard at following directions and being a good bobcat who is Safe, Respectful and Responsible. We have begun our handwriting program, Size Matters. You will be hearing the kids talk about Super C, he rescues us from not making our letters backwards. They will talk about laying down lines, slant lines, standing tall lines, clock lines, smiley and frown lines. These are all the lines we use to make our letters. This is a brand new program for us. I piloted it last year and the kids writing was amazing by the end of the year. In your child's folder you will find their Friday Fun Letter. Please make sure to write back to your child and send the letter in on Monday. I will be saving all these letters. It is a great record of your child's writing and handwriting. We are still reading where the Mountain Meets the Moon. The kids are learning some rich language as well as how to create mental pictures and strengthen their listening skills. The kids loved how Minli and the dragon trapped the monkeys. We also discussed how foolish and greedy the monkey's were. In gym class we have earned the golden whistle for 3 weeks in a row. Wow what an accomplishment. So proud. I hope these little snippets will help you to engage with your child. Helping you to have discussions about their week here at school. If you have any questions please feel free to reach out to me. Have a wonderful weekend Ms. SAM Happy first week of school. I hope you all survived the first big transition, and adjusting to new schedules. It was so hot this week! Ms. Sam and Mrs Kearns had two fans blowing in the classroom all day. We learned how to do “Do nothing doll” when we came in from recess to help cool our bodies down. We turned the lights off and got lots water breaks. Please remember to send in a water bottle with your child we take frequent water breaks when the temperatures are so hot. This week we talked about being flexible thinkers, trying things new for us and setting goals. One of my goals this year is to communicate through this web page. I will send out an email to let you know there has been an update. My goal is to give you a weekly blog of our week. Any quick reminders will come through email. Technology is not one of my strengths, however, I am leaning into it, just as I ask the kids to lean into things that may be uncomfortable for them.
This week was full of lots of getting to know you activities, learning our routines and rules. Practicing fire drills, learning new names, and finding out that the readiness will be there new home away from home. We are lucky enough to have Mrs. Kearns in our room helping out until administration can hire a full time assistant for our room. She is a wonderful woman. She brought into share 4 monarch caterpillars which quickly built their Chrysalis. We will be observing and investigating the whole metamorphosis We created small books of the very hungry caterpillar, which we are keeping here at school in our book boxes. It is so fun to pull out a book we can read on our own with our cool whispamaphones. We have snack in the classroom at 9:15 and then at 9:30 we head outside for a 15 minute recess. We have a large area and lots of new rules to learn. Last week we were outside with just the first grade and readiness. Now that we are familiar with the recess rules we will be joining the 2nd and 3rd graders. We have lunch at 11:20, and we have found that the lunch room has many smells and can be loud. We are all working on doing our part to talk quietly with our friends at our table. I will be eating lunch with our class until I feel they are independent with all the lunch room challenges. Every year is different, some years I sit with them all year and some years I am able to fade my appearance. We had our first Gym class with Ms. B. on Thursday and on Friday we had music with Ms. Kjellander. Monday we will have art with Mrs. Chalson. We will go the Library on Wednesday's with Mrs. Charles. We will also be having a weekly learning buddy time with Dr. Stearns class. More to come on that later. All of our specials are at 12:40 with the exception of learning buddies that will be at 1;30. We have started to read our first Chapter book Where the Mountain Meets the Moon. A story of Minli's adventures, and how we are all connected. It is a great way to help the kids create mental pictures, have book discussions and work on whole body listening all at the same time. The kids will hear our class motto frequently. "Work first then play". Although we do most of learning through play the kids get to enjoy a free choice time at the end of everyday. This is a high priority for most of my friends. I will gradually reduce this amount of time as the year goes on. Don't be fooled however, there is a ton of work going on during this free choice time. Decision making, compromise, language, communication, teamwork and oh so much more. It has a been a busy hot week, Friday's temperature was a welcome change. If you have any questions or concerns please feel free to reach out. Ms. SAM Good Morning, I so enjoyed meeting all of you on Thursday! I know a lot of you were nervous. I want to make sure that you all know that being nervous about the start of our school year is perfectly normal. I am nervous too. There is a lot of new things that we all have to learn. We will work together and support each other as we go. You are not alone! Just a few reminders for the parents: If you haven't already please send in a departure schedule for your child. It helps me at the end of the day to make sure everyone gets home safely. If you do not know your childs bus number you can go to http://www.nbcs.k12.nh.us/index.php/food-services/8-default/81-school-bus-schedules to find your child's route and bus number. Most of the information you need is on our school site. I will add some direct links here to try to make things easier. The doors of the school open at 7:45 and will close and lock at 8:00. If you enter the building after 8 your child must go into the office to get a tardy slip to bring up to class with him/her. If you as a parent are helping out in the school you as well, must sign in at the office and get a visitors pass. Walkers/Car kids will be dismissed at 2:10 Bussers and after school program kids will be dismissed at 2:15. The first week we will have 6th graders helping us get to our departure destinations to help with the transition. Lunch accounts: You can add money to your lunch account directly by going to http://www.sendmoneytoschool.com/ also if you are in need of a free or reduced hot lunch application you can go to http://www.lunchapp.com/ The first few days are very much about learning our school, routines, rules, and expected behaviors. Your child may not have a lot to share with you about their day. When asking questions be very specific to help guide them to share. 1. What was the best thing that happened at school today? (What was the worst thing that happened at school today?) 2. Tell me something that made you laugh today. 3. If you could choose, who would you like to sit by in class? (Who would you NOT want to sit by in class? Why?) 4. Where is the coolest place at the school? 5. Tell me a weird word that you heard today. (Or something weird that someone said.) 6. If I called your teacher tonight, what would she tell me about you? 7. How did you help somebody today? 8. How did somebody help you today? 9. Tell me one thing that you learned today. 10. When were you the happiest today? 11. When were you bored today? 12. If an alien spaceship came to your class and beamed someone up, who would you want them to take? 13. Who would you like to play with at recess that you’ve never played with before? 14. Tell me something good that happened today. 15. What word did your teacher say most today? 16. What do you think you should do/learn more of at school? 17. What do you think you should do/learn less of at school? 18. Who in your class do you think you could be nicer to? 19. Where do you play the most at recess? 20. Who is the funniest person in your class? Why is he/she so funny? 21. What was your favorite part of lunch? 22. If you got to be the teacher tomorrow, what would you do? 23. Is there anyone in your class who needs a time-out? 24. If you could switch seats with anyone in the class, who would you trade with? Why? 25. Tell me about three different times you used your pencil today at school. I am so excited for tomorrow. Get a good night's sleep and have a nice breakfast and I will see you in the morning. |
I Believe“You cannot make people learn. You can only provide the right conditions for learning to happen.” ~ Vince Gowmon Archives
August 2021
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