First Post of September

The first post of the year!  There is so much to tell that I am sure I have forgotten a few things, which is why I say, "First post".

1. Agenda:  These things are a lot of work.  I am expecting the children to read nightly for 15 minutes.  This should be your question.  How can she expect them to read when they don't read - jeesh!  Reading is a progression.  The children are building stamina at sticking with their reading.  It should be fun!  

• Reading can be looking at pictures.
• Reading can be looking for words you know.
• Reading can be looking for words that start with the same letter as their name.
• Reading can be telling the story to someone by looking at the pictures.
• Reading can be listening to someone help them read the story.

Once they have spent the 15 minutes, please find the September page with the books on the calendar and write 15 on one side and initial on the other side of the book.  They must read 5x/week.
Those agendas have to come back each day.  Please help us out by making sure that those agendas are looked after and returned each day!  We write in them daily and our spelling words will be listed in there for your child to study.
We have a spelling test every Friday.  If they get it all right, they get a treat - small candy!  The agenda is a communication tool between home and school.  I check it every day, so feel free to write a message to me on the right side of the agenda pages.

    2.  Show and Tell:
I will be modeling for the coming week how this will work before I turn it over to the children.  The plan is for the assigned child to pick an object from home (nothing that breathes), develop 3 clues at home with help from Mom or Dad.  The rest of the class will be listening to the clues and we will ask 3 questions to try and figure out what the object is!  Then the student gets to tell us about the object.  This is going to be a lot of fun, we just have to keep the secret!  There will be a monthly calendar that comes home in the special note pocket in the front of the agenda that lists whose turn is coming up!  If they forget their show and tell, they have to wait until their next turn.  There are no do-overs!

    3.  Library:
This year Mrs. Heggie is trying something new.  Each student will be receiving a plastic bag for their book to go to and from the school.  The hope is that it will help them keep track of their book, keep it clean and dry and remind them to bring it back in.  I'm not sure what the schedule is yet for the start of this program, but I will let you know.  They will earn a treat at the end of the year if they can turn in their bag and bookmark.  Please help protect the books from lunch drips, soggy mittens, etc by using the plastic library bag.  If they can produce the bag and the bookmark at the end of the year, there is an extra treat!

    4.  Snack:
The children start asking 10 minutes into class if it's snack time yet!  Please put a little something extra in their lunch that they can have at both recesses.  I'm still trying to get them to understand it's not a picnic!  I insist that they save their sandwich for lunch and they eat that first.  So a granola bar, vegetables, crackers etc would be a good choice.  Please remember to check that everything sent has no peanuts.  I am posting the NO PEANUTS sign this week.
Although pudding is tasty, looking after the spoon is not so much fun.  Remember the doors are locked and they have to ask a teacher to let them in. Try alternate ideas for snack.

    5.  Supplies:
Some of the children are missing school supplies.  They need the following:

• 4 white erasers
• 24 Dixon pencils (not cute dollar store pencils)
• 6 UHU glue sticks (40g)
• 3 full 1/2 page interlined/1/2 page blank notebooks
• 1 pencil box
• 2 boxes of Crayola crayons (24 count)
• 2 Expo Dry Erase markers - blue
• 1 pair dark finger gloves
• 1 Hilroy Scrapbook 35.6 x 27.9
• 1 pair headphones - we will use these for the computers
• 1 water bottle - please make sure this isn't a metal one or that the children have to suck the water out of it.  In other words, the metal ones make a big racket as they fall off the desks 10x daily and the ones with the twist lids that come off, make for a wet desk.
• 1 pair of children's pointed scissors
• 1 box of pencil crayons
• 1 yellow highlighters
• 1 pair gym shoes

I will send the extra home at the end of the year.

     Please make sure that your child has brought all of these supplies in.