First Week!!

8/31/12

Hello Families and Happy Blue Moon!!

I am pleased to say that we have had a successful first week of school!  The students are working really hard and are enjoying getting to meet new friends and see old ones.  

Some things we've been working on this week:

• Building reading endurance
• Writing a story about our summer - independently
• Introduction to Habits of Mind - especially in math
• Learning about classroom jobs and "applying" for them (to be posted Tuesday!)
• Getting to know each other better
• Classroom/schoolwide procedures
•  Daily routines
•  Lining up quietly
•  Transitioning to and from circle - quickly, quietly, and calmly
•  "freezing" when we hear the signal
•   cleaning up the classroom
•   Using the classroom library
•   Showing good listening
•   and many more!
• How to create the BEST classroom community!

Of course, we're also taking assessments, enjoying Read-alouds and activities with our Endeavor team mates, and getting to know our classroom.

**Important for you to know that students will be bringing home their FIRST GOAL SHEET tonight!  Goal sheets basically outline our HW for the following week and are always due, along with the HW, on Thursdays.  Next week's HW is simply one math sheet (review), 2 entries in their writer's notebooks, and to read nightly.  You will also see a YELLOW reading log come home.  This is what students will be using to keep track of BOTH their in school and at home reading.  It should be brought back and forth with their reading book each day.  There is one place on the goal sheet where I ask for your signature.  This is for you to sign off on their at home reading.  (They should be keeping track of the book title, total number of pages, and nightly the number of minutes read and the number of pages read.)

Next week we'll continue practicing classroom procedures, start exploring shapes in math, begin September's Number Corner (part of Bridges Math), learn more about Habits of Mind, continue collecting entries in our writer's notebooks, work on building reading endurance, and of course, have fun and get to know each other better! :)

And finally, as always, please feel free to ask questions if you have them.  Email is probably the best way to get a hold of me but you may also try calling.  However, please know that there is usually just one time in the morning, and one time in the evening that I check my mail.  

I look forward to a great year with your children! :)