Friday, September 1, 2017
Dear First and Second Grade Families,
We have had a magical first week of school together! It has been so fabulous to start to get to know each other. We played many games to get to know names, sang some songs, shared about ourselves, learned classroom routines and to had fun! At the beginning of the week we enjoyed the beautiful weather and spent time outside exploring what our campus has to do!
This week we also spent a lot of time practicing routines in our classrooms. This involved learning expectations as well as how to function as a group. To do so, our school is focusing on four main expectations or rules:
1. Respect yourself and others
2. Work Hard
3. Help each other
4. Make safe choices
We have had some great conversations this week about the “Big 4” and will continue to do so throughout the year. These are school wide expectations so they are present in allied art areas, recess, lunch as well as all classrooms. Our students have already shown great knowledge of these and have been using them already! Ask your child about the Big 4!
We have talked about our weather chart as well as spent some time painting, making our covers for our science journals. We will be putting those to work more and more as we go through the year. Next week I hope to make some time to go to the brook and into the woods to do some observing.
We have also read some great books during read aloud this week. We have read The First Day Jitters, Elmer, Down the Road and Wolf Watch. All of these books are along the theme of getting to know each other and recognize that we are all different and special for our own reasons. We also are asking children to think about how their classroom dynamic may be like the book we read (we are like a pack, making mistakes is okay, etc.) They have started some great conversations about our classroom culture and how we want each other to feel as a part of a community.
Next week we are looking forward to getting into some more literacy jobs, math rotations and exploration of our senses outside. I will also be sending home a sharing schedule to be started the following week (September 11th). When it is your child’s share day, they can share a story (may include photos), a homemade item, or something from nature.
I will be sending this to all of your emails but check out the blog for pictures. They are great! Last, as best you can, please try to help your kiddos get lots of sleep. I know the transition back to school is intense and more sleep for them (and we adults!) is really helpful.
Please reach out with any celebrations, questions or concerns. Have a great three day weekend!
Sincerely,
Ben and Tammy
223-5429 (s)
223-3677 (h)
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