What a fantastic first week of school!
This past week was overflowing with activities to get to know the site, to reconnect with one another, and to come together as a community. We toured our school, collaborated to set our classroom expectations, worked hard on our "ME" boards, put together time capsules, and did a lot of writing. We played math games, created personal rivers, and brainstormed our school and classroom themes. We were also introduced to Science and learned a bit about rivers as well as ways we can take care of our environment in our classroom and school.
Outside of our classroom, we were busy as well. On Monday and Thursday, we had Spanish with Senora B. and PE with Ms. Stacey. On Tuesday and Friday, we had Music with Ms. Kelly and walked to Meade Park with the entire elementary school for recess and PE. What a great place we have right in our backyard!
We also had our first assembly. The Chinese Art Performing Troupe from UVA came to teach our elementary students about Chinese culture, specifically through instruments, dance, and opera. The performance was rich and we all learned so much!
This coming week will continue to bring new experiences. In Language Arts, we will be exploring the power of language in a series of different activities. From interpreting poetry, to communcating with no words, to applying words in different situations, we will continue our conversation about our classroom theme Beyond Words... In addition, we will begin and hopefully finish reading assessments with each child. A walk to Jefferson Madison Library is also in our near future. Once I work out when that will be, I will email you with the details. Please have your child read every night for at least 15 minutes.
In Math , we will be doing pre-assessments in Numbers and Operations and diving into Data and Graphing. In order to help each student gain confidence in their math facts, I ask that your child practice his/her facts each school night for 10 minutes. Some are working on addition facts, while others are working on multiplication. Please help your child find a variety of ways to practice these facts. Printed lists, computer games or apps, games with dice and cards, and simply calling out facts are all great ways for the kids to practice. Please help them shake up the routine by practicing in a variety of ways. This will keep it fun. I will send home a sheet with guidelines and suggestions this week.
Notes and Reminders:
- Please have your child bring one Newberry book s/he read this past summer. We will begin talking about these books and rating them over the next couple weeks. If s/he did not read or complete a Newberry, just send in a book s/he did complete. No worries.
- On Tuesday, each child will come home with a DLA (Daily Learning Activities)/communication folder and a DLA journal. The folder will be used to transport work and communications to and from school. The journal will be used to keep track of the daily learning activities. A slip of paper with the DLA's for that day will be stapled into the journal at the end of each school day.
- On Monday, September 26, we will begin reading Dear Mr. Henshaw by Beverly Cleary. Please have your child bring a copy of this book to school by the 26th. You can check it out at the library, order a used copy from Amazon, or pick it up at Barnes and Noble. We will be reading the book as a class and discussing it in small groups.
- On Tuesdays and Fridays we walk to Meade Park for recess and PE. Upon returning, the kids are very thirsty and have often finished the water that was brought to school. While we have sinks in the classroom to fill their water bottles, most would like cold water. We do have a refrigerator in the classroom and, if you would each like to bring in a big bottle of water, I am happy to rotate through those to refill waterbottles. Or, please send an additional waterbottle to school with your child so they have plenty to last the entire day.
I am looking forward to another wonderful week! If you have any questions or concerns, please don't hesitate to contact me.
Have a great weekend!
Best,
Annelise
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