Week one--check!

It's been a lot of fun this week getting to know your children!  We're enjoying building a sense of community within our Division. New students have found friends and are making connections in each classroom. We are still working through various assessment pieces during the next week and plan have groups prepared for math and language arts to begin on Monday, August 27. 

Supplies
Thank you so much for providing student supplies so promptly.  It's really made getting organized easy for us!  We were able, from the first day, to introduce basic procedures with regard to writer's notebooks, binder use, and planners.  

There are two items we will need, and realized they'd been left off of our supply list:  a set of 4 thin expo markers and a flash drive.  We'll be using whiteboards quite a bit and students will need their own expo markers.  The flash drive will be used to save computer generated work in later projects.  Please purchase these while they are still on sale this weekend and have students bring them in on Monday.

Planners
If you have not already purchased a planner, please do so in the office for $4.  Student planners should have covers decorated soon--Dr. Ricotta's class needs theirs completed by tomorrow, Friday the 17th.  Mrs. Burns and Ms. Brown are due to be completed on Monday.

Please review planners with your child nightly and initial that you have seen them.  We'll be doing random binder/planner checks each week.

We'd like to thank you all so much for helping your students remember to bring back their binders, notebooks, and planners each morning.  Doing so allows them to be prepared.  Know that if a student arrives without these items, expect a telephone call from your child asking for what was forgotten.

"Knightly" Reading Logs
On Monday, "Knightly" reading logs will come home.  They are due back each Friday morning.  Students are expected to read for 20 minutes each night and write a short summary of what they read.  

We teachers *love* to read, but don't always get to read the fabulous things you children are reading. Through your child's summary, we are getting a taste of what is out there in children's literature and they are learning a very important skill: summarization.  Encourage them to be brief, writing only a few sentences, but to go beyond "This book was about a dog."  We need a little more to ensure comprehension!

When your child tallies how many pages are read, please have them include the NUMBER of pages (22), rather than the range of pages read (5-27).  We will be tallying these in the classroom to determine how many pages we read as a class, and later forward this data on to see whether or not we can read half a million pages as a school.  There is also a place in the planner to note this as well for your child's records.  

Thursday Folders
Thursday folders went home with your children today.  Please review their contents and sign the front, then send it back with your child tomorrow.  Students who do not bring their folders back will not get to attend our weekly assembly and will be doing an alternative activity in another classroom during that time.

Mechanisms
Our mechanisms unit is beginning on Monday.  We are incredibly excited to start this exploration with our students!  Many families have already brought in items for us to explore, but if you have not, please feel free to send those with your child on Monday.

LifeSkills
In Thursday folders, a note regarding our LifeSkills curriculum was sent home.  This is just one small piece of our entire curriculum, but the link in the note will help you understand the lessons we will be using during the first quarter to help students learn to deal with those strong emotions and basic social skills.  

In the coming weeks, we will create Social Contracts in each class for homeroom, math, and language arts.  We encourage students to self-advocate and attempt to problem solve on their own, learning to use their words (I Messages and the Peace Path) to solve conflicts between one another.  We'll definitely help facilitate that, so know that the first question we will ask our students is what they have already tried to resolve the conflict. 

Have a wonderful weekend!

Ms. Brown, Mrs. Burns and Dr. Ricotta