August 29, 2008

The First Eight Days
As a way to keep parents informed on our classroom activities, I will be sending home a newsletter every other week. Also, I will ask our “Web parents” to post this information on the Springer web site under the classroom section.
The first eight days of school have gone by very smoothly. The children have been good listeners and are very enthusiastic! There are so many new rules and procedures to learn, and I’ve been very pleased with the way the kids have handled these changes! Here are some of the activities that we have been enjoying during the past week and a half.
The children have been through their share of assessments: writing, dictation, spelling, addition facts and number writing. All of this will help me as I plan for the year. In the next two weeks, I will be assessing each child individually for their current reading level.
We began Shared Reading together and it is wonderful to see so many of the student’s amazing reading skills! The students also began writing in their own writing journals about what they like about First Grade and a best friend that they have. We have reviewed the correct formation and sounds of the letters /l/, /t/ and /b/.
We brainstormed what we hoped to learn in First Grade. We now have a class book from the pages the students have written. In June it’s always fun to see if the students learned what they hoped to learn.
In math, we have reviewed our calendar activities, and introduced manipulatives, reviewing sorting, patterning and counting. The students worked on completing different ways to make 4, 5 and 6.
Each week, we will continue our Daily Language Review, Daily Math Review, as were explained at Back to School Night, as well as the homework that will begin on September 8th.
We began reading books by Frank Asch, as an introduction into our learning about real bear facts and some fun bear literary characters. We will briefly explore bears, their habitats and characteristics. Along with this, we will be also reading many different versions of the Three Bear stories.
Reminder! Because many Springer students have severe allergies to tree nuts and peanuts. Because of this, families have been asked to not provide food treats for the classroom. These are often brought in for birthday celebrations. The administration is asking that if you would like to bring in something to celebrate a birthday, please be sure to bring small items such as stickers, pencils etc. (goodies like small favors). This way, we are assured that any child with an allergy will not have a reaction. Diddams has a great selection of small party favor-type items in the back right hand of the store.

Warm Days/Cool Room
A few requests for warm weather days: Please be sure to send a water bottle with your child to keep him/her hydrated.
Also, the air conditioning in the classroom is a wonderful relief for hot weather, but I cannot control it. It can get chilly in the room at times, so keeping a lightweight sweater/sweatshirt in the backpack, may be a good idea, if your child gets cold.

Thank you!
We had a nice turn out for Back to School Night. I was happy to meet almost every parent! Thank you for your enthusiasm and your willingness to help out this year in so many ways. Stacey Ryder and/or Erica Peters will be in touch with you soon about volunteer opportunities.
I know we will have a great year!