It's hard to believe next week is the first week of October!
We have many extra things happening this month:
- Walking trip to the library and public safety (date TBA)
- 1st Grade Apple Explorations on October 15th. PLEASE NOTE THAT WE HAD TO CHANGE THE TIME! Due to MEAP testing in the upper grades, our specials schedule was just switched to the morning. We will have our Apple Explorations from 12:15-2:30 in the afternoon. If you have volunteered to come in the morning and cannot do the afternoon (I'm so sorry!), please let me know: Emily (Will's mom), Sue (Trent's mom), Katrina (Tess's mom) and Rachel (John's mom).
- Fulton Street Farmer's Market Field Trip on October 23rd from 8:45-10:15am. Thank you to Rachel (John's mom), Sarah (Ruby's mom), Shellie (Evan's mom), Katrina (Tess's mom), Kelly (Monica's mom) and Samatha (Harry's mom) for volunteering to meet us there! I will contact you a few days before with our activities we have planned.
- 1st Grade Bats Presentation on October 29th (at Wealthy)
- Halloween Parade (2pm) and Party 2:15-3:25pm
Conferences will be at the beginning of November! Coming home today, you will have a sheet to indicate your availability for conference times. Please send this sheet back by October 4th. Thank you!
Reading Club books will begin at the end of next week...
Your child will begin to bring home a "just right" book that we have been practicing in a small group during workshop time close to the end of the week. Most of the time, a new book will be sent home on a nightly basis to practice. Look for the book bag in your child's backpack Thursday or Friday of next week.
Friday is our library day...
Today was our first library day to check out books! Please help remind your child to return the library book by next Friday morning in order to check out another book. We will have a library crate in our classroom to collect books during the week, so that if your child would like to bring the book back sooner, it is stored in a safe place. :) Have fun reading!
Homework with IXL...
I will introduce IXL to our first graders this coming Wednesday. You will be receiving your child's username and password at the end of next week along with a homework schedule to keep track of minutes. Further explanations will be sent home at that time.
Reading news...
We began to review the vowel sounds this week, focusing on the short /a/ sound ("a" says /a/ like in "apple"). You might have noticed an apple picture come home in your child's folder this week. Each week, we will have a memory cue to help us remember the vowel sound we are studying. For /a/, it's repeating the phrase above ("a" says /a/ like in "apple") and pretending to color in an apple with crayon. We also say the phrase and pretend to take a bite out of an apple. By repeating these actions and phrases over and over again, these mnemonic devices help readers and writers when they get stuck on a word that they do not know.
Safety news...
Last week, we practiced our first tornado drill. We were rained out of our fire drill practice two weeks ago and our new one is scheduled for next week. This past Thursday, we practiced our final emergency procedure called Code Red. When Mr. Morey or another adult speaks over the intercom to instruct our school to lock down into Code Red, we immediately make sure our doors are shut and find our "secret quiet spot" (by our whole group time on the rug, closer to the wall) and sit without a sound until there is an all clear. Our doors are required to be locked at all times. I explained to our 1st grade friends that when there is a Code Red, there is an emergency in the building that the police and firefighters will come to help us with and we need to be completely silent so they can hear where the emergency is. As hard as it is to think about and practice these procedures for all of us, they are crucial to our safety. Our first grade friends went on as normal during the day without a lot of questions, but might have some for you. Please let me know if I can be a help at school in any way with any concerns.
Classroom Volunteers...
Thank you to everyone that has offered to volunteer in the classroom! Because I have so many volunteers, I will need a few more days to organize a calendar with everyone's choices. I will try to give you as much time as you have indicated and the days that you would like--it might . We will start parent volunteers in the classroom beginning October 7th!
Have a fabulous fall weekend!
