Hi Everyone,
Thank you for the well wishes regarding my son. He is feeling much better. He slept in today, and the antibiotics have kicked in. I will definitely see all the kids on Monday! In the meantime, here's a weekly update for you, which I am typing in my exercise clothes, seated at my kitchen island, while drinking some coffee. I suppose a sick kiddo is good for something! :)
**Daily Work Paper**:
This week, I introduced the kids to a new closing and pack-up routine. This routine includes the "daily work paper" you saw in your child's homework folder Tuesday and Wednesday; it's the one that reads "Here is one thing I did at school today." Going forward, each student will complete a daily work paper most days of school. The daily work paper should show a picture of your child doing something from that day in school. Your student will also add some writing to explain the picture. The writing can range from labels on the picture to 2 or 3 sentences, depending upon your own child's writing ability. Please look at this paper with your child each day! Your child should be able to read the labels and/or sentence to you each afternoon, and this can serve as a great discussion starter for the "what did you do at school today?" conversation.
The goal with daily work papers is for your child, you, and me to see strong development in your child's writing ability over time. Daily work papers provide all of us (again...your child, you, and me!) continual ideas of things to work on. Those things will be different for each child...finger spaces between words, using lowercase letters (not capitals) in the middle of words, using punctuation, correctly spelling previously learned sight words, using capitals at the beginning of sentences, capitalizing the word "I", including vowels in words...the list goes on and on.
As the year progresses and we work more on these writing skills, I will expect sentences to become longer and more detailed, as the writing on the daily work paper becomes more important than the picture. I will continue to expect some picture accompaniment because drawing a picture provides valuable practice in fine motor skill, adding details, and aligning picture representations with written descriptions. For some students, adding a picture will also remind them of words they need to add to their writing.
The kids work on their daily work papers during the last minutes of the day. It's a hectic time, which means I am not able to correct every error every time. Please know I am monitoring the students as they write, and I am verbally coaching them on many of the writing points outlined above. I will often write on your child's daily work paper what he/she can work on next time in his/her writing. That said, if your child seems unfinished or has many mistakes on his/her daily work paper, a great homework "extra" would be to fix and/or finish this paper at home!
Please let me know if you have any questions about the daily work paper.
Remind:
Thanks to the 19 of you who have signed up for my Remind messaging service. I'm loving it! It's so easy to send you a text when I need to send along a quick note. FYI: You can send me a message via the Remind app too! When you click on my class, you'll see "Send a message, photo, or voice clip" at the bottom of your screen. Touch there, type your message, and hit send. I'll receive the message on my phone (just like a text) and can easily respond. The only drawback to Remind? Each message is allowed a limited number of characters, which means I have to choose my words (and emoticons) carefully! I know you'll be surprised to hear, but brevity in writing has never been my strong point.
Field Trip:
Our 1st grade field trip to Claude Moore Park and Heritage Farm Museum will be Wednesday, November 2nd. Information letters, permission slips and chaperone interest forms went home in yesterday's Thursday folder. Please kindly return the permission slip and payment as soon as possible. If you are interested in chaperoning this trip, please kindly return the chaperone interest form as soon as possible. Please contact me with any questions.
Pumpkins:
If you haven't yet sent your child's small ("pie-sized") pumpkin for our pumpkin investigation, please send it Monday...we will be using our pumpkins that day.
Fall Party:
Please mark your calendar for our Fall party on Monday, October 31st from 1 - 2:15 pm in our classroom. All families are welcome to attend! (NO costumes, please.) I will send a food permission slip home before the party. Our awesome team of Room Moms and I thank you for the party donations. Your funds will be put to good use, as the ladies plan for our class celebrations. :)
Focus Areas for the Coming Week:
Thank you for the well wishes regarding my son. He is feeling much better. He slept in today, and the antibiotics have kicked in. I will definitely see all the kids on Monday! In the meantime, here's a weekly update for you, which I am typing in my exercise clothes, seated at my kitchen island, while drinking some coffee. I suppose a sick kiddo is good for something! :)
**Daily Work Paper**:
This week, I introduced the kids to a new closing and pack-up routine. This routine includes the "daily work paper" you saw in your child's homework folder Tuesday and Wednesday; it's the one that reads "Here is one thing I did at school today." Going forward, each student will complete a daily work paper most days of school. The daily work paper should show a picture of your child doing something from that day in school. Your student will also add some writing to explain the picture. The writing can range from labels on the picture to 2 or 3 sentences, depending upon your own child's writing ability. Please look at this paper with your child each day! Your child should be able to read the labels and/or sentence to you each afternoon, and this can serve as a great discussion starter for the "what did you do at school today?" conversation.
The goal with daily work papers is for your child, you, and me to see strong development in your child's writing ability over time. Daily work papers provide all of us (again...your child, you, and me!) continual ideas of things to work on. Those things will be different for each child...finger spaces between words, using lowercase letters (not capitals) in the middle of words, using punctuation, correctly spelling previously learned sight words, using capitals at the beginning of sentences, capitalizing the word "I", including vowels in words...the list goes on and on.
As the year progresses and we work more on these writing skills, I will expect sentences to become longer and more detailed, as the writing on the daily work paper becomes more important than the picture. I will continue to expect some picture accompaniment because drawing a picture provides valuable practice in fine motor skill, adding details, and aligning picture representations with written descriptions. For some students, adding a picture will also remind them of words they need to add to their writing.
The kids work on their daily work papers during the last minutes of the day. It's a hectic time, which means I am not able to correct every error every time. Please know I am monitoring the students as they write, and I am verbally coaching them on many of the writing points outlined above. I will often write on your child's daily work paper what he/she can work on next time in his/her writing. That said, if your child seems unfinished or has many mistakes on his/her daily work paper, a great homework "extra" would be to fix and/or finish this paper at home!
Please let me know if you have any questions about the daily work paper.
Thanks to the 19 of you who have signed up for my Remind messaging service. I'm loving it! It's so easy to send you a text when I need to send along a quick note. FYI: You can send me a message via the Remind app too! When you click on my class, you'll see "Send a message, photo, or voice clip" at the bottom of your screen. Touch there, type your message, and hit send. I'll receive the message on my phone (just like a text) and can easily respond. The only drawback to Remind? Each message is allowed a limited number of characters, which means I have to choose my words (and emoticons) carefully! I know you'll be surprised to hear, but brevity in writing has never been my strong point.
Field Trip:
Our 1st grade field trip to Claude Moore Park and Heritage Farm Museum will be Wednesday, November 2nd. Information letters, permission slips and chaperone interest forms went home in yesterday's Thursday folder. Please kindly return the permission slip and payment as soon as possible. If you are interested in chaperoning this trip, please kindly return the chaperone interest form as soon as possible. Please contact me with any questions.
Pumpkins:
If you haven't yet sent your child's small ("pie-sized") pumpkin for our pumpkin investigation, please send it Monday...we will be using our pumpkins that day.
Fall Party:
Please mark your calendar for our Fall party on Monday, October 31st from 1 - 2:15 pm in our classroom. All families are welcome to attend! (NO costumes, please.) I will send a food permission slip home before the party. Our awesome team of Room Moms and I thank you for the party donations. Your funds will be put to good use, as the ladies plan for our class celebrations. :)
Focus Areas for the Coming Week:
- Reading: We will explore setting in the books we read. The setting is where a story takes place. We will identify settings, and talk about how settings can enhance stories.
- Writing: We are changing gears in writing. We will take a break from focusing on one type of writing for several weeks and instead, we will explore grammar, punctuation, and the elements of a top-notch "1st grade" sentence.
- Math: We will continue our patterns and sorting unit.
- Science: We will learn the life cycle of a pumpkin, and we will begin our pumpkin investigation. During our pumpkin investigation, we will observe, measure, and experiment with our pumpkins.
Speaking of pumpkins...we have 6 big old pumpkins on our front porch, just begging to be carved. If Jonah's feeling up to it, maybe we'll work on 1 or 2 this weekend. I hope you have something fun planned too!
As always, your support is appreciated and your feedback is welcomed. Please tell the kids hello for me. I can't wait to hear about their ready, responsible, and respectful choices while I was out!
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