November Newsletter

Dear Parents,

How can it be November already??  This year is off to a quick start!

HALLOWEEN:  Just a reminder that Tuesday is our Halloween celebration.  We have all our goodies ready to go for our party!  A HUGE thanks to the room parents for getting that together! The parade will be Tuesday morning at 8:15.  Please have your child come to school in their costume, masks are permitted but any sort of weapon is NOT.  I will pick them up on the playground at our usual spot.  We will come to the classroom and put away our things, and head on back out to the playground.  I hope you can stay and see the fun!  Please send your child with a change of clothes in case they want to change after the parade.  I’m leaving it up to them…they can stay in their costume all day if they wish OR change.

LANGUAGE ARTS: Thanks for coming to our publishing celebration!  Our small moment stories have been shared with you and all our classmates.  We are now working on “How To” books…you will be invited to that celebration as well!  I’m so impressed with how hard my students are working to get their ideas down on paper.  In readers workshop we continue to work on reading strategies, building our stamina, and we will move onto reading some non fiction books.  We are meeting regularly in our reading groups and working on our strategies in small groups.

MATH: We have finished our unit on creating routines and using data.  We have moved onto developing base ten number sense.  I’m so impressed with how well my students are collaborating and working together in both partners and in small groups.  Lots of problem solving and mathematical thinking going on in room 30!

SCIENCE/TECHNOLOGY: We are wrapping up our science kit on solids and liquids.  You will see their science notebooks come home soon. Our next unit will be on plants and animals.  We are also using the iPads in the room for Raz Kids and Ten Marks in math.  I will be sending you an invitation soon to SeeSaw as my students are starting to make entries on that app.  I will also use QR codes to direct my students to certain videos on the topics we are studying. SOCIAL STUDIES: We will move onto unit 5 and talk about different cultures and family traditions.  We are also reading our Scholastic News weekly; which covers a variety of different current events.

CHECK OUT BOOKS:  We have check out books that should come home every night Monday through Thursday.  Please check to see that your child brings the book home, reads it or has it read to them, and then RETURNS it the next day.  I have a LOT of students forgetting to return their book each day.  PLEASE remind them each morning.  THANKS!

SPECIAL DATES:

•       Oct. 31:  Halloween parade

•       Nov. 10:  Veteran's Day/No school

•       November 20-24: Thanksgiving break

•       November 30: Natural Bridges (Monarch Butterflies)

•       December 18-January 2: Winter Break

•       January 15: MLK day/no school

•       January 26: Learning Day for teachers, no school for students

•       Jan. 30: 100^th Day of School

•       Feb. 14: Valentine’s Day

•       Feb. 15: Pete the Cat 10:00 at the Flint Center

•       Feb. 16: Chinese New Year Centers in the GLC

•       Feb. 19-23: Winter break

•       March 16: Green Luncheon in Room 30 (St. Patrick’s Day celebration)

•       April 23: Hiller Aviation Museum

•       April 16-20: Spring break

•       May 18: No school

•       May 25: First Grade Performance in the GLC at 1:00

•       May 28: Memorial Day/no school

•       June 4: End of the Year party/first grade picnic

•       June 7: Last Day of School: dismissal at 11:50

Thanks for your support, Kathleen

October Newsletter

Dear Parents,

October already?  Boy time flies when you are having fun!  ;)  Just a reminder…school starts each day at 8:00.  If your child gets to school after the 8:00 bell rings they are late, please have them go to the office to get a late slip.  If they come to me first and then I have to send them to the office they are missing more time.  THANKS!

GOAL SETTING CONFERENCES:  Goal setting conferences run from October 5-October 13.  My students will get out of school each day at 12:40.  I’m looking forward to meeting all of you and having a bit of time to get to know one another.

WALK-A-THON:  Saturday, October 7, is our annual Walk-a-thon.  I’m looking forward to a very fun day!  I will be here first thing in the morning punching lap cards.  The first grade teachers have a popcorn and movie party in the Silent Auction catalog, feel free to bid and have your child join us for a fun afternoon movie party.

LANGUAGE ARTS: My students are working on writing small moment stories.  They are working on focusing on one thing that has happened to them they can write about. They are also writing weekly letters to our person of the week.  Reader’s Workshop has begun and your children work daily on reading strategies, organizers covering literary elements, phonics and reading with their groups.  Thanks to our parent volunteers they are also reading with an additional adult individually once a week. 

MATH: In math we are working creating routines using data.  We have done a lot of work with the 100 charts and 99 charts so that students become familiar with patterns in our number system and number sense.  We started our weekly math groups.  Thanks to those parents who are coming in every Friday.  My students are given the opportunity to rotate through six stations focusing on various math skills.

SCIENCE/TECHNOLOGY: We are working through our Solids and Liquids unit.  We have built towers with solids, discussed their properties, and done some observation.  We have also observed various liquids and discussed their properties. We are taking a week break this week to do some fun stuff with apples around Johnny Appleseed’s birthday and then next week we will go right back to our liquids explorations.

SOCIAL STUDIES:  We have completed Unit 1, which covers citizenship.   We have discussed how to be a good citizen and a positive contributor to our classroom.  Project Cornerstone will start this week.  Parent volunteers will come in monthly to share a special story with my class and discuss various topics such as bullying, kindness, responsibility, honesty and other important concepts.  We are also reading Scholastic News weekly, which covers current events, science topics and other interesting things about our every day world.

PE: We have PE two days a week this school year.  Monday afternoons we go out and do warm ups, run, and work on different physical skills.  On Thursday afternoons we have Lap Derby where we count how many laps we can walk this school year.  We also have a 10-minute PE time every single morning.  Either we are out on the track taking a lap OR we are in the classroom doing different movement exercises with Go Noodle.

COOKING:  We started cooking on Thursday!  I have a good friend, actually an ex-parent, I taught both of her now adult children, who will come into our room 7 times this school year to do a cooking project with my class.  You will find in today’s folder a message from her and she will be walking my children through some cooking projects, cooking safety and cleanliness.  At the end of the school year your child will get a “cookbook” of all the recipes we did this school year.  I know your children will love it!

HALLOWEEN: My favorite holiday of the year!  I will be meeting soon with our room parents to coordinate our party for this year, and we will have lots of fun activities throughout the day that are Halloween related.  I’m not sure what the details are on our school Halloween parade but once I know what the plan is I will share it with you so you can join us for that.

             SPECIAL DATES:

•       Oct. 7: WALK-A-THON! 9:00-4:00

•       Oct. 5-13: Goal Setting Conferences, school dismisses at 1:00

•       Oct. 16: No School

•       Oct. 27: Field Trip to Hidden Villa Farm

•       Oct. 31:  Halloween parade

•       Nov. 10:  Veteran's Day/No school

•       November 20-24: Thanksgiving break

•       November 30: Natural Bridges (Monarch Butterflies)

•       December 18-January 2: Winter Break

•       January 15: MLK day/no school

•       January 26: Learning Day for teachers, no school for students

•       Jan. 30: 100^th Day of School

•       Feb. 14: Valentine’s Day

•       Feb. 15: Pete the Cat 10:00 at the Flint Center

•       Feb. 16: Chinese New Year Centers in the GLC

•       Feb. 19-23: Winter break

•       March 16: Green Luncheon in Room 30 (St. Patrick’s Day celebration)

•       April 23: Hiller Aviation Museum

•       April 16-20: Spring break

•       May 18: No school

•       May 25: First Grade Performance in the GLC at 1:00

•       May 28: Memorial Day/no school

•       June 4: End of the Year party/first grade picnic

•       June 7: Last Day of School: dismissal at 11:50

September Newsletter

Dear Parents,

I will be sending home a newsletter at the start of each month.  In these letters I will be keeping you informed on what we are doing in each curriculum area.  We are three weeks into the school year already!  Wow!

BACK TO SCHOOL NIGHT:  Thanks to those that made it to our Back to School night.  It was wonderful to see you all there.  I hope that my presentation gave you enough information to get this school year off to a great start!

STUDENT TEACHER:  Miss Zeigler has started working in my classroom.  She will be in room 30 Mondays and Tuesdays until lunch and then all day on Wednesdays.  This is her first student teaching placement so at the start she will be getting to know my class and observing my teaching, as the semester progresses she will begin doing some of her own teaching.  In the folder today is a permission slip in order for her to be filmed while she is teaching in my classroom.  This is a requirement of her program and the film will only be used by her supervisor and herself to help her to better her teaching practice.  Please sign and return.  Thanks.

LANGUAGE ARTS:  I am currently assessing my students and once I’m done reading with each of them I will place them in flexible guided reading groups.  In these groups we will read books that are at their instructional level and practicing our reading strategies.  During that readers workshop time they will also be working on their reading skills individually as well with books just at their level.  We are also reviewing phonics, practicing our printing, and working on various reading strategies.  In writing we will start with narrative writing.  We gathered our writing ideas and now we are writing several different “small moments”, and learning some writing strategies along the way.  Your child will pick one of their rough drafts to take through the entire writing process.

MATH: We will begin the year with creating routines using data.  I have decided to use Georgia Math, and a variety of other resources for our in class math curriculum.  We will begin each day in math with a daily math-thinking problem. I use our daily calendar to review money, number sense, computation, odd/even and passage of time. Then either in small groups or whole class we will play various math games working on various math concepts.  Throughout the year I will send home the math workbooks for your children to work through at home if they wish.

SCIENCE/SOCIAL STUDIES: In Science we are beginning to work in our Solids and Liquids science kit. In this kit students will explore solids, liquids and be able to participate in a variety of hands on experiences to enhance their learning.  In Social Studies we will complete our first unit about citizenship.

TECHNOLOGY: Our class website can be found at: http://dilworthroom3.blogspot.com/ The West Valley website can be found at: http://www.edline.net/pages/West_Valley_Elementary_School   I will also be using a site called Bloomz, if you have not accepted my invitation yet, please do join.  I already have some pictures posted.  Our room parent will contact you via Konstella.  I would like for your child to bring in a pair of headphones to have to use in the classroom this school year.  They will bring them home at the end of the school year.  They will have weekly access to Raz Kids in the classroom as well as occasional videos that I want them to view independently on our iPads.  If you can have them bring them in and label them with their name that would be great.

HOMEWORK:  This week your child should have brought home a check out book Monday through Thursday.  They are to read that book to themselves or have it read to them each night.  Remember that reading is something that should be practiced every evening.  In today’s folder is your homework activity sheet for September.  It will be due back to me on Friday, September 29.  I will send home one of these calendars each month.  Just choose two activities to do a week.

WALK-A-THON:  West Valley’s annual walk-a-thon will be October 7^th.  Keep your eyes open for information about how this works and how you can volunteer and support this super fun event.  I will be there most of that day to either help or walk.  I will be walking lots of laps that day!  It’s a fun event and I hope to see you all there.  First grade will have a raffle item you are welcome to bid on for your children too.  It’s an after school popcorn and movie party for the top 5 bidders in each first grade classroom.  

I'm looking forward to a wonderful, productive and successful school year with you and your children.        

Thanks for your support, Kathleen Erikson

             

             SPECIAL DATES:

•       Sept. 4: Labor Day/Holiday no school

•       Sept. 15: Learning Day for teachers, no school for students

•       Oct. 7: WALK-A-THON! 9:00-4:00

•       Oct. 5-13: Goal Setting Conferences, school dismisses at 1:00

•       Oct. 16: No School

•       Oct. 27: Field Trip to Hidden Villa Farm

•       Oct. 31:  Halloween parade

•       Nov. 10:  Veteran's Day/No school

•       November 20-24: Thanksgiving break

•       November ?: Natural Bridges (Monarch Butterflies)

•       December 18-January 2: Winter Break

•       January 15: MLK day/no school

•       January 26: Learning Day for teachers, no school for students

•       Jan. 30: 100^th Day of School

•       Feb. 14: Valentine’s Day

•       Feb. 15: Pete the Cat 10:00 at the Flint Center

•       Feb. 16: Chinese New Year Centers in the GLC

•       Feb. 19-23: Winter break

•       March 16: Green Luncheon in Room 30 (St. Patrick’s Day celebration)

•       April 23: Hiller Aviation Museum

•       April 16-20: Spring break

•       May 18: No school

•       May 25: First Grade Performance in the GLC at 1:00

•       May 28: Memorial Day/no school

•       June 4: End of the Year party/first grade picnic

•       June 7: Last Day of School: dismissal at 11:50

Welcome to Room 30!

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Dear Parents,

Welcome to room 30 and the first grade.   My name is Kathleen Erikson.  I’m looking forward to a very successful and fun school year.

FIRST DAY:  YOU have homework tonight!  Please look over the information on your child’s enrollment card, make sure it is accurate and then sign and return ASAP!  We really need those cards in the office in case of an emergency.

BACK TO SCHOOL NIGHT:  Our Back-to-School night is Wednesday, August 23, from 5:30-6:00.  Please join me at that time in room 30 and I will let you know what to expect this school year.  

BOOK ORDERS:  I will send home our first Scholastic book order on Thursday, August 24.  These are completely optional. An explanation sheet will be attached to the order forms about how you can order books for your child if you are interested.

SPECIAL DATES:  I will give you a list of future field trips, special events and incoming speakers on Back to School Night.  I use a site called Bloomz where I will post pictures, videos, our monthly newsletter and announcements.  It will keep you updated on what is happening in our classroom throughout the school year. I will have more information on that at Back to School Night.

CLASSROOM VOLUNTEERS:  I will have a volunteer sheet to pick up on Back to School Night. All volunteers in the classroom and field trip chaperones MUST have a current TB test on file with the office before working with children.  Chaperones for field trips will also be required to have their fingerprints on file with the school. 

CLASSROOM DONATIONS:  Thank you to those that brought in classroom supplies.  A flyer will go home later this week explaining our direct donation program and I will explain further at Back to School Night. 

Welcome to room 30 and I look forward to meeting each of you at Back to School Night,

                                                                           Kathleen Erikson

                                                                           erikson_kathleen@cusdk8.org