Hi Everyone!
We made it through our first full week of school. I
wonder if the kids are as tired as me? While I try to make the first
weeks fun and interesting, there are times when rules and procedures are
downright boring. I have to talk a lot, and the kids have to be quite
attentive. As such, the kids really learned the nuts and bolts of our
classroom this week. Next week we'll refine some procedures, and add a
few details to the procedures learned this week. We'll continue to get to
know each other as we build our classroom community. On that note, I am
impressed and thankful with how beautifully the kids are getting along.
They're including each other during recess, introducing themselves to
each other, and are a very social bunch. :)
We had our first "Den Rally" last
Friday! It's a new assembly format Mr. Thiessen introduced this year as a
way to build community and better connect our teachers and students. Once
a month or so, the whole school gathers in the gym for a short morning assembly
during which we listen to the school news, say the pledge together, recite the
"Puma Creed", learn about social skills, and generally celebrate
being part of our AWESOME Pinebrook community. Please ask your child
about our Den Rally!
We had our first "real" fire drill on
Monday. It went very well! We also had out first Lockdown drill on Thursday. I
am very impressed with our first grade students and their attentiveness during
these important drills.
I wanted to remind you all to please kindly take
a moment to subscribe to my blog if you have not done so already. This will
save me some time of having to send an email update on Friday and I can just
post all of my information on the classroom blog. I use this blog to
communicate all school and classroom news, information, and dates. You
can follow my blog by typing your email address in the box to the right that
says "follow by email". After you input your email address,
you'll receive a message to verify your address. Simply click the
link in the email to verify your email address, and you'll be subscribed
forevermore with no worries about missing important information! *Please
do not skip this step.* My blog publishes each day between 3:00 and
5:00 pm. This means that if I have content to share, you will
automatically receive an email between 3:00 and 5:00 pm that contains the new
content. If you don't receive an email, I don't have anything
new posted. I typically post new content every Friday, and on other days as
needed.
Have you signed up for the Remind text messaging
service? If not, please take a moment to download the Remind app (look
for the white text bubble on a blue background) from the app store and join my
class. After you download the Remind app, you can join my class by
texting @grade1dru to 81010.
**Please remember that I may not be able to
respond to your message right away. Please try to send me a message between
6:00am-7:00am and 2:30-5:30pm. When I am teaching throughout the day, I often
don’t have time to respond to important information.**
If you haven't yet put money on your student's
lunch account, you can sign up for an account on www.myschoolbucks.com and
manage your child's lunch account on-line. You can also send a check to
school with your student, but our cafeteria staff really encourages
www.myschoolbucks.com to avoid lost checks between home and school. If
you need a lunch menu, please visit the school website (www.lcps.org/pinebrook)
and click "school menu" in the upper right hand corner. Our lunch
time is 10:57-11:27. Please begin to send your child's daily "power
snack" to school Thursday. Please refer to the green sheet in your
Back to School Night folder for more specific guidelines about snack.
Remember...we do not have an in-class water fountain, so water bottles are okay
too.
If you didn't bring your student's school
supplies to school yet, please kindly send those as soon as possible.
Many thanks! :) If your child is missing a critical supply, I
will send a note home so you may send the missing item as soon as possible.
Scholastic News and Science Spin:
Please
see yesterday's Thursday folder for important information about
Scholastic News and Science Spin. We will be using these student
newspapers in our classroom. Please send your child's subscription fee
($7.50 cash or check made payable to Pinebrook) by September 14th. Thank
you!
Ice Cream:
Please
ensure your child knows whether he/she may buy ice cream in the cafeteria on
Fridays. To avoid confusion in the cafeteria, I do expect the kids to
know this when they come to school. Thank you!
PTA Volunteer Welcome Coffee:
The Pinebrook PTA will hold a Volunteer Welcome Coffee on
Tuesday, September 11th at 8:35 am in the Pinebrook Cafeteria. Please
come find out how you can volunteer with the PTA. Younger children are
welcome!
Specials Schedule:
·
Monday:
PE and Music, Guidance on B Weeks only
·
Tuesday:
PE and Music
·
Wednesday:
Computer Lab or SEARCH
·
Thursday:
Art
·
Friday:
Music and PE
Please
note that this schedule will also posted on the right side of this blog.
Lunch:
Our
lunch time is from 10:28-10:58am. You are welcome to eat lunch with your child
any day, and you may bring your child lunch purchased from a restaurant (think
places like Subway, Panera, or Chick-fil-A). If you'd like to eat lunch with
your child, please sign in at the school office and meet us at the cafeteria at
10:28. Please plan to say goodbye to your child in the cafeteria at the end of
our lunch period as our instructional day resumes right after lunch.
A couple of reminders:
• Don't
forget to send a daily snack with your child. Snack should be something
that can be eaten independently (no utensils, please) while we work.
Please label your child's snack! I have them put their snack in a crate when
they get to school so they don't confuse their snack with their lunch.
I'm rethinking the plan to have snack in the afternoon. Both
yesterday and today the kids were really hungry by mid-morning, so I'm thinking
I may move snack to the morning.
• Don't
forget to send a water bottle with your child. We do not have a water
fountain in our classroom, so a water bottle is the only way for your child to
get a drink of water during the day.
• Next
week, the kids will begin to use their agendas. They will list their
weekly homework in it each Monday. For about the next
month, homework will be nightly reading. Please refer to the
instructions in the inside pocket of your child's agenda for how to log
your child's nightly reading.
• Please
remember to pack extra clothes in your child’s backpack in case of
accidents—clothes should then be changed out appropriately for each season.
• Your
child will be starting their Daily Behavior Chart on Monday. Your child’s Daily
Behavior Chart will be in the back pocket of their Homework Folder. This is a
way to communicate with you your child’s behavior for the day. We change
behavior charts each month. Each day your child will color in the date box to
indicate what color the ended the day on. Here is a reminder of colors:
Light Blue-Homerun
Purple-Base Hit!
Green-At Bat
Yellow-Strike 1
Orange-Strike 2
Red-Strike 3
Students have been practicing using the behavior
clip chart this week. If you have any questions about this process, please let
me know.
Focus
Areas for the Coming Week:
•
Reading:
We will talk about how to use our classroom library, and procedures and
expectations for Independent Reading.
•
Writing:
We will complete our Fall Writing Sample. We will begin Handwriting
practice, learning about proper letter formation and starting letters at the
top.
•
Math:
We will continue our number sense unit. We will count by 1's, 2's,
5's, and 10's, explore the concepts of odd and even, and compare and order
numbers.
•
Social
Studies: We will continue building our classroom community as we explore
the qualities of a good citizen in our school, our community, and our world.
I think that's all I have for you this week.
Please reach out at anytime with questions, comments or concerns.
This weekend, I'll update the "Important Dates" section of this
blog with many upcoming school and classroom events. Stay tuned!
I hope you have some family time planned in the
waning days of summer too! Donal and I have some friends and family visiting
from San Francisco and Connecticut. We are very excited to spend time with
everyone!
Finally.....this is the first of many, many
communications. Thanks for your patience with me as I overuse emoticons,
sometimes babble, and perhaps give you more information than you ever wanted.
Oh! Please feel free to call me Hillary, both in writing and in
person! Parents calling me "Miss Drumheller" makes me feel
older! J
