Fall is here

Dear Families,
     I'm so excited about the start of fall.  It's my favorite time of the year for so many reasons.  Fall provides so many great learning opportunities in our classroom.  In October, we will be studying trees and their products.  We will also begin our "Letter of the Week" activities.  
     Letter of the week includes learning letter names and sounds as well as how to write the letter.  We will do alphabet exercises, make the letter with wood pieces and play-doh, trace the corresponding sandpaper letter and explore objects whose name begins with the letter of the week.  Letter of the week is a multi-sensory approach to early literacy skills.  The Ohio Early Learning Standard is for children to be able to "recognize and name some upper and lower case letters in addition to those in first name and recognize the sounds associated with letters."  As children learn letter names and sounds, we will begin incorporating this knowledge into building words with the movable alphabet.   
     This week we read the book "A Bad Case of Stripes" by David Shannon.  We took pictures of the children and then printed them in black and white.  The children colored their pictures.  Next week we will use the pictures to make a class book.  Each child will fill in the sentence _____ had a bad case of ______.  Children will write, copy, trace, or dictate their response.  
     The children also enjoyed exploring various sunflowers in the touch table.  The sunflowers were cut from the front of the school.  We talked about the sizes and colors of the flowers and compared the seeds that each flower produced.  The children also used tweezers (to develop fine motor skills) to pull the seeds from the flowers.  
     I am finished up state assessments and also scoring the screening that was given at the beginning of the year.  Screening results will be sent home soon and assessment results will be shared at conferences in October/November.


*Have you turned in your letter collage for the picture dictionary?  If you haven't, please turn it in by 10/2.  We have a few extra lowercase letters that we still need to do.  If you are interested in making another letter collage page for our picture dictionary, please let me know.  I will send a page home this week.  I'm looking forward to putting our picture dictionary together for the children to read and look at.  

HELP NEEDED...
*We have a few bikes that need some minor repairs.  If you are interested, please let me know.

IMPORTANT INFORMATION
-No School 10/1 - teacher in-service day
-School Carnival 10/3
- Parent-Teacher Conferences 10/30 and 11/6.  More information soon.

REMINDERS...
-Our classroom is a NUT FREE classroom.  Several of the children have been collection acorns on their way to school.  If your child does collect acorns, please do not allow him/her to bring them to our classroom.  We have students with allergies and we want our classroom to be a safe place for everyone.  

HEAR YE, HEAR YE!  IT’S BOOK FAIR TIME!

The Book Fair theme this fall is “Sir Readalot’s Castle:  Enter the Kingdom of Books!”  The Book Fair is a great way to get everyone excited about reading!  Williams Ave. Elementary Library will host the Scholastic Book Fair October 28-31, 2014.  Students will be able to shop daily.  If you would like to come and enjoy this shopping experience with your child, the book fair will be open on Parent/Teacher Conference night, Thursday, October 30^th from 4 to 7 pm.  And, you have the opportunity to contribute books to your child’s classroom library from Teachers’ Classroom Wish Lists.  For your convenience, credit cards will be accepted that evening.  All profits benefit our school library. 

Off to a Great Start!

Dear Preschool Families,
     The school year is off to a great start.  We have been very busy in the classroom the last 2 weeks.  The children have been working hard on learning the school routines including; the arrival routine (including good hand washing habits), learning to sign-in (practicing name recognition and name writing), and the procedures for serving and eating snack.  I have also been presenting lessons to the whole group and individual children.  We also discussed that school is a safe place.  We made a list of people that keep us safe.  We then talked about rules that keep us safe.  The children came up with many good rules to keep us safe.  At the start of each day, we are reviewing our classroom rules.  We also took a tour of the school including the office, auditorium, library, and cafeteria.  
     Some of the popular works in the classroom right now include: painting at the easel, snack, play-doh, art shelf, and the book corner.  There are limited works available on the shelves right now.  Each week, I will present more lessons and add new work to the shelves.  Next week we will begin "Letter of the Week."  Each day, the children will participate in various activities that support early literacy skills.  I'll talk more about "Letter of the Week" in upcoming newsletters.
     Our main theme right now is "Going to School."  Over the next few weeks we will study 5 Senses and All About Me.  In October we will do a Fall Study.
     Screening results will be sent home by the end of the month.  Next week I will begin working with students 1 on 1 for state mandated assessments.  The information collected on these assessments will also be used for progress reports.      I will begin posting classroom photos on a photo sharing site once I have photo permission forms from the office. 

THANK YOU to all the families that signed up for snack, play-doh, and flowers.  Also, a big thank you to families that provided wish list items!!!!
      


IMPORTANT INFO:
-No School 10/1 - teacher in service

OTHER INFO:
- Many of the girls in our class have been wearing beautiful dresses to school.  If your daughter wears a dress to school, you may want to consider encouraging her to wear shorts or leggings under her dress to ensure modesty.  A lot of the day is spent sitting on the floor.  Most little girls forget about keeping their legs and other areas covered while sitting on the floor.  Wearing shorts or leggings will help keep everything covered.  Thanks!  
- Birthdays... If you would like to send a treat for your child's birthday please follow these guidelines:
- Parent Volunteers: Opportunities for volunteering in the classroom will begin in October.  More information will be available in upcoming newsletters.

• Any food must  include the complete list of ingredients.  All foods must be NUT free.  (We have children with severe food allergies in our class.)
• Non-food treats such as stickers, play-doh, bubbles, or other small goodies are preferred.
• Consider donating a book to our classroom collection instead of individual treats.  

As always, feel free to contact me at any time with questions or concerns.
plunkett.k@norwoodschools.org
924-2529