November Newsletter

1. November Newsletter Despite the tragic events that occurred this past week/weekend with the three children who suddenly passed, I hope you all had a very fun and safe holiday spent with family. If you are interested in attending, a memorial for Clayton Everly will be held at Cle Elum-Roslyn Elementary school in the gymnasium this Friday November 8th at 4 pm. Reminders: I wanted to address an issue that was brought to my attention recently. The concern of my cell phone use/texting in class was questioned. Although I am a new teacher who has recently graduated, professionalism is important to me. I do not use my cell phone to text/Facebook/communicate with others during class time. Technology has become quite advanced these days and acts as a great resource for me and other teachers as well. I use my phone in class to play songs for circle time, I use it as a timer to let me know when it is time to transition to the next activity, and I use my phone to take pictures of my students when I am doing child observations so I can upload them to TS Gold which is a requirement of my job. Karen also uses her phone to take pictures to upload to TS Gold. Also, I have recently put a folder in each student’s cubby. This folder will be used to hold extra practice and parent/child activities. These items are not considered homework. It is simply extra practice to prepare your child(ren) for Kindergarten readiness. It is optional that you complete these activities or bring them back to me. If you do choose to complete these activities with your child(ren) and bring them back, I will collect them and put them in your child’s portfolio so that we will be able to see their progress from the beginning of the year to the end. PLEASE remember to have your child write their name on all of their work! This way I know who’s work it is and it also gives them extra practice writing their name. Ashley or I will try to check the folders daily for work that has been brought back. However, if you still see completed work that has not been taken out yet, don’t worry, we will collect it as soon as we can. I just ask that you leave it in the folder. Also, I have reminded my students that it is THEIR responsibility (not yours!) to remember to bring back their folder every day. When your child(ren) enter Kindergarten, they will get two folders that they must remember to bring to and from school every single day and teachers will remind them that it is their responsibility as well to remember to bring them. This is teaching them responsibility. If you have a question or concern about what we do during class time or folders, I would be happy to talk to you about it after school. As a reminder, Andy Januszkiewicz (our bus driver who took us to Ellensburg to get our eyes checked), will be observing my classroom environment on November 7th. If you arrive late to school, please have your child use the bathroom and wash their hands before they enter the classroom. Also, please remind them to walk in quietly and sit down at circle so that they do not distract other students during circle time. If you feel that this might be a struggle feel free to walk your child in quietly.

2. I have noticed that a lot of children have been bringing toys to school. Please have your child put their toy in their cubby before they come into the classroom. I will let them take their toy with them to recess, but when they are in class there are a lot of educational activities for them to partake in. We will be taking a field trip to the library this month! Stay tuned for the time and day! Parent Activity Night is November 18th at 12:30 pm. No school on these dates: Monday Nov. 11th – Vetrans Day Thursday Nov. 21st & 22nd – Parent/teacher conferences Thursday Nov. 28th – Thanksgiving Parent teacher conferences will he held later this month on the 21st and 22nd. I will put a sheet of sign up times on the sign in clipboard next week. Things to talk to your child(ren) about: This month we are learning about the letter “C” including how to write it (ask them to show you how they sky write the letter “C”.) We will also be learning about different words that start with the letter “C,” the sound that the letter “C” makes, and our “C” chant: C, C says CCC, cows on an cab, CCC CCC CCC. We will be doing all of these things with the letter “D” this month as well. Our “D” chant is: D, D says DDD, dogs on a dog house, DDD DDDDDD.” We have also gone over the numbers 1, 2, and 3. We will also be covering 4 this month. When we say our letter chants in class I have them practice saying and showing me their numbers as well. For example when we were doing our “A” chant I would have them say “one ant on an apple” for our “B” chant they would say “2 bees at the beach”, for our C chant they are saying “3 cows on a cab”, and for our D chant they will say “4 dogs on a dog house”, etc. We have also been studying shapes, especially squares, rectangles, triangles, and circles. Ask your child(ren) about the number of sides and corners each shape has. For circles, ask what kind of sides a circle has (curved sides.) Books we will be reading: When Autumn Comes By: Robert Maass Owl Babies By: Martin Waddell and Patrick Benson On the newsletter posted on the bulletin board I will write in more books/things to talk to your children about as we go about the month. Plans change and new things get incorporated into our lessons weekly. Check the board weekly to stay updated!