Wednesday, August 12, 2009
Dear Parents,
Welcome to 5th grade! I’m very excited to be back teaching 5th grade after a few years of third grade. This is my 5th year in fifth grade and I enjoy the grade quite a bit. Look forward to book reports, research projects, and learning galore! Back to School Night is tomorrow (Thursday) night at 6:30. There will be a book fair in the library as well. I will be speaking promptly at 6:35, so please come on time if you’d like to hear about our class. For those of you who cannot make it, papers will go home on Friday with all of the given information.
Tons of information goes home in the first week. Each student’s homework this week is simply to get all of those papers signed. I do not like to send home all class information on the first day, as I find it gets lost among the many, many papers. Look for my first letter to be on Friday, and every Friday to follow.
I just wanted to greet all of my new families and get out a supply list right away. The goal is to have the following items by Monday, if at all possible. There has been much discussion about budget issues, and we certainly are feeling them more than ever. For that reason, my list is longer than it’s ever been. We simply don’t have much in the way of a class budget at this point. I have always asked for as little as possible, as I know parents feel the pinch as well, particularly right now, but there are some things kids will need. If you are unable to provide any of these things, please do let me know and I’ll make sure your student is taken care of.
Supplies:
3 ring binder, divided into sections for Spelling, Math, Social Studies, and Science
Expo white board markers and eraser. PLEASE make sure they are the EXPO brand, as these work so much better.
3 spiral notebooks for class work.
1 pair of scissors, which you should put your student’s name on
1 pencil box
Markers or colored pencils, IF you want them (we have crayons)
1 memory stick to send computer work back and forth from home and school
If you are able to donate to the class, there are several other things we could always use:
Copies (if you are able to make copies for class of papers sent home)
Stickers
Prizes for the prize jar
Pencils
Colored permanent markers
CD cases
CD’s
Tissues
This should get you set for your school year. We also will be having an artist in residence this year come and teach eight art lessons. I am asking for a $15 donation per student to cover that.
As I said, plenty more information will be coming home in coming days. I will have party and volunteer sign up sheets up at Back to School Night and people can contact me regarding that as well.
Email is always the best way to get hold of me, at . I have also always kept a very detailed website with all sorts of pictures and all letters sent home on it, but we were just transitioned to a new website set up and I have not yet been able to get a new one set up. I hope to have this shortly and love to keep parents informed this way.
Thank you for getting back all paper work as quickly as possible. I look forward to seeing many of you, some again, some for the first time, at Back to School Night. It’s going to be a great year!
Sincerely,
Nicholas Kerin