I Am So Grateful for All of the Support from Our Wonderful Families. We Had So Much Fun

January 7, 2015

Hi Rockstars,

Happy New Year to all of the 106 families! I hope you found time to relax and have fun during the long break. I missed our class so much! WOW! It was wonderful to see everyone’s beautiful face on Monday morning. I was fortunate to enjoy lots of time with family and friends over break but I thought about our class every day. I am so excited for the next phase of the school year.

I am so grateful for all of the support from our wonderful families. We had so much fun concluding our gingerbread unit by making cookies and chasing them around the school. The students’ faces were glowing with excitement when they discovered that their cookies had run away! Thank you to everyone for contributing supplies, time and energy to this project.

Our class read several versions of the gingerbread man. Together we discussed all of the various characters, their feelings and motivations. We thought about the settings in all of the gingerbread stories, and how they were different and alike. The students acted out the traditional version of the story without scripts or practice. They were easily able to think about each characters role and recreate the story. The students really enjoyed this unit.

This week, we are easing back into school and our daily routine. We will spend time reviewing rules and modeling appropriate behaviors. Four friends turned six during the break so each student is having their own special day this week. We are busy! Weare beginning to learn about Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. as we look forward to our participation in Friday’s Celebratory All School Morning Meeting. Our class will be singing one song with a few other classes.

Academically, It’s all about review as well. We will review letter sounds and practice sounding out words. During math, the students will continue to work in two groups. The students will we be reviewing the tricky teens, and newly learned addition and subtraction problems.

New this week, we will begin to consider ways to connect with the books we are reading. Making connections helps us develop schema, build knowledge and become better readers. We will continue to work in small groups and the students will engage in a rotation of literacy activities each morning. We will think about 2015 and what it means to be a New Year. I am going to try and send a Peek of the Week each week. This will include information about the upcoming week.

It is almost conference time again. I have created a schedule via Google Docs My availability for this round of conferences will be a bit tighter; I am hoping to get all of the scheduling out of the way within the next week. I have attached a copy as well, please email me your time preference and I will email back to confirm availability. I look forward to ourmeetings; we have so much to talk about! Reflecting on the goals we set during the fall we will consider new goals. The students should come and siblings are welcome to tag along.

I am so fortunate to be your teacher! Thank you to all of the students, you have been working so hard this year. I am amazed by how much everyone is learning. I am SO proud of you! Thank you to all of the families that help make our class great! I am endlessly appreciative of your support and contributions; we couldn’t do it without you. I look forward to a great New Year with this group.

Love,

Savanna