Our daily sign in

September 1, 2016
Dear 1D Families,
Thank you to those of you who were able to come to our curriculum night on Tuesday. I was impressed by the number of people who have already signed up to volunteer in our classroom or be a Mystery Reader! Please note that all volunteer sign-ups have been moved to Sign Up Genius online. Please let me know if you did not receive an e-mail invitation. The Sign Up Genius will send you a reminder 2 days before your volunteer date. Due to the online reminder, I will not be sending home a monthly calendar of volunteers. Please check on Sign Up Genius to confirm your volunteer date! Thank you for your generosity in fitting us into your schedules. For those of you who were unable to attend the meeting, please let me know so that I can send home a packet to you.
This week in Language Arts, we worked more on our routines for lessons and centers. We read Jack’s Talent by Maryann Cocca-Leffler, and the students discussed and wrote about their own special talents. We also read Back to Schoolby Maya Ajmera and John D. Ivanko. We learned that people all around the world go to school and do things similar to what we do in school. We reviewed the letter sounds of /a/, /s/, /m/, /t/ and /c/. Students also reviewed spelling and writing words to know from Kindergarten: I, like, to, a, see, the, we, go, is, are. Next week will be our first week using our Journeys reading program. We have some great stories coming up throughout the year!
In Religion, we discussed God’s gift of creation. We also learned that God gave us many gifts such as prayer, the ability to learn, and the capacity to love. God gave us these gifts so that we can appreciate his world and be closer to him.

We began Chapter 1 in Math this week which focuses on addition. Students learned to add to a group, put together, use a model to add, and add zero. Each day in math, we will have a short whole group lesson followed by math centers. During math centers, students rotate through three different centers focusing on the strategies and concepts we are learning. One center is always a “Miss DeLaney center,” where the children come to my table and we continue work on the lesson of the day. You will notice your child bringing home math pages in his/her red folder. These math pages are always done in class, and while at my table, I am able to see students’ progress. Please note that we do not complete all questions on the daily math pages. Often times, the quality of understanding and completing a few problems is more valuable than the quantity of problems completed. You are welcome to complete any unfished problems at home. Please be sure to keep these in a safe place as they are good tools to review before tests!

We will begin our Star of the Week on September 19. There is more information in your curriculum night packet on what the Star of the Week gets to do each day. I will send out a list for the year telling when your child is Star or the Week!

I hope that everyone enjoys the long weekend for Labor Day!

Peacefully,
Miss DeLaney

Dates to Remember

Mon. 9/5: Labor Day- No School

Wed. 9/7: School Picture Day, dress up

Thurs. 9/8: Magazine Drive Kick-Off

Mon. 9/12: No School, Faculty Parish Mission Retreat