Monday, September 17, 2018

Hello, all!
Thanks for your patience this weekend-I had to turn in my new school laptop for some routine updates, and my home one just doesn't like to do anything fancy these days :)

Homework folders will go home as soon as they come back from being laminated.

We had a blast watching and learning about monarch butterflies this week!  Alistair the caterpillar and Sasha the chrysalis spent time with us.  Our guest teacher, Mr.Carrigan from UNE, helped us look at them with a hand lens while we worked on our butterfly life cycle models.  Sasha eclosed (hatched) this weekend, and Alistair has formed his chrysalis.  My daughter took some samples of Sasha's wing scales to check their health before releasing her, so I will bring those in and we will look at them under a microscope later this week!

We reviewed short vowels, addition and subtraction, and our classroom expectations last week!  We're adding a little more each day to our classroom routine...it's a gentle process and I am happy with our progress!  Thank you for the support you offer at home!

Thank you also to all who contributed book orders-with the bonus points we earned, I was able to order several new books for our classroom guided reading library!  These are the books we will bring home each week for homework.
  Jack, showing us how to do Read to Self










Jacy and Darius show us how to Read to Someone


Thank you also to everyone who returned Eagle News on Monday and library books on Thursday!  I know that we have library on Friday, but our library time includes a story and discussion time with the librarian, plus time for her to help the children to choose their books. If we turn our books in on Thursday, they can be checked in before library classes on Friday and none of our library time has to be spent following up on that.  Thanks!! :)

Congratulations to Damon and Kendall for earning the privilege of taking Kola and Darla home this weekend! :)  Thanks for making good choices and helping to make our classroom a place where our friends can learn!  We can't wait to hear all about their adventures with Damon's and Kendall's families!

Thank you to everyone who has helped make dismissal go smoothly by...
-sending a written note that your child would be picked up and by whom
-making sure that the person picking up is on the "approved" pick-up list and has a photo ID
-giving me as much notice as possible when your child will be leaving early
:)

I hope you had a great weekend!  I spent the weekend in Augusta, working on the Maine Education Association Board of Directors, and enjoyed the last performances of the play in which I was acting.  I'm looking forward to a super week here in first grade, including a fun STEM activity this Wednesday and meeting our intern, Ms. Mooradian, tomorrow!
I hope you all have a wonderful week!
Becca