Weekly Update

Dear Families and Students,
We had a fantastic week together in our class. We have a great groups of kids.  They are friendly and eager to learn together.  We are off to a great start. I hope your child came hope and shared some of the activities we did together.  During the first few weeks of school, we spend a lot of time on building a solid classroom community, characterized by empathy, kindness and a willingness to take risks in our learning through perseverance and a "can do" attitude.  Through guided discovery, we started to establish a new routine together and we also learned how to use the materials in our classroom.  For example, the children started to decorate their writing folders and they started to fill their scrapbooks with their very first writing piece.  We also learned what reader's workshop looks like and sound like in our classroom and the children began selecting books for their book boxes.  Next week, we will started guided reading groups (which we refer to as Book Clubs) even though I am not scheduled to do my reading assessments until later this month.  I will not send home homework next week, but your child will come home with two books from our library, as we have library on Mondays!

Upcoming Events:
 We are scheduled to go to Shelburne Farms on September 9th.  This is a whole day field-trip and we are still looking for chaperones.  If you are interested in joining us, please let me know as soon as possible.  You can ride the bus with us (which is always fun!), or you can meet up with us there.  I will send exact times as soon as I have that information.  Permission slips for second graders came home in our Friday folders today.  We also included permission slips for any first grader who has not handed in this yet.  Please fill them out and return as soon as possible.  Thanks!

Our ABS Curriculum Night is scheduled for September 16th at 6:30pm.  Please join us to learn more about our curriculum and themes this year.

ABS Picture Day is scheduled for September 15th.  More information will follow shortly

Please remember to fill out the blue emergency form for our school nurse and hand it into the office as soon as possible.  We want to make sure we are up-to-date on your child's health, allergies, and/or any medications that might be necessary to administer.

Don't forget to check the blog often as I post many pictures thoughout the week.

A Favorite Read Aloud this week:

We read many books on friendship and community this week.  A favorite is "Marsupial Sue".  It is written by John Lithgow, who also sings the song that goes along with the book.  We listened to it in the classroom and followed along in the text.  Perhaps you can listen to it at home.  Have a great weekend.

Maria