Family Newsletter

Dear Families,
I cannot believe this week went by so fast!  I hope you will all enjoy a relaxing weekend because your child will probably be very tired after a full week of school.  It takes a while to get used to a new schedule and getting up early in the morning is tougher on some.....

Curriculum Night:
We had great turn-out for our Curriculum Night on Wednesday.  Thank you all for coming. If you and your family did not make it to Curriculum Night, don't worry.  I will inform you of all the pieces in the weeks to come as they pertain to our schedule and curricular objectives.
For starters, the most important change on Harmony is in regards to homework.  Our school, among many schools across the nation, are currently reviewing our homework policy.  This means that we will only assign reading homework at this point.  We will send home reading logs inside your child's Friday folder.  They are due back the following Friday at school.  Your child is encouraged to read for at least 5 of the days on the log.  We hope that sending the logs home on Fridays, you can read with your child on the weekends too.  We understand that families are busy during the week and it is more important that you and your child spend quality time together instead of having power struggles over homework.

Technology:
We started using the computer lab and our chromebooks this week.  It is exciting to start integrating digital tools into our learning, but there are some areas the kids need to practice more and I am asking for your help.  When we log onto our computers at school, the children must use their full names, not nick names. They must also use their last names. Some children do not yet know how to spell their full first names and their last names.  We will start practicing these skills at school next week but any opportunities your child has at home to practice this, the better.  Not being able to get onto the computer can be very stressful for a first or second grader.  When we use chromebooks, the students learn how to navigate by using the track pad.  Many children have never before used a track pad on a lap top.  They have only had exposure to ipads, which, of course, are touch, or traditional computers using a mouse.  We will continue practicing using a track pad, but the more opportunities your child has ay home getting familiar with this new device, the better.  Thank you!

Friday Folders:
This week's folder included Photo Forms for our school Picture Day, which is scheduled for September 27th.  Please fill out the forms and send them back as soon as possible.

This week's folder also included our first reading logs.  Please return this log next Friday.

This week's folder also included a permission slip for our upcoming field-trip to Mt. Philo.  We will go there on October 6th.  We will leave ABS around 9am and return around 1:15.  If you are interested in joining us, please let me know as soon as possible.  We love to have family members join us on field-trips.

Upcoming Events, Permissions and Reminders:
ABS has its first Community Night Family Gathering scheduled for next Tuesday, September 20th between 5-6:30pm.  Please bring a canned good for the Food Shelf collection and a packed dinner for you and your family and enjoy our school family for an early dinner here at ABS.

We would like to start our hand-writing/grammar instruction next week.  As returning parents already know, we let the students chew gum during this 30 minute block.  It is sugar-free gum and it is thrown out after the hand-writing/grammar class.  If you do not want your child to chew gum, please let me know by Monday.  Thank you. Research shows that hand-writing skills and fine motor skills along with kinesthetic learning opportunities help the brain learn faster and retain information more effectively.  The feedback from parents and students last year was amazing and the students made great gains in hand-writing while gaining confidence in their own abilities to learn.  We hope to do it again this year.  Thanks for supporting our students develop effective learning strategies while also having some fun along the way:)

I hope you all have a great weekend.
Best,
Maria