Family Newsletter

Dear Families,
I hope you and your child are settling into our new school routines.  It is so nice to see the kids in the morning, happy and eager to play with their friends.  Thank you for supporting our learning at home.  These reading logs are great!  The kids are doing a great job reading at home.  Thank you for reading with them every night.

Writing:
This week, the students continued to expand on the genres of writing.  We talked about how writers write about many different things.  The students continued on picking different topics to write about. We have stories about special holidays, vacations and trips to grandma.  We also have stories about ninjagos and legos!  In writing, the students also started our weekly hand-writing practices.  Perhaps you read the earlier blog post this week, which described this in more detail.  If not, simply scroll down below this post to read more about it and see some pictures.  Hand-writing practice ties in with our writer's workshop classes because editing becomes a part of the publishing process.  Some children brought home some hand-writing samples from this week's class.  They are in their Friday folders.  If your child did not bring it home this week, he/she decided to keep the pages attached this week.  They will come home next week.
In writing, we also started our monthly writing prompts.  These writing prompts occur at the end of each month and gives the student a chance to write a personal narrative about anything he/she wishes.  In essence, it is an independent free write.  We collect these writing pieces in our scrapbooks, so at the end of the year, your child will have a sample from each month of the school year.  It is amazing to see the improvements that happen over a year and it is very motivating for the students to look at their own pieces whenever they want.  It is also empowering for them to share these pieces with other students and teachers.  We will share these with you at conference times and at the end of the year when we celebrate our Reading Restaurant. (More information will follow as we approach May!).

Reading:
Reading assessments are done and our guided reading groups are in full swing!  Your child should bring home books in his/her book bag every Friday.  These can stay home until next Friday.  If your child wishes to switch out books mid-week, that is fine.  Just send the bags and books back and we will change them.  As discussed earlier, the children are learning how to select "Just Right" books.  They are doing a great job.  This week, we also focused on finding a quiet reading spot and reading in one place for longer periods of time.  They are doing great with this as well.  We started discussing that readers also share their thinking about books in many ways and this work will continue next week.

Volunteering:
I start with parent volunteers in October.  If you are a parent who is willing and able to help out around the classroom, I would love to chat with you and figure out a day and time that works for you.  Some parents help out in reading, some parents prefer writing or math.  Others, help out during special events, host workshops or join our class to share a special skill or experience.  Please let me know via email if you are interested.  Please let me know what days/times work best for you.  Thank you!  I am looking forward to hearing from you. 

Upcoming Events and Reminders:

• Our field-trip is on Thursday, October 6th.  The bus will leave ABS around 9:30am and return to school around 1:15pm.  If you are volunteering, please meet us at Mt. Philo around 10am.  Remember, we will hike all the way up.  Your child needs weather appropriate clothing, sneakers, and a backpack containing a packed lunch and water bottle.  If you wish for your child to have a bagged lunch, please let me know by Monday if he/she needs a ham or turkey sandwich.
• We have our next school-wide celebration for filling the BeeHive!  We will celebrate on Wednesday, October 5th.  Please come to school dressed as your favorite athlete, sports team or sport!  Please no cleats, swim-suits or sticks.  
• Friday Folders: This week's folder contained a book-mark for your child to keep at home.  It represents the learning so far in reading and how we pick "Just Right" books.  Please encourage your child to think about the themes on it as he/she picks books.  Have fun reading!