Thursday, April 10, 2014

Weekly Update

Dear Families,
It is so exciting that we are finally getting warmer weather outside.  The children are thrilled to play outside for recess and it certainly is nice not to worry about snow-pants and boots anymore.  Hopefully, we will not get any more snow.

First, I wanted to mention that the placement input forms for 2nd grade parents are placed inside 2nd grade Thursday folders.  Please make sure you find this letter and fill it out, if you wish to.  This year, the parent input letter was also linked inside the School Bell, so you can also access it there.  Instructions for mailing should be in the bell, or on top of the letter.  The placement process is a complex process that takes many different variables into account.  There is a committee of administrators and teachers who eventually make the final decision.  We all trust their judgement.  I understand this can be a stressful time for you and your child as there are many unknowns and your child will be attending a whole new school.  Please let me know if there are any particular concerns you have.  Parents of 2nd grade students are usually notified of their child's placement sometime in early June.  Your child will have a "Step-Up" Day before the end of the school year; a day when he/she gets to visit his/her new classroom and meet with his/her new class-mates.  I will let you know when that happens.
1st grade students will remain with me for another year so there is no need to fill out a form.  We will be receiving incoming friends from this year's Kindergarten classes.  We will also have a "Step-Up day" when we meet our new class-mates.  This is such an exciting time.

This week, the students worked diligently on their Olympic research papers.  We are almost done.  They have had many opportunities to turn their notes into full sentences and writing pieces.  We will make our covers and table of contents next week.  These pieces, along with many other writing pieces, will be part of our Reading Restaurant.  Reading Restaurant is a time when we celebrate our students' writing throughout the year.  We pretend our classroom is a restaurant, and instead of serving food, we serve stories.  I will give you more information about this next week, when I can also share the date.  We are looking at an evening in mid-to-late May.  As soon as I know, I will let you know.  We want to make sure that our team-wide event does not interfere with other events and specials at our school, such as other teams' writing celebrations, and school-wide art shows.  Thank you for understanding. 

This week, the students participated in the district-wide On-Demand writing prompt.  All students write a constructed response to a given topic.  This topic is different for each grade-level.  A constructed writing response includes an introduction, 2-3 supporting details and, lastly, a conclusion.  The students did very well.  They are all such amazing authors!

I wanted to let you know that next Friday, April 18th, is our intern Amy Winter's last day with us.  We have enjoyed her company and enthusiasm this entire semester and will miss her terribly.  As I mentioned in earlier posts, she has already accepted a job as a teacher in CT, which allows her to be closer to her parents and home.  Congratulations Amy.  You will be a great teacher!
We were hoping to have a surprise party for Amy on Friday, April 18th.  If you are interested in donating treats for this party, please let me know.  We would like cookies, muffins, fruits, juice and cups and plates (nut free).  If you would like to join our party, please let us know too.  We would love to see you.  Thank you for supporting our learning and fun times, too!

Dates to remember:
  • April 18th Amy Winter's last day with us 
  • April21-25 April Break-No School
  • April 30-4 Winds
  • May 8th, Field-trip to the Flynn Theater to see "Stewart Little".  Bus leaves in the morning, show starts at 9:30am.
  • May 9th, Visit WCS to see "Beauty and the Beast".  Show starts at 12:00 so we will have lunch in the classroom (nut free lunch for all please.  If your child has hot lunch, he/she will get a bag lunch that day).  As the show is rather long, we will also dismiss from WCS.  Children will board their normal bus from WCS.  If your child attends Part 2, a bus will take them back to ABS and I will also ride this bus.  If you are picking up your child on that day, please pick up in the office at WCS.  Thank you!
Have a great day tomorrow and a terrific weekend.  Enjoy the warm weather!

Maria


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