Posting pictures of our learning

 Every week, I will post pictures of our learning together.  Pleaser email me if you do not give permission for me to post your child's picture/photos here online.  I will only post pictures.  I will not attach a name to a specific picture/photo.  Thank you

Family Newsletter

 Dear Families,

Here is our week in review:

We had a terrific start to the school year!  What a terrific group of kids we have.  They were  so kind and patient as we navigated new routines and procedures together these first three days.  They showed flexibility and persevered through every day.

Social-Emotional Learning:

• This week, we focused primarily on building a new community of learners together, characterized by trust, belonging and inclusion.   We  started building our class contract around our school motto: “Be Safe, Be Kind, Be Responsible”.   We will continue this work in the weeks to come as we create our classroom norms together.   We will discuss and practice what it looks like and sounds like to be safe, kind and responsible in our classroom and at ABS.   

• We also started talking about what it means to be an active and engaged learner.  We learned about the following four procedures:

1. Eyes watching

2. Body still

3. Voice quiet

4. Ears listening

At ABS, we utilize the curriculum Second Step, which is a holistic approach to social-emotional learning.  You can learn more about it here now if you are curious.  You can also wait until our ABS Curriculum Night ( scheduled for 9/23/21 for more information.  Lastly, I always include a paragraph about our social-emotional learning objectives every week in these newsletters so you can simply follow along with our learning that way too.

Reading:

• We visit the library on Tuesdays to choose books to take home.  Here is a link our library web-site where you can access books online and search for books.  Students are encouraged to take several books home each week but we try to limit it to 4-6 books/week.  In the beginning of the school year, we encourage the students to take high interest books home and we hope they will be read at home together with family members.  As the school year progresses, we encourage our first graders to take at least one “just right” book home (a “just right” book is a book the student can read independently).  More information will follow as our guided reading groups (instructional groups for reading) start.

Writing:

• We read the book “First Day Jitters” by Julie Danneberg this week. This is a book about a teacher who feels really nervous about her first day of school.  We made personal connections and wrote about our own feelings on the first day of school.  The students did an amazing job writing and drawing their pictures.  This is going to be the very first writing piece for their scrapbooks, which we will start in a couple of weeks.  Stay tuned for more information.

First Grade Math:

• We will start math next week.  We will have math every day.

Welcome Ms. Emily, our UVM Intern:

• We are so fortunate to have Ms. Emily with us this semester.  Ms. Emily is a UVM student and she will do her teacher certification internship with our class.  She will be with us full time.  Here is a letter of introduction from her:

Dear Parents,

I hope you all had a nice and relaxing summer. I wanted to introduce myself as I will be working with your children alongside Maria McCormack at Allen Brook Elementary School. My name is Emily Cilenti. I am currently a senior at The University of Vermont. I am an elementary education major with a special education minor. I am so excited to be working with your kids and seeing them grow this upcoming year. I have worked with kids for a long time. I just finished working at a preschool this Summer in my hometown in New Jersey. I love working with kids and seeing them grow. 

A little about me is that I love to be outdoors. I love going for hikes, runs, walks, and swimming in Lake Champlain. I hiked Mount Mansfield last year which has been a goal of mine for a while. I also love finding new recipes to cook. I am gluten free, so it’s been really fun coming up with new meals to make. I really love animals, especially dogs. Back in my hometown I have a black Labrador retriever named Tucker who is 7 years old. 

I am looking forward to meeting you all and your amazing kids this week. I am so excited to be working with your children. 

Sincerely,

Emily Cilenti 

News and Reminders:

• Please make sure your child brings a water bottle and a healthy snack every day.  We spend a lot of time outdoors, especially in the beginning of the school year so please send your child to school with weather appropriate clothing as well.  It is always a good idea to have some extra sets of clothing in your child’s locker here at school.  If you wish to have that, please send in extra clothing in a ziplock bag marked with your child’s name.  I will help them place this bag inside their lockers.

• This year, Home Folders will go home on Fridays.  Please look for them inside your child’s backpack.  Your child’s Home Folder will include pictures, drawings and other special projects your child has completed here at school.  These can stay at home.  Your child’s Home Folder will also include school forms and permission slips, some of which will need to be signed, completed and returned.  We encourage parents to get used to checking their child’s backpack every Friday so nothing is missed.  Please return the emptied Home Folder on the following Monday.

• We will not send home any homework until later this school year.  Please stay tuned for more updates on this.

• If you did not return your child’s student questionnaire regarding his/her learning and your hopes and dreams for the school year, please send it in next week.  (This is the form Harmony House sent out over the summer for our August Hopes and Dreams conferences the day before school). Let me know if you need another one sent home.  If you already handed it in during our mini-conferences, you do not need to fill out another one, of course!

• Please let me know if your child’s photos/pictures cannot be posted on our class blog.  I will never post a picture online with a student’s name attached to a picture, but I will need to know if I can post pictures of our learning together before I go ahead.  You will only need to let me know if you do not give permission for this.  Thank you.

• Our first issue of the SCHOOL BELL will go home next week, Sep 3, 2021

Have a great weekend,

Maria