Wednesday Update

We've gotten off to a great start this week! The kiddos already have a plan in place for their personal narratives, and we even had time to share with a partner! Thanks for all that you do at home to help them be "ready to learn" at school. 

REMINDER!!! Check out the spelling words on the right hand side of the blog. We will be doing a practice test this Friday. Also, don't forget about the giveaway! You could win a $5 off coupon for our next book order. 

Mr. English is back and ready to start his Principal's 200 Club with the kiddos. More details to come after our Thursday Assembly. 

Sunday Update

Congrats, Brooke, on being our class vote for our Purple Hand Cookie Award!

*I will not use my hands or my words to hurt myself or others."

This week we will start our new writing unit on personal narratives, start our weekly spelling tests, and work on math strategies for addition.

Our spelling test will be on Friday, after 4 in-class spelling practice days. Please help your child study at home by reviewing the words (found on the right hand side of the blog). This week will be a practice test, but the following weeks will be used to help score some of the writing and reading scores on the report cards.

It was great seeing some of my kiddos at Saturday Live! In my one hour of volunteering, we sold a lot of candy!!

Also, don't forget about the giveaway! Enter to win a $5 coupon off of the October book order. The question is, "What day do we have music?" Hint**Check out the post with the slideshow to find our schedule.**

Writing Celebration!

We are so happy to be done with Unit 1 writing! We're moving on to some personal narrative stories next week. Books are going home tomorrow. Please, please, please celebrate at home with your kiddos. 

Wednesday Giveaway!!

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Sunday Jumpstart

It was so awesome seeing parents at Open House!! Remember, you are your child's first and forever teacher. Your involvement in school leads to many success throughout his/her life. Great job, parents!

This week we will spend time exploring our literacy centers. We are nearing the end of our assessments for our new Fastbridge program. I can't wait to take a look at the data for each student to better meet their reading and math levels. We will also be prepping for our first end-of-the-unit celebration. All great writers share their writing ; ) 

Remember, we have a half-day on Thursday the 24th and we get out at 11:55. Traffic gets pretty ugly with K-6 being dismissed at the same time. If you can, arrive early to get a quick in-and-out spot. This also means Club does not run busses from our school to club, but they will be open if you choose to transport. 

Again, thanks for all that you do! Here are some cute pictures from this week and last week!

Parent Orientation Re-Cap

In case you missed Orientation!! Email/call/comment with any concerns or questions.
~Mrs. Dimock

Here is a link to the Fastbridge assessment info!

FYI

Sunday Funday!

I spent some much needed relaxation time this weekend...at Costco. Seriously, why do I torture myself by trying to go on the weekend?! The house needed a good cleaning after all the late evenings at work. As my 7 Habits brain tells me,

FYI-Coupon book orders are due tomorrow.

Open house is Tuesday from 5:30-6:30.  Just a reminder this is an adult only event.  I hope to see you there!

We are lucky enough to have a foster grandma be apart of our class on Tuesdays and Thursdays.  Her name is Grandma Kay and she is absolutely wonderful.  She is as sweet as they come!

We only have a few more centers to learn this week, like stamps and the 3 grant-funded Osmo systems. We'll be set after those two!  The kiddos will learn how to read and use the center rotations chart and will rotate to their next centers once they have completed the previous centers (after all of the centers have been taught).  This allows the kiddos to work at their own pace and be able to fully complete a center before having to switch. It also helps with students not getting bored and acting up! We are lucky enough to get 2 weeks of practice before we start our reading groups (where I am out of commission to the general class to better serve the 5-6 kiddos during their 20 minute reading groups).

We will be wrapping up unit 1 of our reading comprehension unit and begin unit 2.  Unit 2 is how readers use their schema (what they already know).  The class will use their schema to read fiction, use their schema to understand character's feelings, use their schema to understand character's actions, and they will use their schema to read nonfiction.

Our high-frequency words for the week are: see, go, I.  Please help your kiddo practice spelling and reading our weekly high-frequency words at home.  You can find the previous taught high-frequency words on the right side of the blog.

We will continue with handwriting and letter sounds.  This week we will focus on the following letters/sounds:  o, d, n, g, w.

In writing, the students will be completing an opinion and informational writing sample.  We will also begin learning about choosing a piece to publish and revising by adding more details.

We will continue to work on addition and the commutative property in math.  We will also begin working on ways to make 6-10 (0+6, 1+5, etc.).  We have some fun games planned to help teach these skills!

Wishing you well,

Mrs. Dimock

Wednesday Check-In!

Is it really Wednesday already?! Yesterday seemed like the Monday-ist Tuesday ever! Great news, though. We've been working very hard on our writing this week. The kiddos are learning important strategies for sounding out words, getting their thoughts on paper, and sharing personal narratives. I can't wait to see the improvements throughout the year!

Some housekeeping business- Green folders are going home today. The homework page requires the kiddos to search throughout their houses to practice counting and number writing. If you have any questions, give me a call! Also, the first Scholastic Book Order is going home. The due date is Thursday, September 17th. I'll remind you at open house too ; ) You don't have to order, but there is always a $1 book that would help build a home library for your kiddos each month. 

**Open House is Tuesday, September 15th. Please make arrangements for childcare, as students and siblings are not allowed that night. It is a time for us to talk as grown ups about how we can help students have a successful year.**

I would love to start putting up student pictures of the fun things that we've been doing, but I'm still waiting on a few photo permissions to come back to school. 

Wishing you well,

Mrs. Dimock

Volunteer Opportunities

I'll bring this up at Orientation, but check out and sign up for some of our upcoming volunteer opportunities! Remember, to volunteer regularly you need to either fill out the yellow sheet in the PTA packet or call the school to get a background check. Some time will go by before I get the "okay" from the front office to start having volunteers in my room. Thanks for helping keeping our class safe and running smoothly!

Volunteer Opportunities