Newsletter: Week 11

Friday, November 6, 2009
Miss Wagenaar

Reminders/Notices:
•It seems as though the Book Fair was a huge success this week. Thank you to all families who visited the book fair, especially those who donated books to our classroom. We have really enjoyed the addition of many new and wonderful books into our classroom collection.
•There is no school on Wednesday, November 11th in honor of Veteran’s Day.
•Next week we will begin sending home Class Books, these are books have been created by our students and should be enjoyed at your home for a day or two then signed and sent back so that it can be enjoyed by all the students in our class.
•As flu season is upon us, please be cautious with your children and their health. If you child comes down with illness, please keep them at home. If they have a fever, they are required to be fever-free for 24 hours before returning. This will help ensure that our class isn't exposed to illness.
•Reminder: Please consider sending in a change of your clothes for your child to keep in their backpack in case of accidents. If your child does not carry a backpack, or you feel that this would be a hindrance for them, please feel free to send a change of clothes in a clearly marked ziploc bag and I will keep it inside the classroom. Also, it is helpful if parents are reinforcing the need to use the bathroom when you feel the need, but trying to take care of those needs during planned break times (recess and lunch).

This Week:
•We have welcomed a new student to our classroom, Bhaswati (who began the year in Room 3) is returning to Laurelwood and we are so excited to have her as a part of our class.
•Pajama Day was a huge success. The kids really enjoyed wearing their p.j.s to school, we learned about day/night, nocturnal animals and enjoyed a Magic School Bus movie titled “Spins a Web”.
•Tony Casellini (Miss Casellini’s brother), an EMT from AMR, brought his ambulance to teach the children about another community helper. He explained to the children that he is like a nocturnal animal, because he sleeps during the day and works at night.
•In Writers Workshop we talked about how turning characters in our pictures can help to add action to our illustrations.
•In Readers Workshop we noticed details in the picture, especially focusing on the facial expressions of the characters in the story.
•In Math we continued to work with patterns, we have discussed a number of patterns and built and recorded them. We also learned about hopscotch patterns this week, and created them both with paper and by drawing them outside with chalk.
•We started work on a class book based on “The Roly Poly Spider”, made spider hats, and sorted fiction and non-fiction spiders.


Next Week:
We will be working on strategies for phonetic spelling by stretching words.
In Readers Workshop, we will focus on finding the beginning, middle, and end of familiar stories.
We will continue working on patterns, and analyzing them to figure out what comes next.
Next Friday I will be attending a Writers Workshop seminar, so the students will be joined by Mrs. Traci Evans.
In the coming weeks (most likely after Thanksgiving) we will begin sending home several different books with students: Library Books will begin to be sent home. Book Bags will begin to be sent home, they will contain books at an appropriate level for your child for them to practice at home. We will go over routines and procedures with these books before they are sent home. I will send more information when we begin.

Questions to ask your child
1.How many legs does a spider have? How many eyes? (8 legs, could have 2,4,6,or 8 eyes)
2.What is special about a nocturnal animal? (they sleep during the day and are awake at night)
3.What is a character? (a person or animal who is in a story)
4.If you are able to provide your child with sidewalk chalk, ask them to draw a hopscotch pattern for you outside.