Hello Everybody,

I hope the children had time to relax over the weekend. They learned a LOT of new things last week. We working on getting to know each other. We’re a family here at school and it is very important for the children to bond with each other and understand that we come to school to learn and to allow others to learn. Our classroom is a peaceful place without any yelling, name calling, hitting, or fighting. We spend a great deal of time building a comfortable environment for all through games, modeling, and practice. We are getting a new student on Monday. As soon as I have her information I will send home the Class Phone and Address Book.  I also make a book with the children’s pictures and names in it. You can read it with your child to help them learn their new friends’ names. 

Routines

We practiced lots of routines last week that are important in the school setting.  The students practiced walking quietly in a line. They are learning the routine for the cafeteria and how to ask for help in there with opening milk or packages.  The students are doing a great job playing together in the morning and cleaning up after themselves. The students learned how to take attendance, do the lunch order, and empty the backpack.  The kids got to meet Mrs. Dady and Mr. Falso our gym teacher at Phys. Ed. They walked all the way to the third floor for music with Mrs. Ricer, and we went to the art room with Mrs. Malay. This week, the children will visit the library and meet Mrs. HerrGesel.  They got to run around on the playground together and everyone enjoyed rest time. While they are resting, they watch books read aloud on the Smartboard from the website Bookflix. 

Fundations
We use the Fundations program (I have included an introductory letter) and we use paper with a “sky line, plane line, grass line, and worm line”. We just started practicing the lowercase letter l b t. 

Name Writing
The students are working on learning to write each child’s name “the kindergarten way” with the first letter, capitalized and the rest in lowercase. Please have your child practice writing his/her name as well. I will send home a name card and some practice paper.

Skills and Behavior
I am busy evaluating each child’s knowledge of the alphabet and numbers so I can tailor their kindergarten experience to what they are ready to learn.

Volunteers
I am looking for classroom volunteers for our morning centers. I could use help from 10:30-11:30. Could you consider giving your child’s class an hour a week or every other week or even just once a month? If you are interested, please email me and let me know what works for you. If you are a working mom or dad, please know that I understand, because I was too and couldn't volunteer either. Email me at diane.alsup@palmaccsd.org.