It is hard to believe that the first month of school is behind us. Meeting so many of you at Open House was a great pleasure. Thank you so much for taking the time to get all of the beginning of the year paperwork filled out and for responding to the parent survey I sent home. It's very helpful to me to have your input on your child as a learner as I'm getting to know them at the beginning of the year. After all, you know them best.
Many of you acknowledged your hope that your child will strengthen their reading, writing and math skills this year while building self-confidence, making new friends and having fun at school. I am so excited to work with you to achieve these goals! Sitting back to read families' hopes and dreams for their child always causes me to pause and think about what an important role I have. Knowing that I have 18 eager learners and their families counting on me fuels my work each day. I feel very fortunate to have the opportunity to share their learning with you.
We are settling into the school year and I've been so impressed with our responsible behavior. We have reviewed our rules and practiced them in a variety of situations. For example, walking quietly in the hallway shows that you are "taking care of others" by not disturbing their learning. Remaining focused on your work shows that you are "doing your best." Playing safely on the playground equipment shows that you are "taking care of yourself".
We have also talked about how it's not always easy to remember the rules and that we have consequences for all behavior. The consequence of playing safely is to have fun and play longer. The consequence of being a focused learner is learning. In my classroom, we have "logical consequences" to help us remember the rules when we forget them or choose not to follow them. Northeast Foundation for children says, "Logical Consequences help you remember the rules, fix things before you get hurt, before you ruin a friendship or before you do something that can't be fixed". Logical Consequences make sense. A consequence for forgetting to play safely might be to sit out for a few minutes. The consequence of not completing your work might be to finish it for homework.
In our room the class voted to call our take-a-break chair "rest and return". We talked about how everyone has moments where they just need to take a deep breath and get themselves focused. Children can sit there on their own, or they may be asked to "rest and return" by me if they need a reminder. I teach them that they are the best person to know if they are ready to return. We have also discussed strategies for getting yourself ready to focus: read a book for a moment, think of someone who loves you, take deep breaths or count in your head. I do not believe in taking recess away unless the behavior is related to being unsafe at recess, so that is not something that will be a consequence in my room. Kids need fresh air and they need to run and have fun during such a long, learning filled day.
My hope is to keep you informed about what is taking place in our classroom on a consistent basis. Our days are filled with learning experiences but somehow when your children arrive home they cannot remember what they did all day. Does this sound familiar? The typical response to, "What did you do today?" is "Nothing!" If you would like a little more detail, you might ask some specific questions. I've included a few that might lead to more detail about their day.
- What activity did you do during Morning Meeting?
- What do you remember about this morning's News and Announcements?
- What book did you read during Independent Reading time?
- What did you write about today?
- What are some of the sight words you are practicing this week?
- What are you working on in math? What's hard? What's easy?
- What went well today?
Telling time to the half-hour and counting coins are good skills to be practicing at home.
Again, it is a pleasure to be your child's teacher.
I hope that you are all enjoying this beautiful long weekend!
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