Student-led Conferences

Upcoming this week are student-led conferences! If you read my post last week, this next paragraph will be a lot of repeating about what we are doing for student-led conferences, but also new info. so please read. SL Conferences will be on WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 20. The students are so excited for their parents to come so I hope that everyone can make it! You can come anytime between 3:30 and 5:30 and it will take about 15-30 minutes. Since the students will be leading the conference, you will just follow them around! Each child will show their parent(s) their portfolio. If they are not telling you why they chose the work they did and what makes it their best work, please ask them. SL Conferences are meant to be a reflective conversation for students and their parents. After you have seen your child's work, you will fill out a "Two Stars and a Wish" page near the back of their portfolio. Here, you will write down after talking with your child two things they are doing well at and one goal for the next term. Once you have gone through the portfolio, feel free to ask me ANY questions about your child's progress or how we do things in our class. After that, you are done! If you have questions, comments, or concerns that you would like to talk about outside of SL Conferences, I would be happy to meet with you on another day.

Report Cards will go home on Monday. Please sign the report card envelope and send it back to school. 

We sent off our Operation Christmas Child Boxes this week. I am happy to say that our boxes were PACKED full and the shipping costs were covered. Thank you so much! Our school filled 88 boxes to send to children in need. Wow!

Friday was officially "Random Acts of Kindness" Day. After the kiddies got back in from recess, they were so excited to find cupcakes in our classroom! I still have no idea who left them, but on the box was a note that said "Pay it Forward". Of course, we had to think of something we could do to pay it forward. The students thought that it would be a good idea to write a card for each person in Miss Jensen's class and write something nice to "fill their bucket" (ask your child if the bucket thing doesn't make sense!). They also wanted to tape a treat in the cards. They were so thoughtful as they were writing their cards. Such sweet kids!

This week we have been practicing extending patterns. What better way to do this than with colored goldfish! There was a lot of self-control being practiced in the room as students made patterns with their fish before eating them.

Pizza Day will be on Wednesday, November 20.

Surprise cupcakes!!

I am looking forward to seeing all of you on Wednesday!

Carly

Remembrance Day

This week was quite the contrast to last week as we talked about and remembered veterans for Remembrance Day. The students loved hearing stories from each other about their ancestors who served our country. The stories were incredible and students had such a sense of pride as they told them to the class. We were lucky to even have R's grandmother come and tell us about her father and uncle who are heroes. Thank you for coming!

The Remembrance Day Assembly was so well done and I tried not to get emotional as the grade ones were singing. They did such a great job and they were very respectful. I loved seeing a few of them salute the veterans who were sitting on the front row.

We will be sending off our Operation Christmas Child shoe boxes on November 14. Thank you so much to those of you who have donated so far! If you would like to donate, here are some potential items you could purchase:
-wash clothes
-stuffed animals
-skipping rope
-flip flops
-slinky
-combs
-one toothbrush (in own packaging)
-hair stuff (girl)
-t-shirt
-multi-tool
-musical instruments (harmonica, whislte)
-play-doh
-part of the $12.00 remaining needed for shipping costs

Student Led Conferences will be on November 20. If you have not been to Student Led Conferences before, basically they are a re-vamped Parent-Teacher Interviews. Student Led Conferences are a way for your child to show you their best work from each term. I like to keep SL Conferences super informal so when you come to the school, your child will show you to their desk and show you their portfolio which will contain their best work. After you have gone through the portfolio together, you will make some goals for the next term. To make scheduling a little easier for everyone, you can come anytime between 3:45 and 5:30. I will be available when you come to answer any questions and talk about successes and concerns if necessary. If you would like to schedule a more formal interview, please let me know and I would love to talk with you! If you cannot make it on November 20, I can send home your child's portfolio with them for you to talk about it at home and them send back to school.

Book Orders are due on Friday, November 15. 

I think that's all for this week! Have a great long weekend!!

Carly

Halloween Week

We made it through Halloween week!  We had a fantastic week that was really way too much fun.

Right now, we are still focusing on words with the short vowel sound for our reading skills.  Practicing the sight words that go home in their agenda will benefit your child greatly. The books the students are reading at home and school are mostly words that they can sound out but they are starting to get more and more sight words in them. If your child cannot recognize sight words, they will have a more difficult time getting to the next level of reading because even though they have the skills to sound out words, sight words are mostly words that they cannot sound out. I am really impressed by the dedication of students and parents this year with home reading! Every week, most of the students get their bead for their chain because they read every day. If there is one thing you do with your child that is school-related, please make it home reading!

On Halloween, I was so excited to see the kiddos all dressed up! They were so adorable. One of my favorite things about the day was how Grady didn’t break character for almost the entire day dressed as Captain Jack Sparrow, haha. Addie got best dressed for the ENTIRE SCHOOL! She was the best peacock I have ever seen.

We started Halloween day off with a bang. We had a fashion show and students had to come down the “runway” acting like their character. I then showed the class my special treat for the day, a fancy container of candy corn. I made a huge fuss over this candy corn and then we went on a walk around the school. When we got back THE CANDY CORN WAS GONE.  The “Candy Corn Bandit” left us a note and some clues. We did a lesson on predicting as we guessed what the Candy Corn Bandit would look like and where our candy might be. The students were so funny as we went around the school looking for clues-EVERYONE was suspicious to them. By the time we got back to the classroom, our candy corn was back but there was no sign of the bandit! We then made “Wanted” posters and they put them up around the school. 

We then of course had to eat some of the candy corn. We played a game called “Don’t Eat Pete” and these are some of my favorite pictures so far this year. Oh the joy!

Our Halloween party was a huge success thanks to the amazing snacks brought in! Thank you to the Bakers, Ackroyds, Bissetts, Boogemans, and Coppieters for supplying us with healthy snacks! I love it how the kids were so excited when I told them they could have as many veggies as they could eat!

On Friday, we started the day with Remembrance Day art and then finished off the day by making “Gak” with our reading buddies. It was like the grand finale to a fun-packed week! I have certainly slept well this weekend :)

Upcoming this week:

There will be no school on Friday because of a P.D. Day.

There will be no school the following Monday for Remembrance Day.

We will be talking a lot about Remembrance Day this week. If you have a story of an ancestor or someone in your family that has served or is serving in a war, can you please talk about it with your child and send a note about it to school. I will be reading picture books about Remembrance Day but I feel like it makes it so much more meaningful if students are hearing from one another.

There will be a Remembrance Day Assembly on Thursday. Parents are welcome to come. 

Here's a peek from our fashion show:

 The spook alley was a little terrifying.

 Don't Eat Pete!!