Our Christmas Party is scheduled for, Thursday, December 17 from 9:30-
10:15. Due to restricted space in our room, we must limit attendance to
parents & immediate guardians only. Babysitting services for siblings will
be provided during our Christmas party. If you need more information on
babysitting services please contact the office.
Notes went home last week requesting items from each student for upcoming
events. Please turn in your items by Tuesday, December 15.
On Friday, December 18 the students will have a ½ day of school. After
School Care will not be provided so if your child typically goes to After
School Care on Fridays, please send me a note that day to let me know how
your child will get home.
On Friday, December 18, your child may wear his pajamas to school. We will
watch The Polar Express and drink hot chocolate.
Thank you Parker, Katelyn, and Rachel for our hot chocolate, popcorn, and
marshmallows. We will enjoy these treats while watching The Polar Express
on Friday. If anyone would like to send us bottled water or Styrofoam cups
for our hot chocolate, it would be much appreciated.
If your child is still struggling with sounding out words that consist of
the letters we have learned in class (a, s, i, p, t, m, n) please practice
this at home nightly. This is one of the skills that will determine how
fluent of a reader your child is now and will be in the future. You will
notice that the children now have decodable passages for homework. Every
word in each passage will consist of letters your child has practiced
blending in class. If your child is struggling with sounding out each word
and reading the passages to you, this is a good indicator that your child is
struggling with the letter sounds we have learned so far.
If your child is still struggling with counting object to 20 or recognizing
numerals from 1-20, please practice this at home nightly. I tested all
children last week and sent home papers letting you know what number your
child can count to and the numbers your child does not recognize. I would
like all children to be able to recognize all numerals through 20, count to
50 and count up to 20 objects by December so they will be ready for other
math concepts.
My email is andree.stephens@stpsb.org. This is the BEST way to contact me. I
check my email regularly and I will respond to you as fast as I can.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~notes from previous newsletters are below~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Make sure your child’s jacket is clearly labeled with his/her name. We have
many navy jackets and sweatshirts in our room and it is hard for me to know
it belongs to when there is no name written in it. I have been receiving
notes that students are misplacing jackets and lunchboxes. I can look in
the classroom for missing items but if they are not here, I do not have the
extra time to go to lost and found for students. You are free to come to
school to look for your child’s lost items in our lost and found in the
gym. Remember to sign-in in the office if you come to school to go to the
lost and found.
Please remember to write in the homework record form in your child’s
homework binder. I would especially like to see everyone write when they
complete homework that does not have a product (ex: the homework that
involves making groups of objects. These types of homework activities are
just as important if not more important than the activities that have a
product so I would like to know that they are being completed.)
If you know your child will be checking out of school early, please send me
a note to let me know. It is nearly impossible to find one student in a sea
of 200 to check out during recess. Also, I may be in the middle of an
activity and unable to make sure your child has everything he/she should
bring home if he/she is checked out without notice.
If I send home a request for cooking or activity supplies and you know you
will be unable to send it to school by the stated date, please let me know.
Last week I had to change 2 planned activities (one of which was making
s’mores) because I did not get all the supplies we needed to do them. I
like to do many fun extra activities in the classroom and often times need
your help to get the supplies. I try to be as fair as possible and rotate
who I ask supplies from so I do not ask the same parents constantly. If you
would like your name removed from the cooking & extra activity rotation
list, please let me know. Thank you to the parents that sent supplies to
school, I will request the missing items again and we will use your supplies
to do the planned activities next week.
Just a reminder for visitors: NO adults are allowed to enter the children’s
restrooms. This policy is for the children’s safety and is strictly
enforced. If you have family members that may visit our school for some
reason, please be sure to explain this policy to them.
Thanks to everyone who has been donating items from our class wish list!
Your contributions help us out more than you realize.
***When looking through homework, I noticed a number of students have all
words spelled correctly in their own handwriting. At this point in the
year, I should not see this many students that know how to spell every word
they write. When given homework that involves writing or spelling, please
do not spell words for your child. It is important for your child to be
able to use his/her knowledge of letter sounds when writing. Spelling
phonetically in Kindergarten, helps children to associate letters with the
sounds they make and helps them to be better spellers in later grades. At
this point in the year, some children may only recognize one letter sound in
a word or no letter sounds in the word. This is normal and you will see
progress throughout the year on this. It is pretty obvious in their work
when children have been told how to spell words instead of trying it for
themselves. If you wish, you may write what your child wrote AFTER he/she
finishes the assignment when homework involves writing or spelling.***
Please remember to keep ALL items from the homework binder IN the binder
when they are not in direct use. Along with the academic goals of the
binder, I am trying to teach the children responsibility for materials.
Thank you for helping with this routine.
********If you send me a note, please write your child’s name on it. I have
received several notes that have parent’s first names only and I don’t know
everyone’s first names. ************
If you missed open house, you can find some items I spoke about on the FAQ
page on our class webpage. I spoke about several topics and unfortunately I
am unable to send notes or set up conferences to go over all those items
again.
Please read the newsletter, notes home and our class website before sending
me a note asking questions. Many times I receive notes with questions I
have already answered through a note or the newsletter.
Please look over and familiarize yourself with your Lighthouse binder. A
note explaining the binder is inside your child’s binder.
Your child will receive a new newsletter each week, please take the old
newsletter out of his/her folder and replace it with the newsletter.
To clarify some questions/confusion:
1. Please send all homework back to school on FRIDAYS ONLY. If homework is
sent to me before Friday, I will send it back until Friday. I do not have
time to check homework on a daily basis. My system of checking on Fridays
only is the most efficient way for me to check homework.
2. If you send me a note, please write your child’s name on it. The
children unpack their own folders into one tray for me. When I receive a
note that does not have your child’s name on it, there is no way for me to
know who wrote the note to me.
3. If you need to contact me, you will receive the fastest response through
email or a note in your child’s folder. I have a very limited amount of
time away from the students during the school day and many times all the
phone lines in the office are taken during this short time. If you need to
contact me through phone, please be patient and I will get back to you as
soon as I have a chance. If it is urgent that you hear back from me
quickly, send a note in your childs folder or email me.
4. I sent home lunch numbers on Tuesday. These numbers are for your child
to practice recognizing their lunch tags and learn their lunch number. Your
child does not need to bring the tag back to school. They are for you to
keep at home to practice with your child. If you did not see this lunch
tag, send me a note and I will send your child home with a second copy.
Use goodsearch.com as your internet search engine to earn money for our
school. Goodsearch.com will donate money to MES for each time you use their
search engine and type in "Madisonville Elementary School" as your good
cause. If you use the links through goodshop on goodsearch.com, the
retailers listed will donate a percentage of your online purchase to our
school.
To get to our class website, bookmark this page, go to the MES homepage and
click on our class through the "teachers spot", or type in the url:
http://tinyurl.com/r453ne
