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October 1, 2008
Dear Parents,
We have had a truly wonderful first month of school. The children are working extremely hard,
establishing good routines and expectations for classroom work habits and behaviors.
It was so nice to see all of you on Back to School Night. It was great to have such wonderful
participation because we know that everyone is invested in our program.
We have had our math and reading groups established since the third week of school, which has
helped the children with their organization of folders and gathering materials necessary for
these groups. These routines are very important to build upon for the years to come when
students will switch classes and have several teachers.
If you choose to receive this “hard copy” of the class newsletter, and you find you misplace it,
never fear!! We are always available online… remember to visit our class homepage on the school
website. Class information, assignment reminders and photos are posted there for your viewing
pleasure!!
We are looking forward to seeing you at Parent Conferences coming up. We will be discussing
your child’s strengths and needs, as well as plans to address them. We will send a reminder
notice soon confirming your conference time and date.
We are excited to see that Homework routines and assignments are being mastered. We encourage
the students to complete tasks as independently as possible. However, if you could check over
your child’s work before they put it back in their folders, you might encourage them to “check
for correct punctuation”, or “add a transitional word” if needed.
We’re looking forward to our first ticket-trading soon. It is great to see how many tickets
have been earned in just one month of school. The students will trade their tickets this first
time for prizes from the Prize Box. Next time ticket trading will be for much-anticipated
auction items (no homework passes, teacher for a period etc). We will explain these in more
detail to the students as time draws near.
We hope things are going well at home with our first assigned Long Range Project. Each student
is researching a colony at home (as well as the Maryland colony in school) and he/she will
present his/her information at the end of the month. The outline is posted on our webpage for
reference if you need it. Please take the time to go over the assignment with your child, but
we encourage the students to complete it as independently as possible. Remember, if there are
any questions or problems with the assignment please feel free to contact us.
We are excited about another busy, but fun, month in class. If you have any questions or
concerns at any time, please feel free to email or send a note in to us. We will get back to you
as soon as we can. Our contact information is:
mhawkins@mcleanschool.org (ph. Ext. 732)
or
kbalian@mcleanschool.org (Phone ext. 704).
DATES TO REMEMBER
Oct. 8 - Noon Dismissal
Yom Kippur
Oct. 9 – NO SCHOOL
Yom Kippur
Oct. 13 – K-8 Pizza Lunch
- Book Fair begins
Oct. 16 – LS Parent Math Night
@6:30pm
Oct. 18 – Fall Festival 11 am
Oct. 21 – Star Student: Kieran
Oct. 23 - End of First Quarter
Oct. 24 - Colony Project due
Oct. 21 – Star Student: Joe
Oct. 31 – Halloween
Noon Dismissal K-8
Nov. 5 & 6 – No School K-8
Parent Conferences
Nov. 10 – Pizza Lunch
Nov. 17 – Picture Make Up day
Nov. 21 – Noon Dismissal K – 12
Nov 26-25 - Thanksgiving Break
Dec. 1 – NO SCHOOL
Professional Day
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