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Our Valentine's Day party is next Friday, February 12th, from 1:30 to 2:30.
The children may start bringing in their Valentine's on Wednesday of next
week. We'll be decorating Valentine's bags to collect our Valentines on
Monday.
Please remind your children to return their library books. We've had a lot
of kids forgetting to return library books and not checking out new books.
Unfortunately, we will lose our library privileges if we don't put our
library time to good use.
We are moving along with our IIM research project. We found a lot of
information from our first source, a children's encyclopedia. The topics we
are trying to find more informtion about are fox families, how foxes hunt,
their habitats, enemies, and a category we called "running and jumping." We
set goals for our research based on the questions the kids came up with in
their table groups.
Kids get very excited about doing research, but now with the internet there
are a lot of wrong ideas about what research is, and there is a lot of
incorrect information out there. Here are some guidelines that are helpful
to teach your kids about research.
1)It's always best to start with a print resource. I especially like to start
with an encyclopedia. Information in print is subject to more scrutiny than
internet resources. It is okay to use the internet as a supplement, but
anyone can put information on the internet and there tends to be a lot of
inconsistency and even misinformation.
2)All internet research must be done with adult supervision. When I googled
foxes looking for web sources, I found websites about the animal "fox"...and
websites about other "foxes" not appropriate for children. For Laurel
Mountain students I recommend using Renzulli as a search engine. Just log in
under your child's username and password. If students are using google, make
sure they add "for kids", or "first grade" in the search box. Ex, elephants,
for kids. That will bring up more kid-friendly information.
4)Please make sure that your child can read all or most of the information
independently. There is no point in having them struggle to read a webpage
that is written for adults.
5)Sometimes students come in wanting to add information to our research that
they learned from home. If they want to share information they learned at
home, they must bring in the source where they found the information.
It's very important to teach kids to back up their statements with evidence
from the text. This is hard for many first graders, but with repeated
practice they eventually get the idea. I look forward to watching them
become experts on foxes.
Homework Journals are due back this week. I will send home the January
calendar later this week or early next week.
Have a great week.
Attention all Dads!!! Calling All Top Dogs!!!
Who: All LME Dads and Students
When: September 24th
Time: 6:00-7:00 p.m.
What: Pizza and Watch D.O.G.S. Kickoff Event
Where: Laurel Mountain Cafeteria
Dads give mom a night off! Bring the children for free pizza and learn about
Watch D.O.G.S. LME is launching a Watch D.O.G.S. (Dads of Great Students)
volunteer program at our school this year. The Watch D.O.G.S. is a national
group designed to facilitate dads’ involvement in their children’s schools.
Coordinator Scott Clitheroe will be discussing the details of the program and
how to get involved. The pizza party is intended for LME dads and their LME
students. Please RSVP by Monday the 21st to sclitheroe@austin.rr.com
letting us know how many will be attending. See you there!
ILLNESS
Please remember to keep you child at home if they are sick. The district
policy is that they are fever free for 24 hours without fever reducing
medication, before returning to school. A fever is any temperature over
100.4. This policy can be found in the student handbook, on the district
website, and the Laurel Mountain website.
In addition, if your student is diagnosed with flu they must remain out for 7
days or until fever free for 24 hours, whichever is longer. Please call the
school nurse at 464-4305 if your student is diagnosed with the flu.
We want to do everything we can to keep our students healthy during the flu
season! Please call us if you have any questions.
BACKPACKS
We are lucky to have gotten cubbies in the hallway for the children's
backpacks, lunches, and coats. Because of limited space, we ask that no
children bring rolling backpacks. Any backpacks with wheels will have to be
replaced with regular backpacks.
SNACK
Our snack time is also a teaching and learning time. Please send a small,
healthy snack such as fruit, granola bars, or crackers with your child each
day. The only way to guarantee a snack for your child is to send it
yourself. I will not be distributing any snack since I will be teaching
during this time. If a good samaritan sends in a snack for the whole class,
I will respectfully return it unopened. : ) I cannot stress enough - each
child must bring his/her own snack.
DAILY TAKE-HOME FOLDERS
Each day your child will bring home a blue "Take Home" folder. The folder
contains information on behavioral expectations for the first grade as well
as a behavior calendar. In the weeks to come it may also contain important
notes from me and books to be read aloud at home. Please initial the
behavior chart and send it back to school with your child each day.
WEEKLY FOLDERS
Every Monday your child will also bring home a red "Monday Folder". Be sure
to check it for important school information. The folder needs to be signed
and returned on Tuesday.
More information about classroom routines, procedures and expectations will
be discussed at our parent night on Thursday, August 28 from 6 - 8. If you
have any questions, please contact me at 464-4353 or e-mail me at
chaiti_sen@roundrockisd.org. I look forward to a wonderful year with your
child.
HOW TO ORDER SCHOLASTIC BOOKS ON-LINE
1) Go to www.scholastic.com/parentordering
2) Enter the class username and the password
username: senskylarks
password: room212
3) Click on the catalogs to browse.
4) Place your order.
Whether you order on-line or manually, you will find some great books and
help the class earn bonus points towards books for our classroom library.
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