Building Classroom Community

September 9, 2016

Dear Parents and Guardians,

We have been working on getting know each other and build classroom community this week. The students are getting the hang of classroom routines and expectations. They have shown that they are perceptive, creative, and flexible! They demonstrated that they can work well together with games and group building challenges (ask your child about zipper tag, our llama, and the cup stacking activity). They have also shown their responsibility with classroom jobs and homework. If your child still has not brought in a personal picture, please send one in.

Over the course of this week, students thought about their hopes, dreams, and goals for the year. Today we brainstormed what rules our classroom will need in order for everyone to achieve their aspirations. For the next few weeks, we will reinforce the rules with practice and discussions.

Reading

This week we talked about choosing “just right” books: books that are neither too easy nor too hard. A good way to check this is that there shouldn’t be more than 5 words that a child does not know on a page. Thank you for making sure that your child is reading at home. It seems like most students are finding books that they like and are using their book logs independently. The expectation is that they will be reading at least 20 minutes per night.

Science

In science, we started exploring plants, seeds, and seed dispersal. Find out the different ways that seeds move or disperse from you child. Today students started to construct models of seeds to experiment with how they move through the air. We will continue to explore different aspects of plants over the next few weeks. Look carefully at plants with your child next time you are outside together.

Next Week

Next week we will be jumping into our reading, writing, and math curricula. In addition to reading homework, they will have brief math homework, practicing addition and subtraction.

Book Order

You will find book orders in folders. These are due back by Friday, September 23. If you want to order online, our code is QC3WM

Website

I have put together a class website with my weekly letters, weekly homework assignments, and other news from our classroom. You can find it on the Easthampton Public Schools Site under “For Parents” or “For Students.” Here is the address: http://jharwood80.wixsite.com/mysite.

If there is other information you would like me to post or other feedback, please let me know.

Thanks!

Take care,

Jessica Harwood

#games #homework #groupbuilding #seeds #plants #science #bookorder