A glimpse into our days

A glimpse into our days at school...

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Every Friday I will update you, via this blog, as to what we have been learning that week.  This is my digital newsletter, rather than sending home paper copies that typically get mis-placed or lost. This way, you can access the information at any time and any place.  

The past two days were mostly spent getting to know one another and learning classroom and school routines and expectations.  Here are some of the big ones they learned to help with your conversations at home.

Bathroom: we are fortunate to have a bathroom in our classroom.  They can use the bathroom at any point during the day EXCEPT during carpet time.  Carpet time is when I am typically teaching a lesson.  I don't want them to miss the lesson while in the bathroom.  Of course I will make exceptions on a case by case basis.  If we aren't at the carpet, they don't even have to ask to go.  They can just get up and go!  We have talked about flushing the toilet after we potty and washing our hands with soap and water.  

Water Bottles:  the same rules above apply for drinks from their water bottles.  We will keep the water bottles on the bottom part of their cubbie.  They can get up and get a drink at any point in time, without asking permission, EXCEPT during carpet time.  If they forget to bring a water bottle, I have Dixie Cups by the sink they can use.  

Hallway & Secret Walker: when we walk in the hallway we want safe and quiet bodies so that we don't interrupt other students learning.  We are learning to walk in a straight line, in our line order spot, with "bubbles and tails" (this means voices off and hands behind their back).  We are also learning to keep our eyes forward when walking so we don't run into the person in front of us and we see when the line is moving.  This is a tricky one!  

Every morning I will put a name stick out of my class name jar.  Only I know whose name is on the stick.  All day long I'm watching that child in particular to see if they are quiet in the hall.  If they are successful I will share their name at the end of the day with the class and we will cheer for them and they earn a "Secret Walker" certificate to bring home!  If the name chosen has difficulty in the hallway, I don't announce their name (because that can be sad or embarrassing) but just say we didn't have a winner that day and we will try again tomorrow. 

We had our first winner today!  Way to go Heaven!  

Today we listened to The Kissing Hand story for a second time and worked on retelling the story from memory.  We also made a Chester the Raccoon puppet to bring home!  Ask your child to tell you the story this weekend while using their puppet!

Today we also listened to the story David Goes To School! by David Shannon.  We noticed that David had a difficult time making good choices at school.  We helped David learn about good choices and poor choices by sorting the following pictures together.  Ask your child to tell you about 3 good choices and 3 poor choices.  

Of course we can't end our day without playing during center time!  This is one of their favorite times of the day!

Monday Morning Meeting: every Monday we will meet as a whole school in the gym at arrival time, rather than in our classrooms.  Dr. Majerus and Mr. Woods lead us in a Monday Morning meeting with announcements for the week, celebrations, etc.  Please remind your child on Monday Mornings to go straight to the gym.  They don't go to the room to drop off backpacks or anything.  

This is also our spirit day!  We encourage all students to wear BEU gear every Monday.  Order forms are in today's Friday Folder!  You can fill those out and put on the "return to school" side of their folder.  It looks so neat when everyone is wearing their spirit wear!

Have a great weekend!