News and Information....

• Student of the Week has started this week.  When it is your child's turn to be student of the week, he/she will bring home a board to decorate on Monday (to be returned Wednesday).  Then, the class will interview your child, write letters to your child, and your child will be the line leader all week.  On Friday, your child will take Mick home with a journal to record the fun adventures.  Marlee is our first student of the week this week.  FYI, students are selected at random by pulling a stick from the name jar.

• Our Nature Museum field trip is tomorrow.  Please make sure your child is dressed appropriately for inside and outside activities and is wearing tennis shoes.  Please also pack their lunch in the container sent home today.  Regular water bottles are OK.   

• Technology:  Please continue to send your child to school with his/her device on Mondays for our blogging adventures.  If your family/child received a new device over the Winter Holidays, please make sure you fill-out a new acceptable use form.  

• Yearbook money and field trip money is due January 31st.  Yearbooks are $13.00 each. 

• As a reminder, it is the student's responsibility to pack and unpack their things each day (folder, reading folder, etc.).  Mrs. Kang and I continue to remind the class daily but it is their personal responsibility.  Please also make sure you or your child are writing in their reading log nightly.  This task becomes a child-centered task that is graded in 1st grade, so it is a good nightly habit to establish now so your child is prepared to the changes next year.

• I have received some questions about work being sent home.  I typically do not have a large amount of paper-pencil based assignments because I believe children learn through experiences and hands-on activities.  The work that is completed in the math journals you will see at the end of the year or during a conference (because they do not go home).  Other paper-pencil work is held out for the student's portfolios work or comes home so late because it has been displayed in the hallways.

• Lastly, I want to remind everyone of some of our class procedures during cold weather time.  The 9 degree weather is an anomaly or Charlotte, but it is not rare for the temperature to be in the twenties, etc.  Please make sure your child is dressed in layers and appropriate for the weather (even as it gets increasingly warmer through the spring).  We will continue going outside and playing at recess.  In order to join us outside, children must wear a jacket (or hoodie or cardigan) if the temperature is less than 40*.  They must be wearing long sleeves of any type for temperatures between 40*-50*.  I announce the temperature each day before going outside for recess.  If it is less than 40*, I ensure everyone has a jacket (or borrows one) or they are not allowed outside.  If your policy for your child is different, please make sure you discuss this with them at home.