September 8, 2010
Hello,
I’d like to welcome you and your child to the start of the new school year. We are going to have a busy and productive year, filled with exciting learning activities, social events, and so much more.
Throughout the year I will keep you informed of everything that’s going on - our classroom plans, your child’s progress, and all the activities that will make this a successful and memorable year. I will do my very best to send out a weekly parent letter each Friday also. Along with this letter I will send home work samples, unfinished work, and a spelling list and vocabulary list for the following week; so it will be important to be aware of this and look for it weekly. If you notice that you are not receiving these parent letters for one reason or another, please contact me as soon as possible so we can come up with a solution that ensures you receive these letters.
I want your child to enjoy coming to school each and every day. I want to make your child’s classroom environment a pleasant one, filled with rich experiences, challenging projects, tons of achievements, and lasting friendships.
In order to accomplish this task, I feel that it is particularly important to develop and maintain involvement with you. This strong relationship is important for a number of reasons. Some of the most important are:
*To motivate your child
*To build self-esteem in your child
*To reach common goals together
*To work through difficulties that may arise
*To see that your child is enjoying each and every aspect of school
*To see that your child learns and becomes responsible
If there were a time throughout the year that you may want to help out in our classroom, it would be wonderful. Help could be defined as reading with or to students, helping a small group or individual with an assignment, helping students to master mathematic facts, correcting papers, making copies, and just about anything else under the sun!! Please notify me if something like this would work for you. I realize that parents work every day and have millions of other obligations, yet if it does sound like we could work something out, please call me. It would be a lot of fun and very beneficial to all students.
I would like for you to help your child become a life-long reader. You will be able to become a partner in his/her education by watching and listening to your child read at home. I am sending home a calendar to be used as a reading log for your child. This will be in your child’s home folder. This calendar will be used as a connection between home and school. Please help your child engage in reading at home as often as they can, each night would be wonderful. This can be 10-20 minutes or however many you can find time for. During the school day, they may be asked to write or tell about what they are reading at home. Remember, reading is very important.
Please have your child record what they read and for how long they read each evening. At the end of the month, your child can return their calendar. They will receive a new one for the next month. I believe that with encouragement from school and home, we will be able to create and continue successful reading.
Self-esteem is an important part of a child’s positive development. To help enhance positive self-esteem in our classroom and just for fun too, we will have a Star Student of the week. We will have a special bulletin board set up in our room for this purpose. The Star Student may bring in pictures of themselves, family, friends, and pets. They will also be given an assignment to be completed. These will be added to their bulletin board. At the beginning of their Star Student term, they will be given the opportunity to share things with the class while also being available for questions from them as well. We all know that this is a time in their lives they love to share and talk about. We will try to make this a special week for your child. I have attached the Star Student Schedule to this letter. Being that we have 30 students, our schedule stretches into May.
We will have a Snack Time each day. This will be in the afternoon. If your child were to decide to bring a snack to school, please try to keep this a healthy choice. Thank you.
I have also attached a class schedule. This seems to help parents when scheduling appointments for their children. Like I explained to the 3rd Graders, this schedule is always subject to change.
We also have the privilege of having Ms. Ruth, our Spanish teacher, help out in our classroom three hours a week. Her degree is in Elementary Education so we will partner up and team-teach for those times.
Here is a list of the specialists your child will see during the week:
Monday: Library with Mr. Schilling
Tuesday: Phy Ed with Mr. Foster
Wednesday: Music with Ms. Lamb
Thursday: Art with Mrs. Weizenegger
Friday: Phy Ed with Mr. Foster
I hope you and your child have an excellent year. If you have any questions, concerns, or feel the need for a conference, please call me anytime! My door is always open!
Mrs. Tiili-Anderson
644-3716 (ext. 4123) school
644-3900 home
348-8305 cell
PS – Please look weekly letter to come home Friday.
PSS – We will have a Spelling Test on Friday. List is attached to this letter.