Guest Teacher Tomorrow

Yes, I know it is only the 3rd day of school tomorrow and I will have a sub. But, I have no doubt these kids will be awesome. Please go over expectations with them tonight. Thank you. As I told them, "True Character Shines Through When Mrs. Hankins isn't watching"!!! They know where I am going so it is no big secret. GO BOBCATS!!!!! Yes, we are season ticket holders and their first game is tonight-don't watch to drive back in the dark late and hit another deer!!!! I hope you understand!!! You will learn throughout the year that I really don't like being gone and I rarely am unless it is for professional leave so I feel ok about being gone this time. We had another awesome day. We learned lots about our American Flag as a start to our citizenship unit. Ask them what another name for the flag is and who wrote the Star Spangled Banner. We started our Read-A-Loud book-"There's a Boy in the Girls' Bathroom. Ask them about Bradley, the main character. We also started our Top 10 Things About ____. These will be on display for you to see at Open House. Reminder: If you didn't get all the paperwork from yesterday sent back, please do so tomorrow. Bring Pictures for our Friends & Family bulletin board. Students enjoyed sharing and seeing the ones we got today. Remember: No School on Monday, September 2nd. Have a great 3 day weekend. Cya Tuesday.

FABULOUS 1ST DAY!!!!

Wow-what a wonderful 1st day we had. I am so excited for this year. I can just feel the energy & excitement for learning that these kids have. The great words that I heard echoing in our room today were: "This day is going so fast"-"can stay longer"? "I can't believe it is lunch time already"!! Who would have thought that one as that is usually what kids are asking after the first 10 minutes. Anyway it was superb Day 1 and I know we have many more to look forward to. We had library this morning right at 8:30 and boy did they get organized and ready for that. They have already checked out 2-3 books that they actually got some time to read today if they finished what we were doing early. After library, we unpacked and labeled everything. Have your child tell you what we did with colors to help us find what notebooks we need from our desk for the different subjects. Thank you Kiernan for this wonderful idea as Mrs. Hankins didn't work as well as I expected and I couldn't find 9 different colored sticker dots. We spent a good amount of time talking about expectations and our 2 classroom Guidelines for Success (rules). See if they can remember what they are. Hint: 2 R words. Then we discussed the fake money. Oh this was fun. They are excited for it, but were surprised at how I am relating it to the real world. Like one student asked: "Seriously, you are making us pay rent for our desk"? My response, "Of course, your parents have to make a house payment right"!! See the attached sheet of my newsletter for the details on this one. This afternoon we read one of my favorite picture books, The Kissing Hand and did the fun little activity that you should have hanging on your refrigerator and I look forward to the pics you will send to school to go along with that. Also, we made friendship salad this afternoon. Have your child what we did and what the fruit, yogurt, and marshmallows represented and how it relates to our TEAM!!! I know I said I was going to pose a question in the blog for your child to answer as part of the nightly discussion of what we did in school, but we didn't get our Assignment Notebooks yet as they are on order. So that question will start when we get them. PARENT/CHILD HOMEWORK TONIGHT: Yes, please take time to read through and discuss all the contracts/permission slips with your child. They get $50/sheet tomorrow if they are signed and returned tomorrow. WOW-that is $350!!! Well as you can see, we had a great day and I look forward to tomorrow. Have a great night.

Welcome!!

Welcome to our classroom and an exciting year of learning. This blog is going to be my main source of communication with you for knowing what is happening in our classroom on a daily basis. I will post each day by at least 4:30. It will consist of daily happenings, photos, Smilebox slideshows. As you read in my opening letter to you, open communication is the key to building relationships with one another and I want your child's learning experiences to be discussed on a daily basis so that is why each day I will post a question about something that we did or learned that day and in communicating with your child, you will be able to write the answer to the question in the daily planner and they will get fake money for that. There should be no more of "what did you do/learn in school today"? and get the "nothing" response because now you know what to discuss at the dinner table. As far a individual communication, that will be done via email, phone calls, etc. This blog is only for whole class happenings. I will never mention anything but first names when celebrating or listing your child's name on the blog. Please make sure you fill out and sign the permission slip which will allow me to post your child's photo/name on the blog as it is accessible to anyone. Please mark your calendars for the Open House night on September 10th from 6-7:30. It is then that I will discuss a lot about the money system & its' expectations along with academic expectations for the year. Remember to send a daily healthy snack with your child if you wish to. We will not have a separate snack break, but will have it after morning recess during spelling class. Also, have a simple water bottle to help keep hydrated. A well hydrated brain learns at a much stronger rate than a dehydrated brain. To the side of this post you will find weekly spelling lists, websites to go and explore, along with the specialists' schedule. Daily planners are a must and can be purchased for $5.00 Please bring in the money ASAP. PTA Movie Night: The PTA is sponsoring a movie night on Friday, August 30th at 6:00. The movie is Cars2. If you go, write movie in the planner on Tuesday and receive $300 of free money. I say Tuesday because remember there is No School on Monday, September 2nd. Cya on Wednesday.