Hot Start to First Full Week

I hope that you enjoyed the weekend - even if it was extremely hot! Looks like our week will start out that way, but then it will hopefully cool off. I love hot summer days, but I'd be okay with the temperature dropping a little bit. Last week was the first week I have ever had students say they did not want to go out for recess because it was too hot! I'd like to think that maybe it was because we were just having too much fun in the classroom.....

I'm sure your child has told you about some of the activities we did the first two days of school. There are always those "expectations and behavior" activities you have to go through with the students, but I really think it is important to teach those in a way that involves the kids and mix it up with other team building activities. So, while we did have to go over some "beginning of the year" things, we did have some fun getting to know each other as well. I can tell that I am going to enjoy this bunch of 3B students!

Thank you to those parents who send snacks for us to "munch on" the first few weeks of school. The students and their tummies were grateful! It is a hard transition from summer to a full day of school so we do appreciate the extra snack in the afternoon. In connection to that, I thought I would comment about our lunch. 3rd grade students, in the past, have gone to lunch and noon recess with kindergarten through 2nd graders. This year, 3rd graders are eating lunch and having noon recess with 4th and 5th graders. Because of that, students in 3B do not eat lunch until 11:50/11:55. That is over a half hour later for the students than when they ate last year so it will take some getting used to. Just remember to encourage your child to eat breakfast in the morning as it will help he/she stay focused during the morning hours.

I hope you had a chance to enjoy the pictures from Open House and the first days of school on my previous blog. I showed it to the students and they were so excited to see themselves on the internet! I will continue to post more pictures and video throughout the year.

Highlights of the week to come involve getting into the Daily 5 for literacy, using digital cameras in math to explore numbers, exploring the inquiry process of science with a liquid layering activity, and building a deep understanding that we are ALL writers and authors. I am also going to try to introduce an online keyboarding activity for students to work on keyboarding skills so they can prepare to type on their own blog pages. As you can see, we will be busy as well as have fun along the way. More information will also be sent home soon to share information about the Daily 5 and our first math unit. Keep your eyes open for that coming home in your child's "Important Papers" folder. Remember that this folder goes back and forth between school and home each day.

Thanks for a great start to the year. Remember that if you have any questions or concerns, please email me or call me as we are a team.

Enjoy the week and stay cool.