Field Trip Time Change and Report Cards

I apologize for the change, but I was just told that we will need to leave school AT 7:45, so I would plan on being here by at least 7:30 😧 on Tuesday (12/4).

Also, I sent home report cards today; there was some confusion with formatting, so you will notice that there are no grades for specials. However, I didn't want to keep holding back the report cards from you any longer, so you will receive a separate report card with the specials grades when we get them.

Field Trips Next Week

Next Tuesday (12/4) our class will join the lower school for a trip to Marbles Children's Museum in Durham. We plan on leaving promptly at 8:00, so we encourage you to have your child at school by 7:45. The only thing kids will need to bring is a bagged lunch, even if you ordered lunch for them that day.  If you would like to join us please let me know!

Library books are due tomorrow, so if you haven't renewed or returned them, today is the day to do so. If you renew, we will return the books when we go back to the library on Thursday (12/6).

Our class Christmas party will be on Friday, December 14th. We will start with an unveiling of our class book "Christmas Is" at 1:00. This is also the time you can receive the copies of the class book that you ordered.

In the know- November

It's hard to believe Thanksgiving is the week after next! We have a ton of work to get done this month, and not much time to do it; however, everyone has already made significant headway this year. This is such a wonderful class, we have been able to get a lot accomplished and we want to keep that momentum going! Our themes this month are: Native Americans, Pilgrims and barn & forest animals. This month we will be looking at the story of Thanksgiving to tell the things that the same and different between two texts on the same topic. We will also work on both recognizing and using adjectives in our own writing. In math we are using a number line and a hundred chard to explain how to find 10 more or 10 less than a 2 digit number. We will also use strategies to add a 2-digit number to a 1-digit number within 10.

Important Dates: 
11/8- library trip
11/12- school closed
11/20- 11:00 dismissal
11/21-11/23- Thanksgiving break
12/4- Primary and Lower School trip to Marbles Children's Museum (volunteers needed!)
12/6- library trip
12/19- 11:00 dismissal and beginning of Christmas break

A huge thank you goes out to Donna Cumby for planning and executing our Halloween party and Tammy Banas for helping! I know the kids had a ball!

Halloween Party!

We have a lot going on over the next few weeks! This Thursday is a half day, and we will start dismissing at 11:00. Friday there is no school because many of us will be presenting at this year's NCAIS conference at Greensboro Day School. I'm trying to figure out how to share my presentation with you, but PowerPoint and Google Blogger do not play well together! However, if I find a way to do this I will share it with you soon. Halloween is next week, and we are encouraging students to come to school in their costumes (no masks or weapons please). That morning we will go to the library for their harvest celebration, and we will have our class party from 1:30-2:20. We are looking for volunteers to help with this, so if you are interested please email me. A huge thank you to Donna Cumby for planning this fun event for us! Also, library books are due on Thursday, so I would renew them so that there won't be any fines when we return them next week!

Reminders:

• Thursday dismissal is at 11:00
• No school Friday
• Renew library books before Thursday
• email Jon about helping with the Halloween party

Library and Children's Museum Trip

be sure to check your child's backpack this evening because we sent home lots of things today!

1. We are working on our class book "Christmas Is" this week. If you would like to purchase a copy please return completed form ASAP. If you don't want a book please check the appropriate box on the form and return it. 
2. We will take our monthly trip to the library on Thursday. Please make sure your library accounts are current so that your child can check out some books. We will also return our books Thursday when we go. I have gotten back all the books except 2, I will contact you separately if we need those books back from you. 
3. Our class has been invited to join the 3rd and 4th graders on a math field trip to the Children's Museum in GSO. I'm sorry for the late notice about this! We will be off campus from roughly 9:30-12:30. Please send a lunch with your child on Friday because we will not be back on campus in time for school lunch. If you ordered lunch for Friday it will be held for you. 

Library Book Reminder

Please remember to renew your child's library books online at www.highpointpubliclibrary.com or by phone (336) 883-9317. Books are due 9/27, but we will not return to the library until 10/4. I already renewed the books for Dane, Arianna & AJ that were on my card. Also, please be sure you renew your library card if you have not done so already so that we can check out new books next week.

Thanks!

Field Trip Tomorrow

This has been a pretty hectic week, but I'm glad that all of our families are safe and weathered the storm! I called the orchard today, and we are still on for our field trip tomorrow. The following are a few reminders:

• We will eat lunch at the farm, so please send a packed lunch.  If you ordered lunch already, students can pick them up after school. 
• Please encourage your child to wear their field trip shirt tomorrow. 
• Please send in booster/car seats if your child requires them. 
• Small electronics are allowed on the van as long as they have headphones or earbuds. 
• We will leave campus shortly after 8:00; if you are planning on going with us you are welcome to follow the van or meet us at the farm ( 506 Parks Crossroads Church Rd. Ramseur, NC). If you prefer to meet us at the farm with your child please let me know so that we won't wait for you in the morning. 
• We are scheduled to arrive at Millstone Creek Orchards at 9:30, and we will return to campus in time for afternoon classes.

Christmas Book

Every year the primary class participates in writing a book which is published through Student Treasures Publishing. This year our theme is "Christmas is..." Our books will be back before we leave for Christmas break, and they make a great gift for family members. However, we understand and respect that our class is comprised of students of various faiths. Please send me a message separately if you are uncomfortable with your child participating in a Christian themed class book.

For more about the process and Student Treasures Publishing, check out the video below.

We enjoyed our library visit today! We started with an apple craft, read some books about apples and we had a tour of the children's room. Some of the library card applications came back because either there was already a card issued for you, some of the information was missing on the form, or the card needed to be renewed. I put those applications in the kids' backpacks with a note on them. Please be sure to update these ASAP.  I allowed those students to check out books with my personal card; however, please return the books to me by the 24th so I can renew them 😊.  These are some pictures from our visit today:

Thank you to those of you who have already selected a time to meet through Sign-Up Genius. If you did not receive the link via email please let me know. I look forward to meeting with all of you soon!

By popular demand, we will start "Show and Tell" next week.  Each Friday students are encouraged to bring something from home to share with the class. We will alternate weeks with a book or a toy. I will make a note on the homework sheet as to which week it is.

September in the Know

We are off to a great start this school year, and it's hard to believe we are already in our 4th week of school! We have a lot of fun and exciting things planned for the month of September. A few of our objectives for this month are:

• asking and answering questions about text
• describing characters, settings and events in a story
• understanding common, proper and possessive nouns
• using strategies to make addition and subtraction easier
• comparing two 2-digit numbers

This Thursday (9/6) we will be off campus from 9:00-11:00 for our trip to the High Point library. We will take the school van, so if your child requites a booster seat, please send it with them on Thursday. 

I have heard from a few of you about some struggles you are having with homework. Please keep it simple. The most important thing you can do is read with your child for 20 minutes every day. This is one of the few things I am adamant about because the research is very clear on the benefits of reading and being read to in the primary grades. Once a child reaches 3rd grade his brain slows its development and reading habits become set. Please don't miss this opportunity in your child's development. For further reading on the topic click here. 

Also, please let me know if you are woking on flashcards instead of Xtramath at home; I see that some students have not logged in yet. I apologize for bing a stickler about this, but it is amazing to see the progress of the students who do this regularly! The following video is a tutorial for logging in at home.  If you are having trouble with this please let me know and I will help you. 

Apple Farm Field Trip!

One of our major themes for September is apples. We will learn about apple varieties, tree grafting, pollination and pollinators, sustainable living & we will explore the life and times of John Chapman (Johnny Appleseed). We are planning on going to Millstone Creek Orchards on September 19th. While there we will have some fun hands-on activities and games! We will have lunch at the farm, but we'll return to school for science lab, specials and PE.  Permission forms will go home today in your child's homework folder.

Homework!

This week we start our regular homework routine! I recommend keeping homework simple. There is a sheet in your child's homework folder; please keep it until next Monday. Essentially the homework sheet is just a reading log and an accountability piece for Xtramath. Please encourage your child to read for 20 minutes nightly- including weekends. Xtramath should be done daily as well. If you have any questions please let me know!

First Day of School!

We are having a great first day! It has been fantastic meeting so many new faces and seeing familiar ones too! I am very excited for a great new school year.

Homework this week will be pretty simple; your child will come home with a paper bag, please encourage them to fill it with things that they would like to share with the class. I don't recommend sending in anything that is easily broken, and if there is something that doesn't fit in the bag they are welcome to draw a picture of it and bring it in. I will start my BOY assessments tomorrow, and I will have two assistants in the room through Friday. I will also send out a Sign-Up Genius soon to set up times to meet with each of you. I look forward to working with you and your child this year!

Welcome to the 2018-2019 School Year!

I look forward to seeing everyone this Monday at 2:00 for our open house and orientation! 

Last Day of School!

We made it!  It's so hard for me to believe that it is already the end of the year! Thank you to all of you who helped make this another successful year in primary at TPS.  Tomorrow is the school's award ceremony at St. Mary's Episcopal Church; I look forward to seeing everyone there. I recommend arriving early. Students will enter the room together and sit together as a class. Once the ceremony is over, summer vacation begins! I hope that everyone has a very fun and safe summer holiday. Best of luck to those who are moving on, and I look forward to seeing those continuing with us in August! 

For those who are unable to join us tomorrow, the following video is the one I made

that will be shown during the ceremony- I hope you enjoy watching our 

trip through the academic year! 

In the Know - May

We have 4 weeks left of school, and there is lots of work to be done up to the last day!  We look forward to meeting with all of you during the next few weeks. We have put together binders for each student with academic data from the year as well as activities and recommendations for students to keep their skills sharp over the summer months.  We will discuss the end of year data, update IIPs, and make recommendations for next year during these conferences.

Our class will have its end of year celebration on May 15th at the Mad Platter Pottery Studio in High Point. Thank you so much to Vivian Goff for planning this special event!  Our last trip to the library will be on the 17th, Student Council Fun Day is on the 23rd, and Water Day is on the 24th. Of course the last day of school and our kindergarten graduation/primary awards ceremony will be at St. Mary's Episcopal Church on the 25th.

 Homework will continue through the week of May 14th, but I strongly encourage everyone to continue reading each night for at least 20 minutes and review sight words daily. 

Library trip tomorrow

Our April trip to the library is tomorrow (4/19). Please remember to bring back any library books and car/booster seats for the ride to and from the library.

Thank you!

Homework

There are only 33 days left of school! We will be vey busy between now and the end of the year with our academics, and we are all rested and ready for a strong finish.  I only heard from one parent about homework; they were in favor of continuing, so our weekly homework packets with sight words and the reading log will continue until the end of the year. 

We have a trip planned to the butterfly farm on Wednesday. We will leave school before lunch, and we'll have a picnic lunch at the farm, so please send a lunch with your child on Wednesday. Also, please send in booster/ carseats if your child needs them. The only other trip this month is the monthly field trip to the library which is scheduled for Thursday the 19th. 

Primary Silent Auction Items

Our class has been working on some items for the silent auction which will take place the night of the play (Thursday). Included this year is a class quilt and bag featuring the kid's handprints. Be sure to check out the offerings while you are waiting for the play to start.

Please remember dismissal is different this week, and we look forward to seeing you for our Easter egg hunt this Thursday at 1:30!

Easter Egg Hunt

We have a lot to look forward to in the coming week with the school-wide play, auction and class egg-hunt! The following is a list of what to expect: 

• *Monday (3/26) we will have a whole-school rehearsal @ St. Mary's Episcopal Church. Car riders will dismiss from the church (108 W. Farriss Ave., HP). If your child is in after school and/or cooking club we will bring them back to campus and they can be picked up on campus at the regular time. 
• *Tuesday (3/27) -Same as Monday with whole-school rehearsal and pick-up at the church. This is the make-up day for cooking club: these students will be brought back to school. 
• *Wednesday (3/28) Same as Monday and Tuesday. No cooking club this day- please pick up your child at St. Mary's unless they are in after school only. 
• Thursday (3/29) -No play practice this day - dismissal at TPS for all students. 
• 1:30-2:20 We will have our class Easter egg hunt during this time; please join us on campus for this fun event! A big thank-you to Robin Wolfington (Cooper's mom) for organizing this for us! 
• 5:30 Please arrive at St. Mary's with your child dressed and ready to perform! 
• 5:15-5:30- silent auction
• 6:00- play starts 

*Monday-Wednesday I will be driving the van to the church, so please send in car/booster seats those days if your child requires them. 

We will continue with our homework experiment next week. I haven't heard from anyone about whether they prefer having weekly words and a reading log, so unless I hear otherwise I will continue with the old homework routine when we return from Easter vacation. 

2 trips this week

Tomorrow we will take our monthly trip to the library. Please send car/booster seats if necessary. Also, because of some positive feedback, we will be taking the class to the Compassion Experience on Friday. We will leave campus after lunch and we will return before dismissal. Please send car/booster seats on Friday as well as Thursday, or you are welcome to leave them at school overnight Thursday.

March Homework

Due to the snow day and delay this week, the North Carolina Reading Association's annual conference next week, and play practice the following week, we will not take class time to work on sight words. Therefore your child will not have their usual assigned sight or spelling words for the remainder of March. However, please continue to work on their "old" words at home. I'm also curious about reading logs and whether you feel they are helpful or hindering your child at home. Ideally, reading logs keep kids accountable, but I understand that they may be creating a dread of reading which is completely counterproductive. Let's forgo the log and just read with your kids, or have them read to you- hopefully for at least 20 minutes daily. We will re-assess moving forward with the logs in April, but I would love to hear your feedback.

As part of addressing the whole child we do our best to "teach" empathy & compassion and expose children to a variety of view points. This weekend at West Market St. United Methodist Church (GSO) The Compassion Experience will simulate the life of a child in different country. This is not something we will do as a class/school, but I wanted to share with you if you were interested as a family. Click here for details.

Flat Stanley and trip tomorrow

It's been a lot of fun to see all of the neat places that Stanley was able to visit! In just our class we were able to see him travel all over the world! The Flat Stanley project was a school-wide initiative, and we appreciate your participation. The upper grades will make trip-tic boards to present what they learned from this project; these will be on display in the hallway March 16th from 7-8. However, our class' work is permanently on display in the main hallway on the bulletin board. Be sure to check out all of Stanley's fun travels the next time you are on campus! 

Speaking of travels, we will be traveling to the Apple Store at the Friendly Center tomorrow. We have been chosen to participate in the creation of a robot at the store! We will leave promptly at 8:00 tomorrow morning; if you are running late you may want to meet us at the Apple Store. Also, if your child requires a booster/carseat please send it with them tomorrow morning. We will return by 10:00 and will resume instruction at school. 

February Trips

We have a lot of things planned this month, so I wanted to make sure that everyone is "in the know" with our upcoming events and trips.

• 2/8 (Tomorrow) Class trip to the High Point library (please send in booster seats).
• 2/9- Our class will not participate in the whole-school rehearsal; we will have class as usual.
• 2/14- Class Valentine's exchange- Please prepare Valentine's for our class only (10); we will have class as usual before lunch. After lunch we will prepare placemats, have an etiquette lesson and decorate cookies. 
• 2/19- School closed in observance of President's Day. 
• 2/21- Class trip to the Apple Store for a robotics lesson (please send in booster seats). 

Please send in your Flat Stanley projects ASAP if you have not done so already. Our class' projects will be going up on the bulletin board in the main hallway! 

February- In the Know

Our themes this month are weather, climate and dental health. During this month we will study animals that hibernate and/or prepare for winter. Our focus in ELA is decoding multisyllabic words (group B) and segmenting and manipulating CVC words (group A). During this month we will also start our look at the North Carolina Children's Book Award nominees (see below), and our class will vote on its favorite. Students will be busy in STEM this month exploring the components of electricity and translating that knowledge to the world of robotics. 

Of course, February also means Valentine's Day! Please note that primary does not follow the same Valentine procedures as the lower/upper school. Our class will have our own celebration that day, and we will pass out Valentine's to our class only.  Any other candy given by students outside primary to primary will be collected and used communally. We will send out more information about our class' Valentine's party soon. We encourage students to write the names of the students they are giving Valentine's to on their Valentines as an opportunity to practice penmanship, spelling and learning friends' names. Please note this is different than the rest of lower school.  

The following is our class list:
Dane
Max
Simon
Lucas
Aiden
Peyton
Sam
Sammy
Cooper 
Ethan

Happy 100th Day of School!

The 100th day is a big milestone in the Primary school year! Our class has been looking forward to this day since the first day of school when we started counting our pennies. Each day we add a new penny to our chart until we have 100 pennies. Today we looked at several ways to make 100, we wrote about what we would buy with $100, and what we would look like if we were 100 years old!

Because we broke from our usual routine today, there is no homework packet for tonight. However, we will resume with our usual structure tomorrow.

100th Day of School- Monday

On Monday we will celebrate the 100th day of school with curriculum-based activities and a trip to the Dollar Store (each day of school we have been adding pennies to a chart- with our 100 pennies we will go shopping). If your child requires a booster or carseat please leave it with them Monday morning.

January- In the Know

I hope that everyone had a fun and restful holiday, and that your child is ready to return to school relaxed and ready to learn! Our theme for January is “house and home.” We will explore how landscape and climate have an effect on the kinds of structures used for shelter. Fundations group A is working on building phonemic awareness by blending, segmenting and manipulating sounds in CVC words. Group B will be introduced to “glued” sounds ang, ing, ong, ung, ank, ink, onk & unk. Both groups are working on reading with accuracy and prosody. The concepts of force and motion will be introduced in STEM, and students will discover the components of a simple machine through hands-on activities. The 100^th day of school is later this month; we will celebrate by collecting our 100 pennies and going to the Dollar Store!

We will also complete middle of year assessments for both ELA and mathematics this month, so homework will be a little lighter this week and next. 

We partnered with the high school before the break. Each of our students was partnered with a high school student who read to them. We plan on doing this more often- next time our students will read the class book to the high schoolers. The following are a few snapshots: