Dear Parents, Knowing Jesus, Growing in Faith, Serving God’s Children

Fall is officially here! On a trip to Mitchell this weekend we noticed how the leaves are beginning to change already. In a month we will work on a special fall project needing leaves. Over the next week or two would you please look for small leaves and flowers to press? They should be small ones, 2 ½ inches across or less, that can be placed in a phone book to dry. Small, flat flowers such as pansies work well too. Leave them in the phone book to dry for at least two or three weeks with a heavy weight on top. I’ll let you know when to bring them back. We’ll be using them for a fall project for our families and for our church friends! We’ll have fun with autumn projects and experiments this week, as well as finishing our senses unit and our books about ourselves. These will be coming home on Friday.

The children are now working well in centers, so I will begin working with small groups on guided reading lessons. Each center has them working with books, letters and sounds, math concepts, and writing experiences. While they are working in small groups I can call up 3 or 4 children and work with them on literacy, pre-reading, and reading skills. Each child will soon have a book baggie in their backpack. It won’t have something new in every night, but check. I’ll have a sheet of suggestions for working with your child in the baggie. Always put it right back in the backpack every time you use it, as I could be changing what goes inside it at any time. Eventually there will be little paperback books coming home regularly for your child to read to you. They especially must always come right back, as someone else will be using it, or it will go in their school reading box. Don’t worry if your child doesn’t have books for awhile. They need to know most of their letters and sounds, so some will be ready this fall and some will be ready later.

Our Bible lessons are about Moses this week, but the main focus is on Moses leading them out of Egypt into the desert. The emphasis is on God’s continued care for the people, even when they grumbled and complained. He provides for us, too, and always keeps us in his care. In health we’ll talk about our feelings, which relates to this very well! Our memory verse is Matthew 18:20 – For where two or three are gathered together in my Name, there I am in the midst of them.


This week we work with the letter “Cc.” We will always keep working on all letters and sounds, but emphasize one to really make sure they are writing it correctly, know the different sounds it can make, etc. For instance, we learn that c can make two sounds – the hard sound, like in “cat,” and the soft sound, like in “city.” The hardest part for some is writing the lower case letters. For others it is hearing the sounds and not just guessing.

Don’t forget tonight to help pack that backpack for tomorrow! Put in the empty folder, library books, and something beginning with “c”, as well as the Math Binder. Show and Tell has been fun. They are doing well as they learn to tell two or three things about their item. They are also learning to ask thoughtful questions about each other’s item.

Keep counting things at home. We are working on writing and recognizing 7 now. Give them lots of opportunities to write letters and numbers at home. We are playing a Dice Game.
(Turn over)
They roll a dice and write the number at the bottom of a sheet of squares labeled one to six. Then they see which number gets to the top first! It’s fun; they count often and write the numerals over and over. We talk constantly about how they know it is a certain number. They are learning to internalize a set of 3, 4, 5, etc. They learn that 5 is “one dot in the middle more than 4,” etc. I’ll put a sheet and dice for this game in their Math Binder this week so they can play it at home for you!

There is a blood drive this Tuesday afternoon. They’d love to add new donors! Girl Scouts is also beginning after school on Tuesday. I believe they may be starting a new group for kindergarten/first grade. I’ll get information if you’re interested!

At this time every year we begin practicing for fire drills, disaster drills, and lock downs. Disaster drills are in case of tornadoes, etc. Lock downs are helping us be prepared for any type of issues involving people. The school district has procedures we follow, too. We have a liaison officer who will come this Friday and explain how this is for our safety. Our room goes in our bathroom for both disaster and lockdown drills. We work to make this not scary, but let me know if you have a worrier. I explain that we just need to be prepared, but that God is always with us!

Last week they learned to play bells and had so much fun I’d like to find a Sunday in October that they could play for the 10:45AM service. I’ll have more on this next week after I talk with Mrs. Graumann. We wouldn’t need everyone, so if you have a different church home we wouldn’t expect you to come, but they just love the bells and can really add to our worship!

God’s blessings on your week,

P.S. – I put your email addresses in this week, so I’ll begin emailing the letter on the weekend to you! Let me know if you don’t want it, or if it doesn’t work!

Roxi Withee