November 1st, 2010
Dear Parents,
Thank you to those who came and made Trunk or Treat a success! We are beginning our second quarter today! Your conference time should be in your oldest child’s folder. If the time doesn’t work please let me know and we’ll pick a time that will! Remember next week is a short week with conferences. This Tuesday don’t forget to vote! We’ll be voting at school, too. Wear red, white and blue!
This morning we began using the new morning routine for dropping off children at the newly opened turn around. Pull up and let your child off, then circle around through the back of the lot and out. If you’re parking and walking in with your child be sure to help them cross there. Thank you! The afternoon is the same as before.
Thank you for the wonderful response for playing bells Sunday, November 14th, at 4PM for our new pastor’s installation. We will meet in our classrooms about 3:45 then walk them down as a group. After they play we will walk them back out into the narthex and you can collect them, since it will be hard finding everyone. They are excited! It is a fun way to praise God!
We had fun learning about Martin Luther! Now we will learn about Ruth, from the book of Ruth. It is the story of God’s love for all people, how that love blesses us, and how He can use us to bless the lives of others. Our Bible verse is Ephesians 4:32 “Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.” This month our offering goes for the Meals on Wheels program.
We add “Ii” to our letters and sounds learned. Since “I” is a vowel we’ll learn both sounds it usually makes. We’ll spend much more time on vowel sounds in the spring, but it helps to learn them as we go, so they can begin to stretch out words. We’ll try to spell words such as “big, dad, hid, etc. now that we know three vowels and some consonants. Encourage all kinds of writing experiences at home, including lists, thank yous, labeling things, etc. In our writing center the children are having fun making several types of lists. Even if they can’t read their list later, its still a great way to practice writing lowercase letters in a meaningful way. This is also a great time to begin writing one little sentence as nightly homework. I’ll put a sheet in their homework bag with suggestions as to how to do this. It only needs to take a few minutes but garners great rewards! Look for that paper this week instead of little books. We’ll get back to those next week. I’m still doing small group assessments for report cards! Don’t forget an “I” item tomorrow if you can think of one!
Our leaf project turned out great! There were even enough to do one not only for our Zion Buddies but one for ourselves. We like to send our buddies something once a month. These are people from our church or community that are home bound and love hearing about them and the school. The beautiful colors and shapes of the leaves really made it a nice bookmark to give to them. You can also put a magnet on it for your fridge!
We will have more fun with counting sets and comparing them. We also compare items in the room to see which is longer, shorter, etc. We’ll compare the length of our names this week. In the reading bag is a short homework activity using the names in your family! Send it back in the bag as soon as you are done. Math binders can stay home this week. There are two new games, the one with the farm, and What’s Next, that they need to play often. Try to get these played. It makes such a difference.
This week we begin working on our songs, etc. for our Christmas service, “Angel, Angel.” Our Preschool/Kindergarten service will be Sunday, December 5th at 4PM. We’ll be playing bells for this, too. We look forward to sharing Jesus’ birth with you!
Grandparents Day is Wed., November 24th, from 8:30 to 11:15AM, when school ends for the Thanksgiving holiday. More on this next week!
Enclosed are book orders for November and December. I have attached a sticker with our class code on it if you want to order online. Just create your own parent account using this code and pay by credit card. We get free class books for online orders. I decided to both now as there are great gift selections in them and next month gets so busy. Please send them back by next Wednesday, November 10th so I can get them ordered right away. That way if you ordered any Thanksgiving books they’ll be here by then. Thank you!
Don’t forget this Sunday is the PTL Skating from 1:30 to 3:30PM. Come join in the fun! I will be there at some point. God’s blessings, Natalie Graumann