September 5, 2025

What a great 2nd week of school! The class has been enjoying some funny read-a-louds, sharing at Morning Meeting, and interacting through games and conversations. The overall theme continues to be getting to know our routines, our expectations, and how we function as a community of learners. 

The kids have been working diligently on posters that go into quite a bit of detail about themselves. These posters allow me to work on following multi-step directions and pushing the students to do their best with their work. It's great to see the students taking time to look at their own work but also that of their classmates. These posters will be displayed in the hallway right outside our classroom door.

Today we added each kid's name to our word wall. The word wall has 100 of the most common spelled sight words and adding student names will help when they are writing stories that involve their friends. It also helps achieve the goal of kids getting to know each kids name. This week the kids finished a "stained glass"  project. This project allowed me to teach the kids about detail, using different art tools and following multi step directions. You can see these on the bulletin board outside our classroom door or check out the picture.

Yesterday we talked about why they come to school. The kids identified reason like "to learn," "to see our friends," and other reasons along the same lines. The one that made me laugh was when a child said, "to get us out of the house." Today we used that conversation to identify students strengths in school and each child told us about something that they did well last year. I then turned the focus to asking them to think of something they wanted to get better at or learn to do in our classroom this year. I wanted them to think of a goal that each of them would want to accomplish. These goals will be known as their Hopes and Dreams as we start the academic year. We will revisit these goals periodically and students will create new ones as needed. Next week, the students will use these goals to create classroom rules that they feel are needed to allow them to focus and accomplish their Hopes and Dreams.

You may hear  child talk about "shopping for books" and the term read to self. This week I introduced the students to the concepts of finding good fit books for times when they need to read books to themselves. There are three ways that kids can read books:

• Read the Words: This is where kids who are already reading can go page by page and read the words in the stories they have chosen.
• Read the Pictures: This is where the kids can use the pictures and "read them" to gain an understanding of what is going on in the story.
• Retell from Memory: This is where kids can look at the pages and tell you the story from hearing it so many times.

The kids use the grocery bags that you sent in to collect 7 books each week for this activity. Thank you for those who were able to send in a bag. I had a few extra so everyone is now set.

NOTES:
*Parent volunteers will start in October. If you would like to volunteer this year, please use this link to sign up for a slot. You don't have to sign up if you wish to visit the classroom. That can happen anytime (after October). This is more for people who can commit to a weekly or bi-weekly time slot. If you sign up for the math time, that is for 1st grade math. Any 1st or 2nd grade parent can sign up but it will be for my 1st grade math class. To sign up, just type your name into the spot you wish to do (you can do as many as you want).

*I will do three book orders this year. A September one, a December one, and one in May. The September order forms and information will be sent home on Monday. The deadline for orders will be September 20th. All orders will be done online. If that doesn't work for you, please let me know and I will work something else out. I use Scholastic because it allows students to access interesting books at a fairly cheap price and it also allows me to use reward points to get free books for the classroom.

Here’s how it works: I’ll send home flyers like these throughout the year. If you decide to place an order, you can do that through our class ordering page. Your books will arrive at school about 10 days after I submit our classroom order.

Order due date: 09/19/25
Shop our class page: https://orders.scholastic.com/K3277
Class code: K3277

*Homework bags will start coming home next week. These are a gallon Ziploc bag that will have your child's name on it. I explained these in my introduction letter too. Any forms, notes, or information that you need to see, will be in this bag. Please look for it each night, take care of the items and then send the bag back. Eventually kids will be able to take home a book (each night) from our classroom library. The books must stay in this bag when it is not being read. Please take the time to work with your child on this routine and how to take care of the books they bring home. Books will start coming home at the start of next week. These books are ones that the kid should like read to them and/or can read themselves. It is optional each night. 

HOWEVER, I need the books to be returned (in the plastic Ziploc bag) each day.  Even if you don't get to finish a book or have a chance to read it, I need them sent back daily.  Homework bags won't come home on Fridays. 

That is all for now. I hope you all have a great weekend. My wife celebrates the anniversary of her 29th birthday this weekend. Along with that, I hope to get out and enjoy some time kayaking. I can't wait for week three and all that it has in store.

Peace,

Mr. Young