Mrs. Dillon's Blog

Welcome to First Grade with Mrs. Dillon. I will try very hard to blog on a weekly basis. I also send home a paper newsletter each Friday to let you know what is going on in room 114. Each Monday I will blog that same newsletter and include the sight words for the week and any additional information. We are going to be lining up in a different location this year. The following letter will explain that.

Dear Parents,
The purpose of this letter is to ask all of you to help us out with arrival procedures. This year we will be lining up at the glass church foyer doors on Fairfield. These are the same doors that we entered last year BUT instead of lining up on the parking lot will line up right outside our doors.
It is the school policy that parents have to say goodbye to their children outside of the school building. This truly is for the safety of the children. Adults are not to enter the building without going through the office and signing in. Our patrol people do not know all of the parents and to be honest neither do the teachers. So, for safety reasons we ask that parents wait outside if they need to speak to a teacher.
So, beginning Thursday, parents will have to say their goodbyes before the children enter the building. We realize that some children are having a hard time saying goodbye, but it really only makes it worse the longer the goodbyes go on.
Thank you sooooo much for your cooperation and understanding with this!
Sincerely,
The First Grade Teachers

WEEKLY NEWS FROM ROOM 114

THIS WEEKS NEWS
August 26 - 28, 2009
Welcome to my first weekly newsletter. I will try to send a letter on Friday each week to tell you about the week just finished and what to expect for the week ahead. This letter will also be on my blog which I will try to update every Monday. I will list the new sight words for the week on my blog too.
Let me say it's been a wonderful first week of school with your children. Each one has their own unique qualities, wonderful faces and beautiful smiles. They are awesome!!! We are going to have a terrific year. I also want to say a big thank-you for helping with all of their school supplies on Wednesday. You don't realize how much help that was for me and I think the kids liked having you in the room for a little while.
I usually save the work the children do during the week and I staple a packet together on Friday, (along with this newsletter). That way you're not getting dribs and drabs of work coming home all week. I encourage you to look over all the work and go over anything that gave your child some trouble. I want to explain the way I will be grading papers we do in school. I usually use a point system, for example: a paper with 10 questions would be marked 10/10 if it was all correct, 9/10 would mean 1 wrong. Many papers done at the beginning of the year we do together and I will mark those with a "T" meaning paper was "done together". I also use stars, comments, and stickers on papers as my "grade".

NOTES AND REMINDERS
Every week one student will be our "Star of the Week". I will be the first star of the week so the children can see what to do when it's their turn. A new star will be picked on Friday and their week begins the following Monday. You will receive a note about it when your son/daughter is the star.

UPCOMING EVENTS
No school on Sept. 7, Monday, Labor Day

HOMEWORK
A reader will come home Monday - Thursday for your children to practice reading to you. Please take some time for this to be done every night. They should also be reading books from home or the library. Reading to them is great, but please have them read to you also. It is very important that the school readers come back to school everyday. We use them in school daily and I have no extras. The first few books are paperbacks and need to be transported in the ziplock baggie via the home folder. A list comes home every Monday with the new words and they will be on my blog. This week will be the words from the story called "Lunch". These words should be made into flash cards so they can be practiced each night and you can see the progress of your child as they master each word. There will be a sight word test given every Friday.

We will begin to make addition flash cards soon. Practicing math facts should also become a nightly homework assignment.

PLEASE SEND IN A MAGAZINE WITH LOTS OF PICTURES. IT WILL BE CUT UP FOR MANY DIFFERENT PROJECTS.

NEW SIGHT WORDS FOR THE WEEK:
red
blue
yellow
I
see
a

******There is already a change in our specilas schedule! First grade will attend 8:15 Mass on Monday and our music has been moved to Thursday.************

As always, contact me with any questions.
We are off to a great start!
Have a good week!
Mrs. Dillon