Welcome Back to School!

Dear Parents and Guardians,

I would like to take this opportunity to welcome you and your child to the Grade 1 and 2 classroom. I am excited to welcome the Grade 1 students to their new class, as well as the Grade 2 students back for another year! This year, our class is lucky enough to have an intern visiting us from the University of Regina. Her name is Ms. O’Reel. She will be in our classroom until the end of December. 

I am looking forward to a happy and productive school year. This will be a very busy year, and I am eager to work with all of the students in helping them achieve their personal bests in terms of academic achievement, as well as personal and social skills.

Agendas will be sent home daily with a message for you to read. Please initial your child’s agenda every evening, as I will every morning. Please feel free to use this as a communication between home and school. Any important information being returned to school should be placed in the front pouch of the agenda. Plastic bags were provided to keep the agendas in. Please be sure to use these as they will protect the agendas in the event that there is a juice or water spill in their backpacks.

Each student will participate in a home reading program as part of the English Language Arts curriculum. One book will come home with your child every night. Your child should be reading this book to an adult each night and returning it to school the following morning. Your child has been encouraged to read proudly to you, so please make an effort to listen to your child read nightly. The children are eager to share their new reading discoveries, so please take the time to listen, encourage and praise! Your support at home will reinforce reading skills that are taught at school.

Grade One students will also begin the year with an “I Can Read Book”. This book will be used to teach basic sight words. New sight words and sounds will come home on Friday for practice over the weekend. These can also be reviewed throughout the following weeks.

Grade One students will have sound tests for the first four months of school where they will be tested on beginning and ending sounds in words. These sounds will be recorded on the right hand side of the agenda page for that week and will also be posted on our class blog. They will begin spelling words after the Christmas break. Grade Two students will begin spelling this week. Spelling words will be sent home weekly. They will appear on the right hand side of the agenda page for that week and will also be posted on our class blog. Sound and spelling tests will be on Friday, unless notified otherwise in the agenda. Please take time to practice these sounds and words with your child throughout the week.

As part of the Saskatchewan Social Studies curriculum, students are required to be able to write friendly letters. Students will bring home a book each Friday with a new letter they have written for you. Their Friday letters will tell you about what they have been doing at school during the week. I ask that you take the time to read the letter they have written and respond to it as well.  Students should return it to school the following Monday. 

The Grade One and Two students are counting to the 100^th day of school! (The day will land sometime in February.) That is when we will celebrate the 100^th day of school with a party! You can help your child keep track of the days of school by having them fill in a 100 chart after each day of school. Do not include weekends. Please use this chart to practice counting to 100 and recognizing the numbers to 100. Your support at home will re-enforce counting skills, number recognition and the formation of numerals.

As mentioned earlier, our class will have a blog. The students and I will be working to add to our blog throughout the year. It will include any important news or information, such as spelling words, due dates for homework, etc. This will also be a place where you can find out more about what we are learning in school. The students will share what they have discovered at school each day and I will post it on the blog. Please be sure to check it out and use the links provided as tools to encourage student learning at home. The address is: http://springsidegr1-2.blogspot.com/.

Thank you for supporting learning at school by working with your child at home. If you have any questions or concerns please feel free to contact me at school (792-2080).

Ms. Holtkamp