Ms. Kalifa's Classroom News
Week of November 9-13, 2015
Class News...
Dear Parents,
This week we will be working on digraphs (sh, wh, th), more 2D/3D shapes, and seasonal Thanksgiving writing prompts. If your child was not able to check out books on Friday due to the author visit I they can check out tomorrow.
I thought I would share with you how bullying and tattling is discussed in the classroom. I do not want any child to feel scared or unsafe in our classroom or on the playground. It is very challenging for children to understand what bullying, telling and tattling is. These topics are addressed on a daily basis with children at this age, it is a learning process and is part of being 6-7 years old.
When we talk about bullying, it is refers to a child who is doing the same thing to another child over and over again after being told to stop. When it happens once or twice, it is not bullying. We are teaching the children to tell the person bothering them to stop and be specific about what the action is. Just saying stop is not enough. It is a very difficult skill for the children to learn. They need to face each other and say, for example, "Stop kicking me with your shoe" rather than just "stop". If it continues, they need to tell me or another teacher. I often talk about what the word "stop" and how it means to not do it anymore, and how it also means the other person does not like it.
At recess there are 6 classes out there, so it is hard for us to see everything so we appreciate when the children tell us when something is happening that they cannot stop themselves. The teachers make every effort to intervene when we see something happening, both during recess and in the classroom.
It is common for children to come tell a teacher something, even after they have already solved the problem themselves. We also teach the children to tell teachers if they are being hurt or something is being destroyed, and if it is an emergency or if it can wait. For the most part tattling is normal and very common with children at this age. We have your child's safety and best interest at heart.
Have a great week!
~Ms. Kalifa
ATTENDANCE
This coming Friday from 8-8:30, Mr. Mac and Mrs. McCoy are having an attendance celebration for those students who had perfect attendance the first 9 weeks of school. At the end of the next 9 weeks they will be having another celebration, so please make efforts to have your child in school everyday!
Our class goal for attendance is 95%, which means we can only have 1 student absent to reach our class goal. This week we met our goal everyday except for Monday. Remember to send an excuse for your child's absence upon returning to school. Attendance is very important. Students miss lessons and at times grades cannot be made up.
If a student is very sick, definitely keep them home. Students need to be fever free for 24 hours before returning to school. Thank you.
Transportation Changes
WISH LIST
- One dry erase marker for you child to keep in their school box (I will label it with their name on it)
November Birthdays!
none
Important Dates
*December 10th - Field Trip (more information will come soon)
*November 19- College Shirt Day
*Thanksgiving Break 23-27
*Please refer to the November calendar I sent home previously for other important dates. I also included the word wall words in the calendar.
HomeWork Journals, Raz-Kids, and Take Home Readers
*This Thursday I collected take home readers, so it was a Raz-Kids week.
*For the most part the students are doing great with home work journals. Please continue to encourage them to write more than one sentence. Thank you.
Technology Corner
Continue to have students keep working on istation and raz-kids at home :-)
I will be adding a password to use with Raz-Kids. In order to be consistent with the school cafeteria, I will be entering their ID number as their password. Your child's reading level may change as well. We had some training on Raz-Kids this past Thursday and we were told that the reading level does not match the curriculum we use on our campus. I need to go in and adjust it so that it coincides with what we use at school. After that, I do not change reading levels. We were told that Raz-kids will move your child up a reading level when it feels your child has mastered the level they are on.