Team Thomson News & Notes
April 15, 2018
Important Information for You!
This is such an exciting and busy week for us! I appreciate all the support that each of you gives this week to keep things running smoothly, ensuring that routines and high quality education continue to prevail, and/or welcoming new kiddos and parents to Davison. Since the office staff will be in and out all week, it is so very important that you closely look for bus tags first thing in the morning. Any additional help that you can give the ladies in the office is greatly appreciated.
Additionally, I want to recognize Anna, Sue, and Anne. If you have ever listened to Anna or Sue make a Round-up appointment, you know that they are the first welcoming voice that new parents hear and that they take great care and time to make sure parents are comfortable with the process. Meanwhile, Anne P. holds down the office during the already busy lunch period and has taken on any task asked of her. Most importantly, Anna thoroughly plans and thinks through every aspect of Kindergarten Round-up and spends a tremendous amount of time getting every little detail ready, I don't quite know if anyone really realizes how much she does to make this next week a success.
I will be back and forth between Round-up and the building. I will have my cell phone with me for text and phone calls and will be monitoring email. Again, thank you to each and everyone of you for the role(s) you play in helping to make Kindergarten Round-up Week a success!
Lunch/Recess: Please Review
This past week the lunch monitors and I met. There are a few items for you to review and to review with your students during your morning meeting. The three items that are in need of the most review are:
- Type of Play: It is important to be kind during lunch and recess. This means no play that involves guns, rough play/wrestling, or zombies.
- Toys: There should be no toys brought outside during recess. Toys from home can get lost and/or broken and can cause problems between students.
- Digger: Only one student at a time should be playing in the Digger area. Students should not be down in the 'holes' created by the diggers. This is a safety concern. If students want to play in the sand, please direct them to the sand area.
- Respect: The Cardinal Code clearly talks about respect and that means behaving in a respectful manner to our lunch monitors and following their directions the first time.
Cardinal Code Focus of the Week:
This week the Cardinal Code focus is ARRIVAL and ENTERING THE BUILDING. Please take the time to review the appropriate behavior for arrival and entering the building. Some key points are to remember to walk into the building following the yellow line, proceed directly to the gym for breakfast or to your classroom, move quietly through the building, and once entering the classroom follow the classroom arrival routine.
Getting Back into Explicit Literacy Instruction and the Essentials for Literacy Instruction
We left off in previous staff newsletters by finishing up with Essential 3. Now lets move onto Essential 4: Activities that build phonological awareness . This essential literacy practice involves teachers promoting phonological awareness development particularly phonemic awareness development, through explicit explanation, demonstration, play with sounds in words, and engaged study of words, such as by:
• listening to and creating variations on books and songs with rhyming or alliteration
• sorting pictures, objects, and written words by a sound or sounds (e.g., words with a short e sound versus words with a long e sound)
• activities that involve segmenting sounds in words (e.g., Elkonin boxes, in which children move a token or letters into boxes, with one box for each sound in the word)
• activities that involve blending sounds in words (e.g., “robot talk” in which the teacher says the sounds “fffff ” “iiiii” “shhhh” and children say fish)
• daily opportunities to write meaningful texts in which they listen for the sounds in words to estimate their spellings
In essences, Essential number four is a key component to any solid Word Study block. Over the next few weeks, I will be sharing additional information to help aid in your understanding of the research based practices that we should be implementing into our instruction. This week, please take time to watch the video on Rhyming and Blending in the link below.
Quotes Worth Reading
"Every child needs at least one adult who is irrationally crazy about him or her."
-Uri Bronfenbrenner
"You might be the first smile your students see each morning, or the first hug they've had since Friday! We have the most important job of all."
-Unknown
Thomson Elementary
Home of the Thomson Teddies!
And..
Where Kids Come First and Futures Begin!
Email: nmiller@davisonschools.org
Website: www.davisonschools.org
Location: 617 East Clark Street, Davison, MI, United States
Phone: 810-591-0911
Celebrations & Announcements
Happy Birthday to Anna Pariseau, Friday, April 20th!
Teacher Appreciation Week is the week of May 7th! Our PTO has some very special things planned for our Star VIP Staff. As I shared with staff that attended the staff meeting, Thursday, May 10th is a special day that requires (ok, maybe not requires, but would be fun if you did) some 'crowd participation'. On May 10th staff are being asked to really dress their best, like maybe you were attending the Oscars...so break out those old prom dress, bridesmaid dress, formal gowns cluttering your closet, or visit a local Salvation Army. Any staff member that really participates will have their name put in a drawing for additional prizes.
Important Upcoming Dates:
- Week of April 16th-KINDERGARTEN ROUND-UP!
- Monday, April 16th-Board of Education Meeting, 7 p.m. Middle School Community Room (Megan Romanik class will lead the Pledge in Sign Language)
- Wednesday, April 18th-State Wide Tornado Drill
- Thursday, April 19th-Elementary Principals Meeting (Natalie); Volunteer Dinner
- Week of April 23rd-PLC WEEK
- Monday, April 23rd-ACC 4:15-6:15 p.m.
- Tuesday, April 24th-Child Study Day; DI Meeting, 4:15-5:15 p.m.
- Wednesday, April 25th-Staff Meeting, 7:35 a.m. (Agenda: Restorative Practice and Behavior Items/Discussion; Planning for the End of Year Testing, Evaluations, etc.); PTO will be in the rooms to complete a special project.
- Thursday, April 26th-Tornado Drill, CMC 4-7 p.m.
- Friday, April 27th-'Pie in the Face Day', Assembly at 2:00 p.m.
- Monday, April 30th-Office Field Audit (Call Sue or Anne P, NOT Anna W. if you need something from/of the office), ELA Meeting, 4:15-6:15 p.m.
- Tuesday, May 1st-DIBELS Testing; Science Curriculum Meeting, 4-6 p.m.
- Wednesday, May 2nd-DIBELS Testing
- Thursday, May 3rd-Fire Drill; Elementary Principals Meeting (Natalie)
- Friday, May 4th-"Stand for Change" Anti-Bully Day