How Do You Fill a Bucket?

We read a FANTASTIC book today called How Do You Fill a Bucket? It's about how everyone carries an invisible bucket and you can choose to fill other's buckets by saying and doing nice things, or you can be a bucket dipper by being a bully and saying and doing mean things. Then, I have each student a bucket filling note and each student got the chance to write a bucket filling note to two classmates. The kids had such nice things to say to each other and were so into the book. It was a great way to end the week.
Have a great weekend!
Ms. Elsener =)

Enrollment Audit TOMORROW

Parents,
Tomorrow is our annual enrollment audit.  It is EXTREMELY IMPORTANT that your students are on time tomorrow!  If your students arrive after 9 am they will not be allowed into our classroom until after the audit is over.  Our school budget is partially tied to our enrollment audit so it is extremely important that your children arrive on time.  Please let me know if you have any questions or concerns about the enrollment audit or getting your students to school on time.
Thanks!
Ms. Elsener =)

Parent/Teacher Conferenes

Hi parents,
I hope everyone is enjoying this beautiful fall weekend! Don't forget tomorrow is parent/teacher conference day. I have really important information to share with you, and it should take about 10-15 minutes of your time. I have a few parents who have made appointments with me. If you haven't done that, you can get in touch with me this evening to find some time, or you can just come on up to school. I plan to be at school from 8-3 tomorrow, unless I hear from a parent that they need me to stay later. Please let me know if you have any questions or concerns.
Ms. Elsener =)

APTT Reminder

Hi Parents,
I forgot to send home reminders with students today, but our first APTT meeting is tomorrow and will begin at 5:30 and it will last about an hour. As a reminder, these meetings are about academics only, so if you have behavior questions/concerns we can address them separately. Also, these meetings are for adults ONLY. Please let me know if you have any questions or concerns. See you tomorrow!!

Ms. Elsener =)

Rules & Expectations

Parents,


We only have 5 rules in our classroom:  follow directions, listen when others are talking, always do our best, treat others the way that you want to be treated, and keep our arms & legs to ourselves.  We have REALLY been struggling this entire week to listen when others are talking, and to use the right type of voice in our classroom.  Basically, when students are working they either have a red light voice (no talking) or yellow light voices (whispering).  We've been practicing this pretty much daily for the 5 weeks that we've been in school.  Please, please remind your students of what you expect of them and what is expected of them in our classroom.


Don't forget, the National Book Festival is this weekend!  More details at loc.gov/bookfest.  


Have a great weekend!  Ms. Elsener =)

News & Notes

Hi Parents,


Today we went to a special assembly on recycling.  It was a really cute program that encouraged students to think twice before they threw all their trash into the garbage.  


Make sure you look in your student's backpack tonight.  They brought home lots of papers tonight!  Homework, Take Home Tuesdays, plus a few classroom notes.  I also want to remind everyone that next Thursday (9/29) is our first Academic Parent Teacher Team Meeting (APTT). 

News & Notes

Hi Parents,
We had a great week this past week in first grade.  We're learning more about routines and procedures every day.  There are a few upcoming dates that I wanted to share with you.


*September 24/25 (Saturday & Sunday)
This weekend is the National Book Festival on the mall.  It's a 2 day event (10a-5p on Saturday and 1-5p on Sunday).  This year, they have a family storytelling stage where authors and actors will be reading their stories all day.  An author that we've already read so far this year, Tomie dePaola, will be at the book festival.  We read his book Strega Nona and we loved it!  You can find more details about the book festival at http://www.loc.gov/bookfest/.  I'll be there both days!


*September 29 (Thursday)
This is the date of our first APTT conference.  This is a new conference format that we're using this year; it will be extremely informative and it will really help move all students forward towards goals that make sense for them.


Also, now that we're getting closer to fall we could use tissues and hand sanitizer in our classroom.  I appreciate the donations we've already received, but tissues go really quickly during cold/allergy season!  
Enjoy the rest of your weekend! 
=), Ms. Elsener

Week 2 Updates

Hi parents!


I did a lot of work in our classroom last week after school and made some phone calls home and I forgot to update our blog.  I'm going to work hard to update the blog twice a week.  I'll also try to use Twitter more often for quicker updates.  I wanted to share a few things with you that we did this week in our classroom and a few things that we could use your help with.


First, it would be really helpful if you could help your students learn your phone numbers.  I know that I have most parents' phone numbers in our classroom, but if your student goes to the nurse and the nurse needs to reach you, or we need to get in touch with you after school it's a huge time saver for your children to know your number.  


Secondly, this coming Wednesday (September 7th) is Back to School Night from 6-8p.  I would love for everyone to come to Back to School Night and see our classroom and the work we've been doing.  This past week we created our hopes and dreams (a first grade goal), which are now hanging in the hallway.  We also wrote stories last week that will be on display during Back to School Night.


I hope you had a great long weekend!  One last reminder--school starts daily at 8:40.  If your student needs to eat breakfast at school they need to be at school at 8:30 to give them enough time to eat before school starts.  We start learning as soon as we get up to our room and students who come late often miss the first assignment we do each day.


Thanks for all your help!  

The Great 'Quake of 2011

Today when we went outside to learn a new recess game we got stuck in an earthquake!  It's not nearly as scary as it sounds, and most of us didn't even notice it until afterwards!  :)  We were learning how to play Candle Tag, so that we can have more recess games to play while the playground is under construction.  Ms. Teagarden noticed the windows were shaking and then I thought I heard the alarm going off in the school, but most of our fantastic first-graders were still playing candle tag!  When Ms. D came out and said we were evacuating the building we made a really great first grade line and left the blacktop.  We waited for what felt like forever before we were finally allowed back inside!  Our day was almost over by the time we got back inside!  That was a lot of excitement for one day!  Hopefully tomorrow will be a more normal day.


**Parents:  Tomorrow at 9:30a is our back-to-school assembly.  You're welcome to attend!**