October News!

October 2017

Dear Families,

Thank you for meeting with us during conferences. We enjoyed our conversations with you and are excited about our community of learners.   Another month of fun-filled activities awaits us in October! We could say that it will be a busy month, but every month at Breck is full of learning, excitement and fun. 

We spent the month of September learning more about each other. Each day one of your children has been the “Celebrity,” where classmates interviewed him/her.  Our “Celebrity” work wasn’t all fun and games.  Within each session were lessons in letter awareness, letter sounds, grammar and punctuation.

Our social studies focus last week was bus safety. We visited a bus and listened to Mr. Ryks explain the expectations for bus safety.  In class, we had more discussion and worked in our “I Know How To Ride The School Bus” books. 

Reading and Word Study groups have begun!

We have enjoyed learning the routine, reading “just right books” and learning about how words work. The children are using their book boxes to keep these “just right books”. As you know, our home reading program has begun – thank you for your support.

The children are excited about Writer’s Workshop.

 Our mini-lessons this month are:

• Our lives are full of stories to tell
• Planning for Writing:  Writers Touch and Tell, Sketch, then Write
• Using pictures to add on
• Stretching words to spell them:  hearing and recording all sounds
• Zoom in: focusing on small moments
• Partnerships and storytelling
• Reading our writing like we read our books
• Unfreezing our characters and our writing

C.A.R.E Theme for the month of October is:  Empathy.

As we are getting close to Halloween and you and your child are making plans for a costume, please refer to the Parent Handbook for guidance of appropriate costumes. Weapons, (even toys) are not allowed in school. If in doubt, leave it at home.  We would appreciate you helping your child choose a costume that isn’t violent in nature as well. Children come to school in costume and our party will be in the morning after the parade. Your child is welcome to bring in comfy clothes to change into for the afternoon. 

Dates to Remember:

·      Thursday and Friday, October 19^th and 20^th NO SCHOOL Faculty Workshop

·      Friday October 31^st Halloween celebration

The year is already moving all too quickly. We are pleased with the strong community that has formed within our classroom walls.  The children are becoming good friends and share an enthusiasm for learning. They have become immersed in reading books, writing stories, viewing rocks and asking thoughtful mathematical questions. 

Sincerely,

Marie Murphy and Carly Skates