The boys and girls of Room 2 had a great start two days together! Everyone seems enthusiastic and eager to learn which makes me happy to see! I have already noticed a sense of community and belonging starting to develop. The boys and girls are kind to each other, make eye contact when being spoken to and ask great questions.
Last week, we spent most of the time getting to know each other and to know the routines of Korn School and Room 2. This week, we will review the Core Values, create a classroom contract and begin reviewing some second grade skills. Students learned about Star Cards, our Classroom Teamwork Jar and our behavior chart. Students that are caught going above and beyond will receive Star Cards. Star Cards are similar to Brewster Bucks. Once a Star Card is earned, students could enter it into a weekly or monthly drawing for a reward. Rewards vary from wearing your hat to extra dodgeball. They change weekly and monthly. I think I handed out about 8 cards on Friday alone! We have a Teamwork Jar in our room. When the class as a whole is functioning as a unit, we will earn marbles in a jar. When we reach a certain point in the jar, we will earn a reward. The boys and girls have a decent amount of marbles in the jar already! Similar to Brewster, I use the stop light behavior chart in my room. There are four colors that the kids will end their day on. Green is the target. It means your child did exactly what he or she was expected to do. Yellow means he or she received a warning about a behavior and did not correct the behavior. Red means that he or she continued to struggle. The consequence is your son or daughter will miss a portion of their recess (no more than 10 minutes). During the missed recess time, he or she will complete a paper addressed to you explaining why he or she is on red. The final color is blue. Blue means that your son or daughter had a really tough time and I will call home to discuss the day with you. If you look on the back of your son or daughter’s homework folder, you will see a calendar. Everyday students are required to color in the type of day they had. Since homework folders go home and return to school daily they are a perfect place for the calendars. I will review all of these concepts at Back to School Night on September 15 from 6-7 pm.
The boys and girls have PE on Friday afternoon so please be sure to send your child to school with sneakers and a water bottle for their desks on Fridays. Students are allowed to keep a sealable water bottle on their desk any day of the week. Drinking from their own bottles helps limit the exchange of germs at the water fountain.
You will get a note similar to this sent home every Monday. It will also be available online in my “Parent Corner” portion of my classroom webpage. I will give an overview of the week and mention any important upcoming events. I will also highlight one student a week in my newsletters. Students have the opportunity to earn “Star Student” in my room weekly. I will select one student that is going above and beyond or a student that is showing a lot of effort for the title of Star Student. That student will have a special seat cover for the week, have his or her drawn portrait hung in our classroom, posted on our webpage and have a paragraph written about him or her in our newsletter!
Please feel free to email me with any questions or concerns you have. Together we will make this a wonderful year!
Warmly, Miss Pantalena