Next Week

Picture day is Tuesday, June 23rd.  Have your child dress as you want to remember them.

The Swift Family Run is Saturday the 27th.

Bernie Duffy will be back in the classroom Monday and Wednesday.

A number of children are eating breakfast in the classroom.  We want to insure that every child who needs a breakfast gets one.  Some years, a few kids figure out that they can grab a second breakfast when they get to school, and nobody will be the wiser.  Our hope is that everyone who needs a breakfast gets one, and everyone who doesn't need one doesn't get one.  Feel free to ask your child about this, and feel free to let me know if you have questions.

Iris should begin teaching her math work sample early in the week.  She is also teaching random lessons throughout the day.

Line caterpillar art

Roundup Assembly Tomorrow

Tomorrow is our first indoor Roundup Assembly.  We will meet in the auditorium on the floor near the stage.  The kids had a chance to learn where they were sitting today.  Look for Teacher Iris (and Mythandra).  I am on the Roundup Committee and may be running around the auditorium helping with last minute details.

This Week in Kindergarten

It was great to see so many of you at Back to School Night last Thursday!

Please note that Wednesday, September 17 is a late start day.  Everything (buses, bells...) will be two hours behind schedule.

We continue to focus on building routines, learning names, and understanding the way kindergarten works.  This week should include a Tuesday visit from artist in residence Mr. Duffy, a late opening, and our first Friday morning Roundup in the auditorium.

Look for your child to continue to be tired from the long days of learning and new routines.  This should  ease as your child gets more and more used to the rigors of the kindergarten lifestyle.

Thank you to everyone who has packed lunches for your children.  This will be another challenging week as we merge cafeteria lines with first grade.  My sense is that lines should be much smoother next week.

Here are a few highlights of the week:

Song: The Sunny Side of the Street
Weekly Theme Book: "Fix it Duck"
Letter focus: review F-N
Phonemic skills: rhyming, syllables, counting words
Writing: Introducing writing
Math: Counting, probabilities, new games and routines

Math with teacher Iris

Back to School Night

It was wonderful seeing so many of you at Back to School Night.  Thank you for taking time out of your busy schedule (and for somehow finding parking) to attend.  If you missed it, I will be sending home the Back to School Night packet in your child's backpack.

I have extra packets available for anyone who needs one.  Please stop by and ask me.  I will  recycle these sometime next week.

Photos and privacy

I am updating a blog post from last September about photos and privacy on the blog.

I enjoy posting photos; however this brings up a quandary.  As you may have noticed, I have taken some pains to be sure that the photos I have posted are not close-ups of individual students.  Before I post close-ups, I want to have a discussion of how parents felt about having photos of their child on the blog, which is available to the wider web audience.  My sense is that the best photos really show children learning, working and enjoying friendships, however I am not ready to post “identifiable” photos until I have checked in with parents. 

So… my hope is to begin posting photos of students sometime in the third week of school (probably around the 17^th).  These photos would not have names attached (look over last year's blog for a better idea of what this would look like).  However I will not post photos of your child if you let me know that you do not want their image on the web.

So please shoot me an email if you do not want pictures of your child used on the blog.  Feel free to email or respond on the blog if you otherwise have strong feelings on this subject.