What a Beautiful Weekend!

I hope that everyone had a great weekend! I would like to remind everyone to study the addition and subtraction flashcards. It is important to have them memorized! Last Thursday was the citizen breakfast and the Good Citizen for October was Roy Portis. Thank you for being a good citizen in our classroom! I will be looking for November’s good citizen.
At the beginning of October teachers had a meeting to become informed about bullying and the effects of it. Bullying is not a huge problem in elementary school, but it is important to talk about it with your children. In the past week, I have had many instances where teasing and name-calling has occurred. I have spoken to the class about these situations. At school I have been emphasizing how to be kind and helpful to one another. For example, if a child drops their crayon box, instead of laughing and making fun of the person, someone should go help pick up the crayons and ask if they are ok. If teasing and name-calling are happening in school we ask to students to used the Debugging System. There are five steps to this system.
1. Ignore, if that doesn’t work
2. Walk away, if that doesn’t work
3. Talk friendly (please stop), if that doesn’t work
4. Talk firmly (STOP!), if that doesn’t work
5. Get an adult
The students have acted out skits to show examples of different situations to help them understand when to use the system above. It is important that each child has a safe and comfortable educational setting to learn. If parents or students have any questions here is a great resource:
We will be starting our first unit in social studies this week. Democratic values are the first topic. The idea of laws and rules will be discussed. We will be talking about community, liberty, common good, equality, and Patriotism.
A great way to help our child in math is to have them use an analog clock and have them tell you the time and ask them what time it will be in a half hour or 15 minutes. Your child could count any left over change in your pocket. Ask them what each coin is called and how much they are worth. We are also working on place value (ones, tens, and hundreds).
Parent-teacher conferences are coming up faster than you think, please contact me to sign up for a time.
Thank you parents and students for all of your hard work!http://www.stopbullyingnow.hrsa.gov/kids/default.aspx