Dear Parents of Room 10,
Our year together is off to
a great start. I have been really
impressed by how well your children have settled into our routine. Overall, it has been a very smooth transition
into fifth grade; probably one of the best I have experienced since beginning
my teaching career. In many ways, it’s
like we have been together for a long time.
Thank you for sharing your wonderful children with me.
It was a pleasure having the
opportunity to meet those of you who were able to come to Open House last night. I love talking about my educational
philosophy, and I am always anxious to share information about our
program. Fifth grade is an awesome grade
to teach from both a curricular and developmental standpoint. I am honored to have the chance to work with
your children this year.
On Friday the children had
their first opportunity to hold the crayfish.
Not everyone was interested in picking them up, but others couldn’t get
enough of them. We had one pinching, but
no tears. We have completed the first
few lessons of our crayfish unit, and the children seem to be very engaged and
interested. We have learned about
treating them humanely as well as how their new home in our classroom will be
quite different from their home in a pond or stream.
Also on Friday morning, Mrs.
Bonacquist had a great conversation with the children. They seemed to enjoy chatting with their
Principal about the responsibilities of being a 5th grader. They were very intuitive and impressed both
of us with their thoughts. Mrs.
Bonacquist also read a book to our class called Enemy Pie. Be sure to ask your child about the meaning
of the title. She also took the
opportunity to chat with the children about the Lip Sync. Be sure to ask your child about this
interesting conversation.
Wednesday was our first day
of DARE with Detective Whiteley. It’s a
terrific program and the kids were really into it! Detective Whiteley will be with us for nine more
weeks, and the lessons will culminate with our DARE Graduation. The children will also write a DARE essay
which you will have the opportunity to hear.
I will invite all of you in for lunch to hear the essays. Details about the luncheon and the Graduation
will be coming within the next month or so.
We are still running through
the preliminary reading lessons that will set the stage for our year in reading
workshop. I hope to begin testing each
student to determine his or her reading level early this week.
It will take several weeks to complete, as each test generally takes
between 20-30 minutes. Lester Betor and class
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