In case you haven't already heard, our classroom tends to get extremely chilly at certain parts of our day. You may want to send a small sweater or jacket for your child to keep in their cubby. I know you find this hard to believe with the temperatures we have had outside, but trust me, it gets cold!
We will have our cluster conferences all this week. I will send home a reminder to you Monday of the time and day you signed up for. If you have a conflict just let me know and I can put you on another spot. If you didn't sign up at Meet The Teacher Night, I will send you a note with available spots that are left. These cluster conferences are going to take place instead of Open House for our class. I would still encourage you to make sure and attend the PTA meeting that night. We just won't meet in our classroom.
Your child has a binder that they will be bringing home every night. It has a Reading Log in it that needs to be signed after their reading nightly. Please only sign for that night. Remember to check your child's binder nightly. Any correspondence that I send home will be put in that binder. Also, if you send me a note, I will answer it and put it back in your child's binder. Any money that you send in can be put in the pouch at the front of their binder.
Juice and Snack may be purchased every Monday. They are $2.50 for juice for the week and $2.50 for snack for the week. I can only take correct change.
We head to lunch around 11:05 every day. Please feel free to come and eat lunch with your child. You just sign in at the office and wait for us by the lunchroom door. Your child will be delighted to see you!
Thanks so much for all of the Box Tops that have been sent in already. The turn in day for them is this Wednesday. Please send any you have by then.
I will be sending several Scholastic Book Orders home this Friday. They will be due back by the next Friday, which is Sept. 9th. You only need to write one check to Scholastic if you order from more than one order. I will place the order that Friday. This is entirely up to you. The prices are incredible, and they have great books!
I am on the Dibels team this year so I will be out of the classroom for testing just on Tuesday of this week. Your child will be with another 2nd grade teacher while I am testing so they will not miss their 2nd grade instruction.
SPELLING TEST!
I am very aware that spelling test are a completely new thing for us as 2nd graders. We will spend a lot of time Monday learning how to take a spelling test. Every Monday we will have a pre-test on our words. Then the final test will be on Friday. Your child has the spelling words for Unit 1 in their take home binder. The words for this week are Week 1, which is Short Vowels CVC, CVCC, CCVC.
If your child makes a 100 on the pre-test on Monday, they will not have to do their Monday homework which is to write the words 3 times each. However, they will do any spelling homework that they may have during the rest of the week.
HOMEWORK:
Your child will copy down their homework every Monday for the entire week. If for some reason they forget it, remember that I will have it on the school notes site as a back up.
Don't forget that the About Me Posters are due on Sept. 6th.
Monday, Sept. 5th Labor Day Holiday.
If you haven't sent in an empty paper towel roll for your child please do. They will be used for a very important time capsule.
Reading Story: Iris and Walter
Phonics: Shorts Vowels
Comprehension Skill: Character and Setting
Comprehension Strategy: Predict
In Math this week we will begin Addition Strategies.
If you haven't turned in the check for $5.00 to Scholastic News and the check for $5.00 to Time for Kids please send those in as soon as you can.
I will not notify you when I update school notes with just the homework because I don't want you to get unnecessary emails. I will only update you on schoolnotes if there is a message I need to get to you during the school week. Just know that the homework will be put there every weekend for the following week.
The following is from our amazing PTA:
Spirit Nights
This year we have scheduled Spirit Nights at four area restaurants. Each spirit night will occur on the same night each month. PTA receives 10 to 15 percent of all sales. The schedule is as follows: Applebee's (1st Weds), Jason's Deli (2nd Tues), Burger King - Chantilly Pkwy (3rd Tues) and Nancy's Italian Ice (4th Weds) of every month throughout the school year.
Just Give
If it's successful we will not have any fundraisers for the rest of the year. We've asked for $65/student...which is a small price to pay for the great education the students are receiving at Blount Elementary. Detailed information may be found on the PTA web site at www.blountpta.org.
Back to School Bash, Open House and PTA Budget Approval
We have had a lot of feedback from parents about consolidating the number of nights we ask them to come up to school during the first month of school. So we have combined our usual Volunteer Round Up with Open House Night to achieve this goal. We are also going to host a Back to School Bash as a way to publicize the Fall Festival and get our parents excited. Here are some details:
-from 5-7 p.m. we will have two inflatables for the kids to enjoy
-from 5-8 p.m. we will have food vendors on hand where parents, teachers and staff can buy treats and dinner. So far we have Jim & Nicks, the Great American Cookie Co. and Nancy’s Italian Ice scheduled to come.
-at 7 p.m. in the cafeteria we will have a QUICK PTA Budget Approval Vote. It WILL NOT be an all-out PTA meeting, it will JUST be a budget vote. We are not going to do the attendance contest at this gathering like we did at last year’s PTA meetings because it is NOT a full meeting.
Fall Festival
October 20 (rain date October 27) at Thompson Park (adjacent from Blount Elementary) from 4:30 to 7:30 p.m. Wristbands are being pre-sold for $10 for students and $1 for parents. The price at the gate will be $15 for students and $2 for adults. Also available is the Fall Festival T-Shirt - youth sizes in fall orange are $10 and adult sizes (S-XL) in chocolate brown are also $10. T-shirt orders MUST be turned into the office by close of business on Oct.1. We will not be able to accept an order after that time. If you have any questions about Fall Festival, Back to School Bash and/or Just Give please feel free to contact Jeannine at fundraising@blountpta.org (Visit our Facebook page - Blount Fall Festival)
I will see you this week during your cluster conference time.
Please email me if you have any questions or concerns. Thanks so much for all you do!
Mrs. Culp
