Hello Parents,
This has been an exciting week for our class, with our school assembly and school pictures, and lots of great learning. We are finishing our unit on the human body systems, and tomorrow will be our first C.E.T.. The children will be doing some great activities geared toward discovering how our bodies work. HOUSE COLOR COMPETITIONS - Your student was given a colored wristband today that he/she will wear each Friday, along with the Odyssey house shirts (if your child has one). Please be sure to keep track of the wristband, as it will need to last throughout the school year. HEARING / VISION SCREENING - Next week the students will be given a hearing and a vision screening. I will not have the information on the screening results. You will be notified by a school specialist if there is any reason for concern. OCTOBER BOOK REPORTS / READING CALENDARS - I will send October book report forms and reading calendars on Friday. They will both be due on Friday, October 26th. The genre for this month is HISTORICAL FICTION: Historical fiction presents a fictional story set within a real historical event or significant time period In historical fiction, the time period is often an important part of the story or setting. The characters may be real historical figures, fictional characters, or a combination of the two. Please use the OCS classical literature list as a guide; However, if there is a book that you would like to read that is not included on our book list, please let me know. You can find the book list on our school website here: http://odysseycharter.net/book-reports/ or you can look on the Book Report tab on my website to download a list that is categorized by genre. I am so grateful for the opportunity to teach your wonderful kids each day!
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Hello Parents,
I am so proud of our class. They are doing great work, and are working well together. We have begun our human body unit, and I am looking forward to our human body C.E.T. on Friday, October 5th. PARENT- TEACHER CONFERENCES - Thank you for signing up for parent-teacher conferences. I look forward to meeting with you and sharing with you the great things your child is doing at school. BOOK FAIR - Come check out the book fair this week while you are at the school. There are some great books to encourage your child’s love of reading. BOOK REPORTS - September book reports are due this Friday, the 28th. The genre is fiction, and the format is a character t-shirt. Once your child has read a book, have him/her decorate the t-shirt to look like a main character from the story. The shirts will be cut out and glued onto a piece of construction paper or other decorative paper. (I have construction paper in the class if you need a piece.) You can find book report forms to print, as well as pdf files of book lists on my website here: https://novotnenews.weebly.com/book-report-forms.html READING CALENDARS - September reading calendars are also due on the 28th. Please add up the number of minutes read for the month, and record the total at the bottom of the calendar. Thank you all for your support and the hard work that you put into helping your kids to be successful in school. I am so grateful to partner with you on this journey. Hello Parents,
It was so nice to talk with so many of you at the carnival yesterday. I am so glad that you could come! Thank you so much to all of you who donated prizes for our raffle baskets, or time to volunteer. I appreciate you so much! This week we are learning about electricity and about the American inventor, Thomas Edison. We are also reading stories about Anansi the spider. PARENT - TEACHER CONFERENCES: I would love to meet with you at parent-teacher conferences on Wednesday and Thursday, September 26-27. Please sign up for an appointment by Monday, September 24th. Here is the link to schedule a time: https://www.ptcfast.com/schools/Odyssey_Charter_School STUDENT OF THE WEEK SCHEDULE: I am attaching a copy of our Student of the Week schedule to this email. Please make a note of the date when your child will give a presentation to the class. If you have any conflicts with the date, please let me know as soon as possible so that I can adjust the schedule. READING CALENDAR / BOOK REPORT FORMS: I have sent reading calendars and book report forms home with each student. Both will be due on September 28th. Our book report genre for this month is FICTION. Please look at our OCS classical literature list to find an excellent book for your child. If there is a different book that you would like to choose, please send me an email for approval. You can find the book lists and a book list by genre on my website here: https://novotnenews.weebly.com/book-report-forms.html You can download an extra copy of our monthly reading calendars here: https://novotnenews.weebly.com/reading-calendars.html COMPUTER CLASS: A parent requested information on the typing program that our students are working on at school. It is called BBC / Dance Mat Typing. You can find the link here: https://www.bbc.com/bitesize/articles/z3c6tfr This is great practice for your child at home, as well. By the end of the first term, our class will switch to practicing math facts on Moby Max during our computer time. CONGRATULATIONS to Varuni, who is our September Ambassador of Excellence. Varuni is a very dedicated student who loves to learn and who gives her best effort to all that she does. I love to see the enthusiasm that she brings to school each day. Thank you, parents, for all of your wonderful support. Have a great week! Hello Parents,
I hope you had a wonderful weekend. It was so nice to welcome your children back to school today. CARNIVAL - Our school carnival is next Monday, September 10th. It is going to be so much fun!! If you want to purchase discounted game tickets or food packages for the carnival, tomorrow is the last day for early-bird orders. You can turn your money in at the front office. Our first grade team is collecting Legos/Lego gear and sweet treat coupons for prize baskets. If you are able to donate an item to include, you can send it with your child to our classroom. Thanks so much in advance - and thanks to those who have already donated! BOOK REPORTS - Each month we ask our students to complete a book report. There is a different genre from which to read each month. This month the first grade students will choose a FICTIONAL book to read. I sent a book report form home with your child today. Please take a look at it to see what is expected. All book reports will be due on Friday, September 28th. If you have any questions, please let me know. You can read more about book reports here: https://novotnenews.weebly.com/book-report-forms.html WHAT WE ARE LEARNING - This week we will be reading more fables, along with “The Story of Peter Rabbit.” We will be learning about complimentary colors as well. NET SMARTZ ASSEMBLY - On Friday we will have a school assembly to learn about staying safe on the internet. Be sure to talk with your child about what they learn. There is a NetSmartzKids website that is full of activities and videos that you can explore together: https://www.netsmartzkids.org/ Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions, concerns, or ideas about our classroom. Have a great week! Hello Parents,
Our class is working so well together, and I am proud to be their teacher. They are fantastic kids! This week we finished our safety book, and we are beginning our unit on fables. We are also learning the difference between our city, state, country, and continent (this is a VERY difficult concept for 1st graders). This will be the first week for us to check out books during library time as well. FIRE DRILL - We will have our first fire drill tomorrow morning, so please take some time to talk with your child about this if you feel like they might need the extra confidence boost. I will also help them, to the best of my ability, to feel comfortable with the whole process. MATH/LANG ARTS CLASSES - We are beginning our second week of leveled math and reading classes. If you have any questions about who your math/language arts teachers are, please let me know. We have a really fantastic team of first grade teachers, so your children are all in good hands. ASPIRE - Last week I sent home student i.d. Numbers along with instructions for setting up your ASPIRE account. If you have any questions, please feel free to call Ms. Withers in the front office or send your question to me. My grades are not yet set up in ASPIRE just yet - my apologies. I am having some technical difficulties but am trying to resolve the situation quickly. CARNIVAL - Our carnival is coming soon - September 10, from 4-7 p.m. I hope that you will plan to come. This is a very fun time for our families. You can pre-purchase tickets at a discounted price through the front office until September 5th. If you would like to donate items for a prize basket, the first grade team is collecting Legos (and Lego-related items) and gift cards to any bakeries/sweet shops in the area. LIBRARY VOLUNTEERS - We are in need of parents, grandparents, or other relatives who would like to come and help in our library. There are two opportunities: one is helping kids check out books during our library time (Thursdays 1:30 - 2:00). The other is helping with the HRP program, which is preparing readers “baggie books” for kids to take home. If you are interested in either, you can go to this link to sign up, or you can email Ms. Beckstrand, our librarian. https://signup.com/client/invitation2/secure/2403241/false#/invitation or [email protected] LABOR DAY & SCHOOL LUNCH - Please remember that there will be no school on Monday, September 3rd. I know that your children will enjoy the extra time with you over the holiday weekend. When we return to school on Tuesday, September 4th, our school lunch program will begin. If you are purchasing lunch for your child, Please be sure that they know. Thank you! Have a great week! Hello Parents,
We had a great first day of first grade! This is what our day looked like: MORNING FIVE - We learned and practice our “Morning Five” routine. This is what your child is responsible to take care of when they enter the room in the morning: Hang up their BACKPACK, put LUNCHBOX on the shelf, move their LUNCH CLIP, get their HOMEWORK FOLDER out, and get two sharp PENCILS ready for the day. They may then read a book quietly at their desk. SCHOOL SUPPLIES - I distributed supplies to each of the students. THANK YOU SO MUCH for donating so many wonderful supplies and getting our class off to a great start! There are a few students who do not have a pencil pouch/box yet, and a couple who had broken zippers. Will you please ask your child if his/her pencil pouch is working well. READING - We read the book Ten Rules for Being a Superhero by Deb Pilutti. We will read it again tomorrow and talk more about our class rules. Today the students learned our first rule: One Person Talks at a Time. GETTING TO KNOW YOU - We practiced rule #1 by taking turns sharing our “All About Me” pages. We will take some more time to finish sharing tomorrow. If your child has not completed this, please have them turn it in by Friday. The kids also drew their beginning-of-the-year self portraits. They are fantastic! MATH / READING ASSESSMENTS - Today we began our reading assessments and our math fact assessments. We will continue with spelling and math assessments this week, so that they will be ready to begin their leveled math and language arts classes on Monday. SCOREBOARD - We also practiced our “Mirror/Repeat” responses today, and we earned our first dot on our class reward chart by having more “yes!” points for following directions than “oh no!” points. By the end of the week I will introduce our dot charts for individual rewards. You can read more about this here: CLASSROOM EXPECTATIONS Here are a couple of things that I wanted to clarify for you: WATER BOTTLES - We do not allow students to leave the classroom during class time to get a drink, so PLEASE send a water bottle to school for your child. We leave the bottles in the classroom throughout the week and take them home on Friday to be washed. If you would like them to come home more often, please just let your child know to take it - I am fine with that. MORNING SNACK - The students may bring a snack for their morning recess (10:00), as long as it is a healthy snack. I will not allow them to take cookies, candy, or desserts out to recess. Please package morning snacks so that your child can easily spot it in his/her lunch box. Thanks for doing such a great job supporting your child’s learning. Your partnership means so much to me. I am so happy to be working with all of you this year! Thank you for coming to BACK TO SCHOOL NIGHT!
It was so wonderful to meet you, and to see many familiar faces. I am so happy to be working with all of you this year. THANK YOU for all of the school supply donations. I am always amazed to see the great impact we make together when everyone is willing to give. I am looking forward to a great year! Hello, my name is Ms. Novotne, and I am so excited to have your child in my class this year! First grade is such an exciting time of growth and discovery. We are going to have so many wonderful learning adventures together.
BACK TO SCHOOL NIGHT - I can’t wait to meet you and your child! Please come by our classroom anytime between 4:00 - 6:00 p.m., on Monday, August 13th. You can bring your school supplies, meet your marvelous teacher ;) , and let your child get a “sneak peek” at our classroom. This is a great way to help ease any back-to-school jitters. There will be a New Parent Meeting from 4:00 - 4:20 and 6:00 - 6:20 on August 13th, so if you are new to Odyssey, I would encourage you to find out more about our amazing school. FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL - School begins on Wednesday, August 15. Your child will need to bring a backpack, pencil box, and a water bottle. Please be sure that your child knows whether he/she will be ordering a school lunch, or bringing a lunch from home. Our first day together will be an early out day (dismissal at 1:30 p.m.). Enjoy these final days of summer. I look forward to seeing you in a couple of weeks! |
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