Reminders & Classroom News

January 8th: No School (Teacher Work Day)

January 9th: School begins again! 🏫

January 10th: Spelling Bee practice (7:55 a.m. in Mrs. Peter's room)

January 12th: Spelling Bee (8:50 a.m. in gym) 🐝

January 15th: No School (MLK Jr. Holiday)

January 16-19: No bus route for bus route 63 🚍

January 19th: PTO meeting in library (8:30 a.m.)

January 30th-February 1st: Spring Conferences

Supply Replenishment

It's that time of year to replenish your child's school supplies! We are in need of the following classroom items, if you wouldn't mind bringing them in:

paper towels, tissues, Flair pens (any and every color), highlighters (any color), Post-it notes, Ziploc bags (any size).

Also, check with your child if they have the following to use for personal use. Many are missing certain items:

markers, colored pencils, WORKING headphones (we need these for CMAS), eraser, scissors.

If you would also like to donate items off of our classroom Wish List, please check it out! Thank you so much!

Parking Lot Changes!!!

Law enforcement has reached out to let us know that they have had numerous complaints come in from both families and staff concerning traffic laws being broken during drop off and pick up at Heritage. They are seeing drivers parking on the crosswalks, running stop signs, and parking where prohibited.

We want to be proactive in letting you know that, going forward, law enforcement has said they will begin ticketing drivers as their first priority is the safety and security of our students. This is out of our control as traffic laws are being broken.

Concerns during school pick up and drop off is not just a Heritage problem - it happens at many schools when patience is tested and tempers can flare. Please remember that pick up and drop off takes time. In reality, all families should be planning for the whole process to take 10-15 minutes in the morning and in the afternoon.

We also ask that you show kindness to our staff who monitor student safety. Please no swearing or inappropriate hand gestures towards them as they are just doing their job, which is focused on keeping all of our students safe.

Reminders:

There is a no parking zone going east on Summit View before the entrance to the parking lot as this is a moving drop off lane.
Parents should remain in their vehicles at all times while in the drop off line. If your student needs help getting out of the car, please park in the parking lot.
No stopping on the crosswalk entering Heritage’s parking lot.
No parking on Astorbrook going south at the posted “No Parking” signs.

New Traffic Pattern after Break:

Please adhere to the one way lanes within the parking lot.
There will now be 2 lanes entering the Heritage parking lot. The left lane will be a turn only lane to enter the parking lot. The right lane will only be used for our loading and unloading area.
Please be sure to kindly merge using the “zipper” method of every other car as you progress through the parking lot.

Spring Conferences

Tuesday, January 30th through Thursday, February 1st will be our Spring Conferences. Please know these are MANDATORY, as we will be discussing your child's academic and social progress this year. I will be emailing a sign up form on Tuesday, January 16th. If you are unable to meet during the available sign up times, please notify me and I will schedule a time that does work for your family. Thank you!

WHat we are Learning

These next few weeks, we will be answering the question, "What can learning about different cultures teach us?" as we explore the genre of realistic fiction. We will continue to explore theme as well as summarizing what we read.

To continue in our narrative writing unit, we will be writing Fan Fiction! The students will be given the beginning of a story and will come up with the ending, using descriptions, dialogue and action. These should be exciting to read!

We continue our work in adding and subtracting fractions. This next week, we will be using mixed numbers in our addition and subtraction. This may throw some confusion into the mix, since there are so many steps to remember! Here's a helpful video that your child can watch and remember how to convert improper fractions to mixed numbers.

We have begun our study in the Age of Exploration. In this unit, we will be meeting European explorers, learning about the technology that went into exploring, which routes they took, how they interacted with the Native Americans, the Atlantic Slave Trade and the Columbian Exchange. We will be participating in a lot of fun activities throughout this unit!