Welcome to First Grade

I am so excited for this year, and I am thrilled to be your child’s teacher.  Above all else, we at Vanderlyn want learning to be fun. My personal goal is to create an environment that will showcase the endless potential of your child – from where they are today to all the magical, infinite potential they hold inside.   

The first few weeks of school we will focus on getting to know each other and building a strong classroom community. Some of our first grade goals are to strengthen our reading and writing skills, become pros at basic math skills like addition and subtraction, and learn more about our communities and the world around us. Students will be taught through whole group instruction, small group instruction, through their peers and independently. We take pride in incorporating and extending learning through hands-on projects and thematic units – look for market days, space exploration, fairy tale adventures, and more.  

My expectation for your child is simple: to be brave and be kind.

With that in mind, I have themed my class and our classroom around my very favorite children’s book called Maybe by Kobi Yamada. It’s a story about the endless potential in all of us. The book explores the question of ‘why am I here’ and reminds us of our uniqueness and abilities to exceed our wildest dreams. 

My favorite line from the book is, “The world has been waiting centuries for someone exactly like you.”

I have been waiting for your exact child – for this exact year, in this exact school, at this exact time.

Thank you for sharing your child with me.  I will do my very best to guide them on this crazy adventure called first grade.  It is an honor and a privilege.  

Ms. Jennifer Dempsey