Dear Kindergarten Families                                                              Wednesday, September 3, 2025.

             Welcome back to another year to returning students and welcome to those brand new to Stoney Creek and our year 1 students. This note is just to give you some background information about the class this year, our schedule and some supplies you can send in for your chid or class. I am the classroom teacher, Chris Aris. I have worked at Stoney Creek for the last 14 years and this is my fifth year teaching Kindergarten. I taught Grade 1 prior to that here at Stoney Creek and this is my 28th year teaching. Our Early Childhood Educator (ECE) this year working in the class is Mrs. Jennifer Peterson. She has worked at Stoney Creek since it opened 15 years ago and has many years experience working with Early Years aged children. Currently, we are sitting at 24 students in the classroom, 15 boys, 9 girls, and 13 Year 1 (JK) students and 11 year 2 (SK) students.

Timetable:

             The school day begins at 9am and your child will be dropped off and picked up at the same gate on the side of the school in the front play yard and checked in by Mrs. Peterson or myself. There are two breaks during the day. The first one is 40 minutes from 10:40-11:20 and the second one is from 1:20-2:10. The kids are outside for the first half of each break and eat the second half. Hands are washed frequently: after coming in for the morning, before going outside at 10:40, before lunch, after lunch, before the second recess, when they come back in to eat, and after they eat. Of course, other times as well, but those are the “set” times. I have included a copy of our timetable so you can see what days we have library, gym, etc. The day of the cycle matches up with the school year calendar sent home on firm cardstock.

Supplies:

Please make sure your child has:

·         indoor shoes

·         a change of clothes in case of an accident or clothes that get wet from outdoor education

·         backpack

·         hand sanitizer

·         box of tissues

If families wish, they could also send in a pack of white board markers (usually sold in a 3 pack (or small ones in a 6 pack, multi-coloured), that would be amazing. We go through these quickly in Kindergarten.

Ask Me Questions:

             Each week on the Friday before the next week, I send home “Ask Me” questions. They are just simple, basic questions about something that we did during the day. It encourages the students to think about their day outside of school and get dialogue going between home and school. These questions are to be done orally for the most part and meant to be fun and simple.

Contacting Mrs. Peterson and Mr. Aris:

             Please come see me or talk with me at any time. If you would like an appointment to come in and chat, please text me 226-559-2461. That is the easiest and quickest way to get in contact with me. When you text me, can you also email Mrs. Peterson at jennifer.peterson@tvdsb.ca just so that she is in the loop. My email is c.aris@tvdsb.ca You can also email me, but if you do, if you could let me know in a text so that I can get back to you promptly as I don’t check my email daily.

Class supplies:

If parents could send in a box of tissues, that would be great. We get 1 box per term from the school, so as you could imagine, that does not go very far.

Class Web Site:

All information I send home I put on the web site. It’s a great place if you want to check if something I sent home was missed, as well as a place that provides links to games, activities and curriculum taught in FDK. Please ignore that it says “grade 1” in the link. I can’t change that from when I taught it.

https://sites.google.com/gotvdsb.ca/chrisarisgrade1/home

This week/month

For the first three days this week and next, we will be spending a lot of time getting the kids adjusted to school and reviewing routines/procedures. Then, we will start looking at the alphabet, the fact there are 26 letters in the English alphabet and the first 5 letters, and the sounds the letters make. In math, our focus is around the numbers 1-5, with a focus first on the number one. More to come soon…