September 19, 2025
Happy Homecoming Week! Thank you for making this a fun week for your child and our classroom by being spirited and having your child dress for spirit days. We appreciate all you do to support your child at school!
The football players, cheerleaders, band members and HS super fans came to school today to help us celebrate. See photos!
Please keep sending:
Take Home Folder (please empty it each day!). It is a great way to start a conversation with your child about school.
Water Bottle (that doesn't spill when lid is lifted and tipped....THANKS!)
Snack just one, please make sure it a healthy snack to feed your child's brain
Curriculum
PHONICS...We focused on the short /u/ sound.
READING...We continue to build our "Good Reading Habits". This week we worked on fluency by having kids "scoop the words". Many kids are word by word readers still. SO....in order to break that bad habit, we go back and reread the words in scoops by putting 2-4 words together when we reread a sentence. It is a great trick to use at home too!
We have been focusing on vowels a lot! We learned that when a vowel is closed it will most likely make its short sound in the word. But when it is open, it usually says its name. Ask your child to show you what an open/closed vowel looks like in a one syllable word. (went = closed, the e is stuck......go = open, the o can escape)
WRITING...This week we learned about using capital letters in our sentence writing. We learned that we need to capitalize names, I, days of the week, and months of the year.
MATH... We continue to work with making numbers on our number racks in lots of different ways. We are having great conversations about how we are making those numbers and writing equations to go with them to show the number partners. We have been noticing that addition and subtraction work together to make numbers as we use the same numbers in our equations.
SEL - This week we focused on feelings and emotions. We reviews that we need to notice how we and other people are feeling by looking at faces and bodies. We discussed how our feelings can affect our thoughts and things our brains might say when we are feeling a certain way and talked about using positive self talk.
Important Dates:
Sept. 22 - LIBRARY DAY! We will always have library every Monday, except next week due to pictures. Please send the book back on Sept. 15th.
Sept. 26 - Early Release Friday. Kids are dismissed at 12:15pm. Please let me know if your child needs a sack lunch.
Oct. 3 - Walk-a-thon Day...Thank you for collecting donations to help us provide great experiences for your child at school.
Oct. 10 - Last Home Football Game - our class is invited to join making a tunnel on the field this evening. More details to come as soon as I get them.
Oct. 18 - Alward Fall Fest 5pm-7pm. There will family fun here at school.
Oct. 30 - Classroom Celebration - I will send out a sign up in early October for donations and volunteers.
Oct. 31 - NO SCHOOL
September 12, 2025
Well, the weather has warmed up again. You just never know what Michigan weather will bring. Thank you for sending in water bottles every day to help your child stay cool and hydrated.
Please keep sending:
Take Home Folder (please empty it each day!). It is a great way to start a conversation with your child about school.
Water Bottle (that doesn't spill when lid is lifted and tipped....THANKS!)
Snack just one, please make sure it a healthy snack to feed your child's brain
Curriculum
PHONICS...We focused on the short /o/ sound.
READING...This week we learned that "Good Readers have Good Habits". We learned that we should take a sneak peek at the title, front/back covers, and pictures to predict what the book will be about. Then we check our sneak peek by reading the book. We can reread books to find our favorite part. And how to use a reading mat to keep us reading.
WRITING...We continue to work on penmanship with letters and numbers. We are working on the size of the letters, as well as remembering to start at the top to make our writing easy to read. I love penmanship time because we are also reviewing letters/sounds, blending, and reading words.
MATH...We continued practicing solving problems with our number racks. We have been working on how to figure out number stories by asking what information do we know and what are we trying to find out. It is so much fun to hear all of the different ways kids are putting numbers together to get the correct answers. We have been working on how to play dominoes during workplaces. It would be a great game to play at home too!
This week we focused on writing our class charter for SEL. We talked about how we wanted to feel and make others feel in our classroom. We brainstormed things we can do to make people feel that way and wrote our charter. A charter is like a promise because we all sign it saying we will do our best to do those things. (See Photos)
Important Dates:
Sept. 15 - LIBRARY DAY! We will always have library every Monday, except next week due to pictures. Please send the book back on Sept. 15th.
Sept. 18 - Skating Party at Tarry Hall from 6:15 - 8:15pm
Sept. 26 - Early Release Friday. Kids are dismissed at 12:15pm. Please let me know if your child needs a sack lunch.
Oct. 3 - Walk-a-thon Day...We hope that you have been willing to help us collect donations for our school so we can provide the kids with the best educational experiences. Here is the link for you to check it out!
https://www.getmovinfundhub.com/event-webpage/68b087e21c1804.93899774
September 5, 2025
We made it through another 4 day week of learning. The kids seemed really excited on Friday about it being the end of the week. You could feel it in the air!
Please keep sending:
Take Home Folder (please empty it each day!). It is a great way to start a conversation with your child about school.
Water Bottle (that doesn't spill when lid is lifted and tipped....THANKS!)
Curriculum
PHONICS...We focused on the short /i/ sound.
READING...This week we reviewed the skills for being a book lover and how to take care of books. We learned about picking "just right books" using the five finger rule. We practiced shopping for books using that rule. And then we learned about what we do to show we are independent readers (pick a book, stay in one spot, read quietly without disturbing others, and read the whole time). The kids practiced reading their just right books for 10 minutes today. I was so impressed! There are photos on the photos page.
WRITING...We continue to work on handwriting skills. We have been working hard to get our letters the right size on penmanship lines and we are trying to remember to start at the top. I have taught the kids to use "self-talk" to remind them of the strokes we make. If they can learn this, reversals will start to disappear!
MATH...We learned about number racks this week and how to use them. On Monday, we made them using beads and pipe cleaners. See if your child can describe it to you! We then used the racks to make number partners. We practiced writing number sentences whole group. We discussed what we noticed and saw among the partners. Examples: addition: they all equal the same number or there are some with the same numbers in them.
We continue to work on SOARing expectations. We are ROCKing most of them! The one that we are having the hardest time with is keeping our voice quiet when someone else is talking. It is a great skill to work on at home. We read the book Interrupting Chicken to remind the class that it is impolite to do it. Now we are working on putting it into practice. Please practice at home too.
Important Dates:
Sept. 8 - School Pictures....please send back the portion of the paper with the QR code. We need it for pictures!
Sept. 15 - LIBRARY DAY! We will always have library every Monday, except next week due to pictures. Please send the book back on Sept. 15th.
Sept. 18 - Skating Party at Tarry Hall from 6:15 - 8:15pm
Sept. 26 - Early Release Friday. Kids are dismissed at 12:15pm. Please let me know if your child needs a sack lunch.
Oct. 3 - Walk-a-thon Fundraiser. Information will be coming soon!
August 28, 2025
Welcome to our first official newsletter of the school year! We have now been in school for 6 days and we are working hard on getting to know each other so we can be a classroom community that shows kindness, works together, and solves problems with respect.
Please keep sending:
Take Home Folder (empty each day too!)
Water Bottle (no spill...even when the lid is lifted. We have had HUGE puddles on tables/papers/carpet due to water bottles this week...please send a water bottle that doesn't spill when lid is lifted and tipped....THANKS!)
Curriculum
PHONICS...We focused on the short /a/ sound.
READING...We have read lots of book about how to be a friend and friendship skills. We had lots of great discussions and did some activities to go along with them. And we were WILD ABOUT BOOKS! Thank you for sending in your child's favorite book to share with the class. We now have lots of great ideas for books we might like to read.
WRITING...We have been working on handwriting skills this week and reviewing how we make the letters the "school way"...you've got to start most letters at the top. We reviewed pencil grips and are learning to use our "self-talk" when writing to help us form the letters correctly. Example: lower case t....tall down, cross.
MATH...we began our first lessons of Bridges. We worked with "Helping Hands" this week for our lessons. We talked about how we help at home. We graphed our answers and compared our answers using the words most/fewer/fewest. We learned about quilts and the patterns that they have. We made a quilt with our helping hands. We review the attributes of a square, as our quilt is made of squares. We learned that quilts are made in rows of patterns and used our helping hands to make the quilt. Then we counted how many fingers were on the quilt. We counted by 5's as a helping hand has five fingers and made it to 105! Twenty kids plus one teacher. I am so impressed and amazed with their math talk and knowledge!
We also reviewed SOARing expectations. What they look like. What they sound like. And we have begun SOARing at school!
I am super excited to continue to work with your child, as well as you! Wishing you a joyful and blessed holiday weekend!
PS...I added a few photos. Please know it is hard to take pictures while teaching, but I will try to do my best!
If you ever have any questions, please reach out to me hlepard@hpseagles.net