News From the Teacher

Good day parents, 

Friday is my last day, we will be celebrating changes. We will be having a PJ day. Your child can bring their pjs, blanket, and/or pillow. 

This week I will also be assessing all week, therefore your child will not be having ELA homework packet this week. 

Charmaine Cruz

News From the Teacher

Good day parents, 

Some of you may know that I will be leaving Sollars Elementary school for Mendel Elem. in Yokota. I have accepted a position to teach Reading and ESOL. My last day will be on the 19th of Nov. I know it's so quick! I hope this will be an easy transition for the students. 

If you have a student that is in the independent math program, I may have two other 2nd grade teachers that are willing to continue with it. Therefore, I will need you and your child's cooperation. I will teach the teacher while the students will teach the students. So if they are working slower than is expected please reach out to Mrs. Smith or Mrs. Best. This is their first time (for both classes)... It took me 4 years to develop this accelerated program, and they are learning it in a week, therefore please be patient with them. 

My last day, Nov. 19, I will have a fun day with the class. I will celebrating changes! Nothing big, but the students like the pajama day we had couple weeks ago, so I'm thinking of doing the same thing =). Your child does NOT need to bring anything!

Charmaine Cruz

News From the Teacher

Good day parents, 

We had a 100% turn out for parent teacher conferences! Thank you all for coming!

We also had our reading celebration. We will be setting our goals for this quarter, so please try to encourage your child to read every week day! I've already met with some students who have increased in their reading levels! Great Job, parents!

Next week, we will AGAIN have a 3 day! Therefore, we will not have ELA packets the week of Nov. 10 to the 17th. BUT TODAY, your child will be brining home their ELA packet. Please make sure they complete their packet by Wednesday the 10th. I will be assessing their spelling and sight words. 

Charmaine Cruz

News From the Teacher

Good day parents, on Tuesday, Oct. 19, I sent out the Parent Teacher Conference letter. Please check your schedule and return the lower portion of the document. The upper portion is your reminder to keep at home. 

Our RED Reading Log has increased to 30 minutes. Please make sure your child reads every weekday (weekends are not required). Also, today I gave your child their first ELA homework packet. Remember homework will not be graded or collected. It is for your child to practice and for you to know if the content is difficult. The packets can also be worked on over the weekend. I know that doing homework at the end of the day with all the other activities your child and family have can be quite challenging. So please if you cannot do it over the weekday, try to complete them on the weekend. Every 3rd week, we have a unit assessment, and parents always ask, "What do we study?" And I say that if you do the ELA homework, you'll have no problem. In addition, if your child is doing the ELA homework packet, that can count as their reading minutes =). 

On another note, I have emailed parents regarding math homework. If I observed that your child is having a difficult time with math the day of the lesson, I ask that you do practice the homework on that day. Otherwise, they will forget. I'll also try to send the link of the video we watch, so you'll know the content as well. 

Have a great week!

Charmaine Cruz

News From the Teacher

Good day parents, FYI today we're taking our CogAT and Unit 1 Reading assessment. 

Your child should've brought home their math chapter 1 book couple of weeks ago. They will also be bringing home their Benchmark reading book (unit 1). These books are for them to keep. We will not need them. 

I will be sending parent teacher conference sheets next week. Please if you have a preference, let me know (morning or afternoon). 

Have a great week!

Charmaine Cruz

News From the Teacher

Good day parents, you've probably notice your child' Behavior Calendar there's only a few days of school in October. We end the quarter on the 21st, parent teacher conferences are on the 28th, and 29th of October. We might be doing face to face/physical conferences as opposed to virtual. If you'd prefer a virtual please let me know, and I can make some accommodations. I will be waiting for the office to schedule the sibling conferences, before I can start scheduling everyone. If you have a preference (am/pm) please let me know, and I'll try to honor your wishes.

Next week Wednesday, October 13 we will have a computer test called the CogAT. I sent an email last week explaining what it is and what to expect. If you should have any other concerns or question please message Heidi.Lehner@dodea.edu 

Also, if there's changes to the lunch menu, I try to put it on the calendar. The updates come from our admin, and they get it from AAFES. The contact person for pin and other concerns is Ryoko Goodson. His email is goodsonry@aafes.com His contact number is 0176-77-8255 + 7-7452 or 03-4580-0135 + 7-7452. Again, I only put lunch on the calendar if there's a change. 

Have a great week!

Charmaine Cruz

News From the Teacher

Good day parents, today we are doing our virtual open house. It will start at 3:15 and end at 3:50. This is the link to the meeting. It is also on my calendar; meet.google.com/vpk-vhdm-nws 

Hope to see you online to answer any concerns or questions about curriculum and classroom expectations. Again please no personal questions this is a group meeting. 

Charmaine Cruz

News From the Teacher

Good afternoon, this Thursday, Sept.23 will be Chapter 1 math assessment. After chapter 1, I've identify who will be doing independent math. Independent math will start with chapter 2. If you feel your child will benefit from this program/process let me know and we can have a conference. 

Independent math are for students to learning at their pace. I conference with each student twice daily, so just because, it's independent doesn't mean, they are completely on their own. They are responsible for their learning. 

In addition, we should be reading about 20 minutes per day for homework. Next week, I will start giving stickers for RED reading logs if students read 20 minutes. I'm so proud of all our readers! Keep up the reading! 

Have a great week!

Charmaine Cruz

News From the Teacher

Good afternoon, sorry for the late post! They moved the virtual Open House, Sept 29, but since I did not hear from parents, I will not do an open house. If you have questions that my website cannot answer, shoot me an email. 

Don't forget pictures next week! 

Have a great week!

Charmaine Cruz

News From the Teacher

Good morning parents, I hope you enjoyed your wonderful LONG weekend! I did!

Next week, Wednesday, September 15 our school is doing a virtual Open House for PreK-2nd grades. We had a virtual Sneak Peek ( 8/13), and we had a physical walk through (Meet & Greet 8/31), in addition, you have access to my website, which contains all the information you'll need ALL year! If you still want to participate in the virtual Open House please let me know, ASAP. If I don't hear from parents, I'll assume the first two (Virtual Sneak Peek & the Meet & Greet) will suffice! 

Also, fall pictures have been set out today. Our picture day is on the 22nd at 9:40, before lunch and recess. For planning purposes,  I'll post the specific date and time in my Calendar section of my website. 

We'll start our reading logs today. Each student should be reading 15-20 minutes daily. We have been practicing increasing our reading stamina, so by the end of the quarter we should be up to 30 minutes. Please keep the reading logs in your child's Take Home folder, I will check it daily, and place a sticker in their Reading Log when they've read pass 15 minutes. 

Have a great week!

Charmaine Cruz

News From the Teacher

Good morning parents, it was nice to have a wonderful turn out yesterday. I enjoyed seeing families in the hallways again! There's not a lot info this week... I'll be assessing all week. Please make sure your child has a good breakfast and gets a good nights sleep, as it may effect his/her performance. 

For Math homework if your child can do a couple of the problems on the front, they got the skill or strategy of the day... BUT PLEASE PLEASE HAVE THEM complete the spiral review in the back. The spiral review is always a review of skills. This will help with the reteaching. Math homework will start today =) YAH! 

Also, please please please have your child memorize their cafeteria card. We are given 20 minutes to eat our food, but 10 of those minutes are used on students losing their barcode card and the cashier having to look for their name/account on the computer. Then imagine 6 2nd grade classes, and the amount of kids having to go through the line. Therefore, I have my students memorize their number. We practiced all week last week, and I still have a few that don't know it. Thanks!

Have a great week!

Charmaine Cruz