Upcoming Dates:

• Monday, Aug. 30 – Music
• Tuesday, Aug. 31 – PE
• Wednesday, September 1 – Art
• Thursday, September 2 – STEAM
  • First Grade Family Time- we will celebrate any lost teeth, highlight students who have had birthdays, and talk about our quote of the week: “The only way to have a friend is to be one.”
• NO SCHOOL Friday, September 3 – Monday, September 6
• Friday, September 3 – All About Me assignment due
• Tuesday, September 7 – Music
  

WOW! What an amazing first week! These first graders are ROCKSTARS and have worked so hard this week. Check out what we’ve learned so far:

OUR LEARNING:

Morning Routine – We are practicing using our lockers, taking care of our blue folders, and starting our morning on the right foot. Here is a picture of your child’s morning routine here at school.

Soft Start – No one likes to get right to the hardest jobs when we arrive to work in the morning! It’s helpful for our students to ease into the school day, too, by relaxing when they arrive. “Soft Start” is a time when students can chat with their friends, do a calm activity, and prepare for the day in a non-stressful way. We got to practice lots of soft start choices this week: coloring, play-doh, whiteboards, and more.

Classroom Rules – We have four important rules in our first-grade classroom. This week, we have been practicing what each rule looks like and sounds like! Following these expectations helps our classroom be a safer and more loving place where everyone can learn. At HPS we work to SOAR!

Scoreboard – Mrs. Kuiper loves playing games at school! Our class plays the scoreboard game every single day. Students want to earn “Speedy Wolf” points so they can race toward the finish line! But, we earn “Slow Turtle” points when we are not following classroom rules, because it slows down our classroom learning. At the end of the day, if our class earns more “Speedy Wolf” points, we get a STAR! 10 stars = a class reward (we are working towards an extra recess for our first reward).

Notes for Parents:

• [embeddoc url=”https://emilykuiper.edublogs.org/files/2021/08/All-About-Me-Assignment.pdf” download=”all” viewer=”google” ]
• Please send in one snack for your child each day. It works wonderfully if these snacks are in a spot in their backpack and not in their lunchbox; this saves first graders any confusion about what they should be eating for snacks and lunches! 🙂
• If you would like to see photos of our learning each week, please make an Instagram account and follow our private class page @mrs.kuipers.class.21.22.
• Our first Scholastic Book Clubs order was sent home in blue folders today! To order please visit scholastic.com/bookclubs and enter our class code VVFCP. Orders are due by Friday, September 24th!

Normally, I will post on Fridays to let you know of the week ahead.  I hope you and your child(ren) were able to relax and enjoy some time outside this weekend. I am excited for our first full day.  They are truly amazing to me!

Take care,

Mrs. Kuiper