October 29, 2018

First, I want to formally welcome our new Teaching Assistant, Elizabeth Nolan!  I had Elizabeth’s son in my classroom several years ago, and she has been a substitute teacher in our school for many years.  She also led the beautification project in our courtyard . Please welcome her to Room 6!

You have received a nice note of introduction from our student teacher, Carli Sherman, and we have created a link on our web page to her introduction.  See if you can find it!

Carli and I are working on slide shows for you, from our field trip to the Blue Hill Weather Observatory and Harvest Day.  Thanks again for all of the parents who made these such a success! Here are a few pictures in the meantime:

Thanks also to those who worked and purchased books from the book fair last week. It was fantastic! We received several books for the classroom, from parents and using our PTO money.

This week we are having a little harvest-Halloween activity for the kids on Wednesday. More thanks go out to Melissa Ricci and Judy Chan for organizing this, and for everyone who offered to donate items!  Wow it really takes a village!

Also this week we will be deciding on our Student Council members for this year.  Each year 2 students from each classroom get to “represent” our class in a before-school monthly meeting, led this year by Gretchen Knox and Maryanne O’Loughlin.  Parents must agree to bring their child to school by 8am on that day, once per month.  If you agree to do so, please write a note stating this and send it in with your child by this Wednesday, October 31.  Thank you!

Finally, I have so enjoyed meeting with each of you for your child conference. I will be following through on all of the action items we discussed during the next couple of months, and look forward to meeting with you again in the spring. If you have any questions in the meantime please don’t hesitate to contact us.

Deborah Niles, Elizabeth Nolan and Carli Sherman

Fall is in the Air...

Happy Fall-

The leaves are turning and there is that crisp bite to the air- a wonderful time to study weather!  Here is a picture I took on a bike ride last week... Photos are a great way to keep memories alive!

If you ever have trouble viewing this blog, or it switches to a popup, try another browser.  I’ve had trouble with Google Chrome but it works fine with Safari.

Field Trip: Please watch for the notice in your child’s folder tomorrow about what to remember for our field trip.  Just in case, the link is HERE. We were able to find space for all of our chaperones.  Here is the list:

·       Polina Bouriev

·      Andy Sacchetti

·      Melissa Ricci 

·       Ximena Homyak

Monthly Messages:  Hopefully you saw the bright purple folder with your child’s letter last Friday.  We were cut short on time by the fantastic High School Concert!  Please enjoy reading the letter with your child, and use the opportunity to ask questions about their studies.  Eventually they will be edited and polished, but for now we are working on content and detail.  Please write a note back to your child with compliments and questions.

Conferences: I have thoroughly enjoyed the conferences I’ve had so far- and I look forward to yours!  Please check this schedule to make sure you have the correct date & time.

Teaching Assistant:  The office is working on finding a great replacement for Monique Thompson... a tough job for sure!  I will let you know when we have a permanent hire. In the meantime I thought you would enjoy our class picture with her!

Science:  In our study of weather we are making thermometers, experimenting with air, and starting to talk like meteorologists!  Please ask your child to watch or listen to a weather report to learn more!

Reading Shuffle has begun, and your child will be moving twice per week to Reading groups and/or time in the Technology Lab. 

Finally, thank you for sending in the pictures that we assembled onto the covers of our Writing Notebooks.  They provide wonderful topics and inspiration for writing! Please continue helping your child find topics “outside the classroom” for their tiny notebooks. We are writing personal narrative stories- a true account of an adventure, playdate, or anything interesting they do outside of school.

Opting out: Please check this link if you want to restrict your child’s work or photograph from being published.

Please email me with any questions or ideas for our blog. Thank you!

Deborah Niles