Holiday Reward

Hello Everyone,

I wanted to write a quick post to tell you all how proud I am of my class for having such great behavior when Mr. Philpot was here. They worked tremendously hard to make good choices and really rose to the occasion! I had several colleagues looking out for them while I was away and they all mentioned today how wonderful they did! You should be proud of your student for helping with this work!

As a reward I would like to hold a Pajama Day and a movie afternoon on Friday. This will be in lieu of a holiday "food" party and will be a day for us to relax and reflect on the year so far. I'll show a holiday movie after lunch and we may play a few team building games in the morning.

I spoke with the kids this morning and told them they can wear their favorite pajamas (please make sure they are winter appropriate) and slippers (they will need shoes for the hallways). Only students who have chosen to bring a "fluffy friend" as their reward should have stuffed animals that day. They will know who they are and have received a "fluffy friend" coupon for this.

If you have any questions about Friday please let me know!

Beth Earle

Dec. 12-Dec. 14 Update

Hi Everyone,

I hope this season finds you all well. I just wanted to let you all know that I need to be away from school this Wednesday through Friday (Dec. 12-14) and will have Mr. Philpot subbing for me all three days. He is a retired teacher from WPS and has many years experience teaching third grade. I am confident he will have things well under control. If you could please remind your student each day to be helpful to Mr. Philpot, that would be great!
If you have concerns that need to be addressed before I return please contact our A House Leader, Becky Miller.
Also, if you normally email me regarding dismissal, please either call the office or send a note to Mr. Philpot. Thanks!


Also, a few reminders for the coming weeks:

Please remind your child that the weather is quite unpredictable this season and they need to be prepared for cold weather every day. Some kids are still coming in with only sweatshirts. As the temperatures drop, they need to be prepared.

The annual holiday concert is next Monday, Dec. 17th at 9am at the high school auditorium. Be sure to have your child to school on time that day so we will have time to check in before walking up.

Late start days have been confusing for breakfast eaters. Our school does not serve breakfast on late start days. Please help your child by either sending an extra snack that morning or by having them eat at home.

For those who have children who attend SACC, please communicate changes in your child's schedule with the SACC program.  I do not come into contact with them during the day and they are not part of our school programming. It's confusing for them and for me when I get calls from the office wondering where your child is. I know it's one more thing to remember, but it will help things run more smoothly here at school. Thanks for your help with this!

Have a wonderful holiday season!

Beth Earle

Dates to remember

Hello Everyone,

I have a few dates for you to put on your calendar.

The A House Holiday Concert will be held at 9am on Monday, December 17th in the High School Performing Arts Center. Orange sheets are coming home today with the information and slips to purchase DVDs of the performance.

The A House Chorus will be going on a field trip next week on Tuesday, December 11th from 10:30-11:30.  They will be singing for the elderly at Ledgewood Manor. A teal permission slip is coming home today with students who are in chorus. Please return them before next Tuesday so your child can go on this fun trip.

Report cards went home yesterday. Please check backpacks if you haven't seen your child's yet.


These next few weeks will be very busy here at school (and at your homes, I'm sure). I've had a few students out sick this week. Please remind your child to keep washing hands so we can keep the germs away! Thanks for the help!

Beth Earle

Conferences are coming!

Conferences will be held on Nov. 28th this year. They will be in a centers format. You will be here for 45min from beginning to end and will rotate through 3 centers.

Follow the link to access the website to reserve your conference.

http://www.ptcfast.com/schools/Windham_Primary_School_1

Please try and reserve the evening times for parents who are unable to attend during the afternoon.

Please remember, we will be using the entire room for conferences, so please try and arrange childcare for siblings. The hallway outside our room will be unsupervised, but available space. I look forward to having your child share their learning with you. Thank you!

Beth Earle

Safe, Respectful and Responsible Choices

Dear Families,

I wanted to write today to update everyone on a conversation I had with my class today. On the way back from lunch, as I entered my room, someone ran up to me to report that a classmate had pushed them in the closet area. This is a complaint that has come up time and time again in the last few weeks. Each time I have addressed it with the class and taken steps to see that it doesn't happen again. Unfortunately it keeps happening. Most often it's some sort of accident caused by students rushing to hang things up.
Today I got quite sharp with them and we had a serious conversation about why it keeps happening. I am now expecting that when an accidental "bumping into" happens, the first thing they need to do is apologize. If they do not realize they've bumped someone, then the person who got bumped needs to make the bumper aware so they can apologize.
My next step is to practice how we use the closet area during their recess time. I am not in favor of doing this, but we are using up way too much learning time processing these incidents and they just keep happening.

Please support me at home by talking to your student about their part in a solution to this problem by reminding them to be patient and wait outside the closet area if it's full and to help solve problems among their peers.

Thank you in advance for your help with this matter.

Beth

Smencil Sales Are Back!!

We will be selling Smencils again this year for $1.00 each. They will be sold from 8-8:30 on the first Friday of every month. Mrs. Whidden will be in charge of sales for our wing. I can accept money from students starting tomorrow and will keep a list of which scents they want. On Thursday afternoon I can purchase them from Mrs. Whidden and hand them out on Friday morning. The other option is to send money in on Friday and students can wait in line for them.

Lots of Updates and Dates to Remember

Hi Everyone,

I'm sorry I've been out of touch, but I've been fighting a nasty cold! This sure is the time of year for getting sick. Several students in my room have missed a day or more of school due to this bug. As a general reminder, please make every possible effort to have your child in school when they are not sick. It is really difficult to fully catch students up when they miss school and it's very important for them to have regular attendance. If your child needs to be absent due to illness please make every effort to let the school know via our email at wpsabsent@rsu14.org or call the office. You can also cc: me when emailing to give me a heads up as well. Please be sure to indicate why your student won't be at school with specifics (ex: sick with a temperature and vomiting) so we can accurately update our attendance records.

We have begun our annual safety drills here at school and my class is doing a great job taking them seriously and serving as wonderful role models for our younger students. We will have several safety drills over the course of this year. Let me know if you have questions about how we do them here.

Please make sure your emergency records are updated throughout the year. If you move, change jobs, change phone numbers for any reason, or need to update emergency providers for your child, please let us know so we can update our system.

We have conducted several assessments this fall. All students in third grade have taken 2 short math assessments--one to check automaticity with computation and one to check which math concepts they understand. We have taken a short reading assessment which assesses reading comprehension based on third grade level reading. All second and third grade students have also taken the math and reading NWEA assessment which is computerized. I will share scores of all of these assessments at conferences this fall.

***DATES TO REMEMBER***

 

 

Please turn in any FUNDRAISER paperwork this week. The fundraiser ended last week and we need any orders ASAP.

 



Picture Day is on Wednesday October 3 at 9:20. Please try and have your child at school that day so they can have their picture taken for our class composite. NEW THIS YEAR: Only families that purchase photos will receive a class composite photo. If you have questions please call Lifetouch at

1-800-287-4667.

 

Third Grade NECAP Assessment will begin on Wednesday October 10 and will continue daily through October 17. More information will be coming soon about this assessment. Please make every effort to be sure your student is in school on those days.

 

 

 



Dear Families,

We will be taking our fall NWEA assessments this Friday and next Thursday (Sept. 13). Please be sure to have your student here and ready for testing on those days. I will allow students to chew gum for assessments this year. If you would prefer that your child not chew gum, then please send me a note. You may send them with some sugar free candy if that is preferable. I have a few packs of Trident for tomorrow, but am always looking for sugar free gum donations!
We will view a power point discussing the NWEA assessment today. Please encourage your student to do their best!

Thanks,

Beth

First Day of School Letter

Here's a letter that should have gone home with students today. We have been blessed with lots of new technology this year, but unfortunately we have run into some snags and time constraints to get it all working properly for the first day. I will have this printed and sent home on Wednesday, but wanted to send it out to anyone who may have already subscribed.
Also, I apologize, but the web address for the blog had one tiny error and was missing a dot between class and blogspot. The correct site is listed below. Sorry for any inconvenience!
Beth

Tuesday, August 28, 2012

Dear Parents,

Welcome to third grade! I am very excited for the upcoming school year. It was exciting to have all the students here today. There are so many things to tell you.  I am sure a lot more information will come home over the next few weeks.  Feel free at any time to contact me with any questions or concerns. This letter will also be posted to my blog for future reference. If you haven’t already started following it, please go to http://mrsearlesclass.blogspot.com/ and sign up. This is where I will do updates and newsletter type information. By signing up, you will get an email letting you know whenever I post something new so you won’t miss anything.

Students will be participating in music (Mondays), physical education (Tuesdays), and art (Fridays) this year.  Third grade students will not have an assigned library time this year. They will have open times to go to the library to take out or return books. They can bring their books back as soon as they finish them. As soon as possible, they will be able to go down, turn in their book and get a new one if they’d like. We will also be going to the computer lab on Thursdays (per availability).

I will send home the healthy working snack letter later in the week. As you are planning your child’s snacks please try and focus on finger foods that will nourish their brains.

Students do not pay for breakfast or lunch directly.  They simply enter a pin number. “Lunch money” can be sent in at any time and I will get it to the right people. You may also pay online through the lunch program. Information about this is on our website. Please note lunch costs $2.30 and breakfast costs $1.00. Snack milk costs $.50.

Student will be receiving a homework folder from me on the first day of school unless you have sent one in for them. This folder should go home each night and come back to school each morning. Please make it a habit to look at the folder nightly with your child as any important papers will be in there. Students will have homework nightly. They will be expected to read nightly, as well as complete a math paper (which will come home at the beginning of the week in a packet. They will have spelling words weekly and suggested activities to complete to learn the words. However, they will not have required spelling homework to be passed in. As school gets up and running, more information will come about homework.

Please make sure your child arrives at school on time each day.  Students will be marked tardy if they arrive at school after 8:20. Breakfast is available each day.  Dismissal begins at 2:40 and is done by 3:15, except for early dismissal on Wednesdays. Please make sure your child and I know how your child is getting home each day. There should be a regular dismissal schedule (the same bus, SACC, pickup). Some parents find it helpful to send a note each week letting me know of the dismissal plan for the week, especially if it changes often. Also, if your child has a set schedule feel free to send a note telling me that each week they will be picked up on a certain day. I will have a weekly chart for who will be picked up. If there are dismissal changes, you need to send a note or email to me as soon as possible. No dismissal changes will be made without a note, email or phone call from a parent. If it is after noon, please also email or call the office. When emailing the office, please send the email to both Martha Vance (mvance@rsu14.org ) and Tanda Butts (tbutts@rsu14.org).  Also, if someone other than a legal guardian is going to pick up a child, please be sure the school has them on an approved list. Martha and Tanda can help you with that as well.

I look forward to working with you and your child. My hope is that the lines of communication are always open between us. Please feel free to contact me with any questions, concerns, comments, etc.  Working together, openly, ensures success for all students.

 

Sincerely,

 

Mrs. Beth Earle

Specials Schedule

Here's a schedule for our specials for the 2012-2013 school year:

Mrs. Earle’s Class Specials Schedule

Monday—Music with Mr. Oehrtmann 9:25-10:05

Tuesday—Phys. Ed. With Mrs. Turkington 9:25-10:05

Wednesday—

Thursday—

Friday—Art with Ms. Wright 9:25-10:05

I'll be adding computer lab to our schedule after the schedule has been made. Library will be a bit different this year. Students will have access to go exchange books at some point during the week. I'm waiting for a few details before posting more.

~Beth Earle

Welcome to Third Grade

Dear Students and Families,

Welcome to Third Grade! This is my first blog experience so please bear while I learn all there is about blogging.

I plan to use this blog to update you with important school information as well as things going on in our class this year. I may not post weekly, but if you subscribe to the blog you can get a notification when it's updated.

I will use this format, instead of sending home paper reminders, as much as possible in an effort to go green.

My email address is bearle@rsu14.org and I can be reached at 892-1840 where you can leave a message with the secretaries and I will get back to you as soon as possible
Mrs. Beth Earle