August Newsletter Room 302 Monday, August 27, 2018

Dear Parents,

Welcome back to school!

Thank you very much for coming to our Open House and /or Back to School Night last week. It was great to meet and see you all. I am looking forward to working with you this year.

Following are a list of things I spoke about at our Back to School Night:

• About Me (Please find this on my website at montessoribloom.org)
• Importance of having a great relationship with you: This is one of the most important things for our children’s success at school. Our communication is key. Please let me know if you have any questions/concerns. Please email me or chat with me at dismissal. We can set a meeting if needed.
• Some statistics about this year’s students: 24 students total; ten 1st graders, seven 2nd graders, and seven 3rd graders. We have 10 boys and 14 girls
• Daily and Weekly schedule: Please let me know if you would like to see the detail of our schedule. I will send you a copy by email. Our specials are scheduled on Tuesday and Friday mornings from 9:10 to 10:50. We will have computer and library time in the afternoon but do not have the day/time decided yet.
• Children should be in the classroom before 9 O’clock. If they are not in the classroom at 9, they need to go to the office to get “late pass” and he/she will be marked as tardy.
• My class website is finally published!: montessoribloom.org. It only has a little bit of content right now but I will be updating it periodically. I am planning to put pictures of our Montessori materials and their names soon. Let me know if you have any requests for article topics related to Montessori Education. The site is designed to be a resource for parents of Montessori Children in a public school setting. Please check it out! Our newsletters will also be on the website in the near future.
• Homework: Please read with your child daily. We will also send spelling and math fact practice homework. We will start sending them home in September. They will go home on Friday and assignments are due the following Friday.
• We need some volunteers. I will be sending out “Sign up Genius” sign-up opportunities for help with supplies for classroom community snacks and flower arrangement as well as for assistance with class laundry (cleaning of the rags and rugs). Please sign up if you can help us out by bringing snacks, flowers and doing some laundry.
• “Practical Life Exercise” is important for elementary students. In our classroom we have sewing, ironing, preparing snacks, serving tea, sweeping, dusting, washing dishes, washing tables, organizing shelves, washing the sink, etc., but we would like to add “flower arrangement” to the list. This is why we need your help to provide some flowers for the class.
• I have an Amazon account with a “wish list”: Please look for the wish list “Ms. Atsuko’s Room 302” if you desire to help us out with the materials we need in our classroom.
• Field trip volunteers: When we have a field trip, I will email all of you. Please let me know if you can be a chaperon.
• We need empty milk cartons (1 liter). If you have any at home, please rinse it and have your child bring it to school.
• Our Edukit supply list didn’t have colored pencils and we are in need of them! Please have your child bring 2 packages of 12 pencils when you have a chance.
• We have had a great start this year. Each 1st grader has had several lessons already last week, and our 2nd and 3rd graders have been helping me to welcome and to get our 1st graders started. I so appreciate their help. Without their help it is very difficult to start a new year.

Let’s have a wonderful school year together!

Sincerely,

Atsuko O’Keefe