McLellan

Week of:  August 30- September 3

Theme for Literature:  “We Are Special”

Story of the week: “Jazz Baby”

Letters of the week: s,t,u,v,w,x,y,z

Word of the week: Review: I, Can

Math: numerals 0-5

Activity schedule: Mon. Music/Tues. Art/Wed. Media/Thurs. PE/Fri. Music

 

Parent lunch procedures have changed

Please note that our new lunch time is 11:52-12:20.  Also, parents are welcome to eat lunch with their child but due to limited seating must take their child to the lobby area to eat.  Parents will no longer be allowed to eat in the cafeteria with their child due to seating being reduced to provide room for our new classes.

Color Parade

This is our last week of the color parade. Thank you to the parents who helped their child participate in the color of the day. The last weeks’ colors are listed below and will continue through Friday, September 3rd.  We are focusing on colors, recognition of the color word, and several activities that highlight the color of the day.  Please have your child wear something that is the color of the day.  Each Friday is Manatee shirt day so if you have a Manatee shirt, please have your child wear it on Fridays.

Mon. 30	white
Tues. 31	pink
Wed. 1	grey
Thurs. 2	Your favorite color shirt
	Fri. 3 Manatee shirt day

FAIR testing

All students participated in FAIR testing this week. The testing was done in the classroom by the teacher. Parents will be receiving a letter soon (probably in next week’s Friday folder) that will provide you with information as to what skill areas were tested as well as your child’s score in each area. The information will also give suggestions for assisting your child in reviewing the skills at home.

 

Book Boxes Needed

Each child will need to bring in an empty cereal box for a reading project.  It will be more meaningful if it is their favorite cereal (box). We will also be completing a graph on the different varieties of cereal (boxes).  These boxes will then become your child’s storage space for their own personal reading books. Please send in a cereal box with your child as soon as the cereal is gone!

 

Scholastic

Online orders were closed yesterday and paper orders were due in today. I will be placing the order today and the books should arrive within the next 2 weeks. I try to provide the opportunity to order scholastic books every other month. The next Scholastic order form will come home in October. Please hold onto the document that was in last week’s Friday folder.  It has the activation code for ordering online as well as explaining the process of online ordering. This is a win-win situation for everyone since the class earns free books by ordering both online and by paper submission and the child ordering can build their own personal home library. Thanks for helping us build our classroom library by ordering books so that we can earn free books.

 

Class Size Amendment

Due to the class size amendment, our class, starting on Monday has been reduced to 18 students and we are now in compliance with the state. We will miss our 2 “kinderfriends” that have joined a new class but we will see them at activity, lunch, SPE and for all other kindergarten activities. 

Box Tops, Campbell Soup Labels, Capri Sun Pouches & Pop Tops

Manatee is collecting General Mills box tops and the UPC label from Campbell soup labels all year long as well as Capri Sun pouches.   This is a great, easy way that you can help our PTO fund requests for classroom materials and manipulative request from teachers. Clipping these items will only cost you minimal time and effort. We are also collecting pop top tabs as we support the Ronald McDonald house through tab donations. Send the items in ziplock with McLellan’s name written on the outside of the bag. Please separate the items in to alike bags since they are placed in different locations. Thanks for helping out our PTO by clipping boxtops, campbells upc labels, sending in Capri sun pouches without the straw and pop-tops. I have even heard that the upc from goldfish packaging is also being collected…..

 

Behavior “color choices” plan

We began implementing our color choices behavior plan this past Monday and the majority of the students have made fantastic choices. At this point, the warnings are being given and better choices are being made.  After a short grace period (for getting use to this new system) the warnings will become fewer as responsibility will be a part of the growing independent process.  If you are unaware of the color choice plan, the information was included one of the latest Friday folder’s.  Please remember that there was a form at the end of the explanation letter that needs to be detached, signed and returned in the folder on Monday. If you have any further questions about the plan, feel free to contact me.

 

Entertainment Book fundraiser

If you have or have not sold any entertainment books, please return the order information as soon as possible. All orders and/or books are due by Sept. 7^th.  All envelopes and entertainment books must be returned unless you are sending in payment for the one that was sent home with your child and you are keeping it.

 

 

Please Please Please…Very Important…Transportation Information

It is very important that the end of the day runs smoothly for me to get the students home by way of correct transportation mode.  It is school policy that any change to the normal transportation procedure must be written.  This is school policy in which I will follow completely for your child’s safety.  You can email or call me as a heads up but I will still need you to write me a note so that I can attach it to the transportation clipboard.  If I have a sub, the phone messages and emails are not accessible to a sub. Please, Please, Please, if you need to make any changes to your child’s pick up, it  HAS to be in writing.  Even if someone else is picking up your child from the car loop, (unless it is a regular basis situation) I will need to have the pick-up change in writing. Thank-you so much for your understanding in this important matter.  Bus information: Kindergarteners who ride the bus are tagged in the classroom and are escorted to the bus by an assigned safety patrol specific to our classroom. There are also adult staff members walking with them as well.  Each bus has been assigned a color and each bus has a patrol that stands by the bus with that color flag as well as the number of the bus listed on it.  Bus drivers check the students tag as they get on the bus at the school. Also, it is district policy that kindergarten students will not be left at the bus stop unless the person that has been approved and listed on their tag is present.  If the approved pick-up person is not present at the bus stop, the student will then be brought back to the school and the parent will be called.

 I will say that the majority of the afternoon dismissals have run pretty smoothly. The only 2 areas that need some extra attention are…..first, all changes in transportation other than what you have listed and signed on the yellow verification sheet HAVE TO BE IN WRITING and the second area is that if it is raining at 2:00, then it is a rainy day plan, if it stops at 2:10, we have already gone into our rainy day grouping and will continue in that

mode for the remainder of dismissal.

 

Chick-Fil-a night

Thanks to all of the families who came out to support Manatee’s Chick-Fil-A night on Thursday evening.  I worked late at school and went by a little after 6 in the drive thru and it looked like a packed crowd inside. I wish I could have joined in on the fun but I had another commitment at 6:30 so it was a “eat supper in the car” night……..and yes, I got my peach milkshake. I am telling you, if you have not tried one, you do not know what you are missing. Thanks again for supporting Manatee Elementary by participating in our Chick-Fil-A night.

 

Previous Reminders

Birthdays

If your child is having a birthday during the school year, the policy for our classroom is… if you would like to bring in a birthday snack for your child to share with their classmates, I would like to request that you drop it off first thing in the morning and I will work it into our daily schedule depending on our activities for that day.  Our birthday celebration will be a very low key event. Sometime during the day, we will sing the birthday song, share the birthday snack and then I present the birthday student with a small token such as a hat, pencil or certificate.  Please do not send in treat bags or anything extra, save that for your own party, just a birthday snack will suffice. Some of the suggested birthday snacks include but are not limited to muffins, fruit salad or kabobs, cookies, doughnuts, cupcakes, etc. or even your child’s favorite snack.  The birthday snack choice is totally up to you and your child.      

In case you are wondering, since I do not have a specific time when I will work the birthday snack into our day due to our schedule and daily activities changing, I will take a picture of your child with their birthday snack. That way, you will not miss a thing and it will be available for their scrap book.

If you are planning a party outside of school and would like to send invitations to classmates, please send them in before Friday so that they can discreetly be placed in the Friday folders. I will not allow the students to pass out birthday invitations during school to keep it fair for everyone. The main goal is to recognize the birthday but keep it as low key as possible so you can have the proper celebration outside of school. If you have any further questions, please do not hesitate to ask.

 

*My phone extension is #5308.  If you call during the day, you will reach my voice mail.  Please leave a message and I will get back to you as soon as possible.  If it is an emergency, please call the front office and they will relay the message.  I can also be reached by e-mail:  mclellanc@brevardschools.org

Please feel free to contact me with any questions, concerns, or compliments.

 

*Sneakers are the preferred shoes at Manatee Elem.  We will be going outside each day for supplemental PE.  It is very important that your child wears safe and comfortable shoes that can get dirty.  Please assist your child in selecting and wearing safe shoes for school.

 

*Please send in a snack each day for your child.  We have a water fountain in the classroom so sending in a drink during snack time is not necessary.

 

* Each student will need to bring in an old shirt with sleeves covering the elbow or art smock for art class.  These shirts will be stored in the student’s cubby and worn during art activities.  It is very important that your child bring this in as soon as possible so that they may fully participate in art activities.

 

*Please have your child bring in an extra outfit in a ziplock bag for emergency purposes. Sometimes, spills happen and a change of clothing is necessary. This change of clothes will be kept in their cubby. If your child does not have an extra set of clothes in their cubby, then they will be sent to the clinic to “borrow” a change of clothes.  Please wash and return them as soon as possible for others to use.

 

*If your child is a car rider, we are asking that you pick your child up in the car loop.  Please write their first and last name, along with K-McLellan on the car loop paper that was distributed at the meet and greet. To make it easier to read, please  hang it from the rear view mirror with a pant or skirt hanger, as you drive by.  This will make identifying the student’s car easier for the teachers. You will stay in the flow of traffic and the kindergarteners are toward the front of the line so you will pass by the other grades first before reaching us.  For the next few weeks, the Kindergarteners will be coming outside a few minutes early.  This is only so that the Kindergarten students can proceed outside without being separated by the exit of other students in grades 1-6. 

 

Thank-you for your interest and cooperation in making our school year even better by acknowledging the above requests.