Mrs. O'Connell's Class Connection

Welcome to 1st grade and Room 16. I'm very excited to be your child's teacher. I will do my best to keep you informed about what is happening in our classroom through this blog. I hope you will find it to be a helpful source of information. Here are a few important items you need to know from the start...

"Specials" will begin on Wednesday, August 31. Here is our Specials schedule:

MONDAY P.E.
TUESDAY LIBRARY
WEDNESDAY COMPUTERS & P.E.
THURSDAY ART & P.E.
FRIDAY ART

You may have noticed that we have additional P.E. and ART time scheduled this year. I think this is great! If, however, this extra time begins to interfere with important Reading or Math instructional time, we may go back to P.E. twice a week and Art once a week. I will certainly keep you informed about this. So, for now, Room 16 students will wear their gym uniforms on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays. Please keep in mind that athletic shoes should only be worn on gym or "dress down" days.

1st graders eat lunch at 11:30 a.m., but get pretty hungry mid-morning. Please send a healthy snack for your child each day, in a separate pocket of their backpack from their lunchbox, along with a cloth dish towel to use as a placemat. We will not share snacks as a group this year. Please don't send candy or drinks. There will be plenty of opportunities for cool drinks of water from our drinking fountain.

School Mail comes home each Wednesday with the oldest child attending St. Linus, in an envelope that should be returned empty the next day. You will occasionally receive written correspondence from me as well, but this blog is probably your best source of information about what's going on specifically in our classroom. If you need to contact me, an email will probably get the quickest response. I try to check my email twice daily. You can reach me through the St. Linus School website, www.stlinusschool.org and follow the links to my email, or just type in loconnell@stlinusschool.org. I will do my best to respond within 24 hours. You can always send a written note to school with your child, or get a message to me by phone as well.

I look forward to meeting you at Back to School Night, which I believe has been scheduled for Tuesday, September 27, at 7 p.m., in Church.

I hope your child had a great first day of 1st grade -- I did! We accomplished quite a bit together today...

We played a Getting-To-Know-You Name Game and I think I've gotten just about everyone's name down already.

We organized our school supplies in our new desks and put our names on many books. I will let you know over the next several days if your child is missing any supplies.

We went over some classroom and school rules and consequences.

We spent some time writing and drawing in our Journals.

You will find your child's Home folder in their backpack today. It contains a form that needs to be completed so that I can get your children out the door safely to you or whoever is picking them up each afternoon. Please return the form as soon as possible.

I've also requested that each child bring in a shoebox for a project we hope to start by Friday. Child-size boxes are most convenient, but any size shoebox will do!

Please note that we have P.E. on both Wednesday and Thursday this week, so gym attire should be worn on these days. Beginning next week, we will have P.E. on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays -- 3 days each week.

Don't forget to send a small, healthy snack each day along with a dishtowel/placemat. Juice boxes should only be included with lunches - we will take many water breaks daily, especially on these warm, late-summer days.

I'll continue to send home information you need to know on this blog almost daily, so please check often!

Have a great day,
Lisa O'Connell

Today was our first full day. For some, it was a little tiring; others seem to have boundless energy!

Thanks to those who have already sent in a shoebox for our Word Wall project. We will decorate them on Friday. If you can't track one down, no worries -- I have a few extras at home.

In your child's Home folder today, you should find a "Doggy Bag." The children have been instructed to place up to three small objects inside for Show and Tell over the next week or so. Please don't send anything that won't fit easily inside the bag, and don't send anything that your child can't live a few days without, as these items will remain in school until your child has had their turn showing and telling. Please return the Doggy Bag with items inside on Thursday.

We welcome two students who are new to St. Linus School in our classroom, Alexander Rodriguez and Omar Zayyad. Our class is doing a great job helping them get accustomed to their new school surroundings and I'm happy to see new friendships being formed already.

Today, the children had both Computer class and P.E. What a busy morning! In the afternoon, we began working in our new Math books with a Summer Refresher, and began some individual Reading Fluency and Phonemic Awareness assessments. We also introduced our Religion series Blest Are We.

Have a great day!
Mrs. O'C

Wednesday is the day that School Mail is sent home. If your child is the oldest or only child in your family that attends St. Linus School, their mail will come home in a reusable envelope that should be emptied and returned on Thursday.

This being the first week of school, there was quite a bit of mail! Please take note of the Ladies Guild Hot Lunch Program forms that need to be completed and returned with payment by September 9th. For those who are new to our school, these lunches are apart from the FSP Hot Lunches that are available on a daily basis.

Also of importance are the scheduled upcoming picture days.
Individual pictures will be taken on September 14th.
Class (group) photos will be taken on September 16th (in school uniform.)