Updates May 31-June 3

Only 9 more days to go! Where has this year gone? If you haven't returned the green sheet brought home by your child last week, please return it as soon as possible. It is very important that we know how your child will be getting home on the last day of school so that we can make sure that everyone is safely home! REMEMBER: there is no Extended Day on the last day of school. Also, knowing whether or not your child will return to Bartram Springs will help us to form classes for next year.

There will be no more homework for the rest of the school year and no more spelling tests. Please make sure that your child continues to read every night and also through the summer. It has been proven that students lose skills through the summer and as hard as they have all worked this school year, we CERTAINLY don't want that to happen! Remember that just because they can read the words, doesn't mean that they understand what they are reading. Please ask them to tell you what is happening in the story. Have them give you details about the characters and tell you what is happening in the beginning, middle, and end of the story.

The secret word for this week is PROGRESS which all of the students have made this year. I am so proud of each and every one of them. We are continuing to move forward in all of our subjects until the last day of school. We will have more information coming home about next Wednesday, June 8th when we will have our end of the year celebration. Your child will not need lunch on that day. Ms. Santos or I will let you know what to expect that day.

Have a wonderful week!

Updates May 23-26

Good evening! It was so nice to have our week back to normal! We got a lot accomplished this week. We had the topic 11 test in math on Thursday and everyone did well! That was a really diffcult chapter and we did a lot of reviewing. The concept of tens and ones is really hard for them to grasp at this age. It is something they will continue to see through second grade and beyond. We also had the spelling test and selection (story) test today. We just have one more story to go and our reading book will be finished! I can't believe how fast this year has gone.

Please do not forget the Family Fitness Night on Tuesday night this week (May 24th)from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. It is going to be so much fun! I have already told the kids that if they find me that night I will have something special for them. One of them called me on the bribe, but, hey! It's for a good cause! There will be activities for all age levels from children right on up to adults! Monday will be your last chance to purchase Hearts and Hands before the event. Also, there will be a silent auction for the baskets that all of the classrooms created. You will not believe how fabulous these baskets look! Of course, ours is the BEST!! Mr. Strickland even talked about our basket on our ENN morning news show!

There will be no school on Friday, May 27th and Monday, May 30th. It will be a long weekend for you to enjoy Memorial Day (this week's secret words) with your friends and family!

We will be having an end of the year celebration on Wednesday, June 8th. Ms. Santos and/or I will be giving you more details as the date gets closer.

Field trip to Ollie Koala's!

Another picture slideshow by Smilebox

Updates May 16th - 20th

Good afternoon parents!

We had a great field trip to Ollie Koala's yesterday! The kids were all well-behaved and I wanted to send out a big thank you to Ms. Santos, Ms. Castleberry, Ms. Lehnherr, and Ms. Campbell for being the brave souls to chaperone this field trip! It was a great time.

You should have recieved your child's progress report in his/her homework folder. Please sign the report and send it back to school. I will make a copy for my records and then send the original back home to you. Please make sure to notice if your child appears to be struggling in any area. The skills in both math and reading are getting much more difficult toward the end of the year and their attention spans are getting much shorter. We have had to have many discussions lately about making sure to pay attention and follow directions all the way to the last day of school!

Our Backyard Barbecue basket looks AWESOME!! Thank you so much to all of you who sent in donations for this worthy cause! Please remember that your child brought home a sheet for you to purchase hearts or hands for $1 to remember or honor a loved one who has suffered with cancer. As soon as Ms. Santos and I get the basket put together, I will take a picture of it and post it on the blog. Also, another reminder, the Family Fitness Night is Thursday, May 19th from 6-8 p.m. Please join us for this time of fun and togetherness! It will be a blast and raise money for a worthy cause at the same time. There will be activities for all family members as well as a silent auction for the themed baskets. I can promise you that there is a basket for ALL interests! Our secret words for the week are Family Fitness Night!

I mistakenly put on the homework that we have library next Friday (5/20). In fact, we have art that day. ALL library books are due by the 20th, though. Ms. Elledge has to inventory the entire library before summer so she needs to have all of the books turned in by then. Please make sure to send your child's library book back to school at some time this week. A notice for lost/damaged library books will be sent home to you if your child doesn't return his/her books. If your child has an outstanding library fine, he/she will not be allowed to check out books next year until the fine is paid.

Have a wonderful week and StAy BuGgY!!!

Updates May 9th-13th

Good morning, parents! First of all, THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU! For a wonderful Teacher Appreciation Week! I enjoyed so much the flowers, treats, and the fabulous basket of school supplies! The restaurant gift cards were phenomenal also. You definitely know how to make a teacher feel special! We finally have a relatively normal week this week! We do, though, have our field trip on Thursday. Please make sure your child wears his/her Bartram Springs shirt or another green shirt if possible. This makes our little angels a little easier to identify when we are trying to get their attention. Also, lunch will be provided for students only on the field trip. If you are attending as a chaperone, food will be available for purchase. In celebration of our trip, our secret word for the week is Ollie Koala's! This will be a fun field trip that we will all enjoy. Today, you will see a form to fill out if you choose to purchase a Hearts and Hands memory/honor card. These are absolutely voluntary, but will be on display on Family Fitness night if you choose to purchase one. They are $1.00 and the proceeds go to the Jay Fund to support families of those children with cancer. Also, an update on our Backyard Barbecue Basket...it is looking great! Thank you so much to those families who have donated items or money for the basket. It will be so cute when it is finished. Oh! About that...I am still in need of a wonderful creative, crafty parent who would be willing to make the basket look fabulous!! If you are willing to help, please email me to let me know. Our basket is due on May 17th. I am also sending the video of our dance on Thursday. It turned out so great! A special thanks to Ms. Salvi for volunteering her time to teach us this dance.

Diaporama customized with Smilebox

ONE MORE THING!!

Please remember our Backyard Barbecue Basket! I haven't had any emails or donations for it yet. This is for such a worthy cause, please take the time to read the information that was sent home last week! Also, if you do not have time to shop, but still want to donate, you are welcome to send in a monetary donation (cash only please) and I will be happy to purchase something for the basket in your name. Our basket is due in a little over a week, so we need to get moving on it! Also, I am still looking for a crafty someone to help arrange the basket :-)

Updates May 2 - May 6th

Good afternoon! Thank you all so much for the BEAUTIFUL flowers I received this morning! What a way to start the day! It is very nice to be appreciated. We are combining Teacher Appreciation Week with Multicultural Arts Week at Bartram Springs. You guessed it!! Another crazy week! Our schedule will be all over the place this week so there will be no homework this week and no spelling and story tests. We will be taking the reading Benchmark Test this week, though, on the theme we just completed.

We have just finished a very difficult topic in math. We were working on place value (specifically tens and ones). This is a hard concept for them to grasp at this age. We will continue to incorporate it into our next topic so they can continue to practice. They struggle with understanding the value that the number in the tens place holds (ex. in the number 36, 3 tens is the same thing as 30).

Over the last couple of weeks, Ariya's mom, Ms. Salvi, has been coming in to teach our students a dance from her native country. She has been working with Ms. Dix on the performance. The students will be performing it on Thursday in the cafeteria in front of all of the first grade classes at 10:00. You are welcome to come in and see it if you would like! Please make sure to sign in first, though, in the front office.

Progress reports will go home next week. Please make sure to sign them and return them to me. I will then make a copy and send the copy back home for your records. As always, if you have a question or concern, please feel free to contact me at mullerl1@duvalschools.org.

The secret words for this week are: multicultural arts!