As of Friday, we have all of our students at school. Welcome to everyone!
To those who are returning for the Senior K year, it is lovely to have you back and to those brand new JK families, we are excited to have you join our class! At this time there are 27 students, 14 SK and 13 JK and of those 16 are girls and 11 boys.
The first week went very well. Everyone seemed happy and eager to be at school and part of our class family. It is always a challenge getting back into routines and everyone was very helpful. The SK's will continue to be enormously helpful with the JK's in showing them and helping them remember class rules and procedures.
For those of you I don't know yet -
My name is Frances Iafrate. I have been teaching since 1985 in a Special Education setting and 1991 with the TDSB. I have taught from JK to grade 5 over those years, both straight classes and split grades. I love my job! I am mom to five young adults ranging from 21 to 26 years of age, 3 of whom live with us full time and two who are at school. Our house is a busy one to say the least and then there are the assorted pets...dogs, cats, snakes and a fish for good measure!! I look forward to getting to know you and your family this year.
You received classroom and school information/forms in your child's mailbag, thank you to those who have already returned the required forms. If you have not done so, please send your paperwork back as soon as possible.
On Friday I sent home a September Leader calendar. This is just the start of our leader days and as
the seniors have been through the "Mystery Bag" experience before (only 1 item, NO toys etc etc) you will notice quite a few of them have a spot. Everyone will have 1 turn before we begin the
second rotation and your child will have multiple turns over the school year BUT not everyone will
have a turn EVERY month as there aren't 27 school days in any given month AND birthdays always trump the order so that the birthday student is the leader on or as close to their actual birthday as we can get. While waiting for a turn can be hard, it is also a great learning experience in so many ways!
Patience and waiting for turns is a huge part of the school day in any grade but especially so in larger classes.
Your child's Poetry book came home on Friday with one of our first poems for this year. Read and enjoy the book with your child - it will be full of great poems and songs that your child can read by
year's end! I ask that you return it to school each Monday ready for the new week and new poem.
Please do not remove the poems from your child's book.
On Friday you also received a Scholastic book club order. Those will come home to you monthly and are completely voluntary although I will say they are offer great value for the books you get and
an easy way to support your child's interests as well as love of reading! Our class earns bonus dollars
towards further purchases as a percentage of our monthly orders too and that always comes in handy!
I have a great many of my own children's first books in the class and my boys STILL remember the thrill of choosing books and waiting for a Scholastic order to come!
The weather this weekend was not the best to say the least, our playground is likely to be muddy and wet in the morning if this keeps up...yuck...so please be sure your child has rain boots or outdoor shoes and dry, clean indoor shoes for the classroom. We try to keep our class as clean as possible and help out our caretakers wherever posssible and this is one easy way. Each child has 2 cubby areas to keep extra clothes in for washroom accidents etc as well as a cubby for shoes to safely be left in the each day. The daycare program sharing our class has its' own storage space so things shouldn't get muddled.
This week:
Monday-Terry Fox Assembly AM, LIB/IT PM
Tuesday-Fire Drill AM
Wednesday-LIB/IT PM
Thursday-Music PM
Friday-Lockdown Practice
This not a weekly schedule, we follow a 5 day rotating school cycle ( you can print one from the TDSB site if you wish) meaning that not every Monday will be a library day as holidays and PA days will change the order. Each week I will give a synopsis like this of our happenings to help everyone be prepared.
**Please note that even though we will be going to the library, the computer system necessary for
checking books in and out will not be ready and the students will not be borrowing just yet! Also, the children will be divided in half so that each week they will visit the library twice BUT one visit will be for book exchange and one will be to use the computer lab. I will let you know when we are ready
to begin this and you will see which group your child is in.
Have a great week!
Ms.I.
