Ms. Horgan

December 23, 2011

Greetings from Ohio,

I am an Undergraduate at The University of Akron in Akron, Ohio.  Pursuing a degree in Early Childhood Education, I have reached my last semester where I will complete student teaching. Ms. Horgan has agreed to mentor me in her first grade classroom. It is with great pleasure that I will be moving from Ohio to complete my student teaching at William H. Ray Elementary School.

During my college career at The University of Akron, I gained outstanding education and understanding of young children. I plan to give each child I work with the challenge and support they need to meet his or her full potential. It has been my passion to teach young children for many years. I am honored to be given this opportunity to teach at Ray School. Wishing you all a happy holiday and I look forward to meeting you!

“Ideal teachers are those who use themselves as bridges over which they invite their students to cross, then having facilitated their crossing, joyfully collapse, encouraging them to create bridges of their own.”

– Nikos Kazantzakis

Sincerely,   Cecilia Velazquez

If you have any questions regarding your child’s World Language grade please contact Mr. Walter at wlwalter@cps.edu.

Please remember to have your child read and write every day of the winter break.  Make sure they also practice their money counting skills, measurement and telling time.  Have a great holiday!

December 19, 2011

Dear Friends of Room 114,

Here are a few reminders for this week:

• I am very happy to announce that after the break we will have a student teacher in our classroom until the beginning of March.  Ms. Cecilia Velazquez will be joining us from the University of Akron and will be living in Hyde Park during her time here.  The students had a chance to meet her today when she came to visit our classroom.
• The Holiday Assembly is scheduled for this Thursday, December 22^nd at 1:30 pm.  The students in our class are performing a Kwanza song on stage.  I am asking that students wear red, green or black for the performance.  There will only be one performance on this day.
• We are making gingerbread houses tomorrow, Tuesday, December 20^th at 2 pm.  Meet us at 2 pm in the student lunchroom if you would like to help out.
• At the end of last week, I sent home a specific donation I would like your child to make for the gingerbread houses.  Please provide the requested items if you are able.
• Progress Reports will be sent home this week.  Please sign and return the progress report.  Please email me at slhorgan@cps.edu if you would like to set up a time to briefly meet in the morning to discuss your child’s progress.

December 12, 2011

Friends of Room 114,

ü  Ray School will be celebrating its annual Holiday Assembly on December 22, 2011 at 1:30 p.m.  The Music and World Language Departments have collaborated once again to provide Ray students and parents with a performance filled with holiday songs from around the world and dances from Spain and Mexico.   Please note that there will be only one assembly on this day.  Have your child dress in a nice winter outfit for the assembly.

ü  Don’t forget to stop by our Ray School Cafe before and after the Holiday assembly in the Atrium outside the Student Cafeteria.

ü  I am planning on having students make gingerbread houses on December 20^th. We will start this project around 2 pm and we will need volunteers.  I will also be asking for donations to complete this project.  More information will be sent home later this week.

ü  Please see that your child is dressing appropriately for the weather. Please discuss methods for keeping track of all belongings.  We are accumulating quite a pile of misplaced hats, mittens and scarfs in our Ray lost and found.

ü  Please go to the classroom blog to update you contact information electronically.

ü  Tomorrow I will not be at Ray.  I am not going to assign any homework while I am out.  Please have your child leave their homework folder at home Monday night and bring it back to school on Wednesday when I return.

ü  December was initially girl’s month to provide snack.  However, I am moving their month to January.  I will be sending home a letter to families that have not provided snack during the previous months.  We depend on snack contributions from all families.  Snack ideas include string cheese, pretzels, granola bars, individual yogurts, fresh fruit (must be washed and cut at home), goldfish, crackers, raisins, etc.

ü  This week we will take the Winter MAPS assessment.  I will share your child’s results as soon as they are available.

This week in reading we will be non-fiction science texts and discussing author’s purpose.  We will read Sea Animals and Water, as well as various leveled readers during guided reading.  We will review the digraph th, endings  -s, -es, -ed, -ing and review proper nouns.  During writing workshop we will continue to work on our 3 page stories.  We will conference with our writing partnerships that were formed last week.  In math we will review for the unit 3 test.  You child will be assessed on telling time, money and the frames and arrows routine.  We will also begin working on measurement.  In science we will continue our unit on Pebbles, Sand and Silt.  We will be investigating how rocks and separate them based on common properties.    In social studies we will discuss our city, state, country and continent.  We will work to learn the seven continents.

Stacy Horgan

December 5, 2011

Friends of Room 114,

Reminders for the week:

• Updated parent information is needed.  If you have not already done so please go to our classroom webpage at http://slhorgan.cuipblogs.net/ where you will find a link to an electronic emergency form update sheet. This will ensure updated information from CPS.
• Traveling book bags were sent home on Thursday last week. Please return any bags you still have at home by Tuesday.
• Snacks- November was boys month for snack however, several students did not provide snack during the month.  We depend on these donations every day.  If you know your family did not provide snack last month please do so as soon as possible.
• International Night is this Thursday, December 8, 2010 beginning at 6 p.m.
• Each child was sent home with a Ziploc bag containing nickels and pennies from a previous unit.  I asked that the bag be returned today with dimes and quarters as well.  Each bag should have 10 pennies, 5 nickels, 10 dimes and 4 quarters.  Please return this as soon as possible if you have not already done so we will be using these manipulative all week in class.
• Many students have new homework folders as our old folders were beginning to rip.  Please make sure to check your child’s homework folder every night.  There may be nights were you child has additional homework than what is listed on our weekly homework sheet.  Due to differentiation in the classroom I may feel it is necessary to send your child home with an assignment that we did not finish during groups.

This week in reading we will be reading fantasy and discussing story structure.  We will read A Cupcake Party and poetry written by Dr. Seuss.  We will discuss final clusters  (st, nd, mp, nt, sk), synonyms, prepositions and review irregular plural nouns. During writing workshop we will continue to read mentor texts that model small moment writing.  We will practice small moment writing every day.  During math we will practice using a calculator.  We will also begin working with dimes and exchanging coins using dimes, nickels and pennies.  We will also looks at different graphs and collect data from each graph.  In science we will continue our unit on Pebbles, Sand and Silt, exploring the different properties of rocks.    In social studies we will discuss the different levels of our government.  We will review the difference between rights and responsibilities.

Stacy Horgan