Ms. DesRoches’ Class Newsletter
Friday, September 6, 2024
A Look Ahead 9/11 - Early Release 9/17 - Kindergarten, 2nd Grade, 4th Grade Families: Tuesday, September 17th. 5:00 pm - 6:00 pm, with a community dinner from 5:30 pm - 7:00 pm 9/19 - Preschool, 1st Grade, 3rd Grade, and 3/4 Multiage Spanish Immersion Families: Thursday, September 19th. 5:00 pm - 6:00 pm, with a community dinner from 5:30 pm - 7:00 pm 9/23- Picture Day | Check out our class Instagram page! It is a quick, easy way to engage with our classroom! If you don’t have Instagram, you can still check us out there! Instagram: @cdesrochesedu Class Blog: https://cathydesrochesedu.blogspot.com/ |
Schedule M: PE T: PE & Art W: Spanish Th: Library & Enrichment F: Music | Readers & Writers Workshop We are poets! We have been exploring poetry and collecting delicious words! Students are noticing deliciously descriptive language, taking notes, and learning what makes strong writing. Today we did a Poetry Freeze share! Ask your child about it! |
Games We’ve Played!
| We are easing into math by playing multiplication games. We have been playing “Multiple Pathways” and “Pigs in a Pen” with multiples of 2, 5, and 10. We have started Unit 1, which is all about multiplication! |
I LOVE to teach! Children are the most amazing things in the world, and I feel privileged to work with them every day. They truly bring me so much joy, and I feel energized by working with this population. One of my core beliefs in a classroom is using restorative practices and mindfulness. We all walk through the door with stuff going on in our lives. Maybe we had a hard morning at home? Maybe a relative is sick? Maybe we just feel blue today, or have lots of energy! I believe that our hearts need to be happy at school. We need to feel seen and heard in order to do our best work, and to be our best selves. The way that I strive for kids to be seen and heard are through daily circles. These circles can be fun circles, full of games and smiles, they can be problem-solving circles where we work through conflict, and more. There are six rules to our circles, ask your child if they can remember any! When I speak about mindfulness, I don’t just mean meditating. Being mindful takes practice. It is noticing our mood, how our body feels, and more. Sometimes being mindful can be easy, and sometimes it can feel uncomfortable. We practice being mindful so we can slow down our busy lives, and to bring our attention to where we are today. We practice mindfulness through having quiet time. We breathe, we read, we rest, we draw, and more. We are learning to notice what helps us, and we are learning to be in touch with our thoughts and feelings on a deeper level. Lastly, I just truly believe in being KIND; kind to ourselves and kind to others. If we are all gentle, open, and carry one another with kindness, the world would be a better place. KINDNESS is at the heart of my classroom, and I hope that this is something we can all learn and grow in this year. Thank you for sharing your most precious people with me. I am here for you, and I am here for them. I am excited to be on this journey with you, and please never hesitate to reach out if you need anything! Warmly, Cathy DesRoches |