Mrs.

Sammons 1st Grade Newsletter October 2014

Bellwood Elementary

October 1, 2014

Dear Parents, Students, and Families,

Contents
Welcome Letter

Upcoming Events

Contact Information

Curriculum News

Student of the Month

School Activities
and Special Events

Calendar of Events

Welcome to October! Its hard to

believe we are already in our
second month of first grade, here
at Bellwood Elementary! It has
been so wonderful getting to
know each and every student
during this first month of school!
I am looking forward to the next
month and all of the fun events
October brings!
I am writing this letter to inform
you of the special events we will
be having at school the next
month, and to inform you about
what our class will be working on
specifically. I will also include
special items to remember for
the next month, and all of our
important dates.

This month we will be

celebrating the Autumn/Fall
season in the classroom with
lots of fun activities! We are
planning a fun Halloween party
in the classroom at the end of
the month. If you are
interested in volunteering as a
room parent for this party, or
would like to volunteer to
bring snacks, please contact
me at childl@vcu.edu.
I will be sending out field trip
permission slips, and
conference request forms in
the next week, so please keep
a look out for those! Thanks so
much!
Sincerely,
Mrs. Sammon

Upcoming
Events

Halloween Party
Friday 10/31
Field Trip
Wednesday
10/15
Reading Night &
Book Fair
Tuesday 10/21

Contact Information
As always, I can be reached fastest by email, childl@vcu.edu.
Please feel free to contact me with any questions or concerns. Please
write me about praises as well, I love to hear about the fun activities
or accomplishments your child has made at home!!
I can be reached by phone at (xxx)xxx-xxxx, during my office hours,
Mondays and Wednesdays from 8-9am, and 4-5pm.
I also have this information included on the class website at
sammonbellwoodelementary.weebly.com

Page 2 of 4

Curriculum News

Mrs. Sammons Newsletter

Mathematics
One of our main focuses in math
this month will be on Math SOL
1.2, which states The student
will count forward by ones, twos,
fives, and tens to 100 and
backward by ones from 30.
Students will be learning and
practicing counting by 5s and
10s, all the way up to 100!

Learning this how to do this math

concept successfully requires a
lot of practice, and I hope you
will help me by practicing with
your child at home! In the next
week, I will be sending home
practice material and example
activities that you can do at
home with your child, so be on
the lookout!

Reading

The more that

you read, the
more things you
will know. The
more that you
learn, the more
places you'll go.
Dr. Seuss

We will be doing lots of fun

will relate by describing the food
activities during our read-aloud
they are picky about! You can
time this month! The children will practice making text-to-self
be practicing making text-to-self connections at home while
connections. This is tied in to
reading with your child. You can
Reading SOL 1.9 (c), which states do this by talking with your child
The student will read and
about any parts of the book that
demonstrate comprehension of a relate with your childs
variety of fictional texts.
experiences.
c) Relate previous experiences to Some example conversation
what is read.
starters are:
Text-to-self connections are
What does this remind you of?
personal connections a student
What is this similar to in your
makes to the reading material with
life?
the students own personal
Has something like this ever
experiences. One of the books we
happened to you?
will be reading is I Will Never, Not What were your feelings when
Ever Eat A Tomato by Lauren
you read this?
Child. This book is about a little girl How is this different from
who is a picky eater. The students
your life?

Student of the Month!

Drawing by Sydney

The student of the month this

month is Sydney! Sydney has
been an exceptional role model
for her classmates this first
month of school! I can always
depend on Sydney to be working
on task, being friendly with her
classmates, and getting her work
done on time. She loves reading,
and it shows, because she has

surpassed the 1st grade reading

level, and is now reading on the
2nd grade level! Sydney is always
friendly to everyone in the class,
and goes out of her way to help
others. She loves drawing, and
has given her classmates and me
some great drawings this month!
Way to go, Sydney!

Mrs. Sammons Newsletter

Special Event Information

Page 3 of 4

Field Trip, Childrens Museum of Richmond, Wednesday 10/15/14

All of the teachers on the first
grade team and I are excited to
take the children to the
Childrens Museum of Richmond
on a field trip!! I have already
received some inquiries from
parents about being chaperones
for this trip. If you are interested
in chaperoning, please contact
me by Wednesday October 8th. I

will be sending home permission

slips, chaperone forms, and
payment requests this week. The
field trip cost is $8 per child, and
will include transportation,
entrance, and lunch. If you want
to look up information about the
museum, the website to do so is
http://www.c-mor.org/
Childrens Museum of Richmond
2626 W Broad St,
Richmond, VA 23220

Reading Night and Book Fair, Tuesday 10/21/14

This month, we will be hosting a
Reading Night and Book Fair,
open to all families, in our
schools library. It will be on
Tuesday, 10/21/14, from 5pm8pm. Feel free to drop in at any
point during the 3 hour time
period. We will have a book fair
open, where they will be selling
great childrens books at
discounted prices. We will also
have a section of free used
books. If you have any books you

would like to contribute, please

bring them along!
We will have areas all around the
library set up for you to sit and
read with your child. There will
also be an area where Bellwood
elementary teachers will take
turns reading aloud some of their
favorite books for the children.
Light refreshments will be
provided. We hope to see you
there!

Halloween Party! Friday, 10/31/14

I will be hosting a Halloween
Party in our classroom on Friday
10/31/14! Children will be
making masks in class, so they do
not need to wear a costume to
school. I would appreciate the
help of two parent/guardian
volunteers for this party, please
contact me if you are interested!
We will be making craft masks,
singing and dancing to Halloween

themed music, and learning

about the history of Halloween in
America, as well as the
Halloween traditions of cultures
around the world!
If you would like to donate food
or candy, I will be sending out a
list of approved foods/candies for
our class, according to the
allergies/food restrictions of all
our classmates.

Page 4 of 4

Calendar of Events

Mrs. Sammons Newsletter

October 2014
Calendar of Events
Sun

Mon

Tue

Wed
1

Thu
2

Fri
3

Sat
4

6
Interims
Issued

8
Field Trip
Chaperone
Form &
permission
slip Due
Date

10

11

12

13

14

15
Field Trip
Richmond
Childrens
Museum

16

17

18

19

20

21
Reading
Night &
Book
Fair

22

23

24

25

26

27

28

29

30

31
In Class
Halloween
Party