Wednesday, Sept. 16th:

It is another short week & it's hard to believe that it is almost over.
Just a few notes today:

*       No school Friday- teachers will be at an Archdiocese meeting.
*       Whirligigs need to go home by tomorrow afternoon so they are not
here over the long weekend. I have loved seeing all of them outside the
school- all students did a fabulous job and I hope you had a chance to see
all of them.
*       Retreat permission slips are in today's Wednesday envelope. Please
return these as soon as possible. Financial assistance is available- please
contact Cecelia Davison.
*       I heard good feedback from the dance. I will be reminding students
that the same behavior expectations that we have at school are expected at
all extra-curricular school activities. Students told me that, "There were
some tears from other schools because they didn't have to say yes if someone
asked them to dance!"
*       Students are doing well with learning the prepositions and parts of
speech. They completed a self reflection on what they know and what they
need to work on today. Tomorrow they will be showing how well they know the
"A-N" prepositions. The songs and movements seem to be helping a lot!
*       Curriculum Night is on Monday! We will have the sign up for
sandwiches out as well as other opportunities to help throughout the year.
We will e-mail all of the handouts to you. Please let us know if you would
like a printed copy.  It is also a great opportunity to get to meet the
various teachers that your child has this year.
*       Overall students have done well with their uniforms. The most common
"mistakes" are wearing a printed shirt under their uniform shirt, wearing
maroon instead of red, and forgetting to take off a different sweatshirt or
jacket.  Not bad so far!
*       Thank you to those who have had sick children for keeping them home.
We disinfect every day and are doing our best to wash our hands frequently.
It really does help to have students get healthy before they come back.
Teachers will work with students that have been absent to modify the work
that they need to do. Feel free to e-mail me, or any other teachers, with
questions about work after an absence!



Have a great three-day weekend!



Trissa
Quick Update, 9/10/2009: Hello 7B Parents-

 

The week is off to a great start & I just had a couple of new things to send out.

 

Tomorrow we have the Mass of the Holy Spirit at 10:45 in the gym. Please join us if you are able! 

  • Students need to be in “dress uniform” for tomorrow. That means that they need to wear a collared shirt (polo shirts are fine) as part of their uniform. Shorts are still okay.

 

I wanted to address the dance happening at St. Catherine's tomorrow.  (The permission slip is in the Wed. envelope and students need to bring that to the dance with them.)

 

For those of you new to this business, the dances are typically well chaperoned and safe.  Of course they are also loud, hot and smelly, but the kids don't seem to mind too much.  Students are kept in the dance until it ends and the chaperones see that the students are picked up by a parent or carpool parent.  To pick up early, you need to go to the door.  Also, if you need to drop off late, please note what time the school says "doors closed" on the permission slip.  Soon enough a calendar of all/most dances will come out so you can plan ahead.  We'll post it when we know.

 

In homerooms, we'll talk about dance etiquette.  This includes what to wear, how to act...  We want ALL the students to have a great time, and recognize that what we say to them now, and what you reinforce at home can help eliminate some of the drama.  A few key points:

 

  • Follow the dress guidelines on the permission slip.  Please read it.  Really- please do.
  • We'll instruct the kids that to be polite, if you are asked to dance with someone, dance with them.  It can just be once, and we tell them some "lines" to get them politely out of another.  It can take a lot of courage to ask someone, and no one likes to be shot down.  (If they don't feel safe for some reason, we'll talk about how to handle that, too.)
  • We'll also talk about "nice vs. naughty" dancing, or as I like to call it, the 3 bible length rule.  (You old time Catholic schoolers will remember "making room for the Holy Spirit".)    : )
  • Lastly, and often most importantly, are the "pre-functions".  Here's where we see the MOST feelings hurt each year, especially with the girls.  Many young ladies like to get together as they prepare for the evening. (Oh Lord!)  While it's understandable that not all houses can accommodate 35 girls, please try to think of some creative ways to help your kids be inclusive.  Sometimes it's been as simple as girls saying "If you have no place to hang out yet, come on over for pizza with us first and we'll go together."  I don't have all the answers, but I do see the repercussions back in the classroom on Monday.  ***We'll talk more about it on retreat, but now is your chance to step in first.  (HELP!!!)

Thanks for reading this!  Your kids are amazing and we've had a really great start to the year.

 

Trissa

 

 

7B News       

9/7/2009

Assumption St. Bridget School,  (206) 524-7452 Trissa Hodapp, ext. 83  thodapp@asbschool.org

Dates & Important Info:

I am attaching this month’s calendar- some of the highlights are listed here!

v       9/8 Welcome back!

v       9/11 10:45 Mass of the Holy Spirit in the gym

v       9/21 Curriculum Night

v       9/28-10/2 7th Grade Retreat: watch for permission slips and information soon!

The brain needs exercise! One of my goals this year is to incorporate more movement in the classroom to help keep students’ brain going.  Here’s a quick video about exercise and the brain if you’re interested!

http://brainrules.blogspot.com/search/label/Exercise

Newsletters will be posted on the school’s website and will be e-mailed home. I used the e-mails given to me from the office. If you have a different e-mail you would like me to include on the distribution list, please let me know. I will not share this list with other parents and will use bcc when sending out class e-mails.

If you are not able to access your e-mails at any time during the year, please call or send in a note and I will send home a printed copy.
 

First week of school reminders:

·          All supplies are due by Friday!  Here’s the list.

·          Whirligig questions are due on Thursday.

·          Students whirligigs that they built are due on Friday.

                They can set up their whirligigs by the big toy between 8:00 and 8:20.

 

                                                                                                            -meet Lucy, my nephew’s bulldog!-

Misc.

 

 

Welcome back- the fall-like weather this weekend helps it seem like summer really is over. I hope everyone enjoyed the beautiful weather we had and is well rested- we have a busy and fun year ahead of us! I traveled to Wisconsin this summer with a side trip to Chicago and went on an Alaska cruise with several of my siblings and my parents. The scenery was beautiful, but keeping two young kids happy on a boat for a week is challenging!

For those of who do not know me, let me share a little bit about myself. I grew up in Seattle (Capitol Hill) until 4th grade and then    moved to Vashon Island. After a few adventures I later graduated from Seattle Prep and then Seattle University. I am the youngest of nine children and am lucky enough to have all my siblings living in Washington State.

I have two young children: Atticus, who is three, and Bea, who is nine months old. Right now Atticus is doing his “homework” and painting a picture while Bea is proud to be pulling herself up and cruising all over the place. My husband, Nick, and I are almost done with a five year remodel on our 1906 home. (We are done with the first loor, but I know there will be more projects to come!)

This summer I took a class on brain development and teaching and completed my Catechetical certification for the Archdiocese. I am looking forward to sharing some fascinating information about the brain with you!

 

Language Arts, Social Studies, and Literature

We start our year in social studies with an in-depth study of the five themes of geography.  We do not have a book for this, but students will be given all the materials that they need.

In language arts we start off with a unit about prepositions. Students gain a better understanding of all the parts of speech, the roles they play in written work Our end goal is that students incorporate more prepositional phrases in their writing as they become more consistent in using complex sentences in their daily writing.

 
 

Students will be reading and reflecting on this book for both religion and literature classes. A reading schedule will come home shortly. This novel helps students gain a historical and personal perspective of life during the time of Jesus and allows us to talk about character development and an author’s craft of describing a setting.
 

We will start off our year discussing Whirligig which students read over the summer. It provides a wonderful springboard for discussing choices and consequences, peer pressure (both positive and negative), and is a good reminder of how our choices and actions impact others.

Our first novel this year will be The Bronze Bow.