I can't believe we have already been in School for 15 days.  How time flies when you are having fun!

A big thank you to those of you who came to open house last night.  It really helps your child be successful when we are all on the same page and you understand the expectations of your first grader. If you were unable to make it, I put some of the things we went over in your Wednesday folder.  I will try to get the presentation up on the blog.

We are lucky!  We have foster grandparent working in our room all day Wednesday and Thursday afternoon. Her name is Grandma Kay and she is absolutely wonderful.  The kids get so excited when she is working in our room. She is as sweet as they come!  We also have a high school student, Angel who comes and works for 1 1/2 hours a day.  She was a previous student of mine.  What a great help she is.

We only have a few more centers to learn this week and then we are pretty much set for center rotations.  This week the kids will learn how to read and use the center rotations chart and will rotate to their next center once they have completed a center.  This allows the kiddos to work at their own pace and be able to fully complete a center before having to switch.  It also helps with students not getting bored and acting up!

We will be wrapping up unit 1 of our reading comprehension unit and begin unit 2.  Unit 2 is how readers use their schema (what they already know).  The class will use their schema to read fiction, use their schema to understand character's feelings, use their schema to understand character's actions, and they will use their schema to read nonfiction.

Our high-frequency words for the week are: see, go, I.  Please help your child practice spelling and reading our weekly high-frequency words at home.  You can find the previous taught high-frequency words on the right side of the blog towards the bottom.

We will continue with handwriting and letter sounds.  This week we will focus on the following letters/sounds:  o, d, n, g, w.

In writing, the students will be completing an opinion and informational writing sample.  We will also begin learning about choosing a piece to publish and revising by adding more details.

We will continue to work on addition and the commutative property in math (adding in any order). We will also begin working on ways to make 6-10 (0+6, 1+5, etc.).  We have some fun games planned to help teach these skills!

Saturday Live is at the end of the month.  Bitterroot will be at the candy shack.  Could you please donate two non-melting candy to help our booth?  PTA will also take monetary donations if you do not have time to candy shop!

Enjoy the rest of your week!

Parent Orientation Night

PARENT ORIENTATION NIGHT     5:30-6:30 Tuesday, September 15th, 2015



Hello Bitterroot Parents and Families,

I hope your weekend was fun and restful.   I am writing to tell you about our Parent Orientation Night coming up on Tuesday, September 15th from 5:30 to 6:30 PM. The goal of our evening will be classroom and school orientation. You will have an opportunity to hear from your child’s teacher and to see and learn about classroom procedures and the outstanding programs we have to offer here at Bitterroot school.

This event is for parents and guardians only and will be a group instruction format. Please leave the kids at home so we can move quickly and efficiently through the evening’s tasks. We will do three rotations of 15 minutes each with 5 minutes for passing with bells or announcements to mark the time. This allows parents with multiple children in school to see more than one classroom.  

I am looking forward to seeing you and to another great year here at Bitterroot.



Principally yours,



John English,

Principal