Recently some issues have begun to arise surrounding items that are being brought in from home. These items include:
crayons, sharpeners, books, toys, sticky-tac, etc. Although these items may seem harmless when your child requests to bring them in; the loss, trading, lending, and/or damage of such items often results in dramatic outbursts both in and outside of the classroom that end up taking up valuable learning time to sort out. For example, some students who have brought in school supplies offer to share with some classmates but not others, students who bring in their own books are not reading the "just-right" levelled books that would be most beneficial for their stage of reading development, when large quantities of sticky-tack go missing, students insist that they've brought in their own from home, during independent work periods, students are caught playing with small toys in their desks,...the list of scenarios is evolving everyday. The problems associated with these items wouldn't be so bad if they just involved one student at a time, but that is rarely the case. Other students get distracted or begin tattling, accusing or rumouring about this and that, and before you know it, a simple issue has become much more complicated and children are arguing, crying, etc.
Thus is life in a grade 1 and 2 classroom and that is why every September, I specifically request in my September newsletter that no school supplies be sent in (everything your child needs is provided by the school) and toys or distracting items (e.g. jewelery, lip gloss, etc.) should not be brought from home.
I would greatly appreciate if you would please take a moment to speak to your child about these issues and about their responsibilities when at school (particularly within the classroom). The more teachers and parents can work together to send the same message, the less learning time will be lost addressing issues that need not occur in the first place.
Thank you so much for your cooperation and support with this matter. I look forward to meeting with you all next week to discuss your child's progress report.
Very sincerely,
Ms. Janice Bednarz
