Dear Families,

We have had an exciting and busy week in our classroom!

Our students recently completed their model clay projects, transforming their creations into either an emu or an ostrich. Along with building their models, students researched and practiced sharing interesting facts about their chosen animal. With the help of Joe’s classroom, they worked hard to prepare for a special presentation.

On Tuesday, our class proudly presented their projects and shared their fascinating facts with the whole school — and they did AMAZING! They are so proud of their hard work, confidence, and presentation skills. I hope your child came home excited to tell you about their animal and the interesting facts they learned.

In reading, we finished The Chicken Squad by Doreen Cronin and jumped right into the second book in the series, The Case of the Weird Blue Chicken. Our class has officially begun detective training!

To become certified classroom detectives, students had to complete several important missions:

• 1st Mission: Sneaky Walk Challenge
  • 2nd Mission: Code Breaker Moves
  • 3rd Mission: Super Spy Eyes
  • 4th Mission: Laser Freeze
  • Final Mission: Graduating from Spy School and becoming Official Classroom Detectives

I am happy to report that they successfully completed all their training and are now Official Classroom Detectives!

Every Friday, students will receive a brand-new mission as they work together to solve a classroom mystery. We are having so much fun building teamwork, critical thinking, and problem-solving skills through these detective challenges.

During our reading discussions, we also focused on an important comprehension skill. We talked about how the squirrel in the story was making inferences instead of sharing observations when asked what he truly saw. We practiced the difference between:

• Observation – What I see
• Inference – What I think

Ask your child to explain the difference between an observation and an inference — they’ve been working hard to think like true detectives!

Thank you for your continued support. We love sharing these exciting learning moments with you!

Have a great weekend!

Ms. Demetra

Friday, February 27, 2026

Dear Families,

Our classroom this month has been full of play, exploration, and discovery! Here’s a peek at the exciting adventures your children have been part of:

📚 Storytime Adventures

We finished reading The Princess in Black series—what a ride! Our students are eagerly waiting for the new book in July.

We’ve also started a new chapter book, The Chicken Squad Mysteries by Doreen Cronin. In our classroom, reading is an adventure for detectives! We’ve been observing closely and making inferences to solve the story’s mysteries. Ask your child:

• What is a mystery? 

  What are the names of the four chicks? (Dirt, Sugar, Poppy, Sweetie) 

• Who are the other characters, and what happened? 

📖 Jumpstart Read for the Record

As part of Jumpstart Read for the Record, our class read See Marcus Grow. We all enjoyed the story and participated in fun activities that helped us understand the story, build comprehension skills, and explore growth and learning.

❤️ Valentine’s Day Fun

Valentine’s Day is always a day of sharing love, and our class had so much fun with Ms. Anna’s class! The week before, we cut out cardboard hearts and decorated them, writing a sweet message on the back. We then delivered the hearts in person—our students shared one with each student in the upper grades, and Ms. Anna’s class shared with the younger students downstairs. I’m sure the whole school felt the love from our class!

🏮 Celebrating Chinese New Year

We explored the Chinese New Year, learning that this year is the Year of the Horse! Students learned about traditions like giving red envelopes, cleaning to welcome good luck, and enjoying special foods. We also discovered which animal corresponds to their birth year. Ask your child: Are you a Dog or a Pig according to the Chinese calendar?

🏅 Olympics Exploration

We learned all about the Olympics and created our own classroom book based on what we discovered. For our Winter Olympics play, our class voted to be Team Mexico. Fun fact: a mother-and-son duo represented Mexico for the first time!

All students at Plato School joined in the opening ceremony. Through games and challenges in the gym, students practiced teamwork, cheering, and sportsmanship. Special congratulations to Ioannis and Josef for earning medals!

📊 Playful Math & Data

Math in our classroom is hands-on! Students became data detectives, finding out which shirt colors were worn the most at Plato School. Two students visited classrooms daily for 10 days, tallying their observations. With help from Ms. Mary’s classroom, we turned our findings into bar graphs. The top colors? Blue, Maroon, and Green!

We also explored patterns on the 100-chart, using arrows and numbers to predict the end of a pattern. Math has never been so playful!

💻 Reading Through Technology

Our classroom now has 3 iPads! Students enjoy 10–15 minutes of independent reading and listening time, following along with books digitally. It’s been a fun way to explore stories and build reading confidence.

Have a great weekend!!

Sincerely,

Ms. Demetra

Friday, January 9, 2026

Dear Families,

Happy New Year! I wish you and your families all the best for 2026. I hope you enjoyed your time off with your children and were able to relax, recharge, and make many special memories together.

As we begin this new year, I would like to take a moment to thank you all deeply, from the bottom of my heart, for the amazing and thoughtful Christmas gifts and personal touches. Your kindness and generosity are truly appreciated.

Most importantly, thank you for your continued support of your children and our classroom. Your involvement, encouragement, and partnership make such a positive difference in your child’s learning and growth, and I am so grateful to work alongside all of you.

Our classroom has been buzzing with learning and curiosity this week!

We began the tenth book in our Princess in Black series, and the students were thrilled to jump back into this familiar and much-loved story. We have just one more book left in the series, and there is even more exciting news — a brand-new Princess in black book will be published in July! Our class is already looking forward to reading it with you this summer.

In this story, a new bird character was introduced. Ask your child:

• Which bird appeared in the story? (An emu!)

• What did the emu do to Princess Magnolia? (It smashed the box with party decorations.)

• What was inside the box? (A disco ball!)

• Who came to help Princess Magnolia? (Prince in Pink!)

These discussions help students build comprehension skills and help them to recall the story.

As part of our science and social studies exploration, we continue learning about birds, rocks, clouds, and the moon. This week, we added geography to our learning by studying the map of the United States and beginning our study of state birds. We started with Utah. Ask your child:

• Why did we choose Utah first?

• What is Utah’s state bird?

• Can they explain the story of how this bird became Utah’s state bird?

(Utah’s state bird is the California Gull.) Our class is excited to continue learning about different states and discovering how nature connects to history.

We also read the Wolf Moon poem and added it to our Poem Journals. This poem was challenging, and many of the words were difficult to read. Instead of giving up, the students embraced the challenge, practiced sounding out words, and supported one another. This is a wonderful example of a growth mindset — learning that effort and practice help our brains grow.

In math, students are strengthening their skills through math games and challenges. We are working with bigger numbers, practicing subtraction, and learning that mistakes are part of learning. I have added new math games to keep our classroom thinking, problem-solving, and growing every day.

We continue to enjoy the special books that students bring from home to share with the class. Thank you for encouraging a love of reading and sharing that joy with our classroom community.

Thank you for your continued support. We are off and running as we begin the second half of the year, building on all the progress your children are making.

Have a wonderful weekend, and please keep reading, talking, and playing games with your children — all of these moments support their learning.

Sincerely,

Ms. Demetra

Friday, October 31, 2025

🍂 October Comes to a Close! 🍂
Dear Families,

As we wrap up the month of October, our classroom has been full of learning, creativity, and excitement!

📚 Literacy Adventures
We continue to enjoy The Princess in Black and the Science Fair Scare (Book #6). Ask your child:

• How many princesses helped with the goo monster?

• Where were all the princesses when they saw it?

• And where did the monster go?
  It’s always wonderful to see how much the children love discussing the story and thinking deeply about what happens next.

Our students are also working hard on their journals. Their enthusiasm and effort shine through every day! We recently added a new poem to our poetry journals called “I’m a Little Pumpkin.” The children love reciting it — see if they can recite it for you at home! 🎃

🎃 Pumpkin Fun!
The biggest excitement this week was the gigantic pumpkin in front of the school! Each child guessed how much it might weigh — our class predicted it would weigh 200 pounds! The actual weight was 100.2 pounds. We had a great time comparing our guesses to the actual number.

A huge thank you to the Tzotozlis family for donating pumpkins for every student to paint and decorate. The children loved designing their own special pumpkins — what creativity!

🇬🇷 OXI and NAI Activity
This week, our class also joined older students to learn about OXI and NAI (Yes and No) words. Each student worked with a partner to decide which column words like bullying, respect, hate, courage, excuses, give up, and friendship belonged in. Ask your child which column each word went under!

🌟 Celebrating Diwali
We were so fortunate to have Sahana’s mom visit on October 15 to share about Diwali, the Festival of Lights. She read a beautiful story and led a hands-on art project called rangoli. Using colored sand, the children created bright, joyful designs that represent happiness, positivity, and liveliness. Thank you for sharing your time and culture with us — it was such a special experience!

➕➖ Math Adventures
In math, we continue to explore addition, subtraction, and place value with tens and ones. One of our main focuses is reasoning — asking questions like, “How many do you see?” helps students think flexibly and build strong number sense. It’s inspiring to see how their mathematical thinking is growing as they work with the multiplicity lab and collaborate on our Image of the Week.

🛡️ Knights Skit – You’re Invited!
We’re excited to share that our class has been rehearsing a short skit about what we’ve learned about knights. The students can’t wait to perform it for the other classes and for you!

📅 When: Friday, November 7
🕝 Time: 2:30 PM
📍 Where: Our Classroom

The performance is only about 10 minutes long — we hope you can join us and celebrate your child’s learning!

Thank you, as always, for your continued support and involvement in our classroom community. It’s been a wonderful October, and we’re looking forward to all the new adventures November will bring!

Warmly,
Ms. Demetra

Friday, October 10, 2025

Dear Families,

We had a wonderful and busy week full of hands-on learning, discovery, and excitement!

🚜 Our Trip to Wagner Farm

Our class had an incredible time visiting Wagner Farm! The children learned about the important chores that keep a farm running. They saw how water is pumped and gathered for both the animals and the farmhouse, visited the cow barn to learn how milk is collected, and even got to pick raw corn off the cob — not an easy task!

After that, we ground the corn into feed and gave it to the chickens in the chicken coop. We also made a quick stop by the pig pen, where the smell was… unforgettable!

Our final activity was shaking whipping cream to make fresh butter, which we spread on graham crackers for a delicious treat. The children had a fantastic morning learning through doing.
👉 Ask your child: What was your favorite farm chore?

📚 Reading Adventures: The Princess in Black

We’ve been hooked on The Princess in Black series! This week, we finished Book #3, The Princess in Black and the Hungry Bunny Horde, and Book #4, The Princess in Black Takes a Vacation. The class loves the Princess, the Goat Avenger, and of course, the silly monsters.

They’re eager for more stories — and maybe more hero disguises!
👉 Ask your child:

• Did the monsters follow the Princess on her vacation?

• Which book in the series is your favorite so far?

🛡️ Becoming Knights

In our exploration of medieval life, we learned about the journey of becoming a knight — from page to squire, and finally to knight. Inspired by this, the children have been busy creating their own shields, swords, and helmets. We’re not quite finished yet, but we’re excited to share our hard work with the rest of the school soon!

✏️ Writing & Journals

In writing, we continue practicing our journal entries by sounding out words, writing 2–3 sentences, and focusing on capital letters and punctuation. The children are making great progress and becoming confident writers!

➕➖ Math Fun & Riddles

In Math, we’ve been working on:

• Addition and subtraction

• Figuring out “What comes before” and “What comes after”

• Exploring Tens and Ones using real objects and bundles

• Solving riddles like:
  🪨 What did the pebble say to the rock? — “Let’s roll!”
  📸 What did the camera say to the mouse? — “Say cheese!”

We’re also continuing to explore Multiplicity Labs, using visual images to ask:
🧐 “How many do you see?” and “What do you notice?”

👉 Ask your child: Which image did you like the most?

🌕 Moon Watchers!

Did you and your child spot the Supermoon or Harvest Moon this month? If you’d like, you can take a picture of the next full moon on November 5 and share it with our class — we’d love to see it!

📚 Book Bags & Reading at Home

Thank you for continuing to read with your child at home! We’re making small adjustments to our book bags to ensure each child is getting the right level of reading support.
Please read each book with your child at least two times or more during the week.

🧥 A Quick Reminder

The weather is changing quickly — please make sure your child brings a warm jacket to school each day so we can continue to enjoy time outside comfortably.

Thank you, as always, for your support. Enjoy the weekend, and we’ll see you back in the classroom on Tuesday!

Sincerly,
Ms. Demetra         

Friday September 19, 2025

Dear Families,

It’s hard to believe we are already in mid-September! Time is flying by, and our class has been working so hard and learning so much.

Reading
We just finished our first chapter book, The Princess in Black by Shannon Hale and Dean Hale, and the class loved it! We’ve already started the second book in the series, The Princess in Black and the Perfect Princess Party. The students are hooked — they keep asking to read ahead, which is always a great sign of an engaging book!

Ask your child about the characters — they know so many! Some of the favorites include:

• Princess Magnolia (also the Princess in Black)

• Goat Boy

• The Monsters (like the blue monster and the tentacle monster)

• Duchess Wigtower

• The Goat Avenger

• Frumplepants (who is also Blacky)

• The 12 Princesses

We’ve also had fun learning about castle features mentioned in the story, like drawbridges, moats, and castle walls. Next week, we’ll be digging deeper into our castle unit!

Science
Our class has been eager to learn about clouds! We’ve talked about the different types of clouds, and the students love reciting our cloud poem and song. See if they can share them with you at home!

In addition to clouds and our ongoing studies about the moon and birds, we’ve recently added rocks to our science explorations. The class has learned about the three types of rocks: igneous, sedimentary, and metamorphic. They also discovered that there are over 4,000 types of minerals!

Some students have asked to bring in rocks from home — that’s absolutely fine! Please label the bag or container they come in so we can avoid mix-ups or hurt feelings if a rock goes missing.

Math
In math, we’re continuing to work with our Multiplicity Lab and noticing patterns in the number blocks. Each morning, we work in our math journals, practicing:

• Filling in missing numbers

• Finding patterns

• Identifying even and odd numbers

• Putting numbers in order

  

  

Writing
Our students are growing as writers! We’ve been practicing journal writing — focusing on creating complete sentences, beginning with strong openings and finishing with punctuation. It’s great to see their confidence grow.

Books Coming Home
Starting next week, your child will be bringing home a book to read. Please return the book the following Monday when they return to school. We want to build responsibility and help them take care of the books they borrow.

Celebrations

We had our first birthday celebration in class — Happy 7th Birthday to Medina! 🎉
A big thank you to Medina’s mom for coming in to read her favorite story to the class. It made the day extra special!

Thank you for your continued support. Have a wonderful weekend with your family — and don’t forget to keep reading at home!

Sincerely,

Ms. Demetra

Friday, September 5, 2025

Dear Parents,

We’ve had a busy and joyful start to our school year! The past couple of weeks have been filled with learning, getting to know our new classmates, and settling into our classroom routines. It’s been wonderful to see how quickly everyone is adjusting and working together.

We began our week by reviewing and practicing our classroom rules to help build a respectful and safe learning environment. Our classroom is always buzzing with activity as we learn new things each day!

📚 Reading Adventures

We’ve started the year by diving into many wonderful books to build our reading habits before starting our new novel study. Some of the highlights from last week include:

• “Love Me Tender” by Elvis Presley – We read and sang this sweet story, then talked about what makes each of us feel loved. Students also drew pictures to show their thoughts and feelings.

• “Nadia’s Hands” – After reading this beautiful book, we created our own decorated paper hands to reflect the story’s themes of culture and identity.

• “The Art Toolbox” – We explored what tools an artist needs and then drew our own “art toolboxes” filled with our favorite creative tools.

• “The Magical Yet” read by Ms. Filisa – This inspiring book helped us talk about goals, growth mindset, and how important it is to never give up—some things just haven’t happened yet.

• We also added a lovely cloud poem to our growing Poetry Journals! We’ll continue to collect poems and write our own throughout the year.

Looking ahead, we’ll be learning more about clouds and the moon—two topics our class is already eager to explore!

✏️ Writing & Math

In writing, we are learning to express ourselves through pictures and words. Our students are doing a great job sharing their thoughts on what we read and experience.

In math, we’ve been working on:

• Addition strategies

• Symmetry – We did a fun project where we drew an owl and tried to mirror the left side to the right. It was a great way to explore symmetry and patterns!

We also started using our Math Journals, which we’ll continue to write in a few times each week.

📖 Novel Study & StoryWorks

We just began our class novel, “The Princess in Black”, and the students are excited to follow her adventures—especially with the character Frumplepants. Ask your child who Frumplepants is and what they think will happen next!

Every Friday, we also read from StoryWorks, which introduces real-life scenarios and fun stories. We recently talked about “Sticky Situations” and what we can do when we face tricky problems. These conversations help build strong problem-solving and social-emotional skills.

🎭 Field Trip Fun

Our recent field trip to see live performances was a big hit! Ask your child which show was their favorite and what they enjoyed most about it.

Reminders:

• Toy Friday – Every Friday, your child may bring a small toy (that fits in their backpack) to share and play with their friends.

• Outdoor Time – We go outside every day for about an hour, including a visit to the park. Please make sure your child brings a jacket as the weather starts to cool down.

Thank you for all your support at home. We’re off to a great start, and I’m so proud of our classroom community. Have a wonderful weekend, and don’t forget to ask your child about their favorite part of the week!

Sincerely,

Ms. Demetra

Wednesday, June 4, 2025

Dear Parents,

As we wrap up this school year, I want to take a moment to celebrate all the growth and wonderful learning that has taken place in our classroom! It’s been a busy and exciting year, especially as we explored the amazing world of animals and birds together.

One of the highlights of our reading journey was diving into the Good Dog series by Cam Higgins. We read books 1 through 7 as a class, and the students loved following the adventures of the lovable pup, Bo. For their final journal entry, each student reflected on their favorite character from the series—it was fun to read their responses!

If you’re looking for some great summer reading, you’ll be glad to know there are nine more books in the Good Dog series your child can enjoy. And speaking of reading, our class came up with an exciting summer challenge: they’ve set a goal to read 50 books over the summer! Please help and encourage your child to reach this goal. What a fun way to keep up their love for reading!

In addition to reading, keep playing math games at home to help your child continue practicing their addition and subtraction skills. They’ve made so much progress this year; keeping that momentum is important.

Most of all, I encourage you to enjoy this special time together. Make memories, explore the outdoors, read stories, and savor the little moments—these early years go by quickly!

Thank you for all your support throughout this school year. It’s been a true pleasure watching your children learn and grow.

Wishing you a joyful, restful summer, see you back in August!

Ms. Demetra

Friday, March 21, 2025

Dear Parents,

This week in our classroom, we had another exciting time exploring books, math, and nature! We continued reading the Good Dog series by Cam Higgins, and had some great discussions about the characters. Ask your child: Why did Scrapper tell Bo to go, go, go? What did Diva and King say about the stars? You can also talk about how Bo was feeling nervous when he thought the monster was coming to get him, but Diva and King, the cats, explained that the loud boom was actually fireworks, not a monster. It was Imani who calmed Bo down by holding him in her arms to keep him safe and calm. These discussions help us think about feelings and how we can help each other when we’re scared.

In writing, we are wrapping up our first journal and getting ready to start our second journal of the year! Our class has been writing every day, and it’s amazing to see the progress they’ve made. They are working hard to sound out words and form complete sentences. Ask your child about their journal entries—they are so proud of their accomplishments!

In math, we continue to work on subtraction, place value, and ten frames. Each morning, the class enjoys solving math challenges, and in the afternoon, they dive into fun math games that help reinforce these skills. Their understanding of numbers is growing every day!

We also read the book Imagine by Juan Felipe Herrera, a famous poet. Before we read, we talked about what the word “imagine” means, and our class came up with the definition of “making pictures of things in your mind.” It was a wonderful way to get our imaginations flowing as we read the poem together.

As part of our bird of the week: we learned about the Hummingbird, the smallest bird in the world. We’ve been going outside to look for bird nests and listen for bird calls, practicing our observation skills and learning more about the world around us.

Lastly, I want to thank all of you for attending the conferences this week. Your support means so much to both me and your child. I hope you have a wonderful spring break with your families, and I look forward to seeing everyone back in class on Wednesday, April 2nd!

During the break, when you have a chance, enjoy reading a book together. It’s a great way to continue supporting your child’s learning while having fun!

Sincerely,

Ms. Demetra

Books we read this week:

Lost and Found by Oliver Jeffers

A Bad Case of Stripes by David Shannon

Down by the River Very Special Friends by Jane Chapman

Imagine by Juan Felipe Herrera

Friday, February 28, 2025