June 8, 2015 Dear Parents, Well, this is it - my final letter of the school year. It is always so hard to say goodbye to my students and their families. I will miss all of you, even though I will be seeing most of you next year. It was so nice to see so many of you at our Thank-You party. I do thank you for all of your help and support! It is what makes teaching at Hephatha so wonderful. Please return any books that you have at home that belong to Hephatha. We will have to charge you for missing books. Don’t forget that your child needs a big grocery bag or something in which to carry their belongings on Monday. The form acknowledging the summer reading program must be signed and turned in by Wednesday. I can not stress how important it is to keep your child reading this summer. Please keep working on the addition and subtraction facts over the summer, also. Work for mastery-not using fingers. Our toy auction will be held on Tuesday, June 9th. Please send in any reading calendars to school – Wednesday will be too late. The auction will already be over. I am counting on you to bring it to school by Tuesday morning. Please let me know if you are not participating. The awards for church/Sunday School attendance and school attendance and music will be given out at 8:35 a.m. in the chapel on Wednesday. We will give out other classroom awards in our classroom afterwards. Closing chapel begins at 11 a.m. on Wednesday morning. You are all welcome. Report cards will be sent home on the last day of school unless money is owed in the office. I pray that your summer is a happy and safe one. I look forward to seeing all of you next August. If your plans change, I wish you God’s richest blessings always. Vacation Bible School will take place at Hephatha from July 13-17. Hope to see you there. Your child will need the chair covers/pocket next year in third grade. Please wash it and store it where you can find it otherwise you will have to purchase a new one next year. We will have our Reading Counts party on Monday, June 8th. We will have ice cream sundaes and 7-Up/Water and a movie. I am so proud of all the students earning their necessary points. Not all of the students have sent in their book reports required. They were due last Friday. If you signed-up to bring something, we are counting on you to send it tomorrow, Monday, June 8th. No more memory work or spelling to study! Lunch will be provided on Tuesday for the school picnic. (Hot dogs, chips, fruit) If your child does not like hot dogs, please send something else for him/her. Children may have free dress that day. School does not begin until 9 a. m. and is over at 1 p.m. Each grade is assigned a color to wear—ours is orange. Please don’t feel you have to go out and buy something. Anyone who does not have anything orange will be given an orange headband or armband to wear. Pet Day is on Monday. We will try to limit each student to five minutes. He or she should be able to give us the following information: the age of the pet (approx.), the kind of cat or dog, etc., its name, any tricks, and what he or she likes best about this pet. Or they can say the same about a pet that he/she would like to have. Pictures of their pet are also okay. Only happily caged animals may stay all day—no cats or dogs. The cats and dogs can be brought in at the end of the day. The sign-up sheet for times available is by the door. Happy birthday to the summer birthdays – July birthdays– Ellie, July 9 and Faith, July 18. In August —Claire, Aug. 18 and Elliott, July 27. Congratulations! With sincere thanks, Mrs. Staake