I'm going to teach First grade next year! You will be receiving an email from Mrs. Crighton-Smith asking if you prefer that your child have a different teacher for First grade. I will NOT see your responses. She will simply make sure that your child is not placed on my class list. I'd love to take my entire class, but I have two sets of cousins that need to be separated.
We have three chaperones for the zoo field trip on May 10th! I'd love to have a few more parents join us. Money and field trip permission slips need to be returned by Friday, May 4th. We have to give the zoo a head count for all five classes and all of the money collected in one large total. At this time I've received admission cost and permission slips for: Trystan, Grayson, Phoenix, Alec, Taylor, Avaya, Addalee, Amiya, Ruby, Laelle, and Jeremiah. If you've lost the information page and permission slip, please email me for another copy. Our chicks have been so much fun. The kids can't seem to stop watching them. Our first chick's name is Pepper. Our second chick looks like Coal. Our third that hatched Friday morning was named Goldilocks. Unfortunately she drowned in the water bowl over recess. I tried to save her by drying her and massaging her. We watched a Youtube video for pointers. I opened her beak and blew into her mouth, then pressed where I think her lungs were. I also tipped her head back over my finger and pressed on her lung area. I kept her warm and dry and continued massaging her. She just couldn't be saved. I buried her while the kids were in Art. She was wrapped nicely in a Mickey Mouse tissue box. So sad. Unfortunately our "eggs-citement" ended today. I am taking the chicks home with me tonight then to a friend after school Friday. They will start hopping out of our tub if I don't. Mrs. Gardner, Mrs. Turner, and Mrs. Wallace are taking incubators home with the remaining eggs. They will take pictures of the chicks when they hatch. We have one more from ours that has is starting to hatch. There are three more from other classes that are ready. Our weekly theme was Butterflies. Sight Words: where Handwriting Letters: We focused on hearing and writing blends that have an l in them - gl, pl, sl, cl, fl Word Family: -un In writing we have continued working on “Opinion/Persuasive Papers.” We watched Michael Jackson's videos Heal the World and Man in the Mirror for a larger picture of problems we may choose to write opinions about. I talked the kids through what we were seeing. They were so adorable to watch. They really took it to heart. We took the Topic 13 test over Analyze, Compare, and Create Shapes. Topic 14 is be exploring measurement and weight. Upcoming Events: May 1 – Hat Day (Donate a hygiene item to wear a hat all day) May 4 – Field Trip Permission Slip and Money Due May 10 – Field Trip 9:00-12:00 May 18 – Field Day May 24 – Last Day of School Dismiss @ 12:30 Zoo field trip - Money and permission slips need to be turned in together. It would be helpful to put them in an envelope or sandwich bag. Chaperones must be with us when we enter the zoo to pay the group admission price. If you are not a chaperone, you will be charged the full amount of admission. Please do not write a check to Willard South. We can't cash them. If you must write a check, write it to Dickerson Park Zoo. Permission slips and money must be returned by Friday, May 4th.
Field Day is May 18th. The committee is asking for volunteers for each station. Click the link below for information if you are able to volunteer: Field Day Volunteers Our chick eggs are going to hatch!!!! Two have a peck in their outer shell. We can hear them chirping through the shell. This is so exciting! I promise to get video if they wait until we come back to school tomorrow. During our farm unit April 3-6 kids researched farm animals, machines, jobs, plants, and foods. They worked in teams to share their knowledge with the class. Our focus was reading non-fiction text with purpose. The previous week kids learned about oviparous animals, then we were allowed to have incubators in our classrooms and fertile eggs to observe! Today we were able to see through shells to the eyes of three chicks by "candling" - holding the egg to light. We plan to name them once we know how many we have growing. The "candling" process is fun, but takes time if all kids get a chance to see every egg. We will continue to watch the chicks develop by candling and hope to observe them hatching on April 24th.
This week we read Tops and Bottoms to learn about vegetable gardens. Using this text we made predictions, practiced retelling key events in order, and inferred based on the pictures and text. Kids learned that being lazy is not a good trait to have. We will be reading about flower gardens next week and planting flowers. If you can donate planting soil, containers, or seeds to help out, please let me know. Sight words: they, what Handwriting: long vowel words have a silent e at the end Word Family: -ub We continue to work toward completing opinion writing. We have written book reviews to rate and share our opinions about books, and also watched Charlotte's Web to create a movie review. You would think that learning about 2-D and 3-D shapes would be easy, but the vocabulary can be tricky. Kids are learning that 2D shapes are the "flat" shapes in our environment, and 3D shapes are "solids" or a shape we could put something into. Kids are also learning to use positional words, such as: in front, under, below, above, etc. Topic 12 assessment will be Tuesday the 17th. Important dates: April 16th - I am out for two appointments. These are routine appointments! Three of them were rescheduled due to conflicts that could not be avoided. I am fine, just "mature". May 1st - Reading assessments will begin May 10th - tentative Zoo field trip. Chaperones will be needed and asked to meet us at the zoo. *The date has been submitted for approval. *A note and permission slip will be sent home as soon as we are approved. *Cost is usually $6 each. May 24th - the last day of school Last week is a blur! The full moon kept movement at warp speed - the kids didn't let up at all, so I had to try to keep their pace. I'm hoping that is behind us. I assure you, every classroom was a bit nuts.
Kids learned about "oviparous" animals last week. We discussed what kids knew about eggs, then continued with what they knew about chickens. They learned that "hens" lay eggs, not chickens in general. We will be observing chicken eggs in an incubator for the next few weeks. The kids don't know this yet! We've not done this at Willard South before. I will keep you updated on our learning. Next week we learn about farms. Kids finished math topic 11 with their assessment Thursday. The language and the way the answers were presented was confusing. I reassessed questions missed on the same day to be fair. Assessments were sent home that day. Scores have been entered in Mastery Connect. Topic 12 is "Identify and Describe Shapes". Kids will learn to identify and describe two and three-dimensional shapes by using their attributes. In writing kids continued their “Opinion/Persuasive Papers.” We will work on stating our opinions and providing a reason to support our opinions. At this time the topic is provided for kids. In a few weeks they will be creating their own topics. Using the word "because" is a must. Word Work: Word family -en and Review of digraphs: ch, sh, th, ck Summer School: Summer school will be in session June 4, 2018 through June 29, 2018. The hours will be 7:30 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. each day, Monday through Friday. Classes will be held at Willard Orchard Hills or Willard East. This year all students must register online for summer school. The deadline to enroll is Friday, April 23rd. Important Events: Tuesday, April 3rd - VOTE for school board candidates Tuesday, April 3rd - hat day for a canned or boxed food item Monday, April 9th - Mrs. Bailey absent Tuesday, April 10th - Kindergarten screening - I will be out half of the day to do exit interviews |
AuthorMrs. Christine Bailey Willard South Homepage
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May 2019
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