BOOK ORDERS ARE DUE TODAY - order online or by using the flyers sent home last Friday.
Scholastic Class Code: GK83B Frindle is finished this week! The kids were able to relate to this book much better than previous book reads. I am actually excited to stay late next Thursday for Literacy Night. Our grade level has a variety of crafty stuff to decorate "frindles!" Please join us from 6 pm to 7 pm Thursday, March 7th for FREE activities throughout our building provided by each grade level. Mr. Stockton has the book fair open as well, but it isn't free. Wouldn't a free book fair be so cool? We'll be having spelling tests for our 110 sight words. Random tests during reading groups have proven that most kids are able to read their sight words, but they do not spell them correctly. We'll start with words from the first list because those were Kindergarten sight words and should be easy. I'll send home a list to study. This week we switched gears in math to subtraction using two-digit numbers. Thank goodness there will NOT be borrowing. We will stick with using tens. I expect this to be an easy topic with testing March 8th. Our focus book this week was The Invisible Boy. I love the illustrations because this little boy had no color until other kids started including him. Such a visual! This fits wonderfully with our 7 habits. We discussed vocabulary words: invisible, whines, complains, scurry, and introduces. Kids felt badly for the main character, Brian. They seemed to understand how he felt. Phonics: ey, y, ie e_e patterns. Our language is so tricky. Words from phonics may be included on our spelling tests as bonuses. If kids can memorize words that use these patterns, they will find it easier to transfer their learning to other words. Opinion writing continues. Kids are really good at this. We are inserting persuasive writing into pieces to get others to share our opinion. This stretches thinking into considering others' thoughts. Time will be given for the assessment March 7th. Important Dates: Monday, March 4th - Wear clothing with Dr. Seuss or Dr. Seuss characters on it, or dress with a Dr. Seuss hat, gloves, and bow tie. Tuesday, March 5th - Hat Day for a canned good or quarter, crazy socks Wednesday, March 6th - Dress as your favorite BOOK character, bring the book if possible Thursday, March 7th - Wear WORDS on your clothing Thursday, March 7th - Literacy Night and Book Fair 6:00 to 7:00 Friday, March 8th - Tiger Tee, dismissal at 12:30 Tuesday, March 12th - early dismissal 12:30 Wednesday, March 13th through Friday, March 15th - Spring break Thursday, March 21st - Spring Pictures Thursday, March 28th - Report Cards sent home Kids finally shared their valentines and ate too much sugar during our party on Monday. The effects lasted for days. I am not kidding. Their boxes were so cute.
Leadership Day was a great way for the kids to shine. My class had a guide to share with guests. I was proud to see them take charge. Many teachers complimented them after our guests left. You should be proud too. We learned about George and Abe this week and charted learning. Your child can teach you cool information I bet you never knew. We will continue next week. Opinion writing keeps improving. Kids are stretching sentences and ideas to persuade others to share their opinion. Sight word spelling is a struggle. Anytime you can quiz your child on spelling them, please do. The Topic 10 assessment went well for the majority of kids. Adding two digit numbers is getting easier to the point kids are seeing the answers without thinking about how they got them. I told them it would just happen with practice. We start subtracting two digit numbers next week. Book orders will be sent home Monday and are due Friday, March 1st. You can order online or by using the paper order forms. One check can be written for your entire order. Important Dates: Friday, March 1st - book lists due for a Pizza Hut personal pan pizza March 4th - 7th - Dr.Seuss dress up days (on calendar and note sent home) Thursday, March 7th - Literacy Night 6pm to 7pm. Enjoy activities throughout our building FREE Valentine's/Friendship Party rescheduled for Monday 2:00-2:45. Please join us if you are available! You are free to take your child home with you afterward.
Math Thursday was difficult to grasp. Please sit with your child as they complete the homework page and return it Monday for a prize! Upcoming Events: Monday February 18th we have school due to a previous snow day. The Valentine party will be 2:00-2:45 due to the ice day Friday. First Grade Program rescheduled (Willard South FB link)
"The Bear Went Over the Mountain" take II is Monday night. Kids can bring their clothing to change into after lunch if they are messy eaters. Monday night kids will meet me at the classroom at 6:10 (no coats). I will take them to the stage with their costumes for practice. Families are seated around 6:20. There will be a line! The math assessment went better than I expected. Those symbols can be so tricky. We've started Topic 10 which takes us into adding double-digit numbers. Ask your child to review the day's lesson as thought they are teaching you. This will help embed the process for better understanding. "A Bad Case of Stripes" was a fun way to talk about being ourselves, regardless of what others may think. We don't have to agree with others, and they don't have to agree with us. We all have different thoughts about things. This was a great supporting text for opinion writing. Kids will add persuasive writing to their opinion pieces next week. They will take a stand on a subject and try to convince others to change their view based on the reasons provided. Phonics oi/oy: This is tricky since all words with this sound do not follow the rule. Use oi when the sound is in the middle or at the beginning of a word. Use oy at the end of words. We have discussed root words, meaning if ed or s has been added, you have to take those off to determine the end of the word. Next week we work with eigh, ay, and a_e. If you have made/bought a Valentine box, please send it Monday. Kids without a box will be making something Wednesday. Valentines can be sent any day. Be sure your child has addressed and signed them so others will know who they are from. Kids will deliver them during the party Friday the 15th. These kids need to bring $2 tomorrow: Taylor, Madilyn, and Karmen. Thank you for helping Laelle's parents provide a fun Friendship party for your child! Upcoming Events: Monday, February 11th - First Grade program at 2:00 and 6:30 Friday, February 15th - Friendship party at 9:45 Early dismissal 12:30 (teachers in meetings) Monday, February 18th - We are in school. 100s Day Celebration and My OLD kids!Happy Snow Day! What a pleasant surprise at 5:30 am! I actually went to bed on time so I didn't get the 10:15 pm message.
The kids had a blast with 100s Day. We had so many donuts and Swiss Miss rolls come in that the kids just kept eating until they were gone. Thank you all for your help providing this fun snack. I'd list names to thank, but more treats came in than anticipated Monday when I was absent, and I'm afraid I would leave someone out. Check out the "Snapshots of Fun" page for more pictures. Valentine Party: Click the link for party information. It has party date and time plus the kids' names to address Valentines. These kids have already brought $2 to help with the cost of party items: Laelle, Wyatt, Abby, Eva, Keyley, Alec, Amiya, Abby, Ethan, and Karter. Thank you! (I'm going from memory since my chart is at school). First Grade as a team has reached our school-wide WIG that 80% of our first graders will read 88 or more of the First Grade sight words by May. This is exciting because it means we should have most kids reading on or above grade level at the end of May as well. My class has five students who have not met the sight word goal YET. We will keep practicing with flash cards and sight word rap/rock on YouTube. Be sure to have your child write the sight words several times a week so they are spelled correctly in writing. Our new First Grade WIG is that 72 out of 89 students will score at least a 17 of 28 on the retell rubric five times by May. This is definitely a task you can practice at home with books you read. Retelling should include all important characters, the setting, all important events in order, the problem, and the solution. Writing is all about brainstorming and organizing thoughts. "OREO" was used to help the kids form an opinion about their favorite Oreo cookie. They taste tested Lemon, Mint, and Original. The first step was to write their opinion *the O. We are talking about strong beginnings that reach our audience and make them want to hear what we have to say. We want to get away from "My favorite flavor is ___" and use statements such as "I have to tell you about this exciting cookie flavor!" Next they listed reasons why they chose the flavor *the R. The next step will be to explain their reasons *the E. We have not done this step previously so it may be a difficult start. An example would be that the filling was creamy - yes, but what does that mean? The last step will be to restate their opinion *the O. We can't end writing with "The End". We have to refer back to what we are writing about to wrap it up. Practice this in the car to keep kids busy and thinking. They have opinions and know how to argue them! Putting it on paper is a bit harder. O=Opinion, R=Reasons, E=Explanation for the reasons, O=restate opinion Thank you Amiya and Wyatt for the Oreo flavors! Math should continue through the beginning of next week due to the interruptions in lessons this week. We will probably review Monday then test Tuesday. You can support the lessons by asking your child to compare any two numbers up to 100 using "greater than" and "less than". The > and < symbols are a bit tricky to remember. The open space eats that larger number. The point is toward the smaller number. Give a random number then ask what one more would be, one less, ten more, ten less. Counting to reach the answers is fine, but understanding the pattern we see in numbers using tens and ones is a must for future lessons. If we are looking for the number that is ten less, the number in the tens place will be one less because we gave up one group of tens. In reading we completely missed our lessons Monday-Wednesday. We will start fresh with our Penguins unit next week. Kids will be differentiating fiction books from non-fiction books, then writing a fiction story including facts they know about the subject. A book that does this well is Stellaluna where a baby bat is separated from her mother and lives with a bird family. Throughout the story we learn about how bats behave, what they eat, and about their night vision. Phonics: Use "oo" in the middle of words that say /oo/. Use "ew" at the end of words that say /oo/. Unfortunately "ue" says /oo/ also, but that is a different lesson. Our language is so confusing. Upcoming Events: Friday, February 1st - turn in your January Pizza Hut Book It list! Tuesday, February 5th - Hat Day Thursday, February 7th - 1st grade Music Program 2:45 and 6:30 You are invited to view both! The day program will be recorded so be sure your child wears the appropriate clothing. Friday, February 15th - Friendship Party at 9:45-10:25, Dismiss at 12:30 Monday, February 18th - NO SCHOOL (Make-up day if needed) Eye opener for parents - video
This video touched my heart. I actually cried. Our kids are precious even at their worst times. Valentine Party: click the link for the note that went home last Friday. It has party date and time plus the kids' names to address Valentines. These kids have already brought $2 to help with the cost of party items. Thank you! You still have two weeks to send $2. When everyone pitches in, no one bears the burden.
Tuesday is our 100th day of school. There is a note in folders today about dressing as though kids are 100 years old. Kids always have silly fun on this day. If your child doesn't want to participate, that is fine. It is just for fun. This week we enjoyed discussing how good we are in our hearts, that we treat others as we want to be treated. We learned that Martin Luther King, Jr. was a great man who used kindness and peaceful resolutions when solving problems with those who treated African Americans badly. We cracked three eggs of varying shell color and discovered that the outside color doesn't matter at all. The insides are made the same, regardless. The yolk did vary in size and shade, but they were all yolk - just like we are all people. Math is becoming a bit more clear thanks to a cheat slider that Mrs. Galloway shared with me. I took it step further and make the kids each a slider to use. WOW! The difference it makes. We continue working with one more, one less, ten more, ten less and using the 120s chart. You can help by quizzing your child using these terms and any number you choose to begin with. Ask them to draw the tens sticks and ones cubes for each number. We want to recognize the pattern on a chart, but more importantly is understanding that a tens stick has been added or taken away, thus changing the number of tens. This is a huge deal when we introduce hundreds! Writing has been fairly easy. This is a great time to practice handwriting, complete sentences, and correct sentence structure. Giving an opinion seems to happen very easily in all of us. Phonics focused on using "ow" or "ou" within words. The rule is that if a word has l, n, er, or el at the end OR the word ends with the sound of "ow," it will use "ow" to spell the sound. If the word does not have those letters and the "ow" sound is at the beginning or in the middle, use "ou" for the sound. Now you've learned something this week too! Next week in... Reading - Retelling Writing - Opinion Writing continued Phonics - Vowel Teams ew/oo Math - Understanding Place Value (Taking test on Friday) Upcoming Events: Tuesday, February 5th - Hat Day Thursday, February 7th - 1st grade Music Program 2:45 and 6:30 Friday, February 15th - Friendship Party at 9:45-10:25, Dismiss at 12:30 Monday, February 18th - NO SCHOOL (Make-up day if needed) Valentine / Friendship Party note link - send $2 to help with costs
(This note will be sent home Friday, January 18, 2019) We are working on Leadership binders in preparation for Leadership Day February 22nd. I've told kids they are welcome to bring work they are proud of back to school to include in their binders. For example, many kids got a 3 on the Topic 8 math assessment. This may be something they want to showcase in their binder. They should show their parents first so you will know where they are performing. This will continue throughout May. Coach Allen is promoting the American Heart Association tee-shirt sales to help raise money for healthy heart awareness. The paper and order envelope are in kids' mail today. This week we wove opinion writing into our snowman story, The Magical Snowman. Kids were to choose if they would be excited or terrified if a snowman came to life, then persuade others to change their minds. It was fun practice in creating unique reasons for our opinions. This is the easiest writing unit! Kids love to tell others what they think. We are still using "Circle Maps" and "Graphic Organizers" to brainstorm and plan writing. We will continue this for a week, then open other options for sharing our opinions and validating them. We read What Snowmen Do All Year and wrote what we would do if we were snowmen and able to play with other snowmen. For science we designed, built, and tested snowball catapults and sleds. I'll post pictures asap. The math assessment wasn't as difficult as the kids thought it would be. Thank goodness for the additional help you are providing at home. Tens and ones is a vague concept at first. We will be continuing place value. Kids are building their knowledge base of understanding so we can work our way toward the hundreds place. Phonics focused on "oe" and "oa" vowel pairs. I tried to make this easier to process with a few rules. If we leave off the e and a, we get a different word. These vowels are needed to push the letter o to say "oh!" instead of the short o sound. We know to use "oa" if there is a consonant at the end of the word. Next week we will be discussing how we are all people with feelings, thoughts, and value. Important dates: Monday, January 21st - No School for students. Teachers are in meetings. Wednesday, January 30th - 100s Day Thursday, February 7th - First Grade program at 2:45 and 6:30 pm. Families are invited to both. Friday, February 15th - Friendship Party 9:45-10:20 and early dismissal at 12:30 Report Card and Data Binders are being sent home TODAY. Only keep the stapled packet from the front of the binder. Return the binder Monday.
This week we read "Snowmen At Night" and discussed why the boy thought his snowman played games with others snowmen during the night. Thinking about the story to answer the question is different than most questions because the kids had to think about the snowman at the beginning of the story and realize on their own that the events within were the boy making things up. The reason he thought the snowman did things at night was because the snowman looked different the next morning. He was misshapen and a bit melted. His nose was under his eye. The snowman had simply melted a bit overnight. Birds or squirrels may have tried to eat from the extra pieces used for the face. We will revisit this skill many times. We also practiced retelling the story. We extended the story into Science and created snowmen with marshmallows and toothpicks. The idea was to work as a team to design and plan the building of the tallest snowman. We ended up with rows of marshmallows stuck together, but one design was the tallest and won. We discussed that these challenges need more rules such as defining what a snowman should look like. In Writing kids were introduced to "Opinion" writing. They did this in Kindergarten and will do it again in Second Grade. It is simply choosing a topic and telling how you fell about it, then supporting your opinion with valid reasons. We practiced by choosing our favorite fruit. Kids completed a "Circle Map" based on their favorite fruit. We then use the circle map to create our valid reasons and begin a writing piece. It is a process, but using the brainstorming piece helps kids get their thoughts organized. Capital letters, punctuation, and word wall words spelled correctly are a must. Kids should be able to use our phonics spelling patterns to help them spell difficult words. We will continue Opinion writing until Spring Break. Phonics - Vowel Teams ai/ay: If a word has a consonant at the end of a long "a" sound, we use "ai" in the middle. If it ends with a long "a" sound, we use "ay". Math - Understanding Place Value: We call the straight line of tens a "tens stick" to keep kids straight about the number we are representing. The ones are called "ones cubes". Talk about confusing to kids still trying to understand the teens! When you help your child with daily homework, they understand much better. It shows when they are sent to complete pages on their own. Thank you for supporting your child's learning! We will continue practicing drawing "models" to represent a two-digit number, and quickly identifying which is the tens column and which is the ones column. Yes, we will get into hundreds in First Grade! Next week we will continue practicing retelling, Opinion writing, vowel teams oa, oe, and understanding place value. *PLEASE ask your child if he/she is in need of headphones. Kids will not be using IPads beginning next week if they do not have headphones. Earbuds are too big for this age unless they are made for little kids. We do not have spare headphones available to give kids. *Kids who do not bring a coat for recess will be sitting inside with a book during recess. We go outside unless the temperature is below 32 degrees with a wind chill that is below 25 degrees. This means we go outside even when it is 30 degrees! Be sure your child is prepared to stay warm. Upcoming Dates: Monday, January 21st - NO SCHOOL - Make-Up snow day if needed December Book-It lists can be turned in next year when we return Monday January 7th.
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