October 7th Newsletter

Important Dates

October
10 – Columbus Day – No School
11 – Teacher's Institute – No School
21 – Family Halloween Party at Ide

27 – Early Dismissal – 12:00
31 - Classroom Halloween Parties

We will not have a student of the week for the week of October 10th since it is such a short week.

Spelling
We will not be having a spelling list or test for the week of October 10-14 since it is such a short week.

Writing
This past week, the children chose a gourd to decorate any way they wanted. Then they drew a picture of it and added several details. After that, they used the picture to help them write a few sentences about the gourd. We worked on using describing words. The class was very creative with this project.

During the month of September we worked on Education City, Mathblasters, and I-Station in the computer lab. I-Station is a program that works on letters, sounds, and reading skills. The children's progress is monitored in this program.

Reading
For the week of October12th we will be reading two stories. A Lot! A Lot! is a funny story about a group of cats that cook a big feast for themselves. The other story, A Party for Bob is about a boy and his surprise birthday party. We will also be reading a math link called Shapes Are Everywher

Comprehension Strategies

- questioning and noting details within a story

Vocabulary
Our new vocabulary words are:
five, four, in, once, three, two, upon, what, box, did, got, hot, lot, & wag

Grammar
- using capitals and periods in sentences

We have started doing Exploration Stations on Fridays. These lessons go along with our science and social studies curriculum. There will be 5 lessons taught over a 5 week period. Every teacher will present a lesson each week. The teachers will rotate to a different classroom each Friday. This way we know that every 1st grader is receiving the same science & social studies curriculum. The topics for this theme are: Native Americans, pioneers, Navajo Indians/hogans, Christopher Columbus, & Pilgrims.

Enjoy the nice weather and good luck to all the marathon runners this weekend!