December 19th Newsletter

                    

 Important Dates

December

          19 – Classroom Holiday Party – 2:00

          22 – Winter Break Begins

January

          5 - Classes Resume

          16 – Early Dismissal – 12:00

          19 – No School

– Martin Luther King’s Birthday

December Reading Logs

          Your child can return his/her December reading log on January 5 when we return from the holiday break.  I am sending home January’s log on December 19 so you can begin recording the books they read in January starting January 1. 

Cookie Exchange

     Thank you to everyone who took the time to bake cookies and send in food for the cookie exchange.  It was all very delicious.  My children were thrilled with the cookies (and so was I)!

We won’t be having any homework this week due to the holidays.  Enjoy the break!

Reading

    This past week we read Amelia Earhart by Caroline Crosson Gilpin. We worked on facts and opinions, and compared Amelia to ourselves.  We also went through the text looking for the different text features that a nonfiction book may contain, such as captions, table of contents, headings, index, etc.

          The vocabulary words for this story were:

        Pilot, aviation, navigator, and career

The week of January 5^th:

          We will be reading the book, Me and My Place in Space.  The children will be working on making connections.

Phonics Skills

          Our phonics lessons will be centered around blending long i words.  We will also review the soft sound of “g” /j/ and “c” /s/.

Grammar Skills

          We will practice using pronouns in sentences.

Spelling Words

The spelling words are:

six, pad, smell, bike, time, smile, prize, like, have, bridesmaid

Have a wonderful holiday and a Happy New Year!

December 12th Newsletter

                    

 Important Dates

December

            16 – Early Dismissal – 12:00

            19 – Classroom Holiday Party – 2:00

            22 – Winter Break Begins

January

             5- Classes Resume

December Reading Logs

    Your child can return his/her December reading log on January 5 when we return from the holiday break.  I am sending home January’s log on December 19 so you can begin recording the books your child reads in January starting January 1. 

Barnes & Noble Fundraiser

     It looked like the Barnes & Noble fundraiser was a success.  I was able to help out from 7:00-8:00 and saw several students from past classes.  I can’t believe how much they have grown!    

     Thank you to everyone that attended or helped out in any way.  Our school district is very fortunate to have such supportive and giving parents.

     We won’t be having a student of the week next week since we will be having our holiday party on Friday.

Spelling Words

Our spelling words for next week are: ran, hat, scar, came, grape, name, cake, only, old, baseball

     In math, we have been working on using addition problems to help us solve subtraction problems.  Our test over Topic 6 will be on Friday, December 12.  Next week we will take a pretest for Topic 7 and will work on centers and reviewing what we have learned.  We will begin Topic 7 when we come back from break in January.

***There won’t be any math homework next week due to the holidays.  Enjoy!

Reading

          This past week we read Liberty Rising, the Story of the Statue of Liberty.  We completed a K-W-L chart at the beginning of the week to see what we Knew, what we Wanted to know, and what we had Learned.  The text was difficult, but the children paid attention and participated in discussions, often making connections to things that have happened in their lives.  The vocabulary words for this book were:  monument, several, suffering, constructed, contributions, miniature, spectacular, and magnificent

Next week we will be reading a book about Amelia Earhart. 

Grammar Skills

          We will practice using and identifying verbs in a sentence.

Have a great weekend!

December 5th Newsletter

            

 Important Dates

December

          16 – Early Dismissal – 12:00

          19 – Classroom Holiday Party – 2:00

          22 – Winter Break Begins

January

            5- Classes Resume

Author of the Month/Computers 

 Our author of the month for December is Chris Van Allsburg. He wrote The Polar Express and many other books. We explored his website and listened to a video about him.

Many of his books have a “twist” at the end.  We have been using picture clues and inferring skills to help us understand his stories.  The children are beginning to pick up on the clues that he gives throughout his books. 

Winter Holiday Party

  Our holiday party will be on Dec. 19 from 2:00-3:00.  Parent helpers will be allowed in the room at 1:50.  (No siblings are allowed due to limited space.)

FYI - all first grade classrooms will not be doing a gift exchange this year.  The teachers have purchased a small gift for each child in their own classroom.

    

 Our student of the week for the week of December 8-12 will be Kayla.

Math

     This past week we have been working on subtraction strategies, such as using an addition problem to help solve a subtraction problem.

            6+7=13, then 13-7=6 

We have also worked on fact families.

6,7,13

6+7=13

7+6=13

13-6=7

13-7=6

     We have a set of 5 iPads to use within our classroom.  We used them this week to work on the math program called “xtramath.”  I sent home directions for your child to be able to use this program on your own computers at home also.

Phonics Skills

We will be reviewing short vowel sounds.

Grammar Lesson

We will review alphabetical order and discuss how to use a dictionary.

Spelling Words

The spelling words are:

sad, let, trip, blue, orange, gray, black, one, by, color

Have a fantastic weekend!

November 21st Newsletter

                    

Important Dates

November

     25 – Flashlight Reading Day - bring a

                      flashlight to school and read

                      your favorite book in the dark!

     26, 27, & 28 – No School –

                             Thanksgiving Break

December

          2 – Report Cards Go Home

          16 – Early Dismissal – 12:00

          19 – Classroom Holiday Party – 2:00

          22 – Winter Break Begins

     Sara will be our “student of the week” for the week of December 1.

   Since next week is a short week due to the Thanksgiving Break, there won't be a newsletter or a spelling test.  Our next spelling test will be on Friday, December 5. The words for that week are listed below. 

Spelling Words

bed, wet, prod, holly, party, story, happy, so, my, family

Reading

     This week we read the book, My Teacher for President by Kay Winters.  The students did a comparison of the teacher in the story to myself.  In small groups, the children compared how we were the same and how we were different.  Each group completed a chart with their information on it.  The children used the book to get ideas from the pictures as well as from the written text. They did a nice job on this activity.

Phonics Skills

     We will be working on initial blends (grin, crab, flag, etc.).  We will also work on using a 'y' at the end of a multisyllable word.

Grammar Lesson

     We will work on reviewing pronouns.

   Report Cards

       Report cards will be going home on Tuesday, December 2.  You may keep the paper that is inside the envelope.  Please sign the envelope and return it to school.  We will use it to send home the 2nd report card later on in the year.  Thanks.

I hope you all have a relaxing and enjoyable Thanksgiving with your families.

November 14th Newsletter

 Important Dates

November

          14 – Movie Night

          25 – Flashlight Reading Day -  bring a

                      flashlight to school and read

                      your favorite book in the dark!

26, 27, & 28 – No School –

                             Thanksgiving Break

December

          2 – Report Cards Go Home

          16 – Early Dismissal – 12:00

19 – Classroom Holiday Party – 2:00

          22 – Winter Break Begins

   Math

   In math, we have continued to work on addition strategies.  We learned about the concept of “doubles” facts and recognizing them when adding.

   12 is the double of 6, so 12=6+6

We also looked at “doubles plus 1.”

  If 5+5=10, then 5+6=11

We followed the same patter with “doubles plus 2.”

  If 5+5=10, then 5+7=12

  Paige will be our “student of the week” for the week of November 17-21.

Author of the Month

    We have been reading Leo Lionni books during the month of November.  The children are getting good at figuring out the moral to each story.  We visited the Random House website about Leo Lionni and were able to watch a couple of short videos explaining how he made his drawings and what he was like growing up.  It was very interesting.

    

Reading

     This week we read the nonfiction book, Abraham Lincoln by Caroline Crosson Gilpin. During the week, we looked at nonfiction features in the book, such as: the table of contents, captions, maps, the glossary, and timelines

 Vocabulary:  assassinate, lawyer, surrender, politician, Civil War, The Union

Phonics Skills

     We will be working on –ck.  We will also be reviewing the short vowel sounds.

Grammar Lesson

We will be working on verbs and verb tenses.

Spelling Words

hop, fit, grin, duck, neck,

clock, lick, go, no, broomstick

November 7th Newsletter

 Important Dates

November

          10 – Picture Retakes

          14 – Movie Night

          25 – Flashlight Reading Day

          26, 27, & 28 – No School –

                             Thanksgiving Break

Math

     In math, we will be starting topic 5 which deals with using different strategies to learn addition and learning how to add 3 numbers.

      Our student of the week for the week of November 10-14 will be Caitlin.

      

Exploration Station

     We will be starting a new unit in social studies. The students will be learning about the flag, monuments, and famous Americans, such as George Washington, Martin Luther King Jr., and Abraham Lincoln. This unit also discusses voting – how it works and why it's important to vote.

Comprehension Strategies

         Last week we read the story called, Martin’s Big Words.  It’s about Martin Luther King, Jr.  We went over the vocabulary words and entered the words “segregation “and “admire” into our vocabulary books.  We drew pictures and found an antonym and synonym to describe each word.  We also used a Venn diagram to compare and contrast this week’s story with last week’s story, Ruby Bridges.  The children did a nice job on this activity.

       Next week, we will be working on the comprehension strategies of sequencing, retelling and referring to the story to support their thinking,

Phonics Skills

     We will be working on words that end in –ss and -zz. We will also work on clusters with “l” (block, plan, etc.), blending short “o” words, clusters with “r” (train, crow, etc.) and contractions.

Grammar Lesson

     We will be working on pronouns (he, she, it, you, we, I, and they).

Spelling Words

ox, run, from, buzz, cross, less, miss, there, they, crossroad

Have a relaxing weekend!

October 31st Newsletter

            

 Important Dates

November

          3– No School

          4 – No School – Teacher’s Institute

     26, 27, & 28 – No School –

                             Thanksgiving Break

Halloween Party

    Thank you to all of the parents that helped out with the Halloween party and also to the parents that brought in paper products, food, treats, etc.  The party ran very smoothly.  The children had a good time.

Book-It

      I collected the October reading calendar today. I will be attaching the pizza slips to them over the weekend and returning them to you. The November calendar should be in your child’s folder. Thanks.

 

Author of the Month

Our author for the month of November will be Leo Lionni.

We do not have a student of the week for next week since it is such a short week.

Comprehension Strategies

         We will be discussing important characters in a story and sequencing events to retell a story.

Phonics Skills

We will be using double consonants such as -ll at the end of words.

Grammar Lesson

We will be working on plurals.

Spelling Words

red, win, drum, will, bell, doll, skull, said, here, windmill

          Next week we will be finishing up topic 4 which deals with subtraction. We will be taking a test on Friday over what we have learned in this unit.

    

      Thank you for attending conferences this past week.  It was good seeing all of you or talking with you on the phone.  Enjoy the four day weekend.  Hopefully the weather will be nice for you.

****Remember to change your clocks on Sunday and to also change the batteries in your smoke detectors.