FIRST GRADE NEWS FOR JANUARY 11-15

Well it seems like a long time since I have been in touch with you or the children.  As far as weather and attendance goes we are OK at the present time.  New weather developments will have to be dealt with as they come.

In Math we are charging ahead with our Accelerated Math.  We keep going on our own speed, so some children will be encouraged to do a bit more as the computer will produce more skills on each daily assignment.   We are completing our unit on Fractions and will be entering the probability unit.  This one is also fun and challenging.  We are looking forward to DAY 100.  If all goes well we will be celebrating that one on THURSDAY FEBRUARY 4.  We have been talking about ideas of what to bring.  I am asking the students to bring 100 edible things to school in a Ziplock bag.  Some items that you have in your kitchen already or what you and your child decide on it entirely up to your decision.  Some examples are:  marshmallows, chocolate chips, crackers, sticks of gum, M&M, Skittles, pretzels, cookies. Vanilla wafers, cheerios, or whatever will transport to school easily in their bookbags.  We already discussed the value of being careful with them in the bookbags, or on the bus.
They will be asked to share with the other students in a fraction activity, so we don’t want their items crushed.  I do want them to come up with the process by which they can count them, not you the parent.  You can assist them, but guide them only.  We have discusses ways to do it, as groups of tens, fives, or a process like these.  Thanks in advance for your cooperation.  It is always a fun filled day of learning about 100.

In reading we keep moving along.  We are now in the “getting ready for second grade” mode.  They are to take at least 2 AR reading tests a week.  Good days for those are Monday and Fridays.  They can take as many as they want but need to take 2 a week.  We are writing more in our journals and reading longer selections of reading to prepare ourselves for bigger things.  We are working on digraphs, and consonant blends.

That about does it.  Our next BOXTOP celebration will be January 29, so if you are keeping some at home, send them to school.  The bottle caps are still rolling in also.
Enjoy the weather and think SPRING.

FIRST GRADE NEWS FOR NOVEMBER 16-25

We are into the first chapters of Theme Four in Reading.  Their tests came home this last week and they did very well.  I can see a lot of progress in the students.  Some have a long way to go but we are headed in the right direction.

Math-- we are still working on Geometry.  We have been talking about attributes, classifying, and categorizing.  We have sorted by one, two, and sometimes three attributes.  They are good at it and could probably classify your family for you.  We will be looking into solid shapes and begin using terms as: vertexes, faces, and bases.  This unit is fun and interesting for the students and for me.  It is fun to see them investigating and coming up with information on their own.

Spelling-- we are still working on short vowel and cluster sounds.  We sound all the words out, and if they can’t be, we figure some funny little way to remember them.  They are getting better at spelling all the time.  Days of the week are getting better also.  We work on that and are now writing the date on all of our work. 

We wrote to our Pen Pals in Omaha a couple of weeks ago and heard back from them this week.  It is always interesting to hear their names as they are usually much different than ours.  They ask us funny questions that we just take for granted.  We will be writing to them again in about two weeks.  We would appreciate any pictures that you could spare of your child on the farm doing something rural or with pets.  They really appreciate seeing us in action. 

In Science they are talking about Water—Animals— and the Weather.

In Social Studies they are beginning to talk about Thanksgiving Land Forms and what they are to us. 

There will be no letter next week as it is a short week.  EARLY DISMISSAL WEDNESDAY NOVEMBER 25 AT 1:50. FOR CHRISTMAS I ASK THAT THEY PURCHASE A GIFT THEY WOULD LIKE TO GET.  GIRLS BUY A GIRL’S GIFT AND BOYS BUY A BOY’S GIFT.  We play a little activity to get the presents passed out.  So please wrap the gift and put their name on the outside so we know who it is from.  They may bring them anytime after December 1.  They are to be of $2-3 price range.  If you are having some questions call me anytime and we can come up with a plan.  They may bring treats for everyone like they did for Halloween, if that is their wish and yours.  I will arrange an activity and a snack.  EARLY DISMISSAL DECEMBER 23 @ 12:50.  We plan to watch a school wide movie and then party, so the day is pretty much scheduled.
 The Christmas program is Thursday December 10 @ 2pm and 7:30 pm.  Girls just need pink or white tights.  Boys need long sleeved white shirts and dark jeans or pants.  They are Dancing Bears and will perform during the play.  Any questions again please feel free to call me
HAPPY THANKSGIVING AND START A WONDERFUL HOLIDAY SEASON OFF

MRS. “B”

FIRST GRADE NEWS FOR NOVEMBER 9-13

Well this week really went by quickly.  We keep reading and will be completing our third theme in reading.  We will have another skills test next week.  I will be sending a word list home for your information.  See if your student can recognize many of the words and sound the rest out.  They are the words we have on our Word Wall at school.  There are more words on our wall than there are in our bags.  It will be a good thing to hang onto and check over every once and awhile with your student.  It keeps them up with the flow and from choking on our dust, as we say in class.  Skills of decoding are getting more involved and the words we can decode are multiplying.  We will have a review of the last three spelling lists on Monday-- so I hope you kept your list so you can study the words at home!  They are doing pretty well on the lists so far. 

In Math we had our tests on the Chapter Six and our Unit test.  We know many things about addition, subtraction, number families, related facts and math powers.  Please keep working on number facts up to 10 with your child at home.  We play Around The World which practices on their math recognition of math facts.  They really love playing it.  We will give you a taste of this on Math night on Tuesday at 7 pm.  You should have all received your invitations.  We will be starting a unit on Geometry, the study of shapes.  There are many things to learn about shapes, beside their names.  We work with many vocabulary terms with shapes.  We will also sort by: color, size, shape, and use. 

Thank you all for coming to the Veteran’s Day Program.  I was very impressed with the program and very proud of the Elementary Choir.  The kids really worked hard on their songs. 

In Science and Social Studies they are going to be discussing: Water as a solid, a liquid, and a gas.  They will be looking at Rainforests and learning the 7 continents and the 4 oceans. So you see we are having a busy week planned and keep getting “Smarter and Smarter Cookies”

TUESDAY NIGHT ELEMENTARY LOWER BLOCK MATH NIGHT

ONE ACT PLAYS THURSDAY NIGHT

HAVE A GOOD WEEKEND

MRS. “B”

WEEK OF NOVEMBER 1-6

Well there isn’t much news this week.  We keep reading and getting new words added to our vocabulary.  We are starting to add endings on the words we already know and that give us a bigger vocabulary.  We talk about making good sentences by using nouns and verbs.  We have worked a bit with plurals, but will do more with them and singular nouns.  We have added a spelling list this week.  One list will be coming home every week.  There will be words on the front and words on the back that we have added.  We will use them in sentences, write them and spell them.  Help in working on these words at home will be much appreciated.

In Math we will be finishing the unit on addition and subtraction strategies.  We will begin a unit on geometry, the study of shapes.  This is always a fun one and I am sure this year will be no different.  They will be asked to bring things from home to add to our Shape Museum and we will be eating some shapes.  So keep in touch with your child on geometry developments. 

We haven’t gotten to the school store as we haven’t had perfect attendance for a while.  I told the students will we go next week no matter what our attendance is.  So be looking for what they made their choices on. 

WEDNESDAY IS VETERAN’S DAY PROGRAM AT THE HIGH SCHOOL AT 10 AM -- ELEMENTARY STUDENTS WILL BE PERFORMING!!

Have a BEAUTIFUL weekend and enjoy the weather. 


MRS. “B”



FIRST GRADE NEWS FOR OCTOBER 26-30

We are starting our third theme in Reading and getting better at decoding words by ourselves.  We are finding many “little” familiar words in bigger new words.  Like windows has the word “in” and many like that one.  We are working on sentence structure.  All sentences need:  Capital letter, punctuation mark, a noun, a verb, and it needs to make sense.  We are working on spelling days of the week and months of the year.  We are finding out many are easy if we take it apart, sound it out, and put it back together.  We go over story structure with every story we read.  We will be starting a spelling list next week.  We will have a word list every first day.  It will come home and please put it somewhere safe and go over everyday.  The second day we will work with the words.  Third day we will have a practice spelling test.  Fourth day we will do something fun with them.  Fifth day we will have a final spelling test.  Many of the words will be words we have already worked with, are in our stories, or have the vowel sound we are working on.  Be watching for our first list on Monday. 

In Math we learned how to play Around the World.  We use our flashcards for working on our math facts of addition up to 10.  We need to know our math facts as well as we know everyone’s name in our room.  We have learned there are many ways to figure out the answer to a number problem.  We can count on or count back, we can use a number line, we can draw tally marks or pictures, and we can use our power math of doubles, doubles plus one, +1 is the next number, -1 is the number before, neighbors in subtraction are 1, and the easy one ZERO doesn’t do a thing to any number.  Having flashcards at home, would be a very beneficial tool, and a good stocking stuffer for Christmas.

We got to the school store on Thursday.  So you may want to ask your student what they did with their points.  It was a big decision making process.  They will be able to go twice a month until we get our points built up and then I will make it available once a week.  There will be only one day available to go, unless they have missed because of sickness.  We will continue to use separate glasses everyday.   Kleenex are available at all desks.  We degerm after every nose blow.  We degerm our desks weekly.  I hope these things will keep our sickness down.  We have been lucky so far.  Good attendance is a good thing for first graders.  It makes their lives easier.

Remember early out Friday, HALLOWEEN party @ 1:30 and pumpkin guessing winners announced @ 2:15.  They may change into their costumes after the noon recess.  They may also bring treats individually wrapped for their classmates.

Remember to bring back your October BOOK IT calendars filled and signed for your Pizza Hut certificate.  There will be a new calendar coming home Friday.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN DON’T LET THE GOLBINS GET YOU

MRS. “B”

FIRST GRADE NEWS FOR OCTOBER 19-23

REMEMBER NO SCHOOL TOMORROW FALL BREAK

We took two reading theme tests and one unit test in math.  We were pretty tired by the end of the week after all that testing.  They did pretty well and I can tell that we have made progress in reading and math skills.  The skills are going to get more difficult as the first few weeks were spent in reviewing kindergarten skills.  So the difficulty level will increase, so it may seems a bit harder for the students and the grades might not be as high as in the last quarter.  We are working on high frequency words, and find that many words we learn to read in class are in our library books.  We also are working on sentence structure.  We have nouns and verbs we are to use when we write sentences.  We have to check over our work to see if we have a noun, a verb, a capital letter, a punctuation mark, and the sentence needs to make sense.  We use this skill in our daily journal writing also.

In Math we are working on addition and subtraction again.  We are going over the counting on, the counting back and using the number line to solve a problem.  The facts should be getting easier for us all the time.  We keep using our power skills also. 

Next week Friday, October 30 ,we will be celebrating Halloween.  They may bring a costume, but need to dress after 12:30.  I will not assist anyone in putting on makeup.  We will do Halloween activities all day, but the party will not start until 1:30.  They may bring individually wrapped treats if they desire.  I will plan the party activity, the treats, and something to drink.  You are welcomed to attend, as you are, at anytime.

The number of points on your child progress report tells how many points they have at the end of the quarter to spend at the store.  Remember this is their choice of when to spend and how many they want to spend.  We went to the store today to look around.  They were told to discuss the items available and the points they have to spend with you.

Hope you can stay dry and warm in this weather.  Have a good week.


Mrs.”B”

FIRST GRADE NEWS FOR WEEK OF OCTOBER 12-16

In reading we will be taking our first Theme Skills test.  We are finishing theme two this week and I will be giving the theme one and two test this coming week.  I felt they would be more at ease now than several weeks ago to do the first test.  The skills in the two themes are very similar.  It will give you a good idea of the level of reading we are doing and how well your child is handling the level.  Our word bags come home every weekend--please go over them with reading or playing a recognition game with them.  Keep reading and recording their reading on their BOOK IT calendars.  We have only two more weeks to go on the October calendar.

In Math we will also be testing over chapter four. We had fun with the data unit.  We collected the information by asking questions, recording our data on tally charts, pictographs, and bar graphs.   We found out which one color was found the most in our bags and the one color that was found the most in the class.  Of course we ate the data when we were finished.  We will be starting a unit on addition and subtraction of numbers to twenty.  We do Accelerated Math every morning.  They are finding out how to do problem solving and marking the bubbles by themselves.

In Science and Social Studies they are going to wrap up Fire Prevention, Science Safety, and go onto Pumpkins and Maps.  They discussed Columbus Day on Monday. 

On Friday October 23 NO SCHOOL FALL BREAK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!Then the next week Friday October 30 they may bring a costume to school.  They CAN NOT wear the costume to school, but bring it with them and we will change into them after noon recess.  I WILL NOT put makeup on any child, as that would take too much time to do, if all 16 children wanted help with that.  We will start the activities after we are dressed and the party will start at 1:30.  At 2:15 we will go into the MPR and get the results of the pumpkin guessing contest.  There will be Chamber Trick or Treating downtown and at the Good Samaritan Center 3-5 pm.  Please send a note if you are planning to pick up your child or they are going with someone other than you.  We want to get them to the correct place.  They may bring treats for the day.  I plan the party and supply the treats, but they may bring some if they like to share.  They must be individually wrapped.  We do this for health safety purposes and also for
transporting them home.  They will get to take their decorated pumpkins home to and may need assistance in getting them home.  You are welcome to attend the activities and party, as you are welcomed to come anytime.

Enjoy the weekend IT IS SUPPOSED TO BE SUNNY YEAH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Mrs. “B”

NEWSLETTER FOR FIRST GRADE SEPTEMBER 28-OCTOBER 2


Math --we are finished with the unit of subtraction and did a chapter test on Wednesday.  We all did fairly well.  We are starting a unit on data gathering, information, and recording the data.  We did a tally mark chart to see how many and what colors were in a group of JUJUFruits.  We had a good time doing that and then we got to eat them.  We are going to do more information collecting and recording of different types.  We are going to make pictographs, line graphs, and bar graphs.  We can compare information after reading the graphs.  We are going to see which color happens to appear in MM bags the most, what is the favorite candy bar of first grade, and which animal is the favorite pet of our group. 

In Reading we are moving along and getting more and more words.  We are decoding CVC words pretty well.  We know the sounds of the consonants and short vowel o, I, and a.  We have been writing, reading and spelling these words a lot.  Always have the children read to you the papers where they have written words.  This is a good reinforcement tool.  We are keeping up with AR tests.  Some people need to take tests as they are not getting ready for one a week.  The school store will be starting soon, and they will be able to spend their points.  Encourage them to read at home and bring their books everyday so we can practice with them.

Thank you for returning the booklets of people addresses.  I appreciate you taking time to do them for the benefit of the school and your child.  If you haven't yet returned them please do so, yes or no, and we will get the credit for them.  Also thank you for your participation in the Homecoming events with the dressup, the days gone by paper, and the parade.  I do so enjoy seeing all the participation.  These are the memories your child will have. 

Don’t forget Parent Teacher Conferences Thursday October 8.  If the time is not working into your schedule you received, call me and we can reschedule.  I will be here all day so we can set up a different time if need be.  I will work out anytime as long as I am the only teacher you are conferencing with. I don’t like to change other teacher’s schedule.  SEE YOU NEXT THURSDAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!STAY WARM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!