WOW! Can you believe it's almost April? This month has flown by full of lots of learning (and lots of fun!) It was fantastic to see you all at parent teacher conference- I appreciate your support and enthusiasm as we continue to push our scholars forward.
This week we are learning about...
FAST Phonics: We are learning about the diphthong "oo" like in "moon" and "spoon"
Writing: We are starting our unit on persuasive writing. I'm SO excited about this unit- we'll be writing all kinds of reviews and practicing our power of persuasion. Be prepared for some convincing arguments in the next month :)
Reading: We are learning about the author's purpose and making inferences about why authors make the choices they do.
Math: We are wrapping up a mini-unit on measurement.
Dress Down Fridays!
As a special privilege, scholars who have NO tardies, NO absences, and NO behavior concerns may dress down every Friday. That means scholars who are on green or blue all week, and are at school everyday on-time may dress down. I will SEND HOME notice of this in FALCON folders. Please don't assume your child has earned the privilege unless you hear it from me first. Thank you so much for your continued support!
Have a fantastic week and as always, please contact me with any questions or concerns!
Thursday, March 27, 2014
Friday, February 28, 2014
Read Across America Week!
Monday- "The Cat in the Hat"
Scholars can wear a hat with their uniforms to school today.
Tuesday- "Fox in Socks"
Scholars can wear crazy socks with their uniforms today.
Wednesday- "Wacky Wednesday"
Scholars can dress WACKY and have CRAZY hair at school today.
Thursday- "Oh the Places You'll Go"
Scholars can dress like what they want to be when they grow up.
Friday- "The Sleep Book"
Scholars can wear their PJs to school today :)
Remember, privileges must be earned by great choices! Encourage your scholars to keep up great choices this week. Have a wonderful week!
Monday- "The Cat in the Hat"
Scholars can wear a hat with their uniforms to school today.
Tuesday- "Fox in Socks"
Scholars can wear crazy socks with their uniforms today.
Wednesday- "Wacky Wednesday"
Scholars can dress WACKY and have CRAZY hair at school today.
Thursday- "Oh the Places You'll Go"
Scholars can dress like what they want to be when they grow up.
Friday- "The Sleep Book"
Scholars can wear their PJs to school today :)
Remember, privileges must be earned by great choices! Encourage your scholars to keep up great choices this week. Have a wonderful week!
Saturday, February 22, 2014
Updates from 1st Grade
This quarter is FLYING by! It's hard to believe that we are almost to spring (now if only these warm temperatures would last long enough for outside recess :) We have been BUSY in 1st grade this month. In two weeks we will take our third quarter assessments and see how big our brains have grown. It is so important that you are continuing to:
- Read with your scholar every night.
- Practice those tricky words and spelling words for our weekly tests.
- Talk to your child about he/she is learning about at school and push them to explain the WHY behind what we learn, not just the what.
- Encourage your scholar to try his/her very best as we continue to grow and make/learn from our mistakes.
It is such an honor and privilege to partner with each one of you. I'm so blessed to LOVE coming to work each day and spend time with your amazing children. Thank you for sharing them with me :)
- Read with your scholar every night.
- Practice those tricky words and spelling words for our weekly tests.
- Talk to your child about he/she is learning about at school and push them to explain the WHY behind what we learn, not just the what.
- Encourage your scholar to try his/her very best as we continue to grow and make/learn from our mistakes.
It is such an honor and privilege to partner with each one of you. I'm so blessed to LOVE coming to work each day and spend time with your amazing children. Thank you for sharing them with me :)
Sunday, February 2, 2014
Happy February!
Brrrrrr! It's cold outside, but our 1st grade scholars are working hard to keep their brains warmed up as we get ready for 2nd grade. You can help support our learning by making sure your scholar is doing his or her homework on a nightly basis. Our homework is designed to directly support what we are learning at school. Our weekly spelling tests make it crucial that your child is practicing our sight words at home so they can confidently read AND spell these words on our test. Also encourage your scholar to read baby read! The more we practice reading, the more confident we'll be when we take our big reading tests this spring. Keep up the great work as we press on toward 2nd grade (and beyond!)
Please make sure your scholar has turned in his or her RE-ENROLLMENT FORMS for next school year. If our team has 100% every scholar gets to take home a $2 bill. WOW! We need your help though. If you are not planning on returning to HLA next year, just let me know in your scholar's FALCON folder and it will still count toward 100%. If you need an extra form, please let me know asap. Thank you!
Reading:
We are continuing our study of fairy tales around the world and this week we are diving into Goldilocks and the Three Bears. This unit has been SO much fun as we learn about characters, settings, problem and solution in fiction texts. We are also working on summarizing stories and figuring out the central idea. Next week we will move into READERS THEATRE and work on reading fluently like storytellers as we put on our own theatrical productions of famous fairy tales. Your scholar will become an actor or actress and help design the set (setting) and a mask that illustrates his or her character.
Math:
We have a class of MATHEMATICIANS in 1st grade. We are tackling some tough stuff as we learn about how TWO DIGIT numbers are composed and decomposed. We are working on comparing two digit numbers to see if the are greater than, less than, or equal to each other. At the end of the week, we will start to ADD and SUBTRACT two digit numbers... just like 2nd graders :)
Writing:
We are continuing to work on our teaching books and are working on adding tables of contents and stretching our ideas out into chapters. We are also working on editing by adding spaces, capitalization, and correct beginning and ending punctuation. Our authors have come so far this year and I love watching them continue to grow.
Tricky Words: (Scholars should be able to READ and SPELL these words)
know
then
think
could
has
Vocabulary Words (Challenge your scholar to use these words in context throughout the day. They do a ROCKSTAR job of this at school :)
charming: delightful, adorable
scalding: extremely hot
satisfied: content, pleased
smithereens: small pieces
discover: to notice or learn something new
explanation: a statement that makes something clear
Please make sure your scholar has turned in his or her RE-ENROLLMENT FORMS for next school year. If our team has 100% every scholar gets to take home a $2 bill. WOW! We need your help though. If you are not planning on returning to HLA next year, just let me know in your scholar's FALCON folder and it will still count toward 100%. If you need an extra form, please let me know asap. Thank you!
Reading:
We are continuing our study of fairy tales around the world and this week we are diving into Goldilocks and the Three Bears. This unit has been SO much fun as we learn about characters, settings, problem and solution in fiction texts. We are also working on summarizing stories and figuring out the central idea. Next week we will move into READERS THEATRE and work on reading fluently like storytellers as we put on our own theatrical productions of famous fairy tales. Your scholar will become an actor or actress and help design the set (setting) and a mask that illustrates his or her character.
Math:
We have a class of MATHEMATICIANS in 1st grade. We are tackling some tough stuff as we learn about how TWO DIGIT numbers are composed and decomposed. We are working on comparing two digit numbers to see if the are greater than, less than, or equal to each other. At the end of the week, we will start to ADD and SUBTRACT two digit numbers... just like 2nd graders :)
Writing:
We are continuing to work on our teaching books and are working on adding tables of contents and stretching our ideas out into chapters. We are also working on editing by adding spaces, capitalization, and correct beginning and ending punctuation. Our authors have come so far this year and I love watching them continue to grow.
Tricky Words: (Scholars should be able to READ and SPELL these words)
know
then
think
could
has
Vocabulary Words (Challenge your scholar to use these words in context throughout the day. They do a ROCKSTAR job of this at school :)
charming: delightful, adorable
scalding: extremely hot
satisfied: content, pleased
smithereens: small pieces
discover: to notice or learn something new
explanation: a statement that makes something clear
Friday, January 17, 2014
The Countdown to 2nd Grade Starts Now...
We have been hard at work in 1st grade preparing our brains for 2nd grade! We are buckling down and working hard to become confident readers, writers, and mathematicians. It was wonderful to see you all at parent teacher conferences and I look forward to continuing to update you on the great things your scholars are doing throughout the rest of the semester.
Reading:
In our current reading unit we are traveling around the world in a glass slipper and learning how to compare and contrast different versions of fairy tales. Our scholars have LOVED engaging with different Cinderella stories this week and will learn how to summarize stories using Little Red Riding Hood this upcoming week.
Phonics:
We are learning all about suffixes! Suffixes are special and they know it- when you add a suffix to a root word you can totally change the meaning of the word. This week we are focusing on -s, -es, -ed, and -ing.
Writing:
We are still wearing our "expert hats" and working on writing non-fiction teaching books to teach our readers all about topics we are experts on. We are working to make sure our writing is 2nd grade quality with our tricky words spelled correctly, capital letters at the beginning of every sentence, and ending punctuation.
Math:
We are diving into two digit numbers head first. We are practicing building two digit numbers using base 10 blocks and then breaking them back down into groups of 10s and 1s.
As always, if you have any questions or concerns feel free to contact me. Have an absolutely wonderful week!
Reading:
In our current reading unit we are traveling around the world in a glass slipper and learning how to compare and contrast different versions of fairy tales. Our scholars have LOVED engaging with different Cinderella stories this week and will learn how to summarize stories using Little Red Riding Hood this upcoming week.
Phonics:
We are learning all about suffixes! Suffixes are special and they know it- when you add a suffix to a root word you can totally change the meaning of the word. This week we are focusing on -s, -es, -ed, and -ing.
Writing:
We are still wearing our "expert hats" and working on writing non-fiction teaching books to teach our readers all about topics we are experts on. We are working to make sure our writing is 2nd grade quality with our tricky words spelled correctly, capital letters at the beginning of every sentence, and ending punctuation.
Math:
We are diving into two digit numbers head first. We are practicing building two digit numbers using base 10 blocks and then breaking them back down into groups of 10s and 1s.
As always, if you have any questions or concerns feel free to contact me. Have an absolutely wonderful week!
Saturday, January 4, 2014
Welcome Back!
Welcome back! I hope you all had delightful holiday vacations and your scholars are coming back to school ready to hit the ground running!
It's hard to believe that it's already 3rd quarter! Your scholar's attendance will be crucial as we continue to build on the foundations we laid first semester.
Parent teacher conferences are NEXT WEEK! Please look for a bright orange sign-up sheet sent home in your scholar's BEE book. We will have early dismissal on Wednesday/Thursday 1/15-1/16 for conferences. Scholars will not come to school on Friday, 1/17 or Monday, 1/20.
As always, feel free to contact me with any questions or concerns. Have a wonderful week :)
It's hard to believe that it's already 3rd quarter! Your scholar's attendance will be crucial as we continue to build on the foundations we laid first semester.
Parent teacher conferences are NEXT WEEK! Please look for a bright orange sign-up sheet sent home in your scholar's BEE book. We will have early dismissal on Wednesday/Thursday 1/15-1/16 for conferences. Scholars will not come to school on Friday, 1/17 or Monday, 1/20.
As always, feel free to contact me with any questions or concerns. Have a wonderful week :)