Weekly News!

Yea for Fall!! I hope everyone had a great weekend! 

Our new lunchtime is from 11:10-11:30. You may wait for us by the front office!

Everyone should know their lunch number!
Please make sure to label ALL money with your child’s name and what it is for. 

I hope you are checking your child’s take home notebook daily and taking out all papers on the “keep at home” side.  Please make this a habit!

Library Books- Please make sure your child is bringing their book back everyday.  There are several times throughout the day that the children are encouraged to read their library book. Also, when your child is ready to take an AR test please be sure and write the name of the book in their AR log.

Tomorrow you will receive your first Scholastic Book Order form.  Book orders are strictly voluntary.  If you would like to order books this month you may do so online or fill out the order form and return it to me by this Friday with a check made payable to Scholastic.  Remember each time you order books we also receive books for our classroom!!

Reading ~  “Family Times” went home on Friday. On the back you will find optional homework to reinforce what is being taught at school.  We will read different genres this year and will focus on Realistic Fiction until mid October.

Word Wall Words- he  is  to  with  three

Amazing Words ~ Each week the children will be introduced to some "amazing words".  These are not words students will be expected to read or spell, but increase their oral vocabulary.  

This weeks words are: classmates, education, polite, principal, recess, science, applaud, complicated, and success.

Language ~ {Adjectives} Students are writing sentences daily as they learn that each sentence begins with a capital letter and ends with a punctuation mark.  Are your children bringing home correctly written sentences?  I hope so!  This means they are paying attention in class and taking pride in their work.

Math ~ Ch.3 Please check your child’s folder daily to know what lesson to do for homework. I hope you are doing flashcards to practice doubles. It would also be a good idea to make flashcards for addition facts 0-5. We have been practicing them at school but reinforcement and practice is needed at home! 

Important Dates: 9/27~ Box Tops Due  10/3 ~ Teacher Treat Day10/8 ~ Fall Pictures10/14 ~ Columbus Day/NO SCHOOL!10/17 ~ Fall Festival/Report Cards

Thank you for sharing your greatest treasure with me! I am blessed!

Amy

Class News!

A HUGE THANKS TO PTA FOR PROVIDING US WITH AN UNEXPECTED APPRECIATION LUNCH FROM CHAPPY’S.  WE LOVE OUR PTA!!

I have a lot of housekeeping to go over so please make sure to read everything carefully!

We have some changes in our day to accommodate our new first grade teacher.  Our specialist is now everyday from 12:30-1:00.  The children are going to Mrs. Brand for computer. 

Tuesday is our library day so your child should be bringing a new library book home.  Also, library books should be brought to school each day as the children are always given multiple times throughout the day to look over it.  I will be sending a note home with information pertaining to Accelerated Reader along with a log the students will keep in their take home notebook so be on the look out for that this week. 

Please make sure your child knows their lunch number.  Numbers were sent home the first week of school.  Please let me know if you do not have one for your child so I can resend it.  Lunch numbers are also used to take Accelerated Reader {AR} tests and Math Facts In A Flash.

Are you wondering what I did with your child’s “All About Me” project.  I have placed them in a notebook that will start going home with each child this week.  Please look over it with your child the night it comes home and return it the very next day.  I hope you enjoy getting to know all your child’s first grade friends!  :)

Thanks for being patient with us as we transition to a smaller class and learn our new reading program.  I will try my best to answer any and all questions pertaining to the new reading program. 

READING ~ Oops!  I forgot to send home the “Family Times” newsletter about this weeks Reading story.  I will REMEMBER to send it home tomorrow, promise!  Reading tests are given every Friday morning during Reading.  These tests cannot be studied at home except for knowing their high frequency words.  Every other skill on the test is taught in class.  

WORD WALL WORDS ~ {are that they have too}  Please make sure your child can recall these words within a minimum of 3 seconds.  They will be assessed on knowing these words at random times throughout the nine weeks as a daily Reading grade.  I will place a “word wall list” for the entire year in your child’s take home notebook on tomorrow.  Please DO NOT REMOVE this.  It will need to stay in their notebook all year as a reference.  The students will simply look at a list of these words and recall them to me.  They will receive a (+) for words read correctly and a (-) for words read incorrectly.  They will only be responsible for knowing the words wall words up to that date.  Hope this makes sense!

AMAZING WORDS ~ Students are introduced to amazing words each day.  Students will not be assessed on these words.  The purpose is for the words to increase oral vocabulary.  By the end of the year your child will have been exposed to… drum roll… 281 amazing words!!!  This weeks words are amusing, neighbor, trouble, porch, introduce, corner, deliver,  and squirrel.

LANGUAGE ~ Students have been introduced to several new language skills so far.  They have learned about nouns {words that name people, places, things, animals} verbs {action words} and ABC order.  This week we will continue to focus on simple sentences {capital letter at the beginning and period or question mark at the end} 

DAILY ORAL LANGUAGE {DOL}  ~ Part of your child’s morning work is copying and editing sentences.  Each day your child is introduced to a “daily fix-it” sentence that they are given the opportunity to fix and write correctly.  This sentence should come home everyday for you to look over and praise or re-visit.  Each Friday, the students will be expected to fix each of the sentences for a daily language grade.  Remember, the sentences should not be unfamiliar to them since we have practiced them together in class.  Here is an example of a  sentence for this week:     Incorrect ~ Dot gat the doll        Correct ~ Dot got the doll.

MATH ~ Ch. 3 continues with Addition Strategies.  We will learn to count on, doubles, and doubles plus one.  Please check their yellow Math Practice page in their take home notebook to know what lesson to reinforce each night at home.  A review sheet will continue to come home the night before the test.  I cannot express to you how important it is for your child to memorize their addition facts.  MPS has provided us with goals per nine weeks that students are encouraged to reach.  For the first nine weeks students will be encouraged to know their addition facts 0 through 5.  We will begin practicing this daily as well as using Math Facts In A Flash {computer based program associated with AR} to help us learn our basic facts.  Please practice these at home on flashcards!  What a difference this will make down the road!!! 

Important Dates:

9/17 ~ Spirit Night at Chappy’s

9/27 ~ Box Top Collection Day

10/2 ~ All $$$ for Discount Cards is due!

10/8 ~ Fall Picture Day

10/14 ~ No School! {teacher professional development day}

10/17 ~ Blount Fall Festival

Enjoy your week and contact me with any questions or concerns.  

~ Amy

News in Room 123!

Please make sure all money is labeled with your child’s name and what it is for. Place all money in your child’s take home folder.

**Check your child’s white take home folder EACH NIGHT! You will need to review anything that is on the return to school side and return it to school. Please take out anything on the keep at home side to leave at home. I have noticed that a lot of people are not checking folders because these things keep coming back to school.

**Signed Papers will come home this week. They will be in a manila envelope. You must sign the outside of the envelope and return all papers inside. We have to keep the papers on file at school. Thank you!!

**Grades- You can come to the office this week and request a password for STI. This will allow you to check your child’s grades online at any time. Do not rely on signed papers because they only come home every two weeks!! You will need to come in person and bring your ID. They will not give passwords over the phone.

 Word Wall Words: like  one  the  we

  last week our words were:  a green I see

Each week I will post words that the children will need to be able to read. I will test these words randomly every week or every other week. They will build on each other so once they have been introduced they will be tested on. The first six weeks of words are review words from Kindergarten so they should not be hard. This means that Friday I will probably test on this weeks words and last weeks words.

Language- Nouns

The children will also be using writing tablets to learn how to write correctly on the lines. We will learn how to write sentences correctly using capital letters and periods at the end of telling sentences. I will usually give the children one sentence that they will copy correctly from me and one sentence that they need to edit on their own. Sentences should be correct when they come home because we go over them together. Please reinforce this at home!

Reading- 

We will be reading different genres in reading this year. We will focus on Realistic Fiction until mid October. A Family Times news letter will come home each Friday explaining what we will learn the following week in reading. It was sent home on a pink sheet of paper this past Friday.

Question of the week- Who is in our family?

We will also have Amazing Words each week that go along with our story. The amazing words will be used to increase oral vocabulary.

Amazing Words- adult   depend  gallery   scurry   childhood   portrait   entertain

Math- We are still working on Ch. 1- addition. I will begin lesson 1.6 Tuesday and finish with a test on Ch. 1 Friday. I sent home a workbook last week for you to use for homework to reinforce skills learned in the classroom for the year. There is a page in your child’s take home folder that tells you what page to work on each night. Please make sure you keep up! You will not need to return these pages to me. They are only used for extra reinforcement at home. I do not have any extra workbooks so please do not lose it!

We love to READ!

                       Library = One of my favorite places in the world!

We checked out books last week for the first time! My heart was so full as I watched each little firstie choose their book!  Looking forward to a wonderful year teaching these children the enjoyment of reading!!