I hope everyone had a nice weekend! We are going to be busy, busy in room 123 this week. Tomorrow we will have a guest speaker from the Montgomery Humane Society come and talk to us about Bite Prevention and Animal Safety. I think the children will really enjoy her presentation. We will also be talking about our "Names" this week and how we got our names. I can't wait to read the book "Chrysanthamum" to the children! It is one of my favorites! After reading the book the children will have a special homework assignment to do at home this will not be due until Thursday. I hope you are continuing to read each night as well as working on memorizing addition facts. We finished Chapter 3 in Math and will begin Chapter 4 tomorrow still working on Subtraction. In Language we will be focusing on Grammar Rule 7 ~ The names of specific places begin with capital letters. Please continue to go over your child's DOL each night. Also if you have noticed several units of Read Well homework in your child's notebook it is because so often we go through a Unit quickly and I don't always have time to put each unit's homework stories in the notebooks. You will know what unit to study by looking at the sheet that tells what the last unit your child passed was. I will continue to put 5 units or so at a time in the notebook. As always go back and re-read old units. Re-reading not only helps increase fluency and comprehension, it is so motivating for the children. If you have any questions or concerns about your child's reading or anything at all please don't hesitate to contact me!
I will be sending Scholastic Book Club orders home on Monday the 15th. If you would like to purchase any books you may do so online or by filling out the order form and returning it to me by this Friday, September 19th. If you send your order in to me please include a check for the correct amount made payable to Scholastic. There is no obligation to order books from book clubs!
Have a great week! I will post pictures from the Arboretum and the Humane Speaker sometime this week!
Sunday, September 14, 2008
Sunday, September 7, 2008
September 8-11, 2008
I want to begin by thanking everyone for attending Open House. I hope when you left you felt it was time well spent. I know it was a lot of information to go over in such a short time period. Please do not hesitate to contact me if you have any questions or concerns about anything we went over or anything at all concerning your child. Again, thank you for attending!
Our mandatory MPS field trip is to the arboretum on Tuesday. And then in October we get to see Charlotte's Web!! We are all so excited and have started our book study. I think after reading the book together and completing our book study the children will see so much more about this classic than just the basics. If you have not sent in your money for Charlotte's Web please do so by this Wednesday, September 10. We must send all money in to the ASF to hold our reservations. This trip is non-refundable.
If you have not joined PTA, PLEASE join. We want our class to be at 100%! Remember that friends, grandparents and even aunts and uncles can join. The cost is $10.00 per membership. Help our class reach our 100% goal. Thanks!!
We will continue our Reading Groups this week. We will focus on Grammar Rule 6 for our DOL sentences. In Math we will begin Chapter 3 (Subtraction) I will send a parent letter home tomorrow. Continue to practice flashcards!!! Also, please read your child's AR book with them, ask them questions and then read it again. When they are ready to test, send a sticky note saying ready to test.
Also, I will be out on Wednesday, September 10. Mrs. Lynn Higgins will be the substitute. She has worked in my room MANY times and is very familiar with my classroom procedures and routines. I am sure the children will love her just as much as I do. I will be attending a Debbie Miller workshop on Reading in Birmingham......and I am soooo excited! I love Debbie Miller and her books. I can't wait to meet her and listen to her speak. I promise I will come back with tons of wonderful ideas!
Mid Term Progress reports will come home on Thursday. Please sign these and return them to school on Friday.
Have a great week.
Our mandatory MPS field trip is to the arboretum on Tuesday. And then in October we get to see Charlotte's Web!! We are all so excited and have started our book study. I think after reading the book together and completing our book study the children will see so much more about this classic than just the basics. If you have not sent in your money for Charlotte's Web please do so by this Wednesday, September 10. We must send all money in to the ASF to hold our reservations. This trip is non-refundable.
If you have not joined PTA, PLEASE join. We want our class to be at 100%! Remember that friends, grandparents and even aunts and uncles can join. The cost is $10.00 per membership. Help our class reach our 100% goal. Thanks!!
We will continue our Reading Groups this week. We will focus on Grammar Rule 6 for our DOL sentences. In Math we will begin Chapter 3 (Subtraction) I will send a parent letter home tomorrow. Continue to practice flashcards!!! Also, please read your child's AR book with them, ask them questions and then read it again. When they are ready to test, send a sticky note saying ready to test.
Also, I will be out on Wednesday, September 10. Mrs. Lynn Higgins will be the substitute. She has worked in my room MANY times and is very familiar with my classroom procedures and routines. I am sure the children will love her just as much as I do. I will be attending a Debbie Miller workshop on Reading in Birmingham......and I am soooo excited! I love Debbie Miller and her books. I can't wait to meet her and listen to her speak. I promise I will come back with tons of wonderful ideas!
Mid Term Progress reports will come home on Thursday. Please sign these and return them to school on Friday.
Have a great week.
Monday, August 25, 2008
August 25-29, 2008
What a way to start our third week of school. I hope everyone stayed safe and as dry as possible today. The children did absolutely wonderful today considering we were completely off schedule, ate lunch in our classroom, and spent a good amount of time in the hallway.
This week we will continue to focus on learning school and class rules, and practicing our routines of the school day. We have discussed in detail about the importance of not talking while Mrs. Wright is talking and also in the bathrooms and hallways. Several of the children are having difficulty being quiet at the appropriate times. Please encourage your child to work hard each day and do their very best!
Please support our school by becoming a member of the PTA! Our PTA works extremely hard and helps us in so many ways. If you have not joined please consider joining! Memberships are $10.00 and if you have more than one child, please join for each child. Remember grandparents and relatives can join also!
Don't forget that Monday, September 1st is a holiday. Enjoy the long weekend!
If your child has not memorized his/her lunch number please help them! If you do not know their number please send me a note and I will send it home.
Be sure and check through your child's take home folder each night. Look on both sides of the notebook for papers to keep at home and papers to return to school. Don't forget to sign the conduct calendar and reading log EVERY night.
WORD WALL WORDS
Check your child's notebook for this week's word wall words. Children will be tested on the first 9 weeks word wall words at the end of the nine weeks grading period. The test will consist of the children reading the words to me correctly. So please practice reading these words. If your child can already read the words you may want to practice spelling them, although they will not be required to spell them correctly for a grade until January.
LANGUAGE
Language rules are introduced and practiced by copying sentences from the overhead Monday - Thursday. Beginning this week the sentences will contain errors that will need to be corrected as they are copied. The corrections will be a capital letter at the beginning of the sentence (rule 2), a period at the end of a statement (rule 3) and a capital I when alone (rule 5). We go over these sentences and where the corrections should be every day after the children complete their DOL (daily oral language). The children will bring these papers home daily and should be reviewed each night. On Friday I will choose 5 sentences directly from the sentences the children copied earlier in the week and they will copy and correct these for a daily grade. I will take a daily grade every Friday in Language. Check your child's notebook to see all the grammar rules.
MATH
I was so proud of the children on their first Math test. Everyone did a great job!! We will begin Chapter 2, exploring the Order of Property; ex. 2+4=6, 4+2=6. The children will also learn how to write vertical addition sentences. Please continue to practice the 1's addition facts. We will begin the doubles addition facts this week, ex. 2+2=4, 3+3=6. You will need to make flashcards of the doubles up to 9 and practice each night. We will have a "practice" timed test (one minute to complete 20 addition problems) this Friday. I will send it home so you can see how your child did. Beginning next week timed tests will count as a daily grade. When practicing flash cards the goal is for the children to memorize the sum. We will continue to add new facts each week, be sure and practice every night so your child does not get behind. Research shows that daily practice is required to develop an automaticity with math facts and that if children develop an automatic recall of math facts in the early grades, in later grades they will be free to concentrate on learning higher level concepts of mathematics.
READING
We are continuing to practice the routines of working in literacy centers and small groups. We have also been checking books out of the library. Library books should come to school EVERYDAY, even if your child has not finished reading the book, the book/s should come to school each day. There is time in our schedule that the children may read and take AR tests. Hopefully we will begin taking Accelerated Reader tests this week. For those of you who are not familiar with Accelerated Reader (AR) I am working on a Parent Handbook and will send it home at the beginning of next week.
Please contact me if you have any questions or concerns. Have a great week!
This week we will continue to focus on learning school and class rules, and practicing our routines of the school day. We have discussed in detail about the importance of not talking while Mrs. Wright is talking and also in the bathrooms and hallways. Several of the children are having difficulty being quiet at the appropriate times. Please encourage your child to work hard each day and do their very best!
Please support our school by becoming a member of the PTA! Our PTA works extremely hard and helps us in so many ways. If you have not joined please consider joining! Memberships are $10.00 and if you have more than one child, please join for each child. Remember grandparents and relatives can join also!
Don't forget that Monday, September 1st is a holiday. Enjoy the long weekend!
If your child has not memorized his/her lunch number please help them! If you do not know their number please send me a note and I will send it home.
Be sure and check through your child's take home folder each night. Look on both sides of the notebook for papers to keep at home and papers to return to school. Don't forget to sign the conduct calendar and reading log EVERY night.
WORD WALL WORDS
Check your child's notebook for this week's word wall words. Children will be tested on the first 9 weeks word wall words at the end of the nine weeks grading period. The test will consist of the children reading the words to me correctly. So please practice reading these words. If your child can already read the words you may want to practice spelling them, although they will not be required to spell them correctly for a grade until January.
LANGUAGE
Language rules are introduced and practiced by copying sentences from the overhead Monday - Thursday. Beginning this week the sentences will contain errors that will need to be corrected as they are copied. The corrections will be a capital letter at the beginning of the sentence (rule 2), a period at the end of a statement (rule 3) and a capital I when alone (rule 5). We go over these sentences and where the corrections should be every day after the children complete their DOL (daily oral language). The children will bring these papers home daily and should be reviewed each night. On Friday I will choose 5 sentences directly from the sentences the children copied earlier in the week and they will copy and correct these for a daily grade. I will take a daily grade every Friday in Language. Check your child's notebook to see all the grammar rules.
MATH
I was so proud of the children on their first Math test. Everyone did a great job!! We will begin Chapter 2, exploring the Order of Property; ex. 2+4=6, 4+2=6. The children will also learn how to write vertical addition sentences. Please continue to practice the 1's addition facts. We will begin the doubles addition facts this week, ex. 2+2=4, 3+3=6. You will need to make flashcards of the doubles up to 9 and practice each night. We will have a "practice" timed test (one minute to complete 20 addition problems) this Friday. I will send it home so you can see how your child did. Beginning next week timed tests will count as a daily grade. When practicing flash cards the goal is for the children to memorize the sum. We will continue to add new facts each week, be sure and practice every night so your child does not get behind. Research shows that daily practice is required to develop an automaticity with math facts and that if children develop an automatic recall of math facts in the early grades, in later grades they will be free to concentrate on learning higher level concepts of mathematics.
READING
We are continuing to practice the routines of working in literacy centers and small groups. We have also been checking books out of the library. Library books should come to school EVERYDAY, even if your child has not finished reading the book, the book/s should come to school each day. There is time in our schedule that the children may read and take AR tests. Hopefully we will begin taking Accelerated Reader tests this week. For those of you who are not familiar with Accelerated Reader (AR) I am working on a Parent Handbook and will send it home at the beginning of next week.
Please contact me if you have any questions or concerns. Have a great week!
Monday, August 18, 2008
August 18-22, 2008
We had a great Monday and learned so much today! We are starting our reading groups and will be working together in small groups while Mrs. Wright works with a reading group. We really have to practice using our inside voices and working together during reading because we want everyone to be super readers! We also begin working on our addition facts. I want to encourage you to use flashcards every night for just 10 or so minutes. This can be so helpful, we want these addition facts to be instant, we want to avoid the crutch of always counting on our fingers. Right now we are working on the zero facts and adding 1 to numbers 1-9. PLEASE practice this each night as well as listen to or read to your child each night, also don't forget to practice reading your word wall words in your child's notebook. If you have any questions feel free to e-mail or send me a note, I am here to help. Working together we can help your child become a successful 1st grader!!
A few reminders:
- PTA is tomorrow night at 6:3o in the cafeteria.
- Our 1st grade "Popsicle Party" is Thursday at Thorington Road Park from 6:00- 7:00. I know this is also the Volunteer Orientation, I am sorry that these two conflicted.
- The last day to order First Grade T-Shirts will be this Friday, August 22.
A few reminders:
- PTA is tomorrow night at 6:3o in the cafeteria.
- Our 1st grade "Popsicle Party" is Thursday at Thorington Road Park from 6:00- 7:00. I know this is also the Volunteer Orientation, I am sorry that these two conflicted.
- The last day to order First Grade T-Shirts will be this Friday, August 22.
Tuesday, August 12, 2008
First Day Of First Grade!
Our first two days of school have been simply wonderful! We are working really hard on listening and following directions the first time they are given. We are also working on remembering to raise our hands before we speak and listening while others are speaking. Everyone has so much to share and we all want to be heard. Thank you for sending all of your paperwork in so prompt! Please feel free to e-mail me with any questions or concerns you may have! I am looking forward to a fantastic year!
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