It’s Pumpkin Time!

Wow! I can’t believe it is already the last week in October.  This week we will be investigating PUMPKINS! We are going to cook and taste pumpkin seeds, carve our classroom pumpkin, graph pumpkins, estimate the weight of our pumpkin and even measure our pumpkin! Speaking of pumpkins I must say the pumpkins you all decorated as a family were just too cute! The children had the best time describing and sharing them with the class on Friday! We still could use a medium size pumpkin if anyone would like to donate one.  We will need it on Tuesday. Please let me know in advance if you would like to donate one.

This week in reading we will focus on the letter /c/ as in cat.  Our word wall words for this week are: a, hasn’t, isn’t, wasn’t, and can.

We will continue learning about nouns.  This week on our DOL we will underline the nouns along with making capitalization and punctuation corrections.

We will finish Chapter 8 in math (subtraction) this week.  Look for the review sheet to come home the night before our test.  Our next chapter will be on Tens and Ones.

The library will not be open this week due to the book fair.  If your child would like to purchase any books you can send in any money in an envelope marked book fair.  In the past I have had parents who enjoyed shopping with their child at the book fair and they would come have lunch with us then go shop together.

RED RIBBON WEEK

This week we will emphasize the importance of making the right choices in our lives and JUST SAYING NO TO DRUGS!  We will have special “theme days” this week to help make this a fun learning experience.

MONDAY - “We Are Proud To Be Drug Free” Our classes will make red paper chains to hang outside our classrooms.  Each student will sign his or her link in the chain.

TUESDAY - “Sock It To Drugs and Slip Into Good Character” students wear crazy socks and slippers.

WEDNESDAY - “Hats Off To Not Using Drugs” students wear their favorite hat to show they are drug free!

THURSDAY - “We Are Too Cool To Do Drugs” students will wear their sunglasses to shade out drugs.

FRIDAY - “Team Up Against Drugs” students wear their favorite team’s jersey.

Each week we have a character education word that we will discuss.  This week’s word is COURAGE.

I hope you were able to look at your child’s Poetry Journal this weekend.  We have really had a fun time with our Halloween poems the past few weeks.

FAMILY PROMISE COLLECTION TOMORROW!!!

The third graders are collecting gently used items for families in need.  These families come to Family Promise for different reasons; an eviction, loss of a job, a family break up, or a home fire – but one thing is constant – they are going through very difficult times.  If you would like to contribute you may drop off items tomorrow morning during carpool or place them in the box located in front of the office.  Thank you for helping Blount help others!

RONALD MCDONALD HOUSE POP TOP CAMPAIGN

Did you know Blount is proud to be a POP TOP School Partner with the Birmingham-based Ronald McDonald House Charities (RMHC) by collecting pop tabs? Collect your pop tabs and send them in to me.  I will show the children the specific RMHC collection boxes and allow them to put the pop tabs they bring in into the boxes.  What a wonderful way to teach our kids about the importance of recycling  and helping to raise funds to help children and their families at the same time!

JASON’S DELI SPIRIT NIGHT

When making your menu for dinner this week I have good news!! You can skip Tuesday! It’s Spirit Night at Jason’s Deli! Please come and enjoy the food, fellowship and fun while at the same time supporting our school! Last Spirit Night at Jason’s Deli we raised $150.00. Hope to see you there!

I hope everyone has a wonderful week.  Please email or call me with any questions you may have!  Can’t wait to see all my little “punkins” in the morning!

Hugs!

A Tiggerific Time!

Today we saw The House at Pooh Corner at the Alabama Shakespeare Festival.  We had a delightful time!  The actors, atmosphere, props, costumes……..everything was just amazing! (including the audience!) I was so proud of our boys and girls for their outstanding behavior.  We couldn’t take any pictures inside the theatre, oh bother!:) I did manage to get a few in other spots! Happy Wednesday!

                              

             Alabama Shakespeare Festival ~ October 20. 2010

 

We are “moo-ving” right along in First Grade!

We had a wonderful learning experience last week, the Mobile Dairy Farm came to our school and talked to us about the importance of milk, all the nutrients that come from milk, and actually showed us how to milk a cow!  They showed us the old fashioned way when farmer used to milk cows by hand, then she showed us the machines they use to milk cows.  We learned many amazing facts and even wrote a class book.  Be on the look out for it to come home, I must say it is absolutely precious!

 

Language

We are moving right along with our Language rules.  We will continue reviewing rules 1-9.  I'll introduce rule 10 tomorrow-nouns. However, nouns will not be part of the Daily Oral Language morning work this week. We will simply be reviewing rules 1-9 on our DOL.  We will be doing many activities with nouns and I want the children to have a solid foundation of what a noun is before I incorporate it in their DOL.

Whole Group Reading Sound

This week our sound is /h/ as in hippo.  One of our read alouds for this week is a favorite of mine, Owen and Mzee.  I hope you will hear lots about this amazing story from your child!

Don't forget to read word wall words every night until mastered upon site.  Mastered means they read them as soon as they see them.  Word Wall words are not meant to be decoded, they are to be memorized! Words for this week are: had, him, he. Please make sure to have your child read Read Well homework stories each night to increase fluency and accuracy.  I describe fluency as the ease of the reading rate, as if in conversation, not robotic.  Repetitive reading of familiar text will help build fluency.  Accuracy is the reading without mispronouncing words in the passage.

Math

We are continuing to work on subtraction. We will begin on Chapter 8 Monday as well as various activities to help with this skill. Please remember to watch for the Review page to come home the night before our test.

PUMPKIN TIME

We are going to be investigating, carving, cooking, and having lots of fun with pumpkins the next two weeks.  If you would like to donate a pumpkin for us to carve please let me know!

Alabama Shakespeare Festival

Our Field Trip to the ASF will be Wednesday, October 20th.  We are looking forward to seeing The House at Pooh Corner. If you are attending this field trip with us, please meet us at ASF at 10:50.  We will be eating lunch a little early before we leave.  Please pack an extra yummy and satisfying snack for when we return because I know we will have some “rumbly tumbly’s”.  I will give them extra time since our schedule will be off.  Please let your child wear their blue first grade friends shirt with khaki bottoms.  (They may also wear their blue shirts on Tuesday with blue jeans, I think we all wash every night anyway! :))

PTA Happenings

THANK YOU to the PTA who provided us with a wonderful surprise popsicle party on Friday afternoon.  Each class who reached 100% PTA membership go a popsicle party.  What a fun way to end a wonderful week!

Please turn in all order forms for the Chicken Fundraiser by this Tuesday, October 19th.  I hope you all are stocking up your freezers! I sure am!

Spirit Night at Chick Fil A is this Wednesday, October 20th.  Please support our school and have dinner at Chick Fil A, what a wonderful reason not to cook! Be sure and tell the cashier you are from Blount!

UNITED WAY

Tomorrow is the last day to collect for United Way.  I am sorry I haven’t posted about this earlier.  If you would like to send in money I will get it to the office.  Every little bit helps! Thanks!!

STI HOME

If you are not aware, you can access your child’s grades daily by getting a password from the office and going to our STI at home website.  This is a great way to stay up to date on your child’s grades without having to wait until signed papers come home.  When you stop by the office to get your password be sure to have a picture ID.  I hope you will take advantage of this fabulous program!

REN PLACE

About a week ago I sent home an orange paper that contained information that would allow you to set up an account to access your child’s AR progress.  It will notify you by email each time your child takes a test and tell you their score.  You can also log in to see their yearly progress.  This too, is an excellent tool I hope you all are using.  If you need me to send you another information sheet on this at home program with your user name and password please let me know.

Thank You!

A big thank you to Amanda Smith for putting together our class directory.  I have talked to the children about telephone etiquette, and that the directory is mainly for parents to use to communicate with one another. I also emphasized that they should never make a telephone call to another friend without asking mom or dad.  Please make sure your sweet first grader doesn’t have access to use the directory in an annoying way.  Thank you for your help with this.

Looking forward to another “BOO-tiful” week!

Hugs!

A Fresh Start!

Tomorrow begins the first day of our second nine weeks of school.  I can’t believe that we have already finished our first nine weeks.  WOW! The children have learned so much and really adapted well to the routine and structure that comes with first grade.  Oh, but we have so much left to learn!! I have so many new things to teach these precious little ones, tons of books that I haven’t read to them yet, many, many games and crafts, the list goes on and on.  The first nine weeks we get the rules, routines, and procedures in place, the rest of the time, we fly!  So get ready, you are going to be even more amazed at what your little one is going to learn!

Tomorrow is Tuesday…..that means three things.    1.  Our class will visit the library.  So if your child is ready for a new book, return your old one.  If not, no big deal, when they finish they can return it and check out a new one.  2.  Children my wear their blue first grade t-shirts and jeans! 3.  It is the first day of the second nine week grading period.

I am sure most of you heard that I was out Friday and our class did not have a substitute.  I try my best not to be out often, and when I know in advance I can get a good reliable substitute.  However, sometimes children get sick, and you think they are getting better, then in the middle of the  night they wake up with a really high fever.  Which is what happened to me! Mary Hunter had a fever virus that we kept for a good 5 days.  She is doing much better, but was a sick little girl!  I am sorry that the children were divided up among the other first grade classes on Friday, but I know they were well cared for!

I totally missed signed papers last week, I think I had too much on my mind. (brain overload) I will send signed papers home tomorrow.  Papers that come home tomorrow will be the last of any papers that go into the first nine week grades. Report Cards will come home Thursday, October 14th. 

Many thanks to everyone who attended PTA last week!  It was a great meeting, and the chicken fingers were DELISH! I hope you are planning on stocking your freezer full! I sure am! Please tell your friends and neighbors about them! The last day to sell Chicken Fingers is October 19th.

I hope you and your family are moving together! Make sure you are participating in “PLAY 60” and taking the challenge to participate in the Presidential Active Lifestyle Award (PALA) Challenge. Make this a time for your whole family! Let your children set their own goals with your guidance.  They are more likely to reach their goals if they have a part in setting them!  

Don’t forget to mark your calendar for out field trip to the Alabama Shakespeare Festival is Wednesday, October 20th.  That same day is Spirit Night at Chik Fil A.  Don’t worry about cooking, come visit with friends and support our school at the same time.  Be sure and tell them you are from Blount!!

I didn’t order Scholastic Books this weekend because I was afraid some children would turn in money on Friday when I was out.  I will place the Scholastic order tomorrow night.  I have added extra days to the online ordering in case anyone wants to order.  The books will be here the beginning of next week!

Language

We are moving right along with our Language rules.  We will continue reviewing rules 1-8.  I'll introduce rule 9 tomorrow-names of holidays begin with a capital letter. Students will make corrections to sentences Monday and a grade taken on Friday.  It would be helpful to save the papers that come home Monday-Thursday and review them for the grade on Friday. Some Thursday's I may take a grade on a worksheet that is specifically related to the rule introduced for the week.

Whole Group Reading Sound

Every week a new unit is introduced in our Whole Group Reading routine. This new unit introduces one new letter sound which serves as the stimulus for all activities that follow. The new letter sound is related to a word, which is related to the theme we will be reading and learning about during the week and writing about in the writing center.

This week our sound is /i/ as in insect.

Don't forget to read word wall words every night until mastered upon site.  Mastered means they read them as soon as they see them.  Word Wall words are not meant to be decoded, they are to be memorized! Words for this week are:  did, sit, in, it, this.

Please make sure to have your child read Read Well homework stories each night to increase fluency and accuracy.  I describe fluency as the ease of the reading rate, as if in conversation, not robotic.  Repetitive reading of familiar text will help build fluency.  Accuracy is the reading without mispronouncing words in the passage.

ACCELERATED READER (AR)

Now that AR testing is up and running, your child will have opportunities throughout the day to take a test, after unpacking in the mornings, during reading centers and anytime after that as long as we not involved in math instruction.  Until I can release full responsibility to your child for reading independently in class and test on the book, be sure to let me know with a sticky note that your child is ready to test. Eventually your child should take a test on their library book before returning it to the library.  We have been talking about how to pick out a "just right book"-one that's not too hard or too easy.  However, I'm going to make the children a library card with a suggested range that your child can choose from.  These levels may need to be adjusted up or down if necessary. Testing is still optional at this point.

Math

We are continuing to work on subtraction. We will begin on Chapter 8 Monday as well as various activities to help with this skill. Please remember to watch for the Review page to come home the night before our test.

You’re a star……..so keep shining!

Thank you for sharing your sweet stars with me!

Hugs!

 

Fall Fun in First Grade!

    

Take a look at all that has been going on in First Grade!

*  We look forward to our weekly Library Time with Mrs. Griffin every Tuesday!

*  Mrs. Mary Hughes visited  us from The Montgomery Humane Shelter and talked about Bite Prevention.  She brought along her precious partner Harvey, who had been bitten by a yellow jacket on his nose! Poor Harvey!

*  Ms. Ashley McDonald a meteorologist from WAKA Channel 8 came and did part of her noon broadcast with us.  She also talked about different types of weather, read her favorite weather book and answered lots of questions.

*  Smile! Picture Day was perfect in first grade.  Everyone looked so nice and acted nice too!

Isn’t the weather outside delightful?!

I hope everyone was able to get outside some and enjoy the wonderful weather this weekend! We have a busy week ahead, take a look!

Reading ~ Our sound for the week is /w/ as in wind and weather. We will have a weather meteorologist from Channel 8 WAKA come and talk to us about the weather on Wednesday.  They will be doing part of their Noon News broadcast live from Blount! You may want to set your DVR.

Word Wall Words – we, was, don’t, off, right  We will have a word wall grade this week.  Please go over all the word wall words we have learned this year with your child.

Language – Continue DOL Rules 1-8, add rule 9 ~ The names of holidays begin with capital letters. Language Test this Thursday.

Math – We will continue to work on Subtraction. (Chapter 3)  We are also still working on addition facts, so please continue to practice addition at home.

Oops! I forgot to send Poetry Notebooks home on Friday, please look for them to come home tomorrow.

Fall Picture Day is Thursday.  The children do not have to wear their uniforms, however please do adhere to the MPS dress code. 

PTA is Tuesday at 6:00.  Please try to attend.  Our PTA does so many things for our school and our children.  I sure hope to see you there!

Don’t forget we have a field trip planned for Wednesday, October 20th.  We will be going to the Alabama Shakespeare Festival to see “Winnie the Pooh.”  Please return money and permission slips by this Friday.  Our Kindergarten classes went to see it and came back to school with wonderful reviews! We are looking forward to a wonderful show!

Don’t forget we visit the library every Tuesday.  However if your child finishes their book and wants to get a new book before Tuesday they are welcome to. Also, if your child wants to take an AR test please send in a note telling me when they are ready.  Taking AR tests right now is optional.

I will be sending home Scholastic book orders tomorrow.  If you would like to order from this month’s flyers please either order online or send in your money to me by this Friday, October 8th. Book orders are completely voluntary!

Next Monday, October 11th is a holiday for students.  Enjoy!

I can’t believe this is the last week of the first nine weeks of school! Next Tuesday we will start over with our conduct grades, everyone will begin with 100 for the second nine weeks of school. 

Thank you for sharing your precious children with me! They are just delightful and I look forward to seeing their sweet faces each day! Have a wonderful week and please let me know if you have any questions or concerns!

Thought for the week ~

          What’s the most powerful nation in the world?   Imagi-nation

Hugs!