Mrs.Covert’s Corner

News from the classroom…

We will be having a valentine celebration on Tuesday, February 14th. We will NOT be having a full blown party. We have RTI on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday and in order to keep things on schedule we will not be having a big party but a small classroom celebration.

The kids WILL need to make their own valentine box. Please get creative with these as they are very fun to make and are lots of fun to do with your child. Valentine boxes need to be brought to school by Monday, February 13th.

The kids are more than welcome to bring valentines and we will pass those out on Tuesday morning for the kids to enjoy. If you would like to send in some individually wrapped snacks such as Little Debbie snack cakes, individually wrapped valentine treats, etc. you are more than welcome to do that. The kids will really enjoy them. Please DO NOT send in cakes or cupcakes.

We will be having some valentine activities throughout the day and will have our valentine snacks at about 1:15. At 2:00 we will switch classes for RTI and continue with our schedule.

Please feel free to send in items for the party and look forward to all the valentine cards and treats that the kids will be bringing home.

Hello Everyone,
This has been a fantastic week. We had a really great 100th day of school and the kids came up with some really great and creative ideas for their shirts….we had googly eyes, pins, silly rings, stickers, stars, hearts, buttons, strings, shells, jungle stickers, fingerpaint dots, puzzle pieces, and much much more. Thank you very much for all the hard work that you all put into making this a great activity for the kids.

Hello All,
I hope this week finds everyone doing well. It has been pretty busy in the classroom and I wanted to share a bit of news with all of you…

1st-we have started going to the computer lab on Wednesday’s to enhance many of our growing 1st grade skills. We will be working with math activities, reading activities, spelling, grammar, and so much more. These activities will be very interactive and will be very enjoyable for the kids…after all, who knows a kid out there that does not like to play on the computer????

2nd-if we do not miss any more school between now and Monday, Monday, January 30th will be our 100th day of school!!!! YAY!!!!
We have lots of exciting activities planned for the 100th day but the best activity that I think the kids will enjoy the most is an activity that they get to do with you……we are making 100th day shirts!!!!! It really is easy-all you have to do is get a shirt (do not need to go out and buy one, just find an old t-shirt around the house that you don’t mind decorating), decide on an item that you have, would like to have, or can get 100 of, and we are going to attach each one of these items to your shirt. DON’T PANIC!!!! It really is a simple project that can bring lots of enjoyment to your household.

3rd-we are really focusing on sentence writing, structure, and awareness. This is a very time-consuming process and can be very frustrating but please understand that they will get it with time and practice.

1st grade is a very exciting and busy time in the life of your little
one(s) and just to see how much they grow each day can be amazing…thank you for letting me be a part of that!!!

Well, it is 10:30 on Thursday night and I guess that we all know by now that we are going to be out of school on Friday, January 13th for our 2nd official snow day of this new year…

Well, many of us already had this thought in mind when we sent the kids home from school this afternoon and I guess many of you noticed that also when you looked inside backpacks and saw that they might have been "packing" a tiny bit of extra work with them today. Just a bit for them to do over the long weekend, to keep there wonderful minds churning over the weekend.

Please remember to be careful as you enjoy your day off tomorrow (or as the kids enjoy their day off)…

Since we won't be in school tomorrow, our book order will be extended until Tuesday. If your child would like to order books from either (or both) catalogs, please feel free to send them in on Tuesday and I will place the orders then. If your child has already brought their order form(s) back to school, I will be placing those orders tomorrow afternoon.

Remember reading is the key to success and reading affects every thing that we do in life. Reading can be exciting, can take you to new places, can peak new interests that you might not have known you had, and strengthens your mind BUT reading takes practice, practice, practice. Please encourage your child to read whenever possible, you will be amazed at how much they will learn from it and how much you will learn from them in the process.

Thank you for all that you do to help to make your child such a huge success. I know that as long as they have supporters like you behind them, they can achieve any dream that they set for themselves.

Keep up the great work and I'll be "talking" to you soon. Thanks

Alright everyone,

Now that the hustle and bustle of the holidays is finally slowing down, I thought it would be nice to update you on some upcoming activities in the classroom….

Today,  your child brought home a list of 50 words. They are to practice these words until they can say and read all 50 of them in 90 seconds or less. I know, I know, this seems like a lot but really this is something that should be easy for them and that will take relatively no time at all to complete.

All I ask from you is exactly what I say to the kids all the time….DON'T PANIC!!!!

This list (today's) is pretty easy and will be a great "ice-breaker" to get you and your student into the habit of practicing these words on a nightly basis. After this week, your student will be receiving their 50 word list on Monday and is due back at school on Friday. You need to practice with them on a nightly basis (Mon, Tues, Wed, & Thurs), you will time them and record their time on their worksheet. On Friday, they need to bring the list to school with them and I will be giving them an assessment over these words.

If they have mastered this set of words by Friday, they will move on to the next list of 50 words. If they have not mastered the words by Friday, they will be given the same list again to work on until they can read them in 90 seconds or less.

It is very important that the students keep track of their worksheet because I need it and the scores from you in order to compare to what they accomplish on their assessment.

This is just a new activity that should help your student become a more fluid and comprehensive reader.

Reading is a huge part of First Grade, that's why it is very important to  practice reading with your child daily. There are many ways to practice  reading…

1st-read to your child each day.

2nd-have your child read to you.

3rd-have your child read to someone else.

4th-offer your child many different  kinds of things to read.

5th-spend time with your child interacting in many different ways.

6th-play a road sign reading game where you race to see who can read the signs first.

These are just a few ways of practicing with your child and you may have some of your own but whichever you choose, please remember that practice is the key to successful reading.

Hello everyone, I hope that everyone had a wonderful holiday weekend and that your Thanksgiving break was everything you wanted it to be. I know that the kids had a great break because I have heard so many wonderful stories since they have been back to school.

Anyway, there has been a lot going on this week.

First, we have been doing our mid-year testing (testing again over the tests that we took at the beginning of the year). I will be sending home progress reports when all of the testing is complete (just like the progress reports that I sent home at the beginning of the year).

Second, we are gearing up for Christmas. We will be making many different crafts and learning about many different Christmas traditions around the world. It will be very exciting and I am sure that your child(ren) will be ready to tell you all about it when they get home…so be prepared.

Third, we will be exchanging Christmas gifts this year. We will do an exchange between boys and girls…meaning, boys will bring a gift for a boy and girls will bring a gift for a girl. I will be sending a letter home on Friday explaining all of this and with information about our upcoming Christmas party.

This is going to be a very exciting time for the next couple of weeks and we will have lots going on but with all of the excitement and fun going on, we will also be having lots of learning going on. So, keep working with your child(ren) and lets keep up on all of their fantastic progress.

Thanks and talk to you again soon.

Hello Everyone,

Sorry that it has been so long since I have been on to contact and to share with all of you and I could make lots of excuses that would sound really plausible but the bottom line is that I have neglected to blog and all I can say is that "I Apologize."

Anyhoo…

On to more important information…..

We have been really busy in the classroom this past week and we will be really busy this week. We have been studying plants, seeds, flowers, and all of the goings-on that go with these things. We have learned about what a seed is, what a plant is, and what flowers are. The kids have made many exciting crafts while learning about this and we have planted sunflower seeds, so keep your fingers crossed for us that we have some really good "green thumbs" in the classroom.

We will be continuing this unit and will be doing many more interesting/exciting activities before we get this unit completed. So look for some really crafty things coming your way.

Report cards went home with your students on Monday. I hope that you have noticed the progress that your child has been making in the classroom. If you have not returned your report card envelope, please remember to sign it and to send it back to school with your child.

That is all for now and I will talk to you all later. Much sooner than the last time I checked in to "talk" to you all.

Thanks for understanding. Have a great day!!!

Hello Everyone,

Well we finally made it to the 100th day and boy did we have a great day. We celebrated by doing some 100 day activities and also by celebrating Valentines Day by making valentine books and valentines. We also had a small impromptu "party" in the classroom and enjoyed some fun and popcorn. We also went out to the playground today for the first time in FOREVER and although it looked really nice outside….it was very chilly and as the kids can tell you, I do not like to go outside when it is cold.

As for our 100th day t-shirt project…this group of kids are very creative and really showed it with this activity (thank you very much parents/guardians for any and all help that you gave for this activity). We had lots of different ideas going on with our t-shirts such as 100 safety pins, 100 googly eyes, 100 buttons, 100 puffy heart stickers, 100 fishing lures, 100 legos, 100 stamps, 100 recyclable can tabs, 100 shiny jingle bells, 100 silly bands, 100 puffy stickers, 100 buttons in the shape of 100, and as for me and my 100 day t-shirt, I used 100 letters. This was a fantastic activity that I really enjoyed making and putting together and as I can tell, the kids really had a great time with this activity.

Happy 100th day to all !!!

Anyway, I just wanted to share some news with you all and to share our 100th day pictures.

Enjoy and talk to you soon.   

As many of you know, we celebrated Chinese New Year on Feb. 3rd (along with Groundhog day of Feb. 2nd). This month is full of many things for us to learn about and to celebrate. February is Black History Month and we will be learning many new and exciting things about what Black History Month means for us. This will be very exciting.

As for our Groundhog day activities, we learned many things about groundhogs (also called woodchucks) and just exactly what it meant for the groundhog to NOT see his shadow. We learned about Punxsutawney Phil who lives in Pennsylvania and also about Woodchuck Willie who lives in New York and just what their activities and celebrations entail. The kids really enjoyed Groundhog Day and I believe that (for the most part) they were very glad that Phil did not see his shadow…they are so ready for outdoor recess again (and in truth, so am I…haha)

Our Chinese New Year activities included learning what Chinese New Year means and whyit is celebrated. We learned about the meaning of the years and how China celebrates each year with a different animal…this year is the year of the rabbit. We also learned about many chinese animals and their significance to this country. I do believe, however, that their favorite part was when we learned how our names look in Chinese. We also got to make our names in Chinese and learned that the Chinese do not have an alphabet like ours and that each word in China is represented by a symbol. So look forward to your child bringing home their name in Chinese…they are really neat!!!

Our next celebration is, of course, the 100th day of school, which will be on Monday, Feb. 14th (Valentines Day). So please make sure that your child wears thier 100th day shirt on Monday.

Here are some Chinese New Year pics for you to see.

Enjoy and "talk" to you soon.