We are almost ready to welcome February and we’ve only had two snow days! How wonderful is that! I’m glad we have been able to come to school consistently. Monday, January 30th, we will be celebrating the 100th day of school. That will be a fun day as we do lots of math activities and writing activities relating to the number 100. The children are very excited about this day too!
On that day, we will also begin practice on our Valentine’s play–”Little Red and the Valentine Candy”. It is derived from the fairy tale–”Little Red Riding Hood”. The children are so ready to begin practice for another play performance. They are so excited and can’t wait to perform it on Tuesday, February 14th at 1:30 p.m. in the gym.
Our student teacher, Michelle Barnes will begin teaching two days this week. The children have become very attached to her and I know she will do a wonderful job!
Please continue helping your child with these academic skills at home–adding and subtracting two digit numbers (no regrouping yet), both vertically and horizontally; finding the place value of numbers–ones, tens, and hundreds; counting and writing by twos to 150; counting pennies, nickels, and dimes; using the symbols >, <, and = between two numbers; being able to find the sum, the difference, and the missing addends; and also being able to read math fact families and switch the addends in a number and be able to add and subtract zero. We are working on all of those math skills.
In reading, continue the stories and finding the main idea and four or more important details. In spelling, studying the long e sound in ea words.
Thanks for all your help at home. Have a wonderful week and please let me know if you have any questions.
Welcome to January and a new year! The kids were excited to be back with their friends this week. They talked a lot about Christmas and time spent with their families. It has been an unusually warm week, so the children have enjoyed playing outside. We've had a fun week studying animals that hibernate and migrate. We have also studied the difference between domesticated animals and wild animals.
We also studied magnets with the fourth graders. The children learned a lot about the transfer of energy from one object to another. Please continue to reinforce anything we study at school at home. Getting a writing, math, and language arts workbook from Walmart–first to second grade one would be a good challenge for them. Keep reading and pushing your children with reading and their reading folders. Have a wonderful weekend and please let me know if you have any questions.
We have had a great December, but it has certainly gone by quickly. The children have been busy studying electricity with Mrs. Clevinger's fourth grade students, practicing our Christmas play, "Santa's Suit" and also continuing to make progress in math, reading, writing, etc. Every day is busy with lots of academics and more fun things to learn. First graders stay excited about learning and playing. Those are the most important things to them besides their families.
Please continue to read and practice math facts over the Christmas break. We are adding three numbers together and doing lots of subtraction, so please practice that at home as well. Having your children study for spelling tests makes for great spelling grades. Have a wonderful Christmas vacation and a Merry Christmas! See you in 2012!
The month of December is almost upon us–how exciting! The children are so excited about our upcoming play. We had auditions today for the characters and lots of talk of practices, parts, costumes, etc. went on. It is so hard to decide so we are having two Santas and three Mrs. Santas, lots of Rudolphs, etc. They know what they want to be and it breaks their heart if they can't perform and be the characters that they have wished for. It all seems to work out in the end and all performers are happy.
Please be sure that your child reads each night, practices his spelling list, and practices some subtraction problems. These are hard and getting harder so it takes some good practice each night.
This week we are studying electricity so be prepared for talk of insulation, conductors, copper wiring, electrical circuits, etc. They have done a great job stripping the insulation down to the copper wiring. It took some practice and they worked hard at that skill. Friday, your child may bring a battery powered toy for sharing. That will be a fun day!
Lots of learning is taking place for you to reinforce at home–ank, ing, unk endings in spelling. Writing paragraphs and using wonderful handwriting is an important skill to practice. Addition, subtraction, counting to 120, reading number words, and writing word problems are important to work on right now. Learning trapezoid, hexagon, octagon, and parallelogram are important too. Thanks for all your help at home supporting your child's education! Have a great day!
November has been a busy month–lots of happenings–a trip to the zoo, the Fall Festival, our Thanksgiving feast tomorrow, and our own preparation for a feast next week. The children are excited about Thanksgiving and spending time with family that they don't see very often. Lots of talk of playing with cousins has been happening. We are studying the history of Thanksgiving and why we celebrate this holiday.
In spelling, we are studying the spelling of words with y at the end. We are also playing Sparkle to learn to spell words like went, want, etc. In math, we are writing our numbers to at least 120, counting to 120 and higher, writing word problems, adding, and subtracting, and much more. Please practice these skills at home too.
In reading, we are continuing reading our stories and finding the plot, setting, main characters, main idea, and much more. Please read at home each night and practice your child's reading folder word list. Thanks for your help with reading and math. Have a wonderful Thanksgiving and please let me know if you have any concerns or questions.
The Halloween play was a great success!! The children put in lots of hard work, lots of practice reading, and lots of time getting costumes together and so much more! Thanks to all the parents who made the Halloween play and the party such a success. The games were great and the food was delicious! One child said,"This is an AWESOME DAY!" How precious is that! Summed up in one quick sentence!
Monday will be our trip to the pumpkin patch with the high school FFA. The children are so excited! What a great way to celebrate Halloween!
Weather permitting, Friday, the 4th of November, will be our trip to the Louisville Zoo. The children can't wait until Friday. They are so excited and what a fantastic learning experience! Lots of writing workshop ideas will come from seeing all those zoo animals. The children will even get to take a carousel ride! I hope you can join us on our trips next week.
Academically, we will be studying the long u sound, sneaky e in spelling. In math, we will be reading and writing our own word problems and beginning subtraction. In science and social studies, we will be studying the zoo–map reading, animal tracking, animal habitats, and so much more!
Have a wonderful weekend and please let me know if you ever have any concerns or questions! I sincerely hope you can go on our trips with us. 
We've had another great week! Writing Workshop seems to be one of our favorite activities! I'm so proud of their progress in writing. The Kentucky author Melissa Burton visited us this week and we had lots of writing ideas from information that she presented to us. The children learned so much from her. Our visit about "Stranger Safety" gave us lots of ideas as well.
In spelling, this week we studied the sh and th sounds. Next week, we will be studying the long a, sneaky e sounds in words. In math, we will continue counting to 120 or higher by 1's, 5's, and 10's. We will also be working on number stories, addition, subtraction, and telling time by the hour and half hour. Please practice these skills at home too.
In science, we will be studying habitats. In social studies, we will be studying fire safety and city workers. Please continue to have your child read each night and do the reading folder words. Ask lots of comprehension questions about the story. Thanks for all your support in all subject areas. Have a great weekend!
We've had another great week watching caterpillars form into a chrysalis, watching the weather change, and learning about our government and the Constitution. As you can see each week your children are making more and more progress toward the goal of being ready for second grade. They are developing responsibility, cooperation, and motivation toward learning each and every day. They tell me Writing Workshop is their favorite and that is where I can see a big difference in growth since the beginning of the year. They came in hardly being able to write a sentence and now they can write many sentences toward a purpose or special topic. We are working on writing neater too.
In math, we took the Common Assessment. Ordering four miscellaneous numbers was what the children need to work on. Please encourage your child to count by 1s, 5s, and 10s to 120 or higher. Practicing that in the car would be a good time passer. I know you could support your child in that area. We are also working on time by the hour and half hour, place value, ordinals, greater than and less than, patterning, sides and angles of shapes, and counting and recognizing numbers. Addition and subtraction are very important too. Please reinforce all of these skills at home too.
In spelling next week, we will be working on the short u sound and all the blends we have studied so far. Anytime your child misses a word in reading, place it on a post it note and that would be a word to work on. We are continuing sequencing and discussing main events and characters in a story. Thanks for helping your child read each night and practice words in the reading folder. Have a great weekend!
We've had another great week continuing all of our academic skills and getting smarter and smarter each day! Thank you for all your help at home with reading and your child's reading homework folder. Everyone is on a different level and it means so much when your child practices word lists and fluency sheets. The more you all do at home, the better reader your child will become. Remember, all tests are on Fridays–spelling, reading, phonics, and math.
In reading, we are working on sounding out all the blended sounds in words and finding important details–plot, setting, main characters, problem, solution, and the sequence of a story. Keep post it notes handy to write down words your child misses and that will tell you what blended sounds and words your child needs to work on. In spelling, we are adding s and next week we will do the short e sound. In writing workshop, we are working on writing sentences correctly that focus on one topic. In math, we are focusing on counting to 120, digits, greater than and less than, collecting data, adding 3s, reading graphs, and place value.
In science, we are observing caterpillars and in social studies, we will be observing Constitution Day this week. Have a wonderful weekend and please let me know if you have any questions or concerns.
We have had a great start to school! The children have settled in and are working hard! I am so proud of their reading. Thank you so much for all the reading that you are doing at home with your children. It makes a big difference and they really show lots of progress when you help at home. In writing, we are working on writing five sentences to make a paragraph. In reading, we are studying the sequence of a story, all the important details, and the main idea of a story. Ask lots of questions when your child reads to be sure that he or she is comprehending the story.
In spelling, we have been studying the short a, short i, and now short o sound in words. When your child has trouble reading a word, just put it on an index card or a post it note on the refrigerator or somewhere to practice the word until your child knows the word successfully.
In math, we are studying shapes–especially, trapezoid, hexagon, and octagon and their attributes; place value–tens and ones; data collection and then making a bar graph or pictograph; counting forward and backward to 120 or even more; addition of two and doubles addition; and also sorting and grouping objects. Please reinforce any of these skills at home, in the car, etc. Thanks for all your support!
Most importantly, Grandparent's Day will be this Friday, September 2nd, from 10:30-12:00. I hope that you or a special grandparent can join us for lunch. Have a wonderful day! Please let me know if you have any questions or concerns.