Good Morning!
Here are a few updates for the remainder of this week and our week ahead 😊 Tonight at 5:30 is Spirit Night at Chick-fil-A. Friday 2/27
Monday 3/2 Read Across America Day
Friday 2/6 Spirit Day! Wear blue today Some other Dates to Remember… March 13th NO SCHOOL (Teacher Work Day) March 16th NO SCHOOL (RFF Day for teachers) March 24th NO SCHOOL (Teacher Work Day) March 28th HFE Parent Party (Can’t wait to see you all at Mojave for a night of fun!) **Tickets can be purchased on the Eagle Alliance website Math We are continuing to work on place value, addition strategies and 1 & 2 step word problems. Reading We have just started our Meeting Characters Unit and are exploring the world of characters, their relationships, and their importance within stories. Writing We just started our narrative unit so students are excited to begin writing stories of their very own. IB The learner profile for March will be Risk-Taker. We are also in the midst of our economics unit. We have been learning all about economic choices recently so yesterday I showed the kids a game called Money Metropolis where they can earn money towards a goal and learn to make spending/saving decisions. Have a great day!
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Good Morning!
I hope you all had a fun and relaxing long weekend. Thank you so much for all the treats and goodies you sent my way for Valentine’s Day on Friday 😊 You are the sweetest! A reminder that tomorrow is a library check-out day so please remind your child to return their book so they can check out again. Our new spelling words this week are
We are at an exciting time where we are starting fresh units for just about everything. In math we are continuing our work with place value and our addition and subtraction strategies. In reading we are going to dive into the world of characters and their relationships. In IB we are going to be learning about economics and the choices we can make with the money we earn. We are wrapping up our review unit in writing, but with that we are getting ready to present our “Best Class Pet” writing on the Writer’s Gallery wall in the lobby for next week so if you are in the building be sure to stop by and take a look! Hello First Grade Family!
Next week is our last week before the Thanksgiving holiday; can you believe it?! We have a fun week ahead and a lot going on as we wrap up November. Thanksgiving Feast Our class will be having their feast on Thursday, November 21st from 11:10-11:40. We have tables 1, 2, and 3 and will be going through the line closest to the front lobby. The kids will be so excited to see you all and share a special meal together at school. Volunteer Opportunity in the Garden I know you are all DYING to get out there in this cold weather, but I have a fun volunteering opportunity to work with our first grade team and wanted to see if anyone was interested. First grade has been learning about plants, and on Monday from 10:00-11:00 we will be out in the garden exploring even further with an outdoor lesson. I am looking for 1 volunteer from our class to help out and report to the garden around 9:45 to help get things set up and ready for our little learners. Let me know if you are interested! First come first serve on this one 😊 Calendar Monday
Math In math we are working on solving for missing addends (ex: 3+____+6=14), identifying true and false problems, creating different combinations, and interpreting data. Reading We will begin our next unit covering Non-Fiction texts this week. Spelling
Phonics Skill PH to make the “f” sound Writing We will begin our next unit working to write Non-Fiction pieces this week. IB We are wrapping up plants this week and will spend the remainder of the unit learning about endangered species, Teddy Roosevelt, and national parks. **Turkey projects were due on Friday and they look so cute! If your child did not turn in both their turkey, and writing I will accept them on Monday as well.** Happy Sunday 1st Grade families!
I hope you have all enjoyed a relaxing weekend. Just a few updates and reminders as we look forward to our week ahead. Mark Your Calendars Monday Pumpkin Parade **All pumpkins and reports are due!** Wednesday Unit 2 Math Assessment **Completed reviews will be coming home this week. I have also attached a blank review and answer key if you would like to look it over with your child.**
Thursday HALLOWEEN Storybook Character Day **we will be presenting our characters so make sure your kiddo is ready to go!** Next week is Red Ribbon Week so please see the red blurb below for information and special dress up days 😊 Red Ribbon Week: The Red Ribbon Week theme this year is “Send a Message. Stay Drug Free .” Red Ribbon Week would not be complete without dress up days. Please find this year’s schedule below. Red Ribbon Week Spirit Days October 28th – November 1st Monday 28th – Proud to be Drug Free! Wear red to help kick off Red Ribbon Week! Tuesday – Peace Out to Drugs! Wear peace signs and/or tie dye Wednesday – Follow Your Dreams! Wear your pajamas! Thursday – Say Boo to Drugs! Dress up as your favorite storybook character (no masks/hoodies/fake weapons)! Friday – Team Up Against Drugs! Wear your favorite sports shirt or jersey Math We are wrapping up our 2nd math unit and will be assessing this week. The kids have done an AMAZING job and we have even been able to do some extension into nickels and quarters with our money standard. We have been reviewing for our assessment all of last week and the kids are feeling great about wrapping this unit and moving on to new things. Our next unit will introduce word problems, ask them to find missing addends, and continue some of the place value work we have been practicing throughout our year so far. Spelling/Phonics
**Phonics Skill this week will be ng and nk endings** Starting this week I am going to give you the review prior to the spelling/phonics test as a means of practicing and studying. It will still add the possible 3 points to your child’s score but I think this might be a useful tool to help your child practice. I will have everyone’s spelling tests back to them ASAP so we can start putting this in place and your child can still complete the review for last week’s test. Reading This unit we have been practicing using our “word detective’ skills, using all the parts in a word to help us read more fluently. I am so proud of the hard work these kids have been doing and the growth they have shown. Our class can now read for longer periods of time and are able to apply more of their reading and phonics skills to their independent reading. Writing We have wrapped up our small moment writing unit and have recently moved into our “how-to” unit. The kids have really enjoyed this unit so far and are excited to teach their classmates a new skill. This unit we will focus more on writing stamina and continuing to organize ideas within a page. IB This week we will be wrapping up our 2nd IB Unit covering weather, Lewis, Clark & Sacagawea. Next week we will begin our 3rd unit covering Teddy Roosevelt, endangered species, and plants. This is always a fan favorite so I can’t wait to see where this unit takes us! Things to Practice at Home
As always, please let me know if there is anything I can do to help you support your child or if you have any questions! I look forward to our exciting and fun-filled week together! Hello 1st Grade Family!
It was such a pleasure seeing so many of you at Curriculum Night on Thursday evening and having the opportunity to speak to some of you a little more in depth. I truly love your children and sincerely thank you all for sending them to me each day. We have been having so much fun getting to know one another and getting into our groove these past few weeks. We have been diving into the content of our year and WOW your kiddos are bright and eager to learn! Calendar Updates Tuesday, September 3rd @ 6:30pm in the Cafeteria 1st-5th grade Cub Scout Meeting Friday, September 6th Spirit Day **Wear BLUE** Friday, September 20th STEM Day Tuesday, September 24th College Pride Day Next Week Happenings Wednesday is our library checkout day so please remember to send back those library books! We will be wrapping up our initial reading assessments next week to determine starting reading levels. As of next week we will be finished with all iReady screeners. To be safe and account for absences, let’s say we can resume iReady Math as a homework option on Thursday. Thank you all again for being patient and flexible as we all become familiar with our new screening platform. Communication I promised I wouldn’t send you all on a wild goose chase to try and find information about our class so just a reminder of how I will communicate with you this year… Shutterfly: used for sign-ups like mystery reader, conference sign-ups, copy helper, and for our class pictures. Email: weekly/bi-weekly updates Remind: use this like you would use a messaging app. It is a direct line and a much quicker way to get in touch with me. I will send out reminders like “hey don’t forget to bring your library book to school tomorrow for check out day” or “tomorrow is a PE day please wear sneakers” Weebly: the first grade Weebly site will have things like the current homework calendar, IB Wonder journal templates, and other resources in case these disappear. Our Weebly site will just be updated by copying and pasting our email updates Remind Text @knattr to 81010 or download the app and use the same @knattr code to access our class Homework Homework is 10% of your child’s grade. Please remember to complete a homework option nightly and sign and return the calendar at the end of each month. This is how I will enter your child’s homework grade so please make sure these find their way back to me next week 😊 Math Over the past few weeks we have been interpreting data, creating bar graphs, learning to ask and answer questions about graph data, identifying patterns, counting tally marks, becoming more comfortable with 120s charts. In addition to the content we have been learning, we have been getting more settled in our math routines and learning to participate in math station rotations. I bet if you ask your child what their favorite math station is, they have probably already identified some fan favorites! Language Arts We are still continuing our reading assessments to determine beginning reading levels. These assessments will conclude on Friday of next week, at which time we will get back into our more normalized routine for reading. Your kiddos have learned to navigate our classroom library to fill their book bins with books that interest them as well as challenge and support their current reading levels. As the year has progressed (can you believe we will be coming back to week 4?!), we have learned to book shop, build our reading stamina, make predictions, identify patterns within stories, and get into our reading workshop routines. As the year continues, we will continue to practice handwriting, spelling and our writing craft. Although handwriting is not a part of the curriculum, I still think it is a vital part of first grade so we will practice this skill throughout the year. We are still getting into our habits and routines with our reading and writing workshops, so as our routines become more solidified, we will begin have phonics/spelling tests on a weekly basis. These tests will be comprised of our 5 spelling words for the week, 5 words that require students to apply the phonics skill learned that week, and then 1 dictated sentence. I will give you a warning as to when these will begin and when they will be taken as a grade. I plan on giving one or two of these tests prior to taking them as a grade so the kids are able to practice and become familiar with the format. OUR SPELLING WORDS FOR NEXT WEEK:
If you will be traveling this long weekend, please have safe travels! I hope you all enjoy your long weekend filled with family, friends, fun, and some relaxation 😊 Hello First Grade Family!
Can you believe we have already made it through our first week of first grade? Your babies did a PHENOMENAL job this week and I could not be more proud of them and I’m sure you all are as well. Already I know we are off to a great year together and cannot thank you enough for raising such amazing, kind, and thoughtful children…and for sending them my way each and every day 😊 Please do me a favor and if you receive this message and know I have missed adding someone to the email distribution, please have them reach out to me with their preferred contact method to make sure I get them added to the mix (I promise I did not mean to leave anyone out!) Mark Your Calendars Tuesday, August 27th Fall Pictures Thursday, August 29th Curriculum Night Monday, September 2nd NO SCHOOL (Labor Day) Some Reminders If you have a change of dismissal for your child please make sure you put it in the RED daily folder so I see it. The blue folder is for office notes and completed work to go home and I would feel awful if I missed a change of dismissal and we had a hiccup with transportation! If you have a change of dismissal last minute, you need to email both myself ([email protected]) and Ms. Julia at the front office ([email protected]) so in case I do not have a chance to see my email at dismissal, Ms. Julia will buzz down to my room and let me know that your child will be going home as ________ that day. Please remember to send your child with a snack each day. If it is easier for your morning routine to pack a Ziploc bag of 5 snacks for the week, we can find a place for those in our room or your child can leave them all in their desk. This Past Week We focused a lot on the structure of our classroom and what it looked and felt like to be a first grader. We read some fun stories, got to know one another, introduced some of our class jobs and procedures and so much more! The kids were very excited to meet our class pets this week too! We have 2 hermit crabs, Shakira and Coffee, and a Beta fish named Bubbles. We learned that our country of inquiry this year is Colombia and WOW, I am so excited to hear about all the family and friend connections we have in this room (our hermit crabs are also a nod to our country of inquiry if you were curious as to where in the world I came up with those names!) We introduced some of the IB learner profiles for our new Eagles and just worked on getting comfortable with our new first grade family. Next week we are diving in to more content now that we have set up our routines, so get ready for a great year ahead! Next Week Starting on Monday morning, we will begin our iReady math and reading screeners. This screener is used to give teachers and other stakeholders in our building a set of data that helps to identify children’s strengths, areas of improvement, areas in which we can provide enrichment and give an overall view of where our children are at various points throughout the year. This is NOT something to stress over, this screener just helps us better serve your child in the classroom. The screener is given on the computer so I always channel my inner Vanna White as I walk around the computer lab showing the kiddos how to use the mice so no one is at a disadvantage prior to starting the assessment 😊 Wednesday we will be having our first library check out day! The kids LOVE getting to visit Ms. Severson and Ms. Epps in the media center to have story time and library book check out. We will have library book check out EVERY OTHER WEDNESDAY. Please help your child remember to bring their books back to school on these days so they can swap their books. I will do my best to send reminders out in the Remind app as well to help with this. Trouble Shooting iRead I have received a few messaged about trouble logging in to iRead so I wanted to send out a mass message here so everyone has access to trouble shooting information. I checked to make sure all of your kiddos could log in yesterday so we should be good to go in that regard. If you are trying to log in to iRead from home here are some steps to try…
Homework Please do not stress about homework! Each month the first grade teachers will take turns making the homework calendar for the grade so it remains the same throughout the grade. The homework calendar has been posted on the 1st grade Weebly (https://hfefirsties.weebly.com/) also attached in the signature of every email I send this year so if the dog eats it, it gets wet, some horrible act befalls upon the homework chart, you have place to download and print a backup. On the BACK of the homework chart is a reading log, please sign off on what your child reads at the end of each month (if this is their homework of choice). The stars are for the students to rate the books that they have read. This will come in handy when we get in to our opinion writing later in the year. At the end of each month, please turn in a signed homework sheet so that I can give your child a homework grade for the month. This is a school wide grade category this year so please make sure you hang on to this sheet! Curriculum Night I really love curriculum night because it is our opportunity to really chat and for you to hear all about how I run our classroom. Open House is a quick walk through and by no means an opportunity to ask all of the questions you have been dying to ask. Please come to our classroom on Thursday, August 29th (I will let you know what time as soon as I have that info) to get to know me a little bit better, learn about our class structure, ask your questions, and meet some of the other parents in our room! I promise I will liven the evening up a little bit so you don’t feel like you are in a college lecture hall! Fall Conferences Many of you have already signed up for fall conferences (Kudos to you!) and I have also received so messages that people will be out of town for conference day. I am always happy to meet with you and will always make the time to do so. If you cannot make the fall conference date due to being out of town, please just send me a message and we can coordinate a date and time closer to conferences. If you ever have any questions, please feel free to reach out! Have an amazing rest of your weekend! I can’t believe we are already coming to the end of our school year!
This past week we had so much fun hearing about everyone’s spring break adventures, enjoying our ice cream sundae party and getting a surprise visit from one of our old classmates. **The upper grades will be having their Milestones testing for the next couple of weeks, so please remind your children that it is very important to remember their SOAR behavior when walking through the halls! Our schedule will remain the same while the older grades are testing so we will continue our day as usual** Last Week Math: In first grade math we have been diving into our shapes and fractions unit. We have been reviewing all of our 2-D shapes and have been learning about defining attributes (things like its vertices, faces, and sides) and non-defining attributes (things like color, pattern, and size). Next week we will be continuing this work as well as moving into 3-D shapes and how to compose shapes using multiple shapes ex: creating a rectangle using 2 squares. In second grade math we are still working on multi-step word problems and preparing for our upcoming test (currently scheduled for April 25th). We have also been practicing addition and subtraction with regrouping. Reading: In reading we have been working on story elements and how to identify them in the books we read. This week we focused on characters and their traits, setting, problem, solution, and plot. We were able to identify the story elements in our read alouds and the kiddos did an amazing jobs applying these skills to the books they have been reading from their book bins. Social Studies: Some of you may have noticed that all the Dojo points have disappeared. With our economics unit I converted all the kids’ points to classroom dollars that they keep track of. Based on their choices they either earn or lose money and they are in charge of keeping track of how much money they have (they absolutely LOVE this!) 😊 The kids have a ton of options for rewards they can purchase ranging from $15 to $150. We have been learning about scarcity and opportunity cost and this has really sunk in for the kids now that they have to make big choices about saving and spending for things that they want in our classroom. I plan on keeping this up for the remainder of the year but we will still use Class Dojo as a means of communication because I think it is a great feature of the app. We have just wrapped up our economics unit and we decided to create little stores. I set out a bunch of different supplies for the kids to make their items and we had a day that the kids were able to shop and sell in our class store. They were all given a set amount of time and a set amount of money. We had so much fun and it was really great to see all the strategies the kiddos used to attract customers to their stores (jingles, singing, sales, etc). We also had a really awesome discussion about the whole process and the decisions made in our class store. We talked about things like why some students sold out of their items, why some students made more than others, were you able to purchase everything you wanted, if you shopped first did you have more opportunity than if you shopped last, etc. I was SO proud of the way the kids led the entire discussion! Our final unit will be about forces of motion, magnets, and light. Writing: We have been working on writing narratives since returning from break. This is always a fun unit for the kids because they get to write their own stories that are just like the ones they find in our classroom library. We will be working on adding detail to our writing as well as developing stronger plots as the weeks continue. Mark Your Calendars: April 23-April 25 HFE Food Drive https://hfeeaglealliance.membershiptoolkit.com/assets/00738/Food_Drive/Food_Drive_flyer_for_April_2019_-_jpg.jpg **I will give your child 1 classroom dollar for each item they bring in!** April 24 @ 5:00pm Spirit Night at Mod Pizza (5840 Roswell Road) April 30 College Pride Day May 3 Spirit Day (Wear Blue!) May 3 STEM Day May 3 @ 7:00pm Talent Show May 16 International Day May 17 Field Day May 23 LAST DAY OF SCHOOL/END OF THE YEAR PARTY Classroom Needs: I know some of you have been asking if there are any items we need in our classroom, so if you are out at the store and would like to send some Clorox wipes, tissues, or hand sanitizer our way that would be fantastic and greatly appreciated! In math we will be working on building 3D models of shapes and I have a treat in store for these little guys! We will be using DOTS candies and toothpicks to construct and analyze 3D shapes in a fun and hands-on activity. If you would like to send in any DOTS candies, toothpicks, or snack size ziplock bags that would be amazing! Thank you all for everything you do and for sending me your kiddos each week! I love them so much and have whole-heartedly enjoyed the opportunity to help them learn and grow this year. I am already starting to get sad that the end of the year is creeping up on us and I have to send this group of truly wonderful kiddos and parents on to 2nd grade! You have all been so great and have made my 1st year teaching so incredibly special. Hello First Grade Families!
I hope you are all gearing up for a wonderful Super Bowl Sunday and have had a fun filled weekend! I just wanted to check in and let you know what has been going on in our classroom lately and what we have coming up 😊 In math we are wrapping up the last few tests from our unit 3 assessments and are looking forward to unit 4. This was a TOUGH unit content-wise so congrats to your smart kiddos for doing such an amazing job! I let everyone go back and take a second look at problems they overlooked so these have been taking a little bit longer to get back into everyone’s eager hands. Rest assured they are on their way soon. I plan to have the remaining tests graded and put into Thursday folders for next week, so be on the look-out for those. Our upcoming units are as follows… 1.2 (this is on level 1st grade as we enter second semester): Measurement and Time 2.1 (this is advanced math 1 semester ahead): Place Value within 1,000 and Graphs 2.2 (this is 1 full year ahead): Continuing Place Value In Thursday folders this week you received your child’s “Quick Kid” sheet. This is NOT a grade it is just an initiative I have taken in our classroom to help promote fact fluency (quick fact recognition). We started doing this this week and the kids seem to be enjoying it so far! The kiddos get a minute and a half to complete as many addition facts as they can. Each fact sheet is broken into “levels” (ex: +0, +1, etc) and in order to pass the level and receive the next “level” the kids need to get all their facts filled in correctly. Now that we have spent time developing a strong number sense, I want to make sure these little ones are ready for 2nd grade as it quickly sneaks up on us. We are going to do these “Quick Kid” sheets as warm ups each day to help promote quick fact recognition, so that in our classroom and in future classrooms, time can be better spent on bigger picture math operations as opposed to recalling facts. If you ever have a few minutes and want to help promote this with your child (in the car, before bed, whenever) you can always ask your child some math facts within 20 😊 In reading we have been impressing everyone with our reading stamina skills! Your kiddos can now read for over 45 minutes and have been finding some great books lately. We have really enjoyed keeping up with our class reading log and have just finished the book “Frindle.” If you need to write something down, ask your child to bring you a frindle; it will MAKE THEIR DAY! It was such a fun book and we are so excited to find another book to dive into. In addition to finishing our chapter book, Frindle, we have been reading some really cute stories lately. Ask your children about some of their recent favorites! In writing we have been practicing writing reviews and expressing our opinions. Each class has the opportunity to showcase their writing in the lobby for the whole school to admire. We are very excited that our week is quickly approaching and have been working hard in preparation! We have just begun writing our showcase piece, “What is the BEST class pet to have?” It is turning out to be a really fun and cute piece that we are very excited to show off. In social studies we have started our new unit about INVENTORS! This is one of my favorite units and is always so much fun to get into with the kids. Towards the end of the unit the kids get to create their very own inventions. I am always so amaze at the creativity of these littles and cannot wait to see what kind of impressive feats they will accomplish! Our IB learner profile for the month is Caring and how we can be empathetic towards one another. We will continue to introduce this unit in this upcoming week and dive in from there. Mark Your Calendars… February 6th-8th Book Drive- Please consider donating your child’s gently used books for the cause! Thursday, February 7th Spirit Night @ Chik-Fil-A 5:30 pm Friday, February 8th Father Daughter Date Night Wednesday, February 13th Eagle Alliance Meeting @ 7:45 am Monday, February 18th President’s Day NO SCHOOL Tuesday, February 19th Teach Work Day NO SCHOOL Helping Your Child At Home If you would like to help your child at home here are some quick and easy tips you can do 😊 Math: Help with math fluency (quick fact recognition) by going over the Quick Kids sheets sent home weekly. You can also “quiz” your child on their addition facts +0 through +12 and doubles facts all adding up to 20. If your child seems to have a handle on that, you can try your hand at some subtraction facts within 20. Reading: Your child received a bright colored bookmark in their Thursday folder a few weeks back. This bookmark had a lot of really great comprehension questions that are really quick and easy to incorporate into your reading time. Writing: Practicing handwriting and spelling words are ALWAYS great practice! In first grade it is both developmental and appropriate to spell words incorrectly so don’t panic if your child can’t spell everything correctly! The main thing you are looking for is whether your child can correctly identify all the sounds they are hearing. For example in the word pumpkin, your child may spell it as p-u-m-k-i-n and that is a success. If they are spelling without vowels or incorrectly identifying blends within words that is an area of growth. As always, thank you for sending me your children every day! You are all so amazing and I truly appreciate every one of you. If you have any questions please don’t hesitate to reach out! Have a lovely Super Bowl Celebration and end to your weekend! Blue Ribbon CelebrationNovember 26th-30th: Wear Blue All Week Monday Teachers and staff will start the day with blueberry muffins and coffee. Students will receive NBRS pencils and stickers. Tuesday Blue Bell is delivering ice cream for each student to enjoy. Wednesday Cookie Monster will help hand out a blue treat at lunch. Thursday Car magnets will be distributed to all HFE families. Friday Ridgeview Chorus will perform in the morning and a school wide Pep Rally* will be held from 12-2 pm. *Pep Rally is for students, staff, and volunteers only. If you would like to volunteer, please follow the link below to check out any volunteer opportunities! Important DatesTuesday, November 27th
College Pride Day Eagle Holiday Shop Begins Friday, November 30th Blue Ribbon Pep Rally Blue Ribbon Picture Friday, December 7th Spirit Day (Wear Blue) School Spelling Bee Tuesday, December 11th 5:30pm Spirit Night at Chik-Fil-a |