Here we are at the end of April already! My how time flies! The kiddos started the count down until the last day of school earlier this week! (I tried to ignore them!) 

This week we worked on text to text connections by comparing the literary elements in two stories. Ask your child about the stories The Little Red Hen and Cook-a-doodle-doo. We had fun comparing them. We also made text to world connections by reading the story Wump World. This story is about “aliens” coming to the Wump’s World and polluting it. Ask your child what connection he/she wrote for that story.

We finished our expository stories today. We were busy revising and editing the stories this week. Next week we will have a chance to publish these stories and one other story we have done this year. It has been an absolute joy sharing your children’s stories this year! We’ve had so much fun during writing workshop!

Our sort in word work this week involved digraphs (sh,ch, th, and wh) and short vowel sounds. I was totally impressed with how well the children sorted and read these words!

We completed our unit 9 math test this week. We also missed math a couple days this week due to a change in our schedules. Northside hosted teacher interviews this year. As part of their process, they teach a lesson in a real classroom. We had two of those lessons this week. One of the gals was nice enough to send a frog pencil topper home with each child. Her purpose for those was to have the children use them as helpers while they are reading!

Next week we will begin our final math unit. This is a review unit. I just can’t believe we are getting so close to the end of the year!

Please look for a permission slip for the Indian Echo Caverns trip next Monday. The form and $2 cash need to be returned to school by next Friday.

Monday is day 5. Please remember the library books! Have a wonderful weekend!

Happy Friday everyone! We sure worked hard this week! I hope everyone gets to have a relaxing weekend!

We began a new unit in Core called “Making Connections”. We will be comparing books with each other and comparing things that happen in books to our own lives. This week we made a paper chain to link our connections to a book called DW Fools the Tooth Fairy. Ask your child what his/her connection to the story was.

In Writing we learned about how to use pronouns to make our writing more interesting. We also learned the importance of hooking our readers with a great opening sentence. Ask your child about Mrs. Bingaman swinging a fishing pole around the room to hook a great opening for a story!

Our sort in word work this week was ish, ash, ush. See if your child can spell the words that came home today!

We will be taking our unit 9 math test next week, so you can plan on math homework just on Monday night.

The students are running a lap around the playground at each recess in preparation for our Fun Run sponsored by Mrs. Cremo. Between the laps at recess, the laps during gym class, and the 1/2 mile fun run, your child will have run a marathon!! Please send your child to school in sneakers as it makes this part of recess much easier for your child each day. Thank you!

Have a wonderful weekend!

Happy Thursday! Our meteorologist, Kaleb,  reported sunny skies and a high of 73 degrees today! How nice!

This week we completed our unit on Main Idea by sharing the main idea of a story through discussing, summarizing, or illustrating and writing about it. We learned that a summary is “some of the story” (the most important parts).

In Writing we are learning all about adjectives. Today we popped popcorn and wrote down adjectives that fell into the 5 senses. We’ve also talked about adjectives that describe color, size, and how many.   We are going to use adjectives to make our stories even more interesting than they already are!

In math this week we have been using the number grid to add two digit numbers. We told silly math stories with our animal cards today. Ask your child about  the stories he/she completed.

Our word work sort is the ack, ick, ock, uck sort. You can practice making words at home or finding those words while reading.

We started a new social studies unit on American Symbols yesterday. We will learn about the flag, the eagle, the Liberty Bell, the Statue of Liberty, Mount Rushmore, and the White House over the next several weeks.

Next week we will be going to the public library on Wednesday. Monday will be day 1-gym day!

Please note that we are no longer sending home the word work homework booklets. We have become experts at our word wall words!! Math and reading will continue on the same homework schedule.

Please look for a paper coming home tomorrow asking for chaperones for our upcoming field trips. The form explains the duties for each trip. If you are able to help, please complete the form and return it by next Friday. Remember that you must have clearances on file at the office to be a field trip chaperone.  Permission slips for the trips will be coming home in early May.
Have a wonderful weekend!

I can’t believe it is Thursday already! This week is flying by. I hope everyone is enjoying the half days this week. I enjoyed meeting with families last night and look forward to the rest of the conferences today and tomorrow.

With this wonderful weather, we are seeing lots of flip-flops! I just want to remind you that flip-flops are not allowed at school because of the number of boo-boos we see on the playground with them on. Thanks for your help with this!

Despite the half days, we managed to get in some good learning this week! We created the literary elements for our new “expository” story for writing. We have some interesting characters in our stories! Ask your child about the story he/she is creating! Tomorrow we will brainstorm the beginning, middle and end to our stories.

In Core we have been discussing the main idea of a story. We read the book Seasons and then talked to each other about the book. Tomorrow we will discuss the term “summarize” and how to give a brief review of what the story is about. I am amazed all the time with how well our first graders understand this big vocbulary that we are using!

Math has been a week of games and testing. We have already completed chapter 8. Next week we will be back on track with math homework Monday- Thursday.

If you haven’t had a chance to visit the book fair, you are welcome to send money in with your child tomorrow morning.

Tomorrow is spirit day! Monday will be day 2. Have a wonderful weekend!

I heard a lot of April Fool’s jokes today!! It was no joke that the PTO put on a wonderful egg hunt for us at recess today. Thank you to the PTO for this fun event!

We’ve been working on fractions this week. We learned that we can read a fraction such as 1/2 as “1 out of 2 equal parts”. We also worked on fractions as parts of a group. We shared jelly beans today to learn this skill!

We are focusing on interesting characters and settings as we prepare to write a story using literary elements. Today we brainstormed lots of great characters and settings. See if your child remembers some of them!

In Core we are learning ways to share the main idea of a story. Ask your child to tell you about the stories The Very Clumsy Click Beetle and Bunny Trouble. We illustrated a picture and wrote about the main idea for these stories this week.

This week our word work included the families of all, ill, and ell. We are getting good at using short vowel word families to make new words!

Please remember that next week is a crazy week! Note the schedule below:
Monday: No school
Tuesday: day 4 – full day
Wednesday: dismissal at 11:45 – no lunch
Thursday: dismissal at 11:45 – no lunch
Friday: dismissal at 11:45 – no lunch
I’m looking forward to seeing everyone at conferences! Have a wonderful spring break!