Just a reminder that our CHAMPS assembly is in the morning at 8:00.  These kiddos have worked so hard this week getting ready to entertain you!  I hope to see you there.

Hi guys!  Hope everyone is staying healthy out there!!!  Happy Valentine’s Day.  The party will be Wednesday February 14th at 11:15.  You can begin setting up at 10:45.  If any of my parents would be willing to help set up for the party please come at 10:45!!!  We need a few extra hands if possible.  I know a lot of you like to eat with your kiddos before parties but…we just don’t have the room in the cafeteria to accommodate that many parents and kiddos (when you add kindergarten, first, then second grade) so please do not eat with your sweetie tomorrow.  You can take them home after the party if you want to.  There will be a sign out sheet on my desk.

Spelling words: him, could, time, see, like, two, more, has, her

Math:  We are learning time to the hour and half hour and identifying and counting coins.  We count a collection of coins with dimes; pennies    nickels;pennies    quarters; pennies  In first grade the collections do not combine quarters, dimes, nickels and pennies.  If they are ready I have them practice this but not until they are ready.  They do, however, have to count each coin with pennies.  Both of these concepts are difficult for many of these kiddos so please allow them to practice at home.  Ask them what time it is, what time the clock says when it’s bedtime, what time the clock says when they eat breakfast, etc..  Hand them change and let them separate like coins and count it out.  We continue to practice addition and subtraction strategies with higher numbers now.

Phonics:  We have learned nouns, adjectives, and verbs.  This week we are concentration on compound words.

Writing:  Punctuation is a huge focus right now.  We are also not quite getting beginning/middle/end so we are working in small groups on this.

Science/Social Studies: We learned all about penguins and next week we will focus on Presidents.  We will learn about George Washington and Abraham Lincoln.

Remember no school Monday for Presidents Day.  Hope to see everyone at the party!

Hey everyone!!!  Hope everyone is surviving the cold weather and flu!!!  I can’t seem to get back into the swing of things after all the craziness.  I need to give a few updates on upcoming events then I’ll update academics.  Valentine’s Party is this Wednesday at 11:15 (right after lunch). I sent a note home with all the information needed (names of classmates and Mrs. White’s information).  I am still in need of some stickers, foam letters, etc… to decorate their Valentine’s bags if anyone can help out with that I’d be very grateful!  We will have a school holiday on February 19th for Presidents day and an early release on February 28th for PLC work day for teachers.

Spelling words:  into, has, more,her, two, like, him, see, time, could

Math:  We are concentrating on money and time to the hour and half hour right now.  It is really important that you let your kiddo touch change, sort it, and count it. Time to the half hour always gives them fits just knowing what hour it is.

Phonics/Writing:  We are working on nouns, adjectives, verbs and compound words.

Science/Social Studies:  As most of you know, we are learning about arctic animals with a concentration on penguins.  The kiddos love penguins.

Good afternoon everyone!  I hope everyone has enjoyed some peace and quiet and time with family.  I sure have enjoyed catching up with my family and friends over the break.  Zachary got in from ACU the same day we got out so we have been staying up late and drinking lots of hot chocolate!  I wanted to give a special THANK YOU to our Christmas Party room mom, Amy Williams, for doing an amazing job on our Christmas Party.  I have such amazing parents who are always willing to help.  I also would like to thank ALL of you for spoiling me with gifts.  I am always humbled this time of year by so many giving hearts.  I am truly blessed beyond measure.

Just a quick reminder, if you think your kiddo may be sick please keep them home.  I am a big advocate if there’s no fever you are going to school, but the flu is just still so crazy right now we want to keep everyone well!!!  I bought a few extra things of hand-sanitizer and I will buy a few more but we do have 20 kids in one room pretty much touching everything so…

I can’t wait to see all of our kiddos in the morning, I have missed them soooooo!!!!  I will begin to build our lego wall this weekend and I can’t wait to see ALL the amazing things that we are going to do with this awesome gift to our classroom.  Just working on a vertical surface alone is so good for so many things with our littles but to add legos to the mix, well that just makes it magical to 6 and 7 year olds. (OK maybe this teacher too just saying:).

School will be closed Thursday and Friday due to the high volume of illnesses we are experiencing.  Administration feels that this is the best solution for ALL of our kiddos.

Please don’t forget to send a wrapped puzzle with your kiddo on Monday for the Christmas Party on Wednesday.

See you Monday!

We are going to be having a little Christmas Fun in our room over the next week and a half.  I am needing a few supplies if anyone can help out!!!  I need 20 white bags with handles on them, a big canister of cocoa mix (for hot chocolate), mini marshmallows, 2 large canisters of off brand oatmeal, (we make reindeer food to sprinkle on the lawn), gingerbread cookies, and 2 large things of vanilla pudding mix.   We are also doing kindness elves in the classroom so any kind of little “treat” he can leave for our class and another to share kindness would be great too.  If anyone can help with any of these items please let me know.  One or two things would be GREAT and help me out so much!!!  Thank you guys for being so awesome!

Hi everyone!  Just wanted to let you guys know of a few things going on over the next couple of weeks then I’ll get to what we are learning.  As you can imagine, it is very difficult to keep these sweeties engaged with all the Christmas fun stuff going on at home.  We got a visit today from our Kindness Elf Buddy.  Buddy will be choosing 4 kiddos each day to lead us in some act of random kindness throughout the school building.  I will post a picture each day of my Elf Helpers to let you know who were our leaders for that day.  This keeps them engaged, wanting to work hard, and remembering what the true meaning of this season really is.  Please let me know if there is something your kiddo does that is a random act of kindness; clean room on there own, hold doors for elderly or women, helping at a shelter, etc… I want to try to show them that kindness, no matter where, is what Buddy is looking for.  Our Christmas party will be on Wednesday, December 20th from 9:00-10:00.  If you are helping to set up you will need to be here at 8:30.  Amy Williams is room mother for our Christmas party and has sent out emails with some more information.  Please let her know if you want to help and are not already involved.  Tuesday the 19th will be a half day.  The students will get out at 11:45 and that day will be a PJ day:).

Spelling words; will, about, each, how, up, which, their, said, if, do.  I have been doing no-excuse word checks and these kiddos are really on top of their words.  Thank you for working with them at home, it truly helps!!!!

Phonics:  We are working on the three sounds of “ed”.  This really helps them more in writing but also kicks up their reading.  We have really been focusing on these words in our reading so that it can carry over to their writing.

Math:  We are continuing to work on addition and subtraction both computation and word problems.  We are also adding in surveys and graphing collected information.  The kids always have fun with this.

Writing:  Still focusing on beg/mid/end and all the story elements a good story needs.  We will begin learning how to revise and edit this week and next week.

Science/Social Studies:  We are focusing mainly on Christmas, studying reindeer, and being polite!

I am so proud of these kiddos and how hard they work!  They are amazing!!!!!!!

WOW!!!  Time is flying by.  your kiddos are so busy learning and growing that we don’t know how Thanksgiving crept up on us.  Here are some quick updates on what will be taking place this week.

Make-up pictures are tomorrow.  If you were absent or want to have your pictures done again tomorrow is the day.

Spelling test tomorrow!

On Thursday we, the teachers, have a feast with our students where we eat with them by candlelight.  If you come to have lunch with your kiddo on that day they will not be able to do the feast with us because there is not enough space at our tables for parents too.  This is a fun time for the kiddos.

On Friday we will be have our Thanksgiving Readers Theater immediately after lunch. (11:15 ish)  The kids have been working hard on their presentation voices and expression. Please continue working with them on saying their part loud and proud. It will only last about 15 minutes but they have worked hard and would love for you to be there.  You are welcome to take you kiddo with you afterwards to start your Thanksgiving break.  I will be posting a video on our blog so relatives who couldn’t be here can watch it.

WOW!  It is hard to believe that we have ended the first nine weeks of First Grade. I am so proud of all of these kiddos!!!  They are working so hard for me and we are enjoying our time together.  Just a few reminders for the next couple of weeks.  Our Primary kiddos can wear a costume tomorrow!  Early release on Wednesday for teacher training at 11:30.  We will begin Parent/Teacher conferences next week.  If you do not get a request form from me and you would like to come in and discuss your kiddos progress please let me know.

Spelling words:  but, what, all, were, when, we, there, can, an, your  I am starting to look for spelling words in their writing now and holding them accountable for spelling them correctly.  They will have a few spelling grades based on their writing this 9 weeks.  This can lower their spelling grades drastically if they are not using their wordwalls.

Math:  We are still focusing on joining sets to 10 (adding) and really trying to make the connection of different ways to get to a number.  We finished shapes last week and will begin subtraction next week.  The main goal is to really get combinations to 10 so they have a solid understanding of numbers to 10 before we start subtraction.  We still have a TON of letter reversals that we are working on too.

Writing:  We are really having to focus on forming letters from top to bottom.  We are really making a lot of letters funky so I’m trying to work on 1-2 letters a week to make that our focus.  We have focused on all the lower case letters that are formed like a c so c, d, g, o, q.  We are now focusing on letters that are formed like b so far we have gotten b and f.  This week we will work on h and k and so on until we have gotten to all the lower case letters.  It is really super important for them to start their letters from top to bottom.  Also still focusing on what makes a story, beg/middle/end, characters, settings, etc…  All kiddos are at a different stage in their writing so I do a lot of individual conferencing with them.

Science/Social Studies:  We will begin American Symbols this week and next week.

As always, if you have any questions or concerns PLEASE feel free to contact me.  I am loving all of these sweet kiddos and I am really enjoying getting to know them and your family through their eyes.