Good Thursday morning to everyone!  Hope you all enjoyed a great long weekend with family and friends!  Thank you Jessica Fisher for being our Easter room mom and thank you to all who helped in any way!  I cannot believe school is almost over.  It makes me sad but so proud at the same time.  Our kiddos are so amazing!!!!

Our CHAMPS assembly will be next Friday the 28th.  The word we are presenting is “RESPECT”.  The kids are helping me come up with some fun and exciting ways to teach our other friends about respect.  It’s going to be cute!

Spelling words for the next two weeks are: way, find, use, may water, long, little, very, after, words.  This is a good time to remind kids that they can connect words to other words like may, way, day, today, say, etc…

Math:  We are working on double digit addition and subtraction without re-grouping.  We continue looping back and revisiting all concepts taught so far.  Please keep working on skip counting with money and time to hour and half hour.  This always seems to be challenging.

Phonics:  We are reviewing all concepts taught this year.  Long and short vowels and vowel teams are still challenging for some so I will be placing a lot of review material in stations.

Writing:  This is the time of year that expectations become a little deeper and students begin to see and really work on the writing process.  Revising and editing are challenging because when they finish a story they want to just be done!  They must go back and revisit their paper to check for punctuation, misspelled words, capitalization, left out words, etc…  We expect them, at this point, to have a beg/mid/end to their stories, capitals at the beginning of sentences, punctuation in correct places, and use of imagination instead of just writing about known things.

Science/Social Studies:  We are learning about pond life and life cycles.  If your kiddos haven’t told you yet, we have a FROG!!!!  We are learning how his needs have changed and what we need to do to help him survive until we let him go.

Hope everyone has a great week and I can’t wait to see you at the CHAMPS assembly next week April 28th.

Hey guys just wanted to remind everyone that we need 12 stuffed and taped eggs by tomorrow for each kiddo.  So far I have not received many.  I will be going to the store tomorrow afternoon to purchase and fill the eggs we are missing so that everyone will have 12 eggs to hunt for.  The party is Thursday at 11:30.  Jessica Fisher is in charge of this party so please contact her with any questions and certainly if there is anything you want to bring.  This party is a little different because teachers plan some outside relay races after the egg hunt so there is very little time inside for things to do.  Mainly snacks and drinks and opening and eating of the candy in the eggs.  We will certainly need a little help hiding the eggs outside if anyone can help with that.  The kiddos are free to start their 4 day weekend as soon as the party is over!

No school Friday or Monday!  ENJOY!!!!!

No spelling words this week because of the short week!

Ask your kiddos about our solar system:).

Can’t wait to see everyone at the party!!!

Hey everyone!  Hope everyone is staying safe in this nasty weather we are having!  I want to let everyone know what is coming up and what we have been learning here in Firstie land.

The Easter Party will be April 13th at 11:30.  I do not have a parent in charge of this party.  If there is anyone who would like to take charge of this party please let me know, otherwise, I will be sending  a letter home next week asking for some items and for some parents to commit to coming up a little before the party to help me set up and hide eggs.  We do a lot of outdoor fun after the egg hunt with the other First Grade classes so a lot of our time is spent outside with this party.  You are welcome to take your kiddos home after the party to begin your long 4 day weekend.  We will be out of school on Friday the 14th and Monday the 17th.

Spelling:  We will have a spelling test over these words on Tuesday.  its, who, now, people, my, made, over, did, down, only.  The next ten words will be way, find, use, may, water, long, little, very, after, words

Phonics:  We will begin reviewing all concepts taught this year and really holding them accountable for these things in their writing.  For example:  I am holding them accountable for applying blends (br, cl, dr, fl, etc…) when they are writing words that should have blends in them.  As well as “ed” “ing” endings, correct vowels, digraphs (sh, th, wh, ch), correct chunks, compound words, etc…  Writing will be our main focus til the end of the year with heavy review on all phonics skills.

Writing:  This is my main focus until school is out!!!  They kiddos will be held accountable now for all things they should know and should be applying as I mentioned on our Phonics skills.  Those punctuation people should be showing up and should be used in the correct manner. (. ? !)  Stories must have a beg/mid/end and the kiddos should be using their imagination now instead of just “I love…” “I did…” Stories should have a focus and be on one topic!

Math:  We continue to take addition and subtraction to a deeper level with double digit addition and subtraction.  They are still working on time and money!!!  Number patterns have been our main focus the last couple of weeks and the kiddos are really getting good at skip counting and understanding sets of numbers.  Writing those higher numbers are giving some of us fits but we are getting there.

Science/Social Studies:  We have learned a ton about Texas the last two weeks and the kids have gotten very excited about learning different regions in Texas and some amazing facts about this great state that we live in.  Next we will learn about pond life and life cycles.

I am having a hard time thinking about how fast this school year is flying by!  I love each and everyone of these sweet kiddos and feel blessed every day to be a part of their lives.

Monday is a Student Holiday and Wednesday of next week will be early release for teacher training at 11:30.

Hey guys I hope everyone is doing great and staying well!!!!  I wanted to remind everyone that our Valentine’s Day Party is tomorrow at 11:30.  There is a 100% chance of rain so we may not be able to go outside after lunch to allow for a little more prep time for the party.  If it is raining we will try to delay by taking restroom breaks but this could mean the party may start a little before 11:30.  Set up time for the party will begin at 10:45 so if you would like to help please come then.  You are welcome to take your kiddo home after the party but they can certainly stay too.

Now onto the learning part:)

Spelling words for the next two weeks: like, him, see, time, could, no, make, than, first, been.  This last spelling test was just really not good.  Please remind your kiddos that the words are on the word wall all they have to do is look for them!!!!

Reading:  Your kiddo is on target if they are reading at a level 14 fluently!  We have started a new comprehension piece to our assessments.  Last week your student brought home a story about a Smelly Skunk.  This was a comprehension piece that we did together.  There will be one more that we do together this week, after that, your student will be responsible for reading this passage, reading the questions, and answering these questions on their own.  These stories are on an expected grade level reading level.  The first one that they do on their own will have an actual grade on it.

Phonics:  We have learned about compound words, antonyms, and this week synonyms.  I will begin creating “dead” words for the kids using synonyms.  We, as a class, will come up with other words for overused words like “like” or “said” or “big”.  We place these words in a folder on the lockers and the kids go to the folders when they feel like they have used these words too much. This is a great way to reinforce the concept of synonyms.

Math:  We are working on patterns in numbers, skip counting, money, and continue with a deeper understanding of addition and subtraction.  We are counting a collection of coins such as nickels and pennies; dimes and pennies, quarters and pennies.   Math is really starting to get multi-step and where the kiddos are really having to think!

Writing:  The expectations for writing are getting a little tougher.  We are expecting a beg/mid/end, punctuation should be present at this point, and their stories should really resemble the books they are reading.  They need to be going through the writing process at this time by write-write-writing; re-reading to revise and edit; then preparing their story for publishing.  Our kiddos are having a hard time with the re-reading to revise and edit their stories.  I have set up a buddy reading system during writing that I hope is going to help with this.

Science/Social Studies:  The kids have a fun experiment they are conducting with conversation hearts, water, vinegar, and soda.  February is such a busy month!  We learned about the Groundhog, Valentine’s Day, and now George Washington and Abraham Lincoln.  We will also learn about dental health.

Please give me a call or text or email with any questions or concerns!  As always, thank you for sharing your kiddo with me and allowing me to be a small part of their journey.

Hey guys I hope everyone is having a great start to their week!!!  Just wanted to update everyone on what is going on at school and in our classroom.  Please remember that Wednesday is an early release day for teacher training.  We will be dismissing at 11:30 for Primary and we ask that parents do not have lunch with their kiddos on that day due to a lack of room when trying to fit all of our kiddos in the lunch room together.  Also, on early release days I know most of you eat after you pick your kiddos up but…if you don’t send some small something with them we have to send them through the line for a lunch.  I use to send peanut butter crackers or a pop tart with my own kids.

Valentines is coming up and I/we need help with a few items for our kids.  If anyone could help me with white paper bags with handles on them that would be great!  If you can, please text me or email me.  I also need things to decorate the bags like stickers, heart doilies, etc… anything the kids can use to decorate their bags would help tremendously!!!  We also always make cards for children in the hospital but I have noticed that Jennifer Hearron, our sweet Nory’s mom, is asking for help with some things for the hospital that has helped so much with Nory’s treatments.  So we will be making cards, sending unopened cards for the kids to address to special people to them, and donating even just a $1 for a donation for a cookie decorating kit for these sweet kiddos.  If you can help with any of these items, pick up an extra box of cards-card making kits-or send a $1 to help that would be amazing.

Spelling words for the next two weeks:  some, so, these, would, other, into, has, more, her, two

Phonics:  We are working on verbs this week and showing them how to tie in nouns, adjectives, and verbs in their writing.

Math:  hour and half hour on clocks-counting a collection of coins (right now we are just counting like coins together ex: pennies with pennies, nickles with nickles, and dimes with dimes)  We continue to work on addition, subtraction, and problem solving

Writing:  We are focusing on re-reading to revise and edit.  This simply means they are going back over their story when they are done and re-reading it to check for left out words, making sure sentences make sense, looking for punctuation and capitals after punctuation, and making sure they have spelled no-excuse words correctly (I am giving spelling grades on their writing).

Science/Social Studies:  They are really having fun with our research center and this week they get to make snow!!!!  We are continuing our study on Penguins.  Next week is the 100th day of school and Groundhog day so busy busy busy!

Thank you guys for reading with your kids every night and for all the support I/we get from you daily.  You have no idea what it means to me and your kids!!!!

Welcome back from a long, wet weekend!!!  I hope everyone enjoyed some extra time with friends and family.  I’m going to catch you up on a few things that we are learning about.

We will have a spelling test tomorrow on these words: then, them, out, about, up, how, each, she, many, will

Math:  We are continuing to work on addition, subtraction, and problem solving. (that goes on all year long with harder problems, more addends, and two-digit addition so it keeps getting more challenging)  We are also learning time to the hour and half hour. They get hour pretty easy but half hour always gets them so the more practice they can get in will help!  Also, if you don’t mind, start letting them sort change and identifying pennies, nickels, dimes, and quarters.

Phonics:  We are focusing on nouns, adjectives, and verbs over the next few weeks.

Writing:  It’s time to get down to business with our writing!!!  I am really focusing on making sure they are writing words correctly that I know they know.  For example:  We know our blends so if they are still writing the word blew without the bl I’m making them fix it.  We know our chunks, ick, ill, all, ing, etc… we need to use what we know.  Vowel teams-ou, ai, ow, ea, ee, etc… I’m really holding them accountable for this!!!  By now, we should be writing a story on one topic with a beginning-middle-end.  Some of our kiddos are struggling with this concept.  Please ask them while they are reading their books about the beginning middle and end of the books and ask them if they are putting a beginning middle and end to their stories when they are writing.

Science/Social Studies:  We just finished learning about Martin Luther King Jr.  The next two weeks we will learn about the Antarctic and penguins.  The kids love this unit and you are probably going to learn more about penguins than you care too:)

Just a couple of friendly reminders:

Pajama day tomorrow to celebrate the Polar Express!  Please make sure the PJ’s are within dress code aka no spaghetti straps etc…

Early release Thursday and Friday at 11:30.

Party day is Friday at 9:00.  If you are helping set up you can come at 8:30.  Please have the puzzles for the puzzle exchange here by Wednesday, wrapped and ready to go!!!

Don’t know what I was thinking trying to have a spelling test this week so…I have asked each student to write down all 10 of their spelling words (they can look at their planners) and then write 3 sentences using as many spelling words as they can.  Please have them do this tonight to turn in to me tomorrow for their spelling test grade.  The more they write these words correctly the better spellers they become.  Just in case you need them they are;  we, can, an, there, your, which, their, said, if, do

Hope to see everyone at the Christmas Party!!!  Your kiddos are AMAZING!!!!!!!!!!!

Hey guys!  Hope everyone had a great weekend.  I want to catch you up on a few things then let you know what we are learning.

Candi Salter has volunteered to be room mother for our Christmas Party.  WOOHOO!!!  There is a note coming home today with your kiddo about a meeting she’d like to have with anyone wanting to help plan or make crafts,etc…  Please check you kiddos folder for that.  It also has all the details for the party.  Please contact her if you want to help but cannot attend the meeting.  We will also be doing a puzzle exchange at the party.  Please don’t spend a lot on this puzzle!!!  Make it generic (not a boy or girl puzzle) because we will be playing a game and have no idea if the puzzle you bring will end up in a boy or girls hands.

Spelling words:  which, their, said, if, do, we, can, an there, your

We are learning about those “r” controlled vowels in phonics the next two weeks.

Math:  We are learning how to collect data and graph the data we collect while still focusing on combinations of numbers, addition and subtraction.

Writing:  We are still working on the beginning, middle and end of stories.

Science/Social Studies:  We are learning how certain traditions got started and how other countries celebrate Christmas.