February 29 - March 4

Happy Leap Day!  I am back in the saddle after catching the sickness that is rampant.  I still don't have a voice, but am feeling a bit better.  Thanks to Mrs. Vogel for helping sub my class.  They were taught well in my absence. 

Here are this week's happenings:

• Friday it's Spring picture day.  I sent home an information packet last week.  Your child's picture will ONLY be taken if you send back money.
• Our next spelling test is this Thursday, March 3.  I sent home a list of words to practice today.  We are learning about the /j/ sound spelled three different ways--'j', 'g', and 'ge'.  You will see that applied in this week's spelling words.  We are also learning about adding endings to root words so you will see the apparent in the words also (jumping, charged).  
• The end of third quarter is March 25.  I will try my hardest to get a grade print out of this quarter's grades by this Friday before we have Spring break.  
• Our plants have grown like crazy.  They are starting to get little yellow flowers on them.  Today we talked about the parts of a flower and the purposes of each part.  This week we will also discuss pollination.  We will have "actual" dried bees and we'll "pollinate" our plants.  
• In math we just finished Lesson 8.5.  We have learned to use a hundreds chart and to draw a picture to add "ones" or "tens" to a two-digit number.  I feel like most of my students are understanding this concept.  Please keep up with the Chapter 8 homework packet.  You should be through Lesson 8.5 today.  
• I could still use some pencil top erasers.  As I mentioned last week, we are totally out and we could use some more packages to get us through the school year.  I could also use Lysol or Clorox wipes.  With all of the sicknesses going around those are helpful to quickly clean off desks, tables, chairs etc.  
• I hope that you all have a wonderful Spring break!  We still have several weeks of school left, so please don't slack off with nightly reading.  Our End of the year DIBELS testing will be before we know it and in order to "benchmark" students need to be reading 47 words accurately in a minute.  That's a big jump from the middle of the year cut off of 23 words. Practice, practice, by reading, reading and more reading!!

Newsletter February 22 - February 26

Our first ever Science Expo was a success!  Thank you all for making time or getting off work early to attend our Science Expo.   I thought my little readers did a great job explaining the life cycles of chickens, frogs, butterflies, and plants using a reader's theater format.

Here are this week's happenings:

• The February Scholastic book order is due tomorrow, February 23.  If you would like to order it's easiest to use the online code on the flier I sent home with the book titles last week.  I also have a link to Scholastic on this blog.  Scroll down--it's underneath our spelling words.
• Speaking of spelling words--our test will be this Thursday, February 25.  I sent home the list of words today.  The words are again reinforcing what we are learning in the skills portion of our reading program.  This week I introduced a "new" spelling for the /ch/ sound ('tch').  We have also learned about adding a suffix to a root word.  Ask your kids the three rules before adding a suffix (word is one syllable, word has a short vowel, and the short vowel is following by ONE consonant).  If those three rules are met, then before adding the ending we double the final consonant (i.e. hop = hopping and duck = ducking)
• We started Math Chapter 8 today.  I unfortunately don't have my cute daughter helping in my classroom anymore, and I haven't ripped out the homework packets yet.  I will do that today, and send the packet home tomorrow with a schedule.  For your information now, the packet will be due on Wednesday, March 16.  Please make sure you send those packets back with your child's name on it.  I have a hard time distinguishing between number handwriting sometimes :)
• Our 100-book challenge is going strong.  Rebecca has read 50 books!!!  Rieley, Nick and Sam have each read 30 books!!  Please use this challenge as incentive to get your kids to read!! My home reading expectation is 15 minutes every school night, so this challenge should be EASY to achieve if your child is meeting my expectation. 
• We are continuing to learn about the plant life cycle through growth of Brassica Rapa.  Today we talked about and observed parts of a plant (stems, roots, and leaves).  Ask your child about how each part mentioned absorbed the red food coloring.  Our little plants are thriving, and it's fun to watch my kids so excited to see their plant's growth every morning. 
• Our classroom supply of pencil-top erasers is out.  If you want to help replenish this supply I would appreciate it. I could use several more packages of pencil-top erasers to get us through the year.  Thanks!!
• I am sending home new "homework folders" for all students tomorrow.  Please use this as a time to reorganize yourself and your child.  Please, if you haven't been doing this send back your child's homework folder EVERYDAY.  Check their folder every night for homework assignments or notes.  Make it a habit to read your child's take-home book every night. 

Happy Reading!!

February 16 - 19

Welcome back after a three-day weekend.  I managed to go to St. George and hike at Snow Canyon and even brought a little bit of a sunburn back with me.  Thank you for all of the nice Valentine's Day gifts and chocolates!  They were so appreciated and sweet!

Here are the happenings for this shortened week:

• Science Expo is this Friday, February 19 from 2:00 - 2:45. Feel free to come and visit our classroom and see and hear what we have learned about life cycles.  This is informal and an open house so you may visit anytime during that 45 minute time frame.  That way if you have other children that attend our school  you will be able to visit their classrooms too.
• Our Spelling Test is tomorrow (Thursday, Feb. 18).  I sent a list of words home last week.  A note about spelling--these words reinforce the spelling patterns we are learning in the Skills portion of our reading program.  The patterns are reinforced in reading, writing and spelling.
• Sam is off to a great start with our 100-book challenge!  He has already read 30 books.  He was the first person to receive a free book and treat (every 25 books).  Please use this incentive to encourage reading at home.  Don't leave it until the last minute!!
• February's Scholastic book order will come home tomorrow and will be due on Tuesday, February 23.  There are always great titles for $1.00.  This time I think there is "Fly Guy" book for $1.00.
• We have been busy getting ready for the Science Expo so we are a bit behind with math.  I will review and test Chapter 7 tomorrow (possibly finish the exam on Friday).  We have also taken a bit of a break with our study of Ancient American Civilizations.  We will pick that up next week.  We will continue to learn and write about and discuss King Moctuzuma (famous Aztec emperor) and will also continue our study of the plants life cycle.  We have a great time planting Brassica rapa (mustard fast) seeds and as the name connotes our plants have already started to sprout. Tomorrow we will learn about how seeds begin to form into plants.  We will examine sprouted mung beans.  

I hope to see many of you on Friday afternoon.
 Happy Reading!!!

Newsletter February 8 - February 12

Here we go again--hopefully this time I can actually publish this newsletter.  It was so nice to visit with most of you during SEP conferences last week.  I still need to catch a couple of you :)  SEP conferences are not the only time that I will meet with you personally.  If you ever want to meet with me please feel free to contact me and we can meet anytime.

This is going to be a busy week--Here are a few highlights:

• We are still a bit behind with our Chapter 7 math schedule.  Today we just completed Lesson 7.4.  Our math packet will be due next Tuesday, February 16, instead of the date on the original schedule.  The test for Chapter 7 will also be on that date.
• This Friday, February 12 we now have an assembly at 2:50.  The Playmakers theater group from SUU will present that assembly.  Our Valentine's Day party time will need to change due to that assembly.  We will now have our party from 2:00-2:40 that day.  I have decided that it will be easier to decorate bags that I will buy from Wal-Mart (gift bags) rather than cover the cans.  I will still need decorating items for the bags (stickers, ribbon etc.)  If you can help with decorating items please send those by this Wednesday, February 10.  If you would like to send $1.00 to cover the bags that would be helpful too, but not necessary since I didn't warn you in advance.  We will decorate cookies during the party also.  Thank you to Jayleigh's mom for already sending some items for the cookies.  I will e-mail those that signed up to help with our Valentine's Day party at Back-to-School night to either help during the party or to send some cookie items.  If you didn't sign up and would still like to help, I'd love to have you.  I can use help as the children decorate cookies and also help as they hand out their Valentine's day cards. Let me know if you'd like to come and help.  Remember that we have 25 students in our class and if you child brings Valentine cards or treats to please bring one for every student.  I sent home a list of students last Monday.
• On Thursday, the Red Butte Garden outreach program will be visiting our classroom.  They will be presenting the first lesson in a series of lessons about a plant's life cycle.  We will also start learning about other life cycles this week in preparation for our Science Expo.  The science expo will be next Friday, February 19.  Parents are invited to visit our classroom from 2:00-2:45  (open house style) and observe what we have been learning about life cycles.  
• Sam and Rieley have already started reading books towards our 100-book challenge.  Today I told all of my students about the challenge.  Remember that I sent home a letter with a recording sheet as well as explained it quickly to you at your SEP conference.  If your child reads their take-home book every school night (which they should be doing anyway), they will easily be able to reach the 100-book goal by May 20th. 
• This Thursday we will be back to our regular library day.  Make sure that you child returns their books so that during library time they can pick out new books.  Look for those books that have been lost and return them by Thursday. 

Have a wonderful 3-day weekend and Valentine's Day!! I love teaching first grade and love this class of mine!