Newsletter August 29 - September 2

I hope that you all are enjoying or enjoyed the PTA sponsored Luau tonight.   I worked at the ticket counter for about an hour and saw a few of my students!  I am still working and can hear the fun  going on outside my window.  We really have a supportive PTA here at East and I loved that most of the fun was "free" tonight!!

This Friday, is picture day.  I sent home an information packet last week.  All students will get their picture taken, but if you want prints made please send back that packet this Friday.  I believe that you can also pay online for prints. 

The August Home reading calendar is due this Thursday, September 1.  Please help you child with their nightly reading (10 minutes each school night).  Our take home library books will start soon as soon as all of our initial testing is complete at the end of this week.  My guess is that it will start as early as the day after Labor Day.  I will keep you posted.  Remember when the take-home books get sent home I will expect  those books to be reread 3 times each and returned daily.

You may have noticed in your child's folder "take-home" activities from our reading program.  These activities are optional, but can be used as part of your child's 10 minutes of reading as they are literacy activities.  Today a sheet came home where the students can cut up letters and manipulate them into words.  Let me know if you have questions about these activities.

We are continuing to work on addition concepts in math.  Today we learned the "Additive Identity Property of 0" (when you add zero to a number, the sum is that same number).  Tomorrow we will learn about the "Commutative Property of Addition" (the order of the addends does not affect the sum i.e 3 + 4 = 7 so 4 + 3 = 7).  In our listening and learning portion of our reading program we have finished up the Fables portion and will now move onto Folktales.  We have learned the fables are short stories that teach a lesson or moral and often have animals that act as humans (personification). Ask your child about their favorite fable or a lesson that they learned from one of the fables.

We welcomed a student teacher to our classroom today.  Mystica Montoya will be with us for the next six weeks.  She just returned from an internship in Spain where she taught English classes all summer.  She will be great addition to our classroom as she learns the craft of teaching.

Please continue to remind your students to keep their behavior cards "green".  We are still learning correct first grade behavior and it is taking a bit longer this year.  I would appreciate the extra help at home as you ask your child if they have been a "helpful first grader."

Remember that next Monday is the Labor Day Holiday and Happy Reading!!



  

Newsletter August 22 - August 26

We have been in school for one week now!  We are still working on correct "first grade behavior" and practicing it daily.  Please talk to your children and emphasize the importance of being a "helpful first grader".  It makes our class run much more smoothly, we can have fun, learn, and best of all return from school happy if we are making choices that benefit all of us.  We have learned our four classroom rules--ask your child if they can remember them.

Today I placed in your child's homework folder our August reading calendar and PTA reading bookmark.  Remember that our first grade homework expectation is reading 10 minutes each school  night.  Right now our take-home library isn't operational so please find a book and read with your child for 10 minutes starting tonight!  The PTA book mark stays home until it is completely filled up (500 minutes) and then you child can bring it back for another blank bookmark.  Remember that I will help with those PTA minutes by adding 15 minutes each day when we start reading groups (early September).  I would love to see all of my first graders get the "Gold Eagle" award.  PLEASE SEND YOUR CHILD'S HOMEWORK FOLDER BACK AND FORTH EVERYDAY!

Last Friday our class won the chance to get a "spirit award".  The PTA gives a little reward for those wearing their East Elementary T-shirt, or a blue shirt, or an East Elementary wristband ($1.00).  Encourage your child to show their school spirit by wearing their East Elementary t-shirt every Friday!

We are having a  bit of a struggle with shoes and shoelaces.  I honestly haven't had this much of a problem with it in my seven years of teaching so that is why I am bringing it up.  Please make sure that your child has shoelaces that are long enough to keep tied and/or help your child learns how to tie their shoes so that they are not tempted to play with their shoelaces during instruction time.  I good double knot as you send them out the door would be great!

We have started right into our reading and math units.  In math we will represent and solve problems involving addition and subtraction.  In reading we are reviewing some of the skills learned in kindergarten and remembering how to form our letters correctly.  It's important that students can write their letters correctly so that it doesn't become a hindrance as they have to remember how to form each letter, and the sound/symbol relationship.  Writing will flow easier if  letters are formed automatically.  We also started our unit on Fables and have read and learned about "The Boy Who Cried Wolf" and the "Milkmaid and the Spilled Milk".  We learned the morals for both of these fables: "If you often don't tell the truth, people won't believe you even when you are telling the truth" and "Don't count your chickens before they hatch." 

I have am excited for this year and for the learning that will occur as we work together.  Please don't hesitate to contact me, e-mail is the best way, but I will get back to you quickly either way.

Happy Reading!