Newsletter October 29 - November 2

It's Halloween week!! This week for Halloween we will finish our apple head witches with a healthy treat and participate in our school-wide Halloween sing and Halloween Parade. We will also play a Halloween Addition memory game and if time permits will play Halloween bingo and in the afternoon go to the computer lab to get our Lexia minutes in.   Remember the parade will run from 10:45 to 11:00 and no masks (face paint is o.k.), weapons, or gore. 

Last Thursday, I attended a training on DIBELS (our reading test mandated by the state).  Basically we learned how to use that data more effectively to drive our instruction.  I was excited as I looked at the data of all of my kids and could see that most are on the path to make typical progress or above typical progress in reading.  Some though are not on that path and will continue to need intensive specific instruction to help bridge that gap.  Please if you are not regularly reading at night with your child start that NOW!  The students that are making the most progress honestly are getting the help they need at school, but also reading consistently at night and doing what I recommend and that is reading the take-home books more than once.  They are also sending back their sight word lists every Wednesday.  Home and school should be a team in for our students.

This week I don't have much more than what I just noted, but here are this week's happenings anyway:

• The October reading calendar will be due on Thursday, November 1.  Please return that by Monday, November 5 for a certificate, little treat and Pizza Hut coupon.  Those turned in after that date will still receive credit, but won't include the mentioned items.
• On Monday, November 12 we will take another walking field trip to SUU (weather permitting) to visit the new Shakespeare sculpture Garden.  We will leave here shortly after 9:00 and return before lunch.  I need a volunteer to walk over there with us--if you could help please send me an e-mail. 
• We are still in the thick of learning about addition strategies.  We will continue that unit this week.  We will especially concentrate on ten and more (ex. 10 + 4 = 14 or 10 + 7 = 17).  Next week our math intervention time will be devoted to that topic. 
• In reading, we will finish up Unit 2 and head into Unit 3 on Thursday.  With that unit spelling words will start coming home.  I don't have a set day for spelling tests.  I send home the lists and then 5 days later we take the test.  I always send the list home with the date of the test at the top of the sheet and will remind you the day before we take the test.  Some students may need a bit of extra practice on these words at home to feel successful on test day.  If that is the case, use a couple of minutes of your 10 minutes of reading time to work on those spelling words.  If you have a choice though to read or to practice spelling words always choose reading!
• Mr. Moyle sent an e-mail about the lost and found items being donated at the end of the week.  Those items are on the lunchroom stairs right now.  If your child is missing something please remind them to take a look there before the items are donated.  If you are not receiving school e-mails from Mr. Moyle please let me know and provide me with a current e-mail that I can give him. 

I look forward to all of the happy faces and costumes on Wednesday!

Happy Halloween and Happy Reading!

Mrs. Armstrong

Newsletter October 23 - October 26

I hope that you all had a nice three-day weekend!  I got to have lunch with my sisters in Salt Lake so it was marvelous for me!

Here are this week's happenings:

• Our PTA Eagle Spirit Run is still fundraising until October 30.  You still have time to register your child online for a free pedometer before that date.  We raised over our school goal of $12,000 (which is phenomenal)!  The school will celebrate by having a glow in the dark dance party.  I will let you know the date of that dance party when details are given to me.
• I sent home Lexia notes with usernames and passwords.  But, now those have been changed again because of the district syncing to a system called "clever badges".  We don't have cameras on all of our computers in the lab and can't use clever badges in there.  Long story short is since they've synced to using Clever Badges there cannot be any duplicate usernames and since we use first names there could be duplicates.  I will send home new letters by Thursday or Friday with the new login information.
• On Halloween, remember that you child can come dressed up in their Halloween costumes.  Please no masks, gore, or weapons.  The parade will be from 10:45-11:00.  You are welcome to come! Halloween in First grade is pretty magical!
• Tomorrow the first grade team will have it's first Math Intervention Wednesday.  We will separate the students into four groups based on need and reteach or enrich on the concept of counting on.  This will be a weekly occurrence from 10:30-11:00 on Wednesday (Halloween is an exception).  These groups will be fluid based on weekly assessments.  We are excited about how this will help our kids.
• In reading, we are finishing up our second unit.  This unit really concentrated on the "silent e" rule for long vowels.  We also learned about proper nouns and quotation marks and we've been reading about Gran and her adventures with Josh and Jen.  We've slowed down just a bit with our study of Mesopotamia as we have been working more on writing complete sentences and writing in our journals. We will continue this study or Mesopotamia and Ancient Egypt over the next few weeks.
• In math as I stated earlier we are especially concentrating on the counting on strategy in addition.  We will continue learning other strategies that will help students with addition facts.  After we complete this chapter we will start doing timed addition fact quizzes.  Think "old school" 2 minute timed quizzes on all of the math facts (+0, +1, +2 etc.).  

I think that's it for this week.  Have a nice Tuesday!

Happy Reading!

Mrs. Armstrong

Newsletter October 15 - October 19

Welcome to the second quarter of First Grade.  I sent home first quarter "grades" today in your child's folder.  You don't need to send those back, but if you have questions please feel free to highlight the issue and send a brief note or send me an e-mail.

Here are this week's happenings and notes:

• Tomorrow is our first grade awards ceremony.  I have already sent e-mails to those that will be receiving an award that day.  You are welcome to attend this ceremony, but be on time because it's brief and I wouldn't want you to miss your child. The ceremony is at 3:00 in the cafeteria.
• I sent home a correct note about our field trips this week.  Please look at it--I won't go into details here because it's on the note.  Please send $1.00 for the Pumpkin Patch (preferably tomorrow, Tuesday) and send your child with a jacket if it's chilly for both Field Trips.
• Look in your child's folder for a note about the computer program that we are using here in school called Lexia.  We were given a grant and part of that grant is that all students reach a certain amount of minutes per week on the program.  Some students need 30 minutes others need 60 minutes.  Today I was informed that in order to keep this program for next year we really need to strive to get those minutes every week.  I sent that home because you can also have your child work on it at home.  It's optional, but if you child is absent on a computer day, or needs a few more minutes I will e-mail you and ask for you help and have them log in at home.  It's important that you let your child work on this on their own.  Of course, you can clarify if they don't understand, but please don't do it for them.  They are working on their own level from a beginning assessment so they should be able to work through the levels independently. 
• The PTA Fun Run is this Friday, October 19.  All students will walk or run around the school as many times as they can in the allotted time.  It's super fun with the fire department here as well as SUU cheerleaders and athletes along the way.  I just sent an e-mail with our classroom webpage.  Please check that out and register your child if you haven't already for a "free pedometer".  The PTA has some great prizes for those and contribute and for the class that raises the most money, and if we as a school reach our goal.  
• I'm excited about some new things that we will be doing in first grade after we attended a professional conference in Salt Lake last week.  The first thing that we will be doing is centered around math.  We will now be having intervention days on Wednesdays.  Students will be divided into four groups based on their understanding of a certain concept.  For example, this week we are really focusing on the addition strategy of "counting on" (7 + 3 = 10--start on the largest number (7) and count on 3 more--say 7 then 8, 9 , 10).  After a short assessment on Friday, we will determine what your child needs for the concept.  If they "got it" they will be a in a group that will be extended in that concept.  If they need extra help then they will be in a group that slows down a bit and gives the extra support needed.  We will have these math groups every Wednesday for 30 minutes.  We are excited as we feel like this will help all of our students reach mastery of the most important math concepts in first grade. Students may or may not be with me during these groups as all of the first grade teachers will be participating.
• Halloween is just around the corner.  I hope that you received the e-mail from Mr. Moyle about our Halloween parade.  Just a recap--students can come to school on Halloween dressed up in their costumes.  Please no masks, weapons, or gore.  We will have a school-wide costume parade from 10:45-11:00.  Parents are welcome to come and watch and take pictures etc.  I think the best place to view the parade is in the cafeteria where you can sit on the benches but you can stand in a doorway of that school as we parade around most of the halls. 
• In our learning this week, as I noted earlier, in math we are solely concentrating on the "counting on" strategy.  In reading, the long vowels are being reinforced through reading and through lessons and activities.  I love it when my kids point out the vowel patterns that we have learned as we read.  I hear many times a day "Mrs. Armstrong that's an "a (consonant) e in 'made' (or other similar words with the silent e).  Also, in reading we have moved from learning and hearing different versions of familiar stories to Early World Civilizations, specifically Mesopotamia and Ancient Egypt.  We have learned about the importance of rivers to the people who lived in Mesopotamia thousands of years ago and how they built canals to share the water with those that didn't live on the banks of the Euphrates or Tigris rivers.  Today we learned about the writing used in Mesopotamia called Cuneiform and learned about the importance of writing anciently and today. 
• Don't forget that next Monday, October 22 we are off for Fall Break!

Have a great three-day weekend and Happy Reading!

Mrs. Armstrong

Newsletter October 1 - October 5

Welcome to October and SEP week!  I have enjoyed meeting with several of you today and will enjoy meeting with the rest of you over the next couple of days. This will be brief as these days of conferences get long and I want to get home 😀

Here are this week's happenings:

• The September Reading calendar is now due.  I will give a treat, certificate, and a free Pizza Hut pizza coupon to those students that turn their calendar in by this Thursday, October 4.  October calendars were sent home today.  Thanks to those that are faithfully helping their child read and turn in their take-home book everyday.  This is so important--keep it up!!
• We won't have library this week because of the Book Fair that is occupying the library.  Students can turn their books in anytime before next Thursday (out next library day).
• We will be having two field trips this month.  One is to the Robinson Family Pumpkin Patch on Wednesday, October 17.  We will leave East at 9:45 and return by 11:00.  The cost for this field trip is $1.00 (all students will be able to pick out a pumpkin).  The next field trip is the following day, Thursday, October 18.  We will be walking to SUU to visit both the SUMA art museum and Frehner Museum of Natural History.  We will walk to SUU and arrive at 1:00 and return a little after 3:00.  I would love to have volunteers come with us on these field trips.  It's helpful to have extra adults.  If you would like to come with us please let me know (e-mail or remind is the best way to let me know). 
• We are making "apple head" witches for Halloween.  Please send an apple with your child by Friday, October 5.  It doesn't matter what color or size, but the bigger the better.  
• I will send home Scholastic book orders by this Friday.  Those will be due next Friday, October 12.  This best way to order is online using our classroom code.  
• In math we will have our unit test on Subtraction this Wednesday, and start our unit on Addition strategies on Thursday.  
• Today we learned about the long /a/ sound and how a and e work together to spell that sound (think cake, name etc.).  We will continue to work on the long vowel sounds and how to read and spell them throughout this unit.  
• In listening and learning we compared and contrasted Tom Thumb and Thumbelina and tomorrow we will add another version from Japan called Issun Boshi.  I am amazed by the insightful answers my first graders give when we discuss the similarities and differences in these stories. 
• Next week (October 8 - 11) all of the first grade teachers will be attending a four day conference in Salt Lake. If you need me for anything you are always welcome to send me an e-mail or remind.  I will check that daily while at the conference.  We will still have sight word soldiers that week, reading groups, library etc.  and my substitute will still have the students responsible for their own behavior by filling out behavior charts everyday. I have never missed that many days of school in a row--and frankly I'm not sure how I will handle being away from my class for so many days. 
• Next Friday, October 12 is Fall picture retake day.  Let me know if you want your child to have their picture retaken otherwise I won't send them.  Only those that desire retakes will have a second shot taken. 

Thanks again for making time to visit with me this week.  Even though the week is long I look forward to this week and meeting with parents and students.

Happy Fall and Happy Reading!
Mrs. Armstrong