January 2 - January 4

Welcome back to first grade in 2019 and to a short week!  I think it was nice starting back on a Wednesday after a long break because my students were wondering "when is it lunch" or saying, "I'm hungry" a lot this morning.  I hope that you all had a nice Christmas break. Thanks for the kind gifts and sweet notes.  Today we got right back to work!

Here are this week's happenings:

• DIBELS results are back and I will get those to you by Monday--I want to give you some notes and pointers on what you can do to help so it will take me a couple of days to get that together.  I will send e-mails to those students who will be continuing on in reading intervention groups or who will be attending those now after I publish this blog.  If you do not get an e-mail assume that your child is not in a reading intervention group, but rather in a small group in my classroom or Mrs. Carter's classroom. 
• This was the first day of the third quarter.  I will also get Power School grades printed off and returned by Monday (if we're lucky the  DIBELS report will come home Friday).  Please watch for both of these in your child's homework folder.
• The December Reading Calendar is now due. I sent home January reading calendars in your child's folder today.
• We have two awards programs next week.  On Tuesday, January 8 at 3:00 in the cafeteria Mr. Moyle will be handing out our First Grade Awards.  These awards are for Perfect and Excellent Attendance, Most Improved and our Catch the Vision winners. Awards for passing off levels on Lexia will also be given out.  Not all students will receive an award.  I will send e-mails to those that will receive an award that day.  You are welcome to attend this ceremony, but please be on time as the presentations are brief and I wouldn't want you to miss it. The second is on Thursday, January 10 at 2:45 in our classroom.  This award ceremony is the PTA reading awards and the PTA will send home notices to those students that will be receiving award at this ceremony.  As above, you are welcome to attend this ceremony in our room.
•  Thursday, January 17 is the 100th day of school.  In first grade, we make a big deal out of that day.  Your child is welcome to dress up like they are 100 years old (I will send home a note about that).  I will also send home a little homework assignment that will be due that day.  This assignment is optional, but most kids really like to do it.  I will give you ample time and it shouldn't take you very long to help your child complete it.
• We will not have school on Monday, January 21 to commemorate MLK Day.
• Now for our learning--I have been so pleased with the writing that is coming from this class.  Before we left for the break, I had my students write about "the best part of Christmas"--there writing was amazing!  So sweet, but also full of correct punctuation and beautiful handwriting.  We also wrote sentences about reindeer after learning many facts about them.  Those sentences were amazing also! 
• In math we just started our unit on Subtraction strategies.  Today we just reviewed what subtraction is since we have been so focused on addition for a long time.  Tomorrow and Friday we will learn the "counting back" strategy to help us subtract.  Our intervention next week will focus on that strategy.  
• Today I sent home a new list of spelling words.  As you can see from that list our spelling words are getting harder.  A little bit of study at home can help with those that need it.  We go over that words daily, but some may need a bit of extra practice to feel confident for the test.  The test for that list will be on Monday, January 7.  
• We still haven't finished our unit on Early American Civilizations.  I will remind my students about the first two civilizations, Aztecs and Mayas, and then return to the study of the Incas.  We will specifically learn about the Inca Runners who delivered messages over hundreds of miles of roads.  Some of those roads  are still present today in modern Peru and the surrounding area. 
• In reading, we are still focusing on nouns and verbs especially past and present tense verbs.  We are learning about contractions and two-syllable words and how to break those words apart by first reading a part and then putting the two parts together (I say "chunk, chunk put it together").  We are  still learning about R-controlled vowels (er, ar, and or).  The book "The Green Fern Zoo" is full of words with those spellings.  Today we learned about Puffins and Finches in our story "Things with Wings".  When you see these spellings in your child's reading remind them about the "sounds" they make and point them out as they read not only books but in the world around them. 

Have a nice night and stay warm!
Happy Reading!