Newsletter March 18 - March 22

I haven't managed to catch up on third quarter grades yet so I didn't get a Power School printout sent home last week like I mentioned in my last newsletter.  I will do my best to get those out by this Friday.  I hope that since we are just in first grade you aren't waiting on pins and needles for your child's grade printout :)

Here are this week's happenings:

• Tomorrow, March 19 at 3:00 in the cafeteria is our first grade awards ceremony.  I just sent e-mails to those students who will be receiving awards during that ceremony. The awards presented at that ceremony are attendance awards, Catch the Vision and Most Improved Student along with Lexia certificates.  The PTA reading awards are giving out monthly (second Thursday of the month).  Students have two more months to finish this PTA reading program for the Gold Eagle reader.  The last day to turn in bookmarks for the PTA awards is May 3.  
• Our 100-book challenge is heading in the right direction!  I have a couple of kids who are very close to the 100 book mark where they will join Kash.  Remember the last day to hand in lists for the 100 book challenge with be May 15.  We will have our Pizza lunch the following day on May 16 for those that meet the challenge.  
• Our next spelling test will be tomorrow (list with sun, kiss etc.).  I sent home lists last week.  New words will come home on Wednesday with the test the following Tuesday, March 26.
• In math we are wrapping up our unit on place value or counting and modeling numbers this week.  Today we modeled and wrote numbers from 100-110 and tomorrow we will do the same with numbers from 110-120.  We especially concentrated on the fact that 10 tens = 100 and tomorrow we will show 11 tens = 110 and then we add "more" to those numbers (ex. 10 tens and 8 more = 108 or 11 tens and 8 more = 118).  Our test for this unit will be this Friday.  On Wednesday we will have interventions or extensions on tens and ones to prepare for this test.
• In reading, we are just getting into our new book Grace.  We are learning about pronouns, how to make our sentences better using adjective and propositions and learning alternative spellings for consonant sounds.  We will begin a graphic organizer for writing a descriptive paragraph on an animal habitat of the student's choice and complete those paragraphs by the end of the week.  
• Our Animal habitat unit just concluded today (that's why we are ready to write paragraphs).  Today we learned about endangered habitats and how we can help or have contributed to endangering habitats.  Tomorrow we will start our new unit on Fairy Tales.  I think my students will like this unit (maybe not as much as animals habitats--they loved that one), but they enjoyed an earlier unit on Fables and Folktales and I think they will like going back to some fiction tales.  Students will learn about the elements of fairy tales that distinguish them from other types of fiction.  They will also learn that fairy tales have elements of character, plat, and setting that are found in other types of fiction while also enjoying the stories.  
• St. Patricks Day got away from me, but tomorrow we will read a book called "The Leprechaun Who Lost his Rainbow" and do a writing/art activity based on that book.  
• With the end of the year around the corner please continue to work hard and finish strong with your child especially reading every night!  Those students that do this regularly really do make greater improvements throughout the year. 

It's nice having a birthday, even when you maybe want to forget at my age in first grade because my students made today such a nice day for me.  They were so excited and told me many times "Happy Birthday"!  I have such sweet students.

Happy Reading!!

Mrs. Armstrong