November 18 - November 22

I am just going to get right to it this week.

Here we go:

• The PTA pajama dance party (reward for reaching our fundraising school goal) will be this Friday, November 22 from 11:05-11:25.  This will be the time slot for K and 1st grades.  Students can wear their pajamas to school all day.  Thanks for helping us reach our school AND classroom goal.
• We have been having trouble with toys being brought to school.  Toys are not allowed at school with the exception of an occasional toy for show and tell on Friday (remember I like show and TEACH).  A note was sent home about this from Mrs. Carter and I . Please help your child remember this new rule.
• Next week on Tuesday, we will have our little Thanksgiving party from 1:00-2:00.  I will contact you if you volunteered to help. If you didn't volunteer at back to school night and would still like to help just send me a message and I can give you something to bring. I could also use an extra set of hands during the party if anyone can help that way.
• This week we will write about Pilgrims and make a Pilgrim to go with it.  Our turkeys from last week turned out great!  Did you know that only Tom turkeys say 'gobble gobble'?  We learned that and other facts about turkeys and my students wrote great sentences using that knowledge.
• In math this week we will finish our chapter on two-dimensional shapes.  Today we learned about halves and tomorrow we will learn about quarters/fourths.  We will then review and take a test on Friday.  Our interventions this week will be on basic addition and subtraction facts.  
• In reading we have learned all the vowel combinations in this unit and will be finishing that up this week too.  We just learned /aw/.  That's a hard one for first graders to use correctly in spelling (they can't differentiate between that and a short o sound, but it will come with time). We mostly want them to say that sound correctly when reading unknown words.  Today we read the fable The Fox and the Grapes and tomorrow we'll read about another fox in  The Fox and the Hen.  
• We have read three versions of Cinderella and today we compared and contrasted those stories using a Venn diagram.  We read the first of our next three stories, Tom Thumb.  We will read two more versions of that main story, one is Thumbelina and the other a story from Japan called Issun Boshi.   

I think that's it for this week--I am rushing because I have an appointment at 4:30 and it's almost that time!  If I forget anything I will send out a Remind.  Thanks for you incredible and consistent help at home.  This truly is a phenomenal class!

Happy Reading!

Mrs. Armstrong

Newsletter November 11 - November 15

We had a nice assembly today for Veteran's Day.  I think my students understood and had reverence for those who have served our country. We read the book The Wall by Eve Bunting that shares information about the Vietnam Memorial in Washington DC and were given special dog tags from Mr. Quarnberg a member of the Utah National Guard and fifth grade teacher.  In addition to our assembly here are this week's happenings:

• Our next PTA reading awards will be this Thursday, November 14 at 3:00 in our classroom.  I sent home notes today with those students that will be receiving an award that day. You are welcome to attend!
• The Scholastic book orders are due this Wednesday.  If you would like me to hide the order for Christmas gifts let me know and I can get them to you or leave them in the office for you to pick up.
• The Pajama dance party is Friday November 22.  I haven't heard much more than that.  Your child can wear their pajamas to school that day.
• We will have a little Thanksgiving party on November 26 from 1:00-2:00 right before computers and PE.  We will make a Thanksgiving bracelet that will have beads that represent different parts of Thanksgiving and we will make some turkey cookies.  If you signed up to help I will contact you via e-mail.  
• This week we will be adding the /ou/ and /oi/ sound and spelling to our repertoire.  Our book Fables is filled with these new patterns.  Tomorrow we will read the Bag of Coins a fable about being honest.  
• Tomorrow we are going to draw turkeys and use watercolors to finish them. Then on Wednesday we will write complete sentences about our turkeys.  
• In math we are working with two-dimensional shapes.  Last week we sorted and described the shapes according to defining attributes.  This week we are combining shapes, making "new" shapes and finding shapes in shapes and will start learning about equal and unequal parts. 
• We have finished our unit on The Human Body and will now move to a unit called Different Lands, Similar Stories this is where we will hear different versions or works of fiction.  We will start with different versions of Cinderella.  We will learn how to compare and contrast and will be reminded of story elements throughout this unit. 

Happy Monday Reading!

Mrs. Armstrong

Newsletter November 4 - November 8

It is strange that with the extra sleep this weekend that I don't feel rested, but I hope you enjoyed your extra hour and your weekend. Halloween was great!  Thanks to those that helped by sending in a healthy snack that day.

Here are this week's happenings:

• October reading calendars are due by Wednesday, November 6 for a certificate and little treat.
• I was mistaken about the PTA reading awards this Thursday they will be the following Thursday.  PTA bookmarks will be picked up this Friday for those awards. I will send home notices to those that will be receiving awards next week.
• We earned well over the $12,000 goal for our school for the PTA fundraiser (spirit run).  The pajama dance party will be Friday, November 22. I will give you more information when I hear about it. 
• Scholastic book orders will be sent home this week and will be due November 13.  I am sending home both October and November issues since we had the book fair in October I thought that was enough :) Many of the books in the November issue and the Holiday issue would be fun Christmas gifts (hint hint books are great gifts).  If you want to do this I can "hide" them here until you can pick them up.  Just let me know and if your order is for Christmas and I won't send it home with your child when it arrives. 
• Library will be on Wednesday this week instead of our normal Monday time.  
• In our learning we have switched gears in math.  We are now working with geometry concepts.  This unit deals with two-dimensional shapes.  Today we sorted shapes by attributes and learned what vertices are.  This week we will also combine shapes to make new shapes and describe shapes by their attributes.  
• Today we learned about our last body system--the nervous system and completed our body systems booklet.  We will now move onto keeping our bodies healthy.  We'll learn about the food pyramid later this week.
• In reading, we have learned the two sounds for the 'oo' spelling (i.e. soon and book).  In this unit we will also learn to read and spell words with the vowel combinations of 'oi', 'ou', and 'aw' as well as continue to write complete sentences and write narratives. Our next "official" reading test (DIBELS for the middle of the year) will be on December 9.  That is just around the corner.  I'm still overly impressed by how many students return their take home books daily.  The take-home librarian even sent me an e-mail today about that.  THANK YOU!!

Happy Autumn Reading,

Mrs. Armstrong