October 26 - October 30

Happy Halloween Week! 

 Brrrr...  thanks for sending your child with coats and warm clothes today.  We didn't go outside for break as the temperature never surpassed the 25 degree threshold.  26 degrees is still cold so watch the weather and continue to send warm coats with your child when the weather is wintery.  Knowing Cedar weather we'll warm right back up.  

Here are this week's happenings:

• The eagle Fun Run is going on for 7 more days.  In our class we have raised $475 towards our goal of $525.  If we can reach that $525 goal we will win a silly string party.  Thanks for registering, logging fitness minutes, and reaching out to friends and neighbors for donations.  The school has reached another milestone of $12,000 so we will receive extra recess.  I will do that on a warmer day and hopefully use a different playground. 
• Miss Mallory is back to help pass off sight word lists.  If your child hasn't passed off a list for a while I had her send home a new list today--check in your child's homework folder.  Remember she's here everyday except Wednesday to pass off those lists.
• Today I sent via e-mail a post-research survey.  If you remember I am in my last semester of my master's program and working on action research for my thesis--I am at the end of the research period and part of my research is using survey responses. If you wouldn't mind please fill out the survey--I'd really appreciate it. 
• Our Halloween parade will be this Friday, October 30 from 2:45-3:00 on the north playground.  Remember that students will be walking inside the fence and parents/spectators can assemble along the outside of the fence.  Students can come to school dressed in their costumes. Please save the blood and gore and full face masks for other occasions.  
• A new batch of take-home books were sent home today.  Remember to sign the sheet inside of the bag to get new books the next week.  I hope that you are noticing improvements in your child's reading.  If you have any concerns please don't hesitate to contact me.
• In our learning we are continuing to work on addition within 20.  We have learned several long vowel spellings (ee, a_e, i_e and o_e) and are working on writing complete sentences using a sentence start.  We have filled in several pages of our journals with sentences starting with I can, I have, I am, or I see......  We finished our last body system today, the Nervous system, and will continue our learning about our bodies as we learn about nutrition and exercise and this year our lessons on germs and immunizations will especially be poignant and understandable.  
• Reading calendars for my class--I know it gets confusing with the PTA bookmarks, the take-home books sheet and my calendar, but those are due when we return in November.  Remember that students receive a small treat and coupon for Pizza Hut.  I remember taking my kids to get their Pizza Hut reward--hopefully it's a little incentive to keep them reading :)

Have a wonderful Monday and Happy Reading,

Mrs. Armstrong

October 20 - October 23

 Happy Tuesday--I hope you all had a nice three day weekend!  It was a beautiful day for the Pumpkin Patch.  Afterwards we completed a Pumpkin Life Cycle flip book to reinforce the experience.  

In addition to our field trip today here are this week's happenings:

• Take home books came home today--there will only be two books this week and they are still due on Thursday.  I hope you are having your child read them to your more than once :). 
• The SUU student who comes in to help pass off sight word lists will not be here this week.  We will resume passing off lists next week for Sight Word Soldiers.  Please consider working on these words if you have neglected this--it's very helpful. 
• The PTA fundraiser runs through October 25.  Remember if you just register your child they will receive a jump rope and that I will hand those out privately to students.  We are working towards a class silly string party.  Here's the website again--www.getmovinfundhub.com 
• We have been given permission to hold our Halloween costume parade on Friday, October 30.  Here are the details--students are free to wear a costume that day to school (come dressed in their costume).  Remember that students should not have full masks and stay away from blood and gore. Crowns, hats, face make up, wigs etc. are acceptable.  The parade will be outside.  We (1st and 2nd graded)  will be walking on the inside of the north playground from 2:45-3:00.  Parents can  stand outside the fence around the playground.  Please remember social distancing guidelines :) 
• We have been busy learning!  We are continuing to learn about our body systems.  We have learned about our skeletal, muscular, and digestive systems and will dive into our circulatory and nervous systems this week.  
• In reading we are continuing to learn about long vowel spellings.  We have learned 'ee" spells  /e/ (sound) and a_e and i _e spell the /ae/ and /ie/ sounds.  In addition I am adding in some extra practice on the digraphs sh, ch, and th.  We worked a little bit on /sh/ last week and will add /ch/ this week.  We will especially contrast those two sounds. 
• In math we will continue to work on addition with sums up to 20.  We worked  a lot on counting on to add using "rocks and sticks" and just started adding doubles.  We will start having traditional timed math fact "tests" in class to help with the memorization of these facts.  This chapter shows students many different strategies to "add".  We mostly focus on the counting on strategy as our first graders do not seem to be developmentally ready for the other strategies especially since addition facts are not memorized yet.  We will touch on those strategies but not focus on them.  The other strategies are called "doubles plus and doubles minus one" and "Make a ten".  In doubles plus or double minus one students take a known doubles fact and then add one or subtract one.  Example: 5 + 6 = (5 +5 = 10 so 5 + 5 +1 = 10 as 6 is one more than 5).  You can see the value in the strategy but also how that could be difficult.  The make a ten strategy would be equations such as 9 + 4 = (students take 1 from 4 to make a 10 then solve 10 +3 = 13).  Again you can see this as a helpful strategy  and know that as adults we use this strategy mentally all of the time, but for first graders it will not be  an automatic thing yet.  That's why we introduce it but concentrate more on the counting on method. 
• Remember if you want to order Scholastic books for October the due date is TODAY!  I will extend that until tomorrow just in case you might have forgotten (like I did). 

Have a great Tuesday and Happy Reading,

Mrs. Armstrong

Newsletter October 12 - October 19

 Today was the first day of our second quarter of school.  If you want to see how your child is progressing on mastering first grade standards you are welcome to log onto Mastery Connect.  If you have any questions please contact me.

Here are this week's happenings:

• Today I sent home information about the PTA sponsored Virtual Fun Run.  If you just register your child at www.getmovoinfundhub.com they will receive a jump rope.  If our class meets our goal then we will receive a Silly String Party.  The fundraiser runs starting this Friday from October 19 - October 25.  
• Scholastic book orders were also sent home today.  The due date for that order is next Tuesday, October 20.  The best way to order is using the online code on the attached letter.  This is optional of course but this month if you place a $10 order you will receive a free book.  I noticed a great collection of fall books for $11 (that's just a little bit over $1.00 a book).  
• We are still waiting on bus approval but I am going to say that the Robinson Family Pumpkin Patch field trip is a go.  That field trip will be next Tuesday, October 20.  We will leave by bus at 12:30 and return by 2:00.  Each student will come home with a pumpkin that day.  The PTA has generously supported this field trip (that's why they have fundraisers as discussed previously:).  You signed permission for all field trips on your child's registration, but you can always opt out of any field trip.  This year I would imagine we will not attend or go on many field trips, but since this one is outside it was approved.  
• Today some students received the Red Eagle award for the PTA reading program (booksmarks).  I will send a picture through REMIND for you to see.  All awards this year will be virtual like that.  Including our first quarter awards and Lexia awards.  The school awards this year will be just "Catch the Vision" awarded to a boy and girl in our class (think all around awesome student) and a "Most Improved Award" We will not have attendance awards this year as we want to be conscientious and stay home when we are sick. Those awards should happen sometime this week after I receive them.  I will again send a picture home via REMIND. 
• In our learning we have now moved back again to addition concepts.  This time students will add within 20.  We will learn a couple of strategies to help with this.  The one we have learned today is called "Rock and sticks" (it's my name for a counting on strategy).  Here's an example: Let's say students have the problem 9 + 5 = they will first determine the greater number (9) and circle it (rock) and then will draw "sticks" from the rock to count on.  Students then say the number in the "rock" and count on using the sticks (say 9 then 10, 11, 12, 13, 14). The last number they say is the  sum.  We will also learn how to use a number line to do the same thing.  Basically counting on is using the greater addend and learning how to count on from that number.  We again reinforced the commutative property of addition today where the order of the addends does not change the sum.  
• In reading we are learning about long vowels.  We have learned how to spell the /e/ (sound) as 'ee' and the /ae/ (sound) as a_e.  We are are now expanding our knowledge of nouns by learning about proper nouns and are writing sentences using sentence starts (I can ....... or My skeleton......).  We are learning a lot out our bodies and today we learned about the muscular system.  We spent a few days on the skeletal system and even made some great skeletons to go along with our learning.  Maybe ask your child is they remember what the "biggest muscle in their body" is called.  

• Please remember to work on your child's sight word lists--I have a handful of kids that are really cruising through those lists.  That will help with their reading.  If you need another list please let me know and I can send home another one.  Continue reading the leveled take home books too!  A new set came home today.  Those will again be due this Thursday as well as library books.

Don't forget that we have a three-day weekend to look forward to--when we come back on Tuesday we will go to the pumpkin patch that afternoon.  I am so privileged to teach this great group of first graders!  Have a great Monday.

Happy Reading!

Mrs. Armstrong

Newsletter October 5 - October 9

 Welcome to October--this is the last week of our first quarter of school!  I am so glad we are still in school and have made it this far! It was nice to visit with you last week for SEP's.  Please don't hesitate to contact me anytime with questions or concerns.

Here are this week's happenings:

• Picture retakes (or taking for the first time) are this Friday, October 9.  If your child did not get their picture taken they will go, but I will not send students who already had their pictures taken unless you let me know.
• Take-home books were again sent home tonight.  I can't reiterate enough how much it helps to have books on your child's independent reading level to read at home.  Please take advantage of this.  September reading calendars are due this Wednesday for a certificate and treat (due October 1) but giving you a few days to get them in.  I told my students today about the last chance Wednesday deadline.
• If you haven't signed the computer use form on powerschool please do that by this Wednesday, October 7.  Believe me I wish I could do it for you, but I appreciate those that have signed it so your child can continue to use a computer at school. If not during computer time your child will be doing an alternate activity.
• We are trying for a field trip to the pumpkin patch on Tuesday,  October 20.  I will let you know more details about that if we get approval and transportation. 
• Remember that we have Monday, October 19 off for Harvest Holiday.
• In our learning we have just finished our first unit in reading.  This unit was mostly a review of kindergarten "stuff".  We reviewed all the letter sounds, and names along with the /sh/, /ch/, and /th/ sounds as well as double consonants (ff, ss etc.).  In unit 2 we will begin looking at and learning about long vowel sounds.  We will start with words with "vowel consonant e" (silent e, words like 'take' etc.).  
• We just finished learning about ancient Mesopotamia.  We learned about the importance of the rivers, religion in Mesopotamia, writing, and about the Hanging Gardens of Babylon.  Ask your child about the Hanging Gardens :). We are now moving to our unit our the Human body which we will continue in October since it fits in well with Halloween and skeletons.  We will then pick up with the Ancient world civilizations unit and study Ancient Egypt. 
• In math we are almost finished with our unit on subtraction within 10.  We have learned how to  'take-apart numbers' (9 - 0, 9 -1, 9 -2 etc.).  Students understand simple subtraction problems right now, but we need some more work on "parts of number" and how addition and subtraction relate.  That will come in subsequent chapters.  We will also work more on recognizing if a word problem requires an addition or subtraction equation to solve it. 
• We will NOT have library this week.  You are welcome to send back those library books anytime though and your child can keep them in their mailbox here at school until the following Thursday, or you can keep them home until our next library day which will be Thursday, Oct. 15.

Happy Reading (remember to read every night for 10 minutes--the take home books are the BEST!)

Mrs. Armstrong