Newsletter February 16 - February 19

 Welcome back after a nice three day weekend.  I hope you enjoyed your break.  I'm going to be brief but here are this week's happenings:

• Please put an extra mask in your child's backpack.  We have had several students lose their masks especially during lunch break.  I always remind them to have it when they come in but we've had several get lost.  That causes two issues-- one interrupted instruction time for the student to go back outside and try and find it or if not found they have to go to Eagle support and a parent is called to bring a new one.  I have gone through boxes of masks as well as the office.  An extra one would be very helpful.  
• Governor Cox is visiting ICSD next Monday, February 22 and specifically will be visiting East Elementary before lunch.  I think that is quite an honor to have a visit from the governor.  He will be observing a dual immersion classroom as well as our Eagle Support or Wellness Center. 
• Take home books were sent home today.  This week only two were sent home.  They will as usual be due back on Thursday (Friday at the latest) for new books next Monday.  Library will be this Thursday.  It's been a couple of weeks since we have had library.
• This week we will learn more about groundhogs so that we can begin the process of writing a descriptive paragraph about Groundhogs.  We have also started a new unit in reading and today learned about plural nouns and the rules for doubling consonants when adding endings to a root word (ex. stop, stopping or stopped vs. jump, jumping or jumped).  We are still learning about animal habitats and will finish that unit learning about the freshwater and ocean habitats.  
• In math we are wrapping up our unit on the relationship between addition and subtraction. The last couple of days we have learned about equal or not equal equations (4  + 3 = 9 - 2 or 5 + 5 = 4 + 4. The first being equal of course and the second not equal).  Today we worked on mixed addition and subtraction problems.  I had to remind my students many times to look at the sign before adding or subtracting.  That might be something you emphasize at home working with both addition and subtraction problems. 
• Last Wednesday we had our first WIN groups. We all (first grade teachers) were reminded at what a great thing grouping students with the parameters of WHAT I NEED.  We are excited to again have those groups tomorrow.  We will have those groups every Wednesday after lunch for the remainder of the year.  Those groups are fluid as we look at data and move students around based what they need for each standard.  

Have a nice Tuesday and Happy Reading,

Mrs. Armstrong