Welcome back after a glorious spring break. It always seems like such a long time apart until we get back together and then it seems like we never had a break. We have 32 more days of school--let's finish strong. Take home books came home today--please read those with your child Monday through Wednesday. I would love reading every night but take advantage of those leveled books for the remainder of the year.
Here are this week's happenings:
- This Friday at 2:00 we will be having our East Elementary's Birthday Bash and time capsule opening. Unfortunately this is not an event open to families and the public (except for invited guests and retired employees). We will be outside on the playground and will sing our school song, have a cupcake or cookie and listen to a few words. I also believe that the school board and district leaders have been invited as well as local media. We have a rich heritage here at East Elementary and will be celebrating 70 years!
- Spring pictures will be Monday, April 26. I sent home a note today with information about how to order pictures. This company is new, but I believe it will be same as in the past--pictures will only be taken for students who request it. The whole class will not get their pictures taken. Let me know if you want your child to get their picture taken by either sending in the form and fee or if you pay online let me know so I will for sure send your child down on that date.
- Our End of the Year (EOY) reading test has been scheduled for Thursday, May 6. First grade is such a time of growth--if you child has been in the "red" at risk area for most of the year and is again when the results come back at the end-of-the-year please let's talk so that I can give you some advice on how to work with your child over the summer.
- We just finished up our unit on Astronomy and will be writing an informative paragraph about outer space this week along with a little astronaut art to go along with it. We will start our unit on the History of the Earth next week. Think more geology type information with that unit (layers of the earth, types of rocks, fossils and dinosaurs etc.). We will also learn about life cycles through the month of May.
- In reading we are in the middle of our second to last unit and reader. We are learning about using pronouns in place of nouns and my students get that concept very easily. I think that is due to the fact that oral language precedes reading and they have learned to correctly substitute pronouns in speech before they need to replace a noun with a pronoun in writing. This unit is heavy with different ways to spell consonant sounds--we have recently learned about the 'kn' spelling for /n/ and have learned several ways to spell /s/ (c, ce, ss, se). We will conclude with learning the 'wh' spelling for /w/. The last unit will be back to vowel combinations such as 'oa' for example.
- Our sight word soldier program is still going strong. I have a couple of students whose necklaces are brimming with beads. That is exciting and honestly it shows in their reading. Sight word lists or fry phrases are tested everyday except Wednesday.
- We will have our unit 7 math test this Thursday. We have learned mostly about two digit numbers--tens and ones, comparing two digit numbers, and ten more and ten less than a number. We are going to practice ten more and ten less for a couple more days and then test on Thursday. The next unit will be adding and subtracting "tens" from a number (i.e. 35 + 30 or 85 - 50). Then we will move to two digit addition and subtraction without regrouping. Remember I said let's "finish strong"--this is what I meant--we have some big concepts still to learn this year!
- Just another plea for clorox or disinfectant wipes if you ever see any and could donate some to our classroom. We clean off our desks at least weekly with this wipes and at the end of the year will use some to throughly clean our desks and chairs before putting them out into the hall for the summer.
Happy Reading!
Mrs. Armstrong
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