This will be my second to last newsletter post--I have truly enjoyed teaching YOUR child this year and as I've said before I will always appreciate in-person instruction after a pandemic year. Honestly, thank you parents for continuing to have your child wear a mask for the remainder of the year! Masks are not fun, I get it, but I appreciate your support on this matter it has made it much easier for me--especially related to classroom management and consistency.
Here are this week's happenings:
- ALL library books--both take home and regular library are DUE NOW--most of you returned take-home books last week, if you have yet to return those please do ASAP. Regular library books are due this THURSDAY! Right now in our school we have over 150 overdue books if you calculate the loss of those books at approximately $15 each book, since most in the library are hardbound books, that is a loss of over $2250. Plus those books cannot be replaced unless the overdue fine is paid. Go for a book hunt if you haven't been able to find a missing book--I will give you a notice and remind you if your child still needs to return a book after Thursday.
- DIBELS scores will be sent to your home address as it is a requirement that they are either given to you by hand (during SEP conferences) or sent via mail. Since we do not have another SEP conference week at the end of the year those scores will be sent to you. In fact, they may have already been sent. If you have questions about those scores once received please do not hesitate to reach out. I was pleased with many of our soaring reading scores. Please read over the summer with your child--go to the library and let them choose books they would be interested in and read them. Join the summer reading program at the library--take a book to the park--read bedtime stories nightly.
- In math we are finishing up our last unit on two-digit addition and subtraction. We will test at the end of this week and then for the remainder of the days practice, practice, practice our addition and subtraction facts for automaticity and then revisit our representing data unit that we whizzed through before Christmas (graphing unit).
- In reading we are reading from Kay and Martez and will be learning our last vowel pattern 'oa'. For grammar portion, we are learning how to use commas in a series of words (i.e. I like to draw pictures with pencils, crayons, and paint.) We will end with instructional writing (think "How to" writing). We are reading Fairy Tales to end out the year. We have read Sleeping Beauty, Rumpelstiltskin, and today Rapunzel. We will also read The Frog Prince, Hansel and Gretel, and Jack and the Beanstalk before the unit is through. We have learned about and discuss the parts of a fairy tale after each reading (Once upon a time.... happily ever after, magical elements, royal family, problem and solution).
- Remember for our COVID style field day we will be going to the Canyon Park (all first grade, but split in half). We will go after our BBQ lunch on Friday, May 22. We will walk on the trail for a bit and then play on the playground and have a popsicle afterwards. Hopefully the weather will cooperate--I can't tell you how often it's cooled down and even rained or snowed a little bit on Field Day.
- One last sensitive thing that I have noticed more recently is tablet use seems to be on the rise in first grade--especially students watching YouTube or TikTok (where I know there are appropriate things to watch). If I could caution you to put some parental controls on your devices or be present when you child is swiping the screen especially with YouTube and TikTok--I think our little ones eyes can be opened to things that they are not ready for even unintentionally when these things are unsupervised. 😊
- A couple of additions--the 4-H program is delivering an incubator and unhatched eggs to my classroom on Friday--We will/are learning about life cycles and this is a great way to "see" a life cycle in action. These chicks are for sale for $2 a piece but need to be bought in groups. If you are interested in purchasing the chicks when they hatch please let me know ASAP otherwise I will have the 4-H representative pick them up at the end of next week. If you want them I have to have verification from you and an adult will need to pick them up.
- We have a few summer birthdays and I want to celebrate those birthdays in class next week. These are the summer birthdays that we will have "pretend" birthdays for: Koki on Tuesday, May 18, Mason on Thursday, May 20 and Liam on Friday, May 20. If you would like to sent a birthday treat with your child on their given day you are welcome to but it's of course optional to do that. We have 18 students in our class and they need to be store bought.
Happy Monday!
Mrs. Armstrong
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