Newsletter December 1 - 5

Today we had the pleasure of listening to Jenny Oaks Baker and other musicians play a variety of Christmas tunes from around the world.  The weather couldn't have been nicer as we walked over to the Heritage Center.  Kelsie said, "This is my first concert!"

This week we will write letters to Santa that will be answered by wonderful elves from CHS.  Remember I said that first grade teachers have North Pole connections :) We will also start our unit on Gingerbread Man stories--we will read several stories and compare and contrast them.  This unit will culminate with my students writing an opinion piece about their favorite Gingerbread story.

Speaking of Gingerbread we will be constructing Gingerbread houses out of graham crackers on December 17, at 9:30 a.m.  I will compose a letter on Wednesday giving details about this activity and send it home on Thursday.  I will be asking for donations, of course if this is not a possibility don't worry about it.  If you would be willing to help with supplies--I very much appreciate it.  I failed to mention Kaden and Dante as they also helped with supplies for our "turkey cookie" activity before Thanksgiving and thanks to Dante's mom as she helped too that day.  Thanks also to Nash for bringing a package of pencil top erasers to share with our class. I could use parent volunteers for the Gingerbread house construction--if you could help that morning, please let me know via e-mail.

I sent home a December Scholastic book order today.  In order to get these books back for Christmas those orders will be due this Friday, December 5.  If you would like me to save any books as Christmas gifts, let me know and I would be happy to do that.  I attached a "Free book" coupon to each of the book orders.  The easiest way to order is to use the online code found on the note attached to the order, but you can also send your order with a check (written to Scholastic) or cash to school with your child.

I mentioned in my last newsletter that we will be making "secret gifts" for Christmas.  I talked to my kids about earning the money for these gifts.  If you could help them "earn" $1.00 to help with these gifts, or as Dane said, "I already have $1.00 in my piggy bank", I again would appreciate it.  Please send the $1.00 with your child by next Friday 12 if possible.  Thanks!

The November Reading Record is now due!  I sent home the December reading record home yesterday.  I know December is a crazy month, but please don't neglect the gift of reading with your child.

I will add some pictures of our Thanksgiving cookie making activity--scroll down and enjoy!

November 24 and 25

Remember that I will test on last week's spelling words tomorrow (the /or/ sounds).  There are also two sentences that will be counted towards the final score starting this week.

Tomorrow we will be having a little classroom party, where we will be making turkey cookies.  Thank you Dane, for provided Oreo cookies to help out.  If any of you would still like to help donate something by tomorrow send me a quick e-mail and I can assign you something.  We will be having the party around 2:30.  If any of you would like to come and help with the cookie assembly I would love to have you.

When we get back from our Thanksgiving holiday, it will be December--crazy!! We will write letters to Santa that week, and have some wonderful elves from CHS help answer those letters.  On December 2, we will be walking over to the Heritage Center for a violin concert by Jenny Oaks Baker.  If you signed that coral paper about field trips that is all you need to sign. If you would like your child to opt out of this field trip please let me know.

A couple of other things that we will be doing in December is our annual first grade Gingerbread house making extravaganza!  I will be sending home a note after Thanksgiving asking for donations for this activity.  We will do that on Wednesday, December 17 in the morning, if any of you want to mark that date on your calendar and come and volunteer that day also.  We will also be making a "secret" Christmas gift.  If you could send your child with $1.00 to help with these gifts that would be appreciated.  I encourage my students to do some kind of chore or service around the house to earn their "$1.00.

Your child will not have math homework this week.  Today Mrs. Williams is teaching a lesson on subtraction stories and then we will work on fact families before getting back into our Go Math Lessons.

I hope that you all have a fabulous Thanksgiving Break.  Travel safely--count your blessings--and enjoy time with family and friends! REMEMBER that the November Reading Record will be due after the holiday! Please turn this in to help our school reach 3,000,000 reading minutes, but more importantly read with your child for their benefit!

Happy Reading!

November 17 - 21

For this week's spelling test, I will have two dictation sentences included as part of the test.  Please help your child with these sentences--I can tell most of you are, as I have been pleased with the majority of our spelling test results.

Tonight I sent home the math Chapter 3 Test Review homework.  If possible could you please help your child with that tonight, as we will start testing Chapter 3 tomorrow.  For Chapter 4 (subtraction strategies), our student teacher Mrs. Williams will teach lesson 4.1 and then we will focus on the concept of "Fact Families" (4 + 5 = 9, 5 + 4 = 9, 9 - 5 = 4. and 9 - 4 = 5) before we move to lesson 4.2.  As that lesson deals with related facts, that my students do not have the necessary background knowledge for.

This week we will be doing a writing/art activity about Piligrims. We will write about about what Pilgrim can..., what Pilgrims are..., and what Pilgrims have... and make a boy or girl Pilgrim to display our writing. 

We have a new visual arts teacher here at East Elementary, Mr. McDonald.  He replaces, Mr. Seeley, our theater arts teacher who took another position at Fiddler's Elementary.  Mr. McDonald has an art degree from the University of Utah and will be a great asset to our school.  He will visit our classroom bi-monthly for 45 minutes and integrate the visual arts into our core curriculum.  His first visit will be this Thursday.  I am so excited about this as his expertise far outweighs mine in the area of art and art instruction :)

I can't believe I'm saying this (where is the time going), but we will have a little Thanksgiving party next Tuesday, November 25 before school dismisses for the holiday.  We will have it in the afternoon after our computer time at approximately 1:30.  We will be making "turkey cookies".  I need various items for these cookies.  Things like double-stuffed oreos, mini-chocolate chips, whoppers, icing among other things like that.  If you would be willing to donate something for this activity, could you please contact me (e-mail is the best and I can assign you something or give you an option).  Also, since I'm asking for donations we are about out of pencil top erasers.  The next time you go to Wal-mart and feel inclined could you please buy a package of pencil top erasers for our classroom use.  I would appreciate it!

Happy Reading! 

November 10 - 14

I hope that you all had a wonderful weekend. I just have a few items today.

In math, we are finishing our Unit #3 (Addition strategies) this week.  Thank you for helping your child with their homework.  Today the strategy is "Making a ten".  This is where students "make a ten" in order to add.  For example:  7 + 5 = 12.  Students would "take" three from 5 to "make a ten" and then add 10 + 2 = 12 so 7 + 5 = 12. 

The November Scholastic book order is due this Friday, November 14.  Remember that I can hide any books that you might like to order for Christmas.

I sent home a field trip permission form for all field trips.  It is on coral paper.  Please read the note and sign the permission slip about the district's policy for field trips. 

I am noticing a decline in the return of take-home books.  Please read every night with your child.  It's so important! 

Since this is "thankful month", I want you all to know how grateful I am for my beautiful class of first graders.  I love all of my students, and feel it a privilege to be their teacher.  They bring joy into my life and it's so exciting to watch their growth in learning.

Happy Reading!!

Newsletter November 3 - 7

Welcome to November and snow!  It's chilly outside and all students will go outside for break, unless snow or rain is falling from the sky or temperatures get way below freezing.  Please send your children with proper warm clothing (coats, hats, gloves, boot etc.).  This is especially important for lunch recess as it is longer break time.

We had a great Halloween.  The kids and I were so excited, but we remarkably were able to complete a spelling test, and some "Halloween math" that day.  I think the tradition of dressing up and having a costume parade will continue at East Elementary (at least I hope it will).

This week in math we are going to continue with Chapter 3.  This is a unit where there are many addition strategies that are taught.  Right now we are doing "double plus one".  That is where there is an addition problem where the numbers are right next to each other on the number line (7 + 8).  We are teaching the students to double the smaller number and then just add one (7 + 7 = 14 so one more than 14 is 15 or 7 + 7 +1).  My student teacher Andria Williams will start teaching math today and will continue until she is finished with her time with us.  She has been a great addition to our classroom!

We are going to start a Close reading unit on Spiders--I know I'm a bit behind (spiders would have fit better in October), but the students love this unit.  Close reading is a way where students actually get into a text many times to find out certain focus points (author's point of view, non-fiction text features as examples).  We will be reading from Gail Gibbons book Spiders for this unit. We will also be doing some list writing, and letter writing this month, and will specifically focus on what we are grateful for.

October home reading records are now due.  I sent home a new November reading record today.  That will be due the first day back in December.  Please read with your child every night.  Many of you are NOT regularly sending back your child's take home book.  Please take advantage of this program.  It will greatly benefit your child and your child's reading success.  Your child should be working on at least Sight Word List #3. I also sent home new spelling words and a new Scholastic book order.  That will be due November 14.  If you would like me to "hide" and save any of those books for Christmas let me know. 

I will post some recent pictures from Red Ribbon week and from Halloween.  Scroll down to see them and...
Happy Reading!

Thank you PTA for our t-shirts!

Nash and Zoie--dressed up as their heroes--their grandpa and grandma!

Enoch and Kylee--dressed up as heroes for Red Ribbon week.

Dane and Kaden's heroes are their dads!

Sweet Kaitlee dressed up as "me"!

Halloween fun!

October 27 - 31

Obviously we didn't have spelling words with the two short weeks we just had.  I sent home a new list of spelling words today.  For the last two spelling tests, the dictation sentence was counted at bonus points.  This week it will count as regular points (hopefully that makes sense).

I hope that you saw the note I sent home about Halloween costumes and the costume parade on Halloween afternoon.  I will not elaborate more here, but if you have questions please don't hesitate to contact me. We will finish our apple head witches for a little Halloween party.  We will do that Halloween morning. 

The PTA sent home an information sheet about their new reading program (3,000,000 minutes).  They sent home little papers for you to put your child's weekly reading minutes on.  Since most of the teachers if not all require reading minutes in their classrooms, we have decided to make it easier on parents and just use our classroom reading calendars and tally up the minutes that way.  You do not need to fill out the PTA reading minutes anymore.  Just continue to read with your child for 20 minutes each day and color in the icon (ghosts this month) and I will turn in the reading minutes for our class at the end of the month.

We just finished our Math Test #2 a couple of weeks ago.  I wanted to remind you that I have a high school helper who helps make corrections on those tests.  So if your child has missed some points, but you look over the test and see that everything is correct, then corrections have been made.  I do this so that my student's will understand why they missed the problem and have immediate feedback (well, as "immediate" as I can get it).

I can't stress the importance of sight word practice and having those be words that are automatically read.  If your child is not working on at least List #3, then they are behind with their sight words.  I will test all students on List #3 starting on November 3. 

Remember that picture retakes are tomorrow.  Only those that send their picture packets back or send money or have requested retakes will be sent down for pictures. 

I will have grades for the first quarter by the end of this week.  The October Scholastic book order that I sent home last week will be due this Friday, October 31 and the take-home librarian was absent today so your child will not have a take-home book today.

Congratulations to Dane and Brennan.  They were our classroom Catch the Vision winners for October.  They are both wonderful deserving students. 

Happy Reading!

Newsletter October 6 - 10

I am finally on track with my blog.  It was so nice to meet with most of you last week during our SEP conferences.   I hope you understood through those conferences how much I love YOUR child and that I have an open door for questions, comments or concerns.  Please feel free to contact me any time (e-mail is always the best option).

This week we will start our Take-home library program (book in a bag).  Please take advantage of this program.  Have your child read those books every night and return them regularly.  Rereading the same book is such a great way to increase reading fluency so please encourage your child to reread the same text so that their reading flows and they become more confidant.

On Wednesday, we will be going to the Bus garage for a field trip.  We will leave the school at 9:15 and return by 10:15.  I will not send home a field trip permission slip because you have all checked the registration form allowing your child to attend field trips.  As always though, if you would like your child not to participate in a certain field trip let me know and we can make other arrangements here at the school during the field trip time.

Thank you for sending apples with your child for our Halloween witch art project.  I was planning on doing that this Wednesday, but with the unexpected field trip I will do it on Thursday instead.  Please send an apple with your child by this Wednesday.  Speaking of Halloween, I hope all of you got Mr. Moyle's message about allowing Halloween costumes this year.  I am so excited about this, as I remember fondly Halloween costume parades as a child.  I hope that all goes well with it this year so that we can continue this tradition.  I will send home more information about it as I receive it.

I will send home an October Scholastic book order this week.  Those orders will be due on Wednesday, October 15 (the day before we leave for our big break).  The easiest way to order is to use our classroom online code.

Pictures retakes have been rescheduled for October 28.  If you want to have your child's picture retaken you just need to send back the picture packet (which we haven't received yet) and they can have their picture retaken that day.

The PTA is launching a new reading program here at East Elementary.  In the past we have participated in the AR (Accelerated Reader) program.  The cost has increased dramatically and we weighed the cost vs. the amount of students that actually participate in the program.  The PTA will be having a kick-off to explain our new reading incentive program on October 10.  They have asked that each  classroom have a "room helper" for this program.  They did not specify what that would include, but I do not believe it would be a big in class commitment if an in class commitment at all.  If that is something you might like to do for our class let me know and I can let the PTA know.

This week we are starting a computer reading program called Waterford.  We will participate in that program four times a week for thirty minutes each time.  In math, we will finish up our unit on subtraction and start Unit 3.  In science, we will start an integrated writing project about their favorite season.  We will write an opinion piece about favorite seasons.  We will learn about how to open an opinion piece, then give reasons to back up our opinion and then close it properly. Our reading groups are going well.  That's my favorite part of the day!! Remember that the September reading records are now due.  They are worth 100 points.  Please keep up with sight word practice.  Your child should at least have passed off Lists #1 and #2 by now.  I will test all students on List #2 this week (if they haven't already passed it off).

I hope that you are enjoying this beautiful fall weather.

Happy Reading!!