Dear First Grade Families,

We are so excited to be able to go on a wonderful field trip to the Sleeping Bear Sand Dunes on Monday May 19, 2008.  This will be an entire day trip.  We will be leaving school at 8:05AM and arriving at the Visitors Center around 8:45 AM.  One class will watch a beautiful video about how the sand dunes were formed while the other class goes on a treasure hunt to find native animals and plants. Then the classes will switch activities.  After the Visitors Center, we will go with two park rangers to the Empire Bluffs for a nature hike and explore all the living organisms native to our area.  This is a wonderful culminating activity to our science unit on Organisms. 

After our hike, we will take the Pierce Stocking Scenic Drive stopping around noon at the North Bar Overlook to have lunch. After lunch, the children will climb the sand dunes from 1:00 PM to 2:00 PM.  We will arrive back at school at 2:30PM. 

Please remember to dress your child comfortably for the weather and physical activities.  We will still go if it rains, so a jacket or rain gear may be necessary.  Wear comfortable shoes (sneakers, hiking boots) since we will be doing some hiking.  Sunscreen and bug repellent might also be a consideration. The students will need a sack lunch and drink.  Two snacks would also be a good idea, a morning snack and a snack for when the students return to school.  The kids are always thirsty, hungry and tried after this field trip.

To provide this experience for our students, we must raise $165.00 for the cost of the transportation.  We have 59 students in both first grade classes, so the cost per child is approximately $3.00.  We would welcome any donations to help fund this trip.

Let’s hope for a beautiful day!

Sincerely,

Mrs. Cornwell

Mrs. Jackson

April 25, 2008

Dear First Grade Families,

We think that it is safe to say that spring has arrived!  Spring is a great time to look back and see how far your first grader has come.  What a magical age!  As we look forward to the end of the year, we still have some important work and fun to accomplish.

In science, we started our unit on organisms..  Children have a natural curiosity about both animals and plants.  In the next few weeks, your first graders will have the opportunity to explore the likenesses and differences of animals and plants and become more aware of the diversity of life.  In the first lesson, the students were introduced to plants.  We turned an area of our classroom into a green house.  Students planted seeds (kidney beans, pea, sunflower, and pumpkin) and are anxiously waiting for them to grow.  We have been busy plant sitters!  Students whose plants are sprouting have been fascinated as they see plants spring into life.  Moving from how a seed grows into a plant, to plants flourishing in their natural homes, student groups will be setting up woodland terrariums with moss and young conifer trees, and freshwater aquariums with elodea and cabomba.  They will be observing and recording their findings in their science journals.

Since Spring break, the students are learning about Families in Social Studies.  First, children learned that all families are special in different ways.  They created a book about their own family members, homes, and activities.  Next, the students learned what families need and want.  They create camping triaramas, (miniature three-dimensional scenes) which depict what families would need and want on a camping trip.  Now, the boys and girls are learning ways family members care for each other.  The students will be creating a “Proclamation Scroll” that lists ways they will help their families.  It would be helpful to have a discussion over the dinner table about ways your family works together and how family members help each other with chores and share what they know would.

In Shared Reading, the boys and girls are enjoying reading the big book, called How to Grow a Sunflower. This book details what you need and what you do to plant a sunflower seed.  We also discussed that sunflower’s have certain basic needs, such as water and sunlight for staying alive and healthy.

We will flip the book over and read How to Grow a Hyacinth.

The first graders are having so much fun with color, shapes and number patterns in Math.  In this unit, students are developing ideas about patterns, sequences, and functions, which helps lay the foundation for early algebra.  They have been working on constructing, describing and extending repeating patterns with unifix cubes.  They would build a repeating pattern and then they would need to describe the pattern; for example, red-blue-red-blue, clap-slap knees-clap-slap knees.  The boys and girls know that the part that repeats is called the “unit.”  This week, through counting and building, the students were able to extend their patterns to answer questions such as “If we keep adding two pennies to the jar each day, how many pennies will there be on Day 7?”  Next week, the students will create repeating patters with pattern blocks and find number sequences associated with a particular shape in the pattern.  Our next unit of study will be Twos, Fives, and Tens.  This number unit will help students solve problems and think about ways to organize objects so they are easier to count and combine, they begin to make sense of what it means to count by groups.

Our first graders have graduated to a new writing level.  Now they are teachers as well as writers; they are writing to teach others how to do something.  Their How-To-Books have gone home or will be going home as soon as some students finish them.  Each book has a title that says this will be a How-To-Book.  A list of things they’ll need: pictures that teach us what to do, numbers for each step and captions under their pictures.  This week we started our second part of this unit where your child is studying the informational (or “All-About, or teaching”) writing.  They have looked at a lot of different informational books and listed what they have in them: a big All-About title, a how-to page, chapters or sections, headings and a table of contents.  Students have selected their topics and have worked on what their chapters will be.  We are now working on writing texts that teach.  At the end of this unit, we are going to have a celebration where parents are invited in for a morning tea so the boys and girls can share with them what they have learned.  Invitations will be going home in May.  Please keep reviewing your child’s words of the week. We are seeing a lot of the words left in the student’s folders.  We are holding the students responsible for having the words spelled correctly in their writing.  We are also expecting that a capital starts their sentence and that they have a stop sign at the end, (period, or question mark).

We have some special dates coming up for the end of the year.  Please mark them on your calendar and make sure you check our web site for special notices about weather and cancellations.

• Thursday, May 8^th, Ice Cream Social and Book Fair (Your first grade teachers will be serving toppings starting at 6:00.) The Book Fair is in the library, if you buy a book, you get a second book (same value) FREE.

• Friday, May 16^th, Walk-A-Thon and Basket Raffle See attached letter in your child’s folder explaining the fundraiser and your child’s classroom theme.

• Monday, May 19^th, All day field trip to Sleeping Bear Dunes (We’ll be taking a bus.  A note explaining the trip will be going home next week.)

• Thursday, May 22^nd, Picnic Lunch in our garden area with the first grade students from Glenn Loomis.

·        Thursday, May 29^th, Fun and Funky Field Day with Central’s picnic lunch on the lawn and first grade activities in the afternoon.  Watch for details in the Central Grade School’s “The Old Town School News”.

A great big THANK YOU to all of the families who contributed to the Lori Hall Steele benefit. The kids made a cute card and Mrs. Cornwell took it to the benefit.  Everyone seemed to be having a great time.

Tomorrow, Saturday, April 16^th, at Horizon Book Store from 1 PM to 3 PM, they are having an Unforgettable Book Signing Event.  Author and financial literacy expert, Leslie Falconer, will be there to autograph her new book called The Great Mountain Hike about money, the world and making wise choices.  This book sounds like it would complement what we are studying in Social Studies.

Hope everyone has a great weekend and thank you for helping us instill good reading habits by reading with your child every day.

Sincerely,

Mrs. Cornwell

Mrs. Jackson

March 20, 2008

Dear First Grade Families,

Happy First Day of Spring!

We enjoyed meeting with all of you at conferences. Thank you for asking wonderful questions and for sharing your children with us. It is always nice to share with parents what the children have been working on in first grade. The children have worked very hard this last semester. As you noticed, they have sure come a long way, since fall.

It is hard to believe that we are in the home stretch for this school year. It seems like after Spring Break, the rest of the school year flies by. We are starting to catch glimpses of second graders in our classrooms. This is very exciting!

There have been wonderful things added to our First Grade Webpage. There are many fun and informative links for both students and parents. We hope that you have a chance to check them out. If you have any suggestions for things that you would like see added to our site, please let us know. We have added our newest parent math letter on the website. Just click on the link and it is there! We hope to post the rest of the parent letters here from now on. It sure cuts down on the amount of paper we use. We also added a suggested reading list for grades (K-5). These books could be read aloud to your child or read by your child.

Coming home today with your child, you will find a survey to complete about your child’s teacher. We are both being evaluated this year and we use the information from these surveys to help us improve as educators. Please read the survey over, answer the questions, include important comments, and return it to school in the provided envelope. You do not need to put your name(s) on the survey if you don’t want. We would appreciate you taking the time to do this.

Don’t forget that the Suntan’s Reading Club forms are due the Monday after we return from Spring Break! Happy Reading!

Thank you making sure your child does their 20 minutes of reading each night. We have enjoyed looking at the children’s reading logs each morning. We can tell that this practice at home is paying off.

Finally, you may notice some yellows coming home on your child’s behavior charts over the next few weeks. As second grade approaches fast, we are upping the expectation for students and their behavior. We are working to decrease the amount of interrupting, blurting, talking, not following directions, and other disruptions that interfere with classroom learning. We have had many discussions with the children about these new expectations and why we need to have them. As students become used to this, they may need to change their colors,  as they are learning the new boundaries and expectations. We see occasional “yellows” and learning opportunities. As we have said before, we expect that all children will need to change their colors at least once during this year. You should only become concerned if you notice that your child has frequent color changes. We hope these take home charts serve as a way of communicating about your child’s day here at school.

Here is what we have been very busy learning:

Language arts: During shared reading, students have been learning about how their brains store new knowledge (schema) and how they can change what they know as they learn new information. Students read non-fiction books related to our weather theme. Prior to reading these books, students identified what they thought they knew about the identified subject. After reading the books, student then looked at what they could add to their schema and what misconceptions they could clear up. It was very interesting to watch our first graders use higher level thinking as they examined their own learning.

Students have also been learning about non-fiction text and how to read non-fiction books. They identified the table of contents page, chapter headings, diagrams, captions, glossary, and the index page.

We are holding students more accountable during literacy centers by asking them “What did you do today to help your self become a stronger reader and writer?”  Students are enjoying guided reading and are proud of their accomplishments. We are using the skills learned in word study to help with decoding words along with using our reading strategies. Students continue to work on comprehension by retelling their guided reading books in their own words. Sometimes this is done orally and sometimes written. When groups work on a non-fiction book, they are asked to identify new or interesting facts from the book.

Math: Students are working in Unit 6, “Number Games and Crayon Puzzles.” This unit builds on skills learned in earlier units. Students focus on counting, composing and decomposing numbers, and adding and subtracting small amounts. The first graders took home  copies of some of the games that we are play here at school. Keep these games in a safe place and play them often. Some of the games students played in class are, Make 10, Counters in a Cup, How Many Am I Hiding?, and Tens Go Fish. All these games focus on having the students develop fluency with the 2-addend combinations of 10 (1+9=10, 2+8=10, 3+7=10, 4+6=10 etc). Students worked on finding relationships among different combinations of numbers up to 10. Finally, students worked on various crayon story problems where they were asked to find as many ways as they could think of to make a given number.  For example;

I have 12 crayons.

Some are red and some are blue.

How many of each could I have.

How many red? How many blue?

Find as many combinations as you can.

Science: First graders began their exploration of weather by listing what they thought they already knew and by asking questions about their weather “puzzles.”  We took their puzzles and answered them during this unit. We enjoyed becoming meteorologists in class as we studied weather the past three weeks. Students learned about snow, clouds, wind, rain, and the water cycle. The children enjoyed creating their own flags and using them to measure wind speed, looking at snowflakes through a magnifying glass, measuring snow depth, watching snow melt, recording the outside and inside temperature, learning about different types of thermometers, testing different fabrics that would work best on a rainy day, creating rain and singing about the water cycle. We also watched two wonderful movies about weather and wrote new facts that we have learned.

Social Studies: We are beginning the study of families. Students are learning how all families are special. They will read about family members, homes, and family activities, and create a book about their own family. The children will share how their own families are special.

Upcoming dates:

Thursday, March 20^th -Scavenger Hunt with Glenn Loomis 6:00-8:00pm

Friday, March 21^st- No School, Happy Easter!

Friday, March 28^th -½ day of school Spring Break Begins

Monday, April 7^th -School resumes

Monday, April 7^th- Beach Bum Reading Logs Due

Friday, May 16-Walk-a-thon (rain date of May 30^th), 4:00-8:00pm

Friday, February 22, 2008

Dear First Grade Parents,

We have had two exciting and fun weeks: our hundredth day of school was a week ago last Monday, our Valentine’s Day party last Thursday.  The boys and girls all loved telling about their collection of 100 items for lunch and eating it in the classroom.  Thank you parents for making our Valentine’s Day celebration so special.  The children enjoyed opening the Valentine cards from their special friends, then they enjoyed their delicious snack.  The bowling party was a great success!  Everyone had a wonderful time.  Thank you to all the parents who donated money and for helping chaperone the students. 

This afternoon we had a student recognition assembly for students who add humor to our classrooms.  We would like to congratulate our three first grade students who received certificates for their effort in making our classrooms a fun and happy place. They are: Henry Diede in Mrs. Cornwell’s class, and Philip Heinlen and Gabriel Heyd in Mrs. Jackson’s class.  Congratulations boys!

What We’ve Been Learning:

Our Writer’s Workshop is producing wonderful young authors.  We are learning qualities of good writing by writing an effective opening sentence and by having the students write by showing and not telling.  If the author writes, “The classroom was a mess,” that’s telling.  If the author writes, “Books, papers, and tools were strewn everywhere across the classroom, making the place look rather like a teenager’s bedroom,” that’s showing.  We are also working on writing a good ending by showing how they feel.  We can’t end a piece by saying, “And then I went home.”  We love to hear their stories and we hope that you enjoy them as much as we do.  Remember to work on those words of the week.  This helps in both their reading and writing.

In Math, the boys and girls have been measuring up a storm!  They are all ready to go fishing and they can measure the fish to know if it’s a ”keeper” or not.  The students understand what length is and how it can be measured.  We worked on accurate measurement techniques and all the students passed the assessment.  We will continue to work on describing measurements that are in between whole numbers of units (1/2).  Next week the students are going to be measuring with different units, using kid steps, baby steps, basketball steps and craft sticks. 

Inch by inch, foot by foot, we learn and grow together.

We are combining our new science unit on Weather with our Shared Reading.  We started out by asking the students “What do you think you know about weather?” and “What puzzles you about weather?”  We made a chart that we will refer back to about our questions.  As we read different literature dealing with clouds, rain, snow,and wind we will be activating, building and revising the students understanding. 

One of the most important things readers do when they read is to make connections from what they already know to information in the text.  We will be working on building the student’s understanding, by having fun reading and exploring weather.

Our word study is really progressing.  The students are remembering their long vowel sounds.  We have been working on when two vowels are together, the first vowel does the talking and says it’s own name. (The long e sound spelled ee and ea; and the long a sound spelled ai and ay.)  Parents, when a new magazine comes home please review it with your child and play the games in the magazine.  It’s a great activity to do on snow days or after dinner. It helps build their reading fluency and confidence in knowing how to spell. 

IMPORTANT DATES TO REMIMBER:

March 5^th & March 7^th - Half days of school. K-3 parent-teacher conferences

We are looking forward to seeing you at parent-teacher conferences.  Report cards will be coming home on Monday, March 3^rd.  Thanks again so much for your support.  We are having a terrific year.  Your kids are great!

Sincerely,

Allyn Kay Cornwell

Stephanie Jackson

February 4, 2008

Dear First Grade Families,

          Last Friday, your child brought home their special classes (gym, music, art) report cards in their report card envelope. Please sign the outside of the envelope and return it to school. This is the envelope that we will be sending your child’s March report card home in. Thank you!

We welcome two new first graders. Cody DesRosier has joined Mrs. Cornwell’s class and Natalie Heymes has joined Mrs. Jackson’s class.

It is hard to believe that the 100^th day of school is quickly approaching in 5 days. We are scheduled to celebrate this day on Monday, February 11^th. Each morning we count on the 100’s chart by ones, fives, and tens in anticipation of this special landmark day. We will be doing some special activities on this day. One of the activities is having all the children eat lunch in the classroom. I would like each student to bring in a cold lunch that contains 100 pieces of food. They can bring in bags of raisins, Teddy Grams, fish crackers, a sandwich cut in parts, or what ever. Be creative! Before the students can “dig in” they have to tell each other what they brought and prove that the total is 100. Grouping foods by 5, 10, 25 is helpful.

Our Valentine’s Day party is scheduled. We are going bowling on the morning of February 14^th. We are still in need of a few drivers. The information about this came home last week. If you are interested and need another driver form, please let us know and we can get one to you. Permission slips will also be coming home next week. We need a slip signed and on file for each student in order for them to go. We are still collecting donations for this trip. If you would like to donate, please send your money in your child’s blue folder. We need to collect enough money in order to go bowling. Due to a shortage of lanes, only the kids will be bowling on this day. Adults will be helping to supervise lanes and scoring. We will be exchanging our Valentines in the afternoon after lunch. Class lists will come home this week for your child to begin addressing their cards. There are now 29 in each class. This might help you when you are shopping for your Valentine’ cards!

Thank you for getting your children to school on time in the morning. We begin instruction immediately at 8:00. It is difficult to begin when students are coming in late. It is disruptive to the class to stop teaching and learning when a student arrives late. Thanks for understanding this and working so hard at getting the children to school on time. We are letting the kids in at 7:50 to give them a few extra minutes to take care of their winter clothing.           We expect ALL first graders to be dropped off to the off outside in front of the school go to their class line and to enter the building without an adult helping them unpack. This is a first grade expectation. The children are all able to do this by themselves. It gives them a sense of accomplishment that they can take care of their personal needs without any help. If you bring your child late, please take them immediately to the office to get a tardy slip. Students should then go to their lockers by themselves to hang up their outside clothing and then come to the classroom alone. We are unable to answer parent questions or talk about parent concerns during classroom instruction time. We are always happy to schedule a time to meet with you before or after school.  The time we have with the students is precious and every minute counts! Thanks for understanding this policy.

          The students are excited about the new “Giraffe Award” that any K-2 classroom can win. Classrooms can win this award by keeping their locker area picked-up and organized.

Children who stay on “green” for a whole week can earn a special treat from their teacher. This might include a special award, lunch with the teacher, pencil, sticker etc. We were amazed to see the number of students who stayed on green for the whole week. WOW! We were amazed that over half of the students in each classroom did this. If your child was one of the students that were rewarded last week, give them a pat on the back. If your child missed out last week, encourage him/her to work towards this goal.

Thanks for initialing the take-home behavior charts each night. We hope this serves as a good line of communication about how your child is doing in class.

          We will be sending home parent-teacher conference request forms soon. Please note the day that would work best for you on the form and return it to school with your child. Please put your name and your child’s name on the form. We are unable to meet specific time requests due to many circumstances but are usually able to meet your date request. Conferences are set for Tuesday, March 4^th, in the evening and Thursday, March 6^th, and Friday, March 7^th,  in the afternoon. Be looking for more information to come.

Here is what we have been busy learning in our first grade rooms:

Language Arts: In shared reading, we have been continuing to work on reading comprehension. Students focused on making text-to-text connections. Text-to-text connections are connections that readers make to other things they have read, such as other books by the same author, or other related by genre or topic.  Example:  “This character has a similar problem to one that I read about in a story last month.” Students read the book Bigmama’s by Donald Crews. While reading this book they thought about about how this book reminded them of When the Relative’s Came by Cynthia Rylant. Students were able to find several parts in each story that were similar.. We are impressed at how the students are thinking more deeply about the meaning of these stories and how they are important to them. During word study, students continue to review the “h” brothers, initial consonants blends with r and short a and long a words with silent e, and final consonant blends nk, sk, and st.  Students continue to practice the rhyme families and the words of the week in class. Thank you for practicing the words of the week at home. Having your child practice reading and writing these words is sure paying off. They are able to write these words and read them in the books we are working on. We continue to work in guided reading on reading strategies. We look forward at March conferences sharing what your child has been doing in reading groups.

How do I find a good book that good for my child at the bookstore or at the library? Many parents have asked us what kinds of books they should be buying for their children at the bookstore or checking out at the library. We suggest that when you are picking out books for your child, that you think about the book and it’s difficulty. Children should only try to read books independently that are easy or just right for them. Remember the “five-finger” rule; have your child try to read the first two pages. Put a finger up every time they don’t know a word. If they miss 5 or more words on the first page, then the book is too hard. This would be a book that you could read TO your child. It would not be one that you would want your child to try to read.

Here are some ways to determine the level of difficulty of a book for your child:

Easy Book (These are books that children can read by themselves)

·        The child can read the words fluently (smooth and with an interesting voice)

·        There often are not a lot of words on a page

·        The child knows how to say all the words

·        There are not a lot of pages in the book

·        The child has a lot of schema (background knowledge) for the subject

·        Sometimes the book has larger font

·        The child totally understands the story

·       The child’s reading rate is quicker

• The child’s thinking comes easy as he/she reads the words

Challenging Books (These are ones that parents can read to their children)

·       Many of the words are too hard for the child to decode (failed the five finger rule)

·       The child doesn’t know what the tricky words MEAN

·       The child’s reading becomes choppy more than fluent

·       The child doesn’t have any schema (background knowledge) on the subject

·       There are often a lot of words on the page and the font is small

·       The child looses focus as he/she is reading

·       The child is not enjoying the book because he/she is doing too much work

·       The child’s thinking is confused

·       The child’s reading read rate slows way down

Just Right Books!!! (These are books that children can read by themselves)

·       The child can read most of the words

·       The child can understand what he/she is reading

·       The child enjoys the book

·       The child has some schema for the subject

·       The child can read the book with smooth fluency but there are some choppy places

·       The child’s reading rate is just right=not too slow and not too fast

·       The child can figure out the tricky words and still get the meaning of the story

Math:

Students enjoyed working with a partner to create a survey question to ask the entire class. We had some wonderful questions. Here are some examples:

·       Would you rather eat a hamburger or fish?

·       Would you rather be a teacher or an astronaut?

·       Would you rather ride a shark or a whale?

The children needed to come up with a way to record their data so they could keep track of who they asked and what answers that were given. This was tricky, but our wonderful first graders were able to do it! First students collected the data for their question by asking everyone in their class. Then they were asked to make a representation of their data. Students had to show what their question was and how many children chose each possible answer. We also expected students to organize their representation so that others who are not in the class could understand their information.

Finally students presented their representations to the class. It was so interesting to see the many different ways that the children came up with to show the results of their survey question. Our next focus will be on comparing age data!

Social Studies: We will be returning to Social Studies and begin studying families soon!

Science: We will begin the study of Weather next!

Thanks for your continued support and dedication to your children. We appreciate all that you do!

Mrs. Jackson

Mrs. Cornwell

Upcoming dates:

·       February 11^th 100’s Day Celebration

·       February 14^th Valentine’s Day/Bowling Field Trip

·       February 18^th No School

·       March 4^th Parent-Teacher Conferences night

·       March 6^th 1/2 day of school Parent-Teacher Conferences afternoons

·       March 7^th 1/2 day of school Parent-Teacher Conferences afternoons

·       March 21^st NO School Easter Weekend

·       March 28^th ½ day of school Spring Break Begins

January 28, 2007

Dear First Grade Parents,

Welcome back and Happy New Year!  We hope everyone enjoyed the holiday break.  It felt good getting back on schedule.  The stretch between now and spring break is long, cold and dark…but a wonderful teaching time.  We have several months in which to buckle down and concentrate on learning without the distractions of major holidays.  This is a great time to snuggle with your child and read a good book.

We are planning our Valentine’s Day celebration on Thursday, February 14, 2008 from 9:00AM to 10:30AM at Timberlanes Bowling Alley.  There is a letter going home today in your child’s folder explaining the field trip.  We will be doing our Valentine’s card exchange in our classrooms in the afternoon.

WHAT WE’VE BEEN LEARNING:

In Shared Reading, the boys and girls are working on making meaningful connections to improve their reading comprehension.  We started with a read-aloud of The Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats, then we read-aloud The Relatives Came by Cynthia Rylant.  We followed the readings by activities that helped the students learn to identify text-to-self, text-to-text, and text-to-world connections and applying them when responding to texts. 

·        Text-to-self connections are connections that readers make between the text and their own life experiences.  Example:  “this story reminds me of a visit to my grandmother’s house.”

·        Text-to-text connections are connections that readers make to other things they have read, such as other books by the same author, or other related by genre ot topic.  Example:  “This character has a similar problem to one that I read about in a story last month.”

·        Text-to-world connections are broader connections that readers make while reading.  A text might remind students of something they learned through movies, television, newspapers, or magazines.  Example: “I saw a movie that showed some of the ideas in this story.”  

We will continue to review the purpose of making connections and how this process helps readers gain a better understanding of a text throughout the year.

During Word Study, the children have been working on the “magic e”.  This is when a one-syllable word ends in e, the child must change their response (from the short vowel sound) to the long sound of the vowel, we call it the name of the vowel. The children have also been working on learning the “H brothers” sounds.  We taught them a little story to help them remember their sounds.

          CH brother-thinks he is a train, says /ch/.

          WH brother-tries to learn to whistle but only blows out air, saying /wh/.

          TH brother-the naughty brother who sticks out his tongue as he says /th/.

          SH brother-the brother who tries to quiet the others by saying /sh/.

Please remember to review your child’s phonics magazine with them and have them share what they have learned.

In Writers Workshop, the young writers will be finishing their third unit of

study called Teaching Skills and Strategies soon.  This week we worked on asking each child to start and finish a new story each day.  We discussed with the children that to get better as writers they need to write a lot each day, and they need to write more clearly.  Next week we will be focusing on adding more sounds, spelling, and punctuation, as we get ready for our author’s celebration. 

In Science, the students are having fun observing, investigating, predicting, and recording their exploration of solids, liquids, and gases.  On Thursday, the students had a special guest come to their classroom.  Professor Nelson (Jean Nelson, a retired science teacher) gave the students a wonderful lesson on carbon dioxide.  She told the story about how we breath in oxygen and breath out carbon dioxide and that plants take in the carbon dioxide and give off new oxygen for us to breath.  She did some experiments with dry ice and the students were fascinated!  Their science journals are coming home today.  Have your child share what they have learned.

In Math, the boys and girls have been busy describing attributes of buttons, shells and shapes.  Then they are looking carefully at a group of objects to determine how they have been sorted. Next week they will be planning, gathering and recording data.  Then they will make a representation of their data and then explain the result of their survey to the class. It will be a fun learning activity. 

We have started assessing the students on their reading development and we are pleased with the student’s progress.  It is very important that your child reads for 20 minutes each day.  Thank you for helping your child practice at home.  Here are some good comprehension questions to ask your child so they know that they understand what they are reading.  Ask them some of these questions:

·        Can you retell the story?

·        Who are the main characters in the story?

·        Where does it take place?

·        When did this part of the story take place?

·        Is there a problem in the story?

·        What were the actions taking place?

·        How do you think the problem will be solved?

·        Read ahead.  Were you right in your prediction?

·        What was the solution to the problem?

·        How did the story end?

·        What feelings did the characters have in the beginning, middle and the end of the story?

Thank you parents for helping your children with their reading homework.  Homework is an important part of your child’s education.  It helps reinforce what is being taught in school, and helps your child get into a positive study habit. 

IMPORTANT DATES TO REMIMBER:

• Half day of school Thursday, Jan. 24, and Friday, Jan. 25 – End of first semester
• Thursday, February 7 – 100^th day of school
• Thursday February 14 – First Grade Bowling Party at Timberlanes
• No School February 18 – Professional Development day for teachers

Thanks again for all your support.  We are having a terrific year. 

Have a great weekend.

Sincerely,

Allyn Kay Cornwell

Stephanie Jackson

P.S.  We sent out a check to Heifer International for $150.00.  Thank you so much for the wonderful donations.

December 21, 2007

It is hard to believe that the New Year is just around the corner and that we have completed our 74^th day of first grade! It seems like yesterday the children entered our classrooms for the very first time, looking like kindergarteners, and today they look like real first graders. We are amazed at how hard they work each day and the progress that they are making. Thank you for working with your children at home on sight words and spending 20 minutes a night on reading. This reinforcement at home is really paying off at school. We have many children meeting the current benchmark for this time of the year in reading, by reading instructionally between levels 8-15. Wow!!! Please make sure your child reads their 20 minutes a day over Christmas break. We have seen in the past when children do not read over break, their reading level has dropped.