Week 7 - October 19, 2018

Fun Run

We had our Fun Run today!  The kids had a good time and enjoyed some cider and donuts afterwards!

Halloween

For Halloween in First Grade this year, we will have a celebration following the parade from 10:00-11:30.  

Your child will have the choice of two sessions during the celebration.  A sign-up genius e-mail will come home on Monday, October 22nd at 8:00am.  You will need to sign your child up for two  sessions.  

Please look over these session choices with your child this weekend.  Sessions are limited to 20 kids each.  

The session choices are:

• Ms. Schumaker's DIY No Carve Pumpkins. Come join us and get creative decorating and designing your own pumpkin using googly eyes, paint, sparkles, fabric and other neat materials! Please note that this session has a $2.00 Fee.  If your child signs up for this session, please send in $2.00 cash labeled with your child's name. 
• Ms. Sauchak's Spooky Dance Party! Come learn some spooky dance moves with Ms. Sauchak! We will spin like spiders, float like ghosts, shake like skeletons, fly like bats, walk like zombies and smile like jack-o-lanterns! Let's BOOgie! 
• Mrs. Lussier's Let's build! Come build towers with candy corn pumpkins and catapults for candy corn. Measure how tall your tower is and how far you can send the candy corn flying. Work with others to make the tallest tower you can or to send your candy flying!
• Ms. Walthall's Sensory Project! Are you ready to feel and discover gross and slimy things? Come challenge your senses with a mystery box and surprisingly slimy sensory project!
• Mrs. Pintar's "Spooky" Read Aloud!  Do you love listening to stories and creating projects?  Come enjoy a fun and relaxing Halloween read-aloud and craftivity!
• Game Time Fun!  Do you love to play games and have fun?  Come join first grade parents and play some exciting and spooky games!  

On Monday morning, watch for the e-mail with the sign up genius links.  Your child will need to choose two of the sessions.  We look forward to a fun and spooktacular Halloween day with your child!

FYI's

This week your child should have brought home an FYI sheet as well as a goal setting sheet.  The students filled out the FYI themselves first and then I marked them and added notes on the back to help you understand how your child is progressing with their Learning Skills so far.  These are the same strands from the report cards that students will be marked on.  I also sent home a goal setting sheet so that the students can make goals for themselves to improve these learning skills.  Please make sure these get signed and returned as soon as possible.  I would like to keep them in their leadership notebooks, so we can see how they grow in their learning skills throughout the year.

Curriculum

Reading:
This week, the students learned to use their "Eagle Eyes" to help them when they come to words they don't know in their reading.  Students learned to look at the pictures to see if there are clues to help them with difficult words.  In addition, the students were able to separate and blend words using their onset and rime.  Next week, we will continue working on decoding skills by thinking what would make sense when we come to unknown words.   

Book Baggies:
Many students forgot their book baggies today.  Please help them remember them next week Friday.  I would like them to have an opportunity to read different books.

Writing:
This week, we generated personal narrative story ideas.  The student can continue to add to their lists as new stories come up.  We also began planning one of the stories to write about it.  We are focused on planning a beginning, three middles and an ending.

Math:
In math this week, the students continued to build addition and subtraction fluency within 10.  We also discussed several strategies for solving math problems such as number lines, pictures, using fingers, etc.  Students are then encouraged to explain how they used that strategy to help them.  Next week, we will continue to build addition and subtraction fluency within 10 by solving missing addend problems and learning to write number sentences (equations) vertically.   

IXL Skills - Use these activities as you wish to help your child with the skills we will be working on throughout this first trimester.

Science/Social Studies:
This week, the students had an opportunity to make kites. They then explored with their kites to learn more about what air and wind can do. 

Purposeful Play
Please see the Purposeful Play tab on the blog to learn more about our weekly Play Time and donation items we could use for it!

Homework

• Read every night
• Work on a math skill (i.e. counting forwards and backwards within 120, adding and subtracting to 20 - play a board game for this, telling time, counting coins, measuring - length and volume -  have your child cook with you to practice this, talk about shapes - 2D and 3D - find items around your house, etc.) 

Specials Schedule

Monday: P.E. (Wear tennis shoes)
Tuesday: Art (Bring an Art shirt labeled with your child's name)
Wednesday: Music
Thursday: Media/Library
Friday: Rotates (See the back of your child's OWL folder (everyday folder) for a schedule.)

Important Dates

October 26: Trunk or Treat (5pm)

October 31: Halloween Parade (9:20 AM), Fall Celebration (after the parade around 10:00 AM-11:30 AM)
November 6: No School
November 14: Picture Retakes