WINTER BREAK BEGINS AFTER THIS WEEK AND SCHOOL RESUMES ON MONDAY, JANUARY 4TH, 2010! I wish all of you a restful and happy holiday with your children and a great start to the new year. It's hard to believe that we have completed our first trimester already. Please remember to return your child's report card envelope with your signature. This is my proof that you received the report.
This Friday morning, December 18th, the entire school will be participating in the BEYE SCHOOL HEALTH FAIR EXPO. We will travel with our reading buddies to 10 events that explore fitness and health. The students will be using all of their senses to learn how to take care of themselves while participating in workshops about dance, nutritional tastings, physical therapy, art, bones and body parts, stress, the heart, the flu, ear and throat health and personal training. This health expo is planned and coordinated by Mr. Tom Rocco, our physical education teacher.
2 ITEMS TO MARK ON YOUR CALENDARS NOW! The First Grade "Family New Year's Breakfast" will be held on Thursday, January 14th at 8:15. This POT LUCK event will take the place of classroom holiday parties. The first grade teachers are looking forward to this mid-year gathering with families and students. Stop by for a few minutes before work to enjoy breakfast with your first grader and other families. Room parent coordinators will be organizing this event. Watch for information from them right after the new year.
STUDENT-PARENT-TEACHER PORTFOLIO CONFERENCES WILL BE HELD THE FIRST WEEK OF FEBRUARY. Watch for sign-up information after break.
Wednesday, December 16th is our 3rd ZERO WASTE LUNCH DAY. For those who pack a lunch, please try to bring only containers that can be reused. We are trying to improve upon our ZWL percentage of 43% from last month.
Friday, December 18th is the student council sponsored "Wacky Day". Students are encouraged to wear mismatched outfits (wearing a shirt backwards, two different kinds of shoes, mismatched socks) as a fun way to show school spirit.
NEEDED: PAPER TOWEL TUBES for a math activity. Please send to school empty tubes as you finish a roll. We can't use other sizes. I will need one per student as soon as possible. Thank you!
LANGUAGE ARTS
We have started our 4th Open Court Reading unit, entitled Our Neighborhood at Work. In this unit, students will be exposed to a variety of occupations through photographic essay, informational text, and a poem. This unit will allow the students to learn more about nonfiction and poetry. They will learn to recognize the literary features of rhyming and predictable sentence patterning. We will work on classifying and categorizing, main idea and details, and drawing conclusions.
Our phonics lessons will include /ng/, /kw/, long vowel sounds and /s/ spelled ce, and ci__. We continue to work on handwriting and the use of capital letters and sentence end marks.
On January 4th, you will receive information about The Great Snowball Book Blitz, a reading incentive program that all three first grade classes will be participating in.
SOCIAL STUDIES
Our third unit covers the World of Work, which is a nice connection to our Open Court unit. The main focus of this unit is thinking about the choices people make to get the things they want. We will be talking about needs vs. wants and scarcity, as well as goods and services. Our first lesson identifies the needs and wants of most families and how families in this country and around the world meet those needs and wants.
SCIENCE
This week we finish up our weather unit with more work with thermometers and clouds. We collected data throughout November and most of December on weather conditions, sky conditions, precipitation and wind. In January we will begin our Physical Science study of Solids and Liquids.
MATH
Measurement and Basic Facts is the focus of Unit 4. The students are working with linear measurement. We began the unit using non-standard units, such as digits and hand spans as well as the United States customary units of inches and feet. We are using the tools of rulers, footprints, and tape measures.
During this unit the students begin the VERY IMPORTANT work of achieving automatic recall of basic addition facts. This will be a skill that you can help with at home.
We are also working on telling time to the quarter hour as well as reviewing telling time on the hour and half hour.
This week we worked on an important math problem solving strategy--Making an Organized List. We finished a workshop project that had the students trying to find all the combinations for wrapping a gift, using three different kinds of paper, three colors of bows, and 3 different tags. We discovered that there are 27 possibilities! Using real-life activities like this help students identify patterns, understand mathematical relationships, and make the jump to abstract representations.
CELEBRATIONS
HAPPY BIRTHDAY!
Jalen Bates
Jalen Bates
December 16th
