“In Concert!” Grades 1 and 2
Wednesday, January 20th
The Art and Music classes of Ms. Sundquist and Mrs. Friesen present:
SING ME TO PEACE
The first grade concert is at 6:15. Students should arrive at 6:00 and go directly to our classroom. Students are encouraged to wear blue and/or white.
Many thanks to everyone who participated in our First Grade New Year's Family Breakfast. The food was great and the company was lovely. We enjoyed the opportunity to meet with families in an informal setting and to welcome in 2010 together! Extra thanks to room parent organizers!
This month's book order is now available online at www.scholastic.com/bookclubs. The user name is FenclFirstGrade and the password is Rm 103. You can order from January Seesaw, January Lucky and from Club Shop that carries over 600 additional items. Orders are due by January 22nd.
There is no school on Monday, January 18th in honor of Martin Luther King's birthday and there is also no school on Monday January 25th, due to Teacher Institute Day.
Conference appointments confirmations have now gone home. Please let me know if you did not get one. Remember these portfolio conferences in the first week of February include your first grader! I'm looking forward to meeting with all of you.
Supply update: At this time of year, many of our pencil supplies start dwindling. Please check in with your child to see if he/she has an ample supply of pencils and erasers.
Winter wear: As I am sure you know, many hats, mittens, and scarves are lost this time of year. If you put your child's name in/on these items and there is a greater chance that these items will find their way back to your family. Also, please remember that the playground gets very wet. Boots are a must and having an extra pair of socks in a backpack is very helpful.
THE GREAT SNOWBALL BOOK BLITZ IS UNDERWAY! Thank you for your support with this reading incentive. Please remember that this is a homework component for the next few weeks. Most children have been bringing snowballs in. If your child has not, please work towards that so we can all go on our ice skating trip. Our train has now reached the second wall and at this typing our class has a grand total of 183 books!
THANK YOU FOR ALL OF THE PAPER TOWEL TUBES! We now have enough and do not need any more sent in!
DOES YOUR CHILD NEED SOMETHING TO DO ON MONDAY? Students are invited to participate in the Martin Luther King Health Challenge which is being held at OPRF High School on Monday, January 18th from 9:00 AM - 2:00 PM. It is organized for Kindergarten through 8th grade and is for all children. There will be games, fun fitness activities, food and prizes. All participants will receive a Tshirt and lunch. There will also be drawings for prizes - including bikes. The event is free. For more information call the Multicultural Education Department or come and register at the High School on Monday between 9:00 and 9:45 AM.
LANGUAGE ARTS
This week Mrs. Sheth, our Language Arts Specialist, is assessing all the first graders for a mid-year check. Next week we will be finishing up and assessing Unit 4 in Open Court. Our assessments include compound words, vocabulary, grammar, listening for details, as well as sounds. Unit 5 revolves around the theme of Weather, which is a nice connection to our previous work in science. Stories in this theme cover the genres of Expository Text, Poetry, Realistic Fiction and Informational Writing. All the comprehension strategies are addressed with some skill work on main idea and details, comparing and contrasting, cause and effect, sequencing, and classifying and categorizing.
In writing, last week the students concentrated on learning how to write an invitation. This week they have been writing thank you notes. Within the next few weeks, they will be learning how to write instructions, labels, and how to summarize text.
SOCIAL STUDIES
The students are exploring the differences between goods and services and to identify examples of goods and services jobs in the community. We will be learning how people acquire goods--with money or through trade or barter--and why they save money.
MATH
The first graders have been working hard on their number scrolls. This activity will be ongoing for the rest of the school year and even into the summer! This is a great exercise for number writing practice and increasing knowledge of our base-10 place-value system.
Unit 5 is about extending understanding of addition and subtraction. We will be working with number stories increasing our knowledge of concrete/pictoral/verbal/and number-model representations. We are using base ten blocks often and will also be using more of the relation smbols of <, >, and =. Our explorations will cover area and weight.
CELEBRATIONS
HAPPY BIRTHDAY!
Benjamin Brandt
Benjamin Brandt
Katie D'Ambrogio
January 23rd
