Congratulations to the first graders! Thank you for a wonderful year!

Thank you so much for a wonderful year. This video is part of my gift to you and the children. I hope you enjoy it! Please feel free to share this link with family and friends. Have a wonderful summer! - Kristin

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=luk8M_UYaic&feature=youtu.be

June updates

We are very busy these last few weeks of school and having a lot of fun wrapping up the year.  I did not send a note about this, but I didn't send home a fact practice sheet this week for homework.  Their math worksheets and reading log are due this Friday. We will be having our last spelling test this Friday as well.  As a reminder, our first grade class picnic is on MONDAY JUNE 16TH FROM 11 - 12 PM.  We really hope that you will be able to join us.  Please plan on bringing a picnic lunch for you and your child and a blanket or towel to sit on.  We will start in the classroom with a end of year celebration and then move to the garden in back of the school, where we will all have a picnic lunch together, followed by a BIG sheet cake for dessert.  Please let me know if you wont be able to attend so we can make plans to have your child buddy up with a friend! Thanks so much.  

May 18, 2014

We have been getting ready for our upcoming performance of “The Weather Show”.  The children are doing a fantastic job learning all of the songs and working on their lines.  We were able to practice on the stage for the first time on Friday and it went very well.  We will not be sending home the songs or scripts so we don’t spoil the surprise of the show! If your child is worried about learning their lines, please send me an e-mail and we will find a way to fit in extra practice time. Everyone is part of the performance and has a song on stage or lines to read.  We will be keeping costumes and props very simple as we have 75 students in this performance.  We will let you know what the kids should plan on wearing by the end of this week. 

In math, we have completed our units on Time and Measurement over the past few weeks and are currently working on data and graphing. We are reading short chapter books and working on reading for meaning.  We are writing reviews and have been working on catchy introductions and conclusions.  We will be starting our butterfly unit this week!  This is a very busy and exciting time of year for all of us. Thank you for helping your child come to school each day prepared and ready to learn.  I appreciate all that you do to encourage and support them. They are a great group of kids!

April 27, 2014

  Thank you for joining us for our celebration today. We had a great time playing math games with you and showing off our math skills. We have been working hard on adding and subtracting tens and we hope you could see how well we are doing with this!  I am really proud of the children and the progress they have made in math.  Thank you to the parents that supplied our refreshments and our room parents for coordinating this as well.

We have started to prepare for our first grade play “The Weather Show”. You are invited to join us on Thursday May 29^th at 2:15 for this performance.  The kids brought home a note in their folders about this on Friday. We will also be having our first grade picnic on Monday June 16^th from 11 – 12pm. We hope you will be able to join us for these events.  

I also wanted to let you know that Mrs. Delaney, our classroom aide, will be moving to a new classroom at Eagle this week and Mrs. Dorsey will be joining us.  We will miss having Mrs. Delaney with us each day but she promises to stop by and say hello when she can! We would like to welcome Mrs. Dorsey to our classroom. Many of the children remember her from Kindergarten.  We are happy that she will be with us! 

Welcome back!

Welcome back from Spring Break! I hope you and your families have had a great week. We have a lot to look forward to at school over the next few months. 

Our next class celebration will be THIS FRIDAY – April 25^th from 2:30 – 3:15. We invite you to come in and play math games with us! Please send me an e-mail letting me know if you will be able to attend. Thanks! 

Our May and June class celebration dates will be changing and I will let you know more about this VERY SOON. 

Please check out the Eagle home page for important information about this week in which we will be honoring Earth Day and Healthy Kids week.  There is a context for bringing in a “litter less lunch”. 

Jump Rope For Heart deadline is Monday April 28^th if your child is participating in this fundraiser.  More info about this is on the Eagle page as well.

Your child will be bringing home their spelling list, reading log and math homework tomorrow. No homework was sent home over vacation. Homework is due on Friday. 

We will be celebrating Earth Day this week in class so don’t be surprised if your child comes home and encourages you to do all you can to make the Earth happy!

Springtime update!

I hope you and your family are enjoying this spring weather!! The wind is cool but the sun feels so wonderful! I hope your child told you about our visit to the garden to look for signs of spring. Ask them about it! We are working on writing about our "collections" and learning to give our opinion and supporting reasons.  In math, we will be finishing our unit on 2 digit subtraction this week. I am so proud of the children for working so hard on this unit. It is challenging, but they are really catching on.  Knowing their facts makes a big difference.  I will be sending home information on Monday about their fact fluency progress. If your child is not practicing their facts PLEASE help them with this.  I don't want them to get discouraged with the math we are doing. They are wonderful mathematicians and have learned so much this year! My goal is for them to move on to second grade with confidence in their skills.  Also, for reading homework, your child should be doing the majority of reading (if not all) at this time of year.  Its great to read to them as well, but it would be best if that was in ADDITION to their reading to you for 20 minutes.  Let them show off all their great reading skills.  Please contact me if you need help finding books at their level.  Thank you for all that you do to help your children come to school ready and eager to learn.  They are such an amazing group of kids.  I look forward to seeing them each and every day! 

Update - March 30, 2014

Thank you for helping us celebrate our writing on March 21^st. We really enjoyed sharing our work with you. The children brought home their final chapter book for our non fiction unit .  This was our “published” piece of writing. You will notice that we did not correct all spelling and grammar but a lot of work was done in class with the help of a teacher.  Their red folder contains the writing they did as part of this unit. Some of these books were completed and others were not.  This is part of our writing process and not every piece of writing will be completed as we learn about different key elements of the writing genre. We are starting our next unit in writing workshop which is “Opinion Writing”. We will be writing “reviews” to learn about this type of writing.

In Math, we have been working on 2 digit addition and the children have been making great progress with this.  Our next unit is 2 digit subtraction. The children who have mastered their math facts are finding this work to be much easier than those who have not. Starting again this week, we will be taking fact quizzes 2 or 3 times a week and charting progress.  Fact fluency plays a critical role in your child’s success in math and their readiness for the work ahead.  They should be able to give the correct answer to the math fact within 3 seconds if they are fluent.  We need to learn our addition and subtraction facts up to a sum of 10 by the end of first grade.  Please continue working on fact fluency with your child as part of their homework at least 3 times each week.  I will be sending home information this week about your child’s progress with their math facts. 

Please continue sending in boots for recess during the spring until the playground dries out.  Thank you for helping keep our classroom clean.  Hats and mittens are also needed on windy days. 

I am so proud of our class for all the work they have been dong lately.  This time of year is when we are seeing an increase in independence and stamina and start to work more like second graders. It is terrific seeing them take on this challenge and being so proud of themselves when they are successful with something that’s hard to do.  As we say each day in class “Be Brave!” I hope you are enjoying your weekend.