January 26-30, 2015

Congratulations…

to Ender Dockrey!  He was a 1^st Grade winner in this past week’s Science Fair.  We are so proud of you Ender!

READING and WRITING
This week we will continue our unit on research.  So far we have learned how to ask questions about topics that we are interested in, and look in different places such as books, e-books, internet and etc to find the information.  As we continue doing more research and asking more questions, we will learn how to record our information. We will think about the main idea and the most important information and take notes in an organized form.  

MATH
We will continue our unit in geometry.  We will explore how two-dimensional figures can be decomposed into or constructed from other two-dimensional figures (for example two triangles can make a diamond or a rhombus). Two dimensional figures with or without curved sides can also be sorted into different groups based on their characteristics or attributes.

SOCIAL STUDIES
This week we will learn about families wants and basic needs, and how these needs are being met through jobs. We will learn about how technology has changed our lives comparing to the past.  People communicate differently, have different ways of entertainment and hold different jobs comparing to the past due to technology.

HABIT #7:  SHARPEN THE SAW:  I take care of myself.  I spend time with family and friends.  I find meaningful ways to help others. 

THANK YOU!

Thank you for remembering to send your children to school with warm clothes and coats.  Sometimes, even on cold days, we will still go outside and run around just for 10 minutes.  The kiddos do well with inside recess most of the time, but there are days that they need to get outside and run out some of that energy!

REMINDERS:
*Specials- A Group:  PE on Monday, Wednesday and Friday
                   B Group:  PE on Tuesday, Thursday and Friday
**Wear tennis shoes for sure on these days!!!!
*Library- Tuesday 11-11:30
*Send orange folders and homework bags back every day.
*Send a healthy snack with your child every day.  We will eat snack at 10:30

DATES to REMEMBER:

January 29:  International Festival

February 3:  1^st Grade PE Program

February 4:  Early Release @ 12:45

February 16:  President’s Day

February 27:  Jump Rope for Heart

March 7:  Family Dinner Night

March 11:  Early Release @ 12:45

March 16-20:  Spring Break

April 2:  Science Night

April 3:  No School

April 10:  Family Fun Night

January 19-23, 2015

We had another fantastic week in first grade.  Thank you for sending the signed report card envelopes back promptly! I have almost received all envelopes. Here is what we will be doing next week:

READING
This week we will learn how to do research to find about information that we are interested in.  Researches choose a topic they are interested in and they think about what specific information they want to know about their topic.  Researches look at different books to find information and they record important information in an organized way.

WRITING
In writing, we will continue writing expository texts. We will think about topics that we are expert at and write factual information about our topics.  Our main purpose is to teach others.  So we will make sure to include any details that we know about our topics.

MATH
This week we will start geometry.  We will identify two-dimensional shapes, including circles, triangles, rectangles, and squares as special rectangles, rhombuses, and hexagons, and describe their attributes/characteristics.  We will create two-dimensional shapes with different manipulatives and also compose shapes by joining two, three, or four, figures to produce a target shape in more than one way.

SCIENCES
In science we will continue to work on different seasons, different weather in each season including relative temperature, such as hot or cold, clear or cloudy, calm or windy, rainy or icy.  We will discuss types of weather information and ways  that scientists gather and record weather data.

HABIT #7:  SHARPEN THE SAW:  I take care of myself.  I spend time with family and friends.  I find meaningful ways to help others. 

THANK YOU!

Thank you for remembering to send your children to school with warm clothes and coats.  Sometimes, even on cold days, we will still go outside and run around just for 10 minutes.  The kiddos do well with inside recess most of the time, but there are days that they need to get outside and run out some of that energy!

REMINDERS:
*Specials- A Group:  PE on Monday, Wednesday and Friday
                   B Group:  PE on Tuesday, Thursday and Friday
**Wear tennis shoes for sure on these days!!!!
*Library- Tuesday 11-11:30
*Send orange folders and homework bags back every day.
*Send a healthy snack with your child every day.  We will eat snack at 10:30

DATES to REMEMBER:

January 21:  Science Fair

January 29:  International Festival

February 3:  1^st Grade PE Program

February 4:  Early Release @ 12:45

February 16:  President’s Day

February 27:  Jump Rope for Heart

March 7:  Family Dinner Night

March 11:  Early Release @ 12:45

March 16-20:  Spring Break

April 2:  Science Night

April 3:  No School

April 10:  Family Fun Night

January 12-16, 2015

We had a great week back to school! It was so nice to hear about all the fun things that you did over the winter break! 
Thank you to everyone who came and cheered for us for our Fairy Tale parade.  Didn't your children look adorable?! 

 READING
In Reading we will work on expository/non-fiction books.  We will review the features of expository such as headings and photographs with captions instead of illustrations (mostly) and think about the author's purpose in writing expository texts.  Authors of expository texts are experts in that area and they know so much about a topic that they can teach others about that topic.  Their main purpose is to inform and teach.  We will learn that as readers we always need to figure out the main idea in a non-fiction book.  The title and the bold headings along with reading the text and finding the important information that the author is trying to teach will all give us hints about the main idea. 

WRITING
In writing, we will start writing expository texts.  We will make a list of things that we are expert at and know a lot and choose from our list to write about a topic.  Our main purpose is to teach and inform others.  

MATH
In math, we will still be working on addition strategies including bridge to ten.  Our main goal is for students to get familiar to and practice all strategies and use as different tools in solving math problems.  While students will practice more addition facts, they will also get more fluent in problem solving. We will continue and review doubles, number line, using ten-frames, and bridge to ten.

SCIENCE
This week in science we will learn about seasons, day and night.  We will learn about the characteristics of each season and how the weather changes in each season.  We will discuss the relative temperature in each season and how the length of day and night is different in different seasons.

HABIT #7:  SHARPEN THE SAW:  I take care of myself.  I spend time with family and friends.  I find meaningful ways to help others. 

THANK YOU!

Thank you for remembering to send your children to school with warm clothes and coats.  Sometimes, even on cold days, we will still go outside and run around just for 10 minutes.  The kiddos do well with inside recess most of the time, but there are days that they need to get outside and run out some of that energy!

REMINDERS:
*Specials- A Group:  PE on Monday, Wednesday and Friday
                   B Group:  PE on Tuesday, Thursday and Friday
**Wear tennis shoes for sure on these days!!!!
*Library- Tuesday 11-11:30
*Send orange folders and homework bags back every day.
*Send a healthy snack with your child every day.  We will eat snack at 10:30

DATES to REMEMBER:

January 19:  No School

January 21:  Science Fair

January 29:  International Festival

February 3:  1^st Grade PE Program

February 4:  Early Release @ 12:45

February 16:  President’s Day

February 27:  Jump Rope for Heart

March 7:  Family Dinner Night

March 11:  Early Release @ 12:45

March 16-20:  Spring Break

April 2:  Science Night

April 3:  No School

April 10:  Family Fun Night

January 6-9, 2015

READING
This week in reading we will focus on Fairy Tales.  We will review the features of Fairy Tales and discuss the characters, the problem and the solution, the plot of the story, and the beginning, middle and end of the story.  We will also review how to retell (tell the events from the beginning to the end in our own words) and to summarize( tell the important events in one short paragraph). 

WRITING
This week, we will review procedures for writing workshop and review the writing process.  We will write small moments that happened during winter break and/or rely on our imaginations and write stories.

MATH.
This week in math we will review the addition strategies including doubles, double plus one, double plus two and introduce a new strategy called "bridge to ten".  9+5 is the same as 10+4 which is 14.  We will solve problems applying the addition strategies we have been learning. 

SCIENCES
We will learn about the objects in the sky such as the sun, the moon, the clouds and the stars.  We will also learn how the appearance of these objects change depending  on different kinds of weather/or different time of the day and month. For example the shape of the clouds are different in warm/calm and sunny weather vs. stormy weather and the shape of the moon is different in different days of a month.

HABIT #6:  SYNERGY:  I value other people’s strengths and learn from them.  I seek out other people’s ideas because I know that by learning with others we can create better solutions than anyone of us can alone.

THANK YOU!

Thank you so much to everyone for such a wonderful winter holiday party!  It was so fun and the kids had a blast!  A lot of time and effort was put into the planning of the party and I appreciate everyone who helped and/or showed up.  Thank you also for the kind gifts.  I love them…and some of them were very tasty!

REMINDERS:
*Specials- A Group:  PE on Monday, Wednesday and Friday
                   B Group:  PE on Tuesday, Thursday and Friday
**Wear tennis shoes for sure on these days!!!!
*Library- Tuesday 11-11:30
*Send orange folders back every day.
*Send a healthy snack with your child every day.  We will eat snack at 10:30

DATES to REMEMBER:

January 9:  Science Fair forms are due if your child is entering.

January 19:  No School

January 21:  Science Fair

January 29:  International Festival

February 3:  1^st Grade PE Program

February 4:  Early Release @ 12:45

February 16:  President’s Day

February 27:  Jump Rope for Heart

March 7:  Family Dinner Night

March 11:  Early Release @ 12:45

March 16-20:  Spring Break

April 2:  Science Night

April 3:  No School

April 10:  Family Fun Night