Ms. Smith's Fabulous Firsties: February 2016

Tuesday, February 16, 2016

February 16-19, 2016

Thank you all so much for coming to our Valentine's Party and thank you for organizing the event, sending the supplies, helping us to run the party and cleaning up the classroom after the party. You all are the best of the best families at Caraway and I am fortunate to have you on my side.

READING and WRITING
This week we will be using our research skills and learn about two important presidents, George Washington and Abraham Lincoln. We will ask open-ended questions and develop a plan for answering these questions. Our plan includes exploring a variety of sources such as books, digital books, Pebble Go, and Brain pop Jr, recording the information we gather, and organizing our ideas and information in our writings.

MATH

This week in math we will continue working on solving word problems with objects and pictorial models that involve joining, separating, and comparing sets within 20 and represent those problems with number sentences. Think addition” is a powerful way to think of subtraction facts. But we also want students to think of subtraction when they are to find a missing part or unknown addend. We will also review patterns and determine a number that is 10 more or 10 less than a number through 99.

SOCIAL STUDIES
This week in social studies we will learn about physical characteristics of places and different landforms such as plains, valleys, mountains and hills. We will also learn about different bodies of water and the characteristics of each such as river, lake and ocean.

THANK YOU!
Thank you to Mandy Hubbard for coming in to read with the kiddos!

Thank you for supporting your child's learning at home. Your child's success and education is a result of, us working together! So thank you for being a partner in your child's learning!

IMPORTANT REMINDERS:
*Tuesday folders come home. Please sign and return the folders the next day.

*Agendas: Please initial the behavior calendar and send it back every day.

*Snack: Please send a healthy snack with your child every day.

*PE: Group A will have PE on Monday, Wednesday, Friday.

Group B will have PE on Tuesday, Thursday, Friday.

*Please make sure your child wears Tennis shoes on those days*

*You can see what group your child is in on the right side of this blog*

*Next library day is Tuesday, January 26.

*Homework bags come back to school every day. Please leave the books and response notebook in the bag. We will use them during the day at school!

DATES TO REMEMBER:

Feb 25: Talent Show

Mar 2: Early Release @ 12:45, Skate Night @ Playland Skate Center

Mar 5: Family Dinner Night

Mar 11: Family Fun & Fitness Night

Mar 12: Field Trip to ZACH Theater

Mar 14-18: Spring Break!

Week of Mar 20-24: We are getting our eggs!

Mar 24: Individual & Class Pictures

Mar 29-30: STAAR Testing

Mar 31: Science Night

Apr 1: Family Fun Night

Apr 7: Science Night

Apr 8: ShamRock ‘n Roll

Week of Apr 11-15: Chicks will hatch!

Apr 23: Earth Day Clean Up

May 2-6: Teacher Appreciation Week

May 4: Early Release @ 12:45

May 6: Field Day

May 19: Spring Open House

May 27: Career Fair

May 30: No School- Memorial Day

June 2: End of the Year Party, Last day of School

Monday, February 1, 2016

February 1-5, 2016

FIRST GRADE P.E. PROGRAM

First Grade P.E. Program start time has been changed. Please join us Tuesday February 2^nd at 6:20 pm in the cafeteria. This is a chance for our first graders to shine and show some of the skills that they have been practicing this year. Please meet in the cafeteria.

VALENTINE’S PARTY
The Valentines party will be on Friday, February 12th (1:30-2:30). Please check your child's Tuesday Folder for a list of their classmates' names and have your child make a small valentine for each classmate. You may choose to buy these from stores or have your child make their own valentines. We have almost two weeks, so there should be plenty of time for the kiddos to write their classmates' names on their valentines. The kiddos can bring their Valentines to school on Thursday, Feb. 11 to begin passing them out.

READING and WRITING
We will continue our guided research unit. This week we will review the research process, pick a topic that we are interested in, think about what we want to know about our topics, look at different resources, and non-fiction texts to find new information, take notes in our own words, and then present our findings in an organized form so others can use our information and learn from our research too.

MATH
This week we will connect addition and subtraction by introducing the fact families, part-part- whole, and missing addend. The parts join together to make a whole (addition). If we know the whole and a part, we can find out the missing part using both addition and subtraction. We will use our knowledge of part-part-whole to solve a variety of math problems.

SCIENCE
We will continue learning about our natural resources such as water, rocks, soil, trees, sun, air and more. We will brainstorm and discuss why it is important to conserve these natural resources, keep them clean and to pollute them. We will start the week by exploring water, its properties, its movement, and uses. Why is it important to conserve fresh water? Why is it important not to pollute water? What are the different natural sources of water.