May 1-5, 2017

We've made it to May! I'm so proud of these boys and girls! They have learned so much and grown a lot too!  This week we will begin our End of Year Assessments.  It will take us a couple of weeks to get through everything.  

Reminders: 

Monday (5/1): Homework bag will come home. 

Tuesday (5/2): Tuesday folder will come home. 

Wednesday (5/3): Library- no check out. ALL BOOKS are DUE! If your child owes money for a book it must be paid for by May 5th in order for them to attend the Book Fair.

Thursday (5/4):

Friday (5/5): 

STAAR Testing for 3rd, 4th and 5th grade will be May 8th, 9th and 10th.  Our campus will be closed to visitors those three days.

This week in Reading Workshop...

We will continue to review the strategies that Strong Readers use to help them understand what they read.  We use our "strategy tool kit" as a reminder of what we have learned this year.  At the end of First grade readers naturally use their comprehension strategies! It's fun when we can name what we do as readers.

This week in Writing Workshop...

We will be completing our end of the year Family Writing.  It's so exciting for the students to see how much they've grown when they compare their beginning of the year family writing to the end of the year.  These pieces will be displayed at KnOWLedge Night. 

This week in Math...

We will be moving on to a unit on Inequality and Comparison Subtraction.  Students will be thinking about the equal sign and what is on either side of it.  Comparison subtraction deals with quanties that are compared with each other.  An example would be, Mrs. Caballero baked 12 cupcakes.  Lyla baked 15.  How many more cupcakes did Lyla bake that Mrs. Caballero?

This week in Science...

We will begin our unit on Plants.  We will study seeds this week.  I would love for the students to bring a seed in by next Tuesday (May 2) to observe with our class.  This can be a seed from a fruit or veggie that you eat at home.  We will observe these and discuss the plants they will grow into.  

Have a great week!

DATES TO REMEMBER:

May 1-5:  Teacher Appreciation Week

May 8-10: STAAR Testing- No Visitors on Campus

May 15-19:  Book Fair

May 18:  KnOWLedge Night @ 5:30-7:00

May 19:   Field Day

May 26:  Career Fair

May 29:  Memorial Day- No School

May 31:  Class Awards Ceremony/End of the Year Party- 8:30-10:15

June 1:  Last Day of School

April 24-28, 2017

A note from Ms. Smith…

Gracie’s surgery went very well!  They were able to remove the dislodged cartilage, and ended up not having to repair the ligament.  Great news!  She is on the road to recovery already, and was even able to go to school today.  Thank you again for your patience with me being out so much the past few weeks!

We have made it to the last week of April! It's hard to believe we will be starting our last month of First grade. 

KnOWLedge Night is coming up soon.  On the evening of May 18th we will be hosting a Reading Restaurant. You and your child can come and participate any time from 5:30-7:00.  This will be a come and go as you please event.   We are excited to share our love or reading and our portfolios with our families!  Please keep in mind that this is not a time to conference with me about your child. 

Reminders:

Monday (4/24): Round Rock Express honors our Bluebonnet Team

                       Self-selected reading for 15 min.

Tuesday (4/25): Tuesday folders will come home

                        Homework bags come home                           

Wednesday (4/26): Library Lesson- no checkout

                             Skate Night

Thursday (4/27):

Friday (4/28): Homework bags due

This week in Reading Workshop...

We will present our Independent Research Projects during Reading Workshop on Monday and Tuesday.  Then we will move on to Perfecting our Craft as readers.  We will think about all of the things we've learned this year.  We will make a list of all of the things we do as good readers.  Then we will enjoy reading some fun fiction!

This week in Writing Workshop...

We will begin review the steps of the writing process.  We will plan a story by creating a beginning, middle and end picture plan or draft.  Then we will think about adding interesting characters, describing our setting and including a problem and solution.  We will do things that real authors do as we write this week.  We will also spend time thinking about how to revise and edit our work as writers. 

This week in Math...

We will continue learning about fractions. This time we will follow and area model (think pizza) and relate equal parts to that model. We will discuss halves and fourths as equal parts or a whole.

This week in Social Studies...

We are going to relate Folktales and Fairy Tales to our study of culture in our community. We will read some folktales from other countries and cultures and discuss what they mean.

We will celebrate and learn about Earth Day on Monday. We will think about things we can do at home, at school and in our community to help the Earth every day.

Have a great week!

DATES TO REMEMBER:

April 26:  Playland Skate Center @ 5:30 pm

May 1-5:  Teacher Appreciation Week

May 8-10: STAAR Testing- No Visitors on Campus

May 15-19:  Book Fair

May 18:  KnOWLedge Night @ 5:30-7:00

May 19:   Field Day

May 26:  Career Fair

May 29:  Memorial Day- No School

May 31:  Class Awards Ceremony/End of the Year Party- 8:30-10:15

June 1:  Last Day of School

April 17-21, 2017

A note from Ms. Smith…

Thank you so much to all of you for your concern about Gracie.  We had her follow up appointment this past Friday, and it ended up being a pre-op appointment.  The tumor in her right leg is benign (thank goodness), and is not compromising the strength or structure of her leg since it is mostly on the inside of her bone.  Therefore, at this time, we aren’t going to remove it.  Her left knee is what will be operated on.  There are small pieces of cartilage floating around, so they will remove them and possibly repair a torn ligament.  I will be taking the afternoon off on Thursday to tie up loose ends and run last minute errands, and then Gracie will go in the next morning for surgery at 6 am.

I will not be sending the homework bags home this week since I will not be here to collect them.  You may print off the homework menu and have your child complete the tasks on the back and/or on a separate sheet of paper.  Self-selected reading is expected for at least 15 minutes every night.

Thank you again for your continued support and concern!

Reminders: 

Tuesday (4/18):  Homework Menu emailed                         

Wednesday (4/19): Tuesday folders will come home (sorry)

                            Library Check out

                                Spirit Night at Newks

Thursday (4/20): Principal's Coffee

                         Guidance Lesson with Mrs. Amiri 

Friday (4/21): Homework Menu is due

This week in Reading and Writing Workshop...

We will be completing our Independent Research Project.  The students have chosen sources, read information, thought about what was important and wrote down brief facts to use on their presentation folders.  We will be finishing our research in the next couple of days then creating our presentation.  Our plan is to share on Friday and Monday.  We will be live streaming our presentations on Periscope.  I will send out a presentation order on Thursday.

This week in Math...

We will be reviewing Telling time to the Hour and we will introduce telling time to the half hour.  We will discuss how the clock counts by fives.  We will relate our study of fractions to telling time to the half hour.  

This week in Social Studies...

We will be learning about how different cultures shape our community.  Some of the big ideas from this unit are Communities share different cultures. Family and community beliefs, customs, language, and traditions are important to families and communities. It is important to understand different cultures.

Have a great week!

DATES TO REMEMBER:

April 20:  Ms. Smith out in the PM

April 21:  Ms. Smith out all day

April 22:  Earth Day Clean up

April 26:  Playland Skate Center @ 5:30 pm

May 1-5:  Teacher Appreciation Week

May 8-10: STAAR Testing- No Visitors on Campus

May 15-19:  Book Fair

May 18:  KnOWLedge Night @ 5:30

May 19:   Field Day

May 26:  Career Fair

May 29:  Memorial Day- No School

June 1:  Last Day of School- End of the Year party

April 10-14, 2017

A note from Ms. Smith…

I want to start by sharing some personal information.  Your kiddo might have come home and told you that I was sad or worried on Friday.  This is because my oldest daughter, Gracie, hurt her knee very badly last week.  I took her to the doctor, and they think she most likely has torn her ACL in her left knee.  After taking x-rays, they also found a tumor on her right tibia.  There is a very, very low percentage that it is cancerous (so that is good), but they will most likely have to surgically remove it so it doesn’t begin to cause her trouble.  I will be out this coming Wednesday in order to take her in for an MRI on both legs.  We will know more after this.  I might have to be out several more times if we need to schedule surgery on one or both legs before school lets out.  I wanted to let you know that this is a possibility.  I am a worried parent, and I’m having all of the “Mommy feels”.  I would greatly appreciate it if you would please keep my little family in your thoughts. 

This week...

Monday (4/10): Self-selected reading @ home.  

                             TIC TAC TOE homework will be emailed.

Tuesday (4/11): Tuesday folders will come home.

                             Homework bags will come home. 

                                 No Library check out this week. 

Wednesday (4/12): Our chicks are due to hatch!!

Thursday (4/13): Chick Fest! Dress like a farmer!!

Friday (4/14): No school. 

In Reading and Writing...

We will begin our last Research project of the year.  This will be a time when students choose their topic, find sources, read, take notes and create a presentation about their topic.  We will work on this project for two weeks!  Tomorrow the students will be presented with books from the library.  They will choose a topic based on the variety of books selected.  

In Math...

We will begin a unit on Fractional Parts.  The questions we will ask ourselves are "How do I know if I’ve shared something fairly? How exact does measurement have to be?" We will also spiral back to telling time during this unit. We will review telling time to the hour and learn about telling time to the half hour.

In Science...

We will wrap up our unit on Animals. We will review the 3 types of animal groups we focused on. Birds, Fish and Mammals. We we discuss how the food chain works in nature. We will also learn about the life cycle of a frog.

Have a great week!

DATES TO REMEMBER:

April 12:  Hatch Day! (Ms. Smith out)

April 13:  Chick Fest- Come to school dressed like a farmer!

April 14:  Spring Holiday- No School

April 22:  Earth Day Clean up

April 26:  Playland Skate Center @ 5:30 pm

May 1-5:  Teacher Appreciation Week

May 8-10: STAAR Testing- No Visitors on Campus

May 15-19:  Book Fair

May 18:  KnOWLedge Night @ 5:30

May 19:   Field Day

May 26:  Career Fair

May 29:  Memorial Day- No School

June 1:  Last Day of School- End of the Year party

April 3-7, 2017

I hope everyone had a chance to swing by for Family Dinner Night AKA Caraway City Limits.  I was out of town celebrating a friend’s birthday, so I was not able to attend, but I heard that it was an awesome event (like it is every year)! We are so lucky to have such an active PTA whose number one priority is our students!

This week in Ms. Smith’s class...

Monday (4/3): 15 minutes of Self-Selected reading

Tuesday (4/4): Library Checkout- Don’t forget your Books!

                       Homework Bag will come home.                        

                              Tuesday folders will come home. 

                      Report cards will come home. 

Wednesday (4/5): Early Release dismissal @ 12:00

                          We will have lunch in the classroom on this day. 

Thursday (4/6): 

Friday (4/7): Homework bag is due back. 

                     Family Fit and Fun Night at 6:30pm

In the future...

-Chick Fest will be Thursday, April 13- come to school dressed like a farmer!

-No school on Friday, April 14th

This week in Reading & Writing Workshop we will be finishing up our Chicken research.  We will be discussing how authors take the information they found and publish it for everyone to read.  We will continue talking about how complete sentences have a capital letter at the beginning and punctuation at the end.  The end products will be kept here to be displayed along with our Coop designs on May 18 @ KnOWLedge Night.

This week in Math we will be continuing to work with fact families as we try to find the missing part.  We are talking about how we can use both addition and subtraction to find the answer to a problem.  We will also be applying this learning to word problems in our math notebook. 

This week in Science we will wrap up our coop designs.  I will hang them in the hallway when they are complete.  We read books about chicken habitats and watched youtube videos about chicken coop designs.  Our favorite was Becky's Homestead.  Her videos taught us all about chickens and about the different types of coops you can build for your chickens.  We are so excited for our babies to hatch! After we wrap up our designs we will move on to mammals.  We will learn about mammals movement and body parts.  We will learn about their habitats, how they depend on their environment to find shelter and get food and their life cycles.

Have a great week!

DATES TO REMEMBER:

April 5:  Early Release Day @ 12:00 pm

April 7:  Family Fun & Fit Night @ 6:30 pm

April 12:  Hatch Day!

April 13:  Chick Fest- Come to school dressed like a farmer!

April 14:  Spring Holiday- No School

April 22:  Earth Day Clean up

April 26:  Playland Skate Center @ 5:30 pm

May 1-5:  Teacher Appreciation Week

May 8-10: STAAR Testing- No Visitors on Campus

May 15-19:  Book Fair

May 18:  KnOWLedge Night @ 5:30

May 19:   Field Day

May 26:  Career Fair

May 29:  Memorial Day- No School

June 1:  Last Day of School- End of the Year party