February 17-20, 2015

HOMEWORK FOR THIS WEEK
Since this week is a short week, I will not be sending homework home.  However, please encourage your child to read books from RAZ-kids and practice math concepts on IXL.  I sent an email with the links for both sites but I will see about putting them on the blog as well.

Here are the links you will need:

raz-kids.com/main/Login
https://www.ixl.com/signin/caraway

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
We will continue working on place value.  We will work on number lines or number track and locate and place numbers on a number line based on their value.  We will use the place value to compare whole numbers up to 99 using comparative language such is bigger than or less than. We will use symbols such as >, < or = to compare the numbers to 99. We will work on problem solving involving ordering the numbers from least to greatest or greatest to least.

SOCIAL STUDIES
This week we will learn about a few historical figures such as Alexander graham Bell, Thomas Edison, Garrett Morgan, and Richards Allen who influenced our nation by their individualism and inventiveness. We will learn about their inventions and the contributions that these important people made to our lives.

HABIT #1:  Be Proactive:  I am a responsible person.  I am in charge of me.  I choose my actions, attitude, and mood.

THANK YOU!

Claudia Aguilar for stuffing our Tuesday folders. 

To any parents that showed up to help set up for the Valentine’s day party!

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:

February 27:  Jump Rope for Heart

March 7:  Family Dinner Night

March 11:  Early Release @ 12:45

March 16-20:  Spring Break

March 25:  Eggs get here!

April 2:  Science Night

April 3:  No School

April 10:  Family Fun Night

April 15:  Chicks start to hatch!!!!!!!

May 1:  Field Day

May 4-8:  Teacher Appreciation Week

May 7:  Field Trip to Austin Nature Center

May 11-15:  Book Fair

May 14:  Caraway Fine Arts Night

May 21:  Volunteer Breakfast

May 25:  No School, Memorial Day

June 4:  Last Day of School, End of the Year Party

February 9-13, 2015

We have a couple of exciting events planned for this week.  We will be celebrating 101 day of school on Tuesday and Valentine's/Chocolate Fever Day on Friday.  The class list for valentine exchange was sent home in Tuesday Folders last week.  The kiddos can start passing out Valentines on Thursday.  

VALENTINE'S PARTY and CHOCOLATE FEVER DAY
Our Valentine's  Day Party will be on Friday from 1:15-2:15.  Friday is also Chocolate Fever day!  We will come to school in our pajamas and by the end of the day, we just might have Chocolate Fever, just like the main character in the book!  (I will have a brown make-up pencil to draw spots on your child’s face if it is ok.  I will also be bringing make-up remover wipes so the kiddos can wipe the spots off before leaving school.)

READING and WRITING

This week due to the special events, we have some fun reading and writing activities.  On the 101 day of school, we will imagine ourselves being 101 years old! We will write about how we think we will look like, do, or not do. I can't wait to see what the children will come up with. It should be lots of fun to read their writing. In relation to Valentine's Day, we will write an imaginative story about a time that we ate too much chocolate! We will also craft a sweet, heartwarming writing about "love".

MATH
This week we will go back and review "Place Value".  We will use concrete and pictorial models and compose and decompose numbers to 99 in more than one way as so many ten blocks and so many ones.  For instance, the number 45 can be shown with 4 ten blocks and 5 ones.  But it could also be represented as 3 ten blocks and 15 ones. We will use the place value to compare whole numbers up to 99 using comparative language such is bigger than or less than. We will use symbols such as >, < or = to compare the numbers to 99.

SCIENCES
Last week in science we learned about natural resources.  This week we will discuss how important natural resources are to us and why we need to conserve natural resources, reuse, recycle or reduce. The students will think about why it is important to conserve fresh water, recycle materials and not to pollute the environment.

HABIT #1:  Be Proactive:  I am a responsible person.  I am in charge of me.  I choose my actions, attitude, and mood.

THANK YOU!

Thank you all for coming to the First Grade P.E. performance.  The children did such a fantastic job! I am so proud of them!

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:

February 12:  Spirit night @ Jason’s Deli 5-9pm

February 16:  No School, 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

March 25:  Eggs get here!

April 2:  Science Night

April 3:  No School

April 10:  Family Fun Night

April 15:  Chicks start to hatch!!!!!!!

May 1:  Field Day

May 4-8:  Teacher Appreciation Week

May 7:  Field Trip to Austin Nature Center

May 11-15:  Book Fair

May 14:  Caraway Fine Arts Night

May 21:  Volunteer Breakfast

May 25:  No School, Memorial Day

June 4:  Last Day of School, End of the Year Party

February 2-6, 2015

PE PROGRAM

Please mark your calendar for Tuesday, February 3rd.  Our P.E coaches along with our fantastic first graders have planned a great performance for all of us!  Please be here at 6:15.  If possible, girls wear red shirts and boys wear white shirts.  All children must wear tennis shoes.  I hope to see you there!

VALENTINES PARTY
Our Valentines Party will be on Friday, February 13th (1:15-2:15).  Please check your child's Tuesday Folder for a class list 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 students can start bringing their valentines to school starting the week of Feb 9th.

READING and WRITING
This week we will still continue our unit on research. As we ask questions about a topic and find out some information in books, magazines and internet, we realize that sometimes we come up with more questions.  We record things that we learn and questions that we still wonder about.  We are also learning about the importance of recording the information in our own words.  In other word we are learning how to paraphrase.  We will also learn what information are important.  Sometimes authors add some interesting facts, but not all are important for us to remember.

MATH
This week we will wrap up our unit on 2-D shapes. We have learned so much about different shapes such as squares, rectangles, triangles, trapezoids, circles, ovals diamonds and rhombuses.  We have learned about their attributes such as the number of straight sides, corners, curves and so on.  This week, we will learn about dividing our two-dimensional figures into two and four and decide whether or not the parts are equal or fair share.  We will use vocabularies such as equal parts, fair, not fair, same size pieces, half, fourth, fourths, quarters or a quarter of.

SCIENCES
This week we will learn about the natural world including rocks, soil and water.  We will learn about the physical properties of soil and sort different types of soil based on particle size, color and texture.  We will explore and discover about some useful products that we can make using rocks, soil, and water.

HABIT #1: Be Proactive:  I am a responsible person.  I am in charge of me.  I choose my actions, attitude, and mood.

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:

February 3:  1^st Grade PE Program

February 4:  Early Release @ 12:45

February 12:  Spirit night @ Jason’s Deli 5-9pm

February 16:  No School, 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

March 25:  Eggs get here!

April 2:  Science Night

April 3:  No School

April 10:  Family Fun Night

April 15:  Chicks start to hatch!!!!!!!

May 1:  Field Day

May 4-8:  Teacher Appreciation Week

May 7:  Field Trip to Austin Nature Center

May 11-15:  Book Fair

May 14:  Caraway Fine Arts Night

May 21:  Volunteer Breakfast

May 25:  No School, Memorial Day

June 4:  Last Day of School, End of the Year Party

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