January 25-29, 2016

Congratulations to all of our super scientists in alphabetical order: Aanya, Aaryan, Ansh, Chase, Eva and Lizzie!  I am so very proud of their hard work and their participation in Science Fair.  Way to Go!

READING and WRITING
We will continue on our guided research.  This week, we will learn how to pick a topic that we are interested in, think about what we want to know about our topics, look at different resources such as books, pebble go, and on-line encyclopedia to find the information.  We will also learn how to jot important information in an organized way so we can use the information to answer our questions.

MATH 
This week, we will use a variety of strategies to solve real world math problems involving addition and subtraction or finding differences.  We will use, make 10 strategy or bridge to ten, number line, and counting up.  We will draw a picture to represent the important information in a problem with pictures, or tens and ones. Using addition or subtraction number sentences, we will find the answer to our problem using numbers and words.

SCIENCE
In science, we will learn that our natural world is made up of rocks, soil, and water. We will learn that we can observe these resources in cycles and systems. We will learn that there are many uses for natural resources and therefore it is important to reuse and conserve them. This week we will focus on earth materials and products, rocks and soil. We will observe different kinds of soil and describe the properties of rocks and soil.  We will explore and see what useful products we can make with rocks, soil and water.

THANK YOU!
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 2:  PE Program @ 6:30 pm

Feb 3:  Early Release @ 12:45, Spirit Night @ Catfish Parlour

Feb 9:  101^st Day of School, Ms. Smith out

Feb 12:  Valentine’s Day Parties <3

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

Thank you all for coming to our Fairy Tale Parade and cheering for us and thank you for helping the children to dress up as their favorite fairy tale or fable character.  I was especially amazed at the creativity that you put in dressing up or making the children look like the characters.  Way to Go! The kids had so much fun!

READING and WRITING
This week we will begin our guided research unit.  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 or resources to find information and they record important information in an organized way. We will record things that we have learned and things that we still wonder about.  We will also notice the important and main ideas vs. interesting details. 

MATH 
This week we will work with addition that involves single-digit addends that are beyond ten (eg: 9+4).  We will learn a different strategy called Make-ten addition Strategy or Bridge to 10 Addition Strategy to solve these problems.  We will work on different number combinations that total 10.  We will learn that in addition, 3 numbers can be added in any order.  Students will use their idea of the make-ten addition strategy which involves an addend that is close to ten (7, 8, or 9).  For example when adding 9 and 4, some students may count up from 9 to get to 13. Other strategy would be to say 9+1 is ten and 10+3 is 13.

SCIENCE

We will continue learning about force and movement and move on to Magnets.  Magnets can pull or push certain objects.  The push and pull caused by magnets is also a force. We will do different experiments to observe what happens when a magnet is placed near another object or predict weather a magnet will push or pull an object.

THANK YOU!
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, December 15.

*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 2:  PE Program

Feb 3:  Early Release @ 12:45, Spirit Night @ Catfish Parlour

Feb 12:  Valentine’s Day Parties <3

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

Don’t forget about the Fairy Tale parade this Friday, January 15, 2016 @ 9:00 am!  Remember that your child is welcome to dress up as any Fairy Tale or Folktale character (no superhero costumes please).  Parents are welcome to come stand along the hallway to cheer us on.  Please send a change of clothes or have your child wear regular clothes under their costume. 

READING
This week we will learn about fables. A fable is another type of story passed down from generation to generation and told to teach a lesson about something.  Fables are about animals, plants, or forces of nature like sun or wind that can talk and act like people or cause things to happen in the story because of their strength.  The most famous fables were written by a man called Aesop and this week we will read a variety of Aesop's stories.

WRITING
In writing, we will continue writing expository texts.  The children have made a list of things that they are expert at and can teach others.  This week, they will write about their subject with details.  Their goal is to teach others about something they are expert at and know so well.  

MATH
We will review place value in 2-digit numbers.  We will work with tens and ones and compare 2-digit numbers.  When comparing the two digit numbers, we will look at the digits in tens place first.  If those are the same, then we will move to the digits in ones place.  We will also examine the numbers in hundred chart and notice the patterns in numbers.  For example, all numbers in one row have the same number of tens and all numbers in one column has the same number of ones.  We will order the 2-digit numbers from least to greatest or greatest to least.

SCIENCE

This week in science we will learn about force and movement.  Energy causes force and force causes motion/movement.  Force can be defined as a "push" or a "pull" which causes objects to move in different ways such as straight line, zigzag, up and down, side to side, round and round, fast and slow.

THANK YOU!

Thank you for all of the wonderful holiday and birthday gifts!  They were all so wonderful!  I feel so loved!

More than anything, 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, December 15.

*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:

Jan. 5:  Welcome back!

Jan. 15:  Fairy Tale Parade

Jan. 18:  No School- MLK Day

Jan. 20:  Science Fair

Feb 2:  PE Program

Feb 3:  Early Release @ 12:45, Spirit Night @ Catfish Parlour

Feb 12:  Valentine’s Day Parties <3

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

December 7-11, 2015

The Field Trip to the Austin Nature Center was awesome!  Everyone had a great time, learned a lot, and represented Caraway amazingly!  Success!

FIRST GRADE PBL (Project Based learning) PROJECT:
We are so excited to start our first PBL project this year.  Project-based learning is an active and engaged learning in which our students explore real-life problems and challenges.  In doing so, they will obtain a deeper knowledge of the subjects they are studying. 

In the spirit of Holiday, giving to the community, and helping our community, we will focus on the flood that happened on Oct 30th this year in South Austin. Twenty-two classrooms at palm Elementary school were damaged.  Many teachers lost classroom books and many other supplies.  What can we do to help? How can we help? What is flood and what is the effect of flood on people and their properties? 

Our students will get inspired to think deeply about these questions, brainstorm, discuss, and come up with different ways, and ideas. One idea, is to hold a book drive donation.  Our first graders will inform the public (caraway community) through media (school broadcast, fliers and posters) and ask for gently used books to be donated.  They will set up empty boxes around the school and each day, collect and count the donated books. We have set up a big graph in the first grade hall and our students will mark the graph to show the progress.  They will work cooperatively and collaboratively towards a common goal and a good cause.  In the process, they will practice writing letters, and making fliers, learning about graphs, different types of weather including flood, good citizenship and helping community, and much more. 


SPREAD THE WORD AROUND AND HELP OUR FIRST GRADERS TO HELP THE COMMUNITY
If you have any gently used books at home for elementary ages especially kindergarten, or first grade, please consider donating it to our book drive.  Our first graders will be collecting the books and send them to Palm Elementary school.

SCIENCE:

We will be discussing the weather this week.  We will keep a log of the weather outside.  We will also be talking about different types of weather, such as rain, wind, snow and temperature.  We will also talk about different tools to measure weather

THANK YOU!

Thank you for stuffing the folders, and being willing to help in the classroom or outside the classroom. Your helping hands and hearts are greatly appreciated!

More than anything, 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, December 15.

*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:

Dec. 7-11:  Book Fair

Dec 10:  International Festival

Dec. 17:  Class Holiday Party

Dec 18-Jan 5:  Winter Break/No School

Dec. 31:  Ms. Smith’s Birthday

November 16-20, 2015

It is that time of the year when we give thanks and count our blessings. I could think of so many things that I am thankful for, my health, my children, my family, many wonderful friends, this great community that I am part of... But I am especially thankful for all my wonderful 21 students.  Each special, sweet, bright and talented in their own way.  I am also thankful for you! You, the wonderful parent, for sending your child to school well prepared each morning, for supporting his/her learning at home, and for teaming up with me to make a difference! I am thankful to all of you!

FIRST GRADE FIRST FIELD TRIP!!! YAY!!!
Our first field trip to Austin Nature Center will be on Monday, December 7th.  This week in your child's Tuesday folder, you will receive a Field Trip Permission Slip.  More detailed information are included in permission slip.  Please sign the permission slip and send it back by Monday, Dec. 2nd.  Thank you!

This week:

READING/WRITING

Yesterday, we read a fiction book and a non-fiction book about Thanksgiving.  We wrote 3 facts about Thanksgiving in our Response Notebook, and now we are in the process of creating a Google Doc so we can share what we've learned!  We are learning how to log in to our gmail accounts (yep, your kiddo has their own student gmail account!), how to navigate our drive, how to create a Google doc, and working on our typing skills as well! This is a big undertaking, so I am very proud of the kiddos!

  

MATH
This week in subtraction we will work on the concept "part-part whole".  Addition is adding the parts and subtraction is taking away a part from the whole to find the other part. We will work on problems that involve finding a whole, or a missing part. we will also re-visit the number line and use number line to solve the problems that involve subtraction.  I have attached a youtube link about part, part, whole.  Please sit with your child and have your child watch this video. It is a good practice.

Part-Part- Whole Video

SOCIAL STUDIES
This week in social studies, we will learn about the concepts of time and chronology.   We will describe and measure calendar time by days, weeks, months, and years and create a simple classroom calendar and timeline.  We want our students to understand and distinguish among, past, present, and future.

THANK YOU!

Thank you for stuffing the folders, and being willing to help in the classroom or outside the classroom. Your helping hands and hearts are greatly appreciated!

More than anything, 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, December 1.

*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:

Nov. 23-27:  Fall Break/No School

Dec. 2:  Early Release @ 12:45

           Skate Night

Dec. 7:  Field Trip to Austin Nature Center

Dec. 7-11:  Book Fair

Dec 10:  International Festival

Dec. 17:  Class Holiday Party

Dec 18-Jan 5:  Winter Break/No School

November 9-13, 2015

Wednesday, November 11th is Veterans Day! For all the brave men and women who have served in military, we say thank you! You are our heroes!

Tomorrow is Library day!  Don’t forget to send your child’s library book with them tomorrow!

This week:

READING

We will continue learning about non-fiction/expository texts.  We will be reading different nonfiction texts about spiders.  We will be recording facts that we learned by reading the different texts.  We will also be focusing on the main idea, supporting details, and author’s purpose.

WRITING
We will continue writing facts about topics of interest.  We will be focusing on the difference between fact and opinion. As we write, we make sure we go over the writing conventions: Starting with capital letters, forming the letters correctly, leave one finger space between the words, write sentences with corrects grammar and structure and put punctuation (periods, exclamation points or question marks) at the end of our sentences.

MATH
This week we will start subtraction. Subtraction names a missing part by taking away, removing or comparing to find a difference. We will use concrete and pictorial models including ten-frames, math racks, Base Ten blocks and other manipulatives to represent word problem situations involving separating or comparing sets of whole numbers up to 20 where the unknown may be start, change, or result of separating problems.

SCIENCE
We will continue learning about energy.  We will explore the objects around us and observe different kinds of energy that these objects use or produce.  We will discuss the importance of energy and saving energy.

THANK YOU!

Thank you for stuffing the folders, and being willing to help in the classroom or outside the classroom. Your helping hands and hearts are greatly appreciated!

More than anything, 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, December 1.

*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:

Nov. 10:  Library Day

Nov. 23-27:  Fall Break/No School

Dec. 2:  Early Release @ 12:45

           Skate Night

Dec. 7-11:  Book Fair

Dec 10:  International Festival

Dec. 17:  Class Holiday Party

Dec 18-Jan 5:  Winter Break/No School

October 26-30, 2015

It was good to see many of my students at Harvest Festival! It rained hard, but the kids had a great time.  It is only our wonderful Caraway PTA that can pull together such an amazing Harvest Festival on such a rainy day! Thank you for your continuous support to our students, school and PTA!

EARLY RELEASE DAY: Wednesday, Oct. 28th is ERD! Dismissal is at 12:45.

RED RIBBON WEEK ACTIVITIES

This week is Red Ribbon Week.  We will talk about a healthy life style, eating healthy, exercising, and staying away from all the harmful things that could hurt our bodies. As a whole school, we will do a different activity each day to show our support for a healthy and happy life. 

Monday:  Come to school in red! Wear as many red items as you can!
Tuesday: Wear your Super Hero shirt.

Wednesday: Wear your Caraway Owl shirt.

Thursday: Wear crazy hats or socks.

Friday: Wear your pajamas!

This week:

READING

We have been learning about the features of Nonfiction/Expository texts and this week in the spirit of the month of October and Halloween, we will be focusing on spider books! We will be asking questions about spiders, think about information that we already know, and find new information or hopefully, the answers to our questions in non-fiction texts.  The kids love this unit!  We will become experts on spiders by the end of the week, and your child should be able to tell you some very interesting facts about spiders. 

WRITING
This week we will shift our writing from small moments/personal narratives and learn to write other ways: we will learn to write like scientists.  Scientists have very attentive lives, noticing interesting things, and recording what they see.  We will draw and sketch, but this time emphasize on the importance of capturing details with precision. As we research and learn facts about spiders, we will record and write these facts so we can teach others about these amazing arachnids. 

MATH
This week we will introduce place value.  We will use number tracks and make numbers using our 10 sticks (10 blocks) and ones.  We will emphasize that the place of a digit in a number matters.  Depending on where the digit is, in tens place or in ones place, the digit has a different value (example: compare 17 and 71).  So far, we have worked with teen numbers.  This week we will work with 2 digit numbers greater than teens. When studying 24, we will see that 2 is 2 sets/groups of 10 which makes twenty and the 4 is just four ones.  When comparing the numbers, we will think about both tens and ones in a number.  24 is greater than 22.  The number of 10 sticks are the same but the ones are not.  24 has 4 ones and 22 has only 2 ones.  We will emphasize the vocabulary such as greater than, less than, before and after.

SOCIAL STUDIES
We have been learning about some very important historical figures and inventors such as Alexander graham Bell,  and Thomas Edison. We learned about their contributions and how they changed our lives with their inventions.  We also learned about John Venn and used his method of comparison (Venn diagram) and compared the two inventors together and learned about the similarities and differences.  This week, we will learn about Garrett Morgan, and Richards Allen who also influenced our nation by their individualism and inventiveness. 

THANK YOU!

Thank you for stuffing the folders, and being willing to help in the classroom or outside the classroom. Your helping hands and hearts are greatly appreciated!

More than anything, 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, November 10

*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:

Oct 28:  Early Release @ 12:45

           Skate Night

Nov. 3:  Flu Shots @ Caraway

Nov. 10:  Library Day

Nov. 23-27:  Fall Break/No School

Dec. 2:  Early Release @ 12:45

           Skate Night

Dec. 7-11:  Book Fair

Dec 10:  International Festival

Dec. 17:  Class Holiday Party

Dec 18-Jan 5:  Winter Break/No School