August 29-September 2, 2016

We had a great start to the new school year! We learned about many school and classroom procedures, rules and expectations. Throughout the week, we reviewed expectations for the cafeteria, bathroom, playground, hallway and more!

In first grade we often include "Growth Mindset" lessons in our daily activities.  We want the children to understand and believe that abilities can be developed through dedication and hard work. This mindset creates a love of learning that is essential for great achievements.  We are learning that there are things that we can do very well and things that we may not be able to do YET.  We know by being persistent and working hard, we will be able to accomplish anything.  We will work to change our words in order to change our mindset.

This week…
READING
We will learn how to read independently to ourselves for a few minutes at a time. Each day we read for a little longer period to build up our stamina. We will learn that strong readers read every day. As a reader, we can read the pictures, read the words, and retell the story as we read books.  We will talk about our favorite reading memory, when reading felt so good to us.  The children will practice using the classroom library correctly and responsibly.

WRITING
We will learn to be first grade writers, by learning about writing tools (papers, pencils, markers, crayons, tape, glue, scissors) and resources around the room that help us write (alphabet charts, first grade words, the print around the classroom). I will first model how to brainstorm, sketch, and write about my story... something that I know and care about. The children will then begin writing a true story about themselves...something that they have experienced.

MATH
This week we will count and represent quantities to 20.  We will work on recognizing instantly the quantity of structured arrangements and use concrete and pictorial models to compose and decompose numbers up to 20. We will think in groups of ones and groups of tens.  We will use objects, pictures, and expanded and standard forms to represent numbers up to 20.

SOCIAL STUDIES
Last week we explained the purpose of rules and laws in our community.  We have rules and laws to stay safe, establish order, and manage conflict. We also identified the characteristics of good citizenship in the classroom and our school.  These include being respectful, responsible, safe and kind. This week we will continue to review these characteristics and traits and evaluate actions that show good, or poor citizenship.  We will learn that good citizens have responsibilities to help each other and be part of the community.

* The daily Agenda has been delivered, but…they are so flimsy!  They will all be torn in a matter weeks (if not days)!  I am putting them in braded folders and will send them home sometime this week.  I’m sorry for the inconvenience, but I want them to last!

I thank you all for your help and support, trusting your children with me, and being a partner in their education.

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

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

*PE:  We have PE on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.  Please make sure your kiddo is wearing tennis shoes (for sure) on these days.

       

DATES TO REMEMBER:

Sept. 5:  Labor Day- No School

Sept. 8:  Parent Orientation Night @ 6:30-7:00 pm

Sept. 15:  Riata Roundup @ 6:00-7:00 pm

Sept. 28:  Early Release Day.  Dismissal @ 12:00

Oct. 5:  Bike and Walk to School Day

Oct. 10:  Columbus Day- No School

            Parent/Teacher Conferences

Oct. 13:  Science Night @ 6:00-8:00 pm

Oct. 22:  Harvest Festival @ 4:00-7:00 pm

Oct. 26:  Early Release Day.  Dismissal @ 12:00

Nov. 11:  Veteran’s Day Program @ 8:00 am

Nov. 21-25:  Thanksgiving Break- No School

Nov. 30:  Skate Night @ 6:00-8:00 pm

Dec. 1:  Family Art Night @ 6:00-7:30 pm

Dec. 5-9:  Book Fair

Dec. 8:  International Festival @ 6:00-8:00pm

Dec. 15:  Winter Parties/Last Day of 1^st Semester

Dec. 16-Jan 2:  Winter Break

Jan. 3:  1^st Day of 2^nd Semester

August 29-September 2, 2016

We had a great start to the new school year! We learned about many school and classroom procedures, rules and expectations. Throughout the week, we reviewed expectations for the cafeteria, bathroom, playground, hallway and more!

In first grade we often include "Growth Mindset" lessons in our daily activities.  We want the children to understand and believe that abilities can be developed through dedication and hard work. This mindset creates a love of learning that is essential for great achievements.  We are learning that there are things that we can do very well and things that we may not be able to do YET.  We know by being persistent and working hard, we will be able to accomplish anything.  We will work to change our words in order to change our mindset.

This week…
READING
We will learn how to read independently to ourselves for a few minutes at a time. Each day we read for a little longer period to build up our stamina. We will learn that strong readers read every day. As a reader, we can read the pictures, read the words, and retell the story as we read books.  We will talk about our favorite reading memory, when reading felt so good to us.  The children will practice using the classroom library correctly and responsibly.

WRITING
We will learn to be first grade writers, by learning about writing tools (papers, pencils, markers, crayons, tape, glue, scissors) and resources around the room that help us write (alphabet charts, first grade words, the print around the classroom). I will first model how to brainstorm, sketch, and write about my story... something that I know and care about. The children will then begin writing a true story about themselves...something that they have experienced.

MATH
This week we will count and represent quantities to 20.  We will work on recognizing instantly the quantity of structured arrangements and use concrete and pictorial models to compose and decompose numbers up to 20. We will think in groups of ones and groups of tens.  We will use objects, pictures, and expanded and standard forms to represent numbers up to 20.

SOCIAL STUDIES
Last week we explained the purpose of rules and laws in our community.  We have rules and laws to stay safe, establish order, and manage conflict. We also identified the characteristics of good citizenship in the classroom and our school.  These include being respectful, responsible, safe and kind. This week we will continue to review these characteristics and traits and evaluate actions that show good, or poor citizenship.  We will learn that good citizens have responsibilities to help each other and be part of the community.

* The daily Agenda has been delivered, but…they are so flimsy!  They will all be torn in a matter weeks (if not days)!  I am putting them in braded folders and will send them home sometime this week.  I’m sorry for the inconvenience, but I want them to last!

I thank you all for your help and support, trusting your children with me, and being a partner in their education.

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

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

*PE:  We have PE on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.  Please make sure your kiddo is wearing tennis shoes (for sure) on these days.

       

DATES TO REMEMBER:

Sept. 5:  Labor Day- No School

Sept. 8:  Parent Orientation Night @ 6:30-7:00 pm

Sept. 15:  Riata Roundup @ 6:00-7:00 pm

Sept. 28:  Early Release Day.  Dismissal @ 12:00

Oct. 5:  Bike and Walk to School Day

Oct. 10:  Columbus Day- No School

            Parent/Teacher Conferences

Oct. 13:  Science Night @ 6:00-8:00 pm

Oct. 22:  Harvest Festival @ 4:00-7:00 pm

Oct. 26:  Early Release Day.  Dismissal @ 12:00

Nov. 11:  Veteran’s Day Program @ 8:00 am

Nov. 21-25:  Thanksgiving Break- No School

Nov. 30:  Skate Night @ 6:00-8:00 pm

Dec. 1:  Family Art Night @ 6:00-7:30 pm

Dec. 5-9:  Book Fair

Dec. 8:  International Festival @ 6:00-8:00pm

Dec. 15:  Winter Parties/Last Day of 1^st Semester

Dec. 16-Jan 2:  Winter Break

Jan. 3:  1^st Day of 2^nd Semester

August 23-26, 2016

Yay for the 1^st Day!

We had an amazing day in First Grade!  We read books, we talked about our feelings, we learned about rules and what the classroom rules are, and we were artists! 

Here are a few reminders for this week:

* Please put your child to bed early each night (between 7:30-8:00) in order for them to adjust to their daily school schedule. School starts at 7:30 and work begins promptly at 7:40. Please allow time in the morning for your child to have a nutritious breakfast and use the bathroom before coming to school. We take a few bathroom breaks during the day but it is still important that they enter the room prepared and ready to go.

* Please have your child wear comfortable clothing. Kiddos must wear comfortable shoes as well. Please avoid flip-flops, sandals, or high heels. Your child will not be able to play, run or have fun on the playground if he/she is wearing uncomfortable shoes.  Tennis shoes are REQUIRED on Monday, Wednesday and Friday as we have PE on those days.

* Your child needs to bring a medium sized backpack, large enough to hold the folders that will be sent home and small enough to fit in our cubbies. Each child shares a cubby with another child, so please avoid getting a very large back pack. Also, please avoid backpacks with wheels as they are not very safe and might cause other children to trip and fall.

* Please send a nutritious snack daily. Examples include: cut up pieces of apples, carrots, crackers and cheese or anything they like as long as it is healthy and nutritious. Please avoid sending chips, cupcakes or cookies. We eat snack mid-morning.

* Our Lunch time is @ 11:30. If you're packing lunch for your child, please let them know that they have lunch and won't be buying from cafeteria. If you choose to buy lunch from cafeteria, there are two ways to pay for lunch: one way is to pay directly to the cafeteria (Debra Parks-cafeteria manager  512-464-5519) and the other way is to pay online at  MySchoolBucks.com.  You can also send the lunch money to me but please put the money in an envelope or a plastic bag with your child's name and my name on it. This way the cafeteria manager knows to whom the money belongs to.

* If you choose, you can also send a small water bottle with your child's name on it. They will keep it in their cubbie but can drink from it throughout the day.  I do ask that water bottles have a flip lid or a straw in order to deter spills. This is optional as we take quite a few bathroom and water breaks during the day.

* Please avoid sending toys and stuffed animals in your child's backpack. This is distracting to children's learning and unfortunately I have to take it away from your child and return it to you if I see one. Thank you!

* Each Tuesday afternoon your child will bring home a "Tuesday Folder" containing all of the graded work for the previous week.  Please take time to look over your child's papers with him/her and make any corrections.  Folders should be returned on the following day.

* The daily Agenda with the communication log is still at Printshop.  I am hoping for it to be here by the end of the week.  They are swamped right now with print jobs and they simply got backed up.  Thank you for understanding!

* And last but not the least: Your precious kiddos have been home with you for the last couple of months during the summer. Coming to school early in the morning and saying goodbye to you might be difficult for some of them. Please help me to help your child to make this transition as smooth and as successful as possible.  For this reason please make your goodbye short and sweet and don't linger at the door too long. Be confident that your child is going to have a great day and she or he is in excellent hands!

I thank you all for your help and support, trusting your children with me, and being a partner in their education.

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

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

*PE:  We have PE on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.  Please make sure your kiddo is wearing tennis shoes (for sure) on these days.

       

DATES TO REMEMBER:

Sept. 5:  Labor Day- No School

Sept. 8:  Parent Orientation Night @ 6:30-7:00 pm

Sept. 15:  Riata Roundup @ 6:00-7:00 pm

Sept. 28:  Early Release Day.  Dismissal @ 12:00

Oct. 5:  Bike and Walk to School Day

Oct. 10:  Columbus Day- No School

            Parent/Teacher Conferences

Oct. 13:  Science Night @ 6:00-8:00 pm

Oct. 22:  Harvest Festival @ 4:00-7:00 pm

Oct. 26:  Early Release Day.  Dismissal @ 12:00

Nov. 11:  Veteran’s Day Program @ 8:00 am

Nov. 21-25:  Thanksgiving Break- No School

Nov. 30:  Skate Night @ 6:00-8:00 pm

Dec. 1:  Family Art Night @ 6:00-7:30 pm

Dec. 5-9:  Book Fair

Dec. 8:  International Festival @ 6:00-8:00pm

Dec. 15:  Winter Parties/Last Day of 1^st Semester

Dec. 16-Jan 2:  Winter Break

Jan. 3:  1^st Day of 2^nd Semester

May 23-27, 2016

Thanks to all of our wonderful parents who volunteered at a station, helped the kiddos or chaperoned our line during the Field Day.  We couldn't have done it without your help.  A big thank you to our P.E. coaches for organizing this event. The kids had a blast!

We will have a busy week ahead of us! Please mark your calendar for Thursday, May 26th at 9:30.  We will have an award ceremony for our Fabulous Firsties.  Each student will be honored for a special quality, character, or effort that they have shown this year. We
would love for you to join us.  The award ceremony is at 9:30-10:30 in the cafeteria. Hope to see you all there.

There will be no more Homework Bags this year.  Please continue to have your child read every day, work on writing and math as well. 

REMINDERS
Tuesday: Tuesday folders
Thursday: Award ceremony 9:30-10:30 in the cafeteria.
Friday: Career Day 8:15-10:30

READING and WRITING
We will continue working on our first grade memory books and write about all the great memories that we've had in first grade.  In doing so, we will review the writing conventions such as capitalization, punctuation, subject-verb agreement, and correct sentence structure.
In reading, we will continue reading fiction books and review some comprehension strategies that we've been working on this year such as making inference, prediction and connection.

  

MATH and SOCIAL STUDIES
This week, math and social studies will be integrated.  We will learn about financial Literacy and discuss different ways people earn money.  We will also discuss ways money earned (income) can be spent. We will talk about options for saving money or sharing money with others (charitable giving).

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*

*No more school Library check out!

DATES TO REMEMBER:

May 26: 1^st Grade Award Ceremony @ 9:30 in the cafeteria.

May 27:  Career Fair

May 30:  No School- Memorial Day

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

May 16-20, 2016

Tomorrow (Tuesday, May 17) is our day to go to the book fair in order to buy (if you are allowing your child to buy something).  Any other day, your child will have Owl Time or Recess to go to the book fair.

SPRING PBL PROJECT
We will be finishing up this project this week!  Our mini gardens look great and they will be ready to go home at the end of this week.  We planted Basil, Tomatoes, Hot peppers, Sweet peppers, Cucumbers, and Squash.  We have learned so much!  The kiddos have recorded their learning in a folder which will be ready for you to view when you come to visit us on Thursday for the Open House.

READING and WRITING
This week, in Writing, we will finish up our "family" writing and start working on our first grade memory books.  We will remember all the great things that we did in first grade and write about our first grade memories. As always, we will emphasize on neat writing along with correct capitalization, punctuation, and sentence structure.   
In reading, we will continue to read some of our favorite fiction books and review some important comprehension strategies.  We will use the picture clues as well as the text clues to make predictions and inferences, visualize a part of the story or make connections. 

MATH
We will review three-digit numbers as having a quantity of hundreds, a quantity of tens, and a quantity of ones, and represent three-digit numbers up to 130.  We will compare and order three-digit numbers on an open number line and count forward to 130 from any number, and count backward within 130.  We will also be working on a 1^st Grade Math Review. 

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*

*No more school Library check out!

*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:

May 16-20:  Book Fair

May 19:  Volunteer Breakfast @ 7:45

             Spring Open House @ 5:30-7:30

May 20:  Field Day

May 27:  Career Fair

May 30:  No School- Memorial Day

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

May 9-13, 2016

Thank you all so much for everything that you did for us for Teacher Appreciation week.  Ms. Knight, Ms. Ready, and I truly feel loved and appreciated by all of you. Thank you!

Thanks to our creative and talented team of PTA hospitality for decorating the school for us and providing breakfast on Friday.  We truly have the best PTA in the world!

A special thank you to Ms. Melissa Ross for providing yet another lunch and homemade dinner for us! You all gave so generously for Festive Friday, and Ms. Ross was able to provide more meals for us this week.  Thank you for your generosity as always. It felt so good to come home on Friday and have dinner ready!

Homework bags will only be coming home for the next 2 weeks.  After this I will need to begin packing up anything I can due to the school getting a beautiful make-over this summer!  Please do not send them back every day as well.  They can come home on Monday and not come back to school until Friday!
REMINDERS
Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday: STAAR tests for 3,4, and 5th graders.  These days, the campus will be closed to any visitors due to testing.  Please keep the older students at Caraway in your thoughts!

I will be doing the End of the Year Reading Assessment starting this week until May 20th.  This is a time that I will be reading with each child individually to assess their reading level and readiness for next year.  For this reason, I will not be sending any more reading folders home.  Please continue to visit the library (public or school library) and encourage your child to use RAZ-kids to read at home.  Your child knows that they need to complete the quiz for each book before moving on to the next book or next level.  The RAZ-kids username and passwords were sent home in November.  Please let me know if you are missing your child's username or password.

SPRING PBL PROJECT
This week we will wrap up our PBL project.  Our students have learned so much about the benefits of a homegrown garden.  They have learned that food could come for free if every person in the community takes a small part in growing a small manageable garden. They have learned about different parts of the plants and how we eat different parts such as roots, stems, leaves, or fruits.  This week, we will work on designing our gardens on the paper as well as in our small mini gardens.  We will planted our seeds in small egg cartons or strawberry and blueberry containers and will send them home on Friday.  The children should be able to find the best sunny spots for their mini garden and care for them from then on.  They should also be able to tell you what they need to do after little sprouts grow which is transferring them into bigger containers. They are all very excited about their mini gardens!

READING and WRITING
We will continue reading fiction and non-fiction stories and review different comprehension strategies that we have been working on this year.  In writing, we will work hard to finish our Family writing so everyone can see them displayed at our Spring Open House on May 19.  

MATH

This week we will work on solving word problems with objects and pictorial models that involve joining, separating, and comparing sets and represent those problems with number sentences. We will solve problems when the unknown as any term in the problem (the sum, the difference, or the unknown part in part-part-whole). We will also spiral back and remind ourselves about measurement in order to design our own sustainable gardens for our home!

SCIENCE
As part of our PBL project we will work on creating folders to present the information we have learned about plants and sustainable gardens.  These will be the final product and they will be presented in the hallway at the Spring Open House on May 19.

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*

*No more school Library check out!

DATES TO REMEMBER:

May 9-11:  STAAR testing (no visitors on campus these days!)

May 16-20:  Book Fair

May 19:  Spring Open House

May 20:  Field Day

              Last day Homework bags come back. No more homework!

May 27:  Career Fair

May 30:  No School- Memorial Day

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

May 2-6, 2016

Thank you for sending the signed registration forms for the next school year back to me.  If you still have not had a chance to sign and return it to me, please send them my way this week.  Thank you!

SECOND GRADE FUNDRAISING PROJECT
Our students in 2nd grade are holding a fundraiser to help the animals in Austin Zoo. To raise awareness about their fundraising project, they are asking all grade levels to wear special clothes each day (this activity is optional).

Monday: Hats Off to Helping- Wear a crazy hat to school
Tuesday: Socks for Snakes- Wear mixed up socks
Wednesday: Tattoos for Tigers- Wear stripes.
Thursday: Operation Ocean- Wear blue of all shades
Friday: PJs for Pandas- wear your PJs and enjoy a movie showing during lunch in the cafeteria (PJs optional)

END OF THE YEAR READING ASSESSMENTS
I will be doing the End of the Year Reading Assessment starting this week until May 20th.  This is a time that I will be reading with each child individually to assess their reading level and readiness for next year.  For this reason, I will not be sending any more reading folders home.  Please continue to visit the library (public or school library) and encourage your child to use RAZ-kids to read at home.  Your child knows that they need to complete the quiz for each book before moving on to the next book or next level.  The RAZ-kids username and passwords were sent home in November.  Please let me know if you are missing your child's username or password.

SPRING PBL PROJECT
Our first graders have been hard at work learning and discussing about growing manageable, non-traditional gardens. Last week we had a guest speaker who grows small vegetable gardens.  She showed us pictures of her garden and talked to us about the process which started with growing mini-gardens in egg cartons, and then transferring the growing sprouts into bigger containers or spaces.  Growing our own garden has so many benefits.  Not only we could have quick access to fresh and organic vegetables, we would also save money and time spending in grocery stores. Our students will be thinking about designing a mini garden and presenting their learning and ideas about non-traditional gardens in different ways such as making posters or brochures. 

READING and WRITING
We will continue reading fiction and non-fiction stories and review different comprehension strategies that we have been working on this year.  In writing, we will be working on some heartwarming mother's day projects and use all of our writing and art skills to say thank you to our wonderful moms.

MATH
We will continue on composing and decomposing numbers.  For example, there are so many ways to show 18, such as, 9+9, 10+8, 9+8+1, 8+8+2, 7+8+3, ....The options are so many and for our students to have a strong number sense, they need to be able to see what other smaller numbers can come together to make bigger numbers.  We will use coins such as dimes and nickles to count by 5's and 10's. Our students should be able to count by 1's, 2's, 5's and 10's from any given number from 1 to 120.  For example, starting from 35, counting by 5's to 120 or starting from 48 and counting by 2's to 120. Thank you for reinforcing these skills at home.

SCIENCE
Last week, we learned about plants, their parts and what each part does.  This week, we learn about seeds and how they grow.  We will grow a few seeds in the classroom and observe the growing sprout and its parts (roots, stem and leaves).

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*

*No more school Library check out!

*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:

May 2-6:  Teacher Appreciation Week

May 4:  Early Release @ 12:45

May 9-11:  STAAR testing (no visitors on campus these days!)

May 16-20:  Book Fair

May 19:  Spring Open House

May 20:  Field Day

May 27:  Career Fair

May 30:  No School- Memorial Day

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