Tuesday, April 26, 2016

April 25-29, 2016

Thank you for the yummy food!
On behalf of all teachers and staff at Caraway, we thank our wonderful first grade parents and families for throwing such a fantastic Festive Friday for us! Thank you all for your thoughtfulness and generosity.  The food was wonderful and delicious, the picnic tables were so beautifully arranged, and the weather couldn't have cooperated better.  Thank you for all that you do for us!

End of the Year Reading Assessments
I will be starting the End of the Year Reading Assessment next week.  This is a time that I will be reading with each child individually to assess their reading level and readiness for next year.    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 log-in is asmith196.

Spring PBL Project
This spring, our first graders will research and investigate ways to grow non-traditional gardens. They will discuss and brainstorm ideas to educate and help our community and families to grow non-traditional, yet sustainable gardens.
 
Whether we live in a house or an apartment, we can find small spaces that don't require as much space and resources and plant a vegetable garden to meet our needs or at least part of our needs. In the spirit of Earth Day, being "Green", reducing and re-using, we will come up with some small, efficient, and transportable gardens.
 

READING
We have been learning about different genres and this week we will learn about some of the beloved children's stories and their authors.
 Authors have different purposes in their writing.  Some try to inform and teach us and some try to entertain or humor us.  Authors have different styles in their writing and illustrations.  Leo Leonni uses paper collage for his illustration, and his stories have animal characters. Tomie Depaola's stories are mostly about his childhood.  Jack Ezra Keats' stories also take place in his childhood neighborhood.  The children will understand and appreciate that real authors are ordinary people that take ordinary events in their lives and turn them into extraordinary stories.

WRITING
We will continue our family writing. This will be similar to writing expository texts since we are all expert about our families and we know each and every member of our family very well.
 We know what they like, what they don't like, what they like to do in their free time and so on.  Each day we will write about one member of our family including us.  We will make our writings into a book about us and our families.  We will emphasize on complete sentences, capitalization and punctuation, using the word wall list to spell the sight words correctly and revising and editing our work. 
MATH
This week we will use base ten blocks, pictures, and expanded and standard forms to represent numbers up to 120. We will use concrete and pictorial models to compose and decompose numbers to 120.
 For example 117 is made of one 100 block, one ten block and 7 ones. We will generate a number that is greater than or less than any given number up to 120.

SCIENCE
As part of our PBL project, we will learn about plants, their parts and the function of each part.
 We will learn that roots carry the water and nutrients from the soil, stems hold up the plant and transport the nutrients and water from the roots to other parts of plant and leaves make food.  We will also learn about the plant life cycle and discuss things that plants need to grow such as good soil, water and sun. 

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, April 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:
May 2-6:  Teacher Appreciation Week
May 4:  Early Release @ 12:45
May 6:  Field Day
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

Monday, April 18, 2016

April 18-22, 2016

Thank you all so much for taking time off from work and busy life schedule in the middle of the day and joined us for Shamrock 'n Roll on Friday! Your children were so happy to see you and I am most appreciative as always.  Coach Cavazos said that we had the highest parent participation! Thank you!

HATCHING CHICKS!
Last week, our classroom was filled with the sound of excitement and chirping chicks on Thursday and Friday! This has been a great opportunity for the kids to observe part of the life cycle in the classroom.  We ended up with 8 chicks, and we were so happy with that (last year only 1 egg out of 12 hatched).  The kiddos got to sit in a circle and watch the chicks walk around.  They even got to hold a chick!  It was a very exciting time!

READING
We will continue our genre study and we will review and learn more about different genres of fiction such as traditional literature, fantasy, and realistic fiction. Traditional stories are stories that are passed down from one group to another in history. They include fairy tales, fables, and myths from different cultures. Fantasy are stories that have magical elements, and are make-believe and realistic fiction are stories that although they might have made up
 characters, they could happen in real life.

WRITING
We will begin writing Small Moments again.  This is a true story about something that happened to the author.  The trick is, it is not a bed to bed story (a story that retells an entire day from the time you wake up until the time you go to bed).  Small Moment stories focus in on one small part of the experience and retell that one part in great detail.  We will also be talking about the writing process and then applying that process in our writing. 
Writing Process:
1.     Think and Plan entire story (beginning, middle and end)
2.   Sketch pictures (beginning, middle and end)
3.   Write words
4.   Revise (Add/Delete words to make it better)
5.    Edit (Check capitalization/punctuation and word wall words to make it right)
6.     Publish (Add detail/color to pictures and copy words in neatest handwriting to make it fancy)

MATH
Earlier in the year, we learned about telling time to the hour and this week, we will focus on telling time to half-hour. As part of fraction and partitioning two dimensional figures into two or four equal parts, we will use a circular analog clock and understand time to half hour.
 We will look at both analog and digital clocks and learn that time is shown differently on each of these clocks.  The short hand in the analog clock points to the "hour" and the long hand points to the "minute".  In digital clock time is shown by digits.  The digit before the two dots shows the hour and the digits after two dots show the minute.   

SCIENCE
For the past month, we have been learning about different animal groups.  Now we are going to be talking about interdependence, which is how organisms depend on each other in their habitat.  We will talk about how animals depend on each other and how animals depend on the plants in their habitat as well.

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, April 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:
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

Tuesday, April 5, 2016

April 4-8, 2016

I Hope you all had a great time at Family Fun Night! Here are a few reminders for this week: 
READING and WRITING
We will continue our research on chicks. The children have been working on their research books and have found the answers to many questions such as the life cycle of chicks, how does the chick grow inside an egg, and the stages of chick development. This week we will wrap up our chick research and move on to writing small moments or personal narratives.  We will review the writing process (think, sketch, and write), and write small moments that have happened in our lives.  Please have your child practice the first grade sight words at home.  A copy of those words are in your child's daily folder. The children should be able to spell them correctly by the end of first grade.
MATH
We will continue working on inequality and comparing numbers.  We will review that equal sign represents a relationship where expressions on each side of the equal sign represent the same values and inequality represent different values.  We will use objects and pictorial models to solve word problems involving joining, separating and comparing sets within 20.

SOCIAL STUDIES
This week we will learn about families wants and basic needs, and how these needs are being met. We will identify examples of goods and services at home, school, and community and ways people exchange goods and services.

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, April 12.
*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:
Apr 7:  Science Night @ 6 pm
Apr 8:  ShamRock ‘n Roll
Apr 14:  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, March 7, 2016

March 7-11, 2015

It was great to see many of you at Family Dinner Night. Thank you for your continuous support to our PTA! We are truly lucky to have such dedicated PTA and wonderful parents behind it.


EDUCATION GO GET IT WEEK:
Tuesday: Wear your favorite university t-shirt.
Wednesday: Dress for success, dress up like the job you want to have.
Thursday: When we graduate we wear caps and gowns.
 Today wear your favorite cap.
Friday: Caraway t-shirt (remember all careers begin at Caraway!)


FIELD TRIP TO ZACH THEATER
Our filed trip to Zach Theater is on Friday, March 11th.
 If you have sent your permission slip and transportation fee, thank you! And if you haven't gotten a chance to do so, please send the permission slip along with 4 dollars transportation fee ASAP.
Please don't forget to send lunch and snack on Friday.
 We will eat lunch in the classroom before we leave for the theater.

SHAMROCK' N ROLL RUN
First grade will run/walk for Shamrock'n Roll on Friday at 8:40-9:30.
 Please consider joining your child to walk/run laps with them.  Parents/grandparents can collect extra points for their child's class.  Come to the track and meet us there at 8:40.  Be sure to sign in your name and your child's class at the track before running/walking laps.

 REMINDERS
Tuesday: Tuesday folders come home.
Library day:  Books due by 8:00 am
All first grade teachers are out due to district business.
Friday: Shamrock' n Roll (8:40-9:30).
 Filed Trip to Zach.

READING AND WRITING
This week we will continue reading poems and use strategies that help us to understand poetry better.
 We will work on visualizing and making a mental picture in our mind. This strategy can also help us to understand other genres such as stories/fictions better. As we read the author's/poet's description about the character's look, actions and so on, we will try to picture them in our mind so we can have a better understanding of the poem/story.  Poets often use sensory language such as words describing the sound, look, smell, taste or feel of something.  Sensory words help the readers create a better picture in their mind as they read poetry. In writing, we will continue to write short poems.

MATH 
This week we will learn about 3-D shapes.  We will identify three-dimensional figures such as spheres, cones, cylinders, rectangular prisms (including cubes), and triangular prisms and describe their attributes using geometric language such as flat surface, curved surface, having corners (vertices) or not any corners, being able to stack or not. We will look at everyday objects around us and compare them to the 3-D shapes that we are learning about.

SCIENCE
In science we will continue learning about living things.  Our focus will be on mammals and their external characteristics (body parts and cover).  We will learn how these external characteristics determine where the mammals live, what they eat and how they move.  We will also learn about interdependency and see how animals and plants in one habitat depend on each other to survive meet their needs.

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:
Mar 10:  Family Fun & Fitness Night
Mar 11:  ShamRock ‘N Roll & 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
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

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 2nd 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.

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 2:  PE Program @ 6:30 pm
Feb 3:  Early Release @ 12:45, Spirit Night @ Catfish Parlour
Feb 9:  101st 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