May 29th Newsletter

Dear Parents and Guardians,

I hope everyone enjoyed the beautiful Memorial Weekend!  In literacy we will learn that we see some words many times when we read (high-frequency words) and that it's important to learn these words because they help us read and write.  In writing, we will be finishing up our non-fiction pieces and we will share them with another first grade class.  In community writing, we will continue working on our ABC Countdown Alphabet book.  

This week in math we will come up with a question and survey other students. The children will make a tally chart as they survey their friends, use the data to make a bar graph and develop questions about the total number of data points, how many in each category, and how many more or less are in one category than another.  We will also solve word problems that call for addition of three whole numbers and engage in mathematical discussions during our daily Number Talk.

This week in science we will be learning about human and animal life cycles.  We will also begin to learn about classifying animals.

ABC Countdown Reminders:

• Tuesday, May 29- Outside Bubble Fun Day
• Wednesday, May 30- Pajama Day
• Thursday, May 31- Quiet Day- Bring a stuffed animal for quiet reading
• Friday, June 1- Relay Races at Lion's Park Day- We will walk to Lion's Park (please send cold lunch and a drink)

Special Points of Interest

• Our Take-Home book program will be ending this Thursday.  Please make sure your child returns their book on Thursday so organizing and cataloging can begin.
• Field Day and Lunch on the Lawn is Friday, June 8th - Please look for more information in the Thursday folders.

May 21st Newsletter

Dear Parents and Guardians,

This week in reading we will learn that a contraction is one or more words put together and that a letter or letters are left out.  We will learn that an apostrophe takes the place of the missing letter(s).  We will work on revising and editing our nonfiction writing pieces.  We will be having an author celebration party soon!  Additionally, during guided reading, we are working on plays.  Each child has a part or parts in a play.  We are working on reading our parts fluently and beginning to use expression.

In math we will survey students in our class and other classes, record the data using tally and bar graphs, and ask and answer questions about the data.  The students will create appropriate titles and create questions based on the graphs.  We will also revisit soling word problems involving three variables.  For example:  There are 7 kids on the bus. 3 more girls and 9 more boys get on the bus. How many are on the bus now?

In science we will continue learning about life cycles.

Thursday, May 31st will be the last day the take-home reading books will be assigned.  We'd appreciate having all books returned by Tuesday, June 5th so that we can catalog our collection and finalize our records.  Thank you!

Please return the field trip permission slip was sent home last week if you haven't already!  The kids are looking forward to walking to Lion's park next Friday!  Make sure your child brings a cold lunch and something to drink!

Special Points of Interest

• Field Day is coming up - Please look for information in the Thursday folder.
• Monday May 21 - Just Dance Day
• Tuesday May 22 - Kindness Day
• Wednesday May 23 - Lemonade Day
• Thursday May 24 - Mismatch Day
• Friday May 25 - Neon Day
• NO SCHOOL Monday May 28

May 14th Newsletter

Dear Parents and Guardians,

This week we will be continuing to work on our nonfiction writing pieces.  The students are really having fun writing about things they know a lot about!  Most of the kids are beginning to work on their second nonfiction piece.  Hopefully you were able to have your child read their first piece to you that they brought home!  If they haven't brought one home yet, they will be bringing one home soon!  During community writing, we will be writing pages in our class alphabet book about the ABC Countdown to summer.

In math we will make, read, and answer questions about tally charts and bar graphs.  We will survey the students in our class and create a graph to represent the data.  We will also learn proper number formation.

This week in science we will be focusing on parts of a plant and the life cycle of plants.  This week, watch for a Seesaw video as the students will be taking a picture of all of the seeds/vegetables that they have been observing/watering.  They'll even explain a bit about the life cycle.  Special thanks to Miles mom, again, for making this possible for our students!

THANK YOU for all of the wonderful and thoughtful gifts for Teacher Appreciation last week.  I felt very appreciated!

ABC Countdown (and a few other) Reminders:

• May 14- MAP testing (Math) Elephant and Piggie Day
• May 15- MAP testing (Math) and Fun with Nature Day
• May 16- Go Noodle Day
• May 17- Hat Day
• May 18- Interesting Fact Day and Student Council Spring Drive- Hat Day

Special Points of Interest

• Our final Scholastic Book Order of the year is due this Friday, May 18th. Shop Online: scholastic.com/readingclub Class Activation Code: JBVLX
• May 21- Dining for Dollars- Wayne's Drive In
• May 28th - No school - Memorial Day

Ozaukee Humane Society - Student Council

The second semester Student Council members decided to have the Ozaukee Humane Society as the beneficiary of their fundraising efforts this spring. 

The Council will begin its efforts on Friday, May 11.  There will be a buy an animal cut out or bring in a picture of their animal to put on the bulletin board on Friday, May 11, a stuffed animal day on Monday, May 14, and a hat day on Friday, May 18.  

The homeroom that raises the most money through the three special $1 days will get an ice cream treat and a special animal visitor.  (The specifics of the animal visitor will be finalized with the winning homeroom.)

There will also be a bin by the office for students to donate items from the Ozaukee Humane Society's wish list. 

Thank you for your support of this fundraising project.  We appreciate your help and generosity!

May 7th Newsletter

Dear Parents and Guardians,

This week in literacy we will be having fun with non-fiction writing!  Last week the students brainstormed topics they knew a lot about and narrowed their topics down to one.  This week, the students will begin writing a non-fiction book about that topic.  They will continue to learn about text features and making their writing sound like non-fiction.  We will be reading a lot of non-fiction read-alouds this week, and we will use those as our mentor texts to help us with our writing.  Additionally, we will work on expanding our sentences so that our writing is very clear to our readers.

In math, we will continue learning about fractions and partitioning shapes/objects equally into halves and quarters.  We will hopefully be able to get outside for one of our lessons so we can draw some of our own fractions using chalk!  Look for some creations on Seesaw.  Additionally, we will be creating our own story problems and solving them in multiple ways.  

This week we will continue to learn about plants and their life cycles.  We will be going outside to take a picture of a flower and we will use Seesaw to label the parts.


If your child has a summer birthday, they will be bringing home a note with information and a date that we will be celebrating their birthday.

Special Points of Interest

• Our final Scholastic Book Order of the year is due Friday, May 18th. Shop Online: scholastic.com/readingclub Class Activation Code: JBVLX
• May 8: Awesome Art Day!
• May 9: Baby Picture Day!
• May 10: Crazy Socks Day!
• May 11: If You Give a Dog a Donut Day! 
• May 14 and 15: MAP Testing (Math)
• May 21: Dining for Dollars- Wayne's Drive In

Baby Pictures!

If you haven't already, please email me a baby picture of your child to use on May 9th for our Baby Picture Day presentation for the ABC Countdown! You can email pictures (or even pictures of printed photos) to cmajinski@cedarburg.k12.wi.us.