January 27th Newsletter

Dear Parents and Guardians,

This week we will be starting an author study on Nicola Davies who writes narrative stories that have facts interwoven in them.  Her books have amazing illustrations and they are so engaging for the kids!  Make sure to ask your child to what their favorite Nicola Davies book is! Additionally, we will work on editing our work during writer's workshop.  We will be focusing on capitalizing the first word of every sentence and ending every sentence with a punctuation mark.  We will also learn about proper nouns and capitalizing any proper nouns that we use in our writing.  The students will also work on classifying and categorizing items in both their word work center and pocket chart center this week.

This week in math, we will...

• Discuss attributes of cubes and pyramids and make them with Polydrons.
• Invent our own nine-patch quilt blocks by coloring 3x3 grids using two colors. Students will write an addition equation to match each block. 
• Work on dividing squares into halves and quarters in different ways.
  

This week in social studies, we will...

• Learn about our neighbors to the north, Canada.  We will be learning about their flag, Canadian symbols, and we will be comparing the United States with Canada.
  

Reminders and Upcoming Events:

• February 7- 100th Day of School 
• February 10- PTO Meeting (7:00 pm)
• February 14- Valentine's Day Activities/Box Top Turn in Day
• February 20- Parent-Teacher Conferences (teacher or parent request only)
• February 21- No School- Professional Development

January 21st Newsletter

Dear Parents and Guardians,

As we are half way done with the school year, I would like to thank all of you for all of the reading you have been doing at home with your child.  It has been amazing to see the growth in reading from the beginning of the year until now.  This wouldn't happen without all of the practice outside of school!  Reading every day reinforces so many important reading and writing skills.  Thank you so much for all of your support!

This week we will discuss complete and incomplete sentences.  The students will work on writing sentences correctly, remembering to begin with a capital letter, put spaces in between words, end with a punctuation mark and state a complete thought.  We will also work on identifying words with short and long vowel sounds in our pocket chart center.

We will continue How-To writing.  This week we will focus on adding descriptive language so that our readers understand exactly what we are trying to say.  We will also focus on writing an interesting beginning and putting the steps in the correct order.

This week in math we will...

• Review defining and non-defining attributes of two-dimensional shapes by playing a game called There's a Shape in My Pocket.
• Compose larger shapes with pattern blocks.
• Go on a shape hunt around our room to find examples of three-dimensional shapes (cone, cube, cylinder, pyramid, rectangular prism, sphere, and triangular prism).
• Identify and sort three-dimensional shapes by their defining attributes.
• Use Polydrons to build three-dimensional shapes.

Example of Polydrons from our Bridges Curriculum

The first graders will be going to the IMC on Friday instead of Monday this week.  If your child would like to check out new books, please make sure they return their books on time!

Special Points of Interest

• • January 20- No School- Professional Development
  • January 21- MAP Assessment (Math)
  • January 24- Family Wellness Night (5:30-8:00 pm)
  • February 7- 100th Day of School (more information will be sent out soon)
  • February 10- PTO Meeting (7:00 pm)
  • February 14- Valentine's Day Activities (more information will be sent out soon)/Box Top Turn in Day

January 13th Newsletter

Dear Parents and Guardians,

As I continue to work on reading assessments with the students it sure is exciting to see how much growth they've made since the beginning of the school year!  We have really been working hard in guided reading to think of a word that would make sense, when we are stuck.  We move on from there to check that word, and make sure it also looks right (that the letters in the word match the sounds we hear when we say the word).  These are two things you can support at home with the books that come home for your child to read.  The language sounds like this:  "What word would make sense?" and then "Check it, does that look right too?"

We will continue How-to writing this week.  We will continue our community writing piece on How to Build a Snowman, which is perfect timing with all of the snow we are getting!  The kids will be looking at "How-to Draw a ____" books about animals, robots, and dinosaurs next week in the art center, so look for some fun drawings to come home soon!

This week in math, we will...

• Begin learning about two-dimensional shapes (trapezoid, hexagon, triangle, rectangle, rhombus).
• Draw and discuss attributes of two-dimensional shapes.
• Sort two-dimensional shapes by a variety of attributes (size, color, shape).
• Play a game called "Last Shape In Wins." To play, students will take turns putting one pattern block at a time onto a large rhombus shaped grid. They will compose shapes to make other shapes within the grid.
• Play a game called "Pattern Block Puzzles." We will use pattern blocks to fill in a shape three different ways and discuss the differences and the number of pattern blocks used. 
• Compose shapes with patterns blocks.

This week in science, we will...

• Discuss things we push and things we pull.
• Learn that objects move when a force makes them move. We will do an experiment during which students place a stack of pennies on a strip of paper. They will pull the paper from under the pennies and observe that the pennies do not move. The pennies won't move because there isn't anything that pushed or pulled them.
• Learn how objects move on different surfaces. We will observe that rollerskates move farther on a wooden floor than they do on a carpeted surface because the carpet has more friction than the smooth surface. 

Our field trip to Skateland is this Thursday!  We will be eating lunch in our classroom prior to leaving.  Please send a cold lunch for your child on Thursday!  If you haven't paid for the field trip on Skyward yet, please do so ASAP!

Scholastic book orders are due this Friday, January 17th!  Place an order so we can earn some new great read-alouds for our classroom!  You can go online to order www.scholastic.com/bookclubs and type in the Online Code:  JBVLX

Special Points of Interest

• January 14- MAP Assessment (Start Math)
• January 17- End of 2nd Quarter
• January 20- No School- Professional Development
• January 21- MAP Assessment (Finish Math)
• January 24- Family Wellness Night (5:30-8:00 pm)

January 6 Newsletter

Dear Parents and Guardians,

This week we will finish up opinion writing and begin working on "How-to" writing by completing instructions on how to build a snowman during community writing time. We will also explore "How-to" writing by looking at how-to books and Lego instruction booklets. The children will also make a list of things they can teach others to do.  Additionally, we will review and discuss when to use each type of punctuation - period, exclamation mark, and questions mark.  We will also continue working on hearing the first sound in words. We will change the first sound to make a new word (hand- land, stand, band).

This week in math...

• Learn about different kinds of penguins that live in Antarctica.
• Make measuring strips to determine students' heights and represent the information on a class graph. 
• Read about penguins and record information on a data sheet. We will compare the heights (in inches) of different types of penguins using measuring strips and use the <, = and > symbols to record our comparisons. 
• Order types of penguins by length.

This week in science/social studies, we will...

• Learn about pushes and pulls. We will learn how weight and surfaces (moving something up or down a ramp) affect the force needed to move objects.  
• Review and practice Whole Body Listening (Eyes are watching, Ears are listening, Voice is quiet, Body is still). We will do a Whole Body Listening activity with our 4th Grade Buddies. First grade will present what we know about Whole Body Listening to the rest of the school during Jaguar Jumpstart this Friday.

Scholastic book orders are due next Friday, January 17th.  You can go online to order www.scholastic.com/bookclubs and type in the Online Code: JBVLX, or you can send the order form and money to school with your child.

Reminders and Upcoming Events:

• January 6- MAP Assessment (Begin Reading)
• January 8- MAP Assessment (Finish Reading)
• January 10- Thorson Night at Cedarburg High School Basketball Game (7:15 pm). Go Bulldogs!
• January 13- PTO Meeting (7:00 pm)
• January 14 - MAP Assessment (Begin Math)
• January 16- Field trip to Skateland (11:00 am-2:00 pm)- Please pay the field trip fee in Skyward!
• January 20- No School- Professional Development
• January 21- MAP Assessment (Finish Math)
• January 24- Family Wellness Night (5:30-8:00 pm)

January 2nd Newsletter

Dear Parents and Guardians,

Welcome back to school!  I hope everyone had a wonderful, relaxing but fun winter break!  We're excited to say that this month we'll be integrating our science, social studies and literacy in a unit all about polar region animals!  Beginning this week with some informational read alouds about polar bears and other animals that live in the Arctic and Antarctic regions of the world.  We'll also discuss and do some shared writing about what we already know on this topic.  Throughout the month we study the informational genre of writing as we explore many books and notice how authors teach us about topics. 

This week in math, we will...

• Practice counting forward and backward by 10s on and off the decade using a number line. We will race on a number line making hops of 1, 5 and 10. 
• Solve addition and subtraction story problems involving multiples of ten by jumping on a number line. Students will record equations to represent the story problems.

This week in social studies, we will...

• Review classroom and school-wide expectations for being Respectful, Responsible and Ready to Learn.

Special Points of Interest

• The holiday party was fun for all.  Thank you so much to all of the parents who donated items!
• THANK YOU for all of the wonderful gifts and cards!  I appreciate your thoughtfulness!
• Please send an extra pair of socks and mittens in your child's backpack for the wet winter weather.
• Winter MAP testing begins next week.
• Scholastic Book orders are due on Friday, January 17th.  I have not received the paper copy of the books orders, but I will send them home as soon as I receive them.  Go to: www.scholastic.com/bookclubs Online Code:  JBVLK