December 3rd Newsletter

Dear Parents and Guardians,

This week we'll wrap up our "storyboard stories," by finishing our writing and our cover page.  The students will have an opportunity to read their stories to the class if they wish.  They are looking great and will be sent home soon. 

Please remember, the stories your child comes home with will not perfect, there will be spelling mistakes, maybe punctuation or capitalization mistakes.  When I conference with students, one on one, with their writing, I choose one or two areas to focus on and work to lift their understanding in that area.  If we overwhelm them by pointing out every error, they will likely be turned off to writing and begin to think that writing is all about spelling and conventions, instead of sharing thoughts and ideas with others.  We will begin learning about how we share our opinions by writing book reviews later this week!  That will be so much fun!  

This week in math we will work on solving number stories that involve finding differences, solve and make up a variety of number stories involving relations, addition and subtraction, and we will compare 2-digit numbers using the symbols <, >, and =.

In science we will start a unit on winter animals.  We will learn about what animals do to survive in the cold winter months, including migrating, hibernating and adapting.  We will also do a "Blubber Experiment" to identify why some animals gain weight during the winter.

Hour of Code:

We live in a world surrounded by technology, and we know that whatever field our students choose to go into as adults, their ability to succeed will increasingly depend on understanding how technology works. That’s why our class is joining in on the The Hour of Code, during Computer Science Education Week (December 3-9). See http://hourofcode.com/us for details.

Scholastic Book Orders are due this Friday, December 7th. We will have guaranteed delivery by winter break in case you're interested in purchasing some Christmas presents!  Go to: www.scholastic.com/bookclubs Online Code:  JBVLK

Special Points of Interest

• The Kapco's Kids 2 Kids toy drive lasts through this Friday, December 14th.  If you are able to, please bring in a new, unwrapped toy for the Toy Drive.
• Buy an ornament day is this Friday and hat/pj day is next Thursday, December 13th - donate a dollar to buy an ornament and/or wear a hat/pj's to show your support.
• December 22-January 2 - Winter Break
• January 3rd - School Resumes

Field Trip this Friday!!!!

Just a friendly reminder that we will be going to The Nutcracker this Friday.  Please remember to send your child to school with a cold lunch as we will be eating lunch in our classroom.  Also, if you have not paid for this field trip in Skyward, please do so ASAP.  Thank you!

November 26th Newsletter

Dear Parents and Guardians,

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving break and you were able to spend time with your family and friends!  This week we will be working with more blends, or as we call them "letters that go together."  Our students have been learning to hear those consonants that blend together at the beginning of many words, like: star, flame, climb, and snap.  

This week we will begin to wrap up our work with the narratives we are working on.  We started the piece with oral storytelling to a partner, moved to illustrating a story board to guide our writing and then began our writing.  This week and into next week we'll focus on editing and publishing by giving our narratives a title and a cover, like a real book!

We will also be writing letters to Santa!  We will be mailing them off to the North Pole and hope to get a response by winter break.

This week we will also be circling back to the topic of friendship.  We'll be reading some stories and discussing how to be a good friend.  If you can find a few minutes to have a conversation with your son or daughter about kindness and respect for others it would be much appreciated.  Your support really helps strengthen these concepts.  

This week in math we will make two and three digit numbers using base ten blocks.  We will also compare quantities of numbers by using the terms greater than, less than, and equal to, learn about <, >, and = symbols when comparing quantities, and work with more than and less than number stories.

We will be finishing our communities social studies unit this week.  The children will be learning about maps and creating a make-believe community with a partner.

Thank you for taking time out of your busy schedules to come to parent-teacher conferences.  It was great to meet with you and talk about your wonderful children!  As always, if you have any additional questions or concerns please feel free to email me.

Special Points of Interest

• Friday, November 30th - Field Trip to the Nutcracker - Please remember to send a cold lunch!
• Monday, December 3rd - Friday, December 14th - Kapco Kids2Kids Toy Drive
• Scholastic Book Orders are due Monday, December 7th. Guaranteed delivery by winter break!  You can view the flyers online and order books by going to www.scholastic.com/bookclubs and using the online code:  JBVLK

Kapco Kids 2 Kids Toy Drive

The Kapco's Kids 2 Kids toy drive will start on Monday, December 3rd and last through Friday, December 14th.  If you are able to, please bring in an unwrapped toy for the Toy Drive.

Kids2Kids Toy Drive Events: Buy an ornament day is on Thursday, Decmber 6th - Students can donate a dollar to the toy drive and buy an ornament to put on the bulletin board outside of Mrs. Kikkert's office.  
Hat day or Pajama day is on Friday, December 13th - donate a dollar and wear a hat/pajamas to show your support.

Thank you in advance for your generosity!

November 19th Newsletter

Dear Parents and Guardians,

As you might be writing letters to Santa or working on gift lists with your children, I wanted to let you know that during this short week we are working on "letters that go with r," otherwise known as blends.  While we do want children to listen for sounds and write what they hear, if your child isn't hearing those blends at the beginning or words (such as truck, pretty, crib, freeze)  it would be great if you could help them stretch the word by saying it really slowly.  We are really focusing on getting both those sounds into our words.  Remember, it isn't necessary to spell the word correctly but those beginning sounds are really important right now!  

In math, we will wrap up our unit about finding missing addends. We will continue solving word problems involving missing addends and use multiple strategies to solve for the unknown number.

We will continue working on our Communities unit in social studies.

Special Points of Interest

• No school on Wednesday, Thursday or Friday
• Field Trip to the Nutcracker on Friday, November 30th

Happy Thanksgiving!!!!

November 12th Newsletter

We have been working very hard on fluency for the last few weeks, but this past week we marked one of our poems in phrases of two to four words.  We read the lines in different ways to see what sounded better.  When we were all done, we read the poem, paying attention to the phrases we had marked.  What a difference it made!  Our first graders are starting to really understand how reading should sound.  We are also working hard on this in guided reading.  When you read the take home books with your child, be sure prompt him or her to "read it like this," as you model it, in a few places.  Remember that reading picture books to your child is still very important.  They need to hear you model that phrased, fluent reading!  Keep up the great work! 

This week in math we will solve story problems involving missing addends (Example: I have a garden with 9 flowers. Mom planted some more flowers. Now there are 13 flowers in the garden. How many flowers did mom plant?).  We will also discuss different strategies for how to solve missing added problems and tools we can use to support our thinking (number lines, ten frames, drawing pictures, using fingers, making number bonds, etc.).  Remember to keep practicing addition and subtraction facts at home.  This quarter, we will be working on addition and subtraction facts to 10.

We will continue working on our Communities unit in Social Studies.  We will discuss how people work together to make their communities a good place to live.  We will also work with reading and making maps of our classroom, home and neighborhood.

Special Points of Interest

• Winter is quickly approaching.  Now is the time to start thinking about packing an extra pair of socks and mittens in your child's backpack.
• Please continue to remind your children to bring their take-home books back to school.  Nightly reading is so important!
• If you aren't able to make it to the book fair, I will still be placing a book order this month.  Scholastic Book Orders are due Tuesday, November 20th. Shop Online: scholastic.com/readingclub Class Activation Code: JBVLX
• Parent-Teacher Conferences are this Wednesday, November 14th and the following Monday, November 19th.  I am looking forward to meeting with you to talk about your wonderful children!
• Friday, November 16th - Stuff the Bus Food Drive
• No School next Wednesday, Thursday, or Friday

November 5th Newsletter

Welcome to second quarter!  It's so exciting to reflect on the growth of our class from the beginning of the year to now!  In just a little over two months our students are thinking about what would make sense when they are stuck on an unfamiliar word, and then they cross-check that with the letters on the page to make sure it looks right too.  Just to be sure, they know how to "slow check" the word by running their finger slowly under the letters of the word to see if the letters match the sounds they make as they slowly say the word.  This strategy also works great in writing too!

In writing, we are working on finishing up our small moment stories and this week we'll be doing a study of punctuation.  We've learned a lot about how writers write about what they know, and so we've worked on writing about small moments from our lives.  We take one small moment and write lots about it.  We write about what happened, how we felt and what we thought.  Many of us are remembering to punctuate some of our sentences already, and hopefully we'll get closer to punctuating every sentence soon! 

This week in math we will review writing equations for fact families.  We will also apply strategies we have learned for finding unknown addends in equations, continue working on "If, then statements" (If 7+_=12, then 12-_=7), and use mathematical language to communicate our thinking during Number Talks.

I will not be in school a few days over the next two weeks because I am attending a math training. I am looking forward to bringing all my new learning back to the classroom!

This week we will be starting a new social studies unit on neighborhoods and communities.

Make sure to check your child's Seesaw account.  We had some fun with the Green Screen last week and talked about what we're thankful for.  The video turned out very cute!

Special Points of Interest

• Please sign up for parent-teacher conferences if you haven't done so already.  Also, if you need an alternative date/time, please don't hesitate to ask!
• November 9th - Veteran's Day Assembly
• November 12-19 - Book Fair
• No school November 21-25 (Thanksgiving Break)
• If you aren't able to make it to the Book Fair at school, I plan on placing a Scholastic Book Order on November 20th. Shop Online: scholastic.com/readingclub Class Activation Code: JBVLX

IMC Change

The first graders will be going to the IMC this Wednesday instead of Friday since we do not have school.  If your child would like to check out new books, please make sure they return their books on or before Wednesday!  Have a wonderful weekend!

October 29th Newsletter

Dear Parents and Guardians,

The last few weeks in literacy we did some focused work with vowels.  Vowels are tricky, and if we don't continue to notice and emphasize them they can be very confusing.  We found them in our shared reading poems, we created a vowel chart, and we've been finding them on various print around the classroom.  We've been practicing both the short and the long sounds for the vowels.  You can help at home by doing the same with words you notice when reading with your child or even when looking at a holiday catalog or a recipe!  Help your child understand that words are all around us, and they all have to have at least one vowel.  Keep in mind, it is best to use words that either have the short or the long sound in them, like in "bat," but not "ball."  Or in "that," but not in "the." 

This week we will continue our first study of small moment (or narrative) stories for the year.  We are hoping to be done with this unit next week.  Some stories will continue to come home, and some will be saved for parent teacher conferences.  It sure has been fun to learn more about these amazing kids and get to know them in the best way, through their stories!  I've learned about their friends, their pets, their families, their weekend adventures and more!  Keep the stories coming!

In math, we will explore the relationship between addition and subtraction with number triangles (fact families), solve if, then equations (if 9+_=13, then 13-9=_), and solve for unknown addends using number bonds, tens frames, and number lines.

This week we will be finishing up our Land and Water science unit.

Thank you for all of the help and donations for our Halloween Classroom Party!  The kids had a blast!

Special Points of Interest

• Remember to dress your child for the cold weather.  They will be going outside for every recess unless it rains.
• November 2 - No School
• November 9 - Veteran's Day Assembly

October Family Projects - Puzzle Pieces

Hi Families!

Our puzzle pieces are due tomorrow.  Please send them in if your child has completed it.  If they haven't completed it yet, please have your child work on it and send it in when they're finished.  If you're able to make it to the parade tomorrow, make sure to check out all of the completed puzzles in the hallway across from our classroom!

Thanks!

Parent-Teacher Conferences

Hi Parents!

On Monday, you will receive an email and directions for signing up for conferences on Skyward.  If you are not able to make it one of the two evenings, feel free to contact me and we can schedule a different time to meet.  I am available before school on most days (7:45-8:00, 8:00-8:15, or 8:15-8:30) or during our specials block (2:00-2:15, 2:15-2:30).  Please let me know if this is something you'd be interested in doing!

Thank you!

October 22nd Newsletter

Dear Parents and Guardians,

During our literacy block, one very important time of our day is called Community Writing.  During this time, we do some writing together as a whole group, that relates back to a book we read or an experience we had.  For example, after a big book we read called, "In a Dark, Dark Wood," we wrote our own version called "In a Dark, Dark School!"  It was so much fun to share ideas and write the story together.  We work on composing a message, listening for the sounds in the word, spelling word wall words (sight words) correctly, and letter formation.  One goal is to keep the purpose of the writing very authentic, so we also wrote a letter to Ms. Hoeppner's class (by vote) and asked them if they'd like to read our book.  It was very exciting to have a real audience for our writing!

We are really growing as writers, this week we'll focus on telling a story part by part, so that we understand how to include a beginning, a middle, and an end.  See what authentic ways you can get your child writing at home!  They could help with the grocery list, or write a letter to a family member, or keep a diary/journal.  Seeing parents write at home is also very supportive!

This week in math we will solve for unknown addends in equations using multiple strategies (ten frames, number bonds and number lines), understand the meaning of the equal sign, explore the relationship between addition and subtraction, and review double-digit numbers as having groups of tens and leftover ones.

We will be continuing our Land and Water unit in Science.  The students will learn about the ocean, the need for water, and fast and slow changes that happen to Earth's land.

THANK YOU in advance to everyone who will be donating items or volunteering to help at the party this Friday.  The kids are already looking forward to it!

Special Points of Interest

• Remember to bring in your pumpkin for Pumpkin Days (October 22-26)!
• Halloween parties will be on Friday afternoon, please send your child's costume in a bag.  The children will be changing right before the parade.
• No school on Friday, November 2nd.  It is teacher progress report writing day and professional development.

October 15th Newsletter

Dear Parents and Guardians,

We're off to a great start in guided reading!  All groups have met with multiple times and I'm just so proud of these 1st grade readers!  Please remember when reading at home that it is very important to give children lots of practice with reading text that they are able to read well.  This means fluent reading that sounds good!   Don't be fooled into thinking that your child isn't learning or progressing unless they're struggling or working hard to decode.  Their reading should sound like good reading.  If the reading doesn't sound fluent, feel free to try reading together for a few pages.  It will help your child to hear your fluent reading of the same text he/she is reading.  

This week during literacy, we'll continue to learn the routines of guided reading and we'll also be focusing on complete sentences.  You can help at home by encouraging your child to speak in complete sentences.  When they use an incomplete sentence, model what the complete sentence version would sound like and have them repeat it.  This will support our work in writer's workshop as we make sure we are beginning with a capital letter and using ending punctuation in our complete sentences.  

Our students have been working very hard on a small moment (narrative) story that spans multiple pages.  They have been adding to their stories day by day as well as making corrections such as capital letters and ending punctuation.  Take a look at them when they come home.  You will be so proud!

In math this week, we will begin a unit on Numbers in Base Ten, create groups of ten with "leftovers" and build, count, and write numbers to 50 using base ten blocks.

In science, we have been working on our Land and Water unit.  Your child will be learning about natural resources and their uses in the environment.

Special Points of Interest

• Tomorrow is Picture Retake Day
• Our Halloween party is next Friday, October 26th.
• Thursday, November 1st - End of First Quarter
• Friday, November 2nd - No School - Teacher Professional Development and Record Day

October 8th Newsletter

Dear Parents and Guardians,

This week we'll get started with guided reading, now that we have learned how to do each of our centers.  Our centers have become one of the favorite parts of our day.  During this time students are reading independently or with a buddy, or with a small group.  In some centers we read with big pointers and in some we're reading the poems we learn during shared reading.  A favorite is the listening center, where students use iPads and their headphones to listen to a variety of picture books, which are changed monthly.  We're also doing some word work, some free writing, and even some art!  Often we will be illustrating pieces of writing we did as a whole group and either creating a big book or hanging them in the hallway to share.

This week in math we will learn multiple strategies to assist in solving addition story problems including:  Adding 0, counting on using a number line, using a ten-frame, using double facts, using doubles plus one facts.  We will also practice highlighting important information from story problems and create models, drawings, and equations to show our thinking while solving story problems.

This week we will continue to learn and write about animals that we see in the fall.  We will also begin our Land and Water science unit.  We will investigate rocks and recognize that rocks and soil are part of Earth's land that people use.

I am implementing a math center called "Counting Collections" to give students more opportunities to count and group objects in order to build understanding of place value. I am looking for donations of the following items to put in these collections:

• Fun/seasonal Mini eraser (Target dollar spot)
• Puzzle pieces (if you have a puzzle missing pieces)
• Mini pom pom balls (approx. half an inch in diameter)
• BIG googly eyes
• Buttons

**Bonus Items: Clear plastic cups or small durable paper plates to use when grouping objects.

THANK YOU TO THE PARENTS THAT HAVE ALREADY DONATED!

Special Points of Interest

• Wednesday, October 10th - Walk to School Day
• Friday, October 12th - Jaguar Jumpstart
• Book Orders are due this Friday, October 12th.  Shop Online: scholastic.com/readingclub Class Activation Code: JBVLX
• Tuesday, October 16th - Picture Retake Day

Counting Bags

Dear Families,

I am implementing a math center called "Counting Collections" to give students more opportunities to count and group objects in order to build understanding of place value. I am looking for donations of the following items to put in these collections: 

• Fun/seasonal mini erasers

• Small puzzle pieces (you can even send in old puzzles that are missing pieces!)
• Mini pom poms (about one half inch in diameter)

• Buttons

See the video below of what this looks like in the classroom! 

https://www.teachingchannel.org/video/skip-counting-with-kindergarteners

Thank you in advance for your generosity!