January 29th 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 continue to focus on short and long vowels in their pocket chart center.

This week in math we will begin our geometry unit!  The students will learn about plane shapes and their attributes (number of sides and vertices), discuss similarities and differences between shapes, make polygons out of straws and pattern blocks, learn about solid shapes and their attributes (number of sides, edges and vertices).  Look for a back to back homework sheet to come home tomorrow.

In social studies this week, the students will continue to learn about our neighbor to the north, Canada.

Special Points of Interest

• Thorson Winter Carnival this Saturday!
• February 9th - 100th day of school!
• February 14th - Valentine's Day Party
• February 16th - No school (Professional Development)

Pajama Day Tomorrow

Our class earned five apples and our reward is a pajama day!  Your child may wear their pajamas to school tomorrow if they'd like to!  Thank you!

January 22nd Newsletter

Dear Parents and Guardians,

As we are almost 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 adding and subtracting 10 from a number, review number stories in which we need to solve for an unknown, discuss calendar concepts and calendar words.  We will also finish taking the MAPs test on Tuesday, January 23rd.

Remember to keep practicing addition and subtraction facts at home.  Flashcards are a great way to help your child become faster with their facts.  There are also a lot of fun resources on the Thorson website that help with addition and subtraction, a good one to check out is “Math Bingo” on www.abcya.com.  XtraMath.org is another great resource and a fun way for the children to practice their math facts!  If you would like extra sheets to practice with, please let me know and I will be happy to send them home.

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

Special Points of Interest

• No school this Friday!  It is a professional development/progress report writing day for teachers.
• Save the Date - The Thorson Winter Carnival is on Saturday, February 3rd

IMC Change

The first graders will be going to the IMC next 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!

January 15th 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 in the art center, so look for some fun drawings to come home this week!

This week in Math we will explore measuring length using nonstandard units of measurement. We will measure objects using paper clips or Unifix cubes.  We will also continue solving problems with unknowns (Sam made 6 snowballs in the morning. In the afternoon he made some more. He made 14 snowballs altogether. How many snowballs did he make in the afternoon?).  A homework packet will be coming home today.  Please have your child complete this and return it to school on or before Friday.  Thank you!

This week we will be starting a "Set to Learn" unit during our snack time.  We will be learning about what it means to be a good listener and we will be completing different activities to help build our listening skills.

Scholastic book orders are due this Friday, January 19th!  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

• We will be taking our Math MAP test on Tuesday
• Family Wellness Night is this Friday, January 19th
• No school next Friday, January 26th. It is the end of second quarter and teacher record day.

Field Trip on Friday

The first graders will be going to see The Lion King Jr. on Friday!  They are SO excited!  We will be leaving right after the morning announcements, so please make sure that your child arrives at school on time.  We will be returning right before lunch, so normal lunch procedures will occur.  Make sure to ask your child all about it after school on Friday!

January 8th 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).

In math, we will solve addition number sentences with missing addends (7=___+4), solve problems with part-part-whole using dominoes, solve story problems involving unknown addends, and determine if equations are true or false (6+3=10-2).  Today, your child will be bringing home a homework packet containing four pages.  Please have your child work on it throughout the week and return it to school on or before Friday.  Thank you!

We will continue our science unit on Pushes and Pulls this week.  The kids are having fun learning about all the different ways we use forces in school and outside of school.

Scholastic book orders are due this Friday, January 19th.  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.

Winter MAP testing begins this week.  This afternoon we began our Reading test and we will be finishing it on Thursday.  Next Tuesday we will begin our Math MAP test.

Special Points of Interest

• No school on Friday, January 26th.  It is the end of second quarter and teacher record day.
• Family Wellness Night is on Friday, January 19th

January 3rd 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 use addition and subtraction within 20 to solve word problems, add and subtract 10 from any number with fluency, work with fact families and identify the relationship between addition and subtraction, and order three objects by length.

Additionally, the students will be learning about Pushes and Pulls in science this week.  The students will be thinking about their favorite jobs and how pushes and pulls are used in that job.

Special Points of Interest

• The holiday party was fun for all.  Thank you so much to all of the parents who volunteered or 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 19th.  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