April 24th Newsletter

Dear Parents and Guardians,

It sure was fun to ride the "Walking School Bus" on Friday, if you weren't able this year, give it a try next year!  It's a Thorson tradition!  Our read alouds are helping us continue to explore the ways and reasons why it is important to take care of our Earth.  Today we started a book about the "hip-pocket frog" from the rain forests of Australia.  We are very interested in learning more about this frog that is the size of an adult's thumbnail, and keeps it's baby tadpoles in it's hip pocket.  Getting kids interested in a topic with really good literature works every time.  As we learn about the life cycle of a frog, we'll also be focused on appreciating nature and understanding why it is so important to protect it.  

In writing we are learning more and more about how to write graphic novels, and it's NOT easy!  We are learning how to break the events in our stories into even smaller pieces with our illustrations, and tell the rest with words.  We are working very hard to think about what  our readers understand from our illustrations and our words.

In math, we will be learning how to make a graph from a set of data.  We will also continue to work on telling time to the half hour and introduce the students to elapsed time.  The Unit 10 Family Letter will be coming home this week along with Home Links 10.1 and 10.2.

This week we will be learning about and classifying animals.  This week the students will learn about mammals, reptiles and fish.  Ask your children to tell you characteristics of the different types of animals.

Special Points of Interest

• Scholastic Book Orders are due TODAY!  I will be placing the order this evening.
• Muffins with Mom is Thursday, May 11th
• The first grade spring musical is on Friday, May 19th

Scholastic Book Order Extension!

Shop Online: scholastic.com/readingclub
One-Time Class Activation Code: JBVLX

Dear Families,

Please remember to place your Reading Club orders by Monday, April 24th.

You can shop and submit your order online or return the order form with payment directly to me. No matter how you order, every purchase you make earns FREE Books and educational supplies for our classroom.

The arrival of the book box is always a highlight - thanks for making it happen!

Happy reading,

Mrs. Majinski

Ordering online is fast and easy:

• REGISTER at scholastic.com/readingclub
• ENTER the Class Activation Code at the top of this letter
• CHOOSE from thousands of print titles, value packs, and Storia eBooks
• SUBMIT the order to me by the due date at the top of this letter
• EARN FREE Books for our classroom too!

Fun at Riveredge!

The first graders had a great time on our field trip to Riveredge yesterday.  Special thanks to John's mom for joining us!

April 18th Newsletter

Dear Parents and Guardians,

It was fun to hear all the exciting and fun things your families did over the spring break!  Now we are back in the final stretch of the year already!  This week we are exploring sentence structure in our centers and work work time, as we learn about how to make the sentence "sound right" by adding -s or -ing to certain words.  For example, I like to read. vs. She likes to read.  

We are also learning how writers/illustrators tell more about their story with details in the illustrations and in the text.  You can discuss the details of the picture books you read at home with questions like, "Look at her face; how do you think she feels?"  and "How can you tell?"  "What did the illustrator include to help us understand this?"  Connecting those details back to the words in the text is even better!

In math, we will be focusing on fractions.  The students will be comparing fractions and continuing to learn about equivalent fractions.  Look for Home Links 9.6, 9.7, and 9.8 to come home this week.  Please continue to work on addition and subtraction facts to help with fact fluency.  This quarter, our addition and subtraction facts go all the way to 20.

This week in science we will be focusing on Earth Day.  We will eb learning about how to save energy, recycling, and how important it is to reduce, reuse, and recycle.

Our field trip to Riveredge Nature Center is tomorrow, April 20th.  Please send a cold lunch to school with your child and make sure they are dressed for the weather!

Special Points of Interest

• Scholastic Book Orders are due this Friday, April 21st. Shop Online: scholastic.com/readingclub Class Activation Code: JBVLX
• Walk to School day is this Friday, April 21st.  Meet at 8:20 at one of the three starting points.
• Save the Date - The First Grade Spring Music Program is on Friday, May 19th!

April 3rd Newsletter

Dear Parents and Guardians,

We've been reading lots of versions of "The Three Little Pigs," and we are noticing the differences between the stories.  If you have a version at home, it would be a fun time to read it, and even send it in!  We've even decided to write our own version "Cedarburg-style" so that will be lots of fun!  

In reading many of us are working on noticing when we come to a word that we may be able to read, but don't know the meaning of.  In this case we use the context of the sentence, or the story to help us.  Today one guided reading group easily read the word "vast," as part of the sentence, "It was vast!  It was enormous!"  We used the picture and the word enormous to help us figure out that vast means really really big.  As we read more and more challenging text, we are coming across these kinds of words, words that we can decode, but may have never heard before.  This is something you can watch for and work on when reading with your child at home.  

In math, we will be focusing on story problems.  We will be doing a variety of addition, subtraction, and missing addend story problems.  Additionally, we will be having a Math Game Day on Friday, April 7th.  Your child may bring in any math game they are able to teach to a friend.  The kids are already looking forward to our math game day!  We will not have any math homework this week.

This week we will be doing our Junior Achievement unit on Wants and Needs.  A huge thank you to Laura's mom for coming in to teach our students this wonderful unit!

Special Points of Interest

• No School April 10-17 - I hope you have a fun and safe spring break!
• Science Fair is this Thursday evening at Thorson!

March 27 Newsletter

Dear Parents and Guardians,

It is hard to believe we are at the start of the fourth quarter already!  Hopefully you found the "Seesaw" note in your child's backpack last week.  If not, please let Mrs. DeRosa or Mrs. Majinski know, we'll give you a new one.  Seesaw is an awesome online portfolio tool!  Last week, students recorded each other reading their own "how to" writing pieces they had just finished up.  As parents, you are able to view  their portfolio and even comment on it to them!  We're hoping each parent has the chance to leave their child a comment; the kids will love it!  Kids are also able to view each other's work and leave a comment.  What a brilliant way to get an authentic audience for our work! 

In math, we will be learning how to order numbers on a number grid.  We will also be using a number grid to add and subtract.  Look for Home Links 9.1, 9.2, 9.3, and 9.5 to come home this week along with the Unit 9 Family Letter.

In science, we will be learning about the four seasons.  We will be writing about the four different seasons in our science journals and what type of weather we typically see during each of the seasons.

Special Points of Interest

• Science Fair is on April 6th
• Spring Break - April 10-17, school resumes on Tuesday, April 18th

March 20th Newsletter

Dear Parents and Guardians,

Last Friday was filled with fun reading experiences with our special guest readers as part of the Read-a-Thon!  We were so lucky to have Natasha, owner of the Cedarburg Toy Company, read to us and tell us jokes from a fun joke book!  Natasha was so kind that she even gifted the copy of Home for a Bunny that she read to us.  Next we had Mrs. Halvorsen from Riveredge who is also a mom of two Thorson students.  She explained that she used to live in a place that didn't really experience "spring" the way we do, so she really enjoys and appreciates that.  She read The Curious Garden to us, and we loved watching as the scene went from gray and dull, to green, lush and beautiful!  And finally, Gill from the Chinooks joined us with his friend and they read One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish, which is always a big hit!   

As we finish up the third quarter this week, we are starting something very exciting!  With our completed "how to" writing pieces, we will read them to you virtually through an app called Seesaw!  Watch for more on this in your child's folder this week.  

In math, we will be using counting up as a strategy for making change for amounts up to one dollar.  We will also be exploring equal shares by dividing objects and groups of items into equal parts.  This will be our introduction to fractions.  Look for Home Links 8.5, 8.6 and 8.7 to come home this week.

We will be finishing up our social studies unit on Canada this week.  The kids are having fun learning about our neighbor to the north!

Special Points of Interest

• No School on Friday, March 24th - End of third quarter and teacher record day