Friday Flyer

Dear Families,

         Book Bingo

          During March is reading month, the first graders will be playing Book Bingo on Fridays.  The purpose is to get more books in the hands and homes of all our first graders.  This will re-energize readers to read more often if they have more books, new books, and for some…just books in their home.  You can help support this by cleaning off your children’s book shelves at home and sending in any new or gently used books.  The books will be used as prizes during our bingo games.  Several years ago we did this and children were leaving school with arm loads of new books to read.  What a great experienceJ!!  Stay turned for more information on March is Reading Month activities we will be participating in as well.

Language Arts

       The past few weeks we have been working hard on preparing for our upcoming conferences.  The children have done very well with the assessments given thus far. J On Thursday the children were introduced to the strategy of “Asking questions before, during and after reading a story”.  I modeled this for them and then they were given the opportunity to practice the first part of writing down questions they have as they review the cover of the book.  This strategy helps readers to activate any schema they may have, as well as do some predicting which helps the brain get ready for words they may see in the text.

During Spelling, we began our unit on long vowels and words that contain the silent e at the end.  As a challenge, I even chose some words with blends at the beginning that also had the silent e.  We have also reviewed / practiced words that begin and end with th-, sh-,and ch-……the children did awesome!!  Super spellers in the making!!

Math

This week we celebrated 100 days of school with lots of activities centered on the number 100!  We rotated through each of the first grade classrooms and did 100 second exercises, did estimation jar activities, read 100’s Day books, and much more!

In math workshop, students continue working on solving addition and subtraction problems and understanding place value.

                                 Science

In science we are doing lots of experimenting in our “Sorting It Out” unit.  We have sorted objects using the properties rough and smooth, flexible and rigid, and we have begun experimenting sorting objects that are magnetic and not magnetic.  Next week we will go “fishing” in our classroom to see which items in our “pond” will attract to our magnets.  We also did some research in computer lab to learn more about magnets. 

                                            Social Studies

We watched a video clip, read non-fiction books, and made Valentine “Glyph” Ladybugs to learn about Valentine’s Day last week.  Thank you for all of the wonderful donations to make our Valentine Party a huge success!

Upcoming dates:

Friday, February 24^th- Conference Time Sheets come home in Friday Folders

Tuesday, February 28^th- PTC meeting 7:00-8:00pm

Thurs, March 2^nd- PTC Roller Skating Party @ Kentwood Fun Spot 3:30-8:00pm

Friday, March 10^th- ½ day dismissal 11:25

Monday, March 13^th- Evening conferences (and Spring Book Fair)

Thursday, March 16th- Evening conferences (and Spring Book Fair)

Friday, March 17- No School

Friday, March 24- Family Fun Night at the high school 5:30-8:30

Thanks for your continued support at home!

Ms. Mason & Mrs. Putnam 

Friday Flyer 

Dear Parents,

        This month we are in need of your help!  If your child wears black snow pants, many students are wearing the wrong ones home.  We have sorted them out here at school and labeled any unlabeled pants with your child’s name.  One student is still missing their correct pair.  Could you please check your child’s snow pants for us, thank you!

        Also, if you know about an end of the day appointment in advance, please email us.  That way we can have your child down in the office on time without classroom interruptions.  We often have multiple students picked up 10-15 early without advance notice and when our classroom receives many phone calls from the office late in the day it disrupts our learning time, thank you for your help with minimizing distractions for our classroom J 

As we enter February, the pace and expectations in first grade continue to accelerate.

The children continue to strive towards working independently, making good behavior choices, and showing that they are ready and responsible with school materials.  Please support your child’s growth at home with these same concepts. 

        This week during our language arts block, we practiced a new comprehension strategy called “track your thinking”.  We used post-it notes while reading for documenting our thoughts. Your child marks areas in the story (with a post-it note) that they love (heart), have questions about (?), something new or exciting (!), important part ( * ), answer to something that makes sense (light bulb), and any text connections (t-s, t-t, t-w). The next time your child is reading at home, give them a stack of post-it notes and ask them to track their thinking for you.  You’ll be pleasantly surprised at what they are capable of doing.

        During Writer’s Workshop we are wrapped up our non-fiction writing unit.  The “All About” books turned out great and are on display in our hallway.  Ask your child what topic they chose to write their books about!  This week we began our unit on poetry.  Your child will be learning about line breaks, stanzas, and how to add “music” to their poetry.

        In math workshop, students are solving story problems with a “missing addend.”  This means that they need to solve problems like 2+__=10 for example.  This is a tough concept but students have come up with many wonderful strategies to solve these types of problems!  Some students are still working on correcting reversals of their numbers, I just point out other numbers on the page for them to notice which direction their number should go. 

In social studies we learned lots about Martin Luther King Jr.  We read stories and did an “egg experiment” to demonstrate that inside we are all the same!  What an amazing person to teach valuable lessons to our first graders!  We also researched famous black Americans in computer lab that have shown persistence (one of our “growth mindset” words) in their lives, we learned about many great role models in our nation’s history!

        In science we are starting a new unit called “Sorting it Out.”  We will be sorting objects by properties such as color, shape, flexibility, etc.  We will also learn about properties of water and investigate magnets in this unit.  Great job scientists!

       

**Upcoming Events**

* February 13^th: 1^st/2^nd grade Music Concert at PAC 6:00-7:00

* February 14^th Valentines Party at 2:15-3:00

* February 16^th PTC Chuck E Cheese night 4:00-9:00

* February 17^th: Half Day of School- 11:25 Dismissal

* March 24^th Family Fun Night at Northview High School- 5:30-8:30

Enjoy your weekend as a family and keep warm!

Sincerely,

Jennifer Mason and Kelly Putnam

P.S. Please send all Valentines to school by Monday, February 13^th so that they can be delivered prior to our class party.  I previously emailed out a class list of names but if you need me to re-send please email me.  Also, we are in need of one, 15 min. game for our Valentine’s Day Party.  If you are willing to help with this please email me.  Thank you! (kputnam@nvps.net)