Jennifer Mason, 1^st grade teacher

jmason@nvps.net

Kelly Putnam, 1^st grade teacher

kputnam@nvps.net

Dear 1^st Grade Families,

            LIGHTS, CAMERA, ACTION!  Welcome to 1^st grade at North Oakview Elementary School!  We hope you had a great summer and are ready for a 1^st grade year filled with SHINING moments!  We are VERY excited to see your MOVIE STAR SMILE on the first day of school on Tuesday, September 6.

           

We thought you might like to know some things about your first grade teachers.

 

Mrs. Putnam graduated from Hope College and has her Master’s degree from GVSU.  She taught 3^rd grade for one year in Grand Ledge, 2^nd grade for nine years in Northview, and this will be her sixth year job sharing with Mrs. Mason in 1^st grade (which is so much fun!)  Mrs. Putnam is originally from DeWitt, Michigan and she likes to read and do lots of outside activities such as bike riding, riding her scooter, and playing outdoors with her children.  Her husband teaches in East Grand Rapids and their daughter, Gracie, is 9, son Gibson is 7, and son Graham is 4.  She feels very fortunate to have the opportunity to help you learn which means she’s SUPER excited to start the school year!

Ms. Mason grew up in Rockford Michigan.  She graduated from Western Michigan University and has her masters from GVSU.  She taught preschool for one year, Kindergarten for two years and has currently been in first grade for 19 years.  SHE LOVES FIRST GRADE!!!  In her spare time, Ms. Mason loves to be with her two sons Jackson (8) and Cohen (6).  They both are North Oakview students.  We love to go camping all summer long, fishing, ride bikes, swim, ski, read children’s books, watch movies, or just play in our yard at home.  Ms. Mason and her boys also have a new puppy named Bentley and an older dog named Mia…she’s 14 years old!  I’m sure that there will be a lot of Bentley adventures to share.  J

 

            Students, we do have one thing we’d like to ask your parents to do.  We would like to know more about you and your family.  Please write us a short email about you and send it by the end of the first week of school.  Some ideas to include may be your hobbies, likes and dislikes, fears, previous school experiences, academic strengths/areas of need, your parents’ hopes and wishes for you, and what they expect from this year.  You may also include any medical concerns/allergy information, and the names/ages of any siblings.  This is one way for us to get to know you even better.  Thank you!

            If you or your parents would like to know more about us, about our plans for the school year, or just have questions, feel free to contact us!  You may call school at 361-3450 (before/after school) or email anytime.  Please be sure to have your after school plans in place prior to coming to school each day as late afternoon phone calls make the end of the day more hectic.  We have many exciting things planned, and we are ready to help you accomplish great things!  We are so excited to start our school year together, so come prepared with your ideas, skills, and a smile. J

Your “Directors,”

Ms. Jennifer Mason

Mrs. Kelly Putnam

First Grade Teachers 

Dear First Grader,

Hello! Can you believe you will soon be a first grader?  Guess what?  You are going to have two teachers, Mrs. Mason and Mrs. Putnam.   Mrs. Mason will be with you in the mornings to teach you reading, writing, spelling and phonics.  Mrs. Putnam will be teaching you math, science, social studies and computer lab in the afternoons. We are excited to begin the new school year with you!  To help you get ready for your first day of first grade, we thought you might like a checklist of the supplies you can begin to gather and bring to school on Tuesday, September 6th.

1.) 1½ inch hard cover 3-ring binder
2.) notebooks (1 spiral, 1 composition)
3.) 1 pencil box 5”x8” (not a pouch)
4.) 1 box of 24 crayons (only 24 please)
5.) A large backpack (without wheels)
6.) A healthy snack and lunch (daily)
*Most of these items can be found at the dollar store. J

If your family is able to provide any of these additional classroom supply needs, it would be greatly appreciated!
Classroom Needs: (not required by all students)
Kleenex
3”x 3” sticky notes
Yellow #2 pencils **

**Please, no fancy pencils or personal pencil sharpeners.  All pencils will be shared with the class.

We are looking forward to meeting all of you at our Open house on Tuesday, August 30 from 6:00-7:00pm. 

Remember, school begins on Tuesday, September 6th and it will be a full day.  Come prepared with your ideas and smiles!
   Sincerely,  Mrs. Mason and Mrs. Putnam

                                                           6-8-16

Dear Families,

        We wanted to express how much we have enjoyed this school year.  Working with your children has been a highlight in our teaching careers.  This particular group of children holds many great qualities.  They are very kind, generous, and eager to learn.  What more could a teacher ask for?

        When the year started most could not read or write a sentence, count to one hundred, or tell time.  We are very proud of their hard work and determination.  It was really those two attributes that allowed them to succeed.  Working with them on a daily basis was a joy!  It always amazes us how much they learn to do in first grade!

        Thank you for all of the wonderful parent support you gave to your child and to us.  It is truly appreciated and does not go unnoticed.  We could not have done it on our own and been as successful!

        We encouraged the children to continue their learning over the summer.  Please consider the following ideas:

1.)   READ! READ! READ!  The public library, Schuler Books, and Barnes and Noble all offer summer reading programs that are both fun and motivating.  Also, check out a book title generator based on a book your child loved.  Go to http://yasiv.com, type in your favorite book title, and it will generate a web of book suggestions with a synopsis of each.

2.) Your child should WRITE!  This can take any form—thank you notes, journal writing back and forth with you, lists, stories, pen pal letters—whatever is motivating for your child!

3.) Your child should keep up their MATH skills!  Work through the summer math packet that was sent home to review the skills taught this year.  Studying basic facts is important as well.  There are many apps available for ipods, ipads, and iphones.  Here are some online sites and apps that are great tools for practice:

-        abcya.com

-        www.mathplayground.com

-        www.ixl.com (accounts are active through June 30)

-        Apps: monster math, sushi math

We hope these ideas are useful to you.  Thank you for sharing your sweet children with us this year, we have truly enjoyed learning and growing together.

Warmly,

Jennifer & Kelly

Friday Flyer

 

Dear Families,

         

We are closing in on our final month as the 2015-2016 First Grade Family.  The children have made tremendous academic and social growth this year; their second grade teachers are going to love them! 

Our final unit during writing workshop is “Realistic Fiction”.  This is always an enjoyable unit to teach…children’s minds are FULL of stories and they tend to be natural storytellers.  We have studied the experts, as well as learn how to create a story map containing characters, setting, problem, and solution in order to write our story. The children have written several stories each and enjoy sharing t hem with their peers.

During Readers workshop, we are reviewing the strategies that were taught this year and “fine tuning” them with the more difficult text we are reading.

In science this week we continued to focus on the painted lady butterfly’s life cycle, we are studying these creatures up close and personal in our classroom!  We started with painted lady caterpillars (larva stage) eating and growing over the past 2 weeks and we then watched as they formed chrysalises (which is the pupa stage of the life cycle).  We actually had several caterpillars emerge from the pupa stage right during class and we observed them becoming adult butterflies right before our eyes- WOW!!  Students also constructed the life cycle while doing an art project, using different types of noodles.  These creations will come home soon!

In math, we focused on money and 2-digit addition and subtraction over the past few weeks.  Your child should be able to identify the penny, nickel, dime, and quarter and should know what each coin is worth.  We learned fun facts about these coins and read many math books about this topic as well.  Check in with your first grade mathematicians to see what fun information they can tell you about coins (who’s on the heads/tails side, etc.)

In social studies we will soon begin our unit on families.  Next week Friday, an at-home project on family trees and interviewing a family member will come home.  More details to come!  

Upcoming Dates:

All Library books are due- 5/27/16

No School: Memorial Day- 5/30/16

Field Day- 6/3/16 (in the afternoon)

Field Day Rain Date- 6/6/16

½ day of school- 6/8/15 (dismissal 11:25)

½ day of school- 6/9/15 (dismissal 11:25)

½ day and last day of school- 6/10/15 (dismissal 11:25)

Sincerely,  Jennifer Mason & Kelly Putnam

Friday Flyer

Dear Families,

 Happy spring!  We all had a wonderful time today at the Dairy Discovery Farm and Meijer Gardens.  The amount of learning that was absorbed today far surpasses a regular day at schoolJ! We hope you hear all about it from your first grader.  Thank you SO much to the parent volunteers that took time away from their busy schedules to help with our kids.  You are all very much appreciated!

         During writer’s workshop, we just completed our unit on opinion and persuasive writing.  This week we started our final writing unit of the year titled “Realistic Fiction”.  This showcases great imaginations!

        When reading with your child at home, be sure to give them the cues such as, “that has a vowel team” (ex. “ea” like in (seat) the e says its own name and the “a” is silent) or “that is a silent e word” (like in bike) when they are stuck. 

        In math we just finished learning about fractions, we worked on using patterns and rules to subtract multiples of 10 from a 2-digit number, and this week we are working on odd/even.  We are also using lots of math strategies to solve more difficult word problems and we will be reviewing and extending our math learning for the rest of the year.

In science we wrapped up our unit of study on weather.  We discussed spring and reviewed what to do in case of severe weather.  We also started our last science unit of the year, “An Animal’s Life!”  We are currently studying painted lady butterflies and their life cycle.  Studying these animals up close at Meijer Gardens has been a highlight already!

In social studies we are completing our Junior Achievement program.  A volunteer from the community comes in each week for 5 weeks to teach us how things work in a community.  The students are loving learning from “Mr. L!”

It is hard to believe that we only have 7 weeks of school left.  Our students are really starting to look like second graders!

Have a great week!

Jennifer Mason and Kelly Putnam

  

Friday Flyer 

Dear Parents,

        Thank you for attending conferences last week.  There is so much to celebrate in regards to your child’s progress so far this year!  We appreciate the home support for both academics and behavior.

        Last week in Writer’s Workshop we began our unit on “Persuasive Writing”. We started by studying and exploring the experts… authors of persuasive pieces.  Next we brainstormed a list of topics we feel passionate about, wrote a whole class practice letter to the Kindergarteners persuading them to become awesome readers, and then started composing our own pieces.  These kiddos are good at persuading others…..:) they use ALL the key words!

During Reader’s Workshop, our comprehension strategy is Asking Questions Before, During, and After reading a story.  Good readers are always asking questions about what they are reading…and checking to be sure everything is making sense!  We have been practicing writing out this concept several times at school, but it is always a good idea to discuss this concept verbally when reading together.  

Be sure to encourage your child to keep reading every night at home.

        During science we wrapped up our “Sorting Things Out” unit by coming up with our own magnet experiments, performing them, and sharing what we learned with the class.  We also did science rotations through each of our first grade classrooms where we investigated properties of water and learned/experimented with “donut magnets.” 

We will continue our “Weather Watchers” Unit as we watch for signs of spring!  We did “Fun Friday” rotations and learned about the process of tapping sugar maple trees.  The tree outside our classroom window that we have been studying all year just happens to be a sugar maple, so we tapped it and Mrs. Putnam boiled down the sap to make syrup.  We tasted our own homemade maple syrup in class today, yum!!

In Math Workshop we continue number scrolling (some have reached 2,000!), and we are completing our learning on 2-dimensional and 3-dimensional shapes.  Our highlight last week was constructing our own 2-D shapes with toothpicks and marshmallows!  We reviewed many math concepts this month as well through some St. Patrick’s Day math stations.  I also pre-assessed students on our third trimester standards.

In social studies we learned about St. Patrick’s Day through reading non-fiction books and we had our own little first grade leprechauns deliver some “I feel lucky to know you” letters to adults in our building this week. 

The excitement for learning is certainly blossoming in our classroom! 

Sincerely,

Jennifer Mason & Kelly Putnam

* Reminder… Family Fun Night is tonight at the High School.  Come out and have some yummy pizza and have fun playing games and listening to music.  Tickets will now be available at the doorJ.  Be sure to check out the TEACHER SILENT AUCTION TABLE!  The two of us have a bowling trip up for raffle.

* We were asked to send a reminder note about school hot lunch:

PRICES

Grades K-4 Lunch: $2.25
Grades 5-8  Lunch: $2.50
Grades 9-12 Lunch:  $2.50/$2.75/$3.25
Grades K-12 Breakfast: $1.35

Beverages remain $.50 (note: one beverage – milk or juice – is included in the meal price above, however, if a child wants a second beverage or a beverage to go with a sack lunch then the price is $.50).

Friday Flyer  

  

Dear Families,

        Welcome to March is Reading Month!  We have a month filled with enjoyable opportunities and activities to celebrate reading and learning together. 

                                         

BOOK FAIR REMINDER

        Our North Oakview book fair will be held during conference week.  Our class shopping day for the book fair is Monday morning (3/7).

MATH

        In math we studied shapes this week, starting with a review of 2-dimensional shapes.  Next week we will move on to 3-dimensional shapes.  Students are working on combining shapes together to make and name new shapes!

       

CONFERENCES

We are looking forward to updating you at conferences on how your child is doing both academically and socially.  Please assist us with keeping on schedule by arriving to your appointment on time and sticking to the amount of time you are assigned.  We have received most of your conference confirmations back; please send these to school asap so that we know your given time is confirmed. 

Have a wonderful weekend!

Sincerely,

Jennifer Mason & Kelly Putnam