You're Invited to...


POLAR EXPRESS FAMILY NIGHT



First grade will be hosting our annual "Polar Express Family Night" for all first grade families on Thursday, December 14, from 5:30-7:15. We would like to invite your whole family to join us in the gym to watch the movie Polar Express in your pajamas while enjoying cookies and hot chocolate. Yum!!! Parents are required to stay to supervise and spend time with their child/children.

We are in need of a few items to make this night a success. If you are willing to donate, please click here . We appreciate your generosity in helping with this fun event!  

If you have not done so already, please return your blue form or email me with the number of people attending. We are looking forward to a wonderful event! 

STEAM Bins

Hi Families,

I am wanting to incorporate STEAM (science, technology, engineering, art, mathematics) Bins into our daily morning work centers. I have some materials but am needing to add to our classroom materials in order to do this.

Read more about STEAM Bins and our project by clicking here.

If you are interested in donating, use the promo code LIFTOFF at check out to have your donation (up to $50) doubled for the next 7 days. Feel free to share this with family, friends, etc.

As always, thanks for your support!


Conference Week Reminders

Hi there! I've been speaking to each of you this week so no big blog post needed but here are a few reminders going into the long weekend!

  •  Friday Folders: Since we are meeting this week for conferences, I don't plan on sending home Friday Folders this week. Reminder: NO SCHOOL on Friday!

  • Book Fair: If you haven't checked out the Book Fair yet, put it on your To Do List. There are lots of wonderful items in the library for you and your student to check out. The Book Fair will be open today, Thursday Nov. 9 from 7:30am-7:00 pm and Friday, November 10, from 8:00-10:00am.  

  • Food Drive for Meals on Wheels: RBE Service Club is organizing the Food Drive for Meals on Wheels.  We will be collecting non-perishable items until November 14th.  If you wish to donate, first grade students have been asked to bring microwavable meals (not frozen) and/or individual apple sauce packs. 

  • Turkey Project: Our family turkey projects are due on Monday, November 13. These were sent home on Monday, November 6. As a reminder, your child can decorate his or her turkey however he/she would like and with any materials. These are a first grade tradition and go out in the hallway for everyone to see! Please let me know if you have any questions about this.

  • Polar Express Family Night:  Save the date for this fun first grade family night. This will take place on December 14 for first grade students in the RBE gym. Look for more information soon! 

Week 10 Recap

Reminders

  • Lots of Friday Folders were not checked and turned in this weekend. Please check them tonight and get them back to school tomorrow. There is important information (two green sheets) that needs to be returned about Parent Teacher Conferences. Please return this ASAP :)  Thank you to those that have already turned it in. 
  • Our Fall Party is this Friday (October 27) from 1:45-2:30. Parents are invited! All of our slots are filled for bringing items in or volunteering your time. If you need a reminder of what you signed up to bring, please click here . 
  • Your student will NOT need to bring lunch on Tuesday, October 24. PTA will provide us with a pizza party to celebrate our class for selling the most tickets for the RBE Chicken BBQ. Thank you for purchasing and selling tickets. We are still waiting on final counts but the BBQ was a big success this year!!


Here is an electronic copy of the newsletter from Week 10. This is a great recap of week 10 plus a preview of what's to come in the future weeks.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0ByBWW3z2dCboclg1azVmNkNVMDQ/view?usp=sharing






Week 9 Recap

Updates and Reminders

  • Fall Party will be Friday, October 27 from 1:45-2:30. Everyone is invited to join in on the fun! Thank you to the parents who are busy planning and the parents who have volunteered to donate their time or items to make this party a success! If you would like to see the sign up genius, click here. Mrs. Godier has offered to bring in pumpkins for everyone in our class so each parent does not need to bring one. Thank you! 
  •  October 20 : Parents and Principals from 8-9am. 
  • Mark your calendars for our Scholastic Book Fair. It will be open the week of Parent/Teacher Conferences (November 6-10). 
  • I try to send home snack reminders in Friday Folder the week before your snack week. If you ever need an additional reminder, please click here to see a schedule. The schedule stays the same each month. Thank you for helping out with snack! :) 

Here is a recap on learning and fun last week! 

We started our week off by participating in Makerspace. We were able to code Ozobots in the library.



In Math, we were introduced to some brand new topics! We learned about change diagrams and how to make a number model. Examples of these are in this week's (Week 10) homework packet. Change diagrams really help students understand what is taking place during addition and subtraction. Students enjoyed making up their own stories to go along with the change diagrams too! 

We aren't working on addition/subtraction sentences with these big numbers yet (while they are brand new to us) but here is a great example of a change diagram. 


During writing, in addition to writing small moment stories, we have been learning about what it means to have a writer's eye. We have learned that we should see these four important things in our writing so it is an easy to read writing piece. Your student has set a goal to work hard at improving one of these in their writing. We set the goal based on their individual need! 



During reading, we are adding strategies to our Reading Strategy Wall. Right now, these strategies are ways that we can figure out unknown words. Here is just one we added this week! 


We started a new read aloud this week. We are enjoying getting to know Gooney Bird Greene. This story is great at character development and it's funny too! 


We received our third CPS Zoo animal this week. So far we have had fresh water fish and a platypus.This week, we received a BIG box. We read these clues on the box and were able to make predictions based on the clues. Inside the box was an orca. We will continue to learn about the orca during week 10. 


These kiddos worked hard this week to fill up a sticker chart. They were able to eat lunch with me in the classroom on Wednesday! Way to go!! 





Week 8 (and more) Recap

Hi there parents! These 8 weeks have flown by. We have been learning lots. I have already noticed how much your children has grown as learners since the beginning of the year. First grade is such an exciting year for change.

Reminder

  • Chicken BBQ: October 14, 2017 at RBE. We are still in need of some volunteers. Sign up here! http://www.signupgenius.com/go/rbechicken Also, we are still in need of pies If you would like to donate, please sign up here. www.signupgenius.com/go/pielist
  • Each night your child will bring home a book to read to you for reading homework. They may bring home the same book two nights in a row. However please make sure this book gets return to school every day so we can switch them out when needed. These are books from the library and can be associated with fines! :( 
  • We will have a celebration in music on Friday (10/13) for good behavior and class participation. Your child can bring in a stuffed animal to music class on Friday. 
  • Also, Friday (10/13) is western day. Dress in your favorite western or cowboy attire! 

Here are a few things we were up to last week!

In week 8, we were introduced to lots of new math concepts. We worked a bunch with word problems and how to label our counts. We should always label our counts so people know what we are talking about. 

Also, we were introduced to calculators. Students thought it was fun to do math on calculators. 





We have learned 3 of our Daily 5 centers. Each child does Read to Self, Read to Someone and Work on Writing each day! This is a great time to practice our reading and writing. We can all agree that Read to Someone is our favorite so far. It has been so fun reading with your child during their reading groups. This is a great time for me to work with your child on specific skills that they need! 

We are learning reading strategies to help us find our unknown words. Last week, we learned to check the pictures and see if it makes sense. Also, we have learned to get our lips ready and say the beginning out and end sound. 







We are still writing small moment stories. During week 8 (last week), we talked about zooming in on "seed sized" stories instead of writing about watermelon stories. We did this activity as a class which was really helpful. Please help your child think about seed (small moment) stories that they can write about during writer's workshop.


We were able to go out and observe our tree in the outdoor classroom. Students each got a tree observation notebook. We will go out to the outdoor classroom throughout the year to observe this tree and see how it changes throughout the seasons! We were able to write and draw about the tree. 




On Friday, we had a fun celebration where we had a camping day. You student enjoyed wearing their pajamas and bringing a blanket to school. We were able to relax and read in the dark with our flashlights.




Camping Party

Camping Party!

          Our class has earned a celebration for receiving 20 compliments and building our stamina in reading and writing. I am SO proud of them. We will celebrate Friday, October 6, 2017 by a having a camping party (picked by your students). You may wear pajamas or comfy clothes to school and bring one stuffed animal and one blanket. Also, we will be doing some camping style activities so please bring a flashlight too! I will have some extras on hand as well. Congratulations!! You’ve worked hard to earn this!




You're Invited

You’re Invited
What: First Grade Curriculum Chat
When: September 12, 2016   7:45-8:15 am
Where: Rock Bridge Elementary in our classroom

Come join us for an opportunity to learn more about our first grade classroom and the learning that is taking place.

We look forward to seeing you there! 



Week 3 Recap

Hi Families! I hope you are all enjoying this long holiday weekend. The weather has been gorgeous and it looks like more great weather is in store for us. Here's what's been happening in our classroom this week.

Announcements and Reminders

  • Picture Day is September 6 (this Wednesday). Picture forms went home in Friday Folders a couple of weeks ago. Please let me know if you need another form or the link to purchase online. 
  • Library Check out is every Tuesday so please return both library books to school that day. 
  • Our September Snack Schedule can be accessed here. There was also one in your Friday Folder. The copy that was in your Friday Folder has the incorrect specials schedule on the bottom. Please ignore that. You can see the correct specials schedule here.


We have started two of the five Daily 5s. Your student has learned what stamina means.


We are working on building our stamina in Work on Writing and Read to Self so we can become independent during this time. We've learned that it's important to practice these two things daily so that we can become better and because it's fun!


Our classroom library opened up! This was an exciting day for our students. They have been waiting patiently all year for this to open. Your child will get to fill up their book box with books from our classroom library and books that I give them during small group. Here they are on the day it opened!




Writing Workshop is in full force in Room 15. . We went over what it should look like, sound like and feel like during Writing Workshop. Also, your students were able to set up their Writing Folders. This will allow them to safely store their writing.

During writing time, we will be focusing on Small Moment stories (personal narratives). So far your students have learned that small moment stories don't have to be some big event that happened to us like vacation or our birthday party but it can be an ordinary day event like spilling your markers on the floor. I've been excited to read all of the stories that your students are beginning to write.

 In math, we learned lots about tally marks, tally charts and organizing/collecting data. We sorted and organized animals by animals that have wings and animals that do not have wings. Also, while playing Rock, Paper, Scissors, we were able to make a tally chart based on the winning signal. 

We are working on comparing and ordering numbers. We have learned new math games too help us practice our math skills. So far we have learned Monster Squeeze, Penny Dice, Bunny Hop and Top It. These games help us practice comparing and ordering numbers and using the number line. 

In Fundations, we are continuing to review our letters. This has been a wonderful time to practice our handwriting and review the correct pencil grip. We have been working on writing our name the school way with a capital letter at the beginning and the rest are lowercase. We were able to get our letter boards and play some fun games with them as a review! 

To end our wonderful week, we were able to buddy read with our fourth grade buddies. This was so much fun! 








Have a wonderful week!! 

What is Daily 5?


It won’t be long until you hear your child talk about the Daily 5.  So, what is the Daily 5?  It is a way of structuring the reading block so that every student is independently engaged in meaningful literacy tasks.  The research based tasks are ones that will have the big impact on student reading and writing achievement, as well as foster children who love to read and write.  Students receive explicit whole group instruction and then are given independent practice time to read and write while I instruct individuals or small groups of students. It allows me to reach every reader and writer, no matter what the level. 

There are five parts to Daily 5.

1)Read to Self 
2)Read to Someone
3)Work on Writing
4)Word Work
5)Listen to Reading 

This program will help me learn about your child’s greatest strengths and needs as a reader which will help me plan for his/her individual instruction.  One thing you might notice is a decrease in the number of worksheets your child brings home.  Instead your child will be taught how to select “Just Right Books” for reading.  By reading books that are “Just Right” for your child, he/she will be able to read it more fluently and comprehend the book that they are reading.  Your child will be spending  time reading, which research supports as the #1 way to improve reading.  I anticipate the Daily 5  along with other reading instruction will motivate and improve your child’s reading.  I am excited about implementing this  reading program and giving your child the opportunity to grow as a reader this year. 

A book can take you on an amazing journey without even leaving your house! 

Week 2 Recap

My goal is to give a weekly recap each week. This blog post will be posted sometime over the weekend. During this weekly post, I will update you on some (it would be impossible to recap everything :) ) happenings in room 15 and give any reminders or announcements.

We are off to such a great start. The first graders are getting well acquainted with each other. We are getting our routine and procedures established and building a great classroom community. One of our favorite times of day is circle time where we get to share something about ourselves. This week we did a "get to know you activity" called "Find someone who likes" They loved interacting with each other during this time.



We have started learning the basics for our "Read to Self" daily reading routine (called Daily 5). We learned that here are three ways to read. We can 1. Read the pictures. 2. Read the words. or 3. Retell the story. We liked practicing these ways. We 've learned that is is important to practice reading so that we can come better readers and because it is fun to read. Reading can take us on adventures and calm our brains. 

We have learned and practiced our jobs during Read to Self.  We enjoyed getting comfy around the room for this! 


In math, we worked on using different strategies to count objects. Students were instructed to pick their favorite way to count and then they were challenged to find more ways to count. Here are the kiddos in action.


Here are some strategies we came up with as a group! 
We learned new games like Monster Squeeze and Penny Dice. Also, we received our math "tool kits" this week. We will be adding to it throughout the year. We were able to add our Pattern Block Template and use it to make some fun drawings.


Other highlights of our week include:
  • Learning about different families and drawing portraits of our family
  • Reading bucking filling books and learning about being a bucket filler and not a bucket dipper
  • Generating ideas for our writing by drawing/writing things we love and things we like to do
  • Meeting up with our 4th grade buddies in Ms. Appelbaum's class
  • Learning 2 of our 5 rules (Rule #1: Follow directions quickly. Rule #2: Raise your hand for permission to speak)



We had our first library check out! Please help your student remember  to bring back their library books (everyone has two) every Tuesday. 



I hope you enjoyed looking at some of the highlights of our week! I think the most exciting part of our week was the eclipse. I will be sharing pictures of that soon!  As always, if you have any questions or concerns, please contact me at 573-214-3290 or aholt@cpsk12.org 

What is Fundations?

Your child may come home talking about Fundations and Echo, the owl and you may be wondering, "What in the world is Fundations?" Here is you answer.

Research indicates that systematic and explicit phonic instruction is effective for all children. Fundations provides a systematic and explicit approach to reading and spelling with phonics. We will combine this with other reading techniques to make your child a well-rounded reader.

1. Fundations is systematic because it follows a sequence for teaching and it follows a procedure.

2. Fundations is explicit because it does not leave room for guessing. It teaches all concepts directly. As the year progresses, Fundations introduces many aspects of word structure and sentence structure. At the beginning of each unit, I will be sending home guides and activities to help you support your child. These letters will outline what we are doing in class too!

At the end of each unit, there is an assessment. The finished and graded assessment will go home in Friday Folders too. You will see notes from me on additional help your child  might need from you or things I will be doing to support him/her in class.



Solar Eclipse Reminders

Image result for solar eclipse 2017 kids

  • Please apply sunscreen to your child before school on Monday. We cannot apply sunscreen at school. 
  • You may send a hat for your child to wear.
  • Please dress appropriately for the warm weather on Monday. Please have your child wear tennis shoes too. 
  • Our lunch and recess times will be different that day. We will have lunch from 10:05-10:25.
  • Teachers will provide blankets to sit on and water bottles for each child.
We are looking forward to a fun day learning and celebrating the solar eclipse! 


First Day Updates




Hello Families! We made it through the first day of school and we had a WONDERFUL day. Also, I think your kids will be sleeping well tonight. I know I will be! There are lots of things that I need to update you on so I thought it would be easiest to write a blog post to have everything in one spot. So....here we go....

1. Please click here to sign up to stay informed about our classroom. Remind, our classroom website and twitter are all great ways to see what we are doing in Room 15 and get the latest information.


Image result for remind 101
2. Your child can bring a water bottle to school each day. This water bottle can only have water in it and will need to have a lid that does not leak. This will stay in their cubby so they can stay hydrated. We will take appropriate restroom breaks to make up for the water that they are drinking! :)

Image result for water bottle
3. Thank you to those of you that signed up for snack in August. Click here to see the August Snack Calendar. If you did not get a chance to sign up, you will get a chance to bring snack in September. Look for that snack calendar to be sent out before Labor Day.

4. Wow! You guys are so awesome for gathering, purchasing and sending in school supplies. Thank you for providing these items to help your child in their day to day learning needs. If you haven't already, please send in a pencil box (example here ) at your earliest convenience. This acts as a great storage device at our table spots.

Koss KPH7 On-Ear Headphones5. In media (which will be every C day) and during our daily listening station, your child will be using headphones. Please send in a pair at your earliest convenience. We have learned that over the head headphones work better than earbuds.

6. We are doing parent pick-up differently this year.  Your child will be inside the building until a teacher calls him/her to come out.  You MUST have your pink parent pick-up card with you in order to have your child sent out.  If possible, it is helpful for you to remain in your car to pick up your child.  It helps with the radio traffic of calling students’ names.  Thank you for helping us keep our students safe!


Here is a fun picture from the first day of school. I can't wait to make wonderful memories with this group this year! It is going to be an unforgettable year!