|
3 tardies equals 1 absence
Feb. 5, 2012 This week our class will be doing a community service project with the Harrison County Humane Society. We will be learning about pet needs and pet care this week. Our class will be collecting supplies for the Human Society. We are asking each child to donate PURINA dog or cat food, PURINA puppy or kitten chow, gently used clean towels or blankets. Also, they are in desperate need of kitty litter. If you don't have time to go out and buy any of these supplies, they will gladly take a monetary donation. Make checks payable to the Harrison County Humane Society. They only use Purina so keep that in mind if you can donate food. Thanks. On Friday we will be getting a visit from the volunteers at the society as well as some of the animals that they care for. They will be coming this day to pick up all the donations and to do a lesson with our class. Thanks for your support and encouragement with this project. Valentines: According to Harrison County Policy, we are unable to have any kind of candy during our holiday celebrations. Also, the same rule applies to the Valentine cards. I know in the past it has been fine to tape a lollipop or small piece of candy to the Valentine card. However, this year the children can only bring their cards to exchange. In class we will decorate a large white envelope for Valentine's Day. We will be decorating a large white envelope for Valentine's Day. I will be bringing in the envelopes and we will be working on that this week. Your child can bring in their Valentines to pass out on February 13th or 14th. I will send home a list with the student's names tomorrow. We have 22 children in our class. Sincerely, Mrs. Joyce January 29, 2012 Dear Parents, I thought I would take a minute and explain a little bit on how I determine what grades get recorded into the Live Grade System. First I teach a concept, let's say, compound words. I do this through whole group instruction where I gather the children at our carpet area and teach them this lesson. We go back to our seats and then I will do an activity sheet with them where all work is on our projector magnified in huge letters. We will do a paper together with group participation while I lead them through the objective of the activity. Then, throughout the next several days the compound will lesson will be retaught through Smart Board Activities, chart lessons where I will have a daily poem with compound words, and morning message readings where I write the children a large letter on chart paper and we continue to review through the above activities what a compound word is and work on identifying them and breaking down the components of the word. During this time, the children will be visiting their literacy stations that focus on compound words. We have four Listening Centers that your child visits weekly. The listening centers will also focus on compound words. For example, one listening center might be a snowman story. The children listen to the story with a partner. Then they take highlight tape and highlight all the compound words in the story. Finally, they do buddy reading with their partner practicing for fluency and word identification. Another center they will visit is our technology stations. Your child will be assigned a computer lesson on compound words several times during the week as well as working on the ipods where they will be working on compound word skills. They will get at least one or two ipod stations as week and at least one of them will be dealing with compound words. The same goes for the computer stations. Another literacy station they will be visiting is our "Word Work Station". The students work in pairs to work on compound word assignments such as getting different parts of a snowman puzzle and matching the hat to the snowman that will make a compound word. There are many of these type activitties that are hands on. Not a lot of work goes into worksheets during any of these station times. Finally, they meet with me at least two times a week in our small group station (no more than four children to my table) where we work on reading stories that have compound words and identifyint their components. After I feel that I have given the students a plethora of whole group, small group, partner work, listening centers, smart board activities and technology lessons on the subject, it is only then that I will take a grade off of a worksheet that they have to complete totally on their own. Sometimes It seems like a while goes by before I record a grade, but I want to make sure it is taught and retaught before students have to work on their own. Students that miss school or come tardy can get really behind. Our work here in school follows this guideline: I do, We do, You do. Worksheets are not thrown out randomly. We do alot of participation type learning and moving around. I use the compound words idea just as an example. We also incorporate any other skills that we are learning as well into these literacy stations as well. Math is kind of taught the same way... whole group lessons, partner work, games and small group lessons are used daily for math. We start the morning reviewing math skills from the day before and later in the day we do whole group lessons followed by about fifteen to twenty minutes of station activities that reinforce the lesson of the day... last week we did card games, smart board games, Connect Four board games that had math problems on them, and small group lessons to reinforece or help those that were having trouble. Grades are only entered into the Live Grade System after ample instruction and activites have been implemented and I feel that the concept has been incorporated into our class well enough for the students to complete assignments on their own. Not all papers are put into Live Grades... in any subject... it is only after the students have been immersed in that concept that I take a grade on it. Jeesh... if you took the time to read all of that.. I hope it makes sense! I got a little windy there, didn't I?!! Bottom line... your child isn't just sitting and doing worksheets all day! Thanks for all your support. Groundhog's day is just around the corner... I am ready for winter to be over! Sincerely, Mrs. Joyce
January 16, 2012 This week we will be be learning about penguins, arctic animals, and Dr. Martin Luther King, just to name a few! We will have our spelling test next Monday since this is a four day week and we will be so busy catching up from our snow day off and also the holiday. We have a new schedule also starting this week. Our library day will now be on Thursday and our gym day will be Friday. Please continue to send your child in their gym shoes on Friday so that they can participate. You may also send their shoes with them to class if they don't wear them to school. Our spelling words this week will be mixes, brushes, glasses, catches, dresses, buses, dishes, foxes, nuts, and patches. We will be working on activities to help us decide when to add -s or -es to words to make them plural. Our reading lessons will include activities that will help us learn how to read words that have the r controlled vowels (or, ore). We will be building words with tiles. Some of the words we will be making and using are sport, worn, wore, more, shore, cork, fork, stork, born, corn, thorn,etc. We will continue to work on words with a final -ng and -nk as well as compound words. Our math lessons this week are on patterns, shapes, problem solving and addition. We do alot of activities on the Smart Board, computers, ipods and class or partner games to reinforce these skills. With the crazy weather we are having, please remember to send your child's winter coat to school with them. We go outside if at all possible every day. The rooms fluxuate between hot, warm, comfortable and cold.. it's a guess every day what it will feel like in our room. Continue to dress your child in layers so that they can be comfortable. Some time the kids are coming in sweatshirts and not wearing coats! Please make sure your child leaves with a winter coat on. We try to go out if at all possible just to get some fresh air. I am sending home the January Scholastic Book Club order forms. If you would like to order books for your child, please send the order form as well as a check by Friday. I will try to mail the order in on my lunch break that day. if you place an order, our class gets a free book for our little library and the kids are always thrilled. They so look forward to seeing the Scholastic Book Box arrive and getting their name called to pick up their own books to take home. Make checks payable to Scholastic Book Club. As always, they do not accept cash through the mail. It looks like we won't get any snow days for the next week or so and I am hopeful that we continue to be able to come to school on a regular basis! Thanks for all you do, Sincerely, Mrs. Joyce
December 13, 2011 Dear Parents, I have only collected money from two people for the crossing guard. If you can, would you please send in something so we can turn in our class donations. I have extended the deadline for this until the end of this week. Thanks. Spelling words for this week: my, by, try, any, body, fly, cry, lucky, silly, puppy. Reading words: always, becomes, day, everything, nothing, stays, things, adult, healthy, measurement, shuffle, teeter, crooked, bounce, handsome. Math: We are still working on our geometry unit. Student Teacher: Miss Oliverio's last day will be tomorrow. We will certainly miss her. She has been wonderful and will be an excellent teacher. She graduates this week! I was very lucky to have her. Mrs. Joyce
December 5, 2011
Dear Parents, The big field trip day is almost here! Remember to please pack your child a lunch and also pack a snack in a separate bag. We will be leaving between 8:00-8:30 on Thursday so make sure you have your child here in plenty of time so that we can get organized! They are excited about the whole pajama thing so make sure they are dressed in their favorite pj's! We are learning about Germany, Italy, Mexico and Sweden this wee and how they celebrate some form of Christmas. We are preparing the kids for the Polar Express field trip by learning about different countries. They will be working on a little scrap book about these countries and will hope to send it home on Friday. Thanks to all of you who ordered from the Scholastic Book Club. I sent the order in early Saturday morning and I am keeping my fingers crossed we get the books by this Friday. If not, I am sure they will be here early next week. I really goofed last time I sent the order in... the books were delivered within days but I sent them back because I saw a name on them that didn't look familiar! It turns out the name was a boyfriend of one of the mother's and I just didn't recognize it! That is why it took a little longer than usual to get the books! Sorry! So... I will do a better job checking this time and not send the books back right away! We had almost $200 in orders so we earned alot of free books for our classroom library! Thank you, thank you!!! Our spelling words for this week are: feet, green, week, we, tree, me, she, see, he, be. Reading Vocabuary words this week: wander, industrious, slither, creep, eagerly, individual, romp, special, also, family, new, other, their same. Math: We will be starting a geometry unit on Tuesday. The vocabulary words we will be reading and using this week are: plane shapes, triangle, rectangle, circle, square, sort, side, corner, quadrilateral. Christmas Gift: Our class is collecting money for our crossing guard, Mr. Entwistle (not sure of that spelling!) He volunteers at our school every morning, rain or shie, sleet, hail or snow and stands out front helping the children cross every single morning. He is here every morning at dark and then returns in the afternoon to help with the traffic and crossing the children safely. If you can spare a dollar or two, we would surely appreciate it. Any donation you can send would be greatly appreciated. We have had people donate anywhere between $1... all the way to $20. We would love to show him how much we appreciate him and all the work he does free of charge for our children. If possible, please send the money to school by Friday. Thank you so much! Thirteen more school days until the Christmas break! Hope everyone has a great week. Sincerely, Mrs. Joyce
November 28, 2011 Field Trip!!!! We are going to the 4H Center on December 8 to learn about how other countries celebrate the holidays. It is a Polar Express theme so make sure you send your little ones with their pajamas on and ready for a fun filled day. Each child will receive a passport to go to different countries and learn about their holidays and traditions. Some countries that your child may visit are England, Spain, Sweeden, France, Germany, China, Japan, Mexico, and Africa. We will play games, make crafts and visit many countries! You will also need to pack them a lunch as well as a snack. Please put the snack in a sepearte bag if possible. If you would like for your child to have the cooks at school pack a lunch, please send me a note. We need to know in a day or two so they can buy the food to pack. It is usally a sandwich, a piece of fruit, milk and something else. I sent the permission slips home with your child today. Please sign it and return it this week. It is free of charge, so we are not collecting any money. Spelling Words for this week: huge, cube, mule, tube, use, cute, flute, rule, June, rude Reading Sight Words: find, under, food, around, grow, water, environment, thrive, require,inhale, slimy, sludge, capture, creature Phonics: We are working on long 'U" vowel sound. We are also working on -ed endings such as asked, spilled, rested. The students will have to sort the words under the correct headings such as words that end in -ed but sound like "t". Words that end in -ed but sound like"d". Words that end in -ed but sound like "ed". Our grammar lessons will focus on plural nouns and also identifying tellling or asking sentences. Math lessons will focus on subtraction this week. Flash cards purchased at places like The Dollar Store or Wal Mart are a good way to practice. Our reading lessons and learning stations are focusing on forest animals. Our reading listening centers are stories about bears. Our Word Work Stations are on forest animals. The children are given word cards and have to make sentences about animals. For example, they might be given the word cards: use, under,their, under, breath,gills, water, fish, to (Fish use their gills to breath under water.) After they make the sentence in their booklet, then they illustrate it. Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving. We are excited to be back and ready to work and learn! Mrs. Joyce
October 13, 2011 This week we have been exploring nonfiction stories in our reading groups. We have been reading about animals in the wild. Our literature units have focused on using context clues to decipher unknown words and well as expanding our vocabulary. We are incorporating our reading and science as well. Our science lesons have us exploring the life of worms and different kinds of soils. We have examined earthworms and made compost bags for each student. Our science vocabulary includes words like: observation, prediction, soil, compost, decompose, sand, clay and humus. Tomorrow we are going to test three types of soils using hands lens, soils. and activity sheets to record their findings. Our math focus is finding unknown addends such as 6+_=9. We will be using subtraction to compare and as always use word problems that include addition and subtraction. If you have purchased flash cards, keep using them to have your child practice their math facts. You can also do things like give them a number like 27 and have them add 3 to it. We are practicing "counting up". They should know that they take the biggest number and then start counting on to add. If they see 2+7, then they should say to themselves "7 (quietly) and then 8,9. I tell them to use their fingers too, if they need, to count on. In our spelling and language arts lessons, I have been giving them one dictation sentece a day to practice writing. I use old spelling words, word wall words and new reading words and make them into sentences and then say a sentence out loud. The class has to write the sentence using correct spelling and punctuation, as well as spacing and neatness. The children are working hard during the school day and continue to love learning. As the month goes on, they will be doing more on their own. Up to this point, we do so much together, but I am giving them a little more time to try to do papers by themselves. Continue to have your child read aloud to you nightly and remember to visit the public library and check out some Level 1 or 2 books. I am betting some of our kids can even read the Level 3 books as well! As always, Thank you for your support. Mrs. Joyce
October 2, 2011
Reading: We have been reviewing the following kindergarten sight words: see, the you, I come, a, from, am, go, we, have, little, do, are, look, they, like, with, my, here, green, yellow, blue, is, he, me, was, for, she, said, to, one, two, three, four, five, where, that ,what, of. We have also been working on the following first grade sight words: on, way, in, and, take, up, get, help, use, this, her, too, eat. The skills we have been working on include: short "a,i, and "o" words, words containing the final spelling of "ck", "x", words ending in the letter "s" and "ing". We are working on identifying the main idea in stories and telling the difference between fiction and nonfiction stories. This week our sight words are" saw, small, tree, and your. The skills we are working on include short "e" words and inital blends (words containing the beginning spellings of fl, bl, cl, dr, cr, fr, sm, sl, st, gr and tr to name a few. All of our sight words are posted on our word wall so that your child can learn to spell them and know what they are when reading or writing a sentence or story. They are encouraged to look at these words when writing dictation sentences that we do in class. Dictation sentences are when I say a short sentence containing this week's spelling word or an old spelling word as well as word wall words. For example, one of our sentences that your child will have to write this week is "Do not step on the set net". We are working on spacing in between words, proper capitalization and ending marks as well as neatness. In Math we are working on ways to make the numbers 8, 9, and 10 as well as number sentences, problem solving and games to reinforce what we are learning. We are reviewing old vocabulary words such as more, fewer, greater than, and less than. Our new words include: in all, inside, outside, part, whole, double, add, plus, sum, equals, addition sentence, join, order and addend. These are all words that they should know to read as they are listed on our math word wall and gone over daily as oral vocabulary review and in our math class. One way you can help your child is to say a number between one and one hundred. Then have them tell you the number that comes next. Another thing you can do is to give them oral math addition problems that have a sum that is ten or less. For example, ask them how much 2+2 is, or 7 +3. Do this with as many combinations as you can so that they have individual practice with you. I will be senind home the October issue of our Scholastic Book Club. Please look this over and see if you are interested. The kids were so excited last month when the book box came and they got to have their own book or books to take home. This is so worthwhile as the kids love it and we get classroom books for our little library for every book that you order. One of the books that I particulary noticed that I thought was great was book #80 "Your Read to Me, I'll Read to You". I have used these books when I tutor one on one with a child and they are just great. The kids really love them because the parent reads a part and then there is a part on each page for the child to read. The book club orders will be due to me by this Thursday, October 6. I will mail them in that night after I take them home and make a final tally of the books ordered. We should have them back in two weeks. I am really enjoying working with all of your children. They come to school happy and eager to learn which makes it fun for me as well! Sincerely, Mrs. Joyce
September 14, 2011 Spelling words: in, it, did, sit, six, fix, lip, mix, pin, wig What we are working on in reading: Sight words: and, take, up Distinguishing between realism and fantasy. We are using the words "fiction" and "non fiction". We are reading books by the author, Kevin Hinkes. He has been our "author of the week" for about two weeks now. We are also going to literacy stations a few times during the day to explore more books on tapes or cd's, work on this week's Odyssey Lesson on the computers, visit the pocket chart station where the children have to cut apart a poem and put in in the correct order and then illustrate, art station (children read directions on a chart that has words and pictures so they can follow directions for the art activity) and work on word puzzle stations using tiles. Alot of the work we do, is hands on so that the children are not just doing worksheets all day. Grammar: We are still working on spacing between words, capitalization, punctuation (periods at the ends of sentences) and also writing complete sentences. Science: Experiements this week have included working in groups of twos to experiment with sinking and floating. We are coming up with conclusiions on what makes things sink or float. We are writing about it in our science journals. Math: We are working on tally marks, odd and even numbers, graphing and addition. This week we have used cards to play learning games to reinforce addition. Our book club order should be here by Friday! I am excited to get everything unpacked! It has been a good week so far. Today I heard a child say that they couldn't believe it was time to go. That is a pretty good compliment for me to hear! Makes me happy that the day goes fast for the kids and that they are working hard but don't realize it because they are having a good time. Made my day! Thank you for all your support. Mrs. Joyce
September 6, 2011 We will be starting reading lessons this week where your child will be learning new reading and spelling words. Our new reading words are: in, on, and way. These are the sight words for the week. We will also be working hard on short "a" words and words that contain the spelling "ck" The spelling test will be on Friday. Your child's words are written in their student planner. They are at, can, cat, back, dad, am, bat, mad, ran, and sack. Absences: If your child is going to be absent, I will send make up work home with them when they return. I do not get things ready a day ahead of time. I usually get all work ready in the morning. In case I will not be here, I have a substitute folder with other plans and assignments in it. Sometimes we complete all that I have planned, and sometimes we don't have time. Almost all the work we are doing is done together as a class. Milk money: Please send it at the beginning of the week in an envelope or baggie with your child's name and how many milks they will be buying for the week and what days they will be buying it. I am getting money on my desk with no name on them. Some money is in envelopes and some is in baggies with no name. I don't usually have change so please try to send the correct amount. Thanks to all the parents who sent in their orders for the book club. Your books should be here the middle of next week. We were able to purchase 20 new books for our classroom library with points earned from your orders. Thank you so much!!! It has been great working with your children! Mrs. Joyce
August 28, 2011
We sure did have a busy first week of school. We are working on writing sentences, mainly focusing on spacing between words and beginning sentences with capital letters and putting periods or question marks at the end. Our math lessons have been focusing on counting by ones and tens. We are also doing a number of the day each week. I give the class a number and then we show that number in words, numbers, tally marks and math sentence equations. One thing you can do to practice with your child is to give them a number between one and one hundred and have them say the number that comes next. That is a skill that we have been working on as well and will continue to do so through this week. Our Author of the Week has been David Shannon. You can find many of his books at the Bridgeport Public Library. The kids really love all his stories. This week our author study is on Kevin Henkes. You can also find many of his books at the library as well. We are reviewing the sight words from last year for a few more days. Then on Friday, we will begin working out of our first grade reading series. Each week your child will get new vocabulary words to read and know as well as "Amazing Words". These words are a little bit harder and are in the stories that we read each week. Next week I will list the reading vocab and Amazing Words we will be working on after we get back from Labor Day weekend. We will be doing alot of Science activities in first grade. I really, really love teaching science! For the next few weeks we are experimenting and working in groups on the properties of solids. Last week our Science words were: properties, matter, solids, and transparent. I will be sending home the Scholastic Book Club flyer on Monday (August 29). Please look over that with your child and hopefully you will see some books that you would like for your child. You are certainlly not obligated to buy anything, but for every book you purchase for your child, our classroom earns points towards books for our classroom library. I will be sending these flyers out once a month and putting in your orders. The first order is due to me by this Thursday. Please send your order form and a check made out to Scholastic Book Club. I can not accept cash for this as the company will not let me send cash through the mail. Thank you, thank you! Arrival Time: Please have your child here early! I help the children at their lockers between 7:30-7:45. Then we sharpen pencils and get ready for the day. Our doors close at 8:00 and attendance is taken at 8:00. If your child is out at their locker at that time, they are counted tardy. If I had my way, school would start at 9:00 and we could sleep in an hour longer! Remember to send tennis shoes to school with your child on Mondays as that is our gym day. I hope everyone had a great weekend and is rested up and ready to tackle another week in first grade! Sincerely, Lori Joyce
|
