Happy Monday!

Good afternoon Fantastic First Grade Families!

We have a short, exciting week ahead of us!

We will have NO whole class principle in Spelling this week. However, each child chose 5 Star Sight Words to practice throughout the week for our Thursday morning test.

At the beginning of the year your child was assessed on 112 First Grade sight words to be mastered by the end of the year. The words your child spelled incorrectly were compiled to make their personal list of Special Star Sight Words. As we hit the half way mark for First Grade, many of the students have mastered words from their Special Star Sight Words list that they do not need to choose for future Spelling tests. This week we are taking that same 112 First Grade sight word test to reassess where each student is. Your child DOES NOT need to practice for this assessment. We began the assessment this afternoon with the first 28 words. What took us 30 minutes in August only took 15 minutes today! These First Graders knew almost EVERY word and breezed right through it! It's very exciting to see their growth from just a few short months ago. I have attached a picture of the 112 words if you are interested.

This week we will not begin a new chapter in Math. We will spend time reviewing the various concepts we have covered first and second quarter - especially addition and subtraction strategies. Today we reviewed and practiced our addition strategies. We know that the best addition strategy is JUST KNOWING IT. To help reinforce this fact memorization we have begun TIMED TESTS! This week we are learning how timed tests work - we are practicing how and why we do them. Once we come back from Winter Break we will OFFICIALLY start timed tests. The timed tests are leveled - your child must pass A before moving to B before moving to C before moving to D etc. This means we won't all be on the same timed test at the same time. Today we all started with B and everyone did FANTASTIC! You will know your child has moved to the next level when you see a PASS at the top of their timed test. We know that we only have TWO minutes to finish our timed tests, so it's important to PUSH our brains and move FAST! We cannot spend time stuck on one problem because we will run out of time. If we get stuck, a good strategy is to circle it and MOVE ON. Missing one is better than getting stuck on it and missing the rest! (Check out the picture of them pushing their brains to get finished in two minutes!)

I hope everyone has a wonderful Monday night!

Adopt a Family, Library, and IPADS!

Good afternoon Fantastic First Grade Families!

Monday morning we walked into our classroom to find an AWESOME surprise - FIVE IPADS! Every K, 1, and 2 classroom in the whole district is now equipped with five iPads for student use. There were no apps downloaded yet, but I spent Monday evening getting them ready for us! Tuesday afternoon we spent time exploring the iPads and learning how they work. We are fortunate to have quite a few iPad experts in our classroom. Many First Graders told me they have an iPad at home so they were familiar with how they work. It's GREAT to have friends who can help us out - ESPECIALLY with technology :)

Today we started integrating the iPads into our daily routine - we are starting with Word Work during Daily 5. Every student will get time each week to use the iPads during Daily 5 for various Word Work activities. As we become more comfortable with the iPads we will use them during Math and at other times throughout the day. In addition to the iPads, we still have our laptops and interactive whiteboard. Our classroom is FULL of technology the students use on a daily basis!

We only have TWO more days left for our Adopt a Family program at Concord! This afternoon Mrs. Koetting came to count all of our items (THANK YOU MRS. KOETTING!). So far we have collected 315 items!!!! It is still possible to get our grand total a little higher, so feel free to send in items Thursday and Friday of THIS week.

The library was closed on Monday during our regularly scheduled time, so we did not visit the library until this afternoon. If your child did not bring their books to school today, they may visit the library in the morning. We will still visit the library next Monday.

In Math we continue to create graphs, tally tables, and answer questions about the information given to us. We will take our Chapter 9 test on Friday.

Have a great night!

Happy Monday!

Happy Monday Fantastic First Grade Families!

On Friday during Math we surveyed our friends to find out our favorite pizza toppings. We asked every student in Room 11 if they prefer cheese, pepperoni, sausage, or mushrooms on their pizza. We discovered that Room 11's favorite topping is cheese and our least favorite is mushroom. We worked together with a partner to create a tally table and a bar graph to display our information.

Thank you to everyone who donated money for crazy hair day to benefit our adopt-a-family program. Room 11 has over 250 items! It's amazing to see their generosity at such a young age.

This week during Spelling we are back to BOSSY R! We know that when R comes right after a vowel he BOSSES it around and doesn't let it say its name OR sound. This week we are focusing on AR and OR. Check out the list we brainstormed together today! In addition to your child's FIVE Star Sight Words, they are responsible for spelling the following ten AR and OR words on our Friday test:
Smart
Yard
Hard
Bark
Shark
More
Fork
Born
Short
Sport

We have been BUSY writers in Room 11! It is one of the QUIETEST times of the day - these First Graders LOVE writing! We have been reading many Question/Answer pattern books and using them as inspiration to write our own books. We will finish our Question/Answer pattern books this week and begin writing HOLIDAY STORIES leading up to Winter Break.

Have a great night!

Early Release Wednesday!

Today was a JAM PACKED early release day!

We had our second Character Assembly this morning to recognize all the Concord kids who have hit a GRAND SLAM FOR CHARACTER! When a student displays an act of good character they are recognized on Flyer Vision, get a spot on the Character Hall of Fame, and they get to wear a ball cap to EVERY Character Assembly for the REST OF THE YEAR! ALL Concord teachers are on the look out for students displaying good character throughout their day!

Today we had BUDDY BLOCK! This means we combined our class and Miss Rauschenbach's class for Block. We also met with our Buddy Class this morning. We spent time discussing random acts of kindness, creating a wreath of kind words, and buddy reading. Spending time with our buddies is always fun and we look forward to the next time we meet with them!

After lunch we visited the BOOK FAIR! In your child's Take Home Folder you will find a list of the books they are interested in purchasing. The prices that are listed DO NOT INCLUDE TAX. This means the final total will be a bit more, so writing a check for the exact amount listed will cause some problems. If you would like to purchase some or all of the books on your child's list I encourage you to send cash with them on Friday. In addition to me helping them at the book fair, there are NUMEROUS parent volunteers assisting at the book fair. When they check out, we will make sure they receive their change and that it goes straight into their backpacks when we return from the book fair. THANK YOU for your understanding!

Have a great night!

Important Reminders!

A few important reminders for this week:

Tomorrow is an EARLY RELEASE DAY. If your child's transportation differs from a regular day please send a note with them tomorrow.

Friday is WACKY HAIR DAY! Send your First Grader to school with crazy hair and a dollar (or more!) to donate to our Adopt a Family Program. Any and all donations are accepted. If you send a bag of change with your child, please write the amount on the bag or send a note with the amount inside the bag.

This week Concord's library is hosting a BOOK FAIR! We will visit the Book Fair tomorrow at 11:45. We will NOT be buying books tomorrow, only browsing. Your child will have an opportunity to write titles and prices of books they are interested in purchasing. This wish list will come home in their Take Home Folder tomorrow afternoon. It is your decision if your child purchases the books or not. On Friday we will visit the Book Fair AGAIN. This time we will have the opportunity to purchase the books on our wish lists. You do NOT need to send book money with your child tomorrow.

I hope everyone has a wonderful Tuesday night!

Saving Our Spelling Words!

Today during our Laptop Time we are practicing our OU and OW Spelling words. Typing them many times helps us remember if a word has an OU or OW. We are also learning how to save a Microsoft Word Document to our H-Drive! This will help us in the future when typing our stories. We know it takes longer than one Writing Block to finish a story, so it's important we can save it and come back to it at a later time. If you have Microsoft Word at home I encourage you to let your child practice typing spelling words, stories, or anything else! The more we practice using shift to capitalize, location of keys, and fixing misspelled words, the faster we will become Microsoft Word Whizzes!

Happy Monday!

Happy Monday Fantastic First Grade Families! I hope everyone had a fabulous weekend! This weather is absolutely crazy, so I hope you took advantage of it! Our classroom wardrobe today looked more like September, not December! We had kiddos wearing shorts and t-shirts! :)

This week in Spelling we are learning about OU and OW words. When O is next to a U or W, he pinches them! This makes them say, "OW!" or "OUCH!" Today we brainstormed words that have the OU and OW sound. Check out the picture below for our list so far! We will have ten OW and OU words on our Friday test:
Our
Out
About
Count
Proud
Cow
Now
How
Brown
Town

Please practice theses words at home with your child. We hear the SAME sound in each of these words, so it is VERY important we JUST KNOW if a word has OU or OW.

Room 11's Favorite Colors!

To kick start our graphing chapter in Math we graphed our favorited colors! Each student chose their favorite color, and we posted them on the graph. We know that EVERY graph must have a title. The title tells us what the graph is about - what information will we learn from the graph? We found out that red and green are our top two favorite colors and the same amount of first graders chose pink as purple.

Today we went to the Food Power Exhibit during PE! In your child's Take Home Folder you will find a brochure from this AWESOME exhibit. Ask your First Grader about the cool activities they participated in and all the interesting things they learned!

Your child's graded IR, UR, ER Spelling test will come home on Monday.

I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend! The weather is supposed to be BEAUTIFUL so I hope you get a chance to do something fun outside!

IR, ER, UR Blind Sort!

Today during Spelling we are working with a partner to HEAR the IR, UR, ER sound in words. First we highlighted the IR, UR, or ER in each word and cut the words out. Then we take turns saying a word to our partner WITHOUT letting them see the word. It's their job to know which column that word fits in - IR, UR, or ER. They all SOUND the same, so it's important we just KNOW if it is an IR, UR, or ER word!

And the WINNER is.....

CARRIE! She found 33 IR, UR, and ER words using her Just Right books and classroom library books! As a reward for her WONDERFUL WORD HUNT Miss Carrie got a super cool flower pencil! WAY TO GO CARRIE!

We're Goin' on a WORD HUNT!

Today's Spelling Challenge - Find the most UR, IR, and ER words in our Just Right books AND classroom library. Who will be the winner?! STAY TUNED!

Becoming a Microsoft Word WHIZ!

We continue to practice typing in Microsoft Word today! Using shift to capitalize letters, right clicking to fix misspelled words, and opening a Word Document without help are our three main focuses. It is important we can successfully open a Word document INDEPENDENTLY before we can use Microsoft Word to publish stories or practice spelling words. Check your child's Take Home Folder for their Word Document practice page from today! Next week we will begin learning how to save our work!

Welcome Back!

Welcome back Fantastic First Grade Families!

I hope everyone enjoyed their five day Thanksgiving Break!

Our Spelling Principle this week is Bossy R. When Bossy R comes after a vowel, he BOSSES the vowel around and doesn't let it say its name OR sound. This makes it hard to spell words that have a Bossy R, but the more we practice, the better we'll get! This week we are focusing on IR, ER, and UR - they all LOOK DIFFERENT, but they SOUND the SAME. Today we brainstormed words that have the IR, ER, or UR sound and made sure each word had either IR, ER, or UR (even if we weren't sure which one, we knew it had to be ONE of them!) Here is the beginning of our list...we will add more words as we think of them!

We will take our Chapter 8 Math test on Wednesday and begin Chapter 9 - Graphs and Tables - on Thursday. In this chapter we will sort, classify, make graphs (picture AND bar), tally, and answer questions about graphs. This chapter will take us a little longer than most because there is A LOT to cover.

In Social Studies we have begun our Then and Now Unit. We will spend time learning about schools, transportation, and homes from the past and comparing them to our current schools, transportation, and homes. This afternoon we compared desks from the past and our desks we use today - ask your child how they are the same and different!

I hope everyone has a great, FULL week back at school and work! 

Microsoft Word!

Today during our laptop time we are learning how to use Microsoft Word! Using a story we have already written, we are practicing:
Using SHIFT to capitalize letters at the beginning of sentences
Periods at the end of sentences
Right clicking a word when we see a red squiggly line (that means the computer knows it's wrong so we need to fix it!)

Many of the First Graders told me they have computers at home that Mom and Dad let them use. I encourage you to let your child practice typing over Thanksgiving Break!

11-16-12

Happy Friday Fantastic First Grade Families!

Room 11 is doing an AWESOME job with Adopt a Family! So far we have donated 105 items! Today was Jingles for Jammies and I am BLOWN AWAY by our donation of change...$77.32!!! WAY TO GO FIRST GRADERS! Not only did we give a huge donation, we also worked together to count ALL the change we donated! We separated into four groups, sorted the coins, and then counted them. Talk about team work! Thank you to everyone who has participated in this important program at such a tough time of year for some families. It's truly amazing to see our Concord community come together to help those less fortunate than us. Next week's theme is cleaning supplies. If you would like to donate please send in items such as bleach, windex, detergent, Clorox wipes, etc. Every single donation helps!

This week we began Chapter 8 in Math. We continue to practice subtraction strategies like counting back, using a number line, and drawing a picture. Of course, "just knowing them" is the best strategy of all! We have started learning about Fact Families and will continue that into next week. A fact family is made up of four related facts - two addition and two subtraction - that share the same three numbers. Here is an example:
2+4=6
4+2=6
6-4=2
6-2=4
Although we've just started, ask your child if they can explain what a Fact Family is or give you an example of a Fact Family!

This week in Writing we have started writing Thanksgiving stories. We've brainstormed Thanksgiving words, discussed what we're thankful for, and shared different things we do with our families on Thanksgiving. We will continue this through our short week next week.

On Wednesday we met with our third grade buddies from Miss Rauschenbach's class! We worked together to make turkeys using our hands and feet. Check out the pictures!

I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend! I will be running the Girls on the Run 5k with the 3rd, 4th, and 5th graders tomorrow morning downtown! I hope it's a beautiful morning and not too cold! :)

We are thankful for our 3rd Grade buddies!

A Constant Reminder of The VOWEL RULES!

We always refer to the Vowel Rules when reading AND spelling, so it is important to have a visual reminder!

The 3 Sounds of 'ed'!

This week in Spelling we are practicing adding endings to small words we know. Today we focused on the three sounds of 'ed':

'ED' like waited
'D' like played
'T' like missed

As readers, we automatically make the correct sound at the end of 'ed' words because it SOUNDS right. Now we are practicing SPELLING 'ed' words correctly. For example, even though we hear a T sound at the end of 'skipped,' we know there is an 'ed,' NOT a T!

November 9, 2012

Happy Friday Fantastic First Grade Families!

What a short, FUN week! Our School Wide Service Learning Project for Cystic Fibrosis was a HUGE success – we raised over $1,000 for the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation! Thank you to everyone who donated money to this important cause!

This morning we had our Veteran’s Day assembly and breakfast. Our celebration was filled with songs, poems, and speeches. Thank you to the family members of our students who have served in the Armed Forces!

In Writing, we continue to write stories using order words. We have started adding details to our stories to make them more exciting. We still practice capital letters, periods, and sight word spelling in our writing.

In Math, we continue to build upon our knowledge of subtraction. This week we practiced using a number line to count back – start with the BIG number and COUNT BACK!

Don’t forget:

Wednesday, November 14 is an EARLY RELEASE DAY. If your child’s transportation home is different, please send a note with them on Wednesday morning.

Have a WONDERFUL weekend!

We are working on adding details to our stories. Which story do you think is better?!