Parents

Friday, December 23, 2011

December Newsletters!

Hello Families!

Let me start by apologizing for not putting up any of the December newsletters. This month was truly crazy busy! Here they are:
Ms. Bradley's Class
Weekly Newsletter
Hello Families! We had a fun and crazy last week before Winter Break. We were busy little elves finishing up gifts, making cards, being pirates, and snuggling up with books! We sure had a lot of fun this week. It was nice to end the week cozy in our pajamas while watching The Polar Express!
Math: We started Unit 5 this week, which is mostly on dimes and pennies. We also did some fun holiday stations. We will continue with Unit 5 after the break. 
Reading: We became pirates to learn about ar.  The children enjoyed going on a hunt for ar words and were surprised when we returned to our room to find a treasure box with chocolate bars and gold coins. We also did our first Readers Theater together. The children really enjoyed doing the play!
Writing: Santa wrote back to us!! What fun it was to read those letters!
Science/Social Studies: We will be starting healthy habits after the break.
Housekeeping Items:
- Thank you so much for all of your donations to our adopted family! I was truly amazed by how much all of you did. Thank you!
- We will be reviewing sight words the week we come back so there will not be a word wall test.
-We will not be doing book bags because it will be a short week. I will send home poems to read together.
-Please take some time to read over the break. The children are making such great progress in their reading. Keep practicing so they continue to improve!
Important Dates:
-     1/4 January Reading Calendar due
-     1/23 No School
-      1/26 P.E. Night 6:30 7:30
-     1/31 Early Release children dismissed at 12:30
If you have any questions or concerns, please get in touch with me! Have wonderful and relaxing break!
          Ms. Bradley J

Ms. Bradley's Class
Weekly Newsletter

Hi First Grade Families! The Winter Break chaos has begun already! We have been busy writing letters to Santa, creating our own cookie recipes and reading some fun gingerbread stories. We are still working hard on kindness and completed another random act of kindness this week. Ask your child all about it J
Math: We wrapped up Unit 4 this week. We did math stations on Wednesday for a review. The children took the Unit 4 test, which is mostly on place value, on Thursday. We will do the first two lessons of Unit 5 since they are dimes and pennies, which follows well with our tens and ones. We will also do some fun holiday stations next week. 
Reading: We learned about nouns and verbs this week. We are still working on magic ‘e’. He seems to show up everywhere! The other teachers and I decided to introduce ar next week. Your child will have a lot of fun learning about ar.
Writing: We worked on creating a title for our stories this week. We also wrote letters to Santa and created our own cookie recipes. The children’s letters to Santa were awesome! We are hoping he finds time to get back to us!
Science/Social Studies: We wrapped up maps and globes this week. The children were assessed on Tuesday. We are now using our time to focus on kindness and what it means to be kind to someone else.
Housekeeping Items:
-     Please make sure your child has boots and snowpants every day. Even if they want to play on the blacktop, the snowpants help keep them warm. The boots help keep the mess out of our classroom. When children wear their shoes outside, it brings the wet and mess into our classroom. Also, please make sure your child has a hat and gloves/mittens each day.
-     Thank you to those of you that have already sent in your clothing box. If you have not done so yet, please send one in asap!
Important Dates:
- 12/22- Snuggle Up With a Book Day and Winter Breakfast
- 12/23 Pajama Day and Polar Express
- 1/26 P.E. Night 6:30 7:30
If you have any questions or concerns, please get in touch with me! Have a lovely weekend!
          Ms. Bradley J

Ms. Bradley's Class
Weekly Newsletter
Hello First Grade Families! We have been very busy this week and will continue to be busy until the next break! The children have been working on their Random Acts of Kindness, creating their own maps, and adding different amounts of tens and ones. I feel as if there is not enough time left in the month to get everything done! We will make it work though!
Math: The children have been working hard on adding tens and ones. They have been also adding decade numbers (10, 20, 30, etc.). They are working hard and learning a lot. We will wrap up Unit 4 next week and take our Unit test. Next Friday we will have some fun holiday math stations! 
Reading: We are still learning about magic ‘e’. We worked hard on our chunks this week and our short vowels. The short vowels are tough for many of the children so we are spending a lot of time on them. Next week Ms. Bradley has a lot of fun in store to help the children learn   ar.
Writing: The children wrote about The Best Gift of All. The only rule was this gift could not be bought in a store. The children did an excellent job!
Science/Social Studies: We have continued learning about maps and globes. We talked about the different layers of the earth. The children were able to create their own map with a partner. They had a lot of fun creating their own key and drawing the maps!
Housekeeping Items:
-     Please make sure your child has boots and snowpants every day. Even if they want to play on the blacktop, the snowpants help keep them warm.
-     Thank you to those of you that have already sent in your clothing box. If you have not done so yet, please send one in asap!
-     Thank you for your responses regarding adopting a family! E-mail me if you are going to pick up a gift yourself. I sent the list of needs out in an e-mail yesterday. Also reply what dates work for you to attend a group shopping activity.
Important Dates:
- 12/22- Snuggle Up With a Book Day and Winter Breakfast
- 12/23 Pajama Day!
If you have any questions or concerns, please get in touch with me! Have a marvelous weekend!
          Ms. Bradley J

Ms. Bradley's Class
Weekly Newsletter

Hi Families! We had a great week after a nice break. The children came back energized and ready to learn. We have been working hard on tens & ones, maps & globes, and our reading. We also started our focus on kindness.
Math: The children are learning about tens and ones. We have been practicing different ways to represent our numbers as well. We did some fun stations Friday to review place value.  Next week we will work on addition with tens and ones. 
Reading: We have been working on reading different maps and globes. We have also been working on magic ‘e’ and how he tells vowels to “say your name!” Along with magic ‘e’ the children have also started working on the expression, “when two vowels go walking, the first one does the talking.” We are learning a lot about reading right now!
Writing: They have been working on writing that is readable. They have also been working on staying on topic. We had our November Writing Celebration on Friday.   
Science/Social Studies: We learned about cardinal directions and symbols on a map this week. We practiced reading the key to find things. We also talked about different landforms.
Housekeeping Items:
-     Some of the children do not have hats or gloves everyday. The temperature has changed quickly. Please make sure your child has a coat, hat and gloves each day. When the snow comes they will also need snowpants and boots.
-     Please send a clothing box to school with your child. We are using it for a project. Thank you!
-     We have had some changes to our schedule so another volunteer time has opened up. If you would like to volunteer any day M Th from 2:30 3:00, please let me know! This might work well for those of you who pick up your children.
Important Dates:
- 12/22- Winter Breakfast
If you have any questions or concerns, please get in touch with me! Have an awesome weekend!
          Ms. Bradley J

Wednesday, November 23, 2011

Turkey Cookie Glyphs

Hi First Grade Families! The kids made some fun turkey cookie glyphs today. They created the cookies based on facts about themselves - boy/girl, 6/7, like turkey/dislike turkey! They turned out super cute and were a blast to eat :)

 
Shiwa and Jacob working hard on their glyphs.

Brody and Matthew!
 
Check out our adorable turkey cookies!






YUM!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! Safe travels and enjoy the break!
Ms. Bradley

Friday, November 18, 2011

Lunch Bunch with Ms. Amanda!

Hello First Grade Families! Since it was Ms. Amanda's last day, we decided to have a lunch bunch together! What a fun way to say thank you to Ms. Amanda!
Check out the pictures!!

Kodi and Tristan enjoying lunch at different desks

Some of the girls at the picnic table

Ms. Amanda with some of the firsties!

The boys and Kendra

Have a super weekend :)

Newsletter for 11/18

Ms. Bradley's Class
Weekly Newsletter
Hello First Grade Families!  This week we transitioned from learning about families to learning about maps and globes.  Also, another exciting aspect is that the children tried squash in class.!  Some students enjoyed the squash, while others did not.  All in all, it was an interesting taste-testing experience for many of the children. This was also Ms. Amanda’s last week. We certainly enjoyed having her as a part of our class!
Math: We are now onto Unit 4 this week.  Our focus began with groupings of ten and the addition of teen numbers.  The children are catching onto the concepts quickly.  To help them better visualize teen numbers, we are using white boards with a 10x10 table. 
Reading: We read The Ugly Pumpkin this week.  Afterwards, the students completed a comprehension activity where we discussed what happened in the beginning and the end of the story.  This reading was the main inspiration for the children to try squash on Wednesday.
Writing: The children completed their own comprehension worksheets after reading The Ugly Pumpkin.  In addition, the children wrote about a time that they felt “squashed”.   
Science/Social Studies: The children learned new information about maps after watching a Cat in the Hat clip.  Our focus on maps and globes will continue for the next couple of weeks.
Housekeeping Items:
-     Next week there will not be a newsletter because of the short week.
-     We will not have book bags or word wall words next week as well because of the break.
-     We will be assessing the students Monday and Tuesday on reading and writing their word wall words. Please take time to practice over the weekend!!
-     Please continue to send appropriate outdoor attire for your children.  It is getting colder and colder throughout the month!  Try not to forget to send warm coats, gloves, hats, snow pants, and boots.  Lastly, please remember to pack shoes for your child to change into when he/she gets here!
-     The back of this newsletter explains the new program we are starting school-wide to support positive behavior! We will still continue to use our clip chart in class.
Important Dates:
- 11/23, 11/24, 11/25 No School
- 12/2- November Reading Calendars are due log lots of minutes over the long break!!
If you have any questions or concerns, please get in touch with me! Have a super weekend and a great break together!
 Ms. Bradley & Ms. Amanda J

Newsletter for 11/11

Ms. Bradley's Class
Weekly Newsletter
Hi First Grade Families! The first snowfall brought a lot of excitement to our room! We also learned about Veteran’s Day and had a wonderful Veteran’s Day assembly on Friday. We also wrote a thank you to the Veterans and made our own American flags with our fingerprints. We wrapped up families this week as well.
Math: We finished Unit 3 this week. We had fun reviewing through our math stations on Wednesday. We will begin Unit 4 next week. Our first focus will be groupings of ten and addition with the teen numbers.
Reading: We did some more reading about families this week. We also made a house together and wrote about our own homes. Ms. Amanda had the children create their own leaf creature as well! Next week we will start reading about maps and globes.
Writing: The children wrote thank you letters to the veterans this week. We also wrote about our families.
Science/Social Studies: We wrapped up families this week. Our next focus will be maps and globes.
Housekeeping Items:
-     I am starting to assess the children on their reading level. Please keep up the reading each night! It is very important that your child reads every night.
-     Continue to fill out those November reading calendars! I would love to have everyone attend lunch bunch this time!
-     As we saw this week, the weather is quickly getting colder. Please make sure your child is dressed for outside play each day. This means snow pants, boots, warm coats, gloves and hats. Also, please remember to pack shoes for your child to change into when he/she gets here!
Important Dates:
- 11/15 Early Release 12:30 dismissal
- 11/23, 11/24, 11/25 No School
If you have any questions or concerns, please get in touch with me! Have a fun weekend!
          Ms. Bradley J