Let me begin by first thanking everyone involved in the Room 108 first grade experience. Thank you parents for your attendance and valuable input and feedback regarding your child and their academic, social, emotional and behavioral development in the first half of this year. It is the team effort that has created the collaboration and support necessary to provide the best educational opportunities for all children to learn.
Looking ahead to unit 6 in both Open-Court Reading and Everyday Math brings a host of new skills and concepts but also a review and application of skills acquired in previous units. Unit 6 in reading is titled Journeys and uses stories about travel to enhance comprehension strategies like summarizing, making predictions, and making connections. Students will also be exposed to new vocabulary terms through reading about journeys like that of Captain Bill Pinkney.
Unit 6 for Everyday Math continues with a constant diet of addition facts, presented with a variety of manipulatives. Fact families should become a common term as students use these groups of three numbers to practice addition and subtraction relationships between numbers. Time-telling will resurface along with some measuring skills and continued practice with the hundreds chart.
Be sure to keep your calendars up to date with the upcoming events for Room 108 and keep up the good work with the homework. This week should be a great one with a big harmonica concert and Valentine's Day celebration. Hope to see you there!
Sunday, February 7, 2010
Monday, January 25, 2010
It's Still Winter
Although warm weather melted some of this winter's snow blanket, the cold has returned and with it, the reality of winter. Timing for the drastic weather changes has been fitting for our Open-Court whole class readings and discussions on our current unit topic Weather. Unfortunately, timing orchestrated with the recent tragedy in Haiti, caused by one of the most extreme of all natural disasters, an earthquake. Haiti's tragedy has stirred tremendous conversation about tragedy and relief, while also creating awareness of our privilege and fortune in our local school community. If you have not already talked with your child about the catastrophe in the Caribbean, please do so. There are a number of different ways to offer relief for those who have suffered, for opportunities click here, or run a quick Google search for 'Haiti Relief'.
Weather has been an interesting topic to explore as children have a variety of personal experiences to offer in connection to our readings. As students share knowledge and connections, they are demonstrating understanding and application from what they read, to what they know. To extend the weather topic with geography and map reading skills, students were taken to the computer lab where each child logged onto The Weather Channel's sponsored website, weather.com, to analyze and interpret different kinds of weather maps, including the most common tell-tale of precipitation, Doppler radar. Ask your child to give you a little overview if you are curious. See what they learned!
Room 108 will soon be participating in a Box Tops 4 Education fundraiser project sponsored by the Mann Student Council. For the entire month of February, each classroom in the school is encouraged to collect 'Box Tops' from commonly purchased household items and bring them into their classroom's collection box. The class with the most box tops for the month will win a class party! Helps our class earn as many as possible by starting a collection immediately at home and sending them to school with your child. For a complete list, visit the Box Tops website, or just click here. (While you're at it, could you send any paper towel or toilet paper tubes, too please? It's for an upcoming project.)
This Thursday, January 28 marks our monthly All School Celebration of positive behavior modeled through the Mustang Motto. Be sure to have your child 'decked out' in their 'Mann Wear' and refreshed on the three parts of our motto. Conferences are also just around the corner. Hopefully, you have your time scheduled and are ready to get some detailed information (data, if you will) about your child's individual progress in their first grade experience. The upcoming Game Day on Friday, January 29th will serve as a timely assessment day prior to conference week. If your child has been coming to school daily, working hard, and trying their best, they will be plenty prepared for anything a Game Day has to offer. (Completing homework is also sure to be helpful when performing in school.)
If you made it this far, THANKS FOR READING (and feel free to make a comment or at least click a check box.) This school year is zipping by and student growth is really starting to expose itself in all kinds of unique ways! See you on the blacktop!
Weather has been an interesting topic to explore as children have a variety of personal experiences to offer in connection to our readings. As students share knowledge and connections, they are demonstrating understanding and application from what they read, to what they know. To extend the weather topic with geography and map reading skills, students were taken to the computer lab where each child logged onto The Weather Channel's sponsored website, weather.com, to analyze and interpret different kinds of weather maps, including the most common tell-tale of precipitation, Doppler radar. Ask your child to give you a little overview if you are curious. See what they learned!
Room 108 will soon be participating in a Box Tops 4 Education fundraiser project sponsored by the Mann Student Council. For the entire month of February, each classroom in the school is encouraged to collect 'Box Tops' from commonly purchased household items and bring them into their classroom's collection box. The class with the most box tops for the month will win a class party! Helps our class earn as many as possible by starting a collection immediately at home and sending them to school with your child. For a complete list, visit the Box Tops website, or just click here. (While you're at it, could you send any paper towel or toilet paper tubes, too please? It's for an upcoming project.)
This Thursday, January 28 marks our monthly All School Celebration of positive behavior modeled through the Mustang Motto. Be sure to have your child 'decked out' in their 'Mann Wear' and refreshed on the three parts of our motto. Conferences are also just around the corner. Hopefully, you have your time scheduled and are ready to get some detailed information (data, if you will) about your child's individual progress in their first grade experience. The upcoming Game Day on Friday, January 29th will serve as a timely assessment day prior to conference week. If your child has been coming to school daily, working hard, and trying their best, they will be plenty prepared for anything a Game Day has to offer. (Completing homework is also sure to be helpful when performing in school.)
If you made it this far, THANKS FOR READING (and feel free to make a comment or at least click a check box.) This school year is zipping by and student growth is really starting to expose itself in all kinds of unique ways! See you on the blacktop!
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