10-27-19

Week at a Glance

Monday: D day (Music, Fire and Ice Party
Tuesday: E day (Art)
Wednesday: F day (Late Start, Gym, Art)
Thursday: A day (Halloween, Maker Day, Gym, Library)
Friday: B day (Gym, SEL)

Fire and Ice Party

It's happening! Tomorrow is the day! Right after lunch recess we will enjoy the class rewards the kids earned for Laps for Lincoln.  Thank you for your generosity!

Halloween

Students should plan to wear their costumes all day.  Please avoid sending large accessories.  Our party is at 1:45. Please join us for the whole-school parade at 3:20.  You are welcome to take your Firstie home as soon as we finish.  You'll need to sign him or her out with me.

Maker Day

In the morning on Halloween, we will be traveling around to several stations to explore and create.  Activities include a Strawbees creation, a hot wheels challenge, and a wind machine story and challenge.

Classroom wishlist

We are running low on pretzels and liquid glue (Elmer's school glue).  I'd be grateful for any donations.

NO Tinker Time this week

With the Maker Day on Halloween we will be skipping Tinker Time this week.

Academic Updates

Phonics: We will continue our work with blends as we shift into final s blends in words like wasp, ask, risk, etc. 
Math: Halloween gives us the perfect opportunity to practice some graphing activities.
Science: We've been talking about the sun appearing to rise in the East and set in the West, Earth's rotation, and using the sun to navigate.
Social Studies: Our Junior Achievement volunteer will begin soon. Our first lesson will be about wants and needs.
Reading: This is an exciting week.  Students will be learning, rehearsing, and finally performing short plays for each other and other classes this week.  Some may request to bring in small prop items.  This is fine so long as they'll fit in a locker.

10-20-19

Week at a Glance

Monday: E Day (Computer lab, Art)
Tuesday: F Day (Gym and Art)
Wednesday: A Day (Late Start, Gym, Library)
Thursday: B Day (Gym and SEL)
Friday: C Day (Music)

Volunteering this Week

Tuesday: 9:15-10:00 Math Rotations
Friday: 3:00-3:30 Tinker Time

Halloween

Students should plan to wear their costumes all day.  Please keep it simple-due to space constraints please keep any large accessories at home. Our party is at 1:45.

Toys

Toys that come to school create a huge distraction.  Please remind your child to keep toys at home.

Supplies

We could use some packaging and/or masking tape for Tinker Time this Friday.

Homework

Thank you to everyone who completed the address page last week.  If you haven't had a chance yet to do this with your Firstie, please try to get that in this week.
Daily homework should be reading for 20 minutes

Questions to ask your Firstie

• What are the H brother digraphs?
• Can you name some L or R blends?
• What are some addition strategies you've learned?
• Did your shadow move? How?
• What is an unknown?
• What are some things families do together?
• Who is Stretchy Snake?

10-13-19

Week at a Glance

Monday: F Day (Gym and Art-Mrs. Fiesbeck out for training)
Tuesday: A Day (Gym and Library-Mrs. Fiesbeck out for training)
Wednesday: B Day (Late Start, Gym, SEL)
Thursday: C Day (Music)
Friday: D Day (Music)

Substitute Teacher

The class will have a guest teacher on Monday and Tuesday this week as I will be out for literacy training. Please remind your Firstie that they should be respectful of our substitute.  This is the first time they've had a sub this year.  I do not anticipate any problems but a quick reminder from home is helpful.

Academic Updates

Phonics: In addition to l blends we will tackle r blends (br, tr, cr, etc.).  Please keep an eye out for these pairs as you're reading with your child.
Reading: We will continue our work with understanding characters.
Math: Subtraction takes the lead this week although we will continue to add to our addition strategies.
Science: Have you had a chance to get out a flashlight and move the gnome shadows around? The class had a blast experimenting in class.
Social Studies: We will continue our unit on families.
SEL: We will explore the ideas of flexible vs. stuck thinking and learn to consider the size of the problem.

Fire and Ice Party

We will have the date set in the next couple of days.  Look for details next week.

Halloween Party

Calling all fun-loving, creative parents! Our class Halloween party will be October 31 at 1:45pm.  We have two moms coordinating: Beckem's mom and Sharanya's mom.  If you'd like to help out in any way (anything from sending plates to running a game) please contact laurenbaker1012@yahoo.com and supriyahegade@gmail.com.

Read at Home Strategy

In addition to choral reading and I read-you read, you might consider simply taking turns.  Your child reads one page and you read the next.  This makes the task of reading independently less cumbersome. 

10-6-19

Week at a Glance

Monday: Gym and Library
Tuesday: Gym and SEL
Wednesday: Late Start, Music, and stuffed animal day
Thursday: 1/2 day, Music
Friday: 1/2 day, Computer Lab, Art

Laps for Lincoln

You did it! We won! All week long it was looking like Mrs. Laukus' or Mrs. Bartz's classes would surely win.  At the last minute our class pulled in to the lead for the downstairs classrooms.  Thank you for your generosity and time spent toward supporting our amazing Lincoln students.  Our PTO is truly amazing.  Thank you!

Stuffed Animals-Wednesday

The class has earned its first reward day! You should've seen them on Friday!  After a week of rain, mosquitos, and indoor recess we finally got outside and I really think that had a huge effect.  The kiddos worked incredibly hard Friday morning. They were fantastic listeners, especially in Art, and they were wonderful role models for the Kindergartners in the hallway.  I am so proud of them! They were earned their ninth and tenth "warm and fuzzy" which means they got to vote on a fun way to celebrate.  They voted overwhelmingly for stuffed animal day.  So..... on Wednesday, please allow your child to bring ONE stuffed animal with them to school.  Please make sure it is small enough to fit in their backpack and that it's not overly special as accidents do happen.

1/2 Days

Thursday and Friday are both half days of school.  There will not be any lunch served.  We will still have snack.

No Tinker Time this Week

Due to the half days we will NOT be having Tinker Time on Friday.

Academic Update

Phonics: We concluded our whole class study of digraphs (sh, ch, th, wh, ph).  Those who are still struggling with them will continue working with these letter combinations.  All of us will begin to add in l blends to our repertoire.
Reading: Ask your Firstie about Chunky Monkey and Eagle Eye!
Language: We are beginning a unit on character analysis in fiction. This is a fun topic to discuss at home as you're reading with your Firstie.
Math: We will continue to work on strategies for addition.
Science: Our unit entitled "Spinning Sky" continues.  Topics to discuss at home include shadows and star gazing.
Social Studies: What is a family? How is school like a family? These are topics we're learning about.
Social Emotional Learning (SEL): Ask your Firstie about being part of the group plan and how other people's unexpected behavior makes them feel.  They're learning some great phrases and vocabulary!

Volunteering this Week

Tuesday: 9:00-10:00 for Math Rotations

Conferences

I meet with approximately 1/3 of you this week!  I'm looking forward to sitting down and talking about your wonderful kiddos.  Please check the schedule in a separate post on my blog.  I will send home reminder emails Monday and Tuesday.

Read at Home Strategy: I read, you read

This partner reading activity is great, especially for unfamiliar or challenging texts.  It's a little stressful, but try not to worry about or constantly correct their errors.  It's important to model pointing to each word and using good expressive reading.  It's okay if your Firstie is repeating after you rather than reading.  

Conference Schedule

Thursday, October 10

12:30-Beckem
12:50-Adrienne
1:10-Ainsley
1:30-Lily
1:50-Olivia
2:10-Weston
2:30-Payton
3:10-Liam

Monday, October 14

5:30-Sharanya
5:50-Audrey
6:10-Jayden
6:30-Noah
6:50-Sawyer
7:10-Elliot
7:30-Ethan

Thursday, October 25

8:00-Betty

Monday, October 28

5:30-Abigail
5:50-Natalie
6:10-Jackson
6:30-Rhayna
6:50-Elijah K

Tuesday, October 29

8:00-Logan