Week of February 1

Happy February! This week we sadly say good-bye to Morgan, who is moving to Florida. We will miss her very much! On Tuesday we will celebrate Groundhog Day and learn about the traditions behind this holiday. In math we will study the relationship between addition and subtraction. We will begin to celebrate Kindness Month by writing letters to each other telling how special we all are to each other. We will learn how to write acrostic poems this week.
Thanks for sending in money to buy books and videos. OCS raised over $400 for Operation Smile!
Don't forget our service project! We are collecting cans of soup for Souper 100.
I hope you are busy working on your 100 day project. They are due on Friday. Please let me know if you need any ideas or have questions.

Week of January 25

This week we will learn more about life during the pioneer times by reading the works of Laura Ingalls Wilder. We will compare life today to life long ago. We will play with colonial toys and wear pioneer clothes. It will be fun!
This week we will also have Child Assault Prevention on Wednesday. The therapy dogs will be visiting on Monday. On Thursday, Mrs. Saxton will come in for an enrichment lesson for our class. Don't forget, report cards come home on Wednesday. Please sign the white envelope and return it to school.
We have finished our third anthology. The students will bring it home on Friday. Please enjoy listening to them read the stories from this anthology. It needs to be returned by Friday, Jan. 29.
Congratulations to Jacob White for winning our class spelling bee! Jacob won a $5 gift card to The Book Loft. Congratulations to Jennifer Hayes for coming in second place. Everyone did a great job!

Week of January 19

Ask your first grader what they can do when they are reading and they come to a word they don't know. We have been spending a considerable amount of time learning about and implementing reading strategies. We made our own classroom poster and each student took home a bookmark and visual reminder. Please encourage them to use these strategies when they are reading. Don't tell them the word, they can do it!
After spending time learning and experimenting with snow and ice, we are moving on. This week we will learn about Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. We will also be introduced to Laura Ingalls Wilder. She is our new author of the month. We will learn about her life as a pioneer. We will also make our own quilt squares, using the maple leaf pattern.
The students have been doing a fantastic job writing small moment stories and animal reports. Look for pieces to come home soon for sharing.
Have a great week!

Week of January 11

Happy New Year! 2010 is off to a great start in our first grade classroom. This week we have been studying snow. We completed a story impression to help us learn about Snowflake Bentley. Then we did an anticipation guide and discovered some very interesting science facts about snow. We also did an experiment involving melting ice. We made wiggle snowmen to hang on our clothesline. In tech lab we typed the poems that we wrote about snow. What a flurry of activity!
Next week we will learn about arctic animals. We will discover how they adapt to their environment. Each student will choose an animal to research and write a report about.
In reading, we will make a classroom poster of our favorite reading strategies. The therapy dogs will visit us on Monday and listen to our reading. Students will also meet with me for reading conferences and guided reading groups.
Our class won Spirit Day this week! Thanks for your support. We get to pick the theme for next month.
Have a great week!