The week of Aug. 30

 I hope you all had a great weekend!  Hopefully it's not so hot this week.  We will plan on going outside for both recesses, so please make sure to send water bottles.  

Our ELA-(English Language Arts)/Social Studies unit will be on Community Helpers.  We will have fun finding out what they do, what they use, what they need, and how they are beneficial to our community.  At the end of our unit your child will get to choose what community helper they would like to dress up as.  They will get to bring in supplies that their community helper would use or need for their job.  An informative note will be sent home next week!

Math--We are continuing with Addition for a couple more weeks.  Using real life addition is helpful for your child to understand the concept.  Such as counting how many forks and plates are on the table and making it into an addition problem.  We will add up to the answer 10. 

When working on addition facts at home, begin with adding 1 to numbers up to 9, then work on adding 2 to numbers up to 9, etc.

Homework:  Please make sure to have your child do any homework with a pencil.  We only write with pencils here and it keeps them in the habit.  The HW turned in looks great!  I appreciate you making sure your child wrote the numbers the correct way.  If your child forgot their folder or didn't get to the homework, please turn it in by Wednesday.  Thank you!

Heart words!  Words you have to learn by heart and can't be sounded out. 

We still have these heart words for another week!  We aren't taking spelling tests at this time, but it will only help your child to learn and spell the words in their sentences, if they are practiced.  We are doing different activities spelling them and reading them.  However you can help at home, will help them even more!  :) :). Thanks!

1. play

2. the

3. my

4. like

Parent Conference Google Form

If you haven't had a chance to fill out the Google survey, please do.  The link is attached.  If you already filled it out, you are done!

Coming up!

Mon.     Sept. 6.  No School/Labor Day

Tues.     Sept. 21.   Individual /Class pictures

Wed.     Sept. 22.    2 Hour Delay-- Start time @10:30

Thurs.   Sept.  24.   Lap-a-thon

Wed.     Sept. 29.     1/2 day school/ Parent teacher conferences--dismiss at 12:10

Thurs.   Sept. 30.     No School   P/T conferences

Fri.        Oct. 1.         No School

The week of August 23rd

 We have lots of new things happening in our class this week!  The biggest change is our lunch time.  Due to our lunch period having too many kids to separate with 7 classes, our class is moving to a new time.  We were 10:50, but starting tomorrow we will be going at 12:36-1:05.  It's a big change!  Our snack time will move to 10:10 to help with the late lunch.  Please make sure to send a snack each day or a whole week's worth on Mondays so your child has a snack.   A healthy snack and lunch to fill up their tummies is preferred!  It will be a long, long morning wait until lunch!

Phonics!  Wiley Blevins is our phonics curriculum

Today we began our new Phonics curriculum.  Short a is our first letter/sound we are working on.  Each lesson will last 2 weeks, so we will work with short a patterns throughout the two weeks.  You will be seeing worksheets from our book coming home.  Each 2 week lesson will also have four high frequency sight words that we will be learning.  The first five lessons are:

1--short a

2--short i

3--short 0

4--short u

5--short e

What can you do at home to support our learning at school?  

1.  Have your child read through the short vowel words on the lesson worksheets that come home.  Also, have him/her read the sentences on the lesson worksheets to practice reading the words.

2.  Write the 4 high frequency words on notecards and have your child practice saying them each day, then review them when new ones are introduced at the beginning of the next lesson.

3.  There will be a decodable story each lesson that will come home at the end of our two week lesson.  Keep it in a safe place and have your child read it several times to master decoding short vowel words.  

I'll be adding more tips for Phonics as we get into the program!

Math!  My Math is our math curriculum.

Today we began our Chapter 1 on addition concepts.  We will be doing 2 pages front/back most days.  If we do not finish the last page, please work with your child to finish it at home, but you do not need to return it unless I write "Do" at the top of the page.  There will be times, that I feel that extra practice is needed on a concept and I'll send home the homework page to be returned the next day. I will have them write "Do" at the top, so you will know it needs to be completed that night and returned the next day if possible.  Some students may choose to do the homework sheet on their own and that is fine!  I will not require them to bring it back, but it would be wonderful if a parent or older sibling could check it over at home to make sure it is done correctly. :)

Please let me know if you have any questions about our curriculum!

Hopper of the Day!

Today we began our Hopper of the Day!  Each day will be a new Hopper helper.  I go in ABC order by the last name.  They have many jobs--Pledge leader, calendar, line leader, erase the board, check that ipads are charged at the end of the day, and any other jobs that arise.  He/she may also choose to sit in our Hopper desk (the old time school desk).

Ticket and marble rewards!

We have a class marble jar that the class works as a team to fill up!  This class is listening well, walking quietly in the hall, helping keep our classroom picked up, and being kind to each other to name a few ways to get marbles!  When the jar is full, we will vote on a class reward.

Tickets are given individually to those that follow directions, keep their desks clean, help out their table pod, etc.  On Fridays, they will get to shop for trinkets, treasure box items, candy, or non-tangible rewards like bring a stuffed animal to school, extra iPad time, sit in the teacher's chair all day, etc.  

On that note, I would like to share my Amazon wish list to help purchase items for our shopping if you choose!  I would really appreciate any purchases for our class that you would be willing to contribute!  Thank you to those that have already done so!  It helps me out so much!

https://www.amazon.com/hz/wishlist/ls/VVBMQME52683?ref_=wl_share 

Coming up!

Mon.     Sept. 6.  No School/Labor Day

Tues.     Sept. 21.   Individual /Class pictures

Wed.     Sept. 22.    2 Hour Delay-- Start time @10:30

Thurs.   Sept.  24.   Lap-a-thon

Wed.     Sept. 29.     1/2 day school/ Parent teacher conferences--dismiss at 12:10

Thurs.   Sept. 30.     No School   P/T conferences

Fri.        Oct. 1.         No School

The week of August 16

 I hope you had a wonderful weekend!  It doesn't seem long ago that I had a first grader, and I just dropped her off at K-State yesterday.    Time flies so fast!  I hope you enjoy every minute with your child!  I'm loving all of your children in my class!  They are so sweet and respectful!  Kudos to you all!

There's a few things to get in the habit of that I want to mention.

1.  Please email both myself and the office with absences or you can leave a message on the office voicemail.  Make sure to tell what the illness or reason is for your child not being at school.  The office secretaries are: Jill Ussery-- jussery@usd232.org,  Chelan Lewis--clewis@usd232.org.  Phone--422-8700.  If it's an emergency, press 0 after dialing to get to a human. :)

2.  If you know your child has an appointment where he/she will be late to school, please make sure to contact us and let us know what they will be having for lunch so I can go ahead and mark them down for one.  

3.  Just a reminder: If your child needs to be changed for dismissal, please email me and the office by 2:15 so I see is during my plan time.  If it's past 2:40, make sure to call the office so they can let me know.

4.  Make sure to have your child get out their green take-home folder every day and show you their papers in it.  If you have any notes/papers for me, stick it in their folder and they know to put them in my mailbox when they get to school.  

5.  Thank you for keeping extra masks in their backpacks!  Some masks just don't fit as good as others, and it's great to have an option to help when they keep coming off!

Reading-This week we are reading fun books about rules and following directions!  We've had a lot of great conversations and practiced doing things the correct way and incorrect way like David in "David Goes to School".

Math--We are counting to 30, writing numbers to 10, and playing games to work on number sense.  All fun!

Around the room--We are also learning all the things around the room!  Explore tubs, our class library, how to shop for books in the library, and Calendar so far!

First day of school pictures!

We took our mask on for a quick picture so we could see our cute faces!

!

Welcome to First Grade!

I am so excited to begin the new school year with your children!  For those of you that know me, I am now in the first grade hall now after being in a Kindergarten room for 11 years!  I look forward to teaching beside the other first grade teachers this year! I switched to first grade mid August last year, but stayed in my old kdg room.

This is my First Grade Blog that I send out each week.  I will let you know about the happenings in our class and include pictures of your children working, playing, and learning throughout the year.  You are welcome to save the pics to your computer!  You can also share the blog with grandparents or other family members so they can also enjoy your first grader in school. :).  Please let me know if you do not want your child to be pictured on the blog.

I will try to send out the blog on Mondays unless we aren't in school on a Monday or I'm unable to do it that day.  I will let you know if it isn't coming to you that day.  Please ignore the blog address as I taught Kindergarten 12 years with that address, so it's easier to just keep it. :)

Masks--As we all know, we are back to masking at school.  It's a real bummer, but needed, and we will adjust to it again.  Please make sure your child has a mask that fits their face well.  Adult masks just do not fit in all areas.  Please keep an extra one in their backpack so they can get it out if theirs gets wet.  

Water bottles--Your child will want to bring a snack and water bottle each day.  The water fountains have water fill up stations and we may not be able to use the fountain.  I love the idea of bringing 5 snacks at a time at the beginning of the week, so they don't forget one.  We have the first lunch this year at 10:50-11:19, and our snack time is late in the day at 3:00, so I sure don't want your child to have to wait until 4:00 for a snack at home. 

You may be familiar with blogs that you respond to, but this is not one of those.  I share with you, but you are not able to respond on the blog.  Feel free to email me if you'd like to comment or ask about anything on the blog.

Birthdays!  Your child is welcome to bring pre-packaged snacks for each friend.  Please check on the box to see if it is from a nut-free company.  I try to celebrate birthdays on their birthday or as near as possible.  I will be contacting you about a day that works for you and our class.  If you haven't heard from me and the birthday is getting close, please email me to set up a day.  Your child will bring the snack with them to school and we will pass them out during our snack time around 3:00.  I have several August birthdays very close together, so I will be emailing those of you today or tomorrow!

I hope you enjoy this first grade blog this year!  

My family went to Yosemite National Park and San Francisco in July!  Here is one of our pics from the enormous Sequoia tree!  We thought they looked like they were right out of the Jurassic Park movie!

Yosemite National Park

Golden Gate Bridge