The Week of Nov. 5-9.

 Snow on Oct. 26!  Yikes!  I sure hope it doesn't mean we are in for a snowy winter!!

I am looking forward to visiting with all of you at conferences Wednesday and Thursday!  Please make sure to be on time on the Zoom as I have a lot to go over with you!  I will be sending home your child's conference folder tomorrow so you can look it over before the conference.  Please try to keep all of the papers in the order they are in.  I will have the same order in my stack.  :)

Spelling!  A new list is coming home today with 6 sight words and 6 short i words.  We will be working on short i pattern words the next two weeks.  The test will be on Thursday, Nov. 5 instead of Friday due to a Professional Development/workday for grade cards on the 6th.  The class did fabulous on the first test!  Thank you for practicing so hard at home too!

Math--The first math test over addition came home last week.  I feel like the class had a good understanding of the concept.  We have begun subtraction.  It is a little harder than addition to memorize.  In first grade, our goal is to make sure they understand the concept and can use manipulatives to solve the problem.  It's very helpful to learn the addition facts by memory to help learn the subtraction facts.  You can make your own flashcards at home or buy some fairly cheap at Walmart.  We have only focused on facts to 10 but will go to 20 later.

New Sight words:  he, on (Please keep working on the first 25 at home if your child hasn't passed them!  The list will be in their conference folder coming home)

We are having fun doing some pumpkin/Halloween activities this week!  Today we did "Roll a Jack-o-lantern" where the kids rolled a dice to find out what their face pieces were to put on their JOL.  They ended up with some silly faces!  I will hang them up in the hall to enjoy for a while.

Halloween Parade--Hopefully we will still get to parade outside!  Your child can wear their costume to school!  Please dress warm under it.  We will probably be wearing coats for the parade since we are walking all the way around the building. Our class will be with the first grade classes.  The parade will begin at 9:05 in the school.  The order will be 4th, 3rd, KDG, 5th, 1st, 2nd coming out of the south doors to the back parking lot.  If the weather doesn't cooperate, we will not parade outside and no parents can come in.  Sorry.  We will have fun celebrating in our classroom!  

• Keep costumes school appropriate

• Save the face paint, weapons, and hair coloring for trick-or-treating.

• For safety, children must be able to clearly see through a mask.

We would love for families to join us during the parade! Since we have limited parking we highly encourage those that can, to walk to the school or carpool with other families. Also, please be mindful of the morning car loop. The back parking lot will be unavailable for parking until the car loop has ended, approximately 8:45 am. The front bus loop will also be blocked off entirely as we will parade through the loop.

Dismissal is at 12:10.  

Snack:  Please make sure your child's snack is prepackaged from the store.  We are not supposed to bring snacks in our own baggies from home. Sorry.  

Masks:  Your child needs to bring a clean mask or two from home each day.  

Coming Up!

Nov. 6:   No School!  PD/workday

Nov. 9.   2nd quarter begins

Nov. 19.  Picture Retakes

Nov. 25-27. Thanksgiving Break

More Career pics

 Cat Sitter

Farmer

Doctor

Farmer

The week of Oct. 19.

 Time is flying by!  It is so nice to have the whole class back in the swing of things here!  

Conferences are just around the corner too!  Just a few things about conferences next week.

We will be on Zoom for conferences.  It will be my same Zoom ID and passcode.  Look for your appointment day and time confirmation coming home this week!  I will be sending home testing sheets that we will be going over together on the Zoom.  Please have those in front of you for your meeting.  If you have any questions about them, we will discuss them then.

I look forward to meeting with you to talk about your child's progress so far this year!

This week we are are switching from Community Helpers to Economics.  We are integrating our English Language Arts and Social Studies together.  We will be reading both fiction and nonfiction books and talking about the different types of texts.  

Today we had fun learning about your child's job that they may want to do when they grow up as they shared tools that their Community Helper may use.  The class guessed what they were after he/she shared 3 things.  Most jobs were guessed but a few stumped us!  :) Enjoy the pictures below.

Sight words this week:  is, was

Spelling-- Spelling City on my blog only has first quarter sight words.  I am not adding the word family words from the list as those can be sounded out.  The sight words are the ones that are hard to spell since you can't sound them out, so those are the ones on Spelling City. 

Spelling Test-  The spelling test is this Friday.  Please review daily.  If your child is having difficulties, please let me know.  

Math--We are finishing up Chapter 1 on Addition this week, so we will have a test on Wednesday.  Chapter 2 will be over subtraction.  I sent home review sheets today. Your child may draw circles to solve the addition problems or use their counters from their home math toolkit to solve.  Please have them finish it and return by Wednesday.  This will also help you know how they are doing.

Halloween-Please see the CCE Smore about costumes and the parade.

Scholastic book order--I will be sending home a book order this week.  My class code is on my blog to order online.  Click on it and you can order from there.  I really only want online orders instead of checks.  We are able to get points from the online orders.  Thank you for helping our classroom get new books for our library!

Masks--Please make sure to wash masks daily unless you have multiple masks for your child.  We need to always have clean ones each day!  Thank you!

The Artist

The Teacher

The Vet

The Doctor

The Doctor

The Teacher

The Navy Man

The Scientist

The Doctor

The Chef

The Farmer

The Paleontologist

The Teacher

The Geologist

The Doctor

More to come!

Sept. 21-25

 Wow!  Wonderful weather again this week!  I'm loving this fall like weather!  

For both groups we have been working a lot on iPad activities--how to get on zoom by ourselves, how to find our assignments on Schoolwork, and how to get on Epic and Seesaw from Schoolwork.  I hope you are noticing your child being able to be more independent on their iPads. :)

I am sending home the C Day and Remote plans well in advance, so I don't forget to pass them out.  You can just keep them in their Remote folder until the day we need them.  I will also try to type in the date first on Schoolwork so the assignment is easy to find.  I'm finding that sometimes the links are going awry.  If so, I don't mind you finding another book for them to read on Epic or Youtube.  Or you can find a similar Youtube video as the title if it's math.

Sight words:  I am going to be sending home our Fry's Sight word list this week hopefully!  In first grade we try to learn the first 100 words, 25 each quarter.  It's a big bump up from learning 50 in KDG, but hopefully your child will know many from last year.  I would suggest getting some notecards and writing the words on them to practice.  So far, I have introduced, (I, can, do , not,) and will add (if, as) this week.  We just don't have much time right now in class to work on them, so please start practicing them at home to keep up!  

Small Groups this week!   I had to change some kids around, please look for your child's time.  It may be new!

10:00-10:30.  Group 1--Hunter, Olivia, Seeley, Wyatt, Freddie, Ke'Vontae, Coltt

10:45-11:15.  Group 2--Aiden, Annelise, Madeleine, Jade, Alison, John

12:00-12:30.  Group 3--Kinsley, Viviana, Hadley, Dylan, Maika, Will, Blake

Handwriting--We are working on remembering to start our letters and numbers at the top!  Please make sure to watch that your child is doing this at home.  Also, is your child holding their pencil with 3 fingers?  It is ok to hold a pencil with 4 fingers as long as they are not holding it like they did when they were just learning how.

Assignments--Please try to have your kids only do assignments assigned on the days assigned.  We will only assign packets to do a few pages at a time to have work for multiple days at home.  They should only be on lesson 2 and 3 for remote days in the Drops in the Bucket.  If you let them work ahead, then they will not have much to do on remote days at home.  Thank you!

Birthday treats!--Try to send in individually wrapped treats where no one is touching the same treat or reaching for a treat out of a container.  Little Debbie snacks, goldfish, etc. are great!

We will be beginning our new My Math curriculum when A group comes back on Thursday and Friday.  B group will begin it on Monday and Tuesday next week!  Homework pages from our math book will be included in assignments soon!

I also put a laminated ten frames sheet in your child's remote folder  to stay.  It  will be used for math groups, but can also be used as a dry erase board in remote sessions!  

Binders--I think the binders are working great for organization and the kids having supplies at their fingertips wherever they are.  However, three of the inside metal parts have come apart from the cover.  I am happy to buy replacements at Walmart that are more sturdy unless you are able to get there before me!  Dollar Tree did not hold up for all we are putting in them!  Bummer!

Group B on the playground dome

Group A enjoying music class with Ms. Donovan

Sept. 14-18

 We had a great start last week!  I know it's quite crazy, but you all are doing great keeping up with the craze!  It definitely takes time to get on a system with the Hybrid setup, but we'll get there!  I appreciate any questions you are asking, as I'm sure others are having the same questions!

Specials Teachers are only teaching in person on Zoom on C Days.  They have the A/B kids in person when your A/B child is not in school, so they aren't able to teach on Zoom on A/B days.  I believe you should be able to go to their Schoolwork tab now and find what they have assigned for the specials we have each week.  We had library and counselor this week.  Ms. Hartigan our counselor added a video.  Ms. Arter is having difficulties with her Schoolwork or iPad, so hasn't been able to upload anything yet.  

I went over how to get on the Zoom and activities on Schoolwork the last two days.  It will get easier as we keep using it.  I showed the kids to look for the dates to help them find things.  I will make sure to add dates for all links and activities to help you know when they are to be done.

C Days-- Tomorrow I will be beginning small groups with your children.  I meant to send the lesson plans for this week by paper but I forgot so, you can find it in an email I sent last Friday.  Your child will just hop on my Zoom at their time. Here are the group times:

10:00-10:30:  Kinsley, Viviana, Hadley, Dylan, Maika, Will, Wyatt

10:45-11:15: Ke'Vontae, Aiden, Annelise, Madeleine, John, Freddie

11:25-12:00. Lunch

12:00-12:30.   Hunter, Coltt, Blake, Olivia, Alison, Jade, Seeley

I will be having the kids write numbers so they will either need a dry erase board or paper.  They will also need to have the linking cubes in their math toolkit with them.  So,  if they go to JCPRD or another daycare, please send those in their backpack on C Days.

Please make sure to help your child get on my Zooms each day they are not in my class.  I do have to count them absent if they are not on.  Sorry.  I especially would like them to get on C days as I will be teaching on those days.  We have to get in any teaching we can with them on C Days.

Thank you for all you are doing at home!  It's a lot for all of you with your own jobs and families!  I appreciate you!

Reminder!  The Zoom meeting will hopefully answer any questions you may be having about Zoom or Schoolwork or Ipads in general.  I put the Zoom address in the email.  The meetings are at 6 pm either tonight or tomorrow night.

First Day of First Grade!

We had a wonderful first day of school for both groups!  I hope your child had a great day too!  We learned a lot about our new first grade "things".  We took pictures too!  See below.

I introduced the parts on an Ipad (power button, volume, home button, microphone plug in and charge cord plug in),  We talked a little about the Apple crayon but did not use it.  We found where the power button is and learned to hold it down for it to turn on, and to not tear off the rubber piece to get to the plug in.  Most importantly, we talked about keeping it safe in our case so we don't lose it.  If it gets lost, we won't be able to write with it anymore or draw with it.  So, please always check that it's in there before closing the case for the day.  We also learned that it's important to keep it charged before coming to school, so we can use it!

As you can see, our binder is already full with the supplies in the pouch.  I'm hoping it will hold up this year!  I hope you had a chance to pull out the papers to keep from the Take Home Folder and the remote assignments from the Remote Folder.  The remote assignments will come back in that folder.  If there are any school homework assignments or notes for me/school, please send them back in the Take Home Folder.

Headphones--Please send in headphones when you can if you weren't able to get them yet.  Make sure they aren't earbuds as they aren't as comfortable as headphones.  Thank you!

Lanyards--I will try to take off their lanyards at the end of the day to keep here in their schoolbox.  They are definitely needed when the kids eat lunch to hold their mask.  If it comes home, please send it back.  Thank you!

C day is tomorrow!  We will begin at 9:00 and be on for about 45 min.  The rest of the day will be spent completing the Sept. 11 assignments that are in your child's remote folder. See you tomorrow at 9:00!

Group A

Here's our First Grade classroom!

These are our cubby lockers!  Since we don't have lockers, we are calling them that!

Group B

Welcome to First Grade!

Hello Parents,

Some of you are familiar with me as a Kindergarten teacher here at CCE, and a few of your children were in my class last year!   I am so excited to teach your first graders this year!  This is my first year teaching first grade at CCE, although I taught first grade several years ago.  So, I'm very familiar with the first grade standards.  

With the added Optional Remote classes this year, and those teachers teaching in their classrooms, I am able to stay in my classroom.  Therefore we will be located at the end of the Kindergarten hallway by the playground.   It will be nice for your child to be familiar with where they classroom is!  We will definitely be following the first grade schedule just like if we were in the first grade hall!

There are so many changes this year, and I will do my best to keep you informed at school and at home.  I am a huge believer in communication, so will always do my best to respond back to you as soon as possible!  

This blog is not used to communicate back and forth, but to share what's happening in our classroom while in the school setting.  I love adding pictures for you to download to keep!  

I'm going to thank you ahead of time for all of your support, patience, and communication!  Working together this year will make it a wonderful year in first grade!