31 March- 13 April 2008

Vicenza Elementary School Improvement Goals:
Goal 1: All students will improve written communication across the curriculum.
Goal 2: All students will improve mathematical reasoning.

Monday: 31 March
Host Nation/C.O.W.Happy Month of t!he Military Child
Tuesday: 1 April
Art/Computer Lab a.m.
Wednesday: 2 April
Music /Library Book check-out!
Thursday: 3 April (Last Day of the 3rd Quarter!)
P.E./Wear appropriate clothes & shoes/Choice of Hot lunch or Bag Lunch

Friday: No school for students: Teacher Work Day

4 April-13 April Spring Recess-

No School for Students/Teachers!!!

Please enjoy the posted links from now until our return to school on Monday, 14 April. Re-visit old favorites, especially any of the Sight Words w/ Samson. Please let your child visit the IXL (I excel in Math link for lots of math practice over the spring break) This trial offer will only be available to everyone through Saturday, 26 April. The students are very motivated by 'earning' gold medals as they practice their skills. They must read the directions for each segment. This web-site has a data-base where I get a weekly report about their progress. Please work on this w/your child.

I will be sending their Username and Password home this week.

Science Projects: I encourage you to work on an individual science project for the School-Wide Science Fair which will be held on May 1st & 2nd. I am also sending home an informational packet on Science Inquiry and the Scientific Method for your efforts. Good luck. :-)

Student-Led Portfolio Conferences are now scheduled for Thursday, the April 17th and individual conferences on Friday, the 18th of April can be requested by you by simply contacting me @ elizabeth.petty@eu.dodea.edu . Name your time and I'll confirm your appointment time via e-mail or a phone call.

Please make certain you bring your child (student in our class only, please) to this Portfolio Conference. They are the guide for parents for the day and will take you to different places in the room to show you how they're doing and some of the work they've accomplished so far this year. I'm really looking forward to seeing you on that day.

There are no spelling test or Sight Words w/Samson list assignments this week. We're actually trying to clean up our portfolios and getting a new hallway display ready for everyone. We think you'll really like it.

Congratulations to everyone in the class for their participation in the Student Council sponsored Health Awareness Poster Contest. Andrew Dawson was one of 10 school winners and we're pleased that he is representing our class' effort on this activity. Good job, everyone!

Please send in your used, unwanted books that your child no longer uses or needs. The PTSA will be holding their Annual Book Swap. This is how it works:

1. Your child brings in a bag of books to swap 1 for 1.

2. The books are counted and the number is given to the PTSA

3. Students who bring books to exchange will go to the book exchange and choose NEW/OLD books that are 'new' and different for their interests and level of reading.

4. This is one of the best opportunities they'll have to trade their less used books for books they can enjoy over the summer.

They more they bring, the more they swap!!! Enjoy and participate!!!

THANK YOU PTSA!!!

Just a Note or 2: Many of the students are getting hungry around recess time. Even if you're running late, they still need something to eat before coming to school. If you are not currently sending in a nutritional snack, please do so. Many of them are physically growing and they are sooooo hungry. Thank you.

It may also be time to send a water bottle to school, labelled with their name somewhere. As the weather gets warmer, the drinking fountain lines will grow. A water bottle is always allowed in the classroom at their desk, as long as it is easy to open and close. Hydration is necessary for learning to occur.

Your continued support on the use of the homework links is imperative. It is time to think of marking some of the links as favorites on your home computer for use over the summer. We've learned so much, but we have more to accomplish.

Continue to read and listen to your child read their Reading Counts and Library books. As of today, the class has earned 467 points and I fully expect that number to double before the end of the year. Thank you so much for your support so far on this goal. I'd love to reach 1,000 points. Congratulations to Lucy Combs for being the 1st student to reach a 100 point total on Reading Counts books.

Happy April and enjoy that break soon to come up. I look forward to seeing you and your student at Portfolio Conferences when we return.

Sincerely, Mrs. Petty

Read to your bunny...and your bunny will read to you!!!
20 minutes a day----

March 31, 2008

Please watch for new posts tonight that will cover this week and the following week of Spring Recess. No spelling test and no new Sight Words with Samson list this week.

Thursday is the last day of the 3rd quarter and Friday, 4 April, there is no school for students because of a Teacher Work Day.

Thank you! Mrs. Petty

24-30 March 2008
Vicenza Elementary School Improvement Goals:

Goal 1: All students will improve written communication across the curriculum.

Goal 2: All students will improve mathematical reasoning.

Monday: 24 March

Host Nation/C.O.W.

Tuesday: 25 March

Art/Computer Lab a.m./Choice of Hot lunch or Bag Lunch

Wednesday: 26 March

Music

Thursday: 27 March

P.E./Wear appropriate clothes & shoes/Choice of Hot lunch or Bag Lunch

Friday: 28 March

Host Nation/Spelling Test-List 24

Welcome to a new week. I trust everyone had a restful, but active weekend and hope the weather warms up for all of us. It's difficult to go without our recess/snack time during the day. At least we've had a little sunshine and hope this continues.

Third quarter assessments will be completed this week and I've seen a lot of progress occur over the last 9 weeks. I am concerned that some students do not seem to be doing any homework and it is especially evident on the Sight Words with Samson database. This is a critical piece of homework that assists your child with Sight Word recognition, fluency rates in reading, spelling and writing.

We will work hard for the next two weeks and then enjoy a spring break away from school. I will have homework links for over the break and will also send reading books home for their enjoyment. 20 minutes a night is a minimum, and it REALLY makes a difference for those students who do this every night.

Please mark your calendars for these important dates:

Th.-3 April-End of 3rd quarter

F-4 April-No School for Students/Teacher Work Day

7-11 April /Spring Recess

17-18 April/Portfolio Conferences/Registration for SY 08-09

Your schedule will be coming soon :-)

1-2 May School Science Fair

17-24 March 2008

Vicenza Elementary School Improvement Goals:
Goal 1: All students will improve written communication across the curriculum.
Goal 2: All students will improve mathematical reasoning.

New homework links will be posted by 8 p.m. on Monday evening, 24 March. Feel free to begin lists 24 on Sight Words w/Samson and Spelling List.

More info to come soon!

Hope you had a wonderful weekend.

Coming Dates:

Apr 4-Teacher Work Day-No School for Students!

May 1 & 2: School Science Fair

All our individual student health awarenss posters were submitted this morning to the VES Student Council. Everyone did such a great job and we got a lot of help with our ideas from Annie and Moby on Brain Pop, Jr. and their health movies. We all had a different poster and the illustrations really showed how each student understood the theme of the AFN school sponsored event. We had so much fun doing this and participating with everyone in our class!

COMING NEXT: Your child is also invited to participate in the School Science Fair on May 1st and 2nd. More information will follow this week on web-sites that may help you and your child select an appropriate project of interest. The scientific method will be followed by those participating, so watch for future posts this week of possible project ideas. We hope to have many entries from our class. This will be the last home project of the year, with one more 'nestled' into April that will come home soon on beginning blends, a phonics/reading topic.

Please refer to homework links. We are getting closer to 400 points in Reading Counts. Please assist your child in reading a book nightly from the Reading Counts Library at school. This activitiy helps them to reach their goal of reading at or above grade level at the end of the year. Listening to your child read helps you to understand the strategies they use to solve unknown words, whether or not fluency and phrasing effects their success with comprehension, and whether they are learning to 'think along' in order to be able to retell and/or summarize the story.

In math, we will begin making a list of 'Strategies We Use" when problem solving in word problems. At the recent math SIP training teachers participated in, we have a grade level rubric that will be used to score the student responses to word problems. Your child will learn how to be successful through the use of a rubric in this type of math reasoning/problem solving tasks.

Once again, thank you so much for your support and efforts with your child. They've learned so much this year, and as we close out these last three months, your continued support is esssential to their future success in school.

Happy Spring!!!

Mrs. Petty

Week of: 10-16 March 2008

First Grade Standards Link: http://www.dodea.edu/curriculum/docs/standardsCombined/GR01.pdf

Vicenza Elementary School Improvement Goals:
Goal 1: All students will improve written communication across the curriculum.
Goal 2: All students students will improve mathematical reasoning.

Weekly Schedule:

Read for 20 minutes at home every day!

Monday: 1/2 Day Schedule: Host Nation/Computer Lab p.m.

Tuesday: Art/Mrs. Borgman-Computer Lab a.m.

Wednesday: Music/Ms. Hartwig

Thursday: P.E./Coach T.

Friday: Host Nation

Welcome to another 'almost' complete week! Don't forget that on Monday, 10 March, school will dismiss at 12:30 & buses departing NLT 2:45. The VES staff will be participating in School Improvement Inservice workshops involving Goal 2: All students students will improve mathematical reasoning. Lunch will be served and Tuesday, we will resume our regular schedule.

A great big thank you to all the parents for assisting your child on the home project/diorama activity. Our Media Fair certainly had our glitches, but the overall effect of the long-term project-based learning activity, helped with many 1st Grade Standards which connect to our School Improvement Plan and content areas of Science and Language Arts. Our rehearsals went much more smoothly than the actual program, and it was evidence of their presentation skills having improved immensely. You are a 'hands-down' winner of the BEST PARENTS in the SCHOOL!

Please refer to the new homework links and support through the home reading program. New reading logs will be sent home on Monday with the students in their home reading bags. We're looking for more independence in organized writing tasks, neat handwriting, fluent & phrased reading, awareness of citizenship in the school, and math reasoning and problem solving.

Have a wonderful week!

Mrs. Petty

Week of: 3 - 7 March 2008

Vicenza Elementary School Improvement Goals:
Goal 1: All students will improve written communication across the curriculum.
Goal 2: All students students will improve mathematical reasoning.
Mrs. Petty-1st Grade-Room 13

(It's a Busy) Weekly Schedule:

Monday: READ ACROSS AMERICA DAY!!! Happy Birthday, Dr. Suess. We'll practice our Green Eggs and Ham Reader's Theatre today!

Host Nation/Computer Lab p.m.

Tuesday: Art/Computer Lab a.m.

Wednesday: Music/Book Circulation-Information Center &

Animal Habitat Diorama Project Due to Room 13 by COB Today-Thank you!

Thursday: P.E.-Work on Final Submissions For Learning Fair tomorrow p.m.

Friday: Host Nation/Where Is Home?

Project-Based Learning/Technology Fair/Baby Gym VES 2 p.m.-2:45 p.m.

Monday, 10 March: .5 Day of School: Teacher Training: Student dismissal at 12:30 Lunch is served :-)

You'll notice a suttle difference in the homework links this week. Because of the home project on Animal Habitats, we're not doing a new spelling list or Sight Words with Samson. For those of you who have completed these, you have the week 'off' from these assignments. Your child will be preparing their slide show, a little book published from the same work and an oral presentation from their work on their animal habitat that was completed in school. With these assignments and their animal diorama home project, we should do a great job at the Project-Based Learning Fair on Friday afternoon. Parents are invited to attend, bring their cameras and enjoy the artifacts of student learning that afternoon. We look forward to your attendance on Friday.

Please continue the home reading program by reading at home. Listening to your child read and interacting with them throughout the story will help them with comprehension and re-tell. Our Reading Counts class total now exceeds over 300 points and thousands (literally) of words read. I'm very proud of them and we should be able to double that point total by the end of the year, easily!

Mrs. Petty