Looking Toward the Summer-June 17, 2011
Dear Parents,
First of all, thank you for all your support during your child's 1st grade year. Learning is always enhanced with the support of parents in the educational process.
Please have your child visit the blog and participate in the links listed. Of highest priority, you need to visit the following:
1. RAZ-kids reading Teacher username: ewpkids
2. IXL Math Same username and password
3. Sight Words With Samson: Practice again, especially the incomplete lists (check the scoreboard) and red boxes. Complete the entire program over the summer. This helps in writing, spelling and reading.
4. Any others you like!!
Please realize that unless the practice of current reading and math skills are continually visited throughout the summer, loss of their current level of performance will occur. Please visit the following web-sites to read about Summer Reading and Math loss.
Summer Reading Loss
http://www.readingrockets.org/article/c41/
Summer Math Loss
http://www.readingrockets.org/article/395/
Lastly, please continue to use your child's Reader's Response Log over the summer. Monitor their handwriting and use the Hight Frequency Word List in the back of the notebook.
Other than all of those items, please enjoy the time together in whatever activities your family chooses to participate in. Be safe, have fun and enjoy the togetherness.
Happy Summer,
Mrs. Petty
p.s. Come and visit me when you come back to AES!
Sunday, May 22, 2011
23-29 May 2011
I guess you already noticed that I didn't even post anything last week. So sorry about that. We did finish the DRA2 Reading Assessments this past week. It's a very time consuming assessment and several students had to have more than one reading completed and scored. Thanks for your patience with my neglect.
This Week:
We'll begin our last story in the Reading Street series! Yes, our 30th story and skill set will be:
Title: Ben Franklin & His First Kite
Author: Stephen Krensky
Illustrator: Bert Dodson
Genre: Biography
Comprehension Skill: Theme
Comprehension Strategy: Ask Questions while reading
Study Skill: Encyclopedia (we use on-line versions here at school)
Spelling/Phonics: Prefixes un-, re- /Long I,& O
Language/Vocabulary: Multi-meaning Words
Grammar: More About Pronouns
Writing: Plan
Spelling Words:
1. unhappy
2. refill
3. untie
4. undo
5. repay
6. unkind
7. undress
8. retell
9. reopen
10. refund
11. different
12. carry
Students will begin taking the end of year test on-line. It has 60 questions. We will not take this test in 1 sitting. It will probably take 2, and even 3 sittings for some students. Even though Reading Street, our newly adopted Language Arts Textbook has been intense, the outcome with how the students are reading show them performing very well. Thank you so much for all your help with reading/recording/listening/and writing in their journals throughout the year. It wouldn't have happened w/o you! We'll conclude our End of Year Language Arts testing with a final writing sample about What I Learned in First Grade. Students will brainstorm, using a graphic organizer and compose a sentence for each idea. Handwriting, composition and overall organization and spelling will be scored using a 4 point rubric. We''ll sharpen up all our pencils and then we'll do some end of year kinds of things outside the text throughout the final days.
We are also completing our final assessments for the year in Math. We have one more Unit test that will cover addition, subtraction, time, calendar and problem solving using key words with subtraction and addition. The strategy used will be drawing a picture, writing and equation and labeling the answer. There are 20 questions, each one being weighted with 5 points.
We have 3 students PCSing and another student planning to attend a Grandfather's birthday, all with early departure in June. The rest of us will linger to the last day of school, a half day on Thursday, June 16th.
I plan to send all items home on Wednesday, 15th June. Please let your student bring an empty backpack on Thursday, the last day containing only a bottle of water. We'll have some last day fun and be on our way to summer.
Please keep these dates in mind:
9 June: Aviano Elementary School will be having field day on Thursday, June 9th. The events for grades 1 and 2 will be from 8:30 –10:30 and for grades 3,4,5 and multi-age from 12:00 – 2:15. Please consider volunteering to make this a successful event. WEAR APPROPRIATE SHOES and CLOTHING. Apply SUNSCREEN before coming to school.
Water....water.....water!!.and a lot of FUN!
Let's have another great week.
p.s. Thank you to Mrs. Hall, Aiden's mom for bringing us so much nutritious food on the day the power outage occurred! We're still enjoying some of them! :-)
I guess you already noticed that I didn't even post anything last week. So sorry about that. We did finish the DRA2 Reading Assessments this past week. It's a very time consuming assessment and several students had to have more than one reading completed and scored. Thanks for your patience with my neglect.
This Week:
We'll begin our last story in the Reading Street series! Yes, our 30th story and skill set will be:
Title: Ben Franklin & His First Kite
Author: Stephen Krensky
Illustrator: Bert Dodson
Genre: Biography
Comprehension Skill: Theme
Comprehension Strategy: Ask Questions while reading
Study Skill: Encyclopedia (we use on-line versions here at school)
Spelling/Phonics: Prefixes un-, re- /Long I,& O
Language/Vocabulary: Multi-meaning Words
Grammar: More About Pronouns
Writing: Plan
Spelling Words:
1. unhappy
2. refill
3. untie
4. undo
5. repay
6. unkind
7. undress
8. retell
9. reopen
10. refund
11. different
12. carry
Students will begin taking the end of year test on-line. It has 60 questions. We will not take this test in 1 sitting. It will probably take 2, and even 3 sittings for some students. Even though Reading Street, our newly adopted Language Arts Textbook has been intense, the outcome with how the students are reading show them performing very well. Thank you so much for all your help with reading/recording/listening/and writing in their journals throughout the year. It wouldn't have happened w/o you! We'll conclude our End of Year Language Arts testing with a final writing sample about What I Learned in First Grade. Students will brainstorm, using a graphic organizer and compose a sentence for each idea. Handwriting, composition and overall organization and spelling will be scored using a 4 point rubric. We''ll sharpen up all our pencils and then we'll do some end of year kinds of things outside the text throughout the final days.
We are also completing our final assessments for the year in Math. We have one more Unit test that will cover addition, subtraction, time, calendar and problem solving using key words with subtraction and addition. The strategy used will be drawing a picture, writing and equation and labeling the answer. There are 20 questions, each one being weighted with 5 points.
We have 3 students PCSing and another student planning to attend a Grandfather's birthday, all with early departure in June. The rest of us will linger to the last day of school, a half day on Thursday, June 16th.
I plan to send all items home on Wednesday, 15th June. Please let your student bring an empty backpack on Thursday, the last day containing only a bottle of water. We'll have some last day fun and be on our way to summer.
Please keep these dates in mind:
9 June: Aviano Elementary School will be having field day on Thursday, June 9th. The events for grades 1 and 2 will be from 8:30 –10:30 and for grades 3,4,5 and multi-age from 12:00 – 2:15. Please consider volunteering to make this a successful event. WEAR APPROPRIATE SHOES and CLOTHING. Apply SUNSCREEN before coming to school.
Water....water.....water!!.and a lot of FUN!
Let's have another great week.
p.s. Thank you to Mrs. Hall, Aiden's mom for bringing us so much nutritious food on the day the power outage occurred! We're still enjoying some of them! :-)
Thursday, May 19, 2011
PARENTS: Your child LOVES Pixie! Check out this offer--... for a discount
Go to TECH 4 LEARNING WEB-Site: http://www.tech4learning.com/parents
To help keep K-5 students from forgetting what they learned in school this summer vacation, we are giving away guides for parents which include specific and practical Pixie activities across the curriculum to do at home with their child.
Each guide helps parents:
• Support learning at home through fun, curriculum-related activities,
• View important curriculum concepts covered at each grade,
• Build stronger relationships with their child with collaborative projects.
Explore the guides!
Special Offer for Parents
For a limited time, parents are also eligible for a nearly 50% discount on single copies of Pixie, Frames, Share, and ImageBlender! Parents simply visit our online store and select the products they wish to order and enter HUCLV100 as the discount on the checkout page.
We hope the Parent Guides will help you make this summer a perfect learning vacation!
PS – We encourage you to explore the guides yourself and forward this email out to parents!
Go to TECH 4 LEARNING WEB-Site: http://www.tech4learning.com/parents
To help keep K-5 students from forgetting what they learned in school this summer vacation, we are giving away guides for parents which include specific and practical Pixie activities across the curriculum to do at home with their child.
Each guide helps parents:
• Support learning at home through fun, curriculum-related activities,
• View important curriculum concepts covered at each grade,
• Build stronger relationships with their child with collaborative projects.
Explore the guides!
Special Offer for Parents
For a limited time, parents are also eligible for a nearly 50% discount on single copies of Pixie, Frames, Share, and ImageBlender! Parents simply visit our online store and select the products they wish to order and enter HUCLV100 as the discount on the checkout page.
We hope the Parent Guides will help you make this summer a perfect learning vacation!
PS – We encourage you to explore the guides yourself and forward this email out to parents!
Saturday, May 07, 2011
9-15 May 2011
Welcome back! If you're a mom, and you're reading this before Sunday evening, Happy Mother's Day! Your kids love you so much and they were so excited to give from their heart in all they did. Hope you have a wonderful day!
Well, our school not only 'passed' our accreditation Standards, but we rated a top category on 2 of the standards. I want you to know that we did not do this on our own. Your children were a part of the process as well. The Advance Ed team met with the staff after school on Thursday to outbrief the results. It was so exciting and it was fulfilling to receive re-accreditation for the next five years.
This week's work will include:
Reading:
Story Selection
Title: Simple Machines
Author: Allan Fowler
Genre: Expository Non-fiction
Comprehension Skill: Main Idea
Comprehension Strategy: Summarize
Study Skill: Parts of a Book
Spelling/Phonics: -oi, -0y suffixes -er, -or
Language/Vocabulary: Homonyms
Grammar: Pronouns
Writing: Explanation
Spelling Words:
oil
soil
voice
point
boy
boil
coin
oink
toy
joy
against
heavy
We continue to work on addition and subtraction to/from 18. We've taken a few more timed fact drills and some are moving into success with beating the clock. We're also beginning to have each student read for their last individual oral/silent reading assessment called the DRA2. This test is given as an end-of-year/summative assessment for 1st grade. This shows how much growth they've accomplished and where they are in fluency, word recognition/problem solving, comprehension, including story retell w/sequencing events, identifying characters, setting, the problem and solution of the story, then I'll also do a reading interest survey on them. Please include these kinds of questions after they read their books in the evening. This test is the one used to measure grade level expectations for the end of year.
Keep them writing, also. We'll have one last writer's workshop, where they'll write from a prompt, and I'll use a scale (rubric) to score their sample to insert in their reading record. This scale will include expectations concerning writing conventions and composition for a first grader. These include: sentence composition, capitalization, spelling, punctuation, descriptors, beginning, middle and end and overall quality of written expression. We'll use a graphic organizer to write from and hopefully they'll be able to score a 3 or 4 on this last assignment.
With 27.5 days of school remaining, we've still got a lot to accomplish! No reason to postpone any longer.
Thanks for all your continued vigilance and help with homework.
Have a wonderful week!
Mrs. Petty
Welcome back! If you're a mom, and you're reading this before Sunday evening, Happy Mother's Day! Your kids love you so much and they were so excited to give from their heart in all they did. Hope you have a wonderful day!
Well, our school not only 'passed' our accreditation Standards, but we rated a top category on 2 of the standards. I want you to know that we did not do this on our own. Your children were a part of the process as well. The Advance Ed team met with the staff after school on Thursday to outbrief the results. It was so exciting and it was fulfilling to receive re-accreditation for the next five years.
This week's work will include:
Reading:
Story Selection
Title: Simple Machines
Author: Allan Fowler
Genre: Expository Non-fiction
Comprehension Skill: Main Idea
Comprehension Strategy: Summarize
Study Skill: Parts of a Book
Spelling/Phonics: -oi, -0y suffixes -er, -or
Language/Vocabulary: Homonyms
Grammar: Pronouns
Writing: Explanation
Spelling Words:
oil
soil
voice
point
boy
boil
coin
oink
toy
joy
against
heavy
We continue to work on addition and subtraction to/from 18. We've taken a few more timed fact drills and some are moving into success with beating the clock. We're also beginning to have each student read for their last individual oral/silent reading assessment called the DRA2. This test is given as an end-of-year/summative assessment for 1st grade. This shows how much growth they've accomplished and where they are in fluency, word recognition/problem solving, comprehension, including story retell w/sequencing events, identifying characters, setting, the problem and solution of the story, then I'll also do a reading interest survey on them. Please include these kinds of questions after they read their books in the evening. This test is the one used to measure grade level expectations for the end of year.
Keep them writing, also. We'll have one last writer's workshop, where they'll write from a prompt, and I'll use a scale (rubric) to score their sample to insert in their reading record. This scale will include expectations concerning writing conventions and composition for a first grader. These include: sentence composition, capitalization, spelling, punctuation, descriptors, beginning, middle and end and overall quality of written expression. We'll use a graphic organizer to write from and hopefully they'll be able to score a 3 or 4 on this last assignment.
With 27.5 days of school remaining, we've still got a lot to accomplish! No reason to postpone any longer.
Thanks for all your continued vigilance and help with homework.
Have a wonderful week!
Mrs. Petty
Sunday, May 01, 2011
1-9 May 2011
Happy May Day! Spring has got to be the most beautiful time of year here in Italy. The students are enjoying the outside time at recess and have earned another 'extra' recess, so they'll be enjoying that on Friday after our AdVance Ed visit is completed.
It will be another busy week as we begin the last 41 school days of the year. Please encourage your student to make a habit of bringing their book bags home. There are only a few who continue to leave them at school over the weekend and throughout the week. Here is an update of our current status with
Reading Counts quizzes:
Reading Counts Points: 346 points class total (Dakotah has over 100!)
Average Reading Lexile: 308 (Impressive!)
Total Words Read: 135,368 (unbelievable!)
We can always do more though,so I'm counting on your support.
IXL Math also has statistics such as:
Over 200 hours of work with all student totals added together
25, 278 problems attempted
95% Student Participation last week. (Isha has completed 1st grade and moved on to 2nd!)
We will be working hard on our Reading Street Selection:
Title: Dot and Jabber and the Great Acorn Mystery (How will they solve it?)
Author: Ellen Stoll Walsh
Genre: Informational Fiction
Comprehension Skill: Compare/Contrast
Comprehension Strategy: Monitor/Fix-Up
Study Skill: Picture Graph
Spelling/Phonics: -oo /uh/ & inflected endings
Language/Vocabulary: Categorize/Classify
Grammar: How Sentence Begin & End
Writing: Answer
Spelling Words: Test now given on Friday a.m.
book
food
foot
good
look
moon
noon
pool
took
zoo
instead
another
P.E. day is on Tuesday. Please dress your child appropriately. If the weather is nice, on occassion, Ms. P. will take them outside for their activities. I am still requesting no open-toed shoes for students at school. They still use the equipment and we're trying to avoid foot injuries. Thank you.
End of the year advice. Even though the beginning of soccer and baseball has begun again, we must be vigilant with academic skills throughout the remainder of this last quarter. Your child should still be writing in the Reader's Response Log a minimum of 2 times a week, reading a minimum of 2 books/night. Hopefully NEW ones, not the same books that they are familiar with, and completing more work on the web-sites, especially IXL Math and Spelling/Sight Words with Samson. Even though your student will have access to these in the summmer vacation months, completing as much work as you can help to promote deeper problem solving in text, writing and math skills. Please get your schedule arranged, so that you PLAN to have them work when they are not at practice, or playing outside.
Wish our school success with our accreditation visit. We're ready for interviews and the process has made me reflect on the many inspections active duty parents have had over the last year, especially with the increased work load caused by more separations and deployments because of word conflicts. We look forward, as you do, we're certain when this can be completed and for us at school, it's Thursday after school.
Thanks for all your support this year. Our partnership is so valuable to me!
Have a wonderful week.
Mrs. Petty
Happy May Day! Spring has got to be the most beautiful time of year here in Italy. The students are enjoying the outside time at recess and have earned another 'extra' recess, so they'll be enjoying that on Friday after our AdVance Ed visit is completed.
It will be another busy week as we begin the last 41 school days of the year. Please encourage your student to make a habit of bringing their book bags home. There are only a few who continue to leave them at school over the weekend and throughout the week. Here is an update of our current status with
Reading Counts quizzes:
Reading Counts Points: 346 points class total (Dakotah has over 100!)
Average Reading Lexile: 308 (Impressive!)
Total Words Read: 135,368 (unbelievable!)
We can always do more though,so I'm counting on your support.
IXL Math also has statistics such as:
Over 200 hours of work with all student totals added together
25, 278 problems attempted
95% Student Participation last week. (Isha has completed 1st grade and moved on to 2nd!)
We will be working hard on our Reading Street Selection:
Title: Dot and Jabber and the Great Acorn Mystery (How will they solve it?)
Author: Ellen Stoll Walsh
Genre: Informational Fiction
Comprehension Skill: Compare/Contrast
Comprehension Strategy: Monitor/Fix-Up
Study Skill: Picture Graph
Spelling/Phonics: -oo /uh/ & inflected endings
Language/Vocabulary: Categorize/Classify
Grammar: How Sentence Begin & End
Writing: Answer
Spelling Words: Test now given on Friday a.m.
book
food
foot
good
look
moon
noon
pool
took
zoo
instead
another
P.E. day is on Tuesday. Please dress your child appropriately. If the weather is nice, on occassion, Ms. P. will take them outside for their activities. I am still requesting no open-toed shoes for students at school. They still use the equipment and we're trying to avoid foot injuries. Thank you.
End of the year advice. Even though the beginning of soccer and baseball has begun again, we must be vigilant with academic skills throughout the remainder of this last quarter. Your child should still be writing in the Reader's Response Log a minimum of 2 times a week, reading a minimum of 2 books/night. Hopefully NEW ones, not the same books that they are familiar with, and completing more work on the web-sites, especially IXL Math and Spelling/Sight Words with Samson. Even though your student will have access to these in the summmer vacation months, completing as much work as you can help to promote deeper problem solving in text, writing and math skills. Please get your schedule arranged, so that you PLAN to have them work when they are not at practice, or playing outside.
Wish our school success with our accreditation visit. We're ready for interviews and the process has made me reflect on the many inspections active duty parents have had over the last year, especially with the increased work load caused by more separations and deployments because of word conflicts. We look forward, as you do, we're certain when this can be completed and for us at school, it's Thursday after school.
Thanks for all your support this year. Our partnership is so valuable to me!
Have a wonderful week.
Mrs. Petty
Saturday, April 23, 2011
24 April-1 May 2011
First of all, thank you to the parents who accompanied us on our amazing Study Trip to the Farm in Pasiano. We worked so hard, that we almost didn't have anytime to play, but we left tired and excited to bring home the pasta. We enjoyed sunshine, wonderful Italian hosts and a delicious lunch, as well. Thank you to these parents: Dad Knight, Mom Lovelace, Mom Brown-Williams, Mom Keomanila, & Mom Hall! Couldn't have done it without ya'!
PLEASE SEND A WATER BOTTLE IN WITH YOUR CHILD DAILY--We NEED HYDRATION!
Also, no flip-flops or sandals that they may have difficulty playing on the outdoor equipment safely. Thank you!
As you can tell, I'm still recovering from Spring Break. It was great to see another quarter of the year pass and send home progress reports, have a few conferences, and begin our last quarter of the year on last Monday. We're still working hard and our displays in the room and hallway, show 'what we know' and how much we've learned this year. We welcome our Advance Ed review team next week and we've prepared and worked together for this school-wide review.
Remember that P.E. is on Tuesday and wear appropriate clothing and shoes.
This week we'll begin our 2nd of the last six stories of the year in our Reading Street series. Here are a list of the skills we'll be working on.
Title: Mole and Baby Bird
Author: Marjorie Newman Illustrator: Patrick Benson
Genre: Animal Fantasy (one of our class' favorites!)
Comprehension Skill: Sequence (putting story events in sequential order)
Comprehension Strategy: Summarize
Study Skill: Using a Glossary (in the back of a non-fiction book)
Spelling/Phonics: -ou as in mouth /ou/ syllables VCV
-Spelling Words-
1. mouth
2. house
2. found
3. our
4. out
5. cloud
6. ouch
7. shout
8. round
9. count
10. should
11. loved
Language/Vocabulary: descriptive words (adjectives)
Grammar: Exclamations (sentences using a exclamation point for punctuaation!)
Writing: Endings for writing stories
In math we're still working on mental computation and strategies to increase our ability to add and subtract to 18. Some of us still use manipulatives, but many have transitioned from fingers (and toes!!) to the use of other techniques to get the job done w/o compromising accuracy. We're also continuing work on Problem Solving using UPSL (Understand, Plan, Solve, and Look Back). We're also taking a few timed math facts (+ & -) quizzes. We're making great progress, and using our strategies really helps.
We have 3 students who will be departing from Aviano at the end of the year and return to the U.S. We'll really miss our friends David, Blake W. and Blake B. Good Luck!
We will be learning about the different states of Matter this month: solids, liquids and gasses, Simple Machines, and what kind of things happened in America since we became a country in 1776. Listen for new vocabulary and information learned by your student throughout the month.
Please read the Administrations' letters sent home to you via e-mail. Many of the end-of-year activities will be listed in their communication.
On Wednesday, we'll begin our 1st Research Project with Ms. Huhra in the Information Center. We'll each select an animal that lives in the ocean and follow a template for beginning research paper. we'll spend various periods in the IC and we'll be finishing up in 3-4 weeks. We'll be using technology to publish, as well.
Please continue with the on-line homework. Some of us have slacked off since we have longer days, so find time at least 3 times a week to participate. A few students have completed Sight Words w/Samson! Congratulations!!!
Have a wonderful week and thanks for your continued involvement in your child's education.
Mrs. Petty
First of all, thank you to the parents who accompanied us on our amazing Study Trip to the Farm in Pasiano. We worked so hard, that we almost didn't have anytime to play, but we left tired and excited to bring home the pasta. We enjoyed sunshine, wonderful Italian hosts and a delicious lunch, as well. Thank you to these parents: Dad Knight, Mom Lovelace, Mom Brown-Williams, Mom Keomanila, & Mom Hall! Couldn't have done it without ya'!
PLEASE SEND A WATER BOTTLE IN WITH YOUR CHILD DAILY--We NEED HYDRATION!
Also, no flip-flops or sandals that they may have difficulty playing on the outdoor equipment safely. Thank you!
As you can tell, I'm still recovering from Spring Break. It was great to see another quarter of the year pass and send home progress reports, have a few conferences, and begin our last quarter of the year on last Monday. We're still working hard and our displays in the room and hallway, show 'what we know' and how much we've learned this year. We welcome our Advance Ed review team next week and we've prepared and worked together for this school-wide review.
Remember that P.E. is on Tuesday and wear appropriate clothing and shoes.
This week we'll begin our 2nd of the last six stories of the year in our Reading Street series. Here are a list of the skills we'll be working on.
Title: Mole and Baby Bird
Author: Marjorie Newman Illustrator: Patrick Benson
Genre: Animal Fantasy (one of our class' favorites!)
Comprehension Skill: Sequence (putting story events in sequential order)
Comprehension Strategy: Summarize
Study Skill: Using a Glossary (in the back of a non-fiction book)
Spelling/Phonics: -ou as in mouth /ou/ syllables VCV
-Spelling Words-
1. mouth
2. house
2. found
3. our
4. out
5. cloud
6. ouch
7. shout
8. round
9. count
10. should
11. loved
Language/Vocabulary: descriptive words (adjectives)
Grammar: Exclamations (sentences using a exclamation point for punctuaation!)
Writing: Endings for writing stories
In math we're still working on mental computation and strategies to increase our ability to add and subtract to 18. Some of us still use manipulatives, but many have transitioned from fingers (and toes!!) to the use of other techniques to get the job done w/o compromising accuracy. We're also continuing work on Problem Solving using UPSL (Understand, Plan, Solve, and Look Back). We're also taking a few timed math facts (+ & -) quizzes. We're making great progress, and using our strategies really helps.
We have 3 students who will be departing from Aviano at the end of the year and return to the U.S. We'll really miss our friends David, Blake W. and Blake B. Good Luck!
We will be learning about the different states of Matter this month: solids, liquids and gasses, Simple Machines, and what kind of things happened in America since we became a country in 1776. Listen for new vocabulary and information learned by your student throughout the month.
Please read the Administrations' letters sent home to you via e-mail. Many of the end-of-year activities will be listed in their communication.
On Wednesday, we'll begin our 1st Research Project with Ms. Huhra in the Information Center. We'll each select an animal that lives in the ocean and follow a template for beginning research paper. we'll spend various periods in the IC and we'll be finishing up in 3-4 weeks. We'll be using technology to publish, as well.
Please continue with the on-line homework. Some of us have slacked off since we have longer days, so find time at least 3 times a week to participate. A few students have completed Sight Words w/Samson! Congratulations!!!
Have a wonderful week and thanks for your continued involvement in your child's education.
Mrs. Petty
Tuesday, April 05, 2011
4-17 April 2011
Please check out the new link to the left on our school's web-page. Click on the Eagle's Eye to see what our students are talking about!!!
Dates to Remember:
April 7 – Deadline for Summer Enrichment Program Registration
April 8 – Teacher Work Day NO SCHOOL (Friday)
April 11 – 15 – Spring Break NO SCHOOL (Have a wonderful break!)
April 22 – Parent Teacher Conference (for ES only) NO SCHOOL (Friday)
Appointment times will be sent home in blue folder!
Please continue to use the links over the spring break. I will not be posting anything new. We're almost finished taking the Unit 4 Benchmark test. Results will be posted to your child's Academic Progress Report that will be attached to their official Report Card for the 3rd Quarter.
Please continue working on the Sampson's Classroom link and you're welcome to encourage your child to complete Level 4 Sight Words Lists, anytime. A few of the students are beginning to complete their folder on the 2 support materials used in the classroom that coordinate with the on-line assignment. Available ALL Summer long!
IXL Math is also 'back up & running'. We'll push this even more, and our class cumulative questions-answered is at 25,000 problems. Not bad, but there is so much more to accomplish. Work to earn medals and see where they'll end up in June. Available ALL Summer long!
RAZ-kids reading will also be available during the summer months. Please continue to work at this throughout the year, as a support to reaching the goal of being at grade level before the end of the 1st grade year. Readiness for 2nd grade is imperative, and continued work throughout the summer prevents summer reading and math loss.
I'll be reviewing Reader's Response logs, as well. Please send them back to school in their Reading Bag, please.
Upon our return on Monday, 18 April, we'll begin our last Unit of Study: Unit 5-Great Ideas! That means we've only got 6 more stories/weeks of work and then we'll take our last Unit test, End-of-Year Benchmark and measure their reading growth through one last summative test: the DRA (Developmental Reading Assessment). Keep on reading and it'll all pay off in the middle of June.
I'll also be sending home the 3rd quarter Family/Home project this Thursday in their blue folder. Watch for it and the adjusted Due date on this project. You'll need to pick up a colored piece of poster board from the shoppette or the PX the next time you're out. Please do a great job on these, as they'll be on display throughout the end of the year in our hallway. Be creative and give your presentation a 'pop' of color and interest. You were amazingly creative on the castles, so this one's quite a bit easier to do. These will be due NLT April 28th.
Thank you once again for all you do.
Workin' 'til the end of First Grade!
Mrs. Petty
Have a great break.
Thank you for all your support and remember to enjoy the week off.
Sincerely,
Mrs. Petty
Please check out the new link to the left on our school's web-page. Click on the Eagle's Eye to see what our students are talking about!!!
Dates to Remember:
April 7 – Deadline for Summer Enrichment Program Registration
April 8 – Teacher Work Day NO SCHOOL (Friday)
April 11 – 15 – Spring Break NO SCHOOL (Have a wonderful break!)
April 22 – Parent Teacher Conference (for ES only) NO SCHOOL (Friday)
Appointment times will be sent home in blue folder!
Please continue to use the links over the spring break. I will not be posting anything new. We're almost finished taking the Unit 4 Benchmark test. Results will be posted to your child's Academic Progress Report that will be attached to their official Report Card for the 3rd Quarter.
Please continue working on the Sampson's Classroom link and you're welcome to encourage your child to complete Level 4 Sight Words Lists, anytime. A few of the students are beginning to complete their folder on the 2 support materials used in the classroom that coordinate with the on-line assignment. Available ALL Summer long!
IXL Math is also 'back up & running'. We'll push this even more, and our class cumulative questions-answered is at 25,000 problems. Not bad, but there is so much more to accomplish. Work to earn medals and see where they'll end up in June. Available ALL Summer long!
RAZ-kids reading will also be available during the summer months. Please continue to work at this throughout the year, as a support to reaching the goal of being at grade level before the end of the 1st grade year. Readiness for 2nd grade is imperative, and continued work throughout the summer prevents summer reading and math loss.
I'll be reviewing Reader's Response logs, as well. Please send them back to school in their Reading Bag, please.
Upon our return on Monday, 18 April, we'll begin our last Unit of Study: Unit 5-Great Ideas! That means we've only got 6 more stories/weeks of work and then we'll take our last Unit test, End-of-Year Benchmark and measure their reading growth through one last summative test: the DRA (Developmental Reading Assessment). Keep on reading and it'll all pay off in the middle of June.
I'll also be sending home the 3rd quarter Family/Home project this Thursday in their blue folder. Watch for it and the adjusted Due date on this project. You'll need to pick up a colored piece of poster board from the shoppette or the PX the next time you're out. Please do a great job on these, as they'll be on display throughout the end of the year in our hallway. Be creative and give your presentation a 'pop' of color and interest. You were amazingly creative on the castles, so this one's quite a bit easier to do. These will be due NLT April 28th.
Thank you once again for all you do.
Workin' 'til the end of First Grade!
Mrs. Petty
Have a great break.
Thank you for all your support and remember to enjoy the week off.
Sincerely,
Mrs. Petty
Saturday, March 26, 2011
28 March-April 3 2011
SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT: Our school has been able to purchase the IXL subscription for another year. Thanks to their commendable efforts! Please continue the work.
Many thanks to the parent chaperones who volunteered to accompany our class to the Aviano Market and Casa Bianca for our 2nd dining experience. Yummy and .........what a day! The sun shone upon us the entire time. I was very glad to be dry and warm! The students displayed their best manners as guests in both locations. I was so proud of them........and, did I tell you how much I love your children? They've worked so hard this year, learned so much, and been working hard to display their best efforts in work and behavior the last few weeks. Way to go, Moms & Dads!
This week we'll work on our last story in Unit 4-TREASURES. Here are the skills we'll be working on:
Title: Henry & Mudge & Mrs. Hopper's House: our 1st beginning chapter book!
Author: Cynthia Rylant
Illustrator: Carollyn Bracken
Genre: Realistic Fiction
Comprehension Skill: Cause /Effect * Target Skill
Comprehension Strategy: Preview (look at pictures and events in story B4 and during reading!)
Study Skill: Alphabetical Order
Spelling/Phonics: suffixes -ly & -ful; oo as in moon.
Language/Vocabulary: Antonyms, otherwise known as opposites
Grammar: Adjectives that compare: -er, -est
Writing: Explanation
We'll also be preparing/reviewing for our summative assessment on all skills taught in Unit 4. It's another monumental assessment and it will show how they're doing in all areas of language arts, except for composition/written language. We'll be writing a persuasive letter, yes, a persuasive letter! More details to follow.
We'll also be preparing for our 3rd quarter Math Common Assessments covering skills such as: place value, measurement (time, linear, volume, and estimation), Problem solving using UPSL: understand, plan, solve, look back (check). We're also trying to get better at mental computation for addition and subtraction facts to 18. Many of the students are performing very well on facts up to 10 and so we're moving on.
Remember that Monday is a half day. I'm also asking that you return the permission slip and Euro to attend and/or chaperone our last Study Trip of the year to the farm at Paisano. We'll make pasta and have lunch at the restaurant on-site! I have to place all student names and adults coming on the trip into a database for security reasons. We depart @ 8:30 on Wednesday, 20 April and return NLT 2:15, just in time to board the buses. It's an amazing trip and there's a lot of exploring to do at the location.
Please return permission slip and Euro 9.50 in a zip-loc bag as soon as possible. I would like to complete the paperwork prior to Spring Break, or I will not be able to receive clearance to take the students. It must be done NLT 10 days prior to the trip! Thank you for your attention to this matter.
Have a wonderful week! Thanks for all you do!
Mrs. Petty
SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT: Our school has been able to purchase the IXL subscription for another year. Thanks to their commendable efforts! Please continue the work.
Many thanks to the parent chaperones who volunteered to accompany our class to the Aviano Market and Casa Bianca for our 2nd dining experience. Yummy and .........what a day! The sun shone upon us the entire time. I was very glad to be dry and warm! The students displayed their best manners as guests in both locations. I was so proud of them........and, did I tell you how much I love your children? They've worked so hard this year, learned so much, and been working hard to display their best efforts in work and behavior the last few weeks. Way to go, Moms & Dads!
This week we'll work on our last story in Unit 4-TREASURES. Here are the skills we'll be working on:
Title: Henry & Mudge & Mrs. Hopper's House: our 1st beginning chapter book!
Author: Cynthia Rylant
Illustrator: Carollyn Bracken
Genre: Realistic Fiction
Comprehension Skill: Cause /Effect * Target Skill
Comprehension Strategy: Preview (look at pictures and events in story B4 and during reading!)
Study Skill: Alphabetical Order
Spelling/Phonics: suffixes -ly & -ful; oo as in moon.
Language/Vocabulary: Antonyms, otherwise known as opposites
Grammar: Adjectives that compare: -er, -est
Writing: Explanation
We'll also be preparing/reviewing for our summative assessment on all skills taught in Unit 4. It's another monumental assessment and it will show how they're doing in all areas of language arts, except for composition/written language. We'll be writing a persuasive letter, yes, a persuasive letter! More details to follow.
We'll also be preparing for our 3rd quarter Math Common Assessments covering skills such as: place value, measurement (time, linear, volume, and estimation), Problem solving using UPSL: understand, plan, solve, look back (check). We're also trying to get better at mental computation for addition and subtraction facts to 18. Many of the students are performing very well on facts up to 10 and so we're moving on.
Remember that Monday is a half day. I'm also asking that you return the permission slip and Euro to attend and/or chaperone our last Study Trip of the year to the farm at Paisano. We'll make pasta and have lunch at the restaurant on-site! I have to place all student names and adults coming on the trip into a database for security reasons. We depart @ 8:30 on Wednesday, 20 April and return NLT 2:15, just in time to board the buses. It's an amazing trip and there's a lot of exploring to do at the location.
Please return permission slip and Euro 9.50 in a zip-loc bag as soon as possible. I would like to complete the paperwork prior to Spring Break, or I will not be able to receive clearance to take the students. It must be done NLT 10 days prior to the trip! Thank you for your attention to this matter.
Have a wonderful week! Thanks for all you do!
Mrs. Petty
Friday, March 18, 2011
BOYS AND GIRLS!! MOM AND DADS!!! Tonight (Saturday) the moon will be a supermoon. It's the closer to the Earth that it's been in 18 years. It will be brighter and appear bigger. I hope you've taken a look, because it's absolutely beautiful. It's a real FULL MOON. I'm trying to see if I can spot the Lady in the MOON! Mrs. Petty
21-27 March 2011
TUESDAY, 22 March--Wear great walking shoes!!!
STUDY TRIP TO the AVIANO MARKET and lunch @ Casa Bianca
Depart the school NLT 10 a.m..
Oh,my! It's the end-ish of March already. The end of the 3rd quarter is nearing and we've accomplished a lot of learning, once again! Please be vigilant with continuing with the homework, reading, and incomplete 'packets' that go home. I'm impressed with the students who've finished them from week to week. Your assistance is to be commended. I am requiring for the directions to be read by the students now, so help them, only if needed.
I'm not certain if you've heard, but our school's IXL Math subscription has officially expired and currently there are no funds to renew. I'm just 'sick' about it, so just thought I'd let you know this information if you happen to be blocked from logging on.
The following activities will be included in our week's efforts at school:
STUDY TRIP to the Aviano Market (if weather cooperates)
Our walking trip will be cancelled if there is a downpour. Even the vendors don't show up when it's raining. Please be aware that if you're chaperoning, we'll depart from the school NLT 10:00 a.m. and begin the trek to the market, then depart from the little park next to the Market at 11:40. We need to arrive at Casa Bianca for lunch NLT 12 noon. Thanks to the following parent chaperones: Eaves, Case, DinoFrio, Frantz, Knight, Lovelace, Brown-Williams, and Young. We'll have a wonderful experience and enjoy the time learning about our Italian culture, outdoor market, and use our Italian we've learning when ordering our lunch and enjoying the small purchases some of us will make. If your child has spending money, they will need to have it in a plastic zip-loc bag and the chaperone will assist them in making their purchases while at the market. Thank you for your support!
READING FOR THE WEEK:
Book Title: Peter's Chair
Author: Ezra Jack Keats
Genre: Realistic Fiction
Comprehension Skill: Character, Setting, Plot
Comprehension Strategy: Story Structure
Study Skill: E-Mail!!!
Spelling/Phonics: Compound words & -ew,-ue, & -ui Long U
Language/Vocabulary: Using a Glossary (Math glossary and Unit 4 Glossary)
Grammar: Adjectives for How Many
Writing: Facts
Spelling Words: Please visit Sampson's Classroom for practice!!!!
1. backpack
2. outside
3. baseball
4. herself
5. flashlight
6. bluebird
7. lunchbox
8. suitcase
9. inside
10. brainstorm
11. picture
12. remember
Math:
Working on timed addition and subtraction drills (2 minutes/50 problems)
Chapters 17 & 18
Addition and Subtraction to 18
Repeated Addition (preliminary to multiplication!)
Reviewing: Place Value!!!
Once again, thank you for all your involvement.
Before we know it, you'll be receiving our 3rd quarter Report Card!
Have a wonderful week!
21-27 March 2011
TUESDAY, 22 March--Wear great walking shoes!!!
STUDY TRIP TO the AVIANO MARKET and lunch @ Casa Bianca
Depart the school NLT 10 a.m..
Oh,my! It's the end-ish of March already. The end of the 3rd quarter is nearing and we've accomplished a lot of learning, once again! Please be vigilant with continuing with the homework, reading, and incomplete 'packets' that go home. I'm impressed with the students who've finished them from week to week. Your assistance is to be commended. I am requiring for the directions to be read by the students now, so help them, only if needed.
I'm not certain if you've heard, but our school's IXL Math subscription has officially expired and currently there are no funds to renew. I'm just 'sick' about it, so just thought I'd let you know this information if you happen to be blocked from logging on.
The following activities will be included in our week's efforts at school:
STUDY TRIP to the Aviano Market (if weather cooperates)
Our walking trip will be cancelled if there is a downpour. Even the vendors don't show up when it's raining. Please be aware that if you're chaperoning, we'll depart from the school NLT 10:00 a.m. and begin the trek to the market, then depart from the little park next to the Market at 11:40. We need to arrive at Casa Bianca for lunch NLT 12 noon. Thanks to the following parent chaperones: Eaves, Case, DinoFrio, Frantz, Knight, Lovelace, Brown-Williams, and Young. We'll have a wonderful experience and enjoy the time learning about our Italian culture, outdoor market, and use our Italian we've learning when ordering our lunch and enjoying the small purchases some of us will make. If your child has spending money, they will need to have it in a plastic zip-loc bag and the chaperone will assist them in making their purchases while at the market. Thank you for your support!
READING FOR THE WEEK:
Book Title: Peter's Chair
Author: Ezra Jack Keats
Genre: Realistic Fiction
Comprehension Skill: Character, Setting, Plot
Comprehension Strategy: Story Structure
Study Skill: E-Mail!!!
Spelling/Phonics: Compound words & -ew,-ue, & -ui Long U
Language/Vocabulary: Using a Glossary (Math glossary and Unit 4 Glossary)
Grammar: Adjectives for How Many
Writing: Facts
Spelling Words: Please visit Sampson's Classroom for practice!!!!
1. backpack
2. outside
3. baseball
4. herself
5. flashlight
6. bluebird
7. lunchbox
8. suitcase
9. inside
10. brainstorm
11. picture
12. remember
Math:
Working on timed addition and subtraction drills (2 minutes/50 problems)
Chapters 17 & 18
Addition and Subtraction to 18
Repeated Addition (preliminary to multiplication!)
Reviewing: Place Value!!!
Once again, thank you for all your involvement.
Before we know it, you'll be receiving our 3rd quarter Report Card!
Have a wonderful week!
Monday, March 14, 2011
14-20 March 2011
Welcome Back!
I have all but 3 student's permission slips and 6 Euro for the Study Trip next TUESDAY to the Aviano Market and Casa Bianca for lunch. Thank you for all the volunteer chaperones who will accompany us. We should have a great time and we're, of course, hoping for a sunshiny day! If it is raining so hard that we can't walk safely, the trip will cancelled and not rescheduled. Please excuse the error in my saying Wednesday! There is NO Aviano Market on that DAY. It's Tuesday, of course. We'll depart from the school No Later Than 10:00, so join us a bit before that. Thanks, once again for sending in the required permission and Euro.
A few parents have asked if they are able to bring a sibling along. It is school policy that you are not to have any other children other than those in our class. This has to do with a supervisory responsibility to those who have been given signed parent permission, and those not involved in AES enrollment are not allowed to accompany us. Sorry about that.
Our week is filled with much learning, once again, which includes:
Story Selection: The Lady in the Moon
Author: Lily Wong Fillmore
Illustrator: Lin Wang
Skills:
Genre: Realistic Fiction
Comprehension Skill: Reality/fantasy
Comprehension Strategy: Monitor/Fix-up
Study Skill: Glossary
Spelling/Phonics: -ie & -igh (Long I) and Kn /n/ & wr /r/ beginning sounds
Language/Vocabulary: Homophones: Words that sound the same, but have different meanings: ex: sea/see; tea/tee, etc.
Grammar: Adjectives for What Kind
Writing: Poster
Math:
We're reviewing time and calendar. We'll take our chapter test by Friday and continue on with others that have been untested. Today we learned about the 60 minutes in 5 minute increments and how the short hour hand works. The students did a great job with this task. Your help at home will be such a great assistance. The more practice they have reading an analog clock the better they'll be at understanding time. Thank you so much.
Other:
We're looking forward to our field trip and continued preparation occurs each day for our re-accredation visit with the U.S. Advance Ed team that will be visiting our school during the first week of May. This week, the 3rd-5th graders are taking their annual standardized test: Terra Nova. We're being extremely considerate of the students that are being tested and are on our best, and most quiet behaviors since the beginning of the year.
I am inviting you to come by and pick up the castles. I am keeping a few for display in our classroom. Consider it a problem to me only, in that I just can't let them ALL go!
Our next family/home project will be somewhat simpler and will be coming home mid-week. The instructions/due date and particulars will be attached.
Thanks for all your continued efforts. We must continue to work together for the good of your child. Let's increase the reading and responses in their logs, pay attention to how they 'sound' when they read and ask questions about what they're thinking during and after they read.
The homework web-sites are also a great place to strengthen your child's academic work. Please use the links to help with mastery of all first grade benchmarks in Reading, Writing, Math and other skills.
Have a great week:
Here are this week's spelling words: (have fun with this week's words on Sampson's Classroom links)
1. lie
2. tie*
3. high*
4. might
5. right
6. night*
7. bright
8. light*
9. pie
10. tight
11. above*
12. laugh*
*Starred words are also in the story selection: The Lady in the Moon
Mrs. Petty
Welcome Back!
I have all but 3 student's permission slips and 6 Euro for the Study Trip next TUESDAY to the Aviano Market and Casa Bianca for lunch. Thank you for all the volunteer chaperones who will accompany us. We should have a great time and we're, of course, hoping for a sunshiny day! If it is raining so hard that we can't walk safely, the trip will cancelled and not rescheduled. Please excuse the error in my saying Wednesday! There is NO Aviano Market on that DAY. It's Tuesday, of course. We'll depart from the school No Later Than 10:00, so join us a bit before that. Thanks, once again for sending in the required permission and Euro.
A few parents have asked if they are able to bring a sibling along. It is school policy that you are not to have any other children other than those in our class. This has to do with a supervisory responsibility to those who have been given signed parent permission, and those not involved in AES enrollment are not allowed to accompany us. Sorry about that.
Our week is filled with much learning, once again, which includes:
Story Selection: The Lady in the Moon
Author: Lily Wong Fillmore
Illustrator: Lin Wang
Skills:
Genre: Realistic Fiction
Comprehension Skill: Reality/fantasy
Comprehension Strategy: Monitor/Fix-up
Study Skill: Glossary
Spelling/Phonics: -ie & -igh (Long I) and Kn /n/ & wr /r/ beginning sounds
Language/Vocabulary: Homophones: Words that sound the same, but have different meanings: ex: sea/see; tea/tee, etc.
Grammar: Adjectives for What Kind
Writing: Poster
Math:
We're reviewing time and calendar. We'll take our chapter test by Friday and continue on with others that have been untested. Today we learned about the 60 minutes in 5 minute increments and how the short hour hand works. The students did a great job with this task. Your help at home will be such a great assistance. The more practice they have reading an analog clock the better they'll be at understanding time. Thank you so much.
Other:
We're looking forward to our field trip and continued preparation occurs each day for our re-accredation visit with the U.S. Advance Ed team that will be visiting our school during the first week of May. This week, the 3rd-5th graders are taking their annual standardized test: Terra Nova. We're being extremely considerate of the students that are being tested and are on our best, and most quiet behaviors since the beginning of the year.
I am inviting you to come by and pick up the castles. I am keeping a few for display in our classroom. Consider it a problem to me only, in that I just can't let them ALL go!
Our next family/home project will be somewhat simpler and will be coming home mid-week. The instructions/due date and particulars will be attached.
Thanks for all your continued efforts. We must continue to work together for the good of your child. Let's increase the reading and responses in their logs, pay attention to how they 'sound' when they read and ask questions about what they're thinking during and after they read.
The homework web-sites are also a great place to strengthen your child's academic work. Please use the links to help with mastery of all first grade benchmarks in Reading, Writing, Math and other skills.
Have a great week:
Here are this week's spelling words: (have fun with this week's words on Sampson's Classroom links)
1. lie
2. tie*
3. high*
4. might
5. right
6. night*
7. bright
8. light*
9. pie
10. tight
11. above*
12. laugh*
*Starred words are also in the story selection: The Lady in the Moon
Mrs. Petty
Saturday, March 05, 2011
7-13 March 2011
Welcome Back! Assignment: Bring a rock (big, medium-sized, or little, but interesting) to school this week.
We've begun our Read Across America goal and the reading logs for this special event were sent home on Tuesday in their blue homework folder. If you haven't already, please place and KEEP them in their READING BAG. I will be totalling all of their individual minutes with a class grand total, to see if we met our reading goal as a class each week! We had a total of 36 Reading Counts added to our class total which is 200 points! These additional points will be added to the students cumulative total who earned them, and, in turn, added to the class total as well. I'm very pleased that the students have made the transition to the Guided Reading library with ease. Once again, they are selecting their own books and seem to approach the tasks with confidence.
Our Reading Street Story Selection this week is:
Mr. Bones: Dinosaur Hunter. This story is certain to add interest to our science-based learning for the week. The Language Arts skills addressed this week are:
Genre: Biography The life of a famous person is retold-
Comprehension Skill: Author's Purpose
Comprehension Strategy: Monitor/Fix-Up while reading new text
Study Skill: Bar Graph
Spelling/Phonics: Long O, spelled -oa & -ow/3 letter blends: scr, shr, spl, spr, str, & thr
Language/Vocabulary: synonyms (2 different words that have similar meanings
Grammar: Adjectives for sizes
Writing: Reasons
We'll also be working on Writer's Workshop to complete the Unit 3 Benchmark writing assignment: Writing a Descriptive Paragraph about nature. Yes, 1st graders are expected to write a minimum of 3-5 sentences about a topic. You may want to discuss this with your child and 'get them thinking' about a nature-themed topic.
We've just finished our 2nd round of Math Lab with Ms. Breault. The students took their post test on the following topics covered during the last 3 weeks: Measurement (linear), Time (hour and 1/2 hour), Fractions,
Data and Addition and Subtraction. We've also begun our timed addition and subtraction fact drills. Their working hard and this should help them practice their strategies of counting up, counting back, locating the greater number and counting up to add and find the sum, and counting back to find the difference. The use of IXL and the number folders that we work on in class have a direct relationsihp to improvement on these skills. Please allow your child to participate on-line with IXL. Thank you.
I haven't been able to let the castles go home yet. They are absolutely amazing and your work and effort on the family/home project. Our next project will be easier and you'll be seeing it very soon. We hope to have these back and on display before spring break.
Thank you for all your continued support. Please send in your permission slip and Euro for the next Study Trip to the Aviano Market and Casa Bianca for lunch. These are due NO LATER THAN this Friday the 11th of March. Thank you!
Mrs. P
Welcome Back! Assignment: Bring a rock (big, medium-sized, or little, but interesting) to school this week.
We've begun our Read Across America goal and the reading logs for this special event were sent home on Tuesday in their blue homework folder. If you haven't already, please place and KEEP them in their READING BAG. I will be totalling all of their individual minutes with a class grand total, to see if we met our reading goal as a class each week! We had a total of 36 Reading Counts added to our class total which is 200 points! These additional points will be added to the students cumulative total who earned them, and, in turn, added to the class total as well. I'm very pleased that the students have made the transition to the Guided Reading library with ease. Once again, they are selecting their own books and seem to approach the tasks with confidence.
Our Reading Street Story Selection this week is:
Mr. Bones: Dinosaur Hunter. This story is certain to add interest to our science-based learning for the week. The Language Arts skills addressed this week are:
Genre: Biography The life of a famous person is retold-
Comprehension Skill: Author's Purpose
Comprehension Strategy: Monitor/Fix-Up while reading new text
Study Skill: Bar Graph
Spelling/Phonics: Long O, spelled -oa & -ow/3 letter blends: scr, shr, spl, spr, str, & thr
Language/Vocabulary: synonyms (2 different words that have similar meanings
Grammar: Adjectives for sizes
Writing: Reasons
We'll also be working on Writer's Workshop to complete the Unit 3 Benchmark writing assignment: Writing a Descriptive Paragraph about nature. Yes, 1st graders are expected to write a minimum of 3-5 sentences about a topic. You may want to discuss this with your child and 'get them thinking' about a nature-themed topic.
We've just finished our 2nd round of Math Lab with Ms. Breault. The students took their post test on the following topics covered during the last 3 weeks: Measurement (linear), Time (hour and 1/2 hour), Fractions,
Data and Addition and Subtraction. We've also begun our timed addition and subtraction fact drills. Their working hard and this should help them practice their strategies of counting up, counting back, locating the greater number and counting up to add and find the sum, and counting back to find the difference. The use of IXL and the number folders that we work on in class have a direct relationsihp to improvement on these skills. Please allow your child to participate on-line with IXL. Thank you.
I haven't been able to let the castles go home yet. They are absolutely amazing and your work and effort on the family/home project. Our next project will be easier and you'll be seeing it very soon. We hope to have these back and on display before spring break.
Thank you for all your continued support. Please send in your permission slip and Euro for the next Study Trip to the Aviano Market and Casa Bianca for lunch. These are due NO LATER THAN this Friday the 11th of March. Thank you!
Mrs. P
Friday, February 25, 2011
28 February-6 March 2011
What a week! Kudos go out to all the parent chaperones at our recent Study Trip to San Giorgio's Pizzeria. The students performed their duties in the kitchen, restaurant and long walk to and from the restaurant. Thank you so much for all your involvement with this excursion. We look forward to our next Study Trip on Tuesday, 22 March, to the Aviano Market and enjoying another pizza lunch at Casa Bianca. The permission slip will be sent home this week. Please return with signed permission and the Euro for this walking trip! We'd love to have you join us, once again!
We will begin our class participation in our School-Wide Reading Challenge this Sunday. Individual logs will be coming home on Monday, 28 February, but you can begin to count the minutes read the day before, on Sunday. PLEASE keep their reading log in their reading bag, so that we can count the minutes by week and post our results here at school. I will also count 10 minutes for each Reading Counts points your child accrues througout the week. This is a fun way to get really involved in the habit of reading. It usually proves to be a very successful way of increasing your child's reading level in order to meet end-of-year benchmarks, also.
Unit 3 Benchmark tests are completed and we're resuming full efforts on our story selection of the week: The Dot! Here are the skills we'll be learning of:
UNIT THEME: Treasure: What do we treasure?
Genre: Realistic Fiction
Comprehension Skill: Theme (What lesson can we learn from the story?)
Comprehension Strategy: Graphic Organizers (aaah-our intervention for increasing student achievement in Text Analysis & Vocabulary! SMART Goal #2 Improve in Reading!
Study Skill: Table/Chart
Spelling/Phonics: -ea long e/ inflected endings
Language/Vocabulary: describe words
Grammar: Adjectives for Colors & Shapes
Writing: Steps
Spelling Words: - ea/Long e
1. eat
2. sea
3. each
4. teach
5. please
6. treat
8. beach
9. clean
10 lean
11.colors
12.sign
We've enjoyed Math Lab and our 2nd round of 7 days will culminate with another rotation through 5 centers and taking the post-test to measure what we've learned. We're also completing our fractions unit in our regular math instruction in class.
We are tracking our Reading Counts points and IXL Math Medals on our awards board. Please help your child to earn more points by allowing them to use the computer links on this blog.
I may be adding to this post, so stay tuned for updates.
Have a great week-end,
Mrs. Petty
What a week! Kudos go out to all the parent chaperones at our recent Study Trip to San Giorgio's Pizzeria. The students performed their duties in the kitchen, restaurant and long walk to and from the restaurant. Thank you so much for all your involvement with this excursion. We look forward to our next Study Trip on Tuesday, 22 March, to the Aviano Market and enjoying another pizza lunch at Casa Bianca. The permission slip will be sent home this week. Please return with signed permission and the Euro for this walking trip! We'd love to have you join us, once again!
We will begin our class participation in our School-Wide Reading Challenge this Sunday. Individual logs will be coming home on Monday, 28 February, but you can begin to count the minutes read the day before, on Sunday. PLEASE keep their reading log in their reading bag, so that we can count the minutes by week and post our results here at school. I will also count 10 minutes for each Reading Counts points your child accrues througout the week. This is a fun way to get really involved in the habit of reading. It usually proves to be a very successful way of increasing your child's reading level in order to meet end-of-year benchmarks, also.
Unit 3 Benchmark tests are completed and we're resuming full efforts on our story selection of the week: The Dot! Here are the skills we'll be learning of:
UNIT THEME: Treasure: What do we treasure?
Genre: Realistic Fiction
Comprehension Skill: Theme (What lesson can we learn from the story?)
Comprehension Strategy: Graphic Organizers (aaah-our intervention for increasing student achievement in Text Analysis & Vocabulary! SMART Goal #2 Improve in Reading!
Study Skill: Table/Chart
Spelling/Phonics: -ea long e/ inflected endings
Language/Vocabulary: describe words
Grammar: Adjectives for Colors & Shapes
Writing: Steps
Spelling Words: - ea/Long e
1. eat
2. sea
3. each
4. teach
5. please
6. treat
8. beach
9. clean
10 lean
11.colors
12.sign
We've enjoyed Math Lab and our 2nd round of 7 days will culminate with another rotation through 5 centers and taking the post-test to measure what we've learned. We're also completing our fractions unit in our regular math instruction in class.
We are tracking our Reading Counts points and IXL Math Medals on our awards board. Please help your child to earn more points by allowing them to use the computer links on this blog.
I may be adding to this post, so stay tuned for updates.
Have a great week-end,
Mrs. Petty
Monday, February 21, 2011
21-27 February 2011
Thank you for sending in the permission slips and 8 Euro for our walking study trip to San Giorgio's next Wednesday, 23 February. We'll depart from the school NLT 10:30, so if you're a chaperone don't be late. Parking is such a problem here at the complex. Those chaperones coming (thank you very much!) are Eaves, Hall, Jackson, Lovelace, Weymer, Brown-Williams, & Young. We're sure to have a great time and students will be attending a mini-chef school of sorts! Yummy--
Welcome to a new 4-day week! This is getting to be a habit! :-) After celebrating our 100th Day of First Grade this past week, we're all aware that the year is passing quickly. The spring weather beckons us to come outside and soak up the sunlight. We're earning extra recess by two measures: how much work we get accomplished and our citizenship in and out of the classroom. It's a great motivator and with sidewalk chalk, bubbles and other outside learning tools available, we'll be learning outdoors, as well.
We will begin rotating each student through the Unit 3 benchmark test. This test evaluates target skills taught and hopefully mastered from the past six selections. There are 40 questions and it's a long test. Students are allowed to stop the test (at which time it saves their answers that have been completed) and return to more work on the following day(s). To assist your child, have them re-read the story selections in their Fluency Folder, where they can practice the High Frequency Words, and other thinking along comprehension skills that we've worked on during the last weeks.
New Beginnings:
We will also simultaneously begin work on Unit 4: TREASURES: What do we treasure? A summary of the skills includes:
Phonics: Long a: ai, ay, possessives, long e: ea, Long o: oa, ow, Longi: ie, igh, Kn/n/, and wr/r/, compound words, Vowells: we, eu, ui; Suffixes: -ly--ful
Many new practice words including high frequency words, story words and amazing words, & words with decodable (phonics) rules for spelling and fluent reading practice. They are getting more diverse and difficult, so attention to the fluency folder will assist in performance this next 6 weeks.
Comprehension Skills: Drawing Conclusions, and Theme (with a review of Compare/Contrast, Plot, Sequence, Main Idea, Author's Purpose, Cause & Effect, Character and Realism and Fantasy.
Grammar, Usage, and Mechanics: (impacts writing composition and spoken language) Adjectives (with a review of Verbs, Nouns, and composing/writing of super sentences!
Writing: Persuasive Letter (with a review of Description, How-to Report, and personal Narrative)
Specifically this week, we'll begin our new Story Selection with Mama's Birthday Present
Skills Covered are:
Genre: Realistic Fiction
Comprehension Skill: Draw conclusions
Comprehension Strategy: Monitor/Fix-Up
Study Skill: Calendar
Spelling/Phonics: Long a: -ai, -ay, possessives
Language/Vocabulary: foreign words--they should do quite well on this!
Grammar: Adjectives
Writing: Book Review
Of course, at the end of each story, there is a 13 item test to show skill possession and work toward mastery. Please continue to have them read and participate on RAZ-kids a minumum of 2 times a week, with a journal response, either with their reading bag books, or the on-line selections.
During math for the week, we'll continue with our fractions and measurement skills, possibly take a few chapter tests, and attend math lab with Ms. Breault, where center-based activities help them toward mastery, as well.
For the following parents: We'll see you on Wednesday morning NLT 10:25 for our walking Study Trip to San Giorgio's Pizzeria. We're hoping for sun and warmth for this excursion. Please dress your child appropriately and check the weather predictions for Wednesday, 23 February. Even though we're learning about all kinds of Weather in an EARTH Science unit, we'd like to experience sunlight on this day! :-)
Thank you for all your support. We're working on the most important thing about learning in our class throughout the rest of the year: What is it? .....what you can do on your own!
Have a wonderful week,
Mrs. Petty
1st grade
Thank you for sending in the permission slips and 8 Euro for our walking study trip to San Giorgio's next Wednesday, 23 February. We'll depart from the school NLT 10:30, so if you're a chaperone don't be late. Parking is such a problem here at the complex. Those chaperones coming (thank you very much!) are Eaves, Hall, Jackson, Lovelace, Weymer, Brown-Williams, & Young. We're sure to have a great time and students will be attending a mini-chef school of sorts! Yummy--
Welcome to a new 4-day week! This is getting to be a habit! :-) After celebrating our 100th Day of First Grade this past week, we're all aware that the year is passing quickly. The spring weather beckons us to come outside and soak up the sunlight. We're earning extra recess by two measures: how much work we get accomplished and our citizenship in and out of the classroom. It's a great motivator and with sidewalk chalk, bubbles and other outside learning tools available, we'll be learning outdoors, as well.
We will begin rotating each student through the Unit 3 benchmark test. This test evaluates target skills taught and hopefully mastered from the past six selections. There are 40 questions and it's a long test. Students are allowed to stop the test (at which time it saves their answers that have been completed) and return to more work on the following day(s). To assist your child, have them re-read the story selections in their Fluency Folder, where they can practice the High Frequency Words, and other thinking along comprehension skills that we've worked on during the last weeks.
New Beginnings:
We will also simultaneously begin work on Unit 4: TREASURES: What do we treasure? A summary of the skills includes:
Phonics: Long a: ai, ay, possessives, long e: ea, Long o: oa, ow, Longi: ie, igh, Kn/n/, and wr/r/, compound words, Vowells: we, eu, ui; Suffixes: -ly--ful
Many new practice words including high frequency words, story words and amazing words, & words with decodable (phonics) rules for spelling and fluent reading practice. They are getting more diverse and difficult, so attention to the fluency folder will assist in performance this next 6 weeks.
Comprehension Skills: Drawing Conclusions, and Theme (with a review of Compare/Contrast, Plot, Sequence, Main Idea, Author's Purpose, Cause & Effect, Character and Realism and Fantasy.
Grammar, Usage, and Mechanics: (impacts writing composition and spoken language) Adjectives (with a review of Verbs, Nouns, and composing/writing of super sentences!
Writing: Persuasive Letter (with a review of Description, How-to Report, and personal Narrative)
Specifically this week, we'll begin our new Story Selection with Mama's Birthday Present
Skills Covered are:
Genre: Realistic Fiction
Comprehension Skill: Draw conclusions
Comprehension Strategy: Monitor/Fix-Up
Study Skill: Calendar
Spelling/Phonics: Long a: -ai, -ay, possessives
Language/Vocabulary: foreign words--they should do quite well on this!
Grammar: Adjectives
Writing: Book Review
Of course, at the end of each story, there is a 13 item test to show skill possession and work toward mastery. Please continue to have them read and participate on RAZ-kids a minumum of 2 times a week, with a journal response, either with their reading bag books, or the on-line selections.
During math for the week, we'll continue with our fractions and measurement skills, possibly take a few chapter tests, and attend math lab with Ms. Breault, where center-based activities help them toward mastery, as well.
For the following parents: We'll see you on Wednesday morning NLT 10:25 for our walking Study Trip to San Giorgio's Pizzeria. We're hoping for sun and warmth for this excursion. Please dress your child appropriately and check the weather predictions for Wednesday, 23 February. Even though we're learning about all kinds of Weather in an EARTH Science unit, we'd like to experience sunlight on this day! :-)
Thank you for all your support. We're working on the most important thing about learning in our class throughout the rest of the year: What is it? .....what you can do on your own!
Have a wonderful week,
Mrs. Petty
1st grade
Wednesday, February 16, 2011
14-20 February 2011
Sorry about the late post this week. Let me 'catch us up' on all the learning activities this week.
Thank you for sending in the permission slips and 8 Euro for our walking study trip to San Giorgio's next Wednesday, 23 February. We'll depart from the school NLT 10:30, so if you're a chaperone don't be late. Parking is such a problem here at the complex. Those chaperones coming (thank you very much!) are Eaves, Hall, Jackson, Lovelace, Weymer, Brown-Williams, & Young. We're sure to have a great time and students will be attending a mini-chef school of sorts! Yummy--
Our Reading Selection this week is our 1st PLAY-"Where Are My Animal Friends". Yes, that's a new genre for us and we're excited that today we'll be given parts (5 characters) and each group will 'read' their part with phrasing, fluency and expression for each of their characters: Goose, Bear, Squirrel, Raccoon, and Hummingbird. Here are the additional skills covered in this unit:
Genre: Play
Comprehension Skill: Sequence
Comprehension Strategy: Prior Knowledge
Study Skill: Bar Graph
Spelling/Phonics: Compare (-er, -est)
Language/Vocabulary: Multi-meaning words
Grammar: contractions with not
Writing: Song
Spelling Words: bigger, biggest, faster,fastest, slower, slowest, shorter, shortest, sadder saddest, good-bye, before. 12 words/comparisons -er, -est (doubling the consonant on short vowel words before adding the suffix.)
We'll also be taking a Unit 3 Benchmark Test with 40 questions. This test is a review of all the High Frequency Words, selection words, comprehension skills, grammar, and phonics skills covered in Unit 3 selections, but a cumulative for the entire year, as well.
We talk each day about how much their reading has improved, ways they can improve, and the 'thinking' part of taking a test; which includes visualization, fixing-up tricky part, reading for meaning (what's happening in the story), predicting and checking predictions along the way, and making personal connections to the text. This is critical as their level of reading increases and true comprehension (the purpose for reading) occurs because of the brain activity which includes all of the above. Orchestrating all of these items, especially in a test scenario is critical. Does this sound like a post-high school lecture? It's not, it's just 1st grade!!!!
Keep your child reading at home. There is no lack of books for them to borrow in our own classroom! Remember to have them tell you what happened in the story, then ask questions about Main Idea (what was the story mostly about), Plot (sequence of events; beginning, middle, end, and identify what the problem and solution was), then don't forget Theme (what are we supposed to learn from the story). These questions are best suited for fiction selections. For non-fiction reading, have them tell the facts about their text and notice the differences with them about informational, non-fiction, or TRUE text, rather than fiction, where there is a distinct beginning, middle and ending.
We began visiting the Math Lab in Ms. Breault's room on floor 1. This is a center-based, small-group activity time where students work together on the standards-based activities to support mastery of math skills assigned to this quarter. We attend for 10 days, with a few delays because of other scheduled activities. Ask your student what they did today? I'm certain they'll be able to tell you.
There are a few links changed on the homework sites, so remember to make certain that you visit RAZ-kids Reading, Sampson's Classroom, and IXL Math. Yesterday six students were awarded Drops for their bucket because of their participation on IXL during the last week. Great job, students.
We'll be finishing our first 5-day week of school this Friday, finally! I knew it would happen sometime.
How are the Reader's Response Logs coming along? Thanks for assisting your child and having them complete a minimum of 2 per week.
Mrs. Petty
Sorry about the late post this week. Let me 'catch us up' on all the learning activities this week.
Thank you for sending in the permission slips and 8 Euro for our walking study trip to San Giorgio's next Wednesday, 23 February. We'll depart from the school NLT 10:30, so if you're a chaperone don't be late. Parking is such a problem here at the complex. Those chaperones coming (thank you very much!) are Eaves, Hall, Jackson, Lovelace, Weymer, Brown-Williams, & Young. We're sure to have a great time and students will be attending a mini-chef school of sorts! Yummy--
Our Reading Selection this week is our 1st PLAY-"Where Are My Animal Friends". Yes, that's a new genre for us and we're excited that today we'll be given parts (5 characters) and each group will 'read' their part with phrasing, fluency and expression for each of their characters: Goose, Bear, Squirrel, Raccoon, and Hummingbird. Here are the additional skills covered in this unit:
Genre: Play
Comprehension Skill: Sequence
Comprehension Strategy: Prior Knowledge
Study Skill: Bar Graph
Spelling/Phonics: Compare (-er, -est)
Language/Vocabulary: Multi-meaning words
Grammar: contractions with not
Writing: Song
Spelling Words: bigger, biggest, faster,fastest, slower, slowest, shorter, shortest, sadder saddest, good-bye, before. 12 words/comparisons -er, -est (doubling the consonant on short vowel words before adding the suffix.)
We'll also be taking a Unit 3 Benchmark Test with 40 questions. This test is a review of all the High Frequency Words, selection words, comprehension skills, grammar, and phonics skills covered in Unit 3 selections, but a cumulative for the entire year, as well.
We talk each day about how much their reading has improved, ways they can improve, and the 'thinking' part of taking a test; which includes visualization, fixing-up tricky part, reading for meaning (what's happening in the story), predicting and checking predictions along the way, and making personal connections to the text. This is critical as their level of reading increases and true comprehension (the purpose for reading) occurs because of the brain activity which includes all of the above. Orchestrating all of these items, especially in a test scenario is critical. Does this sound like a post-high school lecture? It's not, it's just 1st grade!!!!
Keep your child reading at home. There is no lack of books for them to borrow in our own classroom! Remember to have them tell you what happened in the story, then ask questions about Main Idea (what was the story mostly about), Plot (sequence of events; beginning, middle, end, and identify what the problem and solution was), then don't forget Theme (what are we supposed to learn from the story). These questions are best suited for fiction selections. For non-fiction reading, have them tell the facts about their text and notice the differences with them about informational, non-fiction, or TRUE text, rather than fiction, where there is a distinct beginning, middle and ending.
We began visiting the Math Lab in Ms. Breault's room on floor 1. This is a center-based, small-group activity time where students work together on the standards-based activities to support mastery of math skills assigned to this quarter. We attend for 10 days, with a few delays because of other scheduled activities. Ask your student what they did today? I'm certain they'll be able to tell you.
There are a few links changed on the homework sites, so remember to make certain that you visit RAZ-kids Reading, Sampson's Classroom, and IXL Math. Yesterday six students were awarded Drops for their bucket because of their participation on IXL during the last week. Great job, students.
We'll be finishing our first 5-day week of school this Friday, finally! I knew it would happen sometime.
How are the Reader's Response Logs coming along? Thanks for assisting your child and having them complete a minimum of 2 per week.
Mrs. Petty
Saturday, February 05, 2011
6-13 February 2011
As you probably already know, there is NO school for students on Monday 7 February!........I know, I, too, am waiting on a full week of school with the students! With our accreditation process with the ADVANCE ED team from the U.S., we've accomplished and lot and preparations continue for our school's site visit the first week in May. Your patience is appreciated, and let it be known that your child will have the same amount of required days as any other year, regardless of the days that we use for these kinds of situations.
This week's work includes:
Reading:
Story: I'm a Caterpillar (with Science connections)
Skills:
Genre: Narrative Non-Fiction (reading for information)
Comprehension Skill: Drawing Conclusions
Comprehension Strategy: Text Structure (which is different than fiction!)
Study Skill: Technology: My Computer
Spelling/Phonics: Contractions (-'s,[is] -'ve[have] & -'re [are-were)] and vowel controlled 'r' words: /er/, /ir/, & /ur/
Language/Vocabulary: Using the dictionary
Grammar: am, is, are, was, & were
Writing: Facts
The castles are beginning to arrive in our hallway and they look amazing. During our math unit on measuring, we'll practice using non-standard and standard forms of measuring the different parts of our castles with a recording sheet. We'll have fun and post the results to accompany their creations. No one is allowed to touch anyone else's creations, so we're hoping that measuring doesn't damage any of them either. We'll be extra careful!
We'll be participating in Math Lab with Ms. Breault, again for 7 consecutive days in the afternoon. So you'll hear news about that, as well. It's our 2nd round, so we hope to 'get busy' and also enjoy some extra math activities throughout the day in our own classroom.
Our math flash card races have produced some pretty awesome results with strategies such as: counting up, counting on from the greater number, taking the greater number to ten and adding the remainder of the 2nd addend, knowing our doubles and just plain mental computation. I'm really pleased and we'll continue this into subtraction, as well. We're also pretty fluent with saying the quarter of fact family equations (2 subtraction, and 2 addition) with a set of three numbers. Good job! Some of us still need our fingers, but we're hoping to have that soon taken care of. Practicing on the IXL math homework site is so much help to them, as well. It gives immediate feedback on errors, and monitors each skill for mastery. We're tracking their medals and Isha is the leader in our class for now. Good job, Isha!
We're also posting their Reading Counts points. The books they're bringing home now are leveled by the ABC's. The 'higher' the letter, the harder the book. These books require your child to know most of their high frequency words, so continue practicing the chart of 100 at home, unless they've already mastered that. Then, each day they are expected to get on the computer and take a 10-question quiz about the book and story. They must score a minimum of 7 correct answers in order to earn a point. Right now, Dakotah takes the lead with 37 points! Way to go, Dakotah!
I hope the contents of the Progress Report gave you enough information to know how your child's performance is progressing. I am 'raising the bar' with work production, time on task, and accuracy in written work. I am also asking that they read book(s) each night, enter a response twice-weekly in the RR log; and visit the MOST IMPORTANT links on this blog in order to increase their accuracy in spelling, reading, math and sight words. I know it's a lot, but in the end, you'll be grateful for the investment of time that helps to produce independent 2nd graders.
I sent the permission slip home concerning the Study Trip to San Giorgio's Pizzeria. This is a fantastic trip, where students will enter the kitchen, form their own pizza with toppings of their choice and enjoy their efforts with water and, of course, gelato for dessert. If you'd volunteer to chaperone, that will be fantastic. Parents are welcome to order off the menu while we're there. If you bring your camera, you'll be glad you did! Walking shoes, and lots of wishes for NO rain on that day. Please return the 8 Euro in a zip-loc and the completed permission form as soon as possible. I need to have chaperone information filled out, as well. Thank you!
As a last item, we'll have our valentine exchange on Monday, 14 of February, so make yours ahead of time so they can 'mail' them before then. They'll be decorating a paper bag for their valentine box.
Here are the student names:
Janiah
Blake B.
David
Elijah
Julio
Manuel
Layla
Enndean
Lucas
Aiden
Isha
Jaylyn
Michael
Kole
Jacob
Gracie
Blake W.
Kaliyah
Dakotah
As you probably already know, there is NO school for students on Monday 7 February!........I know, I, too, am waiting on a full week of school with the students! With our accreditation process with the ADVANCE ED team from the U.S., we've accomplished and lot and preparations continue for our school's site visit the first week in May. Your patience is appreciated, and let it be known that your child will have the same amount of required days as any other year, regardless of the days that we use for these kinds of situations.
This week's work includes:
Reading:
Story: I'm a Caterpillar (with Science connections)
Skills:
Genre: Narrative Non-Fiction (reading for information)
Comprehension Skill: Drawing Conclusions
Comprehension Strategy: Text Structure (which is different than fiction!)
Study Skill: Technology: My Computer
Spelling/Phonics: Contractions (-'s,[is] -'ve[have] & -'re [are-were)] and vowel controlled 'r' words: /er/, /ir/, & /ur/
Language/Vocabulary: Using the dictionary
Grammar: am, is, are, was, & were
Writing: Facts
The castles are beginning to arrive in our hallway and they look amazing. During our math unit on measuring, we'll practice using non-standard and standard forms of measuring the different parts of our castles with a recording sheet. We'll have fun and post the results to accompany their creations. No one is allowed to touch anyone else's creations, so we're hoping that measuring doesn't damage any of them either. We'll be extra careful!
We'll be participating in Math Lab with Ms. Breault, again for 7 consecutive days in the afternoon. So you'll hear news about that, as well. It's our 2nd round, so we hope to 'get busy' and also enjoy some extra math activities throughout the day in our own classroom.
Our math flash card races have produced some pretty awesome results with strategies such as: counting up, counting on from the greater number, taking the greater number to ten and adding the remainder of the 2nd addend, knowing our doubles and just plain mental computation. I'm really pleased and we'll continue this into subtraction, as well. We're also pretty fluent with saying the quarter of fact family equations (2 subtraction, and 2 addition) with a set of three numbers. Good job! Some of us still need our fingers, but we're hoping to have that soon taken care of. Practicing on the IXL math homework site is so much help to them, as well. It gives immediate feedback on errors, and monitors each skill for mastery. We're tracking their medals and Isha is the leader in our class for now. Good job, Isha!
We're also posting their Reading Counts points. The books they're bringing home now are leveled by the ABC's. The 'higher' the letter, the harder the book. These books require your child to know most of their high frequency words, so continue practicing the chart of 100 at home, unless they've already mastered that. Then, each day they are expected to get on the computer and take a 10-question quiz about the book and story. They must score a minimum of 7 correct answers in order to earn a point. Right now, Dakotah takes the lead with 37 points! Way to go, Dakotah!
I hope the contents of the Progress Report gave you enough information to know how your child's performance is progressing. I am 'raising the bar' with work production, time on task, and accuracy in written work. I am also asking that they read book(s) each night, enter a response twice-weekly in the RR log; and visit the MOST IMPORTANT links on this blog in order to increase their accuracy in spelling, reading, math and sight words. I know it's a lot, but in the end, you'll be grateful for the investment of time that helps to produce independent 2nd graders.
I sent the permission slip home concerning the Study Trip to San Giorgio's Pizzeria. This is a fantastic trip, where students will enter the kitchen, form their own pizza with toppings of their choice and enjoy their efforts with water and, of course, gelato for dessert. If you'd volunteer to chaperone, that will be fantastic. Parents are welcome to order off the menu while we're there. If you bring your camera, you'll be glad you did! Walking shoes, and lots of wishes for NO rain on that day. Please return the 8 Euro in a zip-loc and the completed permission form as soon as possible. I need to have chaperone information filled out, as well. Thank you!
As a last item, we'll have our valentine exchange on Monday, 14 of February, so make yours ahead of time so they can 'mail' them before then. They'll be decorating a paper bag for their valentine box.
Here are the student names:
Janiah
Blake B.
David
Elijah
Julio
Manuel
Layla
Enndean
Lucas
Aiden
Isha
Jaylyn
Michael
Kole
Jacob
Gracie
Blake W.
Kaliyah
Dakotah
Sunday, January 30, 2011
31 January-6 February 2011
Hello to a new week. It's amazing that the year's half over and we've certainly learned a lot, but we've got a lot left to accomplish. I hope your Geometric SOLID SHAPES Castle Projects are coming along. We'd like to have them all finished and to school by Friday the 4th: that's this week! Thanks for helping your child accomplish this exciting effort. It will be amazing to get them all together and see our different creations.
I'll have a substitute on Monday morning until 11:15. I'll be off scoring our 2nd quarter Math Common Assessment with a few ladies from the District Superintendent's Office.
This week's reading story is Frog and Toad: In the Garden. Here's the skills covered:
Title: Frog and Toad Together: In the Garden
Author: Arnold Lobel
Genre: Animal Fantasy (one of our favorite genres!)
Comprehension Skill: Plot (TARGET SKILL)
Comprehension Strategy: Visualize (TARGET SKILL)
Study Skill: Diagram (Science-diagram of a plant)
Spelling/Phonics: Word endings: -ed, -ing /ar/ vowel-controlled 'r', as in car (Target SKILL)
Language/Vocabulary: Inflected endings: -s, -ed,-ing. (TARGET SKILL)
Grammar: Verbs for Now & the Past
Writing: Poem
Spelling Words:
1. ask
2. asked
3. plan
4. planned
5. help
6. helped
7. jog
8. jogged
9. call
10. called
11. again
12. soon
We'll be working hard on addition & subtraction strategies for mental computation, measurement (linear, liquid, time, etc.) in math. We've got the flash cards race going and we'll be having a lot of fun with counting up and on from the greater number in addition, and counting back from up to 18 in subtraction. Practice counting up and back from any number up to 20 and you'll be helping a lot!
As February begins, we'll be looking for more practice on the homework web-sites, watching student penmanship very closely, and increasing fluency and ability to write complete sentences in paragraph form for basically any subject or content.
Reader's Response Logs will come home on Thursday, and remember that 2 entries per week is the minimum. Some student results from the 1st semester were very disappointing, and others were fantastic!
Once again, have your child read every night! Bring those reading bags and reader's response journals should be in their bag, as well. Sign the reading log each night, and their reading will soar!
Let's watch for huge leaps of growth the last half of 1st grade!
Mrs. Petty
Hello to a new week. It's amazing that the year's half over and we've certainly learned a lot, but we've got a lot left to accomplish. I hope your Geometric SOLID SHAPES Castle Projects are coming along. We'd like to have them all finished and to school by Friday the 4th: that's this week! Thanks for helping your child accomplish this exciting effort. It will be amazing to get them all together and see our different creations.
I'll have a substitute on Monday morning until 11:15. I'll be off scoring our 2nd quarter Math Common Assessment with a few ladies from the District Superintendent's Office.
This week's reading story is Frog and Toad: In the Garden. Here's the skills covered:
Title: Frog and Toad Together: In the Garden
Author: Arnold Lobel
Genre: Animal Fantasy (one of our favorite genres!)
Comprehension Skill: Plot (TARGET SKILL)
Comprehension Strategy: Visualize (TARGET SKILL)
Study Skill: Diagram (Science-diagram of a plant)
Spelling/Phonics: Word endings: -ed, -ing /ar/ vowel-controlled 'r', as in car (Target SKILL)
Language/Vocabulary: Inflected endings: -s, -ed,-ing. (TARGET SKILL)
Grammar: Verbs for Now & the Past
Writing: Poem
Spelling Words:
1. ask
2. asked
3. plan
4. planned
5. help
6. helped
7. jog
8. jogged
9. call
10. called
11. again
12. soon
We'll be working hard on addition & subtraction strategies for mental computation, measurement (linear, liquid, time, etc.) in math. We've got the flash cards race going and we'll be having a lot of fun with counting up and on from the greater number in addition, and counting back from up to 18 in subtraction. Practice counting up and back from any number up to 20 and you'll be helping a lot!
As February begins, we'll be looking for more practice on the homework web-sites, watching student penmanship very closely, and increasing fluency and ability to write complete sentences in paragraph form for basically any subject or content.
Reader's Response Logs will come home on Thursday, and remember that 2 entries per week is the minimum. Some student results from the 1st semester were very disappointing, and others were fantastic!
Once again, have your child read every night! Bring those reading bags and reader's response journals should be in their bag, as well. Sign the reading log each night, and their reading will soar!
Let's watch for huge leaps of growth the last half of 1st grade!
Mrs. Petty
Tuesday, January 25, 2011
24-30 January 2011
NO SCHOOL FRIDAY: 28 January 2011 Teacher Work Day: Report CARDS
Welcome to the last week of the quarter and 1st semester. I always marvel at how much the students learn in the first half of the year. The second half, of course, is the one where they'll get closer to that transition to 2nd grade. We been involved with a lot of assessments and will complete them in time to include results in this grading period and suggest how your student's performance can increase over time until the end of the year.
Here are the Language Arts skills of the week. I am now including information about 'TARGET SKILLS' from the Reading Street program. These skills are essential to showing mastery over the comprehension skills necessary to read with skill and show their understanding for more difficult text. We'll begin using graphic organizers to assist with this in the future, so continue to have your student read their Fluency Folder. We will also begin taking measures of their fluency efforts. This consists of reading a NEW passage and scoring how many words were read a minute. The goal begins at 30 words per minute (wpm), and by the end of the year, the 'target' is 60-70 wpm. A few parents have practiced with their child and had great success at home. Way to go!!
Here are the skills for the week.
Story Title: Jan's New Home (our new student Jaylyn can relate to this!)
Genre: Realistic Fiction
Comprehension Skill: Theme (What lesson are we to learn from the story?) TARGET SKILL
Comprehension Strategy: Monitor & Fix-Up (is your child stopping when things don't sound right, look right, make sense, or doesn't match the print?)
Study Skill: Maps
Spelling/Phonics: Ending plural -es, /or/, spelled ore TARGET SKILL
TESTED SKILL
Language/Vocabulary: Adjectives
Grammar: Verbs That Do Not Add -s (ex: pack, fill, & load) TESTED SKILL
Writing: List
Please remember to use the homework links. Those students who participate consistently, are performing much better than those who do not use them often. These are there to support learning in the classroom, and give students' extra practice for mastery and fluency of math, writing, and reading skills. A report of participation on RAZ kids reading and IXL Math will be included in the 2nd quarter progress report.
Once again, thanks for a great 1st semester. We'll head into the last half and continue learning, changing, and growing!
NO SCHOOL FRIDAY: 28 January 2011 Teacher Work Day: Report CARDS
Welcome to the last week of the quarter and 1st semester. I always marvel at how much the students learn in the first half of the year. The second half, of course, is the one where they'll get closer to that transition to 2nd grade. We been involved with a lot of assessments and will complete them in time to include results in this grading period and suggest how your student's performance can increase over time until the end of the year.
Here are the Language Arts skills of the week. I am now including information about 'TARGET SKILLS' from the Reading Street program. These skills are essential to showing mastery over the comprehension skills necessary to read with skill and show their understanding for more difficult text. We'll begin using graphic organizers to assist with this in the future, so continue to have your student read their Fluency Folder. We will also begin taking measures of their fluency efforts. This consists of reading a NEW passage and scoring how many words were read a minute. The goal begins at 30 words per minute (wpm), and by the end of the year, the 'target' is 60-70 wpm. A few parents have practiced with their child and had great success at home. Way to go!!
Here are the skills for the week.
Story Title: Jan's New Home (our new student Jaylyn can relate to this!)
Genre: Realistic Fiction
Comprehension Skill: Theme (What lesson are we to learn from the story?) TARGET SKILL
Comprehension Strategy: Monitor & Fix-Up (is your child stopping when things don't sound right, look right, make sense, or doesn't match the print?)
Study Skill: Maps
Spelling/Phonics: Ending plural -es, /or/, spelled ore TARGET SKILL
TESTED SKILL
Language/Vocabulary: Adjectives
Grammar: Verbs That Do Not Add -s (ex: pack, fill, & load) TESTED SKILL
Writing: List
Please remember to use the homework links. Those students who participate consistently, are performing much better than those who do not use them often. These are there to support learning in the classroom, and give students' extra practice for mastery and fluency of math, writing, and reading skills. A report of participation on RAZ kids reading and IXL Math will be included in the 2nd quarter progress report.
Once again, thanks for a great 1st semester. We'll head into the last half and continue learning, changing, and growing!
Wednesday, January 19, 2011
17-23 January 2011
***SPECIAL BULLETIN***
We'll have our spelling test on Friday morning. Spelling Folders will be sent home today! You'll find the word lists inside, of course! Make sure you read the weekly post below.
Here are the words: Skills- -nk, -ng
1. bring
2. trunk
3. pink
4. bank
5. sang
6. wing
7. wink
8. blank
9. rang
10. sunk
HFW
11. every
12. sure
Another 'short' week with the commemoration of Martin Luther King, Jr.'s life and plenty of fog in the a.m.! We hope we're able to continue in our learning ventures, even though our time has been limited. This week we're reading the selection "RUBY IN HER OWN TIME". It's a story about a little duck who's growing up and changing each day. The skills associated with this story are:
Genre: Animal Fantasy
Comprehension Skill: Plot
Comprehension Strategy: Summarize
Study Skill: Glossary
Spelling/Phonics: -ng, -nk, & compound words
Language/Vocabulary: Synonyms
Grammar: Verbs that end in 's'
Writing: Making a List
We are also taking our 40 question Unit 2 Benchmark, which covers all of the six stories and the skills from the Communities unit. I am encouraging students to take their time, and if needed, re-read the question before selecting answers. Test-taking strategies are important for 1st graders, also!
We are completing our Geometry Unit and our mid-year & interval assessments to measure growth and skill competencies in : Concepts for addition, subtraction, fact families, ordinal numbers, number order, and number sense, skip counting, place value (tens & ones), word problems and problem solving. These specific skills include many of our Math Comprehensive School Improvement goals in math reasoning, number relationships concerned with problem solving. Please have your child continue their work on IXL math, where these skills are specifically addressed by using the DODEA Standards. Many students are not using this easy accessible tool on-line for extra practice. It can make such a difference.
Continuing to use the homework web-sites is imperative as we move into the latter half of first grade. Homework completion does make a difference with classroom performance. I know that internet access can be a concern, but when you're on line and everything's working take advantage of the links on this site.
I have the Reader's Response journals at school and am reading their entries. The goal is to respond to books read at home or reflect and write about experiences they've had throughout the week. Your assistance is appreciated. I've opened many and enjoyed reading their writing entries. I've also opened a few with very little effort or entries. Please begin to use this as a tool to help your student further increase practice in writing and to prepare for 2nd grade.
Dont forget about the Samson's Classroom web-site, as well. Our spelling words of the week (which are very difficult for the students!) can be reviewed and practice using this site. Each list is available every week and extra practice always helps with these skills. The sight words are also available for reading and spelling practice on this sight.
I am testing the 100 sight words from the original list I sent home at the beginning of the year. Please review these at home.
Report Cards will be completed by Friday, 28th of January, on teacher workday. You will have a better picture of how your child is performing in school, once these are sent home the following week.
Stay warm, help your child get their homework completed daily and LISTEN to them read for accuracy in decoding words and making things sound right, look right and make sense.
Mrs. Petty
***SPECIAL BULLETIN***
We'll have our spelling test on Friday morning. Spelling Folders will be sent home today! You'll find the word lists inside, of course! Make sure you read the weekly post below.
Here are the words: Skills- -nk, -ng
1. bring
2. trunk
3. pink
4. bank
5. sang
6. wing
7. wink
8. blank
9. rang
10. sunk
HFW
11. every
12. sure
Another 'short' week with the commemoration of Martin Luther King, Jr.'s life and plenty of fog in the a.m.! We hope we're able to continue in our learning ventures, even though our time has been limited. This week we're reading the selection "RUBY IN HER OWN TIME". It's a story about a little duck who's growing up and changing each day. The skills associated with this story are:
Genre: Animal Fantasy
Comprehension Skill: Plot
Comprehension Strategy: Summarize
Study Skill: Glossary
Spelling/Phonics: -ng, -nk, & compound words
Language/Vocabulary: Synonyms
Grammar: Verbs that end in 's'
Writing: Making a List
We are also taking our 40 question Unit 2 Benchmark, which covers all of the six stories and the skills from the Communities unit. I am encouraging students to take their time, and if needed, re-read the question before selecting answers. Test-taking strategies are important for 1st graders, also!
We are completing our Geometry Unit and our mid-year & interval assessments to measure growth and skill competencies in : Concepts for addition, subtraction, fact families, ordinal numbers, number order, and number sense, skip counting, place value (tens & ones), word problems and problem solving. These specific skills include many of our Math Comprehensive School Improvement goals in math reasoning, number relationships concerned with problem solving. Please have your child continue their work on IXL math, where these skills are specifically addressed by using the DODEA Standards. Many students are not using this easy accessible tool on-line for extra practice. It can make such a difference.
Continuing to use the homework web-sites is imperative as we move into the latter half of first grade. Homework completion does make a difference with classroom performance. I know that internet access can be a concern, but when you're on line and everything's working take advantage of the links on this site.
I have the Reader's Response journals at school and am reading their entries. The goal is to respond to books read at home or reflect and write about experiences they've had throughout the week. Your assistance is appreciated. I've opened many and enjoyed reading their writing entries. I've also opened a few with very little effort or entries. Please begin to use this as a tool to help your student further increase practice in writing and to prepare for 2nd grade.
Dont forget about the Samson's Classroom web-site, as well. Our spelling words of the week (which are very difficult for the students!) can be reviewed and practice using this site. Each list is available every week and extra practice always helps with these skills. The sight words are also available for reading and spelling practice on this sight.
I am testing the 100 sight words from the original list I sent home at the beginning of the year. Please review these at home.
Report Cards will be completed by Friday, 28th of January, on teacher workday. You will have a better picture of how your child is performing in school, once these are sent home the following week.
Stay warm, help your child get their homework completed daily and LISTEN to them read for accuracy in decoding words and making things sound right, look right and make sense.
Mrs. Petty
Monday, January 10, 2011
20 January 2010
We've got the first week "under our belt" and will begin the Unit 3 Theme: CHANGES with our Reading Streets program this week. It begins with the story: AN EGG IS AN EGG. The skills covered in this Selection are:
Genre: Realistic Fiction
Comprehension Skill: Compare/Contrast
Comprehension Strategy: Predict
Study Skill: Alphabetical Order
Spelling/Phonics: Sounds of Y (long e and long i), CV (consonant, vowel)
Language/Vocabulary: Synonyms
Grammar: Action Verbs
Writing: Steps and How to directions
We will also begin our Unit 2 Benchmark test that has 40 questions dealing with Comprehension, Phonics, Grammar and Usage and High Frequency Words/Vocabulary. Sometimes it takes 2-3 sessions on the computer to complete this assessment because of the length. Some will be given the test in a small group. All in all, we're moving through the curriculum, and having a lot of fun learning how to read. We'll step up the fluency work, and you'll see a lot of their Fluency Folder for homework, since the passages are lengthier and full of new adventures in word work using all past phonics and high frequency words throughout. Please listen and assist appropriately, where necessary.
In math we're exploring geometry and spatial sense in addition to number sense with place value, fact families and strategies for addition and subtraction.
In problem solving last week, we added another strategy to our 'bank' of reasoning steps. Now we have three we're working with :
1. draw a picture
2. find a pattern
3. choose an operation (new last week)
We've also been working on writing equations for word problems and using our strategies to think through solutions. This includes everyone 'listening' to the word problem and responding by writing on their white board. They are becoming quite the mathematicians!
I have begun to record/publish progress on IXL Math and Reading Counts on a special board in the classroom. They earn points/awards through both of these programs. You can help by:
1. IXL Math: allowing your student to access this web-site from home from the homework links where they earn awards, and.....
2. Let them read their take home books at home in order to take the quizzes during the next day at school. We've changed from Early Intervention Take-Home books, to Guided Reading Books, where each book has a 10 question quiz that can be taken at school on the computers. Please encourage home reading, so your child can earn and add to their 'bank' of points.
Other Homework Links: Sampson's Classroom (spelling and sight words)
Remember that next Monday: 17 January, is a federal holiday and there is no school for students.
Thank you for your support.
Mrs. Petty
We've got the first week "under our belt" and will begin the Unit 3 Theme: CHANGES with our Reading Streets program this week. It begins with the story: AN EGG IS AN EGG. The skills covered in this Selection are:
Genre: Realistic Fiction
Comprehension Skill: Compare/Contrast
Comprehension Strategy: Predict
Study Skill: Alphabetical Order
Spelling/Phonics: Sounds of Y (long e and long i), CV (consonant, vowel)
Language/Vocabulary: Synonyms
Grammar: Action Verbs
Writing: Steps and How to directions
We will also begin our Unit 2 Benchmark test that has 40 questions dealing with Comprehension, Phonics, Grammar and Usage and High Frequency Words/Vocabulary. Sometimes it takes 2-3 sessions on the computer to complete this assessment because of the length. Some will be given the test in a small group. All in all, we're moving through the curriculum, and having a lot of fun learning how to read. We'll step up the fluency work, and you'll see a lot of their Fluency Folder for homework, since the passages are lengthier and full of new adventures in word work using all past phonics and high frequency words throughout. Please listen and assist appropriately, where necessary.
In math we're exploring geometry and spatial sense in addition to number sense with place value, fact families and strategies for addition and subtraction.
In problem solving last week, we added another strategy to our 'bank' of reasoning steps. Now we have three we're working with :
1. draw a picture
2. find a pattern
3. choose an operation (new last week)
We've also been working on writing equations for word problems and using our strategies to think through solutions. This includes everyone 'listening' to the word problem and responding by writing on their white board. They are becoming quite the mathematicians!
I have begun to record/publish progress on IXL Math and Reading Counts on a special board in the classroom. They earn points/awards through both of these programs. You can help by:
1. IXL Math: allowing your student to access this web-site from home from the homework links where they earn awards, and.....
2. Let them read their take home books at home in order to take the quizzes during the next day at school. We've changed from Early Intervention Take-Home books, to Guided Reading Books, where each book has a 10 question quiz that can be taken at school on the computers. Please encourage home reading, so your child can earn and add to their 'bank' of points.
Other Homework Links: Sampson's Classroom (spelling and sight words)
Remember that next Monday: 17 January, is a federal holiday and there is no school for students.
Thank you for your support.
Mrs. Petty
Saturday, January 01, 2011
1 January 2011
HAPPY NEW YEAR!
In 2 short days, we'll all be back to school, ready to continue our First Grade work and progress towards end--of-year benchmarks. I hope you've taken the time to have fun, make memories with your family, renew and rejuvenate yourself, and help your child to remember to visit the homework links.
This week, we'll finish Unit 2 "COMMUNITIES", with a non-fiction story about Honey Bees! The skills covered in this Selection are:
Genre: Expository Non-fiction
Comprehension Skill: Compare/Contrast
Comprehension Strategy: Preview
Study Skill: Picture Dictionary
Spelling/Phonics: Long e-'ee', e, syllables
Language/Vocabulary: Antonyms (opposites)
Grammar: Nouns in Sentences
Writing: Facts
After this week's selection, we will prepare to take the 40 item Unit Benchmark Test that tells us how they're performing in comprehension, spelling & phonics, use of language, grammar and writing skills that include grammar, conventions, sequencing, and sentence/construction by responding to a "How to Make a Sandwich" prompt. This test is taken on-line and their 'test-reading' skills will obviously become a part of their skill-set, as well.
Take these dates down for January:
No School for Students:
10 January-Professional Development Day for Teachers
17 January-Martin Luther King, Jr. Federal Holiday
28 January-Teacher Work Day (Report Cards/End of Quarter)
You're also welcome to attend the SAC (School Advisory Committee) Meeting that will occur on Monday, 24 January in the Media Center Conference Room at 3 p.m.
You can expect your child's Report Card to come home on Wednesday, 2 February.
I'll be adding to the post throughout the following weeks' and months', of course. Remember that this needs to be checked weekly, as early as Sunday evening, or Monday evening. This helps to inform you of the class events and academic milestones and activities.
See you soon!
Mrs. Petty
HAPPY NEW YEAR!
In 2 short days, we'll all be back to school, ready to continue our First Grade work and progress towards end--of-year benchmarks. I hope you've taken the time to have fun, make memories with your family, renew and rejuvenate yourself, and help your child to remember to visit the homework links.
This week, we'll finish Unit 2 "COMMUNITIES", with a non-fiction story about Honey Bees! The skills covered in this Selection are:
Genre: Expository Non-fiction
Comprehension Skill: Compare/Contrast
Comprehension Strategy: Preview
Study Skill: Picture Dictionary
Spelling/Phonics: Long e-'ee', e, syllables
Language/Vocabulary: Antonyms (opposites)
Grammar: Nouns in Sentences
Writing: Facts
After this week's selection, we will prepare to take the 40 item Unit Benchmark Test that tells us how they're performing in comprehension, spelling & phonics, use of language, grammar and writing skills that include grammar, conventions, sequencing, and sentence/construction by responding to a "How to Make a Sandwich" prompt. This test is taken on-line and their 'test-reading' skills will obviously become a part of their skill-set, as well.
Take these dates down for January:
No School for Students:
10 January-Professional Development Day for Teachers
17 January-Martin Luther King, Jr. Federal Holiday
28 January-Teacher Work Day (Report Cards/End of Quarter)
You're also welcome to attend the SAC (School Advisory Committee) Meeting that will occur on Monday, 24 January in the Media Center Conference Room at 3 p.m.
You can expect your child's Report Card to come home on Wednesday, 2 February.
I'll be adding to the post throughout the following weeks' and months', of course. Remember that this needs to be checked weekly, as early as Sunday evening, or Monday evening. This helps to inform you of the class events and academic milestones and activities.
See you soon!
Mrs. Petty
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