100th Day was so much fun! They really enjoyed all of the fun activities last Thursday.

We are continuing subtraction strategies this week. Using a number line to subtract - we used Ziploc bags to slide on the number line. 

I look forward to meeting with all of you at our Parent -Teacher conferences this week. I have so much to share with you! They all have learned so much! Since we only have 15 minutes, it may be helpful if you come prepared with any specific questions you may have regarding your child's report card. Thanks in advance- see you Tuesday or Thursday!

Addison is in the spotlight this week. We all really enjoyed her show- n -tell where she showed us some of her fancy tap moves!

Drum Roll please.... tomorrow is the 100th day of school!! Can you believe it? I can't believe it has been 100 days already!

We will do all kinds of fun activities for the 100th day of school. If your child is interested, they can dress up as 100 years old tomorrow. 

They really enjoyed making themselves 100 years old!

Avery’s mom was a Mystery Reader on Thursday! The kiddos really enjoyed the books that she read! Thank you!

Buddy Time
On Wednesday we met with our buddies from Mrs. Gastreich‘s class. We read the book titled The Best Part of Me. This book was written by children and they took ordinary body parts and described why they were special. After the story, the students shared with their buddy their "Best Body Part" and wrote it on a post it note. 

The students are doing a great job during word study. They all really enjoy using the dry erase boards to write letters, blends, short and long vowel patterns, counting the sounds in words and spelling correctly, and writing sentences with correct capitals, spaces and ending marks!

Geography

We started geography after the break. They have been busy learning about...

• 5 oceans and 7 continents
• landforms
• maps
• map symbols
• map key 
• compass rose 

If your child has any maps around the house from places they have been, feel free to send them to school next week. They will bring the map back home. 

Student Binders:

Since they bring home their leadership binders on early release days, I hope your child showed their binder to you this week. If you did not see your child's binder, please ask them to bring it home next week. 

The students are working hard on their snap words during the word work station during Daily 5, Word Study time as a class, See Saw word wall activities, and during Writer's Workshop. Please remember they are not just working on reading the words, but spelling them correctly too. 

They are all really proud of the leadership section in their binder. They have several of the 7 Habits papers in the binder. We have a few more to go! There are some reflections from stories that we have read as well. 

Many of them are really good at putting these behavior passes and treasure chest passes in their binder. They LOVE getting these passes and I am sure they were excited to share this with you. 

Reminders:

No School Monday 1/21

100th Day of School 1/24

Family Bingo 1/25

Parent Teacher Conferences 1/29 and 1/31

No School 2/1

Avery is in the spotlight this week. We really enjoyed her show -n - tell today! She would like everyone to wear yellow tomorrow! 

Please do not forget to sign up for conferences using the link from Dr Moehlmann! Thank you to all of the parents who have signed up already! 

Don’t forget- tomorrow is early release. 

No school Monday- MLK

Happy New Year and Welcome Back! 

We are starting to get back into the routine this week. The kiddos are excited to start our new units in math and social studies.

Please Welcome Vinny to our classroom!

We are happy to have you join our class!

Daily 5-

The students are working on their reading stamina, reading snap words quickly, scooping up words to read like the talk and thinking about the story. 

They are building snap words, working on short and long vowel sounds and sentence building with capitals, spaces and ending marks. 

The kiddos have new activities for their See Saw journal and look forward to putting more of their writer's workshop and math learning on See Saw too. 

Writer's Workshop-

This is a review unit. Since we are learning about Geography during social studies, they get to write about a place. They will choose to write a personal narrative (small moment) piece or a non fiction book ( teaching book) about a place. Later in the unit they might write a "how to book" or an "opinion" piece as well. During Writer's Workshop they will work on the craft moves of a personal narrative and craft moves of a non fiction book. Conventions is always a focus during writing. They are encouraged to be a responsible writer- use spaces, tall short, hang bottom down letters, ending marks and spell snap words correctly by using the word wall. 

Math Workshop-

We have started Subtraction. They really enjoyed learning about Fact Families and noticing the pattern of writing Fact Families. We will focus on Subtraction and taking away throughout the unit. The biggest thing for them to remember is that the biggest number will always be first in a number sentence. We say that the biggest number wants to be the "line leader". They will also continue to work on basic math facts to 20 with their math center work by using dominoes, dice, cards, beans and counters. 

Social Studies: 

We started Geography today! They are very excited! We will have some project based learning near the end of this unit. I am excited to share more about this with them as we get through some of the first few lessons in our geography unit. Please review with your child any places (camping, state parks, site seeing places, vacation spots, other states, other countries) they may have visited (in Missouri, another state or country). Your reminder may help them during Writer's Workshop and Social Studies. Feel free to jot down a list on a post it for them to bring to school and keep in their crayon box. 

Now that we are in our second semester of first grade, your child may be ready for some more school work at home. Here are some options for your child:

• read more than 10 mins a night
• write in a journal about the book they read ( reading response journal)
• write snap words (found on the back of their planner)
• dry erase board and dry erase marker- write snap words ( they love dry erase boards )
• Dreambox
• coolmath.com
• abcya.com

I look forward to conferences and sharing all of your child's progress so far. Please be sure to sign up for a conference through the sign up genius from Dr. Moehlmann. It is expected that I conference with every family. Thank you to the families that already signed up!

Avery is in the spotlight this week. She would like everyone to wear teal on Wednesday.

Avery is in the spotlight this week! We loved her show -n- tell- especially meeting Squeakers, her guinea pig! 

Dates to remember:
1/16 early release
1/21 No school MLK Day
1/ 29 Conferences
1/31 Conferences
2/1 No School