Mawson

November 19, 2009

With Thanksgiving a week away, I just want to take this time to wish all of you a very Happy Thanksgiving.  As you share this joyous holiday with your family and friends, I feel this is the perfect time to share what I am thankful for.  I am grateful for the children I teach each day in our wonderful school with the support of such fabulous parents.  The Thanksgiving week is a great time to just relax and have some really good quality time with each other.  Stay safe, enjoy, relax!

In Language Arts this week, we have continued to learn about story grammar. We revisited identifying characters and setting and the relationship between characters.  We also identified the problem too.  we tried to understand the characters and find the main character's relationship to the plot.  We used 'Whistle for Willie' to do this as well as other books. In phonics, we worked with the blends sn, sw, and sc.

In Math, we have worked with ordinal numbers and are now working on strategies in addition and subtraction to 12.  We also have begun a unit on geometry.  We will be studying solid and plane shapes.  We have been doing different activities with these. Please quiz your child on the shapes on the papers that come home. 

In Writer's Workshop, we continue writing personal narrative-Small Moments.  We are adding techniques that authors use to make our writing better.  We are using good beginning sentences that are 'hooks' for our writing.  We are also working with our writing buddies to get our writing organized before we write and also to help improve our writing afterwards. We are also using joining words inside our stories to make them even more interesting as the sentences connect to one and other. We are also exploring pattern books.

In Science, we continue our study of Sound.  In Social Studies, we are studying the Lewis and Clark expedition and Sacagawea.  We will continue this study for a few more weeks. This week the students had fun with a location on the National Geographic site as we traveled around a map of the expedition and along the rivers to the West. This map study will also help review our map skills.

Since it is the end of November, you can send in your child's Math Blaster packet, their fun calendar and reading bag with the total minutes read.  You can send them in on Friday or wait until Monday, Nov. 30th.

The students who did optional reports for this 9 week period not only did a wonderful job on the projects they did, but also did such a good job presenting them that we learned so much from them.

I hope you all have a HAPPY THANKSGIVING AND A WONDERFUL BREAK!

Nov. 12, 2009

In Language Arts this week we learned about understanding story grammar. We discussed more about identifying the main character and setting, identifying the problem, identifying the relationships between characters, identifying how the main character plans to solve the problem, and identifying the story resolution. We primarily used the book The Little Red Hen to do this as well as others.

In Math, we will continue to have timed tests weekly and they are adding up to 12.  Please study number facts to 12 in both addition and subtraction.  Some students are not keeping up with this and after the Winter Break we will be moving up to 18 and some students will really start to struggle.  Next week, we will continue working on strategies in addition and subtraction and hopefully this will help the students.

In Science, we have begun our study of Sound.  The students were so excited and really had a good grasp of the vocabulary that is used with this unit.  In Social Studies, we are beginning to study about the Lewis and Clark expedition and Sacagawea.  It is an exciting time in American history and is so different than things are today. 

Remember that optional reports are due next Wednesday on Nov. 19th if your child is doing one.  The information is on last week's blog.

Please continue to work on the Math Blaster packet with your student weekly.  These folders will be due at the end of the month, which is next week and 8 activity sheets is a lot for a student to do in a short period of time. 

Remember Raz-Kids is a great place for your child to go on the computer. 

Thursday is Mt. Bethel Pizza Night at Papa John's pizza.  This is a wonderful fundraiser for our school as well as a great way to feed your family on Thursday  night.

Have a great weekend and, as always, thank you for all you do to help your child be successful at school. 

Nov. 5, 2009

It has been a busy and enjoyable time with Scarecrow Day.  Our thanks go to April Weldon for organizing a wonderful Scarecrow Celebration and to all the parents who helped in any way.  The centers were enjoyed by all the students.  It was a great way to get a special day for the students started.  All the students were dressed as scarecrows and we all enjoyed seeing the creative ways we could dress up as one. Thank you to all who contributed to our celebration and were there to help! We also enjoyed seeing our book buddies on Friday.

Thank you so much for all your contributions to the Foundation.  As you know, our class ended up with 70% participation.  All the students benefit so much from the things the Foundation does for our school.  We are so' lucky at Mt. Bethel to have such a wonderful resource to improve our school.  I was so surprised that I will be receiving a $50.00 gift certificate to a 'spa'.  Thank you so much.

Tomorrow, we will be on a different schedule for Lunch and Specials as we will be outside at the track for a special celebration at 1:00.  Lunch will be at 9:21 and Specials will be at 11:25. 

Thank you for sending in your October fun calendars.  There are a few more that still need to come back, so send them in as soon as you can.  Thank you for totaling all the minutes read on the reading logs. the students are doing so well on these.  I sent home your child's record of AR tests taken for the month of October.  Please try to make sure your child tests on at least 1 book each week and more would be wonderful.  This only helps them grow in their reading skills.

In the area of academics, we continue to work on our 2nd nine weeks standards in all areas.  Please continue to work on retelling stories with your child and also with summarizing and the beginning, middle and ending of a story.  These are such important skills. We have also been working on inferring, which can be difficult for first graders.  We explain it as using knowledge and clues to understand what we read.  We discussed using clues to infer meaning and unfamiliar words, making sense of text, creating pictures in our minds (mental imagery) and making inferences about characters.  In phonics, we had fun using the digraphs- ch, sh, wh, and th.

In Math, we are reviewing addition and subtraction and tens and ones. We are also working on 'rounding up' number, skip counting and using ordinal numbers.  These are fun skills for the students to work on.  On Monday, your child brought home their Blast Off with Math packet.  There are 4 addition and  subtraction timed tests to do.  You can pace your child through these over the month and then return the packet to me at the end of November.  The packets will come home monthly for the rest of the year. As always, thank you so much for your help.

Our personal narratives in Writers' Workshop are really developing well.  We have been talking about stretching our moments and using a lot of details.  The students are using 'juicy color words and putting in words with feelings like "I felt" or "I was surprised" to try and make their stories even better.  We continue to talk about 'pictures in our minds' when we read and link that to our writing.  The students are getting to be so good at making connections in all areas, not only in reading and writing. 

In Social Studies we are finishing up our study on Thomas Jefferson and will begin our study on Sacagawea.  She is a very interesting person who is connected to the Lewis and Clark expedition and the students are  very interested in this adventure and have lots of questions about it. 

Our optional report for the 2nd 9 weeks of school will be one where the students have a choice of things to work on.  We have just completed our study of Magnets and some students might enjoy going more in depth with this. We will be studying Sound in Science this quarter and students love this subject.   We have been studying Thomas Jefferson and will be studying Sacagawea and Lewis and Clark and I thought any of these people would add interest to our topics for these reports. Any of these subjects would be perfect for an optional report.  As always, this report can be presented in any format your child can think of.  We really enjoyed the reports in September and the students and presenters were very enthusiatic and we all learned a lot.  The reports will be due on Wednesday, November 18th.  We all look forward to learning more from our optional reports.

I want to let you know that I will not be in school next week. The students will have a wonderful substitute for the week and I have left complete lesson plans for her to follow of everything I would have done.  I know the students will enjoy a great week with her.

 

October 29, 2009

The students enjoyed 11Alive's visit this morning to present and demonstrate weather related information.  Please remember to tune into 11 Alive tomorrow morning (Friday) at 6:15 am to see our students on TV.  They sometimes show the same clips later in the six o'clock hour of broadcasts too.

This week in Language Arts, we are building vocabulary and concept knowledge.  We used pictures to predict story words, used clues to figure out new words and concepts, used multiple clues to figure out unfamiliar words and substituted similar words to check meanings of words.  We read the book 'Jamberry' which the students really enjoyed.  Some of them knew it as a poem they learned when they were little.  It helped us learn a lot about compound words too.  We have been talking about nouns as naming words of persons, places, and things. We have also done activities with the digraphs th, and wh, and compound words and reviewed short vowels.  

In Math, we are working on a unit on  place value and greater than, less than and equal to.  The students have been exploring the 100s chart as they do the activities. We have also been talking about estimation and rounding to the nearest tens.We have also been working on creating our own word problems.  The students are getting to be so good at doing this. Please watch out for our Math Blaster packet that will come home on Monday.  The instructions come along with it.  It needs to be worked on during the whole month and then be returned at the end of the month.  Please work on it weekly to give your child the greatest benefit from it  and don't save it all for the last week of the month.

In Writer's Workshop, we continue to write our personal narratives.  We are focusing on picking a small moment in time, not a long story and using details.  The students are being encouraged to use 'juicy' color words and descriptive words to make their writing interesting and give the reader a mental image of their story. 

In Science we continue to explore magnets and all that involves them.  This study is reinforced in the Science Lab when the students have Science for Specials. Grade levels coordinate their subject areas so the same area is being covered in the lab as in the classroom.

In Social Studies we continue our study of Thomas Jefferson. This week we learned about the Louisiana Purchase. We will begin learning about Lewis and Clark and Sacagawea next.  I can't wait!

Please add up the minutes your child read and put it on the bottom of the sheet in their reading bag and also return the fun calendar. Next week the students will be bringing home their Math Blaster packet for a little addition homework.  The Math Blaster folders will be returned at the end of the month.

We are all looking forward to Scarecrow Day.  Remember that your child's scarecrow costume does not need to be anything elaborate.  Just help your child use their imaginations and use things you have at home to come up with a 'scarecrowy creation'. Hope to see you Friday at 9:30 for our celebration.

Our trip to the Fox Theatre to see Junie B Jones was fabulous.  The story was based on the book 'First Grader, At Last!'  It was a musical play and the students really connected with the performers as we had just read this book in class and the situations in the play were first grade ones.  It all goes along with our study of personal narratives.

New AR levels will be coming home next week.

Last week, I sent home 2 stapled white papers from Mrs. Johnson explaining the new bus pass a student needs to have if they are going over a friend's house.  I think 1-2 students did not get them.  If you have not received one, let me know and I will send one home. 

I hope you are enjoying Raz-Kids at home with your child.  It is a wonderful program and we need to say thank you to the Foundation for paying for the school's subscription for us. 

Hope you have a great Halloween weekend.

 

Oct. 22, 2009

Now that the report cards for the first nine weeks have been distributed, I have spoken with the students about our next nine weeks and the expectations I have for them to "Be The Best They Can Be".  We talked about how we achieve this and they said it is through hard work and doing their best.  Most of the students have shown this through their hard work this week, but there are a few reluctant ones.  I will be communicating with you through their communication folders if I need to.

With the start of a new 9 week period comes new standards to cover.  In Language Arts, we have been working on retelling a story and continue to work on character descriptions and setting.  We have been talking about the beginning, middle and end of the story.  We also continue discussions about text-to-self connections and text-to-text connections.  That is when we can connect what has happened in a story to an event in our lives or to an event in another books.  The students are really catching on to this.  Try it when you are reading with your child.  It really is fun and helps with comprehension!    We have also been working on thinking about what you know before and during your reading.  We have discussed using what you know to figure things out and talking to others about what you know and recognizing what you don't know and how to find out about it.

We have been working on doubling the consonant and adding endings to short vowel verbs like run, and tap and jog.  The students are having such fun with this and are finding this rule in words all over the place in other things they read and see.  We are also learning more about digraphs and blends.

In Writer's Workshop, we are working on personal narratives.  These are descriptive narratives that zoom in on a small moment in our life that we write about using details so the reader can get a mental image of what we are talking about.  This is what we are working on in Language Arts too so it also helps us in our writing!

I hope you enjoyed reading your child's journal.  The students are expected to write at least 5 sentences each week and the whole class is doing a great job using all they have learned to make their weekend new informative. 

In Math, we are exploring place value,  and tens and ones. We will also using Graph Club to make graphs of data that we have collected through class surverys.  The graphs we made are hanging up in the hallway outside our door. We did our first timed test up to 12 this week, so continue your practice of math facts and make sure not to leave out subtraction. This 9 weeks, the objective is to have the students start counting coins up to $1.00.  This is the beginning of a new standard and we will be working on this for the rest of the year.  Please practice counting change with your child until they really understand exchanges of all amounts of coins to $1.00.

We started to learn about Thomas Jefferson in Social Studies.  The students are very enthusiastic when it comes to learning more about our country and its heroes. There is a web site I used that you might want to explore with your student.  It is www.monticello.org and it has a lot of information about Jefferson's beautiful estate and its history. 

In Science, we are learning about Magnets.  The students have been using magnets in the classroom and in the Science Lab and have been using our science books and viewing videos about magnets to broaden their knowledge of them.

 *****It is very important that your child be here on time for school.  Many of the students are here early, by 7:30 or before, and have time to unpack, get settled, sharp their pencils, and get mentally relaxed to have a good day.  It is not fair to your child to have them tardy or walking in the door as the bell rings and then unpacking as our day has already begun.  It is like getting on the merry-go-round when it is already moving.  This class has a number of students who are in this situation daily.  We have a long walk for little ones all the way to the back of the school.  Please have your child ride the bus daily so they arrive in a timely manner and are ready to have a successful day.  I appreciate your understanding.

Recently, the first grade wrote a Mt. Bethel Foundation grant for consumable handwriting books and books to help students with the CRCT testing.  We were given our grant and are already using the handwriting books and will use the other book as we practice for CRCTs in the new year.  The licenses for your child to use Raz-Kids is also through the Foundation.   A big thank you to our wonderful Foundation!

Some of the students are missing large numbers of crayons now.  Please ask your child if they are one of these students and need a new box of crayons.  Students need new supplies from time to time during the year.

Remember Reflections are due in the beginning of November.  This is  a wonderful experience for your child to have.  There was information about this in the Bugle. 

Remember to visit our bookfair next week.  There are some fabulous books there.

We are all looking forward to our Scarecrow Day on Friday, the 30th. I am looking forward to seeing my fantastic class dressed up as scarecrows.   Hope to see you at our Scarecrow celebration from 9:30-10:30. We will be seeing our bookbuddies on Tuesday and if you would like to send in a little 'treat' for your child's buddy, I know they would be very happy.

I hope you are finding the parenting articles that come home on Thursday in the Communication Folders helpful. They are for you to keep and can be removed from the folders.

Now that the weather has turned cooler, please make sure you have your child's name in their clothing.  We have so many beautiful and expensive pieces of clothing in the Mt. Bethel Lost and Found unclaimed each year and  I don't want any of those pieces of clothing to be ours.  Thank you in advance. We do go out for recess daily so please make sure your child is dressed accordingly.

Remember we have a field trip to see Junie B. Jones on Monday and your child should wear their red class shirt. 

It's hard to believe that next week is the end of October.  Remember that we will be starting Math homework in November and the packet and directions will be coming home in November.

Please Support our Foundation!

 
Do you know about our ELMOs?  Thanks to the Foundation, we started the school year with an ELMO in every teacher's classroom! Click here to learn more!

The Mt. Bethel Foundation is funded 100% by parent donations and the Patron Program, which ends next week, is their only fundraiser. If you plan to make a donation or pledge, please send in your patron card ASAP. The superb programs and teacher grants provided by the Foundation are in jeopardy! Thank you to the families that have contributed!

Our class currently has 50% Participation!

Highest participating classes per grade level: 

• Kindergarten - Schreck
• First - Cillian
• Second - Birdsong
• Third - Bredickas
• Fourth - Sloan
• Fifth - Jones

Please view the MBESF website for more information about the Foundation and what it provides for our school. 

Keep Mt. Bethel students' thinking caps fully charged, send in your patron card before 10/30/09!

Please Support our Foundation!

 
Do you know about our ELMOs?  Thanks to the Foundation, we started the school year with an ELMO in every teacher's classroom! Click here to learn more!

The Mt. Bethel Foundation is funded 100% by parent donations and the Patron Program, which ends next week, is their only fundraiser. If you plan to make a donation or pledge, please send in your patron card ASAP. The superb programs and teacher grants provided by the Foundation are in jeopardy! Thank you to the families that have contributed!

Our class currently has 50% Participation!

Highest participating classes per grade level: 

• Kindergarten - Schreck
• First - Cillian
• Second - Birdsong
• Third - Bredickas
• Fourth - Sloan
• Fifth - Jones

Please view the MBESF website for more information about the Foundation and what it provides for our school. 

Keep Mt. Bethel students' thinking caps fully charged, send in your patron card before 10/30/09!

Please Support our Foundation!

 
Do you know about our ELMOs?  Thanks to the Foundation, we started the school year with an ELMO in every teacher's classroom! Click here to learn more!

The Mt. Bethel Foundation is funded 100% by parent donations and the Patron Program, which ends next week, is their only fundraiser. If you plan to make a donation or pledge, please send in your patron card ASAP. The superb programs and teacher grants provided by the Foundation are in jeopardy! Thank you to the families that have contributed!

Our class currently has 50% Participation!

Highest participating classes per grade level: 

• Kindergarten - Schreck
• First - Cillian
• Second - Birdsong
• Third - Bredickas
• Fourth - Sloan
• Fifth - Jones

Please view the MBESF website for more information about the Foundation and what it provides for our school. 

Keep Mt. Bethel students' thinking caps fully charged, send in your patron card before 10/30/09!

October 15, 2009

I have been busy working on report cards that will go home on Friday.  The students are assessed in all the areas they participate in at school.  The important thing to do when you are reviewing your student's report card is to have the rubrics at hand to read the descriptors for each subject area on the back of the report card.  It will help you understand exactly what your child is being evaluated on.  Please remember, as the year goes on, the standards increase and the bar is raised.  So while your child may have consistently and successfully met a standard this nine weeks, each nine weeks is different and the standards change. Students will be assessed at the end of each nine weeks in new and different ways.  It is exciting for me to look back and see the growth that the students have shown since the beginning of the year.   That was just 9 short weeks ago but I have seen a lot of progress in that short time. I hope you have too.  

We have been writing 'Weekend News' in our journals every Monday since the beginning of the year.  Next week on Monday, the students will be bringing home their journals to share with you.  I hope you enjoy seeing their progress since August.  They are very proud of their work.  Please have your child read it with you and then return it to school ASAP as we need them for the following Monday.

During our Reading Workshop, we have been discussing schema. Schema is another word for thinking about what you already know. Therefore, using your schema, is using your background knowledge. It is like a filing cabinet in your brain, filled with the places you have been, things you have done, and the experiences that make us who we are as individuals. Using our schema helps us to better understand the books we are reading. We, therefore, make connections from our reading. We will be working on different types of connections. This week I introduced connecting our reading to ourselves as well as other connections I will tell you about next week. The first connection is called a text-to-self connection. The books I read were Wibble, Wobble and The Relatives Came amongst others.  We shared stories that related to these books. During your reading time at home, encourage the children to make these personal connections, if they apply. The students love making their own connections with literature.

 We continue to discuss fluency, expression and voice. We continue to work on our writing and have discussed the use of capitalization and punctuation.  The students continue to write narratives where they write a beginning sentence, then 3 details, then a closing sentence that refers back to the beginning sentence.  The students are amazed how this technique made them better authors.  We continue our use of short vowels. 

In Math, we have been working on a short unit of study on graphing.  The students are working in partners and have chosen a topic to survey and collect data on and will later take the data and make it into graphs.  They LOVE doing it and especially enjoyed polling all their classmates. In a few weeks time, we will be graphing this on the computer, using a program called Graph Club.

Just to let you know ahead of time, we will be adding Math homework in November.  A Blast Off with Math packet will go home at the beginning of the month for you to work on with your student and will be returned at the end of the month.  More information to follow!

A big thank you to Mrs. Farley for doing a wonderful art lesson on the artist and author Maurice Sendak while I was at a grade level meeting.  The students really were excited about his work and the drawings they did.  Thank you to Mrs. Pollock for assisting Mrs. Farley.

We will be meeting with our Book Buddies from Ms. Peterman's class on Friday, October 30th.  If your child would like to bring in a Halloween treat for their Book Buddy, I'm sure they would really enjoy it.

Remember that Scarecrow Day is scheduled for the 3oth.  Please refer to my previous blogs for information on the festivities planned and how the students should dress up.  April Weldon will be organizing this time to make this day a special one for the students. Hope you have some time to come and join us.

Oct. 8, 2009

It is hard to believe that Friday marks the end of the first nine weeks of school.  I am looking forward to marking report cards and sharing with you where your child has shown growth.  I always think it is good to reflect on a student's progress every 9 weeks.  Remember reports come home on Friday, October 16th. 

As we get into the year and you are doing nightly reading with your child, more reading should be done by the child.  As you check off the 'Read by' part of the Reading Bag chart, make a mental note to see that your child is doing most of the reading.  This daily practice is invaluable! Raz Kids is a wonderful website for your child to get even more practice in reading and has a comprehension test to go along with it!

Your child will be getting a new AR level by the end of October.  The students will be taking the Star Test and I will send their new levels home.  I usually do not retest on the Star Test until the end of November but felt that some of the students needed to be reading on a higher level and that was right for some students.  Some students will stay on the same level though and may not move up until the next Star Test and that is perfectly fine. We have been doing a lot of sustained silent reading in school and have been working on fluency and stamina which certainly is helping the students become better readers.

This class is doing a great job taking AR tests.  Remember that each child should be trying to do an AR test a week.  I also have books they can borrow that are leveled so they may do an additional one if they want to.

In Language Arts,  we are working on summarizing and retelling.  First we talked about noticing the order of events in the story.  Then we discussed using pictures to think about what happens on a page and thinking about story events as you read.  We have been identifying the beginning, middle and ending and have been reviewing the story events in order. We are also working on the character,  and setting .  Have you child use some of these skills when you read with them.  We also continue to work on our writing with 5 sentences in a story.  The students are doing well and continue to stretch their ideas when they write.  We are working on making sure that each sentence begins with a capital letter and ends with punctuation. 

In Math, we continue to work on addition and subtraction to 10.  Please practice these at home with your child if you see they need it.  The County guidelines for math facts is that if a child knows a math fact, they can say the answer in 3 seconds. For practice on the computer, there are games listed on the front page of my blog that you can use. There are also good reading sites for practice in reading. We have also started exploring graphing.  The students always enjoy this part of math. We are also working on grouping all numbers into tens and ones and counting coins in different ways up to 30 cents.  Please practice these with your child to see if they are proficient in these areas and practice if necessary. 

We are wrapping up our Science unit on weather and our Social Studies unit on Benjamin Franklin.  I think the students have enjoyed both and have learned so much on both subjects.

I am so excited to be able to tell you that the Channel 11 Mobile Weather Center will be at our school on Oct. 29.  I contacted them earlier in the year and finally heard back that they will be coming and enriching our study of Weather!  Remember to look to see if we are on the morning news the next day.  Wouldn't that be great!

I will not be sending home Communication folders next week due to report cards.  Communication folders will resume on Thursday, Oct. 22nd.

Oct. 1, 2009

Happy October!

During the pledge today, I was looking around at my class.  I just need to tell you how lucky I think I am to come to Mt. Bethel each day and teach your children.  First grade is a very special grade, and I just wanted to thank you for sharing your children with me.  I have seen them transform from the Kindergarteners they were when they came in my class to 1st grade students who are capable of so much.  I always tell them that I am here to make them be the best that they can be.  It is a joy to me to see their progress each day. Thank you for all your support!

I want to thank all the mothers who came for training to become Trained Parent Volunteers.  I really appreciate the mothers who were able to do this so that they can take over as parent volunteers in the classroom so I can attend important meetings and seminars.

Thank you for returning all the items at the end of the month.  I especially enjoy reading the Fun Calendar comments.  I look forward to doing this monthly.  The students enjoy the activities and many times they coincide with something we are doing in school. 

In Math, we have continued to work on addition and subtraction.  We have doing adding with ones, 4+1=5, adding with 2,  5+2=7,  adding doubles, 5+5=10 and with zero, 3+0=3.  Please practice these facts with your child and make sure they can quickly give you the answer to all addition facts that add up to 10.  A first grader should be able to give in the answer to a number fact in 3 seconds if they knows it.  Please aim for this amount of time.  We also continue to work on the strategies of counting on, doubles, and fact families.  These strategies work more efficiently than the use of fingers, especially on timed tests which are every Tuesday.  We learned how to play the game 'Countdown' and the students are really enjoying it.  It helps to strengthen their knowledge of addition and subtraction facts.  Another important skill we are working on is solving word problems.  This is an application skill which is a higher level thinking skill and we are learning all the strategies to solve these.  These can be difficult for some students.  Please read over the word problems on the pages your child brings home and go over them with different numbers for practice in understanding. We have also started working on graphing.  We will continue working on this skill for the next week and a half. 

Today you received your monthly copy of your child's AR tests. By now, your child should have taken at least 5 tests.  They should be doing 1 each week or more.  Please make sure they are staying in the right reading range for now.  I hope the printout of the AR tests your child did in the month of September is helpful.  I always feels it gives me a good idea about the amount of reading a student is doing each month and it is amazing to see that the students that continue to do these tests on a regular basis really make good progress in developing fluency in reading.  So please encourage your child to keep testing!

In Language Arts,  We continue our use of short vowels.  We have been working with the a, the i, and the o. We read the book 'Crabby Cat at School and we have talked about problem solving unfamiliar words.  To do this, the student can use what they already know, find little words in big words, use word endings to figure them out, or reread or use a dictionary.  I have been seeing students using these strategies already. 

In Writer's Workshop, we have been using the Elmo to use the students writing to help us become better writers.  We have been working on writing a good beginning sentence, then adding details, and next writing a good closing sentence that refers back to the beginning sentence.  Ask your child about this strategy!  We continue to write our own little books while thinking about picture and word placement.   

                               For the past few weeks, we have been visiting a Target teacher for a 30-                       45 minute  class . The students are learning many new skills, some that we continue to use in our classroom such as brainstorming and piggybacking.  They are finding that it is important to be a good listener and see things creatively and piggyback ideas from other students.  Hopefully we will get to meet with the Target teachers a few more times soon.

         

The students will be having a vision and hearing screening on  Tuesday morning, Oct. 6th. If your child wears glasses, please send them in for the testing.

We met with our Book Buddies from Ms. Peterman's class last week.  The students were very excited to share things about themselves by playing a tally game.  This game gave the students the opportunity to find out about each other.  We look forward to meeting with our Book Buddies about once a month.

In Social Studies, we continue our study of Benjamin Franklin as a statesman.  The students are enjoying finding out all the interest facts about this incredible man. 

In Science, we continue our study of water and how water changes.  Next, we will be taking about the water cycle. 

In Health, we are exploring the Food Pyramid.  The students are really already very knowledgable about the different food groups and have a really good background to pull information from.  Good job, Mom and Dad! 

Remember the Science Fair is today.  It is a great place for you and your child to visit and see some fantastic science exhibits. 

On Oct. 30, we will be having a fall celebration.  It is Scarecrow Day.  Your child may dress up in jeans, overalls, or whatever you may think of, to look like a scarecrow.  A straw hat, straw in pockets, bandanas etc. can be added for a special touch.  Our class is really looking forward to having fun on Friday.  Our room moms will organized special activities for Friday morning at 9:30 and you are welcome to come and join us.   

Hope you have a wonderful fall weekend. We are all so glad the cooler weather has finally arrived with NO rain!  We have been having fun doing a 'Sky Check' to go along with our Science unit on weather.  The students love doing them!!!!

September 24, 2009

The following are the plans I was going to complete this week.  With the days we missed, I will also continue these plans into next week as well as adding our new curriculum.  I will not be sending home Communication Folders today due to our short week.

During Reader's Workshop this week, we worked on asking questions to make us better readers.  We used a book called Eat Your Vegetables! We asked questions about the title before we looked at the book which goes along with last week's discussion of prediction.  Then we asked questions about the pictures and shared our questions with others.  We worked on asking questions as you read to strengthen comprehension and also talked about things we wondered about after reading the book.  It would be wonderful for your child to use some of these strategies as you listen to your child do their nightly reading! We explored short u in words and talked about fluency and identifying the main idea in nonfiction.

We are working on strategies to help us become more fluent with our math facts.  Mental math and mental math strategies are much more efficient than using our fingers.  In addition, we have worked on the strategies of counting on , using the number line, and using doubles.  In subtraction, we have worked with counting back, using the number line and relating subtraction and addition.  The students have already taken their first 7 minute timed test on computation facts to 10 and will continue to do so each week.  Remember to use the links on the side of my blog to help your child practice their number facts.  We will have our second timed test next Tuesday.

As well as our regular math skills, during calendar, we work on other skills the students need to learn.  We have been working on exchanges in money up to 30 cents.  Please practice counting money up to this amount with your child to ensure they can make different combinations of coins that equal the same amount. The amount of money a student is supposed to be able to exchange goes up with each 9 week quarter.   Thank you for your help with this.

In Writer's Workshop, we learned how to write a good story using our 5 fingers.  Number one is to write a good beginning sentence.  The next 3 fingers are used to write details and the last finger is the closing sentence that refers back to the opening sentence.  The students are very excited about their new 'recipe' for writing.

Today, I sent home some fun activities for you to do with your child.  They go along with the study we are doing of the Food Pyramid in Health.  The students already know so much and I know this will be fun for them to do at home to keep track of the fruits and vegetables that they eat for one week.  Please return the pack to me next Thursday.  Thank you so much.   

There were many students who chose to do the optional report and did a fabulous job.  The students came in so excited with reports and loved sharing their knowledge with us.  The reports are hanging in the hallway outside our classroom.  In our next 9 week period, I will put the information about our next report on my blog so watch out for that.

Next week, I will be sending home a monthly printout of any Accelerated Reader tests you child has taken.  I will send home the test results at the end of each month.  On a five question test, we are looking for at least 4 correct answers.  On a 10 question test, we are looking for at least 8 correct answers.  The children know that they are able to move up or down in their reading range based on what feels like a "good fit" book to them. 

I am so incredibly pleased with their stamina during independent reading time! We have begun reading our second anthology and the students are enjoying the stories. We are working on the sounds of short a and short i and short o.  We are also discussing capitalization and punctuation in sentences.  We have worked with the period and question mark thus far.  We have discussed and worked with contractions too.  These skills will be reviewed all year.  We have discussed 'reading voice' and fluency and trying to read the way we talk.

In Social Studies, we continue to learn about Benjamin Franklin.  Last week, we studied about him as an author and this week we are learning about him as an inventor.  Benjamin Franklin is a very interesting person to study and we are enjoying this study very much.

In Science, we continue to discuss weather, but have also added water to our discussions.  We are discussing changes in water and what precipitation is as well as different forms of precipitation.  The students certain are enjoying this study.  The students ask some challenging questions!

Congratulations to Dylan for becoming our character education winner this month.  Dylan was voted on by her classmates for displaying the characteristic "integrity".

Since it will be the end of  September next week (Yikes!) please total the minutes your child read 0n their reading bag sheet and also send in their Fun Calendars. 

I hope you enjoyed yourselves at our picnic.  The students and I had a wonderful time and I am so glad we had such a nice day.  It's just a great time to meet other parents and children and spend some time getting to know eachother. 

MBESF Dream Factory
Patron Program Kick-off

Watch your backpacks... Thursday, September 24th

The Mt. Bethel Elementary School Foundation is charging the 10 billion neurons in your child's noggin and we need your help! Your youngest child will receive an information packet on the educational enrichment opportunities provided by the MBESF, as well as a personalized donor card in his/her backpack.

Visit mbesf.org or contact your Foundation Council Representative if you have any questions or if you do not receive an MBESF packet