February 11th-15th

Happy Friday! 🎉🎉🎉

It was great to see so many of you at the Valentine's Party or at parent conferences this week!  We had a short week together but it was a productive one.  We are also cleaning like crazy and diffusing thieves in an attempt to stop the flu epidemic in our classroom.  Thank you for keeping your child home if they are showing any symptoms of illness in order to not spread their germs in our room.  Thank you for also following the school's policy of your child being fever free for 24 hours.

February 18th: No school...President's Day

February 22nd Pet Show: We are studying the author Ezra Jack Keats and one of his famous books is called Pet Show.  We are having our own pet show in the class and the students can bring in one stuffed animal on the 22nd that is small enough for them to carry into the school building.

February 26th (all day) Discovery Place Field Trip: We need more chaperones!!!!! We only have 4 as of right now and could really use some more help.  The Sign Up Genius for chaperones was sent out two weeks ago.  You will pay $17 (the normal admission price) upon arrival to Discovery Place instead of paying through CSD.  You will drive your own child and meet us there. We will arrive to Discovery Place between 8:45-9:00 am and will stay the majority of the day.  No siblings please.

February 28th Camping Day: We are studying Kevin Henkes next week and one of his books is Tacky Goes to Camp.  We are having our own camping day where students get to wear their pajamas and we will have a special lunch (either hotdogs or pigs in a blanket) and will also make s'mores!  We will need some tents to borrow so if you have a large tent that we could borrow, please email me!  We will need you to come set it up and tear it down because we would hate to mess it up or not be able to figure out how to make it work.

***Please make sure your child is bringing the necessary items to school everyday including their blue folder (emptied), water bottle, lunch/snack, and a jacket.  Please also make sure they bring their guided reading book and binder back on Friday.  We have had a lot of these not brought to school on Friday's recently and really need the student's to make every effort to remember this.  Some sort of reminder near their backpack would be perfect!

Math:
All throughout first grade we have been comparing numbers (greater than, less than, equal to) but we finally introduced the signs (<, >, =) to the students.  Our curriculum had us wait until now to introduce the signs so that the students would fully grasp the concept first.  They loved learning about the signs and an easy way we learned to remember that involves an alligator.  You can ask your child to learn more about the alligator helper. :)  We are also spiral reviewing back to word problems.  We do "Word Problem Wednesday" where we specifically work on it for around 20 minutes as a class and in partners.  We are working on reading the problem for meaning and understanding of what is known and unknown.

Literacy:
Our guided reading groups have shifted around since I assessed the student's on their reading recently and you may notice that they bumped up a level, or two, or three.  This is exciting!  I usually push the student's and put them on a little bit of a harder reading level since it is direct instruction in their small reading group.  During the reading group, they should be able to read most of the book on their own but it is normal for them to struggle with certain words or difficult vocabulary.  I guide them through this during our lesson and I would encourage you to help them with this at home when they read to you.

Thematic:
We are halfway through our Author in Me unit of study and the kids LOVED studying Mo Willems the past two weeks.  He is the author of Elephant and Piggie books which are the student's favorite!  Their favorite center was definitely when they got to create their own Elephant and Piggie book.  Their other favorite center was when they got to create the pigeon in an art activity.  They are displayed in the hallway and are so cute!  They love finding the pigeon when we read Mo Willems' books.  We are moving onto Ezra Jack Keats this week who writes The Snowy Day, Peter's Chair, Whistle for Willie, and Pet Show.

Have a great long weekend!
Love,
Mrs. James