Hello all-

I wanted to thank each of you for coming to the Parent/Teacher Conference and for being so supportive of your children!  It was so nice to meet with each of you and to celebrate together the successes that your child has already had in First Grade!  As I've said before, this is such a remarkable group of children and after meeting with their parents, I can see why!  I feel very fortunate to be their teacher!

Tidbits:

• This Friday, 11/4 is FHE's first annual "Gallery Walk."  The celebration is from 6:00-7:30 PM.  That is when your child's last name acrostic will be displayed.  (Thank you so much for helping your child fill their acrostic out. Each of them turned out so well!)

• Because I was testing for several weeks before our Parent/Teacher Conferences, I was not able to do as much Guided Reading as I typically do.  I'm sure you noticed that your child's Guided Reading book bag was not coming home often.  Now that we're back in our regular schedule, your child should be bringing his/her book bag home every day.  Please let me know if this isn't happening.  Also, please make sure your child brings their Guided Reading book bag back to school ever day!  It is vital for their reading success that they are reading books at the "just right level" every day.

• Make sure that you call the "attendance line" if your child is not attending school for any reason.  It's fine to send me an email letting me know- but most importantly, you need to call the attendance line so the secretaries don't have to call your home to see why your child isn't at school.

• On November 10th, FHE is celebrating Veteran's Day by having a parade and several guest speakers.  Please have your child wear red, white and blue that day.

• Friday, 11/11 is our field trip to the Arvada Center.  A reminder letter will be coming home shortly telling you of the details.

• On Monday, 11/14- I will be gone all day at a training.

• Our Fall/Winter class party is on Monday, 11/21.  Feel free to join us and younger siblings are also welcome!  The party will be in our classroom from1:00-1:00

Happy Halloween!

Monster Mash was a huge success this year. It was so fun seeing many of you there in your costumes! Sorry if I missed you! Here are a few pictures of the fun event!

Happy Track Off!!

Sharing our posters with each other. So much to learn

about each other. :)

Bring your favorite toy to school! What a fun day!

 

 

Words Their Way - working with our word sorts! 

Important Tidbits:

~ Thank you so much to Dylan's mom, Rebecca Howell for purchasing a new pencil sharpener for the classroom. I love it!! Thanks so much Rebecca!

~ Thank you to Sammy's parents, Catherine and Brad Stone for donating money to classroom which will bring more books to our class. Your kindness is awesome!

~  If you are so inclined, we could use some more treasure box goodies. Some ideas are:

• trinkets
• toys
• candy
• jewelry
• fruit snacks
• note pads
• pens
• key chains
• noise makers
• pencils
• erasers
• etc...

I would love any donations!! Thanks for your consideration.

~ Picture day is this Wednesday, August 10th. Please return the envelope by Wednesday morning. If you have misplaced yours, the office will have one they can give you.

~ Please remember to have your child bring their book bag back to school everyday. It is very important that they have those books with them everyday!

~ Don't forget to complete your "All About Me" poster by August 19th. we will be making a classroom book. If you have it done already, you may send it in early. If you need a reminder about the assignment, please let me know. :)

~ Let me tell you about Tebow Time! That's right, Tebow Time, as in Tim Tebow of the Denver Broncos!! I have a special time of the day every day where the children practice their reading skills. I have talked to them about the importance of practice, practice, practice. Just because you know how to do something, doesn't mean you shouldn't keep practicing to get better. That's where Tim Tebow comes into play. We talked about how important it is to continue to practice even though you already know how to do something. Would Tim Tebow ever tell his coach, "I already know how to play football, I don't need to practice!" No way!! Ask your child to tell you all about Tebow Time!!

Here are a few pictures for your enjoyment!

Great start to the new year!

Hi everyone! Welcome to the first blog entry for the 2011-2012 school year. We have had a great start to the new year. What a SUPER class we have! We have been spending the last few weeks getting to know each other, assessing, and learning the routines. I think we may have it all down now!

I will start reading with small groups this week. Please look for your child's "Guided Reading" book bag to come home in the next few days. These bags will have "just right" books in them. Please understand that I am just getting to know your child as a reader, so I may be adjusting the level up or down over the next few weeks.  I will read with 2-3 small groups a day. The children will be coming home with books we have read in the small group. The books will be familiar to them. However, reading them at home is very important for fluency and comprehension. Please read every night. Also, please make sure they bring the book bags to school everyday with the books in the bag. We will use the book bags everyday.

We have also started our Writer's Workshop. The children will have time everyday to write. Right now our unit of study is Personal Narratives. They will choose topics on their own to write about. Our focus in writing now is stretching out words, spaces between words, starting with capital letters, and adding punctuation to the end of each sentence. We have also been working on handwriting and making our writing legible. You will not see a lot of writing coming home, because we keep our papers in our writing notebooks. But do not worry, you will see them coming home soon enough!

In math we are getting ready to take our first "end of unit" assessment. We have learned about tallies, number problems, the weather, and counting with coins. Look for their assessment to come home soon.

Thank you to all the parents who have volunteered to help out in the classroom. If you have not signed up yet, it is not too late. Please just let me know when you would be available to help. As of now, I have three room mom's signed up: Ronda Weaver, Rebecca Howell, and Alyssa Gumm.  If you also wanted to be a room parent and I forgot to add you to the list, please forgive me. Just let me know and I will put you on the list. If I put you on the list and you do not want to be, again, please forgive me and I will take you off the list! :)

Just a few reminders:

* Please sign the permission slip for the blog and send back to school as soon as possible
* If you have not paid your $5.00 for Time for Kids Magazine please send in as soon as possible
* If you did not receive an email from me with your email verification, please let me know as soon as
   possible so I can make sure you always receive the emails. I would like to keep you updated on the
   classroom through the blog as often as possible to save paper.

Thank you for your support! I look forward to working with your children this year! Have a great week!

P.S. If anyone is interested in buying and electric pencil sharpener for the classroom your donation would be greatly appreciated. We have no pencil sharpener right now and have had to borrow from other classrooms. Let me know if they it be an option for you. I am looking for a heavy duty classroom sharpener. They run about $50.00.  Thanks for your consideration!

Welcome to First Grade!!