FIRST GRADE FOOTNOTES



Dear First Grade Families: 4/16/10

Here’s an overview of what we’ve been doing in First Grade:

STAR STUDENTS: Our start studentS for this week are Jacob Fogg and Hailey Nelson. Please ask your child what he or she can do to be the next star student in First Grade.

STUDENT OF THE MONTH(S): This is a school-wide by grade recognition which Dr. Berkowitz just implemented in March. First Grade’s Student of the Month for March – Hailey Nelson and Student of the Month for April – Madison Holtz! Congratulations to these role-model students! Look for their picture in the local papers!

CLASS GUMBALLS: The class has had a very good week and earned numerous gumballs. The gumball machine has around 85 gumballs. It won’t be long before they fill the gumball machine and earn their “gumball” party!

MATH: This week we completed Unit 6 and reviewed for our Unit 6 Assessment. This Assessment included adding with longs and cubes, finding the tens and ones place, name-collection boxes, greater-than and less-than equations, addition and subtraction problems, measurement, and solving turnaround facts. The students continue to do a great job solving their daily word problems and working on their number scrolls. A few students have made it to the 1,000 numbers! Next week we will begin Unit 7 which will be an introduction to geometry!

READING: This week’s nonfiction story “Me on the Map” gave us a chance to explore and begin to understand how to read maps. We looked at maps through the eyes of a young girl and explored maps of her bedroom, her house, her street, her town, her state, her country, and her world. The students got to draw a map of their own bedroom and compare the town in the story to Elmer!
We also began our Mid-Year Reading Assessment on themes 1-3. Next week’s nonfiction story is “At Home Around the World” which describes many different houses around the world.

BOOK BAGS: Please continue to read these books with your child. This is their chance to read books on “their” level and work towards the next level books. Please read them at least 2 times over the weekend and return them on Monday. Feel free to send a note with the books to let me know how they “fit”. Just as our First Graders are outgrowing their clothes because of physical growth, they are growing educationally in their reading and we want to make sure the books are a good “fit”! Keep up the good work!

SPELLING: Next week’s spelling words will be long e/y words:
jelly, belly, bunny, funny, furry, hurry, take, came, world, over
Bonus (high-frequency) words: above, different, hold, old, warm, water,
years

ART: We had a busy art week this week. The students were excited to work with “MK” our temporary grant-funded artist on bug kites! This week we designed the kites with tissue paper and glue and when they dry we’ll add the string and tail. The “Go Fly a Kite” event is scheduled for May 18th!

Also this week we welcomed back “Chi Chi” Carman to our class. She helped us create colored sand designed “vases”. Next week we’ll fill them with muffin cup flowers. After doing the “Chi Chi” dance, we enjoyed spring cupcakes made by Chi Chi. Thanks for a great art lesson, Chi Chi..

SUPPLIES: Seems like we just filled the snack cabinet, however . . . . we are almost out of snacks. If you can spare some extra snacks (goldfish, cheez-its, pretzels, graham or animal crackers are the favorites). Thanks for taking good care of us in First Grade!

UPCOMING DATES:
4/23 – 8 – 11:30 am – Free Health Screenings
4/27 – Board Meeting
4/30 – Mid-Marking Period 3
5/18 – Kite Launching event
**5/17 – Talent Show ** - New Date
5/21 – First Grade Class Trip
6/17 – Last full day of school
6/18 – 1:00 dismissal/Field Day
6/21 – 1:00 dismissal
6/22 – 1:00 dismissal/last day of school/whole school picnics

CLASS TRIP CHAPERONES:

The following chaperones are confirmed to attend the 5/21 trip to the Philadelphia Zoo:

Mrs. Meyers Mrs. Garrison Mrs. Wheaton
Mrs. R. Edmonds Mrs. Denins Mrs. Hoffman
Mrs. Killeen Mr. Journey Mrs. Castro
Mrs. Shriver Mrs. Nelson Mrs. Raudenbush
Mrs. Gerstenbacher Mr. Yelle Mrs. Leonetti
Mr. & Mrs. Hoppe Also attending: Mrs. Schulte, Ms. Menasse

Thanks to all the parents who volunteered to chaperone. The children are excited to visit the zoo and to check out the new Lego animal exhibits. As we get closer to the trip date, more details will be sent home.

Please don’t hesitate to contact me with any questions/concerns. Feel free to send a note in the homework folder or email me at dmahoney@elmerschool.com.

Enjoy your weekend!

Mrs. Mahoney/Mrs. Johnson