Mrs. Willow's Fabulous Firsties

Dear Families,

Great news! Our class came in third and won a $100 gift card to buy supplies for our math workshop! Thanks SO much for your support and votes.  We couldn’t have done this without your support. I really appreciate it!
Health Screening reports were sent home in today’s Monday Mailer.  An additional report regarding the vision screen is forthcoming.

It’s COLD outside. Please make sure to send your child to school with a coat.  Hats, scarves and gloves are welcome too!  I am doing my best to keep everyone healthy during cold and flu season by regularly sanitizing desks and encouraging/providing extra time for handwashing.

This week:

MATH:  Use what you know about attributes of shapes to fill outlines with pattern blocks.  Describe how quadrilaterals are alike and different.  We have officially kicked off our math workshop. 🙂 This gives me the chance to teach concepts to the whole class but then to also touch on topics at various skill levels.  Some students are working on understanding teen and decade (10, 20, 30…) numbers whereas others may be working on adding double digit numbers.  All first graders have brains that work just a little bit different so this is my chance to personalize their math education.

READING:  We are working on identifying main idea and details as we read informational texts about how animals communicate.  Our phonic emphasis are r-blends (br, tr, pr, gr, etc).  Reading workshop is in full force. Thank you SO much to my amazing practicum student, Ms. R and fabulous parent/grandparent volunteers Kim, Savannah, Hannah, Amy and Terrence.  The students and I feel incredibly grateful to have such a great group of folks enriching student learning. Additionally, I have a lovely group of fourth and fifth grader helpers who LOVE helping firsties with reading and writing. 🙂  Such great support this year.  I’m very grateful and the kiddos LOVE and benefit so much from the extra attention.

WRITING:  We are wrapping up our lower case letters/handwritng book..  For grammar, we are working on writing complete sentences.  For composition, students will hear, discuss and write stories about family members.  They will work on rereading and adding more to their stories.

SCIENCE:  Observing, describing and investigating liquids. This week will focus on viscosity and how molucules cling.

HOMEWORK: 

1. 20 minutes at home reading.  Memorize HFWs and read little books.  Hexagon group will have ReadWorks story “King of the Slowpokes”  and do text dependent questions instead of little books.  RAZ kids is always available. I encourage you to use this resource.  Our subscription may be expiring.  Whether or not it will be renewed is to be decided.  I will see how much families utilize the resource over the next week to make a decision.

2.  Handwriting, if your child was assigned extra practice

3.  Optional:  work on math using IXL site.  Again, I am tracking how much this resource is used at home to determine if I should continue paying the rather hefty license fee.

SAVE THE DATES!

11/11: No school (Veteran’s Day)
11/12:  Papa’s Pizza Night Out (SEE FLIER IN TODAY’S MONDAY MAILER) 50% of proceeds go back to Holt) PAHS BOD at 6 pm

11/17:  PAHS (Parents at Holt School similar to PTA) general meeting at 6:30 pm.  All welcome. Free pizza and childcare provided!

11/19:  SITE Council meeting at 5:00.  All welcome.

11/20:  Harvest Lunch.  Have lunch with your firsite or perhaps a grandma/grandpa/aunite or family friend would like to come

11/26-11/27: Thanksgiving Break (no school)

Thanks for your support and cooperation,

Leah

(541) 790-6126

My class website/blog has important information, newsletters, photos and helpful links to resources.

http://blogs.4j.lane.edu/willow_l/

“Intelligence plus character-that is the goal of true education.” Martin Luther King Jr.