Week of December 20th

We will have homework 4.12 tonight. This will be our only homework this week.

I am sending home the snack calendar for January and February today in blue folders.

We checked books out from the library today. We will be checking out again on Wednesday before our winter break, so please send all books back to school with students on Wednesday.

Our classroom winter party will be on Wednesday at 2:45.

A reminder that there will be no school starting Thursday, December 23rd. Classes will resume on Monday, January 3rd.

As always, please let me know if you have any questions.

Week of December 13th

This week we will be having homework 4.8 on Tuesday and 4.11 on Thursday.

I also want to give a reminder about winter recess. Students can only go off of the black top at recess time if they have BOTH snow pants and boots. If students do not have both items they will need to remain on the black top area of the playground during outdoor recess times.

Also, now that winter weather has arrived, we will not be going outside for second recess. I find that coats, snowpants, mittens, etc are often wet after first recess. It is not comfortable or warm for students to put on wet items to go outside. Therefore we will have a short indoor recess in the afternoons.

Please let me know if you have any questions or concerns.

Week of December 8th

I apologize for not updating the blog last week, I got out of my routine after our week off. Please feel free to contact me with any questions or concerns you have if I do forget again in the future.

For this week and future weeks we will be changing our spelling test day. We do multiple assessments on Fridays and it can be a lot for the students. We like to use our assessments to help the students to see what they are doing well and what they need to work on. With so many assessments in one day it's been difficult to be able to look at assessments with the students. So, in an effort to cut down on assessments in the same day and to make them more meaningful for students, we will be moving spelling tests to Thursdays. Starting this week, for the rest of the school year, weekly spelling tests will be given on Thursday instead of Friday. I appreciate your help with preparing your child for the test a day earlier. Please let me know if you have any questions about this.

We will be having math homework 4.4 on Wednesday and 4.5 on Thursday. Both of these homework sheets are practice with measuring in inches. There is a paper ruler attached at the bottom that you can cut out to use. However if you do have a regular ruler at home this may be easier to use in order to complete the assignments. We have only been measuring to the nearest full and half inch. Do not worry about measuring more accurately than that. This is a skill that we are introducing for the first time in first grade this week, so your child might need some help reading the ruler.

Thank you for all that you do for your child. Please let me know if you have any questions or concerns.

Week of November 8th

I have not received responses from some of you about your conference time. I will be sending new notes home with those whom I still have not heard from. Please send these back to school tomorrow or as soon as possible so we can get our conference night schedule confirmed. Thank you.

Also, we have a field trip next Monday, November 15th from 9:00-2:00. We are still looking for volunteers to go with us. We need at least 2 more parents to go along or the museum may not let us come. If you are interested in going with us on Monday, please contact me as soon as possible.

Also, if you have not yet sent back the yellow slip to let us know whether your child will be having a sack lunch from school or will be bringing their lunch on Monday for the field trip, I will be sending a new one home and need this back tomorrow. If no note is returned I will assume that your child will be eating a school sack lunch.

We will have homework 3.12 on Wednesday.

As always, please let me know if you have any questions or concerns.

Week of November 1st

This week we will be having homework 3.9 on Tuesday, 3.10 on Wednesday, and 3.11 on Thursday. 3.11 is two pages and deals with the introduction of dimes. *Please note, if at any time the homework instructions ask you to send real money to school for students to practice with, please ignore it. I have fake money that we can use to practice with and then students aren't tempted to spend their math money at the school store.

We've moved our library check-out day to Mondays. Please make sure students have returned books by the end of the week so that they will be able to check out again every Monday.

Thank you and as always, please let me know if you have any questions.

Week of October 25th

Thank you all for the warm welcome back and to the students for a great week. I'm so happy that things went well while I was gone and it's wonderful to be back.

This week we will have homework 3.6 on Monday, 3.7 on Tuesday, and 3.8 on Wednesday.

We are going to start checking out books during our computer lab time on Tuesdays. Please make sure to return books to school with your child on Tuesdays so that they will be able to check out new books.

Be looking for a note about our Harvest Party in blue folders Tuesday night.

As always, please contact me with any questions or concerns. Thank you so much :)

Week of August 30th

This week we will not have any math homework.

I did have a few students bring back some math homework this afternoon. Those were old homework pages, we were using the back of them as scratch paper to write some sentences during reading. I am very sorry for the miscommunication, those are homework sheets that we will not be doing until the spring. So for math homework in the future, I will be letting you know which homework page students will need to do and which day to expect it to come home. Every Monday I'll update the blog or send home a note. This note will tell you which days to expect math homework and will also tell you the number that will be on the homework. The number is in the top right hand corner and we will probably start with 1.9 sometime next week.

We will be going to the library this Friday, but I'm not sure yet as to whether students will be checking out books yet. You may want to check backpacks on Friday to see if your child has brought home a library book.

As always, please let me know if you have any questions. Thank you so much :)

Some Clarification

I sent home some starfall reading and writing journals with students yesterday. We no longer use these workbooks at school, but since I had a lot of them leftover, I thought I would send them home for your use. They are for you to keep at home and use as you like. They are great practice for students with sight words and handwriting skills.

You do not need to send these books back to school.

Please feel free to contact me with any questions you may have.

Welcome to First Grade

Welcome to our classroom blog! I'll be using this blog to communicate what goes on in our classroom throughout the school year. This is where I will post event information, homework assignment information, and general classroom announcements each week.

In maintaining safety for our students I ask that if you ever need to contact me about something you've read in the blog, please contact me at my school phone number or email address rather than leaving a message in the comments section.

I hope that you will find this blog to be a useful tool for classroom communication. I look forward to the upcoming school year!

As always, feel free to contact me at any time.

Week of May 24th

We will not be having anymore homework this school year. Enjoy your evenings and have fun with the activities that your child may be participating in. Please let me know if your child has any dance recitals, t-ball, soccer games etc. coming up. I love to come support students at their events.

Also, we will not be checking-out any library books this week. All library books are due back on Thursday, May 27th.

Please let me know if you have any questions. Have a great, warm week.

Week of May 17th

This week we will have homework on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday.

Please know that if your child has a practice or long activity the same night that they get homework, that it is okay to bring it back a day or two late. The purpose of homework is to get extra practice so I'm not strict about the deadline. I know that the spring gets busy and activities at night increase, so don't worry if you're late with homework.

We will check-out books on Friday.

Week of May 10

This week we will have homework on Tuesday and Thursday.

We will check-out library books on Wednesday.

Reminder that our Kindergarten/1st Grade music program is coming up this Thursday, May 13th at 2:45. The program will be performed in the gym. If you come for the program and wish to take your child home once it is finished, you may do so. I will have a sign-out sheet that you'll need to initial before you leave.

As always, please let me know if you have any questions.

Week of May 3rd

We have homework on Wednesday only. As we're getting into our last math unit our homework is slowing down a little. I will be letting you know when homework is finished for the school year.

We check-out books on Tuesday.

As always, please let me know if you have any questions or need anything.

Week of April 26th

This week we will have homework on Thursday only.

We will check-out books on Friday.

If you have not returned your child's spring picture packet, or the money to purchase the spring picture packet, please do so as soon as possible. The money or returned pictures were due on Friday, April 23rd but we'll still take them this week.

As always, please let me know if you have any questions.

Week of April 19

This week we will have homework on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday.

We will check-out library books on Wednesday.

As always, please feel free to contact me with any questions or concerns.

Week of April 12th

Thank you to all of you who were able to come to one of our woodlands presentations. The kids had a great time and it was a wonderful way for them to share what they had learned. I really appreciate all you do for your children.

This week we will have homework on Tuesday and Wednesday.

We will check-out books on Tuesday.

Week of April 5th

This is a big week for us in our classroom. We will be presenting our woodlands and our woodland animal reports on Thursday. We are working hard to get our reports finished and published and ready to go for Thursday.

I heard back from about half of the families and almost everyone preferred the evening time for our woodlands presentation. We did have a couple families who preferred the day time, so we're going to present twice on Thursday.

We will be presenting at 6:00 pm on Thursday, April 8th. Our 5th grade buddies will be coming for a special presentation the same day at 3:20pm. If you are unable to attend the 6:00pm presentation, you are welcome to come to the presentation with our buddies. Both presentations will be held in our classroom, and all family members are invited to come. Look for an invitation made by your child in their blue folder today.

As part of finishing up our woodlands we are in need of some woodland animals to add to the landscape we have already created. I will be sending home a list of woodland animals in student blue folders today. If students have any stuffed animals that are on the list they are asked to bring them to school starting tomorrow (April 6) to add to our woodlands. If possible, please put student names on the stuffed animals.

We will have homework on Wednesday night only this week. This is largely due to the fact that we'll be here presenting on Thursday night and that we'll be spending a lot of class time this week to do our final preparations for our presentation.

We will check-out books on Friday of this week.

If you have any questions please feel free to contact me. I look forward to seeing as many of you as possible on Thursday, April 8th, at 3:20pm or 6:00 pm.

Homework Change for March 31st

I'm going to make a change to our homework schedule. Instead of having homework tonight, we will have it tomorrow (Thursday).

We just introduced fractions yesterday in math and I feel that we need to work on that for another day before we move on to the next idea. Let me know if you have any questions. Thank you :)

Week of March 29

This week we will have homework on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. We will check-out books on Wednesday.

Don't forget that Friday is an early dismissal and students are done at 12:15.

As many of you probably know, we have been working on a woodlands in our classroom. Our woodlands is almost complete and we are working this week to finish up our reports on woodland animals. I want to have a time when parents can come in to see our woodlands and students can present the reports that they have written. I am asking you to please let me know whether during the day, or evening would work better for you to come in. I want to make sure as many parents can come as possible, so I want to schedule it at the most convenient time for the most people. Right now it's looking like we'll probably be having it on April 8th and the time would be 3:25 during the day or 6:00 in the evening. Please respond by email or send a note to let me know which you prefer. I'll do whichever the most parents are available for. Thank you :)

Week of March 15

This week we will have homework on Monday and Wednesday.

We will check-out books on Friday.

We will be doing our papier mache and painting of our woodlands trees on Tuesday morning and Thursday afternoon. You may want to send your child to school in clothes that can get messy, or with a paint shirt that they can wear over the top of their clothes.

If you're able or interested in helping out either of these days, please let me know.

Week of March 8

This week we will have homework Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday nights.

We check-out books on Wednesday.

Thank you to those of you who brought in materials for us to use to make our classroom woodlands. We have plenty now and will start building them next week. I'll send out an email with our construction times next week so that you can come help with the papier mache and painting if you're available. Thanks again for your help.

Week of March 1

*Reminder that there is no school on Friday of this week.

We check-out books on Tuesday this week.

Our only homework this week will be a game called Coin Top-It. I'll be sending this home attached with a letter about how to play the game. Nothing needs to be returned to school, but I ask that you have your child play this game at least once every night this week as their homework. Many students are needing extra practice with counting money and this game is a fun way to get some of that practice.

Also, we are going to be making a woodlands in our classroom. We are collecting old newspapers that we can use for papier mache. I'm not sure just how much we'll need, so if we can collect newspapers for a week that will hopefully be enough.

I'm also looking for really large, or tall and skinny cardboard boxes. We'll be making tree trunks out of these, so the taller the better. I'm going to look into getting some of the boxes from the can shed, because I think one and a half or two of these would be about the right size. I've never been to the can shed before, if you know how much they charge for those boxes will you please email me. Thank you.

As always, let me know if you have any questions :) Thank you for all of your help!

Week of February 22nd

We will have homework on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday this week. Friday's homework will be fact triangles and does not need to be returned to school.

We will check-out books on Friday afternoon.

Week of February 15th

We will check-out books on Wednesday.

There will not be any homework this week due to review for our math assessment.

Week of February 8

We will have homework this week on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. Wednesday's homework is another set of fact triangles so it does not need to be returned to school.

We check-out books on Tuesday.

Starting Tuesday, students may bring Valentine's to school to put in our Valentine's bags that we decorated today.

Our Friendship Party will be on Friday at 2:45.

Week of February 1

We will be having homework Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday this week. The sheet coming home on Wednesday is another set of fact triangles like you received last Friday. You will not need to return these to school.

We will be checking-out today, but if students did not bring their books back and still need to check-out I will let them do so first thing in the morning on Tuesday and Wednesday.

I will be sending a reminder via student mailboxes on Wednesday about the pajama day on Thursday.

As always, don't hesitate to contact me for any reason.

Some Misc. Announcements

I wanted to send out a note to let you know that we will be checking out books on Monday next week. Due to the half day on Friday, we will not have our regular library time. Please have students return books on Monday so they will be able to check-out.

Also, I wanted to let you know that we have met a class goal this week. We had 12 out of 16 students score at the proficient or advanced level on our most recent unit test for reading. We are all very excited and we will be having a pajama day next week on Thursday, February 4th. Please watch for a note with more information about this. It will be in student mail today.

I hope everyone has great weekends :)

Week of January 25th

This week we have homework on Monday, Wednesday and Friday.

Monday's homework has a note at the top about an attached letter for more information. I do not send home these letters so if students have trouble understanding the name-collection boxes please make a note on their homework and send it back the next day. I will make sure to help them with that homework. We are spending our full math hour today working on name-collection boxes, so I'm hoping that most students will be able to remember the basic concept so they will be able to do their homework.

Friday's homework does not need to be returned to school. I don't usually give homework on Friday, but since this doesn't need to be returned, I am making an exception. You will receive many other fact triangle sheets like this one as this and the next unit in math continues. These are meant to be cut out and used as flash cards. We will have a set here at school, and this is a set for you to have at home. Cutting these out and keeping them in an envelope near the tv or bed is a great idea. Pull them out and do a quick practice during commercial breaks or right before students go to bed at night. The more practice they get with basic facts the easier other concepts in math will be as they move on through school. If you have any questions about the fact triangles please let me know.

We check-out books on Wednesday this week.

Week of January 18

This week we will have homework Monday, Wednesday and Thursday.

We will check-out books on Tuesday.

Week of January 11

This week we will have homework on Monday, Tuesday and Thursday.

We will check out on Friday.

We have P.E. on Wednesday and weather permitting they will go sledding, so make sure to send all snow gear with students this week.

Week of Jan 4th

Well, from what the students are saying it sounds like everyone had a great break. I hope you all had a good holiday as well.

This week we will have homework Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday.

We will check-out library books on Wednesday.

Students will also be bringing home a snowman in a plastic sleeve. These are the same as the trees we decorated before the break. Students can decorate the snowman and return it to school. I will then hang them on their lockers. Please return the snowmen in the plastic sleeve, and as before, please no food items that could become moldy. I will be putting these in student scrapbooks that are sent home at the end of the year. Thank you :)