October 29-November 2 (Junior Great Books' Week)

Dear Parents, 
     We had another exciting week in First Grade! The children LOVED kicking off our week in their Pajamas, and dressing up all week in celebration of Red Ribbon Week. I was very proud of how well the students showed their independence in the classroom this week. They have certainly mastered our classroom routines and feel at home in the classroom. We are also getting very close to filling our big bucket of Fuzzies for making good choices as a whole class. They have been estimating how long it will take us to reach our goal by passing the bucket around each Friday. This week we will be diving into another Junior Great Books' Story! This week's story is titled The Mouse and The Wizard. Please make sure to follow along with the homework carefully. A guideline will be sent home tomorrow in your child's Red Folder. 

Here is what your child will be exploring this week:

Reading: Reading, Discussing and Responding to  Junior Great Book story, The Mouse and The Wizard. 

Review: Plural and Proper Nouns, Sight Words.

Science: Investigating Weather, Weather Safety Reports (due Tuesday), and observing changes in Weather.

Phonics: We will continue traveling down our Vowel Valley where we hear the /o/ sound. We will practice spelling, reading and identifying words with the letter "o". For example: song, on, mop, clock

Math: Measuring temperature to the nearest 2 degrees, measuring and comparing lengths of objects, measuring using nonstandard units (our feet, hands, paper clips, etc)

Writing: Use the Editing Checklist to write a Non-Fiction paragraph about Fall. 

Reminders and Announcements:

• Please remember to send in your Boosterthon money with your child in the envelope or online. The last day to turn in money is tomorrow, October 29th. 
• Please make sure that your child brings their Junior Great Book back to school each day after completing their homework.
• The Safety Reports are due October 30th. 

Thank you for all of your support at home!

    Sincerely, 

        Mrs. Peake 

October 22-26

Dear Parents,
        I hope everyone is enjoying their weekend! Last week was filled with excitement as we ended our journey with Boosterthon. Our team did an amazing job at earning pledges to help build our future playground and showed great enthusiasm during the Fun Run! Thank you for your participation and help during all of our Boosterthon events.
    We also celebrated Hispanic Heritage Day on Wednesday. Ingrid and her family made us Mexican Tamales that we were able to enjoy during lunch. We also had a presentation about Spain from Marcus while he was dressed as a World Cup Champion! The students were very inquisitive about their classmates' heritages. It was a proud moment for us all, as we celebrated each other.

Here is what to expect from the curriculum this upcoming week:

Reading: Identifying the Sequence of Events in stories. Recognizing the Main Idea as well as the details that support it. Using Visualization as a strategy in reading. (creating mental images while reading or during Teacher Read Aloud)

Grammar: Identifying Months, Days, and Holidays as Proper Nouns.

Phonics: Reading, Identifying and Spelling words with l blends (glad, club, black, blob, flap)

Vowel Valley: /u/: put, mug, much, cup

*Ask your child to tell you about our adventure through the Vowel Valley!*

Science: Discussing Weather Safety. Project letter will go home this week relating to this subject.

Math: Count Forwards by 1's, 5's, and 10's, Collecting data to make a Line Plot, practicing basic addition facts.

Writing: Students will write about topics related to Halloween.

Announcements and Reminders:

• Parent/Teacher Conferences will continue this week. Please make sure to arrive on time so we can have enough time to discuss your child's progress in the 1st grade. The last day of conferences are November 2nd. If you need to change your conference time please let me know and I will work with you as best as I can to fit your needs.
• We are celebrating Red Ribbon Week this week. This year the theme is "Saying No to Drugs" Each day will be a dress-up day:

      M: Shade Out Drugs Day-Students will wear shades/sunglasses.

      T:  Sock it to Drugs Day- Students will wear mismatched/crazy socks.

      W: Put a Cap on Drugs Day- Students will wear their favorite caps to support the fight against drugs.

      R: Stay in the Game Day- Students will wear their favorite athletic apparel.

      F: Wear Red Day- Students along with faculty/staff will wear red on this day.

Thank you!

Dear Wonderful Parents (&Students),
     I cannot thank you enough for the wonderful surprises that you and your children so generously gave me on my birthday. It was such a moving experience having each child bring in a flower to create one perfect flower arrangement. I have once associated this class to a garden when speaking with one of my colleagues, and this gesture was the perfect illustration! Each child is beautiful in their own way, growing and blooming at different rates. While they paint a pretty picture alone, they create a MASTERPIECE when they are working and growing together. Thank you. Not only for your generous gifts, but for the privilege of teaching your child. I love each of them! This was the best birthday yet.

Sincerely,
     Mrs. Peake

October 15-19

Dear Parents,
    What an exciting week! Even though our week was short, we were very busy learning both inside and outside of the classroom. We had a BLAST at the Chattahoochee Nature Center, where each of us got to touch a real live corn snake, explore a beaver's lodge, and enjoy a hike with one of the center's Naturalists. Some great follow up questions to ask your child would be:

What are the basic needs of animals and plants?

What is an organism?

What does a beaver eat?

How does the beaver's fur, teeth, and tail, help it to survive in the wetlands?

Can you tell me about how a snake moves?

How did the snake's skin feel? Were you surprised?

Here's a look into what your child will be learning this upcoming week :

Reading: Retelling stories including key details. 

Sight Words:

want 

put

show

under

three

make

Phonics: Short /a/ and Short /u/. 

Grammar: Proper Nouns- Capitalize dates and names of people. 

Reviewing Contractions.

Science: Observing changes in weather. (check out the "links" tab for a great weather website)

Math: Telling Time to the Half Hour, Counting forwards and backwards by 1's, 2's, 3's, 5's, and 10's.

Writing: Creating stories that relate to Weather.

Announcements and Reminders:

• Please ask your child about the BOOSTERTHON! They each should have brought home a "Pledge Book" where they are encouraged to find family members, businesses, or family friends to make a pledges to help our school to fund our new playground! The students will be running laps to earn money for our school at the FUN RUN on Friday, October 19th @ 9:00. These pledge books should not be brought back into the classroom. They can only be entered into funrun.com.  For more information about the Boosterthon and the Character Education that your child is receiving each day this week go to bootherthon.com. 
• To encourage reading, our class is participating in the "Book It" program! I have set the goal for each child to read 20 books each month to earn a free personal pan pizza from Pizza Hut and earn a star sticker on our class reading chart. I would love for each child to earn this reward each month! Your child must list the books they have read and all you need to do is sign the bottom of their reading list so they can earn their prize!
• Parent/Teacher conferences begin this upcoming week! Please make sure to be on time for your conference, as we only have 20 minutes to discuss your child's progress in 1st grade. I am looking forward to seeing you soon!

 A BIG THANK YOU TO:

• Our wonderful chaperones who volunteered their time and energy on our Field Trip! 
• Our mystery readers!

As always, thank you all for your support at home!

    

                 Mrs. Peake 

I hope everyone enjoyed their Fall Break! Please make sure to sign up for your Parent/Teacher Conference on our Signup Genius page!

Tomorrow, October 10th,  we will be having our first Field Trip @ the Chattahoochee Nature Center. Please make sure your child is wearing his or her SSES t-shirt, jeans, and comfortable walking shoes. 

Thursday, October 11th, is Class Picture Day. I know our class will be smiling BIG after our two days off, and adventurous Field Trip!

As always, please don't hesitate to contact me with any questions.