Nov. 10-14

Dear Parents,

      I hope you have all had a fantastic week! The children and I had a very productive couple of days last week and are looking forward to our first full week together of learning. Thank you for all of your encouragement as I have returned to the classroom. The children made me feel so special each day and we are so happy to be back together! We accomplished much during our three days together. We reflected on the past few weeks of first grade and the Essential Agreements that we set at the beginning of the school year. We decided that in order to learn as much as possible we must all try our best to follow those agreements. If we can work as a team, our class may fill up the BIG BUCKET OF FUZZIES! They are so close!

Here’s a look into the curriculum this week:

Reading:

Identifying the characters in a setting through various texts.

Phonics:

“Double consonant s blends with short vowels”

ex: slap, stop, spit, skid, spin, spat, spun

Red Words: said, can, there

Grammar:

Identifying verbs.

Social Studies/Science:

Comparing and contrasting the daily weather in a foreign city to the weather in Atlanta.

Math:

Using the number line to find the missing addend.

Ex: __+3=10

Writing:

Brainstorming, Editing/Revising and Publishing an informational piece.

Important Announcements and Reminders:

Congratulations to our newest Star Student, Aarush Singh! Aarush is a caring friend and shows curiosity in the classroom when we are learning something new. Way to Go Aarush! We are proud of our new super star and look forward to learning about him this week.

·      Please make sure to send in a nutritional snack with your child each day. We have many children who rely on our emergency snack stash each day.

·      If you are sending in lunch money with your child, please place it in a sealed envelope with your child’s full name as well as my name labeled on the front.

·      Each child is allowed to check out 2 books at a time from the library. I encourage the children to choose one book that they can read independently and one book that they would like their parents or siblings to read aloud to them. The children and I will discuss in more detail how to make “good book choices” this week. Please also encourage this at home.

Please mark your calendars for the following dates and events

·      November 12^th Picture Retake Day

·      November 15^th Join our class for a cool treat at Menchies from 1-2 to help raise money for our school and help build our class community. A percentage of the proceeds will go directly to the Sarah Smith Education Foundation.

·      On November 20^th Our class will  be starring in a Thanksgiving Performance titled “Tribute to Liberty Musical” in the music room beginning at 10:15. Immediately after this performance, our class will be having a Thanksgiving Feast in the classroom during our regular lunchtime.  The children will be creating our menu. A letter will go home with your child on Monday, with an item that they would like to bring to our feast. Please make sure to check your child’s Red Folder for this special note. We are looking forward to this special day!

Thanks for your continued support!

Mrs. Peake

Hello from Mrs. Winters

Dear Parents,

I hope you all had a wonderful time celebrating Halloween!

As my last day approaches on Tuesday, I cannot believe how quickly the time has flown by.  I want to thank you all for your support and positive feedback the past few months.  I have really enjoyed getting to know you and your children, and I am so grateful that I had this opportunity.  I will miss the students and I am looking forward to visiting throughout the year.  
I just wanted to let you know that I appreciated each day I had with your children.
I will miss you.

Sincerely,

Bonnie Winters

See you soon!

Greetings Firsties and Families,


I hope each of you are well and enjoying the wonderful world of first grade! I know there has been much excitement the past several weeks with field trips, the Fall Book Fair, Grandparents' Day, the SRS Fall Festival, etc. and now I'm sure everyone is gearing up for Halloween! I will miss seeing all the children in their costumes on Friday and hope you will post pictures to our Shutterfly website!

Henry and I would like to wish everyone a Happy Halloween! Henry went to his first Neighborhood Halloween Party dressed as a football, and I dressed up as an Auburn football player, WAR EAGLE!

Please be aware that my return date is Wednesday, November 5th. After this date, our main form of communication will be via email and this blog, so please check this website regularly for updates as it will be the best way to stay informed about what your child will be learning and experiencing in the classroom.

 Thank you so much for your amazing support during this special time. I am truly grateful to be welcomed back by such a caring group of children and parents. We are going to have a fantastic year of growing and learning together in first grade!

See you soon!

Jean Peake
jpeake@atlanta.k12.ga.us

Hello from Mrs. Winters

Week 7

Dear Parents,

We had a wonderful trip to the Chattahoochee Nature Center on Thursday.  We all learned so much and the day could not have been any prettier.  Thank you so much to Vara Jones and Mara Perkins for volunteering.  The students and I were so grateful to have you both there.

I also want to thank the mystery readers for coming in to the classroom and sharing such great stories.  The children look forward to your visits and love listening to the books you share.

Thank you all for the wonderful lunch on Friday.  It was very thoughtful and appreciated. You are all wonderful to work with.

Here is a brief run down of what we have been doing and what is coming up this week:

In phonics we were learning about the short e sound.  We will be working on the sh blend this week.

In reading we are reading stories and completing writing activities based on the skills we are learning.  We are writing 4-5 sentences several times a week.  We are really concentrating on capitalization and punctuation marks.

A science project will be coming home on Monday.  I will explain the activity tomorrow and a hand out will come home to explain this assignment.

In social studies we will be learning more about deserts.  We have been working on landforms, but we will go into detail about deserts.

Thank you for sending in emergency snacks.  I am providing snacks to most of the class everyday and that is the reason why we are going through them so quickly.

Thank you all for your suport.  Your children are wonderful and a joy to work with.

Sincerely,

Bonnie Winters

Hello from Mrs. Winters

Week 5

Dear Parents,

I cannot believe we are a week into September.  The children loved meeting Henry and seeing Mrs. Peake on Wednesday.  They had a wonderful time at the park.
I hope all of you are receiving emails at this time.  If you are not getting updates please notify me.

In math we are leaning about the equal sign.  We are balancing numbers and practicing this with manipulatives.  We will continue this through the week.  We will also explain our answers through pictures or using complete sentences. 

In reading we are working on sequence of events.  We are also retelling stories in the correct order.
We are also reading with a partner for extra practice.

We are writing about our hardworking families but are still missing a few family photos.  If you have not sent a family picture in please do so this week.  We will be displaying this activity on our bulletin board.

In social studies we will begin learning about landforms.  We will learn about rivers, oceans, mountains, deserts, etc.

I am looking forwarding to a wonderful week.  Enjoy the rest of your weekend.

Mrs. Winters

THANK YOU!

Hello Team Peake!


I hope each of you are well! I want to thank you (students and families past and present) for the well wishes you have given our family for the recent arrival of our sweet baby boy Henry Hawkins Peake...we are absolutely in love with our precious miracle and thankful for each moment we get to spend with him! What a HUGE privilege it is to be a parent.


I want to thank you also for signing up to volunteer in our classroom! Like I tell the children, "Teamwork makes the Dream Work!" Dawn Dwyer and Kathryn Brown have done a fantastic job in creating our class' Shutterfly website. Please visit this site https://mrspeakesfirstgrade.shutterfly.com/ to continue to be involved in your child's learning at school!


Please remember that our class will be celebrating the beginning of the school year and our new class family at Nancy Creek Park at 4:00 on September 3rd. I hope to see you and the children there! I sure do miss my sweet group of first graders and parents! I look forward to catching up with you all!

All the best,

Mrs. Peake

Hello From Mrs. Winters

Week 4

Dear Parents,

We ended the week with a Fabulous Fun Friday thanks to Dawn Dwyer, Jeri Moran and Dave Moran.  They planned great activities and the children did a wonderful job playing games involving teamwork.

We will begin working in math groups within our classroom this week.  We will work on adding plus 1, plus 2, plus 3, etc...

In reading, we will continue working on setting and characters.  We are writing three sentences and focusing on capital letters and punctuation marks.
We will also be working on "My Hardworking Family".  If you have not sent a family photo in yet please send one in this week.

In Social Studies we read the book "Me On The Map" and we are making maps of our homes, streets and even favorite rooms in our house.  The students are enjoying this activity.

We took our second spelling test on Friday and most of the children did very well.  We are practicing phonic daily and using our spelling words in sentences.

The air conditioning works very well in our classroom and many of the children are complaining that they are chilly.  Please pack a sweatshirt/sweater with your child each day so they can be comfortable throughout the day.

I hope you all enjoy the long weekend.

Sincerely,

Bonnie Winters