Mrs. Snook’s 1st Grade News

Week of October 30th and Important November dates

Dear Parents,

Here it is Friday afternoon after a funfilled day at school....parent centers, compliment treat with Pajamas and a movie, and reading parent all rolled into one day!!!!  We were quite busy the whole time.  Mrs. Fisher, along with Mrs. Smith, Mrs. Moseley, Mrs. Carder, and Mrs. Pavlovic, had wonderful fall centers planned for your children today!  I also want to thank you, the parents, and the children for the Halloween gift of personal notepad paper with the names of all of my students around the edge.....it's great and certainly will be used.  THANK YOU!!

It's hard to believe that November is upon us!  With cooler weather coming, please remember to send your child to school each day with a jacket, sweatshirt, or coat.  We don't want these children sick, do we?

We will finish up our study of Spiders this week with an informational writing piece done on all the facts we have discovered.  All of us have learned new facts that we didn't know three weeks ago.  It has been a good unit of study.

Something NEW in Spelling this week....on Friday's test, I will have the students write a sentence using many of the words that we have had over the last 6 - 7 weeks.  Review the Spelling list that I gave each of you at conference time a couple of weeks ago. I will also be evaluating their sentence on a capital letter at the beginning of it as well as an ending punctuation mark. This week in Phonics, we will be reviewing the long vowel sounds starting with the letter "a".  This will bring into play the "magic e" with many of the vowels----make, bike, rope, cute, etc.  Please point these types of words out to your child as you read to/with them nightly.  In Reading, we continue to work on how a story is sequenced (first, next, then, last) and reading comprehension....can they answer questions on what they have just read or retell the story of what they have read?  These are important skills to start learning now.

Math is a fun chapter introducing geometric shapes to the class.  They include the cube, sphere, cone, rectangular prism, and a cyllinder.  Try to point out everyday objects that are these shapes and this will help your child remember them.  We also will get into symmetry and fractions (halves and fourths).  Mrs. McEaddy continues to come in each Monday to work with us on Math Exemplars. Laptops will be this Tuesday, October 31st.

Here are some important dates to remember for November:

Thursday, November 2nd - Picture Retakes                                                                              

Friday, November 3rd - School Spirit Day/wear GM T-shirt.

Saturday, November 4th - Garrison Mill Fall Festival

Tuesday, November 7th - Student Holiday (election day)

Friday, November 10th - Bus Driver Appreciation Day

Monday, November 13th - Reading Night at 6 pm

Wednesday, November 15th - 1st grade Grandparent/Special Friends Luncheon

Tuesday, November 21st - Parent Centers with special Thanksgiving foods to be shared.

Wednesday - Sunday, November 22nd to 26th - Thanksgiving Holidays

Monday, November 27th - Progress Reports

New Reading Logs for November will come home Monday with the homework sheet.  Thanks so much for getting October Reading minutes into me this past week.  Please don't forget to total up the minutes per week and I will check it off to let you know that I have recorded it.  Also, keep an eye out for a family Thanksgiving project that Mrs. Harrison and I will be sending home soon.

Have a great week and Happy Halloween...be safe. 

Sincerely,  Peggy Snook

Week of October 23rd

Dear Parents,

Thank you very much for a wonderful conference week!  I sincerely hope you feel the same way and that I was able to pass along some good information to you about your child.  I have an active group and each week I see new strides your child is making!!  Keep up the good work at home by reading to/with your child nightly and helping them with any homework they may have.  At conference time, I had several parents ask about how long homework should take...it can vary from 5 minutes (math worksheet) to about 15 minutes when they have to write sentences with all five spelling words.  Don't let them drag out any homework for longer than 30 minutes because you have lost them by then.  Take a break and come back to it later.

                                                          

This week is RED RIBBON WEEK.  Each day will be something different highlighting the activities plannned for the students.  Here is a list of what they may do daily to participate:  Monday, they may wear their favorite sports team clothing; Tuesday, wear something RED; Wednesday, crazy hair day; Thursday, crazy sock day; and Friday, your child may wear a Halloween shirt or something orange/black. NO COSTUMES, PLEASE.  On Thursday from 9:00 - 10:00, we will have a K - 2 assembly to hear about the "Drug Dog" and the german shepherd will be there, also, to perform for the children.  It should be a packed week with stickers, pencils, etc. being given out to your child to remind them that "Drugs Are Scary".

Mrs. Harrison's class as well as my class have earned another compliment treat for next Friday, October 27th.  We are planning a PAJAMA DAY for both classes.  They may bring in a blanket/sleeping bag and pillow, if they like.  We will also be seeing the "Magic Schoolbus" video on Spiders.  Should be fun.  FYI--please make sure that your child has a jacket or sweater with them daily.  We go outside each day right after lunch and they may need one....Thanks!

In Reading groups, Mrs. Harrison and I have swapped groups again.  My groups will  doing information on pumpkins and also doing a rebus story on Halloween. (A rebus story has pictures in it for words that are used in a sentence.)  We will be listing describing words for pumpkins and writing about them.  These should be displayed in the hall next week.  Also, our Writing for this week will focus on the Spider facts we have been learning.  In Phonics, we continue to learn skills that help us decode words....this week will be the "ch" sound as in chair and also the "ch " sound spelled tch as in watch.  We also add to our charts daily in the room--homophones, "ar" words (bossy "r"), opposites, contractions, compound words....Friday, for the first time, I introduced a synonym to them.  We were reading a take home book called "The Tiny Spider"  I asked for another word that mean the same as tiny...small.  Most of them have been very good with adding to our charts.

We will be finishing Math chapter 3 on subtraction by the end of this week.  Please continue to work on both addition and subtraction facts using flash cards.  I bought a pack of addition and subtraction flash cards at The Dollar Store for a dollar each...what a bargin!  Our next chapter in Math will be geometric shapes learning about edges, corners, and faces.  We will also cover spheres, cubes, rectangular prism, etc.  This is an enjoyable chapter for the students as it is something different from Chapters 1 - 3.  Still continue to practice facts while we are doing the geometric shapes.

FYI--- Thursday, Oct. 26th is Chick-fil-A night at 6 pm;  AR points are still available for your child to do in the classroom.  The AR poster in the hall mostly reflects summer points earned by those students.  In first grade, your child must take any AR reading quiz alone---I can not help them as in kindergarten.  I used it all last year and saw some good improvement in reading and comprehension. Please be sure to check the reading level of the AR books.  I certainly want them to be successful in what they read and take a quiz on, so, don't let them read too high of a level. Our scheduled Library time will be this Thursday from 1:30 - 2:00;  your child may bring back his/her library book anytime they are finished with it and I will let them go to the Media Center to get another one.   Also, if your child is absent, please send in a note with your child upon his/her return to school as the office needs that information.  Finally, this Tuesday is Bus Driver's Appreciation Day.  Please make sure that your child has a card or a picture he or she drew for the bus driver as a way to say "Thank You" for the great job they do!

I can't believe that it is almost the end of October and Halloween is just around the corner!  The weather is finally feeling like October with cool/cold mornings and pleasant afternoons.  Enjoy the weather while you can....have a great week!

Sincerely,  Peggy Snook

Conference Week-October 16th - 20th

                                                      

Dear Parents,

It is hard to believe that we have been in school for nine weeks!!  Conferences will be a time that we can sit down and talk about your child's progress.  As a reminder, first grade report cards are quite different from last year's kindergarten report.  The academic subjects, such as math, reading, etc. will be marked with E for excellent progress (Consistently produces work of high quality and applies learning), G for good progress (Produces work of high quality and applies learning most of the time), S for satisfactory progress (Produces work of satisfactory quality and applies learning some of the time), N for needs improvement (Produces work of inconsistent quality and needs frequent reteaching), and U for unsatisfactory (Seldom produces work of satisfactory quality or demonstrates lack of effort).  Other subjects, such as social studies, science, handwriting, behavior, art, P.E., art, etc., will be marked with and O for outstanding, S for satisfactory, or and N for needs improvement.  Hopefully, this explanation will give you a heads up on grades before coming to your conference this week.

Dismissal will be at 12:20 each day with lunch/brunch being at 9:48 each morning.  We will still have a snack time at 8:30 Monday through Friday.  Specials will be daily from 11:00 - 11:30.  Hearing and Vision is scheduled for 1st and 4th graders and all new students to Garrison Mill....we have ours from 9:00 - 9:30 on Mornday morning.  Square One Art may be turned in Monday, Oct. 16th, as the last day to be accepted.  The Book Fair will be opened each day during Conference Week starting at 7:30am. and remain open until 4pm most days.  On Tuesday, it will be open until 6pm and on Friday, it will close at noon.

Spider facts are due by Monday on the paper we sent home last Wednesday.  Check out our keyboarding skills in the hall that we did on spiders last week during computer time.  Also, there are new classroom pictures in the hall along with some samplings of writing, math, and fall watercloloring.

Please continue to send in October Reading Log minutes and I will check the paper to let you know that I saw them.  Thanks for all that you do for your children at home.

Have a great week...it will be a busy one for all of us!

Sincerely,  Peggy Snook

Week of October 9th

Dear Parents,

What great football weather we had this weekend!  It wasn't too good for my Auburn Tigers or the Georgia Bulldog fans.  I did attend the Georgia Tech vs. Maryland game on Saturday and it was a good outcome for the Yellowjackets....thanks goodness, one of my teams won!!!

This next week, in Science, we will begin our study of spiders.  On Wednesday, I will send home a sheet for your child to write 4 interesting facts about spiders using complete sentences.  They may use books, encyclopedias, the internet, and other resources to find their facts.  This sheet will be due on Monday, October 16th....this is the first day of conference week.  Your children will be dismissed at 12:20 each day of that week and lunch served one hour earlier (9:48).  I look forward to spending some time with each of you during your scheduled appt.

In Math, we will be starting Chapter 3 on subtraction.  Hopefully, the concept won't be new to them as we do subtraction in Daily Oral Math and in Calendar Math.  Garrison Mill's School Improvement Plan (SIP) is focused on Math.  Each classroom teacher is concentrating more on improving each child's math skills and abilities.  We have starting a math journal in our room that I will share with you during your conference.  You will also see sheets coming home that have the word "Exemplars" on them.  These are problems that make the children "think outside the box" and use their reasoning skills; therefore, hoping to improve each child's understanding in Math. Mrs. Patti McEaddy, one of our Target teachers at Garrison Mill, comes to our class each Monday to challenge my students with exemplar problems.  Mrs. Harrison and I will continue weekly timed tests on basic addition facts and play "Around the World" on Fridays during Calendar Math.  Please continue working on addition and now subtraction facts at home....thank you.

Reading groups continue to work well together.  Weekly we work on comprehension and fluency with our stories.  Please do the same when you are reading together nightly. by asking about what you/they just read.  Also, have your child use the phonic decoding skills each of them is learning...examples:  short vowel sounds, magic "e" words such as bake, 2 vowels together as in boat---you hear the first vowel, but the second one is silent, using blends at the beginning of words such as stir, blink, train, etc.

Laptops will be on every other Tuesday from 8:00 - 9:00 in our classroom.  (Next one is 10/10)  I hope you saw the addition problems that your child stamped out in Kidpixs and then wrote the number sentence to go with it.  I sent those home in their folders after Mrs. Schulman printed them for us.

Book Buddies continue to be a great 30 minutes spent weekly with Mrs. Hohn's 4th graders.  Last week each of our buddies wrote a letter to students in our room through Wee Deliver....our interschool post office.  Each child was so excited to receive mail his/her own mail!!!   We plan to write them back sometime soon.

October Reading Logs were sent home attached to last week's homework sheet.  If you'd like, please let me see the weekly minutes reading sheet (I'll check it off to let you know I've seen it) and I'll send it back in the folder for you to continue recording the minutes read.   Natalie Happ was our top place reader with the most stickers on her September reading log....way to go, Natalie!!!!

Remember that there is no school on Friday, October 13th due to it being a Teacher Workday.  Also, the Hearilng and Vision date has been changed from October 12th to sometime during the dates of October 16th - 18th/a schedule has not been given to us yet.                                    

Have a great autumn week!

Sincerely,  Peggy Snook

Week of October 2, 2006

Dear Parents,

What a beautiful fall weekend we had!!!  I hope that each of you were able to enjoy your family and the wonderful weather there was.

With October upon us, we will be studying pumpkins, spiders/webs, Christopher Columbus, and other fall related subjects.  This past week in a Social Studies lesson, we used a map to trace where Johnny Appleseed went as he planted apples heading west from Massachusetts.  I introduced the four main directions used on a map--North, South, East, and West--and showed them what a compass rose is on a map.  We will be doing more map skills in Literacy Centers.  In Phonics, the short "e" was reintroduced with the keyword being egg.  As a reminder, the key words that are used in class are:  "a" as in apple, "e" as in egg, "i" as in igloo, "o" as in octopus, and "u" as in umbrella. Please use these words at home as your child tries to decode words.  We also talk about the "magic "e" words" such as "make" - the "e" is silent and that makes the "a" long/it says its name.  Other words that follow this rule are rake, bike, cute, tire, white, and cake, etc.

In Math, we continue to write and work with addition number sentences.  Chapter 2 test will be given by Friday of this week and we will be starting the subtraction chapter next.  Please continue to practice addition facts at home and, at school, we are taking timed test for practice. This year 1st graders are required to pass a 4 minute addition test with 50 problems.  We will continue to practice weekly here at school and your help will be greatly appreciated at home.  This goal is set for May of next year---we can do it...keep practicing!!!  Last Friday during Calendar Math, Mrs. Harrison and I both made the comment we could see an improvement in our "Around the World" math game as more children knew the facts better than the week before--GREAT!!!!  Keep up the good work at home.

A BIG thank you to Mary Fisher, Lynn Mayer, and Aimie Fritz for planning wonderful September parent activities that were done with your children last Thursday morning!! 

Here is a list of important dates coming up in October:

Monday, October 2nd - Conference Letters go home, please return as soon as you can.

Thursday, October 5th - PTA Meeting/5th grade performs

Friday, October 6th - Spirit Day--wear a Garrison Mill T-shirt.

Saturday, October 7th - Schoolyard Habitat Workday  9am.

Monday, October 9th - Reflection entries are due. (Optional) Theme for this year is "My Favorite Place."

Thursday, October 12th -  Hearing and Vision Testing

Friday, October 13th - Student Holiday/Teacher Work Day.

Monday-Friday, October 16 - 20 - Conference Week/dismissal at 12:30 p.m. daily. Book Fair

Monday, October 23rd - Lunch and Learn 11:30 -12:30.

Tuesday, October 24th - Box Tops Deadline/Keep sending them in!

Thursday, October 26th - Parent Activity Centers (9:30-10:30) & Chick-Fil-A night 6pm.

Please remember that your child's Composition Journal comes in by Friday, if not before, every week.  New October Reading Logs are attached to this week's homework sheet.  Thanks for all that you do with your child at home to help make his/her school day a good one!  We are definitely Partners in the Education of your children.   

Have a great week.....Peggy Snook :)