Mrs. Snook’s 1st Grade News

Junie B. Jones groups and outside play....

Dear Parents,          

Just a quick note to wish you all a good and safe Labor Day weekend.  Also, I'd like to thank Stephanie Daniels for all of her hard work in getting out the class directory list, Parent reading list for Fridays, working on class T-shirts, and any other thing that she has done!!!  It's much appreciated.    

Also, please check Mrs. Whitson's Blog as she has some great class pictures of both of our classrooms doing the cooperative groups on Junie B. Jones characters.  There are some pictures out on the playground, too.  I don't know how to upload pictures yet from my digital camera, so, I'm using the disposable one for the moment.

Have a great weekend and I'll see your children on Tuesday!

Sincerely,

Peggy Snook

Week of August 27th

Dear Parents,                 REMINDER THAT THE FOLLOWING MONDAY IS LABOR DAY, SEPT. 3RD, AND THERE IS NO SCHOOL THAT DAY!  ENJOY YOUR FAMILY AND FRIENDS!                          

WOW!!!!  We have had a great 2 weeks in school!!!  I hope that the heat /temperature will improve in the coming weeks so that we can stay out longer at recess than 5 - 10 minutes.  They all need a chance to run around and play outside.  Also, thanks to each of you that attended Open House on Tuesday! 

FYI - We got a new student on Thursday--her name is Hana Sherrod.  We now have 15 students in our classroom.  We have had PERFECT ATTENDANCE for 10 days straight in school!!  We earned our Greyhound dog for the hall.  Keep up the good work on attendance!  Show and Tell will be weekly on Tuesdays.  Specials for this Friday, August 31st will be an "A" day-PE as it is the 5th Friday of the month.  Then, you will start over with an ABCD pattern for September.  On Friday, September 7th, there will be dinner and movie night starting at 6:30 at Garrison Mill.  More information in your PAWS.

Junie B. Jones - how much fun we had reading Nancy Park's book, Junie B. Jones, First Grader (at Last!).   We made a booklet with a cover for our 5 reading prompts we gave the students as we read all chapters of the book.  Mrs. Whitson and I took turns reading to our classes and reviewing daily what had already taken place.  This is a good skill to use at home with your nightly reading--have your child retell what he/she read or has had read to them. Those booklets were sent home Friday in their folders.  We are assessing our two classes with the DRA to make our reading groups. We had a great culminating activity on Friday where we worked in 7 cooperative groups to trace either a girl or boy on a big piece of paper.  Then, they were to color their character (Mr. Scary, Junie B., May, Herb, etc.) as to the characteristics that we had listed on the board.  We will finish those on Monday.

Math - As you can tell from the student's class work/homework, we are working on addition sentences and using the vocabulary that goes along with them----plus, is equal to, sum, and addition sentence.  We just talked about the property of zero on Friday and how it is used.....we have a new "Math Jingle" to sing about zero.  I hope to get some practice sheets on numbers 1 -10 to work on reversals for some of the students.  Please have your child correct reversals on his/her homework.  Chapter 2 will begin after Labor Day and it will be on subtraction.

Writing - We have been practicing all the lowercase letters of the alphabet so that your child can start to correct the wrong ways the letters are being made.  For example, a lowercase "o" is a top start letter made going to the left side and down---many of the students start at the bottom of an "o" and make a circle.  We will continue to practice the remainder of the alphabet and then begin to concentrate on individual letters one at a time.

Phonics - We do Open Court daily that gives your child patterns to follow in sounds that they hear in spelling a word.  What I am looking for now in their writing is to put on paper the sounds that they hear in a word, not necessarily spelling it correctly.  We also go over the "Practice Tricks" several times a week that they had in kindergarten such as "er" says er as in flower, "sh" says sh as in ship, etc.   These are excellent in helping them spell words.  Mentioning spelling---spelling words and their Friday test will begin the week of September 4th.

Daily Oral Language - (DOL) is used to help in making corrections in a sentence that I write on the board.  It teaches them editing marks that are used in the upper grades, reminds them that every sentence must begin with a capital letter and have some sort of punctuation mark at the end of it, and uses of commas as in a series or a date.

New Things for next week - Starting on  Monday, August 27th, we will have our first library time where each child may check out a book (we will go every other week to the library, but your child may bring in their book, turn it in, and check out another book anytime during that two weeks); on Tuesday, August 28th, we will have Computer Lab weekly from 8:10 - 8:50am; and on Thursday, August 30th, at 6:30 there will be an Ice Cream Social for all new Kindergartners and First Graders new to Garrison Mill.

Hope you have a good week and the weather is better to all of us!

Sincerely,

Peggy Snook

Week of August 13th

Dear Parents,

What a great start we have had to the new year at school!!  Your children are learning the rules of 1st grade and what is expected of them.  Now, some general information about this school year.

Mrs. Whitson and I are very excited about this year.  She and I will be planning much of the Language Arts and Reading together, and will be exchanging children for Guided Reading and Literacy Centers.  This will give us the ability to meet the academic needs of a wider range of children.  Then, a little later in the year, Mrs. Dion, Mrs. Whitson and I will be planning math together for the same reasons.  We'll be able to group children according to their needs and really teach them at their own levels.  So, the kids will sort of have three teachers this year!  They will also benefit greatly from different teaching styles and strengths.

Next Tuesday, August 21st, will be Open House for K -2 with PTA beginning at 6:30.  After the meeting, you will be able to come to the classroom for an overview of our schedule as well as other information that I will share with you---such as behavior apples in the classroom, notes to me if change of daily dismissal routine, and  Mrs. Snook's Angel Bear, etc.  The children will be having homework this year.  It will not be a lot, but it will be important.  Be sure they have a spot at home that is designated as the homework place, and get them in the habit early!  We'll be asking that the kids read every night, and will have an incentive program in place to encourage them.  They will also have spelling tests after Labor Day and Math time tests.  I'll talk more about these things at Open House next week.

I hope to update my blog every couple of weeks and give you important dates that you will need.  I look forward to a wonderful year and seeing each of you next Tuesday.

Sincerely,  Peggy Snook