Mrs. Snook’s 1st Grade News

Week of September 24th

Dear Parents,                                       

Important Dates to put on your calendar:                    :

Box Tops for Education due by October 17th....there is a contest between Shallowford Falls Elem. and Garrison Mill.  If we get the most box tops, their principal will come here to GM and serve lunch to the students.  If we lose, Mrs. Wilson goes to Shallowford Falls and serves lunch to their students!  Keep sending them in!!!

Wee Deliver starts on Monday, Sept. 24th.  For those of you unfamiliar with Wee Deliver, it is an intraschool delivery system of mail that the students and parents can use to write to their child or another student here at school.  Our address is 206 Watermelon Way,  Farmville, GA 30002.  Your child would love to hear from you!!!

WEDNESDAY, THURSDAY, FRIDAY, SEPT. 26TH, 27TH, AND 28TH WILL BE COGAT TESTING FOR ALL 1ST, 3RD, AND 5TH GRADE STUDENTS.  PLEASE HAVE YOU CHILD WELL RESTED,  A NUTRIOUS BREAKFAST, AND A GOOD, HEALTHY SNACK DURING THESE DAYS.  OUR TESTING TIME IS FROM 8AM TO ABOUT 10AM, SO, PLEASE HAVE YOUR CHILDREN ON TIME EACH DAY AS THEY MAY NOT COME IN THE ROOM AFTER A TESTING SECTION HAS STARTED.  WHEN WE TAKE OUR SNACK BREAK EACH DAY IS WHEN I COULD CHECK ON A TARDY STUDENT AND HE OR SHE MAY JOIN US THEN.

Sept. 27th - Parent Directed Centers 12:30 - 1:30.

Friday, Sept. 28th, at 8:30am there is a Parent Workshop here at school.  That day is also Silly Socks and  Sneaker Day.  SEPTEMBER READING LOGS ARE DUE.

Saturday, Sept. 29th, is the Fun Run at Garrison/8AM.

Thursday, October 4th, will be Fundraiser pick up in the Media Center.

Friday, October 5th from 5:00 - 8:00pm is Garrison Mill's Fall Festival.  Coloring sheets and information to order tickets were sent home this past week.

FYI  -  There are new photos of our class from August until mid-September outside the classroom in the hall.  Enjoy!  Our class is working well together, getting along (for the most part), and sharing with one another.  I am enjoying this class very much....we're learning lots of new things each day. Continue working with your child (flashcards addition and subtraction 0 -12) and reading nightly with or to your child.  Your help at home is always appreciated.  Thank you.

Curriculum News:    Yes, you know about all the apples we have been learning about---red, green, and yellow ones.  In the hall each child has finish An Apple Book, watercolored their apple orchard picture, and written about it.  On Monday, the 24th each child has at least three (3) apple project ideas to bring into school.  We will share theses throughout the week.  Thanks for all of your support at home doing the apple projects, especially the apple food that will come in Monday....yummy, can't wait!!!

Reading:  Our reading group continue to go well.  While I am having reading groups, the class is working on curriculum driven literacy centers.  I am pleased with the quality of work that I see being done during this time.  We will be finishing up these activities this week and new ones with fall activities will be introduced.  I'll be grading their activities from this month and sending them home with the literacy cover sheet.

Phonics:  We continue reviewing consonant sounds--f, g, x,  and working on blends such as br, tr, gr, st, sp, bl, etc.  I also review consonant digraphs -- sh, wh, ch, and th -- all of these helping with sounding out words in their writing.  I am seeing improvement in everyone's writing and sentences they write in class and this is what I want to see.

Math:  We are finishing up chapter 2 on subtraction this week.  We will review the chapter and have our chapter test on Wednesday.  Monday night's homework is to start practicing both addition and subtraction with flashcards.  You can find inexpensive sets of both at the Dollar Store.  By the end of the year your child will need to pass a 5 minute timed test with 50 addition problems---a score of 48-50 is what they'll need to have.  This week I will start timed addition tests with 25 problems for 2 1/2 minutes as practice--(0 - 10) and will change the 25 problems to subtraction in the next couple of weeks. Please start practicing with flashcards at home.  We play "Around the World" math game on Fridays and I can tell who has been studying their facts...keep up the good work!!!

Writing:  Our writing has centered around apples recently--check out  "My Apple Orchard" writing in the hall.  In their composition books at school, each week they write about what they did during the weekend.  I ask for 2 - 3 sentences to be written, if not more.  I am looking for capital letters at the beginning of sentences, an ending punctuation mark, and using the phonics and SPELLING words correctly in their writing.

Science:  We continue the study of weather and the changes we will see with the fall season starting on Sunday.  We will start a Weather Pictionary book this week where each child will be able to apply, draw, and write about some of the weather words we have studied such as rainy, sunny, snowy, cloudy, partly cloudy, foggy, hail/sleet, storming, lightning and thunder.  So far, they seem to be excited about this unit.

Social Studies:  Map skills such as the four major directions, the seven continents, and the oceans of the world are the areas we are working on through songs, globes, and maps.

This past week we saw a video on weather helping explain the four seasons and how the weather, clothing, and temperatures will change with fall, winter, spring, and summer. This week we will see another video on Johnny Appleseed and celebrate his birthday on Wed., Sept. 26th.  We will go to the library on Tuesday, so, please send in any books due to the Media Center.  Computer lab is weekly at 8:10 = 8:50 on Tuesday and our Book Buddies are also weekly on Wed. at 1:30.

That's about all for this update.  Have a great week and know that I am just an email away.

Sincerely,  Peggy Snook

    

                 

Week of September 10th

Dear Parents.          

What a busy 4 day week we had!!! Hopefully, all of you enjoyed your 3 day weekend with the gorgeous weather we had.  Reminder to send in a sweater or sweatshirt for your child as our room is cold at times.  I've already spoken to Mrs. Wilson about how cold we are and the county is working on it.

I introduced the study of apples by reading  A Day in an Apple Orchard.   Many did not know what an orchard was, so, we discussed that...also, talking about farm equipment used such as tractors and flatbed trailers.  The book takes us through the live cycle of an apple tree starting in winter when it is dormant, through Spring when the buds and blossoms come, on to summer and fall when the apples actually grow and are harvested. Lots of new vocabulary was introduced with this one book! We also cut open an apple long ways to find the core and seeds and then we cut one cross ways to see the 5 pointed star formed from the core and the seeds.  The September study of apples, Johnny Appleseed, the coming of fall/seasons, and leaves changing colors will cover many of our curriculum area.  These will include our writing, reading, guided reading groups, math problems, Literacy Centers (I'll explain this more later on in my newsletter), and our shared reading that we do in class.  This coming week we will make a big graph of different foods or drinks that they like made from apples.  We will also make a list of "juicy words" to describe how apples feel, taste, or look.  Here is where we will be using adjectives in our writing that describe an apple---juicy, round, sweet, delicious, sour, hard, sphere, munchy, and crunchy, etc.    

Reading and Literacy Centers:  We started guided reading groups last week where I have the children grouped by levels of their reading ability.  These levels were determined by the DRA (Development Reading Assessment) that I did in August.  In these groups we do more than just read together--we do skill work, writing, and even some phonics work.  On Monday, I will be introducing Literacy Centers which will be independent, curriculum driven activities they work on while I call each reading group to my back table.  Each child has a decorated Literacy folder in which they will keep the daily work that is completed.  These centers usually last 2 -3 weeks depending on the activities and they are collected, graded, and sent home in their folders.  There will be a lot of modeling of these centers this week so that each child will know what I expect from each center.

Math -  We have just completed Chapter 1 in math on addition.  Vocabulary words that they should be familiar with are sum, is equal to, addition, plus, zero, and addition sentence.  I sent a parent newsletter home on Friday for Chapter 2-Subtraction and an example sheet of what we will be doing---it does not have to be returned to me.  Our vocabulary for this chapter will be words like difference, how many are left?, subtraction, minus, and subtraction sentence.  For some of the children, the most difficult concept for them to understand in subtraction is that the beginning number in a problem is the biggest number take away the smaller number such as 5 - 3 = 2.  Mrs. Dion and I are still assessing our students and getting to know their levels in math.  Mrs. Whitson already knows her children as she looped up to 1st grade with them.  We hope to have our differentiated groups in place by  early October.  More to come on that later.

Phonics - we are working on and reviewing letter sounds, blends, and digraphs.  The letters this week will be s, i, a, b, and r with the vowel review being the most difficult.  The class is learning how many different sounds a vowel can make---long, short, bossy "r" (car), and magic "e" words (take).  There are consistant words that I use with my students to remind them of the short vowel sounds:  a = apple,   e = elephant, i = igloo, o = octopus, and u = umbrella/ for "y" we introduce the "e" sound as in crunchy and the "i" sound as in buy, fry, etc.  Try using those key words with them when they are sounding our words at night during your reading together.  Digraphs are th, sh, wh, and ch which we review in our phonics trick cards several times a week.  I continue to introduce and use contractions, homophones, compound words,(Several students have found new compound words in the books that they are reading), and describing words/adjectives.

Writing - As you have seen in the last several weeks we practiced all the ABC's with D'Neilian manuscript.  We are now taking each individual letter and practicing it again.  Some of the children are trying to break old habits of where they start to make a letter.  For example, the lowercase "o" is a top midline start as is the "a" and the "d".  I will be sending home the vocabulary you need to use with your child in making the lowercase letters.  I have already seen improvement in so many of my students and will expect to see correct formations of letters as we review each one in writing.  We also do weekly writing in our "2nd" composition book that stays at school - most Mondays, they have to write about what they did over the weekend.  For some, I expect 1 -2 sentences and for others, they write many more.  Writing is a developmental skill that improves with time, practice and instruction.

Social Studies and Science - We have already been talking and showing different maps and a globe to point out the 7 continents and the oceans of the world....there are songs that we sing to help us remember both.  We have talked about different countries north and south of the United States as well as discussing communities, families, and basic needs and wants of people. ******In Science we will be starting a weather unit this coming week that will last for 2 -3 weeks.  It will include seasonal changes, temperatures, thermometers, fall and how the weather will change, outdoor observation including the use of their 5 senses, weather books, how our clothing will change for the fall, and writing.  Such weather words as cloudy, foggy, hail, rainy, partly cloudy, snowy, sunny, and windy will be discussed.

Now, for some updates on things going on in the room:  Computer Lab is weekly on Tuesdays from 8:10 - 8:50, Early Release will be Wednesday, Sept. 19th with dismissal at 12:20-12:30, Library time is every 2 weeks 1:30 - 2:00 where they may check out a book, but they certainly don't have to wait that long to turn it in.  Whenever they finish with that book, they let me know and I usually send them down to check out another one between 7:30 - 7:55 or in the afternoon, Reading Night at Garrison Mill on Monday, Sept. 17th, and last, but not least, Box Tops for Education are still be collected for our classroom.

Here's hoping that you have a wonderful week and it's not too hot outside and not too cold inside!

Sincerely,  Peggy Snook