Mrs. Snook’s 1st Grade News

Week of November 26th

Dear Parents,

What a welcomed 5 days off that all of us had.....sincerely hope that you and your family ate lots of turkey, dressing, casseroles, and delicious desserts!!!  Thanksgiving is always a special time to spend with your family and relatives and enjoy every minute of it!!!!!  I certanly enjoyed meeting many grandparents at our Grandparents luncheon along with seeing many moms and dads there, too.  Thanks for your support to your children.....they loved having you there!!

Here it is the last week of November with just 4 weeks left until Winter Break.  Some dates for you to mark on your calendar:

Wednesday -  November 28th - Parent Centers from 9:30 to 10:20 ---thanks to all of you who volunteered to help Stephanie Daniels and Shari Eggart.

Friday, November 30th - November Reading Logs are due.  Also, this is the date for your baked goods you signed up for Relay for Life.  1st grade is responsible for individual wrapped items that can be sold on Friday morning  before school in the cafeteria.  Please send in your items on Thursday and I will let the kids go down before the bell rings at 7:55 so that they may make their purchases.

Wednesday, December 19th - Classroom holiday party from 12:30 to 1:30.

Saturday, December 22nd to Sunday, January 6th - Winter Holidays.

Curriculum News

Math - We are starting our study of Place Value to 100 and  comparing/ordering numbers (greater than and less than).  Vocabulary that you will see and hopefully hear your children use are "ones", "tens", "hundreds", "greater than" and "less than".  In the computer lab this week we will do CRCT practice in Math.  Timed tests will increase to 36 problems with facts up to 18.....please, continue to practice at home.....thank you.

Reading - I will be changing up my reading groups somewhat going into December.  We will continue to work on comprehension skills - knowing what they've read and being able to tell/write about it.  Please continue to work on this as your child reads to/with you at night. In the computer lab, we have been asked by administration to work on CRCT practices and getting a benchmark in all the areas that will be tested in April, '08 -- Reading, Math, and Language Arts.  In the reading section of the test, students will be required to read the selection and answer questions read by me on what they read.   

Phonics - We will continue to work on blends (st, sp, sm, sn) and digraph (wh, ch, sh, th) to help decode words.  Also, we will work on the letter "z" spelled as an "s" in rose, rise, and chose;  the letter "o" spelled as o_e (magic "e") as in joke, home, and throne.

Spelling -  Starting in December, your child's Friday spelling test will have 3 grades on it.  One will be for the spelling of the words/dictation sentence, the 2nd grade will be for handwriting, and the 3rd grade will be for correct use of conventions-capital letters and punctuation marks used properly.  Again, I continue to look for the correct spelling of words in their daily work as part of their spelling grade.

Writing -  I do see progress in each child's writing.  As we continue towards the midpoint of the year, I will be looking for extending their sentences by adding juicy adjectives to their writing, capital letters used correctly, and continuing to look at conventions----using punctuation marks correctly.

In closing, please continue to encourage your child to try an AR book and take a test on it.  This is such a great way to work on comprehension skills.Have a great week and keep up the reading at home.  Send in November Reading Logs on Friday and I'll send a new one home for December.    Thanks so much for all of your help and support.

Sincerely,  Peggy Snook

Week of November 7th

Dear Parents,          

What a fun time we had last week with Parent Centers on Wednesday and Halloween that same day!!!!  Thanks to Mrs. Daniels, Mrs. Eggart, Mrs. Cwalina, and Mrs. Corner for helping to make all the centers fun and enjoyable for the class.  I can hardly believe that it is the first part of November....two weeks until Thanksgiving and six weeks until Winter Break!! We have been learning a lot...their bats and spider reports were great and you can see everybody's report as they are hanging in the hall.  Also, there is some bat and spider writing on what they learned from this unit of study in the hall as well. Now, we will be moving on to Thanksgiving, the Pilgrims, Indians, the Mayflower, comparing how it was to live then versus now, and many other aspects of the Thanksgiving season.  November will be a fun-filled month.           Grandparents luncheon for 1st grade will be on Thursday, November 15th from 12:35 - 1:05 for lunch with a short Thanksgiving songs/poems presentation in the classroom starting at 12:10--before lunch.  For those of you new to Garrison Mill and those that may not have grandparents nearby, please be aware how important it is for someone to attend that day to be with your child....even an aunt, uncle, older sister/brother....as  we don't want to see tears on such a special day.  Hopefully, with this much lead time, you and your family will be able to make arrangements for this event....THANKS!  On Wednesday, the 7th,  when students return to my class,  we will be making invitations for you, grandparents, or other family members, etc., to attend on November 15th.   Please make me aware of any problems you may foresee with these plans and I will try to help you as much as I can.

Perfect attendances awards (no tardies) were given out to seven of our classmates.   Congratulations go to Shelly Chummar, Rebecca Cohen, Jamie Cwalina, Brenden Daniels, Amanda Eggart, Thomas English, and Allison Hungerbuhler!!!  Way to Go!  This covered the first 45 days of school and I feel sure other recognition awards will be given during the year.  Our class also was given a Popcorn Party on November 2nd for good behavior in the cafeteria during lunch!!!   Keep up the good work!

Coming home on Wednesday, November 7th, will be a Thanksgiving Family project called "Dressing the Turkey".  It will be something that the family can do together and enjoy.  Don't forget feathers for your turkey and many unusal and varied decorations to make him/her your own.  These beautiful turkeys will be due on Wednesday, November 14th.....have fun with your child!!!

IMPORTANT DATES TO MARK ON YOUR CALENDAR:

PTA meeting on Thursday, 11/8 @ 6:30 with 4th grade performance @ 7:00.

Book Fair at Garrison Mill's Media Center will be the week of Nov. 12th to 16th.

High Touch/High Tech on "Sounds" (one of our 1st grade standards to be taught just as the one in October on Magnets) will be Monday, November 19th from 12:45 -2:15.

Picture Retakes -if needed - will be Tuesday, November 20th.

Wednesday - Sunday, Nov. 21 -25....Thanksgiving Holidays.

Wednesday, November 28th - Parent Centers from 9:30 to 10:20.

Curriculum News:      

Reading - we continue to have guided reading groups, but there will be more seasonal stories we will do, such as Native Americans, Pilgrims, Mayflower, and Thanksgiving.  These choices will cover many aspects of our curriculum and hopefully be enjoyed by all the students.  Comparing and contrasting how the Pilgrims lived to how we live now and the many differences is always a fun activity to do with 1st graders.  To think that the Pilgrims hunted for their food, built their own houses, didn't have electricity or stoves to cook on is quite interesting to them. 

Math - we have moved into graphs, charts, tally marks, comparison of more/less, greater than/less than, reviewing sorting by color, shape, or size....and much more.  The parent/home connection letter I sent last week gave you an overview of content, vocabulary, and activities we will be doing.  We continue to do timed tests in addition weekly with facts to 12....I will be increasing that to 18 for those that can do that---not all will be ready for that, so, please continue to work on facts to 12 for the moment.

Phonics - we will be working more with the "magic e"/silent "e" words as in ate, take, cape, etc.  Also, working on how that magic e can make such a different in words like cap to cape, at to ate, bit to bite, hid to hide, cut to cute, and hug to huge.  Also, we will studying different spellings of certain sounds---"j" spelled ge or gi as in gem and giant; also spelled dge as in hedge.  Please point out these type phonics words in their nightly reading as a review to what we do in class....your help is always greatly appreciated.

Spelling - With last Friday's test, I started giving the class a dictation sentence with many of the spelling words that we have already had.  Please use that review sheet of all spelling words from September that I sent home recently.  We have been practicing dictation sentences weekly on our whiteboards here at school so this should be nothing new for them.  I am looking particularly for capital letters at the beginning of a sentence and a correct punctuation mark at the end.

Social Studies - We will work more on a compass rose of a map and naming the oceans east of west of the United States.  Our studying the First Thanksgiving, the Indians, the Mayflower, etc. will also be a part of Social Studies for this month.  Writing will be focused around November activities.

I hope that you have enjoyed these extra few days together as a family and  you look forward to the coming Weeks activities here at school.  We have some fun things planned and will be learning many new things along the way!!  Have a great week and stay warm....it looks like colder weather is arriving on Wednesday!!

Sincerely,

Peggy Snook