Mrs. Snook’s 1st Grade News

Week of March 24th

Dear Parents,

This will be my last blog to you until I get back from my trip abroad.  I will return to school with the students after spring break on April14th.  Jackie Weyrick will be my substitute teacher for the week of March 31st to April 4th.  She is wonderful and I know that she will do a great job with the kids!!  You may see things a little different during that week as I won't be doing everything that I usually do.  There WILL NOT be spelling words that week....an early spring gift from me.  Also, Mrs. Weyrick will not be keeping track of AR points as I do, so please do not expect a report home until after I return.  She will be continuing to practice CRCT questions and strategies with the students. The CRCT testing dates for 1st grade will be Wednesday, April 23rd through Friday, April 25th.  I will remind you of this later, but please plan on your child having a very good night's sleep before each testing day, a good, healthy breakfast each morning, and a small bottle of water that will be placed on the floor beside their desks.

Other reminders for you:

**I sent a note home recently in reference to our 1st graders performing at the May 1st PTA meeting.  Mrs. Zarin has requested that each of you return that note for her to know that she has your support and help, if you can offer that.  There is an organizational meeting coming up soon and I have noted that date on the homework sheet going home on Monday, March 24th.

**We teachers have been reminded by administration to talk about our Dress Code here at Garrison Mill.  With spring weather upon us, there can be no midriff tops, no spaghetti tops, no tank tops, shorts and skirt length must be where the student can stand and touch the hem, no flip flops (Crocs are fine), and K-2 will be given a warning and then sent to the office for a parent call.

**Spring Break will be the week of April 7 - 11 with school resuming on Monday, April 14th.  Parent centers are scheduled for Wednesday, April 16th.

**Reading Logs for March are due Monday, March 31st.  I plan on sending a new one for April this coming Friday.....read, read, and read some more.  Thanks for your help with this.

**Wednesday, April 2nd, is Kindergarten registration here at Garrison Mill.

**Thursday, April 3rd is a PTA meeting @ 6:30 and also the Art Show/Invention Convention.

**Friday, April 4th will be Spirit Day so, please wear your GM T-shirt.

Curriculum News

Reading - One of my groups is finishing a chapter book on Amelia Bedelia.  They have enjoyed reading about her unusual ways of doing things.  Another group has just finished a story on a girl named Collen and her first trip to Ireland to visit her grandparents.  We have learned about the continent of Europe and the capital of Ireland is Dublin.  New vocabulary for this group included legend, hedgerow, Celtic, and Irish, for example.  In this story Colleen learns about a story involving leprechauns and a man named Jack Fox.  My last group is reading a book about Animals Everywhere and learning about their habitats.  As you know all last week we read at least a dozen Jan Brett books and I do believe I have them hooked on her as an author!!!  She is a wonderful author as well as a fantastic illustrator and they class has certainly enjoyed her books this past week.  Ask your child about a character in many of her books named Hedgie.  She is a hedgehog and appears in many of her books even if Hedgie isn't a character in that particular story.  Also, check out Jan Brett's website at www.janbrett.com- good information on her books as well as activities for your child.    

Phonics - we continue to work on spelling/phonics patterns.  For example, the sound of the letter r being spelled "wr" as in write, wrong, wrinkle, wrist;  the letter n being spelled "kn" as in knight, knife, know, knew:  and we still are working on adding "ed" to words to mean the past, that the action is finished.

Math - we just took a test on Chapter 20 about clocks, time, schedules, informational graphs, longer/shorter time, and before/after.  I plan on going back to Chapter 15 and returning to subtraction and different strategies to use in problem solving.  Please add subtraction back into your flashcard practice at home.  Thank you!

Writing - I am going back to writing practice sheets as I see many of my students need to revisit how to make certain letters.  Many are becoming careless and sloppy in their writing and I want to do something about it now and not later.  Please encourage you child to do the best writing they can do on homework given to them.  We will also be doing some more writing on some of our Jan Brett stories.

Science - we will be starting a unit on Spring the week of March 31st and continue it after spring break.  We had an in-school field trip this past Tuesday at Garrison Mill.  The Science Guy came and did a program called Science for Everyone.  The kids loved him and his assistant as they had some exciting experiments to show them.  We will have another in-school field trip in May on animals.

Here's hoping that your Spring Break is restful, fun, and safe!!

Sincerely,    Peggy Snook

Week of March 10th

Dear Parents,         

What a busy few weeks we have had at Garrison Mill!!  Presidents Reports were absolutely wonderful---such a variety of ideas including a log cabin, board games, a replica of Monticello, a bald eagle, several different types of portraits of presidents, and many interesting facts about Presidents of the United States.  I hope that you have had a chance to see the collection outside our room.  There is also a new set of classroom pictures from January and February in the hallway....enjoy.  We had a good curriculum night last Thursday with many of you dropping by to see some good math ideas to do with your child at home.  One activity was using a 100's frame and a die with +10, -10, +1, and -1 on its faces.  Using a marker for each player, you would roll and move according to the plus or minus on the die....first one to get to 100 wins the game!  Another game is played with a deck of cards minus the Jacks, Queens, and Kings.  Ask your child how to play SALUTE as it's a good addition and subtraction practice game.

A note went home on Friday asking for your help in collecting items for your child to use in making his/her leprechaun traps.  Let me remind you that the items sent in will not be returned, so, please keep that in mind.  This is an exciting project for the students and they love all that goes into making their traps.  Please don't start sending in their items until at least Thursday. They will work in a 3 - 4 person cooperative group when doing this project....thanks.

Practice Testing material will continue to be sent home on Mondays.  Last week you received the Reading section to let your child practice the type of questions that they will see on the CRCT in mid to late April.  Today, March 10th, I will be sending home a Math Test Practice packet to do with your child.  Please do not return these to me as we will be doing our own practice testing in the classroom.  Then, next Monday, the 17th, I will send home a Language Practice Test for your child to do at home.  Don't forget that there are CRCT test practices on the Garrison Mill website...use the number that I gave you at conference time to access these practice tests.    Have fun!!!!

On Thursday, March 13th, we will have a Chick-fil-A party provided by Nicholas Lezaj who is a winner for his picture with himself and many Chick-fil-A cows on a football field....way to go, Nicholas!!!  He has earned us a platter of Chicken Nuggets which will be served to them after lunch...about 1:30 to be exact.  Since it serves 30 people, we will be inviting Mrs. Whitson's class to join us.  Should be a lot of fun.   Thanks, Nicholas!!!!!            

Upcoming Dates to mark on your calendar:   

Tuesday, March 11th - Texas Roadhouse Dinner Night

Friday, March 14th - Bingo Night @ Garrison Mill  6 - 8 p.m.

Monday, March 17th - HAPPY ST. PATRICK'S DAY - Parent Centers 9:30 - 10:25

Thursday, March 20th - Report cards sent home for the 3rd Nine Weeks grading period.

Monday - Friday, March 31st - April 4th - Jackie Weyrick will be my substitute teacher for the week.  Have a wonderful and safe Spring Break!!!

Curriculum News:

Reading -Several of my reading groups have started chapter books.  One group is reading a fiction story about a girl named Colleen and her visit to Ireland and, of course, there are leprechauns involved in this visit.  Another group started an Amelia Bedelia book and her crazy ways to do things.  The last group will be reading a rebus story on leprechauns and answering some comprehension questions.

Math - We have just started our chapter on telling time, calendars, and charts/graphs.  We will be talking about digital clocks as well as analog ones....how to write both.  We do all of the above activities in calendar math each day, so, I expect the clock, a calendar, and charts/graphs will go very smoothly for this class.  Please continue to work on both addition and subtraction facts to 18 as we are now taking a 5 minute timed tests in addition with 50 problems.  For mastery of this skill, your child needs to get a score of at least 44/50 in 5 minutes.  Be sure not to forget about the subtraction facts--continue to practice those, too

Phonics - We will continue to talk about singular and plural nouns, but now we will not only add "s" or "es" to make plural nouns, we will learn to change the y to i and add es as in city/cities, lady/ladies, and baby/babies.  Also, we will continue to work on past tense verbs by adding "ed".  This is a skill that is sometimes hard for your child....as they reread written work to me, often they don't add "ed" to verbs even though they read it that way, they don't add it in their writing. I will introduce some basic dictionary skills to the class - definitions, understanding that the words are in ABC order, what part of speech it is with us consentrating on nouns, verbs, and adjective, and an introduction into what a guide word is and does for you in a dictionary.

Writing/Language Arts Skills:   One of the best skills your child can learn and put into practice is "REREADING" his/her own work.  It is sometimes hard for a first grader to do this, but, we all know that it will catch many mistakes and see if what they wrote makes sense to them.  I continue to assess each child on grammar in their writing--are they using the skills and lessons in their writing and sentences that we go over in our Open Court series and in our Phonic book?  It's important for me to see capital letters at th beginning of each sentence and some sort of puncuation mark at the end of each sentence.  Are they spelling correctly the words that we have had weekly in spelling and are they using the grammar skills in their daily work?   Answers to these questions are my assessment for grades in spelling (not just an E+ each Friday on their spelling test) and as well as their English Composition grade.  With report cards going home on the 20th of this month, I wanted to review with you how I mark the grades for each individual student.

Here are our February Reading Log Winners:

1st place - Shelly Chummar with 128 stickers;  2nd place - Jamie Cwalina with 68 stickers, and 3rd place - Bryce Daniels with 60 stickers.  Congratulation for a job well done!!!   Since I have upped the reading minutes to at least 75 minutes per week, I should see at least 300 minutes of monthly reading or 30 stickers on their chart.  Please continue to try and meet "at least" that standard of monthly reading.  You, as a parent, will begin to see a difference in your child's reading the MORE that you read with them!  Each of them love that special time with a parent....invest the time now and I promise you that it will pay off in the long run for your child!!!!!  The amount of AR reading done each week is growing and the AR points chart in the hall reflects that....keep up the good work, class!!!!

Here's hoping that your week is a good one and the weather stays warmer for us.  Have a great week!!

Sincerely,   Peggy Snook