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