Weeks of September 2 -12
Dear Parents,
Here's hoping that your long Labor Day weekend was a great one!!! It's always nice to have some extra family time at the lake, the beach, or even at home together.
This is my first Blog of the year and I hope that you will check it every two weeks for classroom updates. The year has started off very well with lots of learning going on in our class. I certainly have a sweet group of children! They are a very chatty group so I would appreciate you speaking to your own child about the importance of listening and following directions....thanks!
It was so nice to see each of you at Open House on August 19th. I wanted to talk about the report card which is new for the teachers in 1st, but not new for GM parents from last year. I put stickers in the front of each child's folder on Friday listing a formative assessment and a summative assessment and how they are used. For example, this past week I marked papers for the first time with "Assessment 2 or 3 depending on how well they each wrote the numbers 1 - 30 in correct order with no reversals. Not every paper that I send home will have an assessment number on it---I will continue to use check marks, stars, or smiley faces to indicate I have looked over this paper and your child is doing what is expected of them. I will also continue to make comments on them, if needed. Again, for example, I make ask your child to practice more on the letter "p" that we've introduced in phonics as well as writing; or I may mention reversals (flip the letter or number). These reversals are common at the beginning of first grade, but we as teachers and parents want to help them get the numbers and letters looking correct. Another point I need to emphasize is using 3, 2, and 1 for the assessment levels---please understand that each nine weeks we are looking for certain assessments such as he/she can read 50 high frequency words from a list (which would be a 3 and a 2 would be fewer than 50 down to 38 and 37 or fewer would be a 1), but the next nine weeks it will be 100 high frequency words. Each nine weeks the requirements for a 3, 2, or 1 increase with difficulty levels in all subjects. Please talk to me if you have questions.
All Sally Foster orders are due by Friday, September 5th.....we are in 2nd place behind Mrs. Dion's class for having sold the most. Keep up the good work!!!! Other reminders would be an Early Release day will be Tuesday, September 16th with lunch at 11:26 - 11:56 and dismissal at 12:30; also, the CoGat tests for first grade will be Wed. - Fri., September17, 18, and 19th. Please mark your calendars now with these important dates....thank you. Don't forget to send in "Boxtops for Education." This coming Friday, the 5th, will be Spirit Day--wear your GM shirt and also Dinner/Movie Night at Garrison Mill ---- Dinner at 6:30 and Movie at 7:00.
As you probably heard from your child, we read the chapter book Junie B. Jones, 1st grader, at last!!! We did many different activities with Mrs. Whitson's class and I sent home last week your child's writing from different chapters. We celebrated the book by drawing child-size pictures of the main characters---Junie B. May, Grace, Mr. Scary, Nurse Weller, and Herb. We divided into cooperative groups and they had to come up with a describing word for their character along a noun. For example, Mr. Scary had a rainbow tie, Junie B. had purple glasses, and Nurse Weller had a white lab coat. Lots and lots of fun!!! This past week we read The Napping House by Audrey Woods and Mrs. Druhot did several activities with describing words and nouns. You will see an assessment paper come home on this.
CURRICULUM NEWS:
Literacy centers...I will be introducing these this week. These are reinforcement activities from the curriculum that the class will do independently while we call different groups for guided reading. They include: Days of the week/writing and knowing them in order; Estimation jar; Listening center/writing title, author, and picture; Computer time; Art activity to transform a number 1 into a picture and write a sentence about it (example will be done for them to see); Read the room--literally, with a pointer, read words, poems, songs, lists around the room; Johnny Appleseed writing; Country counting math; an Apple booklet to color and read; a September Glyph, Read a Book, a Johnny Appleseed Adventure/sequencing the pictures; and a Social Studies activity using a compass rose to name the states that are north, south, east, and west of Georgia.
Math...we are finishing up our chapter on addition up to 10 with being able to make many different combinations for a number--for example, what combinations can make 9---5+4, 6+3,0+9, etc. The vocabulary that has been introduced is sum, plus, is equal to, counting on, and addition sentence/addition number sentence. Please practice flashcards at home with the sums 0 - 12. Our test on this chapter should be either Friday or next Monday. The next chapter will be on subtraction with us using a number line more to show the concept of take away/counting backwards. At daily calendar math we work with patterns, tens/ones, counting on, days of the week/months of the year, money, skip counting by 2's, 5's, and 10's, odd and even numbers, and we will start telling time to the hour and half hour. 
These are curriculum standards that we review and practice each day. We also are learning/singing the words to "America the Beautiful" and "America".
Reading...formal reading groups will begin the week of Sept. 8th and Mrs. Whitson and I will be doing guided reading together. She has a student teacher with her and I have Mrs. Druhot which means that we can see 8 reading groups a day with all 4 of us having 2 groups daily. We also have DEAR time (Drop Everything And Read) so that the children get to practice their reading skills.
Phonics...we have formally introduce the short "a" as in hat, but I have gone over each short vowel sound (they had these last year in Kindergarten) in practice to give them a "Key Word" to relate that sound to as in "a"=apple, "e"=elephant/egg, "i"=igloo, "o"=octopus, and "u"=umbrella. Please try to use these key words with your child at home. We have also talked about the magic "e"/silent "e" words as in cake, bike, or cute....point these out as you read with them nightly. We have introduced compound words and the class has made a GREAT list of these type of words! We've reviewed the consonants s, h, p, and n and we are learning to identify how many syllables (word parts) in a word. Writing also goes along with the vowel or consonant introduced that day. We practice our writing with a trace/practice sheet and I will be looking to see if they continue to make these letters correctly as we practice them. In our daily writing and DOL (Daily Oral Language), we constantly practice capital letters at the beginning of each sentence, names/special places capitalized, and either a ., ?, or ! at the end of each sentence. Please practice asking sentences at home as many of them do not hear the inflexion in my voice to help them know it is a question...thanks. Remember, WE ARE partners in Education and I do appreciate all of your help at home.
Social Studies...hopefully you have seen the Geography Booklet that came home on Friday. Please let your child read this booklet to you. As you can see, we have gone from the globe, map, 7 continents, North American continent, United States, Georgia, Cobb County, Marietta or Roswell, and we are all citizens of our United States. This coming week we will introduce mountains, valleys, plains, dessert, and a plateau as different landforms on a map. We've also identified 4 major oceans in the world---the largest being the Pacific, also the Atlantic, Indian, and Artic Ocean. They have really enjoyed studying the earth. Social Studies will continue learning and talking about Benjamin Franklin later in this month.
Science...our first chapters in science will be about weather. With the seasonals change coming later in September, we will talk about the 4 seasons and different types of weather and water---stormy, cloudy, sunny, rain, hail, sleet, etc. This will start the week of September 8th.
Computer Lab...we have already been to our first computer lab and practiced drawing with Kidpix and using clipart. Our second time in the lab will be this Tuesday, September 2nd.
I hope that this newsletter has given you a good idea of what your child is doing in my classroom. I promise that it won't be so long next time!! Again, if your child has a change of transportation, please write me a note in the folder; if your child is absent due to an illness, please also write me a note to turn into the office so that it can be an "excused absence". Thanks for all of your help at home and continue to read nightly to or with your child---a September Reading Log came home in their folders on Friday. PLEASE total each week with the number of minutes read.
Have a great week! Happy Birthday, Wyatt, on Saturday, August 30th!!!!
Sincerely, Peggy Snook
