Notes for December:

• Book Buddies this Friday at 9:30
• Holiday Party this Friday at 10:00
• Winter Break December 20th - January 5th

• Back to school on January 6th

• Reading Log for December due January 6th

Happy Holidays...

            Mrs. White

The children are full of excitement and joy! I love coming to school to listen to what they doing for the holiday season! Their little faces are so wonderful to see everyday. Also, this week will be our last week of homework until after the break! Happy Holidays!

Curriculum News:

Math... We are continuing our unit on addition and subtraction to 12. Same strategies just bigger numbers. Be sure to keep studing your math flash cards. After the winter break I will send home facts to 12. We will be taking weekly time test when we get back!

Phonics... We will continue reviewing blends, short vowels, long vowels with the silent "e", diagraphs "oo" , etc.. I had plan on introducing homophones at the end of last week but time ran out. I hope to introduce them this week.

Reading... Wow!!! Almost everyone made our reading goal for the month of November! Way to go and keep up the good work this month. Reading logs will be due January 5th when we get back from our Winter Break.

Science: We will have our High touch High Tech in school field trip this Monday. Be sure to ask your child what they did and learned today. 

Social Studies: We will be finishing our unit on Lewis and Clark and Sacagawea. The children are having fun hearing about their explorations.

Character Word for the Week:

Generosity: The word means to give freely or to share. I have to say, my class does a great job with having generousity!!!! They are great at sharing and helping each other.

Have a GREAT WEEK and Happy Holidays!

Mrs. White

Important Dates...

Student Council is collecting canned and boxed food for the holiday season. I would love to use this as a way to teach Generosity. Just think if everyone in the school brought in just one can; how many people we would be able to help!

*****Monday will be the Magnet High Touch High Tech in school field trip.

• Tuesday... Paws Online and Toys for Tots Drive @ Chick-Fil-A.
• Friday... Cafe GM Popcorn Party
• Friday... Homework Due
• Friday, December 19th, Class Holiday Party at 10:00
• Friday, December 20th, End of 2nd Grading Period
• Saturday, December 20th, Begins Winter Holidays!!!

Wow, it is hard to believe we are half way through November! We have been so busy in class too.

We are looking forward to seeing Grandparents and Special Friends this week for lunch. Our day is this Thurday, November 20th. Please meet in our room at 11:05 for a little program by your first graders. You may want to plan to arrive a little early for the program. Parking can be heavy and we don't want you to miss the program. Our lunch time is scheduled for 11:25.

The book fair will also be open all week including Thursday. It is a great opportunity to get a head start on your Holiday shopping. We will be going Monday morning to preview the books too.

Curriculum News:

Math... We are starting our unit in Graphing. The children always have fun graphing. We might even graph with Skittles and enjoy eating them afterwards. This week we will review Greater Than and Less Than with numbers to 100.

Phonics and Language Arts... This past week we worked on the "sh" sound. "Sh" is a consonant digraph. Two consonant letters that make "one" sound. Digraphs are very different from a blend. Blends are two or more consonants that the sounds blend together but you can still hear each letter.This week I will be introducing the vowel digraph "oo". Two vowels that make only one sound like in "book" or "tooth". I will also be reviewing all the other skills to make sure they are concrete in their little minds.

Be sure to take time when you visit Thursday to read your little pilgrims letter. They pretended they were a pilgrim writing a friend that did not travel to the New World. I think your children have been surprised by the chores the pilgrim children had to do daily.

Computer... We didn't go last week but here is a web site that goes with our standard on tally marks. I hope they will enjoy  the site.

Tally Math

Character Word: Last weeks word was Patriotism and this weeks word is Service to Others. Both of these are very appropriate for the season. To have patriotism...love for our country and to give service to others.

Remember there is no school next week. We are out for the entire week. Enjoy your families and don't get to full!

Mrs. White

November News... Dates to Remember...

Book Fair open all week. Come and shop with your little ones.

• Thursday our Grandparents and Special Friends Program and Lunch. The  program begins at 11:05 and lunch starts at 11:25. Please come and join us!
• Monday, December 1st, Reading Log will be due.
• Friday's Specials is Music this week.
• Remember we are out of school all next week! Have a wonderful break and enjoy your families.

Mrs. White

is here!It is very hard to believe how fast the year is flying by. We have only three weeks until Thanksgiving and will be working hard up until the day we get out. Be sure to come for our Grandparents Day luncheon on Thursday the 20th.We will be having a short program before lunch in our classroom. Hope you can all attend!

Phonics: We are slowing down this week and next week. I want to be sure that what we have learned is well grounded. They are doing great but there were quite a few hard concepts that all came at once.

Language Arts: We are working on our writing skills. Last week I read the book Grace for President. The children loved it. We decided to have a class president. The children voted and 3 candidates have been choosen. This week they are going to choose the one they want to be president and in writing describe why they think their candidate would be a good class president. Then we will share our paragraphs and make our final vote for the class president.

Standard: ELA1W1.a Writing Process

Write texts of a length appropriate to address a topic and tell a story, including self-selected ideas (e.g., prewriting, drafting, revising, editing, and publishing/polishing).

Math: This week we are going to begin our unit with Geometry. Please continue to study your addition flash cards too. We will begin to take timed test in January. January will be here to before we know it!

Standard: M1G1 Geometric Figures/Basic

Students will study and create varioius two and three-dimensional figures and identify basic figures (squares, circles, triangles, and rectangles) within them.

Standard: M1G2 Geometric Shapes/Classifications

Students will compare, contrast, and/or classify geometric shapes by the common attributes of position, shape, size, number of sides, and number of corners.

Standard: M1G3 Positional/Relationships

Students will arrange and describe objects in space by proximity, position, and direction (near, far, below, above, up,down, behind, in front of , next to, and left or right of).

Homework this week is coming home on Monday and is due back on Friday. It is a family project that will go out in the hall to get ready for our Grandparents Luncheon. Please work together and be creative! The only other homework is to read nightly and practice your math facts.

Character Word for the week:

Citizenship... a member of a country! What is citizenship in our first grade classroom? Children are learning to cooperate and share with peers, to take part in group activities and talks, and to take responsibility for their own actions and for their own learning. To be a good citizen in our classroom and have good citizenship behavior they must have the following 5 prinipals:

1. Tell the truth.
2. Be caring.
3. Respect others.
4. Be responsible for what you do and say.
5. Be brave enough to do the right thing and to ask for help when you need it.

This week we will be talking about what it means to be a good citizen in our classroom.

Reminder... The Network will be out the week of Thanksgiving break. You will not be able to contact me through email until maintanence is finished.

Have a wonderful week!

Mrs. White

DON'T FORGET THERE IS NO SCHOOL TUESDAY FOR THE STUDENTS. WE TEACHERS WILL STILL BE HERE AT A TEACHERS INSERVICE MEETING ALL DAY.

Thursday night the 3rd grade will be preforming for the PTA meeting.

Friday is school spirit day. Wear your red shirts to class! I will also be out for the day. I am taking a personal day to get ready for my mom's surpise 80th birthday party at my house on Sunday. A day to celebrate!

Whow... the class earned another "Special Treat" for good behavior!! Thank you Mrs. Hawkes for sending the cookies in to celebrate. They were yummy!

Important...The office has ask that we remind you of the following information about transportation.

REMINDER...
FOR THE SAFETY OF ALL STUDENTS

• If your child arrives after 7:55 a.m., you must sign the child in at the P.T.A. desk in the lobby.
• No transportation or dismissal changes after 1:45.

The school continues to have a shortage on copy paper! If anyone would like to contribute copy paper for our class it would be very appreciated! Thank you for all your help and support!

Curriculum News:

Math... The children are having fun working with great than and less than. Ask your child about the aligator and his teeth. They are also working on numbers that come before or after on a number line. We are using one hundred charts too to fine numbers above or below to discover number patterns. Please continue to keep practicing those math flash cards. It won't be long before I send more facts home (facts to 18). By May the goal for each child is to answer 48 out of 50 problems in 5 minutes.

Phonics...Language Arts... All phonics skills introduced will be reinforced. We are working on the vowel-consonate-sleepy "e". Last week the vowel was "a" plus the sleepy "e"...example gate. This week it will be "o","u", and "i" plus the sleepy "e". After this week we will be teaching two lessons a week instead of the four lessons. This means your child will bring home one to two phonics sheets a week instead of the usual three. The pace may pick up again later but for now I want to make sure they master what they have been taught.

Reading... Reading logs are due November 3rd! I am very proud of what I have seen from many of you this month. Remember, It is very important that you take the time to read 10 minutes a day with your child. I know it is hard to always find the time but please try. Grab onto them while they are still little and want to curl up beside you. Take it from me... one day, not to far in the future, they will be to "BIG" to read with mom or dad!

Monday is our first in school field trip! High Touch High Tech is coming to see us and teach them about sound. Our class goes on Monday so be sure to ask your child what they learned. Sound is one of our Standards in Science for first grade. What a fun way to learn about it!!

Handwriting... Please reinforce all the lower case letters and capitals in their homework. I have seen great progress with everyone!!!!

Computer Lab... Your little ones just love going to the computer lab. This week we did a program that helped web a topic and ideas for writing stories. They did a great job!

Just for fun...

If you want a program to practice place value here is a link to use...

http://nlvm.usu.edu/en/nav/frames_asid_152_g_1_t_1.html            Have Fun!!!

Character Word... School Pride/Cleanliness... if we have pride in our school we will be proud of it. Let's work on keeping it clean so we show how proud we are to be at Garrison Mill!

For all those who celebrate Halloween have great time!!! Remember all your safety rules and have fun!

Happy Halloween,

Mrs. White

This is our last week in October! Can you believe Thanksgiving is just around the corner? Here are a few reminders...

• This week is Red Ribbon Week
• Monday wear your favorite sports team shirt...Say No to Drugs, Be Part of the Winning Team)
• Tuesday...Silly Hair Day
• Wednesday ... PJ Day (Put Drugs to Rest)
• Thursday... Red Day
• Friday ...Orange and Black Day

• Monday October 27th... Square One Art Orders Due
• Monday Reading Night 6:00-8:00
• Friday October 31st... Fall Centers from 11:30 to 12:30. Thank you to all the parents coming in to help! The children will have a wonderful time!