aronson

News for 9/27/07

Language Arts-This week the children enjoyed reading An Egg is an Egg. It sparked a nice conversation on how things change. We worked on an art project that showed how we can change a line into something else. Our word family this week was the -ack family. We discussed sentences and what the naming part of a sentence is. We pointed out that the naming part of the sentence tells who or what the sentence is about. Next week's story will be Bet You Can't.  The Key Words will be: now, we, why, let's, lift, both, can't, from, get.

**Be on the look out for a special assignment next week. Students will get to show what they can do.**

Math-In math we continued to create subtraction sentences both vertically and horizontally. Our Problem of the Day has continued to challenge the children. We will bring home our Unit 2 problems next week for you to see.

Science and Social Studies-Our reports on traveling to other countries turned out great! We're displaying them in the hall and I'll send them home soon. Thank you for sending in those precipitation pictures. On Friday we will work in small groups to sort and display them on charts. Next week we'll continue our weather unit and we'll finally get to make our tornadoes in a bottle. The children can't wait!!

I'm still looking for someone to help bake a Thunder Cake for our last week of weather. Please let me know if you can help.

Thanks to Michelle Musser for coming in to be my helper parent. We're looking forward to Eric Winter coming in on Friday to read to us.

Octoberfest-Saturday, October 6th will be Octoberfest. It is so much fun and I look forward to seeing my Alligators there.  Don't forget to bid on our First Grade outing. One lucky child from our class and each 1st grade classroom will get an afternoon with me and the other First grade teachers and children to go to Chuck-E-Cheese. The outing will take place after school on November 1st.

Enjoy the beautiful weekend!

Cognitive Abilities Test-September 26th-28th

• What can you do to help your child do well on the test?
• Bring a healthy snack to eat during the break.
• Bring a water bottle.
• Get a good night's sleep.
• Eat a good breakfast.
• Get to school on time.  children will not be allowed to enter our room once the testing has begun.

First grade will be testing on September 26th-28th in the mornings.  I know the children will do a great job!

Thunder Cake

As one of our last activities on weather, we will be reading the story, Thunder Cake by Patricia Polacco. It's a wonderful story about a grandma and granddaughter who hurry to gather the ingredients for Thunder Cake before the storm arrives. I'm asking for one volunteeer to make our Thunder Cake for the children to enjoy as a treat. If you would like to bake a Thunder Cake( it is a chocolate cake with a special ingredient) for us, please write me a note or email me. I will send home the recipe and the date we need the cake. It will probably be the week of October 8th.

Thank you!

News for 9/20/07

Language Arts-This week we enjoyed Olmo and the Blue Butterfly.  We discussed how butterflies are symmetrical and made watercolor butterflies practicing that idea. We also talked about asking sentences, telling sentences and ending sounds. Our word family of the week was the -an family. As you probably noticed this was the last story of this book. We're taking a reading assessment and I'll send you the results as soon as I grade them.  Next week we'll read An Egg is an Egg.  Key words will be: always, baby, be, block, boy, day, green, he, then, until.

Math-In math we are gaining an understanding of subtraction and the difference between numbers. I've started sending home our Problem of the Day, so you can get an idea of how they have to think and show how they get their answers. It is challenging for some of the children that ae used to only having to give an answer.

Science and Social Studies-Thank you for helping your children find the weather for their specific city and country. We're going to write our reports and share on Friday. Next week we'll continue to talk about weather around the world and we're going to make sure the children can locate their cities and countries on the 7 continents. Ask your children to sing the continent song for you. Next week we'll be identifying types of precipatation and charting the pictures of weather you've sent in. We've made water gauges which we'll put outside to measure precipatation if we get any! Please continue fo find precipatation pictures with your children and send them in by Thursday the 27th.

Thank you to Christy Palladino for being our story parent last week and Catherine Phillips for planning to read to the children on Friday.  Thank you to Jill Harris for being my helper parent this week.

On Tuesday, we'll be going to the Media Center. Be sure to send back the library books. I'll send a reminder note home on Monday.

Next Wednesday-Friday, the children will be taking the Cogat Test. I'm sending home a letter on Friday to tell you more about the test.

Enjoy your weekend!!

Early Release

Just a reminder that Wednesday the 19th is Early Release for the children. They will be dismissed at 12:20pm. Enjoy your afternoon!

News for 9/12/07

The newsletter for this week will be early  because I will be out of school on Thursday and Friday.

Language Arts-This week we're reading The Earth and I. We are being introduced to contractions and are working on word order in sentences. Our word family is -og. The children will enjoy brainstorming words and making frogs. Next week we will read Olmo and the Blue Butterfly. We will discuss what we already know about butterflies and watercolor our own.  The Key Words for next week are: blue, boat, ride, with, look, fly, hop.

Math-In math we've finished a lenthy pretest for the year. We took the test in 3 days, so our math homework won't start again until next week. This would be a great time to start practicing addition  math facts and making sure your child can commit the facts to memory.

Science-We're starting our weather unit this week and will start by brainstorming weather words to describe the 4 seasons. We'll break up into four groups, think of desribing words for their season and then get back into whole group and share the words. We're making a large chart with all the words and will have our own weather folder to use during our unit. We still need 3- 2 liter bottles to make our rain gauges.

Media Center-The children will be visiting the Media Center on Thursday and are allowed to take out 2 books. We will go about every two weeks. If your child is ready to enjoy a new book before that time and is in the classroom first, he/she may ask to visit the Media Center after unpacking ther bookbag in the morning.

Thank you to Ruth Baumann and Ronise Crumpler for being my helper parents the last two weeks. And thank you to Noela Scarano for being our story parent last Friday. The children love having parents come and read to them.

F.Y.I.

Saturday, September 15th-East Cobber Parade.

Wednesday, September, 19th - This will be our first Early Release day. The children will be dismissed at 12:20pm.

Media Center

We're very excited that our Media Center is open for checking out books. Our first time to go to the Media Center will be Thursday, September 13th. We'll be able to check out 2 books at a time.  We will plan to go as a class every 2 weeks. I will send a reminder note the day before, so you're child will be sure to return their books. Thanks!

2 Liter Bottles

If anone has any 2 liter plastic bottles, please send them to school. We're going to be making  rain gauges during our weather unit.

Thanks!

Newsletter for September 6, 2007

Language Arts- This week we read Itsy Bitsy Spider.  We discussed rhyming words and discovered many -op words.  We're also continuing to work on short vowel sounds.  Next week we will read The Earth and I.  The Key Words for next week will be: are, friends, to, walks, she's, happy, I'm.

Math-We're finishing Chapter 1 in our math book and we'll have our math assessments. We will start Chapter 2 which deals with subtraction at the end of next week. The children will have no math homework while we're assessing their progress.

Science-Please have your children start gathering pictures of different types of precipitation, (examples: rain, snow, sleet, hail) for our weather unit. They can use magazines, newspapers and the computer. Please send all pictures to school by September 26th.

F.Y. I.

9/15/07- East Cobber Parade

9/19/07-Early Release Day-Dismissal at 12:20pm

Enjoy your weekend!