aronson

News for October 31, 2007

I Love a Book Day!-I Love a Book Day was wonderful! I was impressed with the work that went into the posters.  We had a great time parading around the school and showing off our posters and costumes. A great big thank you to Christy Palladino for dressing up, being our story parent and bringing in a delicious treat for us to enjoy. We also want to thank Cyle's mom for giving each of us a wonderful bag of treats to take home with us. And finally, a thank you to David's mom for helping us celebrate his birthday today!

Language Arts-This week we read Little Gorilla. This story ended our second anthology. We will take our skills test next week and then move into our third anthology. I will send home a copy of the results of the test as soon as I grade them next week. For this skills test, the children will read the entire test by themselves. Since next week is a short week, we won't have a story of the week.

Math- In math we will continue addition and subtraction problem solving and will have to decide the correct operation to use in story problems.

www.rainforestmaths.com- a fun website for math practice.

High Touch/High Tech-Next Wednesday and Friday we will have our first in school field trip. Our class will be divided in half. Half of us will enjoy our Weather or Not program on Wednesday and the other half of our class will have fun seeing it on Friday. Thank you to everyone for sending in the permission slips.

Super Parents-Thank you to Ruth Baumann for being my helper parent this week. And we look forward to Christine Daulby coming and reading to the class on Friday.

F.Y.I.  MacKenzie was our latest Make a Difference winner for this week. Way to go!!

11/5 and 11/6-No School for students

November 8th - Reptile Man - Another special in-house event sponsored by our wonderful Sope Creek PTA-. 

11/21-11/25-Thanksgiving Holidays

Enjoy your long weekend and don't forget to change your clocks!

News for October 25, 2007

Language Arts-This week the children enjoyed Five Little Ducks. We enjoyed the rhymes and couldn't stop singing it. Our word family was the -ick family.  Next week we will read Little Gorilla.  Key Words for next week will be: father, when, grow, his, everybody, once, old, began, there.

We're also enjoying many pumpkin and fall stories. Ask your children if they enjoyed hearing Funnybones by Janet and Allan Ahlberg. We made up our own page of something Mr. Funnybones could do.

Math-In Chapter 5 we will be able to make connections between models and equations.  We will continue to practice our subtraction math facts from 10 or less. And we will identify related addition and subtraction facts.

I Love  a Book Day!- A parade through our school is planned for just after 8:00 on October 31st. Be working on your "Sandwich Board" and simple character costume.  Be able to tell these things about your book:

1. Title and Author/Illustrator

2. Main Characters

3. Setting

4. What happened in the book!

We would love our parents to park early and line the halls to watch!

Super Parents-Thank you to Amanda Surry for being my helper parent this week. I appreciate all your help. And we look forward to Carla Gignilliat coming and reading to us on Friday.

F.Y.I.-   10/31-I love a Book Day!

             11/5 and 11/6- No School for students.

             11/21-11/25-Thanksgiving Holiday Break

Today I'm sending home a list of different math and reading websites that your children can use at home to help support their reading and math skills. Check them out to see which ones may work for your child.

High Touch/ High Tech

On Friday the First Grade Teachers will be sending home a permission slip for our two upcoming field trips. High Touch/High Tech will be coming to Sope Creek for 2 different science programs. One is called Weather or Not and the other will be Magnet Makers. All the information about these programs will be in the letter you receive. Please return permission slip and $17.00 fee by October 31st.

Thanks!

Make a Difference Award

Today our second recipient of the Make a Difference Award was announced! Ansley is our winner. She is now the proud owner of the Make a Difference coin which is hers to keep. She earned the award by being helpful to others and a good classroom citizen. Congratulations Ansley! We will have a new winner next week. Stay tuned for more good news

News for October 18, 2007

Language Arts: This week we read Flower Garden. We discussed the telling part of the sentence and how to join two sentences.  Our word family this week was the -it family. Next week we will read Five Little Ducks.  Key Words will be all, but, duck, five, four, hills, only, three, over, quack.

Math:This week in Chapter 4 we've been practicing addition facts through 10 and trying to commit them to memory. Please continue to practice at home! We're also learning how to use an addition rule to complete function tables through sums of 10.

Writing: We are continuing to work on writing sentences in a story, capitalization and punctuation.  Work at home on these same skills by having your child write a complete thought each night, making sure they use a capital letter at the beginning of the sentence, and punctuation at the end.  You will be amazed at how fast your child's ability to write a complete thought and expand on it will grow! 

Social Studies: We used a Venn Diagram to compare and contrast a globe and a map. We'll share our maps of the United States and see all the states the children have visited. We're planning to make our own map of Sope Creek.

Report Cards: Report cards will be coming home on Monday, October 22nd. Please sign the white card and return it in the brown envelope. If you have any questions about your child's report card, please call or email me and I'll be glad to talk or meet with you.

Our class received the Golden Tray Award for good behavior in the lunchroom last week. We're working on receiving it again this week. Way to go Alligators!

On Friday we're looking forward to Jill Harris being our Story Parent.

F.Y.I.    10/22-Report Cards come home.

             10/31-I Love a Book Day!

             11/5 and 11/6-No School-Teacher Workdays

I Love a Book Day and Make a Difference

Monday our first recipient of the Make a Difference Award was announced! David was our first winner. He is now the proud owner of the Make a Difference coin which is his to keep. He earned the award by being helpful to others and a good classroom citizen. Congratulations David! We will have a new winner each week. Stay tuned for more good news

I Love a Book Day is quickly approaching!  I'm excited to see which book characters the children will bring to life.  Remember to include the title and author of the book on the front cover of your storyboard and add yarn or string for the children to be able to wear them. Please remember that this event will take place on Wednesday, October 31st right after the morning announcements. You are welcome to stand in the hall and watch the parade.

Red Ribbon Week

Red Ribbon Week is October 15th- 19th. I'm sending home information today about our daily activites. Be sure your child wears red on Monday. Have  a great weekend.

News for October 11, 2007

Language Arts-This week we read Little Elephant.  Our word family was the -en family.  We've discussed the naming part and telling part of a sentence. Next week our story will be Flower Garden. The Key Words will be: cake, heads, mix, our, put, sitting, stop.

Math-This week we'll finish Chapter 3. we've been practicing our math addition facts to 10 and our doubles facts to 20. We had an awesome time playing Tens Go Fish. It's a fun way to learn math facts! Please ask your children how to play the game.

Science-This week we discussed the water cycle and made one to show you.The children also enjoyed making a wind vane using very simple materials. We'll be completing our weather unit this week with the story, Thunder Cake by Patricia Polacco. We look forward to tasting the Thunder Cake that Matt Scarano is baking for us. Thank you!! I'll send home the recipe on Friday for you to try at home .

I Love a Book Day!- Tomorrow the children will be bringing home the materials for I Love a Book Day! As I said last week, this event will take place on Wednesday, October 31st. We would love you to come and watch our parade through the school. The parade through the school will take place right after morning announcements. I will send you more info as it gets closer.

Super Parents- Thanks to Christy Palladino for being my helper parent this week. We enjoyed David Musser coming and reading to us last Friday and look forward to Julie Herlitz being our story parent this week.

F.Y.I.-10/17/07-Early Release for students at 12:20pm.

          10/22/07-Report Cards

          10/31/07-I Love a Book Day!

         

3 inch clay pots

We're going to do a fun October project and we're in need of 3 inch clay pots. If everyone could send in 1 or 2 of these pots,it would be appreciated. We need 16 to do our project. Please send them in by October 18th.

Thanks!

News for October 4, 2007

Math-We are finishing our Second Chapter in Math on Subtraction.  We will take our tests this week and then for the second nine weeks, we will continue studying math facts to 12, data (graphing), representing numbers to 100, and 2-D and 3-D Shapes.  We are also including some activities from our previous math series, "Everyday Math," since that series promoted understanding of number relationships and higher order thinking skills.  All First Grade Teachers will be participating by including these activities.

Language Arts-We are reading a delightful story this week called, Bet You Can't.  This is a  great story about the "give and take" between a sister and her little brother. Our skills this week are contractions, rhyming words and the -et word family. By now you have received your letter about our Friday Classroom, "I Can Do It Day" activity.  Each child will present some activity or skill that they choose to share with their classmates on that day. Next week we will read Little Elephant.  Key Words will be: here, little, one, this, mother, play, trunk, two.

Science-This week we're continuing our study of weather and will make our own tornado in a bottle. The children will bring them home on Friday. Please ask them what ingredients we used to make this storm.

Code Red Drill-Each year, Cobb County requires that we practice a Code Red Lockdown drill for safety.  During the week of October 8th, our school will participate in this special drill.  Teachers will be reviewing procedures with the students, and during this time, all classrooms will be locked.  We just wanted you to be aware that we are practicing safety procedures at Sope Creek.

MAKE A DIFFERENCE DAY IN HONOR OF DR. KAREN LOOFT On Saturday, October 27, 2007, we are planning on honoring Dr. Karen Looft by participating in a MAKE A DIFFERENCE day.  You and your family can choose a service project ... any service project to participate in that day.  "You don't have to join anything, or register, or donate any money... all you have to do is "do something".  No project is too small, so long as its goal is the betterment of the community.  For ideas about what you might consider doing, log onto http//www.usaweekend.com/diffday/index.html. to find something that fits you and your family."  Enjoy a day with your family and remember Dr. Looft's caring spirit that made a difference in all of our lives.   

Thank you in advance to Catherine Phillips for being my helper parent this week. And we look forward to Michelle Musser coming and being our story parent on Friday.

  We are sending home a note about a project for decorating a paper children's body.  It will come home on October 5th and the project is to be turned in by October 12th.  Thanks for helping your child with this project.  We will be putting them up in the hall. 

I Love a Book Day!-Next week the children will bring home an activity which combines the excitement of Halloween and our love of books!  This event will take place on Wednesday, October 31st. When you receive the letter, read it carefully and help your child choose a character from a book they love. An example would be to dress as a maid and design your "book cover" from an Amelia Bedelia book.  Please call me if you have any questions.

Octoberfest- Saturday is Octoberfest. I would like to thank Ruth Baumann for her help creating our class pumpkin.  Thank you to everyone else that helped volunteer for Octoberfest.  I am looking forward to seeing many Alligators on Saturday. Don't forget to bid on our First Grade outing. One lucky child in our class 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 on November 1st after school.

Enjoy your weekend!