I hope everyone had a great FALL weekend. These temperatures mean that maybe summer is officially gone for another year. Kids may need to start bringing sweaters for recess!!

Thanks to all of the parents and students who attended the Fall Festival. It was a blast. I hope you all got a chance to make it to the zip line, pumpkin patch and silent auction. Most of all thanks to our wonderful PTA. Each  year the festivities are amazing.

I hope all of you are ready for a nice three day weekend for the students! Please remember that the students are setting goals tomorrow as we have our Fall conferences. The purpose of these conferences is to review student work and to share goals for the year. It will be fun to see what the kids want to work toward this year!

Curriculum:
Reading: Story Maps and Continuing Reader Responses
Guided Reading by Needs Assessment
Writing: Punctuation and Writing Process
Math: Addition concepts and continued practice on counting to 100, place value, and problem solving
Science: Changes in Matter
Leadership: Goals and Effort 

Dates (as of 10/8):
October 8th: Parent Conference Day
October 16th: First Student Leadership Council Meeting
October 26th: Pumpkin Day (All curriculum areas as guided by the ARRC will be taught using a pumpkin)
November 3rd: Covey Family Training (It is great training to help families integrate the 7 habits)
November 8th: Fall Picture Retakes
November 8th: 6:30 PTA
December 14th: Field Trip to Zachary Scott Theatre

Have a great conference day!

October 1st

Howdy First Grade Tigers! Hopefully everyone had a great weekend, with a bit of rain, and a lot of fun.

This week is THE WEEK. Fall Fair is this Saturday, October 6th from 11-3. Stop by to enjoy the fun. See the teachers and staff and all of your tiger friends as we work the booths, have fun playing games, and visit the silent auction. Bid on your favorite baskets and teacher auction items. This year's fair promises to be full of fun and family time! We hope to see you there!

Thanks to all the parents who have donated time and items to our first grade classroom. We are very blessed to have such supportive parents!

Parent conferences are coming up. What you can expect in these goal setting conferences -

• written information from your student's teacher that will give information on your child's academic and behavioral progress; and further tips and ideas for working with your child;
• students will lead the conference by sharing goals that they have developed using reflective questioning and actions steps that they will have started and ask for your input on;
• students will share journals and work samples;
• parent, teacher, and students will sign the goals and action steps, and these goals will guide student instruction, assessment, and learning plans for the year
• teachers will be roaming the conferences, supporting students in sharing their ideas

Other notes about parent conferences:

• Conferences may look a little different in each classroom. Please check with your child's teacher for available times.
• If you have any questions about information that has been shared, there will be an opportunity to set up a conference for concerns that you may have. Check with your child's teacher to see how this will be done in your child's classroom
• since the conferences are student-led, students will need to be present.

Our goal is to have a full conference day with a conference opportunity that meets each student and family need, Please let us know how best we can serve you :)

Curriculum:

Reading: Characterization and Inference; Sequencing of Events continued; Guided Reading and Tiger Time groups for eligible students

Math: Addition Concepts and Problem Solving Expectations; Subitization (Number Stability - 10 is always 10, no matter which model you use)

Science: Properties of Matter

Leadership: Putting First Things First

Calendar:

October 4th: Rock Solid Fire Safety Assembly

October 6th: FALL FAIR

October 8th: Parent Conferences as Scheduled. Students ARE required to be present.

October 16th: Student Leadership Council Meeting

Happy 5th week of school! This year has gone really well and most students are following first grade rules very well. Please remind all students of campus wide expectations that are located in the student agenda. This will help to make sure that all students are following expectations in and out of the classroom.

This week:

Education Go Get It Week - We will be wearing college attire every day this week, discussing the leadership skills that professionals use, and attending presentations. I cannot wait to see what we learn.

We will also be having student elections for Student Council representative. Our candidate will serve by sharing out service learning ideas with the Student Council and continue to be our voice throughout the year.
This week we discussed service learning and our class came up with several great ideas and will share our ideas with the leadership council.  Even if it doesn't get chosen by the campus as a whole, we can try to create such a service project within our classroom. What a great idea!

Reading groups are still in the formation stage. All students will read in groups daily, some more than once. Please continue to let us know when you see difficulties at home. Some days  they will be working on more challenging pieces and also give them some weeks when they are working on easier pieces for fluency. They will learn the language as we learn together and they will learn to tell you whether they are working on accuracy, comprehension, or fluency.

Reading: Groups; Characters and Story Maps
Writing: Where do writers get ideas and what type of things do they write; conventions of sentences and writing process as we write and conference
Math: Addition concepts (combining) embedded in problem solving; use of models such as ten frames, unifix cubes and other ones based models, base ten blocks, and a place value chart and 100's chart. Students are also still working on counting to 100 and identifying skip counting by 5's and 10's as practiced in calendar.
Science: Matter - properties - smaller, larger, lighter, heavier, smooth, rough; ordering objects based on properties; using describing words to describe and observe - gummy worms, Popscicles and balloons as they are heated and cooled

Reminders:

• Last minute basket items are due for Fall Fair October 6th!
• Don't forget to buy your wristbands or sign up to work at a booth - check our PTA webpage.
• Check to see if your class is in need of a room mom.
• Thanks to everyone for their help in donating supplies! The kids are loving it!

Thanks for all that you do - I am so blessed and leave school with a smile on my face knowing that I work with your children. We have great leaders and Heroes.

Week Four

As a grade level, we are practicing treating each other kindly with words and actions. We have sent home a bully free contract for each child, and will sign our resolution of respect, pledging to be a No Place for Hate campus. Please feel free to report any instances in which your child feels uncomfortable or when unkind words or actions are used. We want to make sure that everyone feels safe at school.

Reminders:

• Don't forget to buy your Fall Fair tickets! The wristbands are a really good deal :) If you need an order form, please let me know.
• Some first grade classes are still in need of a room parent. This parent is a communicator between PTA and classroom parents for the purposes of teacher appreciation and other PTA sponsored events.
• Don't forget to sign up for a time to help at our Fall Fair booth.

This week:

• Wednesday is an Early Release day. Students will leave at 12:45. Please let us know any changes in departure for this day in advance.
• Curriculum:
• Writing: Writing Process; Quality Writing; How Writers get Ideas
• Reading: Reader Response: Describing Characters and Beginning, Middle, and End. Guided Groups start this week if they haven't already - look for reading folders and books :)
• Math: Place Value using the concept of tens and ones; Problem Solving - comparing and combining numbers
• Science: Matter - How can we describe matter? What are properties of matter?
• Our regular library check out schedule begins this week:
• This week is a counselor week for first grade.
• On early release day, Wednesday, we will have our first Leadership Block (the whole school will be working on leadership on Wednesday Morning). We will be focusing on Service Learning and Student Leadership Council. Remember that students interested in running will need to turn in an application and understand the after school commitment. Our voting will be in the near future and will be democratic in nature. Students who turn in application for the Leadership Council need to understand that there is a possibility that they may not be selected by our class and that will be okay, as there are so many campus wide opportunities of which this is only one :)

Safety: Please continue to talk to students about being aware of their surroundings when outside. With the weather changes, there can be unexpected wildlife in areas where the children play. Please know that our first grade teachers and all Teravista staff have been alerted to this and are checking the playground daily as well.

September 10th-14th

My apologies for the confusing post earlier, this is the accurate First Grade Team Post regarding this coming week:

Our students had a great week in first grade this week. We learned how to write about things that mattered to us, check out books, problem solve, share our expertise with others and be scientists.

This coming week, we will be extending that learning by devoting time discussing story maps, writing conferences and discussions, draftbook expectations, place value, and yes, more science tools and leaders.



Fall Fair!

We are looking forward to the upcoming Fall Fair and their are several items that may be of interest to our families:

• Each classroom will be collecting items for a classroom basket. Contact your homeroom teacher or visit their web page to find out what your class is collecting. 
• Tickets are on sale! Order forms were sent Friday for wristbands and tickets. You may send these in when possible.
• Silent Auction items will be available - please check with your class or with the silent auction tables to see what your teacher may be offering in the silent auction.

 

 

Please continue to talk with students about being accountable for appropriate talk and behavior at school. A few of the ideas that we have discussed with students are using kind and affirming words with each other, making sure that we put first things first by making sure that things that are discussed are appropriate to the school environment, and using manners to show respect (such as timing and tone of voice, using yes m'am and no m'am to address adults when following through with a teacher request) at school.

 

Calendar:

 

September 11yh: Picture Day

September 19th: Early Release Day 12:45

September 24-28th: Education Go Get It Week

September 28th: Cookout Day

 

 

 

 

Happy First Week of School

We sincerely hope that all of our first grade leaders had a great weekend. We had a great week last week, are learning a lot already, and ready to hop into another great year!

Reminders:

• Make sure that your child has an agenda and a blue folder come home every day. These both have important information for you on behavior and academics. Agendas may be spiral bound, or may have been transferred to three prong folders. 
• Be sure that your child brings a healthy snack that is wrapped separately from lunch. This helps them to make sure they are eating the right nutritional balance for this time of morning. Some students are still  hungry, so you may want to visit with your child to see if their snack is providing them energy when needed.
• Please remember that in the morning, students are to sit with their class, back to the wall, reading or browsing a book. We have a lot of students and this helps us to set a good model for the day and to maintain student safety during this time of the day.
• Please also remember that students who are parent pick ups (someone physically gets out of the car to come to the front of the school to get them), need to make their way to the first grade spot (located by the second double set of windows). Please wait for them to be seated, and then when they see you, they may get up to say goodbye. This time of day can be really hectic, and it is in the interest of safety that we would like to see them and say goodbye everyday. Mrs. Santiago and Ms. Heine are at this post, so students may say good bye to them.

This week is B week. We have Day 2 on Tuesday and Thursday. Day One on Wednesday and Friday.

Sept. 4 - Reading Rally starts (Students will be bringing home information on this home this Tuesday). Student rewards are given daily, so the sooner you get them in, the more prize opportunities our leaders have.

Sept. 4 - WatchDOG kickoff rally 6:30 P.M.

Sept. 7 - Grandparents' Lunch - It is beneficial to get here at lunch time ( as there will be parking limitations and possible delays. We can't wait to see you)

Sept. 19 - Early Release day

Curriculum Notes:

Language Arts: 

• Writing process and introduction to Reading and Writing Workshop
• Learning about school and class procedures
• Leadership and the Seven Habits

Math: Place Value and counting/representing to 100

Science: What is Science?

Thanks to all the parents and students who have made the week great!

Great First Day!

Thanks to all of our parents and students for a great first day of school. The students were really excited and we are happy to have them with us this year. A few reminders:

• Please remember that as we are dismissing in the parent pick up area, that students are required to come all the way down to the first grade area windows and sit down before leaving. This is for their protection and so that we can say goodbye to them all, making sure that they are headed home with the correct person.
• Please also remember that all changes in plans for dismissal, but be made in writing, or through the office if close to dismissal time. This helps us to make sure that changes that are made are the wishes of the parent, and not the student.
• Students should have brought home their take home folder, which is blue, and their Agenda. In these communication tools, student behavior is communicated to you. Please be sure to initial the date and follow through with praise for days that students get stickers. 
• Check with your child's teacher to be sure when their PE day is - this will help them make sure that they have appropriate clothing and footwear for that class.

Again, thanks for a great first day, and feel free to contact us at any time with questions about behavior, curriculum, or the progress of your child.