October 22, 2012

This Week In First Grade:

RED RIBBON WEEK

Monday: TVE Spirit Day
Tuesday: Wear Red Day and Walk to School - Meet up at Myers Park to walk to school with Staff, Stont Point Cheerleaders and Football Players
Wednesday: Bully Prevention Program at 9:10
Early Release: Wednesday 10/24 Students will be released early at 12:45. Please let the first grade teachers know if there is a change in transportation.
Thursday: Reach for Your Dreams - PJ Day
Friday: College Spirit Wear

This Friday is Harvest Exploration Day!!

Students will be rotating through the teachers' classrooms and participating in pumpkin exploration and communication. We will be measuring, estimating, floating, writing and reading about pumpkins. Remember, help may be needed by your teacher. Please contact your teacher if you can help.

Curriculum:
Language Arts: Poetry Terms and Application - rhyme, simile, onomatopaeia
Math: Graphing and Problem Solving; Addition Facts and Turnaround Sentences; Fluency in Addition
Science: Energy: Sound, Light, Electricity
Social Studies/Leadership: Goal Tracking; Leaders in Politics and American Symbols

October 15th First Grade News

This Week In First Grade:

RED RIBBON WEEK

Monday: TVE Spirit Day
Tuesday: Wear Red Day and Walk to School - Meet up at Myers Park to walk to school with Staff, Stont Point Cheerleaders and Football Players
Wednesday: Wear Hat for Health
Bully Prevention Program at 9:10
Early Release: Wednesday 10/24 Students will be released early at 12:45. Please let the first grade teachers know if there is a change in transportation.
Thursday: Reach for Your Dreams - PJ Day
Friday: College Spirit Wear

This Friday is Harvest Exploration Day!!

Students will be rotating through the teachers' classrooms and participating in pumpkin exploration and communication. We will be measuring, estimating, floating, writing and reading about pumpkins. Remember, help may be needed by your teacher. Please contact your teacher if you can help.

Coins for Coats
Students have been doing a great job collecting money for coats for kids! Don't forget to send in your extra pennies and change to help students who maybe needing a coat as it gets cooler in the Fall and WInter. Thanks for your help and consideration.

and speaking of coats....don't forget to send a lightweight jacket in with your student as the weather gets a little cooler (86 today!). Be sure to label it when it is coming to school so that it is misplaced it will be able to be found.
 
Curriculum:
Language Arts: Poetry Terms and Application - rhyme, simile, onomatopaeia
Math: Graphing and Problem Solving; Addition Facts and Turnaround Sentences; Fluency in Addition
Science: Energy: Sound, Light, Electricity
Social Studies/Leadership: Goal Tracking; Leaders in Politics and American Symbols

Field Trip!

The first grade field trip is scheduled for December to the Zachary Scott Theater! Be looking for permission slips to come home this week. We are allowed only one chaperone which will be our room parent. All parents are welcome to meet us for lunch at Zilker Park!

Calendar:
October 17th: Author visit - Julie Sternberg
October 22nd: Red Ribbon Week

October 23^rd Wear red day; Walk to school day

October 24^th Wear hats for Health

October 24th Early Release 12:45

9:10 Bully Prevention Program

October 25^th Dream Big PJ day

Octiber 26th Harvest Exploration Day

October 26^th End of 1^st nine weeks

October 30^th

and 31^st Vision and Hearing Screening

November 3^rd Seven Habits Family Training

November 6^th Report cards go home

November 8^th Picture Retakes

November 12^th Veteran’s Day Assembly 8:15

November 21^st-

23^rd Thanksgiving Break

December 4^th

-7^th Book Fair

December 5^th Early Release

December 6^th CommUnity Fest and Book Fair open Late

December 20^th Winter Party

Help Needed - Parent Inforrmation for Our Fall Harvest Exploration Day

On Friday October 26th, First Grade will be celebrating harvest time, by incorporating pumpkins into our classes to support TEKS in all subject areas. We will be rotating through and doing activities in Reading, Writing, Math, and Science that go with our pumpkins. Across the grade level, each teacher will need 1 medium pumpkin, parents helpers, and carving instruments (1 subject only). If you are able to help, please contact your child's teacher, and they can best let you know how you can help. Thanks in advance! We cannot wait until this fun day!

Name: ________________________________________ Teacher:____________________________
Time I Can Help:____________________________________________________________________
I can send:  a medium pumpkin:___________carving utensils:__________time:_________

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.