Winter weather is here!

It is hard to believe that December is here and flying by! Here are a few notes about our week…
In reading this week we are focusing on the “ar” sound. Our comprehension strategy of the week is understanding author’s purpose. We continue to work on retelling a story beginning, middle, and end. We also continue to work on characters and setting.
In math our focus has been on looking at data. We have been gathering information and displaying data on various graphs. Some of which include: bar graphs, pictographs, and pie graphs.
We have been very busy this week in writing… on a “special“ writing project! Your children can’t wait to share all of the hard work they have been working on in class, but you will have to wait until break! This project walks us through the writing process from creating a web of ideas to a published book!
You were sent a green flyer explaining our plans for social studies until winter break. We have been busy traveling the world learning about holiday traditions in many different countries. Next week we will be writing about a tradition in our own families, so please discuss a family tradition with your child that they might want to write about. (This can be as simple as a food item you make every year.)
There are a few party/classroom needs if you can help out:
• White tissue paper (by Dec 14)- classroom
• Candy canes 20 (by Dec 16)- classroom
• Small inexpensive toys for games- party
• Plastic beads (the size pipe cleaners can fit through)- party

Spelling 11/28-12/2

Spelling- chip, chin, inch, such, catch, match, wish, shop, saw, and were
High Frequency- air, fly, friends, grew, need, play, rain and watch

Happy Thanksgiving!

Believe it or not… we only have two more days until Thanksgiving break! Here are a few highlights from the week and reminders of what’s going on. (An updated calendar went home with your child for December.)

In Storytown we have been working on the “sh” sound in our spelling words. We continue to practice high frequency words and reading comprehension. Our focus this week was setting and story sequence.
In writing we finished our “Oreo Stories”. They are proudly hanging up in our hallway! Each story describes how an oreo tastes, feels, smells, looks, and sounds. This descriptive writing project was delicious! We even were able to have a publishing party to share our work with our friends.
In math we have been working on number sense and ordering numbers from 1-50. We used our 100s board to help us work on order and patterns. The various games and activities have kept us busy. We reviewed partners of “10” strategies and solving story problems. Next week we will be participating in various Thanksgiving themed math activities,
We began studying the first Thanksgiving this week. We started with the voyage of the Mayflower, what life was like for little girls and boys at Plymouth, and wrote our own Native American symbol stories. Next week we will continue our study with activities to help us gain a better understanding of the meaning of Thanksgiving. We will make pumpkin pie, share what we are thankful for, even have our own feast… and so much more! Speaking of a feast, a yellow note is coming home this evening explaining what your child should bring for our feast of Tuesday. If you have any questions please let me know.

A few reminders…
Progress reports went home today. Please contact me with any questions.
Our food drive begins the week following Thanksgiving and will run all week.
Our school district is running a campaign to encourage parents to register to vote. If you need anything to register please contact the office.
Lastly, our playground is positioned in a VERY windy place. Now that the temperatures are dropping… it is even more important that your child come to school with heavy coats, hats, and gloves to keep them warm during recess.
Have a safe and Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Turkey Month!

Spelling words: or, for, form, more, store, sort, long, bring, your, and head
High Frequency words: animals, cold, fish, from, their, under, and very
Welcome November! First of all a big thank you to those of you who were able to help at the class Halloween party… and a huge thank you to our room parents for organizing everything! The kids had a blast and everything went very well!
In Storytown this week we are focusing on main idea and details as well at the “or” sound. These would be great things to work on as you read at home with your child!
We have been busy learning about story problems in math. We have worked with problems with two and three things added together and two things subtracted. When solving them we are focusing on “proving” our thinking through pictures, equations, words, and other strategies. As a class we have been practicing our adding and subtracting strategies of +1, -1, +0, -0, +2, and -2. We continue to work on skip counting to 30 by 2s and 5s to 50. (Skip counting by 2s has been tricky!)
In writing we have focused on descriptive writing. The fall has been our inspiration for these projects. This week we will be using our five senses to “experience” a special snack… and write about it using all of our five of our senses! We continue to work on writing 5 star sentences.
Spiders have been the topic of crawly discussion last week and this week. We will gather more interesting facts this week and make some of our own spider creations this week! We are practicing our graphing skills by asking the question… Are you afraid of spiders?
Reminders:
Book orders are due tomorrow November 8th.
“Saturday Morning” basket items for our PTO basket may still be brought in through Wednesday this week… don’t forget that if you are not able to send in an item they would love a breakfast recipe to include!
This Thursday students will have their health screening in the morning. This will happen at 9:20am.

Spelling 10-24 10-28

Spelling words: us, bus, must, cut, cub, club, with, then, don't, and says
High Frequency: be, does, food, grow, live, and many

Chilly Welcome into Fall!

Thank you so much for taking the time to come visit about your child’s progress in school at conferences. I enjoyed getting to see all of you! It’s hard to believe that we already have a quarter behind us. Here are a few academic notes from the week…
Thank you for continuing to read reading group books with your child at home. They should read this book through three times. During Storytown we have been focusing on words with the “th” sound. We have practiced building words with “th” in our spelling and in the class story Beth’s Job. It was fun that our story this week tied into our study of plants in science! We have also been working on story sequence and reading for details.
In writing we have been studying describing words. To start off we read the book Where the Wild Things Are. Each student designed and created a “wild thing” costume and mask. We then went back through the story to find describing words the author used to describe the wild things. Next week we will be coming up with describing words and action words that describe our own creations… and then it will be time for a wild rumpus! Studying the season of fall has also been inspiring our creative writing.
We wrapped up our study of plants this week. We have studied the parts of seeds, parts of plants, and the life cycle of plants. Next week we will begin talking about bats and spiders. We will talk about facts and habitats for each creature!
This week we have focused out studies on fact families and the commutative property. (5+3=3+5) We even created our own fact family houses to show what we have learned! I also wanted to clarify a few MAPs terms you may see on our daily practice sheets when they come home. When we work on word problems you will see PT+, TA-, and C- . PT+ means to put together add two or more things in a story problem. TA- means to take apart subtract alike things from a story problem. C- means to compare two different things… for example when you hear “how many more”, you would need to subtract to find the answer. I hope this helps clear things up a little!
Next week is Red Ribbon Week! A pink flyer came home today with all of the festivities for this fun week. If you have any questions please let me know!
Our room parent Mrs. Banfield is still looking for help with help both in items, snacks, and people who can come help for our fall party! If you can help please contact her at: mab1224@hotmail.com or (913) 708-4486. (Mary Banfield)

Spelling October 17-21

Spelling Words: then, them, this, that, path, with, ten, get, said, was

Enjoy your fall break!

I hope you are enjoying your fall break! Looking forward to seeing you at conferences this week.

Spelling week of October 3-7

Spelling: set, sent, ten, tell, let, get, all, call, make, of
Sight Words: day, said, eat, first, time, was

Happy End of September!

September 29th, 2011
Believe it or not September is almost over! Next week is our last week in class before your fall break. Today your child came home with a form called “Pre-Conference Form”. Please take a few minutes to fill in and return with your child by Wednesday October 5th. These forms allow me to have things ready, if needed, to support you at home with your child. Also, if you have not signed up for a conference time October 12th or 13th, please let me know as soon as you are able. Thank you! I am looking forward to sharing your child’s work so far this year!
We began book clubs last week and your child has been bringing books home that they have read in class. Your child has worked hard on skills and words in this book and should be able to read it independently. All you need to do is listen and sign their yellow Book in a Bag form! In Storytown we have been working on the –all word family. Keep practicing sight words at home. We will continue to practice in class and test every Wednesday.
In math we have been working very hard on addition and subtraction strategies. We began to practice vertical problems and identifying equal equations. We have also been working on measuring with standard and non-standard measurements to measure objects in our room and shapes we have been learning!
We continue to study about seeds… we even planted our own in our classroom! Each child planted seeds in a baggie on the window and in dirt. We wonder which will grow best?! Thank you so much for sending in apples! We had fun observing the outside and inside… and tasting these fall favorites! Beginning tomorrow we will start sampling some “apple” things. Our study of plants will continue into next week and into the second quarter.
Just to let you know:
At the end of October for our class party on the 31st, the first grade will be dressing up as “describing words”. I will be giving you more information at conferences.

Amber Crooker

Spelling words 9/26

Words this week focus on the -all word family:
all, call, fall, tall, wall, top, not, much, thank, touch
High frequency word focus:
some, make, of, and how

It's Zoo Day

It’s hard to believe that another week has escaped by! We have been busy at work on so many things here in first grade. A few reminders:
• Tomorrow September 16th is our field trip. A blue note went home today with reminders. Please make sure that your child brings a sack lunch that can have all parts thrown away. I would recommend checking the weather in the morning… your child is welcome to bring a light sweatshirt or jacket. I asked them not to bring water bottles unless it has a strap. I will be giving your child their Nike shirt tomorrow to wear on the field trip.
• Friday September 23rd is our first school movie night presented by PTO from 7-9. They will be showing RIO. Tickets are $5 per child and $15 for a family of 3 or more. A yellow form with more information will be sent home tomorrow.
• The Nike store is now open. We will be getting a chance to shop Tuesdays and Thursdays at 9:45am. Most items range from 10 cents to $1. They have pencils, erasers, snacks and lots of little neat things!

This week in class:
Reading: We have been focusing on –ck ending words and reviewing high frequency sight words. Wednesday we had our first sight word testing. If your child came home with list 2 this will be their new words to practice for next week. If list 1 came home I would like them to practice this list again and be ready for testing next Wednesday. The toughest words were “said, was, and that”. We have been working on retelling stories with a beginning, middle, and end.
Math: In math we have been working really hard on our addition and subtraction strategies. Today we used a balance to demonstrate equations and how to make each side “equal”.
Health: Friendship has continued to be the topic this week. We spent some time in small groups talking about things that we have alike and different. We also learned many nursery rhymes this week! In each nursery rhyme we found the rhyming words and describing words. With Jack, Be Nimble we took turns jumping over the candlestick and measured our jumps! With Ba Ba Black Sheep we made black hand prints and estimated how many cotton balls it would take to fill our palm. Today we read Hickory Dickory Dock and built a grandfather clock out of geometric shapes!

Have a wonderful weekend!
Mrs. Crooker

Spelling 9-12-11

Spelling: pick, pack, tack, back, sack, sick, big, in, hold, so
High Frequency: late, oh, yes

New spelling words! Happy Tuesday

Spelling:
in
pin
pig
big
dig
did
had
sat
too
no

High Frequency:
get hold
home so soon

September is here!

Thank you so much for those of you who were able to attend Tuesday’s parent information evening. If you were not able to attend I have sent home the information that I shared, so if you have any questions please let me know!
I will hopefully have our class email group ready by this weekend… starting next week I will be emailing you to notify you that our class blog has been updated. If you would rather receive newsletters by paper copy please let me know. This will hopefully be one of the last paper newsletters that I send home. Our class blog can be found at www.crookersclass.blogspot.com . I will upload spelling words at the beginning of the week and class news at least every other week. You will receive an email letting you know that our blog has been updated. (No pictures or names of your children will be published.) There are a lot of spelling, reading, and math games that are linked on the blog.
A note went home today about Grandparent’s day. If you could cut off the bottom and return to school by next Wednesday I would greatly appreciate it! This will let me know who is coming! If you have any questions please feel free to contact me.
Just a reminder that field trip money and permission slips were due Friday. I will be sending home extra copies Friday to return next Tuesday if needed.
Health- This week we spend some time getting to know our families. We have read stories and have talked about what makes up each of our families.
Math- We spent a lot of time practicing patterns and number order this week. We practiced grouping objects into groups of ten and leftovers. In the last half of the week we took turns stamping patterns, making patterns with blocks, and creating caps in patterns after reading Caps For Sale.
Thank you for your continued practice of spelling at home!
Mrs. Crooker

Welcome to First Grade!

I am so excited to begin this year in first grade here at Nike! Thank you to those of you who were able to attend parent night. If you weren't, please contact me at your earliest convenience. Spelling list for this week:
hat
had
sad
sat
bat
bag
at
can
help
now
challenge: nearby and form

Have a great week!

Happy May Day!

Happy May! It’s so hard to believe that May is here… where has the year gone?! We had a great week last week. Thank you to all of the parents who were able to chaperone us to the Kansas City Zoo! It as a beautifully perfect day and the kids had a blast seeing everything! Trips like this are not possible with out parents like you.


Guided reading groups ended last week. During the next two weeks, I will be using our Daily 5/Language block to do some year-end reading testing. Students will also be doing some reading comprehension and word work activities in class during that time. When testing is finished, we will begin our "Teach the Class" week. I will be sending an information letter home today. Now would be a good time to start talking with your child about possible ideas for teaching the class. If you have any questions please let me know. These forms are due to be returned May 10th. Be creative!


Our current math unit includes a lot of different information, as you have probably noticed! So far in unit 13, students have worked on multiplication, division, fractions, and geometry. Next week, we will spend a couple of days on probability and statistics, and then do some more work with geometry. The unit 13 assessment will be this week.

I will be grading our amphibian/reptile test this week. This was such a fun unit for the kids to learn… and me to teach! This week will be our Junior Achievement week, and we will be welcoming a guest teacher from our community into our classroom to talk about production, producers and consumers. For the rest of the month of May, we will be using our science/social studies block to study about animal adaptations, and United States symbols.

Please check with your child one last time about school supplies. I know that many students are working with dry markers and almost-empty glue sticks. Those things will definitely come in handy with some of our end-of-the-year projects.


Thanks, as always, for all that you do!

April is there!

I hope that all of the 2nd graders were able to get out and enjoy the beautiful weather this weekend!

In writing most second grade writing partners are wrapping up their rough drafts of their animal books! Most groups will begin writing final copies of these animal books later on this week. During our reading and language block, students are working on sentence fluency activities and reviewing reading comprehension skills.

In math, we continue to practice working with place value and adding and subtracting three-digit numbers. Students are doing a great job working with money amounts and story problems! Thanks again for your continued help with flashcard practice at home. Students are showing steady growth in speed and accuracy with basic facts. This week, we will continue to work with place value and problem solving strategies.

We wrapped up our trip around the globe on Friday! The class was so excited to take this trip together and eager to learn everything they could! I will try to have the geography tests graded this week sometime. We are now moving into our science unit on amphibians and reptiles! Students will be learning the difference between amphibians and reptiles, as well as specific traits of frogs, toads, alligators, crocodiles, turtles, snakes, lizards, and salamanders! This Friday, we are excited to have a visitor come to Langston Hughes from Prairie Park Nature Center to show various reptiles and amphibians to the class. Be sure to check out the relevant links under our science tab!

Field trip money and permission slips are due at the end of this week. Thanks to those of you who have already turned them in! It is time to start crossing your fingers for a beautiful spring day on April 29. Please mark the following dates in your calendars.

April 11 - Spring class pictures
April 19 - 2nd Grade music program
April 21 – Family Wellness Night
April 29 - Kansas City Zoo field trip
April 30 - School carnival (remember to send in your donations for our ice cream themed basket!)
May 13 - Field Day
May 24 - Last day of school

Second Graders Traveling the World!

Our second graders are traveling the world! We have strapped on our travel bag every day and have ventured into the world… so far we have traveled to Antarctica, Asia, Australia, and Africa. We will visit Europe at the end of this week. I can not thank you enough to those of you who have been able to send things in to share with our class. These artifacts, pictures, and movies have enriched our experience at each destination. Thank you! As we travel to each continent we have been looking at the landforms, famous monuments, artifacts, the culture and the food we might find there.

In writing we spent a few days writing our own leprechaun stories… and even made our own leprechaun masks! These clever stories are hanging outside our room with pictures of our second grade leprechauns. Monday we began our animal research projects by selecting books from the library. Tuesday each set of partners took time to read their resources and tomorrow we will start taking notes.

In math we have wrapped up a short geometry unit covering congruent/similar shapes, shape movement, and polygons. We will be continuing to work on adding and subtracting three digit numbers in our next unit. This unit will also provide practice in adding money and counting back change. In our daily routines we continue to practice elapsed time and function boxes. Thank you for continuing to practice flash cards at home during the week!

There are no new spelling words coming home today because of spring break. New spelling sorts will resume the Wednesday after break.
Friday is a beach party at lunch! Feel free to send a beach towel with your child to sit on as we picnic in the lunch room. Also, our school is trying to get an accurate number on enrollment of first graders next year. If you have a child who will be coming to Langston Hughes as a new first grader next year, or if you know someone else in this same situation, please notify the office. Thank you!

Have a wonderful and safe break. Whether you will be traveling or not, enjoy!

Happy Birthday Dr. Seuss!

I want to first thank you for making it to conferences last week. I enjoyed visiting with all of you and sharing your child’s progress. It’s hard to believe that it is already March! We have been busy this last week… and have been having a lot of fun! Monday our class earned a marble party and choose a campfire reading party. We set up our new campfire creation, grabbed pillow and lanterns, and devoured freshly made s’mores! I think this party was one to repeat.
A few curriculum notes…

Writing: This week we celebrated Dr. Seuss’ birthday and wrote about some of our favorite books. In our writer’s workshop we have been writing personal narratives focusing on small moments.

Math: Tomorrow we are taking a test over three digit subtraction and counting money. We will revisit these concepts in a couple of weeks in a review unit combining subtraction and addition. Thank you for sending back your child’s flash cards and taking the time to note how they did while they practiced. This practice at home will help you child to become more fluent with their basic facts.
Our next unit beginning Monday will begin to cover congruent shapes, polygons, and slides, flips, and turns of geometric shapes.

Social Studies: This week we have begun to take a look at the communities that we live in. We have talked about what rural, suburban, and city areas are like. We have also reviewed the cardinal directions and will start working on various mapping skills beginning next week. I will be sending out an email soon regarding the dates what we will be “traveling” to each of the 7 continents during our geography unit. If you have any special artifacts or pictures to share, we would love to see and hear about your travels!

We are getting plans together for our field trip to the Kansas City Zoo! Our trip will be on April 29th. If you are interested in chaperoning us on this all day trip please let me know as soon as you can. I will take the first volunteers! Thank you for considering.

Poetry Cafe Time!

We have had a very busy week! I don’t know about you… but I am looking forward to warmer weather very soon! For those kiddos who have been ill this week, I hope that you have a restful weekend and get to feeling better so you can return soon. We miss you bunches! Thank you in advance to those of you who are going to be able to attend the Poetry Café… your children have been working hard cooking up some yummy poems. Just a note: if you have not been able to send back your conference forms to confirm your meeting times, please try to send that in as soon as you can. Thank you for taking the time to fill out the “What do you want to discuss” form. This really helps me to make sure we discuss all of your concerns when we meet. Valentine’s Party Monday!
Here are a few curriculum notes:

Writing: This week we were finally able to wrap up our poetry unit! As a final project each student has selected their favorite poems they have written and took them through the writing process to create a final poetry booklet. They are anxious for me to share these with you at conferences! Next week we will jump back into a traditional writer’s workshop and will learn how to focus our writing on small moments.

Science: We were also able to finish out weather unit this week. I am very proud of how they did on the test! They became quite the meteorologists this year! Next week we will spend some time learning about George Washington and Abraham Lincoln. Wednesday each student will choose a president to research and write a paragraph about him. They will then make an illustration (these are always fun to look at) and we will create a presidential timeline!

Reading: We took a break from reading groups most of the week and were finally able to finish up second trimester reading testing. I love being able to sit down and read with all of the kids and see how much they are growing in their reading! Reading groups will resume next week.

Math: In math we are focusing out daily practice on various subtraction strategies. (Because our pacing guide for math has us working on units out of numerical order… you may continue to see things on the remembering side of the homework that we have not studied yet. Please give it a try with your child if you would like or just leave these problems blank. We are also working a lot on money values and patterns in class during daily routines.

Happy Kansas Day!

We have made it through our first full week back since winter break! We were finally able to make it to an outdoor recess. Although this was a long week… it was full of many exciting activities!

Curriculum notes:

Reading- We have been studying the author Tomie DePaola. This week we have spent time reading his books and learning about his life. He has a great website www.tomie.com. As a class we have been studying the rules to make words plural.

Writing- Our poetry writing is now in full swing. This week we learned our last style of poem, the free verse poem. Next week each child will narrow down their favorite poems that they have written and will begin a final poetry project. Thank you for practicing your child’s poems for the Poetry Café at home. We will continue to practice at school!

Math- This week we wrapped up Unit seven about graphing. When we return next week we will begin two digit subtraction. We have been working on addition and subtraction fact fluency. Flash cards are a great way to help your child with speed and memorization of their math facts. This Thursday was the 100th day of school! Thank you for sending in snacks for our 100th day treat! We had so much fun measuring, counting, and thinking about 100.

Science- We have taken a break from our study of weather, we have recently learned about the water cycle, to spend some time talking about the history and important symbols of our state. This Friday we celebrate Kansas day with classroom rotations and activities such as making butter, measuring with sunflower seeds, Kansas songs, and so much more!

Thursday we went to the Leid Center to see puppet performances of books by Leo Leoni. The sets and puppets were truly beautiful! You can check out the traveling troop from Canada at: www.mermaidtheatre.ns.ca/

Upcoming events:
No school January 31st
Class Pictures February 3rd
Book Fair February 7-9
Poetry Café- February 11th
Conferences February 23-24 (Information about times will be coming home soon. Please let me know if you will not be able to attend and we can find a time the following week.)
March- Science Fair (More information will be coming out soon!)

Let it Snow!

Let it snow! Let it snow! Let it snow!

I hope you stayed warm and that your kiddos enjoyed their two snow days this week! We have had a very busy start back to the month. Here are a few curriculum notes about last week and this current week. Following the notes you will find a few dates and events to make sure to add to you calendar!

Writing: We are really enjoying our study of poetry! So far we have learned about the basic couplet. (two lines of poetry that rhyme) This type of poem serves as a building block to many poems we read. We have also learned about list poems. For these poems each child chose a color to create a “list” of all the things they think about when they see this color. They have really surprised me with all of the creative and thoughtful things they have thought of! Our favorite poems so far are shape poems! We love writing and creating different shapes! There is a link on our blog to make your own shape poems at home!

Math: In math we have been spending a lot of time looking, creating, and interpreting graphs. Collected data has been displayed in bar graphs, tables, pictographs, and picture graphs. Along with basic practice of graphs, this unit is also highlighting patterns, problem solving, and basic fact fluency.

Science: The falling flakes from the sky have been a great introduction to our new unit about weather! So far we have had a review of the four seasons and have studied about the main types of clouds. Everyday we make written observations of what the weather is like. This week we will be creating our very own clouds while highlighting the basic details about each. We will also study about the Beaufort scale for measuring wind… along with other weather instruments used by meteorologists. There will be new links on our blog for weather practice!

Dates:
January 26th- The 100th day of school! (a note will follow soon about materials for this day)
January 27th – Leid center in the afternoon
January 28th- Kansas Day
February 7-9 Book Fair/ Pancake dinner on Wednesday
February 11th- Poetry Café performance (in the afternoon time TBA)
February 14th- Valentine’s Day Party