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