June is here!!

We are gearing up for a very busy month. We will plant in the school garden with the other first grades under Mr. Treat's guidance. We will finally head to Webb Mountain on June 13th. We will participate in Jump Rope for Heart. We will have Field Day on June 17th and we will meet our new second grade teachers on June 19th!!! All along still learning and getting ready for second grade. This will be an exciting month. This is what we are working on!! The children are learning to add 2 digit numbers with sums greater than 10 in the ones place. This looks a little different then the way we learned it but not quite! Ask your child to teach you before you give them instructions on their homework this week. We will also be discussing coins. Each reading group has read a Henry and Mudge book and they are all working on some activities related to the book. When this book comes home in their reading bags, please encourage your child to read it aloud to work on their fluency. Each child will be writing a review of the book they read to culminate our writing unit on opinion writing and writing reviews. Science has been really exciting this month! The children planted lima beans and observed them for a few weeks. They will be taking them home today. We also had caterpillars in our classroom that are now chrysalis. Hopefully we will have butterflies in a few weeks. We have been discussing the life cycle of a butterfly and the children will also learn about the life cycle of frogs. Please encourage your children to read at home - school is not over yet! This will set them up for summer reading success. Have a great week, Jaime Crenwick

May flowers!!!

Well, we have had an interesting week in Room 15. Many of these kiddos have been sick with the stomach bugs. The last few days we have only had 10 children in our classroom. I assure you that I have cleaned the classroom as best as I can and I am constantly telling the children to wash their hands and keep their hands out of their mouths. Hopefully by Friday everyone will be better to enjoy our trip to Webb Mountain. Some information about Webb Mountain . . . *please have your child dress in long pants and sturdy shoes *please pack a lunch and snack that day *we will be eating lunch in the classroom when we return around 11:30 We also had a visit from High Touch/ High Tech, a hands on mobile science program. The lesson enriched our study of plants. We are currently observing lima beans in our classroom. We have wrapped up our unit on time and geometry in math. Please continue to discuss the clock with your child at home. Also, review 2-D and 3-D shapes with your children as well. The children have been busy writing opinion pieces in Writer's Workshop. During the next bend in this unit, the children will write reviews of restaurants and movies! Ask them about this important work that they have been doing. Last week we explored our unit in Social Studies called Me on the Map! The children had so much fun finding their street on a map of Monroe. They also did a wonderful project that helped them identify their place in this great big world. I will send these home soon. Remember that it is not too late to be a Mystery Reader. Almost everyone in the class has had a special person read but there are a few who have not so please let me know if you are interested. As always, thank you for everything you do! Have a great day!

Last Week of April?!

I was talking to a few parents last night and we were remarking about how quickly this year has gone by. It truly has been a year full of a lot of learning and growing. The First Grade Show was a huge success. The students sang so well and were so happy to see you all there. Thank you to all who came to Math Night. The kids had a lot of fun showing their parents how quickly they can compute math facts and even challenged their parents to solve number bonds! In Math, the children are exploring geometry and moving on to fractions. This is in preparation to learn about the clock and telling time. We have moved on to a new unit in writing. The children are starting to write reviews and put their opinions into written form. In Science, we have began our unit on living and non-living things. We explored the playground and looked for objects. We classified them as living and non-living. Ask your child what makes something a living thing. We are looking forward to our visit to Webb Mountain on May 16th. Have a wonderful last day of April!

March goes out like a lamb . . .

I can't believe that we just finished our last full week in March. This last half of the year is flying by. Your children have grown so much over the last few months - they are readers, mathematicians, authors and illustrators. They are tying their shoes and losing their teeth. First grade is such an amazing year for growth. It is a pleasure to be along on this ride with you! Monday will be our Celebration of Reading and Tuesday we will get to visit the book fair for a preview day. Wednesday and Thursday there will be 12:20 dismissals for conferences. I have touched base with most of you and will see some next week. Please let me know if you or a family member would like to come in for Mystery Reader. Most of the students have had someone from their family visit our classroom and it has been exciting for the children. In Math the children are adding 2 digit numbers. I know that this looks very different from the way we did it in school but the children have to be fluent at decomposing numbers and this will help. They will be much better prepared for second grade math by having seen this strategy. I know that most of them cannot do this independently but we just began it this week and we will continue practicing it. We are working with words that have ir, er and ur in them. Ask your children about the game, I Have Who Has. The children are so busy writing their non-fiction chapter books. They are loving the process and are very engaged during Writer's Workshop. We will start new WYNN groups next week to address math fact computation and fluency. Most of the students are very accurate in their math facts but need to increase their speed. For those children that need enrichment, they will be put in a group to fit their needs. Enjoy the warmer weather. Get outside and play! READ, READ, READ!

Oh the Places We'll Go!

We had a wonderful week celebrating all things Dr. Seuss! All of our stations centered around Dr. Seuss' books this week. The children had fun writing poems, making different endings to The Cat in the Hat and playing Dr. Seuss Chutes and Ladders with subtraction facts. We have been busy learning about all the components of an All About Book. The children cheer when it is Writer's Workshop time. They feel in control of this writing because they are the teachers. I hope to have an Author's Tea in the late spring where you can come in and see their writing. Our new unit in measurement in Science has been fun as well. The children are learning to measure accurately and compare lengths of objects. In Math, we have been studying place value and comparing numbers. This has been a breath of fresh air for the students because they are very successful with this topic. Next week you will receive a log in for a new computer program called Moby Max. The children have already taken a placement test for math during our computer time this week. Students can work on all subjects on this web-site and can focus on math facts as well. Please continue to work on addition and subtraction facts at home for accuracy as well as speed. We will have a Math Night in the Spring where you can come in with your child and experience a math lesson in our class! It will be their time to show off a bit and shine and you will get a peek at the program. Report cards will go home on Friday, March 21st. Conferences will be on a needed basis on April 2nd (evening) and April 3rd (afternoon) I will not be available for the afternoon date but will have time during that week to see parents. Phone conferences are always an option as well. Enjoy the weekend and keep reading! I have been seeing such growth with the children in reading - keep up the great work at home. Thanks - Jaime Crenwick

Last week of February?!

I can't believe it is already the last day of February. This has been our first full week of school in a long time. It is so nice for all of us to get back to a regular routine. Unfortunately, the children have still been stuck indoors for recess but thanks to all the wonderful games and crafts you sent in, it has made it a whole lot more fun. Thank you! Highlights from this week . . . *Mrs. Sacco came in to discuss friendship and the children had great ideas about how to be a good friend. *We began a unit on measurement in science this week. *In math, we are continuing to explore place value. *The children have been having fun learning parts of speech. Ask them about the verb relay race! Next week will will be having fun celebrating Dr. Seuss' birthday!

Calling All Mystery Readers!!

We have no Mystery Readers for the months of April, May or June. Please let me know if you or a family member would like to come in to read.

Back to School - Finally!!!

We had a great day back with a Valentine's Party during indoor recess!! Please visit Brain Pop Jr. for interesting biographies on important people that helped to shape our country. We have been learning a lot about these important Americans. Ask your child about a few. I showed the children the Greg Tang web-site for Math Olympics on-line today. Please visit the site with them and play a few games even if they do not complete the Olympic challenge. The games are challenging and fun! In order to read the Grapes of Math, there is a link to the book on-line. I showed the children how to access it today.

6 More Weeks of Winter!!!

Well, I guess the groundhog was correct! The children were busy making predictions about whether or not the groundhog would see his shadow. Most of them love the snow and couldn't wait for more winter. Since they all studied shadows they knew that if it was a sunny day the groundhog would indeed see his shadow. Many of their predictions were right! Though our attendance at school has been inconsistent we have been moving along in our first grade studies. The students just got assessed in their knowledge of consonant blends and diagraphs. They all passed with flying colors! They are also all very knowledgeable on their identification of sight words and are continuing to improve in spelling those tricky words. We learned about contractions today and will continue to work on them. Next week we will work on the important parts of writing a friendly letter. On Thursday all the children will craft a letter to a special friend or family member and send them in the mail! Please make sure that you send in a stamped envelope and address ASAP. We just wrapped up a unit on writing how-to books. Each student took home pieces that they worked on in this unit. Today they spent time composing a how-to piece with little assistance from me. This is called an on-demand prompt. This is done at the beginning and end of each writing unit and provides a great comparision to see how much the children have learned. We will begin a new unit on writing non-fiction all about books. Please look for examples of these types of books at home and at the library. Please continue to read at home every night. Reading to your child each day is very important. Please find a way to incorporate it into your night time routine. In Social Studies we have been watching videos about important Black Americans and Women in celebration of Black and Women's History Month. The children have learned about Rosa Parks and Harriet Tubman so far. Ask them about what they have learned about these amazing Americans. Your Math geniuses have been rising to the challenge of our demanding math program. It is amazing all the ways they now know to solve a word problem. I think that it is also most important that they have all found the quickest and most efficient way to solve a problem for them. I am really impressed! Please continue to work on addition and subtraction facts at home. There are some great games on the ETC through the monroeps web-site. If you haven't already had a family member sign up for Mystery Reader, please consider it. It is so exciting for the children to share their classroom for a little while. Don't forget to send in Valentine cards for the class by February 13th. Stay warm and have a wonderful weekend - hope to see many of you on Sunday at the Wizard's game!

Last week in January!

Good morning!

Hope that you enjoyed this past weekend.  Just a few updates.

The children will be bringing home their weekend news from the past month.  It is not corrected for spelling.  Have your children read their journal to you and congratulate them on their hard work.

We are working on Very Important Parts of words.  For example, if the children know the word day they will know may, stay and play.  The children will also be assessed on consonant blends at the end of the week.

The students will be writing a descriptive piece about their lovely mittens and doing some other work involving the book The Mitten.

The children are currently in math Wynn groups focusing on fluency in subtraction.

Have a wonderful week!

First grade is "snow" much fun!

This week our stations will center around snowmen activities. The children will design a snowman and then write a descriptive piece on the snowman that they created. Ask your child about their new station parnter. We switched partners last week. We will begin recording the weather and temperature in a weather journal this week. We have already been watching the temperature closely each day last week and looking at how it changes during the day. Ask your child why the temperature changes as the day progresses. The children have been busy learning phonics rules. Last week we worked on adding plural s and es to words. This week we will continue to practice that concept and work on adding ing to words as well. I am so impressed by the readers in our classroom! Keep up the good work at home. Stress to your child to read smoothly and with expression in thier voice. Have them practice reading to Grandma, Auntie or an older cousin. We are wrapping up WYNN groups on comprehension. This week we will move on to addition and subtraction computation and fluency. Take out those flashcards or make some of your own. Give your child math facts aloud and have them answer on a white board. How many can they complete correctly in 2 or 3 minutes? That may be a motivating challenge! In Math we continue to work on problem solving and efficiently solving problems. Ask your child what efficient means? We have been talking about that a lot in Math. The children will also learn about Martin Luther King, Jr. and his impact on our country. We will discuss his dream and I will ask the children what their dream for our world is. The children have also been using the senteo hand-held computers during our computer time. They have been answering math questions. They really enjoyed using them and did a very good job. I will be sending home a mitten on Monday to decorate. The children did such a wonderful job with their Gingerbread people that I hope this project will be the same. They will be writing a descriptive piece about their mittens at the end of the month. Have a wonderful week!

Happy New Year

A hard copy of this blog was sent home on January 2nd, 2014 Happy New Year! 2014 is here and First Grade will be learning lots of new and exciting things this year. It is really hard to believe that we are heading into the last part of the school year. The children will learn and grow so much during this time. They will become more fluent readers, they will be able to think of new ways to problem solve in math and their writing will get more detailed. Here is just a few of the things that we will be covering in Room 15 this month. In Phonics we will focus on word families and the different ways that vowel sounds can be written. We will get into the tricks that words can play! I hope that you read a little during vacation!! If not, start a new resolution with your child. Maybe if they read one book to you each night, they can pick out the family meal for dinner over the weekend or have a special dessert. Make it a game and they will begin to read more and more. Have you thought of reading a chapter book together? This is a great way to get in extra reading time on those nights when your first grader is too tired to read to you. In Writing, we are focusing on writing how-to books. The children are very successful in this type of writing. I am encouraging them to add details in pictures, labels and words in these how –to books. We will also be doing some more descriptive writing at the end of the month. The Gingerbread people that they brought in were amazing. The details really helped them write some great descriptive pieces. They will be asked to decorate a mitten at the end of the month for a take home project. We will be writing about them in class. In Math we continue to work on problem solving each day. The children are beginning to see which strategies work best for them and which are the most efficient. Play a game to work on fact families. Pick any number from 2 to 10. Tell your child the number. This is your target number. Then give them another number and see if they can tell you how many more to the target number. In Science we will be working on measurement. The children will be measuring in centimeters. They will also keep a weather journal in January in which they measure the temperature for a week. This month we will also learn about Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. This is a great way to bring up respect, tolerance and equality with our youngest learners. They get Dr. King’s message very quickly. This is why I love spending my days with first graders! I hope that your break was filled with a ton of family time and you really got to enjoy the magic of the season.