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!