February Newsletter

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Dear Parents,

February is upon us!  Can you even believe it?  This year seems to be flying by. 

LANGUAGE ARTS:  We continue to work in our reading groups on reading strategies, fluency, vocabulary development and comprehension.  I am so impressed with the improvement in reading that my whole class has shown!  We are continuing to write informational books in writer’s workshop and will be moving onto opinion writing soon.  We will have a writing celebration when we are done with our informational books, some of us are even writing chapter books! 

MATH: We are finishing up shapes and fractions.  We will then move onto sorting, comparing and ordering.  We will have some measurement in there and telling time too.  I want to thank my two volunteers who come in for math groups every Friday.  THANK YOU!!

SCIENCE/TECHNOLOGY: We will finish up plants and animals in February.  Our next science unit will cover air and weather.  We will also be going into the CLAB to explore with “little bits”.  This is some technology that helps students understand circuits. 

SOCIAL STUDIES: We will be working on a unit covering American symbols.

VALENTINE’S DAY: Last Thursday I sent home information about our party and Valentines.   It will be a fun day for sure!

100^TH DAY OF SCHOOL:  We had a very fun day defeating Dr. Double Digit and making the world safe for three digit numbers.  Lots of counting to 100 took place! 

SPECIAL DATES:

•       Feb. 14: Valentine’s Day

•       Feb. 15: Pete the Cat 10:00 at the Flint Center

•       Feb. 16: Chinese New Year Centers in the GLC

•       Feb. 19-23: Winter break

•       March 16: Green Luncheon in Room 30 (St. Patrick’s Day celebration)

•       April 23: Hiller Aviation Museum

•       April 16-20: Spring break

•       May 18: No school

•       May 25: First Grade Performance in the GLC at 1:00

•       May 28: Memorial Day/no school

•       June 4: End of the Year party/first grade picnic

•       June 7: Last Day of School: dismissal at 11:50

Thanks for your continuous support, Kathleen Erikson

January Newsletter

Dear Parents,

Happy New Year!  Welcome to 2018!  I hope that it was a lovely break for you all and that everyone is ready to get back into the swing of things here at school.

HOLIDAY PARY:  What a fun party! The Gingerbread houses were AWESOME and so fun to put together!  Thanks to two of my room parents for helping put them together on Thursday so we could decorate on Friday.  And thanks to Mrs. Kirk for the games. The kids had so much fun!

LANGUAGE ARTS:  We continue to read together in our groups and I am reading individually with students as well.  Thank you to those parents that come in weekly to read one on one with my students.  In Writer’s Workshop we have started to write informational books.  Your children are working diligently on their writing, editing, spelling and revising skills.  We will have an end of the unit celebration in February.

MATH:  We are working on a unit called Understanding Shapes and Fractions.  We have been comparing 2D and 3D shapes, discussing sides and angles, and we will talk about and compare simple fractions.

SCIENCE/TECHNOLOGY/SOCIAL STUDIES: We will continue to add to our SeeSaw accounts throughout this school year.  We have been in the CLAB to complete our Gingerbread Man challenge.  In Social Studies we will finish up with the two units about cultural celebrations and how things were in the past.

100^th DAY:  January 30^th is the 100^th day of school.  We will celebrate this day in our classroom with lots of activities related to the number 100.  It will be a fun day!

CHINESE NEW YEAR:  As part of our cultural studies in Social Studies we will have a first grade day around the theme of Chinese New Year.  I will be asking parents to come to school the morning of February 16 to help guide various centers that the students will rotate through.  Please mark your calendar and if you can come to school and help out anytime that morning between 8:30 and 11:30 we would LOVE and NEED to have you!  Watch for information about that day and volunteering soon.  Our day will culminate with a dragon parade around the school that afternoon after lunch.  All are welcome to come and cheer our parade on!  J 

SPECIAL DATES:

•       January 15: MLK day/no school

•       January 26: Learning Day for teachers, no school for students

•       Jan. 30: 100^th Day of School

•       Feb. 14: Valentine’s Day

•       Feb. 15: Pete the Cat 10:00 at the Flint Center

•       Feb. 16: Chinese New Year Centers in the GLC

•       Feb. 19-23: Winter break

•       March 16: Green Luncheon in Room 30 (St. Patrick’s Day celebration)

•       April 23: Hiller Aviation Museum

•       April 16-20: Spring break

•       May 18: No school

•       May 25: First Grade Performance in the GLC at 1:00

•       May 28: Memorial Day/no school

•       June 4: End of the Year party/first grade picnic

•       June 7: Last Day of School: dismissal at 11:50

Thanks for your continuous support, Kathleen Erikson

December Newsletter

Dear Parents,

Here it is, December!  I hope that you all had a restful and fun Thanksgiving break!

LANGUAGE ARTS:  In writer’s workshop we will have our celebration of our How To Books the last day before break.  So be ready to come to room 30 at 8:30 on Friday, December 15 to see what we have produced this time!  We have a school wide assembly at 8:00 and we will have our celebration immediately following this assembly.

MATH: Our new unit is understanding shapes and fractions. We have our weekly math groups where we cover a variety of math concepts as we rotate through six different groups.

SCIENCE/TECHNOLOGY: We will be starting on our science kit on Plants and Animals.  As an introduction we went to Natural Bridges today to see the Monarch Butterflies and to learn about their migration and their habitats.  We will focus on plants this next couple of weeks and then put together some cool terrariums when we return from winter break.  You will again see your child’s science notebook come home once we complete this unit.

SOCIAL STUDIES:  We are working on a unit on Cultural Celebrations and we will talk about what traditions and celebrations our families participate in as well as how things were in the past.

HOLIDAY PARTY:  My class will get to make and decorate Gingerbread (Graham Cracker) houses this year.  Should be fun!!

STUDENT TEACHER:  Miss Zeigler’s last official day in our classroom will be Friday, December 15.  She moves onto a new school and new classroom in January to continue her student teaching.  We thoroughly enjoyed our time with her and will miss her when she is gone.  I will especially miss having a second adult in the classroom three days a week!  J 

UPCOMING EVENTS:  February 16, a Friday, we will have a first grade Chinese New Year Celebration.  In the GLC we will have all the first graders rotate through a variety of centers and in the afternoon we will have a dragon parade.  We will need parent volunteers that morning from 8:30-11:30.  Mark your calendar and we hope you can help that morning!

SPECIAL DATES:

•        December 18-January 2: Winter Break

•        January 15: MLK day/no school

•        January 26: Learning Day for teachers, no school for students

•        Jan. 30: 100^th Day of School

•        Feb. 14: Valentine’s Day

•        Feb. 15: Pete the Cat 10:00 at the Flint Center

•        Feb. 16: Chinese New Year Centers in the GLC

•        Feb. 19-23: Winter break

•        March 16: Green Luncheon in Room 30 (St. Patrick’s Day celebration)

•        April 23: Hiller Aviation Museum

•        April 16-20: Spring break

•        May 18: No school

•        May 25: First Grade Performance in the GLC at 1:00

•        May 28: Memorial Day/no school

•        June 4: End of the Year party/first grade picnic

•        June 7: Last Day of School: dismissal at 11:50

Thanks for your support, Kathleen