Happy !00th Day of School!

We are 100 days smarter!  Here are some pictures from an activity we did to celebrate the 100th day of school.  Come see it in person right outside our classroom!

We also celebrated by making trail mix with 10 ingredients.  10 tens make 100!  We also used this as a planner activity to learn that different communities have different needs and wants.  The kids had a great time!

Fractions and Equal Parts

We don't get too deep into fractions, but we do touch on them a little in 1st grade.  I introduced this math concept by passing out some construction paper and asking the kids to fold the paper into 2 equal parts and 3 equal parts.  2 equal parts was pretty easy, but 3 equal parts were pretty tricky!

Today we did an activity where I had the kids build with pattern blocks.  There was a catch though!  They had criteria!  They had to a certain number of pattern blocks in their group and in that group they had to have so much of a certain color.  Confusing, I know, but here are some pictures to make it a little clearer.

Here's the criteria.

And here are the results!

Can you tell what this is?  It's a battleship!  Way to use your creativity, JS!

  The kids had a great time and really used their imaginations with this activity!

Valentine's Day!

Valentine's Day is almost here!

We will be having a valentine exchange and a small snack on Thursday for Valentine's Day.  Please bring a valentine for every child in the class.  Here is a class list:

Romi

Katherine

Matthew P.

Maddy

Mayan

Danny

Rylin

Camille L.

Camille G.

Fatima

Sunny

Aaron

Majed

Jeremy

Asnakech

Alex

Valeria

Matthew M.

Youcheng

Gia

James

Roll a Turkey!

We played a game right before Thanksgiving called Roll a Turkey that the kids loved...here's some pictures for you to enjoy!

Junior Acheivement

We had some Junior Acheivement volunteers come today and teach us a lesson on community roles and needs and wants.

Websites

Here are some websites that I found to help supplement homework or just for fun!  Have a good time!



http://www.brainpop.com/

This website is great for learning about all subjects! It has tons of fun games that help you learn about the world!

username: houstonisd

password:rockets

www.unitedstreaming.com

There are some great videos for all subjects on this site!



Language Arts/Spelling

http://pbskids.org/go/

If you love PBS kids you will love this site. It has educational games to play with characters from the PBS shows.

http://www.spellingcity.com/

Fun practice makes Fun perfect! This is a great site for practicing your spelling.

http://www.starfall.com/

This website is great for practicing cool reading techniques and reading games!



Math

http://www.coolmath4kids.com/

Fun games to play and practice your math skills!

http://www.learningplanet.com/stu/index.asp?tab=1

This site is great for games that help to solve math problems.



Science

http://www.funology.com/

Great for exploring science through games!

http://kids.nationalgeographic.com/kids/

Fun facts and information about the world!

http://www.switcheroozoo.com/

Create your very own animal and watch it grow and survive in different habitats!



Social Studies

http://www.amnh.org/

Learn about the American history through this American Museum of Natural History website!

http://www.mywonderfulworld.org/gaw.html

Practice and learn about geography!

http://www.timeforkids.com/TFK/

Learn about current issues that are happening around the world!

Book Fair

Today we took a book fair preview.  You should see a yellow sheet in your child's backpack with the books they chose.  If they bring money to school I will send them to buy books.  Please help me and the parent attendants that they may not be able to buy everything they want.  On Thursday the book fair will be open from 5-7 pm and there will be food to buy!  Come up and browse with your kiddo!  My "wish box" of books will also be available....help stock our classroom library with some new books!

Spelling

spelling words for this week are:
flip
stop
step
drop
brag
peck
beds
red
pets
ten

Challenge words: 
explain
skillet
broken
weather
breakfast
clever
meadow
grandma
feather

sight words:
saw
small
your
tree

This week!

FIELD TRIP!!!!

Tomorrow we are going to the Museum of Fine Arts!  I sent home some permission slips with a couple of kiddoes today..please bring them back tomorrow!  Also, not everyone has turned in money...please bring $3 in!  We are taking sack lunches tomorrow, no lunch kits...everything should be disposable.  I forgot to mention this to the class today, but can you have your child wear a red shirt so we can keep track of everyone, please.  :)  Thanks to the parents who are joining us!  I'm so glad you are coming with us!

Wednesday is early dismissal at 12:30 AND our storybook parade!  Send your child dressed as his or her favorite character from a book!


In language arts and reading we are focusing on interrogatve sentences. (Questions)  We are reading Get the Egg.  The genre is realistic fiction...be sure to aks your child what that means!  Our spelling words have the short e and initial consonant blends in them like fl, st, dr, and pr.


In math we will finish up subtraction and start on patterns this week.

In science we have studied light and sound energy.  This week we will study heat energy.


We are wrapping up our art planner this week!

Homework and other things...

Hi parents!

We are going to the museum next Tuesday!  If you would like to go with us please let me know.  You must be cleared as a volunteer to go with us.  I absolutely cannot let you go if you are not cleared.  This takes a while so please check with the office to the paperwork started so you can join us.  This inclued grandparents as well...according to HISD policy I cannot let any adult go on a field trip with us unless they are cleard by the front office.


**SIGHT WORDS**
Your child will be tested on their sight words every week.  Please, please, please practice them at home.  They DO NOT need to spell them...they just need to be able to read them.  The sight words for the week are included on the homework coversheet.  Thanks!

 Our spellling rule for this week is the inflected ending -s and -ing.  Today we talked about how adding an -s to the end of an action word means that only 1 person is doing that action.  Tomorrow we will talk about the -ing ending. 

Here are our spelling words:
rocks
packs
playing
backing
seeing
pops
sees
looks
plays
digs

Here are the challenge words:
quacking
locking
practices
watching
laughs
passing
dancing
kicking
helping
tackling

I am in need of some books on CD for our listening workstation as well as a small portable CD player with one or more headphone jacks.  Ours died the other day. :(  If you can donate please let me know!  The kids will definitely appreciate it...they miss the listening workstation!

Challenge Spelling Words

Hi!  The challenge spelling words this week are:

ostrich
otters
octagons
octopus
opposite
offered
overnight
outdoors
ordinary
orchestra

We are focusing on the short o sound and adding -s to the ending of a noun to make it a plural noun.

Challenge Spelling Words

Hi Parents!

I have included some challenge words for the kids to work on in our word work workstation.....if you feel that your child can spell the spelling words that are sent home with no problem you can have them practice these words instead.  They will be tested on the spelling words that go home with the homework packet...not the challenge words.  The challenge words are just to practice for fun.  My suggestion is that you do a "pre-test" with your child tonight.  Very quickly have them orally spell the words to you if they get a 100 then move on to the challenge words if they struggle a little with the regular words then don't move on to the challenge words.  Happy Spelling!

pickle
ticklish
prickly
infant
invite
inventor
internet
interesting
igloo
iguana

Picture Day

Hi!  Picture day was today, but you can still bring money in until Wednesday, October 24th.  I have been getting questions about ordering online...HISD went with a new photography company this year and you CANNOT order online.  You must bring the money in by October 24th.  Thanks!

Hi! Here is some information about this week.

Hi!  Here is some information about this week.

The homework this week is a little different.  A spelling list is in the packet and there will be a spelling test on Friday.  

In language arts and reading we will be reading Sam, Come Back!  We will talk about realistic fiction and character and setting.  

In math we are finishing up subtraction....we are learning about comparing stories such as, I have 5 red markers and 3 blue markers.  How many more red markers do I have?  We are also learning how addition relates to subtraction and fact families such as 2+3+5 so 5-2=3 and 5-3=2.

In social studies we are going to be looking at some historical figures like Benjamin Franklin.

We are starting a new planner soon!  The title of this planner is How We Express Ourselves.  The central idea is that through art, people express ideas, thoughts and feelings.  We will be inquiring into different art forms and styles and the materials that artists all over the world use to create art as well as inquiring into personal reactions to art.

Volunteering

Hi parents!  Here is an email we recieved today about volunteers in our classrooms.  I thought it might clear up some questions you may have.  Thanks!



Teachers,




Please, please, please make sure that your parents who are volunteering are CLEARED to volunteer. And this is NOT just for Field Trips. This goes for volunteering in the classroom, in ANY capacity. We cannot stress this enough. If they are NOT cleared by HISD, they are not able to volunteer.

This is a policy coming from the district.



If parents have volunteered in previous years, they will still need to present their ID’s to reactivate their status. And please note that it takes at least a week to verify.



For parents that are new, or have never registered they must do the following:



Go to www.houstonisd.org

Click on Community

VIPS Login

“I have never used this program. Please register me as a new user.”

Disclaimer : YES

It’s a two web page application.



Once registered, parents must immediately present their id’s so that we may complete the process. Again, it takes at least a week to verify once we’ve entered the information from their driver license and/or passport(whichever ID they have).

Coming up....

If you haven't turned in a permission slip for the SKATE presentation on safety please send it back to school as soon as possible.   Here's what we are doing this coming up week in a nutshell:

In Language Arts we are reviewing the letters Rr, Ww, Jj, Kk, and short Ee.  We are going to be going over the high frequency words he, is, three, to, and with.  As we read stories this week we are going to be concentrating and focusing on the plot or the beginning, middle, and end of the story.  We are also going to start writing with more adjectives this week. 

In Math we are finishing up addition and addition strategies and we are going to start subtraction and subtraction strategies. 

In science we will keep exploring our senses and begin exploring weather and seasons.  In social studies we are going to continue talking about past, present and future and we are finishing up our current unit  of inquiry. 

Hope you have a great weekend!  Here are some pictures to enjoy of things that we did this week.

 AL showed a way to get to 9.



A way to get to 9!




Another way to get to 9.




R, A, and M listen to C read out loud at the library workstation.



A shows his work off at the creation station!

VF and WM work together at the poetry workstation.



AA worked hard at the word work station!



This Week

This week we are busy!  We are reviewing the letter Bb, Gg, Ff and short Ii.  We are continuing our work with verbs and also talking about the plot of stories.  In math we are learning how to use different tools and strategies to help us order numbers.  We are also starting to write in our journals every day.  Thursday and Friday we will explore our senses and we have also been going to LDC all this week and will go next week as well.  The kids are having fun and getting used to the routines and procedures of first grade...they are doing great and have already made so much progress!

Red Folder

Red folders go home on Tuesday and are returned the next day (Wednesday).  Announcements from class and the school as well as graded work and other daily work that your child does in class will be in the red folder.

Here is what went home in the red folder this week:

An envelope for the class fund also went home as well.  If you haven't turned this in please turn it in as soon as possible.  Thanks!

Homework

Hi Parents!  Just a reminder that homework is turned in on Friday in the yellow folder.  Also, don't do all the homework in one night...I want your kiddoes to be able to have some fun when they get home. :)    There is an "assignment sheet" on the front of the homework packet that will guide in what your child should be doing each day.  Of course they should be reading atleast 15 minutes a day and they need to do 1 math sheet and then the activity that is on the front of the assignment sheet.

Yellow folder

Assignment Sheet

This week...

This week we are still going over rules and procedures and learning about first grade.  Please talk with your child about the the importance of waiting their turn to speak while someone is speaking and also listening to the speak while they are talking.  We are still learning that interrupting isn't quite the best way to get someone's attention. :)  In math we are learning how to represent numbers with counters and in social studies we are learning about citizenship, responsibility and what it means to be a classroom community.