Field Trip

Don't forget to turn in your permission slip and $6 for our field trip to MFAH and The Menil!

Dia de los Muertos--Day of the Dead

On Thursday we are going to be making Day of the Dead skeletons...I need donations of ribbon, scrap booking paper and maybe some beads and rhinestones. If you can help out that would be great!

Thanks!
Kristal

Parents,

The art work to share with the class does not need to be brought in until Friday. I am sending home a sheet for your child to fill out with questions about the art that they have chosen. When you bring the art work on Friday a picture of the piece is just fine to share....it does not have to the actual piece of artwork.

Kristal

How We Express Ourselves

Our newest planner, "How We Express Ourselves" is off to a great start! The central idea is through art, people express how they think and feel. This week is a review week for spelling so there isn't a spelling homework. For homework this week I want the kiddoes to go home and look for art that is around them and outside of school. I also want them to think about how it makes them feel and think. You can actually go to one of our great museums in Houston, look through art books in the library or bookstore or you can go online to visit museums around the world to view art. Each child should choose one piece of art to share with the class on Friday. There is more to this assignment...details will be coming soon, but for now just have your child choose a piece of art to share with everyone.

Kristal

New Computers!!!

Hello! I am in need of a power strip for our new computers....if anyone could donate a gently used one it would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

Pablo Picasso

Rose Period

Blue Period

Pablo Picasso

We have started our new planner, How We Express Ourselves, and the kids are really getting into it! Last week and today we learned about Pablo Picasso.

We read a book and found out that during a very sad time in his life Picasso only painted in shades of blue and he only painted pictures of very sad thing...this period is called the Blue Period. Picasso became very happy again when he fell in love...he started to paint pictures that looked happy and made people feel happy. this was called the Rose Period because of his use of reds and pinks during this period.

Pennies for Peace

Don't forgetwe are still collecting pennies for Pennies for Peace!!! We are collecting them until Thanksgiving...last year my class raised 600 pennies...I told the kids this year that I want to try for 1,000!!! In Pakistan a pencil only costs 1 penny...think of all the pencils we could buy! Also, $1 can be used to put a child through a wholy year of school! We could send so many kiddoes to school that wouldn't normally be able to go!

pennies and nickels...nickels and pennies...

Please, please, please practice counting with pennies and nickels this week whenever you have the chance. It's so important for the kids to really have this down before we move to dimes and quarters. It just gets harder and I want to make sure everyone has had lots and lots of practice before we dive in!!!!

Is it odd or even?

Today we talked about odd and even numbers. The kids discovered that even numbers always can be divided up into pairs and that odd numbers will always have an "odd man out". Ask them to teach you the trick with their fingers that I taught them to figure out if a number is odd or even.

Busy Day!

We did a lot today! Thanks to Sanam's mom for her art a la carte lesson about tint and shade! The kids learned that you can mix white with a color to make a tint and you can mix black with a color to make a shade. We have also been learning about the color wheel. Last week learned that there are 3 primary colors and 3 secondary colors. We also learned about complimentary colors and colors that have the most and least contrast.

New from the Dad's Club

The 2009 Dad's Club Camp Out will be postponed due to weather and rescheduled for November 6th. Those that have already registered will not have to register again, your registration will be valid for the Camp Out on 11/6. Tent spots are still available, you can still register by going here--> http://www.marktwainpto.org/news/dads-club-2nd-annual-campout Don't worry....the Dad's Club still has an activity planned for this rainy Friday! Movie Night! Instead of the Camp Out this Friday, the Dad's club will host a movie night in the cafeteria from 7:00pm - 10:00pm! Event starts at 7:00pm, movie is shown at 7:30pm, clean up is at 9:30pm.Dads and kids...bring some dinner with you (pizza, burgers, chick-fil-a, etc) and watch a movie on the big screen! Pillows, blankets and lawn chairs are optional. No need to register, this event is free! Please bring your own food and drink.Contact me via email (nick@intendedweb.com) or cell (713.539.6222) with any questions, movie will be rated PG.
---Nick

No homework packets on Monday and no spelling test or spelling homework next week!

I am going to be out of town on Friday and Monday. Ms. Amanda Wisniewski will be my sub for those 2 days (she was Mrs. Eddlemon's sub last year while Mrs. E was out on maternity leave) she's a certified teacher who taught for several years before leaving her position in Klein. I'm confident that the kids will love her and she will do a great job.

Since I won't be here on Monday I am going to wait until Tuesday to hand out homework packets......there is no spelling test next or spelling homework because it's a review week...we will review in class but there will be no homework. Have a great weekend and I will see you on Tuesday!

Go on, explore!

We did some more math explorations today.....check out the pictures I snapped while everyone was hard at work!

Progress Reports

Progress reports are going home today. If you have any questions about your child's progress please contact me at kdick@houstonisd.org. Remember, these are grades since the 1st week of school until now...these are not report card grades. Your child's grade can go up or down by the time report cards are sent out.

Time and clocks and watches, oh my!

Today in math the kids learned about analog clocks. We talked about the hour and the minute hand. I let the kids in on a little trick to remember which hand is the longer hand...there are 1,440 minutes in a day and only 24 hours in a day. Since there are more minutes in a day the minute hand is longer!

Peace Animals

Today was the International Day of Peace. In class we talked about what peace is and how we can be peaceful. I showed the class a picture of Picasso's peace dove with flowers and they made their own peace animals. Be on the look out for them!

Be Kind to Animals

We are having a pet food drive! Since we are learning about being kind to people we thought we could extend it to animals as well.

Dear Mark Twain Families,

It was a momentous day as we delivered the first electronic newsletter in an effort to decrease the use of paper and increase efficiency. It took a tremendous amount of effort, time and teamwork. Chris Dobson, the editor of the newsletter, and Janet Schwind, the director of the Green Folders, were the driving forces behind the implementation. Kim Reiner and Christine Chaney were also heavily involved in the process. We cannot thank these ladies enough.

As with the implementation of any new initiative there will be challenges and we appreciate your patience. There were a few links that were not "live" which we will correct for the next newsletter. In addition, some families did not receive the newsletter via e-mail despite signing up for Green Folders.

If you did complete a Green Folder form and did not receive the electronic newsletter, please e-mail Janet Schwind, janetschwind@sbcglobal.net, with your name and e-mail address.

If you have not already signed up for Green Folders, will you please turn in a form that can be found online or in the Parent Workroom at school or contact janetschwind@sbcglobal.net? We will make every attempt to ensure you get it electronically next week.

Please go to http://www.marktwainpto.org/parentinvolvement/green-folder to find the following three items that were not included in the newsletter.

• Yearbook Order Form
• Yearbook Cover Contest Form
• Outdoor Classroom T-shirt Contest

We thank you again for your support of this initiative and your patience as we work out the kinks. Please send any comments, questions or ideas to Janet Schwind janetschwind@sbcglobal.net or Chris Dobson weekly-nl09@sbcglobal.net.

Very Fondly,

Jill Herrera

PTO President

Mark Twain PTO: United We Build Community

Go on, explore!

Today in math the kids were able to explore with some math tools....they drew patterns and pictures with their pattern block templates, built with pattern blocks, built with base 10 blocks and explored with the geo boards. Be sure to ask your child what their favorite exploration was!

I know it's only the beginning of the school year, but I am already beginning to see growth in writing! In 1st grade we really try to reinforce that a sentence always always always has a capital letter and some kind of ending mark. (Right now we are only talking about periods...we'll get to question marks and exclamation marks later) Last week and this week we have started teaching the kiddoes about nouns and verbs using multi-sensory grammar. Each part of speech is a different color. Nouns are yellow and verbs are orange.