Thank you to all the families who attended Parent-Teacher Conferences. 15 minutes never seems like enough time to catch up! It always amazes me when I reflect back to the beginning of the year and then think about where we are at now. If you ever want to schedule a time before or after school to discuss your child's progress, don't hesitate to contact me.
Please take a few minutes to catch up on some friendly reminders and see what's going on in our classroom!
Please remember to dress your child appropriately for the weather! The entire class goes out for recess every day unless the windchill is below 0. It is helpful to label hats, gloves, scarves, etc. We have a large collection already in the lost and found!
MAP (Measures of Academic Progress) testing will begin next week. Both math and reading assessments will be given during this time frame. We will use MAP results as another data point for planning instruction for your child.
Ivy Hall's Wildcat WOW Committee is hosting Toys For Tots this year. Toys for Tots is a program that provides new, packaged toys for children who are less fortunate. If you would like to donate, please send in new, unused toys in the original packaging to the office labeled "Toys for Tots" by December 14th. Any toys, books, arts and craft supplies are fine. Please do not send any weapons or food products. Thank you for giving this holiday season!
Ivy Hall's Student Council is hosting a Food Drive. You can help by donating canned or boxed goods beginning Monday, December 5th. Items can be brought into the office. All food items will be donated to the Vernon Area Food Pantry as we head into the winter holiday season.
Student Council is also hosting an after school field trip to Belmont Village Assisted Living Facility on Thursday, December 15th from 3:30-4:30pm. Students from Ivy Hall will visit Belmont Village to entertain it's residents. Due to limited space only 30 students will be able to attend. If more than 30 students want to participate, names will be drawn. Transportation will be provided both to and from Belmont Village. Students must be picked up from Ivy Hall when the performance is over at 4:30. Permission slips are available in the Virtual Backpack. Please print and return permission slips to school by Wednesday, December 7th.
Our winter party will be on Friday, December 16th in the afternoon. Thank you to all the parents who are busy planning and organizing! Please remember if you are donating snacks for our holiday party, they must be from the Approved Snack List. Please have any items to school on Friday, December 16th before 10am. We appreciate your generosity :)
Don't forget to check us out on Twitter! Follow our Twitter handle @MissSchuttKCSD to see pictures of what's happening in our classroom!
Writing
In writing, students are finishing up their narrative stories. Our first grade goals are to have an introduction, at least two sequenced events, details that tell more about what is happening, and a concluding sentence. Students are also working on including transition words to signal change in their stories. Words such as "first," "next," and "last," help move their stories along and sequence what happens throughout their story. Moving forward, students will be introduced to CUPS (capital letters, verb usage, punctuation, and spelling) to edit their writing.
How can you help your child with writing at home?
The best way to help your child with writing at home is to give them the opportunity to write. Have them help you write a grocery list, write out their wish list for the holidays, or address holiday cards. Another fun thing to do is to have your child keep a journal. Once a week have your child write about something they did. It could be about something small like going to the park or playing with a friend or it could be about something bigger like going to the movies or trip they took. Have your child sequence the events. For example, "We went to the movies. We watched the movie. We went home." Then ask them to tell you what else happened. For example, when you arrived did you order and snacks? Did someone take your ticket? Where did you sit? Did you like the movie? Even starting with one journal entry a week is great practice for your child at home!
Word Study
After discussion amongst our team and district, we have decided to discontinue sending home Words Their Way homework. Words Their Way is a program that is designed to work with students in class in order to study the different patterns in words throughout their reading and writing. While sending these sorts home throughout the week gives them additional practice, it is just repetition of an activity they have done in class.
Please remember, this is NOT a spelling program and our students are not taking spelling tests each week. Therefore, bring the words home to practice is not necessary. We understand that you may still be interested in the words they are working with and may want to work at home with them. Therefore, students will continue to bring their completed sorts home so that you can see what they've practiced and studied. If you would like to continue word study at home here are some great practice ideas you can use after receiving your students completed sort.
*Look for their word patterns in books you are reading at home
*make a list of rhyming words for each pattern
*Use a few words to create sentences with their word patterns
*Say a word in their sort and ask them which pattern it belongs to
*Ask them to explain why each word belongs in the sort
Please let us know if you have any other questions. Sorts can also be found here on the KCSD website.
Reading
This past week we begun reading an informational book titled Goods and Services. In this text students are working on identifying the main topic and supporting details. We learned that there is a main topic of the entire book but their can also be a main topic of a specific section within the book, too. We are paying close attention to text features such as headings, captions, and photographs that can deepen our understanding of the topic. In this text, students are exposed to a wealth of unfamiliar vocabulary words such as producer, consumer, income, and taxes. We are learning various strategies to helps us determine the meaning of these words to support our comprehension. Next week, students will begin a new informational text titled Supermarket. We will compare ideas between this new text and Goods and Services. We will compare and contrast topics and make connections as well!
Math
In math, students have been working on determining weather a number is odd or even. It is explained to students that if a number is even, counters can be perfectly paired up. If there is a leftover, we call that odd. Students should be able to look at any given number and determine if it's even or odd. This week students have also begun telling and writing time to the hour. We have looked at analog and digital clocks and determined that time can be written in numbers (8:00), in words (eight o'clock), or in number and words (8 o'clock). Students have been exposed to all ways and will begin looking closer at time to the half hour and elapsed time in the next few weeks.
Students have become very successful at using hands on strategies to add and subtract. i.e. using their fingers, drawing a picture, using counters or a number line. Our next step is building mental strategies that will help us find our answer more quickly, or fluently. Counting on from the bigger number is the first step in becoming fluent in addition facts. Knowing +0 and +1 facts are quick and easy ways to find an answer as well. We also encourage students to memorize their doubles facts (2+2, 5+5, 8+8, etc.). Once they have memorized doubles then they can look at double +1 facts such as 5+6. If we know 5+5=10 then we can quickly find the answer to 5+6 by adding 1 more.
Students have begun timed tests this week. Our goal is to take 2 timed tests per week. Students will start with +0 facts and move down the number line to +1, +2, +3 facts, etc. They will have 2 minutes to answer 30 addition facts (within 10). Once they fluently answer the facts with 90% or higher accuracy, they will be given the next test. Please work on building fluency strategies at home. Flash cards are a great tool! Having a solid foundation of number sense and understanding the relationship between numbers is essential as your child builds and develops their math skills!
Social Studies
In Social Studies we have been discussing the differences between wants and needs. We will discuss how clothing, food, and toy drives help those in need. We are also excited to begin learning about famous Americans! Some of the Americans include George Washington and Abraham Lincoln. We will be using different texts to learn facts about their lives.
Science
We have begun our uint on light and sound. Students had a lot of fun using flashlights this week to investigate how light travels. we learned that light can travel through some materials and not others. We looked at how light moves in a straight line and how it's path can be changed using a mirror. Next week we will begin investigating shadows!
December 5-9 - MAP Testing (during school hours)
December 13 - PTO Special Lunch: Real Urban BBQ (Pre-Order Required)
December 16 - Winter Holiday Party
December 19-January 2 - NO SCHOOL (Winter Break)
January 3 - Welcome Back!
