Weekly Overview - May 22-25

HERE’S WHAT’S HAPPENING IN ROOM 14.... May 22-25

Dear Parents:

We’ll see everyone tonight at Open House! Come at 6:30 to see all that your child has accomplished! All Take-home books are due now. Please have your child return all books. Just a reminder about the $50 donation for school supplies- In the past families have had to go out and do their own shopping, sometimes resulting in more money spent and frustration when the needed supplies are not in the store. We will do the shopping for you!

LANGUAGE ARTS

Phonograms:  We will review all of our phonograms and take our final quiz on Friday.

Reading/Writing: We will be reading a play in small groups. The students will be writing a letter to student who will be a first grader next year.

English:  We will finish up our study of nouns, verbs and adjectives by completing/writing some funny stories by adding in our own nouns, verbs, and adjectives (remember Mad Libs?).

MATH: We will complete a quick study of solving two-digit addition and subtraction problems without any regrouping. The strategy that will be taught is to first add/subtract the ones and then the tens. This is sometimes difficult for the students to do because they are so used to doing things from left to right (reading and writing), but it is essential for them to understand so that they can do regrouping properly when it is introduced in 2^nd grade.

COMPUTER LAB: We do not have any more labs this year. Our zoo trip is this Thursday and so we will not be going to the computer lab. Thank you to all of our many faithful volunteers for helping us out this year!

LIBRARY: We have had our last library visit. Please make sure that all books are brought back to school. Any lost books will need to be paid for.

****************MANY SPECIAL NOTES*****************

Tuesday – 1:37 dismissal

Thursday- ZOO TRIP! Read the important note going home today. Please make sure that your child wears his/her tie-dye shirt, a warm coat and brings a bag lunch. We don’t usually encourage garbage lunches, but the parent volunteer will be carrying the lunches for the first part of the day. Your child does not need to bring any money, as we will not be stopping in any places to purchase items.

Friday – 1:37 dismissal

Monday, May 28 – No school – Memorial Day

Tuesday, May 29 – First grade music program in the cafeteria at 9:00! Please come and enjoy our patriotic songs and a mini-musical, “A Year With Frog and Toad”. Please have your child wear red, white and/or blue.

Wednesday, May 30- Please have your child bring a bag to take home materials that will be passed out. Super Citizen activity – popsicle and play

Thursday, May 31- PLAY DAY! Your child should wear his/her tie-dye shirt!- Family lunch from 12:00-1:30 that day (1:37 dismissal)

Friday, June 1 – Last day – 10:00 Awards assembly, report cards home, 12:30 dismissal

  

Summer Birthdays!!! June birthdays will be celebrated Tuesday, May 29, July birthdays will be celebrated on Wednesday, May 30.

Have a super week!  Please contact me if you have any questions or concerns.

Sincerely, 

Mrs. Pierce                                  

Weekly Overview - May 14-18

HERE'S WHAT'S HAPPENING IN ROOM 14....MAY 14-18

Dear Parents:

The animal report is due this Wednesday!! Late reports will make the Behavior grade drop one level each day beyond the due date L- please help your child to be responsible.

LANGUAGE ARTS:

Phonograms/DOL: We will work on our editing skills. There will be a phonogram quiz this week. 

Reading: This week we will also be listening to and working with a story called “The Caterpillar and the Polliwog”.

English: We will continue to work on sentence writing. We will also have our final English skills test on Friday. It will cover all the skills we have worked on this year.

Spelling:  This week our spelling looks quite different. We will study 35 core words (see attached). On Monday your child will have a practice test of the column 1 words. Monday’s homework will be to write any missed words 4 times each. On Tuesday your child will be tested on column 2 words. Again, any missed words should be written for homework 4 times each. On Wed. your child should write 5 sentences using 10 words from column 1. Each sentence should use two of the words from column 1- these words should be underlined. On Thursday your child should write 5 more sentences using words from column 2. Again, each of the five sentences should use two words from column 2 and these words should be underlined. On Friday there will be a test of all 35 words.

MATH: We will finish up our topic of subtraction and related facts and there will be a topic test on Wednesday. On Friday we will have a 50 pt. subtraction facts test.

SOCIAL STUDIES: We will be working on labeling the continents and oceans.

SCIENCE: Your child is finishing up his/her animal report. In class we will complete the introduction for the animal report from Tuesday’s homework. 

*********************SPECIAL NOTES**************************

All library books are due on Wednesday!!

We have earned our 100 marbles! This Thursday we will be taking our lunches to the park and then we will stay and play awhile. Please send a lunch and drink with your child that day. There will not be an opportunity for hot lunch/milk purchases that day.

Monday, May 21- Furlough day- no school

Tuesday – OPEN HOUSE!! 6:30 pm (PLEASE NOTE CORRECTION OF TIME) in Room 14- DON’T MISS IT!! J

Thursday, May 24 – SAN FRANCISCO ZOO TRIP- There will be a note going home with specific information about lunch and dress, etc. Please pay close attention to this note. Students will wear their tie-dye shirts.

May 25 – Minimum Day- 1:37 dismissal

May 28 – Memorial Day – no school

DON’T MISS OUR 1^ST GRADE MUSIC PERFORMANCE (duration about 20 min.) – TUESDAY, MAY 29 AT 9:00 AM IN THE CAFETERIA!! J

LOOKING MORE AHEAD:

May 31 - Play Day - Students will wear their tie-dye shirts - 1:37 dismissal

June 1  - Last Day  - Awards ceremony- 10:30…..12:30 dismissal

Sincerely,

Mrs. Pierce

                              

Weekly Overview - May 7-11

HERE'S WHAT'S HAPPENING IN ROOM 14....MAY 7-11

Dear Parents:

Your child may take the rubber bands off his/her purple shirt tomorrow! The first time we will wear the shirt is for our zoo trip on May 24. Please make note of the special activities that are coming up in the next few weeks. I hope that everyone is planning on attending our Open House on May 22 at 7:00. Stop by and see what the children have been working on! I also recommend that you visit the 2^nd grade classes to see what your child has to look forward to for next year.

LANGUAGE ARTS:

DOL/Sitton/Phonograms: We continue to review English and spelling skills. There will not be a phonogram quiz on Thursday. We will be using this time to do reading level testing.

Reading: I will be testing reading levels throughout the week. No one will be tested beyond level L and I will be testing most students for 2 levels above their levels for the 2^nd trimester. Keep encouraging your child to read the Take-Home books. Many students are not meeting the once-a-week minimum turn-in requirements.

English: The students will continue to work with classification of nouns, verbs and adjectives. There will be a word classification test on Thursday. We will also be having an assessment for sentence writing.

Spelling:

1.  Would you do it again?                          6.  Don't talk about it!

2.  They made a fruit pie.                             7.  Show me how to draw it.

3.  Who is your new teacher?                       8.  Was she at the party?

4.  I'll go to bed early.                                   9.  Did you ride the black pony?

5.  Tell her to come outside.                        10.  Please play with us.

MATH: We will finish up our topic for addition with solving story problems with 2 parts. Our topic test will be on Tuesday. We will also have a 50-point addition facts standard test on Thursday. We will spend some time reviewing subtraction strategies such as related facts and fact families. We will be working on facts up to 20.

SOCIAL STUDIES:  We will be working with familiarizing ourselves with the names and location of the seven continents (North America, South America, Europe, Asia, Africa, Australia, Antarctica) and four major oceans (Pacific, Atlantic, Indian, Arctic). Any review of this you can do at home with a globe or world map would be greatly appreciated!

SCIENCE: Your child should be working on his/her animal report. Please refer to the directions page stapled inside the red folder. If you have any questions, please let me know before your child does something that may not be correct. Please make sure that your child follows directions with respect to the coloring and labeling of the scientific drawing.

***********************SPECIAL NOTES***********************

Friday- OLYMPICS WALK-A-THON!! 3-6pm

May 15 – PTA Honorary Service Award Night and Chorus Spring concert  @ 6:30

May 16 – Animal report due

May 21 – Furlough Day – no school

May 23 –Minimum day dismissal (1:37) - OPEN HOUSE- 7:00 –SEE YOU THERE!

May 24 - San Francisco Zoo trip –students will wear their tie-dye shirts for the first time- Parent chaperones will be given instructions soon.

May 25 – 1:37 dismissal

May 28 – Memorial Day holiday

May 29 – First Grade program- 9:00 am in the cafeteria

Have a great week!

Sincerely,

Mrs. Pierce

Weekly Overview- April 30-May 4

HERE'S WHAT'S HAPPENING IN ROOM 14..... APRIL 30-MAY 4

Dear Parents:

The animal report notes and rubber-banded t-shirts are due this Wednesday! Please oversee your child so that s/he is not just copying facts directly from the resources. The Walk-a-thon pledge envelopes are due this May 10. Please help us to raise money for updating our computer lab!

LANGUAGE ARTS:

DOL/Sitton/Phonograms: We will continue to practice our English skills, spelling and phonograms. We will have a phonogram quiz on Thursday.

Reading: We will review all the stories in our book for themes 9 & 10 and then take the comprehension test on Tuesday. Our F&P testing for the spring standard text level (Level I) will be done over the next few weeks. Higher levels may also be tested in certain cases.

English:  We are still working on the categorization of nouns, verbs, and adjectives; however, we will expand our work to include labeling them in sentences. There will be a sentence-writing test on Friday.

Spelling: Once again students have the opportunity to have free time on Friday during our regular spelling test time IF homework and the practice test are completely error free.

1.  Did you go after them?                       6.  I have many friends.

2.  Eat your lunch before you play.         7.  It's a nice day!

3.  How old is she?                         8.  Two people are here.

4.  Will he get that book?                         9.  We saw a pretty house.

5.  What did you give to her?                  10.  I'll see him soon. 

MATH:  We will continue to work on different adding strategies. This week we will work on the strategy of making ten to add 8 and 9: 8+6 is the same as 10+4 which equals 14, so 8+6=14; 9+7 is the same as 10+6 which equals 16, so 9+7=16. These two strategies are very important. Please encourage their use on any math homework. We will also work on adding 3 numbers. The idea is to first look for tens facts and doubles facts within the 3 numbers to aid in the addition process: 4+6+5=?  4+6=10, 10+5=15, so 4+6+5=15 or 7+7+5=?  7+7=14, 14+5=19, so 7+7+5=19.

SCIENCE: The final copy paper and illustration page for the research report will be given out on Friday. The entire report is due on May 16, but your child may turn it in as soon as s/he is finished. Please make sure that your child turns in his/her brown notes along with the final project. If your child wishes to draw illustrations at the bottoms of the pages, s/he may. Thank you for guiding your child through this project. We will have our final lab this week. The students will be experimenting with how heat/cold can change matter from one state to another.

LIBRARY: Please help your child to remember to bring his/her library book back to school on Tuesday.

*********************SPECIAL NOTES*************************

PROGRESS REPORTS:  This week and next will be the last weeks that you will receive a progress report until you receive the final report card due to the busyness of these final weeks (PTA HONORARY SERVICE AWARD NIGHT, OPEN HOUSE …) and then I will be starting to compile information for the report cards.  If you ever have any questions about your child's progress, please feel free to e-mail or write a note to me and I will get back to you as soon as I can.  Continue to use your child’s work packet as the gauge of your child’s strengths and weaknesses.  I hope that these progress reports have been of use to you in keeping track of your child's progress.

LOOKING AHEAD:

May 11 – Walk-a-thon 3-6 pm

May 15 – PTA Honorary Service awards and Chorus Spring concert – 6:30pm

May 16 – Animal report due!

THE WEEK AFTER THAT:

May 21- Furlough Day

May 22 - Open House (7:00pm) – everyone come!...Minimum day (1:37 dismissal)

May 24- San Francisco Zoo field trip

May 25 – Minimum Day dismissal – 1:37

THE WEEK AFTER THAT:

May 28 – Memorial Day holiday

May 29– TENTATIVE First Grade Music Program – 9:00am in the cafeteria

May 31 –  Play Day -1:37 dismissal

June 1 – Last day of School – 12:30 dismissal

Have a great week!

Sincerely,

Mrs. Pierce