New Year...New You

Welcome to 2019 families! It has been a few of weeks since our last post and between snow days and our Middle of the Year testing, I do not have a ton of pictures to share with you. I do however want to update you on what has been happening in first grade!

Our weeks have been short but they have offered us a great opportunity to gradually transition back into our daily routines and life in first grade!

Our first couple of days back were spent really going over our first grade rules and routines. We developed a new class contract which included all of the things that first graders should show in order to be STAR students.

All of the components were discussed and added to the contract through the discussion of our class. After it was developed, our friends then signed the bottom, stating that they would be working their hardest to follow those expectations.

Those two days were also spent learning about new years resolutions. We listened to a fun story called Squirrel's New Year's Resolution and discussed what it means to set goals for yourself.

After, we were given the opportunity to develop our own resolutions, which are now posted in the hall for others to read about!

I loved hearing and reading the personal goals that everyone was setting for home and at school!

There was one day last week that we had EVERY friend on task and working their best at the same time! What a great example of independent workers!

We have spent time learning new spelling words during skills this past week as well...yes, even with snow days we have spelling tests, our days will just get shifted a little bit. We set aside time daily to practice our words. This may include writing them, spelling while exercising, building with word mats or even building our words with play dough! There are so many ways to practice our words and I encourage you to spend a few minutes each night practicing them. Each week that your child takes a new list home, talk about the words and spelling patterns being used in them. Each week's words include spelling patterns we have heavily focused on in the previous week during our lessons and continue to use every day. They are not new patterns however are sometimes difficult to grasp. The more they practice the words and have opportunities to use them in their speech, they better they will get at remembering those patterns. This coming week we will have a week off from spelling words as we are transitioning out of the current unit in skills and then we will start up again when we begin our next unit.

We had a lot of fun using play dough to build our words this past week. If you would like additional ideas on how to practice your words at home please ask! I would be happy to give you some ideas! Just remember - the more hands on the practice is, the better!

We have also been chaining with spelling/letter patterns during our whole group lessons. This is a fun way to listen to sound changes in words and hold each other accountable to fix the words accordingly.

During science and knowledge, we have been focusing our efforts on learning about the solar system! It is SO interesting and we are learning SO much about our earth, the sun, stars and so much more! We get very excited to read about and watch videos about the solar system every day. We have been writing things that we are learning into our very own astronomy journals as well! Make sure to check out epic! from home to listen to stories and watch fun videos about outer space!

During story time, we have been able to listen to stories being read in outer space! storytimeinspace.com offers many stories to listen to that are being read by real astronauts in space! It is so fun to tie other areas of our day into what we are learning in our content areas! Check some of the stories out for yourself at http://storytimefromspace.com/library/! We listened to Mousetronaut on Friday and loved it!

I have been reading more and more about the #150hoursoutside challenge. Have you heard of it? This is a GREAT challenge to help encourage you and your family to get outside and play more in 2019! The challenge is to get out and play for at least 150 hours during the year. That seems like a lot but in reality it averages out to about 40 minutes a day, which isn't that much in perspective. You can read more about the challenge here at http://www.yournaturallearner.com/150hoursoutside-project/. If you are joining in on the challenge I would love to see some of your pictures of you and your child outside playing! Send them to me and I will share them with the class! Thankfully it has not gotten too cold to head outside for recess, which is such an important part of our day. Please remember to send your child to school in their snowgear and with WARM mittens/gloves, hats and boots. When they arrive at school in the morning, they go immediatly to the playground. They do not come inside until 8:35 when our official school day starts. Please make sure they are warm and ready to start their day outside!

Our website's homepage has been updated with important upcoming dates. Here is a little more information about what is happening as well:

Monday, Jan 21st is Late Start Monday. School will begin at 10:05. Breakfast is served in the cafeteria on late start days and is optional. It is not offered in the classroom on those days.

Wednesday, Jan 23rd is our school wide presentation from Barn Hill Preserve. There has been some confusion about this event. This is a presentation of wild animals being brought to our school for the students to learn about and see. In order for students to attend the assembly, you MUST sign the permission slip and return it by Wednesday. It would be best if returned by Monday! You have the option to have your child take a picture with some of the animals for an additional cost ($10 per picture). This is completely optional however you must have the money turned in by Wednesday for your child to get their picture taken.

Thursday, January 24th is the end of the second quarter! Can you believe our school year is half way done alread?! Report cards will be sent home on the following Friday. Please also be on the lookout for notes coming home about your child's current reading level. Throughout our Middle of the Year testing, I have been reading one-on-one with each child to determine what their current level is. I have or will be sending home a note about their current instructional (with the teacher) reading level. Generally their independent level is one level below their instructional level. The goal at this time of year (Jan/Feb) is to be reading at an instructional level F/G. There are MANY ways to work on reading at home with your child that do not have to take a ton of time out of your busy schedules. Just remember that even 15-20 minutes of reading every day can help a child tremendously as they become fluent readers! Also, don't forget about the important part of talking about the story or chapter of the book after they are done reading. You could try asking some of the following talking points:

TBD - Depending on snow days the date of our upcoming first grade Solar System Day has yet to be determined. This is a SUPER fun day spent exploring the solar system in a fun and hands on way. More information will come home as we get closer and choose a final date for the fun learning stations. We will be asking for 1-2 parent volunteers to help run stations so if this is something that looks interesting to you, please be on the look out for the information when it comes home!