Ms. Jones and Mrs. Webster's Class

28 Days to Go

It is hard to believe that our 1st graders only have 28 more days left of being that.  Where does the time go?  Ms. Jones & I see them changing into 2nd graders right before our very eyes.  We hope that you had a restful and relaxing spring break.  Ms. Jones enjoyed some sun in Florida while my family and I were busy getting ready for my brother's wedding.  We both enjoyed our time with family and friends and we hope that you were blessed with the same joys.

As the year winds down we are quickly approaching CRCT.  This is something that your child should not stress over because they have learned these standards throughout the year.  Remember that during this week your child should get plenty of rest, eat a good breakfast, and dress in layers to remove them if needed during testing. 

Important Dates: 

April 18th - Milford Spring Clean Up Day

April 21st - CRCT begins

April 28th - PTA & Spring Art Show

May 12th - Field Day

May 20th - Awards Day (during Specials)

May 22nd - Last Day of School

Thank you for your continued support!  Remember, during all of this rain, that April showers bring May flowers.

Springing into Learning

WOW - March has been busy!  Ms. Jones & I love spring - a time for growth all over the place.  The best growth we experience is in our classroom.  This is the time when our fabulous first graders show us how they can apply what they have been learning thus far.  Over half of our class knows all 200 of their 1st grade sight words & the rest are not far behind them!  Over 70% of our class knows their addition and subtraction facts! 

Reports cards go home today.  Please sign and return the card in the unsealed envelope.  Should you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact us.

Pictures or picture money are/is due back on March 27th.  Thank you to those that have already done this.  Also, we give a big thank you for the donations of our field trip to the Atlanta Botanical Gardens.  It's not too late to send in your $6 donation for our trip on April 1st. 

Check out the garden’s website:  http://www.atlantabotanicalgarden.org/ for more information on what we will learn while we are there!  We're so excited!

HAPPY SPRING - GET OUT AND ENJOY THIS BEAUTIFUL WORLD!

English Language Arts Adoption

News from the county office!

 

The Elementary ELA Adoption Committee has recommended that the following titles be submitted to the Board of Education for approval:

Pearson Learning – Good Habits, Great Readers

Zaner Bloser – Handwriting (K-3)

 

These materials will be on display for public review at the county office from March 9 - March 27, 2009 during regular office hours of 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.  The county office is located at 514 Glover Street, Marietta, GA 30060.  

February Newsletter

The First Grade classes are reviewing for the CRCT in April.  We are reviewing Language Arts, Reading, and Math.  We are reading for meaning and learning math facts to 18.   For the 4th nine weeks, students will be learning about measurement, using numbers to 100, and 2-digit addition and subtraction in Math.  In Writing, students will be doing an author study.  In Reading, we will be reviewing long and short vowel sounds, learning fact from fiction, learning cause and effect, using dictionary and glossary skills, and recognizing plot, setting, and characters within texts.  In Science, students will learn to compare and describe animals.  In Social Studies, students will learn about American Folktales and Personal Finance.  Maybe you can come and share a career with us on Career Day---March 6th!  Thanks for all your support.                         

 

The First Grade Teachers

Falling Into ...

We have definitely fallen into a great routine in the classroom.  We are now definitely familiar with each other and how our classroom works.  It is hard to believe we have started the second 9 weeks of school!  Report cards went home today (10/17).  Please sign the white card and return it in the unsealed manila envelope.  Should you have any questions, please do not hesitate to call us to schedule a meeting or simply to talk on the telephone (678-842-6966).

We are still working on our list of 200 Dolch words.  Remember to have your child use them in sentences or find them in their environment every week as per our weekly phone call.  In reading we are not only working on reading strategies but also ways to become a better reader.  We are focusing on story elements (character, plot, setting), cause and effect, learning how to retell the story, identifying the main idea, and identifying literary forms (poetry, fiction, non-fiction, etc).  We are also working on synonyms, antonyms, and multiple meaning words.  In writing, we are writing narrative stories and we continue to work on our competency in writing (capitalization, punctuation, using complete sentences and spelling rules).  In math, we continue to build or subtraction and addition fluency.  We are also working more with money and we will begin discussing 2D and 3D shapes.  In social studies we will focus on Thomas Jefferson and his contributions.  We cannot wait to show you his home in Monticello!  In science we are learning about magnets (things they attract or repel and what cannot or can block their force).  We even painted with magnets!

We have a lot of creative and eager learners in our classroom.  We could not ask for a better group of students to guide through the learning process of 1st grade.  We cannot thank you enough for that opportunity!   

Students of the week so far - Leslie, Ashley, Jennifer, Dianna, Anh-Thi and Erick   (remember send in pictures when your child is our student of the week)

Welcome back, Anh-Thi!  Welcome to our new student Shaniya!  We now have 21 students in our class!

IMPORTANT DATES:

Oct 24 - Trunk or Treat         Oct 27 - Curriculum Night     Nov 4 - No School > PLEASE VOTE!

Nov 24-28  Thanksgiving Break (No School)

Sept 17 - Sept 19 CogAT

First graders will take the Cognitive Abilities Test (CogAT) Wednesday, September 17.  This test measures students’ learned reasoning abilities in the three areas most linked to academic success in school: Verbal, Quantitative and Nonverbal.  The test will take place for three days.

What do you need to do?

Make sure your child gets plenty of rest, eats a healthy breakfast, is here on time, and stays calm. 

TOUCHDOWN JONES-WEBSTER!

Ms. Jones and I are excited that fall is in the air.  We've been discussing weather in science and seasons came up, of course!  What's your favorite season?  Ms. Jones, hands down, said fall.  I was torn between summer and fall.  I love summer because I go to the beach, but like Ms. Jones I love the crisp air, harvest time, the temperature and college football!  Go Tigers!  Auburn for Ms. Jones & Clemson for Mrs. Webster! 

Since it is college football season we decided to give our rainbow words (dolch/sight words) a kick.  This year we've renamed them as TOUCHDOWN WORDS!  We sent home the master list of words a few weeks ago.  This list included 200 words that your child should know by the end of the year.  The 1st grade teachers are sending home 10 words a week.  The weekly question is:  where can your child find them in their environment?  We will call you on Friday with the new list of words and include it in their homework folder on Friday or Monday.  Every time your child can read a group of 10 words they will receive a sticker on their helmet or jersey for the "good play" they made in our classroom!  Learning these words increases their reading fluency and in turn makes them a better reader.

Currently we are working on concepts of print, phonics and phonological awareness, reading fluency, strategies, and comprehension, addition, subtraction, weather, map skills, and establishing our writer's workshop.  Can you tell we're busy, but then again when are we not busy?!  We're always here for you and we know you're here for us. 

Thanks, as always, for letting us be a part of your child’s' life.  We have the best “jobs” in the world! 

IMPORTANT DATES: 

Sept 9th - Open House (see you there!)

Sept 11th - Picture Day (bring your best smile!)

Sept 16th - Early Release (12:20)

1^st grade High Frequency Word List

http://cicobb.typepad.com/es_la/files/student_high_freq.%20list%201-200.doc 

We're not "lion" - we love our 1st graders!

Ah, the smell of the first day of school - you know the newly sharpened pencils, the fresh crayons, the new clothes, shoes, and bookbags - the smell of new opportunities!  We are excited to share the newness of 1st grade with you!  We've already met some of you sweet little people during our open house on Thursday and we anticipate seeing all of you on Monday morning!  We have so many exciting things to share with you!  We cannot wait to build our loving community with all 24 of you!  Will we ever be able to go to sleep Sunday night?  In the meantime, get ready to get to know us - Ms. Jones & Mrs. Webster:

Ms. Jones is a Georgia native.  When she's not teaching in the classroom she is teaching at the dance studio.  Ms. Jones not only loves to teach dance she is a dancer!  Ms. Jones loves to shop with her mom, hang out with her sister and her two sweet nephews, and play with her cat, Snowball.

Mrs. Webster is a Georgia transplant.  When she's not teaching in the classroom she is teaching her two beautiful children.  She and Mr. Webster enjoy taking the children to the beach.  Mrs. Webster loves to spend time with her parents, sister, brothers, sibling in-laws, nephews and niece. 

Together, we want your child to reach their fullest potential.  We love parental involvement and we love our students.  We find no greater joy than helping your best child become even better.  We thank you for allowing us to be your child's teacher. 

HUGS,

Ms. J & Mrs. W

Seasoning You with Love

Season's greetings!  We are winding down 2007 with lots of new information.  In math we are continuing to build on our addition strategies bank.  We have also examined plane and solid shapes all around us.  In reading we continue to work on our comprehension, decoding skills, and reading with meaning.  We have enjoyed making text to text connections with Strega Nona books by Tomie dePaola.  We have a wonderful day planned as our culminating activity.  If you are free between 9:30 and 10:00 on the 17th, please stop by our room.  In science we have been discussing sources of light and have conducted various experiments with light and shadows.  In health we have learned the importance of taking care of our bodies, especially our teeth!  In social studies we wrapped up our unit on patriotism ... we're so glad to be AMERICANS!  Tomorrow we will have a club day involving sound concepts and next we will have a special rotation for our students as well!  WE CANNOT WAIT!

Thanks to Destinei and Taylor for visiting Santa and having pancakes and sausage with him.  These activities provide the PTA with additional money for our students.  Thank you to Brady and Romello for bringing their families to our PTA meeting and Holiday Program! 

Please remember our last day of school before our much needed break is Friday the 21st.  Please consider donating goodies to our party and stopping by to share in our celebration.  Our party will be that Friday from 1:15 - 2:00! 

Peace on earth will come to stay, when we live winter holidays every day.  (an adaption of Helen Steiner Rice)  While we rush around to find the last minute gifts, attend parties, and find time to rest, our wish is that we all remember what this season is about and that we continue to carry that spirit throught the year.  We have a wonderful class full of loving, intelligent, kind, and beautiful little beings.  Their love for learning creates a fire inside everyone they meet.  Our class is the best gift this season!  Thank you for sharing your children with us.

We give thanks

Thanksgiving has to be one of our favorite holidays.  It is a time to remember all of the things we have to be thankful for in our lives.  Ms. Jones and I are certainly thankful for the hard work of our students and the support of our parents. 

We are currently learning about Patriotic symbols in social studies.  We are proud to be Americans!  We recently wrapped up our unit on magnets and another on sound in science.  Thank you for sending in the shoe boxes.  We have had a great time using them for guitars during our sound unit.  In Math we have been graphing all kinds of fun items.  We made homemade applesauce, we ate apples with peanut butter and marshmallows, apples with honey, and we drank apple cider.  We made a graph and the homemade applesauce was definitely are most favorite way to eat apples.  We also learned that we can sort our shoes in a variety of ways and transfer that data to graphs.  There are so many ways to use graphs ... we never realized!  In reading we are growing everyday in our comprehension.  One we are doing this is with the use of reader's theater scripts.  One group read The Little Old Lady Who Wasn't Afraid of Anything and another group read Henny Penny.  We will begin working on one for Thanksgiving this week.  The cast and audience enjoyed both presentations.  We are also working on group books called Turkey's Week which is a spinoff of Cookie's Week by Cyndi Ward.  They have created some really creative stories!  Speaking of stories, we are creating wonderful narratives in writing.  We conducted many activities to better use and know our five senses to help us with our narratives. 

Remember to return your Student/Parent/Teacher Accountability Pledges.  We have received 100% of our permission slips for the Aquarium.  THANK YOU!  We're so excited about our field trip.  If you are interested in volunteering, please do not hesitate to contact us.  We are also anxiously awaiting the return of one of our students who has been visiting Alaska.  Thanksgiving Break will begin on Wednesday, November 21st and we will return to school on Monday, November 26th.

Thornton Wilder said, we can only be said to be alive in those moments when our hearts are conscious of our treasures.”  We have many treasures to be thankful for in our classroom.  We have administrators that fully support the teachers and students.  We have families that love us and our proud of who are and what we are becoming.  We have shelters to protect us and food to keep our bodies fueled.  We live in a nation that offers us so many opportunities.  We have students who are eager to learn and two teachers who are passionate about fostering that!  Ask your children what they are thankful for in their lives and share what you are thankful for in your’s.  Perhaps a little more gratitude will make us all have better attitudes.