Update October 30th

*This Monday, October 31st at 1:30pm, is our Harvest Party.  Thank you to the parent volunteers and parents that have signed up to donate items for the party! Students may wear costumes in school only during the Harvest Party.  The costumes should be brought to school in a bag with your child's name on it.  No face paint, masks or weapons will be allowed.  **In addition, students are welcome to wear "Crazy Hats" to school all day tomorrow.  Hats do not have to be crazy, they can just be hats!  Whatever works for your family.

*In Math, we will practice counting on the number line, counting to add/subtract and skip counting.

*In Social Studies, we will continue to focus on goods and services.  Businesses that provide goods sell items that are made or grown.  Businesses that supply services provide work that someone does for someone else.  This person is usually specially trained.  This week, we will listen to members of our community that provide goods and services.  The students will work with a partner to decide whether the person provides good or a service.  We will also discuss wants and needs.

*In comprehension, we will continue to learn about Non-Fiction features.  Students will begin writing their own Non-Fiction book: All About Me. 

*Star of the Week: I will be the first Star of the Week in our class.  On Friday, I will share personal photos, mementos and some of my favorite things with the class.  Each Friday we will choose a new Star of the Week.  Every student will have a chance to share.  When your child is chosen, you will receive a letter with information and a poster for your child to fill out.  My hope is for everyone to have their own special time to share a little bit about themselves.

*Thank you for sending in healthy snacks each day! The class gets a nice recharge halfway through our mornings!

Looking Ahead:

Tuesday, November 8th- No School

Friday, November 11th- No School

Update October 23rd

*Tuesday, October 25th is first grade's first Robinson School Store.  Students will have an opportunity to visit School Store during the morning on Tuesday.  There are many school supplies on sale including pencils, erasers, rulers, etc.  I suggest sending in $2.00 or less as many items are available for this low price.

*On Wednesday, we will welcome Emilie Boon, an author and illustrator of children's books.  Students will learn about the process of writing.  They will also learn and explore with Emilie's crayon and watercolor technique of illustrating.

*In writing, we continue to focus on writing small moment stories, adding punctuation to the end of sentences and capitalizing the beginning of sentences.  

*In math, we will focus on finding parts and totals, finding strategies for solving number stories and exploring length and pairs. Students will also learn about the proper use of iPads in the classroom.  We will begin to use iPads for students to explore math skills and games.  

*In handwriting, we are finishing reviewing uppercase letters.  We will begin learning lowercase letters and their proper placement.  Last week, Coleen Noble our school Occupational Therapist, did whole class instruction on proper pencil grip.  Students have been working hard to hold their pencils correctly in order to reduce fatigue and work on neater handwriting.

*We will shift our focus to Social Studies for the next month or so.  Economics will be our first subject of the school year. During the course of this unit, students will learn about:

*Want/Needs

*Goods/Services

*Businesses

*Mr. LaCoste has requested that students please leave Pokemon cards at home.  Thank you.

Looking Ahead:

*Next Monday, October 31st, is our Harvest Party.  Students may bring costumes to school to wear only during the Harvest Party.  The costumes should be brought to school in a bag with your child's name on it.  No face paint, masks or weapons will be allowed.

*Tuesday, November 8th-No School

*Friday, November 11th- No School

Update October 16th

I hope you enjoyed the beautiful Fall weather with your family.  We took advantage of the great weather this weekend with friends and family.

*Mr. LaCoste and Mrs. Kane helped excite students about our Race For Education Fundraiser on Friday by creating a funny video for students.  Take a peek at the video, here!
Please remember to send in labels with addresses for the Race for Education fundraiser.  Labels are due back to school tomorrow, Monday, October 17th!

*If you haven't already, please send in a photo of your child to use in a Non-Fiction book about themselves.  The picture can be from any time in the life, by themselves or with family and friends.  Please note, these photos will not be returned.

*We will begin to learn the features of Non-Fiction Books during our Comprehension lessons.  Features included are: table of contents, photographs, illustrations, glossary, index, labeling and bold print.

*Reading groups are up and running at full force in our classroom.  You will begin to see your child coming home with reading books throughout the week.  You can expect books at least twice a week.  Please continue to sign off on student's reading logs and share comments when appropriate.  You may notice that in some books, I will specify a page or chapter to stop at.  Please remind students not to read on because then they'll know information about the book that others won't when we meet in group the next day.

*In writing, we continue to focus on writing small moment stories, adding punctuation to the end of sentences and capitalizing the beginning of sentences.

*In math we will focus on writing math number sentences (equations) for addition and subtraction.  Students will also be assessed using the end of Unit 2 Math assessment.  These assessments help to determine areas students need additional support in during math instruction.

*Last week in Science, we received our pet hermit crabs.  Students observed how hermit crabs behave and the body parts they use to protect themselves.  We will finish up our Plants & Animal unit in science this week.  Please help us welcome our new class pets!

*Thank you to all the parents who have offered to donate goods or time for this year's classroom parties.  We also request a $6 donation per kid to cover the costs of crafts and games during each party.  The $6 covers all 3 parties.  If you haven't already, please send money into school in an envelope marked "Party Donation" with your child's name below.  Donations will be sent to our party coordinator, Ruthanne Madsen.  Ruthanne is busy planning our first party of the year.  The Harvest party will be on Monday, October 31st.

*Please consider donating Clorox Wipes to our classroom.  We use wipes each day to clean up after snack.

*Looking Ahead*
November 8th- No School (Election Day)
November 11th- No School (Veteran's Day)

Update October 7th

* No School-  Monday, October 10th

*Students will be coming home with the flyer of items needed at the Food Pantry.  Please send in items to be donated starting next week-October 18th.  Thank you!

*In math, we will continue practice with adding and subtracting up to 10. We will also work on solving change to more and change to less number stories.

*We will begin our comprehension lessons this week.  Students will practice making connections with fiction stories.

*We are in full swing with Daily Five.  Students are working on Read to Self, Read to Someone, Listen to Reading, Work on Words and Work on Writing.  I am working on reading with individual students and in small groups.

*Students have received their username and passwords for Raz Kids.  This can be used to practice books at their just right level.  Students should listen to the story, read the story and answer the quiz questions.  Students do not have to use Raz Kids at home, but they can if they enjoy it and would like extra reading practice.  They will also have the chance to use Raz Kids twice a week during Daily 5.  In order to use Raz Kids, log-on to www.kidsa-z.com or download the app.  My teacher username is: cconway2

Update October 2nd

**THIS Tuesday, October 4th, we will be traveling to the Cameron Senior Center to inventory the Food Pantry (9:30-11am.)   Students will create a list of items the Food Pantry needs.  We will share this list with the school community at an upcoming Community Meeting.  I am still in need of one volunteer that has an approved CORI Check.

**THIS Wednesday, October 5th:

PICTURE DAY

Please remember to send your child's picture day envelope back to school.  Envelopes can be sent in any day this week until Wednesday.  Reminder-the picture company suggests not dressing your child in green as they use a green screen to project backgrounds.

**On Wednesday, we will have recess/lunch at 11:05, which is much earlier than usual.  We will do this to accommodate the 2nd graders that are going to Living Lab.  We will eat an afternoon snack at about 1pm.  Please pack a snack that will still taste yummy this late in the afternoon.

**On Friday, we will travel to Crisafulli using the Robifulli Trail to meet our 4th Grade Book Buddies.  We will team up with Mrs. Boyle's class and half of Mrs. Kost's class!  We will have a chance to meet our buddies and they will read a book to the first graders.

**Math Skills for this week:

~Adding & Subtracting within 10
-Exploring subtraction pairs of 10

*We continue to work on building the 5 components of Daily 5.  We are beginning to work in small reading groups.  Students will also learn about the computer program RAZ Kids this week to practice Listen to Reading. I will be sending log-in information home, if students would like to use Raz Kids at home to practice books at their reading level.  We suggest that students listen to the book, read the book and then take the quiz that goes along with the stories.

*In Writing, we are working on putting periods at the end of sentences.  Last week the students learned about nouns.  We will continue to talk about how sentences have nouns and tell what they're doing.  We are also writing "small moment" stories.  Small moment stories are taking a big story like going on a trip and picking one small moment from the trip to write about.  For example, the plane ride or your favorite ride at Disney.  

Looking Ahead:

*Tuesday, October 4th- Field Trip to Food Pantry
*Wednesday, October 5th- Picture Day
*Friday, October 7th- Book Buddies @ Crisafulli

*Monday, October 10th-No School-Columbus Day