Farm Safety Day

We had a fantastic day at Farm Safety Day today!  Students were able to pick corn, play tug of war with grain, sit in a helicopter and much more.  I have posted many pictures from our day.  As you  see we had a LOT of fun!!!!

Super Achiever

Upcoming Events:
J Sept. 24 Pajama Day for Homecoming week
JSept. 25 Farm Safety Day Field Trip (depart at 9:00) Class Color Day for Homecoming week (we voted on orange)
J Sept. 26 School Picture Day
JSept. 27 Camouflage Day
JSept. 28 1 hr. early out (Homecoming Parade) School Spirit Day
J Oct. 10 2 hr. early out
Notes:
JWe started spelling.  A pretest was given on Monday.  If a student passed the pretest they do not have to complete the spelling homework in the week or take the posttest on Friday.  I will send home the checked pretest each Monday attached to their spelling homework.  Students are to write their spelling words each day.  Please mix up the words on the list.
JFor Farm Safety Day please send your child in good walking shoes and layers so they can be warm enough in the morning and cool enough in the afternoon.
JFundraiser packets were due Friday.  If you still have one please turn it in on Monday.
JFriday we had our first Super Achiever.  Each Friday I will pick one student who has been showing good respect to our school, our classroom, themselves, and others throughout the week.  They will receive a subway coupon for a Fresh Fit for kids’ meal.  The last week of the each month all our Super Achievers will eat lunch in the classroom and receive a special treat.
Things to Work on:
JIdentifying even and odd numbers
JUsing decoding strategies to help solve an unknown word: chunk the word into parts they know or stretch out the sounds. 
What we have been up to:
Reading: This week we continued to review beginning, middle, and end parts of stories.  We also practiced sorting words into the –at and –an word families.
Math: We practiced counting on from 5 to make the numbers 6,7,8, 9, and 10.
Science: We read the book A Tree for All Seasons.  We then made a poster showing an apple tree in each season. 

Apple Orchard

College students talked to us about the Apple Orchard that they have on campus.  One of the college students climbed a tree and shook down apples.  Students were then able to pick up any of the apples for us to use to make apple juice.  Students placed them in a wash basin to get washed.  Aftter the apples were washed the college students grinded them into a basket and then pressed the juice out.

Sept. 10-14

Upcoming Events:

J Sept. 25 Farm Safety Day Field Trip (depart at 9:00)--- I am still missing a few permission slips. 
J Sept. 26 School Picture Day
JSept. 28 1 hr. early out (Homecoming Parade)
Notes:
JOur new word work was using stamps to identify beginning sounds. 
J This week we started small group reading groups.  During this time a small group of students will work with me reading a book that is at their instructional level. 
JNext week we will start spelling.  A pretest will be given on Monday.  If a student passes the pretest they do not have to complete the spelling homework in the week or take the posttest on Friday.  I will send home the checked pretest each Monday attached to their spelling homework.  Students are to write their spelling words each day.  Please mix up the words on the list. 
Things to Work on:
JWriting basic addition sentences and switching the numbers to have the same sum.  Example: 3+5=8 and 5+3=8
What we have been up to:
Reading: This week we finished our Smart Start unit with sound/ letter review.  We will keep this book at school to use throughout the year on various other projects.  During our last week of Smart Start we read a few short narratives and used pictures to sequence the narratives according to beginning, middle, and end.
Math: We have been practicing breaking apart a number and writing a simple addition sentence with it.  We focused on the numbers 7,8, and 9.  We learned another new math game called addition top-it.  Students flip two cards over and add the cards together.  The student with the biggest sum gets all the cards.
Science: We started our science unit with listing what we thought scientists do.  We had some great answers.  Some of them were: they wear different clothes, they discover things, they invent things, and they use magnifying glasses. 

First week of September

Upcoming Events:

J Sept. 12 2 hr. early out
J Sept. 13 Field Trip to Apple Orchard (depart at 1:30)
J Sept. 25 Farm Safety Day Field Trip (depart at 9:00)
J Sept. 26 School Picture Day
JSept. 28 1 hr. early out (Homecoming Parade)
Notes:
J I have attached a book order for September.  Please return the book order by Sept. 14^th or order online.
JWe started some new Daily 5 activities this week.  In work on writing students were able to pick three stickers and make up a silly story about them.  New activities in word work included: matching uppercase and lowercase letters, matching long and short vowel sounds, and identifying the beginning sound of a picture and finding letters in magazines that matched.
Things to Work on:
JReading AR books daily and asking your child questions about what they have read. (Who are the characters?  What is the setting?  What happened first?)
What we have been up to:
Reading: We have been working on reviewing our letters.  This week we reviewed the letters: d, r, b, l, short o, and k.   We read some stories and spent some time practicing retelling them with the beginning, middle, and end.
Math:  In math we spent time working with the number five and breaking it apart and writing number sentences: 4+1=5, etc.  We had some time to play a math game with a deck of cards.  Students put all the cards in one stack and flipped over one card.  The student with the biggest number kept all the cards. 
Social Studies: This week we had the Mayor of Emmetsburg come and speak to first grade as well as a police officer from Emmetsburg.  Our speakers spoke to us about respect and responsibility.

Mr. Adams Speaks About Respect

Mr. Adams from the Emmetsburg Poice Department came and spoke to first grade about respect and responsibility.  He discussed ways to show respect in school as well as outside of school.

Mayor Heddinger Speaks to First Grade

The Mayor of Emmetsburg came and spoke to first grade classes this afternoon about her job as the leader of Emmetsburg.  In our social studies unit we have been discussing leaders of our school, town, state, and country.  The Mayor mentioned that she was elected through the voting process, which is another key social studies concept.  One of the questions that the Mayor asked us was: What is one thing you would want to see changed in Emmetsburg?  Student responses included a waterpark and a dinosaur museum.  Tomorrow we will listen to a police officer talk about his role as a leader in Emmetsburg.