Week of May 21, 2012  

      The school year seems to be going fast!! Another field trip letter was sent home this past Friday, May 18th. Our chaperones joining us on the bus will be Mrs. Ludka, Mrs. Mattias and Mrs. Washburn. As I mentioned in the letter, everyone is welcome to meet us at the zoo.

We will be going to Southwicks Zoo in Mendon Mass. on Wenesday, May 30th. The form sent home mentioned Wednesday, June 1st. The field trip will be Wednesday,May 30th.  Sorry for any confusion!!!

    Thanks for sending in the donations for our classroom. We truely appreciate all of the generosity!!!    

              I wanted to thank all of the parents for helping their children to be responsible with their homework. This class has been very responsible and Mrs. Carraccio and myself have been impressed. This has helped many of the children with their grades on their report cards, rather than hurt them. Please try and make sure the children continue to stay on top of their homework with the nice weather coming. Thanks for all your support!!!

         THe children enjoyed the fairytale Cinderella last week. We also enjoyed the play Cinderella put on by 4th grade. We have enjoyed many other Fairytales this year too. They include: Goldilocks and The Three Bears, The Princess and the Pea, The Three Billy Goats Gruff, The Tortoise and the Hare, Martina the Cockroach , The Little Red Hen and The City Mouse and the Country Mouse.  I try to exspose them to many different Genres.

        Talking about reading, we have been enjoying guided reading.  I meet with the groups 1-2 times a week in small groups. The other children work independently on word sorts, handwriting, math, reading activities etc. etc. The children have been doing a good job of working independntly

          We are finishing up our thematic unit on the desert. We are learning about the climate and the animals and plants that make their home in the desert. We will also learn about the different characteristics of the plants and animals and how they help them to survive in the desert.

          We are learning about eating healthy and the basic food groups. We will also start a new thematic unit soon on the solar system. It is a fun way to end our school year. If the childrn have any books on the solar system, they are welcome to bring them in.

                We will be starting spelling homework in January. I will send a note home explaining it to you. The students may get some time to work on it in school as part of our centers,during guided reading.  Our spelling tests will be on Friday. The words will always be posted on this schoolnotes page near the bottom, as well as in thier agendas. You will now start seeing reading words of the week in addition to spelling words of the week written in their agendas. They will also have a list  of their spelling words torn out from their  practice book that they will keep in the front pouch of their agendas. They did a good job with their spelling homework for the first week. Thanks for your help.            

        We have  some exciting classroom technology news. We have a new computer program that we are using in our classroom. It is called Doceri. It allows us to control and interact with the computer from the ipad while we are at our desks. We can also show it on our screen with our new projector donated by Gtech Corporation. Thanks to Mrs. Adamo for helping us to get it installed and working!!!  Thanks for my Christmas present!! The stylus works great and makes it easier to move around on the ipad etc. This week we put a scanner in our classroom and now we are able to scan workbook pages, poems and many other items. We can then show them with the projector. It is a nice addition. Also, during February vacation a new screen was installed. It is much bigger than the old one and is working out nicely. 

   Although Schoolnotes is a great communication tool, always check your child's agenda  and pocket first for the most up-to-date information.


Our Classroom webpage has lots of information on procedures and policies. Please visit Mrs. Irving's 1st Grade at:

http://www.ri.net/RInet/Fr_Doyle/grade1I.html 

Homework for the week of May 21,  2012(Just a reminder... homework is 10% of their grade for math ,reading and spelling- Please help to instill how important homework is at a young age) You may also see math homework in the front pouch of their agenda so please check nightly.

Monday:  Spelling words 5xeach and math pg. 122.

Tuesday:,spelling sentences

Wednesday: Spelling words in ABC order, Math pg. 123.

Thursday:  Math pg. 124, Study for Spelling test

 Friday : Math pg. 125, read and sign fairy tale

 For more information on our math program you may go to WWW.progressinmathematics.com. 

In math, we will be starting chapter 9  this week. we had skipped over it so that I could make sure we got through Chapter 10. The children are doing well in Chapter 10. This chapter focuses on adding two diget numbers.

We will be starting Unit 13 this week .

Trick words (5/21/12) never, another and day

Trick words (5/14/12) both, being and under

Trick words (5/7/12) see, work and between

Trick words (4/30/12) good, very and own

Trick words (4/9/12 & 4/23/12) years, says, little

Trick words (4/2/12) people, Mr. and Mrs.

Trick words(3/26/12) should, because and each

Trick words(3/19/12)how, your and down

Trick Words (3/12/12)many, before, and called

Trick words (3/5/12)would, after and also

Trick Worda (2/27/12) our, over and come

Trick Words (2/6/12) any, my and now

Trick words (1/30/12)say, do and first

Trick words (1/23/12)some, could and want

Unit 7 Phonics

Trick words (1/17/12) only, other and new

Trick words (1/3/12 & 1/9/12) two, about and into

Trick Words (12/19/11) out, so and are

 Unit Six Phonics

Trick words (12/12/11) there, what and she

Trick words (12/5/11) were, her and put

Unit Five Phonics

Trick words (11/20/11 and 11/27/11) from, or and have

Unit Four Phonics

Trick Words (11/14/11) they, one and said

Trick Words (11/7/11) you, we and I

Unit Three Phonics

Trick Words (10/31/11) as, his and has

Trick words (10/24/11) to, a, was, for, he and is ( we are combining the first two weeks since we got a head start last week.)

Unit two Phonics

Trick words (10/3/11 and 10/11/11) a, and, the  and of (write these on an index card and practice reading and writing) The children will be tested on Trick words. 

 This weeks poem is  The Irish Blessing.

For writing, we read Down The Road and discussed how the story has  a beginning, Middle and end. The main character in the story felt all grown up since she was able to walk to the store by herself to get eggs.The children are working on a story about when they felt grown up and were able to do something on their own. We will continue working on them this week. We aslso worked on writing directions for making soup. I will be hanging this up in our classroom. We read the fairy tale Stone Soup. This was a writing activity to go along with our Fairy Tale. We put up our first grade writing bulletin board near the front office. We did a "why" poem since April is Poetry month. The children did a nice job. Check it out if you get a chance. Therefore...we are still working on our stories.

This week in writing, we are working on an acrostic desert poem.

        Reading- We are finished with Theme 10. We will now get to enjoy some Folk tales in our reading book . This is our last Theme for the year. We will now haave time to enjoy other books in our classroom.

Reading words of the week: (These should be written on index cards and practice daily.) The children have been doing well with these words  of the week.

  Week of 9/6/11-Theme 1 Week 1-go, on and the. Also practice the at word family.(ie cat , sat , mat, hat etc.)

Week of 9/12/11-Theme 1 Week 2-and, here, jump, not, too, we and an word family. (ie Nan, fan, tan, can etc)

Week of 9/19/11-Theme 1 Week 3- a, find, one, have, to, who and it word family. (ie sit, hit, pit etc)We will also review the ig word family. (ie big, pig, wig etc.)

Week of 9/26/11-Theme 2 Week 1-five, four, three, two, in, once, upon and what.

Week of 10/3/11-Theme 2 Week 2-for, you,said, my, me, is, I and do. We wil also practice words that end with en and et.

Week of 10/11/11-Theme 2 Week 3-are, away, does, he, live, pull, they and where.

Week of 10/17/11- No new words due to testing

Week of 10/24/11-animal, flower, bird, full, see, cold, fall, of and look.

Week of 10/31/11-all, call, eat, every, first, never, paper, shall and why

Week of 11/7/11-also, blue, brown, color, funny, green, like, many and some.

Week of 11/14/11-children, come, family, father, love, mother, people, picture, and your.

Week of 11/20/11 and 11/27/11-today, know, play, friend, write, she, girl, sing and read

Week of 12/5/11-car, down, hear, hold, hurt, learn, their , walk and would.

Week of 12/12/11-grow, light, long, more, other, right, room, small and these.

Week of 12/19/11-could, house, how, over,own, so and world.

Week of 1/3/12-give, good, her, little, try, was, fly and our.

Week of 1/9/12-morning, found, shout, by, out, show and climb.

Week of 1/16/12-cow, table, now, door, there, through, horse and wall.

Week of 1/23/12-been, far, forest, goes, hungry, soon, evening, and near.

Week of 1/30/12-again, both, gone, or, want, turn, and hard.

Week of 2/6/12-afraid, any, bear, follow, most, tall, water and idea.

Week of 2/13/12-build, old, piece, shoe, start, under, very and wear.

Week of 2/27/12-about, because, draw, happy, teacher, part, and tiny.

Week of 3/5/12-always, arms, body, eight, ready, seven, and warm.

Week of 3/12/12-carry, kind, put, saw, butter, were, work and person.

Week of 3/19/12-else, dance, around, open, ocean, talk, though and ever.

Week of 3/26/12-after, before, buy, pretty, school, done, off and wash.

Week of 4/2/12-watched, together, garden, sharp, baby, edge, only,and  enough.

Week of 4/9/12-no new reading words due to short week last week.

Week of 4/23/12-began, break, laugh, divide, head, second and sure.

Week of 4/30/12-begin, minute, already, above, against, and caught

Week of 5/7/12-able, eye, thought and present.

Week of 5/14/12-creek, muddy, loud and tone.

Week of  5/21/12-rainbow, string, you'll, wrong, wait, admit and means.

Spelling-Spelling homework will be the same each week. On Monday night the children will write the words 5 times each neatly. Paper will be provided and sent home in their agenda pouches. On Tuesday night the children will choose 5 of their spelling words to write in a sentence. They should try and write a variety of sentences ie asking sentences , telling sentences etc. The sentences should be numbered and the spelling words  need to be underlined. On Wednesday, the children will put the words in abc order and Thursday night they will study for the spelling test.

Spelling Words (Our spelling words will now be our trick words from our phonics program since we have completed our last Theme in reading)

Week of 5/21/12-could, what, they, have, said, come, many, and some.

Challenge list-called, dreamed, peeled, watched, talked, baked, skated, shopped.

Week of 5/14/12-both, being, under, people, work, between, own and very.

Week of 5/7/12-newer, warmest, highest, faster, deepest, richer, smaller and kindest

Week of 4/30/12-car, start, arm, far, yard, dark, large and jar.

Week of 4/23/12-store, corn, for, more, or, morning, afford and before.

Week of 4/9/12-No new spelling words since we are at the end of the Theme and last week was a short week. Due to last week being a four day week, we didn't have a spelling test. I didn't think it would be fair, but I wanted the children to be familiar with oy and oi words.

Week of 4/2/12-coin, soil, boy, oil, toy, point, moist and destroy.

Week of 3/26/12-dishes, dresses, boxes, beaches, wishes, kisses, classes, and brushes.

Week of 3/19/12-by, my, fly, try, cry, why, pry and multiply.

Week of 3/12/12-landed, checking, telling, missed, filled, sleeping, bluffing and planted.

Week of 3/5/12-cow, house, out, down, now, found, pouch and crowded.

Week of 2/27/12- cup, cups, frog, frogs, tree, trees, gloves and birds.

Week of 2/13/14-zoo, food, too, moon, soon, room, moose and balloon.

Week of 2/6/12-look, book, took, good, foot, cook, hoof and crook.

Week of 1/30/12-boat, slow, coat, grow, show, toad, coast and know.

Week of 1/23/12-day, say, play, may, way, stay, away and holiday.

Week of 1/16/12-me, see, mean, feet, eat, he, maybe and sheep.

Week of 1/9/12-go, bone, so, nose, home, no, also, and woke.

Week of 1/3/12-like, five, ride, nine, time, kite, prize, and smile

Tests and quizzes:

Monday: spelling pretest , Math test Chapter 10

Tuesday:Math test chapters 1-10

Wednesday:

Thursday:

Friday: spelling test