Dear First graders and First grade parents,

HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO OUR RODNEY!!!!!!! He is the second 1st grader to turn 7 in our classroom :).  Yummy cupcakes were enjoyed by all after lunch on Friday. The entire lunchroom chimed in while we sang his happy birthday wishes!

Reminders for the upcoming "short" week... Wednesday is a 12:30 dismissal day with NO AFTERCARE.  Please be certain that your child has transportation home at precisely 12:30, as it is also a 12:30 dismissal for faculty and staff!  We will celebrate Mass on Wed. morning at 10:00 a.m.  Please feel free to join us ~ we would love to see you!

Lunchbox reminders for first graders.... we have noticed that MANY of our darlings are no longer bringing their lunch mats on which to eat or hand sanitizing wipes.  PLEASE, please, please parents ~ continue sending these necessary items EVERY day in lunchboxes.  This is especially important in lieu of all of the illness we have had recently and will likely continue to experience throughout the fall and winter.  Ensuring that your child eats lunch on a sanitary surface (place mat) and with clean hands (using hand wipes provided by parents) will go a long way in the prevention of germ-spreading! Thank you to all of those who have continued to send these important items daily since the beginning of school.

Shoe-Tying Champions of the First Grade are: Amiya, Emily, Corey, Dawn, Daphne, Manny, Hailey, Rodney, Jayna, Donovan, Amanda, Victoria, Gwen, Joshua, Gabriela, Amarie, Kyla. and Sanaa!!!! Congratulations for mastering this very important skill :).  All first graders who have demonstrated this ability proficiently have been awarded a colorful pair of shoelaces (of their choosing) and our wonderful principal, Mrs. Scott, has graciously allowed us to wear them in our WHITE P.E. shoes!!! We also have earned a badge of honor on the Champion Shoe-Tying Wall of Fame! Way to go, first graders!!

Now that we are wearing sweatshirts, sweaters, and jackets/coats, some reminders to help make sure that we don't lose or misplace our cool weather protection:  Please be sure ALL garments that can be taken off during the day are LABELED clearly with your child's first and last name.  Please remind your child that it is HIS/HER responsibility to keep track of his/her clothing items.  It is not up to the teachers or other school staff to keep tabs on dozens of St. John's school children's belongings.  In first grade all students are reminded daily to put shorn sweaters and sweatshirts into backpacks immediately instead of hanging them on the coat hook or putting them in cubbies or seat sacks.  This will ensure that the clothing item will stay safely in his/her possession and not end up jumbled in with the lost and found items.  Mrs. Ross and Mrs. Lyle are unable to be the locators of said lost items ~ there are many other things that need tending to, for which they are responsible in the classroom :). Sweater and sweatshirt preservation and location is up to the first graders.

Parents - please check with  your child to be sure he/she has at least 2 D.E.A.R. books in his/her seat sack EVERY day.  For some reason, we are experiencing a shortage of D.E.A.R. books in seat sacks recently.... Any book(s) from home or the library will do. 

Donovan brought very special pencils for first grade to use and enjoy!  Thank you so much ~ we are very excited about using special writing tools! Victoria brought some awesome Nativity scene stickers forour first grade class to enjoy!  We can't wait to use them to create something beautiful!  Thank you!! Bryce brought Hershey's Kisses to share with our class!  Thank you for the sweet treats!! Sanaa surprised use with colorful, fruity Twizzlers for our candy jar! Thank you for the goodies! Donovan contributed an enormous bag of Tootsie Rolls and mini Tootsie Pops to our classroom candy jar, as well as more much-needed Kleenex and Disinfecting Wipes!!! Thank you, thank you!!!  Amanda donated a big bag of M&M's and a big bag of Skittles for our candy machine!!! Thank you thank you!! Victoria brought some YUMMY white cheddar popcorn for first grade to enjoy during our snack time!!! We will eat it up on Monday morning ~ we are very excited about that :).  Thank you!  Donovan shared a beautiful package of stickers for our classroom!  Thank you!!! We are very excited to use them! Amarie brought a dispenser of hand sanitizer to school on Wednesday!  Much-needed in the prevention of germ-spreading ~ thank you!!! On Thursday, Manny contributed a BIG container of gourmet jellybeans, which we can use in our candy jar!! Thank you!! On Monday, Rodney donated yummy chocolate bars and little packages of Lifesaver Gummies!  What a great addition to our candy jar ~ thank you, Rodney!! On Wednesday, Bryce treated us to candy corn, which we are now able to earn with our pennies! On Monday, we had a wondrous delivery from first graders!!!  Amarie shared Lifesaver Gummies and M&M's ~ thank you!! Manny, once again, donated lots of goodies ~ more chocolate and juice boxes!! And... Victoria shared lots of golden chocolate coins to add to our treasure chest!! Wow, wow, WOW!! Thank you for your generosity! On Friday, Bryce delivered a big bag of yummy Teddy Grahams and pretzels, along with some sanitizing wipes!  Thank you so very much for the generous donation to our wonderful first grade classroom! Manny's most recent donation to our classroom was a GIANT bag of miniature chocolate bars!  Thank you for your family's generosity, Manny!!! Muchas Gracias, Bryce, for the delicious bag of tiny Twix bars for our candy jar! We are so grateful to Corey for the awesome HUGE Teacher Reward Kit, which includes beautiful rewards/awards and stickers for our 1st graders to enjoy! Thank you, Amiya, for the delicious apple-cinnamon muffins we SO enjoyed for snack on Monday, October 5. Thank you, thank you, Manny, for the many amazing contributions to our classroom!  It was like Christmas!!  Lots of classroom cleaning supplies (perfect for keeping those germs at bay!), many boxes of kleenex (which we can never have too many of!), a huge bag of individual Wet Ones hand wipes, and an enormous box of Chex Mix for snack were tucked into two large shopping bags, as well as a large container of apple juice for snack and napkins.Thank you very much, Afomia, for bringing in an extra large bag of goodies for the candy machine AND a big thank you to Amiya for the Kleenex donations and two big containers of hand wipes!  Emily contributed a HUGE bottle of hand-sanitizer to help keep our hands germ-free, as well as a big bag of Skittles. Sanaa brought colorful boxes of Kleenex to school, as well as disinfecting wipes to keep our classroom clean as a whistle!  Jayna contributed even more wonderful wipes (we'll be the cleanest classroom in town!), and Joshua contributed Starburst and Skittles. Rodney also contributed Skittles and Starburst, and our friend, Amanda brought some individually wrapped Lifesavers and hand sanitizer!! Donovan contributed some much-needed wrapped sanitizing towlettes on Monday as well. We so appreciate your generosity. 

Love, hugs, and prayers, 

Mrs. Ross and Mrs. Lyle

***********************************************

 A Peek into the Classroom: 

On Friday, the first graders enjoyed enriching our knowledge of the Native American culture during our Catholic Identity time!  Our favorite part was coloring our special Native American boy or girl in traditional garb.  On Monday, we will complete the activity by cutting and pasting to create a beautiful picture!

During our Writer's Workshop time, we had a WONDROUS game of Spelling Baseball!  We each posed for our "baseball card" photo as we stepped up to the plate.  Each first grader hit one out of the park by spelling their current AND past spelling words correctly.  We were thrilled that the game was a tie at 7-7.  The "Dream Team" and the "Jets" were each cheering for each other.  Ask your first grader to tell you how we played the game! After baseball, we took our spelling test in our very best handwriting.  We did a stellar job, as always!

During Math Hour, small groups worked with Mrs. Ross building addition trains using red and blue linker cubes, while Mrs. Lyle's groups recorded data from the turkey glyphs we made.  Next week, we will turn this data into a graph representation of all first grade's favorite things to do and eat at Thanksgiving!  Our independent "Quiet" groups completed addition worksheets on which they illustrated equations and found the sum of these equations.  When finished, they practiced writing their own equations on dry erase boards!  We are already addition whizzes!!!

At lunchtime, we had so much fun singing to Rodney and eating his delectable birthday cupcakes!  Thank you, Rodney!!!

First grade was treated to our first beautiful outside extra recess time in a few weeks.  We spent our 28 minutes earned this week playing in the wonderful sunshine. 

Brown envelopes went home on Friday.  Be sure to read the Mini Messenger newsletter, as our Veteran's Wall has been featured!!! The paper went to print before the author of the article noticed that Rodney's name was accidentally labeled under Donovan's picture.  A correction will be made to show correctly that Donovan and Rodney BOTH wore the coveted fighter pilot helmet that Colonel Ross shared with us!!

 **********************************************

Special Alerts for the week of November 16:

Table point winners ~ For Monday, tables 2 and 4 were our top teams!  Table 2 earned 55 points and table 4 earned a total of 30!  Way to go, Jayna, Victoria, and Amanda; Emily, Corey, and Amiya! On Tuesday, tables 2 and 5 reigned supreme, with table two earning 30 points and table 5 earning 45 points!  Awesome teamwork, Jayna and Victoria; Daphne, Afomia, Manny, and Hailey!! On Wednesday, our grand prize winners were tables 1 and 2.  Fantastic work, Gwendolyn, Joshua, and Sanaa; Amanda, Victoria, and Jayna! Thursday's winners surpassed the entire week's points!  Tables 1 and 5 were triumphant with scores of 65 and 75 respectively!!! Woohoo, Gwen, Joshua, Sanaa, and Gaby; Daphne, Hailey, Manny, and Afomia! On Friday, it was a repeat of tables 1 and 5 as winners!  A great week for all!

Buddy is now going to receive another bath and de-germing, esp. in lieu of our recent bout of illness and will return, fresh and clean and germ-free sometime this week!

Amiya is our "Beary" Special Person of the Week this week.  We loooved her bulletin board pictures!  Ask your child to tell you about her favorite sport. On Tuesday, she shared with us her favorite mermaid doll.  Have your first grader explain what happens to the mermaid's hair when she gets it wet! Thursday was an awesome day for Amiya!  She brought Oreos to share for snack AND she read Green Eggs and Ham to us after lunch!  We could tell that she had practiced reading, as she used GREAT expression and knew just how to show the pictures!  Joshua will enjoy his turn next week!

First graders earned 28 extra recess minutes this week!

Duties for the week:  RR helpers ~ Amiya and Manny; Hallway Monitor ~ Kyla Prayer Leader ~ Bryce