Sunday, February 5, 2012-

Happy Super Bowl Sunday! Hope you are enjoying your weekend! We will be taking our language arts test and money test on Tuesday this week since I have had to be out of the classroom for meetings. There was also some confusion with the sub on Thursday and the kids did not take their spelling test. They will take this on Monday so if you can take a few minutes to review them this evening. I have had a few questions about Valentine's Day.The kids will be allowed to exchange cards and we will have a small celebration with juice and a snack. If you decide to hand out cards you must give one to each person in the class. I'm posting the list of students in our class on the reference page of this site (to access this you have to go abck to the schoolnotes home page, type in my name and zip and then click on reference page). Thanks!

Homework-Week 21

Monday-pg. 69&70 p.p., pg. 213 math, Homework packet

Tuesday-Parts and Wholes, Sequencing, Homework packet, Penguin Questions (due Tues. 2/14)

Wednesday-Math extension, pg. 9&10 p.p., Homework packet

Thursday-Adjectives, Snack Shack, Homework packet

Friday-Ice cream writing, Solids to Liquids

***Just a couple mid-week notes. Report cards went out today so please look for them in your child's folder. Also, tomorrow is the Awards Assembly, first and second grade is from 9:30-10:30. First grade teachers will be at a pd tomorrow but Ms. Sainsbury will be happily announcing our awards. Have a great weekend!**

Sunday, January 29, 2012-

We are continuing to test this week in DIBELS, TRC and mClass math. We are hoping to have the reading tests done by this week so we can get the kids into their new walking reading groups. Please make sure kids are at school and on time.

Report cards will go home on Wednesday, I will be attaching a list of skills they should be focusing on. These skills will tell you where they are and what they can do to continue moving forward. If you would like to make an appointment to see me please email me and we can set something up for the following week.

We will be taking our second language arts test (on word usage, capitalization, punctuation, nouns, verbs, adjectives and words endings) and our first math test on money (counting nickels and pennies) this Thursday. We have been working on these in class and through homework, but please review these skills briefly each night to help them prepare.

We will soon be finishing up our penguin unit, we have had a lot fun with it. Thank you for helping cut penguin parts andfor donating the food items. We have a couple penguin crafts planned for the last day of our penguin unit that kids will love!

Homework-Week 20

Monday-Family Times, pg. 65&66 Spelling, pg. 141 math, Homework packet

Tuesday-pg. 67&68 G&W, Dimes, nickels and pennies, Homework packet

Wednesday- pg. 67&68 spelling, pg. 209 dimes, Homework packet, Adjectives

Thursday- pg. 49&50 p.p., pg. 207 math, Homework packet, Sequencing

Sunday, January 22, 2012-

Well this is the last week of second quarter if you can believe it! Report cards will go out on Wednesday, February 1st. Please contact me if you would like to make an appointment to meet as we will not have scheduled conferences this quarter.

A few notes for this week:

Please make sure your child has written their name on their homework before returning it to school. I have been noticing many assignments coming back without names. Often I am pulling their homework very quickly and do not catch which folder the assignment came out of. If I cannot identify whose assignment it is they will not get credit for their work. Also, all math answers should be labeled. The kids have been told this since the beginning of the year so at this point if their answers are not labeled I will take points off.

I have tons of sweaters, gloves, hats, etc. in our room. If your child is missing any of these items please feel free to stop by our room to see if we have them.

We are still looking for volunteers for the following: cut outs at home for our penguin project and tear notebooks and help with mailboxes at school

Please send the following in a baggie for our money unit: 4 quarters, 10 dimes, 10 nickels, 10 pennies (this will be returned when we finish our money unit)

I sent home Scholastic orders last week. Please return these by Thursday, February 2nd.

I hope you are all happily enjoying the snow!

Homework-Week 19

Monday- Family Times, pg. 61&62 spelling, pg. 61 math, homework packet

Tuesday-pg. 61&62 G&W, pg. 65 math, homework packet, prediction

Wednesday-pg. 63&64 G&W, pg. 75 math, homework packet

Thursday- pg. 81 math, homework packet, punctuation, talk radio

Monday, January 16, 2012-

I hope you had a nice three day weekend. We will continue to work on assessments this week and will also be having our measurement test this Friday. The measurement test will cover measuring in inches to the nearest 1/2 inch. Please note we are only two weeks away from the quarter so please make sure all assignments are in and your child is coming to school regularly and promptly. I know the weather causes some delays so please plan accordingly. In addition, make sure your child is dressed weather appropriately. This is Chicago, so it can be warm and sunny in the morning and quickly change to snowy and cold. The more layers the better. I have already seen a dramatic increase in the amount of sweaters, gloves, hats, etc. that are being left in the classroom or are being reported "lost." The best way I can help with this is for you to label their belongings, this could even be just their initials, but if they are labeled I can make sure they are in their hands before they walk out (every time I ask the kids who belongs to the missing items, shockingly no one does..ha!). Thanks for your help with this!

Homework-Week 18

***I know there have been many questions about the homework groups, I have posted an explanation on the reference page of this site which will hopefully clarify the focus of these groups, if you have further questions please contact me. Thanks!*** 

Tuesday-Family Times, pg. 57&58 spelling, Fact and Opinion, Homework packet (due 1/23/12)

Wednesday-pg. 59&60 G&W, Homework packet, Measuring

Thursday-pg. 29&30 p.p., pg. 59&60 spell, Homework packet, Money Memory

Friday- pg. 57&58 G&W, Homework packet, Money, Capitalization

Monday, January 9, 2012-

I hope everyone had a wonderful break! We jumped right back in and even though we are a little rusty (haha!) we are back to work! This week we are starting homework groups. The kids have been assigned to these groups based on the skills they need to work on. These groups, like the walking reading groups, will change throughout the year based on their progress. I will inform you if a change is made to their homework or reading groups (we are currently doing our reading/math assessments so once these are concluded I will be letting you know which teacher your child will be walking to). The two homework groups are the red group and the blue group. The kids wrote in their agendas today which group they are in. The homework on this site will now be coded in these colors so you know the homework they are responsible for. The red group will do the homework in red, the blue group will do the homework in blue and the entire class will do the homework in black. All homework will still be due the following unless otherwise indicated.

We would like to welcome Mrs. Kendt to our class. She will be working with us the rest of the year co-teaching and pulling small groups for support. We will also have a new student teacher starting in the near future.

As usual if you have any questions please let me know and I apologize for the delay on getting the homework change information out, I was having difficulty getting my updates to save on schoolnotes and by the time I got it to work I was in the middle of an evening class (hence the cryptic earlier message :)

Homework-Week 17

Monday- Family Times, pg. 53&54 spelling, Robot Fun packet (due Tuesday, Jan 17), Prediction

Tuesday- pg. 53&54 G&W, Robot Fun packet, pg. 135 math

Wednesday-pg. 55&56 G&W, Robot Fun packet, Main idea and details

Thursday-pg.55&56 spelling, Robot Fun packet, MER #17

Friday-pg. 19&20 p.p., Book Clubs, Measuring

**I just wanted to thank all the parents who donated and volunteered for Polar Express Day. We had such a great time and the kids loved taking a "ride on the train." I also have to thank you all for thinking of me over the holiday season and your extraordinarily generous gifts!!!! I hope you all have a relaxing and joyful holiday season surrounded by the ones you love! See you in the new year!!!**

Thursday, December 22, 2011-

I'm looking forward to tomorrow and our Polar Express Day celebration! Please remember the kids can wear pajamas and robes but they must wear gym shoes. I also wanted to let you know Progress Reports went home today. Please note the kids may resubmit any assignment with corrections for up to 90% of the total score. The only exception is tests as these measure what they can do independently. As I was going through their grades I pulled any assignments they were missing and sent them home with them this evening. These had their names written on them and must be turned in by Monday, January 9th otherwise their grade will remain a zero permanently. If your child did not receive any of these then...good news, they are not missing any assignments!

I also wanted to say thank you again to all of you who have not only supported us with donations and your time over the last couple of days, but throughout the school year. You have truly helped to make this a wonderful first part of the year. The kids and I have had such a great time learning, while still managing to a lot of fun and I hope you have been able to do the same. Have a wonderful holiday break!!!

Monday, December 19, 2011-

Last week of school before break!! We will be reading the book, "Polar Express" this week and doing many math and reading activites in conjunction with this story. We will be ending our study with "A Trip on the Polar Express," on Friday. Our room parents will be sending out information about how you can help us with this event, so please contact them with any questions. On this day the kids can wear robes and p.j.s but they must wear gym shoes. Not only will we have gym on this day, but for safety reasons they need to wear gym shoes in the school and not slippers.

Also, since we will be out for two weeks you can send your kids with their book bags on Monday and again on Friday so they will have new books for the holiday break.

Another note I wanted to share with you is that you may be seeing some papers come home without a grade but with the letters WR on the top. These are from walking reading (WR). The work we do in walking reading is not counted for a grade since the kids walk between five different classrooms, however you may still receive some of the activities we do in their home folder once we are finished with them.

Finally, I wanted to let you all know this will be Ms. Sainsbury's last week with us. Mrs. Kendt will be returning from maternity leave and will be with us starting in January along with a new student teacher. Mrs. Kendt has been a teacher at South Loop for years and we are very excited to have her join us in the classroom. We hope to see Ms. Sainsbury subbing at South Loop until she takes over Mrs. Lund's maternity leave position, however we are sad she will not be with us every day as she was a great asset to the class. I thought you all would like to know so you could have the kids write her a letter to say good bye and thank you. I hope you all have a wonderful break and as always if you have any questions please feel free to contact me.

Homework-Week 16

Monday-Family Times, pg. 53&54 spell, How many inches

Tuesday-pg. 53&54 G&W, Inches

Wednesday-pg. 129 math, pg. 55&56 G&W

Thursday-pg. 55&56 spelling, predicting

Friday-Map of Your House, How to Piece, Measurement Project

Monday, December 12, 2011-

Two more weeks until holiday break! Let's stayed focused and work hard so we can relax over the holidays. We are continuing our unit on measurement in math. We are also continuing to work on our "how to" pieces in writing. In social studies we are working on map skills and in science we are experimenting with solids and liquids. Finally, in literacy we are focusing on phonics, fluency, main idea, fairy tale elements and grammar skills. This Friday we will have a test on grammar skills so continue to review nouns, verbs, adjectives, capitalization and punctuation. Before break we will be doing Polar Express week. We will have a Polar Express party where the kids will "ride the train" into the holiday break on Friday, December 23rd. For this celebration we will need volunteers to set up the day before (22nd) and volunteers for the 23rd to help us with train themed activities. We will also need donations of hot chocolate and cookies. We also need copies of the activity sheets so if anyone has access to a copier who can help us out please let me know. Thanks!

Homework-Week 15

Monday-Family Times, pg. 45&46 spelling, pg. 113 math

Tuesday-pg. 45&46 G&W, Measurement sheet

Wednesday-pg. 47&48 G&W, Main idea

Thursday-pg. 47&48 spelling, measurement sheet

Friday-pg. 119&120 p.p., Graphic organizer, MER#15

**We have made it through the number projects (which were assigned over Thanksgiving break) and I have found we are missing projects from one-third of the class. If your child has not turned theirs in please submit it by the end of this week. It will be marked down for lateness, but some points are better than none. If you are unsure please email me and I can let you know if I received your child's number project. Also, please make sure to turn the hero presentations in on the assigned date so we don't get behind. If you need a copy of the guidelines they are the reference page of this site (you have to go to the homepage of schoolnotes and type in my name and zip code in order to access the reference page).

I also wanted to let you all know we are having our first language arts test (which covers the grammar skills up to this point) on Friday, December 16th. We will be reviewing over the next two weeks but you can also review at home. Skills to review are: punctuation, capitalization, word usage, endings (-s, -ed, -ing), nouns, verbs and adjectives.

Finally, as the weather is getting colder I have been alarmed and saddened by the sight of many of the homeless on our streets who are in the cold and often not dressed for it. I have decided to buy a bunch of adult sized gloves from Target to pass out to those I see without them. I know there are many requests and needs for charities particularly around the holidays, but I still thought I would put it out that if you have any new or gently used gloves I would be happy to take them to share with others. PLEASE do not feel as though you need to do this, as I stated before I know we have plenty of demands on us with our family, friends and chosen charities. If you do find some though please just send them in with a note so I know they are donation gloves and not the kid's gloves. Thanks and please stay warm as the weather gets colder!**

Monday, December 5, 2011-

I have uploaded the most recent newsletter to the reference page of this site. Please note the information about the Holiday Lights music performance on December 21st. On this day the kids are to dress in long black sleeve shirts and black pants. Also, Friday is the Snowflake Ball, the kids can dress up on this day. They are expected to dress in "formal wear." They should also bring a book to donate as their entry to the dance. The dance will be held from 12:30-1:30. Have a great week!

Homework-Week 14

Monday-Family Times, pg. 41&42 spelling, measurement math

Tuesday-pg. 41&42 G&W, pg. 97 math

Wednesday-Measurement scavenger hunt, pg. 43&44 G&W

Thursday-pg. 43&44 spelling, Main idea, pg. 117 math

Friday-pg. 109&110 p.p., Story writing, Skip counting

**Thank you so much we have our donations for the cereal.**

Monday, November 28, 2011-

I hope everyone enjoyed their Thanksgiving break and were very well fed! We finally have a full week of school and will be back to our regular schedule.

In math, we will be finishing up our addition and subtraction units with a math test on addition and subtraction 0-20 on Friday. We will continue to work on graphing and will begin our unit on measurement.

In reading/literacy, we are making great progress in our walking reading groups. We will do another assessment in January and will be able to see how much growth our students have made. We are focusing on fluency, phonics, vocabulary and authors purpose this week.

In writing, we are finishing up our expository paragraphs on animals this week and will begin our "how to" pieces.

In social studies, we are working on map and geography skills. We are looking foward to seeing the kids number projects from over break!

In science, we are starting our unit on solids, liquids and gases. We have a lot of interesting experiments planned so keep an eye out for at home projects and classroom needs to help us explore this unit.

Speaking of classroom needs: we are looking for a donation of four boxes of Fruit Loop cereal for a math project this week. We would need these by Tuesday. Sorry for the last minute notice..but please let me know if you are planning on donating so I know what I need to supply for this project.

We will have our first hero presentations this week and I'm really looking forward to seeing who the kids chose and what they learned about them!

Enjoy your last day of break!

Homework-Week 13

Monday-Family Times, pg. 37&38 spelling, pg. 91 math

Tuesday-pg. 109 graphing, pg. 37&38 G&W, Discuss your job with your child (there is no formal assignment for this homework, just discuss your jonb and responsibilities with your child over the next couple of days, we will use this information for an in-class assignment on Friday)

Wednesday-pg. 73 addition, Author's Purpose, Discuss your job with your child

Thursday-pg. 39&40 G&W, pg. 39&40 spelling, Discuss your job with your child

Friday-pg. 99&100 p.p., Author's Purpose

Monday, November 21, 2011-

We are headed into our last short week of school. We will have Thursday and Friday off for Thanksgiving break and then we will have four full weeks of school before the holiday break. It was a pleasure meeting with all of you for conferences. They always go by way too fast but I hope you were able to get an idea of your child's progress thus far and are excited for the work we will continue to do!

Just a couple of notes for this week so far: We will be having a spelling test this week, but it will be a review of short vowel words so this shouldn't be too difficult, all students will have ten words this week. Also, please submit your Scholastic book order money by this Wednesday. Have a great Thanksgiving!

Homework-Week 12

Monday-Mixed add/sub 0-20, All Aboard reading graphic organizer on a book of your choice

Tuesday-Mixed add/sub 0-20, Types of sentences

Wednesday-pg. 169-171 math, Gobble Up a Good Book Report on book of your choice, Social Studies numbers project, Scholastic News

**I hope everyone has at least started talking about ideas for their hero project. We are doing lessons in class about what makes a hero and introducing them to some heroes of past and present. I have put the project guidelines on the reference page of this site in case anyone has misplaced them. I hope everyone is having fun with this!**

Monday, November 14, 2011-

I sent home all conference forms last week. If I did not receive a time request from you then I just scheduled you for the remaining available times. Please double check your form to see if you are scheduled for Wednesday or Thursday. I look forward to meeting with you all this week. Please note the kids are not only off Wednesday for conferences but also Friday for staff development day.

We will be taking an addition/subtraction facts 0-10 test on Thursday. I have no doubt the kids will do well on this, but I would encourage you to do a quick review with them this week and remind them to double check their work.

We finished our small moments pieces last week and will be sharing them with our classmates this week. We will also begin our expository unit in writing this week.

Finally, I had been looking into taking a trip to the Conservatory, however the only date available was November 23rd. In addition, because of storm damage only three rooms in the Conservatory would be open for viewing. I decided to skip this trip as we have been out of the classroom a lot in November already, it was the day before Thanksgiving break so I was concerned about getting enough chaperones for the trip and since we have over a hundred first graders and only three rooms to explore I didn't feel the trip would be as beneficial and meaningful as I had hoped. I want to reassure you that we will have more opportunities in the future for field trips. Thank you!

Homework-Week 11

Monday-Family Times, pg. 89&90 p.p., Sbraction to 20, work on hero project

Tuesday-pg. 35&36 spelling, Sub/Add practice, Scholastic News

Thursday-pg. 35&36 G&W, Ten to twenty math, reading comprehension packet

**Please submit your Scholastic book orders by this Wednesday so I can get the order in this weekend. Thank you!**

Sunday, November 6, 2011-

Just a reminder this is a short week for us. We will be off Thursday and Friday of this week. Also, picture day is on Tuesday so kids can come out of uniform on that day. Don't forget to look for the Hero Project Guidelines will be sent home tomorrow so make sure to look for them in your child's folder. Their presentation date will be located on this sheet as well. I have scheduled 60% of the conferences for our class. We only have a few slots left for November 16th so please make sure to send in your forms as soon as possible. Any forms not received by Wednesday, Nov. 9th will be assigned a conference time for either Wed, Nov. 16th or Thurs, Nov. 17th depending on availability. Finally, since the next two weeks are shortened weeks the words given out tomorrow will be for this week and next week (week 10 and 11) and the test will be given on Friday, Nov. 18th.

Homework- Week 10

Monday- Hero presentation guidelines sent home, pg. 33&34 spell, subtraction sheet

Tuesday-pg. 33&34 G&W, Parades math sheet

Wednesday- MER #10, Meet Carl Stolz comprehension, Scholastic News  

**Conference sheets will be sent home tomorrow. Thanks!***

Monday, October 31, 2011-

I hope everyone had a nice evening! This week we will be wrapping up with place value in math and will be taking our place value to the hundreds test on Wednesday. We will continue with addition and subtraction to twenty, math extended response and graphing.

We have started our new social studies unit on communities and will be doing an extension on community heroes. Part of this unit will include our next home project. The children will be asked to choose a hero and report on the characteristics that make this person a hero. I will be sending home the guidelines next Monday, as well as posting them on the reference page of this site. They will have at least three weeks to work on it since it is a more extensive project. Two students a day will be presenting since these take a little longer than the Bear projects. Please help your child to be prepared to present on their assigned date as when projects are late it backs up the other presentations.

We also have many plants growing in our classroom right now from our New Plants unit. The kids have quite the green thumb (unlike their teacher!).

Walking reading has been going very well! We are able to target the specific skills the kids are working on and I'm looking forward to seeing how they progress over the next few months. We are continuing to do literacy and phonics work as a whole class and are currently focused on sequencing and key details in a text. Next week we will begin to learn how to find important information in a text and how to use the information in a question to formulate our answers.

In writing, we are finishing our first small moment narrative pieces. The kids have been working very hard on these and I'm excited to their amazing work! I will be sending home a writing assignment this week which will go home on Tuesday and be due on Monday. They will be expected to complete all steps of the writing process and I hope this will help you to work on writing at home with your child to support the learning in the classroom.

Please note the following important dates: November 8th-Picture day, November 10&11th- no school, November 16th-parent/teacher conferences

A couple of notes on conferences: the sign up sheet for conferences will be going home soon (I will let you know when I send it home so you can be sure to look for it in their folders). Please choose your top three times and don't forget to write their names on the sheet. I will be assigning times on a first come, first serve basis and will do my best to get you one of your choices or as close as I possibly can. Please note we have eight more children then we have available conference times. I will be looking for volunteers to schedule conferences on Thursday (Nov. 17th) afternoon. Please know that even if you choose to have your conference on Thursday afternoon you will still be kept to the ten minute limit so I can accomodate everyone. In addition, please keep in mind that part of the conference (approx. five min.) will be spent going over your child's test scores and current progress in class so please pick your most important questions so we can be sure to get to them. Should we need more time I would be happy to schedule an additional conference at a later date. Thanks so much for your understanding!

Homework-Week 9

Monday- Family Times, pg. 29&30 spelling, subtraction sheet

Tuesday-pg. 29&30 G&W, Place value, Writing assignment

Wednesday-pg. 31&32 G&W, sequencing pg. 24, Continue working on Writing assignment

Thursday-pg. 31&32 spelling, subtraction, Continue working on writing assignment

Friday-Sequence chart, pg. 79&80 p.p., Finish writing assignment over the weekend 

Sunday, October 23, 2011-

I placed the Scholastic book order this week so those books should be in soon. I'm still trying to figure out the online ordering. I will let you know as soon as I get an activation code or figure out how to get it working. I will also be sending home book bags this week. These bags contain three books at your child's reading level. They are to help you work on fluency and comprehension with your child at home. Please read them throughout the week and choose a few of the activities in the back to support learning. These bags should be returned on Mondays so you can work with them over the weekend and begin the week with new books. Don't forget we have the field trip to the Nature Museum this Thursday. Please make sure to send your child with a bag lunch, comfortable shoes and warm clothes as we will be outside for part of the trip. Finally, there is no school this Friday for a professional development meeting. We will still have our spelling test this week but it will be given on Thursday after our field trip. Thanks!

Homework- Week 8

Monday- Family Times, pg. 25&26 spelling

Tuesday- Bridging ten, pg. 25&26 G&W

Wednesday- Subtraction, pg. 27&28 spelling

Thursday- pg. 69&70 p.p., pg. 27&28 G&W, Story Map

**I just wanted to let everyone know I wrote the teacher each student will be walking to in their agendas under the parent notes section on Monday, October 17 (right next to their spelling words). The kids will be walking to this teacher from 9:15-10:00 every day. These groups were formed using their TRC (reading comprehension) and DIBELS (phonics) scores. They were designed to meet the kids at their level and keep them progressing forward. As the kids move they may change groups. If this happens I will write it in their agendas so you know at all times which teacher they will be with. They will still continue to get reading, phonics, writing and literacy instruction from me in addition to what they receive in walking reading. They will also continue to do spelling as a class. If you have questions please feel free to contact me.

Also, I sent home Scholastic book orders last week. Please submit these by Friday so I can enter the order this weekend. I had a few questions about online ordering. Unfortunately it seemed easier than it apparently is, I tried several times today to get our activation code but it kept telling me the server was down. I will keep trying and let you know when I can retrieve the code.

I also wanted to give you all the information about Kids College. This is an online program designed to help the kids in reading and math (and the kids love playing the sports games for answering questions correctly). You can access it by going to www.kclogin.com and entering our class code: kcc97399. You then scroll down to your child's name and you are set to go! 

Finally, if you are checking this page but have not yet signed up for notifications please do that before signing out :) This way you will receive notifications as soon as I update the page and it is also a great way for me to contact you via email should I need to contact you directly. Thanks!!**

Monday, October 17, 2011-

It looks like we are all set for our field trip next week to the Nature Museum, thank you to all of our chaperones who volunteered and to our room parents who organized it for us. We had a great time with apples last week. We learned a lot and really enjoyed the apple taste test. In the end the green apple won the vote as the best and the kids did a nice job graphing all of our results. We are starting walking reading officially next week with "test runs" this week so the kids are familiar with where they need to go when they start on Monday. I will write which teacher they will be with in their agendas (myself, Lund, Mistry, Sainsbury or McMillan). They will be with their walking reading group every day from 9:15-10:00 and with me the rest of the day. They will still be getting reading, literacy and writing instruction from me as well, however this 45 minute block will address the specific skills they need to meet them at their level and help them to continue to progress on to the next. Thanks!

Homework-Week 7

Monday-Family Times, pg. 21&22 spelling

Tuesday-pg. 23&23 G&W, Place Value 4.3

Wednesday-pg. 59&60 p.p., Hundred chart

Thursday-pg. 23&24 spelling, Scholastic News

Friday-Getting to Know Numbers, What's all the Buzz About? Graphic Organizer (on the book of your choice)

Sunday, October 9, 2011-

I hope everyone is having a nice weekend. I wanted to let you all know I opened the online ordering for Scholastic book orders. You can access it by going to Scholastic.com, searching by zip code and clicking on my last name. I placed the order for those which came in by Friday.

Also, we offically collected all the money for the science notebooks and I placed the order early last week so we should have our notebooks by Tuesday (yeah!).

We finished up our unit on Bears (I hope you all aren't tired of hearing bear facts, because we have a lot of new knowledge on bears!) We didn't get through all the projects so we will finish them up Tuesday, but they looked really great!!

This week we will be doing a short unit on apples. We will be doing an apple taste test on Thursday. Please help us by sending your child with one apple, the color will be designated by their last name (the chart is below).

This week will also bring changes in our spelling lists. I will now be taking off for incorrect capitalization of letters and reversals. In addition, students who have received perfect scores on all tests so far will be assigned challenge words. Since this is a short week there will only be two challenge words, however on a regular five day week there will be five challenge words.

We are finishing up testing this week and I will let you know once we get the walking reading program started. In the meantime the kids will be working in skill groups, not only in reading, but math and writing as well. We have been doing this informally and as-needed already, however these groups will be a little more focused on targeting specific skills.

We began taking comprehension tests last week and the kids did pretty well. I encourage you to ask them questions when reading about details found in the text, but also about character's feelings, actions, etc. Also, we will have our first test in math on place value, ones and tens, on Friday.

In writing, we have been working on small moments stories and I'm very impressed with what the kids have done so far. We will be doing student/teacher conferences in writing this week and I'm very excited to see how they progress!

Finally, progress reports come out Wednesday so please look for them in your child's folder. Thanks!

Apple List:

If your child’s last name begins with A-E- Bring a yellow apple

If your child’s last name begins with G-L- Bring a green apple

If your child’s last name begins with M-Z- Bring a red apple

Homework-Week 6

Tuesday- Family Times, Apple Inventory, pg. 17&18 spell

Wednesday-Apple Word Problems Math, pg. 17&18 G&W

Thursday-Place Value 4.5, pg. 19&20 spell

Friday- MER #6, pg. 19&20 G&W

**Just a reminder the $3 for the science notebooks was due last Friday. We are still missing 14 students contribution. Please send it as soon as possible so we can get those ordered and start our scientific observations. Our plants are already growing and I would love the kids to be able to keep a notebook documenting their experiments. Also, Scholastic book money is due this Friday if you want to place an order. Finally, so far the Bear presentations have been going really well! Just a reminder that the kids need to write to answer the questions, research only will not be accepted. Thanks!**

Monday, October 3, 2011-

Good morning! We have a few exciting events this week. Tomorrow is Bears Day so make sure you show your support for the home team by wearing Bears gear or solid blue and orange. On Thursday we will start our culminating event for our Bears unit. Please bring in a teddy bear or stuffed animal on Thursday. This should be an animal that can stay at school overnight for a sleep over. The bears will stay with us through Friday (I wonder what they will do in the classroom overnight, hint, hint) so we can continue to do activities with them. These activities will include; teddy bear measurement, teddy bear graphing, writing and comparing ourselves to our bears and of course our teddy bear picnic! Keep your fingers crossed for nice weather!! We have our first field trip scheduled for October 27th. We will be looking for at least eight chaperones for this trip.

Reminder: If you have not signed up for the notification list on this site please do so now. Finally, please continue to be on the lookout for emails from our room parents, they will provide you with important information and opportunities to get involved with the class.

Homework-Week 5

Monday- Family Times, pg. 13&14 spelling

Tuesday-Number Sense pg. 10, pg. 39&40 p.p.

Wednesday-Place Value, pg. 15&16 G&W

Thursday-pg. 15&16 spelling, pg. 13&14 G&W

Friday-Stir up a Good Story Book Report, Decorate Bear and write about picnic

**A couple quick notes: I have updated gradebook with math and reading grades (writing and social studies will be in by the end of this week), however I am still missing five students from gradebook, I have been in contact with IT and they should be entered by the end of the week. I will update those student's grades as soon as they are added. If you are the parents of the missing kids, I apologize for the delay, but I figured I would update as much as I could so you could know how your child is doing thus far. Second, I sent home Scholastic book orders today. If you are planning on ordering please turn your orders in by next Friday, October 7th. In addition, if you can send in the science notebook money ($3 per child) by Friday, September 30th, so we can get those ordered I would greatly appreciate it. Finally, as I noted before I do accept corrections on assignments, however I will only credit up to 90% of the original grade and only up to three days after I returned it home. Therefore, if your child misses one or two points, I still encourage you to correct it with them at home, however you do not need to send it back in because I will not give them full credit (for example, if they receive an 11/12 this as much as they would receive even with corrections). In addition, if you do not do the corrections within the three days, I will not accept it for credit. Thanks!!**

September 25, 2011-

I hope everyone had a nice long weekend. I just have a couple of notes for this week. First, I sent the student's reading logs home with them this week. Please read with them for at least twenty minutes each night and record the books on the log. They can bring the logs in every Friday to check in. Also, I still have a gym uniform that has not been claimed. It contains a large hoodie, a large pair of shorts (I think they are boy's shorts) and a large t-shirt. It was labeled for me so I do not know who the correct owners are. If you think this is yours please let me know. I also received a large bag of uniforms on Friday that I will be sending home with the kids on Monday, so you may want to wait to see if the uniform you ordered comes home tomorrow before checking with me about this mystery one. Finally, I know MER's (math extended response) may be new to some of you. It seemed as though the kids had some trouble on the MER I assigned for homework the other week. I will be assigning one again for homework this Friday, but I will be attaching a sample one that shows the steps I'm looking for. Please tear off the sample and keep at home for reference as we will be doing one MER in class and for homework every other week. Thanks!

Homework-Week 4

Monday- Bear Research Report Guidelines are sent home (due next week), Family Times (does not need to be returned)

Tuesday- pg. 9&10 spelling, pg. 9&10 G&W

Wednesday-pg. 11&12 G&W, pg. 29&30 p.p.

Thursday- Getting to Know Numbers, pg. 11&12 spelling

Friday-MER #4, Keep it in Order 

**One quick note: please look through your child's folder at their graded work. I will accept corrections for extra points for up to 90% of the total points (for example: if they receive a 30/40 on an assignment they can redo it for up to 36/40 points). This will help your child's grade, give them extra practice on the skills they may be struggling with and also teach them to correct their mistakes. Thanks!**

September 19, 2011-

The Gingerbread making was a great success thanks to our parents who volunteered and donated! The kids did a great job of making them, had a lot of fun and made sure that no piece was left uncovered with frosting, m&m's and raisins! Hopefully this did not make for too many stomach aches or sleepless Friday nights :) We have moved on to our Bear unit which will last for the next three weeks. We are also continuing to test in phonics, comprehension, writing and math skills. In reading our current focus is describing characters, setting and events using key details. The kids are also learning how to use graphic organizers to organize information from a text. In writing, we are focusing on writing a "how to" piece this week and next week will start on writing our first stories. In math, we are focusing on place value, addition and number sense. We also started our science and social studies units this week. We are focusing on communities in social studies and in science the kids are walking to Mrs. Lund's class to begin working on our New Plants unit. There is a lot going on so be sure to stay current with this page for upcoming events.

I have graded all of their work up to this point, but I found there were several students missing from gradebook so I have not input their grades into the system yet. Once these students are added I will update gradebook and will post on schoolnotes so you know to check on your child's grades. I have a few requests for volunteers. I am looking for volunteers to pull book orders (this can be done from home), make copies (again from home/work), sharpen pencils (home or school) and stuff folders (this will need to be done in school). Let me know if you would be interested in any of these and if it is to come stuff folders, what day/time would be good for you. Finally, please remember the kids do not have school on Friday. Thanks!

Homework-Week Three

Monday- Family Times (this does not need to be returned to school, it is just for at home practice throughout the week), pg. 5&6 spelling

Tuesday- Gardener's Delight math, pg. 5&6 G&W

Wednesday- Writing number's math, pg. 19&20 p.p.

Thursday- Mirror, mirror book report (use the book of your choice), pg. 7&8 spelling

September 11, 2011-

I hope everyone had a nice weekend. We made it through the first week of school and the kids are already getting the routine down! We had our practice spelling test on Friday and the kids did pretty well. I would like to note for the first four weeks of spelling tests I will not count off for letter reversals or capital letters in the middle of words. After the first four weeks I will mark a word wrong for both of these, so please begin helping them now with these as they are common first grade mistakes. You can find all the spelling lists under the flashcards link (this week's words are under week 2). We will also take minute math tests on Friday. These will not be for a grade, but they will be working on being able to answer math facts 0-20 throughout the school year and this will help mark their progress. Once they pass a math fact test (getting ten correct in a minute) they will be moved up to the next level of math fact test.

You should be getting an email from our room parents regarding our first volunteer opportunity. To culminate the end of our first theme "Gingerbread People," we will be making a couple of gingerbread people in class. We will be looking for volunteers and material donations so please contact our room parents if you are interested in helping. Finally, I hope to see all of you at the Open House on Thursday. There are two sessions; 6:15-6:45 or 6:45-7:15. I will be going over class routines, giving out information and answering questions. See you then!

Homework-Week 2

Monday-Number line train, Family Times

Tuesday- Order math, pg. 1&2 spelling

Wednesday-Missing Numbers, pg. 9&10 p.p.

Thursday-Writing "Where do you think the Gingerbread man went?", pg. 3&4 spelling

Friday- MER #2, pg. 1&2 G&W

September 7, 2011-

Welcome to first grade! I was fortunate enough to get to know some of you over the summer or in past school years and I look forward to getting to know the rest of you throughout this year. This week will be learning the routines of the classroom, so you can consider this a "practice week" when it comes to homework, spelling tests, etc. This is not to say that I do not want you to complete these things, because as we all know the more we practice the easier it becomes :) By next week the kids should have their agendas and you can expect them to have their homework assignments and their color (behavior chart) in there every night as well as their weekly spelling words. We will have our first official spelling test next Friday. In addition to finding these words in their agendas you can also find them on this website under flashcards. The words are listed by week and if you forget the week this will be indicated at the bottom of each weekly update next to Homework (example below).

All of this information and additional information about the class will be presented in more detail at the Open House on Thursday, September 15th at both the 6:15-6:45 and 6:45-7:15 sessions. I highly encourage you to attend the Open House as it should answer many of the questions you may have about the class. I do, however, understand that things come up so anyone who is unable to attend the Open House will get the information sent home with their child the following day and you can always contact me through this website. I look forward to seeing most, if not all, of you there. Finally, I wanted to mention our first volunteer opportunity. We begin the year with a Gingerbread man unit and to conclude it we make a few gingerbread men in the class. In order to do this I will be looking for four-five parent volunteers and donation of some materials. If you are interested in this please let me know. Again, I wish you a happy first week back to school and am looking forward to a wonderful school year!!

~Ms. Benitone

Homework-Week 1-

Tuesday-Super Tallies

Wednesday-Pg. 14 math

Thursday- Write about how you would catch the Gingerbread man

Friday- Special Name homework, pg. 6 math

Dear Parents-

I was informed that there were two supply lists floating around for my class. After some investigation I think I figured out the problem. The supply list that was sent home with your children during the last week of Kindergarten is the correct list. The supply list on the South Loop website is not. This was last year's list so I'm guessing it has not been updated yet. I know many people have not yet accessed this site, so if you could please pass this message along to the google group from last year I would greatly appreciate it. Thanks!

Brooke Benitone