Happy Groundhog's Day!

Upcoming Dates

* Tuesday, February 6th: 100th Day of School!
All the first graders will be doing a special all day long circuit to celebrate the 100th Day of School! Activities will involve various subjects such as math, language arts, science, and art!

* Wednesday, February 7th: Last Day for Book Donations
Thank you for the generous donations already this week. We are helping out many kids in the hospitals!

* Thursday, February 8th: Cupertino Library Field Trip
We will be walking to the library again this afternoon. Please remember to send your child’s blue library card with them to school. Also, please review their 4-digit PIN numbers!

* Wednesday, February 14th: Valentine’s Day
We will be celebrating Valentine’s Day in the afternoon by doing some crafts, having a snack, and exchanging cards. Every child must prepare Valentine cards for every student and bring them to school on Valentine’s Day. They can be homemade or store-bought cards. Here is a list of all the students' names in our class. Please have your child write: To: (student name) and From: (your child’s name) on each envelope.
Akane Anushka Catherine Geoffrey
Hitoharu Jaewoo Jonathan Joseph
Julia Lenny Mayu Michael
Ming-Li Moe Oscar Patricia
Reva Sammy William Yo

* Monday, February 19th – Friday, February 23rd: NO SCHOOL
Enjoy your winter recess!

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Dear Families,

Happy Groundhog’s Day! Monday was a staff learning day this week. The teachers spent the morning attending a writing training from the district. We will be doing more writing assessments in the upcoming months. In the afternoon, the teachers took a field trip to Hicklebee’s and bought books for our Eaton library!
Here are some highlights from the week:
Star of the Week: Akane
Poem of the Week: You and Me
Song of the Week: The Penguin Song
Kindness is … seeking wise people.
Story of the Week: The Emperor’s Egg
Vocabulary of the Week: Food 3
Word Wall Words: could, house, how, over, own, so
Next Week’s Sharing: Friendship Poem
(at least 4 sentences and bring a picture)
• Language Arts: Theme 5 Home Sweet Home – Week 2
• Stories: Me On the map
• Word Families: -ate (date, gate) and –ake (rake, bake)
• Sounds: long a (CVCe) and final sounds –nd, -ng, and -nk
• Grammar: Which Kind of Sentence?

• Math: We took our Money test this week. It was a very hard chapter for many students. Please continue to review money (identifying coins, amounts, and counting) at home. We are skipping Chapter 8 and doing Chapter 9 first on more addition and subtraction facts. We will return to Chapter 8 after a few weeks.

• Social Studies: This week we learned about Groundhog’s Day! We learned that groundhogs come out to look for their shadows. If they see their shadow, that means there’s six more weeks of winter. If they don’t see their shadow, that means spring will arrive sooner! We also started learning a little about penguins. We will be working in a penguin unit the next 2 weeks as well.

• Science: This week in circuits, we went to Miss Salter’s room and talked more about weather.

• Computer Lab: This week we made a Valentine’s heart tree using the program, Kidpix 4. The students will be decorating a bag for Valentine’s Day.

• Art: We saw Mrs. Blakeslee this week! It has been a long time since we had art because Mrs. Blakeslee hurt her knee in December. We finished our flower sketches and will be bringing them home.

• Music: We also saw Mrs. More on Thursday. She sang Chinese New Years songs and had us play drums and cymbals. We also got to wear lion costumes and paraded around the room!

Today, six of us first grade teachers are at a California First Grade conference to learn more strategies on teaching all different curriculum areas. I hope the students had a great day with Mrs. Nevins!