Upcoming Dates
Sunday, November 2nd: Daylight Savings
Don’t forget to change your clocks back one hour!
Monday, November 3rd: October Book-It Reading Logs Due!
Remember to read every evening and complete the reading log we sent home earlier this month! Students who complete their reading logs will receive a certificate for a Pizza Hut personal pizza (and even if you do not like pizza, please remember to read every day!) The November reading log is in today’s Friday Folder.
Monday, November 10th and Tuesday, November 11th: NO SCHOOL
Enjoy your four-day weekend! We will not be coming to school because of Veteran’s Day.
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Dear Families,
Happy Halloween! This week was a short week so we did not have our usual literacy centers. Instead, we had lots of different activities!
On Monday, all the teachers and staff did team-building activities led by Micah Jacobson from the Boomerang Project. He helped us to get to know each other and ourselves more deeply and motivated us to continue making Eaton a wonderful place for teachers and students!
On Tuesday, we had a fire drill and firefighters from the fire department came to make sure we had a good evacuation process planned out. They gave us good marks! This week was also Red Ribbon Week and we learned about what it means to be drug free. This is why red ribbons were tied around school and students were asked to wear red clothes.
On Wednesday, we had the Morris Brothers return to Eaton to present a special assembly about Red Ribbon Week and what it means to stay safe. Today, of course, was an eventful day with all the Halloween celebrations!
Here are some highlights for the week:
• Language Arts:
Poem of the Week: Pumpkin
Song of the Week: Four Seasons
Kindness is: raising money for my school.
Word Wall Words: two, three, four, five, once, upon, in, what
Story of the Week: The Box, Wigs in a Box
Word Families: -ox, -ot
Sounds: d, w, l, x, and short o
Strategy and Skill Focus: Question and Noting Details
Grammar: Capitalizing Names and Word Order in Sentences
• Writing: This week we started writing a short description about a monster that we created. We also drew a picture of our monster and wrote details about it.
• Math: This chapter on data and graphs has been much harder for the students to complete accurately. Students have trouble counting carefully when making picture or bar graphs and word problems have been somewhat challenging. Therefore, we have been working in smaller groups on different word problems to practice solving them together. Miss Yeh comes in every Tuesday morning before recess and she helps to take half the class for reading while I teach math, and we switch groups halfway through. This has helped me to work more closely with individual students.
• Science: This week was our last week with the Solids and Liquids kit. We explored the different properties of liquids this week and made our own observations about liquids such as: cornstarch, water, fabric softener, cooking oil, and liquid hand soap. We still have a few more wrap-up activities to assess student knowledge, but otherwise we were able to complete most of the experiments in our science kit. Also, this week in class, we completed a project about the life cycle of a pumpkin using the story, Pumpkin, Pumpkin. We learned that all living things change and grow! Please ask your child if they can teach you how a pumpkin grows!
• Social Studies: In addition to learning about Red Ribbon Week, we had circuits with Mrs. Barelli this week. She combined social studies with a little bit of math by first talking about homes and families in our community, and then counted the number of feet in people’s homes.
• Computer Lab: This week, we used Kidpix to draw a Halloween picture for our Kindness website.
• Buddies: We haven’t seen our buddies for a while! This Thursday, we talked about UNICEF and received boxes that we can use to collect money for children in need. There is more information about it in today’s Friday Folder. Afterwards, we read The Spider and the Fly and made black and white Halloween illustrations like the story.
Have a safe time tonight going trick-or-treating with your kids (rain rain go away)! Next week, I have jury duty (yikes!), but hopefully I won’t actually get called in! Stay dry and I will see you on Monday!
Friday, October 31, 2008
Tuesday, October 28, 2008
October 24, 2008
Upcoming Dates
Monday, October 27th: NO SCHOOL – Staff Learning Day
Teachers will be having a staff development workshop on that day to write our school vision plan and to brainstorm ways to improve our school culture.
Friday, October 31st: Halloween
Students will need to bring their costume to school in their backpack or in a bag labeled with their name. After lunch, students have time to change into their costumes, and the school parade will be outside on the blacktop starting around 1:30pm. You may come to take pictures during this time. Afterwards, we will have some snacks and play games outside with Mrs. Byers’ class. Thank you for those of you who volunteered to donate food and items for our party this time (the list is attached). We will take turns donating food for our parties throughout the year.
Sunday, November 2nd: Daylight Savings
Don’t forget to change your clocks back one hour!
Monday, November 3rd: October Book-It Reading Logs Due!
Remember to read every evening and complete the reading log we sent home earlier this month! Students who complete their reading logs will receive a certificate for a Pizza Hut personal pizza (and even if you do not like pizza, please remember to read every day!)
--------
Dear Families,
Thank you for the kind book donations I received over the past few days. It was a perfect opportunity for me to start sharing praise notes with the class. Students (and myself) can write a praise note for another person who does something extra kind or special for them. It is part of our school Peacebuilders program and pledge.
Mrs. Rowe, Mrs. Zankich, Mrs. Bachelor, Ms. Wolter and I attended a 2 day conference on Tuesday and Wednesday this week. We learned about different ways of assessing student work and how we can use assessments to guide individual learning. This will be something that our Eaton leadership team will be sharing with the Eaton staff in the next few months. Since returning from my absence, I have noticed a difference in classroom behavior and am needing to go over many classroom rules and procedures again. Most of the reminders are over being good listeners to the teacher and classmates, focusing during work time, and less talking when others are talking. Please continue to speak with your child!
Here are some highlights for the week:
• Language Arts:
Poem of the Week: First Book
Song of the Week: Making Words
Kindness is: saying, “Happy Halloween,” when I go trick-or-treating
Word Wall Words: find, have, one, to, who
Story of the Week: Alice and Greta, The Big Hit, Big Pig
Word Families: -it, -ig
Sounds: b, r, h, g, and short i
Strategy and Skill Focus: Evaluate and Cause/Effect
Grammar: Punctuation (periods, question marks, exclamation marks)
• Math: We are now in Chapter 4 on Data and Graphs. This week, we practiced voting for different things and showed our results using tally marks and charts. We are learning to make picture graphs and bar graphs. Again, we are practicing our magic words to help us solve word problems including: more, less, greater, smaller, how many more/less, in all, etc.
• Science: We are busy trying to finish our Solids and Liquids unit. This week, we explored solids in liquid and tried to predict whether the solids would sink or float! We also had opportunities to feel and touch different small solids and make our own observations about them.
• Social Studies: We resumed our Tuesday circuits with the first grade classrooms now that conferences are over. This week, we went to Mrs. Nieveen’s class and learned about Me on the Map. We talked about our home, our community, our city, our state, our country, and our world.
• Computer Lab: This week, we went to the Foss website: www.fossweb.com and completed a neat activity about solids and liquids. We were able to pretend to put different solids in the oven to see what would happen, and we put various liquids in the freezer to see what would happen.
• Assembly: We had two assemblies this week. One was a special presentation at the Cupertino Library. We watched a play called, “Green Golly and The Treasure of Light” which used wonderful music during the play. The other assembly was at school on Wednesday from the Traveling Lantern performance group. They acted out a play called, “Caterpillar Hunter.”
• Music: We saw Miss Rachel this week. We sang Halloween songs this week including a monster dance song, a black cat rhythm song, and we used chalk to draw pictures of Halloween characters we heard in a song.
Today was the annual Eaton Walk-a-thon! I hope you were able to attend part of it because it really is fun and exciting to see the entire school outside walking! Thank you for trying to collect pledges and donations for our school and returning the envelopes on time!
Have a great weekend!
Monday, October 27th: NO SCHOOL – Staff Learning Day
Teachers will be having a staff development workshop on that day to write our school vision plan and to brainstorm ways to improve our school culture.
Friday, October 31st: Halloween
Students will need to bring their costume to school in their backpack or in a bag labeled with their name. After lunch, students have time to change into their costumes, and the school parade will be outside on the blacktop starting around 1:30pm. You may come to take pictures during this time. Afterwards, we will have some snacks and play games outside with Mrs. Byers’ class. Thank you for those of you who volunteered to donate food and items for our party this time (the list is attached). We will take turns donating food for our parties throughout the year.
Sunday, November 2nd: Daylight Savings
Don’t forget to change your clocks back one hour!
Monday, November 3rd: October Book-It Reading Logs Due!
Remember to read every evening and complete the reading log we sent home earlier this month! Students who complete their reading logs will receive a certificate for a Pizza Hut personal pizza (and even if you do not like pizza, please remember to read every day!)
--------
Dear Families,
Thank you for the kind book donations I received over the past few days. It was a perfect opportunity for me to start sharing praise notes with the class. Students (and myself) can write a praise note for another person who does something extra kind or special for them. It is part of our school Peacebuilders program and pledge.
Mrs. Rowe, Mrs. Zankich, Mrs. Bachelor, Ms. Wolter and I attended a 2 day conference on Tuesday and Wednesday this week. We learned about different ways of assessing student work and how we can use assessments to guide individual learning. This will be something that our Eaton leadership team will be sharing with the Eaton staff in the next few months. Since returning from my absence, I have noticed a difference in classroom behavior and am needing to go over many classroom rules and procedures again. Most of the reminders are over being good listeners to the teacher and classmates, focusing during work time, and less talking when others are talking. Please continue to speak with your child!
Here are some highlights for the week:
• Language Arts:
Poem of the Week: First Book
Song of the Week: Making Words
Kindness is: saying, “Happy Halloween,” when I go trick-or-treating
Word Wall Words: find, have, one, to, who
Story of the Week: Alice and Greta, The Big Hit, Big Pig
Word Families: -it, -ig
Sounds: b, r, h, g, and short i
Strategy and Skill Focus: Evaluate and Cause/Effect
Grammar: Punctuation (periods, question marks, exclamation marks)
• Math: We are now in Chapter 4 on Data and Graphs. This week, we practiced voting for different things and showed our results using tally marks and charts. We are learning to make picture graphs and bar graphs. Again, we are practicing our magic words to help us solve word problems including: more, less, greater, smaller, how many more/less, in all, etc.
• Science: We are busy trying to finish our Solids and Liquids unit. This week, we explored solids in liquid and tried to predict whether the solids would sink or float! We also had opportunities to feel and touch different small solids and make our own observations about them.
• Social Studies: We resumed our Tuesday circuits with the first grade classrooms now that conferences are over. This week, we went to Mrs. Nieveen’s class and learned about Me on the Map. We talked about our home, our community, our city, our state, our country, and our world.
• Computer Lab: This week, we went to the Foss website: www.fossweb.com and completed a neat activity about solids and liquids. We were able to pretend to put different solids in the oven to see what would happen, and we put various liquids in the freezer to see what would happen.
• Assembly: We had two assemblies this week. One was a special presentation at the Cupertino Library. We watched a play called, “Green Golly and The Treasure of Light” which used wonderful music during the play. The other assembly was at school on Wednesday from the Traveling Lantern performance group. They acted out a play called, “Caterpillar Hunter.”
• Music: We saw Miss Rachel this week. We sang Halloween songs this week including a monster dance song, a black cat rhythm song, and we used chalk to draw pictures of Halloween characters we heard in a song.
Today was the annual Eaton Walk-a-thon! I hope you were able to attend part of it because it really is fun and exciting to see the entire school outside walking! Thank you for trying to collect pledges and donations for our school and returning the envelopes on time!
Have a great weekend!
Monday, October 20, 2008
October 17, 2008
Upcoming Dates
Monday, October 20th: Walk-a-Thon Envelopes Due
On Tuesday, your child brought home the Walk-a-thon pledge envelopes. Remember this fundraiser helps to pay for things such as: music, art, playground structure, PE equipment, etc. The envelope is used to collect money for this fundraiser.
Friday, October 24th: Walk-a-Thon and Picture Day
We will be taking individual pictures in the morning. Picture envelopes will be sent home the day before, so please remember to return the envelope this morning! In the afternoon after lunch, we will begin the annual Walk-a-thon to raise money for our school. They can wear their Eaton shirt or the Eaton colors (blue, yellow, or white), and make sure to bring a hat and wear sunscreen! They will be given free Eaton water bottles during the Walk-a-thon. Dismissal is still at 3:05pm.
Monday, October 27th: NO SCHOOL – Staff Learning Day
Teachers will be having a staff development workshop on that day to write our school vision plan and to brainstorm ways to improve our school culture.
Friday, October 31st: Halloween
Students will need to bring their costume to school in their backpack or in a bag labeled with their name. After lunch, students have time to change into their costumes, and the school parade will be outside on the blacktop starting around 1:30pm. You may come to take pictures during this time. Afterwards, we will have some snacks and play games outside. You will be notified if you need to bring something for the party.
Sunday, November 2nd: Daylight Savings
Don’t forget to change your clocks back one hour!
Monday, November 3rd: October Book-It Reading Logs Due!
Remember to read every evening and complete the reading log we sent home earlier this month! Students who complete their reading logs will receive a certificate for a Pizza Hut personal pizza (and even if you do not like pizza, please remember to read every day!)
----------
Dear Families,
Fairyland was an adventure on Wednesday! Thank you again to our wonderful parent chaperones who had small groups of kids throughout the day: Mrs. Krispin, Mrs. Miura, Mrs. Natarajan, Mrs. Ogata, and Mrs. Sakanaka. We left right away in the morning, and unfortunately, had to sit in some traffic on the way up to Oakland. Once we got there, we watched a puppet show called Trickster Tales and then had lunch at the picnic tables. Afterwards, the children had time to visit the animals, play in the different themed areas, or ride the trolley! We were lucky that it was a warm, beautiful day, and we made it back to Eaton just on time! Overall, it was a bit further than we would like to travel, but the park itself was a lot of fun for the children and they had a great time!
• Language Arts:
Poem of the Week: My Nose
Song of the Week: Making Words
Kindness is: taking care of the classroom
Word Wall Words: and, jump, too, here, not, we
Story of the Week: Messy Meals, Nan and Fan, We Can!
Word Families: -an rhymes
Sounds: n, f, p, short a
Strategy and Skill Focus: Summarize, Compare and Contrast
Grammar: Beginning Sentences with Capital Letters
• PE: Mrs. Barelli took our class this week and we played with scoops and balls. We practiced our throwing and catching skills.
• Math: We have finished Chapter 3 this week on addition and subtraction facts. We started our fourth chapter on data and graphs. This will be a little more challenging for students because it requires reading word problems and following directions! We talked about two types of graphs: bar graphs and picture graphs.
• Science: It was great to hear the different types of liquid riddles this week in sharing! Great job and very creative liquids! This week, we also talked about our five senses: see, hear, smell, touch, and taste. We read a Halloween story and wrote our own stories using the five senses.
• Social Studies: We are starting to learn about October animals and themes such as pumpkins, spiders, bats, and Halloween. We are reading stories and starting projects using Halloween vocabulary words!
• Art: This week, we saw our art teacher, Mrs. Abada. We are lucky to have her
because of the PTO money all of you donated in the beginning of the year! She did a lesson about paper mosaics this week!
• Music: We are learning some fun Halloween songs in first grade music about black cats, witches, pumpkins, and skeletons! Have your child teach you a Halloween song!
• Library: We did not visit the Eaton library again this week because of the Book Fair. However, we did go to the Cupertino library, so please remember to return the books on your own!
Next week, I will be at a Leadership Conference with Mrs. Rowe and three other teachers on Tuesday and Wednesday. We are fortunate to have Mrs. Seema substitute most of the time since she is already familiar with all your children. Please remind your children to be on their best behavior still! Thank you!
Monday, October 20th: Walk-a-Thon Envelopes Due
On Tuesday, your child brought home the Walk-a-thon pledge envelopes. Remember this fundraiser helps to pay for things such as: music, art, playground structure, PE equipment, etc. The envelope is used to collect money for this fundraiser.
Friday, October 24th: Walk-a-Thon and Picture Day
We will be taking individual pictures in the morning. Picture envelopes will be sent home the day before, so please remember to return the envelope this morning! In the afternoon after lunch, we will begin the annual Walk-a-thon to raise money for our school. They can wear their Eaton shirt or the Eaton colors (blue, yellow, or white), and make sure to bring a hat and wear sunscreen! They will be given free Eaton water bottles during the Walk-a-thon. Dismissal is still at 3:05pm.
Monday, October 27th: NO SCHOOL – Staff Learning Day
Teachers will be having a staff development workshop on that day to write our school vision plan and to brainstorm ways to improve our school culture.
Friday, October 31st: Halloween
Students will need to bring their costume to school in their backpack or in a bag labeled with their name. After lunch, students have time to change into their costumes, and the school parade will be outside on the blacktop starting around 1:30pm. You may come to take pictures during this time. Afterwards, we will have some snacks and play games outside. You will be notified if you need to bring something for the party.
Sunday, November 2nd: Daylight Savings
Don’t forget to change your clocks back one hour!
Monday, November 3rd: October Book-It Reading Logs Due!
Remember to read every evening and complete the reading log we sent home earlier this month! Students who complete their reading logs will receive a certificate for a Pizza Hut personal pizza (and even if you do not like pizza, please remember to read every day!)
----------
Dear Families,
Fairyland was an adventure on Wednesday! Thank you again to our wonderful parent chaperones who had small groups of kids throughout the day: Mrs. Krispin, Mrs. Miura, Mrs. Natarajan, Mrs. Ogata, and Mrs. Sakanaka. We left right away in the morning, and unfortunately, had to sit in some traffic on the way up to Oakland. Once we got there, we watched a puppet show called Trickster Tales and then had lunch at the picnic tables. Afterwards, the children had time to visit the animals, play in the different themed areas, or ride the trolley! We were lucky that it was a warm, beautiful day, and we made it back to Eaton just on time! Overall, it was a bit further than we would like to travel, but the park itself was a lot of fun for the children and they had a great time!
• Language Arts:
Poem of the Week: My Nose
Song of the Week: Making Words
Kindness is: taking care of the classroom
Word Wall Words: and, jump, too, here, not, we
Story of the Week: Messy Meals, Nan and Fan, We Can!
Word Families: -an rhymes
Sounds: n, f, p, short a
Strategy and Skill Focus: Summarize, Compare and Contrast
Grammar: Beginning Sentences with Capital Letters
• PE: Mrs. Barelli took our class this week and we played with scoops and balls. We practiced our throwing and catching skills.
• Math: We have finished Chapter 3 this week on addition and subtraction facts. We started our fourth chapter on data and graphs. This will be a little more challenging for students because it requires reading word problems and following directions! We talked about two types of graphs: bar graphs and picture graphs.
• Science: It was great to hear the different types of liquid riddles this week in sharing! Great job and very creative liquids! This week, we also talked about our five senses: see, hear, smell, touch, and taste. We read a Halloween story and wrote our own stories using the five senses.
• Social Studies: We are starting to learn about October animals and themes such as pumpkins, spiders, bats, and Halloween. We are reading stories and starting projects using Halloween vocabulary words!
• Art: This week, we saw our art teacher, Mrs. Abada. We are lucky to have her
because of the PTO money all of you donated in the beginning of the year! She did a lesson about paper mosaics this week!
• Music: We are learning some fun Halloween songs in first grade music about black cats, witches, pumpkins, and skeletons! Have your child teach you a Halloween song!
• Library: We did not visit the Eaton library again this week because of the Book Fair. However, we did go to the Cupertino library, so please remember to return the books on your own!
Next week, I will be at a Leadership Conference with Mrs. Rowe and three other teachers on Tuesday and Wednesday. We are fortunate to have Mrs. Seema substitute most of the time since she is already familiar with all your children. Please remind your children to be on their best behavior still! Thank you!
Friday, October 10, 2008
October 10, 2008
Upcoming Dates
Monday, October 13th to Tuesday, October 14th: Parent Conferences (Dismissal at 1:30 everyday!)
Thank you for coming to your conference appointment this week. I have sent home the parent conference forms in today’s Friday Folder (if you already had your meeting).
Tuesday, October 14th: Book Fair Family Night (6:00pm-8:00pm)
The library will be open if you would like to purchase books for your child! You can also go to the book fair after school until Thursday, October 16th if that is more convenient.
Wednesday, October 15th: Fairyland Field Trip & Book Orders Due
We are going to take five parent chaperones: Mai’s, Maya’s, Naoki’s, Kinako’s, and Jhanvi’s parent. They will be coming with us on the school bus. Please send a DISPOSABLE lunch (paper bag or plastic bag) with your child because we will be throwing everything away after lunch. Remember to LABEL the lunch bag with your child’s name and dress in layers!
Friday, October 17th: Cupertino Library Field Trip
We will be going to the Cupertino Library a week earlier than planned because of the Walk-a-thon on the 24th. Please send your child’s blue library card to school and practice memorizing his or her 4-digit PIN number! Remember to return the Cupertino Library books directly!
Friday, October 24th: Walk-a-Thon and Picture Day
Eaton will be having our annual walk-a-thon fundraiser in the afternoon. More information will be sent home in the next few weeks. We will also be taking our individual pictures that morning!
------------
Dear Families,
What a short week! We weren’t able to complete as much as we usually do because of the early 1:30pm dismissal time. Thank you for coming to conferences this week! It was nice to get to talk individually with you all. We have a lot of important dates coming up in October. Please make sure to mark your calendar with all the important dates!
Poem of the Week: Oh Mr. Squirrel
Song of the Week: Hello Around the World
Kindness is: seeking wise people
Word Wall Words: go, on, the
Story of the Week: Lunch, The Cat Sat, The Mat
Word Families: -at rhymes
Sounds: m, s, c, t, and short a
Strategy and Skill Focus: Predict and Sequence
Grammar: Capital and lowercase letters
• Language Arts: Students are getting better at completing our literacy centers! Great improvement! Keep working with your child at home, especially on writing story summaries and oral retells. We officially started our first grade reading textbooks from the Houghton Mifflin publisher. Each week we will be reading stories from the textbook and learning the skills listed above such as rhyming words, word wall words, sounds, and grammar. The homework each week will be on the same skills we learn in class.
• Social Studies: We talked about wise people this week for our Kindness journals. This is part of our Peacebuilders pledge, and we discussed who we could go to if we need help at home, at school, or in the community.
• Computer Lab: There was no computer lab this week because of the short day, and also there will be no computer lab next week because of our Fairyland field trip.
• PE: Mrs. Nieveen played a game with us this week. We focused on teamwork and working together.
• Math: We continued the subtraction portion of chapter 3. One new strategy this week was reading about word problems with “How many more?” or “How many less?” We learned that this means comparing two different “things” and is a subtraction problem. We also started working on fact families which will be part of the homework next week.
• Science: This week, it was great to hear the different solid objects students brought for sharing! We continued our focus this week on liquids and learned different properties such as: transparent, translucent, viscous, foamy, bubbly, and colored. We saw real liquids that displayed these properties such as: liquid soap (foamy) vs. honey (viscous).
• Library: Since the Book Fair is this week, we did not get to go to our regular library visit so students can keep their books for one more week. On Thursday, our class previewed the books. If you have time, you can visit the Book Fair with your child after school or on Family Night next Tuesday.
The Scholastic Book Order forms for October are attached today. If you are interested in purchasing books, please make ONE check payable to Scholastic Book Clubs. Please remember that your children need books at their reading level, so that is why there are 3 catalogs to choose from. Firefly is usually for beginning readers, Seesaw is for first grade level, and Lucky is for advanced readers. Please return order forms by Wednesday, October 15th if you are interested. Thank you!
Monday, October 13th to Tuesday, October 14th: Parent Conferences (Dismissal at 1:30 everyday!)
Thank you for coming to your conference appointment this week. I have sent home the parent conference forms in today’s Friday Folder (if you already had your meeting).
Tuesday, October 14th: Book Fair Family Night (6:00pm-8:00pm)
The library will be open if you would like to purchase books for your child! You can also go to the book fair after school until Thursday, October 16th if that is more convenient.
Wednesday, October 15th: Fairyland Field Trip & Book Orders Due
We are going to take five parent chaperones: Mai’s, Maya’s, Naoki’s, Kinako’s, and Jhanvi’s parent. They will be coming with us on the school bus. Please send a DISPOSABLE lunch (paper bag or plastic bag) with your child because we will be throwing everything away after lunch. Remember to LABEL the lunch bag with your child’s name and dress in layers!
Friday, October 17th: Cupertino Library Field Trip
We will be going to the Cupertino Library a week earlier than planned because of the Walk-a-thon on the 24th. Please send your child’s blue library card to school and practice memorizing his or her 4-digit PIN number! Remember to return the Cupertino Library books directly!
Friday, October 24th: Walk-a-Thon and Picture Day
Eaton will be having our annual walk-a-thon fundraiser in the afternoon. More information will be sent home in the next few weeks. We will also be taking our individual pictures that morning!
------------
Dear Families,
What a short week! We weren’t able to complete as much as we usually do because of the early 1:30pm dismissal time. Thank you for coming to conferences this week! It was nice to get to talk individually with you all. We have a lot of important dates coming up in October. Please make sure to mark your calendar with all the important dates!
Poem of the Week: Oh Mr. Squirrel
Song of the Week: Hello Around the World
Kindness is: seeking wise people
Word Wall Words: go, on, the
Story of the Week: Lunch, The Cat Sat, The Mat
Word Families: -at rhymes
Sounds: m, s, c, t, and short a
Strategy and Skill Focus: Predict and Sequence
Grammar: Capital and lowercase letters
• Language Arts: Students are getting better at completing our literacy centers! Great improvement! Keep working with your child at home, especially on writing story summaries and oral retells. We officially started our first grade reading textbooks from the Houghton Mifflin publisher. Each week we will be reading stories from the textbook and learning the skills listed above such as rhyming words, word wall words, sounds, and grammar. The homework each week will be on the same skills we learn in class.
• Social Studies: We talked about wise people this week for our Kindness journals. This is part of our Peacebuilders pledge, and we discussed who we could go to if we need help at home, at school, or in the community.
• Computer Lab: There was no computer lab this week because of the short day, and also there will be no computer lab next week because of our Fairyland field trip.
• PE: Mrs. Nieveen played a game with us this week. We focused on teamwork and working together.
• Math: We continued the subtraction portion of chapter 3. One new strategy this week was reading about word problems with “How many more?” or “How many less?” We learned that this means comparing two different “things” and is a subtraction problem. We also started working on fact families which will be part of the homework next week.
• Science: This week, it was great to hear the different solid objects students brought for sharing! We continued our focus this week on liquids and learned different properties such as: transparent, translucent, viscous, foamy, bubbly, and colored. We saw real liquids that displayed these properties such as: liquid soap (foamy) vs. honey (viscous).
• Library: Since the Book Fair is this week, we did not get to go to our regular library visit so students can keep their books for one more week. On Thursday, our class previewed the books. If you have time, you can visit the Book Fair with your child after school or on Family Night next Tuesday.
The Scholastic Book Order forms for October are attached today. If you are interested in purchasing books, please make ONE check payable to Scholastic Book Clubs. Please remember that your children need books at their reading level, so that is why there are 3 catalogs to choose from. Firefly is usually for beginning readers, Seesaw is for first grade level, and Lucky is for advanced readers. Please return order forms by Wednesday, October 15th if you are interested. Thank you!
Friday, October 03, 2008
October 3, 2008
Upcoming Dates
Monday, October 6th to Tuesday, October 14th: Parent Conferences (Dismissal at 1:30 everyday – no computer lab the next 2 weeks!)
Thank you for returning the confirmation pages. I look forward to seeing you at your 20 minute appointment. During conferences, dismissal everyday will be at 1:30PM. Please remember to make arrangements to pick up your child on time!
Wednesday, October 8th: Scholastic Software Programs Order Due
Please write ONE check payable to Scholastic, Inc. if you are interested in purchasing different software programs for your computer at home. They have programs for academic areas such as reading and math, or programs for fun and games.
Wednesday, October 8th to Tuesday, October 14th: Book Fair
Today’s Friday Folder has information about the Book Fair coming up at Eaton School. You can purchase books with your student after school during this week, or during Family Night on October 14th from 6-8pm. Our class will have a special visit to the book fair on Thursday, October 9th.
Wednesday, October 15th: Fairyland Field Trip
Thank you for those of you who have returned the permission slip for Fairyland. We have our four parent chaperones: Maya’s, Naoki’s, Kinako’s, and Jhanvi’s parent. They will be coming with us on the school bus. Please send a DISPOSABLE lunch (paper bag or plastic bag) with your child because we will be throwing everything away after lunch. Remember to LABEL the lunch bag with your child’s name and dress in layers!
Friday, October 17th: Cupertino Library Field Trip
We will be going to the Cupertino Library a week earlier than planned because of the Walk-a-thon on the 24th. Please send your child’s blue library card to school and practice memorizing his or her 4-digit PIN number! Remember to return the Cupertino Library books directly!
Friday, October 24th: Walk-a-Thon
Eaton will be having our annual walk-a-thon fundraiser in the afternoon. More information will be sent home in the next few weeks.
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Dear Families,
Happy October! Time is already going by quickly. We have so much to do and this month will definitely fly by!
Poem of the Week: Fall
Song of the Week: Hello Around the World
Kindness is: making new friends
• Language Arts: We finished our alphabet dictionaries this week! All students should know their letter sounds and proper handwriting for each letter. Please remind your children to write neatly at home also so we can develop a good habit. Literacy centers this week was a big improvement. Many of us were able to finish the different activities on time! Let’s keep practicing! We had time to interview two princesses this week. We have about four more students to interview!
• Social Studies: We learned more about leaves and apples this week. We read stories and made an art project that showed how an apple tree changes in the four seasons. In circuits, Mrs. Zankich did an activity about why we are all unique or special. We wrote about ourselves and drew a self-portrait.
• Computer Lab: We spent this week learning to draw a self portrait on KidPix. It was our first illustration for our kindness website. You can see our updated journals through the classroom website under “Classwork” or directly at kindness.pbwiki.com. One area we are working on is following directions and learning to save our pictures and work in our own folders.
• PE: Mrs. Zankich had our class this week. We played a team game using hula hoops and tennis balls.
• Math: We started Chapter 3 this week on Addition and Subtraction facts to 12. This week we focused mostly on addition skills and practiced different word problems that require some logic thinking. It is really important that everyone pays attention and listens actively when we are on the carpet. I usually explain all the problems and therefore, students should know how to solve all classwork questions.
• Science: We continued our unit on Solids and Liquids. This fits with next week’s sharing topic – something solid. This week we learned some vocabulary words that are properties of solids. For example, we looked at objects and sorted them in these categories: soft vs. hard, flat vs. pointed, smooth vs. rough, opaque vs. transparent, and flexible vs. rigid. These are very difficult words, but we played some guessing games to practice learning their meanings and finding objects that fit. Later in the week, we also learned about sorting small solids such as rice, mung beans, pinto beans and cornmeal. We predicted and experimented with these different solids to find out how to make solid mixtures and how to separate solid mixtures.
• Buddies: We saw our fourth grade buddies in Ms. Allen’s class and continued our project using the book, Hooray For Me! This week, we specifically shared our dreams and illustrated a picture about what we want to be when we grow up.
I look forward to seeing all of you during parent conferences. Please remember to come on time. We will be starting and ending promptly because I have many interviews lined up one after another. I would like for us to work together to help your child this year in first grade. Thank you!
Monday, October 6th to Tuesday, October 14th: Parent Conferences (Dismissal at 1:30 everyday – no computer lab the next 2 weeks!)
Thank you for returning the confirmation pages. I look forward to seeing you at your 20 minute appointment. During conferences, dismissal everyday will be at 1:30PM. Please remember to make arrangements to pick up your child on time!
Wednesday, October 8th: Scholastic Software Programs Order Due
Please write ONE check payable to Scholastic, Inc. if you are interested in purchasing different software programs for your computer at home. They have programs for academic areas such as reading and math, or programs for fun and games.
Wednesday, October 8th to Tuesday, October 14th: Book Fair
Today’s Friday Folder has information about the Book Fair coming up at Eaton School. You can purchase books with your student after school during this week, or during Family Night on October 14th from 6-8pm. Our class will have a special visit to the book fair on Thursday, October 9th.
Wednesday, October 15th: Fairyland Field Trip
Thank you for those of you who have returned the permission slip for Fairyland. We have our four parent chaperones: Maya’s, Naoki’s, Kinako’s, and Jhanvi’s parent. They will be coming with us on the school bus. Please send a DISPOSABLE lunch (paper bag or plastic bag) with your child because we will be throwing everything away after lunch. Remember to LABEL the lunch bag with your child’s name and dress in layers!
Friday, October 17th: Cupertino Library Field Trip
We will be going to the Cupertino Library a week earlier than planned because of the Walk-a-thon on the 24th. Please send your child’s blue library card to school and practice memorizing his or her 4-digit PIN number! Remember to return the Cupertino Library books directly!
Friday, October 24th: Walk-a-Thon
Eaton will be having our annual walk-a-thon fundraiser in the afternoon. More information will be sent home in the next few weeks.
----------
Dear Families,
Happy October! Time is already going by quickly. We have so much to do and this month will definitely fly by!
Poem of the Week: Fall
Song of the Week: Hello Around the World
Kindness is: making new friends
• Language Arts: We finished our alphabet dictionaries this week! All students should know their letter sounds and proper handwriting for each letter. Please remind your children to write neatly at home also so we can develop a good habit. Literacy centers this week was a big improvement. Many of us were able to finish the different activities on time! Let’s keep practicing! We had time to interview two princesses this week. We have about four more students to interview!
• Social Studies: We learned more about leaves and apples this week. We read stories and made an art project that showed how an apple tree changes in the four seasons. In circuits, Mrs. Zankich did an activity about why we are all unique or special. We wrote about ourselves and drew a self-portrait.
• Computer Lab: We spent this week learning to draw a self portrait on KidPix. It was our first illustration for our kindness website. You can see our updated journals through the classroom website under “Classwork” or directly at kindness.pbwiki.com. One area we are working on is following directions and learning to save our pictures and work in our own folders.
• PE: Mrs. Zankich had our class this week. We played a team game using hula hoops and tennis balls.
• Math: We started Chapter 3 this week on Addition and Subtraction facts to 12. This week we focused mostly on addition skills and practiced different word problems that require some logic thinking. It is really important that everyone pays attention and listens actively when we are on the carpet. I usually explain all the problems and therefore, students should know how to solve all classwork questions.
• Science: We continued our unit on Solids and Liquids. This fits with next week’s sharing topic – something solid. This week we learned some vocabulary words that are properties of solids. For example, we looked at objects and sorted them in these categories: soft vs. hard, flat vs. pointed, smooth vs. rough, opaque vs. transparent, and flexible vs. rigid. These are very difficult words, but we played some guessing games to practice learning their meanings and finding objects that fit. Later in the week, we also learned about sorting small solids such as rice, mung beans, pinto beans and cornmeal. We predicted and experimented with these different solids to find out how to make solid mixtures and how to separate solid mixtures.
• Buddies: We saw our fourth grade buddies in Ms. Allen’s class and continued our project using the book, Hooray For Me! This week, we specifically shared our dreams and illustrated a picture about what we want to be when we grow up.
I look forward to seeing all of you during parent conferences. Please remember to come on time. We will be starting and ending promptly because I have many interviews lined up one after another. I would like for us to work together to help your child this year in first grade. Thank you!
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