Upcoming Dates
* Monday, March 2nd: February Book-It Reading Logs Due!
Please turn in your February reading logs. I will be sending home March reading logs in today’s Friday Folder. This will be the last reading log for the Pizza Hut Book-It certificates.
* Friday, March 6th: Last Day of Second Trimester
Report cards will be given out on March 20th. Grades will reflect your child’s progress from November to this date.
* Friday, March 13th: Cupertino Library Field Trip
We will be walking to the Cupertino public library in the afternoon. Remember to send your child’s blue library card to school and have him/her remember the 4-digit password. Your child can check out 2 books. Please return them directly to the library on your own.
* Monday, March 16th: No School – Staff Learning Day
Teachers will be coming to school to work on writing strategies. We will be using rubrics to look over grade-level writing assessments.
* Friday, March 27th: Summer School Forms Due
In today’s Friday Folder, you will find either a blue or green summer school form. This is a free program offered by our school district, and it is optional. If you are interested in having your child attend summer school, please complete and return the form by March 27th.
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Dear Families,
I hope everyone had a wonderful vacation last week! I absolutely loved Vancouver and Whistler, which are both the locations of next year’s Winter Olympics. We were lucky because the weather was sunny the whole week we were there. In Vancouver, we ate some good food, went shopping, and walked to Stanley Park and visited the aquarium. In Whistler, we spent 2 days snowboarding on the amazing mountains, and also did a zip-line adventure. I had a great time!
As we return back to school, I have been spending extra time reminding students of the classroom and school rules. I ask students to evaluate themselves for their own behavior to see if they tried their best or not. Please actively continue to have conversations about doing the right things.
Here are some highlights from the week:
Star of the Week: Naoki
Poem of the Week: Plip Plop Raindrop
Song of the Week: Five senses
Kindness is … keeping your teeth clean.
Story of the Week: I Like the Rain
Vocabulary of the Week: People 1
Word Wall: cow, door, house, now, there, though, wall
Next Week’s Sharing: Spring Poem
(at least 4 lines memorized and bring something to show)
• Language Arts: Theme 6: Animal Adventures – Week 2
• Stories: Eek! There’s a Mouse in the House
• Strategy and Skill Focus: Question / Noting Details
• Word Families: -eat
• Sounds: long e, vowel pairs ee, ea
• Grammar: Naming Words for Things and Places
• Math: We finished our chapter on Geometry, Fractions, and Probability. This week we have been reviewing everything that we have learned since the beginning of the year including money, graphs, place value, and problem solving.
• Writing: We had 3 students finish their mitten stories this week, and students are all working hard. This project really demonstrates who can work independently in class. At the end of the year, students can range from having one published piece to five published pieces, depending on their effort during writing time.
• Science: We finished up our plant kit this week. Our new unit for the next few months will be on weather.
• Social Studies: We are regularly talking about what kindness means and also what a Peacebuilder looks like. This week, we did an activity to show students how to say nice things to others instead of “put downs.”
• Circuits: This week was our last winter circuit. We went to Mrs. Barelli’s class, and she read us the story, The Snowy Day. We made an art project using paint that looks like the cover of the story.
• Music: We saw Miss Rachel this week. We got to choose our own instruments, including cymbals, drums, triangles, etc., to accompany some songs we sang. In first grade music, we are continuing to prepare for our musical in May. I am looking for participation and effort to memorize the songs!
• Art: Mrs. Abada taught us this week. We worked with clay to make pinch pots! We also made a little worm to wrap around our pots. Mrs. Abada will be putting our pots into a kiln to “fire” them.
• Computer: This week we added more pictures to our Kindness website using Kidpix. We talked about what a detailed picture looks like, and adding backgrounds to our pictures.
Welcome back and Happy March!
Friday, February 27, 2009
Friday, February 13, 2009
February 13, 2009
Upcoming Dates
* Monday, February 16th – Friday, February 21nd: Winter Recess
There will be no school this week. Have a great vacation!
-----
Dear Families,
Happy Valentine’s Day everyone! I hope you have a nice weekend and a wonderful winter recess. Thank you for preparing the Valentine cards for the class. It is always fun to share special cards and treats for each other.
Here are some highlights from the week:
Star of the Week: Terrence
Poem of the Week: Dear Valentine
Song of the Week: Five Senses
Kindness is … showing others you care.
Story of the Week: The Emperor’s Egg
Vocabulary of the Week: Body 4
Word Wall: by, climb, found, morning, out, shout, show
Next Week’s Sharing: Riddle – something healthy
(at least 4 clues memorized and hide object/picture)
• Language Arts: Theme 6: Animal Adventures – Week 1
• Stories: The Sleeping Pig
• Strategy and Skill Focus: Summarize/ Story Structure
• Word Families: -oke
• Sounds: long o, final clusters ft, lk, and nt
• Grammar: Naming words for animals and people
• Math: I just realized that a few weeks ago, the wrong Chapter Review was in your child’s homework! You were supposed to have gotten the money Chapter Review page, but instead you received our current chapter’s review on fractions and geometry! I suppose it ended up as a “preview” to our next chapter, instead of “reviewing” our old chapter! Sorry about the confusion. This week we reviewed plane shapes such as squares, circles, rectangles, and triangles. We talked about how many corners and sides they had. Then we learned about solid shapes including spheres, cubes, cylinders, cones, rectangular prisms, and pyramids. The students need to be able to name and identify different objects by the end of the chapter. We started learning about symmetry as well this week.
• Science: We had a Penguin learning center on Monday afternoon. We rotated through five centers to learn something about penguins. One center showed us the pictures and names of the seventeen different penguins. Next, we listened to a story on Emperor Penguins. Also, we drew and found facts about Emperor Penguins, African Penguins, and Rockhopper Penguins. These penguin fact folders are coming home in today’s Friday Folder.
• Social Studies: This week in circuits, we went to Mrs. Nieveen’s class. She talked more about Martin Luther King Jr. and we made a poster drawing ourselves with a speech bubble. We wrote what we wished for in the world and learned about Peace and Love. Also, in class we talked about President’s Day. We learned a little about George Washington and Abraham Lincoln. We also did an activity to celebrate Valentine’s Day. We wrote a concrete poem on a heart and decorated with ripped paper.
• Writing: Our Mitten stories are still in progress. Some students have finished the final edits and are starting to illustrate the pages. This is an independent activity, so it really is up to each child to work hard and finish their stories.
• Computer: Now that we have been in school over 100 days, we completed a Kidpix activity using 100 stamps. We counted by 2’s, 5’s, or 10’s to get to 100.
• Assembly: Since February is Black History Month, we had a storyteller named, Mary Kelly. She told stories about slavery, while singing songs and changing outfits.
Next week I am excited because I will be going to Vancouver and Whistler, Canada! My husband and I love to go snowboarding, so we decided this would be a good time to travel a bit! Hope you have a great week!
* Monday, February 16th – Friday, February 21nd: Winter Recess
There will be no school this week. Have a great vacation!
-----
Dear Families,
Happy Valentine’s Day everyone! I hope you have a nice weekend and a wonderful winter recess. Thank you for preparing the Valentine cards for the class. It is always fun to share special cards and treats for each other.
Here are some highlights from the week:
Star of the Week: Terrence
Poem of the Week: Dear Valentine
Song of the Week: Five Senses
Kindness is … showing others you care.
Story of the Week: The Emperor’s Egg
Vocabulary of the Week: Body 4
Word Wall: by, climb, found, morning, out, shout, show
Next Week’s Sharing: Riddle – something healthy
(at least 4 clues memorized and hide object/picture)
• Language Arts: Theme 6: Animal Adventures – Week 1
• Stories: The Sleeping Pig
• Strategy and Skill Focus: Summarize/ Story Structure
• Word Families: -oke
• Sounds: long o, final clusters ft, lk, and nt
• Grammar: Naming words for animals and people
• Math: I just realized that a few weeks ago, the wrong Chapter Review was in your child’s homework! You were supposed to have gotten the money Chapter Review page, but instead you received our current chapter’s review on fractions and geometry! I suppose it ended up as a “preview” to our next chapter, instead of “reviewing” our old chapter! Sorry about the confusion. This week we reviewed plane shapes such as squares, circles, rectangles, and triangles. We talked about how many corners and sides they had. Then we learned about solid shapes including spheres, cubes, cylinders, cones, rectangular prisms, and pyramids. The students need to be able to name and identify different objects by the end of the chapter. We started learning about symmetry as well this week.
• Science: We had a Penguin learning center on Monday afternoon. We rotated through five centers to learn something about penguins. One center showed us the pictures and names of the seventeen different penguins. Next, we listened to a story on Emperor Penguins. Also, we drew and found facts about Emperor Penguins, African Penguins, and Rockhopper Penguins. These penguin fact folders are coming home in today’s Friday Folder.
• Social Studies: This week in circuits, we went to Mrs. Nieveen’s class. She talked more about Martin Luther King Jr. and we made a poster drawing ourselves with a speech bubble. We wrote what we wished for in the world and learned about Peace and Love. Also, in class we talked about President’s Day. We learned a little about George Washington and Abraham Lincoln. We also did an activity to celebrate Valentine’s Day. We wrote a concrete poem on a heart and decorated with ripped paper.
• Writing: Our Mitten stories are still in progress. Some students have finished the final edits and are starting to illustrate the pages. This is an independent activity, so it really is up to each child to work hard and finish their stories.
• Computer: Now that we have been in school over 100 days, we completed a Kidpix activity using 100 stamps. We counted by 2’s, 5’s, or 10’s to get to 100.
• Assembly: Since February is Black History Month, we had a storyteller named, Mary Kelly. She told stories about slavery, while singing songs and changing outfits.
Next week I am excited because I will be going to Vancouver and Whistler, Canada! My husband and I love to go snowboarding, so we decided this would be a good time to travel a bit! Hope you have a great week!
Friday, February 06, 2009
February 6, 2009
Upcoming Dates
* Thursday, February 12th: Scholastic Book Orders Due
Today’s newsletter has the February book orders. Please return your orders with ONE check payable to Scholastic Book Clubs by THURSDAY.
* Friday, February 13th: Valentine’s Day Party and Cupertino Library
We will be celebrating Valentine’s Day by exchanging cards. Every child must prepare Valentine cards for every student and bring them to school on Valentine’s Day in a bag. 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 and prepare 20 cards (the 20th will be a blank card):
Alina Dennis Emi Emilie Fuka
Hadas Jhanvi Julia Kayleigh Kinako
Mai Matthew Maya Melissa Naoki
Ryan Seyon Terrence Winny ?? (maybe new student)
We will be walking to the Public library in the afternoon. The librarians will read us some stories and we will check out 2 books. Please remember to bring your blue library cards and memorize your 4-digit PIN number! You can return these books on your own when you finish reading them. Please do not bring them back to Eaton.
* Monday, February 16th – Friday, February 21nd: Winter Recess
There will be no school this week. Have a great vacation!
-----
Dear Families,
Here are some highlights from the week:
Star of the Week: Dennis
Poem of the Week: One Hundred Days
Song of the Week: Penguins
Kindness is … celebrating special days.
Story of the Week: The 100th Day of School
Vocabulary of the Week: Body 3
Word Wall: give, good, her, little, try, was, fly, our
Next Week’s Sharing: Riddle: something you love
(at least 4 clues memorized and hide object/picture)
• Language Arts: Theme 5: Home Sweet Home – Week 3
• Stories: The Kite
• Strategy and Skill Focus: Monitor/Clarify, Cause/Effect
• Word Families: -ite, -ide
• Sounds: long I, contractions
• Grammar: Using I or Me in sentences
• Math: This week we started Chapter 8 on Geometry, Fractions and Probability. This first section is on position vocabulary words including: above, below, left, right, between, next to, behind, in front, far, near, up, down, etc. Please practice describing things using these words. Also, we reviewed plane shapes and talked about how many corners and sides each shape has.
• Science: We are continuing our studies of Emperor Penguins to learn about how different animals live. This week, we did an expository writing on facts about Emperor Penguins. We made several drafts and completed an art project to go with our writing. This week in science, we also talked about planting bulbs and we planted garlic bulbs!
• Social Studies: On Monday, it was Groundhog’s Day. We learned about shadows and what happens if the groundhog sees its shadow. We made an art project to illustrate the groundhog’s weather predictions. On Tuesday, it was the 100th Day of School. This is a big day for first graders because we learn counting to 100 by 1’s, 2’s, 5’s, 10’s, and 25’s. We had a special first grade circuit to celebrate the 100th day and made: 100’s trail mix, 100’s hat, 100’s necklace, 100’s macaroni picture, 100’s drawing, and 100’s mats.
• Writing: We are continuing our Mitten stories. Students are learning that it takes a lot of hard work to be authors.
• Computer: To prepare for Valentine’s Day next week, we used Kidpix and made a “heart tree.” This was actually challenging for many students. They will take these pictures home next Friday.
• Buddies: This week we did 100 day activities with our buddies. We got to choose what activities to complete, such as, how many times can you jump in 100 seconds.
• Music: We saw Miss Rachel and talked about February as Black History Month. We continued learning and singing songs using the book, Follow the Drinking Gourd. We also practiced creating different beats and rhythms with our hands and feet.
On Thursday afternoon, we had our annual Code Red drill. This drill stands for what we do in the case of a stranger on our campus that is dangerous. Teachers and students need to know how to “lockdown” the classroom and stay safe in these emergency situations.
Have a great weekend!
* Thursday, February 12th: Scholastic Book Orders Due
Today’s newsletter has the February book orders. Please return your orders with ONE check payable to Scholastic Book Clubs by THURSDAY.
* Friday, February 13th: Valentine’s Day Party and Cupertino Library
We will be celebrating Valentine’s Day by exchanging cards. Every child must prepare Valentine cards for every student and bring them to school on Valentine’s Day in a bag. 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 and prepare 20 cards (the 20th will be a blank card):
Alina Dennis Emi Emilie Fuka
Hadas Jhanvi Julia Kayleigh Kinako
Mai Matthew Maya Melissa Naoki
Ryan Seyon Terrence Winny ?? (maybe new student)
We will be walking to the Public library in the afternoon. The librarians will read us some stories and we will check out 2 books. Please remember to bring your blue library cards and memorize your 4-digit PIN number! You can return these books on your own when you finish reading them. Please do not bring them back to Eaton.
* Monday, February 16th – Friday, February 21nd: Winter Recess
There will be no school this week. Have a great vacation!
-----
Dear Families,
Here are some highlights from the week:
Star of the Week: Dennis
Poem of the Week: One Hundred Days
Song of the Week: Penguins
Kindness is … celebrating special days.
Story of the Week: The 100th Day of School
Vocabulary of the Week: Body 3
Word Wall: give, good, her, little, try, was, fly, our
Next Week’s Sharing: Riddle: something you love
(at least 4 clues memorized and hide object/picture)
• Language Arts: Theme 5: Home Sweet Home – Week 3
• Stories: The Kite
• Strategy and Skill Focus: Monitor/Clarify, Cause/Effect
• Word Families: -ite, -ide
• Sounds: long I, contractions
• Grammar: Using I or Me in sentences
• Math: This week we started Chapter 8 on Geometry, Fractions and Probability. This first section is on position vocabulary words including: above, below, left, right, between, next to, behind, in front, far, near, up, down, etc. Please practice describing things using these words. Also, we reviewed plane shapes and talked about how many corners and sides each shape has.
• Science: We are continuing our studies of Emperor Penguins to learn about how different animals live. This week, we did an expository writing on facts about Emperor Penguins. We made several drafts and completed an art project to go with our writing. This week in science, we also talked about planting bulbs and we planted garlic bulbs!
• Social Studies: On Monday, it was Groundhog’s Day. We learned about shadows and what happens if the groundhog sees its shadow. We made an art project to illustrate the groundhog’s weather predictions. On Tuesday, it was the 100th Day of School. This is a big day for first graders because we learn counting to 100 by 1’s, 2’s, 5’s, 10’s, and 25’s. We had a special first grade circuit to celebrate the 100th day and made: 100’s trail mix, 100’s hat, 100’s necklace, 100’s macaroni picture, 100’s drawing, and 100’s mats.
• Writing: We are continuing our Mitten stories. Students are learning that it takes a lot of hard work to be authors.
• Computer: To prepare for Valentine’s Day next week, we used Kidpix and made a “heart tree.” This was actually challenging for many students. They will take these pictures home next Friday.
• Buddies: This week we did 100 day activities with our buddies. We got to choose what activities to complete, such as, how many times can you jump in 100 seconds.
• Music: We saw Miss Rachel and talked about February as Black History Month. We continued learning and singing songs using the book, Follow the Drinking Gourd. We also practiced creating different beats and rhythms with our hands and feet.
On Thursday afternoon, we had our annual Code Red drill. This drill stands for what we do in the case of a stranger on our campus that is dangerous. Teachers and students need to know how to “lockdown” the classroom and stay safe in these emergency situations.
Have a great weekend!
January 30, 2009
Upcoming Dates
* Friday, February 13th: Valentine’s Day Party and Cupertino Library
We will be celebrating Valentine’s Day by exchanging cards. Every child must prepare Valentine cards for every student and bring them to school on Valentine’s Day in a bag. 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 and prepare 20 cards (the 20th will be a blank card):
Alina Dennis Emi Emilie Fuka
Hadas Jhanvi Julia Kayleigh Kinako
Mai Matthew Maya Melissa Naoki
Ryan Seyon Terrence Winny ?? (maybe new student)
We will be walking to the Public library in the afternoon. The librarians will read us some stories and we will check out 2 books. Please remember to bring your blue library cards and memorize your 4-digit PIN number! You can return these books on your own when you finish reading them. Please do not bring them back to Eaton.
* Monday, February 16th – Friday, February 21nd: Winter Recess
There will be no school this week. Have a great vacation!
-----
Dear Families,
Here are some highlights from the week:
Star of the Week: Emilie
Poem of the Week: January Thaw
Song of the Week: Penguins
Kindness is … following your dreams.
Story of the Week: The Hat
Vocabulary of the Week: Body 2
Word Wall: could, house, how, over, own, world
Next Week’s Sharing: Regular: something you made using 100 items
(at least 4 sentences memorized and bring object/picture)
• Language Arts: Theme 5: Home Sweet Home – Week 2
• Stories: Me On The Map
• Strategy and Skill Focus: Summarize
• Word Families: -ate, -ake
• Sounds: long a, final –nd, -ng, -nk
• Grammar: Which Kind of Sentence?
• Math: We finished our chapter on money this week. The Money song we have learned will hopefully be helpful to remember the coins and their values. We spent time solving money word problems together as a class and reviewed counting coins. Next week we are starting a new chapter on geometry, fractions, and probability.
• Science: On Tuesday, we went to Mrs. Zankich’s class for our winter circuit. We wrote an acrostic poem using the letters in the word, Winter. Then we decorated the poem. We have finished observing our grass and wheat plants. I sent home our observations in today’s Friday folder. We are continuing to learn about different ways plants grow and what they need to live.
• Social Studies: We talked about Chinese New Year on Monday. We read several stories about this celebration and made a dragon puppet. Also, we continued learning more about Emperor penguins this week. We talked about the body parts of a penguin as well as where penguins live in the world.
• Writing: Many students are finished with their sloppy copies in our Mitten stories. We learned about editing and revising our stories and are starting our final drafts now. This will take several weeks to complete, but will teach the children how to become great authors!
• Computer: Since we have been learning about money, this week we did an activity using Kidspiration where we had to come up with different ways to make a certain amount. We used money coin stamps to complete our projects.
• Assembly: Today we had an assembly from Stepology on Tap Dancing and Beats! They had two tap dancers, a person on the keyboard, and even one person making beats with his mouth. This was a very entertaining assembly for the students and we even learned how to make some of the beats!
Please remember to turn in your January reading log on Monday! A new February reading log will be in Monday’s homework folder. Please remind your children to follow school rules and be kind friends to one another each day. I have been giving reminders frequently throughout the day for children to treat each other respectfully and to focus on their work. Also, please try and come to school on time each morning. Students who come in after 9:00am are listed as tardy. Thank you.
* Friday, February 13th: Valentine’s Day Party and Cupertino Library
We will be celebrating Valentine’s Day by exchanging cards. Every child must prepare Valentine cards for every student and bring them to school on Valentine’s Day in a bag. 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 and prepare 20 cards (the 20th will be a blank card):
Alina Dennis Emi Emilie Fuka
Hadas Jhanvi Julia Kayleigh Kinako
Mai Matthew Maya Melissa Naoki
Ryan Seyon Terrence Winny ?? (maybe new student)
We will be walking to the Public library in the afternoon. The librarians will read us some stories and we will check out 2 books. Please remember to bring your blue library cards and memorize your 4-digit PIN number! You can return these books on your own when you finish reading them. Please do not bring them back to Eaton.
* Monday, February 16th – Friday, February 21nd: Winter Recess
There will be no school this week. Have a great vacation!
-----
Dear Families,
Here are some highlights from the week:
Star of the Week: Emilie
Poem of the Week: January Thaw
Song of the Week: Penguins
Kindness is … following your dreams.
Story of the Week: The Hat
Vocabulary of the Week: Body 2
Word Wall: could, house, how, over, own, world
Next Week’s Sharing: Regular: something you made using 100 items
(at least 4 sentences memorized and bring object/picture)
• Language Arts: Theme 5: Home Sweet Home – Week 2
• Stories: Me On The Map
• Strategy and Skill Focus: Summarize
• Word Families: -ate, -ake
• Sounds: long a, final –nd, -ng, -nk
• Grammar: Which Kind of Sentence?
• Math: We finished our chapter on money this week. The Money song we have learned will hopefully be helpful to remember the coins and their values. We spent time solving money word problems together as a class and reviewed counting coins. Next week we are starting a new chapter on geometry, fractions, and probability.
• Science: On Tuesday, we went to Mrs. Zankich’s class for our winter circuit. We wrote an acrostic poem using the letters in the word, Winter. Then we decorated the poem. We have finished observing our grass and wheat plants. I sent home our observations in today’s Friday folder. We are continuing to learn about different ways plants grow and what they need to live.
• Social Studies: We talked about Chinese New Year on Monday. We read several stories about this celebration and made a dragon puppet. Also, we continued learning more about Emperor penguins this week. We talked about the body parts of a penguin as well as where penguins live in the world.
• Writing: Many students are finished with their sloppy copies in our Mitten stories. We learned about editing and revising our stories and are starting our final drafts now. This will take several weeks to complete, but will teach the children how to become great authors!
• Computer: Since we have been learning about money, this week we did an activity using Kidspiration where we had to come up with different ways to make a certain amount. We used money coin stamps to complete our projects.
• Assembly: Today we had an assembly from Stepology on Tap Dancing and Beats! They had two tap dancers, a person on the keyboard, and even one person making beats with his mouth. This was a very entertaining assembly for the students and we even learned how to make some of the beats!
Please remember to turn in your January reading log on Monday! A new February reading log will be in Monday’s homework folder. Please remind your children to follow school rules and be kind friends to one another each day. I have been giving reminders frequently throughout the day for children to treat each other respectfully and to focus on their work. Also, please try and come to school on time each morning. Students who come in after 9:00am are listed as tardy. Thank you.
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