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!