Friday, May 29, 2009

May 28, 2009

Upcoming Dates
* Friday, June 5th: Cupertino Library Field Trip
This will be our last visit to the Cupertino Library. Please remember to send your child’s blue library card to school!

* Monday, June 8th: Almaden Lake Park Field Trip
This is our end-of-the-year field trip with all first graders. Please return the permission slip from last week if you haven’t yet! We have enough parent chaperones with us on the light rail and bus! Julia, Mai and Emi’s mother will be coming with us on the bus. Other parents with siblings are welcome to drive themselves and meet us at the park.

* Friday, June 12th: Last Day of School – Dismissal is at 12:20pm
Remember to pick up your child on time at 12:20pm! Have a great summer!


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Dear Families,

It was great to see so many of you at Open House last night! Thank you for coming to see all of the wonderful projects they have completed this year in first grade. The students were all so excited to be your tour guides for the evening. I know it was a lot to see and there was a lot of moving around, but I am proud of all of them! I hope you enjoyed the surprise gift as well. This was my first time publishing a book, and decided that I wanted the class to have a copy of their own. You can purchase extras at www.bookemon.com if you would like to share it with relatives or friends.

This was another short week. We finished up many projects and cleaned up the classroom to prepare for Open House. On Tuesday, we went to Mrs. Barelli’s classroom to explore tangrams. We made different animals out of the tangram pieces. On Wednesday, we had an assembly from the Fratello Marionettes on “The Frog Prince.” We watched a puppeteer who made his own puppets perform several short skits using music in the background. It was really entertaining! Today we had a special presentation from the San Jose Museum of Art. They came and introduced us to many different pieces of art styles using different art mediums.

Today was also the last day for the Eaton library. Students cannot check out books anymore since it is the end of the year. Please make sure you have returned your book to the Eaton library to avoid any fines!

We are near the end of the year, but I just found out we are getting a new student on Monday! Unfortunately, we do not have much time to get to know her, but please welcome her and her family anyways during these last 2 weeks. Her name is Jin Kim and she speaks Korean. Thank you!

Thursday, May 21, 2009

May 21, 2009

Upcoming Dates
* Friday, May 22nd and Monday, May 25th: NO SCHOOL
Friday, May 22nd will be a staff learning day for all of the teachers. Monday, May 25th is Memorial Day so there is no school. Enjoy your long 4-day weekend!

* Thursday, May 28th: Open House 6:30pm-7:30pm
Save the date! This will be your opportunity to come to Room 8 and see all the beautiful work your child has completed this year in first grade. Siblings are welcome too and your child will be your “tour guide” for the evening!

* Friday, June 5th: Cupertino Library Field Trip
This will be our last visit to the Cupertino Library. Please remember to send your child’s blue library card to school!

* Monday, June 8th: Almaden Lake Park Field Trip
This is our end-of-the-year field trip with all first graders. Attached to today’s newsletter is a permission slip that needs to be returned by Friday, May 29th. We can take three parent chaperones with us on the light rail and bus, and other parents with siblings are welcome to drive themselves and meet us at the park.

* Friday, June 12th: Last Day of School – Dismissal is at 12:20pm
Remember to pick up your child on time at 12:20pm! Have a great summer!

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Dear Families,

This was a short week! Thank you for all of the flowers, books, cards, supplies, and gifts this week for Teacher Appreciation Week. I really appreciated the kind thoughts and gestures. Thank you also to Emi’s mom, Mai’s mom, Jhanvi’s mom, and Seyon’s dad for coming to the San Francisco Zoo with us on Monday. Despite the incredibly cold weather, we had a great time looking at the different animals! My favorite was the baby giraffe!

This week we had a special first grade social studies circuit on Communities that lasted Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. We rotated to each of the classrooms to learn about people, homes, buildings, transportation, nature, signs, streets, and addresses in our community. These projects will be displayed in our classroom next week.

We are busily finishing up projects for Open House! Please plan on attending this Thursday, May 28th from 6:30-7:30pm! You will be taking home many of your children’s projects that they completed during this first grade year and it will be a great moment for your child to share what he or she has learned! I am very proud of all of them. All of the students have made tremendous improvement, especially in the last few recent months. You should be very proud too! Have a wonderful long weekend!

Friday, May 15, 2009

May 15, 2009

Upcoming Dates

* Monday, May 18th: San Francisco Zoo Field Trip
Thank you to our four parent chaperones: Emi’s mother, Seyon’s father, Jhanvi’s mother, and Mai’s mother. Please have your child dress in layers to stay warm and send a BAG lunch with your child’s name on it. Everything will be thrown away at the zoo!

* Thursday, May 21st: LAST Scholastic Book Orders Due!
Attached to today’s newsletter is the last book order of the year. Please make ONE check payable to Scholastic Book Clubs if you are interested in purchasing!

* Friday, May 22nd and Monday, May 25th: NO SCHOOL
Friday, May 22nd will be a staff learning day for all of the teachers. Monday, May 25th is Memorial Day so there is no school. Enjoy your long 4-day weekend!

* Thursday, May 28th: Open House 6:30pm-7:30pm
Save the date! This will be your opportunity to come to Room 8 and see all the beautiful work your child has completed this year in first grade. Siblings are welcome too and your child will be your “tour guide” for the evening!

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Dear Families,

Here are some highlights from the week:
Star of the Week: Jhanvi
Poem of the Week: The Robin’s Secret
Song of the Week: The Presidents
Kindness is … singing with all your heart
Words: watched, together, garden, sharp, baby, edge, only, enough
Next Week’s Sharing: Riddle – something at the beach
(at least 4 sentences memorized and picture/object to show)

• Language Arts: Theme 9 Special Friends – Week 3
o Strategy and Skill Focus: Question & Compare/Contrast
o New Sound: vowel pairs oi, oy, aw, au, suffixes –ful, -ly, -y
o Grammar: Describing what we see

• Math: We are in out last chapter for first grade on two digit addition and subtraction. This week we focused on addition and practiced adding two-digit numbers. Students had trouble with subtracting numbers such as 16-9 because they would confuse the ones place as 6-9. Please be careful!

• Writing: We finished learning about the frog life cycle. On Wednesday, we wrote an outline together in class, then students drafted an expository piece about a frog’s life. At this point in the year, students should be able to write an organized paragraph with a topic sentence, at least 3 facts with details to support it, and a conclusion. On Thursday, we published our writing and illustrated a frog to decorate our piece. We also made a quilt square about our favorite memories of first grade this week.

• Science: This is our last week observing the cloud cover, precipitation, wind, and temperature. Students have been assessed on whether or not they made accurate observations during the last month. This includes graphing temperatures correctly.

• Computer: Many students are finishing their The Very Hungry Caterpillar stories in the computer lab. We only have about 2 more weeks to work on them! Students who finished are reading stories in Starfall.

• Music: This week, the first grade classes got together to watch the DVD of our show! Great job everyone! Also, on Monday we were able to watch the fourth and fifth graders perform their musical! The upper graders use instruments such as drums and xylophones to accompany their singing, and also have role playing to tell a story.

• Circuits: On Tuesday, we had circuits with Mrs. Zankich. We reviewed fractions and then designed our own flags using either ½, 1/3, ¼ or 1/8. Then we wrote about what we made.

I came down with a cold during the week, so I rested on Thursday. I know some of the students were also sick! Take care and I hope you have a nice weekend!

Friday, May 08, 2009

May 8, 2009

HAPPY MOTHER’S DAY!!!

Upcoming Dates
* Friday, May 15th: Cupertino Library Field Trip
Please send your child’s blue library card to school! Remember to practice his/her 4-digit PIN number and please return books on your own!

* Monday, May 18th: San Francisco Zoo Field Trip
Thank you to our four parent chaperones: Emi’s mother, Seyon’s father, Jhanvi’s mother, and Mai’s mother. Please have your child dress in layers to stay warm and send a BAG lunch with your child’s name on it. Everything will be thrown away at the zoo!

* Thursday, May 21st: Intent to Return form due
Don’t forget to return this form! It asks you to share whether or not your child will be returning to Cupertino during the next school year. Please fill it out as soon as you can!

* Friday, May 22nd and Monday, May 25th: NO SCHOOL
Friday, May 22nd will be a staff learning day for all of the teachers. Monday, May 25th is Memorial Day so there is no school. Enjoy your long 4-day weekend!

* Thursday, May 28th: Open House 6:30pm-7:30pm
Save the date! This will be your opportunity to come to Room 8 and see all the beautiful work your child has completed this year in first grade. Siblings are welcome too and your child will be your “tour guide” for the evening!

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Dear Families,

I hope you were able to come watch our First Grade Musical, “Leave the World Just a Little Bit Better,” today! We worked very hard learning the words of the songs and practicing the dancing! We hope you enjoyed it!

Here are some highlights from the week:
Star of the Week: Alina
Poem of the Week: Caterpillar Small
Song of the Week: The Presidents
Kindness is … picking up someone else’s trash.
Word Wall: after, before, buy, done, off, pretty, school, wash
Next Week’s Sharing: Regular – Something you made yourself
(at least 4 sentences memorized and picture/object to show)

• Language Arts: Theme 9 Special Friends – Week 2
o Strategy and Skill Focus: Evaluate / Story Structure
o New Sound: base words with –es, –ies endings, prefixes un-, re-
o Grammar: Using was or were

• Math: We finished our eleventh chapter on Time and Calendar. Students now know how to read a clock by hour and half hour. They should also be able to answer questions about the day of the week, month, year, or date on a calendar. Keep practicing finding start times, end times, or the duration between two activities. That was the trickiest part for students!

• Writing: We wrote I Am poems this week. We used different question prompts to help us write a poem about ourselves and our favorite things. We tried to use descriptive words to write the sentences. These will be displayed at Open House.

• Science: This week we continued measuring the cloud cover, wind, and temperature on our weather calendars. On Thursday, we even saw the wind anemometer turning fast because there was strong wind. We also continued talking about the life cycle of frogs and toads. We are reading fiction stories from the Frog and Toad collections by Arnold Lobel. We are also reading non-fiction stories to learn facts and differences about frogs and toads.

• Social Studies: We talked about Mother’s Day this week and made a special present for our mothers! We hope you love our gifts. The clay pots were made from art class with Mrs. Abada and we painted them using acrylic paint. I chose bamboo plants because they’re easy to take care of since all you have to do is water them whenever you want to. You might want to place them on a plate in case water leaks from the bottom of the pot.

• Computer: We continued illustrating and writing our adaptations of the story, The Very Hungry Caterpillar. Two students are finished now and their books have been bound together!

• Music: We had music practice everyday this week. We had to practice getting on and off the risers, remembering our words and dance moves, as well as learning to stand for an entire performance! On Wednesday, we had a dress rehearsal for the Kindergarten and second grade classes. Today, we performed for the rest of the school and for all our parents! It was exciting to see all the children in their costumes!

• Art: This week was our last art class with Mrs. Abada! We made a chalk pastel drawing after the artist Monet. We focused on his waterlily and garden paintings. They turned out very beautiful!

• Circuits: On Tuesday, we had circuits with Mrs. Bachelor. She talked about windy skies and weather. We decorated our own kites.

If you are interested, I put together our favorite Kindness journal
entries and drawings into a published book which you can purchase online on the website, www.bookemon.com. Just look for the title, “Kindness Is…” and you can see the example. I purchased one for myself to keep and will display it during Open House!

Monday, May 04, 2009

May 1, 2009

Upcoming Dates

* Monday, May 4th: Musical Costumes DUE!!!
On Monday, I sent home a costume list highlighted with your child’s name. Please make sure to bring the exact clothes listed in a bag labeled with his/her name by MONDAY. Remember that shirts and pants need to be ONE color and have NO designs on them. Your child will wear their clothes home on Friday after the performance.

* Friday, May 8th: First Grade Musical - 2:00pm in the MP Room
Please come and watch our performance! Your child has worked hard to learn songs and dances for our show titled, “Leave the World a Little Bit Better.” It will be a cute show that you don’t want to miss!!!

* Friday, May 15th: Cupertino Library Field Trip
Please send your child’s blue library card to school!

* Monday, May 18th: San Francisco Zoo Field Trip
Our parent chaperones for this trip will be Seyon’s father, Jhanvi’s mother, and Mai’s mother. Thank you for volunteering! Please have your child dress in layers to stay warm and send a BAG lunch with your child’s name on it. Everything will be thrown away at the zoo!

* Thursday, May 21st: Intent to Return form due
Don’t forget to return this form! It asks you to share whether or not your child will be returning to Cupertino during the next school year. Please fill it out as soon as you can!

* Friday, May 22nd and Monday, May 25th: NO SCHOOL
Friday, May 22nd will be a staff learning day for all of the teachers. Monday, May 25th is Memorial Day so there is no school. Enjoy your long 4-day weekend!

* Thursday, May 28th: Open House 6:30pm-7:30pm
Save the date! This will be your opportunity to come to Room 8 and see all the beautiful work your child has completed this year in first grade. Siblings are welcome too and your child will be your “tour guide” for the evening!


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Dear Families,

Thank you to Mr. Feve (Emilie’s father) for coming with us on Monday to the Flint Center on our field trip. We watched singers and dancers act out seven short stories including, If You Give a Pig a Pancake. Despite a minor bus issue, we made it there safely and enjoyed the show!

Here are some highlights from the week:
Star of the Week: Winny
Poem of the Week: May Song
Song of the Week: The 50 States that Rhyme
Kindness is … picking up someone else’s trash.
Word Wall: around, else, ever, dance, ocean, open, talk, though
Next Week’s Sharing: Silly Poem
(at least 4 sentences memorized and picture/object to show)

• Language Arts: Theme 9 Special Friends – Week 1
• Strategy and Skill Focus: Monitor/Clarify
• Word Families: words that rhyme with my
• Sounds: y
• Grammar: is/are

• Math: We continued practicing to tell time by hour and half hour. We also started the second half of the chapter on reading and interpreting a calendar. We have been trying to answer questions about a calendar by answering with a month (Jan, Feb…), a day of the week (Sun, Mon, …), or a date (May 1).

• Science: We are recording the weather every day and measuring the temperature. This week, we talked a lot about wind. We learned how to make a wind anemometer and how it measures wind. We also practiced identifying the wind as no wind (calm), some wind (gentle or moderate breeze), and strong wind (strong breeze).

• Social Studies: This week our class had two special duties. First, we had campus clean up duty. We picked up trash throughout the school and tried to clean up the campus. Also, our parents had traffic duty. Thank you for those of you who volunteered 20 minutes or more to help keep our school safe in the bus circle!

• Computer: We continued illustrating and writing our adaptations of the story, The Very Hungry Caterpillar. Some students are almost done!

• Music: We had our last music class with Miss Rachel this week. She allowed us to have a recital to show any talents that we have. We also did a May Pole dance together. We have also been practicing hard on our musical songs and dances. One more week to go before the performance!

• Art: We painted our pinch pots this week. We chose our colors and used paint brushes to decorate our pots.

• Assembly: On Wednesday, the West Bay Opera came to Eaton and performed an opera called, “Barber of Seville.” It was a great opportunity for students to be exposed to different styles of singing!

I am sorry to hear that ELD will no longer be offered at Eaton after this year. I know that those of you who are supposed to continue in ELD for second grade received letters about this change. Unfortunately, we were told that Eaton is growing too big, and we do not have anymore classrooms to accommodate the ELD classes. Therefore, ELD is moving to Muir Elementary School next year. That also means that I lost my position at Eaton. I am sad to announce that I have taken a first grade position at Stocklmeir Elementary School next year. I will miss the Eaton community very much, as it has become my second home. Thank you for your support, and please continue to keep in touch with me even after this year!