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!