March 16, 2007

Upcoming Dates

* Thursday, March 22nd: Book Orders Due and Report Cards Go Home
If you would like to purchase books, please make ONE check payable to Scholastic Book Clubs. We will receive the books before the April spring break. Students will be receiving the second trimester grades as well as the scores from the CELDT (California English Language Development Test) that was taken in the Fall. Since there’s no school Friday, homework and library books need to be brought back on Thursday, March 22nd. Also, Friday sharers need to be ready to share on Thursday!

* Friday, March 23rd: No School – Staff Learning Day
The teachers will be working on writing assessments and additional Peacebuilder activities.

* Thursday, March 29th: Guadalupe River Park Field Trip
I have not received everyone’s permission slip that was in last week’s Friday Folder. Please sign and return the permission slip ASAP. Please remember to pack a BAG LUNCH that can be thrown away at the park. We are NOT allowing anyone to purchase food or drinks. Thank you for so many of you who wanted to volunteer. Unfortunately, we can only have 4 parents come with us and the first four permission slips I received were from the parents of: Jonathan, Mayu, Patricia, and Yo. We will be leaving at 11:00am from school and returning at 2:30pm.

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Dear Families,

Here are some highlights from the week:
Star of the Week: Patricia
Poem of the Week: Wearing of the Green
Song of the Week: The Water Cycle
Kindness is … keeping in touch with people.
Story of the Week: Where the Wild Things Are
Vocabulary of the Week: House 2
Word Wall: again, both, gone, hard, turn, want
Next Week’s Sharing: Riddle – something very small
(Hide a small object or picture in a bag and prepare at least four
complete sentences to give the class clues.)
• Language Arts: Theme 7 We Can Work it Out: Week 1
• Stories: That Toad is Mine!
• Word Families: -ow (long o) – tow, mow, row
• Sounds: vowel pairs oa, ow (boat, bow, toad, tow)
• Grammar: Proper Nouns for People and Animals

• Writing: We are progressing quickly in Writer’s Workshop. This week we talked about all 5 stages of the writing process: prewriting, drafting, revising, editing, and some students are already publishing their first piece on Weather! I am excited to see the students working independently.

• Math: This week we discussed symmetry, fractions (one-half, one-third, and one-fourth), and probability! We also reviewed positional vocabulary word (near, far, next to, above, etc) and shapes.

• Social Studies: Happy St. Patrick’s Day! This week we learned about the country of Ireland, and how they celebrate this special holiday. We talked about leprechauns and read stories too. Let’s see if the leprechauns visit us over the weekend!

• Science: This week we talked about rain and thought of describing words. We made umbrellas to hang in the classroom! In addition, we did an activity to find out our class’ favorite weather! Hot weather was the favorite!

• Computer: We used Graph Club this week to graph our favorite weather. We saw line graphs, bar graphs, pie charts, picture graphs, and tables.

Congratulations to Catherine, Geoffrey, Hitoharu, Lenny, Mayu, Moe, Reva, and Sammy on doing a wonderful job at the Kindness presentation on Tuesday evening. They memorized several sentences and shared our Kindness website with the Cupertino District board members. They got an outstanding ovation and even shook hands with all the board members. I am very proud of them!

March 9, 2007

Upcoming Dates:

* Saturday, March 10th: Lunar New Year Parade and Festival
Watch the parade at 10:30am from Jollyman Park or come to Memorial park between 12:30pm – 5:00pm for the festival and activities.

* Sunday, March 11th: Daylight Saving
Remember to change your clocks one hour forward!

* Tuesday, March 13th: Kindness Website Presentation @ 6:30pm
Thank you to the following students who will be representing Eaton and sharing our Kindness website: Catherine, Geoffrey, Hitoharu, Lenny, Mayu, Moe, Reva, and Sammy. (For these students only: Attached to this newsletter is the script that needs to be memorized and rehearsed. Please practice and be ready by Tuesday. We will practice altogether during school on Tuesday and will meet again at 6:15pm in the Board Room at the District Office).

* Thursday, March 15th: Cupertino Public Library Field Trip
Please remember to bring your child’s blue library card to school that day. Also, make sure your child has memorized their 4-digit PIN number. I encourage you to frequently visit the library with your child on your own time. Let them learn and practice checking out books by themselves on the checkout machines.

* Friday, March 16th: Bring Leprechaun Traps to School!
This is a take-home project we are doing to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day, a holiday that began in Ireland. A few of the symbols attached to St. Patrick’s Day include leprechauns, shamrocks (4-leaf clovers), and rainbows with a pot of gold at the end. We would like students to invent a trap to capture leprechauns. Leprechauns are mythical figures in Irish folklore that trick you and take away your gold or treasure. They are very small and nobody ever sees them (of course).

* Thursday, March 22nd: Report Cards Go Home
Students will be receiving the second trimester grades as well as the scores from the CELDT (California English Language Development Test) that was taken in the Fall.

* Friday, March 23rd: No School – Staff Learning Day
The teachers will be working on writing assessments and additional Peacebuilder activities. Since there’s no school Friday, homework and library books need to be brought back on Thursday, March 22nd.

* Thursday, March 29th: Guadalupe River Park Field Trip
This field trip will let us explore the river while learning about plants, animals, habitats, and weather. Attached to this newsletter is the permission slip. Please sign and return by Friday, March 16th.

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Dear Families,

The weather is beautiful! We have been measuring the temperature every day and last week our low was 49 degrees and this week our high was 69 degrees! I hope the sun stays!

Here are some highlights from the week:
Star of the Week: Yo
Poem of the Week: What the Rain Said
Song of the Week: One Dream
Kindness is … taking care of the classroom.
Story of the Week: What is the Sun?
Vocabulary of the Week: House 1
Word Wall: been, evening, far, forest, goes, hungry, near, soon
Next Week’s Sharing: Riddle – something green
(Hide a green object or picture in a bag and prepare at least four complete sentences to give the class clues.)
• Language Arts: Theme 6 Animal Adventures– Week 3
• Stories: Red Eyed Tree Frog
• Word Families: -ay (day, play, say)
• Sounds: vowel pairs ai and ay (paid, pay, maid, may)
• Grammar: Naming Words for One or More (-s)

• Writing: We started the first writing step in Writer’s Workshop, prewriting. This week we practiced making outlines and organizing our thoughts using Step Up to Writing. We also talked about making sentences interesting and varied. We will continue practicing prewriting using different topics including: weather, autobiography, and family.

• Math: This week we started geometry. This chapter had many vocabulary words and positional words such as: far from, next to, behind, between, etc. Please look over the math work from class and review these vocabulary concepts. We also learned different plane shapes and solid shapes.

• Science: We continued our weather unit this week. We made thermometers and learned about how thermometers are used in daily life. We are also getting better at graphing the temperature each day and recording the weather. In circuits, Mrs. Khan taught us about how rainbows are created.

• Computer: This week we spent time using KidPix to draw more pictures for our Kindness Journals.

• Music: We saw Mrs. More today and we practiced playing different instruments using patterns. We used triangles, sticks, cymbals, and drums to accompany songs.
We said good bye to Akane today =( We are sad to see her leave Eaton and we will miss her very much. Please keep in touch Akane and remember Room 8! Enjoy the warm, beautiful weekend!

March 2, 2007

Upcoming Dates

* Friday, March 9th: End of Second Trimester & Akane’s Last Day
Akane is moving back to Japan and Friday will be her last day. We will miss her!

* Sunday, March 11th: Daylight Saving
Remember to change your clocks one hour forward!

* Tuesday, March 13th: Kindness Website Presentation @ 6:30pm
We have been asked to share a 5-10 minute presentation to the Cupertino Board of Education about how we use technology in our classroom. We will be talking about our Kindness website, how we use it, and examples of sentences we wrote and pictures we drew. This is an exciting opportunity for our class and I need at least several students to participate and speak in front of an audience. It will be held in the Board Room of the Administrative Offices of the Cupertino Union School District, 10301 Vista Drive, Cupertino, CA. 95014. Please see the attached permission slip to indicate if you would like your child to participate in this special event. Please return permission slips by Friday, March 9th.

* Thursday, March 15th: Cupertino Public Library Field Trip
Please remember to bring your child’s blue library card to school that day. Also, make sure your child has memorized their 4-digit PIN number. I encourage you to frequently visit the library with your child on your own time. Let them learn and practice checking out books by themselves on the checkout machines.

* Friday, March 16th: Bring Leprechaun Traps to School!
This is a take-home project we are doing to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day, a holiday that began in Ireland. A few of the symbols attached to St. Patrick’s Day include leprechauns, shamrocks (4-leaf clovers), and rainbows with a pot of gold at the end. We would like students to invent a trap to capture leprechauns. Leprechauns are mythical figures in Irish folklore that trick you and take away your gold or treasure. They are very small and nobody ever sees them (of course!). See attached paper for more information on how to make the traps and have fun making them!

* Thursday, March 22nd: Report Cards Go Home
Students will be receiving the second trimester grades as well as the scores from the CELDT (California English Language Development Test) that was taken in the Fall.

* Friday, March 23rd: No School – Staff Learning Day
The teachers will be working on writing assessments and additional Peacebuilder activities. Since there’s no school Friday, homework and library books need to be brought back on Thursday, March 22nd.

* Thursday, March 29th: Guadalupe River Park and Gardens Field Trip
This field trip will let us explore the river while learning about plants, animals, habitats, and weather. More information will be sent home later.

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Dear Families,
March is a busy month! As you can see from the upcoming dates listed above, we have projects, field trips, assessments, and even a presentation to complete in March!
Here are some highlights from the week:
Star of the Week: Ming-Li
Poem of the Week: Rainy Day
Song of the Week: The Continents and Oceans
Kindness is … following your dreams.
Story of the Week: I Like the Rain
Vocabulary of the Week: Food 6
Word Wall Words:cow, door, horse, now, table, there, through, wall
Next Week’s Sharing: Spring Poem
(Find a poem in a book or on the computer that is at least 4 lines.
Remember to bring a picture or drawing that matches the poem.)
• Language Arts: Theme 6 Animal Adventures– Week 2
• Stories: Eek! There’s a Mouse in the House
• Word Families: -eat (beat, meat, wheat)
• Sounds: long e (CV, CVCe), ee (sleep), ea (beat)
• Grammar: Naming Words for Things and Places

• Writing: We finished publishing our final drafts of our Penguin writing pieces. Students will begin Writer’s Workshop next week.

• Math: We finished Chapter 9 on addition and subtraction facts to 20. Students are really mastering computation and that is great! Next week we will go back to Chapter 8 and work on geometry, fractions, and probability.

• Social Studies: On Thursday, we had a special guest reader from the Rotary club to talk about and celebrate Dr. Seuss’ birthday.

• Science: We began graphing the cloud cover, precipitation, wind, and temperature everyday. We made flags to help us measure the wind, and we also observed the weather using 4 of our senses. In circuits, Mrs. Barelli read us Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs and we made a class book with our own fictional sentences and pictures.

• Computer: We used Kidspiration and words and pictures to show the different types of weather we observe.

This week we had an earthquake drill and we practiced what to do if there was an emergency. Also, the students had a hearing test on Thursday. Today’s Friday folder has an important Summer School application that needs to be completed and returned if you would like your child to attend in the summer. It is first-come first-serve, so please return it as soon as possible. Have a great weekend!

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Kindness Website Presentation
Tuesday, March 13th
6:30pm
(Plan to arrive at 6:15pm and should finish by 6:45pm)

Board Room of the Administrative Offices
Cupertino Union School District
10301 Vista Drive, Cupertino, CA. 95014


March 2, 2007
Dear Families,

Our class has been invited to share a 5-10 minute presentation about our use of technology in the classroom to the Cupertino Board of Education. This is a special privilege to show the community our Kindness website and how we have used it in class. Students who can make it on the evening of March 13th will rehearse their speaking parts with me at school and may have something sent home to practice as well.

Please fill out the form below if you would like your child to participate and return it to me by Wednesday, March 7th. You must be able to bring your child to the Board Room (address above) at 6:15pm. The presentation will begin at 6:30pm and is only 5-10 minutes long. Students will be dismissed shortly thereafter.
I look forward to presenting with the kids!

Sincerely,
Miss Yu

--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Cut this portion and return by Wednesday, March 7th.

Name of Child: __________________

Check one below:

_____ YES! We plan on attending March 13th between 6:15pm and 6:45pm.

_____ NO. We are not available March 13th.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Upcoming Dates

* Monday, February 19th – Friday, February 23rd: NO SCHOOL
Enjoy your winter recess!

* Thursday, February 22nd: Eaton Fundraiser at Chuck-E-Cheese
Come to Chuck-E-Cheese and they will donate money to Eaton!

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Dear Families,

It has been an exciting week! Our Valentine’s Day party was a wonderful success! We decorated the picture frames of our class during the party, and finished making our Valentine bags. I hope you liked our tree of hearts that we made in computer lab! The Dear Valentine poem on our bags was also the poem of the week. Have your child read it to you!
Thank you for remembering to prepare Valentine cards for everyone in the class. It was so fun to pass out cards to each other and read all the cards! We had a healthy party that included a menu of carrots, apples, juice, and one cookie. I was so touched by all the beautiful cards and presents. Thank you so much!

Here are some highlights from the week:
Star of the Week: Jaewoo
Poem of the Week: Dear Valentine
Song of the Week: The Continents and Oceans
Kindness is … celebrating special days.
Story of the Week: Giraffe’s Can’t Dance
Vocabulary of the Week: Food 5
Word Wall Words: morning, found, shout, by, out, show, climb
Next Week’s Sharing: Regular – somewhere you have traveled
(at least 4 sentences and bring a picture or drawing)
• Language Arts: Theme 6 Animal Adventures– Week 1
• Stories: The Sleeping Pig
• Word Families: -oke (poke, joke, woke)
• Sounds: long o, long u, and final clusters –ft, -lk, -nt
• Grammar: Naming Words for People and Animals

• Writing: We continued learning more about penguins this week. We did a penguin center where we learned the names of the seventeen penguin species. We wrote a piece on facts we know about penguins. Geoffrey was chosen as our Author of the Month and he shared his penguin writing at the assembly today! Great job!

• Math: Many of the students are flying through Chapter 9 on addition and subtraction facts to 20. We worked mostly on subtraction this week. We will continue with this chapter after vacation.

• Social Studies: We learned about Valentine’s Day this week, as well as President’s Day and Chinese New Year. For President’s Day, we learned about leaders in our country, especially George Washington and Abraham Lincoln. On Friday, we made dragons to celebrate Chinese New Year.

• Science: We went to Mrs. Tambe’s class to continue our unit on weather. We talked about rain and made an umbrella picture.

• Art: We are starting a new activity with Mrs. Blakeslee about Native Americans. We learned how Native Americans use pictures instead of words to tell a story. We are writing our own stories and will be drawing pictures to match our stories in the next art class.

• Music: This week, we celebrated Chinese New Years by playing drums and cymbals with Mrs. More. We also did dragon line dancing using dragon costumes and we took turns parading around the MP room! It was very exciting!

Today was Joseph’s last day in our class =( We are sad that he is moving away to Los Angeles. We will miss him very much! We hope he will be able to come back and visit us!

The weather was great this week! I hope it stays that way during our Winter recess and I hope all of you have a safe vacation next week!

100th Day of School!

Upcoming Dates

* Wednesday, February 14th: Valentine’s Day
We will be celebrating Valentine’s Day in the afternoon by doing some crafts, having a snack, and exchanging cards. Every child must prepare Valentine cards for every student and bring them to school on Valentine’s Day. 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.
Akane Anushka Catherine Geoffrey
Hitoharu Jaewoo Jonathan Joseph
Julia Lenny Mayu Michael
Ming-Li Moe Oscar Patricia
Reva Sammy William Yo

* Friday, February 16th: Joseph’s Last Day at Eaton
Joseph and his family will be moving to Los Angeles during Winter Recess. Please make sure to say goodbye before he leaves!

* Monday, February 19th – Friday, February 23rd: NO SCHOOL
Enjoy your winter recess!


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Dear Families,

Happy one hundred days of school! Well, today is the one hundredth and third day of school already! Last weekend’s first grade conference was very good. Mrs. Burgess, Mrs. Bachelor, Mrs. Barelli, Mrs. Tambe, Miss Salter, and I went to the conference together on Friday. We drove up to Napa at 5am Friday morning! We took several seminars to help us learn new ways to teach writing, math, and other language arts areas. It was a very well organized and helpful conference!

Here are some highlights from the week:
Star of the Week: Anushka
Poem of the Week: One Hundred Days
Song of the Week: The Penguin Song
Kindness is … celebrating special days.
Story of the Week: Shoes, Shoes, Shoes
Vocabulary of the Week: Food 4
Word Wall Words: fly, give, good, little, our, try, was
Next Week’s Sharing: Riddle – something you love
(at least 4 sentences and bring a picture hidden in a bag)
• Language Arts: Theme 5 Home Sweet Home – Week 3
• Stories: The Kite
• Word Families: -ite (kite, white) and –ide (ride, hide)
• Sounds: long i (CVCe) and contractions
• Grammar: Using I or Me in sentences

• Math: We started Chapter 9 this week on addition and subtraction facts to 20. This should be an easier chapter for most students but we still need to make sure we work carefully and check our answers for mistakes!

• Social Studies: On Tuesday, we celebrated the 100th day of school! We made 100 day hats with Mrs. Burgess, 100 hungry ants using our fingerprints with Mrs. Bachelor, 100 around the world with Mrs. Salter, and counting to 100 with Mrs. Tambe. This was a fun day for the kids!

• Science: This week, we continued a few more penguin activities. We are learning the life of an Emperor Penguin in Antarctica. We also made a Penguin Art activity. Next week we will continue to learn about the 17 different kinds of penguins!

Eaton will be having a family science fair on March 8th. If your child is interested in participating, please pick up an information packet in the office. This is an optional activity.

I was not able to come to school these past few days because I had a family trip to attend. I was very pleased last Friday to hear from Mrs. Nevins that the kids were great! I am hoping they have kept up the wonderful behavior these past 3 days! Have a wonderful weekend!

Happy Groundhog's Day!

Upcoming Dates

* Tuesday, February 6th: 100th Day of School!
All the first graders will be doing a special all day long circuit to celebrate the 100th Day of School! Activities will involve various subjects such as math, language arts, science, and art!

* Wednesday, February 7th: Last Day for Book Donations
Thank you for the generous donations already this week. We are helping out many kids in the hospitals!

* Thursday, February 8th: Cupertino Library Field Trip
We will be walking to the library again this afternoon. Please remember to send your child’s blue library card with them to school. Also, please review their 4-digit PIN numbers!

* Wednesday, February 14th: Valentine’s Day
We will be celebrating Valentine’s Day in the afternoon by doing some crafts, having a snack, and exchanging cards. Every child must prepare Valentine cards for every student and bring them to school on Valentine’s Day. 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.
Akane Anushka Catherine Geoffrey
Hitoharu Jaewoo Jonathan Joseph
Julia Lenny Mayu Michael
Ming-Li Moe Oscar Patricia
Reva Sammy William Yo

* Monday, February 19th – Friday, February 23rd: NO SCHOOL
Enjoy your winter recess!

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Dear Families,

Happy Groundhog’s Day! Monday was a staff learning day this week. The teachers spent the morning attending a writing training from the district. We will be doing more writing assessments in the upcoming months. In the afternoon, the teachers took a field trip to Hicklebee’s and bought books for our Eaton library!
Here are some highlights from the week:
Star of the Week: Akane
Poem of the Week: You and Me
Song of the Week: The Penguin Song
Kindness is … seeking wise people.
Story of the Week: The Emperor’s Egg
Vocabulary of the Week: Food 3
Word Wall Words: could, house, how, over, own, so
Next Week’s Sharing: Friendship Poem
(at least 4 sentences and bring a picture)
• Language Arts: Theme 5 Home Sweet Home – Week 2
• Stories: Me On the map
• Word Families: -ate (date, gate) and –ake (rake, bake)
• Sounds: long a (CVCe) and final sounds –nd, -ng, and -nk
• Grammar: Which Kind of Sentence?

• Math: We took our Money test this week. It was a very hard chapter for many students. Please continue to review money (identifying coins, amounts, and counting) at home. We are skipping Chapter 8 and doing Chapter 9 first on more addition and subtraction facts. We will return to Chapter 8 after a few weeks.

• Social Studies: This week we learned about Groundhog’s Day! We learned that groundhogs come out to look for their shadows. If they see their shadow, that means there’s six more weeks of winter. If they don’t see their shadow, that means spring will arrive sooner! We also started learning a little about penguins. We will be working in a penguin unit the next 2 weeks as well.

• Science: This week in circuits, we went to Miss Salter’s room and talked more about weather.

• Computer Lab: This week we made a Valentine’s heart tree using the program, Kidpix 4. The students will be decorating a bag for Valentine’s Day.

• Art: We saw Mrs. Blakeslee this week! It has been a long time since we had art because Mrs. Blakeslee hurt her knee in December. We finished our flower sketches and will be bringing them home.

• Music: We also saw Mrs. More on Thursday. She sang Chinese New Years songs and had us play drums and cymbals. We also got to wear lion costumes and paraded around the room!

Today, six of us first grade teachers are at a California First Grade conference to learn more strategies on teaching all different curriculum areas. I hope the students had a great day with Mrs. Nevins!

End of January!

Upcoming Dates

* Monday, January 29th: NO SCHOOL – Staff Learning Day
I apologize for any confusion with the wrong information on the Sharing List!

* Tuesday, February 6th: 100th Day of School!
All the first graders will be doing a special all day long circuit to celebrate the 100th Day of School! Activities will involve various subjects such as math, language arts, science, and art!

* Thursday, February 8th: Cupertino Library Field Trip
We will be walking to the library again this afternoon. Please remember to send your child’s blue library card with them to school. Also, please review their 4-digit PIN numbers!

* Wednesday, February 14th: Valentine’s Day
We will be celebrating Valentine’s Day in the afternoon by doing some crafts, having a snack, and exchanging cards. Every child must prepare Valentine cards for every student and bring them to school on Valentine’s Day. 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.
Akane Anushka Catherine Geoffrey
Hitoharu Jaewoo Jonathan Joseph
Julia Lenny Mayu Michael
Ming-Li Moe Oscar Patricia
Reva Sammy William Yo

* Monday, February 19th – Friday, February 23rd: NO SCHOOL
Enjoy your winter recess!

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Dear Families,

Thank you for returning the permission slips this week from PBwiki to allow them to possibly videotape our classroom using their website. I have to receive approval still from the Cupertino Union School District. I will let you know if and when this happens.
Here are some highlights from the week:
Star of the Week: Lenny
Poem of the Week: January Thaw
Song of the Week: Five Senses
Kindness is … forgiving mistakes.
Story of the Week: Antarctica
Vocabulary of the Week: Food 2
Word Wall Words: grow, light, long, more, other, right, room, small, these
Next Week’s Sharing: Regular – something you made using 100 Objects (at least 4 sentences and bring the picture)
• Language Arts: Theme 5 Home Sweet Home – Week 1
• Stories: Moving Day
• Word Families: -ash (rash, dash) and –ush (hush, bush)
• Sounds: digraphs (sh, th, wh, ch, tch)
• Grammar: Exclamations !!!

• Math: This chapter has been very difficult for many students. We began working on some of the math pages as a whole group instead of individually. Please make sure to continue reviewing the problems that come home in today’s Friday Folder and make sure your child understands how to count, create, and solve money problems. We are working hard on money everyday!

• Social Studies: We have finished our Calendar project! This week, we talked about the rest of the months and holidays of the year. I am sure you will enjoy using this personalized Calendar for 2007!

• Science: This week in circuits, we went to Mrs. Bachelor’s room and talked about Winter. Students brainstormed words that described winter and also made a class poster to decorate our classroom!

• Computer Lab: This week we drew pictures for our January Kindness journals. Most students were able to complete two pictures using Kidpix for their journals (see Classwork section in class website).

• Buddies: We met our 4th grade buddies in Ms. Allen’s class today. We played relay races and games on the field with our buddies.

Eaton is doing a fundraiser for patients who are in hospitals. They are asking for book donations, if you have any books that you do not want any more (not ripped or scribbled on). Students will be bringing home a plastic bag for this fundraiser. Please turn in the books by February 7th.

Over the next few weeks, I will be absent a few days. Next Friday, all of the first grade teachers will be attending a first grade conference. The following week, I will be going out of town three days for a family obligation. Mrs. Nevins will be the substitute. She has substituted for me several times before and she used to be a teacher for many years. She is very experienced and knows my teaching style. I hope to hear only wonderful comments about our class from her! Please remind your children to be on their best behavior everyday!

Peace-filled Week

Upcoming Dates

* Friday, January 26th: Book Orders Due
Attached to this newsletter are the Scholastic Book Orders. Please cut out the order form on the back of each catalog and list the items you would like to purchase. Write ONE check payable to Scholastic Book Clubs. The books will arrive before our February Mid-Year Recess.

* Monday, January 29th: NO SCHOOL – Staff Learning Day
Remember Monday sharers will share on Tuesday instead.

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Dear Families,
This was a short week! Here are some highlights from the week:
Star of the Week: Geoffrey
Poem of the Week: Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
Song of the Week: Five Senses
Kindness is … building peace around me.
Story of the Week: I Am Freedom’s Child
Vocabulary of the Week: Food 1
Word Wall: car, down, hear, hold, hurt, learn, their, walk, would

Next Week’s Sharing: Riddle – something to keep you warm
(Try to memorize words, develop at least 4 complete clues, and hide object/picture in a bag)

• Language Arts: Theme 4 All Together Now – Week 3
• Stories: Bud’s Day Out
• Word Families: -um (gum, sum) and –ump (bump, dump)
• Sounds: triple clusters and short u (bug, hut)
• Grammar: Asking sentences (How? Why? Who? What? Etc)

• Writing: This week we went to Mrs. Burgess’ class for Science circuits. We learned many facts about weather through The Magic School Bus and wrote a paragraph with three weather facts of our choice.

• Social Studies: This week, we learned mostly about Martin Luther King Jr. We read stories about his life and what he did to change unfair laws. One project we created was to show that all kinds of people can live peacefully together. Another activity was a group project where we illustrated important events in Martin Luther King Jr.’s life. We also continued our Calendar project and completed May and June. I am hoping students will be able to finish the Calendar by next week and bring it home to share with your families!

• Math: We are in Chapter 7 about money. Please review counting by 5’s and 10’s. That will make counting nickels and dimes easier! We are working on identifying and counting pennies, nickels, and dimes. This concept is best reviewed at home if you use real coins and count them.

• Computer Lab: We finished our Kidspiration projects about the seasons and months of the year. These will be used as the cover of our Calendars.

• Assembly: We had an Author of the Month assembly today. Congratulations to Lenny who wrote about four of his 2007 New Year’s Resolutions. Great Job!

Most of you are familiar with our Kindness Journals we have been writing each week (under “Classwork” in our website). Our journals are hosted by a website called www.pbwiki.com. The founders of PBwiki would like more teachers to use their site, and so they are interested in coming into our classroom to videotape some of the students during Computer center as they type their Kindness Journals and illustrate pictures. Attached to this newsletter is a letter from Ramit Sethi, one of the co-founders of the website requesting your permission to videotape your children in class. Please complete the form and return it to me on Monday in the Friday Folder. Thank you! Have an excellent weekend!

Building Peace

Upcoming Dates

* Monday, January 15th: NO SCHOOL – Martin Luther King Jr. Day
Remember Monday sharers will share on Tuesday instead.
* Monday, January 29th: NO SCHOOL – Staff Learning Day
Teachers will still be going to school on this day. We will be working on Peacebuilders on this day.

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Dear Families,

We have reached our maximum capacity! This week, we gained three new students! Our first student was Oscar, who just moved from Spain. He speaks Spanish at home and is just beginning to learn English. Next, we met Michael, who speaks French at home but knows some English because he went to school in Texas. Last, we met Jaewoo who just moved from Korea and is also new to speaking English. We are excited to have these new students! You can read more about them in our Prince and Princess activity on the website (under “Classwork”). Please say hello to their families and welcome them to our class!

Here are some highlights from the week:
Star of the Week: Moe
Poem of the Week: Bear-ly Awake
Song of the Week: Peacebuilder Pledge
Kindness is … learning a friend’s language.
Story of the Week: The Hat
Vocabulary of the Week: Body Parts 7
Word Wall Words: girl, know, read, sing, write
Next Week’s Sharing: Riddle – something healthy (try to memorize)
(at least 4 complete clues and hide object/picture)

• Language Arts: Theme 4 All Together Now – Week 2
• Stories: The Best Pet
• Word Families: -ell (tell, sell) and –est (best, test)
• Sounds: clusters with s (sw-, sl-, sp-), short e, silent letters kn, wr, gn
• Grammar: Telling Sentence

• Writing: This week, most of our writing was during Prince and Princess after we interviewed our new students. We are starting to compare the difference between Expository writing (writing a paragraph to tell something) and Narrative writing (writing a story).

• Reading: In addition to reading The Hat during Listening Center, we read another book by the same author (Jan Brett) called The Mitten. We read this story several times and also took turns telling the story orally in readers’ theater. We also made our own mittens and animals.

• Math: We are finishing addition and subtraction facts to 12 this week. Keep practicing word problems and remembering our “magic words.”
o Addition: in all, altogether
o Subtraction: how many more, less, away, still
Next week we are starting a chapter on money with pennies, nickels, dimes, and quarters.

• Social Studies: We continued our calendar project this week and completed February, March, and April. We are learning about different holidays and important dates in each of these months. We also began to learn about Martin Luther King Jr. and will continue to read more about him next week.

• Science: Weather is our unit for the next few months. This week we made snowflakes with our big buddies to hang in the classroom. We also talked about clothing and what you wear in the wintertime.

• Library: Remember to return the Cupertino Public Library books on your own whenever your child is finished with them. We do not want to mix them up with Eaton Library books which are checked out usually on Fridays.

• Computer Lab: We continued our Calendar map this week using Kidspiration. Many students finished adding words and pictures to their calendars and it looks great!

• Assembly: We had a fun performance to watch from Young Audiences. It was a group of 3 people performing funny Japanese drama!

Please continue to talk with your children about classroom rules. Overall, we are a very well-behaved group of students! However, I have to remind students to sit quietly on the carpet and not talk to other students or move around. Also, I have to give reminders while students are working to stay focused and finish their work instead of talking. Green super stars reflect that students have been trying their best in school each day. I hope to give all green super stars! Have a wonderful 3-day weekend!

Happy New Year!!!

Upcoming Dates

* Thursday, January 11th: Cupertino Library Field Trip
Hopefully it will not rain next week! Remember to bring your library cards to school and memorize your 4-digit PIN number. Students will be checking out 2 books. Please return the books to the Cupertino Library on your own (do not send the books back to Eaton).

* Monday, January 15th: NO SCHOOL – Martin Luther King Jr. Day
Remember Monday sharers will share on Tuesday instead.

* Monday, January 29th: NO SCHOOL – Staff Learning Day
Teachers will still be going to school on this day. We will be working on Peacebuilders on this day.


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Dear Families,

Happy New Year! I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday season! It has been exciting listening to everyone’s sharing! Also, students wrote in their Weekend News journals about their vacation. We had many travelers in our class! I stayed home most of the time and spent the days with my family, except for a very short trip to Tahoe for snowboarding! It was so nice and relaxing, except for the fact that I came back to school and my computer wasn’t working anymore!!! Some files are lost, so the website may not be updated. I am working on getting everything back to normal.

On Monday, we will be getting a new student named Michael! He is moving to California from Texas, however, he speaks French! Please welcome him and his family to our class!

Here are some highlights from the week:
Star of the Week: Joseph
Poem of the Week: Winter Cheer
Song of the Week: Peacebuilder Pledge
Kindness is … making New Year resolutions.
Story of the Week: Snowballs
Vocabulary of the Week: Body Parts 6
Word Wall Words: children, come, love, people, picture, your
Next Week’s Sharing: Winter Poem (memorize words! No reading)
(at least 4 complete lines and bring object/picture)
• Language Arts: Theme 4 All Together Now – Week 1
• Stories: Who’s in a Family?
• Word Families: -ock (clock, sock) and -op (hop, top)
• Sounds: clusters with l (pl-, fl-, gl) and short o
• Grammar: Is it a Sentence?

• Writing: We talked about what New Year resolutions mean. We tried to think of four different resolutions, or goals that we will try to do this year in 2007. We wrote them down and decorated a nice project to display each student’s 2007 resolutions.

• Math: We are continuing addition and subtraction facts to 12. The students are getting very good at fact families!

• Social Studies: We are starting a January project on seasons, holidays, and important dates on the calendar. We will be learning about each month of the year and will make a fun art project for each month too!

• Science Circuit: This was our last circuit with the district’s Here’s Looking at You program to teach students about making right decisions and staying away from drugs. Next week we will start a new circuit on Weather, which is the next Science unit we will be learning about from now until April.

• Assembly: Today we had an assembly called Stranger Danger. A police officer came to teach us about strangers and what we should do to stay safe from strangers.

• Computer Lab: We are starting a project using Kidspiration that also relates to what we are learning in Social Studies. Students are finding pictures and writing words for each month in the year. We will be continuing this activity next week as well.

• Music: We saw Mrs. More this week and started practicing lion dancing using cymbals! We each had the chance to be the leader and we also danced with long red ribbons. We also visited our xylophones and metal instruments.

It was hard to wake up early again on Tuesday after two weeks of sleeping in, but once I saw all the kids Tuesday morning, I was reminded why I love being a teacher! Your children are all so adorable and I am happy to work with them! Happy 2007! I hope many blessings will come to your family this year!

December 11, 2006

Dear Families,

My apologies! I made a mistake on several of the report cards by accidentally reversing the DAYS LATE and DAYS ABSENT boxes on the first page. I am attaching a new first page for those of you that had the wrong numbers. If you do not have a page attached to this letter, that means your child’s report card was correct. Thank you for your understanding.

Several announcements and reminders for this week:

• No homework this week. However, please prepare your sharing. This week is a regular sharing about something you can decorate.
• Friday volunteers do not need to come this week.
• Thursday, December 14th: Cupertino Library Field Trip – Send your library cards to school in the morning!
• Friday, December 15th: Polar Express Party – wear your pajamas to school all day and bring your favorite stuffed animal!

Also, I am sad to announce that Young-Jin will be leaving Eaton school because he is moving back to Korea. Friday will be his last day with us. We will miss him and his family! Remember to say good-bye on Friday!

December 8, 2006

Upcoming Dates

Monday, December 11th – Friday, December 15th: No Homework Packets
I will not be sending home homework packets the week before Winter Recess, so there will be no spelling or vocabulary test because of the holidays. However, please continue to prepare your child’s sharing and continue reading daily for 15 minutes for the Book-It! Reading Log. Remember the reading logs are due when we come back after Winter Recess. *** Friday parent volunteers: You do not need to come help on Friday, December 15th. Thank you!***

Thursday, December 14th: Cupertino Library Field Trip
If it is not raining, we are planning on going to the Cupertino Library. Please remember to send your child to school with his or her library card. They must also remember their 4-digit PIN number.

Friday, December 15th: Polar Express Party
This will be a special day to celebrate the holidays! We will be doing activities and games based off of the story, The Polar Express, by Chris Van Allsburg. It will also be a pajama day (because we are pretending to be the children in the train)! Please send your child to school in their favorite pajamas and they can also bring one stuffed animal or pillow too.

Monday, December 18th to January 1nd: NO SCHOOL – Winter Recess
School will resume on Tuesday, January 2rd.

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December is going by quickly! Next week will be a fun week for the students as we get ready for the holidays. Many activities will be different than usual.

Here are some highlights from the week:
Star of the Week: Reva
Poem of the Week: Hannukah Rainbow
Song of the Week: Money Song
Kindness is … donating food.
Story of the Week: Sitting on the Farm
Vocabulary of the Week: People 5
Word Wall Words: all, call, eat, every, first, never, paper, shall, why
Next Week’s Sharing: Regular – something you can decorate (4 complete sentences and bring object you decorated.)
• Language Arts: Theme 3 All Together Now – Week 2
• Stories: Mr. C’s Dinner
• Word Families: –ip (hip, dip, flip) and –in (fin, tin, pin)
• Sounds: verb endings –s, -ed, -ing, short I, possessives with ‘s
• Grammar: Naming Parts of Sentences

• Writing: This week we wrote letters to Santa Claus. We thought of three reasons why we have been good this year and we also wrote what gift we wished for. In addition, we made a Santa portrait with curly beards!

• Social Studies: We continued our Winter Holiday book this week with many circuits! This week, we went to Mrs. Bachelor’s class and learned about Hanukkah, we went to Miss Salter’s class and learned about Christmas in Sweden, and finally we also went to Mrs. Tambe’s class to learn about Kwanzaa. We are making fun projects for each holiday!

• Art: Mrs. Blakeslee has been out the past few weeks due to a knee surgery and will not be returning until the New Year. We made a card and sent her a get well gift from Eaton. In class, we made ornaments for our class tree using dried pasta! We will hang the ornaments next week.

• Music: We saw Mrs. More this week and she taught us a song using fake candles! We turned off the lights while we sang and danced together. Also, she taught us how to play a new instrument singing Merry Christmas!

• Vision Test: On Thursday, we all had a vision test from the nurses in Cupertino. This is a nice service that Cupertino provides for its students. All first grade students have to take the vision test, and all first grade boys also take a color test. You will be notified if anything was abnormal.

• Computer: This week we used KidPix 4 to create a math project. We counted by 10’s all the way to 100 using different stamps.

Today you are receiving your child’s report card for the first trimester. Please remember that some of the standards are based on what your child should know at the END of first grade. Therefore, your child has only learned 1/3 of first grade curriculum, and they will continue to grow and improve in the next few months. If you have any questions, please send me an email or leave a note inside the report card envelope. Please keep the report cards at home, but return the envelope. Thank you.

First of December

Upcoming Dates

Tuesday, December 5th: Family Night at the Book Fair 6:00pm-8:00pm
Our regular Eaton library visits on Friday mornings were cancelled this week and next week because of the Book Fair. Therefore, our next Eaton library visit will be on Friday, December 15th.

Monday, December 11th – Friday, December 15th: No Homework Packets
I will not be sending home homework packets the week before Winter Recess, so there will be no spelling or vocabulary test because of the holidays. However, please continue to prepare your child’s sharing and continue reading daily for 15 minutes for the Book-It! Reading Log. Remember the reading logs are due when we come back after Winter Recess. *** Friday parent volunteers: You do not need to come help on Friday, December 15th. Thank you!***

Thursday, December 14th: Cupertino Library Field Trip
If it is not raining, we are planning on going to the Cupertino Library. Please remember to send your child to school with his or her library card. They must also remember their 4-digit PIN number.

Friday, December 15th: Polar Express Party
This will be a special day to celebrate the holidays! We will be doing activities and games based off of the story, The Polar Express, by Chris Van Allsburg. It will also be a pajama day (because we are pretending to be the children in the train)! Please send your child to school in their favorite pajamas and they can also bring one stuffed animal or pillow too.

Monday, December 18th to January 1nd: NO SCHOOL – Winter Recess
School will resume on Tuesday, January 2rd.

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December 1, 2006

AHHH! It is so cold! I hope all of you had a wonderful Thanksgiving weekend. I read about some of your trips in the children’s Weekend News journals. It sounded like all of them had a great time! I enjoyed my trip to Taiwan and Japan very much. It was my first time in Japan and I thought it was beautiful. Plus, the food everywhere was delicious! In Taiwan, I attended my cousin’s wedding and saw many relatives that I haven’t seen for 6 years. I had a nice time.

Thank you for your generous donations of canned food to the Second Harvest Food Bank this week. It is important to teach students about having a giving heart.

We began Star of the Week this week. Each week I will choose a new Star who brings home a poster on Monday and returns it Friday of the same week. The Star of the Week should practice reading the poster with a nice and loud voice. He or she gets to also bring Beebear home for the weekend and writes a journal entry about what they did with Beebear over the weekend. Please return Beebear on Monday and be ready to share your poster and your journal! Sammy was randomly selected as our first Star of the Week.

Here are some highlights from the week:
Poem of the Week: I Heard a Bird Sing
Song of the Week: Skip Counting
Kindness is … reading a book to someone.
Story of the Week: Jessie Bear, What Will You Wear?
Vocabulary of the Week: People 4
Word Wall Words: animal, bird, cold, fall, flower, full, look, of, see
Next Week’s Sharing: Riddle – favorite holiday (remember 4 complete sentence clues and a picture or object hidden in a bag.)
• Language Arts: Theme 3 All Together Now – Week 1
• Stories: Seasons
• Word Families: –ack (tack, sack) and -ap (cap, gap, map)
• Sounds: double final consonants, short a, plurals with -s
• Grammar: What is a Sentence?
• Social Studies: We started our Winter Holiday book and will be completing it in the next 3 weeks. We are studying different holidays around the world and learning about the world map. This week, we learned about Christmas in Holland, Germany, and Mexico.
• Science: We finished our Solids and Liquids unit this week. We went to the computer lab and played with a fun website that let us see what happened to solids and liquids in the oven and the freezer.

I have not received everyone’s November BOOK-IT! Reading Log. Please make sure you return the form. Thank you to Patricia and her family for sharing early Christmas presents for our class. It is a very thoughtful present and much work must have gone into making them. If you have not opened it yet, put it under the Christmas tree =) I hope all of you have a nice weekend. I cannot believe how fast time is going – already in December! See you on Monday!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Upcoming Dates

* Monday, November 20th: De Anza Flint Center Field Trip
We will be traveling by bus to De Anza College to watch the play, Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day. We will leave around 9:30am and return by 12:00pm. Thank you Mr. Hung (Jonathan’s father) for being our chaperone.

* Wednesday, November 22nd – Friday, November 24th: NO SCHOOL – Thanksgiving Break

* Monday, November 27th: Scholastic Book Orders Due!
I have attached the November and December Seesaw and Lucky book orders to today’s newsletter. If you are interested in purchasing books, please fill out the forms and write ONE check payable to Scholastic Book Clubs. Please return the forms by the Monday after Thanksgiving.

* Friday, December 1st: Turn in November’s BOOK-IT Reading Log
The December reading log will go home in that Friday Folder

* Friday, December 8th: First Trimester Report Cards go home.
Next Tuesday is the end of the first trimester. The report card will evaluate your child’s progress from the beginning of the year to this point in the year.

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Dear Families,

I hope you enjoyed the long weekend! On Monday, Anushka joined our class. Please welcome her and her family to Eaton. We learned more about Anushka during our Princess of the Day activity. You can read about Anushka on our classroom website!

Here are some highlights from the week:
Poem of the Week: Here is a Turkey
Song of the Week: Seasons
Kindness is … giving thanks.
Story of the Week: Lunch
Vocabulary of the Week: People 3
Word Wall Words: away, does, live, pull, where
Next Week’s Sharing: No sharing! Short week!

• Language Arts: Theme 2 All Together Now – Week 3
• Stories: A Hut for Zig Bug and The Rope Tug
• Word Families: –ug (hug, tug, rug) and -ut (but, hut, cut)
• Sounds: q, j, z and short u
• Grammar: Action Words

• Writing: This week we wrote several things. We discussed what Thanksgiving means and wrote about things we are thankful for. Also, we pretended we were turkeys and did a writing activity from the point of view of a turkey!

• Social Studies: We learned about Thanksgiving and the reason why we celebrate it! The students made a book called The Thanksgiving Story about Pilgrims, Indians, and the Mayflower. I hope you enjoyed reading the book with your child yesterday!

• Science: We are starting a new first grade circuit on Tuesday afternoons. This new circuit is all from a science unit in the district called Here’s Looking At You. This program teaches students how to treat others and that they are special. It also has components about staying away from drugs, alcohol, smoking, etc. This week, we worked with Mrs. Burgess on reasons why we are each special.

• Art: We continued working on our still picture drawings of flowers with Mrs. Blakeslee. This time we worked on our final draft using colors to finish our pictures.

• Music: This week with Mrs. More we sang a fun Fall leaf song where we danced and moved like falling leaves. Also, we learned a hello dance and march. We finished with our metal and wood instruments.

After Thanksgiving, we will be starting Star of the Week. When your child is the Star of the Week, they will bring home a poster on Monday and they have to complete the poster by Friday of the same week. They will need to read and share their poster with the class. Then that weekend, they will take home our class stuffed animal, Beebear. Each student will write and draw what they did with Beebear over the weekend, and return Beebear on Monday. This is a fun activity because students love to share Beebear! Don’t worry, parents, Beebear is machine washable!

Congratulations to Yo, who was our Author of the Month today. He shared a writing we did in October on monsters. Great Job! Next week is very short! Therefore, we will not be doing homework, sharing, and there will not be any Friday Folders. I will be traveling to Asia, specifically Japan and Taiwan, over the holidays because my cousin is getting married. I hope everyone enjoys the long Thanksgiving weekend!

Veteran's Day

Upcoming Dates

* Friday, November 10th: NO SCHOOL TOMORROW– Veteran’s Day

* Monday, November 20th: De Anza Flint Center Field Trip
We will be traveling by bus to De Anza College to watch the play, Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day. I am still missing a few permission slips. Please make sure you turn them in ASAP. Also, we will have Mr. Hung (Jonathan’s father), come with us on this field trip. Thank you to the other parents who were available to chaperone, but unfortunately we can only have one parent this time.

* Wednesday, November 22nd – Friday, November 24th: NO SCHOOL – Thanksgiving Break

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Dear Families,

What a short week! This will be a short newsletter as well. I’m glad the rain stopped and the sunshine came out for a while. It’s that time of the year when everyone needs to be extra careful about not getting sick! Stay warm and healthy! I wasn’t feeling well earlier in the week, so it’s definitely coming around! Here are some highlights from the week:
Poem of the Week: My Nose
Song of the Week: The Eaton Song
Kindness is … offering free hugs.
Story of the Week: Lunch
Vocabulary of the Week: People 2
Word Wall Words: brother, do, for, I, said, sister
Next Week’s Sharing: Regular – something you are thankful for
(Prepare 5 complete sentences and try to memorize the words.
Bring an object or picture to show while you share).

• Language Arts: Theme 2 All Together Now – Week 2
• Stories: What Can a Vet Do? and Hot Fox Soup
• Word Families: –et (pet, vet, met) and -en (ten, pen, men)
• Sounds: y, k, v, and short e
• Grammar: Naming Words

This week, we started doing many Thanksgiving projects and turkey art. We made a turkey using our hands, we wrote about things we are thankful for on turkey feathers, and we also read a Thanksgiving story about Pilgrims and Indians. November is already flying by really fast!

Start of November

Upcoming Dates

* Thursday, November 9th: Cupertino Library Field Trip
Hopefully it will not rain this time! Remember to bring your library cards to school and memorize your 4-digit PIN number. Students who did not have library cards yet will receive new ones on this visit. Students will be checking out 2 books. Please return the books to the Cupertino Library on your own (do not send the books back to Eaton).

* Friday, November 10th: NO SCHOOL – Veteran’s Day
Remember to turn in homework and library books on THURSDAY. Friday sharers should also be ready to present on Thursday. Also, Friday volunteers can come at the same time Thursday afternoon. Thank you.

* Monday, November 20th: De Anza Flint Center Field Trip
We will be traveling by bus to De Anza College to watch the play, Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day. There is a yellow permission slip in today’s Friday Folder. Please return it by Thursday.

* Wednesday, November 22nd – Friday, November 24th: NO SCHOOL – Thanksgiving Break


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Dear Families,

This was an exciting week! I hope all of your families enjoyed our Halloween parade and had a safe time trick-or-treating. All of the children were so adorable in their costumes!

Here are some highlights from the week:
Poem of the Week: Pumpkin
Song of the Week: The Eaton Song
Kindness is … saying, “Happy Halloween” when trick-or-treating.
Story of the Week: Alice and Greta
Vocabulary of the Week: People 1
Word Wall Words: five, four, in, once, three, two, upon, what
Next Week’s Sharing: Riddle – an animal (Prepare 4 complete
sentences and try to memorize the words. Bring an object or picture hidden inside a bag).

• Language Arts: Theme 2 All Together Now – Week 1
• Stories: The Box and Wigs in a Box
• Word Families: –ox (fox, lox, box) and -ot (cot, hot, got)
• Sounds: d, w, l, x and short o
• Grammar: capitalizing names and word order in sentences

• Writing: This week we made a Halloween story using our senses. We pretended we were in a haunted house and described things we saw, smelled, touched, and heard. Also, we used descriptive words to write how we felt.

• Math: We are finishing Data and Graphs. We practiced making bar graphs and answering word problems to interpret the graphs. This is a difficult chapter for many students, especially problem solving questions that require students to read clues. Keep practicing!

• Science: We reviewed our Solids and Liquids vocabulary. This week we explored different types of liquids and how liquids look different in various containers. We wrote down our observations.

• Computer Lab: This week we began using another software program called Kidspiration. This program is a tool for brainstorming and making mind maps. We started creating a mind map called All About Me where we showed our favorite colors, animals, foods, and shapes. We will be continuing our project next week.

• Art: Mrs. Blakeslee taught us how to do still life drawings of flowers. We also did several drafts in pencil and then in colored pencil to create the final picture.

• Music: Mrs. More taught us about rhythm and beats by playing big and small drums. We also used the wood and metal instruments.

Remember that part of homework is to read 15 minutes everyday and to record it on our monthly reading logs. If you have not turned in your October reading log, please do so. I sent home November’s reading log on Wednesday. Please return it after December 1st. It is important that your child is reading everyday in school and at home with you.

Also, next week is a short week! There is no school on Friday, so please be prepared to turn in everything including library books on Thursday. I had to remind students more frequently this week about following class rules and being nice friends. It is important that students understand that rules have to be followed (for example, red light = stop, and we cannot just do whatever we want). I hope that we can be good role models as adults to show students that we follow rules too.

Congratulations to Lenny who received a certificate for the Room 8 winner of most laps walked during our Walk-a-Thon. Also, congratulations to Julia who received another certificate for the Room 8 winner of most money raised for our Walk-a-Thon. Great job! Have a great weekend! Stay dry!

Daylight Savings Time!

Upcoming Dates

* Sunday, October 29th: Daylight Savings Time
Change your clocks one hour back!

* Tuesday, October 31st: Halloween
Send your child’s Halloween costume to school in a bag (LABEL YOUR CHILD’S BELONGINGS). Students will change after lunch. All the boys will be changing in Room 10 (Mrs. Byers’ class) and all the girls will be in Room 8 (our class). No students will be changing in the restrooms (please DO NOT take your child away from the classroom). Parents are welcome to attend the parade outside at 1:30-2:15pm.

* Thursday, November 9th: Cupertino Library Field Trip
Hopefully it will not rain this time! Remember to bring your library cards to school and memorize your 4-digit PIN number. Students who did not have library cards yet will receive new ones on this visit. Students will be checking out 2 books. Please return the books to the Cupertino Library on your own (do not send the books back to Eaton).

* Friday, November 10th: NO SCHOOL – Veteran’s Day


Dear Families,

Welcome to Jonathan and his family who joined our class on Monday this week. We learned more about Jonathan on Wednesday when he was our Prince of the Day. You can read about him on our class website.

Here are some highlights from the week:
Poem of the Week: Feelings
Song of the Week: Vowels
Kindness is … sitting next to someone new.
Story of the Week: Olmo and the Blue Butterfly
Vocabulary of the Week: Body Parts 4
Word Wall Words: find, have, one, school, who
Next Week’s Sharing: Food Poem (memorize words! No reading)
(at least 4 complete lines and bring object/picture)

• Language Arts: Theme 1 All Together Now – Week 3
• Stories: The Big Hit and Big Pig
• Word Families: –it (sit, mit, fit) and –ig (fig, wig, pig)
• Sounds: b, r, h, g and short i
• Grammar: punctuation (periods, question marks, etc)

• Writing: With Halloween coming next week, we wrote about an imaginary monster. Students had to fill in a framed writing template on their monster and then illustrate a picture of their monster.

• Math: We are on Chapter 4 in math. We discussed how to read picture graphs this week. We also practiced making tally marks. Please continue practicing word problem skills with your children. The math packet coming home this week was mostly done as a whole class (not individually) so that students could understand how to read and interpret graphs altogether.

• Science: This week we took a break from our Solids and Liquids unit to study the life cycle of a pumpkin. We read Pumpkin, Pumpkin and we are making our own versions of the story. We learned how a pumpkin grows from a seed!

• Social Studies: This was our last circuit about My World, My Family, and Me. We made beautiful acrostic poems in the shapes of flowers with Mrs. Khan.

• Assembly: Today we had a fun and exciting assembly on Wildlife animals. Some of the animals included an African porcupine, an eagle, and a polar fox! We are lucky to have special assemblies like these to see animals that are normally in the wild.

This week we celebrated Red Ribbon Week to be Drug-Free! Thank you for participating in the various dress-up days and for also walking to school on Wednesday! Two sheriffs came on Monday to give us an assembly on how to say no to drugs, and all of Eaton school made hands and feet to celebrate this week. Thank you to the PTO for organizing this event and for uniting our school!

Have a great weekend, and remember to set your clocks one hour back on Sunday! Also, I hope all of your families have a safe Halloween next Tuesday!

Mid-October News

Upcoming Dates

* Thursday, October 26th: Picture Day
Picture envelopes will be coming home next Wednesday. Please return them Thursday morning if you are interested in purchasing Fall pictures.

* Sunday, October 29th: Daylight Savings Time
Change your clocks one hour back!

* Tuesday, October 31st: Halloween
Send your child’s Halloween costume to school in a bag. Students will change after lunch and we will have the school parade at 1:30pm. Parents are welcome to attend the parade or help children change at 1:15pm.

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Dear Families,

Thank you to all the volunteers who went to Happy Hollow with us today! We are lucky to have so many parents supporting our class activities and field trips.

Here are some highlights from the week:
Poem of the Week: First Book
Song of the Week: Vowels
Kindness is … using good manners.
Story of the Week: The Earth and I
Vocabulary of the Week: Body Parts 3
Word Wall Words: father, here, jump, mother, not, too
Next Week’s Sharing: Regular Sharing – Halloween decorations
(4 complete sentences and bring decoration to show).

• Language Arts: Theme 1 All Together Now – Week 2
• Stories: Nan and Fan and We Can!
• Word Families: –an (can, fan, ran, man, tan, etc)
• Sounds: n, f, p, and short a
• Grammar: beginning sentences with capital letters.

• Math: We finished Chapter 3 this week on addition and subtraction facts up to 12. Also, we worked more on fact families during computer lab this week. We have been reviewing math vocabulary such as: addition, subtraction, addends, sum, double facts, difference, and more/less. We also started Chapter 4 on data and graphing. This chapter will require students to make graphs and answer word problems about them.

• Writing: Our kindness journals this week were on using good manners. We talked about appropriate times to say kind words such as, “Good morning,” “Please,” “Excuse Me,” “Sorry,” “You’re welcome,” etc. We also wrote an acrostic poem about Witches together.

• Art: We finished our Mexican paintings and started drawing pictures of flowers this week with Mrs. Blakeslee. We looked at real flowers and learned how to draw petals using pointillism (many little dots).

• Music: This week we celebrated with some Halloween songs such as black cats, Frankenstein, and played a monster game too. We also used many different instruments this week including drums, maracas, and triangles, to sing our songs.

• Science: We continued our science unit this week by learning about solids and mixtures – or solids mixed together. We learned that we can separate mixtures using screens. We also started observing different properties of liquids such as: transparent, translucent, colored, viscous, foamy, and bubbly.

• PE: This week we worked on small ball skills such as throwing and catching with Mrs. Bachelor.

• Social Studies: This week we had circuits with Mrs. Barelli. We talked about where we live and our place in the Earth including our home, our school, our city, our country, and our continent.

In today’s Friday Folder, you will find the parent conference notes we discussed. Also, on Monday we will be adding a new student to our class. His name is Jonathan and he came from the Evergreen School District. Please welcome him and his family to Eaton! Enjoy your weekend!

Conference Time

Upcoming Dates

* Monday, October 16th – Tuesday, October 17th: Parent Conferences
Remember to pick your child up at 1:30 these two days. We will return back to our regular schedule on Wednesday, October 18th.

* Friday, October 20th: Happy Hollow Field Trip
Thank you for returning the permission slips. We have five volunteers who will be riding on the bus with us: Mrs. Saito (Akane’s mother), Mrs. Kim (Catherine’s mother), Mrs. Kim (Julia’s mother), Mrs. Nozaki (Yo’s mother), and Mrs. Park (Young-Jin’s mother). If you are able to meet us at the park, we will be arriving at Happy Hollow around 10:00am. Please make sure your child brings a BROWN BAG lunch that can be thrown away (no lunch boxes that have to brought back) and we will not allow any children or parents to buy souvenirs, so please do not plan on spending money. Three to four students will be assigned to a specific parent for the whole day. Parents: Be sure to wear comfortable shoes!!!

* Thursday, October 26th: Picture Day
More information will come later.

* Sunday, October 29th: Daylight Savings Time
Change your clocks one hour back!

* Tuesday, October 31st: Halloween
Send your child’s Halloween costume to school in a bag. Students will change after lunch and we will have the school parade at 1:30pm. Parents are welcome to attend the parade or help children change at 1:15pm.


Dear Families,

Thank you for attending parent conferences this week. I enjoyed speaking with each of you individually about your child. Due to the minimum days, we did not get to do as much as we usually do.

Here are some highlights from the week:
Poem of the Week: Our World
Song of the Week: Hello Around the World
Kindness is … sharing with others.
Story of the Week: The Itsy Bitsy Spider
Vocabulary of the Week: Body Parts 2
Word Wall Words: are, family, go, on, you
Next Week’s Sharing: Riddle - something liquid (you can pour)
(4 clues with a picture or object to show in a bag)

• Reading & Writing: We started Theme 1 of the first grade Houghton Mifflin language arts readers. There are 10 themes and each theme takes about 3 weeks to complete.
o Theme 1 – Week 1
• Stories: The Cat Sat and The Mat
• Word Families: –at (rat, sat, that, pat, bat, etc)
• Sounds: m, s, c, t, and short a sounds.
• Grammar: capital and lowercase letters.
We also finished our Prince and Princess activity this week! You can read about Joseph and Young-Jin on the website. We will be starting Star of the Week in the next few weeks.

• Language Arts: We are improving quickly in Literacy Centers each week! Next week, we will be adding another center. Students will be completing a Computer Center, and they will have to type their Kindness Journal entry for that week.

• Math: We continued Chapter 3 this week, mainly on subraction facts and word problems. We also began learning about fact families this week.

• Assembly: Today we had the Dairy Council presentation about eating right and learning nutrition. This went nicely with our Wellness plan. We even saw a real live COW!

• Computer Lab: We worked hard on our Kindness Journals this week! We have added more pictures, and we also drew pictures for community helpers. Specifically, we made drawings for CDC, librarians, and firefighters.

• Social Studies: This week we learned about Columbus Day in our Scholastic News. We compared how ships are different now and a long time ago.

Have a great weekend! I’m excited that we have all been getting green super stars. Let’s keep up the great behavior!

Happy October!

Upcoming Dates

Monday, October 9th – Tuesday, October 17th: Parent Conferences
DISMISSAL TIME IS 1:30pm. Please pick up your child on time everyday! I look forward to meeting with each of you next week. Remember to come on time because we only have 20 minutes to discuss everything. Thank you.

Friday, October 20th: Happy Hollow Field Trip
There is a permission slip in today’s Friday Folder. Please return the form as soon as possible. Also, we need four volunteers to chaperone on this trip. Please make sure your child brings a BROWN BAG lunch that can be thrown away (no lunch boxes that have to brought back).

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Dear Families,

What a strange week of rain and sunshine! Unfortunately, due to the rain showers on Thursday, we were unable to walk to the Cupertino Library. Thank you, anyhow, to all the families that remembered to bring your child’s library card to school! We will be going again at the beginning of November and students who needed cards will receive them at that time.

Here are some highlights from the week:
Poem of the Week: Oh Mr. Squirrel
Song of the Week: Hello Around the World
Kindness is … picking up someone else’s trash.
Story of the Week: Clap Your Hands
Vocabulary of the Week: Body Parts 1
Word Wall Words: and, because, color, the they, this
Next Week’s Sharing: Riddle - something solid (you can hold)
(4 clues with a picture or object to show in a brown bag)

• Reading & Writing: We finished our dictionaries this week and our Back-to-School packets! Next week we will be starting on Theme 1 of the first grade Houghton Mifflin language arts readers. We also only had time for one princess this week: Moe!

• Language Arts: We did a much better job this week during literacy centers. Many students tried their best to complete all of the required activities. At home, practice having your child retell you a story after you read it together. They should include the main points of the story and have a beginning, middle, and end. This will help them complete their listening center worksheets.

• Kindness Journal: We picked up trash after lunch this week. We will continue to do so to help make Eaton a clean place! We also drew a picture and wrote a nice compliment to someone who helps us.

• Math: We started Chapter 3 this week on addition and subtraction facts to 10. This week we learned different strategies to do addition. Next week we will focus on subtraction. Continue practicing those math facts!

• Circuits: We had two circuits this week. On Tuesday, we went to Miss Salter’s class and did a project on a family tree. On Wednesday, we went to Mrs. Tambe’s class and made a puzzle about ourselves.

• Science: This week, we learned more about solids by observing very small solids including: rice, mung beans, lima beans, pinto beans, and cornmeal. We rotated to write down observations about these solids and had the opportunity to touch and feel them.

Today is Faith’s last day at Eaton. We will miss her and her family as they move to a new school and home in New York. Please keep in touch!

Thank you for supporting Eaton through the Walk-a-Thon! It is always great fun to watch the whole school walking together! Hope you all have a wonderful weekend!

A Short Week

Upcoming Dates

* Friday, September 29th: NO SCHOOL – Staff Learning Day

* Thursday, October 5th: Cupertino Library Field Trip from 1:15-2:30pm
If your child already has a library card, please remember to bring the card on this day. If your child needed a new card, your child will be receiving the card during our visit. Please help your child memorize his or her 4-digit PIN number (for new cards, it is the last 4-digits of your home phone number).

* Friday, October 6th: Eaton’s 3rd annual Walk-a-Thon from 1:15-3:05pm
Also, it will be Faith’s last day with us. Her family will be moving to New York. We will miss her!

* Monday, October 9th – Tuesday, October 17th: Parent Conference DISMISSAL TIME IS 1:30pm. Please pick up your child on time!
Today’s Friday Folder has your 20 minute appointment time. Please confirm if you will be able to come during your conference time and also return the attached Input Form by October 6th.

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Dear Families,

In today’s Friday Folder, there is a BOOK IT reading log for the month of October. Make sure you read 15 minutes with your child every day and then initial each day in the month. Please return this reading log at the start of November. If your child reads 15 minutes everyday for the whole month, they will receive a certificate for a free personal pan pizza at Pizza Hut.

Also, this past Wednesday and Thursday, the students were tested on the CELDT. A representative from the district pulled out the students individually to test them on speaking and listening. The results for this test will return in January or February of next year.

Here are some highlights from the week:
Poem of the Week: A Little Red Apple
Song of the Week: Making Words
Kindness is … giving a compliment to somebody.
Story of the Week: Apples, Apples, Apples
Vocabulary of the Week: School Words 4
Word Wall Words: no, to, we, went, with, yes
Next Week’s Sharing: Scary Poem
(4 lines memorized with a picture or object to show)

• Reading & Writing: We worked on our dictionary letters up to U this week. Next week we will be able to finish our dictionaries! We also read about apples and learned the parts of an apple. We have an apple art project that we will be continuing for a few weeks.

• Kindness Journal: We made cards and presents for the teachers and staff at Eaton School. We hope they will appreciate our surprise and visit our website. Also, you can now go to read our Kindness Journals from our website in the Classwork section. There is a link to our online kindness sentences and pictures! Please check it out!

• Language Arts: Many students have been working hard to complete all the activities at each literacy center. Please check your child’s work to see if they finished their work on time. We finished School words in Vocabulary center this past week. Next week, some students will be receiving School 4 for Vocabulary homework. Your child must study SCHOOL 1, 2, 3, and 4 for the test on Thursday (identify 36 words). This is our way of reviewing vocabulary words from the past month. A passing score will be knowing at least 32/36 words, otherwise, your child must study the same School Unit again the following week.

• Math: We have finished Chapter 2 today on subtraction facts! The students have been improving in solving word problems. Good job finding the “magic words!”

• Circuits: We had our third circuit this week. Students went to Mrs. Bachelor’s class and made a picture of their dream house!

• Art: Mrs. Blakeslee is doing an art project from each continent, and we continued our first project, a Mexican painting, to represent the Americas. We are using paint and sponges to draw a landscape picture and to make a border around our drawing!

• Music: We saw Mrs. More again today and learned more songs, dances, and used the wooden and metal instruments.

Enjoy your long vacation! We are having a teacher inservice day tomorrow on Peacebuilders, a new conflict resolution program we will be starting this year. Hopefully this program will help our school to be a nicer, safer place!

Fall is Here!

Upcoming Dates

Friday, September 29th: NO SCHOOL – Staff Learning Day
Since there is no school on Friday, please remember:
• Friday sharers need to share on Thursday
• Homework is turned in on Thursday
• Friday volunteers please come on Thursday from 2-3pm
• Bring library books to school on Thursday

Thursday, October 5th: Cupertino Library Field Trip from 1:15-2:30pm

Friday, October 6th: Eaton’s 3rd annual Walk-a-Thon from 1:15-3:05pm

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Dear Families,

Thank you for coming out to the chicken dance last Sunday! It was fun to see the students dancing and enjoying all the rides and games! I had lunch there and walked around afterwards. It was a great time!

Here are some highlights from the week:
Poem of the Week: Fall
Song of the Week: Making Words
Kindness is … cheering up a sick friend.
Story of the Week: A Bird Can Fly
Vocabulary of the Week: School Words 3
Word Wall Words: friend, is me, my, play
Next Week’s Sharing: Regular – something made from apples

• Reading & Writing: We worked on our dictionary letters up to Q this week. We also had a few more prince and princesses this week, including: Reva, William, Patricia, and Sammy.

• Word Wall Words: You can access all the word wall words on our class website. Click on “Curriculum” and then “Word Wall” to find the list of words your child should be able to read and spell correctly in their daily writing. I encourage students to use the Word Wall in class whenever they need help spelling.

• Sharing: Please remember that in every sharing, your child must also have an object or picture to show while he/she talks. In a RIDDLE, students bring the object in a brown paper bag. In a POEM or REGULAR sharing, your child can bring the object or drawing and hold it as they talk. Please be prepared on your child’s sharing day! Also, if your child is reading off of a paper, they must practice looking up at the class as they talk (their heads shouldn’t be looking down the whole time). Eventually, I hope students can memorize everything!

• Kindness Journal: We learned about a second grade boy who is a friend of a friend that is in the Lucille Packard Children’s Hospital for Leukemia. We made cards for him and wishes that he gets better.

• Language Arts: Literacy centers went well this week! Students are working on finishing their work in time and checking their own work. In the listening center, I would like students to use their own words when writing sentences (instead of copying words from the story). Also, we are practicing how to write complete sentences.

• Math: Chapter 2 has been all about subtraction. We are learning the magic words for minus such as: left, takes, gives, picks, eats, how many more, etc. We are trying to be careful to pay attention to plus or minus signs in our computation.

• Science: We started our science unit this week on Solids and Liquids. We explored different examples of solids such as wood, metal, plastic, and cloth, and learned how to compare them using science vocabulary such as: soft vs. hard, flexible vs. rigid, pointed vs. flat, transparent vs. opaque, and smooth vs. rough.

• Circuits: We had our second circuit this week. Students went to Mrs. Burgess’ class and made a family portrait. We also had a surprise fire drill and had to line up on the field and wait for the firemen to give the OK!

• Computer Lab: We started our online kindness journals this week. We started typing our first few kindness entries and learned how to use the website. Thank you to Mrs. Komoto who volunteers during computer lab!

• Assembly: We had a special hands-on assembly this week on Oceans. It was a fabulous assembly and we were able to learn about different sea animals and make several projects. It was exciting!

• Super Stars: Congratulations to everyone for getting green super stars all week long! I have had to give reminders for several students to finish their work on time and not talk to others. Please continue reminding your children at home on good behavior. It is important for students to learn responsibility and to try their best at school.

Happy Birthday to Yo and Patricia this weekend! If you saw the website this past week, then you know I didn’t have a very good weekend last week. Many many things to take care of =( Hopefully it will be better this weekend! See you all on Monday!

Chicken Dance Weekend

Upcoming Dates:

* Sunday, September 17th: Cupertino Jubilee Chicken Dance @ 12:20pm
Please plan on arriving at 12:00pm. It takes extra time to park and find the Chicken Dance location. Remember to also bring your chicken hats!

* Friday, September 29th: NO SCHOOL – Staff Learning Day

* Thursday, October 5th: Cupertino Library Field Trip from 1:15-2:30pm

* Friday, October 6th: Eaton’s 3rd annual Walk-a-Thon from 1:15-3:05pm

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September 15, 2006
Dear Families,

Our first week of homework and sharing went very well! Everyone passed their vocabulary tests! Also, today’s Friday Folder will have the sharing evaluation form, so you can see which areas your child can work on. Please remember to practice at home and eventually try to have them memorize all the words and sentences. Great start!

We have enough volunteers now! Thank you to Mrs. Nozaki and Mrs. Yokoyama for offering to volunteer on Friday afternoons. We are still hoping to receive more classroom donations for $125 to help pay for many upcoming field trips, activities, and assemblies. Please make your checks out to Eaton School. We are lucky to have supportive families!

Here are some highlights from the week:
Poem of the Week: A Circle of Friends
Song of the Week: Clap Your Name
Kindness is … drawing a picture for someone special.
Story of the Week: The Accidental Zucchini
Vocabulary of the Week: School Words 2
Word Wall Words: he, she, her, his, favorite, like (Make sure
your child can read and identify these words).
Next Week’s Sharing: Fall Poem (remember 4 lines memorized)

• Reading & Writing: We worked on our dictionary letters up to L this week. We also read Diary of a Worm and started our Weekend News journals. Please remember to review the weekend events with your child every Sunday night or Monday morning so that they have ideas to write about during journal time. Also, we continued Prince and Princess writing this week with Faith and Julia.

• Library: Remember to bring library books back to school on Friday so your child can check out a new book!

• Assembly: We had a Walk-a-Thon kickoff assembly. Students will be bringing home forms to try and raise money for our school.

• Kindness Journal: I have been hearing nice “Thank You” words all week long! Keep up these great manners. This week we drew pictures for someone special and we learned it’s nice to give others nice surprises.

• Language Arts: We started our literacy centers this week. You will see this packet (with a green cover sheet) almost every week in the Friday Folder. Your child receives 0, 1, 2, or 3 stars each week for finishing all the activities in centers. This is a growing process. Your child may only receive 1 or 2 stars in the beginning of the year, but I hope by the end of the year, they will receive 3 stars in all categories. I have included our literacy center rubric (how I evaluate work) in this newsletter so you can see how to work with your children on improving their scores. The most difficult center is usually the listening center. This week, we did the listening center together so the students understood how to write five sentences. The five sentences in listening center include:
o 1) This story was about _______. (character – who?)
o 2) In the beginning, _________.
o 3) In the middle, ___________.
o 4) In the end, ______________.
o 5) _____________________. (Conclusion - Did you like the story? What was the best part? What do you think?)

• Math: We have finished Chapter 1! We started looking at Chapter 2, which is on subtraction facts. Word problems are tricky for students, and we are learning “magic words” like: in all, altogether, and join all mean PLUS. We still are completing the math word problems in our workbooks together to practice reading and solving problems.

• Circuits: We had our first circuit this week. Students stayed with me and we read a story called The Way I Feel. We explored our feelings and wrote about why we have different feelings.

• Computer Lab: We explored KidPix this week by drawing pictures using the different tools: pencils, markers, stamps, paint bucket, etc. We are also learning how to save our work in our own folders.

• Buddies: We saw our buddies today and we did an activity called With my Hands. We talked about how we help others with our hands.

• Art: We had our first visit with the art teacher, Mrs. Blakeslee this week! She taught us about our primary colors.

• Music: We also had our first visit with our music teacher, Mrs. More! We used instruments and sung high and low songs.

I hope all of you have a wonderful weekend! I will be going on Sunday to the Chicken Dance so I will see you there! We have been practicing with all the other first graders and it should be fun! Happy Friday!
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Literacy Centers Rubric

* Listening Center
3 stars = colored picture AND 5 or more sentences
2 stars = picture and/or 2-4 sentences OR no picture and 5 or more sentences
1 star = no picture and/or 1 sentence or less OR picture and no sentences
0 = no picture or words

Poetry Center
3 stars = 5 or less mistakes (handwriting)
2 stars = more than 5 mistakes (handwriting)
1 star = skipped 1-2 lines or very messy overall
0 = not finished 5 or more lines

Spelling Center
3 stars = ABC and spelling correct, more than 3 sentences
2 stars = ABC or spelling mistakes, OR less than 3 sentences on the back
1 star = ABC or spelling mistakes, and incomplete in Column 3 or no sentences
0 = Column 2 & 3 not finished

Vocabulary Center
3 stars = No mistakes on vocabulary worksheet, Scholastic News and Dictionary words done
2 stars = spelling/handwriting mistakes on vocabulary sheet OR dictionary or Scholastic News not done
1 star = missing 1-2 words in vocab, OR did not do Scholastic News and Dictionary
0 = not finished 8 or more words and did not do Scholastic News/Dictionary

First Week of September

Upcoming Dates:
* Sunday, September 17th: Cupertino Jubilee Chicken Dance @ 12:20pm
There is a yellow paper in today’s Friday Folder. Please fill out the bottom portion to let me know if your child will or will not participate.
* Friday, September 29th: NO SCHOOL – Staff Learning Day
* Friday, October 6th: Eaton’s Walk-a-Thon and Carnival! Save the Date!

September 8, 2006
Dear Families,

Thank you to those of you who were able to attend Back-to-School Night on Wednesday! I hope you found my website informational and helpful to learn about our classroom. Remember to turn in the following items as soon as possible: $125 classroom donation, library permission slip, website permission slip, and volunteer form. Thank you to Mrs. Komoto, Mrs. Na, and Mrs. Kim for generously offering to volunteer every Friday afternoon. I am hoping to find one more parent to help out during the Friday (or Thursday if there is no school on Friday) afternoon time slot (2:00-3:00pm). Thank you!
Here are some highlights from the week:
Poem of the Week: Manners
Song of the Week: Clap Your Name
Kindness is … saying thank you when somebody helps me.
Word Wall Words: Names of classmates
• Language Arts: We have worked on the alphabet letters up to G. We practice the sounds of each letter and brainstorm words for our Dictionaries. We also started learning about School Words in the vocabulary center.
• Reading: We continued to review the meaning of important words from Rosie’s Walk such as: across, around, over, under, past, and through. We created our own stories called Pete the Pencil to show our understanding of these words. Please read the story they made with your children to help them master the vocabulary.
• Library: We had our first library visit with Mrs. Glass. We went over the rules and expectations of library time. Each Friday, we will listen to a story read-aloud by Mrs. Glass, and then we can check out one book to take home. Please remember to bring back library books every Friday or else your child cannot check out another book.
• Assembly: We had our first assembly today with Gary Lapow. Gary is a songwriter and musician who sings fun songs on his guitar. It was lots of fun!
• Writing: This week we learned the five important parts that make up a friendly letter when we wrote the Back-to-School letters. We will be writing more letters throughout the year. Remember to keep checking the “Classwork” section in our website to read about our Prince and Princesses.
• Kindness Journal: We started our first entry in our Kindness Journal. This is a new project with the students to help them learn (hopefully) to do nice things for others and to have manners. Our first entry was about saying “Thank You.” Please also help to teach your kids to say thank you to you regularly at home. You can say thank you to them also if they help you.
• Math: This week we used cubes to help us with our addition facts. We learned the rule that numbers can be “turned around” in addition. For example: 1+2 = 2+1 because 1+2=3 and 2+1=3. This week I am sending home our first completed math packet. Please remember to review the problems your child missed. Also, word problems are the green/aqua colored pages and we usually do these as a whole class. Please try and have your child practice similar problems at home to see if they can solve the problems by themselves.

Next week, homework packets and sharing will begin. Please have your child ready to be tested in vocabulary and spelling by Thursday, and turn in homework packets on Friday. I am excited to hear your children’s sharing and please remember your child must be prepared with at least 4 complete sentences and have an object or picture to show.

Also on Monday, we will start our Weekend News journals. These journals are to encourage children to write freely without worrying about spelling or grammatical mistakes. Students usually write about what they did over the weekend, however, if nothing exciting happened, they can write about anything they want. It really helps if you can talk with your child Sunday night or Monday morning to review the weekend events. For example: did you go to a special place? Did they see a friend? What did you do at home? Are they excited about an upcoming event? Etc. Thank you for your help!

Please remember your child must be sitting at the table in the mornings. Please don’t have them stand up or walking around. We always line up in order of where they sit at the table, so I’d like kids to stay in line. Thank you. See you on Monday!