April 13, 2007

We have been in school for 142 days! I can’t believe how fast the year is flying by! When we come back from Spring Break, it will quickly become May and we will be busy with preparing for Open House and our First grade musical! Here are some highlights from the week:
Star of the Week: Oscar
Poem of the Week: Spring in the Woods
Song of the Week: Insect or Spider?
Kindness is … eating healthy for your body
Story of the Week: The Goat in the Chile Patch
Vocabulary of the Week: House 6
Word Wall: always, arms, body, ready, warm
Next Week’s Sharing: Regular – something from Earth or nature
(Memorize 4 sentences and bring picture/object to show)
• Language Arts: Theme 8 Our Earth: Week 2
• Stories: Butterfly
• Word Families: words that rhyme with out and down
• Sounds: vowel pairs ou, ow, and syllables
• Grammar: Present tense

• Writing: Writer’s Workshop is going well. Students are mastering the five stages in the writing process, and especially enjoy the publishing stage. However, it is most difficult for students to get in the habit of revising their own work for mistakes capitals, punctuation, and spelling.

• Math: We reviewed measuring capacity this week using cups, pints, quarts, and liters. We also reviewed measuring length using inches and centimeters, and measuring weight using pounds or kilograms. We are starting Chapter 11 on Time and Calendar.

• Social Studies: This week we went to Mrs. Tambe’s class for circuits and learned about streets in the community and important signs such as traffic lights or stop signs. We made some to add to our community wall.

• Science: We finished our science books this week! We learned how to read a real weather map from the San Jose Mercury Newspaper and we also summarized the weather during March. Have your child teach you what they learned in their weather books! We will be learning about insects after spring break! Eeek!

• Enrichment Day: What a fun day of activities, organized by the PTO! First, we went to a presentation by the Cub Scouts, and then we learned about microscopes. Afterwards, we heard about fire, and finally we watched a presentation on windsurfing!

• Computer Lab: We are continuing our The Very Hungry Caterpillar books in Powerpoint. We are doing a great job writing and illustrating our books!

Congratulations to Reva, who was our Author of the Month this afternoon! She shared about our field trip to the Guadalupe River Park and Gardens. Great job!

Also, be sure to check out our kindness website: kindness.pbwiki.com and watch the video on the front page! I included our kindness presentation from March 13th to the District Board members, so if you did not attend that evening, watch what a great job the students did! I made sure not to include the school name, district name, or students’ last names in the video in order to protect student identities. Enjoy!

I look forward to the weather presentations! Have a great week-long vacation!

April 6, 2007

Upcoming Dates

* Thursday, April 12th: Cupertino Library Field Trip
Please remember to send your child’s blue library card to school and review the 4-digit PIN number. Some students still do not know their PIN number when we go each month!

* Friday, April 13th: Enrichment Day
This is a fun day for kids! Organized by the PTO, guests come to Eaton and the whole morning is filled with fun activities and crafts! The afternoon will also be the Author of the Month assembly.

* Monday, April 16th to Friday, April 20th: No School – Spring Break
Enjoy the week of vacation!

* Monday, April 23rd: Weather Presentations
During the past two months, we have learned a lot about weather. As one of our concluding activities for our weather unit, all the students will prepare a weather report and present it to the class on Monday, April 23rd. Please refer to the attached handout for detailed information.

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Dear Families,
Unfortunately, I am still seeing students playing after school on the grass or the play structure. We need to enforce the Eaton school rules, which is not playing until 3:45pm, even if an adult is present. This is due to our school being liable for any injuries that occur from 3:05pm to 3:45pm. Please help remind your children it is not play time.
Also, we are finished with the Book It Reading program! It finished in March, so we will not be sending home reading logs for April, May, or June. However, I highly encourage everyone to continue reading every night!
Here are some highlights from the week:
Star of the Week: Mayu
Poem of the Week: Baby Chick
Song of the Week: Insect or Spider?
Kindness is … exploring nature
Story of the Week: The Little Ant
Vocabulary of the Week: House 5
Word Wall: about, draw, happy, part, teacher, tiny
Next Week’s Sharing: Riddle – something shaped like an egg (oval)
(Memorize 4 clues and hide picture/object in a bag)
• Language Arts: Theme 8 We Can Work it Out: Week 1
• Stories: The Forest
• Word Families: adding –s, -ed, and -ing
• Sounds: base words and endings –s, -ed, and -ing
• Grammar: Action Words

• Writing: We have been doing a lot of expository writing. Almost everyone is finished with the first Weather piece and several students are starting their third topic on whatever they choose! We also spent some time writing about our field trip to the Guadalupe River Park and Gardens. We drafted and published these this week. Congratulations to Reva, who will be our Author of the Month next Friday and will share about our field trip to the school!

• Math: This week we moved on from measuring length to measuring weight. We compared objects and used vocabulary words such as heavy versus light and also began talking about different measurements of capacity, specifically cup, pint, quart, and liter. This is a challenging topic for some students. We will continue reviewing different measurements next week.

• Social Studies: We went to Miss Salter’s room and she taught us about the environment. We learned that nature is an important part of our community and made trees and plants to add to our community project. This week we also learned about people in the community who help others. We chose our own community helpers to make as a social studies activity.

• Science: We are almost finished with our Weather unit. This week we illustrated our rain poems and also reviewed the water cycle stages: evaporation, condensation, and precipitation. The last science unit is on Insects. We began learning about the life cycle of a caterpillar using the story, The Very Hungry Caterpillar, by Eric Carle. We are making our own versions of the story in the computer lab and will be working on our books for the next few weeks.

• Assembly: We had an assembly today called “Solids, Liquids, and Gases” by the Lawrence Hall of Science in Berkeley. This assembly is aligned to the first science unit we completed in the beginning of the year. It was very exciting for the kids to watch live science experiments!

• Art and music were cancelled this week. Instead, we did our own art activity on Spring Blossom trees. The students did a great job making the blossoms beautiful!

Have a wonderful weekend and a beautiful Easter!

March 30, 2007

Upcoming Dates

* Thursday, April 12th: Cupertino Library Field Trip
Please remember to send your child’s blue library card to school and review the 4-digit PIN number. Some students still do not know their PIN number when we go each month!

* Friday, April 13th: Enrichment Day
This is a fun day for kids! Organized by the PTO, guests come to Eaton and the whole morning is filled with fun activities and crafts! The afternoon will also be the Author of the Month assembly.

* Monday, April 16th to Friday, April 20th: No School – Spring Break
Enjoy the week of vacation!

* Monday, April 23rd: Weather Presentations
During the past two months, we have learned a lot about weather. As one of our concluding activities for our weather unit, all the students will prepare a weather report and present it to the class on Monday, April 23rd. Please refer to the attached handout for detailed information.

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Dear Families,
We had a new student this week! Please welcome Janani and her family to Eaton! They moved here from India and Janani started her first day in Room 8 on Tuesday. We look forward to getting to know Janani better. Here are some highlights from the week:
Star of the Week: Michael
Poem of the Week: What the Rain Said
Song of the Week: The 50 States That Rhyme
Kindness is … traveling to different places
Story of the Week: The Very Hungry Caterpillar
Vocabulary of the Week: House 4
Word Wall: build, old, piece, start, under, very, wear
Next Week’s Sharing: Weather Poem
(Memorize at least 4 lines and bring picture/object to show.)
• Language Arts: Theme 7 We Can Work it Out: Week 3
• Stories: If You Give a Pig a Pancake
• Word Families: igh (high, might, sigh)
• Sounds: oo, ew, ue, ou and long I (ie., igh)
• Grammar: Pronouns

• Writing: Writer’s Workshop is going great! We had more than half of the class finish publishing their first piece on Weather senses. A few students even finished publishing their second piece, an autobiography! This week, we also spent some time reading rain poems and wrote our own free verse rain poems.

• Math: We have been working with measurement this week. We practiced measuring things first using a paper clip. Then we learned how to use rulers and measured items using centimeters and inches. Continue to practice using rulers. Our homework next week will have some problems with inches and centimeters to practice at home.

• Social Studies: We went to Mrs. Bachelor’s room this week for circuits. We talked about different types of homes in the community and we designed our own homes.

• Science: We continued a few experiments this week in weather. We tested out different fabrics and found out that nylon is the best material to wear on a rainy day. Also, we went on our field trip to the Guadalupe River Park and Gardens on Thursday. On this field trip, we had three rotations to learn about nature: exploring rivers, finding bugs, and identifying leaves. Thank you to Mr. Hung, Mrs. Nozaki, Mrs. Wang, and Mrs. Yokoyama for standing in the sun chasing after bugs!

• Fire Drill: We practiced an earthquake drill on Tuesday and practiced our procedure for evacuating classrooms. Eaton is putting a higher priority on training and preparing both students and teachers for emergency situations.

• Assembly: We had an assembly today called “Sherlock Holmes Takes the Case.” Students watched performers act out a mystery!

• Music: We are starting to rehearse for our First Grade musical, which will be the last week of school. I am enforcing the importance of singing and learning the words to the songs. I would like to see all students participating and trying their best!

With the warm weather coming early this year, some students need additional reminders of school policies. Remember that it is important the students are sitting on the bench before school. We should not be playing on the blacktop. Also, after school, students cannot be playing on the playground or running around until 3:45. Thank you for helping us enforce the Eaton School rules.

March 22, 2007

Upcoming Dates

* 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
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. Parents of Jonathan, Mayu, Patricia, and Yo can meet us promptly at 11:00am in Room 8. We will be leaving at 11:00am from school and returning at 2:30pm.

* Thursday, April 12th: Cupertino Library Field Trip
Please remember to send your child’s blue library card to school and review the 4-digit PIN number. Some students still do not know their PIN number when we go each month!

* Friday, April 13th: Enrichment Day
This is a fun day for kids! Organized by the PTO, guests come to Eaton and the whole morning is filled with fun activities and crafts! The afternoon will also be the Author of the Month assembly.

* Monday, April 16th to Friday, April 20th: No School – Spring Break
Enjoy the week of vacation!

* Monday, April 23rd: Weather Presentations
During the past two months, we have learned a lot about weather. As one of our concluding activities for our weather unit, all the students will prepare a weather report and present it to the class on Monday, April 24th. Please refer to the attached handout for detailed information.

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Dear Families,

The leprechauns came over the weekend! We came back to our classroom on Monday and found leprechaun footprints all over, including on our traps! The chairs were knocked over and room was a mess! But we did find the leprechaun’s pot of gold! Here are some highlights from the week:
Star of the Week: William
Poem of the Week: Cloud Parade
Song of the Week: The 50 States That Rhyme
Kindness is … trying your best
Story of the Week: There’s an Alligator Under My Bed
Vocabulary of the Week: House 3
Word Wall: afraid, any, bear, follow, idea, most, tall, water
Next Week’s Sharing: Regular – Your Favorite Book
(Prepare at least 4 sentences and bring picture/object to show.)

• Language Arts: Theme 7 We Can Work it Out: Week 2
• Stories: Lost!
• Word Families: oo (good, look, took)
• Sounds: oo sound and compound words (cupcake, butterfly)
• Grammar: Proper Nouns for Places and Things

• Writing: Some students have already finished their first piece in Writer’s Workshop on Weather Senses. We learned how to publish a piece and make a final copy to share with others. It is important that students know how to work independently during writing.

• Math: This week we are reviewing symmetry, fractions, and probability. We also started Chapter 10 on measurement. We talked about opposite words such as long vs. short, tall vs. short, heavy vs. light.

• Social Studies: We are beginning our community circuit this week. This week we went to Mrs. Burgess’ class. We learned about different types of buildings and businesses and made our own models!

• Science: We used real thermometers this week and are continuing to practice reading temperatures. We predicted and did an experiment to find out the temperature of hot, cold, and mixed water! We also learned that darker colors absorb heat more than lighter colors.

• Computer: We did a math activity this week using KidPix and fractions. Students had to show 1/2 , 1/3, and ¼ on circles, squares, rectangles, and triangles.

• Art: We are presently in the middle of our Native American “Winter Counts.” For those who finished their Winter Counts early, they worked on a totem pole activity.

• Music: This week we watched the Upper Grade chorus perform using instruments and singing. It was good for students to see the fourth and fifth graders performing because we will be doing a first grade performance at the end of the year too and it is important everyone sings during music to learn the songs!

Today, you will receive your child’s progress report for the second trimester. Please remember that your child does not receive grades for the regular language arts report card. Instead, the fourth and fifth pages are the ELD language arts report card for listening/speaking, reading, and writing. Also included for students who have been here since August are the CELDT scores that were taken in October. An overall score (not just listening or speaking) in early advanced and advanced means your child is ready to transition out of ELD. If your child scored in the beginning, early intermediate, or intermediate areas, I will assess them again in May to determine if they are ready to be transitioned. Mrs. Rowe is having a meeting Tuesday morning if you have questions on this process. Have a great weekend!

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Weather Presentation

On Monday, April 23th, we will have a “Weather Party!” Students will pretend to be meteorologists, people who study and predict the weather. They will prepare an imaginary weather report that includes a visual and writing, and they will share it to the class. The presentations can be as creative as you like (use the computer, markers, cut from magazines, photographs, miscellaneous items, etc)!
1. Pick a city or country anywhere in the world.
(i.e. Cupertino, California or Orlando, Florida or Bangkok, Thailand)
2. Pick an imaginary day.
(i.e. January 1st, 1950 or July 30th, 2010)
3. Pick a weather (sunny, cloudy, fog, snow, rain, lightning, etc.) and temperature (i.e. 30 degrees Fahrenheit, 99 degrees Fahrenheit) you would like your city or country to have that day.
*** Please make sure your weather report makes sense. For example, if it is snowing, the temperature should not be 80 degrees Fahrenheit or snowing in California in July.
4. Create a visual (i.e. poster, chart, drawing, etc.) that has:
a. Title (i.e. Storms Ahead! or Weather News, etc.)
b. City/country’s name and date
c. Picture of the weather you chose (sunny, cloudy, thunderstorms, etc.)
d. Temperature (? degrees Fahrenheit)
e. Paragraph describing the weather (Writing – described below)
f. Anything else to decorate the poster
5. Writing (8-10 sentences)
a. Title – use the same one as the poster
b. Beginning - (i.e. “Wow! It is cold!” or “Welcome to the 8:00 news!”)
c. Middle – Describe the weather using several detailed sentences. Here are some examples of things to include:
- Your name (i.e. “My name is meteorologist Miss Yu.”)
- City/country name (i.e. “I am reporting from…”)
- Date (i.e. “Today is…”)
- Weather and temperature (i.e. “It is hot today.” Or “Today is windy.”)
- Suggest clothing to wear (i.e. “Wear your slippers and go to the beach!”)
- Suggest outdoor activities (i.e. “There are strong winds for kite-flying!”)
- Any other interesting information – be creative and fun!
d. Ending – Write an exciting conclusion (i.e. “Have a great time skiing!”)
6. Sharing
Each student will bring his or her visual poster to the front of the classroom and share what they wrote on the poster. Please write or print out another copy of their writing to help them when they are sharing (do not have your child read directly from the visual poster). Remember that your child is a meteorologist. They can have notes in front of them to help them when they are sharing, but please practice reading or memorizing the writing while making eye contact, speaking loudly, and speaking at a good pace (not too fast).

***Most importantly, have fun with this activity!***

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!

---

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!

-----

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.


_____________________________________________
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.

-----

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!