March 28, 2008

Next Week:
Monday, March 31st to Friday, April 4th

* Traffic & Parking Lot Duty
Thank you to many of you for signing up for traffic/parking lot duty. I have attached the schedule. If you have not signed up, please see if you can fill in one of the empty spots. Please sign up to help during one or more of the 20 minute time slots. Remember to check in the office 5 minutes before your shift to receive your orange vest. Thank you for helping our school!

* No Spelling or Vocabulary Homework
During this week, we will not be sending spelling or vocabulary homework. However, your child will still be getting a packet of worksheets to complete. Homework will continue after this week.

* Book-It Reading Program
Turn in your March reading logs on April 1st. The Book-It program ends after March, so you will not receive a reading log anymore, but please keep reading 20 minutes every night!

Future Dates

* Thursday, April 10th: Cupertino Library Field Trip
Remember to bring your blue library cards on this day. We will be walking to the library in the afternoon. Please memorize your 4-digit PIN number!

* Monday, April 14th – Friday, April 18th: NO SCHOOL
Enjoy your spring break!

Have a wonderful weekend! I will be attending a conference Wednesday through Friday next week, so Mrs. Seema will be the substitute teacher. Please remind your children to be on their best behavior and to try their best!

March 21, 2008

Upcoming Week:
Monday, March 31st to Friday, April 4th

* Traffic & Parking Lot Duty
Our class is in charge of traffic/parking lot duty during this week. Please sign up to help during one or more of the 20 minute time slots (before school 8:45-9:05 or after school 3:00-3:20). The sign up list will be outside our classroom door next week! We need help every day! Thank you!

* No Spelling or Vocabulary Homework
During this week, we will not be sending spelling or vocabulary homework. However, your child will still be getting a packet of worksheets to complete. Homework will continue after this week.

* Book-It Reading Program
Turn in your March reading logs on April 1st. The Book-It program ends after March, so you will not receive a reading log anymore, but please keep reading 20 minutes every night!

Future Dates

* Thursday, April 10th: Cupertino Library Field Trip
Remember to bring your blue library cards on this day. We will be walking to the library in the afternoon. Please memorize your 4-digit PIN number!

* Monday, April 14th – Friday, April 18th: NO SCHOOL
Enjoy your spring break!

March 6, 2008

* Friday, March 7th: No School – Staff Learning Day
Teachers will be coming to school to work on writing strategies. In the afternoon, we will be going to Hicklebee Book Store to pick books for our Eaton Library.

* Thursday, March 13th: Cupertino Library Field Trip
We will be walking to the Cupertino public library in the afternoon. Remember to send your child’s blue library card to school and have him/her remember the 4-digit password. Your child can check out 2 books. Please return them directly to the library on your own.

* Friday, March 21st: Report Cards Go Home
Today is the last day of the second trimester. I have assessed your children in all the subject areas and will be sending home report cards on the 21st.

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Dear Families,

Here are some highlights from the week:
Star of the Week: Amit
Poem of the Week: What the Rain Said
Song of the Week: Penguin Song
Kindness is … trying your best
Story of the Week: Jessie Bear, What Will You Wear?
Vocabulary of the Week: Transportation 1
Word Wall: been, evening, far, forest, goes, hungry, near, soon
Next Week’s Sharing: Regular – your favorite book
(at least 4 lines memorized and bring something to show)

• Language Arts: Theme 6: Animal Adventures – Week 3
• Stories: Red Eyed Tree Frog
• Strategy and Skill Focus: Predictions and Inference
• Word Families: -ay
• Sounds: vowel pairs ai and ay
• Grammar: Naming Words for One or More

• Math: We worked mostly this week on addition and subtraction for numbers up to 20. This is slightly more challenging for students because we are in the higher numbers. I am seeing many mistakes and am reminding students to work carefully.

• Writing: Most students have finished writing the sloppy copy for The Mitten story. Some students have finished the final edit and a few students have even finished their illustrations. Great job!

• Science: We are starting a new circuit in first grade. We will be teaching the HLAY – or Here’s Looking at You – program about keeping safe from poisons, drugs, or alcohol. This week we learned more about penguins and how there are many different kinds. We found out some facts about several of the penguins, including African Penguins, Rockhopper Penguins, and Emperor penguins.

• Social Studies: Sunday was Dr. Seuss’ birthday! On Monday we talked about Dr. Seuss and how his stories are unique. On Tuesday, we had a special volunteer from the Cupertino Rotary Club named Ms. Colleen. She read two Dr. Seuss books to our class and even donated Green Eggs and Ham for our classroom! This was a fun treat!

• Music: First graders are continuing to learn all the songs for our end-of-the-year musical. I have been looking for participation levels during music. Each student will be responsible for singing all the songs and performing one dance. Save the date: Friday, May 2nd at 1:30pm.

• Art: This week, we did a lesson on what a landscape is. We learned about warm and cold colors and made a picture of things from nature. We drew mountains using the warm and cold colors and learned how to shade pictures using crayons.

• Computer: We added pictures to our kindness journal. We drew two pictures to add to our February entries. You can see our newly updated journals on our website kindness.pbwiki.com or through our classroom website.

ANTS!!!!! Please wash your child’s lunch bag!!! This week started off with a few ants here and there, and today, ants were all over our lunch basket! Please make sure that all food is closed inside Tupperware or a ziplock bag! Some students had to get hot lunch because there were ants in their food. Yucky! I have cleaned up most of the ants, but let’s try to prevent them from coming back again!

February 29, 2008

Upcoming Dates
* Monday, March 3rd: February Book-It Reading Logs Due!
Please turn in your February reading logs. I will be sending home March reading logs too.

* Thursday, March 6th: Last Day of Second Trimester
Report cards will be given out on March 21st. Grades will reflect your child’s progress from November to this date.

* Friday, March 7th: No School – Staff Learning Day
Teachers will be coming to school to work on writing strategies.

* Thursday, March 13th: Cupertino Library Field Trip
We will be walking to the Cupertino public library in the afternoon. Remember to send your child’s blue library card to school and have him/her remember the 4-digit password. Your child can check out 2 books. Please return them directly to the library on your own.

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Dear Families,

I hope everyone had a wonderful vacation last week! I went to San Diego and Mexico on a cruise. It was very relaxing and I ate a lot of food! We visited Cabo San Lucas, Mazatlan, and Puerto Vallarta.

As we return back to school, I have been spending extra time reminding students of the classroom and school rules. I ask students to evaluate themselves for their own behavior to see if they tried their best or not. Please actively continue to have conversations about doing the right things.

Here are some highlights from the week:
Star of the Week: Nasrin
Poem of the Week: Plip Plop Raindrop
Song of the Week: Penguin Song
Kindness is … eating healthy for your body
Story of the Week: What is the Sun?
Vocabulary of the Week: House 6
Word Wall: cow, door, house, now, there, though, wall
Next Week’s Sharing: Spring Poem
(at least 4 lines memorized and bring something to show)

• Language Arts: Theme 6: Animal Adventures – Week 2
• Stories: Eek! There’s a Mouse in the House
• Strategy and Skill Focus: Question / Noting Details
• Word Families: -eat
• Sounds: long e, vower pairs ee, ea
• Grammar: Naming Words for Things and Places

• Math: We finished our chapter on Geometry, Fractions, and Probability. This week we have been reviewing everything that we have learned since the beginning of the year including money, graphs, place value, and problem solving.

• Writing: Many students have finished their rough drafts of the Mitten story. Some students are writing their final copies and some students have even begun illustrating their stories. This project encourages students to be independent workers.

• Science: We went to Mrs. Chou’s class on Tuesday for circuits. We talked about wind and the rainbow. We made kites using rainbow colored strips of paper and yarn. This week, we did an activity on nutrition since it was our Kindness Journal topic of the week. We brainstormed different fruits and vegetables that would be healthy for our bodies.

• Social Studies: We are continuing to learn more about penguins. We are reading stories and this week we watched a video about the life of a penguin. We also did an art project of a penguin.

• Music: Mrs. Stauter was sick this week, so we did not get a chance to have
music with her. We are continuing to prepare for our first grade musical. I am looking for participation!

• Art: Mrs. Blakeslee is starting an art unit about ink and painting. We started today practicing making different strokes using authentic bamboo brushes. We learned that some pictures have changed from written language and characters.

• Computer: This week we did an activity in KidPix on fractions. Students had to show 1/2, 1/3, and 1/4 of circles, squares, rectangles, and triangles. They drew the lines and filled in the fractions.

• Assembly: We had an interesting assembly today called Pioneer Living.
We watched an introduction to the assembly video on Thursday afternoon that explained how to complete different activities. For example, there was a station where you could use soap and pretend to shave like the pioneers did. Or another station where you could mine for gold. This was a great hands-on experience for the kids!

• Buddies: Today we saw our buddies and worked on measurement. We made inch rulers and centimeter rulers. Then we started measuring different parts of our bodies or objects around the room. You can keep these rulers because in a few weeks we will be doing measurement in math!

Welcome back and Happy March!

Winter Recess!

Upcoming Dates

* Monday, February 18th – Friday, February 22nd: Winter Recess
There will be no school this week. Have a great vacation!

* Monday, March 3rd: February Book-It Reading Logs Due!
Please turn in your February reading logs. I will be sending home March reading logs too.

* Friday, March 7th: No School – Staff Learning Day
Teachers will be coming to school to work on writing strategies.

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Dear Families,

Happy Valentine’s Day! We had a nice party on Thursday and the children enjoyed giving and receiving Valentine cards! Thank you for working with your child and preparing those for the class. Also, tank you so much for the sweet cards and gifts on Valentine’s Day! I am always thankful for the kindness your children and family show to me. It was a very fun day! If your child happened to bring home a brown puppy stuffed animal after our Valentine’s Day party, please return it to school. It is lost!

Here are some highlights from the week:
Star of the Week: Aiko
Poem of the Week: Dear Valentine
Song of the Week: Water Cycle
Kindness is … showing others you care.
Story of the Week: The Emperor’s Egg
Vocabulary of the Week: House 5
Word Wall: by, climb, found, morning, out, shout, show
Next Week’s Sharing: Riddle – something healthy
(at least 4 clues memorized and hide something to show)

• Language Arts: Theme 6: Animal Adventures – Week 1
• Stories: The Sleeping Pig
• Strategy and Skill Focus: Summarize / Story Structure
• Word Families: -oke
• Sounds: long o, long u, and final clusters –ft, -nt, -lk
• Grammar: Naming Words for People and Animals

• Math: This week we reviewed our vocabulary words for plane and solid shapes.
We also worked on identifying patterns and talked about symmetry or equal parts. This idea is used to understand fractions and we are learning 1/2 , 1/3 , and 1/4. We also learned about probability and this was a challenging activity. We have to remember how to make tally marks correctly and be able to compare different circle graphs to see the probability of spinning a certain color.

• Writing: We are still working on our rough drafts of the Mitten story. I am reminding students to proofread their work for capitals, periods, and too many “and’s.” Also, I am teaching them to re-read their own work and add more details to their sentences. We will be finishing our Mitten stories after the break.

• Science: We went to Mrs. Barelli’s class on Tuesday and learned about clouds. We read the story, It Looked Like Spilt Milk, and made clouds in different shapes. We have finished our weather book, although there are still a few more activities we will be doing. This week we did an experiment to find out that on a sunny day, it is hotter wearing dark clothes vs. light clothes. Also, we tallied our weather observations for the month of January. Finally, this week we learned how to read the weather page in the newspaper. This involved some social studies skills such as reading a map and finding imformation.

• Social Studies: We read many stories about Valentine’s Day. We made our own Concrete poems describing Valentine’s Day and decorated a craft. Our kindness journals had to do with showing others we care by making Valentine’s for our classmates.

• Music: First graders are busily preparing for our end of the year musical on May 2nd. Our theme this year is Sesame Street so we have been learning many songs from the show. I am watching to see if students are participating and trying their best!

• Computer: This week we used Kidpix to make a heart tree that matched our poem of the week. Students learned how to type using the text tool and how to change the fonts and sizes of text. They also used stamps and drawing tools to make their trees.

Have a wonderful week vacation! I will be going to San Diego and Mexico over the break so I hope the weather stays warm! See you in one week!

Chinese New Year!

Upcoming Dates

* Thursday, 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.
Aiko Amit Anna Brian Chris David
Hyunseok Jason Jeffery Justin Kelly Kevin
Kevin L. Kota Michael Nadiya Nasrin Ruth Saketh Yuna Yusuke (21 total students)

* Monday, February 18th – Friday, February 22nd: Winter Recess
There will be no school this week. Have a great vacation!

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Dear Families,

Happy 100th day! On Monday, we celebrated the 100th day of school and had an all day first grade circuit. The students counted to 100 making bead necklaces, hats, and art projects. It was a fun day!

Here are some highlights from the week:
Star of the Week: Anna
Poem of the Week: One Hundred Days
Song of the Week: Water Cycle
Kindness is … celebrating special days
Story of the Week: The 100th Day of School
Vocabulary of the Week: House 4
Word Wall: fly, give, good, her, little, our, was
Next Week’s Sharing: Riddle – something you love
(at least 4 clues memorized and hide something to show)

• Language Arts: Theme 5: Home Sweet Home – Week 3
• Stories: The Kite
• Strategy and Skill Focus: Monitor/Clarify
• Word Families: -ite, -ide
• Sounds: long I, contractions
• Grammar: Using I or Me in Sentences

• Math: This week we started our new chapter on Geometry. We have been reviewing plane shapes as well as solid 3-D shapes. Make sure your child can identify all of these. We also talked about how many corners and sides are in each shape.

• Science: We went to Mrs. Burgess’ class on Tuesday and learned about wind. We made pinwheels on pencils to show how wind is measured. We are almost finished with our weather kits!

• Social Studies: We learned about Chinese New Year on Thursday. We read some stories about some of the traditions that take place and made a dragon puppet to celebrate.

• Music: Mrs. Stauter taught us about the difference between rhythm and beat this week. We sang songs and took turns making our own beats using a drum.

• Art: Mrs. Blakeslee had us finish our watercolor landscape paintings. The landscape had to have a picture of something from nature (mountains, water, land). Afterwards we started an abstract watercolor painting, which means that it is random colors everywhere.

• Buddies: We made special Chinese New Year lanterns with our big buddies using envelopes. They helped us to staple the pieces together and assemble the lanterns.

• Assembly: Today we had an assembly called “Water Shed Watch” by Zun Zun. They used real instruments to tell a story and it was very entertaining.

On Wednesday this week, we had a Code Red drill. We talked about how we practice for emergencies including fires, earthquakes, and now if there were dangerous strangers at Eaton. Code Red means that we lock our rooms, turn off the lights, and hide inside as quietly as possible. The teachers also have to build barricades against the doors and to hide the children. Mrs. Rowe and a police officer came around to check each classroom and we did a great job.

Take care over the weekend! I was a little sick this past week and lost my voice for a few days, but the kids have been good listeners still. Enjoy the sunshine!

Groundhog Day (almost)

Upcoming Dates
* Monday, February 4th: 100th Day of School
We will be doing an all-day first grade circuit on fun activities to celebrate the 100th day of school! Therefore, we will not be going to our computer lab in the afternoon (volunteers do not need to come that afternoon! Thanks!!)

* Thursday, February 7th: Cupertino Public Library Field Trip
We will be walking to the Public library in the afternoon. The librarians will read us some stories and we will check out 2 books. Please remember to bring your blue library cards and memorize your 4-digit PIN number! You can return these books on your own when you finish reading them. Please do not bring them back to Eaton.

* Thursday, 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.
Aiko Amit Anna Brian Chris David
Hyunseok Jason Jeffery Justin Kelly Kevin
Kevin L. Kota Michael Nadiya Nasrin Ruth Saketh Yuna Yusuke (21 total students)

* Monday, February 18th – Friday, February 22nd: Winter Recess
There will be no school this week. Have a great vacation!

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Dear Families,

Although it has been cloudy each day, we were happy that it didn’t rain too much during the week. Most of the days we went out to play at recess and lunch. However, last weekend was rainy rainy rainy! We left our rain gauges outside over the weekend and we measured about 3-4 inches of rain! We recorded these results in our weather book.

Here are some highlights from the week:
Star of the Week: Kevin
Poem of the Week: January Thaw
Song of the Week: Money
Kindness is … taking care of the classroom
Story of the Week: I Like the Rain
Vocabulary of the Week: House 3
Word Wall: could, house, how, over, own, world
Next Week’s Sharing: Regular: something you made using 100 items
(at least 4 sentences memorized and bring object/picture)

• Language Arts: Theme 5: Home Sweet Home – Week 2
• Stories: Me On The Map
• Strategy and Skill Focus: Summarize
• Word Families: -ate, -ake
• Sounds: long a, final –nd, -ng, -nk
• Grammar: Which Kind of Sentence?

• Math: We finished our chapter on money this week. The Money song we have learned will hopefully be helpful to remember the coins and their values. We spent time solving money word problems together as a class and reviewed counting coins. Next week we are starting a new chapter on geometry, fractions, and probability.

• Science: On Tuesday, we went to Mrs. Tambe’s class for circuits and learned about the water cycle again. On Thursday we used real thermometers and did an experiment on hot, cold, and mixed water. We have been recording the weather and temperature everyday and will be finishing up our science unit in the next 2 weeks.

• Social Studies: We started reading some stories on penguins. We learned a little about the Emperor penguins and their lives in Antarctica. We made a mini-book about them and found out where penguins live in the world map.

• Writing: We are beginning our first narrative writing project. A narrative writing piece means a story (can be fiction), whereas an expository writing piece mean a report (non-fiction usually). We started planning out our own adaptation of The Mitten and began our rough draft. Next week we will continue editing and working on our stories.

• Computer: We illustrated our kindness pictures for the month of January during computer lab. We used KidPix to draw the pictures, and you can see our updated Kindness journals on kindness.pbwiki.com .

• Assembly: Today we had an assembly called “The Living Earth” from the Wildlife Associates. We had a chance to learn about real life animals and see them in person!

If you didn’t turn in your January Book It reading log today, please return it on Monday! A new February reading log is in today’s Friday folder. Please remind your children to follow school rules and be kind friends to one another each day. I have been giving reminders frequently throughout the day for children to treat each other respectfully and to focus on their work.
Thank you.

Stormy Weather!!

* Friday, February 1st: January Book-It Reading Logs Due!
Please turn in your January reading logs and your child will receive a free personal pizza certificate! I will also be sending home February Book-It reading logs on this day.

* Monday, February 4th: 100th Day of School
We will be doing an all-day first grade circuit on fun activities to celebrate the 100th day of school! Therefore, we will not be going to our computer lab in the afternoon (volunteers do not need to come that afternoon! Thanks!!)

* Thursday, February 7th: Cupertino Public Library Field Trip
We will be walking to the Public library in the afternoon. The librarians will read us some stories and we will check out 2 books. Please remember to bring your blue library cards and memorize your 4-digit PIN number! You can return these books on your own when you finish reading them. Please do not bring them back to Eaton.

* Thursday, 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.
Aiko Amit Anna Brian Chris David
Hyunseok Jason Jeffery Justin Kelly Kevin
Kevin L. Kota Michael Nadiya Nasrin Ruth Saketh Yuna Yusuke (21 total students)

* Monday, February 18th – Friday, February 22nd: Winter Recess
There will be no school this week. Have a great vacation!

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Dear Families,

This was another short week! I would like to welcome another new student into our classroom, Ruth Feng. She joined our class on Wednesday and she is just starting to learn English. We interviewed her as our Princess of the Day on Thursday and found out some things she likes. You can read about Ruth on the Classwork section of our website!

Here are some highlights from the week:
Star of the Week: Chris
Poem of the Week: Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
Song of the Week: Money
Kindness is … following your dreams
Story of the Week: The Hat
Vocabulary of the Week: House 2
Word Wall: grow, light, long, more, other, right, room, these
Next Week’s Sharing: Friendship Poem
(at least 4 sentences memorized and bring object/picture)

• Language Arts: Theme 5: Home Sweet Home – Week 1
• Stories: Moving Day
• Strategy and Skill Focus: Question, Compare/Contrast
• Word Families: -ash, -ush
• Sounds: digraphs sh, th, wh, ch, tch
• Grammar: Exclamations

• Math: This week we worked on solving word problems with money. These word problems are much trickier than our addition and subtraction questions. We are learning how to read carefully and how to solve these types of questions. Please continue practicing counting and making different combinations using pennies, nickels, dimes, and this week we introduced quarters.

• Science: On Tuesday, we went to Mrs. Nieveen’s classroom and we learned about puddles. This was a good continuation of understanding the water cycle and evaporation. In class, we learned about the different types of thermometers in our world. We made a play thermometer using paper and shoelaces and practiced graphing the temperature.

• Social Studies: We learned all about Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. this week. We read many stories about his life and why he is famous today in America. We also made a project and learned a poem about his dream of one day everyone being kind to one another.

• Art: Today we finished our complementary colors project using watercolor. Afterwards we started painting a landscape
using watercolors as well!

• Music: We saw Mrs. Stauter this week and she sang some weather songs with us. We sang a song about winter and another about rain.

• Buddies: This week we made giant snowflakes with our big buddies! We are going to hang them on the ceiling!

Today was the last day for the coat drive. Thank you to all of you who donated something! It is so rainy! We are collecting rain for our science unit and we will find out how much rain fell after the weekend! Enjoy your weekend!

Long weekend!

Upcoming Dates

* Friday, January 18th: NO SCHOOL – Staff Learning Day
The teachers will be having a technology training in the morning and will be working on our writing plan for the rest of the year.

* Monday, January 21st: NO SCHOOL – Martin Luther King Jr. Day
We will be learning about Martin Luther King Jr. and his attempts for building peace in the world!

* Friday, January 25th: Snowman Family Project Due
Please decorate the snowman your child is bringing home today. Be as creative as possible and use different materials you might find around the house (but no food please!). Remember, this is a parent-child activity so have fun creating the snowman together!

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Dear Families,

This was a short week! We were happy to see the sun come out after all the rain the past few weeks! We have continued to observe the weather this week and it has been changing everyday!

Here are some highlights from the week:
Star of the Week: Yuna
Poem of the Week: Bear-ly Awake
Song of the Week: Five Senses
Kindness is … building peace around me.
Story of the Week: Little One Inch
Vocabulary of the Week: House 1
Word Wall: car, down, hear, hold, hurt, learn, their, walk, would
Next Week’s Sharing: Riddle – something to keep you warm
(at least 4 clues memorized and bring object/picture)

• Language Arts: Theme 4 Family and Friends – Week 3
• Stories: Bud’s Day Out
• Strategy and Skill Focus: Monitor/Clarify, Sequence
• Word Families: -um, -ump
• Phonemic Awareness: blending and segmenting
• Sounds: triple clusters, short u
• Grammar: Asking Sentences

• Writing: We started talking about peace this week and wrote in our Kindness Journals ways we can build peace at home, at school, or in our community.

• Math: We took our chapter test on addition and subtraction facts to 12. We have continued practicing counting dimes, nickels, and pennies. Now we are starting to show different ways to make certain amounts.

• Science: This week we read some Rain poems and made a project using words that described what rain looks or sounds like. Also, we made our own flags so that we can measure the wind! In Circuits, Mrs. Bachelor talked about winter with us and we mad a 3D snowman scene. Today we discussed the Water Cycle and learned about evaporation, condensation, and precipitation. We made a project to show the Water Cycle happening.

• Computer Lab: To continue with weather, we used Graph Club for the first time this week. We graphed our class’ favorite weather by using this software program. First we chose the different weather icons. Then we added a title and put how many students chose each icon. Finally, we chose which graphs we wanted to print!

• Social Studies: We are starting a lesson that will be incorporating a narrative writing piece using the story, The Mitten, by Jan Brett. This week we read the story and made our own mittens. Also, we began retelling the story and remembering all the details.

Thank you for participating in the coat drive. If you have any coats or jackets that you would like to donate that are still in good condition, please bring them to school by Friday. Have a wonderful weekend!

2008!

Upcoming Dates
* Thursday, January 17th: Book Orders Due
I will be including the January book orders in today’s newsletter. If you would like to purchase books, please write ONE check payable to Scholastic Book Clubs and return to me by next Thursday!

* Friday, January 18th: NO SCHOOL – Staff Learning Day
The teachers will be having a technology training in the morning and will be working on our writing plan for the rest of the year.

* Monday, January 21st: NO SCHOOL – Martin Luther King Jr. Day
We will be learning about Martin Luther King Jr. and his attempts for building peace in the world!

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Dear Families,

Happy New Year! I heard about some wonderful winter vacations in sharing this week! I hope your families had a nice time over the holidays. I went to Reno and Tahoe in the beginning of vacation and went snowboarding at Northstar. Afterwards, I celebrated Christmas Eve and Christmas with my family and my fiance’s family. It was nice having a few extra days of vacation after the New Year!

On Monday, we had a new student join our classroom! His name is Hyunseok Kim and he speaks Korean and English. He attended kindergarten in New York and they just moved to California last month. We interviewed Hyunseok as our Prince of the Day and learned about his favorite things. You can read about him on the Classwork section of our website!

Here are some highlights from the week:
Star of the Week: David
Poem of the Week: Winter Cheer
Song of the Week: Five Senses
Kindness is … making New Year resolutions.
Story of the Week: Snowballs
Vocabulary of the Week: Body Parts 7
Word Wall Words: friend, girl, know, play, read, she, sing, write
Next Week’s Sharing: Winter Poem (memorize words! No reading)
(at least 4 complete lines and bring object/picture)

• Language Arts: Theme 4 Family and Friends – Week 2
• Stories: The Best Pet
• Strategy and Skill Focus: Evaluate, Compare/Contrast
• Word Families: -ell and –est
• Phonemic Awareness: blending and segmenting
• Sounds: clusters with s, short e, silent letters kn, wr, gn
• Grammar: Telling 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 2008. We wrote them down and decorated a nice project to display each student’s 2008 resolutions. We will be typing these up in the next kindness journal entry.

• Math: We are finishing addition and subtraction to 12. This week we also started talking about pennies, nickels, and dimes. We will be counting money over the next few weeks.

• Science: We are starting our next big science unit on Weather! This week, we started observing the cloud cover, precipitation, wind, and temperature each day. We are recording the weather and temperature and learning how to create our own graphs. Also, we took a survey and found out that in our class, most students like cold weather! Specifically, most students like snow the best! We have been using our senses to observe the weather each day.

• Assembly: Today we had an assembly from Ranka’s Marionette Theater. They used puppets to tell animal stories. It was interesting!

• Computer Lab: Since we are starting weather, this week we made a rain scene. We used some of the drawing tools in KidPix to design our own umbrellas. Then we decorated the rest of the scene to show a rainy day.

• Music: We saw Mrs. Stauter this week! We sang several fun songs including Zip a Dee Doo Dah, The Hello Song, and One Dream. Remember that it is important to be singing and participating in music! First graders are starting to learn their songs for the end of the year musical!

• Art: Mrs. Blakeslee taught us about complementary colors today. We made a framed picture using different colors.

• Library: We went to the Cupertino Library on Thursday afternoon. Fortunately, it wasn’t raining! Remember to return Cupertino Library books on your own (please do not bring them back to Eaton!) Thanks!

• Buddies: Today we saw our fourth grade buddies! We did an activity about Abraham Lincoln and how they lived in log cabins!

Have a wonderful weekend!

Merry Christmas!

We had such a fun week! We finished our holiday studies and learned about many celebrations around the world. Our classroom was decorated this week with all of our beautiful projects from countries and holidays including Germany, Holland, Diwali, China, Christmas, Sweden, Hanukkah, Mexico, and Ireland. We are not returning the projects until later, but their holiday book is coming home today so you can see all the interesting celebrations they have learned!

In addition, we made Santa pop-up cards and a special present for your families! We talked about special celebrations throughout the year and we hope you like our surprise! We also decorated our tree with the pasta ornaments that your child is bringing home.

Today was our Polar Express Day. Our classroom was set up like a train and the students all had train tickets to hear the magical story. Then we received golden bells just like the boy in the story. It was fun to wear our pajamas to school like the children in the story while drinking hot cocoa! We also did a kindness project and brought hot cocoa to all the teachers and staff in their classrooms! The kids did a great job showing kindness! In the afternoon, we watched the movie version of Polar Express.

Thank you for the wonderful cards and presents. I am blessed with a kind class of students and parents. Thank you for your support!

This week, Kevin L. was our Star of the Week. On Monday when we return, we will be getting another new boy in our classroom! You can also return your December reading log when we return. I have included January’s reading log so you can record books for the first week of January.

I hope all of you have a safe and relaxing holiday. I will be in Tahoe this weekend, but will be in the area for the rest of the two weeks. I am looking forward to resting and spending time with friends and family! I wish you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! I will see you all on Monday, January 7th and can’t wait to hear about your vacations!!!

December is here!

Upcoming Dates

* Friday, December 14th: Canned Food Drive
Today your child will be bringing home a brown bag with his or her name on it. This bag describes the different types of food you can donate for the canned food drive. Also, there will be a paper attached to it. Please fill it out and return by next Friday. Bring your bags back with canned foods to donate! Thank you!

* Monday, December 17th – Friday, December 21st: 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 21st. Thank you!***

* Friday, December 21st: 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 24th to January 4th: NO SCHOOL – Winter Recess
School will resume on Monday, January 7th.

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Dear Families,

On Monday, we went to Fremont High School and watched the play, The Elves and the Shoemaker. It was about a Shoemaker who did a kind act and freed an elf from an evil man. In return, the elves visited the Shoemaker each night and helped him make many shoes for his business. We learned that when you do nice things for others, others will do nice things for you. It was funny and entertaining to watch. Thank you to Mrs. Yang for coming with us on this field trip!

Here are some highlights from the week:
Star of the Week: Kota
Poem of the Week: I Heard a Bird Sing
Song of the Week: Four Seasons
Story of the Week: A Bird Can Fly
Kindness is … seeking wise people.
Vocabulary of the Week: People 5
Next Week’s Sharing: Riddle – your favorite holiday
(4 clues with object/picture hidden in a bag)

• Language Arts:
o Theme 2: Let’s Look Around - Week 2
o Story Selection: Mr. C’s Dinner
o Strategy and Skill Focus: Making Predictions and Inferences
o High Frequency Words: all, call, eat, every, first, never, paper, shall, why
o Word Families: -ip, -in
o Phonemic Awareness: blending and segmenting
o Sounds: verb endings –s, -ed, -ing, short I, possessives with ‘s
o Grammar: Naming Part of a Sentence

• Math: This week we worked on word problems and reading carefully for too much information. It is important students really understand what is being asked in the questions and not just adding or subtracting numbers. We finished this chapter on number patterns to 100 and took our test yesterday. Please review the the mistakes on your child’s test.

• Writing: Today we wrote letters to Santa about why we have been good this year. Next week we will illustrate our letters!

• Computer Lab: On Monday we started working with a new program called Kidspiration. Kidspiration is a software tool to help with brainstorming and outlining ideas. This week we made an All About Me outline. We chose our favorite colors, animals, shapes, and foods and made a brainstorming map using words and pictures.

• Social Studies: We continued our Holidays Around the World circuit with Holland, Kwanzaa, and Divali. First we learned that kids in Holland place wooden shoes with carrots and hay in their windows for Sinterklaas. Then we went to Mrs. Nieveen’s class to learn about Kwanzaa and made mkeka’s or straw mats. Finally this week, we went to Mrs. Tambe’s class to learn about Divali and holidays in India.

• PE: This week we went with Mrs. Barelli to play cardio games including one called Octopus.

• Library: Our regular Eaton library visit on Friday morning is cancelled because of the book fair. Our next visit will be on Friday, December 14th.

• Assembly: Today we had an assembly called “Light up The Lights.” It was filled with multicultural winter songs from around the world! The singer was Gary Lapow and he was really good at involving the kids.

• Art: Students brought home two of their art projects this week. One was the clay discs that students molded and painted. Another was a lesson on lines and different designs. In our class we have been starting several art projects for the holidays including an ornament and a picture frame. They will bring these home in the last week.

• Book It! Reading Logs: Thank you for reading with your child and completing the Book It! Program each month. Remember that summarizing a story in writing must have the following:
o Who are the characters and where is the setting?
o What happened in the beginning?
o What is the problem in the middle?
o What is the solution at the end?
o Conclusion – This story was great. I liked the part when _____.
A summary can be about 5 sentences.

A retell is similar, however, it is done verbally and more details have to be included in the beginning, middle, and end. A retell means to share the whole story as if you are a storyteller. Please keep practicing!

Report cards are coming out today. Remember that the grades are from August to November 16th. Please keep the report card at home, but return the yellow envelope on Monday. Thanks! Good job so far everyone!

Almost December!

Upcoming Dates

* Monday, December 3rd: November Book-It Reading Log Due!
Remember to turn in your November reading log! I have included December’s Reading Log in today’s Friday Folder.

* Monday, December 3rd: Elves & The Shoemaker Play Field Trip
Thank you to Mrs. Yang who will be our chaperone for this trip. We will be leaving school at around 10:30am and will return by lunch time.

* Tuesday, December 4th: Book Fair Family Night 6:00-8:00pm
The Eaton library is holding a book fair next week. You can come to the Family night Tuesday or go after school any day next week to look at books for purchase.

* Monday, December 17th – Friday, December 21st: 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 21st. Thank you!***

*Friday, December 21st: 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 24th to January 4th: NO SCHOOL – Winter Recess
School will resume on Monday, January 7th.

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Dear Families,

I love this time of the year! I hope all of you enjoyed your long Thanksgiving break! I stayed around the area and had a feast with my family! Tuesday before Thanksgiving we finished our Thanksgiving books. I hope you were able to read their books with them! Afterwards, I had students try a pumpkin pie. Almost all the students had never tasted one before and they loved it!

Thank you to all the families who donated books for our Eaton Book Drive. Part of teaching kindness is helping the students understand that we really are so fortunate to have everything we have. Some kids don’t have basic needs such as homes, food, or clothing, so we can show kindness by donating things to people less fortunate than us. Thank you for your participation.

Also, we had a great time on our field trip last week to Natural Bridges State Park! It was an all day adventure. After we rode the bus there, students had time to play in the sand, eat lunch, then play some more. Our butterfly tour started at 1pm. We first looked at real-life stuffed animals like owls, sea otters, and wolves. Then we watched a short instructional video on the monarch butterfly life cycle. Afterwards, we got to hold and feel butterflies whom had died and we learned that we shouldn’t try and touch real butterflies. We also wore glasses that showed us what butterflies see from their compound eyes! Finally, we took a little walk to the butterfly grove and there were hundreds of monarch butterflies in the trees! It was an amazing experience. Thank you to Mrs. Okubo for coming with us that day!

Here are some highlights from the week:
Star of the Week: Miss Yu =)
Poem of the Week: You and Me
Song of the Week: Four Seasons
Story of the Week: The Little Ant
Kindness is … using good manners.
Vocabulary of the Week: People 4
Next Week’s Sharing: Family Poem
(at least four lines memorized and a picture to show)

• Language Arts:
o Theme 2: Let’s Look Around - Week 1
o Story Selection: Seasons
o Strategy and Skill Focus: Evaluate and Topic, Main Idea, Summarizing
o High Frequency Words: animal, bird, cold, fall, flower, full, look, of, see
o Word Families: -ack, -ap
o Phonemic Awareness: blending and segmenting
o Sounds: final consonants (-ll), short a, plurals with -s
o Grammar: What is a Sentence?

• Math: This week we practiced estimation and talking about greater than, less than, or equal. This chapter really focuses on knowing numbers to 100 and skip counting. Next week we will take our Chapter Test.

• Computer Lab: This week we finished pictures in Kidpix for our November kindness journals. I have updated all the pictures on our Kindness website so please check it out! (www.geocities.com/missyu_grace - Classwork section)

• Social Studies: For the next four weeks, we are learning about holidays around the world. Our first grade circuits are also on this topic. This week we learned about Germany, Sweden, and Hanukkah. We found out that the Christmas tree idea started in Germany and it is really called a Tannenbaum. In Sweden, we learned that the eldest daughter dresses up to pass out goodies to the family. We also went to Mrs. Bachelor’s classroom to learn about Hanukkah. Also, we learned that there are seven continents and illustrated a world map.

• PE: This week Mrs. Burgess taught us some games such as Dead Bug tag and Roadways. We also used hula hoops to learn skills.

• Library: Our regular Eaton library visit on Friday morning is cancelled because of the book fair. Our next visit will be on Friday, December 14th. Next week you can visit the library after school to see the Book Fair!

Look for the Room 8 Directory in today’s Friday folder! Thank you for returning the information sheet. I hope this comes in handy for play dates after school or just getting in touch with others in the class!

We have a new student! Please welcome Nadiya and her family who just started on Monday in our class. She can speak Russian! We are excited to get to know Nadiya and we are happy to have her! You can read about Nadiya in our Prince and Princess section of the website (also under Classwork).

I hope you have a wonderful weekend! Stay warm!

Almost Thanksgiving!

Upcoming Dates

* Monday, November 19th: Natural Bridges Field Trip
We will be taking the bus with Mrs. Okuno’s class and Mrs. Nieveen’s class to Natural Bridges in Santa Cruz to see the monarch butterflies! Please make sure your child dresses warm and send a PAPER BAG lunch that can be thrown away. If you have not turned in your permission slip yet, please do so MONDAY or your child will not be able to come with us! Thank you to Mrs. Okubo who has volunteered to chaperone.

* Tuesday, November 20th: Scholastic Book Orders Due!
I am sending home the last book order forms for 2007. It will have November and December selections. Please make ONE check payable to Scholastic Book Clubs if you are interested in purchasing any books.

* Wednesday, November 21st to Friday, November 23rd – NO SCHOOL
Happy Thanksgiving break!

* Thursday, November 29th: Cupertino Library Field Trip
This will be our last visit to the Cupertino Library for 2007! Please remember to bring your blue library cards to school and practice memorizing your 4-digit PIN number! Please return the books at your own convenience (not at Eaton).

* Monday, December 3rd: Elves & The Shoemaker Play Field Trip
Please return the permission slip if you haven’t already. Thank you to Mrs. Yang who will be our chaperone for this trip.

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Dear Families,

Hope you had a nice long weekend. This was a short week but it felt long! Many people are starting to get sick (including myself) so please take care! On Tuesday, we had a power outage from the beginning of school until about 11:30am. We opened the doors and windows, so were still able to work, but it was a different experience! We couldn’t do centers that morning because the computers and tape players couldn’t work! We made up the centers on Wednesday instead. Today was the last day of the first trimester. Report cards will be going home the second week in December. Here are some highlights from the week:
Poem of the Week: Here is a Turkey
Song of the Week: Skip Counting
Story of the Week: The Best of Friends
Kindness is … giving thanks.
Vocabulary of the Week: People 3
Next Week’s Sharing: NO SHARING – short week!

• Language Arts:
o Theme 2: Surprise! - Week 3
o Story Selection: A Hut for Zig Bug and The Rope Tug
o Strategy and Skill Focus: Summarize and Story Structure
o High Frequency Words: are, away, does, he, live, pull, they, where
o Word Families: -ug, -ut
o Phonemic Awareness: blending
o Sounds: q, j, z, and short u
o Grammar: Action Words

• Math: We have been practicing our numbers to 100 and skip counting by 2’s, 5’s, and 10’s. This week we also talked about finding numbers 1 more, 1 less, 10 more, or 10 less. Finally, we learned ordinal numbers such as first, second, third, etc. instead of one, two, three.

• Computer Lab: There was no computer lab this week because of Veterans Day and we will also have to skip computer lab next week because of our field trip.

• Social Studies: We talked about Thanksgiving this week and what things we were thankful for. We also made a Thanksgiving pattern book and learned about Pilgrims, Indians, and Thanksgiving dinner.

• PE: This week we were with Mrs. Nieveen. She taught us jump ropes and we practiced jump rope skills.

• Assembly: This week we watched Hawaiian dancers perform hula dancing! It was called “Halau’o Keikiali” and it was lots of fun!

• Buddies: We saw our buddies this week and did an activity with our hands. We traced our hands and wrote down some of our favorite things. Then we thought about ways our hands help others.

• Star of the Week: We will be starting this the week after Thanksgiving. When your child is selected, he/she will bring home a poster on Monday. Please decorate the poster and return it on Friday, ready to share with the class. Then your child will bring Beebear home for the weekend and your child can write and draw what he/she did with Beebear. Please return Beebear on Monday after the weekend. This is a fun and exciting activity for the students!

Some parents have expressed interest in having a class distribution list so that your families can contact each other. I am attaching a page that asks for your permission to share your phone number, address, or email address with other parents in Room 8. Please fill it out and return to school by Tuesday, November 20th if you are interested in participating. Thank you! Next week you will not be receiving Friday folders or homework folders because it is a short week. Have a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday

Veterans Day Weekend

Upcoming Dates

* Monday, November 12th: NO SCHOOL – Veterans Day

* Friday, November 16th: Turkey Project Due & End of First Trimester
Today there is a Family Turkey Project in the Friday Folder. Please read the instructions and return by next Friday. Report cards will be going home on Friday, December 7th. Grades will be reflected on your child’s progress from the beginning of the year until November 16th.

* Monday, November 19th: Natural Bridges Field Trip
We will be taking the bus with Mrs. Okuno’s class and Mrs. Nieveen’s class to Natural Bridges in Santa Cruz. This field trip allows us to see many monarch butterflies in their natural setting. The field trip permission slip is attached to this newsletter! Please fill it out and return by next Friday, November 16th!

* Wednesday, November 21st to Friday, November 23rd – NO SCHOOL
Happy Thanksgiving break!

* Thursday, November 29th: Cupertino Library Field Trip
This will be our last visit to the Cupertino Library for 2007! Please remember to bring your blue library cards to school and practice memorizing your 4-digit PIN number! Please return the books at your own convenience (not at Eaton).

* Monday, December 3rd: Elves & The Shoemaker Play Field Trip
There is a permission slip for this field trip also attached to today’s newsletter. Please fill it out and also return it by next Friday, November 16th.

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Dear Families,

We are getting near to the holidays! There are so many exciting things to learn about during this time of the year. Here are some highlights from the week:
Poem of the Week: Feelings
Song of the Week: Making Words
Story of the Week: Messy Meals
Kindness is … noticing friends’ feelings
Vocabulary of the Week: People 2
Next Week’s Sharing: Regular – something you are thankful for
(at least 4 lines and bring a picture or something to show)
Remember there is no school Monday, so Monday sharers should be prepared on Tuesday!

• Language Arts:
o Theme 2: Surprise! - Week 2
o Story Selection: What Can a Vet Do? And Hot Fox Soup
o Strategy and Skill Focus: Monitor/clarify and Fantasy/Realism
o High Frequency Words: do, I, is, me, my, said, you, for
o Word Families: -et, -en
o Phonemic Awareness: blending
o Sounds: y, k, v and short e
o Grammar: Naming Words

• Math: We finished data and graphs this week! We are now practicing our numbers to 100 by skip counting and identifying the tens place and the ones place.

• Computer Lab: On Monday we counted to 100 by 10’s and used Kidpix stamps to make a 100 table.

• Science: We went to Mrs. Okuno’s class this week for our last insect circuit. She talked about butterflies with us and we made a butterfly using plastic bags!

• Social Studies: This week we started some of our Thanksgiving projects. We talked about things we are thankful for and also started making several turkey projects. Also, we talked about Feelings this week. We chose three feelings and wrote about personal experiences that made us feel that way. Our kindness journal this week was about noticing how others may feel and what we can do to make them feel happy.

• PE: This week we were with Mrs. Bachelor. We worked with balls and practiced our hand/eye coordination skills.

• Music: We finally hired a new music teacher and this was our first week! Mrs. Stauter will be teaching us every other Thursday! We learned some songs and had a great time!

• Art: We saw Mrs. Blakeslee today and finished our clay projects!

This week, our behavior was not good. There were many problems on the playground and with students not being nice to each other. Please remind your children that they always have a choice to be a kind person and can do nice things such as including others in games, treating others with respect, or following Eaton rules. Thank you for helping to make our classroom a safe and kind place.

Enjoy your long weekend! See you on Tuesday!

November is here!

Upcoming Dates

* Monday, November 12th: NO SCHOOL – Veterans Day

* Monday, November 19th: Natural Bridges Field Trip
We will be taking the bus with Mrs. Burgess’ class and Mrs. Nieveen’s class to Natural Bridges in Santa Cruz. This field trip allows us to see many monarch butterflies in their natural setting. More information will come.

* Wednesday, November 21st to Friday, November 23rd – NO SCHOOL
Happy Thanksgiving break!


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Dear Families,

Happy Halloween! I hope you had a great time trick-or-treating on Wednesday night! We had a fun time at our Eaton parade and party! Thanks for all the families who brought snacks for our party and also helped out during the party! Here are some highlights from the week:
Poem of the Week: Pumpkin
Song of the Week: Making Words
Story of the Week: Alice and Greta
Kindness is … saying, “Happy Halloween” when trick-or-treating
Vocabulary of the Week: People 1
Next Week’s Sharing: Food Poem
(at least 4 lines and bring a picture or something to show)

• Language Arts:
o Theme 2: Surprise! - Week 1
o Story Selection: The Box and Wigs in a Box
o Strategy and Skill Focus: Question and Noting Details
o High Frequency Words: two, three, four, five, in, once, upon, what
o Word Families: -ox, -ot
o Phonemic Awareness: blending
o Sounds: d, w, l, x and short o
o Grammar: Capitalizing Names and Word Order in sentences

• Math: We continued with data and graphs this week. We are working on making bar graphs or picture graphs from tally marks or pictures. Continue practicing answering the word problems! We also started talking about numbers to 100 and place value for tens and ones.

• Computer Lab: On Monday we made a Halloween picture using Kidpix. Students learned how to use the different shape tools such as a filled circle, square, or random shape.

• Science: We went to Mrs. Barelli’s class this week for circuits. She taught us about the life cycle of ladybugs.

• Social Studies: We have been doing some Halloween activities this week with haunted houses and monsters! We made up a monster and wrote about what it looks like and what it eats or does. Then we drew the picture of our monster!

• PE: This week we started a new circuit and we did dance! We did the Hokey Pokey and discussed body parts and right vs. left. We also did a fun song called Shake Your Sillies Out and a Freeze Dance!

• Library: We went to the Cupertino Public Library on Thursday. Remember to return the books yourselves and make sure not to mix up Eaton books with Cupertino Library books.

• Buddies: We saw our buddies today! We did an activity with the story, La Luna, which is a Mexican tale about the sun and the moon. We made sun and moon puppets with our big buddies.

• Fire Drill: This week we practiced a fire drill so students know where to line up if we have an emergency. I hope that no more earthquakes will come, but if one does, we are teaching the students what to do to keep themselves safe. Remember to have an emergency plan at home for your family too and discuss things such as: emergency food supply, how to reach each other if the phones aren’t working, or where to wait for each other.

• Book It Reading Logs: Good job reading in the month of October! Students who turned in their reading logs received a Pizza Hut free personal pan pizza certificate in today’s Friday Folder! Remember to read everyday and if you haven’t turned in the October reading log, please do so on Monday! The November reading logs went home on Thursday and should be returned on Monday, December 3rd.

We had to say goodbye to Marie today. She is transferring back to her home school, Nimitz, on Monday. We made drawings and letters for her and put them into a book. We are sad to see another student leave our class!

Don’t forget that Sunday is Daylight Savings Time so change your clocks one hour backwards! Remember: fall back, spring forward! Enjoy your extra hour of sleep and have a great weekend!

Red Ribbon Week

Upcoming Dates

* Wednesday, October 31st: Halloween
We will be having our Halloween parade after lunch on Wednesday. Please send your child’s costume to school in their backpack and they will change after lunch. The parade will be at 1:30pm outside. Parents are welcome to join us for the Halloween parade. Afterwards, we will have a small party. Thank you for signing up to bring items for our party!

* Thursday, November 1st: October Book-It Reading Logs Due
Please return the reading log and 3 story summaries on this day. I will send home November Book-It reading logs home too.

* Thursday, November 1st: Cupertino Library Field Trip
We will be walking to the library after lunch and will return before dismissal. Remember to send your child’s blue library card to school and have them MEMORIZE their 4-digit PIN number. For students who received a new card, remember it is the last 4-digits of your home phone number!

* Monday, November 12th: NO SCHOOL – Veterans Day


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Dear Families,

This week was Red Ribbon Week. We learned about what it means to stay healthy and drug free. We also finished sharing all of our insect projects! Great job to everyone. Each insect was so creative! I hope your family had a fun experience making them. Here are some highlights from the week:
Poem of the Week: My Nose
Song of the Week: Vowels
Story of the Week: The Itsy Bitsy Spider
Kindness is … raising money for our school
Vocabulary of the Week: Body Parts 4
Next Week’s Sharing: Regular (not riddle) – Halloween decorations
(4 sentences and bring a picture or something to show)

• Language Arts:
o Theme 1: All Together Now – Week 3
o Story Selection: The Big Hit and Big Pig
o Strategy and Skill Focus: Evaluate and Cause/Effect
o High Frequency Words: a, find, one, have, to, who
o Word Families: -it, -ig
o Phonemic Awareness: blending
o Sounds: b, r, h, g, and short i
o Grammar: Punctuation

• Math: We worked on Picture Graphs and Bar Graphs this week and counting using tally marks. This chapter is a lot harder for many students because it requires answering more word problems, but we continued to review the magic words that help us solve problems, ie. (+) in all, altogether, join, and (-), how many more, how many fewer, how many less, left, still, or away

• Computer Lab: On Monday everyone completed a KidPix template on a fact family of their choice. Students used number stamps and picture stamps to show the four sentences that are part of a fact family!

• Science: We went to Mrs. Burgess’ class this week for circuits. Her substitute taught us an insect lesson on ants.

• Social Studies: This week we talked about the word respect and what it means to follow the Golden Rule, “do unto others as you would want them to do unto you.”

• Assembly: An officer came to talk to us today about safety. He taught us how to tell the difference between candy and drugs and we practiced saying “No!” to drugs, alcohol, and strangers!

• PE: This week we had Mrs. Okuno and we played a game called Stuck in the Mud tag. We also did some ball tossing to work on throwing and catching.

• Library: We did not get to go to the library this week because the library was being used for testing. We will go next week, or your child can always exchange books during recess or lunch.

• Art: We saw Mrs. Blakeslee today and we started working with clay! We are making circular molds in plastic lids and then carving designs into them.

On Wednesday, we had to say goodbye to Dvir and his family. They moved to Nimitz school. We made a picture book for him and said goodbye. It’s always sad when students have to leave in the middle of the school year. We were sad to see Dvir go!

Enjoy the weekend! I hope the weather will stay nice next week for Halloween and I hope the fires in Southern California will be contained too! See you Monday!

Walk-a-Thon!

Upcoming Dates

* Wednesday, October 24th: Walk to School Day

* Wednesday, October 31st: Halloween
We will be having our Halloween parade after lunch on Wednesday. Please send your child’s costume to school in their backpack and they will change after lunch. The parade will be at 1:25pm outside. Parents are welcome to join us for the Halloween parade. Afterwards, we will have a small party. Please talk to me after school or through email if you would like to bring something for the party.

* Thursday, November 1st: October Book-It Reading Logs Due
Please return the reading log and 3 story summaries on this day. I will send home November Book-It reading logs home too.

* Thursday, November 1st: Cupertino Library Field Trip
We will be walking to the library after lunch and will return before dismissal. Remember to send your child’s blue library card to school and have them MEMORIZE their 4-digit PIN number. For students who received a new card, remember it is the last 4-digits of your home phone number!


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Dear Families,

This week was an interesting week! Parent conferences ended on Tuesday and we had our Walk-a-Thon today! We were also assigned as the Campus Clean Up group this week, so after lunch we spent time helping our school stay clean by picking up trash and leftovers from lunch. This was also our Kindness sentence of the week and we talked about how important it is to help the school and other places stay clean and beautiful! Here are some highlights:
Poem of the Week: First Book
Song of the Week: Vowels
Story of the Week: Dancing Feet
Kindness is … picking up someone else’s trash
Vocabulary of the Week: Body Parts 3
Next Week’s Sharing: Regular – something about night
(4 sentences and bring a picture or something to show)

• Language Arts:
o Theme 1: All Together Now – Week 2
o Story Selection: Nan and Fan, We Can!
o Strategy and Skill Focus: Summarize and Compare/Contrast
o High Frequency Words: and, jump, too, here, not, we
o Word Families: -an
o Phonemic Awareness: blending
o Sounds: n, f, p, and short a
o Grammar: Beginning sentences with Capital Letters

• Math: We finished Chapter 3 this week and many students are carefully working on computation everyday! We also started introducing Chapter 4 which is on data and graphs. There will be many word problems and vocabulary words such as more, fewer, how much, etc?

• Computer Lab: We did not go this week because of the parent conference schedule.

• Science: We did not have science circuits Tuesday again because of the parent conference schedule. We will be saying goodbye to our mealworms and beetles this week! We also talked about the life cycle of a pumpkin and made a project using the book, Pumpkin, Pumpkin. Ask your child about the story and have them retell it to you!

• Social Studies: This week we talked about citizenship, making rules, and voting in America. We learned that we are citizens of America and that we make rules in class and in our community. We also vote in class when we make decisions.

• Assembly: We had an assembly by the Traveling Lantern called, “The Hobbit.”

• PE: This week we had Mrs. Barelli and we worked on our hand/eye coordination by using scoops and balls.

I had to leave early from the Walk-a-thon because I have two weddings to attend this weekend in Los Angeles and one rehearsal dinner today at 6pm! I’m glad that I was able to see the beginning of it and I hope everyone had a great time! It’s one of my favorite days and I was sad to miss it =( I hope you have a great weekend!

Rain, Rain, Go Away!

Upcoming Dates

* Monday, October 15th to Tuesday, October 16th: Parent Conferences
We have two more days of conferences. DISMISSAL IS AT 1:30PM! Thank you for coming this past week to talk about your child’s progress!

* Wednesday, October 17th: Book Orders Due
Attached is the October Scholastic Book Orders. If you are interested in purchasing books, please return the order forms with ONE check payable to Scholastic Book Clubs by Wednesday. The books should arrive by the end of the month.

* Friday, October 19th: Walk-a-Thon 1:30-3:05pm
If you did not turn in your pledge form, please do so on MONDAY. Even if you did not collect pledges, you need to sign the envelope in order to give your child permission to participate! Parents may come and watch or volunteer during the event. However, please make sure you encourage your child to keep walking to raise money for the school. You may not pull your child out to feed them with extra snacks. There will be plenty of water available for them to get themselves.

* Wednesday, October 31st: Halloween
We will be having our Halloween parade after lunch on Wednesday. Please send your child’s costume to school in their backpack and they will change after lunch. More information will come later.


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Dear Families,

Thank you for coming to parent conferences this week. I will be sending home copies of our conference notes in the Friday folder. Here are some highlights from the week:
Poem of the Week: Our World
Song of the Week: Hello Around the World
Story of the Week: Here Are My Hands
Kindness is … drawing a picture for someone
Vocabulary of the Week: Body Parts 2
Next Week’s Sharing: Riddle – something liquid (4 clues and bring the
object or picture hidden in a bag)

• Language Arts: We finished our last Prince this week! Remember to read about our classmates on our website under “Classwork.” This week we started our language arts textbooks and will be focusing on specific stories, sounds, and skills each week. We also will be having high frequency words added to our word wall each week. I expect students to be able to read and spell these words correctly in their writing.
o Theme 1: All Together Now – Week 1
o Story Selection: The Cat Sat and The Mat
o Strategy and Skill Focus: Predict/Infer and Sequence
o High Frequency Words: go, the, on
o Word Families: -at
o Phonemic Awareness: blending
o Sounds: m, s, c, t, short a
o Grammar: Capital and lowercase letters

• Math: We are continuing in Chapter 3 with more addition and subtraction facts up to 12. Here are some of our “magic words” to help us with word problems: (+) in all, altogether, join (-) how many more, left, still, away

• Computer Lab: We had a short session this week because of our parent conference schedule. We drew pictures for someone special as part of our Kindness Journal activity for the week.

• Science: We did not have science circuits Tuesday because of the parent conference schedule, however, we spent time observing our mealworms this week in class. We saw one of our mealworms change into the final adult stage! Ask your children what they mealworms turn into!

• Assembly: We had a first grade assembly today called “Otto the Auto.”

• PE: This week we had Mrs. Burgess and she taught us some skills with hula hoops. Also we played a game called Dead Bug tag.

• Art: Thank you to those of you who donated the plastic lids for our art teacher. We saw Mrs. Blakeslee this week and we finished our paintings on abstract lines and shapes using paint.

Don’t forget next Friday is the Walk-a-Thon! It will be lots of fun! We made a poster this week to represent our classroom, and we decorated shoes. On the shoes were shoelaces, and I discovered that MOST of our students do not know how to tie their shoes! Please teach them this skill when you get the chance! I taught them the two bunny ears method, but you can definitely use whichever method is easiest for your child!

Have a wonderful weekend! Rain, rain, go away!

Happy October!

Upcoming Dates

* Monday, October 8th to Tuesday, October 16th: Parent Conferences
During these seven days of school, DISMISSAL IS AT 1:30PM! I look forward to meeting with each of you next week!

* Friday, October 19th: Walk-a-Thon
Please continue getting pledges for the Walk-a-Thon. Pledge forms are due on October 12th.

* Wednesday, October 31st: Halloween
We will be having our Halloween parade after lunch on Wednesday. Please send your child’s costume to school in their backpack and they will change after lunch. More information will come later.


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Dear Families,

Happy October! Please welcome our new student, Kevin, and his family to Eaton! They came from Korea and we are happy Kevin has joined our class! Here are some highlights from the week:
Poem of the Week: Oh Mr. Squirrel
Song of the Week: Hello Around the World
Story of the Week: Apples, Apples, Apples
Kindness is … giving a praise note to someone
Vocabulary of the Week: Body Parts 1
Next Week’s Sharing: Riddle – something solid (4 clues and bring the
object or picture hidden in a bag)

• Reading & Writing: We finished our Dictionary this week! We have been reviewing all the letter sounds and practicing blending words together. Also, we completed two more Prince and Princesses this week. One more to go! Please continue reviewing ideas for the Weekend News journals on Sunday night or Monday morning. I would like students to be able to write their thoughts freely during journal time without fear of mistakes.

• Library: We went to the Cupertino Public Library on Thursday this week. The librarians read several stories and then the students checked out 2 books to bring home. Please remember to return the books at your own convenience. Please do not bring them to Eaton or they will get mixed up with Eaton Library books. Remember we go to the Eaton library every Friday. If your child brought home a new card, their 4-digit PIN number is the last 4 numbers in your home phone number. Please have your child MEMORIZE this PIN number for our next Library visit.

• Math: We are working on Chapter 3 which is more addition and subtraction facts up to 12. Now the word problems are getting trickier since you have to determine if they are asking to add or subtract. We will keep practicing!

• Computer Lab: This week we illustrated our first Kindness picture for our Kindness website. We are typing our kindness journals each week starting this week and we will be illustrating them once a month. You can see our Kindness journals by going to the “Classwork” section in our class website. Some students did not finish their pictures so they are not on the website. Please talk to your child about finishing their work!

• Science: Our caterpillars came out of their cocoons over the weekend and we let them fly away after school on Monday! It was exciting to see them changing and we’re happy they are free now! Also, our mealworms are now pupas and are waiting for their final change! We’ll find out next week what they turn into! This week we also went to Mrs. Tambe’s class for circuits and learned about honeybees.

• Assembly: Thank you to Mr. Shindler for volunteering today at the Lawrence Hall of Science assembly! We had many science stations set up and students did various projects such as making dowels, arch bridges, and building anything using paper, cubes, tangrams, blocks, etc! This was exciting for the students and it was a great hands-on experience!

• PE: This week we were with Mrs. Tambe and we played a game called Three Deep. We are learning to play nicely with others.

• Buddies: We saw our fourth grade buddies today and we read a manners book. We talked about manners and created our own books to show what we can do to be respectful people.

• Art: Our art teacher, Mrs. Blakeslee, is asking for donations of 4-5" diameter plastic lids from sour cream, cottage cheese and large yogurt containers. She needs to collect enough so that every student at Eaton will be able to use one for a project. Please send them in if you have any.

Remember next week is Parent Conferences! Please make arrangements for someone else to watch your child during your conference time. The conference is not a meeting for your child to attend. Also, please be on time when picking up your child at 1:30pm. Thank you and I will see you next week!