Upcoming Dates
* Monday, June 8th: End of the Year First Grade Trip
We will be taking the light rail and bus to Almaden Lake Park. Each child needs to wear play clothes and bring a lunch labeled with your child’s name. Do not send anything that cannot be thrown away. We will be leaving around 9:15-9:30. Julia, Mai, and Emi’s mother will be coming with us. If you are meeting us at the park, pick up a map from me on Monday morning. We still need a parent to transport our lunches and drinks. Please see me on Monday if you can help! We return from the park by 2:30.
There is a water play area at Almaden Lake Park, so please wear shoes and clothing that can get a little wet. If it is warm enough to go in, we will dry everyone off in the sun before we get on the bus to come home.
* Friday, June 12th: Last Day of School! Dismissal is at 12:20pm.
Please make sure you pick your child up on time!
-----
Dear Families,
This was our last academic week. We finished our last chapter in math on double digit addition and subtraction. We interviewed our new student, Jin, and wrote about her favorite things. You can read about Jin on our website under “Classwork” and “Prince and Princess.” Also, we learned about nutrition and healthy eating this week. We learned about the 5 different food groups in the food pyramid, and reviewed some food vocabulary words. Furthermore, we have been reading stories and completing activities from the English to a Beat program. These stories are great because not only can you listen to the story on a CD, but there are 3 songs in the middle to enhance the stories. Afterwards, we worked on grammar questions such as using is vs. are in sentences, question words: who, what, when, where, why, and commands vs. statements. Finally, we had our last computer lab and Cupertino library visits. Please remember to return all your Eaton and Cupertino books!
For the last 2 weeks, we are ending the year by reading Frog and Toad stories by Arnold Lobel. His stories are chapter books but are great because it shows good examples of friendship. I hope that in addition to everything your child has learned academically this year, most important is remembering how to treat others with kindness and respect. Frog and Toad show different ways of being good friends to one another.
Next week will go by quickly. We will have the first grade field trip, the talent show, our last first grade end-of-the-year circuit, and breakfast and a book on the last day. Everything will be going home next week, and please remember to pick up your child promptly at 12:20pm on Friday, June 12th.
Have a wonderful weekend!
Friday, June 05, 2009
Friday, May 29, 2009
May 28, 2009
Upcoming Dates
* Friday, June 5th: Cupertino Library Field Trip
This will be our last visit to the Cupertino Library. Please remember to send your child’s blue library card to school!
* Monday, June 8th: Almaden Lake Park Field Trip
This is our end-of-the-year field trip with all first graders. Please return the permission slip from last week if you haven’t yet! We have enough parent chaperones with us on the light rail and bus! Julia, Mai and Emi’s mother will be coming with us on the bus. Other parents with siblings are welcome to drive themselves and meet us at the park.
* Friday, June 12th: Last Day of School – Dismissal is at 12:20pm
Remember to pick up your child on time at 12:20pm! Have a great summer!
-----
Dear Families,
It was great to see so many of you at Open House last night! Thank you for coming to see all of the wonderful projects they have completed this year in first grade. The students were all so excited to be your tour guides for the evening. I know it was a lot to see and there was a lot of moving around, but I am proud of all of them! I hope you enjoyed the surprise gift as well. This was my first time publishing a book, and decided that I wanted the class to have a copy of their own. You can purchase extras at www.bookemon.com if you would like to share it with relatives or friends.
This was another short week. We finished up many projects and cleaned up the classroom to prepare for Open House. On Tuesday, we went to Mrs. Barelli’s classroom to explore tangrams. We made different animals out of the tangram pieces. On Wednesday, we had an assembly from the Fratello Marionettes on “The Frog Prince.” We watched a puppeteer who made his own puppets perform several short skits using music in the background. It was really entertaining! Today we had a special presentation from the San Jose Museum of Art. They came and introduced us to many different pieces of art styles using different art mediums.
Today was also the last day for the Eaton library. Students cannot check out books anymore since it is the end of the year. Please make sure you have returned your book to the Eaton library to avoid any fines!
We are near the end of the year, but I just found out we are getting a new student on Monday! Unfortunately, we do not have much time to get to know her, but please welcome her and her family anyways during these last 2 weeks. Her name is Jin Kim and she speaks Korean. Thank you!
* Friday, June 5th: Cupertino Library Field Trip
This will be our last visit to the Cupertino Library. Please remember to send your child’s blue library card to school!
* Monday, June 8th: Almaden Lake Park Field Trip
This is our end-of-the-year field trip with all first graders. Please return the permission slip from last week if you haven’t yet! We have enough parent chaperones with us on the light rail and bus! Julia, Mai and Emi’s mother will be coming with us on the bus. Other parents with siblings are welcome to drive themselves and meet us at the park.
* Friday, June 12th: Last Day of School – Dismissal is at 12:20pm
Remember to pick up your child on time at 12:20pm! Have a great summer!
-----
Dear Families,
It was great to see so many of you at Open House last night! Thank you for coming to see all of the wonderful projects they have completed this year in first grade. The students were all so excited to be your tour guides for the evening. I know it was a lot to see and there was a lot of moving around, but I am proud of all of them! I hope you enjoyed the surprise gift as well. This was my first time publishing a book, and decided that I wanted the class to have a copy of their own. You can purchase extras at www.bookemon.com if you would like to share it with relatives or friends.
This was another short week. We finished up many projects and cleaned up the classroom to prepare for Open House. On Tuesday, we went to Mrs. Barelli’s classroom to explore tangrams. We made different animals out of the tangram pieces. On Wednesday, we had an assembly from the Fratello Marionettes on “The Frog Prince.” We watched a puppeteer who made his own puppets perform several short skits using music in the background. It was really entertaining! Today we had a special presentation from the San Jose Museum of Art. They came and introduced us to many different pieces of art styles using different art mediums.
Today was also the last day for the Eaton library. Students cannot check out books anymore since it is the end of the year. Please make sure you have returned your book to the Eaton library to avoid any fines!
We are near the end of the year, but I just found out we are getting a new student on Monday! Unfortunately, we do not have much time to get to know her, but please welcome her and her family anyways during these last 2 weeks. Her name is Jin Kim and she speaks Korean. Thank you!
Thursday, May 21, 2009
May 21, 2009
Upcoming Dates
* Friday, May 22nd and Monday, May 25th: NO SCHOOL
Friday, May 22nd will be a staff learning day for all of the teachers. Monday, May 25th is Memorial Day so there is no school. Enjoy your long 4-day weekend!
* Thursday, May 28th: Open House 6:30pm-7:30pm
Save the date! This will be your opportunity to come to Room 8 and see all the beautiful work your child has completed this year in first grade. Siblings are welcome too and your child will be your “tour guide” for the evening!
* Friday, June 5th: Cupertino Library Field Trip
This will be our last visit to the Cupertino Library. Please remember to send your child’s blue library card to school!
* Monday, June 8th: Almaden Lake Park Field Trip
This is our end-of-the-year field trip with all first graders. Attached to today’s newsletter is a permission slip that needs to be returned by Friday, May 29th. We can take three parent chaperones with us on the light rail and bus, and other parents with siblings are welcome to drive themselves and meet us at the park.
* Friday, June 12th: Last Day of School – Dismissal is at 12:20pm
Remember to pick up your child on time at 12:20pm! Have a great summer!
-----
Dear Families,
This was a short week! Thank you for all of the flowers, books, cards, supplies, and gifts this week for Teacher Appreciation Week. I really appreciated the kind thoughts and gestures. Thank you also to Emi’s mom, Mai’s mom, Jhanvi’s mom, and Seyon’s dad for coming to the San Francisco Zoo with us on Monday. Despite the incredibly cold weather, we had a great time looking at the different animals! My favorite was the baby giraffe!
This week we had a special first grade social studies circuit on Communities that lasted Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. We rotated to each of the classrooms to learn about people, homes, buildings, transportation, nature, signs, streets, and addresses in our community. These projects will be displayed in our classroom next week.
We are busily finishing up projects for Open House! Please plan on attending this Thursday, May 28th from 6:30-7:30pm! You will be taking home many of your children’s projects that they completed during this first grade year and it will be a great moment for your child to share what he or she has learned! I am very proud of all of them. All of the students have made tremendous improvement, especially in the last few recent months. You should be very proud too! Have a wonderful long weekend!
* Friday, May 22nd and Monday, May 25th: NO SCHOOL
Friday, May 22nd will be a staff learning day for all of the teachers. Monday, May 25th is Memorial Day so there is no school. Enjoy your long 4-day weekend!
* Thursday, May 28th: Open House 6:30pm-7:30pm
Save the date! This will be your opportunity to come to Room 8 and see all the beautiful work your child has completed this year in first grade. Siblings are welcome too and your child will be your “tour guide” for the evening!
* Friday, June 5th: Cupertino Library Field Trip
This will be our last visit to the Cupertino Library. Please remember to send your child’s blue library card to school!
* Monday, June 8th: Almaden Lake Park Field Trip
This is our end-of-the-year field trip with all first graders. Attached to today’s newsletter is a permission slip that needs to be returned by Friday, May 29th. We can take three parent chaperones with us on the light rail and bus, and other parents with siblings are welcome to drive themselves and meet us at the park.
* Friday, June 12th: Last Day of School – Dismissal is at 12:20pm
Remember to pick up your child on time at 12:20pm! Have a great summer!
-----
Dear Families,
This was a short week! Thank you for all of the flowers, books, cards, supplies, and gifts this week for Teacher Appreciation Week. I really appreciated the kind thoughts and gestures. Thank you also to Emi’s mom, Mai’s mom, Jhanvi’s mom, and Seyon’s dad for coming to the San Francisco Zoo with us on Monday. Despite the incredibly cold weather, we had a great time looking at the different animals! My favorite was the baby giraffe!
This week we had a special first grade social studies circuit on Communities that lasted Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. We rotated to each of the classrooms to learn about people, homes, buildings, transportation, nature, signs, streets, and addresses in our community. These projects will be displayed in our classroom next week.
We are busily finishing up projects for Open House! Please plan on attending this Thursday, May 28th from 6:30-7:30pm! You will be taking home many of your children’s projects that they completed during this first grade year and it will be a great moment for your child to share what he or she has learned! I am very proud of all of them. All of the students have made tremendous improvement, especially in the last few recent months. You should be very proud too! Have a wonderful long weekend!
Friday, May 15, 2009
May 15, 2009
Upcoming Dates
* Monday, May 18th: San Francisco Zoo Field Trip
Thank you to our four parent chaperones: Emi’s mother, Seyon’s father, Jhanvi’s mother, and Mai’s mother. Please have your child dress in layers to stay warm and send a BAG lunch with your child’s name on it. Everything will be thrown away at the zoo!
* Thursday, May 21st: LAST Scholastic Book Orders Due!
Attached to today’s newsletter is the last book order of the year. Please make ONE check payable to Scholastic Book Clubs if you are interested in purchasing!
* Friday, May 22nd and Monday, May 25th: NO SCHOOL
Friday, May 22nd will be a staff learning day for all of the teachers. Monday, May 25th is Memorial Day so there is no school. Enjoy your long 4-day weekend!
* Thursday, May 28th: Open House 6:30pm-7:30pm
Save the date! This will be your opportunity to come to Room 8 and see all the beautiful work your child has completed this year in first grade. Siblings are welcome too and your child will be your “tour guide” for the evening!
-----
Dear Families,
Here are some highlights from the week:
Star of the Week: Jhanvi
Poem of the Week: The Robin’s Secret
Song of the Week: The Presidents
Kindness is … singing with all your heart
Words: watched, together, garden, sharp, baby, edge, only, enough
Next Week’s Sharing: Riddle – something at the beach
(at least 4 sentences memorized and picture/object to show)
• Language Arts: Theme 9 Special Friends – Week 3
o Strategy and Skill Focus: Question & Compare/Contrast
o New Sound: vowel pairs oi, oy, aw, au, suffixes –ful, -ly, -y
o Grammar: Describing what we see
• Math: We are in out last chapter for first grade on two digit addition and subtraction. This week we focused on addition and practiced adding two-digit numbers. Students had trouble with subtracting numbers such as 16-9 because they would confuse the ones place as 6-9. Please be careful!
• Writing: We finished learning about the frog life cycle. On Wednesday, we wrote an outline together in class, then students drafted an expository piece about a frog’s life. At this point in the year, students should be able to write an organized paragraph with a topic sentence, at least 3 facts with details to support it, and a conclusion. On Thursday, we published our writing and illustrated a frog to decorate our piece. We also made a quilt square about our favorite memories of first grade this week.
• Science: This is our last week observing the cloud cover, precipitation, wind, and temperature. Students have been assessed on whether or not they made accurate observations during the last month. This includes graphing temperatures correctly.
• Computer: Many students are finishing their The Very Hungry Caterpillar stories in the computer lab. We only have about 2 more weeks to work on them! Students who finished are reading stories in Starfall.
• Music: This week, the first grade classes got together to watch the DVD of our show! Great job everyone! Also, on Monday we were able to watch the fourth and fifth graders perform their musical! The upper graders use instruments such as drums and xylophones to accompany their singing, and also have role playing to tell a story.
• Circuits: On Tuesday, we had circuits with Mrs. Zankich. We reviewed fractions and then designed our own flags using either ½, 1/3, ¼ or 1/8. Then we wrote about what we made.
I came down with a cold during the week, so I rested on Thursday. I know some of the students were also sick! Take care and I hope you have a nice weekend!
* Monday, May 18th: San Francisco Zoo Field Trip
Thank you to our four parent chaperones: Emi’s mother, Seyon’s father, Jhanvi’s mother, and Mai’s mother. Please have your child dress in layers to stay warm and send a BAG lunch with your child’s name on it. Everything will be thrown away at the zoo!
* Thursday, May 21st: LAST Scholastic Book Orders Due!
Attached to today’s newsletter is the last book order of the year. Please make ONE check payable to Scholastic Book Clubs if you are interested in purchasing!
* Friday, May 22nd and Monday, May 25th: NO SCHOOL
Friday, May 22nd will be a staff learning day for all of the teachers. Monday, May 25th is Memorial Day so there is no school. Enjoy your long 4-day weekend!
* Thursday, May 28th: Open House 6:30pm-7:30pm
Save the date! This will be your opportunity to come to Room 8 and see all the beautiful work your child has completed this year in first grade. Siblings are welcome too and your child will be your “tour guide” for the evening!
-----
Dear Families,
Here are some highlights from the week:
Star of the Week: Jhanvi
Poem of the Week: The Robin’s Secret
Song of the Week: The Presidents
Kindness is … singing with all your heart
Words: watched, together, garden, sharp, baby, edge, only, enough
Next Week’s Sharing: Riddle – something at the beach
(at least 4 sentences memorized and picture/object to show)
• Language Arts: Theme 9 Special Friends – Week 3
o Strategy and Skill Focus: Question & Compare/Contrast
o New Sound: vowel pairs oi, oy, aw, au, suffixes –ful, -ly, -y
o Grammar: Describing what we see
• Math: We are in out last chapter for first grade on two digit addition and subtraction. This week we focused on addition and practiced adding two-digit numbers. Students had trouble with subtracting numbers such as 16-9 because they would confuse the ones place as 6-9. Please be careful!
• Writing: We finished learning about the frog life cycle. On Wednesday, we wrote an outline together in class, then students drafted an expository piece about a frog’s life. At this point in the year, students should be able to write an organized paragraph with a topic sentence, at least 3 facts with details to support it, and a conclusion. On Thursday, we published our writing and illustrated a frog to decorate our piece. We also made a quilt square about our favorite memories of first grade this week.
• Science: This is our last week observing the cloud cover, precipitation, wind, and temperature. Students have been assessed on whether or not they made accurate observations during the last month. This includes graphing temperatures correctly.
• Computer: Many students are finishing their The Very Hungry Caterpillar stories in the computer lab. We only have about 2 more weeks to work on them! Students who finished are reading stories in Starfall.
• Music: This week, the first grade classes got together to watch the DVD of our show! Great job everyone! Also, on Monday we were able to watch the fourth and fifth graders perform their musical! The upper graders use instruments such as drums and xylophones to accompany their singing, and also have role playing to tell a story.
• Circuits: On Tuesday, we had circuits with Mrs. Zankich. We reviewed fractions and then designed our own flags using either ½, 1/3, ¼ or 1/8. Then we wrote about what we made.
I came down with a cold during the week, so I rested on Thursday. I know some of the students were also sick! Take care and I hope you have a nice weekend!
Friday, May 08, 2009
May 8, 2009
HAPPY MOTHER’S DAY!!!
Upcoming Dates
* Friday, May 15th: Cupertino Library Field Trip
Please send your child’s blue library card to school! Remember to practice his/her 4-digit PIN number and please return books on your own!
* Monday, May 18th: San Francisco Zoo Field Trip
Thank you to our four parent chaperones: Emi’s mother, Seyon’s father, Jhanvi’s mother, and Mai’s mother. Please have your child dress in layers to stay warm and send a BAG lunch with your child’s name on it. Everything will be thrown away at the zoo!
* Thursday, May 21st: Intent to Return form due
Don’t forget to return this form! It asks you to share whether or not your child will be returning to Cupertino during the next school year. Please fill it out as soon as you can!
* Friday, May 22nd and Monday, May 25th: NO SCHOOL
Friday, May 22nd will be a staff learning day for all of the teachers. Monday, May 25th is Memorial Day so there is no school. Enjoy your long 4-day weekend!
* Thursday, May 28th: Open House 6:30pm-7:30pm
Save the date! This will be your opportunity to come to Room 8 and see all the beautiful work your child has completed this year in first grade. Siblings are welcome too and your child will be your “tour guide” for the evening!
-----
Dear Families,
I hope you were able to come watch our First Grade Musical, “Leave the World Just a Little Bit Better,” today! We worked very hard learning the words of the songs and practicing the dancing! We hope you enjoyed it!
Here are some highlights from the week:
Star of the Week: Alina
Poem of the Week: Caterpillar Small
Song of the Week: The Presidents
Kindness is … picking up someone else’s trash.
Word Wall: after, before, buy, done, off, pretty, school, wash
Next Week’s Sharing: Regular – Something you made yourself
(at least 4 sentences memorized and picture/object to show)
• Language Arts: Theme 9 Special Friends – Week 2
o Strategy and Skill Focus: Evaluate / Story Structure
o New Sound: base words with –es, –ies endings, prefixes un-, re-
o Grammar: Using was or were
• Math: We finished our eleventh chapter on Time and Calendar. Students now know how to read a clock by hour and half hour. They should also be able to answer questions about the day of the week, month, year, or date on a calendar. Keep practicing finding start times, end times, or the duration between two activities. That was the trickiest part for students!
• Writing: We wrote I Am poems this week. We used different question prompts to help us write a poem about ourselves and our favorite things. We tried to use descriptive words to write the sentences. These will be displayed at Open House.
• Science: This week we continued measuring the cloud cover, wind, and temperature on our weather calendars. On Thursday, we even saw the wind anemometer turning fast because there was strong wind. We also continued talking about the life cycle of frogs and toads. We are reading fiction stories from the Frog and Toad collections by Arnold Lobel. We are also reading non-fiction stories to learn facts and differences about frogs and toads.
• Social Studies: We talked about Mother’s Day this week and made a special present for our mothers! We hope you love our gifts. The clay pots were made from art class with Mrs. Abada and we painted them using acrylic paint. I chose bamboo plants because they’re easy to take care of since all you have to do is water them whenever you want to. You might want to place them on a plate in case water leaks from the bottom of the pot.
• Computer: We continued illustrating and writing our adaptations of the story, The Very Hungry Caterpillar. Two students are finished now and their books have been bound together!
• Music: We had music practice everyday this week. We had to practice getting on and off the risers, remembering our words and dance moves, as well as learning to stand for an entire performance! On Wednesday, we had a dress rehearsal for the Kindergarten and second grade classes. Today, we performed for the rest of the school and for all our parents! It was exciting to see all the children in their costumes!
• Art: This week was our last art class with Mrs. Abada! We made a chalk pastel drawing after the artist Monet. We focused on his waterlily and garden paintings. They turned out very beautiful!
• Circuits: On Tuesday, we had circuits with Mrs. Bachelor. She talked about windy skies and weather. We decorated our own kites.
If you are interested, I put together our favorite Kindness journal
entries and drawings into a published book which you can purchase online on the website, www.bookemon.com. Just look for the title, “Kindness Is…” and you can see the example. I purchased one for myself to keep and will display it during Open House!
Upcoming Dates
* Friday, May 15th: Cupertino Library Field Trip
Please send your child’s blue library card to school! Remember to practice his/her 4-digit PIN number and please return books on your own!
* Monday, May 18th: San Francisco Zoo Field Trip
Thank you to our four parent chaperones: Emi’s mother, Seyon’s father, Jhanvi’s mother, and Mai’s mother. Please have your child dress in layers to stay warm and send a BAG lunch with your child’s name on it. Everything will be thrown away at the zoo!
* Thursday, May 21st: Intent to Return form due
Don’t forget to return this form! It asks you to share whether or not your child will be returning to Cupertino during the next school year. Please fill it out as soon as you can!
* Friday, May 22nd and Monday, May 25th: NO SCHOOL
Friday, May 22nd will be a staff learning day for all of the teachers. Monday, May 25th is Memorial Day so there is no school. Enjoy your long 4-day weekend!
* Thursday, May 28th: Open House 6:30pm-7:30pm
Save the date! This will be your opportunity to come to Room 8 and see all the beautiful work your child has completed this year in first grade. Siblings are welcome too and your child will be your “tour guide” for the evening!
-----
Dear Families,
I hope you were able to come watch our First Grade Musical, “Leave the World Just a Little Bit Better,” today! We worked very hard learning the words of the songs and practicing the dancing! We hope you enjoyed it!
Here are some highlights from the week:
Star of the Week: Alina
Poem of the Week: Caterpillar Small
Song of the Week: The Presidents
Kindness is … picking up someone else’s trash.
Word Wall: after, before, buy, done, off, pretty, school, wash
Next Week’s Sharing: Regular – Something you made yourself
(at least 4 sentences memorized and picture/object to show)
• Language Arts: Theme 9 Special Friends – Week 2
o Strategy and Skill Focus: Evaluate / Story Structure
o New Sound: base words with –es, –ies endings, prefixes un-, re-
o Grammar: Using was or were
• Math: We finished our eleventh chapter on Time and Calendar. Students now know how to read a clock by hour and half hour. They should also be able to answer questions about the day of the week, month, year, or date on a calendar. Keep practicing finding start times, end times, or the duration between two activities. That was the trickiest part for students!
• Writing: We wrote I Am poems this week. We used different question prompts to help us write a poem about ourselves and our favorite things. We tried to use descriptive words to write the sentences. These will be displayed at Open House.
• Science: This week we continued measuring the cloud cover, wind, and temperature on our weather calendars. On Thursday, we even saw the wind anemometer turning fast because there was strong wind. We also continued talking about the life cycle of frogs and toads. We are reading fiction stories from the Frog and Toad collections by Arnold Lobel. We are also reading non-fiction stories to learn facts and differences about frogs and toads.
• Social Studies: We talked about Mother’s Day this week and made a special present for our mothers! We hope you love our gifts. The clay pots were made from art class with Mrs. Abada and we painted them using acrylic paint. I chose bamboo plants because they’re easy to take care of since all you have to do is water them whenever you want to. You might want to place them on a plate in case water leaks from the bottom of the pot.
• Computer: We continued illustrating and writing our adaptations of the story, The Very Hungry Caterpillar. Two students are finished now and their books have been bound together!
• Music: We had music practice everyday this week. We had to practice getting on and off the risers, remembering our words and dance moves, as well as learning to stand for an entire performance! On Wednesday, we had a dress rehearsal for the Kindergarten and second grade classes. Today, we performed for the rest of the school and for all our parents! It was exciting to see all the children in their costumes!
• Art: This week was our last art class with Mrs. Abada! We made a chalk pastel drawing after the artist Monet. We focused on his waterlily and garden paintings. They turned out very beautiful!
• Circuits: On Tuesday, we had circuits with Mrs. Bachelor. She talked about windy skies and weather. We decorated our own kites.
If you are interested, I put together our favorite Kindness journal
entries and drawings into a published book which you can purchase online on the website, www.bookemon.com. Just look for the title, “Kindness Is…” and you can see the example. I purchased one for myself to keep and will display it during Open House!
Monday, May 04, 2009
May 1, 2009
Upcoming Dates
* Monday, May 4th: Musical Costumes DUE!!!
On Monday, I sent home a costume list highlighted with your child’s name. Please make sure to bring the exact clothes listed in a bag labeled with his/her name by MONDAY. Remember that shirts and pants need to be ONE color and have NO designs on them. Your child will wear their clothes home on Friday after the performance.
* Friday, May 8th: First Grade Musical - 2:00pm in the MP Room
Please come and watch our performance! Your child has worked hard to learn songs and dances for our show titled, “Leave the World a Little Bit Better.” It will be a cute show that you don’t want to miss!!!
* Friday, May 15th: Cupertino Library Field Trip
Please send your child’s blue library card to school!
* Monday, May 18th: San Francisco Zoo Field Trip
Our parent chaperones for this trip will be Seyon’s father, Jhanvi’s mother, and Mai’s mother. Thank you for volunteering! Please have your child dress in layers to stay warm and send a BAG lunch with your child’s name on it. Everything will be thrown away at the zoo!
* Thursday, May 21st: Intent to Return form due
Don’t forget to return this form! It asks you to share whether or not your child will be returning to Cupertino during the next school year. Please fill it out as soon as you can!
* Friday, May 22nd and Monday, May 25th: NO SCHOOL
Friday, May 22nd will be a staff learning day for all of the teachers. Monday, May 25th is Memorial Day so there is no school. Enjoy your long 4-day weekend!
* Thursday, May 28th: Open House 6:30pm-7:30pm
Save the date! This will be your opportunity to come to Room 8 and see all the beautiful work your child has completed this year in first grade. Siblings are welcome too and your child will be your “tour guide” for the evening!
-----
Dear Families,
Thank you to Mr. Feve (Emilie’s father) for coming with us on Monday to the Flint Center on our field trip. We watched singers and dancers act out seven short stories including, If You Give a Pig a Pancake. Despite a minor bus issue, we made it there safely and enjoyed the show!
Here are some highlights from the week:
Star of the Week: Winny
Poem of the Week: May Song
Song of the Week: The 50 States that Rhyme
Kindness is … picking up someone else’s trash.
Word Wall: around, else, ever, dance, ocean, open, talk, though
Next Week’s Sharing: Silly Poem
(at least 4 sentences memorized and picture/object to show)
• Language Arts: Theme 9 Special Friends – Week 1
• Strategy and Skill Focus: Monitor/Clarify
• Word Families: words that rhyme with my
• Sounds: y
• Grammar: is/are
• Math: We continued practicing to tell time by hour and half hour. We also started the second half of the chapter on reading and interpreting a calendar. We have been trying to answer questions about a calendar by answering with a month (Jan, Feb…), a day of the week (Sun, Mon, …), or a date (May 1).
• Science: We are recording the weather every day and measuring the temperature. This week, we talked a lot about wind. We learned how to make a wind anemometer and how it measures wind. We also practiced identifying the wind as no wind (calm), some wind (gentle or moderate breeze), and strong wind (strong breeze).
• Social Studies: This week our class had two special duties. First, we had campus clean up duty. We picked up trash throughout the school and tried to clean up the campus. Also, our parents had traffic duty. Thank you for those of you who volunteered 20 minutes or more to help keep our school safe in the bus circle!
• Computer: We continued illustrating and writing our adaptations of the story, The Very Hungry Caterpillar. Some students are almost done!
• Music: We had our last music class with Miss Rachel this week. She allowed us to have a recital to show any talents that we have. We also did a May Pole dance together. We have also been practicing hard on our musical songs and dances. One more week to go before the performance!
• Art: We painted our pinch pots this week. We chose our colors and used paint brushes to decorate our pots.
• Assembly: On Wednesday, the West Bay Opera came to Eaton and performed an opera called, “Barber of Seville.” It was a great opportunity for students to be exposed to different styles of singing!
I am sorry to hear that ELD will no longer be offered at Eaton after this year. I know that those of you who are supposed to continue in ELD for second grade received letters about this change. Unfortunately, we were told that Eaton is growing too big, and we do not have anymore classrooms to accommodate the ELD classes. Therefore, ELD is moving to Muir Elementary School next year. That also means that I lost my position at Eaton. I am sad to announce that I have taken a first grade position at Stocklmeir Elementary School next year. I will miss the Eaton community very much, as it has become my second home. Thank you for your support, and please continue to keep in touch with me even after this year!
* Monday, May 4th: Musical Costumes DUE!!!
On Monday, I sent home a costume list highlighted with your child’s name. Please make sure to bring the exact clothes listed in a bag labeled with his/her name by MONDAY. Remember that shirts and pants need to be ONE color and have NO designs on them. Your child will wear their clothes home on Friday after the performance.
* Friday, May 8th: First Grade Musical - 2:00pm in the MP Room
Please come and watch our performance! Your child has worked hard to learn songs and dances for our show titled, “Leave the World a Little Bit Better.” It will be a cute show that you don’t want to miss!!!
* Friday, May 15th: Cupertino Library Field Trip
Please send your child’s blue library card to school!
* Monday, May 18th: San Francisco Zoo Field Trip
Our parent chaperones for this trip will be Seyon’s father, Jhanvi’s mother, and Mai’s mother. Thank you for volunteering! Please have your child dress in layers to stay warm and send a BAG lunch with your child’s name on it. Everything will be thrown away at the zoo!
* Thursday, May 21st: Intent to Return form due
Don’t forget to return this form! It asks you to share whether or not your child will be returning to Cupertino during the next school year. Please fill it out as soon as you can!
* Friday, May 22nd and Monday, May 25th: NO SCHOOL
Friday, May 22nd will be a staff learning day for all of the teachers. Monday, May 25th is Memorial Day so there is no school. Enjoy your long 4-day weekend!
* Thursday, May 28th: Open House 6:30pm-7:30pm
Save the date! This will be your opportunity to come to Room 8 and see all the beautiful work your child has completed this year in first grade. Siblings are welcome too and your child will be your “tour guide” for the evening!
-----
Dear Families,
Thank you to Mr. Feve (Emilie’s father) for coming with us on Monday to the Flint Center on our field trip. We watched singers and dancers act out seven short stories including, If You Give a Pig a Pancake. Despite a minor bus issue, we made it there safely and enjoyed the show!
Here are some highlights from the week:
Star of the Week: Winny
Poem of the Week: May Song
Song of the Week: The 50 States that Rhyme
Kindness is … picking up someone else’s trash.
Word Wall: around, else, ever, dance, ocean, open, talk, though
Next Week’s Sharing: Silly Poem
(at least 4 sentences memorized and picture/object to show)
• Language Arts: Theme 9 Special Friends – Week 1
• Strategy and Skill Focus: Monitor/Clarify
• Word Families: words that rhyme with my
• Sounds: y
• Grammar: is/are
• Math: We continued practicing to tell time by hour and half hour. We also started the second half of the chapter on reading and interpreting a calendar. We have been trying to answer questions about a calendar by answering with a month (Jan, Feb…), a day of the week (Sun, Mon, …), or a date (May 1).
• Science: We are recording the weather every day and measuring the temperature. This week, we talked a lot about wind. We learned how to make a wind anemometer and how it measures wind. We also practiced identifying the wind as no wind (calm), some wind (gentle or moderate breeze), and strong wind (strong breeze).
• Social Studies: This week our class had two special duties. First, we had campus clean up duty. We picked up trash throughout the school and tried to clean up the campus. Also, our parents had traffic duty. Thank you for those of you who volunteered 20 minutes or more to help keep our school safe in the bus circle!
• Computer: We continued illustrating and writing our adaptations of the story, The Very Hungry Caterpillar. Some students are almost done!
• Music: We had our last music class with Miss Rachel this week. She allowed us to have a recital to show any talents that we have. We also did a May Pole dance together. We have also been practicing hard on our musical songs and dances. One more week to go before the performance!
• Art: We painted our pinch pots this week. We chose our colors and used paint brushes to decorate our pots.
• Assembly: On Wednesday, the West Bay Opera came to Eaton and performed an opera called, “Barber of Seville.” It was a great opportunity for students to be exposed to different styles of singing!
I am sorry to hear that ELD will no longer be offered at Eaton after this year. I know that those of you who are supposed to continue in ELD for second grade received letters about this change. Unfortunately, we were told that Eaton is growing too big, and we do not have anymore classrooms to accommodate the ELD classes. Therefore, ELD is moving to Muir Elementary School next year. That also means that I lost my position at Eaton. I am sad to announce that I have taken a first grade position at Stocklmeir Elementary School next year. I will miss the Eaton community very much, as it has become my second home. Thank you for your support, and please continue to keep in touch with me even after this year!
Friday, April 24, 2009
April 24, 2009
Upcoming Dates
* Monday, April 27th: If You Give a Pig a Pancake Field Trip
We will be going to the Flint Center on Monday. Mr. Feve (Emilie’s father) will be coming with our class. We will return by lunchtime to Eaton.
* Friday, May 1st: Scholastic Book Orders Due
Please write ONE check payable to Scholastic Book Clubs if you are interested in purchasing books from the May catalogs.
* Friday, May 8th: First Grade Musical - 2:00pm in the MP Room
On Monday, I will be sending home a costume list for your child. Please bring the clothes in a bag labeled with his/her name by the following Monday, May 4th. We will be keeping the clothes at school to ensure that everyone has their outfit on the musical day. They will take their clothes home on Friday.
* Monday, May 18th: San Francisco Zoo Field Trip
Attached to today’s newsletter is a permission slip for the SF zoo. Please sign and return the form by next Friday. We are able to take 3 parent chaperones, who will be in charge of a group of students to explore the zoo together during the day.
* Thursday, May 21st: Intent to Return form due
Don’t forget to return this form! It asks you to share whether or not your child will be returning to Cupertino during the next school year. Please fill it out as soon as you can!
-----
Dear Families,
Welcome back from vacation! I hope you had a great time last week. I spent most of the week taking care of errands, cleaning the house, and spending time with family and friends.
Here are some highlights from the week:
Star of the Week: Maya
Poem of the Week: Little Seeds We Sow in Spring
Song of the Week: The 50 States that Rhyme
Kindness is … taking care of our environment.
Word Wall: carry, kind, put, saw, butter, were, work, person
Next Week’s Sharing: Regular – something from another country
(at least 4 sentences memorized and picture/object to show)
• Language Arts: Theme 8 Our Earth – Week 3
• Strategy and Skill Focus: Predict/Infer, Conclusions
• Word Families: words that end with –ed and -ing
• Sounds: -ed and –ing words
• Grammar: Action words with -ed
• Math: We are continuing our chapter on time and calendars. We have been practicing reading and writing the time by hour and half hour. We read a story called Time To… and also completed a personal book describing different activities we do during the day. This helped us to practice drawing the time on clocks. We also learned about elapsed time and completed word problems together. Students practiced problems with the following equation: start time + how long (hours) = end time.
• Writing: We worked on Writer’s Workshop this week and some students are making really good progress. They are really practicing the skill of working independently and proofreading their own work.
• Science: We have moved on for learning about Air to learning about Weather. This week, we began pretending to be meteorologists and learned how to describe the weather each day. We learned vocabulary to describe the cloud cover (sunny, partly cloudy, overcast, or foggy), the precipitation (rainy, snowy, hail, or no precipitation), the wind (no wind, some wind, or strong wind), and the temperature (Fahrenheit). We made our own thermometers and practiced how to graph the temperature each day! It reached the 90’s this week!
• Social Studies: On Wednesday, it was Earth Day. To celebrate, we had an assembly called “Ocean Commotion” where we sang songs about animals and things in the ocean. We also talked about how we help the earth and our environment. Thanks for those of you who participated in the District Walk-to-School day and walked to school on Earth Day to help our environment!
• Computer: We continued illustrating and writing our adaptations of the story, The Very Hungry Caterpillar. A few more weeks to go!
• Music: We are working really hard on our musical, which is in 2 weeks! Not only have we been practicing the songs, but now we are learning dances too! Please plan on attending May 8th!
• Free the Children Fundraiser: Thank you to those students who have already donated money to this fundraiser. One option that was given by the Student Council was that students are encouraged to do chores around the house to raise money to donate (for example, maybe they can earn 50 cents for helping in the garden). Also, they will be collecting used books in the next 2 weeks to donate as well.
Room 8 has traffic duty next week! All the classes at Eaton have an assigned week to help out our school bus circle, and next week is our turn! I placed a sign up sheet outside of our classroom. If you have not signed up yet, please look at the list and try to sign up one day (Monday – Friday). We need at least one parent volunteer for the Suisun parking lot 20 minutes before school (8:45-9:05am) and also 20 minutes after school (3:00-3:20pm) each day, so please help if you can! Thank you!
* Monday, April 27th: If You Give a Pig a Pancake Field Trip
We will be going to the Flint Center on Monday. Mr. Feve (Emilie’s father) will be coming with our class. We will return by lunchtime to Eaton.
* Friday, May 1st: Scholastic Book Orders Due
Please write ONE check payable to Scholastic Book Clubs if you are interested in purchasing books from the May catalogs.
* Friday, May 8th: First Grade Musical - 2:00pm in the MP Room
On Monday, I will be sending home a costume list for your child. Please bring the clothes in a bag labeled with his/her name by the following Monday, May 4th. We will be keeping the clothes at school to ensure that everyone has their outfit on the musical day. They will take their clothes home on Friday.
* Monday, May 18th: San Francisco Zoo Field Trip
Attached to today’s newsletter is a permission slip for the SF zoo. Please sign and return the form by next Friday. We are able to take 3 parent chaperones, who will be in charge of a group of students to explore the zoo together during the day.
* Thursday, May 21st: Intent to Return form due
Don’t forget to return this form! It asks you to share whether or not your child will be returning to Cupertino during the next school year. Please fill it out as soon as you can!
-----
Dear Families,
Welcome back from vacation! I hope you had a great time last week. I spent most of the week taking care of errands, cleaning the house, and spending time with family and friends.
Here are some highlights from the week:
Star of the Week: Maya
Poem of the Week: Little Seeds We Sow in Spring
Song of the Week: The 50 States that Rhyme
Kindness is … taking care of our environment.
Word Wall: carry, kind, put, saw, butter, were, work, person
Next Week’s Sharing: Regular – something from another country
(at least 4 sentences memorized and picture/object to show)
• Language Arts: Theme 8 Our Earth – Week 3
• Strategy and Skill Focus: Predict/Infer, Conclusions
• Word Families: words that end with –ed and -ing
• Sounds: -ed and –ing words
• Grammar: Action words with -ed
• Math: We are continuing our chapter on time and calendars. We have been practicing reading and writing the time by hour and half hour. We read a story called Time To… and also completed a personal book describing different activities we do during the day. This helped us to practice drawing the time on clocks. We also learned about elapsed time and completed word problems together. Students practiced problems with the following equation: start time + how long (hours) = end time.
• Writing: We worked on Writer’s Workshop this week and some students are making really good progress. They are really practicing the skill of working independently and proofreading their own work.
• Science: We have moved on for learning about Air to learning about Weather. This week, we began pretending to be meteorologists and learned how to describe the weather each day. We learned vocabulary to describe the cloud cover (sunny, partly cloudy, overcast, or foggy), the precipitation (rainy, snowy, hail, or no precipitation), the wind (no wind, some wind, or strong wind), and the temperature (Fahrenheit). We made our own thermometers and practiced how to graph the temperature each day! It reached the 90’s this week!
• Social Studies: On Wednesday, it was Earth Day. To celebrate, we had an assembly called “Ocean Commotion” where we sang songs about animals and things in the ocean. We also talked about how we help the earth and our environment. Thanks for those of you who participated in the District Walk-to-School day and walked to school on Earth Day to help our environment!
• Computer: We continued illustrating and writing our adaptations of the story, The Very Hungry Caterpillar. A few more weeks to go!
• Music: We are working really hard on our musical, which is in 2 weeks! Not only have we been practicing the songs, but now we are learning dances too! Please plan on attending May 8th!
• Free the Children Fundraiser: Thank you to those students who have already donated money to this fundraiser. One option that was given by the Student Council was that students are encouraged to do chores around the house to raise money to donate (for example, maybe they can earn 50 cents for helping in the garden). Also, they will be collecting used books in the next 2 weeks to donate as well.
Room 8 has traffic duty next week! All the classes at Eaton have an assigned week to help out our school bus circle, and next week is our turn! I placed a sign up sheet outside of our classroom. If you have not signed up yet, please look at the list and try to sign up one day (Monday – Friday). We need at least one parent volunteer for the Suisun parking lot 20 minutes before school (8:45-9:05am) and also 20 minutes after school (3:00-3:20pm) each day, so please help if you can! Thank you!
Friday, April 10, 2009
April 10, 2009
Upcoming Dates
* Monday, April 13th to Friday, April 17th: Spring Break
No school! Enjoy your vacation!
* Friday, April 24th: Spring Portraits & Cupertino Library
Order envelopes will be sent home the day before. These are individual pictures. In the afternoon we will be walking to the Cupertino Library. Please remember to send your child’s BLUE library card and practice his/her 4-digit PIN number! They will check out 2 books each and please return them to the library at your own convenience.
* Monday, April 27th: If You Give a Pig a Pancake Field Trip
Thank you for returning the permission slip for this field trip. We had several volunteers to chaperone, but unfortunately we can only take one parent on this trip. Mr. Feve (Emilie’s father) will be coming with our class. We will return by lunchtime to Eaton.
* Friday, May 8th: First Grade Musical (afternoon: Time TBD)
On Wednesday, I sent home a blue paper with all of the words to the songs that we will be performing. Please have your child practice memorizing the words.
* Thursday, May 21st: Intent to Return form due
In today’s Friday Folder, there is another paper that must be returned to Eaton School. It asks you to share whether or not your child will be returning to Cupertino during the next school year. Please fill it out and send it back to our class.
-----
Dear Families,
Here are some highlights from the week:
Star of the Week: Ryan
Poem of the Week: Baby Chick
Song of the Week: Water Cycle
Kindness is … offering free hugs.
Word Wall: always, arms, body, seven, eight, ready, warm
Next (2) Week’s Sharing: Riddle – something from Earth or nature
(at least 4 sentences memorized and picture/object to show)
• Language Arts: Theme 8 Our Earth – Week 2
• Strategy and Skill Focus: Evaluate, Topic/Main Idea
• Word Families: words that rhyme with out and down
• Sounds: vowel pairs ou, ow, and syllables
• Grammar: Present Tense
• Math: We finished up our chapter on addition and subtraction facts to 20 and started Chapter 11 in our math books on Time and Calendar. This week we talked about words such as before and after, and practiced sequencing events in order. We also learned how to write and tell time by the hour and half hour, and used the vocabulary words, minute hand and hour hand.
• Writing: Our second step in Writer’s Workshop is taking our outlines and drafting them. We practiced indenting our paragraphs and on Wednesday, we also reviewed the proper way to revise our writing, or make it better. First, we used a sample writing piece and tried to find different mistakes in capitalization, punctuation, or spelling. Then, we tried to fix our own writing and make it better.
• Circuit: This was our last weather circuit. We went to Mrs. Barelli’s classroom and she taught us about wind and air. We made a little pinwheel on pencils and brought them home on Tuesday.
• Science: In our Air and Weather unit, this week we explored air pressure and compression using syringes. We learned the parts of a syringe: the barrel and the plunger, and used plastic tubes and bottles to test how air moves. We found out that even though we can’t see air, air still takes up space. We even learned how to make a water fountain using air pressure and water. Yesterday, we used balloons and experimented with making our own rockets!
• Social Studies: One of our songs in music is about giving four hugs a day to people we love. We talked about how a hug cheers others up and that it makes people happy. We practiced asking for permission and giving others hugs around school. Also, our Eaton Student Council has begun our Sierra Leone fundraiser. This week’s challenge was to bring in 50 cents if you sleep in a bed every night. Children in Sierra Leone do not have beds to sleep in, so we talked about how we are very fortunate to have the homes that we have, and that we can help them by donating a little bit of money. This fundraiser will last until the end of the school year, so you can donate anytime.
• Computer: We continued illustrating and writing our adaptations of the story, The Very Hungry Caterpillar. Students are slowly beginning to understand how to save their work and transfer pictures from Kidpix into their Powerpoint slides. This is difficult for many students because it requires them to go through several steps, however they are learning to independently navigate through the computer.
I hope you have a wonderful week off from school. I do not have any plans so I will be cleaning the house and relaxing with my family! See you in a week!
* Monday, April 13th to Friday, April 17th: Spring Break
No school! Enjoy your vacation!
* Friday, April 24th: Spring Portraits & Cupertino Library
Order envelopes will be sent home the day before. These are individual pictures. In the afternoon we will be walking to the Cupertino Library. Please remember to send your child’s BLUE library card and practice his/her 4-digit PIN number! They will check out 2 books each and please return them to the library at your own convenience.
* Monday, April 27th: If You Give a Pig a Pancake Field Trip
Thank you for returning the permission slip for this field trip. We had several volunteers to chaperone, but unfortunately we can only take one parent on this trip. Mr. Feve (Emilie’s father) will be coming with our class. We will return by lunchtime to Eaton.
* Friday, May 8th: First Grade Musical (afternoon: Time TBD)
On Wednesday, I sent home a blue paper with all of the words to the songs that we will be performing. Please have your child practice memorizing the words.
* Thursday, May 21st: Intent to Return form due
In today’s Friday Folder, there is another paper that must be returned to Eaton School. It asks you to share whether or not your child will be returning to Cupertino during the next school year. Please fill it out and send it back to our class.
-----
Dear Families,
Here are some highlights from the week:
Star of the Week: Ryan
Poem of the Week: Baby Chick
Song of the Week: Water Cycle
Kindness is … offering free hugs.
Word Wall: always, arms, body, seven, eight, ready, warm
Next (2) Week’s Sharing: Riddle – something from Earth or nature
(at least 4 sentences memorized and picture/object to show)
• Language Arts: Theme 8 Our Earth – Week 2
• Strategy and Skill Focus: Evaluate, Topic/Main Idea
• Word Families: words that rhyme with out and down
• Sounds: vowel pairs ou, ow, and syllables
• Grammar: Present Tense
• Math: We finished up our chapter on addition and subtraction facts to 20 and started Chapter 11 in our math books on Time and Calendar. This week we talked about words such as before and after, and practiced sequencing events in order. We also learned how to write and tell time by the hour and half hour, and used the vocabulary words, minute hand and hour hand.
• Writing: Our second step in Writer’s Workshop is taking our outlines and drafting them. We practiced indenting our paragraphs and on Wednesday, we also reviewed the proper way to revise our writing, or make it better. First, we used a sample writing piece and tried to find different mistakes in capitalization, punctuation, or spelling. Then, we tried to fix our own writing and make it better.
• Circuit: This was our last weather circuit. We went to Mrs. Barelli’s classroom and she taught us about wind and air. We made a little pinwheel on pencils and brought them home on Tuesday.
• Science: In our Air and Weather unit, this week we explored air pressure and compression using syringes. We learned the parts of a syringe: the barrel and the plunger, and used plastic tubes and bottles to test how air moves. We found out that even though we can’t see air, air still takes up space. We even learned how to make a water fountain using air pressure and water. Yesterday, we used balloons and experimented with making our own rockets!
• Social Studies: One of our songs in music is about giving four hugs a day to people we love. We talked about how a hug cheers others up and that it makes people happy. We practiced asking for permission and giving others hugs around school. Also, our Eaton Student Council has begun our Sierra Leone fundraiser. This week’s challenge was to bring in 50 cents if you sleep in a bed every night. Children in Sierra Leone do not have beds to sleep in, so we talked about how we are very fortunate to have the homes that we have, and that we can help them by donating a little bit of money. This fundraiser will last until the end of the school year, so you can donate anytime.
• Computer: We continued illustrating and writing our adaptations of the story, The Very Hungry Caterpillar. Students are slowly beginning to understand how to save their work and transfer pictures from Kidpix into their Powerpoint slides. This is difficult for many students because it requires them to go through several steps, however they are learning to independently navigate through the computer.
I hope you have a wonderful week off from school. I do not have any plans so I will be cleaning the house and relaxing with my family! See you in a week!
Friday, April 03, 2009
April 3, 2009
Upcoming Dates
* Friday, April 10th: April Scholastic Book Orders Due!
Attached to today’s newsletter are the April Book Orders. Please write ONE check payable to Scholastic Book Clubs by this Friday.
* Monday, April 13th to Friday, April 17th: Spring Break
No school! Enjoy your vacation!
* Monday, April 27th: If You Give a Pig a Pancake Field Trip
Thank you for returning the permission slip for this field trip. We had several volunteers to chaperone, but unfortunately we can only take one parent on this trip. Mr. Feve (Emilie’s father) will be coming with our class. We will return by lunchtime to Eaton.
* Friday, May 8th: First Grade Musical
More details will come, but mark your calendars for the first grade musical on Spring and Colors. The musical will be in the afternoon in the MP room. We will also be sending home words to the songs soon so that your child can practice at home!
-----
Dear Families,
Thank you for turning in our last Book-It reading logs for March. The pizza hut certificates expire on May 1st, so make sure to use them by that date. Even though we will not have the Book-It program anymore, please continue to read at least 15 minutes every day with your child!
Here are some highlights from the week:
Star of the Week: Mai
Poem of the Week: The Winner
Song of the Week: Water Cycle
Kindness is … learning to reduce, reuse, and recycle
Word Wall: about, because, draw, happy, teacher, part, tiny
Next Week’s Sharing: Riddle – something shaped like an egg (oval)
(at least 4 sentences memorized and picture/object to show)
• Language Arts: Theme 8 Our Earth – Week 1
• Strategy and Skill Focus: Summarize, Categorize/Classify
• Word Families: adding –s, -ed, and -ing
• Sounds: base words and endings –s, -ed, -ing
• Grammar: Action Words
• Math: We are finishing up our chapter on addition and subtraction facts to 100. We practiced solving more word problems, and reviewed our “magic words” such as in all, altogether, how many more, left, etc. to help us determine if it is an addition or subtraction sentence. I am encouraging students to take their time to compute math problems accurately instead of rushing to finish fast.
• Writing: Most of us finished our outline on our autobiography writing this week. We learned how to write interesting facts about ourselves using a topic sentence, supporting facts, details, transition words, and a conclusion. Students are going to choose new topics to write about independently in Writer’s Workshop, and we still have a few children finishing up their Mitten stories.
• Circuit: For our weather circuit this week, we went to Mrs. Nieveen’s class and she taught us about different clouds. We used cotton balls and different types of strings to show cumulus, stratus, nimbostratus, and cirrus clouds.
• Science: In our Air and Weather unit, this week we explored how we see air in water. We experimented with vials and water to discover how bubbles are made, and we also tried to trap air in the vial and not let any water inside. In the next activity, we made parachutes and learned about air resistance. Also, we are starting to learn about the life cycle of frogs and toads. We began reading stories about frogs and learned facts about how frogs grow from eggs to tadpoles to froglets and frogs.
• Social Studies: Our kindness sentence this week went along with our sharing for the week. We learned about reducing, reusing, and recycling to help our Earth. It was great to hear everyone’s sharing because we saw many examples of objects we can recycle, and ways to reuse different cans or bottles.
• Computer: We are staring a long-term project in computer lab using the software program, Powerpoint. We will be illustrating and writing our adaptations of the story, The Very Hungry Caterpillar. At the end of the year, we will print out our stories and bind them into books to take home.
• Assembly: We had a special assembly this week to learn about an organization called Free the Children. We learned about children around the world and found out how we can help specifically the poorest place in the world, Sierra Leone. It was important to see pictures of how Eaton looks so different from schools around the world. The Eaton Student Council will be sharing with us how we will raise money and materials for Sierra Leone children.
Enjoy the weekend and I will see you on Monday!
* Friday, April 10th: April Scholastic Book Orders Due!
Attached to today’s newsletter are the April Book Orders. Please write ONE check payable to Scholastic Book Clubs by this Friday.
* Monday, April 13th to Friday, April 17th: Spring Break
No school! Enjoy your vacation!
* Monday, April 27th: If You Give a Pig a Pancake Field Trip
Thank you for returning the permission slip for this field trip. We had several volunteers to chaperone, but unfortunately we can only take one parent on this trip. Mr. Feve (Emilie’s father) will be coming with our class. We will return by lunchtime to Eaton.
* Friday, May 8th: First Grade Musical
More details will come, but mark your calendars for the first grade musical on Spring and Colors. The musical will be in the afternoon in the MP room. We will also be sending home words to the songs soon so that your child can practice at home!
-----
Dear Families,
Thank you for turning in our last Book-It reading logs for March. The pizza hut certificates expire on May 1st, so make sure to use them by that date. Even though we will not have the Book-It program anymore, please continue to read at least 15 minutes every day with your child!
Here are some highlights from the week:
Star of the Week: Mai
Poem of the Week: The Winner
Song of the Week: Water Cycle
Kindness is … learning to reduce, reuse, and recycle
Word Wall: about, because, draw, happy, teacher, part, tiny
Next Week’s Sharing: Riddle – something shaped like an egg (oval)
(at least 4 sentences memorized and picture/object to show)
• Language Arts: Theme 8 Our Earth – Week 1
• Strategy and Skill Focus: Summarize, Categorize/Classify
• Word Families: adding –s, -ed, and -ing
• Sounds: base words and endings –s, -ed, -ing
• Grammar: Action Words
• Math: We are finishing up our chapter on addition and subtraction facts to 100. We practiced solving more word problems, and reviewed our “magic words” such as in all, altogether, how many more, left, etc. to help us determine if it is an addition or subtraction sentence. I am encouraging students to take their time to compute math problems accurately instead of rushing to finish fast.
• Writing: Most of us finished our outline on our autobiography writing this week. We learned how to write interesting facts about ourselves using a topic sentence, supporting facts, details, transition words, and a conclusion. Students are going to choose new topics to write about independently in Writer’s Workshop, and we still have a few children finishing up their Mitten stories.
• Circuit: For our weather circuit this week, we went to Mrs. Nieveen’s class and she taught us about different clouds. We used cotton balls and different types of strings to show cumulus, stratus, nimbostratus, and cirrus clouds.
• Science: In our Air and Weather unit, this week we explored how we see air in water. We experimented with vials and water to discover how bubbles are made, and we also tried to trap air in the vial and not let any water inside. In the next activity, we made parachutes and learned about air resistance. Also, we are starting to learn about the life cycle of frogs and toads. We began reading stories about frogs and learned facts about how frogs grow from eggs to tadpoles to froglets and frogs.
• Social Studies: Our kindness sentence this week went along with our sharing for the week. We learned about reducing, reusing, and recycling to help our Earth. It was great to hear everyone’s sharing because we saw many examples of objects we can recycle, and ways to reuse different cans or bottles.
• Computer: We are staring a long-term project in computer lab using the software program, Powerpoint. We will be illustrating and writing our adaptations of the story, The Very Hungry Caterpillar. At the end of the year, we will print out our stories and bind them into books to take home.
• Assembly: We had a special assembly this week to learn about an organization called Free the Children. We learned about children around the world and found out how we can help specifically the poorest place in the world, Sierra Leone. It was important to see pictures of how Eaton looks so different from schools around the world. The Eaton Student Council will be sharing with us how we will raise money and materials for Sierra Leone children.
Enjoy the weekend and I will see you on Monday!
Friday, March 27, 2009
March 27, 2009
Upcoming Dates
* Wednesday, April 1st: March Book-It Reading Logs Due (last one)
Please remember to read everyday for 15 minutes with your child. After March, we will not have the Book-It reading logs anymore, but please continue to read on your own!
* Monday, April 13th to Friday, April 17th: Spring Break
No school! Enjoy your vacation!
* Monday, April 27th: If You Give a Pig a Pancake Field Trip
Attached to this newsletter is the permission slip for our field trip to watch this play at the De Anza Flint Center. We will be going in the morning and will return to Eaton by lunchtime. We are able to bring one parent chaperone. Please return this form by next Friday, April 3rd.
Dear Families,
I can’t believe it’s already the end of March. Time is really going fast! I hope you are enjoying the warm weather and sunshine!
Here are some highlights from the week:
Star of the Week: Melissa
Poem of the Week: Spring in the Woods
Song of the Week: Spider or Insect
Kindness is … reading a book to someone special.
Word Wall: build, old, piece, shoe, start, under, very, wear
Next Week’s Sharing: Regular – something recycled
(at least 4 sentences memorized and picture/object to show)
• Language Arts: Theme 7 We Can Work It Out – Week 3
• Strategy and Skill Focus: Question, Fantasy / Realism
• Word Families: words with igh
• Sounds: vowel pairs oo, ew, ue, ou, long I (ie, igh)
• Grammar: Pronouns
• Math: This week we finished our chapter on Measurement. Students should know how to measure length or height in centimeters and inches, and they should know how to compare different capacities and weights. We also spent several days practicing how to solve longer word problems by breaking down each sentence. I am teaching students to read one sentence at a time and write down any numbers or information that may help them. We are still working on addition and subtraction facts to 20.
• Writing: Congratulations to several more authors who finished their Mitten stories this week. We also had several authors finish their first expository Writer’s Workshop piece. Great job! This week, we practiced writing paragraphs as a whole class using colored strips of paper. We have been learning how to outline our writing and to organize our thoughts.
• Circuit: For our weather circuit this week, we went to Mrs. Zankich’s class. She taught us about the water cycle, and we learned about Evaporation, Condensation, and Precipitation. We made a weather wheel and learned about water cycle facts.
• Science: We made a book this week called “The Twelve Days of Spring.” We learned about different plants that bloom in the springtime, and learned a song to match our stories. Also, we had an opportunity this week to walk through the Science Fair. We saw many interesting science experiments and projects by Eaton students. This week, we officially received our new science kits on air and weather. We are starting to talk about air and explore air with different solids such as straws, feathers, balloons, and other solids.
• Social Studies: This week, we talked about why people should help others. We reviewed the golden rule and learned about what happens if we have a helpful heart.
• Computer: We went on Starfall this week to read a St. Patrick’s Day story, as well as other fun stories of our choice.
• Buddies: This week, we saw our fourth grade buddies. Since we didn’t see them last week, we did a St. Patrick’s day book with our big buddies, called “Looking for Gold.” Students had to describe where the leprechaun is looking for gold, using spatial words such as over, under, across, through, and around.
• Art: Mrs. Abada came this week and she returned our clay pots that we made last week. This lesson we used paints and learned about colors and mixing colors.
Have a great weekend!
* Wednesday, April 1st: March Book-It Reading Logs Due (last one)
Please remember to read everyday for 15 minutes with your child. After March, we will not have the Book-It reading logs anymore, but please continue to read on your own!
* Monday, April 13th to Friday, April 17th: Spring Break
No school! Enjoy your vacation!
* Monday, April 27th: If You Give a Pig a Pancake Field Trip
Attached to this newsletter is the permission slip for our field trip to watch this play at the De Anza Flint Center. We will be going in the morning and will return to Eaton by lunchtime. We are able to bring one parent chaperone. Please return this form by next Friday, April 3rd.
Dear Families,
I can’t believe it’s already the end of March. Time is really going fast! I hope you are enjoying the warm weather and sunshine!
Here are some highlights from the week:
Star of the Week: Melissa
Poem of the Week: Spring in the Woods
Song of the Week: Spider or Insect
Kindness is … reading a book to someone special.
Word Wall: build, old, piece, shoe, start, under, very, wear
Next Week’s Sharing: Regular – something recycled
(at least 4 sentences memorized and picture/object to show)
• Language Arts: Theme 7 We Can Work It Out – Week 3
• Strategy and Skill Focus: Question, Fantasy / Realism
• Word Families: words with igh
• Sounds: vowel pairs oo, ew, ue, ou, long I (ie, igh)
• Grammar: Pronouns
• Math: This week we finished our chapter on Measurement. Students should know how to measure length or height in centimeters and inches, and they should know how to compare different capacities and weights. We also spent several days practicing how to solve longer word problems by breaking down each sentence. I am teaching students to read one sentence at a time and write down any numbers or information that may help them. We are still working on addition and subtraction facts to 20.
• Writing: Congratulations to several more authors who finished their Mitten stories this week. We also had several authors finish their first expository Writer’s Workshop piece. Great job! This week, we practiced writing paragraphs as a whole class using colored strips of paper. We have been learning how to outline our writing and to organize our thoughts.
• Circuit: For our weather circuit this week, we went to Mrs. Zankich’s class. She taught us about the water cycle, and we learned about Evaporation, Condensation, and Precipitation. We made a weather wheel and learned about water cycle facts.
• Science: We made a book this week called “The Twelve Days of Spring.” We learned about different plants that bloom in the springtime, and learned a song to match our stories. Also, we had an opportunity this week to walk through the Science Fair. We saw many interesting science experiments and projects by Eaton students. This week, we officially received our new science kits on air and weather. We are starting to talk about air and explore air with different solids such as straws, feathers, balloons, and other solids.
• Social Studies: This week, we talked about why people should help others. We reviewed the golden rule and learned about what happens if we have a helpful heart.
• Computer: We went on Starfall this week to read a St. Patrick’s Day story, as well as other fun stories of our choice.
• Buddies: This week, we saw our fourth grade buddies. Since we didn’t see them last week, we did a St. Patrick’s day book with our big buddies, called “Looking for Gold.” Students had to describe where the leprechaun is looking for gold, using spatial words such as over, under, across, through, and around.
• Art: Mrs. Abada came this week and she returned our clay pots that we made last week. This lesson we used paints and learned about colors and mixing colors.
Have a great weekend!
Friday, March 20, 2009
March 20, 2009
Upcoming Dates
* Friday, March 27th: Summer School Forms Due
This is a free program offered by our school district, and it is optional. If you are interested in having your child attend summer school, please complete and return the form.
* Wednesday, April 1st: March Book-It Reading Logs Due (last one)
Please remember to read everyday for 15 minutes with your child. After March, we will not have the Book-It reading logs anymore, but please continue to read on your own!
* Monday, April 13th to Friday, April 17th: Spring Break
No school! Enjoy your vacation!
------
Dear Families,
Today the second trimester report cards are going home. Remember that ELD students have a separate report card for Language Arts (Reading/Writing/Speaking on pages 4 & 5). In order to exit ELD, students should be at level 4 (Early Advanced) or level 5 (Advanced) in all 3 areas of Language Arts by the end of the year. Also, students should be trying to get “4” in other areas such as math, social studies, and science, which means performing at grade level. All students are making great progress!
Here are some highlights from the week:
Star of the Week: Julia
Poem of the Week: Wearing of the Green
Song of the Week: Spider or Insect
Kindness is … increasing the peace
Word Wall: afraid, any, bear, follow, most, tall, water, idea
Next Week’s Sharing: Weather Poem
(at least 4 sentences memorized and picture/object to show)
• Language Arts: Theme 7 We Can Work It Out – Week 2
• Strategy and Skill Focus: Monitor/Clarify and Sequence
• Word Families: words with oo (good)
• Sounds: oo sound and compound words
• Grammar: Proper Nouns for Places and Things
• Math: We have been working on measuring capacity this week using containers that are bigger or smaller. We have learned how to measure using cups, pints, and quarts. Please continue to practice this at home. In addition, we are working on numbers up to 20. Sometimes this means adding 3 numbers such as 3+3+6= or other times, just adding double facts 8+8= and double plus one facts 8+9= . Take a look at the work coming home this week and see if your child had a lot of mistakes on adding bigger numbers! If so, please practice practice practice!
• Writing: Along with our Mitten stories, we talked about Writer’s Workshop and the last step, the publishing step. A few students have published their first expository piece this week by writing in their best handwriting and illustrating their writings. The best part about publishing a piece is the Author’s Chair! Students get to read their stories to the class and sit in the teacher’s chair =)
• Circuit: For our weather circuit this week, we went to Mrs. Bachelor’s class and we talked about clouds and thunderstorms. She taught us about lightning and we made a stormy picture.
• Science: We have been talking about seasons and how the weather is changing from Winter to Spring. We also learned about St. Patrick’s Day and talked about rainbows.
• Social Studies: For our Peacebuilders and Kindness Journal lesson this week, we talked about increasing the peace around us. We learned different ways to increase more peace and sorted different examples into two groups: increased peace or decreased peace. Afterwards, students thought of their own examples of ways to increase peace.
• Computer: Since it was Kinako’s last week, we went to the computer lab and wrote letters to Kinako. We decorated our letters and put them altogether in a book for her to take to Japan.
• Music: Miss Rachel came to our class this week and she taught us how to do a partner dance called the Minuet! We danced several times to classical music. Also we learned a pirate song to sing.
Today is Kinako’s last day =( We are sad to see her leave but we are happy that she was part of our class this year. Good luck and have a safe move to Japan!
* Friday, March 27th: Summer School Forms Due
This is a free program offered by our school district, and it is optional. If you are interested in having your child attend summer school, please complete and return the form.
* Wednesday, April 1st: March Book-It Reading Logs Due (last one)
Please remember to read everyday for 15 minutes with your child. After March, we will not have the Book-It reading logs anymore, but please continue to read on your own!
* Monday, April 13th to Friday, April 17th: Spring Break
No school! Enjoy your vacation!
------
Dear Families,
Today the second trimester report cards are going home. Remember that ELD students have a separate report card for Language Arts (Reading/Writing/Speaking on pages 4 & 5). In order to exit ELD, students should be at level 4 (Early Advanced) or level 5 (Advanced) in all 3 areas of Language Arts by the end of the year. Also, students should be trying to get “4” in other areas such as math, social studies, and science, which means performing at grade level. All students are making great progress!
Here are some highlights from the week:
Star of the Week: Julia
Poem of the Week: Wearing of the Green
Song of the Week: Spider or Insect
Kindness is … increasing the peace
Word Wall: afraid, any, bear, follow, most, tall, water, idea
Next Week’s Sharing: Weather Poem
(at least 4 sentences memorized and picture/object to show)
• Language Arts: Theme 7 We Can Work It Out – Week 2
• Strategy and Skill Focus: Monitor/Clarify and Sequence
• Word Families: words with oo (good)
• Sounds: oo sound and compound words
• Grammar: Proper Nouns for Places and Things
• Math: We have been working on measuring capacity this week using containers that are bigger or smaller. We have learned how to measure using cups, pints, and quarts. Please continue to practice this at home. In addition, we are working on numbers up to 20. Sometimes this means adding 3 numbers such as 3+3+6= or other times, just adding double facts 8+8= and double plus one facts 8+9= . Take a look at the work coming home this week and see if your child had a lot of mistakes on adding bigger numbers! If so, please practice practice practice!
• Writing: Along with our Mitten stories, we talked about Writer’s Workshop and the last step, the publishing step. A few students have published their first expository piece this week by writing in their best handwriting and illustrating their writings. The best part about publishing a piece is the Author’s Chair! Students get to read their stories to the class and sit in the teacher’s chair =)
• Circuit: For our weather circuit this week, we went to Mrs. Bachelor’s class and we talked about clouds and thunderstorms. She taught us about lightning and we made a stormy picture.
• Science: We have been talking about seasons and how the weather is changing from Winter to Spring. We also learned about St. Patrick’s Day and talked about rainbows.
• Social Studies: For our Peacebuilders and Kindness Journal lesson this week, we talked about increasing the peace around us. We learned different ways to increase more peace and sorted different examples into two groups: increased peace or decreased peace. Afterwards, students thought of their own examples of ways to increase peace.
• Computer: Since it was Kinako’s last week, we went to the computer lab and wrote letters to Kinako. We decorated our letters and put them altogether in a book for her to take to Japan.
• Music: Miss Rachel came to our class this week and she taught us how to do a partner dance called the Minuet! We danced several times to classical music. Also we learned a pirate song to sing.
Today is Kinako’s last day =( We are sad to see her leave but we are happy that she was part of our class this year. Good luck and have a safe move to Japan!
Friday, March 13, 2009
March 13, 2009
Upcoming Dates
* Monday, March 16th: No School – Staff Learning Day
Teachers will be coming to school to work on writing strategies. We will be using rubrics to look over grade-level writing assessments.
* Friday, March 20th: Cupertino Library *rescheduled*
Sorry! We were rescheduled to visit the library next Friday instead of today. Please send your child’s blue library card to school again 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 27th: Summer School Forms Due
This is a free program offered by our school district, and it is optional. If you are interested in having your child attend summer school, please complete and return the form by March 27th.
-----
Dear Families,
Thank you for the cute birthday cards and wishes this week. I appreciated the kind thoughts and I used this opportunity to write praise notes to many students. I am encouraging students to “surprise” other students with praise notes, by noticing something extra special that happened that day. We have been talking about doing kind things all the time, and not just because they want a praise note, but because they want to be nice. I hope you can also encourage your children to help others at home.
Here are some highlights from the week:
Star of the Week: Kinako
Poem of the Week: Cloud Parade
Song of the Week: Spider or Insect
Kindness is … stopping germs from spreading
Story of the Week: Five Little Sharks Swimming in the Sea
Vocabulary of the Week: People 3
Word Wall: again, both, or, gone, want, turn, hard
Next Week’s Sharing: Riddle – something green
(at least 4 sentences memorized and hide object in a bag)
• Language Arts: Theme 7 We Can Work It Out – Week 1
• Strategy and Skill Focus: Summarize / Problem Solving
• Word Families: -ow (long o)
• Sounds: vowel pairs oa and ow
• Grammar: Proper Nouns for People and Animals
• Math: Our measurement chapter is continuing on from length and height to weight. This week we discussed the words “pounds” and “kilograms.” We are comparing objects to see if they weigh more or less than a pound. We also continued reviewing our math facts to 20 and working on reading clues to solve different word problems.
• Writing: Mitten stories are continuing and about half of the class has finished! Writer’s Workshop has also been progressing well. We have been practicing Prewriting and Drafting, and now we are learning how to Revise and Edit our pieces to make them better. It is important we take the time to re-read our stories to look for mistakes with capitals, punctuation, and spelling. We practiced using dictionaries to help us spell difficult words.
• Circuit: For our weather circuit this week, we went to Mrs. Byers’ classroom. She taught us about how rainbows appear and we wrote a few sentences about rainbows. Then we used watercolor to draw a rainbow and decorated it with construction paper.
• Science: We talked about seasons this week and life cycles. Since Spring is starting next week, we read some stories about spring and what we might notice in our environment. We created a spring tree using tissue paper flowers and decorated our drawings. Then, we wrote a Spring poem that describes what Spring means. Also, we are talking about Spring and baby animals. We read The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle, and discussed the lifecycle of a caterpillar. We will be studying different books written by Eric Carle in the next few weeks.
• Social Studies: For our kindness journals this week, we talked a little about proper ways to stop germs from spreading. We talked about washing our hands before we eat and coughing or sneezing using a tissue. For peacebuilders, we have been learning about PeaceTalk, our ways to solve problems with our friends. We are practicing using “I feel ___ because ____.” statements to speak with a person who does something hurtful to us, and we are brainstorming how to solve those problems. This week, we read the story, Amazing Grace, about a girl who overcomes put downs, and learned a song called, Amazing Peace.
• Computer: We practiced fractions in computer lab. We had to make ½, 1/3, and ¼ with different shapes including squares, rectangles, circles, and triangles. The most challenging ones were for the 1/3 fraction.
Have a great 3-day weekend!
* Monday, March 16th: No School – Staff Learning Day
Teachers will be coming to school to work on writing strategies. We will be using rubrics to look over grade-level writing assessments.
* Friday, March 20th: Cupertino Library *rescheduled*
Sorry! We were rescheduled to visit the library next Friday instead of today. Please send your child’s blue library card to school again 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 27th: Summer School Forms Due
This is a free program offered by our school district, and it is optional. If you are interested in having your child attend summer school, please complete and return the form by March 27th.
-----
Dear Families,
Thank you for the cute birthday cards and wishes this week. I appreciated the kind thoughts and I used this opportunity to write praise notes to many students. I am encouraging students to “surprise” other students with praise notes, by noticing something extra special that happened that day. We have been talking about doing kind things all the time, and not just because they want a praise note, but because they want to be nice. I hope you can also encourage your children to help others at home.
Here are some highlights from the week:
Star of the Week: Kinako
Poem of the Week: Cloud Parade
Song of the Week: Spider or Insect
Kindness is … stopping germs from spreading
Story of the Week: Five Little Sharks Swimming in the Sea
Vocabulary of the Week: People 3
Word Wall: again, both, or, gone, want, turn, hard
Next Week’s Sharing: Riddle – something green
(at least 4 sentences memorized and hide object in a bag)
• Language Arts: Theme 7 We Can Work It Out – Week 1
• Strategy and Skill Focus: Summarize / Problem Solving
• Word Families: -ow (long o)
• Sounds: vowel pairs oa and ow
• Grammar: Proper Nouns for People and Animals
• Math: Our measurement chapter is continuing on from length and height to weight. This week we discussed the words “pounds” and “kilograms.” We are comparing objects to see if they weigh more or less than a pound. We also continued reviewing our math facts to 20 and working on reading clues to solve different word problems.
• Writing: Mitten stories are continuing and about half of the class has finished! Writer’s Workshop has also been progressing well. We have been practicing Prewriting and Drafting, and now we are learning how to Revise and Edit our pieces to make them better. It is important we take the time to re-read our stories to look for mistakes with capitals, punctuation, and spelling. We practiced using dictionaries to help us spell difficult words.
• Circuit: For our weather circuit this week, we went to Mrs. Byers’ classroom. She taught us about how rainbows appear and we wrote a few sentences about rainbows. Then we used watercolor to draw a rainbow and decorated it with construction paper.
• Science: We talked about seasons this week and life cycles. Since Spring is starting next week, we read some stories about spring and what we might notice in our environment. We created a spring tree using tissue paper flowers and decorated our drawings. Then, we wrote a Spring poem that describes what Spring means. Also, we are talking about Spring and baby animals. We read The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle, and discussed the lifecycle of a caterpillar. We will be studying different books written by Eric Carle in the next few weeks.
• Social Studies: For our kindness journals this week, we talked a little about proper ways to stop germs from spreading. We talked about washing our hands before we eat and coughing or sneezing using a tissue. For peacebuilders, we have been learning about PeaceTalk, our ways to solve problems with our friends. We are practicing using “I feel ___ because ____.” statements to speak with a person who does something hurtful to us, and we are brainstorming how to solve those problems. This week, we read the story, Amazing Grace, about a girl who overcomes put downs, and learned a song called, Amazing Peace.
• Computer: We practiced fractions in computer lab. We had to make ½, 1/3, and ¼ with different shapes including squares, rectangles, circles, and triangles. The most challenging ones were for the 1/3 fraction.
Have a great 3-day weekend!
Friday, March 06, 2009
March 6, 2009
Upcoming Dates
* Sunday, March 8th: Daylight Savings Time
Remember to change your clocks one hour forward (Spring Forward, Fall Back!) this weekend!
* Friday, March 13th: Book Orders Due & Cupertino Library
Please write ONE check payable to Scholastic Book Clubs if you would like to purchase books. Also, 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.
* Monday, March 16th: No School – Staff Learning Day
Teachers will be coming to school to work on writing strategies. We will be using rubrics to look over grade-level writing assessments.
* Friday, March 27th: Summer School Forms Due
In today’s Friday Folder, you will find either a blue or green summer school form. This is a free program offered by our school district, and it is optional. If you are interested in having your child attend summer school, please complete and return the form by March 27th.
-----
Dear Families,
It has been raining everyday this week. Fortunately, on a few of the days the kids were able to go out to play, but everyday we have been eating inside. I think not going outside has been difficult for some children because they do not get a break from the classroom setting. Please continue to remind your children to follow classroom rules and to treat each other nicely.
Here are some highlights from the week:
Star of the Week: Emi
Poem of the Week: What the Rain Said
Song of the Week: Four Hugs a Day
Kindness is … eating healthy for your body
Story of the Week: What is the Sun?
Vocabulary of the Week: People 2
Word Wall: been, evening, far, forest, goes, hungry, near, soon
Next Week’s Sharing: Regular – Your Favorite Book
(at least 4 sentences memorized and bring book or picture 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 are doing two chapters simultaneously in the next few weeks. We are reviewing our addition and subtraction facts up to 20 as well as starting our chapter on measurement. We have been learning lots of vocabulary words such as shorter, longer, taller, heavier, and lighter. We started practicing using a ruler to measure items using centimeters and inches.
• Writing: Since some students are finishing up the Mitten stories, we are starting Writer’s Workshop. Students are going to be writing expository pieces on their own, following the five steps of writing. We are practicing how to outline and organize our pieces.
• Science: We are starting Weather and it is perfect because of the rain! We read several books about rain and made a rain poem using words that describe rain. Also, we made umbrellas and raindrops to hang from our ceiling.
• Social Studies: On Monday, it was Dr. Seuss’ birthday! We have been reading many stories about Dr. Seuss, and we even had a special visitor from the Cupertino Rotary club who read and donated a new book to our classroom!
• Music: We saw Miss Rachel again this week. She came into our classroom since the MP room was used for class pictures. We practiced listening to beats, and writing down the beats we heard. We are learning how to notate half notes, quarter notes, and rests.
• Computer: To go along with our Weather circuit, we used Kidpix to make a rain and umbrella picture. In our umbrellas, we practiced making fractions, specifically 1/8th. Students had to decorate the setting of a rainy day.
• Buddies: To go along with Dr. Seuss’ birthday, we read the story, One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish. Then we learned how to make fish origami with our buddies.
• Class Pictures were on Thursday. We should be getting them in a few weeks. Please remember to check your child’s backpack everyday to make sure you don’t miss any important information! Class picture envelopes are usually given out only the night before.
We are losing another student in few weeks =( Kinako and her family will be moving back to Japan, and her last day with us is on Friday, March 20th. We will miss them very much!
* Sunday, March 8th: Daylight Savings Time
Remember to change your clocks one hour forward (Spring Forward, Fall Back!) this weekend!
* Friday, March 13th: Book Orders Due & Cupertino Library
Please write ONE check payable to Scholastic Book Clubs if you would like to purchase books. Also, 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.
* Monday, March 16th: No School – Staff Learning Day
Teachers will be coming to school to work on writing strategies. We will be using rubrics to look over grade-level writing assessments.
* Friday, March 27th: Summer School Forms Due
In today’s Friday Folder, you will find either a blue or green summer school form. This is a free program offered by our school district, and it is optional. If you are interested in having your child attend summer school, please complete and return the form by March 27th.
-----
Dear Families,
It has been raining everyday this week. Fortunately, on a few of the days the kids were able to go out to play, but everyday we have been eating inside. I think not going outside has been difficult for some children because they do not get a break from the classroom setting. Please continue to remind your children to follow classroom rules and to treat each other nicely.
Here are some highlights from the week:
Star of the Week: Emi
Poem of the Week: What the Rain Said
Song of the Week: Four Hugs a Day
Kindness is … eating healthy for your body
Story of the Week: What is the Sun?
Vocabulary of the Week: People 2
Word Wall: been, evening, far, forest, goes, hungry, near, soon
Next Week’s Sharing: Regular – Your Favorite Book
(at least 4 sentences memorized and bring book or picture 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 are doing two chapters simultaneously in the next few weeks. We are reviewing our addition and subtraction facts up to 20 as well as starting our chapter on measurement. We have been learning lots of vocabulary words such as shorter, longer, taller, heavier, and lighter. We started practicing using a ruler to measure items using centimeters and inches.
• Writing: Since some students are finishing up the Mitten stories, we are starting Writer’s Workshop. Students are going to be writing expository pieces on their own, following the five steps of writing. We are practicing how to outline and organize our pieces.
• Science: We are starting Weather and it is perfect because of the rain! We read several books about rain and made a rain poem using words that describe rain. Also, we made umbrellas and raindrops to hang from our ceiling.
• Social Studies: On Monday, it was Dr. Seuss’ birthday! We have been reading many stories about Dr. Seuss, and we even had a special visitor from the Cupertino Rotary club who read and donated a new book to our classroom!
• Music: We saw Miss Rachel again this week. She came into our classroom since the MP room was used for class pictures. We practiced listening to beats, and writing down the beats we heard. We are learning how to notate half notes, quarter notes, and rests.
• Computer: To go along with our Weather circuit, we used Kidpix to make a rain and umbrella picture. In our umbrellas, we practiced making fractions, specifically 1/8th. Students had to decorate the setting of a rainy day.
• Buddies: To go along with Dr. Seuss’ birthday, we read the story, One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish. Then we learned how to make fish origami with our buddies.
• Class Pictures were on Thursday. We should be getting them in a few weeks. Please remember to check your child’s backpack everyday to make sure you don’t miss any important information! Class picture envelopes are usually given out only the night before.
We are losing another student in few weeks =( Kinako and her family will be moving back to Japan, and her last day with us is on Friday, March 20th. We will miss them very much!
Friday, February 27, 2009
February 27, 2009
Upcoming Dates
* Monday, March 2nd: February Book-It Reading Logs Due!
Please turn in your February reading logs. I will be sending home March reading logs in today’s Friday Folder. This will be the last reading log for the Pizza Hut Book-It certificates.
* Friday, March 6th: Last Day of Second Trimester
Report cards will be given out on March 20th. Grades will reflect your child’s progress from November to this date.
* Friday, 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.
* Monday, March 16th: No School – Staff Learning Day
Teachers will be coming to school to work on writing strategies. We will be using rubrics to look over grade-level writing assessments.
* Friday, March 27th: Summer School Forms Due
In today’s Friday Folder, you will find either a blue or green summer school form. This is a free program offered by our school district, and it is optional. If you are interested in having your child attend summer school, please complete and return the form by March 27th.
-----
Dear Families,
I hope everyone had a wonderful vacation last week! I absolutely loved Vancouver and Whistler, which are both the locations of next year’s Winter Olympics. We were lucky because the weather was sunny the whole week we were there. In Vancouver, we ate some good food, went shopping, and walked to Stanley Park and visited the aquarium. In Whistler, we spent 2 days snowboarding on the amazing mountains, and also did a zip-line adventure. I had a great time!
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: Naoki
Poem of the Week: Plip Plop Raindrop
Song of the Week: Five senses
Kindness is … keeping your teeth clean.
Story of the Week: I Like the Rain
Vocabulary of the Week: People 1
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, vowel 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: We had 3 students finish their mitten stories this week, and students are all working hard. This project really demonstrates who can work independently in class. At the end of the year, students can range from having one published piece to five published pieces, depending on their effort during writing time.
• Science: We finished up our plant kit this week. Our new unit for the next few months will be on weather.
• Social Studies: We are regularly talking about what kindness means and also what a Peacebuilder looks like. This week, we did an activity to show students how to say nice things to others instead of “put downs.”
• Circuits: This week was our last winter circuit. We went to Mrs. Barelli’s class, and she read us the story, The Snowy Day. We made an art project using paint that looks like the cover of the story.
• Music: We saw Miss Rachel this week. We got to choose our own instruments, including cymbals, drums, triangles, etc., to accompany some songs we sang. In first grade music, we are continuing to prepare for our musical in May. I am looking for participation and effort to memorize the songs!
• Art: Mrs. Abada taught us this week. We worked with clay to make pinch pots! We also made a little worm to wrap around our pots. Mrs. Abada will be putting our pots into a kiln to “fire” them.
• Computer: This week we added more pictures to our Kindness website using Kidpix. We talked about what a detailed picture looks like, and adding backgrounds to our pictures.
Welcome back and Happy March!
* Monday, March 2nd: February Book-It Reading Logs Due!
Please turn in your February reading logs. I will be sending home March reading logs in today’s Friday Folder. This will be the last reading log for the Pizza Hut Book-It certificates.
* Friday, March 6th: Last Day of Second Trimester
Report cards will be given out on March 20th. Grades will reflect your child’s progress from November to this date.
* Friday, 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.
* Monday, March 16th: No School – Staff Learning Day
Teachers will be coming to school to work on writing strategies. We will be using rubrics to look over grade-level writing assessments.
* Friday, March 27th: Summer School Forms Due
In today’s Friday Folder, you will find either a blue or green summer school form. This is a free program offered by our school district, and it is optional. If you are interested in having your child attend summer school, please complete and return the form by March 27th.
-----
Dear Families,
I hope everyone had a wonderful vacation last week! I absolutely loved Vancouver and Whistler, which are both the locations of next year’s Winter Olympics. We were lucky because the weather was sunny the whole week we were there. In Vancouver, we ate some good food, went shopping, and walked to Stanley Park and visited the aquarium. In Whistler, we spent 2 days snowboarding on the amazing mountains, and also did a zip-line adventure. I had a great time!
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: Naoki
Poem of the Week: Plip Plop Raindrop
Song of the Week: Five senses
Kindness is … keeping your teeth clean.
Story of the Week: I Like the Rain
Vocabulary of the Week: People 1
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, vowel 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: We had 3 students finish their mitten stories this week, and students are all working hard. This project really demonstrates who can work independently in class. At the end of the year, students can range from having one published piece to five published pieces, depending on their effort during writing time.
• Science: We finished up our plant kit this week. Our new unit for the next few months will be on weather.
• Social Studies: We are regularly talking about what kindness means and also what a Peacebuilder looks like. This week, we did an activity to show students how to say nice things to others instead of “put downs.”
• Circuits: This week was our last winter circuit. We went to Mrs. Barelli’s class, and she read us the story, The Snowy Day. We made an art project using paint that looks like the cover of the story.
• Music: We saw Miss Rachel this week. We got to choose our own instruments, including cymbals, drums, triangles, etc., to accompany some songs we sang. In first grade music, we are continuing to prepare for our musical in May. I am looking for participation and effort to memorize the songs!
• Art: Mrs. Abada taught us this week. We worked with clay to make pinch pots! We also made a little worm to wrap around our pots. Mrs. Abada will be putting our pots into a kiln to “fire” them.
• Computer: This week we added more pictures to our Kindness website using Kidpix. We talked about what a detailed picture looks like, and adding backgrounds to our pictures.
Welcome back and Happy March!
Friday, February 13, 2009
February 13, 2009
Upcoming Dates
* Monday, February 16th – Friday, February 21nd: Winter Recess
There will be no school this week. Have a great vacation!
-----
Dear Families,
Happy Valentine’s Day everyone! I hope you have a nice weekend and a wonderful winter recess. Thank you for preparing the Valentine cards for the class. It is always fun to share special cards and treats for each other.
Here are some highlights from the week:
Star of the Week: Terrence
Poem of the Week: Dear Valentine
Song of the Week: Five Senses
Kindness is … showing others you care.
Story of the Week: The Emperor’s Egg
Vocabulary of the Week: Body 4
Word Wall: by, climb, found, morning, out, shout, show
Next Week’s Sharing: Riddle – something healthy
(at least 4 clues memorized and hide object/picture)
• 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, final clusters ft, lk, and nt
• Grammar: Naming words for animals and people
• Math: I just realized that a few weeks ago, the wrong Chapter Review was in your child’s homework! You were supposed to have gotten the money Chapter Review page, but instead you received our current chapter’s review on fractions and geometry! I suppose it ended up as a “preview” to our next chapter, instead of “reviewing” our old chapter! Sorry about the confusion. This week we reviewed plane shapes such as squares, circles, rectangles, and triangles. We talked about how many corners and sides they had. Then we learned about solid shapes including spheres, cubes, cylinders, cones, rectangular prisms, and pyramids. The students need to be able to name and identify different objects by the end of the chapter. We started learning about symmetry as well this week.
• Science: We had a Penguin learning center on Monday afternoon. We rotated through five centers to learn something about penguins. One center showed us the pictures and names of the seventeen different penguins. Next, we listened to a story on Emperor Penguins. Also, we drew and found facts about Emperor Penguins, African Penguins, and Rockhopper Penguins. These penguin fact folders are coming home in today’s Friday Folder.
• Social Studies: This week in circuits, we went to Mrs. Nieveen’s class. She talked more about Martin Luther King Jr. and we made a poster drawing ourselves with a speech bubble. We wrote what we wished for in the world and learned about Peace and Love. Also, in class we talked about President’s Day. We learned a little about George Washington and Abraham Lincoln. We also did an activity to celebrate Valentine’s Day. We wrote a concrete poem on a heart and decorated with ripped paper.
• Writing: Our Mitten stories are still in progress. Some students have finished the final edits and are starting to illustrate the pages. This is an independent activity, so it really is up to each child to work hard and finish their stories.
• Computer: Now that we have been in school over 100 days, we completed a Kidpix activity using 100 stamps. We counted by 2’s, 5’s, or 10’s to get to 100.
• Assembly: Since February is Black History Month, we had a storyteller named, Mary Kelly. She told stories about slavery, while singing songs and changing outfits.
Next week I am excited because I will be going to Vancouver and Whistler, Canada! My husband and I love to go snowboarding, so we decided this would be a good time to travel a bit! Hope you have a great week!
* Monday, February 16th – Friday, February 21nd: Winter Recess
There will be no school this week. Have a great vacation!
-----
Dear Families,
Happy Valentine’s Day everyone! I hope you have a nice weekend and a wonderful winter recess. Thank you for preparing the Valentine cards for the class. It is always fun to share special cards and treats for each other.
Here are some highlights from the week:
Star of the Week: Terrence
Poem of the Week: Dear Valentine
Song of the Week: Five Senses
Kindness is … showing others you care.
Story of the Week: The Emperor’s Egg
Vocabulary of the Week: Body 4
Word Wall: by, climb, found, morning, out, shout, show
Next Week’s Sharing: Riddle – something healthy
(at least 4 clues memorized and hide object/picture)
• 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, final clusters ft, lk, and nt
• Grammar: Naming words for animals and people
• Math: I just realized that a few weeks ago, the wrong Chapter Review was in your child’s homework! You were supposed to have gotten the money Chapter Review page, but instead you received our current chapter’s review on fractions and geometry! I suppose it ended up as a “preview” to our next chapter, instead of “reviewing” our old chapter! Sorry about the confusion. This week we reviewed plane shapes such as squares, circles, rectangles, and triangles. We talked about how many corners and sides they had. Then we learned about solid shapes including spheres, cubes, cylinders, cones, rectangular prisms, and pyramids. The students need to be able to name and identify different objects by the end of the chapter. We started learning about symmetry as well this week.
• Science: We had a Penguin learning center on Monday afternoon. We rotated through five centers to learn something about penguins. One center showed us the pictures and names of the seventeen different penguins. Next, we listened to a story on Emperor Penguins. Also, we drew and found facts about Emperor Penguins, African Penguins, and Rockhopper Penguins. These penguin fact folders are coming home in today’s Friday Folder.
• Social Studies: This week in circuits, we went to Mrs. Nieveen’s class. She talked more about Martin Luther King Jr. and we made a poster drawing ourselves with a speech bubble. We wrote what we wished for in the world and learned about Peace and Love. Also, in class we talked about President’s Day. We learned a little about George Washington and Abraham Lincoln. We also did an activity to celebrate Valentine’s Day. We wrote a concrete poem on a heart and decorated with ripped paper.
• Writing: Our Mitten stories are still in progress. Some students have finished the final edits and are starting to illustrate the pages. This is an independent activity, so it really is up to each child to work hard and finish their stories.
• Computer: Now that we have been in school over 100 days, we completed a Kidpix activity using 100 stamps. We counted by 2’s, 5’s, or 10’s to get to 100.
• Assembly: Since February is Black History Month, we had a storyteller named, Mary Kelly. She told stories about slavery, while singing songs and changing outfits.
Next week I am excited because I will be going to Vancouver and Whistler, Canada! My husband and I love to go snowboarding, so we decided this would be a good time to travel a bit! Hope you have a great week!
Friday, February 06, 2009
February 6, 2009
Upcoming Dates
* Thursday, February 12th: Scholastic Book Orders Due
Today’s newsletter has the February book orders. Please return your orders with ONE check payable to Scholastic Book Clubs by THURSDAY.
* Friday, February 13th: Valentine’s Day Party and Cupertino Library
We will be celebrating Valentine’s Day by exchanging cards. Every child must prepare Valentine cards for every student and bring them to school on Valentine’s Day in a bag. 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 and prepare 20 cards (the 20th will be a blank card):
Alina Dennis Emi Emilie Fuka
Hadas Jhanvi Julia Kayleigh Kinako
Mai Matthew Maya Melissa Naoki
Ryan Seyon Terrence Winny ?? (maybe new student)
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.
* Monday, February 16th – Friday, February 21nd: Winter Recess
There will be no school this week. Have a great vacation!
-----
Dear Families,
Here are some highlights from the week:
Star of the Week: Dennis
Poem of the Week: One Hundred Days
Song of the Week: Penguins
Kindness is … celebrating special days.
Story of the Week: The 100th Day of School
Vocabulary of the Week: Body 3
Word Wall: give, good, her, little, try, was, fly, our
Next Week’s Sharing: Riddle: something you love
(at least 4 clues memorized and hide object/picture)
• Language Arts: Theme 5: Home Sweet Home – Week 3
• Stories: The Kite
• Strategy and Skill Focus: Monitor/Clarify, Cause/Effect
• Word Families: -ite, -ide
• Sounds: long I, contractions
• Grammar: Using I or Me in sentences
• Math: This week we started Chapter 8 on Geometry, Fractions and Probability. This first section is on position vocabulary words including: above, below, left, right, between, next to, behind, in front, far, near, up, down, etc. Please practice describing things using these words. Also, we reviewed plane shapes and talked about how many corners and sides each shape has.
• Science: We are continuing our studies of Emperor Penguins to learn about how different animals live. This week, we did an expository writing on facts about Emperor Penguins. We made several drafts and completed an art project to go with our writing. This week in science, we also talked about planting bulbs and we planted garlic bulbs!
• Social Studies: On Monday, it was Groundhog’s Day. We learned about shadows and what happens if the groundhog sees its shadow. We made an art project to illustrate the groundhog’s weather predictions. On Tuesday, it was the 100th Day of School. This is a big day for first graders because we learn counting to 100 by 1’s, 2’s, 5’s, 10’s, and 25’s. We had a special first grade circuit to celebrate the 100th day and made: 100’s trail mix, 100’s hat, 100’s necklace, 100’s macaroni picture, 100’s drawing, and 100’s mats.
• Writing: We are continuing our Mitten stories. Students are learning that it takes a lot of hard work to be authors.
• Computer: To prepare for Valentine’s Day next week, we used Kidpix and made a “heart tree.” This was actually challenging for many students. They will take these pictures home next Friday.
• Buddies: This week we did 100 day activities with our buddies. We got to choose what activities to complete, such as, how many times can you jump in 100 seconds.
• Music: We saw Miss Rachel and talked about February as Black History Month. We continued learning and singing songs using the book, Follow the Drinking Gourd. We also practiced creating different beats and rhythms with our hands and feet.
On Thursday afternoon, we had our annual Code Red drill. This drill stands for what we do in the case of a stranger on our campus that is dangerous. Teachers and students need to know how to “lockdown” the classroom and stay safe in these emergency situations.
Have a great weekend!
* Thursday, February 12th: Scholastic Book Orders Due
Today’s newsletter has the February book orders. Please return your orders with ONE check payable to Scholastic Book Clubs by THURSDAY.
* Friday, February 13th: Valentine’s Day Party and Cupertino Library
We will be celebrating Valentine’s Day by exchanging cards. Every child must prepare Valentine cards for every student and bring them to school on Valentine’s Day in a bag. 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 and prepare 20 cards (the 20th will be a blank card):
Alina Dennis Emi Emilie Fuka
Hadas Jhanvi Julia Kayleigh Kinako
Mai Matthew Maya Melissa Naoki
Ryan Seyon Terrence Winny ?? (maybe new student)
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.
* Monday, February 16th – Friday, February 21nd: Winter Recess
There will be no school this week. Have a great vacation!
-----
Dear Families,
Here are some highlights from the week:
Star of the Week: Dennis
Poem of the Week: One Hundred Days
Song of the Week: Penguins
Kindness is … celebrating special days.
Story of the Week: The 100th Day of School
Vocabulary of the Week: Body 3
Word Wall: give, good, her, little, try, was, fly, our
Next Week’s Sharing: Riddle: something you love
(at least 4 clues memorized and hide object/picture)
• Language Arts: Theme 5: Home Sweet Home – Week 3
• Stories: The Kite
• Strategy and Skill Focus: Monitor/Clarify, Cause/Effect
• Word Families: -ite, -ide
• Sounds: long I, contractions
• Grammar: Using I or Me in sentences
• Math: This week we started Chapter 8 on Geometry, Fractions and Probability. This first section is on position vocabulary words including: above, below, left, right, between, next to, behind, in front, far, near, up, down, etc. Please practice describing things using these words. Also, we reviewed plane shapes and talked about how many corners and sides each shape has.
• Science: We are continuing our studies of Emperor Penguins to learn about how different animals live. This week, we did an expository writing on facts about Emperor Penguins. We made several drafts and completed an art project to go with our writing. This week in science, we also talked about planting bulbs and we planted garlic bulbs!
• Social Studies: On Monday, it was Groundhog’s Day. We learned about shadows and what happens if the groundhog sees its shadow. We made an art project to illustrate the groundhog’s weather predictions. On Tuesday, it was the 100th Day of School. This is a big day for first graders because we learn counting to 100 by 1’s, 2’s, 5’s, 10’s, and 25’s. We had a special first grade circuit to celebrate the 100th day and made: 100’s trail mix, 100’s hat, 100’s necklace, 100’s macaroni picture, 100’s drawing, and 100’s mats.
• Writing: We are continuing our Mitten stories. Students are learning that it takes a lot of hard work to be authors.
• Computer: To prepare for Valentine’s Day next week, we used Kidpix and made a “heart tree.” This was actually challenging for many students. They will take these pictures home next Friday.
• Buddies: This week we did 100 day activities with our buddies. We got to choose what activities to complete, such as, how many times can you jump in 100 seconds.
• Music: We saw Miss Rachel and talked about February as Black History Month. We continued learning and singing songs using the book, Follow the Drinking Gourd. We also practiced creating different beats and rhythms with our hands and feet.
On Thursday afternoon, we had our annual Code Red drill. This drill stands for what we do in the case of a stranger on our campus that is dangerous. Teachers and students need to know how to “lockdown” the classroom and stay safe in these emergency situations.
Have a great weekend!
January 30, 2009
Upcoming Dates
* Friday, February 13th: Valentine’s Day Party and Cupertino Library
We will be celebrating Valentine’s Day by exchanging cards. Every child must prepare Valentine cards for every student and bring them to school on Valentine’s Day in a bag. 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 and prepare 20 cards (the 20th will be a blank card):
Alina Dennis Emi Emilie Fuka
Hadas Jhanvi Julia Kayleigh Kinako
Mai Matthew Maya Melissa Naoki
Ryan Seyon Terrence Winny ?? (maybe new student)
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.
* Monday, February 16th – Friday, February 21nd: Winter Recess
There will be no school this week. Have a great vacation!
-----
Dear Families,
Here are some highlights from the week:
Star of the Week: Emilie
Poem of the Week: January Thaw
Song of the Week: Penguins
Kindness is … following your dreams.
Story of the Week: The Hat
Vocabulary of the Week: Body 2
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. Zankich’s class for our winter circuit. We wrote an acrostic poem using the letters in the word, Winter. Then we decorated the poem. We have finished observing our grass and wheat plants. I sent home our observations in today’s Friday folder. We are continuing to learn about different ways plants grow and what they need to live.
• Social Studies: We talked about Chinese New Year on Monday. We read several stories about this celebration and made a dragon puppet. Also, we continued learning more about Emperor penguins this week. We talked about the body parts of a penguin as well as where penguins live in the world.
• Writing: Many students are finished with their sloppy copies in our Mitten stories. We learned about editing and revising our stories and are starting our final drafts now. This will take several weeks to complete, but will teach the children how to become great authors!
• Computer: Since we have been learning about money, this week we did an activity using Kidspiration where we had to come up with different ways to make a certain amount. We used money coin stamps to complete our projects.
• Assembly: Today we had an assembly from Stepology on Tap Dancing and Beats! They had two tap dancers, a person on the keyboard, and even one person making beats with his mouth. This was a very entertaining assembly for the students and we even learned how to make some of the beats!
Please remember to turn in your January reading log on Monday! A new February reading log will be in Monday’s homework 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. Also, please try and come to school on time each morning. Students who come in after 9:00am are listed as tardy. Thank you.
* Friday, February 13th: Valentine’s Day Party and Cupertino Library
We will be celebrating Valentine’s Day by exchanging cards. Every child must prepare Valentine cards for every student and bring them to school on Valentine’s Day in a bag. 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 and prepare 20 cards (the 20th will be a blank card):
Alina Dennis Emi Emilie Fuka
Hadas Jhanvi Julia Kayleigh Kinako
Mai Matthew Maya Melissa Naoki
Ryan Seyon Terrence Winny ?? (maybe new student)
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.
* Monday, February 16th – Friday, February 21nd: Winter Recess
There will be no school this week. Have a great vacation!
-----
Dear Families,
Here are some highlights from the week:
Star of the Week: Emilie
Poem of the Week: January Thaw
Song of the Week: Penguins
Kindness is … following your dreams.
Story of the Week: The Hat
Vocabulary of the Week: Body 2
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. Zankich’s class for our winter circuit. We wrote an acrostic poem using the letters in the word, Winter. Then we decorated the poem. We have finished observing our grass and wheat plants. I sent home our observations in today’s Friday folder. We are continuing to learn about different ways plants grow and what they need to live.
• Social Studies: We talked about Chinese New Year on Monday. We read several stories about this celebration and made a dragon puppet. Also, we continued learning more about Emperor penguins this week. We talked about the body parts of a penguin as well as where penguins live in the world.
• Writing: Many students are finished with their sloppy copies in our Mitten stories. We learned about editing and revising our stories and are starting our final drafts now. This will take several weeks to complete, but will teach the children how to become great authors!
• Computer: Since we have been learning about money, this week we did an activity using Kidspiration where we had to come up with different ways to make a certain amount. We used money coin stamps to complete our projects.
• Assembly: Today we had an assembly from Stepology on Tap Dancing and Beats! They had two tap dancers, a person on the keyboard, and even one person making beats with his mouth. This was a very entertaining assembly for the students and we even learned how to make some of the beats!
Please remember to turn in your January reading log on Monday! A new February reading log will be in Monday’s homework 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. Also, please try and come to school on time each morning. Students who come in after 9:00am are listed as tardy. Thank you.
Thursday, January 22, 2009
January 23, 2009
Upcoming Dates
* Friday, January 30th: Snowmen Project Due
Please turn in your snowmen projects by Friday. Remember not to use any food!
* Monday, February 2nd: January Book-It Reading Logs Due
Please turn in your reading logs. I will be giving out the February reading logs.
-------
Dear Families,
This was a short week! On Tuesday, we watched the first 20 minutes of President Obama’s inauguration! We talked a little about our new president and now they should all at least be able to recognize his face! This week, we also had to say goodbye to Dodam because today was her last day. We will miss her and her family!
Here are some highlights from the week:
Star of the Week: Hadas & Matthew
Poem of the Week: Bear-ly Awake
Song of the Week: Money
Kindness is … building peace around me
Story of the Week: I am Freedom’s Child
Vocabulary of the Week: Body 1
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
• Writing: We are working on our “sloppy copy” Mitten stories. These are our rough drafts. We are learning about good transition words and how to add more details in our stories. We also learned about dialogue, and using quotation marks to show someone “talking.”
• Math: This week we continued learning about money. It is really important that your child has mastered skip counting by 5’s and 10’s. Please continue practicing counting and making different combinations using pennies, nickels, dimes, and this week we introduced quarters.
• Circuits: On Tuesday, we went to Mrs. Bachelor’s class for circuits. We talked about snowmen and made a winter scene using white and black crayons. Last week, we went to Mrs. Byers’ class and talked about snowflakes. We used raisins to design our snowflakes and then solved math problems using the raisins.
• 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. Also, we learned about Kwanzaa and how they celebrate the winter holidays with a candle holder called a kinara, and a straw placemat called a mkeka.
• Science: We continued observing our grass, alfalfa, and wheat plants. They grew really tall this week! We even “mowed” our lawns by cutting them shorter and now we’re waiting for them to grow again.
• Art: On Thursday we saw Mrs. Abada. We made a neat garden sculpture using a Styrofoam base that we decorated using sharpies. Mrs. Abada gave us lots of sticks and materials to create our gardens.
• Music: We saw Miss Rachel on Thursday and she read us the story, “Follow the Drinking Gourd” and taught us some songs and dances to match the story. Also, we watched the second graders perform their musical this week! They sang songs about the seven continents and danced too! The first graders will also be performing a musical in May, so it is important that they are all participating in music class and learning the words of all the songs.
• Computer: To say goodbye to Dodam, we wrote her letters in Computer Lab and decorated them with different stamp designs. We printed these letters out and made a book for Dodam to keep.
• Buddies: This week we saw our buddies and made a neat Chinese New Year lantern using lots of red envelopes!
Hope you all have a wonderful weekend. I will be returning to school on Tuesday. Thank you for your thoughts, understanding, and kindness during this time.
* Friday, January 30th: Snowmen Project Due
Please turn in your snowmen projects by Friday. Remember not to use any food!
* Monday, February 2nd: January Book-It Reading Logs Due
Please turn in your reading logs. I will be giving out the February reading logs.
-------
Dear Families,
This was a short week! On Tuesday, we watched the first 20 minutes of President Obama’s inauguration! We talked a little about our new president and now they should all at least be able to recognize his face! This week, we also had to say goodbye to Dodam because today was her last day. We will miss her and her family!
Here are some highlights from the week:
Star of the Week: Hadas & Matthew
Poem of the Week: Bear-ly Awake
Song of the Week: Money
Kindness is … building peace around me
Story of the Week: I am Freedom’s Child
Vocabulary of the Week: Body 1
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
• Writing: We are working on our “sloppy copy” Mitten stories. These are our rough drafts. We are learning about good transition words and how to add more details in our stories. We also learned about dialogue, and using quotation marks to show someone “talking.”
• Math: This week we continued learning about money. It is really important that your child has mastered skip counting by 5’s and 10’s. Please continue practicing counting and making different combinations using pennies, nickels, dimes, and this week we introduced quarters.
• Circuits: On Tuesday, we went to Mrs. Bachelor’s class for circuits. We talked about snowmen and made a winter scene using white and black crayons. Last week, we went to Mrs. Byers’ class and talked about snowflakes. We used raisins to design our snowflakes and then solved math problems using the raisins.
• 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. Also, we learned about Kwanzaa and how they celebrate the winter holidays with a candle holder called a kinara, and a straw placemat called a mkeka.
• Science: We continued observing our grass, alfalfa, and wheat plants. They grew really tall this week! We even “mowed” our lawns by cutting them shorter and now we’re waiting for them to grow again.
• Art: On Thursday we saw Mrs. Abada. We made a neat garden sculpture using a Styrofoam base that we decorated using sharpies. Mrs. Abada gave us lots of sticks and materials to create our gardens.
• Music: We saw Miss Rachel on Thursday and she read us the story, “Follow the Drinking Gourd” and taught us some songs and dances to match the story. Also, we watched the second graders perform their musical this week! They sang songs about the seven continents and danced too! The first graders will also be performing a musical in May, so it is important that they are all participating in music class and learning the words of all the songs.
• Computer: To say goodbye to Dodam, we wrote her letters in Computer Lab and decorated them with different stamp designs. We printed these letters out and made a book for Dodam to keep.
• Buddies: This week we saw our buddies and made a neat Chinese New Year lantern using lots of red envelopes!
Hope you all have a wonderful weekend. I will be returning to school on Tuesday. Thank you for your thoughts, understanding, and kindness during this time.
Friday, January 09, 2009
January 9, 2009
Upcoming Dates
* Friday, January 16th: 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 Friday!
* Monday, January 19th: NO SCHOOL – Martin Luther King Jr. Day
We have been learning about Martin Luther King Jr. and how he brought peace to our country. We are learning about his dreams and thinking about our dreams for the world.
* Friday, January 30th: Family Snowman Project Due
Today’s Friday Folder has a Snowman project for your family to decorate this month. Please be creative, but do not use any food! We will be displaying them in our classrooms.
---------------
Dear Families,
Happy 2009! I hope you had a nice vacation with your families. I enjoyed listening to everyone’s sharing about their winter vacation this week. I spent the holidays here with my family and was able to relax at home. I went to Lake Tahoe for one weekend and got to go snowboarding with my husband.
On Tuesday, we had a new student join our classroom! His name is Ryan Liu and he speaks Chinese and English. We interviewed Ryan as our Prince of the Day on Thursday 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: Seyon
Poem of the Week: Winter Cheer
Song of the Week: Continents and Oceans
Kindness is … making New Year resolutions.
Story of the Week: Mrs. McNosh Hangs Up Her Wash
Vocabulary of the Week: Clothing 3
Word Wall Words: friend, girl, know, play, read, she, sing, write
Sounds: clusters with s, short e, silent letters kn, wr, gn
Word Families: -ell, -est
Strategy and Skill Focus: Evaluate, Compare/Contrast
Grammar: Telling Sentences
• 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 2009. We wrote them down and decorated a nice project to display each student’s 2009 resolutions. We will be typing these up in the next kindness journal entry. Also, we are starting a big unit on The Mitten by Jan Brett. This week we read several versions of the story and began planning out our own stories.
• Math: We finished addition and subtraction to 12 and took our chapter test today. This week we also started talking about pennies, nickels, and dimes. We will be counting money over the next few weeks. It is really important that students have mastered skip counting by 5’s and 10’s.
• Science: We started our next big unit on Plants and Animals. This week we learned about grass seeds and alfalfa seeds. We planted them into our own cups and observed them twice so far. Our seeds have begun sprouting. Also we learned about wheat seeds and planted a seed in a straw.
• Computer Lab: This week we talked about the four seasons. Since we are finishing the Clothing Vocabulary words in Centers, we completed an activity in Kidspiration where the students chose different outfits for each season.
• Music: We saw Miss Rachel this week and we got to use big tubs as drums. We also practiced reading and counting beats using the drums.
• Buddies: Today we saw our fourth grade buddies! We did an activity about Martin Luther King Jr. and our dreams. We are thinking of ways to help the world when we grow up.
• Social Studies: Our next first grade circuit will be all about winter. This week, our class began learning about the Emperor Penguin and how they take care of their babies. We made a project showing their life cycle.
Have a great weekend!
* Friday, January 16th: 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 Friday!
* Monday, January 19th: NO SCHOOL – Martin Luther King Jr. Day
We have been learning about Martin Luther King Jr. and how he brought peace to our country. We are learning about his dreams and thinking about our dreams for the world.
* Friday, January 30th: Family Snowman Project Due
Today’s Friday Folder has a Snowman project for your family to decorate this month. Please be creative, but do not use any food! We will be displaying them in our classrooms.
---------------
Dear Families,
Happy 2009! I hope you had a nice vacation with your families. I enjoyed listening to everyone’s sharing about their winter vacation this week. I spent the holidays here with my family and was able to relax at home. I went to Lake Tahoe for one weekend and got to go snowboarding with my husband.
On Tuesday, we had a new student join our classroom! His name is Ryan Liu and he speaks Chinese and English. We interviewed Ryan as our Prince of the Day on Thursday 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: Seyon
Poem of the Week: Winter Cheer
Song of the Week: Continents and Oceans
Kindness is … making New Year resolutions.
Story of the Week: Mrs. McNosh Hangs Up Her Wash
Vocabulary of the Week: Clothing 3
Word Wall Words: friend, girl, know, play, read, she, sing, write
Sounds: clusters with s, short e, silent letters kn, wr, gn
Word Families: -ell, -est
Strategy and Skill Focus: Evaluate, Compare/Contrast
Grammar: Telling Sentences
• 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 2009. We wrote them down and decorated a nice project to display each student’s 2009 resolutions. We will be typing these up in the next kindness journal entry. Also, we are starting a big unit on The Mitten by Jan Brett. This week we read several versions of the story and began planning out our own stories.
• Math: We finished addition and subtraction to 12 and took our chapter test today. This week we also started talking about pennies, nickels, and dimes. We will be counting money over the next few weeks. It is really important that students have mastered skip counting by 5’s and 10’s.
• Science: We started our next big unit on Plants and Animals. This week we learned about grass seeds and alfalfa seeds. We planted them into our own cups and observed them twice so far. Our seeds have begun sprouting. Also we learned about wheat seeds and planted a seed in a straw.
• Computer Lab: This week we talked about the four seasons. Since we are finishing the Clothing Vocabulary words in Centers, we completed an activity in Kidspiration where the students chose different outfits for each season.
• Music: We saw Miss Rachel this week and we got to use big tubs as drums. We also practiced reading and counting beats using the drums.
• Buddies: Today we saw our fourth grade buddies! We did an activity about Martin Luther King Jr. and our dreams. We are thinking of ways to help the world when we grow up.
• Social Studies: Our next first grade circuit will be all about winter. This week, our class began learning about the Emperor Penguin and how they take care of their babies. We made a project showing their life cycle.
Have a great weekend!
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