January 23rd-26th

Announcements: We are having another book fair this year which I am so excited about! Last year the kids had a blast picking out new books to read. Please let me know if you are able to come and help us out this year. We will need parent volunteers to help kids pay, browse for books etc. 

Book Fair Schedule:

Book Fair - Thursday 2/9 2:00-2:30

Book Fair Hot Chocolate Party for parents and kids to go to together: Thursday 2/9 2:45-4:15

Class Play: NEXT WEEK!! February 2nd at 11:00 sharp. This will be in the middle school black box. You may choose a costume to create for your child or they may wear regular school clothes. Do not stress about the props/costumes. Practice those lines!

Children's Theatre Play Field Trip: February 7th. We will have 3 chaperone spots. Please give other parents a turn at attending if you have been before. I will send the sign up for that later. If we have more than 3 parents who want to go I will draw names out of a hat. ALL STUDENTS will need to be at school at 8 am that day. We board the bus at 8:15 sharp and we do not want to leave anyone behind. 

We do not have school tomorrow Friday January 27th.

100's Day is Wednesday February 1st! You do not have to do anything special but we will be celebrating here at school. I will probably send a sign up genius out for supplies for some fun activities we are going to plan.

Conferences: February 16th and 17th all day. I will send a sign up genius for these later. Please sign up if you have any questions or concerns about your child's progress.

No school February 20th.

Get those valentines done! Bring them in By February 14th. If you get them done early, send them on in. We will be reading valentines at 1:00 and invite all parents to come in and help us read poems!

WHITE PAPER TOWELS: We are in desperate need of regular white paper towels again. Our stock is starting to run low. It sounds crazy but the brown paper towels here at school do not soak up spills very easily. The white paper towels on the roll are so much easier for the kids to use. Even sending in just one roll is so appreciated!

Check out these adorable videos of music class!

Thematic Centers:

**A quick note about one of the centers last week. We realized that some of the kids missed a step on the character quilt. Some how some of the kids went home without cutting out the quilt squares and placing them on their paper "quilt." SO sorry if that was one of your kiddos! We got started with play practice towards the end of the week and some of the kids ended up just filing out the quilt and not cutting it/turning it into their character quilt. Oops!

This week we focused on getting ready for the play. Lots of line review and adjustment, song practice, enter/exit practice etc.

Everyone also painted a picture of how they felt inspired to make the world a better place to conclude our hero unit and wrote a sentence underneath. These will be in the hall.

Math Workshop:

This week we worked on number tiles. Each child is given a set of number tiles 0-9. They have to figure out how to plug the numbers into the missing equation. Each number can be used once. They have to use addition and subtraction to fill in the missing numbers to make the equation make sense.

We also started learning about time. We reviewed hour and half hour (this is what is required for first grade). Everyone received a mini clock and practiced showing different times.

Writer's Workshop:

This month's theme is still opinion writing. This week we worked on cleaning out writing folders and getting organized for the new year. Many books have come home/will come home! Place these in a special place to look back on and read. 

Reader's Workshop:

We worked on handwriting and leveled books. 

Have another great long weekend!

Mrs. Schultz

January 17th-20th

Group 1

Group 2

Group 3

Group 4

What a beautiful week we had!

Please remember to:

1. Practice play lines. It is crunch time! The play is happening 2 weeks from today.
2. Work on Valentines.
3. Fill out the student intent survey sent to your email by Sunny. Let me know if you do not know what this is.
4. Bring your child to school on January 26th as it is a snow day! January 27th is still a teacher work day.

Thematic Centers:

This week we finished studying Martin Luther King Jr. and started studying about Rosa Parks. We read many books about her. We also rotated through 2 centers since it was a short week. We will continue to study Rosa next week as well.

1. As you can see above, one of the centers was to work together to create props and play lines for a short skit about Rosa's life. All 4 groups chose to act out the scene of Rosa standing up for herself on the bus. I remembered to film it. They had a blast! It showed how much information they really retained. Turn up the volume.
2. Character paper quilt about Rosa.

Reader's Workshop:

This week we focused on comprehension. I asked questions, had students summarize the book they read etc. Everyone visited handwriting, word work, writing and a reading group. The word work table this week was "hop scotch words."

Math Workshop:

We learned a new math game this week. Number Blaster:
Pull out a star card with a number on it. Place it on the number board. Record 10 more, 10 less, 1 more and 1 less.

Writer's Workshop:
This month's theme is still opinion writing. This week we focused on making lists. We discussed the many reasons you would make a list (grocery shopping, packing lists, project supply list etc.) We also tied that into opinion writing. Example: Make a quick list about why you think going to the beach is the best vacation as a way to brainstorm ideas before writing a book.

Play Practice:

We spent time practicing entering and exiting the stage. We also worked on the many transitions this play has.

Have a great week!
Mrs. Schultz

January 9th-13th

Happy Friday!

We had another great short week this week.

Math Workshop:

We finished up the math story problems this week and everyone worked on reading/solving 3 word problems in a small group with a teacher. We will continue working on these as well as multiple strategies for solving addition/subtraction equations.

Writer's Workshop:

This month's theme is still opinion writing. This week we focused on starting our writing on the left side of the paper/book. Often times children start their writing in the middle of the page. We edited several writing pieces that did not have writing beginning on the left.

Reader's Workshop:

This week we did magic writing to practice our new word study words. Take a white crayon and write your words on a white piece of paper. Then water color paint over the words. Reveal the words after painting. We decided to go ahead with 10 new word study words because your kids did AMAZING on their first week with 10 words last week. Ms. Alicia and I were so proud. Thank you for practicing!

We also rotated through leveled book groups focusing on your child's individual reading needs. Personally, this is my favorite time of day. I love watching them grow in their reading skills.

Thematic Centers:

This week we finished Neil Armstrong and started studying Martin Luther King Junior. What an amazing man who helped paved the way for positive change. We read a little bit from his speech and had numerous rich conversations about equality. We rotated through 4 centers:

1. Cut, color and read your Martin Luther King junior mini book.
2. Create a puffy cloud and on the front write a dream of Martin's. On the back write a dream of yours.
3. As a group read and act out the Martin Luther King Jr. play. If you would like a copy of this script, let me know! Some of the kids wanted to take it home and preform at home.
4. Science Experiment: Look at the two eggs on the table. One is brown and one is white. Examine the outside by smelling, touching, holding and looking at the shell. Talk about the similarities and differences. With a teacher crack both eggs into the bowl. Examine the similarities and differences as well. You will notice the eggs on the outside are different but the eggs on the inside are exactly the same. Compare this to people. We are the exact same way. Different on the outside but the same on the inside.

Play:

We really need your help practicing play lines. We only have 11 school days until the play. Can you believe it? This is definitely a longer play with more lines. We will not be able to have a successful play without you! Add play practice to your weekly  homework routine.

Valentine's Day:

Do not forget to write those poems! Work on a couple poems each night so it will not be stressful for your little one.

**No school Monday!!**

Have a wonderful weekend,

Mrs. Schultz

January 3rd-6th

The pictures below were taken when the kiddos were working during writing before break. 

Happy new year!

This week you should have received your child's play lines for the upcoming play. We need your help with this. We need you to add play practice to your weekly homework routine. We cannot have a successful play without you! Please print off the play lines at home. If your printer is not working or you are not able to print at home, let me know and I will gladly print them off here at school.

Thematic Centers:

This week we studied Neil Armstrong. The kids are now all super interested in space. He went to the moon in 1969 and was the first to explore. His footprints might still be on the moon today since there is no rain, wind or snow. We've read several books and learned a lot about what life was like on the moon. We rotated through 4 centers:

1. Make your astronaut helmet that will be used in the play.
2. Fill out the astronaut application and pretend to interview each other for a position at NASA. Someone should be the interviewer and someone should be the applicant and then switch.
3. Learn the phases of the moon using an oreo cookie and demonstrate the different phases using the icing.
4. Learn and practice your new play lines for the first time!

We also plan to play with moon sand tomorrow and illustrate the Neil Armstrong fact book!

Math Workshop:

This week we learned a new math game:

Addition BINGO: Roll two number cubes (numbered 5-10) and add them together. Place a BINGO marker on the sum. The first player to 5 in a row wins the game.

We also worked on space themed addition and subtraction story problems. Some of you have already seen these come home in red folders. We will finish everyone up next week. We are working with 2-4 students at a time so it is taking a while.

Reader's Workshop: Everyone received a leveled reader this week and spent time in their reading group. We also spent extra time practicing word study words because there were 5 extra words for the first time. We may do the same words next week depending on how the spell checks go tomorrow. Please do not worry if your child has not done well practicing these words. It was a big jump. We all worked out of our handwriting books but ran out of time for word sorts.

Writer's Workshop:

This month's theme is opinion writing. This week we focused on the difference between facts and opinions. Many of the kids talked about how you have to respect each other even if your opinion is different. A good reminder for all.

Have a great weekend,
Mrs. Schultz