December 5th-9th

Hi families,

Your child is coming home with a set of lime green "10 frame" flash cards today. These are excellent and will really help your child progress in math. The first video shows an example of how you will review these flash cards with your child. They should not be counting the dots after a couple weeks of repeated practice. The goal is for them to quickly recognize how many dots are shown without counting. Simply add these to your weekly homework routine. 

After they master this, they will use the cards to work on math facts to 10. The second video below shows that. They can say "1 plus 9 equals 10." OR "1 and 9 make 10." We use both phrases and both are correct. Sorry for the noise and a couple of upside down cards in the second video. 

Reader's Workshop:

This week everyone received their guided reading book. We reviewed making connections to stories (text to text, text to self and text to world). We also worked on word study words, sight words and word sorts (blends and short vowels).

Writer's Workshop:

This month's theme is "how-to" writing. Many children are writing about some of their favorite activities: how to ride a bike, how to score a goal, how to brush your teeth etc.

Math Workshop:

We worked on filling out December calendars this week, more number bonds and recognizing dots on ten frames. I was was surprised at how well the kids did on writing numbers this week. We are getting fewer and fewer reversals. 

Thematic Centers:

This week we studied Amelia Earhart. She was the first woman to fly! She was also the first person to fly across the ocean. We did several activities. 

1. Compare and contrast the Wright Brothers and Amelia Earhart. What was similar about these heroes? What was different? We did this as a class. 

2. With your table, come up with a skit that tells the story of Amelia Earhart. These skits were awesome and really showed all the information that the kids have leaned about what it means to be a hero and all about Amelia's life. I am sad I did not film these. 

3. Using what you know about paper air planes from last week, create a paper airplane that can carry cargo. See who's plane can fly the farthest with the most cargo (we are doing this tomorrow).

4. Play the airplane pilot version of "Simon Says". These directions came home in the red folders so you can repeat the game another time. It was great to get to know some of the flight terminology. 

**We also had a guest speaker that came to Mrs. James' class that we were invited to listen to. Sam's dad (student in Mrs. James' class) is a pilot and works for American Airlines. He came to teach us about what all it takes to fly. It was so neat.

Announcements:

Gingerbread House Decorating: December 15th at 11:00 in our classroom. We invite all parents to come in and join us! Unfortunately we do not have enough supplies for siblings. I will be sending out a sign up genius for icing and candy. Thank you to everyone who has helped glue so far! We are about half way done gluing. 

We are in need of clorox wipes, paper towels and washable markers. If you are able to send in any of these supplies, we are so thankful.

Have a happy weekend, 

Mrs. Schultz

November 28th-December 4th

Learning how to write "how to" books.

Hello!

I hope everyone had a great break last week. Below are some important dates:

December 15th at 11:00 Gingerbread House Decorating-We invite all parents to come in and help us decorate our houses!
December 19th-January 3rd- Winter Break
February 2nd at 11:00 Heroes Play (will probably be in the middle school black box like our ocean play)
February 7th- Field Trip to the Children's Theatre (If we have more volunteers than slots available then I will draw names out of a hat)
May 4th at 11:00 Artist Play
Sometime during the week of May 22nd- Field Trip to Hiddenite Mine
May 30th- Author's Tea (in our classroom we will reveal our bare books)

This week we started studying two new heroes. We are learning about the Wright brothers! We learned that hard work and determination can produce great results. We rotated through 4 main centers:

1. Create a candy airplane and write a step by step direction sheet to go along with it. This month's writing theme is "how-to" so we introduced this concept through the center.
2. Illustrate the Wright Brothers fact book and read it to an adult.
3. Create a time line of Orville and Wilbur's lives. Side note: The kids loved the time line about Eleanor and begged for another one! We did not have time to make one for Helen Keller so we decided to create another one for this week. We did a large one as a class and then some kiddos chose to do an individual one as well.
4. Using what you know about the science behind flying (from what we read), create your own air plane. It can be made from any material and can be any size. Have an airplane flying contest and see who's can fly the farthest.

Writing:

This month's writing theme is writing how-to books. Using words like "first and then, next" etc.

Reader's Workshop:

Everyone received their leveled reader this week. We focused on learning about plural words. We learned how to make a word go from a singular word to a plural word. Many times you can just add an "s" to the end of a word to make it plural. Of course there are exceptions and other rules but for first grade we won't go into toooo many of those details. :)

Math Workshop:

We played two new math games this week:

Roll and record a shape: Roll the 2-D shape cube, spin the spinner. Color in that many shapes on your recording sheet,

Number Bond Matching: Math the answer to the two numbers that either add to that number or subtract to equal that number.

Science :

Ms. Rachel came a couple weeks ago to do Sci Fri (thank you!!) and we made play dough color wheels with her. It was awesome! The kids loved mixing different colors.

A quick conversation that I loved this week...

Student 1: I wish we could stay in Mrs. Schultz and Ms. Alicia's class forever.

Student 2: It will be ok. We can go visit.

Student 1: It won't be the same.

Students 2: Yeah but we will have all the happy memories.

Isn't that the sweetest? Love those cute moments that happen each day and just had to share.

Have a restful weekend and write those dates down!
Mrs. Schultz

November 14th-18th

Hello!

There will be a couple announcements this week:

1. Thanksgiving break will be November 23rd-25th. No school those 3 days. School resumes November 28th.

2. We will be having our "Thanksgiving feast" November 22nd at school. This year we are doing a different kind of feast though! We are asking that each child bring their favorite snack to contribute to the feast this year. It can be anything they want! No nuts of course. Cannot wait to see what this year's spread will be. :) This is for the kids only. I promise to send pics.

3. Gingerbread House Decorating: December 15th 11:00-12:00 Parents are invited! This is a blast, You won't want to miss it. We will need candy, icing and graham cracker donations later. We will also need help gluing the crackers to the cartons. Watch for a sign up genius soon. And save some of that Halloween candy to use if you want!

Thematic Centers:

This week we studied Helen Keller. We could not believe that she was deaf and blind and accomplished so much including attending college. We also learned about braille and sign language. We rotated through 4 centers:

1. Cook "braille bites": take a cracker and spread icing on it. Then, using skittles, spell your name with the coordinating braille symbols. Eat and enjoy.
2. Illustrate the Helen Keller informational book and read it to a teacher.
3. Walk down the hall with headphones and a blind fold using a partner for help. Experience what it would be like to walk without sight and hearing.
4. Write your name in glue then dot the coordinating braille dots with glue dots. Let it dry and then feel what your name feels like in braille. Then find braille in our classroom and around the school and experience what it feels like on a real sign (bathroom, classroom etc.).

Last week we also spelled our name in braille using do-a-dot markers to practice for this week. We went over basic sign language words and phrases as well.

Reader's Workshop:

This week we worked on leveled books and sight words. So sorry I missed a couple groups last week with our short week! Hopefully we got all back on track this week.

Writer's Workshop:

We are still focusing on this month's theme of comics and enjoying every minute. The kids are coming up with the funniest stories.

Math Workshop:
We learned 2 new math games:

We played turkey subtraction match: Match the subtraction equation with the answer and the coordinating ten frame showing the answer.

Roll and cover: Roll 2 dice and add one. Cover up that space. The first player to cover up all their spaces wins. Another concept that we focus on in first grade is "plus 1." As part of our learning about numbers we start with the concept of one more and one less. Then we move into 10 more and 10 less as children learn the connections between numbers and patterns in math. We utilize the tool of the hundreds chart and children can begin to start to make connections with even more advanced patterns of addition and subtraction like 9 more, 11 more etc. That's also why we work at helping the children so thoroughly understand addition facts to 10. So that they can then apply these rules to larger addition and subtraction problems.

Science: We cannot wait to see what Ms. Rachel brings today.

Have a nice weekend!
Mrs. Schultz

November 7th-10th

It has been another great but busy week!

Please remember to send a water bottle with your child every day. We are out of water bottles and cups and many people are forgetting water bottles. If it is your turn to play the math game that is being sent home, please play it that evening and return it the next day. Please also make sure you are checking red folders every night. We are noticing many red folders are not being emptied and notes are not being read. This is one way we communicate each day and it is important. Thank you for your help with these things!

Thematic Centers:

We are still learning about Eleanor Roosevelt and feeling so inspired to give to others in her honor. This week we discussed how happy you feel after you have made someone else happy by doing something kind. We also learned that Eleanor Roosevelt loved hot dogs. She even invited the King and Queen over for a hot dog picnic when she was First Lady. We thought that was hilarious. We  rotated through 4 centers:

1. Make your "no sew scarf" to give to the homeless shelter.
2. With your table, make a replica of the White House out of legos.
3. Write a letter to the new president telling him something or asking him a question. We will be mailing these next week! Maybe we will get a response! :) We learned that Eleanor and her husband were very responsive to letters and visits with the public.
4. With your song lyrics book, listen to the words of the Eleanor Roosevelt song (that we will be singing in our next play) and try to learn the words. Then, highlight all of the sight words in the book. Take it home and review the words with your family!

Math:

We are still studying geometry. We went on a shape hunt around the school and in our classroom. We also played geometry battle ship. Player 1 makes a shape out of a rubber band on their geo board ( a plastic board with pegs). Player 2 has to mimic that same shape in the same exact spot on their board. And then player 2 gets a turn.

Reader's  Workshop:

This week we met with all reading groups, worked on sight words, word study words and even started word sorts. An example of a word sort is in the video below.  This was a new thing this week. We are gluing these in our day books. This student was sorting pictures by their beginning sounds. Each student will be working on a word sort that is needed for their individual reading/writing goals. This week we all did the same word sort for practice. Next week kids will be grouped based on their needs. Students might sort words according to long and short vowels, ending sounds, certain spelling patterns that they get mixed up on etc. Excuse the background noise, we were starting to clean up but I wanted to take this short video because Ella was doing such a nice job saying each word out loud as she sorted.

Writer's Workshop:

This week we are still studying comics. We focused on making speech bubbles in multiple different ways.

Have a wonderful long weekend!

Mrs. Schultz

November 2-4

It is already November! Can you believe it?

This week we all voted at school! We discussed the importance of voting during the presidential election and how cool it is that our country allows us to vote. We also discussed that voting is a very private and personal matter and should be kept a secret. Ask your child about his/her experience at school casting their vote for who should be president. Ms. Alicia and I were blown away with how much information they knew already.

Math:

We started our geometry unit and learned the difference between 2-D and 3-D shapes. We experimented with building 3-D shapes in our classroom and compared and contrasted 2-D and 3-D shapes. We sorted them as well based on characteristics like, how many sides and vertices (points on the shape). The 3-D shapes that we learned about were: cylinder, rectangular prism, cone, pyramid, cube and sphere.

**We finally started sending math games home to play for a night! So sorry it has taken us so long to get these going. When it is your turn to play, enjoy the game for one night and then return it the next day for another student to play. Your child should be able to explain the directions to the game on their own, but we included directions just to be sure.

Writer's Workshop:

This month we will be learning about and writing comics! Today was a blast and the kids LOVED filling in speech bubbles for their very own Elephant and Piggy comics. Some of them were hilarious and they decided to take them home. Check it out! Your kids are so creative. They wrote for over 45 minutes today and were sad when we had to clean up for lunch.

Reader's Workshop:

We did not have word study as it was a short week. We did however get through all guided reading groups and handwriting groups.

Thematic Unit:

We are beginning our new unit, studying heroes. We started studying Eleanor Roosevelt and learned what a marvelous lady she was. She has preformed so many acts of kindness ranging from decorating the hospital for sick babies and families to serving Thanksgiving meals to the homeless and SO MUCH MORE! We are inspired to get out in our community and do acts of service. Tomorrow we will be picking up trash (with gloves) around the school. And next week we will be making scarves to take to the Ada Jenkins center. We will also be making "blessing bags" for people in need. We will need your help gathering all of these materials so look for an email and the sign up genius for next week!

This week we rotated through 2 centers since it was a short week.

1. Create a sculpture out of model magic that represents a good deed that Eleanor did. Write a sentence explaining what your sculpture represents. Let these dry out at home and they will harden without baking them.
2. Create a timeline of Eleanor's life. Cut out and glue the different milestones on a sentence strip. Record the years above. This was great for background knowledge of Eleanor's life and was a great opportunity to introduce a timeline. The kids did great with this!

Admin Blog:

http://csdpowerofwe.org/admin-blogs/

Also see the special note below from our intern Ms. Morgan!

"Hi, I am Ms.Morgan and I’m doing my 8th grade practicum with Mrs.Schultz. I love getting to learn & play with your children. They are kind, creative & so fun to be around!  My 8th grade practicum group is doing a “Pay It Forward” for children at Ada Jenkins in Davidson. We have partnered with the owner of Davidson Pizza Company to give children at the Ada Jenkins Center pizza after school. Some children in need also take home pizza to their families. I want to share “Pay It Forward” with you as an opportunity for your child to help other children in our community. Just stop into the Davidson Pizza Company with a $1 & tell them that you are from CSD and would like to add to “Pay It Forward”. Each $1 buys a slice of pizza for a child. Davidson Pizza Company will have paper to draw a picture, write a word or note & it will be put up on the “Pay It Forward” board. The children from Ada Jenkins will get a slice of pizza & a note from the board that puts a smile on their face. I am also happy to collect a dollar at school & let your child write a note.  I will take these to the Davidson Pizza Company.  If you wish to participate this is a fun opportunity for children to give to others!"

**The opportunity above ties in really well with who we are studying this week. :)

Have a great weekend,
Mrs. Schultz

October 24th-28th

Hello families!

The blog is coming out a day early and will be short and sweet because we are busy having fun (and also getting ready for conferences). :) This week we are enjoying working on various Halloween centers including making jack o' lantern cookies. We are also reading leveled books, taking a nature walk and writing about it and working hard on word problems with more than 2 numbers. We look forward to seeing you at the parade of fiction! I sent an email earlier about the time and location. Email me if you have any questions. Can't wait to see some of you at parent/teacher conferences as well. Please have a safe and happy Halloween!

Hugs, 

Mrs. Schultz

PS: Please see the 2 adorable videos below. The first one is the class reciting the Halloween poem we wrote with Mr. Ted and we added hand motions. The second one is Sully explaining the steps we took to make our jack o' lantern cookies. :)

October 17th-21st

Ella and Gunnar lost a tooth this week 5 minutes apart. Crazy!

Michael's morning journal entry says "I like Mrs. Schultz. She is a great teacher." He even drew my pumpkin sweatshirt and my hair in a bun on top of my head. Precious!

The 6th grade drama class came to preform today. They made skits based off of children's books. They were amazing. 

Sunshine chats with these two love bugs. 

What an exciting time to be a first grader! Halloween, pumpkins, candy, costumes, fairy tale ball and parade of fiction. Enjoy this special time with your little ones. It is such a fun season! As I have heard from my mom 100 times....it goes by in the blink of an eye, so take it all in. :)

Fairy Tale Ball:

**9-11 in the elementary gym** We would love you to stay the whole time but no worries if you cannot. The dance will be at the beginning so you definitely want to try to catch that. Please send your child to school DRESSED in their costume. Please send tennis shoes and a change of clothes for after the ball. Please be sure your child can undress themselves out of their costume. You may want to practice that before Friday morning. Remember, your child's costume can be simple. Anything related to a fairy tale is acceptable. Thank you to those of you who have volunteered to help in some way. We cannot do it without you! We hope that you will enjoy this special one on one time with just your first grader. We prefer no siblings as gym space will be tight with the whole first grade and all 8 stations.

Thematic Centers:


We are still working through the Cinderella centers. We are reading many versions of this classic tale.

1. Make and decorate an invitation to the fairy tale ball. Be sure you get the time, location and date correct!
2. Turn a real mini pumpkin into Cinderella's carriage using jewels, sequins, paint, pom poms etc. 3. Record the beginning, middle and end of the story by illustrating and writing a sentence using your tri-fold story board. You may use water colors, colored pencils, markers or crayons.4. Using attribute blocks, trace different shapes to make a castle. After tracing your shape castle, you may paint it or color it in. Count how many shapes you have and record how many of each you used. Discuss 2-D and 3-D shapes among your table as well as the different attributes that each shape possess.

Math Workshop:

This week we had two new math tubs.

1. Say it quick: In small groups look at the flash card held up. Say how many more you need to get to 10. There are ten frames with a certain amount of dots on them. You must say how many more you need to get to 10 before the card goes away.

2. Spill the Beans: Shake a group of ten beans spray painted half black and half white. Drop them and color in how many out of 10 and how many are white. Write a number sentence that matches.

Example: I shake and drop my 10 beans. When they land, 4 are white and 6 are black. I color in the beans accordingly. Then the equation would be 4+6=10.

Both of these games work on addition and subtraction and math facts within 10.

Reader's Workshop:

Our reading strategy this week is chunky monkey. Look for chunks in words that you know as well as endings that you know. Example: In the word reading you know that read spells "read" and -ing says "ing." When you blend it together it spells reading!

We worked on leveled books, sight words and new word study words this week as well. I cannot get over how well your kiddos know their sight words. I cannot thank you enough for practicing at home!

Writer's Workshop:

We are working on poems to send to Mr. Ted who came to our class! We are also perfecting hand motions to the poem we created as a class with Mr. Ted so that we can video it and send it to him. Who knew poetry could be so fun?

Science: Last week we made slime with Ms. Rachel and we cannot wait to see what Josephine's does with us!

**A quick note about carpool. Please be sure you are in the carpool line by 3:00.**

-I will be sending out a sign up genius for optional parent/teacher conferences. You may sign up for a conference if you want.

See you all Friday at the ball!

Hugs, 
Mr. Schultz