Buccaneer Blast

The auction is coming up soon - November 5!  This year the preschool, kindergarten, and first grade students will be making note cards for the auction.  The packs will have assorted holidays and events and will be handmade by the students.  

In addition, your student is invited to donate something on their own if you would like them to do so.  A letter is going home today to give you a few ideas.  Next week a sheet will be going home for you to fill out if your student chooses to donate an item.

Have a great weekend!

A few FYIs -

Math - This week we went all the way up to partners of 10.  We have been learning about math mountains, equations, break aparts, partners, and switch partners.  Today we had our first unit test.

Phonics - We are currently learning about digraphs.  Digraphs are two consonants together and they make a new sound.  The digraphs we are learning are sh, ch, wh, th, and ck.

Reading - As of today, we have learned all five of the Daily 5 centers.  We have gone through the expectations for each one and then we have been practicing, practicing, practicing.  We call that building our stamina!  Today was the first day we got to practice all 5.  It was amazing to see!  Building Daily 5 is a huge process - but it has such great results!  I am so proud of the hard work they have been doing!

Writing - We are continuing to write in our journals.  :)

Handwriting - This week the only letter we worked on was Tt.  Then we had a review of Ll, Ii, and Tt.

Science - We are learning about weather.  Last week we learned about wind.  We had fun making Lego cars and using our wind and a fan to move our cars.  Now we are learning about thermometers.  I am super excited to tell you that November 2 Steve Beylon, a meteorologist from channel 2, will be visiting our classroom.

Religion - Tomorrow we will finally start our Promise Papers.  Promise Papers are weekly Gospel activities.  This week we have also been plugging along through our Religion book.  We have been talking about Jesus as our friend.  We have also been practicing for our mass.  Our mass is next Thursday, September 29.

Discipline With Purpose - This week we continue to work on lessons dealing with listening.  We really focused on the six steps involved in listening.  They are-
1.  Stop what you are doing
2.  Clear away distractions
3.  Look at the person talking
4.  Tell what you heard them say
5.  Ask questions about what you heard.
6.  Do the task given

Read-Aloud - We are reading Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl.  Today they entered the chocolate room.  Tomorrow - Augustus Gloop goes up the pipe!

MAP Testing - We will have MAP testing next week.  Monday we will have the reading test and Wednesday we will have the math test.  If you haven't sent headphones to school for your child yet, please do so.

Tomorrow is Football Friday!  The students may have a dress down day.  They can wear Packer clothes, or clothes from any other football team.  (high school, college, professional, Pop Warner, etc.)

Here are a few pictures of Daily 5 from this week -

The kids loved making their faces so you could see them at their table spots.  Here are a few pics.

Enjoy!

Mass Parts - Thursday, September 29th

Greeters - Daniel, Aisling, Kate, Ella
Introduction - Quinn
Book - Caxton
First Reading - Eddie, Caxton, Vinny, Eamonn
Petitions - Cayden, Ephraim, CJ, RP, Clare, Aubrey
Bread - Emma
Wine - Dakota
Thanksgiving Prayer - Sam

Mass reading parts are going home today.  Please practice, practice, practice the readings with your children.  :)  The readings can stay at home.  We have other sheets to practice at school.

Have a great night!  :)

First - A Spanish coloring sheet went home today.  The students are to color it and return it to Senora Roach next Tuesday.

Second - I took a ton of pictures today!
We are working on learning the parts of Daily 5.  So far we have worked on read to self, read to someone, and listening.  Today we practiced all three centers (building stamina!)  I walked around and snapped some pictures - Here they are!

This afternoon in science we were learning about wind in our weather unit.  I found a fun activity to add to our Einstein kit that fits in with our STREAM curriculum - building Lego cars powered by wind.  So today we worked in groups to build Lego cars.  Tomorrow we will be racing our cars.  First by blowing them.  Second by using a fan.  Here are a few pictures I took today while we were building.

Happy Monday!

I wanted to share a few dates with you.

Here are all the mass days first grade will be in charge of this year -

*September 29
*November 1
*December 15
*March 9
*April 20
*June 1

Also, this year, all of the classes will be heading out to Osprey Point a few times.  The dates that first grade is scheduled to be out there are -

*October 5
*November 16
*January 4
*February 15
*April 19
*May 17

I'll share more info with you about Osprey Point as I get it.  Right now, I'm only aware of the
dates.  :)

A few updates -

We are working on Discipline with Purpose.  We have 15 self-discipline skills that we will work on the entire year.  So far we have worked really hard on the first skill  - listening.  We are learning the steps that a good listener does.  Lots and lots and lots of repetition on this skill!  :)

This week we are starting to get into our regular routine.  Here are a few things we have done in our classroom -

Reading -  We are starting the process of Daily 5.  The Daily 5 centers are read to self, read to someone, listening, work on writing, and word work.  While the students are working in these centers, I am teaching reading groups.  Before any of that can happen - we need to practice, practice, practice and build our stamina!  This week we learned about and practiced all the components of read to self.  (Find a good spot, Stay in one spot, Get started right away, Read the whole time, Build stamina)  Tomorrow we will start working on read to someone.

Math - This week we took the beginning of the year inventory test.  We take the test to figure out where the students need to be placed in math.  Today we started working on five groups.
    - Milk Rings - If your child tells you they want the rings off of your milk jugs, they're correct.  :)  We have a board that we put them on to learn about place value.  So far our milk ring number is 48.  4 groups of tens and 8 ones.  :)

Science - We are starting an Einstein science kit - weather.  So far we only had the first lesson - Sharing what we know about weather.

Phonics - We started fundations phonics this week.  We reviewed all of the letter keyword sounds.  We had an assessment on knowing the letters of the alphabet and recognizing letter sounds.  We are working on c-v-c (consonant-vowel-consonant) words and tapping them out.

Handwriting - This year we will work on forming the letters correctly and making sure the letters are in the correct spaces.  Yesterday we worked on our first handwriting page - letter L (capital and lower case).

Writing - Eventually we will have writer's workshop.  To start the year, we write in journals.  We have made one journal entry.  Tomorrow we'll make journal entry number 2.

Religion - This year we have a brand new Religion series.  We started working out of our books this week.  The first chapter we are working on is about Jesus and friendship.  We will also be having Promise Papers this year.  Promise Papers are a weekly lesson about the Sunday Gospel.

Have a fantastic weekend!  :)

We had a great first day!  One of the projects we did was build a chain with 180 links for 180 days of  school.  They had great team work!

Tomorrow the students will have gym.

Next week Tuesday is picture day.

Remember to pack a daily snack.

Have a great night!