Don't forget to send your child's Valentines in on either Monday the 13th or Tuesday the 14th. Please try to include 1 for every child in the class. If you have an extra one that you would like to put "To a Vet" we will see that it gets in the box to be delivered to the Veterans. No need to send a shoe box as we have decorated bags for collecting the cards and they are at school.

Happy Valentine's Day to all of you!

Dear Parents,

I just wanted to let you know that, as a gala auction item, Ms. White and I are offering a "Bowling Party for 6."

Two hours of fun bowling with snacks at Brunswick Zone in Roswell.   Date and time to be worked out between teachers and parents.

The Gala Auction will be held February 4, 2012 at Olde Towne Athletic Club from 7 to 11 PM. Tickets are on sale at http://gmefoundation.org - $35 and $45 at the door or you can Download 2012GALATicketformto purchase tickets in advance. Visit the website for a sample of items to bid on. All proceeds go back to GMEF.

The proceeds will be used to improve our school by providing funding for programs such as technology, educational curriculum and facility improvements. The GMEF will accumulate and distribute resources beyond those provided by Cobb County or the PTA, in order to further enhance, foster and enrich the educational experiences of all students at Garrison Mill.

Thank you for your support!

Can you believe that we have already been in 1st grade for 5 months! That means there are only 5 months left. We have learned so much but we have many things to cover before the end of the year.

We are working on compounds and contractions in language arts. We will start working with commas in our writing. You'll notice less Saxon phonics coming home as we have covered most of what we need to cover for our skills for the year.

Our math takes us into fractions and time and of course we'll work more with money and addition and subtraction.

You'll begin to notice information coming home at least once a month about your child's progress with our first grade timed addition test (50 problems in 5 minutes)

Our next historical figure that we'll study will be

 Harriet Tubman.

We will also learn a little about light and shadows.

This should keep us busy for awhile!

Upcoming things......

School Dance - Friday, January 27th

Foundation Gala - Saturday, February 4th / 7-11pm / Olde Towne Athletic Club (Adults only)

Valentine Centers - February 14th

We need 2-3 volunteers to help with the planning of the Valentine Centers. If you are interested in helping with this please let me know as soon as possible.

First grade will have checkpoint testing on December 13^th and 14^th. It will be important that your child is here for this testing. The testing is for Language Arts and Math and will not take long each day. We will complete this testing in the mornings each day.

We will have our High Touch High Tech scientist return on December 15^th to work with us on our study of sound.

Tis the season for learning about explorers and shapes!

Our newest explorers are Lewis and Clark and their travels west. These explorers build on our learning from Thomas Jefferson as he was President during this time and sent Lewis and Clark westward.  We will take our own journey as we study about these two explorers.

Shapes will be our next math unit when we finish money. We will study 2D and 3D shapes. New shape names that your child will be learning about are pentagon, hexagon and 3D shapes sphere, cylinder, cone, cube, rectangular prism. We will find these shapes in everyday things in our world.

We are writing a pattern book for the season – Reindeer, Reindeer What Do You See? - when you’re in the building stop by to read them.

New 50 word lists will go home the beginning of the month and the final words will be sent before the holidays in case you want to work on them during the break.

Class needs if you are interested in helping: markers, hand soap, paper towel and the treasure box is running very low – I guess that means there have been a lot of trips to the box! Dollar store items are great for the treasure box! 

Our Winter Holiday Party is Wednesday, December 21st starting at 12:20. If you are interested in helping with this party please email me and I’ll forward your email to Mrs. Judd who is organizing this party for the class.

Don't forget that the time changes the first weekend in November - "Fall back" 1 hour!

The year is rapidly moving on and Thanksgiving will be here before we know it!

Something missing? 

I hope it's not somebody to come for your child on the 17th !

 
Thank you for returning the lunch counts for the Grandparent or Special Friend lunch day. (If you didn't send yours yet - please send ASAP!) Our day is Thursday, November 17th. Our lunch time is 11:00 but we will have a short performance in the room before lunch. The performance time is 10:40. While you may think this is just another day for lunch at Garrison Mill - it is SPECIAL so I hope all children will have somebody coming to the performance and to eat with them on the 17th.

Curriculum news for the 9 weeks continues this month and into December:

Language Arts:

We've been working on how stories work. We have talked in length about characters, setting, problems and solutions in various stories.

Our phonics continues to gain ground. Please make sure yur child is READING the words on the phonics sheets each time they come home not just coding the sheets. If only the coding is getting done the phonics skill is not being "applied" as this is done in the reading of the word. As I read the words with the children many of them are telling me that they are not reading the words at home.

Our writing focus still includes capitals and punctuation as well as maintaining a focus with our ideas. We will work on writing a pattern book this 9 weeks.

                                                   

In math we have worked more with graphing and graphed a little in the computer lab using excel. We have also worked with the words greater than and less than and the signs ><. We continue to review money as we need to have a good understanding of money to 50 cents this nine weeks. You can always throw a little change on the table and let your child count the coins. Maybe if he/she counts correctly they can keep it! Our adding and subtacting facts go to 12 this time. Geometry will start in December.

Our newest historical figures of study are Thomas Jefferson and Lewis and Clark.

And our science units cover magnets and sound.  

This just gives you a brief view of our days as you talk to your child about things going on at school!

At home....continue having your child read out loud to you at least 10 minutes each day.

Just a reminder that school will be released 2 hours early all week the week of

October 24th - 28th because of Parent / Teacher conferences.

Your child will have 2 Reading Street books this week. Make sure you read the one that goes with the worksheet that you'll find in Monday's folder. I thought you might find some time for added reading since school is out early this week!

Fall Centers will be Monday, October 31st. Remember - no costumes!

Also no candy for snacks or lunch after trick-or-treating - I'll leave all of that sugar for you! 

We made it through testing and we're almost through "being quiet" for our 3rd grade neighbors. We have gone to another room several mornings to help with this "quiet" time and the kids have been GREAT!

Thank you to the 3 Testing Fairies that came to visit our class during our days of testing. The children LOVED your surprises each day! I even got a special visit from a Testing Fairy - I guess I did well too :)

Thank you for getting your conference forms back SO quickly! I look forward to seeing all of you the last week of the month. Don't forget that school will be released 2 hours early that week.

I'm still missing a few permission forms for the High Touch Science lessons and some money envelopes. If you are able to make ANY kind of a donation it would be appreciated. We see the scientist on Wednesday the 19th - I must have permission for your child to go. This will be our introduction lesson to magnets.

Come to the Fall Festival on Friday the 14th - you can eat, play games and dunk the principal!!!

QSP pick up will be on Wednesday the 19th from 2-7 in the media center. Please come and pick up your order.

Friday the 21st is a very busy day at GM - Box Tops are due, Square 1 Art is due, Bus Driver Appreciation day - other things see the calendar!

Red Ribbon Week is the 17th - 21st - activities are as follows:

Monday: PJ day- please send shoes with your child

Tuesday: Backwards day

Wednesday: Sweatsuit day

Thursday: Team Jersey

Friday: Wear a lot of RED!

Look for the on line reading homework to start the week of October 17th. This is the "Reading Street" books. There will be information in your child's green folder on Monday the 17th to get you started. New books will be assigned each Monday with a worksheet in the GREEN folder on Monday's.

Our inventions were a big hit. The children had 1 hour to plan and make the invention. So many great things were invented. Robots that bring you tissues, bridges that can take you anywhere, machines that keep 3 kinds of medicine for a year, a dome that you get your "beauty" sleep in, and many more. Thank you for helping with the items to make the inventions.

We have had fun learning about Benjamin Franklin. We will have some writing up in the hall about him when you come for conferences. Our next person of interest will be his friend - Thomas Jefferson.

October is going fast - make time for all the fun things about the month!

Happy Fall

Fall is a great time of year for outdoor activities. I hope you are all enjoying the great weather! 

 
 
Please continue to read the front of the homework folder each week for important updates.

Thank you to those all that returned the conference request forms. As I said last week, I'll do my best to schedule your requested time or close to that time. Conference forms from the school with "your scheduled" time will come home in a couple of weeks.

We continue to work through our phonics lessons and I am seeing more and more children working on the homework side each day!

 
Please encourage your child to write in complete sentences for homework too as this is what we work so hard to do in first grade. This includes a capital letter at the beginning and punctuation at the end. I also encourage at least 5 words in a sentence.

We will finish our landform study this week before we begin our next Social Studies unit. It's a surprise - you'll have to read on in a week or so to see who will be sending things to our classroom!

Sir Bark and Miss Mew went home for the first time this weekend. They will visit your house this year too. Please help your child take good care of them and their belongings (blanket, 3 books, journal)

I appreciate the donations you have made to the classroom. Thank you for your help.

We can always use copy help if you can give an hour of your time once a month or so.

Don't forget CoGAT testing coming up in October - I'll send a reminder next week.

As always - thanks for all you do at home to help your child.

What's Up In Our Classroom?

Up coming skills in Reading groups:

Green Cats: Characters - Setting- Problem - Solution

Lizards: Beginning dictionary skills - finding words - locating information in a story to answer questions

Horses: Comprehension checks - locating information in a story to answer questions - sequencing a story - reading blends and digraphs

Butterflies: Comprehension - vowel sounds

Math Skills: Building those subtraction skills. Writing our own subtraction story problem. Our math is so much of a hands on approach - you don't see a lot of "paper" coming home but we do have math each day. We use a lot of manipulatives, white boards, and other things in the room. Since we have math later in the day and they are getting tired by this time I am finding sitting at their desks and completing a paper just isn't the greatest thing to do so we "do" math in our room.

 Social Studies: More with the 7 Continents and 4 Oceans and starting Landforms - Can your child sing the Continent and Ocean songs to you? We will continue with this next week.

Hope this helps you with some of what we'll be doing next week!

Have a great Week End!

 
A Blue Homework Folder will come home with your child on Tuesday. Please make sure all homework is completed in PENCIL.

Have your child write his/her name on each piece of work. All work should be completed NEATLY and sent back at one time in the blue folder. All work is due by Friday morning but can be sent back earlier. [I do not feel the work I send should be rushed through in 1 night.] 

This week you will also find a page with your child's First in Math log-in information. This is a good time to start working with this program with your child. Just a few minutes a week will help review and build math skills in a fun way for your child.

Thank you for taking time to sit with your child at some point to discuss his/her homework and go over it when it is finished. As I said at Open House I will not be sending a lot of work but I do expect it to be done each week and to be done nicely.

Again - thank you for all you do at home to help your child each day.