Insects, Insects....kids love them!

Jared...don't eat the caterpillar! HA!

Lots of screams while our little furry friends crawled on arms!

Lots of the boys wanted to hold them....:-)

BOOK IT October-March

Dear, Parents!

Did you know reading is the ultimate super power!  And with the help of the BOOK IT! Program, our class will be honing super reading skills over the next six months (Oct 1-March 31).

The mission of the BOOK IT! Program is to encourage more reading outside of the classroom.  The program is easy and fun!  Your child has the opportunity to earn Reading Award Certificates by meeting our daily reading goal of 20 minutes a day.   A SHEET will come home at the start of each month with a calendar.  Simply color in the picture for every 20 minutes you read at home each day of the month. (If you miss a day, try to double up on another day to catch up!) The Reading Award Certificates can be redeemed at Pizza Hut where your child will receive a BOOK IT award and a free, one-topping Personal Pan Pizza. 

GUESS WHAT!  You are already doing some of this! Your Guided Reading minutes/books may count towards your 20 minutes!

DID YOU KNOW? A child spends 900 hours in school a year.  A child spends 7800 hours OUTSIDE of school a year.  Which teacher has the BIGGER influence? 

Daily Lit Booklets

You should have seen these booklets come home over the past 2 weeks.  This book is called our Daily Literacy Practice Booklet.  We work in these each day during our Word Work/Spelling time.  We use this book each week to practice many skills:

• letters sounds
• letter blends
• reading/practicing sight words & using them in a sentence
• Rhyming
• Writing/Grammar 
• identifying complete sentences
• segmenting words
• Isolating sounds in words
• Comprehension of short passages 
  
   

Our Painted Lady Catepillars have arrived!

Our Painted Lady caterpillars have arrived to our classroom!!!!!  The kids were so excited to see and meet them:-) We will study and observe them over the next few weeks as they move through the stages of their Life Cycle.  (eggs-larva (caterpillar)-pupa (chrysalis)-adult (butterfly)

Science-Insect stages!

 We will continue to study/compare the LIFE CYCLE OF AN INSECT.  We look at the Darkling beetle, butterfly, and various other insects that students find around us!!!!

We found this little "creature" in our classroom.  Hmmmm any guesses as to what it is??

Our little Clara brought this Walkingstick in to share with the Class!

Here we are looking at the 4 stages of an Insect!  Egg, Larva, Pupa, Adult

Milwaukee Public Museuem Field Trip

All 1st graders will be going on a Field Trip to the Milwaukee Public Museum on Friday, November 7th!  Mark your calendars!  Parents are WELCOME!

We will also be able to go into the Butterfly Garden at the Museum!!!  It will be a PERFECT wrap-up to our INSECT unit:-) You will have a stroll through a lush, tropical mini-garden. Hear the murmur of a cascading waterfall and the soothing sounds of tranquil music. We will watch as exotic butterflies emerge from their chrysalises and sip nectar right before your eyes!!! 

Author Visit!

Laura Purdis Salas, an author, is coming to visit on Friday, October 10th!  Today I read a book of poems about food to the students.  It is called Lettuce Introduce You: Poems About Food.  The students really enjoyed the pictures, especially the s'mores and made faces when I read about brussel sprouts and sushi. We will be sharing more books by Laura Purdis Salas leading up to October 10th.

The mealworms are crawling!

The students had a lot of fun in science observing their mealworms while they took out the old apple pieces and gave them new ones.  There was a lot of excitement in the classroom and some even let the mealworms crawl on their hands while others didn't want to touch them at all.  We are learning about the life cycle of the Darkling Beetle. Each starts as an egg, then larva (which is our current mealworm stage), pupa, and then beetle.

Tumblebooks

Our district has access to an incredible book resource called Tumblebooks.  We use this at snack time and the students enjoy listening to a story.  You can access this at home.  Go to https://www.tumblebooks.com/, and click on the left/green box.  Then enter the username: kielschools and password: books.  To listen to stories click on "story books."  I encourage you to explore the other links as well.  Enjoy!

SpellingCity!

Good evening, Parents!

We have an awesome resource to help with your child's spelling each week!   It is called SPELLING CITY!  It is very simple to use:-)  There are spelling games, practice tests, and other various activities using our spelling words for the week.   

1.  Go to www.Spellingcity.com

2.  Go to the right side that says "Student Login". 

Username: the number 26(1st initial of 1st name)(last name)

Password:(1st initial of 1st name)(last name)26

For example:  Mike Smith would be 

Username: 26msmith

Password msmith26

3. You will then see all the spelling lists for the year by week (starting at the bottom:-)  For example, this week is September week 3 (the 3rd week of September:-).  You can click on the week and you can choose any activity.  We will slowly be introducing the students to various activities on the site over the next couple weeks.  Feel free to try it out with your child as another means to study/practice the words.

Any questions, please email or call!

SPELLING this week!

Just a reminder...we start our 1st spelling list this week!  On Monday's we have a PRETEST of the words. If a student receives 100% on the pretest they will receive a "challenge list" of words to study for Friday's test.  These words will be stapled to your child's pretest and will come home in your child's folder on Monday.  If your child received any wrong you will see this on Monday's pretest and know what to study for Friday!

Remember: The spelling words were sent home LAST WEEK on the BACK of the September newsletter!  Thank you for your help and cooperation in your child's education.

Guided Reading

September 2014
Dear Parents,

We will begin working with your son/daughter in a Guided Reading group starting next week.  We will have Guided Reading almost every day during Centers time.  Guided Reading means meeting with the teacher in a small group at the student’s “Instructional Reading” level.  “Instructional” level means the books shouldn’t be so hard that they frustrate your child and they shouldn’t be so easy that your child breezes through them.  The books should be ones your child can read at a comfortable pace with a few words they need to learn.  According to research, it is at this level – a child’s instructional reading level – where optimal reading growth occurs.  

First grade children will be formally assessed multiple times during the year to help determine the instructional level that is right for them.  Your child’s group can and will most likely change over time to meet young readers’ changing needs.  Groups will meet for approximately 15/20 minutes per session.  When your child is not meeting with their guided reading group, they will be involved in other instructional reading activities. 

Most nights your child will be bringing home a Guided Reading book in a bag.  We are asking that you sit down with your child and have them read the book to you.  Please complete the orange sheet in the Guided Reading bag and return the book/bag to school the following day.  Thank you for playing an important role in teaching your child to read.  Any questions please call or email.

Little Tidbits of our Days in Room 200!

Brain Breaks in our classroom:  We work soooo hard sometimes that we need to give our BRAINS a break:-)  The students choose a stick from our BRAIN BREAK jar and then we do what it says!  This was a brain break where we had to do Push-Ups!

BEEs: You might have heard your child talk about EARNING a BEE in our classroom...GREAT!  Students can earn Bees for various things: making Good Choices, returning homework the next day, being helpful to others, etc.  Students can then save these boys for special rewards such as bringing a stuffed animal for a day, eating lunch with the teacher, reading to a 4K student, extra Ipad time, etc. 

Center Time:  Every day from 10:00-11:10 we have Center Time.  All four of our centers revolve around literacy. Ipad: Students use the program RAZZ-KIDS.  It is set up to be at their Instructional Level, so every student is challenged where they need to be. On Razz-Kids, students have 3 tasks for each story/book they read online..1) Listen to the book 2)Read the story/book 3) then take a short comprehension quiz based on the book. LAPTOP center is an online program for 1st graders that is again setup/aligned with their instructional level.  Students work on phonics, phonemic awareness, vocabulary, fluency, and comprehension.  These are all critical literacy skills.  Book Bags is another Read to Self time.  Students choose books from a bin that is at their reading level.  The DESK center is various writing/spelling lessons each day depending on students needs.  While students work through their centers, Mrs. Hoban/Mrs. Keifenheim pull students for small group reading instruction.  This is our GUIDED READING time.  There was a note sent home on Friday telling you about Guided Reading and what to do with your child's Guided Reading Bag!!!  Any questions, please feel free to email or call!  Happy Friday:-)

 

Writer's Workshop

This afternoon the students did some writing.  They wrote three sentences that started with "My friend..."  We focused on starting each sentence with a capital letter, using finger spacing between words, and ending with a period.  Here are pictures of some of the students working!

Friendly Reminders

What a wonderful group of children:-)  We are enjoying our 1st week getting to know your little ones!  Friendly reminders for next week:

-Please remember to send a healthy snack each day for our morning break/milk time at 9:30.
-Please remember to help your child to check his/her folder each night for important papers or homework.  We will not send an email each time we send homework:-)

If you have any questions, please feel free to contact us.
Happy Friday:-)

Read to Self

What is READ TO SELF? 

Everyday we have "Read to Self" after lunchtime. Children reading to themselves is the foundation for creating independent readers and writers. On the surface, "Read to Self" seems basic and simple. However, there are specific teaching techniques that make "Read to Self" a powerful tool for enhancing all literacy skills.  Each child has books that have been self-selected from a bin at their reading level.  In this way, children spend most of their independent reading time engaged in books which they can decode and comprehend at their present reading level. Our goals/expectations are to: get started right away, stay in one spot, read quietly, build stamina, and read the whole time. 
 

Bag Sharing

We have been sharing our bags throughout the week. Thank you for taking the time to help your child gather some of their favorite things:-)

Centers Time!

Every morning after recess we have four centers the students rotate through: Ipads, laptops to do Headsprout, silent reading, and desk activity.  Here are the students working hard at their centers!