News from Our Classroom

     The timing of the Grandparents' Day visits to Crescent Park School has been changed.  It will take place from 9:00 to 10:30 this year.  This is a good thing for me, as I can try to get the assessing of children's  sight words and sentence fluency done before the excitement of Grandparents visiting.  I'm sorry about the change in times--this one was not due to a "Senior Moment", but a change of plans in the office.

     "Zoe" emerged from her chrysalis on Wednesday, October 7, four days earlier than expected!  Monarch butterflies' chrysalis stage is supposed to last for 14 days.  That's the way it has been for the sixteen years I've done this activity, but there seems to be a change happening.  "Flapster" was only in chrysalis stage for ten days, and now so was "Zoe"!  Perhaps the timing is adapting to changes in the monarch's environment.  "Baby Boo" (a girl) emerged on Thursday after 10 days, and "Sky" (a boy) was there Friday morning when I went in for my workshop.  The other butterflies in the building were either born workshop day or the day after.  Because we thought their arrival times would necessitate their release before kids came back from the long weekend, my class and I voted to have Mrs. Meader's class release "Zoe" on Wednesday, and Ms. Smith's class release "Baby Boo" on Thursday.  That way, all of the classes in the first grade got to see the (final stage) butterfly, and release it on its trip to Mexico.  A few of my students wanted to hang on to them ourselves so we could release them again, but most understood that the other classes would not get the chance otherwise, and so voted to "share the experience".  Another "thank you" goes out to Caelan and his family, and to Judy Cross, for making the learning of the butterfly life cycle so much more meaningful to us than it would have been otherwise. 
      In Reading this week, we finished the short a family words (-ad, -ag, -am, -an, -ap, and -at words) This coming week, we will hopefully move on to "short o", which is the next vowel we are going to work with--short o as in "octopus".  We learned about "characters", and "settings" using the many fairy tales we have read or had read to us, or our "focus" books (Chicka Chicka Boom Boom,   The Dot, and The Recess Queen). We have also started doing Buddy Reading (classmates reading with other classmates) as part of our center time.  We have reviewed what "rhyming" means, and are on the look-out for rhyming words!  We noticed that all of our word family words rhyme with all OTHER words in the SAME  word family!  Cool!  We even spent time practicing our sight words and our fluency sentences.  Remember, your child's sight words and fluency sentences for this week will be the  same ones that he or she received last week!  They will be tested on them this coming Friday, right before Grandparents' Day activities start!
      In Math, we are working on the strategy of counting up (adding) and counting down (subtracting), first using "dots" (subitizing) cards in which we are learning to see "number groups".  We are working on a skill that all children need to have.  For those kids who are able to easily do the work given, I am encouraging them to turn the paper over and show me that they know how to use the same skill with harder numbers.  I give "bonus" points for extra work, but am requiring the front of the page to be completed correctly before I give bonuses for the back.  This limit became necessary as some children were "racing through" the front (and making errors in their haste) to be able to work for bonus points on the back.  This coming week, we will be focused on number bonds (two numbers that, when added together, make our target number).  We will begin by looking for the numbers bonds for 6, and then seven, and then 8, and then 9.  We are also going to try to build up speed when "coming up with" the number bonds for these target numbers.  The following week, we will work on number bonds for ten, and then get into the "teen" numbers.  Next week some time we will have our first of many "timed" tests--the first one is 50 vertical basic addition problems (sums to 12) in 5 minutes.  We will do a timed test just about every week in an attempt to make these facts become automatic.  I try NOT to make this activity a competitive one.  Each child is encouraged to better their own score from the previous week.  Once a child has received a 90% or better rate, he or she moves on to the next test.  There are five or six of these types of test, but only the first two (50 addition facts to 12 in 5 minutes with 90% accuracy, and 50 subtraction facts from 12 in 5 minutes with 90% accuracy) are required for first grade.  Your child will have the entire year to be able to pass these two tests, and a certificate will come home to tell you that she or he has passed each one.  Success on these two timed tests are also reported on the first grade report card.
       We finished up the Five Senses last week, and will begin an introduction to maps today with a talk about who Christopher Columbus was, which will flow into a discussion of the seven continents and five oceans.  A simplified map of the world will come home today.  On it, you will see the seven continents and the five oceans labeled.  On the back side, you will see the same map without the labels but with numbers.  This is a tool for you to use at home to help your child remember her continents and oceans. Please don't write on these copies, as you will need to use them over and over again to practice the oceans and continents. You can use the one with numbers and write the answers your child gives you on a sheet of paper with matching numbers, then you can turn the map over to see how close he or she came. Your child needs to be able to identify the oceans and continents with 90% accuracy on a test I will give her in either November or December.
        Our field trip to Harvest Hill Farm is next Wednesday, October 21.  The permission slip should be going home today.  Please fill it out, and return it and any monies involved by Friday, October 16.  That way, I can give the farm an accurate account of number of people attending.  Also, remember that if you would like to chaperone this trip, you must be approved to do so by the district office.  You can get the form that needs to be filled out at the office.  Please do so as soon as possible, since you must be approved prior to our trip.  Thank you.
         The BoxTops competition ends next Friday, so if you have boxtops kicking around, please tape them to a sheet of paper and send them in.  Coupons are used to obtain playground equipment, so it's a good cause.
         Our classroom Halloween party will take place right after we come in from lunch recess at 12:10pm on Friday the 30th (still several weeks away).   It is going to be a SMALL affair,  since we will need to begin changing into our costumes at 12:40.  Please let me know if you would like to contribute some kind of snack food--cheese, crackers, pretzels, cut pieces of fruit, juice boxes are always a big hit.  I have plates, cups and napkins from last year.  I'd like to limit the sweets to one or two, since the kids will get more than enough sweets trick-or-treating.  The Halloween Parade will take place  from 1:15pm to roughly 2:00pm.  It is my intent to have your child change out of his or her costume before going home--if he or she is going home with you, then that will be your decision.  I tend to find that if we can get the costume off and packed without food being involved, then all the pieces come home in reusable condition.  We will have four parties in all this year--Halloween, "Christmas/Hanukkah, Valentine's Day, and End-of-the-year--it would be great to spread the task of treats throughout our group, so no one has to contribute to more than one party.  I will let you know once I know we have enough food coming in for this one.  Thank you for your help.
     Important Dates:  
     Picture Day (today)
     Grandparents' Day (October 16th from 9:00 - 10:30)
     Harvest Hill Farm field trip (October 21st from 8:15 am to 1:45 pm--permission slips and monies due October 16th.)
     Halloween party (October 30th 12:10pm -12:40pm)  Halloween Parade (1:15pm - 2:00ish)
     Teacher Workshop Day / Voting Day (Tuesday, November 3rd--no school for students)
      Veteran's Day (Wednesday, November 11th--NO SCHOOL)
      Thanksgiving "Break" (Wednesday, 11/24 - Sunday, 11/29)