Mrs. Richards' Reports from Room 137

Welcome Back to a full week of school! Here are some highlights of what we'll be doing!

Literacy: Students will get their new word sort on Monday and a spelling list to study for their spelling test for next Monday. We are putting words in ABC order and also learning that compound words are two words put together to make a new word.

 ****  MAPS TEST in READING   Tuesday morning.

Writing: By using colorful words like adjectives, students are learning that this will help to make their writing more interesting.We are also working on what happens first, next, and last.

Math: We have been using "touch math" as a strategy to help us add.

Inquiry: We are going to be finishing up with our study of magnets by doing some more investigations and doing some informational writing about what we now know about magnets. We are going to begin a mini-unit on bears and hibernation.

*  I'm in need of some empty toilet paper rolls
* Please check out this site about an upcoming PTA dance: 80's Dance Flyer.pdf(175KB).

Mrs. Richards Reports

    *Please send 4-6 pictures of your child doing 
fun family activities to use for writing ideas.

·                  Websites to check out:

          *  Raz-Kids       login:  brichardsn

          *  Compass Learning     logins below

·                  Find/Draw 2-4 pictures of how magnets are used on a daily basis.

·                  Bring one special Christmas item on Fri. It can be a toy, book, ornament.

·                  Check out my blog on the Mitchell website to see my weekly newsletter and important dates.

·                  Be sure that your child has all of their warm winter clothing each day… hat, mittens, snow pants, and boots.

·                   Send a healthy snack every day!

·                  The second conference of the year will be this Tuesday January 15. Please call me to set up your conference if I did not get a hold of you. There will be two more conferences scheduled yet this year. Watch for e-mails and notes!

Mrs. Richards' Reports

It's a busy time in Room 137.  Students are back to lots of reading and Daily 5 activities. They are working on building stamina, using reading strategies, and  moving quickly and quietly through the Daily 5 rotations.

Reading:  We are learning the four digraphs: sh, ch, th, and wh.

Writing: We are creating a Writing Folder to use during Writer's Workshop.
The children are drawing  pictures of their family and favorite places to put in the
folder to use for writing ideas.

Math: We are learning how to write fact families, counting and writing
 numbers by twos, and using Touch Math to do addition.

Science:  We are doing an inquiry unit on magnets.

Social Studies: We wrote some goals for the new year....2013!

Here is a link to check out from Mr. Hill: http://www.scholastic.com/bookbonanza/

Mrs. Richards' Reports

We have had a busy time in Room 137 building our stamina when reading. We're up to at least 15 minutes and we're using good reading strategies everyday by looking at picture clues, reading for meaning, looking for word chunks, and recognizing common sight words. In math, we continue to count on from a higher number, look for tens and ones, and writing number sentences. We are learning about magnets along with Miss Reichert's class. Our students are finding it really interesting! We will continue this inquiry after winter break. The Christmas concert was a huge success. We have been busy getting ready for Christmas too by making special Christmas presents and a tree with a chain to count down until Santa comes. On Thursday, we will celebrate earning five Golden Awards by having a Pajama Day along with watching a movie, eating a gingerbread man, and having hot cocoa. Our Holiday Celebration will be on Friday afternoon. The parents that volunteered to send something for this party have been contacted. The cold weather is fast approaching. We ask parents to dress their youngster as warmly as possible prior to their leaving for school. Even though some children ride the bus to school, they still will be spending a considerable amount of time outdoors on the playground, particularly during the noon hour. Our school district policy states that when it is not raining or when the temperature is 10 degrees or above, pupils are not permitted into the building until the usual time of 8:25 AM (unless they are having breakfast) and 12:45 PM for 4K so be sure to dress your youngster for our Wisconsin winters. On rainy days or when the temperature is below 10 degrees, pupils are permitted to enter the building at 8:15 AM and will spend the noon hour indoors. A red flag will be placed on the doors indicating early entrance due to inclement weather. Please be sure your child has a hat and a pair of mittens. PLEASE LABEL THEIR ITEMS SO IT’S EASIER TO RETURN IF THEY ARE LOST. Please have a Happy, Safe, and Merry Christmas! See you in 2013! Please take the following survey: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/mitchelltechsurvey

Mrs. Richards Reports

The First Graders really enjoyed their field trip to the Survive Alive House to learn about fire safety. Next year, the kindergarteners will get to go. This week, everyone will have some activities included in their homework folder about fire safety. It's definitely a good review for everyone. Please be extra careful with candles during the holiday season. A lot of fires are started by misuse of candles. With the holiday season starting, the children will be making Christmas stockings for St. Nick's this week and writing Santa with some of their question: "Dear Santa, What do you feed those reindeer any way?" In Math,we are working on place value by counting ones and tens and by naming a number in different ways by using number sentences, tallies, and tens and ones. Touch Math will be introduced as another to count on when adding. In Writer's Workshop, the children will make a list of some of their favorite things. They can choose from this list when writing. Please return your permission slip for the concert practice at Nathan Hale!

Mrs. Richards' Reports

Our class election was a lot of fun as the children filled out voter registration cards and then turned them in for ballots so they could vote for their favorite cookie The choices were oreo or chocolate chip. The oreo cookie was the winner!  Everyone got to eat an oreo cookie.  We talked about the fact that sometimes your choice is not the winner in an election, and that's the special part about voting because every vote is important and can change the outcome of an election.  We ended with making a bar graph and answering some questions about the graph.

We began learning about our American symbols: the flag, statue of liberty, liberty bell, bald eagle, and the White House.  Our focus was on the White House as the children painted their own picture of their vision of the White House, and we went to computer lab to look up new learning about it on various websites.

In math, we are working on determining which number is greater when using higher numbers. The students will also be counting and drawing tens and ones for numbers. In our math journal, we are solving word problems using adding/subtraction and explaining our work.

The end of November, the First Graders will be going to the Survive Alive House to learn safety methods to prevent a fire, how to stay calm, and how to evacuate a burning building. They will need to know their address and phone number. Homework will come home this week for them to use so they can practice.

Mrs. Richards' Reports

We have been learning about laws and government and what it means to be a good citizen.
Tomorrow will be election day across the country. Everyone will be voting like every good citizen should.
The children in Room 137 will be voting for their favorite cookie choice: oreo or chocolate chip.
We will have a ballot box and ballots. The children will have  to register to vote too.
We must be good citizens.
The children will also learn about our American symbols with our class focus on the White House. It will be a fun week!

In math, we will graph the cookie choice that won after we have made tally marks.
We are also doing a lot of counting in different ways in math and comparing numbers to see which is greater or less than.

I would like to encourage all parents to take a blog survey which will give us your input about our blogs.
Here is the survey information. Go to:  http://.surveymonkey.com/s/W5WTXMX.

Thank You!