Weekly wrap up 1/24/14

Thank you for the many beautiful Tet decorations that have been donated.  Our classroom is going to look so wonderful for the festival!  All families are welcome to attend the Tet festival on February 7 at 8:45am.  It is a big event at Ethan Allen and I recommend arriving early to find parking, your best bet is to park in the neighborhood nearby.  A flyer went home in Friday Folders for scholars who are interested in participating in the cultural fashion show.  If your child changed their mind and wants a flyer please let me know, I have extras.  The fashion show is not only for Vietnamese clothing, all cultures are welcome to share their traditional dress and help us learn more about the diversity of our scholars.  If your child participates in the fashion show, please send a change of clothes so they do not dirty their nice clothes during recess or lunch.

There are many nasty colds going around the school right now.  Please remember that if your child is sick they should concentrate on getting healthy.  Any work they miss can be made up later.  If your child is ill and you would like me to send work home with them, please contact me, I am happy to prepare work for them.  I understand as a parent that it can be difficult to find childcare for a sick child, but when your child comes to school very ill they aren't able to focus and are infecting others.  I would prefer they take a day to get healthy rather than suffer through a school day with a miserable cold and/or stomach flu.  Of course, a little sniffle isn't a big deal, but a fever, vomiting, or other serious symptoms are not things that a first grader can endure at school.

This week in math we have been continuing to work on geometry, including both plane and 3-dimensional figures.  Our math test will be next week.  In reading we have been focusing on cause and effect, monitoring and clarifying, distinguishing among different types of sentences (statements, questions, exclamations), understanding contractions, as well as blending and reading long vowel words.  To help your child at home, a long vowel sounds like the letter's name.  For example, the "a" in "cat" is a short vowel.  The "a" in "cake" is a long vowel.  A final e (usually) signals that the first vowel will make its long sound.

 In writing we have moved on from descriptive writing to narratives.  Currently we are working on autobiographical narratives, and our first topic was to write about our best day of winter so far.  Below you can see how I modeled the writing process.  Each scholar follows the same process; their thinking maps and drafts with revisions are stapled below their final draft to show how their writing evolves.

Our habit of a scholar was Intellectual Risk-Taking.  In Social Studies wrapped up our "Celebrating Cultures" unit by discussing immigrants and how they contribute to our country.  Many scholars we proud to share that they or their parents are immigrants.  We just started discussing our next unit about goods, services, and money.  Once this social studies unit concludes this week we will be launching right into Science.  Believe it or not, next Friday marks the halfway point of the school year!

Spelling Homework Clarification

The format for spelling is each Monday I will give a practice test to introduce the scholars to the new words and see which ones they already can spell correctly.  These words are upleveled from the general program but still follow the same spelling pattern.  For example, this week's pattern was long vowel/consonant/final e.  I use the same spelling words as the other 1st grade GATE teachers in GGUSD, which are intended to provide appropriate challenge and familiarize the scholars with the spelling pattern.

Each night the scholars have a spelling assignment to complete.  Monday night is always to write any words they missed on the practice test 3 times.  That means if a scholar had 100% on the practice test then they are excused from Monday night's assignment.  HOWEVER, even if they had 100% they are still expected to do the assignments for Tuesday and Wednesday (Thursday is always a practice test and I leave that to your discretion.  If your child scored 100% and you are confident that they do not need the practice test, I am ok with that).  The reason I still require them to do Tuesday and Wednesday's assignments is that they embed other skills that I want the scholars to practice, such as alphabetizing, looking up words in a dictionary, writing synonyms, writing sentences, etc.  If your child needs to borrow a dictionary or other resource to complete an assignment they are always welcome to borrow one from me.

All spelling homework assignments are to be turned in on Friday.  They are welcome to use the same paper for multiple assignments.  Please let me know if you have any questions about the spelling routine.

Geometry: Plane Shapes

Our focus in math since returning from Winter Break has been on plane shapes.  The scholars already had a strong base from Kindergarden and have built upon that to understand shapes such as trapezoids, hexagons, and quarter circles.  In addition, we have been discussing the defining and nondefining attributes of figures.  It is wonderful to hear our little 1st grade scholars speaking with such complex vocabulary such as "The six vertices are a defining attribute of a hexagon" and (most importantly) actually understanding what that means!

I included some of the sticky notes from the poster to share something that I am particularly proud of:  The scholars are becoming more comfortable with applying the icons of depth and complexity when they see they are appropriate.  The icons that these students chose to draw (without prompting from me) are being applied correctly.  That warms my heart!

Today we used our knowledge of plane shapes to create a class book.  Each scholar wrote and illustrated their own page (a few scholars are still working because they wanted to add more details) which I bound into one book that the students may read as a "May Do" activity.

Coming up next:  Three-dimensional figures!

Me on the Map

I wanted to take a few moments to share one projects we have been working on this week.  We read a story called "Me on the Map" in which a girl explained where she lived by starting small (her house) and moving outward all the way to the planet Earth.  I took this opportunity to integrate a little of our social studies map skills and create a project defining our homes in a larger context.  The scholars' favorite part of the project was when I showed them a picture of what the Earth looks like from space.  They were truly amazed!

Check your scholar's backpack

I am happy to be back today after being suddenly hit by a very bad case of the stomach flu on Thursday night.  The germs are one of the perks of teaching 1st grade, I guess!  Fortunately I am healthy again, because this week will be a busy one.
There are two additional items in your child's backpack today:  spelling practice folders and a PTA flyer for family game night.  Unfortunately I did not have this flyer in time for Friday Folders so I wanted to bring it to your attention.  Family game night will be this Friday and it's a good chance to have fun with your child and meet some of the other great families at our school.
The spelling practice folders contain this week's spelling list, today's practice test, and a sample of a week's worth of completed spelling homework that we did in class.  There is also a short letter from me.  Your child will be adding spelling practice to their regular homework, but please note that it should not take longer than ten minutes each day.  Each day we will go over that night's spelling assignment so that the scholars know what to do.  They will complete the work and return it on Friday along with their regular homework.  Please let me know if you have any questions.

On another note, today was not a great day for our class behaviorwise.  I know that sometimes having a substitute even for just one day can lead to students "forgetting" the rules or testing limits again. Today we had a lot more negative marks on Class Dojo than usual.  My expectation is that our classroom will be a safe, happy place to learn, and when students are not creating a safe, happy place with 100% effort towards learning they need a reminder.  I hope that tomorrow will be a better day for our class and we can return to our usual good behavior.

Tet festival

For those of you who are new to Allen, the annual Tet Festival is a BIG deal here.  It is one of the year's biggest events.  Parents are welcome to attend the festival on campus on Friday, February 7.  If you are interested in helping to plan this year's festival, there is a planning meeting taking place this Friday after school, as described in the flyer below.

Every teacher decorates their classroom in preparation for the festival.  Last year I was able to borrow some decorations, but I would love to have some of my own if you have any extras that you do not use or want.  They do not have to be anything fancy, they just help to make the classroom festive and the children love to see their culture celebrated at school.

This message was emailed to parents this morning, but I have included it here for parents who may not be on the school's email list.  If you would like your email to be added for further communications from the school or PTA, please contact Lucille in the front office.

TET FESTIVAL

PLANNING MEETING

Are you interested to help plan our school’s Tet Festival, the Year of the Horse?  If so, we would love your help!  We would need help in planning the student dance, teacher dance, lion dance, and decorations.

Please join us on January 10th at 3:00 in Room KB to talk about our school’s event.

If you are interested, please fill out the form below and return it to your scholar’s teacher. 

Name:_______________________________________________

Student’s  Name:___________________________________

Student’s Teacher:_________________________________

Email Address:___________________________________________

Phone Number:____________________________________