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News for the Week of April 29th

ANNOUNCEMENTS AND SHENANIGANS:
GOODBYES ARE NEVER EASY…
Friday was our last day with the chicks.  We are sad to see them go, but are trying our best to understand their needs.  We talked about how quickly they have changed.  They are bigger and LOVE to practice flying across the brooder!  Our heart wishes they could stay forever, but our mind knows that it is time for them to have more space.  My cousin has a farm near Houston and is going to take such good care of them!  We wish these cuties well on their next adventure! I’m sure my cousin will keep us posted on how they are doing. She’s already sent a video to show us how they are exploring their new home.

Our superstar this past week was Macy! We loved getting to learn about our special friend!

CHICK SIP AND SEE
The First Grade Chick Sip & See was a huge success!  Did you know your children were such amazing party planners?  They worked tirelessly in their party teams to put on this fabulous event for our baby chicks.  I am so proud of them!

The chicks were tired but very happy after being the center of attention!

 

Finally, thank you to our fantastic party planners!

 

Invitation Committee: Tyler, Juliette, Natalie P., Clemente, and Macy
They designed eye-catching posters to advertise a special viewing party for our school community. Then, they picked high traffic spots around the building to display their hard work.  Good job, Poster Committee!
Invitation Committee: Blake, Aisha, Alonso, Aaron, and Swara
They created adorable chick invitations to deliver to classrooms and staff members around the building!  They had to provide the important party details to get the word out to our school community.  Good job, Invitation Committee!
Commercial Team: Asha, Luke, Vihaan, and Isha
They scripted a commercial that would entertain while still conveying the important information.  The music, background, and words were all created and/or picked out by these cute, little STARS! They took some inspiration from the Turkey Tango that they performed when they were in Kindergarten.  Their commercial was broadcast during our morning announcements on Wednesday.  Good job, Commercial Team!

Decoration Committee: Quinn, Natalie S., Aaron, Shaquille, Jade, and Nidheesh
This team was in charge of creating a festive mood for all to enjoy on the day of our “Sip & See.”  They created banners, signs, and chick balloons to make our party very special for a few cute little fluff-balls.  Good job, Decoration Committee!
Please give your first grader an extra big hug tonight for all of their hard work!

 

BOOK FAIR IS T-REXCELLENT!
The Canyon Creek Book Fair will be held Monday, April 29th through Friday, May 3rd.
Preview Day for students is Friday, April 25th.
NEW eWallet payment option! Students can load money onto an account for students to use at the book fair so they don’t have to worry about cash or checks. All unused funds will be refunded to the card used. Sign up or shop online at our Book Fair Website here.
Book Fair hours are:
M, W, TH 7:20am-3:30pm
T 7:20am-6:00pm (Kona Ice will be here after school – 3:30)
 F 7:20-12:00pm Spring Book Fair closes for the year at NOON
Your purchases will benefit the CCE Library!  Tax is not included in the book price, so please be sure to add 8.25%, if you are sending in money with your student.
*Please do not return library books during this time, as we do not have access to the shelves.
Thank you!

 

IMPORTANT MESSAGE FROM MRS. MARTIN:
Dear First Grade Families:
As you know, our early morning rehearsals for “Three of a Kind” begin on Monday, 4/29.  The day(s) that your student should attend the early morning rehearsals was highlighted on the letter you received last week.  Students should come to the cafeteria at 7:20 am, and I’ll be sure they get to their classrooms on time to start their day!
These early morning rehearsals are especially important because students will be learning to use the microphones and will practice getting on and off the stage for their featured sections of the show.
We are really looking forward to performing for you on May 7th at 6:30 pm.

 

LOOKING AHEAD …
Ocean Day is this Friday, May 10!  The First Grade room parents have been hard at work helping us get organized for this journey into the ocean.
Thank you to those parents who have notified me about seafood allergies or new food allergies!
Here is the sign-up for this event: Ocean Day!  Thank you to Erin for getting everything organized!
We will also need parent volunteers anytime during the 12:20-2:55 time slot – for setting up, during the event to help students, and for cleanup.  You must be an approved volunteer through RRISD.  We appreciate your help!

 

RECYCLE BAGS NEEDED:
Parents, we need your help! By Friday, May 17, we need each student to bring a cloth grocery store bag to school that we can use to store some of the many things that will be going home on the last day of school. The reusable HEB bags would be perfect for our needs, but if you have a large department store bag with handles (such as Macy’s), that would also work. Please make sure that your child’s name is on the bag.  Thank you!!

 

OTHER UPCOMING EVENTS IN FIRST GRADE:
FIRST GRADE SHOWCASE: The first grade students and teachers are excited to invite you to come by your child’s classroom on Wednesday morning, May 7, from 7:20 – 7:40 a.m. for our First Grade Showcase.  Your favorite first grader will be ready to show you some of the great work that he/she has been doing this year!  Please come to cheer your child’s hard work and show your appreciation for all he/she has learned in First Grade.  We look forward to seeing you here!
“IN-SCHOOL FIELD TRIP”: Later in May, we will have a special presenter provide an “in-school field trip” experience to help support our wonderful Science learning this year.  Thank you in advance to PTA for providing the funds necessary to make this possible!

 

THIS WEEK AT A GLANCE:
ACADEMICS:
This week, we will spend time administering end-of-year reading assessments, as well as other subject area assessments.  How can you help?  It is very important that your child come to school well-rested and ready to do his/her best work.  (I will include a progress report in your child’s paperwork on May 7th at our 1st Grade Showcase with details.)  As always, thank you for all your encouragement and support at home!
In addition to end-of-year assessments, the students are also exploring ocean animals in research groups.  They will share their expert writing at our upcoming Showcase!

 

HOMEWORK FOR THE WEEK
  1. Read 10-15 minutes every day. Record in the student planner about their story.
Our Star of the Week is Jade!  We look forward to learning more about our special classmate!

 

IMPORTANT DATES TO REMEMBER:
April 29-May 3: Book Fair
May 7: First Grade Showcase 7:20-7:40 a.m.
         Volunteer Breakfast in the library 7:15-8:00 a.m.
         First Grade Performance 6:30 p.m.
May 10: Ocean Day

 

Finally, if you know that your child will be leaving school before our last day, Thursday, May 23, please let me know.

 

Thank you!
Have a wonderful week!

News for the Week of April 22nd

ANNOUNCEMENTS AND SHENANIGANS
Oh, my!  What an exciting hatching week we’ve had in First Grade!  Out of 36 chicken eggs, we were fortunate to have 16 baby chicks enter the world in our grade level!  Our class welcomed 5 little cuties that were there to welcome us on Monday morning. We’ve been calling them the “Early Birds” since they weren’t scheduled to hatch until Tuesday. I hope you were able to catch a little of the Live Streaming set up by our fabulous IT, Donna Owen.  What an amazing week!
The chicks are growing so quickly!  They usually outgrow the little brooders after a couple of weeks, so we have arranged for someone to take our babies at the end of this week.  We will miss our chicks, but are so glad that they will have more space to explore and grow. They will actually be going to my cousin’s farm in Katy, TX so hopefully we can get updates on how they are growing.

 

SAVE THE DATES FROM THE FIRST GRADE TEACHERS:
CHICK “SIP & SEE”:
The students have worked hard preparing for our upcoming Chick Viewing Party (for the school body) and a “Sip and See” for all of you.  We will host this event for you on Wednesday, April 24th from 3:00-3:30 in our classroom. You must be in attendance for your child to be able to attend. They will come to you like normal at dismissal. Once the First Grade teachers are finished with Dismissal Duty, we will open the doors for some cute chick viewing and light snacks!  Siblings are welcome for this event!
FIRST GRADE SHOWCASE: The first grade students and teachers are excited to invite you to come by your child’s classroom on Tuesday morning, May 7, from 7:20 – 7:40 a.m. for our First Grade Showcase.  Your favorite first grader will be ready to show you some of the great work that he/she has been doing this year!  Then afterwards you are welcome to attend our Volunteer Luncheon Breakfast in the library until 8:00 a.m. to thank you for all the help you’ve given us this year! We look forward to seeing you there!
OCEAN DAY:  Ocean Day will take place on Friday, May 10th from 1:00-2:50.  Our room moms will soon be in contact detailing how you can help with this big event.  This will be a memorable day as we celebrate all that we will have learned about the ocean and the animals that live there!

 

GETTING READY FOR SECOND GRADE:
Please take a look at the page on our classroom website called “Getting Ready for Second Grade”.  It will give you some tips about what you can be working on at home to help make sure your child will be ready for second grade.  There is also a page called “Summer Suggestions” that will give you specific ideas of things you can do over the summer to help keep your child interested in learning, as well as prepared for the new school year come August!

 

THIS WEEK AT A GLANCE:
READING and WRITING:
-Practice reading words with the bossy “r” (er, ir, ur, ar, or)
-Delve into our Ocean Research Project (activate background knowledge of their animal and draw/label what their animal looks like)
-Continue to develop our accuracy, fluency, and comprehension through the stories we read
MATH:
-Draw conclusions from picture and bar-type graphs
-Generate and answer questions using information from picture and bar-type graphs
SCIENCE:
-Discuss the characteristics of a fish
-Introduce food chains and food webs
-Review interdependence and discuss what happens when one part of the food chain goes missing
HOMEWORK FOR THE WEEK
  1. Read 10-15 minutes every day. Record in the student planner about their story.
SUPERSTAR: 
Our superstar this week is Macy! We are excited to learn more about our special friend.

 

IMPORTANT DATES TO REMEMBER:
April 24: Sip and See 3:00-3:30 p.m.
April 29-May 3: Book Fair
May 7: First Grade Showcase 7:20-7:40 a.m.
Volunteer Breakfast in the library 7:15-8:00 a.m.
First Grade Performance 6:30 p.m.
May 10: Ocean Day
Enjoy a “chick-tastic” week!

News for the Week of April 15th

ANNOUNCEMENTS AND SHENANIGANS
A huge THANK YOU to Alonso’s dad, Mr. Buitrago, Blake’s Mom, Mrs. Ahearn, Shaquille’s Dad, Mr. Hu, Clemente’s mom, Mrs. Cuevas, and Swara’s mom, Mrs. Gaitonde for helping us build our chicken brooder on Friday!  It is perfect!! Now that we have a home built, we patiently wait for the arrival of our baby chicks on Tuesday…fingers crossed!

This week Tyler was our Superstar! We loved getting to know him more this week. We will not have a Superstar next week since we will not be in school on Friday.

GETTING READY FOR SECOND GRADE:
Please take a look at the new page on our classroom website called “Getting Ready for Second Grade”.  It will give you some tips about what you can be working on at home to help make sure your child will be ready for second grade.  In May, I will add a new page called “Summer Suggestions” that will give you specific ideas of things you can do over the summer to help keep your child interested in learning, as well as prepared for the new school year come August!

 

SAVE THE DATE:
Stay tuned for information coming from the first graders on a “Sip and See” on Wednesday, April 24th from 3:00-3:30 in our classroom!

 

PARENT INPUT FORMS:
Parent Input forms for 2nd grade came home recently in the Tuesday folder. They are due back to the office by Monday, April 15th. This helps us prepare staffing for the new school year.  Thank you to everyone who has already turned this into me!

 

THIS WEEK AT A GLANCE:
READING and WRITING:
– Create an invitation for our families to invite them to our “Sip and See”
– Continue recording information in our Science Learning Log about our chicks
– Prepare for our “Sip and See”
-Draft Stories
-Continue research about chicks
-Continue to develop our accuracy, fluency, and comprehension through the stories we read
MATH:
– Use objects and pictorial models to solve subtraction problems
-Review subtraction strategies
SCIENCE:
– Continue learning about our changing chicken eggs and hopefully see some hatch!
– Complete PBL (Problem Based Learning) job

HOMEWORK FOR THE WEEK

  1. Read 10-15 minutes every day. Record in the student planner about their favorite part of the story.
IMPORTANT DATES TO REMEMBER:
April 19: Holiday-No school
April 24: Sip and See
April 29-May 3: Book Fair
Here’s to an “egg-citing” week!

News for the Week of April 8th

ANNOUNCEMENTS AND SHENANIGANS
We are getting very egg-cited around 1st grade. We have been tracking what is happening with our eggs and how the chicks are growing and developing. We had a great time on our field trip to Callahan’s General Store on Monday. We learned so much from them and feel confident that we can now take care of these chicks when they finally hatch. Thank you to Molly Sylestine, Ricki Ahearn, Sarah Schneider and Prafulla Nellutla for helping chaperone our field trip!
This week we started designing our brooders for them to built on Friday, April 12th. We could still use some volunteers so please let me know if you are available next Friday to help build our brooders. We had 4 groups build a model brooder and then each group presented to the class. Once the presentations were finished we voted and we are so excited to see the brooder we voted on get built.

Quinn was our superstar this week and we loved learning more about her!

 

PARENT HELP NEEDED:
For our upcoming chick unit, we need parent help!  Now that we’ve launched this project, we need a few parents willing to help cut wood and assemble our class brooder.  Some of the wood cutting may need to happen before our build day at your house due to heaviness of tools.  The building time will take place during school hours (from 8:00- 11:30ish) on Friday, April 12th.  Email me if you are available to help out on this date.  Thanks so much!

 

SAVE THE DATE:
Stay tuned for information coming from the first graders on a “Sip and See” on Wednesday, April 24th from 3:00-3:30 in our classroom!

 

PARENT INPUT FORMS:
Parent Input forms for 2nd grade came home in last week’s Tuesday folder. They are due back to the office by Monday, April 15th.

 

NIGHTLY HOMEWORK:
This is the start of our final quarter together in first grade.  Spring is in the air and I know lots of students will be involved in many activities.  Please remind your first grader that we still have lots of learning to do (as well as fun events planned) and our expectations will be raised as we work on our final preparations for Second Grade.  I appreciate your continued support at home with nightly reading homework!

 

SUPERSTAR:
Our superstar for this week is Tyler! We are excited to learn more about Tyler and his family!

 

HERE’S A PEEK INTO OUR WEEK:
READING AND WRITING:
-Prepare invitations and posters for PBL Chick project.
-Draft Stories
-Continue research about chicks
-Continue to develop our accuracy, fluency, and comprehension through the stories we read
MATH:
-Use objects and pictorial models to solve problems involving the separation of two numbers
-Subtraction strategies (number -0, number -itself, number -1, count back, count up, using a number line to count back & count up, doubles, neighbors, etc.)
-Decide on most efficient subtraction strategy based on the numbers given
SCIENCE:
-Prepare for the sip and see event
-Observe our brooder getting built
-Record the life cycle of chicks as they develop inside the eggs
HOMEWORK FOR THE WEEK
1. Read 10-15 minutes every day. Record in the student planner about their favorite part of the story.

 

IMPORTANT DATES TO REMEMBER:
April 12: Brooder Building
April 12: Parent Reader (Luke’s family)
April 19: Holiday-No school
April 24: Sip and See
April 29-May 3: Book Fair

 

Have a great week!
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