Funky Hair/Hats and FOAM FINGERS

A huge THANK YOU to all of the adults who came to help with foam finger decorating today!  It was by far the smoothest the event has ever gone.  We truly appreciate all of the patient, helpful hands.  The first graders did an EXCELLENT job decorating and being respectful of each other.  I couldn't be more proud of them.  I always get a little when I see their proud faces waving their foam fingers at the parade.  I can't wait!  

OCTOBER - IMPORTANT DATES

Important Dates to Remember:

October 3rd - Parade/Assembly @ 1pm

October 6th - PTO @ 7pm - Keystone

October 8th - 1:00 dismiss - K-12 PD

October 9th - 1st field trip to GWAEA & St. Luke’s

October 17th - 1:00 dismiss - K-12 PD

October 20th - NO SCHOOL - K-12 PD

October 24th - VHE field trip to Bloomsbury Farm

October 31st - Halloween - Costume Parade

November 1st - Socks to Olivet Neighborhood Mission

Socktober

Information will be coming home soon!  This is a student led project and we’ll be charging first graders with spreading the word.  They’ll make flyers that you’ll see come home in the near future.  Please let me know if you have any questions.  If you’d like to have your family participate in delivering socks, please mark your calendar for Saturday, November 1st.  

Got LEGOS? - 1U is NEED

Do you have any extra Legos at home?  1U is need of Legos for a fact practice activity. I am looking for the smaller, "basic" Legos for building. This is also my students' number one request for an item they'd like to see added to my indoor recess activities.  If you have any that you'd be willing to part with, please send them our way.    

Thanks!  

Wilson's Apple Orchard

We are about sum up our apple chats with some fresh picked apples from Wilson's Apple Orchard.  If you've never been there, I STRONGLY recommend it!  It is a great place to take your family on a fall afternoon.  Take a basket, pick your apples, enjoy music and lunch, and grab a fresh apple pie or apple crisp on your way out.  I told my students I'd show them pictures when we eat the apples, so these are on here for them.  :)  

Pajama Day is Tomorrow

Homecoming week starts tomorrow!  Your child is welcome to wear pajamas to school.  No slippers or stuffed animals will be allowed.  It is a day 5 so we do have gym and recess.  Please keep this in mind when helping your child pick out PJs.  

Word Study

You may have noticed there has not been a spelling list sent home.  As part of our first grade phonics instruction, your child participates in daily word study centered around a weekly phonics skill.  Our first week was focused primarily on l-family blends (cl, gl, sl, pl, fl, bl) found at the beginning of words.  

Throughout the week, your child builds these words with letter cards based on the sounds they hear, “pulls out” each individual sound and blends them together to make words, and practices writing and reading these words.  There is no set “spelling list” for your child to memorize for the week.  Rather, a large list of words matching the skill for the week is used and students work with a variety of words on the list throughout the week here at school with adult guidance.

On Fridays, a word study assessment will be given to gauge how well your child has grasped the week’s phonics skill.  During this assessment, your child will be given words from the word list and asked to write them, listening for individual letter sounds or word “chunks” depending on that week’s skill.

We feel this is a more accurate measure of whether your child has truly understood the phonics skill of the week as he or she will be asked to apply it directly to word writing.  

We look forward to touching base with you about this during our Parent Partnership Night on Wednesday, September 24th.  

If you have any additional questions, please contact your child’s teacher.

Mrs. Happel

Ms. Upah

Parent Partnership Night Slideshow

Below you'll find a link to the Prezi that we showed last night at Parent Partnership Night.  If you were unable to attend and have questions, please don't hesitate to contact me.  

Parent Partnership Night

EARLY DISMISSAL TOMORROW

Just a reminder that tomorrow is a 1:00pm dismiss so staff can participate in professional learning.  Please email me or call the office with any transportation changes.  

HOMECOMING WEEK - Help Wanted

Homecoming week is almost upon us!  Next week, we'll be having the annual Benton Community Homecoming celebration.  With that comes a week of dress up days, sportsmanship chats, assemblies, the parade, and in first grade, FOAM FINGERS!  Below, you'll find the dress up day themes.  Feel free to help your child participates if he or she would like.  

Monday: Pajama Day

Tuesday: Hat Day

Wednesday: Mismatched Day

Thursday: Class Distinction Day (each class decides their own way to dress up this day)

Friday: Bobcat Pride Day

Foam Finger decorating is tentatively set for next Tuesday, September 30th at 2:30pm.  We are looking for a few extra hands to help kiddos with glitter glue and all of the other sticky messes that go into decorating foam fingers.  Please email me if you are interested in helping or have any other questions about Homecoming week.  

Reader's Workshop Activities

Here is a look at some of our Reader's Workshop activities.  We spend approximately one hour every day rotating through the different stations on top of the other literacy based instruction that occurs.  Every station activity is literacy based, differentiated, and many allow for student choice.  

During this time, I meet with students, individually and in groups.  We read and discuss books at your child's instructional reading level.  Starr guides a group through phonics based activities. She also works with students on handwriting and responding to text in a reading journal.  At Word Work, students are able to choose from a variety of manipulatives to build words.  Work on Writing allows students time to execute the skills they've acquired through our Writer's Workshop discussions.  Listen to Reading provides students with a model of what good readers sound like.  It also gives them the opportunity to choose books that interest them, learn something specific about that content area, and practice comprehension skills.  Read to Self and Read to Someone are activities that happen throughout the day.  Read to Self is a time where students are able to whisper read a book that is a good fit.  Read to Someone allows students to read and discuss a good fit book with a partner.  

Math Families - Hands Game

We got a chance to learn another step in math families today.  Below are pictures of the "hands game."  We are working with facts of 5 so students had five beans in their hand.  After shaking them up, they put some in one hand and some in the other.  They showed their partner how many were in their left hand and the partner had to figure out how many were in the hiding hand.  It went so well the whole class passed this portion today!  I absolutely LOVE how excited this group gets when we talk about doing math families!  

Parent Partnership Night

Information about this year's Parent Partnership Night is in your child's folder today.  Please read the letter OR the information below for details.  It is on Wednesday, September 24th.  Please let me know if you have any questions.  Your attendance is greatly appreciated!  

Parents of VHE Students:

In effort to provide you with important information on what to expect in the year to come for your child, we would like you to join us for Parent Partnership Night on Wednesday, September 24th.   Teachers  will provide you with information regarding grade level learning targets and expectations.  Resources for you to help your child learn and grow at home will also be provided.  

The Keystone/Van Horne PTO will be providing ice cream starting at 6:30pm.  Grade level meetings will begin 7:00pm.  Daycare will be provided for those who need it as well.  

Please RSVP to your child’s teacher by Monday, September 22nd so we can make arrangements for ice cream and daycare.  Attendance to this event is important and your consideration and flexibility in making this a priority for your family is greatly appreciated.  

Please call VHE with any questions or concerns.

We look forward to seeing you on the 24th!    

When I Grow Up...

I saw a teacher do something like this on Twitter and I couldn't help but copy the idea.  I am having this printed at the GWAEA in a poster size to display in our classroom.  It will serve as a good reminder of how hard we need to work to achieve our dreams.  

Thanks for letting me hang out with your inspiring, cool kids every day!

Bobcat Dash Info Due Tomorrow

Don't forget, BOBCAT DASH info is due back to school TOMORROW.  Please make sure you send your team order and payment with your child tomorrow.  Please let me know if you have any questions!

"I mustache you a question!"

We practiced collecting data and making our own graphs today.  We asked questions, collected data, made tally charts, and are starting to to show our results in bar graphs.  Here is a look at the beginning of a project we'll display.  These graphs will tell us a lot about our classmates!  

The math journals are an awesome way for students to show what they know, work at their own pace, and work to their highest ability!  I am excited to show you these at conference time!