What a week!

Well, the Christmas Crazies are in full effect in our room!!!   You know how time seemed soooooo slow right before Christmas when you were a kid?   I think I can relate....hahahaha!!!

Thank you so much for participating in the Secret Santa fun this year!  The kids love it so much!  I've been having kids from years past come down and say, "Are you doing Secret Santa?  I loved it!"   So it's not only a memory for this year but for years to come!   Keep sending in little things for next week and bring the big mamba-jamba present on Friday  (not too mamba-jamba...remember less than $5).

Last Friday was the end of Trimester 1, you should be able access your child's grades through PowerSchool.   I believe you will be getting information from Dr. Rogien about the details.   In addition to the report card found online, I have sent home a graph of how your child is progressing on their CBMs (curriculum-based measurements).  It's fun to see the growth your child has experienced in just the last month since the last test.   If you have ANY questions regarding either the PowerSchool report card or the CBM graphs, feel free to contact me!!

We had our first "lunch detention" for kids who forgot their homework today.   I give them Trimester 1 to get in the swing of bringing it back each week and then in Trimesters 2 and 3, we do have detention.   What it is?  It just means they stay in the room on Friday during recess to complete as much homework as they can.   It's not terribly fun so I'm hoping to have fewer and fewer students each week that have to stay.  Zero sounds like a GREAT number!


Have a wonderful weekend!   Don't forget the awesome Santa breakfast here tomorrow.   It is so much fun!  The crafts are great....and so is the food!  

1950's and Some Science News...Oh My!

Wow!   The 50^th day of school was on Monday!  It has flown by!   We had bunches of fun learning about the 1950’s.   The students completed an alphabetical order skill sheet using 50’s words like record, jukebox, and greaser.  We did a fun math booklet using the number 50.   We also watched parts of a special about the 1950s.  We learned that a new car cost about $1,800.  Wow!   It was fun to watch it all in black and white!

We will be changing gears in Social Studies as we learn about how people around the world celebrate Christmas.   It’s such a fun unit and they will learn so much!  It’s one of my very favorite units that we do.  If your family incorporates traditions from another country into your Christmas celebration…we’d love to hear about it!  Send us a note or come in and share!

I do have some “change in plans” news for you also.   Originally, the first grade classes were slated to begin Science at the beginning of the second trimester.  Can you believe the second trimester starts next week? We were told, however, that due to unforeseen circumstances, the first graders will not be having science with Mrs. Rex.   So I’ve been brainstorming ways to bring Science to our kids!

Here are some ideas I’ve come up with but I’d love to hear yours also!

*I have a good collection of science experiment books for kids.   I was thinking of having kids volunteer to take the books home to find an experiment to share with their peers.   They would be in charge of doing it and explaining the science behind the experiment!

*Much as we have Art moms, we could have Science Moms/Dads/Grandparents...:)   I know there is some great talent among our parent pool.

*I will be working on the units I have previously taught (first grade has never had Science so it was going to be something different) and we will be doing them on Thursdays.

So e-mail me any ideas or thoughts that you have!   I know we can make this work...and work wonderfully!

Have a great day!

Carin

What a bad blogger....

Hi Families,

 I have been meaning to write to you for two weeks now and finally have found time to sit down and do it! I can't believe how crazy it has been around Room 108! Holiday fever is in the air!

We are all so excited about our feast on Thursday. Thank you to everyone who volunteered to bring in items for our feast. Our feast will be at our normal lunch time from 12:15-1:00. It will be held in our room and Ms. Miley's room. The kids will be split up and half will eat in Ms. Miley's and half in our room so we get the full repertoire of Pilgrims and Native Americans.   We are dressing up as the Pilgrims and Ms. Miley's kids will be the Native Americans.

I've been getting a couple of questions about the food and other feast items. If you can send the item in with your child in the morning because it does not require heat or refrigeration, please do so. If you have a warm or cold item, please bring it in as close to 12:15 as you can.  


If you volunteered to help, please plan to arrive by 12:00. I will take the kids to another room and read them a story while you are setting up. You'll be setting up the tables and organizing the food. The kids will come back in the room and sit down and you will be the servers! We think we've gotten a lot of the kinks ironed out from years past. Each year it gets better and better!

 You may have been hearing your child singing one of these fun songs.
 Here are the links for you!
  They Were The Pilgrims
  Turkey Time!!!!

 We have also been singing this French song all week!
  Arc-en-ciel
 This class is full of kids who love to sing....and a teacher who wishes she could....:)

 We had to say good-bye to Disha and Samay on Monday as they went to a wedding in India. OH HOW WE MISS THOSE SWEETHEARTS! They promised to send a lot of pictures (hint, hint!). We can't wait to see them in 2012!

 Have a great week!
 Carin

WOW!! What creativity!!!

Such AN AMAZING COLLECTION of pumpkins arrived at Room 108 this morning.   The kids had such a great time sharing their pumpkins and admiring the work of their friends.  Our collection of pumpkins is out in the hall so all the classes can enjoy all the hard work that our students put into their projects.  Have fun looking at all the creativity!   Thank you for helping with this project!

It's Almost Halloween!

Oh my...what a beautiful day!  It took me awhile to get back in from outside and get to work.   It was so nice!

It was so great visiting with all of you last week.  I love talking about your great kids.  Please don't ever feel you have to wait for a scheduled conference time if you have any questions or concerns, just shoot me an email!  Of course, if I don't return your email quickly....use my personal email address as we still seem to have some issues getting emails through the server.

A couple great questions came up during conferences.   Here is a bit of Q and A...

Q.  Can the books on Raz Kids or Big Universe count toward the 100 books?
      Definitely!  Both those sites are GREAT resources for books that are appropriate for your child's reading level.

Q. Are the kids dressing up for Halloween?
      No, we are not dressing it up.   You can definitely go a little orange and black crazy....:) but no costumes.  We'll have a little treat and maybe read some special books throughout the day but we'll keep it low-key.  

Q.  When is the pumpkin book project due?
     Yikes!  That would be tomorrow (October 31).   I can't wait to see the creativity!   I hope you enjoyed the project.

Q.  When will you start Science in first grade?
     We will begin Science with Mrs. Rex at the beginning of the second trimester (in December).



We really enjoyed learning all about spiders!   I will put some spider books on Big Universe for your kids to share with you.   Remember it's http://www.biguniverse.com/.   The username is your child's first name, the password is northstar, and the group username is carconjam.

Some of the kids are working hard on the "Husky Challenge" and October Choice Homework.   I wanted to share some of the great acrostic poems that some of our smart kids wrote!!

Here is a scarecrow acrostic poem by Disha:

Stuffed with hay,
Crows get scared,
Alone in the fields,
Ready to guard
Everyday.
Clothes to disguise,
Rags on him,
Out stands on the field,
Watching his fields.

Here is an October acrostic poem by Samay:

October is when we have Halloween.
Carve pumpkins.
Trick or treating is fun.
Off we go to the pumpkin patch.
Boo!
Enjoy the candy.
Ready to dress up.

Remember that homework is found on the portal...or will be as soon as I get it up...:)   The must-dos are always:
*Mad Minute Practice
*Work on the 100 Book Challenge
*Spelling Practice
*DIBS Math Practice
*Sunshine Math


The May-Dos can be found on the portal:
*Choice Homework
*Husky Challenge

Have a great week!   I will try to post pictures of the pumpkin characters tomorrow!   How fun!
Carin

Some News From Room 108

Hey Fabulous Families!

I can't believe it's Sunday already.  This weekend flew by...could it be the BEAUTIFUL weather?   I definitely wanted to spend as much time outside as possible because I have a feeling this beautiful weather is coming to a close.

Next week is conference week.  It is one of my favorite weeks of the year!  I love spending time talking about these awesome kids!    It's a busy week, that's for sure, but I believe it's time well-spent.   We do only have 15 minutes to talk so we need to be organized and focused.  I will be sharing with you what I have found out about your child and then we will discuss goals for your child.   If you have a goal or goals in mind when you come to the conference that would be GREAT!   That will help us use our time more wisely.   Also if you have ANY questions or concerns, please e-mail them to me in advance so I can be sure to have those answered for you (it might take a little research on my end).   You may choose to invite your child to the conference or you may just want an adults-only conference, I am comfortable with both formats so feel free to use the format that works best for you and your child.   If your child does not attend, you will have to do some goal setting with them at a different time.

I heard back from the majority of you about conference times.  Please keep those conference slips coming in so I have confirmation of the time that works for you.  I will send out a complete schedule on Monday when I've had a chance to see a few more of those slips.

I need to send a big SHOUT-OUT to Mr. Mac!  Ella's dad came on Friday and worked his magic on our computer.  The computer that hasn't worked for THREE long weeks is now back in business and better than ever!   I am sooooooooooo  excited!   Though the kids thought invisible writing was fun...it was driving me crazy!   So a huge, enormous, colossal,  humongous, tremendous, gigantic thank you (or as we like to say in Room 108, Merci) to Mr. Mac!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We learned a lot about pumpkins in our room last week.   We talk a lot about "schema" in our room.   I have noticed some of the kids saying the word in natural conversation these days (exciting!) so I thought I'd let you know what it means in our room.   We talk about how each reader brings something to the table when reading a book.   We don't come as a blank slate.   All the knowledge we bring to the book is called our "schema".  We like to think of it like a file folder.  So as a reader approaches a book, we look at the cover, we read the blurb on the back, we look at the author and we ask ourselves what we know about this book and subject already.  For example, we've been reading a lot about pumpkins.  So even before we read a new pumpkin book, we get out our file folder in our brain labelled pumpkins and look inside.  What do we already know about pumpkins?  What would you expect to be in a book about pumpkins? etc.   Then as we read we can check to see if we already knew that or do we have to add some information to our already established schema of pumpkins.  

Why in the world do we take this step?   Research shows that new learning is best attached to previous learning.   It is good to determine what you already know and what you have learned and file it, if you will, in the same location.  

Here is a great way for your child to share some of the pumpkin information with you!  I have subscribed to an AWESOME web site called Big Universe.   It is as if I've just added thousands of books to your home library!    Here is how to log in:

1.  Go to biguniverse.com

2.  To log in, you'll need three things:
username (your child's first name)
password:  northstar
group username:  carconjam

If you log-in, you'll see that I assigned the book "Pumpkins" to your child.   I encourage you to explore this book together and have your child show all that s/he has learned!   After you've finished that book, feel free to explore all this site has to offer.  I will assign books over the weekend that we've read in class.  I love making the home-school connection as strong as possible and I think this is one great way to do it!

As you may or may not know, the portal is not working again.  Next week, we will be getting new usernames and passwords as part of the new technology fix.   So I will again print out homework and send it your way.

Speaking of homework, we have had the MAJORITY of kids bringing it back on time.  However, not every one has...:(   Remember this is an important habit to establish as early on in the school career as possible.  Homework does not go away in the upper grades, in fact, students are required to do much more homework.  Please help your child get in the habit of homework early for great school success.   While there are not consequences yet for not bringing back homework (except for a poor homework grade), at the trimester's end, your child will be required to do lunch detention for not bringing back homework.

I must also applaud those students who are going ABOVE and BEYOND!   We had two kids bring their special Husky challenge books on Friday.  Big congrats to Anna and Austin!   They are researching such interesting things!  


We also celebrated Emma's 7th birthday this week!  Happy Birthday to Emma!  We have another birthday coming up this week!!  I'm sending out an early birthday wish to the sweet Addi-B!   We will be celebrating both girls' birthdays on Friday.

Keep working on your pumpkin book character project.  If possible, send the book with the pumpkin and we will have a great display to show to all!

Next week, we turn our studies to spiders!   Get the cobwebs off those schema folders....ask yourself, "What do I already know about spiders?".

Have an AWESOME week!
Carin