Welcome October!

Monday= B Tuesday= C Wednesday= D Thursday= A Friday= B Happy October everyone! I can't believe that October is upon us. We have so many things going on this month. I hope you are ready! If you haven't already returned your Conference Slip, please be sure your child puts it in my mailbox in the morning. I am so anxious to talk to each one of you on your child's progress. Conferences are coming up October 17-18, so be sure to mark your calendar! We will be going to the zoo next Thursday October 11! Thank you to everyone for getting your permission slips returned on time. It is going to be a great day. It's hard to believe, but we are wrapping up our first quarter together this week and next. I'm looking forward to another exciting and action-packed week with your first grader. Let me know if you need anything.

Thursday Check-In

We had a great Thursday in room 111. Our curriculum is getting more and more difficult and the kids are working so hard to stay with it. This week in math has been tough as we learn about balancing equations. Ask your child to tell you what a balanced equation is and see if they can explain it to you. Help them by reminding them that what is on ONE side of the equals sign HAS to have the same sum/difference as what is on the other. For example 4+2 = 3+3. Our kids learned about the Arctic with Miss Rarig this week. Check to see what they can tell you about this cold habitat. We were able to sight word check almost all our our first graders today, so your child should have come home with a sticker on their folder for each list passed and they are now ready to practice the next list in their packet. Remember, they should be able to "see it and read it"! Our "-all" spelling test is tomorrow. This has been a tough word chunk for many of the kids. Please help them strengthen their skills in decoding the "-all" chunk by allowing them extra opportunities to practice or hunt for "-all" words in their books at home. Don't forget that tomorrow is Movie Night from 6-9pm. It will be hosted by 4th grade and they will be showing "Space Dogs". We would love to have all of our first grade friends come and have some fun! Finally, please remember that tomorrow all conference time request forms are due back. I am anxious to meet with each of you and want to be sure to schedule you for a time that accomodates your busy schedule. Conferences will be there before you know it! Have a great night. Thanks for checking our blog today!

Picture Day Tomorrow!

Don't forget that tomorrow is our Picture Day! Our class will be getting their pictures taken at 9:45. If you would like to order pictures, it's not too late! Be sure to send your pictures order envelope to school with your first grader tomorrow. Is your first grader practicing their spelling words and their sight words? I have a wonderful parent coming in tomorrow to help with Sight Word checking! I hope you are having a wonderful evening. Be sure your child brings their smile with them in the morning!

We are working on the "-all" sound this week!

Happy Monday Eve...

Monday= A Tuesday= B Wednesday= C Thursday= D Friday= A I hope this finds you again reflecting on another wonderful weekend together. A few reminders as we head into the last week of September: please be sure to return your child's field trip permission slip tomorrow if you have not already done so. Also, Picutre Day is this Thursday September 27th. You may return your picture forms at any time before Thursday if you are interested in purchasing your child's photos. I hope your child has been working on their sight words. I will start checking kids on List 1 and 2 this week. Finally, it's hard to believe, but Parent-Teacher Conferences are right around the corner. Please be watching for your child's PTC time request form coming home this week. If you could select your top 2 or 3 meeting times and return it to me, I will do my best to accomodate your schedule with a time slot that will work for you. Thank you so much!

Whew! What a busy week!

We crammed a lot of learning into another short day! Today we learned about root words and the inflections -ed and -ing. This was tough for many of our kiddos. Check your child's memory and understanding of root words. Check out the question of the day and see if they can answer it for you. In math we are getting very good at "put together add" and "take away subtract". While you're getting your child ready for bed, ask them to tell you what is "one more than 9" or "one less than 20". This continued practice at home will strengthen their understanding of the more challenging math concepts to come. We tried something new today, too. Ask your child to tell you about the "Race to 100" fluency challenge. We timed ourselves for one minute to see how far we could write our numbers. Ask your child to tell you how far they got in one minute. This is another great activity to practice at home. Time your child for one minute and have them write their numbers as high as they can. Your child is bringing home a purple Sight Word folder tonight. Be sure to read the yellow note inside and start practicing on List 1. The purple folder needs to remain in your child's backpack everyday. Email me if you have any questions! Also, don't forget that next week is Picture Day! If you are interested in ordering please return your order forms to school with your child when you can. Thank you to all of my friends who have returned their field trip forms. If you have not already done so, please send it back to school by September 24. Don't forget, we have a spelling test tomorrow! Busy, busy, busy! Our first graders are rocking and rolling and learning like crazy. Have a wonderful night.

We learned about NOUNS today! Can your first grader tell you what they are? Watch this to help them remember!

Our Newest Slideshow...ENJOY!

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Looking Ahead...

Monday= D Tuesday= A Wednesday= B Thursday= C Friday= A Happy Sunday families! I hope your child told you all about our wonderful Learning Celebration on Friday. We had a jam-packed day of patriotic fun and learning. Tomorrow we will be back to normal and ready to rock another week of first grade. Here are a few upcoming events to mark on your calendar: September 27--School Pictures September 28--Movie Night 6-9pm October 11--Field Trip to the KC Zoo! October 12--Early Dismissal, 1pm October 13-19--Fall Break/Conferences October 31--Trip to KC Pumpkin Patch & Fall Party! We are going to be very busy in the next few weeks. Before you know it, our first quarter will be over. Have a super night! I hope your first grader is looking forward to another great week of learning together!

Tomorrow Is Learning Celebration!

Happy Thursday! I hope this post finds you warm and cozy on this rainy fall afternoon. I wanted to remind you of a few things for tomorrow: First, we have Library tomorrow so please help your child remember to return their Library books! Second, tomorrow is our LEARNING CELEBRATION!!! This means that we will be celebrating our Constitution and all of the wonderful things about our wonderful country! We have lots of activities planned for tomorrow, one of which is a school wide picnic. Our amazing PTO will be providing all of our Sunflower family with a hot dog lunch. Your child is bringing home a note telling you about this special event. So please be sure to look for it in their backpack tonight. If your child does not wish to eat the free lunch provided, please send them to school with a sack lunch. Finally, don't forget that we will also have to squeeze in our spelling test sometime tomorrow. Be sure that your first grader has practiced their "ck" words and are ready to rock on tomorrow's test! Stay warm and dry tonight. Let me know if you need anything!

Happy Tuesday! We must be working hard in first grade because our days are flying by. Today we went to reading clubs and worked on Beginning, Middle and End. We created a chart about the Beginning, Middle and End of our day. Ask your child to share with you something they did at the beginning of their day at school (lunch choice, reading clubs), the middle of their day (lunch, recess, math) or the end of their day (desert habitat and extra recess with Mr. Mortenson!). Their abilibty to retell events in sequencial order will help them become stronger readers! In math we worked more with the + and - signs. Your child should be able to tell you that when they see a + sign, they are going to get bigger numbers at the end and when they see the - sign, their answers will get smaller. Your first grader got new books in their Book-in-a-Bag today. Please be sure to encourage your child to read their books each night and return them to school everyday. Our whole group story today was "Get Up, Rick!". We talked a lot about what to do when we see a comma or exclamation in our reading. Be sure to use the login directions for ThinkCentral located on the sidebar of the blog to access our textbook and read the story at home! Has your child used our "Fancy Pants" words yet this week? They should be able to tell you or show you what our 3 fancy words mean...Have a wonderful evening! Let me know if you need anything!

Monday= C Tuesday= D Wednesday= A Thursday= B Friday= C Happy Sunday families! Hope you had a great weekend. Don't forget that tomorrow is another Library day. Please help your first grader remember their books before they head out in the morning. We are going to continue to work with the short "i" sound and a new set of spelling words will be coming home tomorrow. Constition Day is this week and we have some fun activities planned for the end of our busy week! See you tomorrow! Sweet dreams...

Happy Friday!

Hi families! Happy Friday to you! We had a busy, busy day in first grade. We managed to CRAM in lots of learning before the day was through. We spent our week talking about the short "i" sound and read our story "Big Rig". Our spelling test went TERRIFIC! I am so proud of our kids for working so hard to learn these words. Thank you so much for your continued support at home. We worked in small groups today and learned about "classifying". Ask your child to tell you what it means to classify. They should be able to tell you it means to sort things out by what's the same about them. We sorted kids, animals, fruits, big things, things made out of milk, etc. We were classifying like crazy today! Your child is bringing home an easy game-in-a-bag today to play for an extra treat on Monday. Ask them to show you their "Circus Match-O" game. Have them match the pictures stories to the equation cards. If they can problem solve and match the cards with the correct pictures, sign their baggie and return it to school with them on Monday. This is a bonus homework activity that helps keep our skills sharp over the weekend. We have spent this week in math talking about "part, part, total". It is important for our kids to understand the two parts that make a total in an addition equation. Our first graders wrapped up their forest habitat study with Mrs. Rains and her student teacher today. Have them tell you something they learned about this habitat. Next week, they are on to the desert with me! Have a great weekend together. Be safe and enjoy the predicted fall-like weather! Hooray.

Terrific Tuesday!

Hi families! We had a super day back in first grade after our long Labor Day weekend. We kicked off the day in our Reading Clubs and the kids did great. We had a lot of work to cram into our morning, but we managed to get it all in. Your first grader is bringing home this week's spelling list. We are studying the short "i" sound, so you will see this sound pattern in our spelling words. Your child is also bringing home new books in their "Book in a Bag" tonight. Please encourage your child to read to their books each night and be sure your child is bringing their book-in-a-bag to school each day. You never know when I will ask them to "drop everything and read"! In math we practiced counting ON from a given number to help us when we start getting into some more challenging math problems. For example, when we see a problem such as 5 + 4 we learned that we need to "grab" the bigger number and then count ON. This group did great at this today! I was so proud at how quickly they picked up on this concept. Hooray! Extra practice at home asking you first grader to tell you "What is one MORE than 13?" or "What is one LESS than 10?" will help them further develop their number sense. Did your first grader tell you about visiting Mrs. Rains for science today? Today was our first day of science rotations. We started our unit on Habitats and during this unit our first graders will be traveling to the different teachers each week to learn about a different habitat. Be sure to check the online games on our blog under the "#3 Art, Science and Social Studies" heading and have your child play along at home. The concepts reinforced in these games directly correlates with material that we are working on in class! Tonight is our first PTO meeting at 7pm in the Sunflower Library! It is also Domino's Pizza Night. If you want to take a break from cooking, Domino's will give our school a portion of all proceeds from tonight's pizza sales. Just be sure to tell them you are will Sunflower Elementary. Have a super night! Stay cool...I know fall is just around the corner...

Monday= No School Tuesday= C (Library!) Wednesday= D Thursday= A Friday= B Hi families! I hope this post finds you all happy and well after a wonderful Labor Day weekend together. I am looking forward to seeing all of my first grade friends tomorrow. Don't forget that tomorrow is a Library day! Please help your child remember to get their books in their backpacks before they head out in the morning. Also, Wednesday the 5th is the last day to turn in your PTO cookie order forms from our fundraiser. We have lots to do in this four day week. Our letter sound is short "i". We will have our spelling pretest tomorrow, so be sure to help your child practice their words extra-hard this week since we are one day short! I can't wait to hear about all of the fun that was had by all over the long weekend. Have a great night!