Mid-Week Check In

Happy Wednesday, first grade families! I hope this post finds you all healthy and warm after a beautiful, spring-like 3-day weekend. We are getting back into our groove this week and I am still here waddling away as we await the arrival of this huge baby! :) The kids have been terrific this week and we have been busy getting back into the routine. Did your first grader come home talking about Raz-Kids? They were off-charts-excited today when they learned about this awesome computer club they are now members of. Your first grader should have come home today with a little ticket with a Raz-kids website and password on it. Raz-Kids is a wonderful, individual reading website with interactive features that encourage kids to listen to reading, read on their own and strengthen their comprehension skills by engaging them in various online quizzes based on how well they have read and listened to different texts. I LOVE this program!!! Our first grade team used money from our AMAZING PTO to purchase memeberships for each first grader to Raz-Kids. Your child is able to work on their personal library at home with the help of the ticket I sent with them today (including the website and teacher name login). They spent the end of their day learning how the site works and how they have their own personalized reading library where they can earn "Star Bucks" to "buy" things for the Raz-Rocket and Raz-Robot. They were PSYCHED when it was time to go home! Have them tell you about it tonight at dinner. I have not been able to provide this to my students in several years, due to funding. I am so grateful to ALL of you wonderful parents and PTO members for working so hard to provide our kids with the funds to purchase this terrific and motivating program. I love that it is individualized, based on your child's reading strengths and that they are able to move at their own pace. Please let me know if you have any questions about this exciting option for reading. It is also important for you to know that your child's membership is good for one full YEAR, which means during the summer and into next fall they can keep working to improve their reading skills and build their rockets up even more! Today in math we learned about the number-hungry Mr. Munch...otherwise know as "greater than/less than". Have your child tell you what they learned today about Mr. Munch. Give them extra practice by providing two different numbers and ask them to draw which one Mr. Munch would eat: 37 < 45. Or 89 > 22. Can they "read" the math sentence using the big-kids words "greater than" or "less than"? On a baby-watch note, I wanted to let you all know that our baby could make her big debut at any moment. At last check my doctor said anytime in the next 7-10 days...that sounds like a looooong time to me right now! My wonderful substitute, Mrs. Godwin, has been checking in on us this week and making herself a frequent guest in anticipation for my short time away. I have talked to the kids about being gone for a little bit...although many of them were confused why I wouldn't come back the day after the baby was here! :) I will keep you posted via the blog as to when we welcome this newest blessing. Thank you to all of your for your well-wishes, check-ins, love and support. You have no idea how much it helps me. I am so blessed to know you all! Let me know if you need anything. Stay warm tonight...it's going to get COLD!!!!