Coming Home Today

Veteran's Day parade permission slip - On 11/11 we will be walking across the street to view the Veteran's Day parade. Please sign and return the form ASAP.

Kids Voting

Today the students got to participate in "Kids Voting". They got to log in and vote for presidential candidates and a few other elected offices. It will be fun to see who Shenandoah Valley elects president!

Veteran's Day Forms Due

Veteran's Day forms are due this Friday 10/28. If you need another, it can be found on the SV website. :)

Fall Party This Friday

Greetings parents!

Please join us for the First Grade Halloween Party on Friday, October 28, 2016, from 2:40 to 4:00 p.m.!

Here's the schedule for Friday's party:

1. Class parents and volunteers arrive at 2:40 for set up. Rest of the parents arrive at 2:55. Kids arrive dressed after specials

2. Class pictures in costumes 2:55 - 3:00pm

3. Halloween-themed story reading while kids eat their snack (what they bring from home) 3:00 - 3:10pm.

Kids are going to eat the snack they bring from home (instead of their regular snack time). we suggest you send something fun but just enough for 10 minutes.

4. Crafts/Games- 3:10 - 3:40pm - kids are divided in 3 groups and rotate

---A) Picture Frame decorating - craft

---B) Fine Motor Monster - craft

---C) Pin the Tail on the Cat - game

5. Hot Pumpkin game with music 3:40 - 3:50pm

Halloween toy "treat" given to everyone (eyeball erasers or spiders)

6. kids get to wrap an adult volunteer or their teacher in to a mummy with toilet paper roll if time permits.

Please let us know if you can come help during the party.

We also need few supplies for each class room:

1. 20 eye ball erasers

2. 20 party favor spiders

3. Halloween and fall themed stickers for 20 kids(to decorate photo frames)

Let your room parent know if you can send these items with your child by Thursday.

Do not reply to class teacher. If you have any questions, do contact your room parents...

Mrs. Wolk : Shilpa Rao shilpasalil@gmail.com

Mrs. Cacioppo : Billy Conger billie.conger1@gmail.com

and James Johnsonhootenjohnson@gmail.com

Mrs. Koenig : Brianne Dorn briannedorn@hotmail.com

and Missy Bredbenner missyjane6@gmail.com

Miss Eufinger : Claire Frakes thirzaclaire@gmail.com

Miss LaFata : Emily Witcher familywitcher@gmail.com

and Annu Sial annuanand@hotmail.com

Thanks

Shilpa, Billy, James, Brianne, Missy, Claire, Emily, and Annu (room parents)

Passport Night

Share any photos with me from passport night! Here are a few I've received.

Food Drive

Next week, the Student Leaders are sponsoring a Canned Food Drive. It will take place Monday, October 24^th through Friday, October 28^th. Students may bring in canned foods or boxed foods. All donations will go to the Circle of Concern.

Red Ribbon Week

Next week is red ribbon week here at school. A flyer is coming home with your child tomorrow with details. Pay close attention as each day is a "spirit day" and students can participate by wearing different types of clothing.

Monday - Pajama day

Tuesday - Wear tye-dye

Wednesday - Superhero theme (shirts, not costumes)

Thursday - Wear jerseys

Friday - Wear red

Social Studies

This week we began our new social studies unit -  families now and long ago. During this unit we will learn about how life is different and the same as it has been in the past. We will learn about how all families are unique and different. We will learn about family traditions and will notice how they may be the same or different among our classmates.

We will also be studying the pilgrims, Native Americans, and the first Thanksgiving.

Coming home with your student tomorrow will be 2 papers I need your help with. One is about family traditions and one is a Thanksgiving survey. We will be sharing and comparing family traditions in class. Please help your child fill these out and return them to school as soon as you can.

A Special Guest

We welcomed Mr. Grant Alter (Jackson's dad) into our classroom yesterday morning for our writing lesson. He is a writer and editor in chief for a comic company! He was able to talk to us about what he does for his job and this was related to much of our work this year in writing. We also noticed some things he discussed that we have learned about in reading.

He talked about:

-deciding what to write about and brainstorming ideas
-sequencing a story with a beginning, middle, and end
-adding details in our words and pictures
-using dialogue and speech bubbles to enhance the pictures and tell the story
-writing with our reader in mind
-using punctuation to add meaning

Thank you so very much for coming in!

Powell Hall

We had a very enjoyable time at the St. Louis Symphony today!! The program we went to discussed the four seasons, so not only did it fit into our music curriculum, but our science curriculum also! The children did a great job with behavior while we were out of the school building.

Word Work

We are resuming our regular schedule this week with word work. That is chunks and accountable words. This week's chunks are -in and -it. Our accountable words are will/if. :0)

Friday and Monday

FYI -- I will be out Friday 10/14 and Monday 10/17 for my brother's wedding in Kansas City! Ms. Shockley (who was here in Mr. Augustin's absence earlier this year) will be my guest teacher. She knows the children from music class. I will share my expectations with the children this afternoon about behavior while I am out. :0)

Science

Students are enjoying learning about weather with many different learning tools! This week students got to play a weather bear game to practice reading a thermometer, read some weather non-fiction books, and learn some map reading skills with a weather map!

Scholastic Book Order

Please submit October book orders by 10/17 at 4:00 PM. Our class code to order online is: J6ZT4 

Math

This week in math we are working with the part-part-whole model and noticing similarities between subtraction and addition equations. For instance, we notice that knowing the fact 8+2=10 can help us solve 10-2=8. As students become more fluent and confident in their facts, these relationships should become more clear and students can use them as a tool in their every day problem solving. We continue to work mostly on facts within 10, but in the next couple of weeks will be moving to higher facts up to 20.

We also continue to work through a variety of story problems together, with increasing rigor. Students are learning that not all story problems are a basic add or subtract problem. They need to think carefully about what the question is asking and make a plan to solve it using addition, subtraction, or sometimes both!

This link is a great resource for practicing math facts up to 20. We will be using it some at school. Feel free to practice at home, too! http://www.aplusmath.com/flashcards/

Reading - Strategies

This week in reading we are focusing on how good readers pay attention to punctuation as they read. We learned that punctuation adds meaning to the story. We are practicing reading punctuation with fluency and expression and thinking about how the author uses it to convey their message. Students noticed how different it sounds to read a statement versus a question.

I love how I have seen all readers becoming more confident problem-solvers during this unit. I hope you are seeing this transfer to home. Now that we have learned so many strategies, I really put the responsibility back on them when they get stuck on a word and appeal to me for help. They are using their strategy resource from their book box to select and use multiple strategies when needed.

In addition to decoding strategies we continue to practice comprehension strategies as well. We are working on retelling a story with details and answering questions about a text. Continue having conversations about what your child is reading at home!

Writing Personal Narratives

We continue to work on our 'small moment' writing unit. During this unit students are choosing personal experiences to write about. Students are encouraged to zoom in on particular 'moment'. For instance if they want to write a story about their trip to Six Flags, I would encourage them to zoom in on one particular memory from the trip such as their favorite ride. Students are practicing stretching their small moment over several pages using a beginning, middle, and end.

We are learning that sharing personal experiences helps us to continue to build our classroom community. We are doing some sharing of our stories. Sometimes we are taking turns sharing on the document camera with the whole group, and other times partnerships are sharing. Through questioning we can help our friends add even more details. When friends ask us "wh" questions about our experience, it helps us think of other details we can add.

We have also been reading some mentor texts that model how authors stretch a small moment story.

We continue to work on spelling, mechanics, and punctuation in this unit also.

Scholastic

In case you missed the book fair last week, a Scholastic flyer will be coming home with your child. Please place orders by 10-17.

Essential Questions Refresher

We are continuing work with our current units of study. I wanted to remind you the essential questions we are working on for each unit.

Writing: How do people help readers understand their life experiences?
How do people use stories to build community?

Reading: What do readers do when their reading doesn’t make sense?
What do readers do when they make mistakes?
Why is reading fluently important?
What do readers do when they come to a word they don't know?

Math: How does knowing many strategies help me to be a better problem solver?
How can the relationship between addition and subtraction help me to solve problems?
How can I communicate my math thinking?

Science: Why is it important for people to know about weather?
How do temperature, wind, cloud cover and precipitation help us to understand the weather?
How do we get information about the weather?

Friday we will begin our new Social Studies unit - Families now and long ago. The essential questions for this unit are: How has family life stayed the same and changed over time?

Scholastic Book Wizard

At conferences I will be sharing with you what your child's independent reading level is as well as their instructional level. Parents often ask me how they can choose appropriate books for home. This tool from Scholastic is great. It helps you find titles at particular levels. At home it is ideal that they are reading at their independent level. Keep in mind the independent level is always a level or two below where I am instructing them in the classroom. Here is the link to the scholastic book wizard:


http://www.scholastic.com/bookwizard/

Symphony Trip - Chaperones

We are getting excited about our trip to the symphony on October 19th! I have more than two parents interested in attending but only two parent tickets. SO... early next week we will do a "raffle" to choose the parents attending. I will send out a communication as soon as that is done so you can plan ahead. Thanks! :)

More Vowel Practice

We are working on introducing long vowel sounds this week and next. We have done a lot of work with short vowels this year. We continue practice with short sounds also. Learning these vowels and vowel patterns can really assist in decoding in reading!

Lunch Menu - October

http://www.edline.net/files/_UeBdz_/95f7a2576648fda13745a49013852ec4/elem_Oct_2016_2.pdf