September 14, 2011
I finally decided to just update this blog because I’m still having trouble getting the new one set up the way I want it. I apologize for the delay.
On the left side of the blog page, you will find links to other pages with information like the breakfast and lunch menu, calendar, First Grade Newsletters, and sites with educational games for the kids to play. Right now, some of the links go to Miss Rand’s blog pages. I hope to change that before long.
Our spelling words for the week of Sept. 12 – Sept. 16 are:
Our spelling test is on Friday.
Right now, we have 19 students in our class: 7 boys and 12 girls. Ellie’s mom has volunteered to be our Room Mother. Please let me know if you are willing to help her with our class parties.
Several of you have sent snacks for the kids to have mid-morning. Thank you so much for helping out this way! It’s hard to think and work when you’re hungry.
Mid-quarter is tomorrow, and reports will come home next week. I will only send reports home for students that are not keeping up with their work and/or who are not doing First Grade level work.
I will update the blog weekly, and will let you know when I get the new one up and running. Thanks for your patience!
May 6, 2011
Today we celebrated the kids earning 400 Tigerific Tokens with a Pizza Party for lunch and ice cream after specials! It was a good day to be a first grader! They have earned 505 compliments as I write this, so we’ll have to plan another celebration for reaching 500! These kids are amazing!
The kids wrote acrostic poems for Mother’s Day and almost everyone colored a picture/card to go with the poem for their moms. We also brought the plants home today. The kids can keep the seedlings in these containers for awhile longer before they need to be repotted or planted in the ground. These are dwarf marigolds, and will do well in full sun.
I want to thank those of you that were able to come on Fine Arts Night and see the work on display. The kids loved having notes left by parents, grandparents, brothers and sisters. They were so proud that you came to read their work and see the art projects they’ve done this year.
Next week’s spelling words are:
cannot can’t I will I’ll I am I’ll
These are the last spelling words for the year. On May 20th, the first grade classes will have a Spelling Bee with words we’ve had on tests throughout the year.
We will continue reading and writing poetry next week, but will also start a letter-writing project that will occupy us for a couple of weeks. We’ll be writing friendly letters to our classmates.
Next Wednesday, an author of stories for children, will come talk to the kids about her newest book, Cleveland the Green Camel. Brenda Brinkley is the same one who came in the fall to tell the students about her experiences as a writer. She is also the author of Albert’s Thanksgiving. I do not yet know if we will have the opportunity to buy this new book.
On Thursday, a librarian from the Willard Branch of the Greene County Library will come to tell the kids about the Summer Reading Program. Look for information to come home with the kids that afternoon.
Field Day is scheduled for Thursday, May 19th. If you can help Coach Ferguson on that day, please contact her directly at lferguso@willard.k12.mo.us. If your child ordered a Field Day tee shirt, Coach handed them out yesterday afternoon. Let me know if you ordered one, but didn’t receive it Thursday.
Our last Tiger Pride Assembly is tentatively scheduled for Wednesday, May 25th. Right now, I don’t know the time, but it will probably be in the afternoon again. I will let you know as soon as I hear the final word.
This morning, I began doing the Developmental Reading Assessment (DRA) with some of the kids. I will continue this reading testing with the others until everyone has been tested individually.
There are only 3 weeks left in the school year – 15 more days! Remember that Friday, May 27th is an early-dismissal day for students. They will be dismissed at 12:30 that afternoon. Summer vacation is almost here!
April 26, 2011
Last Friday, the kids gave their oral animal reports. I did record them with a FLIP camera, and will try to get them on our class webpage so you can watch them too. I was impressed with how well everyone did. Thanks for your help from home! We won’t be doing glogs with the animal reports. There is too much left to get done before school is out, and I have a couple of other projects in mind that involve some cool technology. Keep watching and checking our class webpage!
The spelling words for this week are:
foil oil boy joy joyful toy
The test will be on Friday as usual.
We have another new student as of today. Her name is Tanlie Trammell, and she came from Campbell Elementary in Springfield. We have 18 kids in our class again: 12 girls and 6 boys.
This Thursday evening, April 28th, is Fine Arts Night at Willard South. The Kindergarten classes will be performing their music program at 7:00 PM in the cafeteria. Our Art Show has work from every K-4th grade student displayed in the building. All of the classes have writing work displayed outside their rooms. This is a great opportunity to let your child show off for you! The building will be open until 8:00 PM for students and their families to come in and look at some truly awesome work. I hope you can make time in your busy schedule to stop in with your family!
April 15, 2011
This has been a wild and crazy week!
Spring Fever has definitely kicked in at Willard South!
This morning, we got to watch Mr. Stan kIss a pig for our PTO spring fundraiser. The little black and white pig’s name was Bacon, and she seemed to enjoy the attention. It was a hoot! In our class, Lindsay raised the most money – she brought in over $100 all on her own. The top money raisers from each class will get to eat lunch with Mrs. Crighton-Smith at McDonalds next Friday. The Kiss a Pig fundraiser raised almost $1600! Hope to see you at the PTO Spring Carnival tonight! I’ll be at the Bean Bag Toss down by Mrs. Beck’s classroom.
On Monday, we got a new student named Conner Arnold. So, for this one week, we had 18 students: 7 boys and 11 girls. Today was Brendan’s last day with us, so . . . . next week we’ll be back to 17 students – 11 girls and 6 boys again.
The spelling words for next week are:
joke woke broke choke soak croak
Our marigold plants are up and growing; well, most of them anyway. Earlier this week, we replanted because about half of them hadn’t sprouted. I am soaking some more seeds to plant on Monday, just in case we got a bad batch of seeds. The kids are keeping a plant journal about the changes they observe as their plant sprouts and grows.
Today, the first grade teachers sent home information about Animal Reports with our students. Each student chose an animal to do a report on, and we supplied them with a form to record their research. The kids may, of course, go beyond the basics we asked for. Almost everyone has Internet access at home, so the kids can begin gathering information about their animal this weekend. I did send library books home with several of the students that they can also use. Unfortunately, I was unable to find books on all the chosen animals here at our school library. The kids also need to draw or print out a picture of the animal to go with their oral presentation. The main things we will be looking for are whether the kids tell us the things we asked for and how they do on their oral presentation. During the week, we will spend some time working on the research and practicing good oral speaking skills. Does the speaker talk clearly and loudly enough for everyone to hear? Does the speaker look at the audience? Does the speaker address his or her topic and only the chosen topic?
I am planning on recording the presentations and linking them to our webpage so you can see them also. We may even do another glog project with this. The kids and I will let you know what we decide in the next few days.
Please check out the new links I’ve added to the webpage! Two of them will be good resources for the kids as they work on the animal reports. One is National Geographic for Kids and the other is Kid Zone. Both sites have lots of information, games and activities that are appropriate for first graders.
Have a happy weekend!
April 6, 2011
I hope you’ll look at the links I’ve added to our class page. There will be more additions/changes in the future, so please check our page often.
The spelling words for this week are:
duck truck sick brick trick slicker
Last Thursday, we planted marigold seeds in potting containers and are watching (observing) them for changes. Today we had two with little stems and leaves poking their heads out of the soil. We will record our observations in Plant Journals, using both writing and drawings.
Thanks for visiting our class website!
March 29, 2011
Finally….. here are the links to the kids’ Penguin Project Glogs! Just click on the name of the student to view his or her glog. I know you will be as proud of the kids as I am. They did an amazing job on these! Enjoy!
Logan
Alexis
Cheyenne
Madisyn
Emma
Brendan
Alli
Kloe
Seth
Gabby
Lindsay
Rachel
Aric
Ashton
Christy
Grace
Lexie
This week, we are beginning our unit on plants. We will be planting seeds to learn about what they need to grow and become plants. We will learn about the parts of plants and what function they serve.
Our spelling words for this week are:
ball call caller fall tall taller
During Writers Workshop, we are working on Word Choice and learning how to choose descriptive, juicy words to make our writing more clear and interesting to read.
Thanks for taking the time to read our class blog and check out the kids’ Penguin Projects!
March 11, 2011
Wow, today is the end of the 3rd Quarter already! The report cards will come home with students on Tuesday, March 15th.
Last night, our First Graders performed their musical, “How Does Your Garden Grow?” They did an amazing job! We only had one student in our class that was unable to come for the evening performance. The “weeds” truly stole the show. I hope you enjoyed seeing the kids perform as much as I did.
The Tiger Pride Assembly for the third quarter will be held on Thursday, March 17th at 2:00. At 6:00 PM, Thursday evening, Willard South will host its annual Sock Hop. There will be Cupcake Wars, fun, food, games and prizes. Please come and have some fun with your kids! On Thursday, March 18th, the students will be dismissed at 12:30 to begin Spring Break. School will resume on Monday, March 28th.
Our spelling words for next week are:
pack crack snack shack splash trash
These words are harder than the words for this week, so I would really appreciate it if you could spend some extra time practicing them at home.
Next week, when report cards are done, I will try to get the links set up so that you can view your child’s Penguin Project Glog. More information will come home on how to do this. We are going to be able to see a second grade class’s work on glogs about the continents, and show them ours on penguins next week, too.
The kids have earned almost 400 compliments now. We may do a pizza party next Friday for lunch if I can make it work. More information to come on that, too.
Have a great weekend!
March 4, 2011
Hello again! I’m sorry to have missed a week with our blog, but as many of you already know, my grandmother in Texas passed away on February 23rd. We left as soon as we could after work on Friday in order to get there to help my mother and uncle with all the things that had to be done. Miss Kylie was my substitute teacher for the four days I took off for the funeral and travel time. Her mother is our WS librarian, Mrs. Anderson. Miss Kylie did a terrific job, and the kids were wonderful for her. I am so proud of them! Have I told you lately how great your kids are? All of them stayed on green for the whole time! WOW!!!!
Next week, I will link their Penguin Glogs to my blog (here) so that you can view them at home. I know you will be truly impressed with what they did. Everyone here at school is! Look for information to come home about this soon.
Our spelling words for this week are:
bait wait plate skate state gate
I will get papers graded and sent home from this week as quickly as I can. Thanks for being patient.
The First Grade Music Program is on the 10th, next Thursday. The kids need to meet here in our room at 6:45. You can drop them off here, and then go get a good seat in the cafeteria for their show. Mrs. Reynolds says it’s going to be a great one!
The end of the 3rd quarter is Friday, March 11th. Report cards will come home on Tuesday, March 15th.
Please see our weekly newsletter for other important events with the dates and times.
February 18, 2011
It has been a busy, busy week for us. On Wednesday, we started working with the Netbooks on our penguin project glogs. In spite of lots of technical difficulties, we have made quite a bit of progress. The kids are doing such an awesome job! We can’t wait to finish so that we can share them with you! We will set up links from this page so that you can view your child’s work. I will let you know when those are ready.
Next week, we will continue learning about Abe Lincoln, George Washington and Presidents Day. The time taken to work on the penguin glogs puts us a bit behind on other things, but it will be worth it.
The spelling words for next week are:
how plow flower cow mouse house
The first grade music program will be on Thursday, March 10. Mrs. Reynolds sent notes home about it earlier this week. It will be great, so I hope you all can come to see the kids perform.
Our Valentine party was lots of fun. A great big thanks to Mrs. Littles, Josh and Amber for taking care of everything!
Keep your fingers crossed that we don’t have to take any more weather days! If we do, we will use part of our Spring Break to make them up.
Have a safe and fun weekend!
February 11, 2011
It has been quite a day! Everyone was back for the first time in a while, we had a spelling test, ate Happy Meals for lunch and saw a Chinese New Year parade in our own halls!
On Monday, we will have our Valentine Party from 2:00 to 2:45. We decorated bags here at school and a class list was sent home with the students so they could put names on the valentines to give their friends. If the kids made, decorated or bought a bag or box before we did ours at school, they can choose which one they want to use. Thank you to the parents that sent in money to help pay for the party treats and goodies. Jackson’s mom was one of our room mothers, and they moved in January. Seth’s mom is taking care of our party arrangements all on her own. I appreciate you!!
We have been learning about penguins and are going to be working on some special penguin projects next week. We’ll be using Willard South’s mobile computer lab and the Netbooks to create these. I will let you know more information about this soon. The kids are so excited!
Next week’s spelling words are:
sleep sweet green teacher heat meat
We will read and learn about Abraham Lincoln next week also. Look for some of our work and activities about him to come home.
Mid-quarter reports will be sent home on Monday, February 14th, with students that are not making adequate progress, or are failing, in subject areas.
Enjoy the nice weather over the weekend!
