Author: nknight-lucas

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Positive Parent Point!
“Children are made readers on the laps of their parents.” ― Emilie Buchwald

Calendar:
1/2 day - November 20th. Dismissal 12 Noon
November 21st-26th-Thanksgiving Break
Special points of interest:
Library—We go to library every Thursday at 9:10am. Please help your child to remember to bring his/her library book back on Wednesday.
PE—Students are expected to have PE shoes on
Snack—Your child is expected to bring his/her own snack to school on a daily basis. Please let me know if this is an issue for you.
Water Bottles—Students are allowed to have a water bottle in class. I do ask that students bring them home on a daily basis and bring them to school filled.

Dix Street Elementary 1st Grade
November 12, 2012

Mrs. Knight-Lucas
nknight-lucas@otsegops.org
616-885-8946

HALLOWEEN FUN!

Dear First Grade Families,
Holidays are always a special time of year. This week we celebrated one of our first holidays for the year.
On Tuesday we did Halloween Math & Science centers. Students had the freedom to rotate from center to center and explore and discover big ideas like pumpkin estimating, sum spiders, candy corn and skeleton measurement, and pumpkin weighing.
On Wednesday we made it a total Halloween celebration. Our day began with the mixing and munching of our witch’s brew and a story titled “Humbug Witch” starring our own Mrs. Watson. After morning recess we participated in Halloween games such as: Halloween BINGO, Mummy Wrap, Pass the Pumpkin, Eyeball Dig, Eyeball Relay Races and a Touch and Feel Halloween story. The touch and feel body boxes are my all time favorite. Students touch a variety of body parts from liver (jello), eyeballs (peeled grapes), brain (cooked cauliflower), intestines (spaghetti), fingers (carrots), and teeth (corn). The afternoon was filled with an all school parade, costume sharing and graphing (students had to verbally share what they were dressed like, their favorite part of the costume and graph if they were an animal, person or thing), treats, and a visit by Shrek in “Scared Shrekless”.
I sincerely hope that your child enjoyed this special day.
Thank you to all of the parents who sent in a snack for our witch’s brew and to all of the parents who volunteered to help with centers, costumes and clean-up. I am so blessed to have such great parents. I truly appreciate all of your efforts and time that you invest into your child and our classroom.

Camper of the Week!
Grace Blanchard

Favorite Book: Junie B. Jones
I am good at: Homework
Favorite Winter Activity: Sledding
Favorite Summer Activity: Camping
Favorite Subject: Specials
When I grow up I want to be: Teacher
I want to learn more about: Science
Favorite Food: Ice Cream
If I had a million dollars: Build a Library
I wish that: I had long hair

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Camp Curriculum

Rewiring
Throughout the year we will focus on learning syllable types. Students should have mastered closed syllables and are learning about open syllables. Open syllables follow three rules: one vowel, the vowel is not protected by a consonant and the vowel says its name.
We have begun to learn about both common and proper nouns. Students will be expected to be able to identify/label them in sentences. Nouns are also referred to as the naming part of a sentence and this will help students as we continue to work on writing complete sentences.
Daily 5
Students have been eager to learn a new literacy activity called “Read with Someone”. We have been practicing building stamina for “Read to Someone” for several days and are hoping to add this new activity to our Daily 5 choices soon. Students also learn to help each other become great readers by offering their partner two options when they are stuck on a word: coach or time. If one chooses coach his/her partner would help them sound the word out or give them the word. If one chooses time one would give his/her partner more time to work on the word. . Reading with someone can help students develop reading fluency which includes automatically recognizing sight words and reading with voice and expression.
Writing
Our new writer’s workshop strategy is using punctuation at the end of a sentence. We have been expanding our use of punctuation to add voice or expression to our writing by using not only periods, but question marks and exclamation points.
Teaching students to write a complete sentence can be a difficult task in first grade. We introduced “Monsterly good sentences” this week and are encouraging students to make sure they have a naming part and an action part in their sentences.
Math
We are continuing to learn new addition facts on a regular basis. We are currently focusing on doubles, adding 1, and adding 0. Students are expected to be able to add and subtract numbers through five at this point in first grade. Along with addition and subtraction we have been focusing on the following math concepts as well: writing addition and subtraction sentences for story problems, counting backwards from 20, sorting and creating graphs, weighing and measuring objects using non-standard units and using logical reasoning to solve a problem.
Science
We have spent some time learning about owls and spiders. It is fun to watch the kids getting excited about what they all ready know about animals and learning interesting things that they didn’t know. While learning about owls we enjoyed reading about owls as we made an owl book as well as an owl craft. During our lessons on spiders we read and wrote three facts about spiders, wrote our own pages in our classroom book about a very busy spider and made a spider craft. Not only have we enjoyed learning about these animals, but we have enjoyed eating a special snack (owl cookies, and spider web cupcakes) on Fridays donated by Mrs. Raseman.

Donations Needed

Plastic Spoons
Magnetic Letters

Camper of the Week!
Brayden Willover

Favorite Book: Monster Trucks
I am good at: Riding my scooter
Favorite Winter Activity: Sledding at Benders Hill
Favorite Summer Activity: Going to the pool
Favorite Subject: Reading
When I grow up I want to be: Dare Devil
I want to learn more about: Karate
Favorite Food: Spaghetti & Garlic Bread
If I had a million dollars: I would give it to the poor
I wish that: I was a BeyBlade