Mrs. Friend

MAY 18TH

CHAMPION NEWS...

WOW, the last week of school! We have several events going on this week. Tomorrow (Monday) is our Author's Tea. All parents are invited, also I sent a letter home last week indicating an item for each of you to donate. Please bring them tomorrow morning ready to serve. We did not have time do enjoy our stuffed animal activities on Friday. Stuffed animal day has been rescheduled to Monday. Keep in mind that it needs to be an animal. NEWS FLASH...I found the t-shirts, so we will tie dye this week. I will send the dyed shirts home, and please have your child wear them on Friday. They can have their friends sign it! Let me know if you do not want your child's shirt signed. Our classroom ice cream party will be on Wednesday from 1:00-2:00 on the covered play area. Thursday the students will get beach balls, and we will go to field with the entire first grade class for beach ball signing. Friday is the LAST day of first grade. DO NOT send bookbags on Friday and send lunches in disposable bags. Also, I will eat lunch with the students on Friday. We will eat in the classroom, this will be our time together. So please do not come eat with your child on Friday, let grandparents know too. I will send home a packet of learning you can do this summer. Please keep your child's mind engaged academically!

HERE'S THE LAST OF WHAT WE ARE LEARNING...

Really this last week, we will be doing more assessments than learning. I will assess the students in math including: measurement, fact fluency, and number sense. We will take the SRI reading test in the computer lab tomorrow. The students did great on the STAR test. I will assess the students on sight words and reading comprehension as well. We will take our last spelling test. In writing, we will retell a story, then edit our writing for capitals, periods, and spelling. We will do some fun activities with our stuffed animals and play some animal games. It is hard to believe the end is here. The students have grown physically, emotionally, and academically. I am proud of their accomplishments! We hope to see ya tomorrow for our author's tea! 

MAY 10TH

CHAMPION NEWS...

WOW only ten days left of school. The next two weeks will be busy! This week we will enjoy a music performance called the Jungle Book Kids, have field day, spend money at Tritt Tigertown, and do some fun activities with our stuffed animals. I am sure the students are excited about these events. Field day is Wednesday. Please dress your child appropriately for the weatherr and apply sunscreen BEFORE coming to school. You may want to have your child wear a hat, too. They may bring a water bottle to school. Please label their water bottle. We will finally tie dye our t-shirts this week. If your child did not purchase a field day shirt, they can wear their tie dye shirt. The shirts will be green. We will wear the shirts on Tritt Tigertown, too. Tritt Tigertown is Thursday. Your child needs $6.00 (earned in class) to really enjoy all the activities. I will send a money report home tomorrow. Please remind your child to work hard and earn extra money! If you are volunteering on Thursday, please be in the classroom around 9:15. Please remember Friday is stuffed animal day. The students will engage in several activities with their stuffed animal. Our Author's Tea is next Monday at 9:00. Please come a little early since we plan to start around 9:00. I will be sending specific food/drink requests home this week for our Author's Tea.

HERE'S WHAT WE ARE LEARNING...

THEME: We will wrap up our economics unit this week with Tritt Tigertown. The students will identify what goods and services they purchased and determine who was the consumers and producers during our fun day! I will assess the students on folktales this week.

READER'S WORKSHOP: I will continue to assess the students in reading. We will take the STAR test for the last time this week. Also, the students will complete a story map including characters, setting, beginning, middle, and end. They will answer questions about a story and compare and contrast a story.

WRITER'S WORKSHOP: The students did a great job drafting a poem about their researched animal. This week we will go to the computer lab and type the poem. The students will learn how to insert a picture, too. The students will be writing across the curriculum this week as well.

SPELLING: We will take a spelling test this week and complete end of the year assessments.

MATH: We will complete our unit on measurement, take our fair trades assessment, and engage in some graphing activities.

MAY 6TH

CHAMPION NEWS

All library books are DUE by Friday. Please remember to turn them in! Tritt Tigertown is quickly approaching! I will send emails out if I need any items donated. So if you do not hear from me, we are fine. Also, I still need volunteers to help in our classroom on Thursday, May 14^th. So far I have four parents helping and may need just a few more. Today we will go to the science lab for the last time. This Friday, the students will enjoy a magic show. Remember, I will be out again on Friday for a meeting. The students did not do their best while I was away for my Grandmother’s funeral. We have been working on best behavior and reaching expectations. Please speak with your child about doing their best in the classroom, at specials, and during lunch. Thanks for your support!

 

HERE’S WHAT WE ARE LEARNING…

 

READER’S WORKSHOP: The students will continue to read independently and apply reading comprehension strategies taught this year including: beginning, middle, end, characters, setting, main idea, details, making connections, and making comparisons. We will take the STAR test soon, and I will begin some end of the year assessments.

 

SPELLING: We will continue to work on long vowel spelling patterns, how to spell the words, and recognize them in print. We will also be making words from a larger word by rearranging letters. We will take a spelling test soon!

 

WRITER’S WORKSHOP: We will begin writing our informational stories on the animal researched for homework. The students will write a poem using facts and details about their animal. Next week, we will type the poem.

 

THEME: We will continue with our economics unit. The students are learning about goods, services, producers, and consumers. They will identify goods and services, and they will get the opportunity to share with class what good they would produce and sell to consumers.

 

MATH: We will continue with our measurement unit. The students will use nonstandard measurements to determine length, capacity, and weight. We will learn about animal measurements, order our researched animals by weight, and measure parts of our body!

APRIL 27th

 

DAYS LEFT!

 

CHAMPION NEWS...

Contrary to what some of the students thought this morning, I am here and will be out on Friday and NEXT Monday. Please make sure to put any transportation changes in writing on those days. Also, remember to turn in homework on Friday. I explained the homework project to the class, and they were told to choose a WILD animal not domestic. We will cover all concepts of the project in class. I emailed a calendar of events to you on Friday, if you need a hard copy please let me know. Also, I will send the weekly money report home on Thursday. 

CRCT: The students worked hard on the CRCT, and I am proud of their efforts! Thank you SO much for the morning snacks. The students enjoyed them, and I feel it helped during the test! I really appreciate your kindness.

REGISTRATION FORMS: Do you want your child to be placed in a second grade class next year? If so, I need your registration form! I am still missing A LOT! Please return the form signed with 4 postage stamps inside the envelope. If your child will not be returning to Tritt, please indicate on the form and return it with the envelope and stamps.

TRITT TIGERTOWN: Spend a day at Tritt Tigertown is quickly approaching! I need volunteers to help in the classroom on May 14th from 9:30-11:00. Our classroom will be the arcade, so I need parents to help students on the laptops (if needed) and to collect money. Please let me know if you can help. Thanks so much for those that have donated. As of right now we need items for the spa and books for the bookstore. Monetary donations are welcome, too!

FIELD DAY: Field day for first grade is on Wednesday, May 13th. Please help us out and volunteer your time. The P.E. staff would really appreciate it!

MEDIA CENTER: ALL library books are DUE on May 4th. Please remember to turn them in!

RELAY FOR LIFE: There are A LOT of Relay for Life fundraisers going on right now. All proceeds are donated to the American Cancer Society. Please read the Thursday Memo for more information and how you can help Tritt with this wonderful cause! Click Here

NOW FINALLY...HERE'S WHAT WE ARE LEARNING

THEME:We will continue learning about animals. The students will learn how animals move, how they change from babies, and why they look the way they do. We will watch a few videostreams so we can see the animals in action. The students will participate in some group activities as well.

MATH:This week we will work on missing addend in addition (___+7=14) and word problems. The students will do some graphing activities, too. We will hopefully begin our measurement unit later in the week.

SPELLING: We will take a spelling pretest today and work on basic concepts of spelling: editing, sorting words, rhyming words and more. We will also continue to identify and spell long vowel words. The students will learn to drop the "e" to add -ing (have -e=having).

READER'S WORKSHOP: We will review inferring today. Throughout the week, we will work on comprehension strategies such as: making connections, identifying characters, setting, main idea, details, beginning, middle, end, comparing and contrasting books, and questioning. Also, we will begin our folktale unit this week. The students will learn about seven tall tale characters from each first grade teacher during our rotation.

WRITER'S WORKSHOP: We will be writing informational pieces during science. They will write about tall tales during reading. Later this week we will write letters to our pen pals.

WOW! What a BUSY week!

APRIL 20TH

CHAMPION NEWS...

CRCT testing is this week. Please make sure your child is present each day and ON time. We have been racking up tardies lately, only winning tardy busters three times since the beginning of '09. The students have been working hard preparing for the test. Please make sure your child eats a healthy breakfast. Try to avoid foods high in sugar, it may cause them to crash and be tired later. You may want to pack extra HEALTHY snacks on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. Remember, we will go to the media center on Monday. Your child can earn money for returning their library books on time. A money report went home on Friday. The class average was on the form as well. The goal is for your child to earn the class average or higher. The monies earned is for good behavior, class compliments, tiger tokens, bonus sneakers, AR tests, turning in their folder, staying organized, turning in homework, etc. Also, do not forget we need donations for Tritt Tiger Town. Thanks to the parents that have already donated! I will need volunteers to assist with the store in our classroom, The Arcade. I would need help with collect money and assisting students with the computers. Please let me know if you can help! There will not be any homework this week. How did we spend our $50? Well much to their disappointment, I vetoed the pet idea. We decided on activity books containing puzzles, word searches, mazes and more. The students will enjoy them this week during testing! Thanks to Mrs. Cocoran and Mrs. Resh for preparing our Tiger Publishing stories. Also, thanks to Mrs. Dunn for helping us count our money and make fair trades. If you are mystery reader, I may need your help with this each Friday afternoon.

HERE IS WHAT WE ARE LEARNING...

Most of our time this week will be devoted to final preparations of the CRCT test and of course taking the CRCT test. We will illustrate our Tiger Publishing stories this week and work in our NEW activity books. The students will write a letter to their pen pal and practice handwriting. We will kick off our animal unit in the science lab this Monday. We will learn about the different animal groups including their: appearance, motion, and growth. The students might begin an animal project. We will continue to work on computation and word problems in math as well as measurement. We will have a very busy exhausting week!

APRIL 13TH

CHAMPION NEWS...

Welcome back! I hope everyone had a fun and relaxing spring break. The weather was a little wacky, but it was nice to have some time off. We will go to the media center on Monday-TOMORROW! We will NOT have science lab this week, so if you are the science lab volunteer-you are not needed. We are having a lot of scheduling confusion lately. I am looking in to it. We have had two volunteers showing up for activities and days where no on shows up. I hope to get an updated schedule to you soon with the help of our wonderful room moms.The CRCT test is coming soon! We are practicing, reviewing, and learning strategies every day! This week's homework packet will be another CRCT practice. Please check out the website links below for MORE practice, but try not to do too much. Also, keep in mind that these questions are practice questions and may or may not be tested the same way or at all on this year's test. Some of the questions are released test questions from the old curriculum, however it is still good practice! First grade has a culminating activity for our economics unit. A letter will go home on Monday highlighting the details of the activity. We will begin a NEW behavior system that correlates to our economic unit. The students will begin to earn money for positive behavior, being responsible, earning individual or class awards, etc. and they can lose money for negative choices/behavior. We will work together as a class to set up the earnings and consequences. We will discontinue the gold medal behavior plan. As of right now there is not a daily money reporting system. I am considering developing a weekly report. If anyone has a toy cash register not in use, we would LOVE to borrow it! Thanks!

CRCT links:

Rabun County CRCT Practice Resources

Henry County CRCT Practice Questions-2004

CRCT Practice Questions

First Grade CRCT Practice Tests

HERE'S WHAT WE ARE LEARNING...

CONTENT: We will continue to practice for the CRCT. If time permits, we will begin our unit on animals.

READER'S WORKSHOP: We will continue to work on inferring. The students will infer the meaning of unknown words, then we will use a dictionary to look up the definition of the words. We will also review and practice comprehension strategies for the CRCT test.

WRITER'S WORKSHOP:We will work on identifying complete and incomplete sentences. Also, we will review capitalization of the beginning of a sentence and proper nouns. The students will work on punctuation: periods, question marks, and comma in a series.

SPELLING: We will review various grammar and spelling categories and rules such as: nouns, verbs, describing words, contractions, compound words, etc.

MATH:We will continue to work on double digit addition and subtraction with and without manipulatives written vertically or horizontally. Also, we will begin our unit on measurement.

MARCH 29TH

CHAMPION NEWS...

Happy birthday this month to Raine and Zach. Thank you SO much for the books from the book fair. I really appreicate your kindness! Thanks for the classroom donations, too. We will go to the library on Monday, do not forget. This Tuesday is the talent show for our class during music. Send your child to school with what they need to demonstrate their talent! This Friday, the students will enjoy a choral performance. CRCT is coming soon. I hope your child is taking the online practice tests. I am sending home a CRCT homework packet for extra practice. It is due on Friday. Spring break is apporaching, and we are all ready! I hope you have a wonderful, relaxing week!

HERE'S WHAT WE ARE LEARNING...

CONTENT: We will go to the science lab this Wednesday. The students will identify and explain the basic needs of animals. In the classroom during our content block, we will begin CRCT practice and prep. I will teach the students strategies, and we will review previously taught material.  

READER'S WORKSHOP: We will continue to work on inferring. The students are doing great with this comprehension strategy. Strengthening their ability to infer will help with the reading portion of the CRCT. We will focus on clues from the text. The students will read and practice this strategy independently as well.

WRITER'S WORKSHOP: The students are working hard on their tiger publishing stories. This week we will complete our first drafts, then we will edit. Hopefully if we have time, we will write a letter to our pen pals.

SPELLING: We will take a spelling test on Monday. Other skills we will cover include: making words, long vowel sounds, reading and spelling words with ee/ea sound, and identifying the meaning of words by locating them in the dictionary.

MATH: We will review place value this week and begin double digit addition and subtraction.

We will have a BUSY week!

BOOKFLIX

TALENT SHOW IN MUSIC

Our class will have a talent show during music class on Tuesday, March 31st. Please have your child bring the props they need. Talents may include: singing, playing an instrument, dancing, magic tricks, tricks with a ball, etc. Hope your child participates!

MARCH 23RD

CHAMPION NEWS...

We will begin drafting our stories for Tiger Publishing this week. A few students forgot to return the homework page for this writing assignment. Please return it on Monday so your child can begin writing with ease. Please remember, we will go to the Media Center on Monday! Return those books. Also, remember your child needs to sign up to take an AR test on Tuesday and/or Friday. Once they have read a book with you at home and comprehend the story, they are ready to be tested. Thanks to our AR volunteers! It really helps having you in the classroom!

HERE'S WHAT WE ARE LEARNING...

CONTENT: We will begin our unit on animals later this week. The students will identify the basic needs of animals.

READER'S WORKSHOP: We will continue to work on the comprehension strategy inferring. Last week we worked on inferring the meaning of unknown words. We had some great vocabulary discussions. This week we will infer what the author is trying to say by looking for clues in the pictures and the text. When students infer, they are trying to determine what the author means or what the autho ris NOT saying. It is like "reading between the lines". This is a harder comprehension strategy because it requires the students to think and the answer is not right in the book. You can work on this strategy at home by asking "why" questions or "why do you think".

WRITER'S WORKSHOP: Last week we worked on using BIG and fancy word choice in our writing pieces. The students worked very hard. This week we will begin drafting our Tiger Publishing stories. The students will use details and interesting word choice to help their audience visualize their story.

SPELLING: This week we will do some more making words activities. This is when the students listen to words read orally and determine which sound to change to make a new word. Also, we will learn that there is "No a in they".

MATH: We will contiue to work on addition and subtraction strategies. The goal is for the students to master fact fluency and move away from using their fingers.