Ms. Kicklighter

Week of November 9th

Our class won the box top collection.  We were honored with popsicles at recess.  Keep saving box tops.  There will be another contest in February.  We have a collection box in our classroom, so send them in whenever.  Just make sure the bag is marked with your child’s name, my name and the amount. 

Tritt Family Fun Night has been canceled for tonight.

Yearbook order forms are due by this Friday.

Square 1 Art is due by Thursday

Schedule change:  This Friday we will have specials from 11:20-12:00 and lunch from 12:28-12:58.

IMPORTANT!!!  We are trying to cut back in the number of interruptions throughout the day in our classroom.  Please send your child to school each day with their snack, lunch, folder, homework, and dismissal changes.  If you are in the school please do not interrupt our class unless I have scheduled you to assist in the classroom.  We lose a lot of academic time do to interruptions.  Thanks for working with us! 

 

Holiday

Stockings

On Monday your child will bring home a red stocking.  Cindy Gentry, a 2nd grade teacher, brings Tritt and the Salvation Army together to provide underprivileged children with holiday stockings.  If you choose to participate please send your stuffed stocking back to Tritt before or on November 30th.  This is optional, but it's a great way to teach your child the importance of giving to others. 

Computation Practice

Our school, as a whole, has decided to focus on improving computation skills in every grade level.  After morning announcements the first grade will be doing timed drills on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday and practice games on Tuesday and Thursday.  This will help us with accuracy and fluency in addition and subtraction facts.  You can help at home by practicing with flash cards or creating your own at http://www.aplusmath.com/flashcards/Flashcard_Creator.html.

To help with addition and subtraction practice our class will begin doing a page from our math book for morning work one day a week.  Because time is limited and morning work is not required, we will not check our papers at school.  You can choose whether or not they will go over them at home or complete any unfinished problems.

Thanksgiving Play

This week you will get an invitation for the first grade Thanksgiving Play on Thursday, November 19th.  The play will begin at 8:15 and is immediately followed by a breakfast in our classroom, wrapping up around 9:00.  We will be practicing all week, and we look forward to seeing you at the Play!

AR Tests

If your child is ready to take an AR test we will have parent helpers on Tuesday and Thursday mornings.  Please send the book or a note with the title of the book so we can help your child find their test. 

What’s Going on in Our Room?

Monday- Science Lab, Mystery Reader- Mrs. Abbott

Tuesday- AR

Wednesday- Mystery Reader- Our new Assistant Principal, Mrs. Patterson

Thursday- AR, play practice,

Media

Center

Friday- Play practice, computer lab

Reading-

connections to understand the story and characters better

Writing- editing for capital and ending marks.  Adding adjectives to make our stories more interesting

Math- collecting our own data and representing it correctly, counting bills 1, 5, 10, 20, Magnetic math: representing numbers in multiple ways, practice fluency with addition and subtraction facts to 12.

Content:  wrapping up our magnetic unit with an assessment and begin our Lewis and Clark adventure.  We will be focusing on the character traits and contributions of these famous American.  Our big question:  What did they do to make our lives better today? 

Week of November 2- November 6

I hope you stayed as dry as possible trick-or-treating this weekend.  Tuesday is a teacher work day and a student holiday.  Hopfully the weather will be nice so the kids can play outside and get lots of exercise. 

Monday: Mystery reader- Mrs. Abbott

Tuesday:  No School/ Student Holiday

Wednesday:  Talent Development

Thursday:  Media Center

Friday:  Computer Lab

Huge Thanks:  Thank you to all of the parents who donated pumpkins and came in to teach a fall center.  THe students loved your creative activities! 

Information:

On Friday, I sent home yearbook forms.  If you are intersted in purchasing a yearbook they are $16 for a soft cover and $20 for a hard cover. 

Square One art went home last week.  If you are interested in ordering any, they make great holiday gifts.  Send your completed order forms in this week.  THe stickers are your free gift to keep even if you don't place an order. 

AR will begin next week.  I will be sending home a letter giving more information. 

What are we learning?

Reading: Connections, main idea, details, beginning, middle, and end events

Writing:  Adding details and descriptive word to make our writing pieces more interesting.  Continue to practice writing in complete sentences with a capital letter at the beginning of each sentence and a punctuation mark at the end. 

Math:  Fact families, addition and subtraction strategies, fair trades to one dollar. Practice fluency with addition and subtraction facts at home. 

Content:  Thomas Jefferson will be assessed this week.  We also began our study on magnets.  We have had tons of fun experimenting with object that are attracted to magnets and one that repel. 

Word Work/Handwriting:  Diagraphs ch, th, sh, wh                  Letters L, U, V, W, X, Y

Morgan Herman won the Red Ribbon Poster contest for first grade.  She was awarded a $5 gift card to Borders Book Store.  Olivia Thomas was a runner up and was aawarded a new pencil.  Thank you for going above and beyond and participating in the poster contest. 

I hope you all have a wonderful week. 

Amber

Items Needed:  I need large paper grocery bags for our Thanksgiving play. Send in bags if you have any, or as you get them. 

Week of October 26- 30th

Three days until Halloween and you can feel the excitement in my room!  Today was our first day of fall centers.  The kids loved seeing parents come in to assist in the classroom.  I am looking forward to the others!  There is a lot going on this week at school and I have many announcements.

Important:

• Indent a Kid forms are due tomorrow.  The class with the highest participation wins a prize.  This is not mandatory, but is a great idea!
• Thursday is the annual staff Costume Kickball Game.  Come watch our teachers play kickball all dressed up!  Admission for the game is a donation of $1 which goes towards Rely for Life.  Come and see me play kickball in my costume. If your child attends ASP, they can bring a dollar and watch too!  We will be playing on the field.   
• The Box Top competition ends this Friday.  Please continue to bring them in.  You can either download the sheets: http://www.boxtopseducation.com/earn/clip/Projects.aspx  ,or send them in a Ziploc bag labeled with my name, your child’s name, and how many are in the bag.  The class which collects the most box tops wins!!!!  Every box top earns Tritt a minimum of ten cents! 

Red Ribbon Week:

Wednesday:  Wear your favorite jersey to school!

Thursday:  Wear your favorite hat/cap to school!

Friday:  Wear red to pledge to be drug free!

Announcement:

Assistant Principal Hilarie Straka will be retiring on October 30 after 31 years with the Cobb County School District.  We're putting together a "Book of Memories" to present to Hilarie.  Notes can be handwritten or typed, and can include pictures, on any size paper (note cards or 8-1/2 x 11).  Send or e-mail to Suzanne Alea: Suzanne.Alea@cobbk12.org, by Thursday, October 29th.  Thank you for your help in making Hilarie's retirement a memorable event! 

• On FRIDAY, OCTOBER 30TH:  8:00-9:00 a.m. - Informal Reception in the Media Centerfor parents to say goodbye.
• If students or parents would like to make a card for Hilarie, please send in cards by noon on Thursday.

Also, our class won the Pampered Chief contest.  We have earned a pizza party!  Thank you to all the parents who supported Tritt through the Pampered Chief sale. 

In our class:

Reading: connection, main idea, details, beginning, middle, and endWriting: editing for capitals, ending marks, complete sentences

Also- adding descriptive words (paint a picture for our audience)

Math: fair trades to 1 dollar, story problems, fluency with addition and subtraction facts to 12, and fact families

Word work: ch, sh, wh, th diagraphs

Handwriting: L, U, V, W

Content: Thomas Jefferson, Magnents

Dates:

Monday- mystery reader- Sevy, science lab

Tuesday- Fall centers- Mura, Sevy

Wednesday- Fall Centers- Anthony, Abbott

Thursday- Fall Centers- Davis, Thomas, MediaCenter, Costume Kickball

Friday- Box Tops due, Reader’s Theater- Baumgarten, Computer Lab

Week of October 19- 23

I hope you all had a nice weekend and stayed warm and dry.  There is a lot going on at school…

Thanks to all of you who have already returned the report card envelope and signed signature card.  If you forgot today, please send it in this week.  DON’T seal the envelope; I will use this same envelope all year. 

Coming up:

Oct. 19-23 Bus Safety Week

Oct. 21 Picture Make up Day

Oct. 26-30 Red Ribbon Week

Oct. 30 Box Tops Collection Sheets Due

This Wednesday is Early Release.  The students will be dismissed at 12:30. On early release day this Weds, all ASEP Enrichment

classes are canceled.  That means no Spanish, no Theater class,

and no Cardio Kool Kids.

Picture make-up day is Wednesday, October 21st.  This is for students who were absent on the original picture day (September 1st), forgot their picture money, need a retake, or didn't buy portraits. For retakes, be sure to return your original portraits and hand them to the photographer. To purchase new portraits, pick up a flyer in the lobby.

Bus Safety Week:

PTA Bus Safety Week is October 19-23. PTA Health and Safety would like you to have your child write a letter or make a card/picture showing their appreciation to their Bus Driver, Crossing Guard, or Safety Patrol, depending on how they go to school, and give them to these special people during Bus Safety Week. Questions go to Dawn Cone 678-549-6948; dawn@spectrum-wellness.com

I encourage you to have your child make a card as part of their homework for this week.  I know they will appreciate homemade cards from the students. 

Red Ribbon Week:

Today a red flyer was sent home with a schedule of events for next week.  There will be a poster contest.  Encourage your child to participate in this opportunity.  Posters are due next Tuesday.

In our Classroom:

Monday: Mystery Reader- Robin Baumgarten

Tuesday: Guidance

Wednesday: Early Release; no clubs or tutoring

Thursday:  Media Center- please help remind your child to bring back their library books

Friday: Fluency Friday

Change in Schedule:

• On early release our lunch will be from 11:12- 11:36
• Our specials will be from 8:50- 9:20

In reading, we are working on making meaningful connections with our text and using our schema to make connections.  We will be working on reading will fluency and expression by practicing our Reader’s Theater scripts and will perform for Mrs. Friend's class on Friday. In math, we will be working further with addition and subtraction strategies. In writing we will be focusing on personal narratives.  Our writing goal for this week is to self-edit our work for capital letters and ending marks.  In content, we are studying the character traits and contributions of Thomas Jefferson.  We will be comparing his everyday life with our everyday life by exploring pictures from his time period and adding them to our “Now and Then Class Book.”  In phonics we are working on ch and sh diagraphs.

Have a great week!

Amber Kicklighter

Don't Miss Out!!!!!!! Join us Saturday for tons of FUN!!!!

Register online for the Tritt Trott this Saturday.  You'll receive a Tritt Trott T-shirt!!!!

 

Don’t forget to pack a picnic and join us for our annual Screen on the Green this Saturday on the big field. 

Week of October 5th-9th

I hope you all had a great weekend.  I would like to think all of you for coming out to support your child and our class for the Boosterthon Fun Run.  We had a great time!  We have a busy week at school…

 

 

Our Book Fair will be Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday this week.  You are welcome to come before and after school with your child to purchase books.  Our class will be previewing the Book Fair on Tuesday. 

 

This week:

Monday- Mystery Reader- Mrs. Riddle

Tuesday- Book fair, Guidance

Wednesday- Talent Development

Thursday-

Media

Center

, Turn in Pledges envelope

Friday- Computer Lab, Fluency Friday

Week of September 21st - 25th

I hope the rain didn’t hold you back from doing something fun this weekend.  I want to thank all of you for assisting your child get pledges and register their donations online for Boosterthon.  The students have really enjoyed the Boosterthon crew being in our school and getting us excited about raising money for our school.  The students can continue to recruit pledges through this Thursday, September 24, 2009.  I will send home a money collection envelope and all donations will be due on Thursday, October 1, 2009.  We will have our Fun Run on Thursday September 24, 2009 from 10:20 until 11:25.  Each student will be given a Boosterthon t-shirt to wear the day of the race. 

Important Information:

Monday:  Progress Reports go home; Julie or Paul Thomas will be our Mystery Reader; Painting our fall trees at 11:30.  Thank you for my volunteers. 

Tuesday:  Guidance; First day of fall

Wednesday:  Talent Development

Thursday:  Media Center; Fun Run

Friday:  Computer lab

• Please make sure your child wears comfortable shoes and bottoms on Thursday for the Fun Run.  Every student will be running, skipping, dancing, and moving around a lot outside for an hour.  I will provide water bottles for each student. 
• Please review your child’s progress report then sign and return to school by Friday. 
• If your child has viewed the Boosterthon 3D video online, please send in their 3D glasses.  We are going to use them for an activity later in the year. 

What’s going on in FIRST GRADE?

In reading, we will be begin taking about our schema.  We will begin to make text to self connections during our reading.  The students will learn that good readers are constantly thinking and making connections while reading.  Making connection will help build reading comprehension skills.  In math, we will continue to work on counting and purchasing items to thirty cents.  The students will be playing games and working in small groups to apply their understanding of the concept. I will assess the students their understanding on Friday.  In writing, we will be applying our understanding of the landforms to write a book of landform riddles.  We will also be working on various sentence types and writing in complete sentences.  For content, the students will write Max a letter to get him home.  They will need to apply their understanding of map skills and their global address to correctly lead him back to Tritt.  We will go on a continent and landform scavenger hunt to review the various landforms and continents.  The students will be assessed on landforms and continents on Thursday. 

 Have a great week!

Amber Kicklighter

Week of 9-14 through 9-18

I hope you all had a wonderful weekend.  I’m glad testing is over.  Thank you for getting your child to school on time. 

Information:

Monday- Science Lab

Tuesday- Book Buddies, Boosterthon Peep Rally

Wednesday- Talent Development

Thursday- Media Center

Friday- Fluency Friday, Computer Lab

Important: 

Please make sure your child is reading every night.  It is very important to help them to development good habits with reading.  THEY should be tallying the minutes they read each night.  Please have your child do the tallying, not you. 

What’s going on in first grade? 

In reading, we are working on character, setting, and important details of text we read.  We are also working on reading strategies:  Chunky Monkey (chunk the work), Flippy Dolphin (try the other vowel sound), Trying Lion (try to reread the sentence or try another word that might make sense), Digger Dog (word detective-does it look right, sound right, make sense?), and Skippy Frog (skip over the word, read the sentence, then hop back and take a guess).  When you are reading at home, I encourage you to use these strategies with your child to read and sound out new words.  It would also be a great reinforcement from the classroom to ask your child to tell you the main character, character traits, setting, and/or important details from the books they read at home. 

In writing, we will be working on continent paper bag books.  We will be writing about all of the continents that our mascot, Max, has been traveling to and sending us letters from describing the landforms, climate, scenery, and culture, etc…  Towards the end of the week, we will brainstorm descriptive words for fall and write acrostic poems to welcome the first day of fall, next Tuesday. 

In math, we will be working on money: counting using touch points, representing amounts in different ways, and purchasing items up to 30 cents.  A great way to practice counting coins at home is to give your child a handful of coins in the car and have them count how much they have.  For those who are advanced, you could give them riddles: ex: “I have 3 coins that equal 30 cents. What are my 3 coins?”  Answer: 3 dimes. 

In content, our mascot continues to travel the world stopping at the different continents.  He has been sending us letters from the different continents.  His letters give us clues as to where he is.  The students use his clues to read the map, learn the oceans, continents, and directional words.  Max has sent us pictures and bits of interesting information about the various continents and countries he has visited.  Mr. Thomas recently visited Australia

and sent us a post card with great pictures and even a little trivia!  Thanks for thinking about us while visiting Mr. Thomas!  Through of mascots adventure we are learning map skills, continents, landforms, and even a little culture from around the world. 

What’s Going on at Tritt?

• Sept. 11 New Families Coffee Hour Borders @ 10:00 AM
• Sept. 24 Papa Johns Pizza Night
• Oct. 9 Reflections entries due
• Oct. 10 Tritt Trot
• Oct. 10 Screen on the Green
• Oct. 21 Picture Make-up Day questions: Suzanne.Alea@cobbk12.org

For more information about these visit the Thursday Memo: http://tritt.typepad.com/thursdaymemo/

Have a great week!

Amber Kicklighter

Week of August 31- 4th

It was so nice to see all of you at Open House last Thursday!  We had a 100% turn out!                 

                      

Information:

• Tomorrow is picture day!  Send in your package choice and money if you have not yet done so.
• Friday is Hat Day.  Bring in $1 to support Relay for Life and you can wear a hat all day!!!
• Monday is Labor Day!  Enjoy the long weekend! 
• Homework went home today.  It should come back in daily; I check the reading log each day.  All of the homework is due Friday completed.

What’s going on in our class?

Monday:  Science Lab

Tuesday:  Picture Day: Wear your best outfit and glowing smile!

Wednesday:  Talent Development

Thursday:  Media Center:  Bring those books back!  Friday:  Computer Lab, Readers Theater, Hat Day

In reading, we will continue to discuss our reading identities and how to choose the right book for us.  We will also focus to reading strategies to help us become better readers.  We will focus on Characters in our books and their traits.  On Friday we will have reader’s theater to work on reading with fluency.  We will perform our scripts for our classmates. 

In writing, we will discuss where writers get their ideas.  Last week in the computer lab we drew our favorite thing to do in Kids Pix.  We will use this to write about our favorite thing to do.  We will discover that you are a better writer if you are interested in the topic and you have a lot of knowledge about the topic.  We will also be writing our own books as a health assessment.  We will write a new version of the Very Hungry Caterpillar designing him a healthy balanced diet. 

In math, we will continue exploring and making numbers with base ten blocks.  We will also work on counting coins to 30 using touch counting. For example a nickel get one touch point, a dime get two, a quarter gets five.  This makes counting money easier since they can count by 5’s.  We will also make fair trades with the money we have been earning in class.

In content, I will be assessing the students on a balanced diet and healthy and non healthy foods through their version of the Very Hungry Caterpillar.  We will begin learning about the continents and landforms through the eyes of our missing mascot. Shhh….  Don’t let your first grader know about this!  We will follow our mascot around the world learning about the different continents and landforms through his adventure packed letters and photographs. 

In word work, we are focusing on the beginning constants y,x,& v.  As well as the _at and _an word families.

I hope you all have a wonderful week!  And enjoy your long weekend coming up!

Amber Kicklighter

Week of August 24- 28th

We are having a ball at school!  Our class is adjusting well to our routines, procedures, and new friends. 

Important Information:

• Open House is this Thursday following the PTA meeting at 6 p.m.
• Next Tuesday, September 1^st is picture day!  Wear your favorite back to school outfit.  Please send in your package choice and money this week.
• Send in your Performing Arts permission form and donation by Friday.
• I am still missing a few Cobb County forms from the Cobb County folder I sent home the first day of school.  Please sign this form and return to school this week.
• If your child goes to an after school enrichment class please send in a note that day to remind us. 
• Please send back library books on Thursday.  We will be going to check out new books.
• I will be sending home a coupon for Papa Johns on Thursday.  Please support our school by ordering pizza.  Mention Ms. Kicklighter when you order; the class with the highest participation at the end of the month receives a pizza party! 

What’s going on this week?

Monday- Computer lab

Tuesday- Guidance

Wednesday- Talent Development

Thursday-  MediaCenter , Papa Johns Pizza Night

Friday- Computer lab

What’s happening in our class?

In reading, we will discuss what reader’s do, why readers read, and what readers read.  We will learn how to choose the best book for us based on interest, level, characters, authors, story, and pictures.  This week we will be reading three books by Kevin Henkes.  We will discuss how people have favorite authors and how authors sometimes write similar kinds of stories.  We will get to know Henkes famous character, Lilly, who is full of personality.  We will compare the three books and discuss Lilly’s personality throughout the stories as well as the similar story lines.  We will predict what other stories by Henkes may be about and what Lilly will do next… 

In phonics and word work, we will focus on the beginning consonants c, h, f, d, l, k, j, & w.  We will review rhyming words and syllables. We will also go on a word hunt for short e and long e words in our text.  We will discover the spelling patterns of the short and long e words. 

In Writing, we will be using the pictures from our All About Me bags to write about our families.  We will be focusing on Beginning each sentence with a capital letter, ending with a punctuation mark, and using correct spacing between words.  On Friday we will write in our Parent Journals.  Please read these over the weekend and write a quick note to your child.  Send these back in on Monday. 

In math, we are continuing to work on representing numbers(tallies, bases ten, number sentences, money, etc..).  We will read Even Steven and Odd Todd and focus on even and odd numbers.  We will also begin our math journals this week and do Math about me! 

In Science, we are wrapping up our nutrition unit focusing on a balanced diet and healthy and non healthy food choices.  We will sort healthy and non healthy food in the computer lab in Kidspiration.  We will also sort the food that the Very Hungry Caterpillar ate into the food pyramid.    The students will label a food pyramid and create a balanced diet for the caterpillar so he will not have an upset stomach. 

Huge Thanks!

Thank you to all of you whom continue to send in stickers, computer labels, and treasure box items.  I appreciate your donations to our classroom. 

I look forward to seeing you all on Thursday evening at open house.  Have a great week!

Amber