Has it been that long?

Wow - it's been since the end of October since I blogged?  Gosh how time flies!

It was wonderful to meet and chat with everyone last week.  One of my favorite parts of the job is working with parents and families.  Of course, I like the kids too :), but I'm not just teaching children academics, I am helping to influence an entire year of your child's life!  I love working as part of a team dedicated to the success of each individual child.

So, as I had mentioned all of the chattiness in most of my conferences, we had another little chat yesterday in class.  It went very well.  We brainstormed 8 silent signals we can use to remind our friends that "now is not the time to talk."  They are wonderful!  Children have been seeing me remember to use them, and they will soon be able to remember too.  I believe it will make a positive difference in our room.

We are taking our unit 3 math test today.  Onto unit 4 then.  The unit 3 math game bags have begun to make their way around.  If your child brings a math game bag home, please remember to send it back on Friday or at least the following Monday so I can send it with another child.

In reading, we are working on the story "Try Your Best."  It is about a little girl at day camp who is afraid to try new things, but once she does, she sees that she can do it!  The kids have really enjoyed the story.  Our Daily 5 rounds are going well.  The kids continue to make good choices about how practice their reading and writing while I move around to work with individuals and groups.  We are all focusing on Check for Understanding as our strategy right now.  All of the children, regardless of reading level, are working to stop after a page or two, look up from their book and remember or summarize what has just happened.  As we all know, there is no point to reading if we are just saying the words.  We really have to practice understanding what is going on in the story.

In science, we are going to start working on our fall project.  The kids will have a choice of what they would like to do and how they would like to show what fall looks like.  We have analyzed October's weather, and we are noticing quite a difference between the early fall and late fall months.

In social studies, we are leaning about Japan and the people there.  We have learned about Japan's location and that it is made up of many islands.  We've learned about one of the celebrations called Boy's Day or Children's Day when the families fly carp wind socks for each boy or child in their family.  We are having a visitor on Friday who will help to bring some amazing artifacts and work on a Japanese art project with the kids.  The children are loving the topic!

I may send home a note to confirm how your child will get home next week Wednesday after Grandparents' and Special Friends' Day.  I realize it is possible that your child will not be here, but if he/she is, I will need to know how they are getting home.

If your child was absent for picture day or you would like your child's picture retaken, that is happening on November 19.  Please let me know if you would like your child's picture to be retaken - I will make sure he/she gets on the list.  If you have pictures at home you do not like, you need to return those pictures to VIP either on November 19 during the retake or mail them back to the company.

This week Thursday, I am going to bring in special snacks for the kids - so you don't need to send any snacks on Thursday.

Check the right hand side of the blog - there is a quick poll for you to respond to.  I'd love to know how many times you are accessing the blog.  Gives me a sense of how many people are looking at it and how often.  This is the main way for me to get classroom information to you.  Thanks for answering!

Don't think I have anything else for you right now.  Hope all is going well!  Next week is another short week, and there will be no homework.  Yipee!!  It's just nice to take a break once in a while - the kids need time to just play and relax at the end of the day.  The days are long for first graders when they don't get a rest time or much free time to play.

Take care,
Patti