I hope everyone had a nice time off with your family. For those who celebrated, I hope it was a lovely Thanksgiving. I was extremely happy to have all of my children under one roof. I was heartbroken to have two of them leave on Sunday. We will be together again in 3 weeks.

This week, half of our class will have the honor of presenting the Pledge of Allegiance and the Geer Park Pledge to the school via the school intercom system. The other half of our class will present in a few months.

• Monday, November 28 – Pizza Monday – I collected last week and still have everyone’s order already.
• Wednesday, November 30 -Parent Education meeting CANCELLED – No meeting this month.
• Thursday, December 1 – PICTURE RETAKES
• Friday, December 2 – Popcorn Friday

Thank you to all of the families who donated last week. We will continue to take donations through Wednesday.

ELA

Spelling – S blends at the beginning of the words

• skin
• skip
• skill
• smell
• smug
• smock
• swell
• swim
• was
• there
• then
• out

Writing – We are finishing our Responsible story.

Reading – We meet on a daily basis, but I meet with certain groups every day and other groups every other day. I am constantly monitoring progress. I will be giving a Developmental Reading Assessment to every child before the winter break.

Math

We finished our Module 1 last week and are starting Module 2 this week. We will start to add numbers larger than ten. We will look at numbers in tens and ones. We are looking at making a ten.

Science

We are taking a small break from Science after Monday and shifting out attention to Social Studies.

Social Studies

We will be focusing on our family, needs and wants.

Thank you for your constant support. Have a lovely week.

Mrs. Korte.

Thank you to all of the families who attended Parent Teacher conferences. If you ever have a question for me, please send me a note in your child’s folder or email me. I will write you an email or call you as soon as possible. If you missed your conference, I will schedule a time to chat.

We have two more days for our food drive. Our class is in second place with 191 items. Please consider donating on Monday and Tuesday. Thank you to all of the families who have donated so far. Here are our pictures from last week.

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• Wednesday, November 23 – No School
• Thursday, November 24 – Happy Thanksgiving!
• Friday, November 25 – No School

With such a short week, we will be catching up on things here and there. We will also have a bit of fun. We do not have a new spelling this week.

Thank you for all of your support. Have a lovely Thanksgiving with your family and friends.

Mrs. Korte

Thank you to all of the parents who attended Parent Teacher Conferences this week. We have one more day of conferences on Wednesday, November 16.

Monday – Send in your child’s library book. We get new ones today.

Wednesday – Last night of parent-teacher conferences. I will be seeing:

• 4:20 Gelan
• 4:40 Banks
• 5:00 Brambila
• 5:20 Nash
• 6:00 Mays
• 6:20 Maweri
• 6:40 Katip

Thursday – Pasta Night in the Geer Park Cafeteria from 5:30-7:30

We need your help. Please consider sending in some nonperishable items for our food drive. We only have 7 days left. So far we have 53 items. Thank you to the families who have donated so far.

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Please buy your tickets in the office for the Geer Park Pasta Night on Thursday, November 17 from 5:30-7:30. They are $10 for an adult and $8 for children 3 and older. I hope to see you there. I bought my ticket on Friday. Yay!

Geer Park started their first math-a-thon in October. These are our first, second, and third place winners.

Congratulations guys! Everyone should start practicing their FAST addition and subtraction math facts now. Our next math-a-thon is in January.

Spelling

These words have blends at the end of the word. At the end, there will be mp, nd, and st.

• jump
• clamp
• mist
• west
• trust
• bland
• send
• wind
• good
• by
• them
• who

Reading

We read together every day in our Benchmark Unit booklet. However, we are expected to get to our individual groups too. This has been a bit of a struggle lately due to behavior. We feel that we should be running around and at other students’ desks instead of following directions. Misdirection eats up time. Due to that, I have had to flip-flop math and reading.

I will be having small reading instructional groups every day, next week.

Writing

We will have our next writing “A Time When I Was Responsible” finished on Friday.

Math

We are in the last part of Module 1. It is fluency with subtraction. This was a bit tricky today. I understand the first graders might know they fast math facts, but they are required to show a math picture to get the full points on the quizzes and final assessment. Oh my goodness, about 15 out of the 20 would not or could not draw the math picture. We worked and worked. Here is an example of what I need from your child.

It is to show your child’s thinking. It is to help your child check for their own errors too. These math drawings will be required on our assessments. Please practice.

Science

We will learn about reptiles, fish, insects, and amphibians. Then we will be assessing.

Thank you so much for your support. Have a great weekend. We will see everyone on Monday. Mrs. Korte

I’m sending this early, because you can get a jump start on those spelling words. Also, it is a busy week with Parent-Teacher conferences and no school on Tuesday. Please vote!

ELA

We are starting Unit 3 in our Benchmark. It includes cross-curricular social studies and learning about how we can be good citizens. I will send home your child’s Unit 2 booklet. It is at the correct first grade reading level. Use it to have your child read to you. If it is easy, then your child is above what is expected at this time of the year. If your child can read it with a little help, then your child is right where they need to be. If your child struggles reading the passages, then your child is working to get to a first grade reading level, but is not there yet.

Reading

I only sent book bags for the students who did not read last night. Please let your child read to you and sign their literacy log so that I know. The students who do this reading make the best progress.

Spelling

These are tricky. They are r blends at the beginning of the words. No rhymes. Please start practicing now.

1. dress
2. drip
3. drill
4. grim
5. grab
6. grass
7. truck
8. trim
9. now
10. do
11. went
12. which

Writing

We are finishing up our stories about being brave. Hopefully they will be in the hallway by the time you attend the parent-teacher conference.

Math

We are almost finished with module 1. We are still looking at fact families. That is both the addition and subtraction sentences you can write with the numbers in a number bond. We are also using the picture to help us with number stories. When I was little, the teacher called them story problems.

Science

We learned about the needs of animals. We also about mammals this week. The kids were shocked to learn that they are a mammal too. We will learn about birds, reptiles, and fish this week. Their body coverings are very important features.

Social Studies

We are taking a break for a bit and finishing up Science. We will start learning about our families soon.

Report cards, NWEA scores, and WIDA scores will be given at the conference.

• Monday, November 7 – Parent-Teacher conferences after school. – I am meeting with Madi, Harris, El-Kadri, Jadallah, El-Khali, and Mallah
• Tuesday, November 8 – No School – Vote
• Thursday, November 10 – Parent-Teacher conferences after school. – I am meeting with Saeed, Saif, Lahbib, Yazbeck, Reddick, and Algaradi
• The following Wednesday, November 16 – Parent-Teacher conferences after school. – I am meeting with Gelan, Banks, Brambila, Nash, Mays, Maweri, and Katip.

Geer Park is conducting a Canned Food Drive beginning Monday, November 7th -Tuesday, November 22nd.
Non-perishable food items are accepted. The classroom with the most donations (cans) will receive a gingerbread house decorating party in December.  

I hope our kiddos win.

Mrs. Korte