This is our last full month of first grade. This last month will be filled with assessments. I need to start testing everyone’s individual reading level with the Developmental Reading Assessment. This assessment is 1 to 1. Therefore it takes a long time to complete. We have the NWEA for both reading and math. I will be administering the NWEA in small groups. This starts the third week in May.

Fun Friday

It was a really fun Friday. Thanks to the Geer Park PTA we had a Spring Egg Hunt. I did it a bit differently from the other classes. I numbered the eggs 1-20 on 5 sets of eggs. Then they were hidden all around the room. The kids could see some as they walked into the room and they were already planning how they were going to sprint to get the eggs that they could see. Before the hunt, I explained that they could look at any egg they found BUT they could only take the 5 eggs with their own number. They had a great time AND it wasn’t crazy in the room (which I like).

THEN…we had our pizza party!

The kids earn points by being complimented by other teachers. It can be while they are walking in the hallway, when I pick them up from lunch, from the art, music, enrichment, and media center teachers, and on the playground. On Thursday, they earned 3 points. So…

I had pizza delivered on Friday. We had pizza and juice for a snack while we watched a science Magic School Bus video.

Yay!

• Monday, May 1st – Pizza Monday has returned. I still have everyone’s money from Ramadan. For example, Afnan has 10$ for a box of pizza already.
• Monday, May 1st – We check out a library book from the media center. Please make sure you return your old book.
• Thursday, May 4th – ONLY Mrs. Nasir has to cancel tutoring.
• Friday, May 5th – MUFFINS with MOMS – 8:15-9:15 in the media center. Yay!

For future planning…

• Wednesday, May 17th – Late Start
• Monday, May 22nd – Walking Field Trip to Kidcadia – Details to come
• Thursday, May 24th – Parent Appreciation Luncheon – Details to come
• Friday, June 2nd – Staff v 5th grade Kickball Game
• Tuesday, June 13th – Field Day
• Thursday, June 15th – Last day of school – 1/2 day

As mentioned at the beginning of the newsletter, May is filled with testing, but I will also be really working hard to finish up our Benchmark ELA series and Module 4 in Math. Remember, it is not a matter of whether you have any homework. You should say to your first grader, “Please, get your homework and get started.” Homework to look for:

• Monday-Thursday – Spelling
• Monday-Friday – Reading and I am going to add a word list. I am adding a word list because I am a bit surprised at how many previous spelling words some of the first graders are struggling to read.
• Monday-Friday – Math (The only time your first grader will not have math homework is when we have a quiz or test. For example, Thursday we had a quiz and Friday we had the end of Module 5 assessment, thus no homework.)

I don’t know how to stress this enough. I can tell when a student is not reading their reading book bag books. It is also a bummer for the student to be taken out of a reading group because they can’t keep up. Please have them read their book bag books.

ELA

We are on our last week of the Unit 9 Benchmark. We are on pace for finishing Unit 10, as well, by the end of May.

READING – Believe it or not, I ask your child to take their book bag home everyday. If it is not coming home, please help me remind them.

WRITER’S WORKSHOP – We are finishing up a cross curricular writing about taking a stand. They had to say whether or not they would like more winter recess or continue to stay inside when it is cold and snowy. We will move one to a “How to…” piece of writing next.

SPELLING – /oo/ spelling pattern this week. It can be pronounced two different ways.

• bloom
• room
• gloom
• doom
• hood
• good
• wood
• stood
• does
• wash
• some (This might be a repeat from a different list.)
• another

Math

We are starting Module 4 on Monday. This will be looking at place value (tens and ones). We will be adding and taking away tens and ones.

Science

We will finish up with learning about sound and sound waves this week and take a quiz. Then we will start learning about light.

Social Studies

We learned about artifacts last week. This week we will compare when we could do in the past, what we can do now, and predict what we will do in the future. It will kind of be a growth timeline.

Thank you so much for your support. Have a great weekend and week ahead.

Mrs. Korte