Mrs Sarafa's Class Blog

Dearborn Public Schools

Newsletter for Nov. 8th

Hello! Sorry for the late post! We had a BLAST today! Thank you for all the donations and making this day an awesome success for the kids! We had so much fun doing some math activities at our glow party! See pics below!

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50th Day of School Celebration!

Hello Families! The 50th day of school is soon approaching (Friday, November 8th) and we want to make this day super special!

Sorry for the late notice!

To lesson the cost of what I will have to spend out of pocket, I am looking for parents who would like to donate to our 50th Day GLOW PARTY and help us celebrate our students (your child) being 50 days smarter! Any donation is greatly appreciated. The students and I can’t thank you enough…we love your support! Here is the link where you can donate:

Link

If you signed up at the above link to donate, I have posted some of the items I am looking for, to help make the shopping easier. Click on the item you signed up for and it will take you to the link 🙂 Remember, the items aren’t due until the morning of November 7th or 8th. Thanks again for all you do!

Play Doh

Glow sticks

Glow glasses

Neon Crayons

Neon cups

UV LED portable black light

neon pipe cleaners

neon pom poms

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Halloween Reminder and Parade Information

Please see the link below about the school-wide Halloween parade:

Also, please remember to send your child to school tomorrow already in their costume. If you would like to return to school at 9am for our party, feel free! In addition, you may send in 1 nut-free bag of candy or goodie bags if your child would like to pass them out to others in class. We have 21 students in our class. 🙂

Thanks and see you all tomorrow!

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Newsletter for October 25th

What We Did During Our Week:

Reading and Writing:

We are writing stories, and this week we started talking about different ways to organize our writing! We can write a chronological story, we can write an informational piece about things that we know, we can organize it and write an ABC story, etc.

We have started learning about cvce words. Recognizing them, reading them, and writing them. We will continue next week!

We have also been learning all about Bats! We have read books, watched videos, learned how to draw bats, and written about bats! See below pictures of some of their great work!

Math:

1st grade math – they took their math test and did great! Now, we are moving into subtraction.

Kindergarten math – They are doing so well with math, so we are actually going to fast track their math. We will be skipping to module 2 next week and beginning shapes. With fast tracking their math because they are so advanced, they will get to be introduced to first grade before the end of the year. 🙂 I can assure you that we are not moving too quickly, all of our kids are just ready to move a little bit quicker!

Science:

We are finishing up our science unit on sound and light. This week, we experimented with creating our own guitars, and playing with drums. When doing this experiment, we learned about vibrations making sounds, and when we use our hands to stop the vibrating, the sound also stops. 

Other:

We met big buddies last week! We are buddied up with Ms. Vuichard’s 4th grade class. We will get to see them around once a month, hopefully a little more often! See their photos below. 🙂

We had a great time on our field trip! It was great to see some of you – see pictures below!

Our Halloween Party (the 31st)

As a reminder, we are having our Halloween Party next Thursday. All kids should come to school already dressed! Our party will begin at 9 am and end at 10:30. All are welcome to join! 🙂

Upcoming Events:

Tuesday, October 29th – PBIS Party

Thursday, October 31st – Halloween Party and Halloween Parade 

Friday, Nov. 1st – Half day – pick up 11:40

Tuesday, Nov. 5th – NO SCHOOL

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Halloween Donations

Hello! Haigh is having their PBIS party next week. Each classroom will be having apple cider, donuts, and watching a short film. We need your help to donate these food items! Please see the link below if you are willing to help out – thank you so much!

https://www.signupgenius.com/go/805044aa8a828a1f85-halloween

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Newsletter for October 11th

What We Did During Our Week:

Reading and Writing:

We continue to write narratives during writer’s workshop. We are adding details to our stories and making sure that our story makes sense and is in chronological order!

We have been working on vowels all week. They should now be familiar with all the short vowels! They are confident with them in class, and writing words while identifying which vowel is in the middle! Next week we will move onto long vowels. 

practicing sight words with “whack a word”!
Practicing sight words with “Feed the bear” and “Feed the unicorn”!
Ms. Joumaa helps out in our classroom everyday for small group reading!
Read to self expert!

Math:

1st grade math – we are working on knowing basic computation quickly. Your child should be confident with adding small numbers. We are also working on recognizing and creating equal expressions. (Ex: 4+3=2+5) We will be taking our mid module assessment after next week!

Kindergarten math – we are focusing on forming the written numbers properly and working on ways to make 5!

Science:

We did a classroom experiment this week with focusing on making sound through vibrations. We used rulers on the edge of our desks to make sound effects for a ball falling to the ground. The kids had a blast!

Other:

I never posted our class picture from picture day, so see below!

We also have a quick social time in the morning – the kids build together, play together, and imagine together first thing in the morning. This is a great time to work on social emotional learning, and to get excited about a new day of school!

Building a haunted house during morning social time
Team work during morning social time
Building and creating with playdoh and Popsicle sticks
They looked great!

Upcoming Events:

Wednesday, October 16th – LATE START

Friday, October 25th – Apple Orchard Field Trip! Bring a disposable lunch please

Thursday, October 31st – Halloween Party and Halloween Parade (more info to come)

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Newsletter for October 4th

What We Did During Our Week:

Reading and Writing:

We have been working on writing narratives during writer’s workshop. They write their story in sequential order using ‘first, next, last’. We are also working on asking questions about our writing so that we can use this information to add more details. 

For our writer’s workshop model, they do pre-writing, drafting, editing, conferencing with me, and then get to publish and share their work!

Step 1 – Pre-writing
Step 2 – Drafting
Step 3 – Editing and Conferencing
Step 4 – Publishing
Step 5 – Sharing

For reading we have learning about syllables and knowing how to count them. In addition, we are using syllables to help us stretch out reading and writing longer words. They completed a seesaw assignment for syllables. 

We have introduced the vowels. We went around the room to find vowels in our writings, and have focused on the short a vowel so far. 

Going on a sight word safari!
Doing some “blends” word work!

Reading book bags should be coming home every single night. Make sure that you child is reading from this every night. Reading has been proven to be the most effective way to help with academics!

We also wrote goals that we have for the year! They each wrote a behavior goal, a math goal, and then a reading/writing goal!

Math:

Math books were finally sent home! You should have started this week with the appropriate lesson stapled to the front. Try to do one lesson a day at home, but I do not need these sent back to me. 🙂

Science and social studies:

We are learning about how to be a good citizen for social studies and will begin learning about sound in science!

Other:

We had a fundraiser assembly on Thursday for Otis Spunkmeyer.

Field trip forms were sent home, please return these no later than the 11th. If you would like to chaperone or attend the field trip with us, please indicate so on the form and provide $5 for you. 

Looking forward to our first field trip!

Upcoming Events:

Friday, October 11th – half day pick up at 11:40am

Wednesday, October 16th – LATE START

Friday, October 25th – Apple Orchard Field Trip!

Thursday, October 31st – Halloween Party!

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NO SCHOOL FOR KINDERGARTEN TOMORROW

Just a friendly reminder that there is NO SCHOOL tomorrow for Kindergarten.

First graders still come to school. 🙂

Thank you!

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Design a Poster Challenge

Please see link below if interested in entering a poster design contest – posters due this Friday, the 27th!

https://docs.google.com/document/d/10D2R4AVr1QOQJK56CjwVlwi51YaYQHA8c7oDgF17R4M/edit?usp=sharing

https://docs.google.com/document/d/10D2R4AVr1QOQJK56CjwVlwi51YaYQHA8c7oDgF17R4M/edit?usp=sharing
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Newsletter for September 20th

What We Did During Our Week:
(Sorry – dropped the ball on pictures for this week!)

Also – we have had a lot of ill children in our classroom this week, please emphasis washing hands and covering coughs at home! 🙂

Reading and Writing:

This week we introduced seesaw! You should have received a letter about it with a QR code. Please download the app on your phone so that you can see work that your child is doing in school! This is not homework, rather a fun way to interact with you child. You can like, comment, and leave voice recordings for them to hear while they are at school! 🙂

We worked on read to self this week, and work on writing. Specifically, we discussed that when we read we need to stop every couple of pages, and check for understanding. Comprehension is important for reading! If we don’t understand, then we can go back and re-read.

When they go to work on writing in their notebooks, they write a topic for the day of their choosing and write for 20 twenty minutes! It is during this time that I am working with them either one-on-one or in small groups. 

Reading book bags have started to be sent home! Their book bags will come home every day! Please read these books every night. These books are at your child’s independent and instructional level, so they should be the ones reading the books. 🙂

1st grade:

In addition to their book bags, there is a reading response journal. Check these daily, because we will put prompts in there for your child to respond to during the night. These response journals help grow their comprehension skills. 

Math:

We are still waiting on our math books from the district, once they arrive they will be sent home for daily math homework. 

Kindergarten: We have worked on counting up and down from 10, and knowing that if you change the grouping of numbers, the number itself still stays the same. 

1st grade: We have been working on number bonds to 10, and solving word problems. We will now be moving along to addition. Their first quiz will be on Monday! These will be sent home for you to see how they’re doing with math as we progress for this first unit.

Upcoming Events:

Thursday, Sep 26th – 1st PBIS Celebration – yard games to celebrate positive behavior!

Wednesday, Sep 25th – LATE START

Friday, Sep 27th – NO SCHOOL FOR KINDERGARTEN – 1ST GRADERS STILL COME

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