Merry Christmas

I wanted to take a moment to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! I hope that everyone has a wonderful break from school.

I hope that you take a little time to read. I know that it seems like a drag to read over a break...but it will help so much to read a little bit.

I also want to ask that you please check with your child to see if they need new crayons, twistables, or scissors. We have plenty of glue, and we will be using a new folder after the holidays. If you did not send two 1 inch binders a the beginning of the year, the students will need one after the break. We will change to a new binder in January. I will only change binders for students that have one at school.

I look forward to a wonderful second half of first grade!

Happy Holidays! See you January 6th!

Ms. Messick

December 15th - 19th

Well the final school week of December has arrived and we are counting the days until our break! We are all VERY excited.

This week in whole group, we will be working on the /wh/ as in whale sound. At least we are going to try and work on that sound. The excitement will be hard to overcome, but in class we understand business and fun.

We will also do some fun craft activities. Hopefully, this will help with overwhelming excitement of this time of the year.

THURSDAY:
We are going to cancel the Holidays Around the World that was originally planned for Thursday. Once we got our specialist schedule, we decided that it would be more difficult to try and work around the break time and lunch. We will talk about some of the different customs for other countries in our classroom, but no moving around to other classrooms.

Thursday afternoon is still on though. ALL CLASSROOM PARTIES WILL BEGIN AT 1:30 pm. Any and all parents are invited to attend. If you volunteered for DRINKS, please make sure that you bring JUICE BOXES ONLY, as we can not serve any soft drinks at school. If you have questions or have not volunteered to bring or help out and want to, please contact Cathey Sarris at catsarris@yahoo.com .

FRIDAY:
We will be viewing the movie "The Polar Express". I will be sending home a permission slip for you to sign and return. Students will be allowed to wear their pajamas to school on Friday. I have also told the students that they may bring a beach towel to use on the floor on Friday. We will be having a little snack during the movie...chocolate milk and butter cookies. YUM!

We will do our book exchange on Friday after the movie. Please send a wrapped book that is appropriate for a boy or girl. Please do not spend more than $5 on your book. I would like to have all books at school on Thursday, if possible.

I hope that this holiday season finds your families blessed and in the best of health! I wish you all the most wonderful time off, try to do something fun with your children, remember they are only this age once! Please read over the break!

Happy Holidays and Merry Christmas!

Ms. Messick

December 8th ~ 12th

I noticed today that we have less than 10 days until Winter Break! WOW, that is no time at all! I can't believe that it is almost here.

In our classroom, we are trying to conduct business as usual. This week we are working on the sound /ar/ as in star and shark. Our work this week will be about stars, farms, barns, and sharks. We will cover lots of information. Please try to reinforce the information at home by reading books about these subjects at home. Go to the Christmas tree FARM and talk about how that is different from a farm that has cows, pigs, and goats. Next week we will try to cover /wh/ as in whale. Knowing that we will be getting out of school on Friday may make that a little harder, but hopefully we will get a little bit in before all of that kicks in.

We completed Chapter 12 in math today. We will test on Chapter 12 on Wednesday and begin Chapter 13. Chapter 13 will work on addition and subtraction to sums of 12. Keep a look out for homework.

We have started doing Daily Language Review. The daily practice pages will come home in the homework folder. These DO NOT have to be returned to school, instead you should practice at home with your student. We will quiz on these on Fridays. I am going to practice the quiz with the students this week, then in January, I will begin taking grades on the quizzes. We will continue to cover the Grammar rules in the BEE Book. We have been working on Verbs.

I hope that you have found the Reading Homework packets helpful. These should help with reading ability and sight words. Over the Winter Break, I will send home some passages to read. I will also make sure everyone has new library books for the holiday. Please read with your student over the holiday. This is the time when 1st grade students make the most progress. I would love to have lots of excited readers when we come back from Winter Break.

Upcoming Events and Dates:

Thursday, December 11th: DIBELS Testing, 10:30 am.

Monday, December 15th: Reading Homework Packets Due

Tuesday and Wednesday, December 16th and 17th: January Quilt Days
Be at the school at about 12:30. I may have more than just quilt stuff for you do to, if you want to stay and help.

Thursday, December 18th (AM): Holidays Around the World
My classroom will be about England. We will make Krackers.

(PM): 1:30 to 2:15 pm HOLIDAY PARTY

Friday, December 19th: Students may wear their PJs. We will watch Polar Express in the morning. We will also have a little snack.

As always, if you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact me!

Happy Holidays and Merry Christmas!

Ms. Messick

December 1st - 5th

WOW! December has gotten off to a quick start. Time is just flying by!

This week in whole group we are discussing /oo/ as in moon and moose. We have been doing quite a bit of work on information about the moon. In small group reading, we have done a little reorganizing. Several students have made quite a bit of progress and have changed reading groups. I know that I sent home quite a bit of reading homework this week, take your time and send it back next Monday. I am going to continue sending extra reading sheets and some sight word work. I hope that you find this helpful.

This week in math we have started skip counting (counting by 2s, 5s, and 10s). We will be challenged with several other ways to count. We will be taking our time with this chapter. I don't want to rush anyone through this section. It is important for the students to be able to count using this method. Practice counting this way at home, using M & Ms, Skittles, Goldfish, or anything else you can get your hands on.

Our grammar rule this week is rule 12, which is Verbs. Wednesday, I sent home the phonogram journal. We have completed our final phonogram for the year, so these folders do not need to be sent back to school. Next week, we will begin doing DOL (Daily Oral Language).

Just a head's up...I plan on putting a packet of reading passages together for Winter Break. This is a major growth period for 1st graders. You will be amazed how well they are reading after the Winter Holidays. I love January during 1st grade, because the students become so much more independent. Please make an effort to spend 30 to 45 minutes reading these passages and practicing oral reading with your child. Please continue to review and learn the word wall words, as well.

Upcoming Events:

12/4: Teacher Treat Day!

12/11: DIBELS Testing @ 10 am.
Please try to be on time and get plenty of rest the night before.

12/18: A.M. Holidays Around the World
P.M. Holiday Parties (1:30 - 2:15)
Have a wrapped book for a book exchange!

12/19: Polar Express...wear your P.J.s.

Hope you have a happy and blessed holiday season!

Ms. Messick

November 24th - 28th

Happy Thanksgiving!

Enjoy your week off!!!

November 17th - 21st...the week before Thanksgiving Break!

WOW! Thanksgiving Break is almost here! I can't believe it. This year is just flying by and before we know it, it will be over! I guess we are having way too much fun in first grade.

This week in whole group we are covering the /k/ as in kangaroo sound. The story in Unit 15 is about a kind kangaroo. We will be talking about this kind mammal and kites for the week. We are also talking about Harvest, Thanksgiving, and the Pilgrims this week.

In Math, we are working on Chapter 11. In this chapter, we will be talking about greater than, less than, equal to and ordinal numbers (1st, 2nd, 3rd...etc.). Practice these concepts at home. There will be homework on Wednesday night, sorry about this, but that was the only night I could get the homework for math to workout.

We are still working on Nouns in Grammar. I want to make sure that everyone has this concept down before I move forward into the next Grammar Rule. We will also only do 3 phonograms this week and then 3 after Thanksgiving Break. We will be finished with phonograms at that point, when we will pick up Daily Language Review. So, we will clean out the phonogram journal and use it for a Daily Language Review binder. I will change out the cover sheets when we clean out the journals at school.

This will be quite a busy week. We are trying to accomplish so much this week.

We will work on the December Quilt for the hallway. That will go up in the hallway on Friday afternoon. Thanks to everyone that helped.

American Education Week is going on. Check the pictures on the side of the blog to see some of the things that have been going on.

Monday: Author study with a display in the hallway. We did Lilly's Purple Plastic Purse by Kevin Henkes.

Tuesday: Dress up like the career you want when you grow up. We had several teachers...which always makes my heart leap!...and some rock stars, as well as some cowboys and girls.

Wednesday: In class we will write and illustrate, "What I Like Best About My School." We will display these in the class.

Thursday: My dad will be coming to read one of my favorite books from my childhood. He had to read this book to me every night when I was a little girl.

Friday: Children can bring in their all time favorite book to share.

FIELD TRIP ~ November 21st to see Cinderella.

We will wear our GREEN First Grade Friends t-shirts. JEANS ARE ALLOWED!!!! There was a mistake on last week's blog, we will be able to wear jeans on Friday, Nov. 21 for our Cinderella field trip.

Book IT! November ends on Friday, November 21st. There are several students that are well on their way to earning a FREE PIZZA ticket. Just to help out, Thursday and Friday are 2 test days with a note for each book.

I hope that you all have a WONDERFUL Thanksgiving Break! I will be enjoying my break with my family and friends. Please remember to read every night, as we only have 3 weeks left in the 9 weeks.

As always, if you have questions or concerns please feel free to contact me.

Ms. Messick

November 10th - 14th

Gosh, I wish we were having a long weekend. Breaks in the middle of the week are not easy to manipulate. Oh, well, we will do our best to make a GREAT week anyway!

UPDATES

This week our whole group reading sound will be /sh/ as in sheep. The Read Well story for Unit 14 is about a sheep who shows acts of kindness. So our writing jobs will be related to sheep and we will be discussing ways to show kindness to others. We will also spend some time talking about Thanksgiving for the next two weeks.

I didn't send an AR printout due to the fact that children weren't able to get books to read from the library, as well as, I need a new black printer cartridge. Now that the Book Fair is over the library will be open again for book check out. Several children read books from our class library and tested on those. Please continue to read, in addition to library books, the last 2 or 3 units of Read Well homework stories. Because this familiar text uses words that the children have learned in small groups in weeks past, smooth fluency should be expected, not stopping every other word or so to sound out. If this is happening make a note of those words to practice.

Remember, you can find the list of language rules in your child's notebook. This week I'll introduce Rule 11. Rule 11 is about nouns. We will begin talking about and identifying nouns. Help your children at home by asking them to identify nouns. I'm happy to see children applying these rules in their writing jobs!!!

We are discussing place value in Math. The children like this because we have been using manipulatives to work with this. We'll test on this chapter at the end of the week.

N E W S

Manners of the Heart Workshop for Parents is November 12th. This workshop will be in the library from 8:30 to 10:30 and will help you reinforce the character lessons that I teach at school. Anne Shoemaker will be leading the workshop, and she is just wonderful! I sure hope that you can attend!

November 16-22 is American Education Week. The following is a list of activities planned for that week. You may want to begin brainstorming ideas about what your child will do for Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday.

Monday-We'll do an author study and make a display outside our class.

Tuesday-Students may come to school dressed in the career of their choice.

Wednesday-In class we will write and illustrate, "What I Like Best About My School." We will display these in the class.

Thursday-A guest reader to come a read to the class.

Friday-Children can bring in their all time favorite book to share.

Remember NO school Tuesday, November 11th.

FIELD TRIP ~ November 21st to see Cinderella.

All money and permission slips are due Monday the 10th. We will wear our GREEN First Grade Friends t-shirts. No jeans please.

Have a wonderful week and email me with any questions or concerns.

Ms. Messick

November 3 - 7, 2008

Wow, October was quite busy. I am surprised how quickly November has arrived. This is one of my favorite months!

This week our focus in whole group reading will be /r/ as in rabbit and /ea/ as in eagle. Some of our writing jobs will related to rabbits. Please continue to listen to your child read the Read Well homework stories each night, just the last 2 or 3 units. These should be read fluently and with expression. I will send home center work this week for you to review. I hope that you are enjoying seeing the activities that we are doing in class. The students are learning so much so quickly.

We will begin place value in math this week. We just completed graphs this week. I have to say that the students really enjoyed the graphing activities that we did with that chapter. I hope that place value is as much fun for them.

Things to remember:

Spirit of Giving PTA Meeting - November 6th at 6:00 p.m.

Progress Reports and AR Reports will be going home on November 6th. I will be available for any needed conferences on Thursday (11/13), Tuesday (11/18), or Thursday (11/20).

I will be out of school on Friday, November 7th. Mrs. Dale will be my substitute and she is really good. She has subbed for me many times before and knows what I expect.

Book Fair will be going on until Friday, November 7th. The book fair will be open at the PTA meeting. Also, if your child is buying books during the school day, please remember to send their money to school in an envelope with their name and "Book Fair" written on the outside of the envelope. NO STUDENT will be allowed to go to the book fair without that envelope, even if they have a book fair flyer and money. Due to the book fair, students will not be able to check books out from the library for AR testing. So, I am allowing the students to borrow books from my classroom library for AR testing.

November Book It! Students will need to take at least 4 tests a week to accomplish the goal for the month. So, please make sure that your child can get that many tests a week in. I would LOVE to give out a FREE pizza ticket to EVERYONE this month!

****SCHOOL HOLIDAY - Tuesday, November 11th!****

Manners of the Heart Workshop for Parents is November 12th. This workshop will be in the library from 8:30 to 10:30 and will help you reinforce the character lessons that I teach at school. Anne Shoemaker will be leading the workshop, and she is just wonderful! I sure hope that you can attend!

The first grade will be attending the Cinderella performance by the Alabama Dance Theatre at the new Montgomery Performing Arts Centre on Friday, November 21st. I sent the announcement and permission slip home on Tuesday, November 4th. The cost for students is $10.00 and does include the cost for the bus. ALL MONEY IS DUE BY MONDAY, NOVEMBER 10TH. As more information is given to me, I will pass it along to you.

Have a wonderful week!

October 27th - 31st, 2008

The weather has finally caught up with the season. I hope that you have jackets ready! We should be putting them to good use this week! I love the cooler weather...of course, I LOVE fall (and spring)! Please make sure that your child has a jacket, as we are going to PE for the next two weeks and the students must go outside to get to the PE trailer or the PE areas.

In whole group reading this week, we are studying C as in Cat. We will have two guest readers this week. On Tuesday, Mr. Pinkham will be coming to read to the students and on Thursday, Mrs. Sarris will be coming to read. The students love to have other people read to them. This is a good change of pace for the students. If you would like to read, let me know, I can send you a book or you could provide one of your own. Next week's whole group reading will involve R as in Rabbit followed by Sh as in Sheep.

We are beginning some graphing in Math. I did not send home the Math Drill sheet for this week on Monday. That will come home on Tuesday. I did, however, send home some graphing homework tonight. I will probably send one more Math homework sheet this week. We will do a Math Drill on Friday, like normal. Please practice...this week will be on facts for 3.

FYI...We will take our Phonogram/Grammar Quiz on Thursday, October 30th, this week. This way all the excitement about Friday will not harm our grades on the quiz. So, we will have a phonogram for Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday...we will quiz Thursday and take Friday off from phonograms. Students will not bring home phonogram journals Thursday or Friday nights this week.

Announcements:

Please make sure to send a note if your child is absent. You only have 3 days to get an excuse to the school, then the absence will become unexcused. If you are going on a trip (short or long) send a note for possible preapproval from Mrs. Green. I will pass it along and send you a copy back.

We will be sending home signed papers on Thursday, October 30th. Please review these papers, sign the envelope, and return the papers as soon as possible. (Progress reports will be sent home on Thursday, November 6th).

****I will be providing snack on Friday, October 31st. Please send your student a drink, but I will provide the students with a snack to eat!!*****

We are coming to the end of October's Book It log. November's Book It log will begin on Monday, Nov. 3rd. There will be a November Book It log in the B.E.E. book on Monday. None of the October quizzes will count toward the November total. 12 AR scores of 100 will win a free personal pan pizza from Pizza Hut. Make sure to read and test to earn a free pizza.

October Pizza Winners: Spencer Lindemood, (as of 10-29-08) Minjae Jung, Alexandra Pinkham, and Elizabeth Sheffield.

Upcoming Events:

October 31st - November 7th: Book Fair (I will send more info about this!)

November 2nd: FALL Back an hour (Make sure to set that clock back!!)

November 6th: Progress Reports

November 11th: NO SCHOOL...Veteran's Day Holiday

Have a wonderful week. We are learning so much and finding ways to have fun everyday! Thank you for blessing me with your children, EVERYDAY! They make me smile, more than you will ever know! I appreciate all that you do to help...it shows here at school. I can't wait to see how much smarter we become! The sky is not even close to the limit!

Thanks!
Ms. Messick

P.S. If you read this blog, send me a comment. I want to make sure they are working. Thanks!

October 20th - 24th

This year is flying by! Wow, we are at week 11. AMAZING!

This week in whole group reading we will be discussing H as in Hippo. So, I am sure that our Hobie the Hippo will be on the student's mind a lot this week. Please make sure that you are reading EVERY NIGHT with your student, especially ReadWell homework. I am required to check reading homework at least 3 times a 9 weeks. There will not be a note sent home stating that I will be checking reading homework any certain week. If you are doing the homework it will show during reading group as well as during homework check. I realize that football and fall ball are in full swing, but we should not be neglecting homework for these things. Please make sure that you are keeping up with your homework.

Let me know if you want to come read to the class, you may bring your own books or I can provide a book for you. Next week we will cover C as in Cat, then R as in Rabbit. I think the students would enjoy having someone different than me reading to them all the time.

Thank you to the parents that went to Charlotte's Web with us. Sorry to those of you that wanted to go, but could not due to seating availability. Hopefully, there will be openings in future field trip or other first grade outings. The play was FABULOUS! We really enjoyed the whole experience. We had a great time reading the book, watching the movie, seeing the play, and making our own pig shape books. Hope you enjoyed hearing about it and seeing the shape books.

Monday afternoon be on the look out for a set of flashcards for math. I quizzed the students using flashcards last week and most everyone needs to learn the addition facts for 2. So, I made the cards and will send them home on Monday. Please use them, this week's math drill will be on the addition facts for 2, mostly.

Have a wonderful week and find some time to get out and enjoy the wonderful Fall weather.

Ms. Messick

October 13 - 17, 2008

Wow, what a weekend. I spent it relaxing and enjoying the fall weather. I hope that you enjoyed your weekend too. We have a whole lot of things going on this week. So, hold on tight and enjoy the ride!

First, I want to make sure I tell you what your child should wear on the field trip. Every student needs to have on their First Grade T-shirt and blue jeans. I did tell the students that they might want to bring a light zipper jacket or sweater (it must be red, white, or blue). Sometimes the theatre is cold and that will keep us a little warmer. We will be leaving the school for the field trip at 8:30 am. Make sure you get to school on time. There will be no refunds for those that miss the bus.

Please make sure that your student arrives to school on time. We start our day as soon as the students enter the room. It really messes the students up when their friends are going to centers and reading group and they have missed those things. You would be surprised how much being late to school can stress out a first grader. It really does, some of your children cry when they are late. So, please do all that you can to make sure they arrive on time.

I messed up...BIG TIME! Oops! We were supposed to have spelling words last week and be off this week, so we are going to have spelling words this week instead. This week's spelling words are: and, mat, need, sad, Sam, the, was, we, in, sit. Please practice these words every night. We will have a quiz on Friday. I will call the words out and the students will have to spell them correctly. I suggest writing them at least 3 -5 times every night and quiz them at home on Thursday nights. From this point forward, I will not send the words home. The purpose of the spelling quiz is for the students to use the sounds they have learned during the week, not to be able to just spell a set of memorized words from working on them through out the week.

This week we are talking about I as in Insect. We will talk about ladybugs, spiders, and butterflies this week. If you would like to come and read a story that you have that is about one of these insects, email me and let me know. It will have to be on Wednesday, Thursday, or Friday. I would like for parents to come and read more often. I am going to start posting the upcoming letters of the week and you can email me if you decide that you want to read one week. We usually do reading right after lunch (around 11:30 or so).

October 20 - 24: H as in Hippo
October 27 - 31: C as in Cat

Everyone received Reading Homework. Red Group will get their second sheet later in the week. All other groups should be bringing home 2 sheets of reading homework. We have been changing units in the middle of the week and this will help with that transition. Please start with the lowest unit number and work to the highest. Please do homework 4 as a practice prior to reading any of the stories. If you have questions, please email me.

Student also received a Math Drill sheet for this week. I know it seems like a lot, but we are maturing as first graders. Homework is part of the maturing process. It makes us smarter and better equipped students. Please practice the Math Drill. Some of the students are still struggling and using their fingers. Use flashcards to help them memorize their facts.

Report Cards go home on Thursday, October 16th. I will be available for conferences on Tuesday and Thursday of the following week. Please let me know if you would like to discuss any issues with your child and their academic or behavior status.

Fall Festival is also on Thursday, October 16th. I hope to see you all there, I will be working in the concession stand from 6 - 7 pm. Come out and join us for lots of fun!

Keep enjoying the wonderful weather!

Happy Fall!
Ms. Messick

October 7th - 10th, 2008

I hope that you all enjoyed your Fall Break. I know it was short, but we really do not have long until we will get an entire week off. So, keep up the hard work and we will take a real break soon.

This week in whole group we will be discussing W as in Wind. We will have lots of activities that revolve around the letter W and weather. You should see some really interesting Writing activities coming home this week. I may not send them until the end of the week. I think that you will get a better idea of what is going on in the classroom if you can see the writing activities that the students are completing. Remember to point out things that begin with the letter of the week, since it helps the students remember what letter and sound it is that we are talking about this week. We WILL have Readwell homework this week. I will send several sheets for each student. I would like for them to practice as many as possible. We will also have a homework check this week in reading.

We will begin the Book It program this week. I will place a chart in the student's Bee Books to help keep up with tests that they score 100% on. There will be a notation from me if the students color in a box. If I have not noted the box, then it should not be colored. Once a student has colored all 12 boxes, they will be awarded a pizza ticket. Please make sure to read with your student and send a sticky note that they are ready to test on their book. Remember, they must read the book with a parent/guardian 3 times prior to testing on the book.

This week in Math we will continue working on subtraction. Please complete any homework sent home and return it to school the following day. I know that I did not take up homework from last week yet. I will take it up this week and get that folder cleared for you. We will continue our Math Drills for addition. Please practice at home. The grades on the drills are starting to look much better. I am seeing more and more of the students finishing the drills, which lets me know that they are learning their facts.

We will cover 2 grammar rules this week. The rules we will cover this week are rule 5 and rule 6. We will continue to work on previous rules, but we will concentrate on these two this week. Let me know if the study sheet helped you, as parents, last week. The grades looked a little better than they have in the past. If it did help, I will try to continue to send them on Thursday nights.

We have almost finished reading Charlotte's Web in class. If you have the video(not the DVD) at home, I have gotten permission to show it in my room. I would like to borrow it if I could. I will return it as soon as we have finished watching the movie. I am hoping that we will be able to finish both the book and the movie this week.

This week we have Fall pictures. I have not heard anything about what the students will be allowed to wear. As soon as I know, I will pass it along. Like I said before, do not be surprised if your student comes home on Wednesday saying they can wear regular clothes on Thursday. If we are able to wear regular clothes, please send your child in something that they can wear all day. Please DO NOT send students in clothes that they will need to change before/after pictures. Pictures will be on Thursday, October 9th. I do not know what time our pictures will be taken. After pictures are taken, they will send a proof home at a later date and you can decide then if you want to buy pictures or not. EVERYONE will have their picture taken on Thursday. There will be a makeup day if your student is absent.

I will be sending home some Scholastic book orders on Tuesday, October 7th. Anyone that wishes to order books needs to have the order back to me by Friday, October 10th. I will place the order by mail this month. Next month, I will have ordering online set up for parents that would rather order that way. Please order books, this gives me a way to order free books for our classroom. I will also place a classroom wish list on the order, if you would like to order any of these books for the classroom, please feel free to do so.

This past weekend, Hobie went home with a broken arm. Hobie does break...or tear. He did have some minor surgery on Friday, and had a cast on his arm when he left school. We think that he is going to heal nicely, but we have to be careful with him. Hobie will be visiting the doctor this week to see how he is healing. The students will give you an update on what the doctor says about Hobie's arm.

Have a wonderful Fall week! About 25 days until Halloween!

Ms. Messick

September 29th - October 3rd

Well, we are 8 weeks into school! Wow! How time has flown! The students have learned so much and are progressing at a great rate. I am very pleased with each of them and all of their hard work.

This week in whole group we are discussing T as in Turkey. I know it is a little early to talk about turkeys, but all those great holidays are just around the corner! Better get prepared. We are just talking about the bird this week. We will talk about the holidays as we get closer to them. The students will also talk about tigers, turtles, and several other things that start with the letter T. Make sure to point out when things start with the letter of the week. For example, when you are outside near a tree, see if your student can give you the beginning letter of tree. I am not sending home ReadWell homework this week. Since I was out sick on Monday, and had to play catchup on Tuesday, I am going to give the kids a break. Relax a little this week. But use library books and old ReadWell homework for your 20 minutes of reading for this week. We will also have a Word Wall quiz this week. This quiz will be on all the words from this nine weeks.

Please make sure that when your child is ready to test on a book you place a sticky note on the front telling me and your child that they are ready to test on that book. It appears that everyone has been working hard to take 3 tests a week. Please don't stop. We appear to be doing really well on our tests. Expect to see a computer print out on Friday of all the tests that your child has taken so far. It will list their scores. If you have questions after receiving the report, let me know and I will be glad to go over the report with you.

We are doing a math drill this week. Please continue to practice your math facts at home as well as the math drill. Students are only given 1 minute to answer all 20 problems. Your child should be able to answer 20 facts in 1 minute. Please practice, it is very important for your student to know their math facts. In class, we are covering subtraction. Expect some homework this week on subtraction. I will be sending some home on Wednesday and Thursday.

I can tell that you have been working with your children on the phonogram and sentence corrections at home. It shows in class as we do them daily, and it also shows on the Friday quizzes. Keep up the good work. Let me know if you have questions.

This week we had to say goodbye to Emily. Her family is moving to Virginia and her last day was Tuesday, September 30th. It was sad to see her leave, but we will be keeping up with her and sending her notes occasionally.

If you have not sent your Innsbrook Fundraising materials in, they were due Monday, Sept. 29th. Please send them as soon as possible!

**We have made 100% for PTA Membership! Anything above this will go to Mrs. D's Class.**
Since the students were so generous with their memberships and wanted to help Mrs. D, I would like to reward them with a popcorn or cookie party. If anyone would like to help, let me know. We will need juice and popcorn or cookies. I will let the students vote for either popcorn or cookies and we will go from there.

Monday, October 6th is a holiday. Please make sure to enjoy your day...go to the fair and have some fun!!!

Fall pictures will be October 9th. I am not sure if we will be able to wear street clothes that day or if we will have to wear uniforms. As soon as I know, I will let you know. It may be the day prior, so if your student comes home saying they can wear regular clothes, don't be surprised.

Tuesday, October 14th we will be going to ASF to see Charlotte's Web. Your child needs to wear their First Grade T-shirt and jeans. Parents, please do not show up at the field trip expecting to get into the theatre with us. If you are not one of the two chaperones that are signed up to go, I will have to ask you to leave in front of everyone. I really don't want to have to do that, it would be embarrassing for me and you.

I am loving this fall weather! I hope that you are getting out and enjoying it too!

Ms. Messick

September 22-26, 2008

Well, it's Autumn! I trust you all enjoyed the wonderful weather this past weekend.

This week in reading we will cover "N" as in Nest. The students will complete activities that involve birds and nests in the writing center this week. Students will also use the word Nightingale to make new words. These activities will give the students to work with words and discover smaller words within that larger word. Students will also learn more about birds during the writing center. We take these activities very serious as they aid us in our reading and understanding of the week's sound and poem.

Students have adjusted well to reading group and centers. They are all very productive during their center time and at the reading table. We are moving right along as we should be. Some of us need to remember to use our whisper voice during our center time. It has not become unbearable, just a little bothersome at times. A gentle reminder from me is usually all that is needed.

Please make sure that you are reading nightly with your child. EVERYONE should be taking at least 3 tests a week, maybe more. I do not think that this is an unreasonable request. I would for our class to try to make more 100s and few less 80s. While 80 is a good indicator of comprehension, I would like for us to make model classroom. Too many 80s will not help us get there. Please make sure that your child has read the book and if they are prepared, place a sticky note on the book that they are prepared to test on. I also placed ReadWell homework in the Reading folder for tonight. Most of the groups are actually ready to leave that unit and move to the next, use that homework, but do not be surprised if I send the next unit's homework home as well this week. Just do what you can, I will not take a homework grade on ReadWell this week.

We will cover Chapter 6 in Math this week. After completing this chapter we will go back and pick up chapters 3 and 4. From that point forward, we will be going straight through the book. Please practice math facts. Students need to know their math facts from memory. Practice at home using the worksheet I sent, and you could print more from http://www.themathworksheetsite.com/ , just keep in mind that the once you request a worksheet and close it out, that same worksheet will not pull up again. This is a good way to practice a 1 minute drill. You may also want to make some flashcards. Students will need to memorize all facts through sums of 18. Start out simple with all the 0 facts, then move to the 1 facts, and so on.

We have begun math centers. These are not as structured centers as our reading centers, but they do give the opportunity for extra instruction when needed. I will have time to do additional work with some of the students to make sure they are understand the concepts as well as work on math facts at school with the students.

Thanks to all of you that have joined PTA. We are currently at 94%, so all we need is about 4 more memberships to make 100%. We are so close, please help us make 100%!

Our t-shirts came in today. I will get those sent home on or by Thursday. I need to make sure we have all of them and sort them. These will be for Friday Spirit wear as well as on field trips, like to see Charlotte's Web on October 14th. We are going to check with Mrs. Green to see if we can wear our shirts on days that we have a speaker coming into the school, as well. As soon as I know about that, I will let you know.

I hope that you have a wonderful week! As always, if you need anything, please do not hesitate to email me and I will try to get with you as soon as possible.

Happy Fall!
Ms. Messick

September 15 - 19, 2008

This should prove to be a very exciting week at school. On Tuesday, several parents are coming to help us with a class project that will be displayed in the hallway. We will be painting and cutting. This is the first time we have painted at school this year. We will also have a guest reader for our read aloud after lunch, Mr. Pinkham. Then on Wednesday, we will have a guest speaker from the Montgomery Humane Society. The speaker will be discussing Bite Prevention and Animal Safety. This should prove to be a busy and fun week!



I hope that you are reading with your child every night. I want them to be able to take AR tests as often as possible. I am hoping that some of us are able to take a test 3-4 times a week. We are moving right along in our ReadWell units. Everyone is progressing quite well, and I am happy with the progress that we have made thus far. Please make sure to do Homework 4 BEFORE reading everynight. This will help with reading the passages. Please repeat all 3 readings on Thursday nights. ReadWell homework is due on Friday. I will be returning earlier ReadWell homework for repeated readings. Re-reading not only helps increase fluency and comprehension, it is also motivating for the children.



We started Chapter 5 in Math this week. We should finish and then move into Subtraction, Chapter 3. I know this seems strange to skip around like this...but we will be moving straight through the book from this point forward. We will continue and finish Chapter 5 this week. I expect to possibly give that test on Friday or Monday. Keep an eye out for homework this week.



In Grammer, we are continuing the phonogram journals. Those should be coming home every night. Please make sure your student knows that the beginning of the sentence needs to be capitalized and the end of the sentence has a period. We have not gotten into questions and exclamations at this point. Those should appear in about a week or so. Students also need to attempt to find as many phonograms as possible in the sentences. I choose sentences that I used during the week and the students have to correct those, so the journal is a good way to study. This week's phonograms are ir, ur, wor, ear.



Check out the slide show on the blog site. It has photos from the first day of school, popcicle party, Arboretum, and I will continue to add to the pictures throughout the year.



As always, if you have any questions or concerns about anything, please do not hesitate to contact me. Have a great week!