Families,

Despite the drop in weather, I am looking forward to November! It’s an exciting month with the book fair, conferences, and time with families for Thanksgiving. Here are some reminders for next week:

• Fall Party is Monday, October 31st. An email went home yesterday and a note is coming home today with information about the party time and costumes.
• Remember to start bringing in the “Pizza Hut Book-It” calendars on Monday!
• Change Wars for “All for Books” have started and will go through Friday, November 4th. Bring in any loose change you may have–the class with that brings in the most change gets to keep the money to purchase new classroom books!
• A note is coming home today regarding conferences. If there is anything specific you want to discuss, please fill out the pink form and return it to me no later than Friday, November 4th.

Reading: Our focus all week will be retelling a story using a “Shape Go Map.” This is a tool we will use to help us remember the beginning, middle, and end of our stories.

Writing: We will learn what to do if we need to add extra words into our story or what to do if we want to take words out. We will also be focusing on our 5 star sentences (capital letter at the beginning, punctuation, finger spaces, word wall words are spelled correctly, neat handwriting).

Math: We will finish up Unit 2 with a review on Tuesday and our test on Wednesday! Thursday we will begin Unit 3 and how to find an unknown partner (ex: 4+__ = 7).

Spelling: We will take a spelling test over the words we have learned so far and practice a sentence dictation (I read a sentence and the students have to write down the words they hear).

Enjoy your weekend (GO Hudsonville and GO Green :)),

Miss Reisdorff

Families,

What a week we had! To top it all off we had a fun day with our Walk-a-Thon AND an afternoon of fun science rotations! Below you will find a look at next week as well as some pictures from our Reader’s Celebration and Walk-a-Thon (a special thank you to everyone who was able to donate)!

Important Dates/Reminders:

• Friday, October 28th: Scholastic book orders are due.
• Monday, October 31st: Our Halloween party will be from 12-1 with our school parade to follow!
• Monday, October 31st: You can start bringing in your October Book-It calendars for a free pizza coupon!
• WEB books can be returned/switched out on MONDAYS and THURSDAYS (trying to keep it simple as we start).

Reading: We will review different strategies that help us read and take a look at different book genres (ex: fiction, non-fiction, picture books, etc.)

Writing: We will review stretching out words, making sure our stories make sense, and 5 star sentences. I know some of this may seem repetitive; however, these are the components to writing our students need to master. The more we practice and can implement these into our writing, the better writers we will become!

Math: We are still working on subtraction and the “circle drawing” strategy that makes these easier to solve. We have also been practicing a lot of story problems–ask your child to come up with a story problem for you to try :).

Spelling: Our spelling words this week are like, two, that, and you.

 

 

 

Families,

This week we spent time learning lots of cool facts. We started a book about “weird but true facts”–we have had fun learning things like: girls have more tastebuds than boys  and a crocodile can’t stick its tongue out. We also started our first science unit where we explored magnets, attributes, and states of matter. Here are some reminders moving forward to next week:

• Picture retakes are Tuesday, October 19th.
• Our school Walk-a-Thon is Friday, October 21st.
• Turkey Trot is Tuesday, October 25th.
• Scholastic orders are due Friday, October 28th.
• Our Halloween party will be Monday, October 31st (more information to come).

Reading: We will spend time reviewing “tools” we can use to help us read. We will look at word endings, word blends, and digraphs.

We will start our “Super Switch” next week. This is a reading enrichment program where our 1st grade students will be in groups working on reading and writing fundamentals.

Writing: We will finish up our first writing unit! We will spend part of next week “publishing” our stories and celebrating everything we have learned to add in our writing. We will also write a new story to show the growth we have made as writers!

Math: We are working our way through how to solve subtraction equations. We will continue practicing how to solve these equations and how to solve them using circle drawings.

Handwriting: We are taking a quick break from spelling next week and will be working on handwriting. We will focus on lowercase letters and writing with the correct pencil grip!

Science: Friday we will be doing 1st grade centers where we will be learning more about and exploring the states of matter, magnets, and attributes. We will rotate through the different 1st grade sections and learn from all teachers!

Have a great weekend,

Miss Reisdorff

Families,

Before we take a look at what’s ahead this week, here are some pictures from our Spirit Week! We had a GREAT week of learning despite some silly themes :).

  

  

  

Here are some reminders:

1. Book It! Pizza Hut Program has started!It is all about turning kids who read because they have to, into kids who read because they want to. When your child returns their calendar at the end of each month they have the chance to earn a free personal pan pizza!
2. October Scholastic Book Orders are due Friday, October 28th. Please order online using the class code: NNX2P.
3. Our “WEB Books” reading program has officially started! As stated in the pink letter, we are going to start by bringing these back MONDAYS and THURSDAYS only until we get the hang of it. Thanks for supporting your child’s reading at home.
4. Next Friday, October 14th is an early release day!
5. Halloween parties will be Monday, October 31st (*more information to come later).

Reading: We will work on predictions and two ways to retell a story (retell using illustrations and retell using key words).

Writing: We will be learning how to write good beginnings and endings to our stories as well as continuing to add details (descriptive words and using our 5 senses).

Math: We will be learning strategies to solve subtraction equations.

Spelling: Our words this week are is, in, look, and you.

Social Studies/Science: On Monday we will learn about Columbus Day and complete some fun activities. Tuesday-Thursday we will switch to science and learn about attributes, magnets, and the states of matter.

Have a great weekend and GO EAGLES!

Miss Reisdorff

Families,

I apologize for the late blog post! Hopefully the “October News” and specials schedule was able to answer any questions. Here is a look at this week:

SPIRIT WEEK

In honor of homecoming this week, Alward students can show their Eagle Pride by participating in a Spirit Week.  Please help your child celebrate being an Eagle by helping them prepare for the week

Monday – Sweet Dreams (Pjs/comfy clothes/sweats)

Tuesday – Taste the Rainbow (1st grade wears GREEN)

Wednesday – Willy Wonka Hat Day (wear your favorite hat)

Thursday – Now-n-Later Neon Day (wear neon colors)

Friday – Eagle Pride is Sweet (wear maize and blue)

 

Reading: This week we will focus on the big ideas and messages in a story. We’ll ask questions like, “What does the author want us to learn from this text?” and “What was this story all about?”

Writing: We will continue working through small moment stories and this week the focus is detail. We want to make sure we add dialogue, descriptive words, and that our sentence mechanics are throughout our story (capital letters at the beginning, punctuation at the end, finger spaces between words, etc.).

Math: We will focus on addition this week and how we can solve addition equations. Throughout Unit 2 we will learn multiple strategies to help us solve problems quickly and accurately.

Spelling: This week we will be reviewing the words we’ve learned so far (and, a, my, of, said, the, to). We will also practice writing down the words we hear in a sentence.

Social Studies: On Friday our focus will be fire safety! We will learn a poem, create a book, and learn how to be safe in case of an emergency.

 

Have a great week and don’t forget to show your EAGLE SPIRIT!

Miss Reisdorff