Week of April 21, 2014

Welcome back from our long weekend!  I hope that you all had a fabulous weekend and enjoyed the extra time with your children.

This is the last full week that I will be in the classroom with the children.  Mrs. Figueroa will return to work next week.  Once she is back, I have been asked to step into a Kindergarten classroom in order to take over for Ms. Parkins who will soon be going on maternity leave.  Mrs. Figueroa, Mrs. Hill, and Ms. Grace will be the ones with the class for the last month of school.  I will definitely miss seeing our class each day.

Literature: We have finished reading My Father's Dragon in reading groups and are now reading Elmer and the Dragon.  The students have enjoyed both of these books.  This week in class, we will be studying the fairy tale Little Red Riding Hood and the Chinese folk tale of Lon Po Po.  We will read and discuss each of these tales followed by comparing and contrasting of these two stories.

History: We are starting to learn about Mexico this week.  During the beginning of the week, we will talk about where Mexico is located and some of the geographical elements that are a part of Mexico.  After that, we will start talking about the different cultures that influenced life in Mexico today.

Science: We will continue our study of space this week by studying the inner planets.  We spend one day on each of the inner planets and make a fun foldable to go along with this.  There are so many fun facts to learn

Riggs: We are learning lists 143-147 and being tested on lists 138-142.  All lists can be found on the link to the right titled, "1st Grade Riggs Words."

Week of April 14, 2014

I hope everyone had a fabulous weekend!  First of all, thank you to all who contributed to help my birthday be so wonderful!  It was a nice day and we all had fun.  My favorite part of the day was when I let the kids guess what year I was born and the first guess was 1804.  :)  Fortunately, I am not 210 years old.

This week is a short week.  Friday there is no school and Thursday is a half-day (12:15/12:30 release time).  On Thursday, you do not need to send in a lunch but you will want to send in a big snack so the kids can make it to the end of the day.
Despite the short week, we have many things planned.

Literature: We will be working on our sayings all this week.  We will talk about the meaning of am and pm and the different things we do during the am and pm.  Additionally, we will talk about the saying, "Hit the nail on the head."  Finally, we will be compiling all of our sayings into a book with all of the sayings we have learned this year.

History: We are finishing up learning about Exploring the West this week.  We are continuing to talk about Lewis and Clark and reading about the expedition from Seaman's point of view.  We will also be finishing up a lapbook that the students have been working hard on and you should see it coming home at the end of the week.

Science: The students have enjoyed starting to learn about space.  This week we will learn more about the sun including why we have day and night and how shadows are formed.  At the end of the week, we will be learning about the moon and why the moon changes shape in the sky.

Week of March 31 and April 7

We had a great week last week.  Every morning we had the Stanford 10 test.  This will continue this week also.  Please continue to get your children to school by 8:10 so that they are ready to start the test with the class at 8:30.  

Literature: In literature we studied The Tale of Peter Rabbit.  Many students were familiar with this story and it made for a fun story to study.  Each child should have brought home puppets and settings that they can use to retell the story to you.  This week is a poetry week.  We will study a different poem every day.  

History: We studied the Lewis and Clark expedition all last week.  We wrote in journals just like they did on the Lewis and Clark expedition.  This week we will continue to study Lewis and Clark but from the perspective of their dog, Seaman.  

Science: Last week we wrapped up the unit on Earth Science.  We discussed rocks and how they are formed.  We also talked about how to take care of the earth and they worked in pairs to make posters about taking care of the earth.  This week we will be starting our new unit on the Planets and Astronomy.  In particular, this week, we will talk about space and starting to talk about the sun.  

Upcoming Events: 

• Faculty vs. Student Dodge Ball game: Wednesday, April 9, 2014 - go to the Archway homepage for more information and to register.  
• Upcoming Half-day/No School: Thursday, April 17 is a half-day and Friday, April 18 there will be no school.  

I hope you all have a wonderful week!