Week of September 30, 2013

This is the final week of our first quarter.  It is hard to believe that it is already time for Fall Break.  Please encourage your students to still work their hardest next week as they will get a well-deserved break next week.  Here is what we will be studying this week.

Literature: We will be reading some more Cinderella stories from around the world.  It has been so much fun to read these and see the similarities and differences.  We will wrap the week up by writing our own Cinderella stories.

History: We will continue to study Ancient Egypt this week.  Specifically, we will focus on pyramids and how they were the tombs for Pharaohs.  We will also talk about the mummification process and why the Ancient Egyptians created mummies.

Science: Our unit on habitats continues this week as we talk about Fresh Water Habitats. In particular, we will learn about living and nonliving things in freshwater habitats as well as be able to label the parts of a river habitat.  We will talk about the Riparian Zone, the area around a Freshwater habitat.  We will also do an animal report together as a class.

Evaluations and Conferences: As mentioned in the Headmaster Update, narratives and checklists will be emailed out in the next few weeks.  If a conference is also necessary at this time, we will be contacting you to set up a time for one.

Reminders: 
-Please bring in a black poster board if you have not already done so.
-Next week is Fall Break.
-The week after Fall Break will be all half days.

Week of September 23, 2013

Happy Autumn!  It was so nice this morning to have some cooler temperatures outside.  We hope you are enjoying it also.  Here is a summary of what we will be learning this week in first grade.

Riggs/Literature: First, every student's handwriting improved a lot this week as they each strove to do their best.  Please encourage your student to keep using his/her best handwriting.  Second, in Literature we will continue to study the Cinderella stories from around the world.  Specifically, we will finish discussing the story of Yeh-Shen and then learn about Egyptian Cinderella.

History: We are still learning about Egypt this week.  At the beginning of the week we will keep learning about the Nile river by making a cover for our Egypt book that will illustrate the Nile River and its surroundings.  Later in the week, we will talk about daily life in Ancient Egypt as well as learn about Pharoahs and Pyramids.

Science: We are continuing our study of habitats this week by focusing on Forests.  We will talk about classifying tree types within the forest habitat, animals of the forest habitat and other characteristics of the forest habitat.  If you have not done so already, please remember to send in a black poster board for our Habitat poster.

Reminders: 

• This Friday is a half-day.  We will have dismissal at 12:15 and 12:30.  
• Family Fun Night and Grand Opening of the Archway Library is on Thursday at 6:30. 
• Send in a black poster board, if you have not yet. 
• Read with your child every day.  

Week of September 16

What a fun and exciting week we have ahead of us this week.  Here are the things we are going to cover and a few reminders for you also.

Riggs: Last week we started our Riggs spelling tests.  Feel free to let us know if you have any questions about how these work.  Please note that Riggs homework (and all homework) should be done in the children's best handwriting and the each word on the test gets one point for handwriting.  This week we will be writing on the homework or test when the handwriting is not very neat.  Starting next Monday, we will having students redo homework during recess if it is not neat.  Please understand that we will be pretty strict on everyone until we can see what they can each individually do as their best handwriting.  

Language Arts: This week marks the start of our Cinderella unit.  The children always love this unit.  We will read many different Cinderella stories from around the world.  It will be a lot of fun to compare and contrast all the different stories.  Be sure to ask your students about the stories we are reading.  

Science: In science, this week, we are starting our units on Habitats.  We will begin by learning about what a habitat is.  Then we will learn about desert habitats and forest habitats.  As part of this unit, we will be making a poster all about habitats.  Please send in a black poster board with your child so that we can make these posters.  

History/Geography: We are also starting a new unit in History.  We will be learning about Egypt.  This week we will locate Egypt on a map, talk about some characteristic traits of Egypt, and learn about the Nile River and why it is so important to Egypt.

Upcoming Dates: 

• September 17th - Singapore Math Night at 6:30 pm. This is an informational meeting for parents.
• September 20th - Picture Day
• September 26th - Family Fun Night and Archway Library Open House

We hope you have a wonderful week!  Please remember to send in a black poster board and encourage your students to always use their very best handwriting.  

Week of September 9

It is hard to believe that we are already half way through the first quarter.  We have had so much fun in class.  Hopefully, you children are telling you about some of the fun things that we do each day.

This week is another fun week with the following things going on:

Science: We will be studying electricity this week.  Students will learn what electricity is and where it comes from.  They will also have a chance to do some hands on experiments with static electricity.  We will end the week by learning about the light bulb and Thomas Edison.

History: This week we will be finishing up our unit on Mesopotamia. As we finish, we will learn about the type of clothing that Mesopotamians wore and learn about their Gods and the importance of Gods in their culture.  

Literature: We are still learning about different Tom Thumb stories from around the world.  The first story we will study this week is Little Finger of the Watermelon Patch from Vietnam and the second one is the African-American story, The Knee-High Man.  They will also be finishing up their books about Tom Thumb stories from around the world so you can look forward to seeing those soon.  Finally, we will learn the saying, "A Fish out of Water."

Please remember to send in Mouse Tales if you have not already done so.

Thanks for everything that each of you do.  We really appreciate the support you give to each of your students.

Welcome back after our long weekend!  We hope that you all had a marvelous holiday weekend.  We are excited to start this new week.

Here is our schedule for the week:

Riggs: We will be starting spelling words this week.  Please make sure your child is going down the page writing each word only once and then starting back up at the top for the second time, etc.  We will also be checking to see who needs some extra help with the phonograms and sending home some review sheets.

Literature: This week we will continue to learn about the Tom Thumb stories from around the world.  Thumbelina will be covered and then we will be making books to show the different Tom Thumb stories.

History: We are continuing are studies about Mesopotamia. This week we will continue to read the Gilgamesh epic and learn about the revenge of Ishtar as well as the last quest of Gilgamesh.  At the end of the week we will learn about Hammurabi's laws.

Science: We will continue our studies of the states of matter this week.  This will include learning about air and the properties of air.  Additionally, we will learn that solids can be changed into different states of matter and see what happens when baking soda and vinegar are combined together.

If you have not sent in a white pillowcase, please send it in as soon as possible.  We really want to get the science lab coats made.  If you are not able to send one in, for any reason, please let us know.    

Have a wonderful week!                                                                                                                                

It is so hard to believe that this is the last week of August.  Our first month of school is almost over.  We have been learning so much and having so much fun with our new and old friends.

Here is the preview of what your students will be learning about this week.

Literature: Issun Boshi, Thumbelina, and Tom Thumb are three stories from around the world we will read this week.  Story elements will be discussed as we compare and contract these three stories.

Science: We will further explore the states of matter by changing liquids into gasses.  Additionally, we will learn the properties of liquids and discover that liquids come in different densities.

History: This week we will continue the study of Mesopotamia, starting with making a pop-up ziggurat.  We will also begin learning about the Gilgamesh epic, learn about the Gate of Ishtar, and the importance of writing in a civilization.

Reading: We have sent home most of the reading bags and the rest will be coming home this week.  Please remember to read 20 minutes every night with your child as well as practice the sight words that will be coming home also.

Reminders: 
Please continue to send in the white pillowcases.

Week of August 19-23, 2013

Thank you to all the parents that came to Curriculum night.  It was good to see all of you and talk about this coming year.  We had a fun week exploring the Frog Prince, learning about what history is, and performing some science experiments.  I hope that you asked your children about some of the fun things that we learned did.

Here is what we will be learning about this coming week: 

Literature: We will be reading and studying Hansel and Gretel this week by the Brothers Grimm.  The children will discuss the elements of fairy tales, do some sequencing of events, and, at the end of the week, get to participate in a reader's theater of the story.

Science: This week the students will be introduced to atoms and matter.  We will talk about the different states of matter (solid, liquid, and gas) and learn that there are more than 100 different elements or atoms.

History: We will start our study of Ancient Mesopotamia this week.  This will include studying the map of Ancient Mesopotamia and learning about the places and geographic features.  We will end the week learning about inventions from Ancient Mesopotamia that we still use today.

Reading: We are working on getting all the reading logs and reading books ready to send home.  We are hoping to have books start coming home sometime this week.

We really appreciate all the support that you give to your students and to us and hope that you have a wonderful week.

Reminders: 

• If you have not sent in a white pillowcase, please do so as soon as possible so that we can make our scientist lab coats.