Crazy Winter Weather!

Happy Monday! I cannot believe how crazy the weather is in Austin- freezing/ice day on Friday, shorts on Sunday! Hopefully the weather will hold out tonight and we won't have another bad weather day this year. Knock on wood!

I cannot wait for the Fairy tale parade this Friday at 8:15. Don't forget that your child's costume needs to represent a character from a fairy tale or folk tale. I look forward to seeing their great costumes!

Here are our learning goals this week. Have a great one!

Math:  This week in math we will continue to explore shapes. We've folded squares to see what other kinds of shapes can be made. We will sort shapes according to their attributes (sides, corners).  We will compare 2 dimensional shapes to 3 dimensional shapes.  We will learn the names of shapes we see all around us.  We will identify shapes that make up other shapes such as a cylinder has 2 circle bases.  This discovery based unit has been a lot of fun so far!!

Reading Workshop:  This week in Reading Workshop, we will be reading Fables.  Just like Fairy Tales, Fables are a type of Folktale.  Fables have animal characters with human attributes and always have a lesson (moral) to the story.  We will read The Lion and The Mouse, Fox and the Crow, The Ugly Duckling, and The Tortoise and the Hare.  While we are reading these stories, we will think about the story structure (characters, setting, problem and solution) and retelling the story by remembering what happened in the beginning, middle and end of the story. 

Writing Workshop:  As we turn our focus back to non fiction writing with personal narratives this week, we will learn to think about events that have happened in our lives, then focus on only that event. We will learn that all of the things that lead up to that, as well as all of the things that happened after it, are not as important as the details of that single event that we would like to share about with our friends. We will be learning to "zoom in" on our stories.

Social Studies:  Howdy Y’all!  This week we will be learning about the customs and traditions of our community in the great state of Texas.  We will learn about different state symbols such as the Bluebonnet, Mockingbird, Pecan Tree, State Flag, and the Texas Pledge.  We will also talk about the capitol of Texas, our home, sweet, home…Austin.  We will take a step back in Texas history to learn about the Alamo.  Yee haw!

Reminders:

*Please remember to send a healthy snack every day.  Snack time is @ 9:30am.

*Make sure your child wears tennis shoes every Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday.

*Library day is Thursday.

*Please remember to send back your child’s orange folder every day.

Dates to remember:

January 30:  Science Fair

January 31:  Fairy Tale/Folktale Parade @8:15

February 4:  1^st Grade PE Program

February 5:  Early Release Day

February 6:  101^st Day

February 14:  Chocolate Fever Day

       Valentine’s Day Party

February 17: make up day for bad weather

March 1:  Family Dinner Night

March 3-4:  Turkey Trot

March 10-14:  Spring Break

March 19:  Early Release Day

     Family Skate Night

Short Week!

I hope everyone had a great long weekend! The weather was beautiful and despite my cedar fever I was outside everyday. I hope you all got the same opportunities! 

January 21-24 Lessons.... 

Math:  Students will describe and identify two- and three-dimensional shapes. The will distinguish 

between attributes that define a two-dimensional or three-dimensional figure and attributes that do not define the shape. Each student will create, classify and sort two- and three-dimensional shapes 

according to their attributes using informal and formal geometry language. The student will be able to compose two-dimensional geometric shapes by joining two, three or four figures to produce a target shape.

Reading Workshop:  This week, we will be reading Folktales.  Folktales are very similar to Fairy Tales.  3 key differences are that there are animal characters that display human characteristics, there is no magic, and there is usually a lesson to be learned.  We will read The Little Red Hen, The Three Little Pigs, Goldilocks and the Three Bears, and Little Red Riding Hood.  We will have a Fairy Tale Parade on January 31.  On this day, your child can come to school dressed up as their favorite Fairy Tale or Folktale character!  Parents are invited to attend, and we will parade around the school to show off what we have been learning and our awesome costumes! 

Writing Workshop:  As we head into another week of fictional writing, we will continue to refer back on all that we have learned about the elements of fairy tales, folktales, and fables. We have been applying our new learning by putting pencils, markers, and crayons to paper and working hard at crafting our own amazing stories. We will also be discussing and writing about our favorite fairy tale and folktale characters as the week progresses. 

Science:  This week we will continue to learn about weather.  We will learn about different kind of weather such as sunny, warm, cold, windy, rainy, snowy and windy.  We will also learn about different types of precipitation such as rain, snow and sleet and sever/extreme weather such as flooding tornado, and hurricane.

Reminders:

*Please remember to send a healthy snack every day.  Snack time is @ 9:30am.

*Make sure your child wears tennis shoes every Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday.

*Library day is Thursday.

*Please remember to send back your child’s orange folder every day.

Dates to remember:

January 22:  International Festival

January 30:  Science Fair

February 4:  1^st Grade PE Program

February 5:  Early Release Day

March 1:  Family Dinner Night

March 3-4:  Turkey Trot

March 10-14:  Spring Break

March 19:  Early Release Day and Family Skate Night

Back in the swing of things!

What a wonderful 2nd week back we are having! We are still adjusting and remembering our everyday expectations, but that is to be expected after having a long break. We are working hard and excited about learning, which is the best news!

Report cards are coming home this week. Please remember to sign the brown envelope and send it back to school. You keep the report card! 

Blog Update

January 13-17, 2013

Math: This week in math we will be finishing up our unit on telling time to the hour and the half hour.  We will continue to practice this throughout the year.  After time, we will be moving on to Comparing and Ordering Whole Numbers.  The students will be using whole numbers all the way to 120!  We will work on generating, comparing (greater than, less than, or equal to), and ordering numbers. 

Reading Workshop:  This week we are continuing our unit on Fairy Tales.  We will continue to identify the characters, setting, problem and solution for each story.  We will also read a few fractured fairy tales this week and compare and contrast them with the original versions using a Venn Diagram.  The children are having so much fun and love having the role of  "element detectives" with fairy tales.  Ask your child to identify the elements of a fairy tale! 

Writing Workshop:  As we learned all about elements of fairy tales last week, we began writing our own fictional stories that contain some of the same elements as fairy tales. This week, we will take our stories through the entire writing process and end with a published piece. Please be on the lookout for our excellent work in the halls! 

Science:  This week we will learn about weather. Weather is what is happening in the atmosphere at a certain place.  Temperature, wind, and precipitation are all parts of weather. There would be no weather without the sun.  The sun’s heat causes clouds, winds, and precipitation to form. This week we will learn about windy, rainy, cloudy and foggy weather.

Reminders:

*Please remember to send a healthy snack every day.  Snack time is @ 9:30am.

*Make sure your child wears tennis shoes every Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday.

*Library day is Thursday.

*Please remember to send back your child’s orange folder every day.

Dates to remember:

January 20:  No School

January 22:  International Festival

January 30:  Science Fair

February 4:  1^st Grade PE Program

February 5:  Early Release Day

March 1:  Family Dinner Night

March 3-4:  Turkey Trot

March 10-14:  Spring Break

March 19:  Early Release Day and Family Skate Night

Happy New Year!

I hope everyone had a joyous and restful break! I spent time with my family, friends, and myself, and I hope you were all able to do the same. This semester is filled with lots of learning and lots of fun! Here is what we are learning this week...

January 6-10, 2013

Math: This week in math we will be learning about analog and digital clocks. We will practice telling time to the hour and half hour. This unit is one week. We will continue to practice this skill daily as the year goes on!

Reading Workshop:  This week in reading workshop we will begin reading Fairy Tales.  This is such a fun unit for the students, and it’s one of my favorites too!  We will learn that there are specific elements in the story that set Fairy Tales apart from other stories.  We will read several different Fairy Tales, such as Cinderella, The Princess and the Pea, and Rapunzel.  While the students are listening to these Fairy Tales, they will be asked to think about the characters in the story, the setting, the plot and the problem and solution. 

Writing Workshop:  This week in Writing Workshop, we will begin to learn how to write a creative story.  We have written personal narratives, all about texts, how to texts, and letters.  This will be the first time that we will use our creative imaginations to write a story!  We will learn to incorporate characters, setting, plot and problem and solution in our stories. 

Social Studies:  This week, we will begin talking about Landforms and Bodies of Water.  We will learn about mountain, hill, valley, plains, and island.  We will then make a Landforms Dictionary.  After that, we will learn about rivers, streams, lakes, and oceans.  We will make a Bodies of Water flipbook. 

Reminders:

*Please remember to send a healthy snack every day.  Snack time is @ 9:30am. We are a nut free classroom!

*Make sure your child wears tennis shoes every Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday.

*Library day is Thursday.

*Please remember to send back your child’s orange folder and homework bag every day.

Dates to remember:

January 7:  2^nd Semester Begins

January 20:  No School

January 22:  International Festival

January 30:  Science Fair

February 4:  1^st Grade PE Program

February 5:  Early Release Day

March 1:  Family Dinner Night

March 3-4:  Turkey Trot

March 10-14:  Spring Break

March 19:  Early Release Day and Family Skate Night