JANUARY MCMONTHLY NEWS

THEME

Happy New Year! It’s so nice to be back with the children again! It’s hard to believe 2012 is here! We study science principles of Animals in Motion while learning how some animals adapt in winter. We also continue concentrating on the on-going STAR traits by appreciating one another through Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

LANGUAGE ARTS

Our Word Study group words are getting trickier, and as a class, we continue to focus on long vowel sounds. We are blending these new sounds with all the consonants to increase our vocabularies and help us to spell. We are also comparing short and long vowels and know this will be especially helpful as we apply these tricky spellings to our writing. This month, we begin some non-fiction writing with our enjoyable “How-To” unit!

MATH

We are focusing on the parts that are put together in addition and then taken away from a total in subtraction, using literature, manipulatives, and real-life situations.

BIRTHDAYS

Sat., Jan. 14: Matteo Cain

Fri., Jan. 27: Annie Melich

 

REMINDERS

Wed., Jan. 4: Olivia joins our class!

Mon., Jan. 9: Scholastic orders due

Thurs., Jan. 12: Darien Nature Center visits Ox Ridge

Mon., Jan. 16: Martin Luther King Day/No School

Week of Jan. 23: Recycle Program

SPECIAL NOTES
 

• Since the cold weather has returned, please label any extra gear, such as boots, snowpants, mittens, and hats.
  
• Uggs and Merrells can get quite soggy on the playground.  If the children wish to play in the snow, kindly send in waterproof snow boots.

• SCHOOL SUPPLIES

The Fall first grade shopping list included some items for January to June. I’ve asked the children to check their supplies, and here is what most students need:

1 dozen pencils, already sharpened if possible

Thank you so much for sending in those extra pencils!

• “Box Tops for Education” are being collected by the Student Council. You will see the red and white rectangular shapes on certain types of packaged food boxes. Please check the expiration date, cut them out, and send them in with your children so they can help earn $$ for our school or a worthy need connected to Darien Public Schools.

• Thank you, Volunteers, especially during our busy month of December!  Thank you in advance for the second part of the year!
• When we reach this time of year, it is always such a great milestone.  Although January is a relatively quiet month, it is amazing how fast this second half of first grade goes.   I feel very proud of your children!

DECEMBER SIGHT WORDS

 

all
are

be

eat

four

he

like

please

ride

saw

see

she

three
was

want

HOLIDAY HELPERS

We helped the gentlemen from the Army and U.S. Marine Corps
load some of the packages for the Toys for Tots drive this holiday season.
Wow, the Ox Ridge families are generous!

DECEMBER EXCITEMENT

Here we are at the Maritime Aquarium,
managing our excitement just fine!
What a great day we had!
(We just missed our buddy, SS, who wasn't able to join us this time.)

2nd Steps Social Skills

We started a new unit this week:  Emotion Management

Well!  We know we are very excited at this time of year, but the goal of this unit is to help us identify and manage strong feelings.  During the unit, we hope to understand strong feelings, recognize them when we feel them, and use Calming-Down steps to calm down our strong feelings.

We already know that we are caring friends to others.
Our lesson this week concentrated on identifying our own feelings.  By starting to realize clues about how we are feeling will help us to manage how those feelings impact us, especially if they are not comfortable feelings.

Every day we should try to Anticipate when we need to check in with ourselves and how we are feeling.  That is, we need to anticipate before activities or situations happen that might cause us to have strong feelings.  Later, we should Reflect on how we are able to check in with how we are feeling.  After all, we know ourselves best!

Try to anticipate how you might feel if:

• You are going on a field trip to the Maritime Aquarium and the day will be quite different than usual!
• Read Where the Wild Things Are and wonder how the character feels.
• A movie might take a while to get to the Happy Ending.
• You go shopping and it is super loud and crowded.
• You celebrate a friend's birthday and you hope to pick a favorite Popsicle flavor...if there are any of your favorites left...

If you imagine some of the feelings you might experience, it might help you manage them well, so that we learn how to handle disappointment.as well as extreme excitement.

McMonthly News

THEME

Our thoughts anxiously turn to this exciting time of year. Our passports are ready as we begin traveling to see how some holidays are celebrated around the world. We have recently enjoyed searching our world map as we investigated the students’ ancestors’ homelands. We found that there are many modern-day pilgrims in our class!

HOLIDAY HELPERS

As the holiday season arrives, please help your child know that, while they can feel excited, they need to act like responsible first graders. They still need to be respectful listeners, try their best, and always be kind to one another.

LANGUAGE ARTS

The students continue their progress and success in reading. We are comparing short vowels and long vowels and are constantly reviewing our high frequency words. Starfall.com has been one
of the many ways we’ve been able to practice these sounds in the Computer Lab, along with some cool Smartnotebook activities. We’ve also been concentrating on the characters in literature we read and of our own stories that we are writing. We will soon be publishing our Realistic Fiction stories.

MATH

We have been focusing on patterns that repeat, patterns that grow, and with place value. These skills will help us understand the differences among the ones, tens, and hundreds place.

BIRTHDAYS

Fri., Dec. 30: Jack Barber

REMINDERS

Tues. – Fri., 11/29-12/2:  Conferences, Early dismissal

Tues., Nov. 29:  Storyteller, Len Cabral

Mon., Dec. 5:  Scholastic Orders Due

(online or sent in to classroom)

Mon., Dec. 5:  Family Traditions Due

Thurs., Dec. 8:  Field Trip, Maritime Aquarium

Fri., Dec. 16:  Toy Drive ends

Mon., Dec. 19:  Grab Bag gifts due

Wed., Dec. 21:  Holiday Celebration/

Polar Express Theme (a.m.)

Wed., Dec. 21:  Holiday Grab Bag (aft.)

Fri., Dec. 23:  Short day, vacation begins

Dec. 24 - Jan. 2:  December vacation

Tues., Jan. 3, 2012:  Return to school

SPECIAL NOTES

• Homework: Please be sure to have your child read for at least 10 minutes a night, in addition to our other first grade responsibilities. Please keep me posted if there’s something that is overwhelming on the homework front.

• I would like to thank all of you for your generosity with the school-wide Toys-for-Tots Drive taking place during the next three weeks. You are making others very happy this season!

• Superstar News:  Every Friday, a new “Superstar of the Week” is picked at random. If there is a week that is not good for your child to be superstar, please jot me a note or email, so we won’t pick your child’s name during that week. Once a superstar is picked, they can share treasures throughout the week. A note will go home explaining the details once he or she is picked.

• The Class Pet Bag, which journeys to our students’ homes, is picked at random as well. Enjoy!

NOVEMBER WORDS

  I         have

black   here

brown    say

come     they

down    we

find     what

   go        where 

           who

*Keep practicing old Spelling words and spelling patterns

2nd Steps Social Skills

Showing Care and Concern

Last week, we role-played how to respond to others in a caring way.  We learned that people feel better when we show them compassion (and we also feel better when we help!)  We brainstormed different ways we can do this (being a good listener, saying kind words, offering a toy).  Showing compassion helps us all get along well with others.  (This isn't too tricky for us since we are always doing nice things for each other!)

Here are some scenarios to try at home  (think about what you'd say and do):

• Your father has a lot of dishes to do after dinner.  Do you think he could use some help?
• It looks like your neighbor could use some help taking out the recycling.  Can you help out?
• Your mom tried hard to get great Thanksgiving bargains on the biggest shopping day of the year, but the store was all sold out of what she wished for.  Can you offer some kind and reassuring words to her?

HAPPY VETERANS DAY FROM ALL OF US!

Here we are at one of our flagpoles, celebrating Veterans Day with the whole school.



We were lucky to meet real veterans in our classroom on Thursday:  Annie's Great Uncle Jimmy, and our friend, Delaney's Great Grandpa.  We hope to meet Ryan's Grandpa sometime soon since he wasn't able to be with us today!  We love our visitors!
We love our Veterans!