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!



A Sneak Peek at this Week

Boy, are we busy first graders?!?

Here are reminders for some upcoming this week:

Mon., Nov. 8: Family Turkeys Due

Nov. 7-9: Book Fair (even Election Day!)
Tues., Nov. 8: Election Day/StaffDev/No School
Wed., Nov. 9: Field Trip/Darien Historical Society
Thurs.,Nov. 10: Veterans visit *(wear red, white, and/or blue)
Fri., Nov. 11: Veterans Day *(wear red, white, and/or blue)
Fri., Nov. 11: Scholastic Orders Due (online by 3:30)
(just in case you don’t find what you wish from the Book Fair!)
Fri., Nov. 11:  Photo Orders Due

2nd Steps Social Skills

This week we spent time talking about accidents.
We understand that some actions happen by accident.
If we know this, students and adults are less likely to respond in aggressive or accusing manner.

We focused on 2 main things:
If we cause an accident, we realize how people might feel when the accident happened.
If we cause an accident, we need to say and do respectful things, not just ignore what happened.
We can say things like,

"I'm sorry

It was an accident.

Are you OK?"

Likewise, if someone caused an accident that involved us, it's important that we do not yell at the other person or act impulsively.  Once they apologize, we should say something like,

"Thank you for apologizing."



Here are some scenarios.  You and someone at home can practice what to say when you act as the accident-causer or the accident-recipient.  Then change roles.  (These scenarios can help us with our Realistic Fiction writing too!)

• You jumped on a swing before your friend was out of the way and knocked him over with your feet.
• You bumped your partner's desk and her crayons spilled all over the floor.
• You knocked over your juice at the table and it seeped under your friend's book.
• You grabbed a book quickly from the shelf and another book came flying out and hit your buddy.
• The corner of your friend's artwork tore when you were helping the teacher hang it on the wall.
• You knocked your elbow into your friend's head when you turned around quickly.
• You rolled over your friend's toe with the teacher's swivel chair.



HALLOWEEN UPDATE

NATURE WALK FOR TUESDAY IS POSTPONED UNTIL THURSDAY DUE TO STORM...

The power may be out, but we still have Halloween energy!

HALLOWEEN NEWS FLASH!
No Word Study tonight due to Halloween and power outages!
If you miss doing regular homework, try sorting your treats into categories (for example, chocolate, fruit, crackerish -  make tally marks if you have a humongous pile).

See you tomorrow!

NOVEMBER MCMONTHLY NEWS

THEME

We turn our focus from tasty treats and fun costumes to crisp weather and the thrill of Thanksgiving time.

LANGUAGE ARTS

Our reading program continues to take us on a decoding journey, blending all the consonants with different vowel sounds and learning tricks to figure out larger words. Books are becoming more challenging, and we continue to write in journals, complete Reader Responses, and work on some of our own story creations in Writers Workshop. We have put aside our true Small Moment stories and are beginning to focus on Realistic Fiction stories where the stories have some kind of big adventure or a problem that needs to be solved. It might not have happened in real life, but it actually could! We are constantly practicing our speaking skills as well as good listening, especially when our Mystery Guests visit!

We’ve noticed that the Monday WordsTheir Way homework can be tricky at times. If the homework takes up a lot of time, simply choose a handful of words (perhaps 10) to try certain homework choices (such as the Letter Change choice). The idea is to get used to the spelling patterns and sounds, but not worry so much about memorizing the words.

Take an extra day to finish if your child needs it. Likewise, if your child would like a challenge, doing more than the sorts each night is fine too, as long as it doesn’t feel overwhelming to your child.

MATH

We have been concentrating on the “measurement” of time, money, and length.  Please ask your child how much time has passed between one activity and another to reinforce the duration concept of time.  We continue to use literature and manipulatives to reinforce addition, subtraction, and problem solving. 

BIRTHDAYS

There are no November birthdays.

REMINDERS

Tues., Nov. 1: Nature Walk (at school)

Wed., Nov. 2: Field Trip to a real college! - Fairfield Univ. Theatre

Mon., Nov. 8: Family Turkeys Due

Nov. 7-9: Book Fair (even Election Day!)

Tues., Nov. 8: Election Day/StaffDev/No School

Wed., Nov. 9: Field Trip/Darien Historical Society

Thurs.,Nov. 10: Veterans visit   *(wear red, white, and/or blue)

Fri., Nov. 11: Veterans Day   *(wear red, white, and/or blue)

Fri., Nov. 11: Scholastic Orders Due

(just in case you don’t find what you wish from the Book Fair!)

Mon., Nov. 14: Ancestor Info Due

Wed., Nov. 23:Thanksgiving coming/Early Dismissal

Nov. 24-25: Thanksgiving/No School

Nov. 29-Dec. 2: Conferences, shortened days

SPECIAL NOTES

• This Fall’s Book Fair comes at the same time the monthly Scholastic orders are available. Due to popular demand, I am still sending the order forms home in case you’d like to “elect” another option for some great books!


• This month also begins Scholastic online ordering. If you are not comfortable with on-line ordering, simply fill in the books you wish from the book club catalogs, send in the order and a check by the deadline, and I will order for you! Thanks!

• Thank you for the Halloween Boo-Grams. They were most appreciated and were a fun way to start our exciting Halloween day!

• With the weather getting chillier, please label any extra clothing your child brings in.

• Thank you all for helping us get off to a great start with our Volunteer schedule! The school year gets so busy and I often don’t get the chance to say thank you. The children and I appreciate all your help in the classroom, behind the scenes at home, and with your daily support for homework and encouragement for being grown-up first graders!

OCTOBER SIGHT WORDS

a

an
am
at

big

come

down
for

go

help

I

in

is

little

me

my
one

red

said

the

to

two

we

yellow

you