Our Valentine Party will be this Wednesday, the 14th at 11:15. This is immediately following our lunch. We hope you all can come. We are making a Valentine bag at school to collect our valentines. The students’ valentines are due tomorrow, Monday. Students are to bring valentines for friends and/or teachers. We now have Student Teacher Ms. Jones in our class. She will be here until the end of April. We welcome her to our class.

This week in class:

Word work: Students will add verbs to their list of parts of speech. These will be related to the nouns and adjectives in their reading and writing.

Guided reading will continue and some levels are being tested to see if levels should be changed.

Spelling/Writing: Students will be writing letters to mail in our in-school mail system. New spelling words will come home on Monday and the test will be Friday. Parents, it is very important that students study these words at home as well as at school.

Math: Students have been working with combinations of 10 and bigger numbers on the 100’s chart. Last week and continuing through the next couple weeks, students will be practicing time to the hour and 1/2 hour, identifying the name and value of coins, and problem solving with addition and subtraction. I encourage you to practice time on an analog clock and counting and naming coins.

Social Studies: As we conclude our discussion of Valentine’s Day; we will begin to read and learn about presidents of the past and present. This will continue through next week.

Dates to Remember:

February 19: President’s Day Holiday

February 28: Early Student Release at 11:30/ Teacher Training

Thank you,

Mrs. Benson

 

 

Last week we began our study of our great state of Texas. We will be learning about the many symbols of Texas and applying some map skills. Texas will be our focus in our writing and our research.

TPRI testing will conclude this week and guided reading groups will continue. Students’ reading levels were raised according to their improvement so look for this in the books they will  bring home for nightly reading homework.

Our word work will be shifting to reading comprehension skills. Even though we have done this all year orally and some independently; this will become a bigger focus this last nine weeks period. Students will be focusing more on understanding what they are reading than how to read.

Math will continue with identifying groups and patterns within those groups. Again, the focus is on carefully reading the problems to understand what operation is to be performed.

There will be 5 new spelling words this week and the test on Friday. We are getting close to our 100 N0-Excuse words for first grade. Be sure you always go over the weekly spelling words at home. The words are up in the room, but it helps if the students study them at home for better recall and application in their writing.

This week is STAAR testing for our friends upstairs in the Intermediate School. We ask that you not come and eat with your child on Tuesday and Wednesday. These will be silent lunch days for our students. Thank you for your understanding in this matter.

Don’t forget that our reading contest will begin tomorrow-Monday. Please sign your child’s reading log each night and they will receive a ticket to put in a drawing for a brand new bicycle. This will be in May so they have many chances if they read every night.

I hope you all have a great week!

Mrs. Benson

March is around the corner and so is Spring. We have had some wonderful weather; however, we have had a lot of sickness. Lots of flu and strep have flooded our campus. We don’t ever want students to miss school, because they miss instruction. If your child gets sick, please keep them home until the doctor says they can return. This will help from spreading the virus to others.

This week:

Guided Reading: Groups will continue. We are presently introducing reading comprehension passages. Students are practicing reading passages and proving their answers; as well as, inferring their own reasonable answers in writing. We have been reading and doing this together. This will become independently done this week.

Word Work: We will begin discussing the importance of capital letters and examine when and why we use them.

Math: We will conclude our pattern unit and use what we learned in number patterns to begin counting in groups.

Writing/Science: Our study of Dental Hygiene will begin. We will discuss how to care for our teeth and discover what happens if we don’t.

Spelling: New spelling words will go home on Monday and the test will be on Friday.

I hope that everyone paid notice to the important note that went home on Friday announcing that our Chocolate Fund Raiser had been cancelled. We hated this happened and I hope any of you who had already sold some chocolate were able to relay this to your customer and get them their funds back.

I hope you all have a great week.

Mrs. Benson

February is the most compact month of the school year. There are more skills to teach during this month of February, but it’s the shortest month of the year. So… there’s lots to get started with.

Word Work: We will continue to spiral adjectives, nouns, verbs and will add singular and plural to our vocabulary.

Math: This week we will focus more on money (coin collections) and time to the hour and half hour. We have worked on these throughout the year, but it is now time to use them in everyday situations and assess.

Spelling: The spelling test will be Tuesday and the students will not receive new spelling words this week.

Writing: The students will begin writing letters this week to mail in our in-school mail service, WEE Deliver.

Science: We are currently reading, discussing, and analyzing the life of several types of Penguins. We will continue this into this week.

Here are some upcoming dates to remember:

Feb. 8-Student Holiday

Feb. 12-Our class will host the Champs Assembly at 8:00

Valentine Party at 11:15

Feb. 15-Presidents Day School Holiday

Thank you for everything,

Mrs. Benson

 

September is here! Well, it’s actually almost gone… but we have accomplished a lot. The past couple of weeks have been full of assessments in reading, writing, and math. Reading assessments will continue through the six weeks. Students have been bringing home a reader that must be read each night. Also, please sign and send back their reading log each day. I realize some of their books might be a little hard or a little easy. If it is too difficult then read it TO them or WITH them. If it is too easy then have them read it INDEPENDENTLY several times for good fluency. These assessments will help me find their exact reading level. This week in our word work we will be discussing the short and long sounds of the vowels /e/, /o/, and /u/. We covered /a/ and /i/ last week. Our assessment will be on Friday.
We have had one spelling test and our second one will be this Monday. Our spelling tests are not always on Friday but a good majority of them are. Please always check your child’s planner for upcoming spelling tests. We are working on the complete list of spelling words in our writing this week; as well as, the writing process. The students will be publishing their first Writer’s Workshop writing this week.
Also, beginning this week, students will have math homework. This will only happen once a week, usually on Wednesday or Thursday. Please see that your child completes the homework and returns it the next day. Since we have covered numbers 1-20 in the past weeks, this week we will be use these numbers in problem solving and ordering and comparing numbers.
Book orders are due this Tuesday. Always check planners for your child’s message that they write down. It usually contains important information of upcoming due dates, lessons and class activities. And don’t forget to sign or initial the planner each day.
Some upcoming things to remember:
Early Release @ 12:00 on Wednesday
School Pictures Sept 26
I hope this blog helps you keep up with class activities and students’ work. Please leave a positive comment so that I can see who is reading our blog. I would love to hear from you.
Thank you,
Mrs. Benson

I hope all of you have a wonderful Thanksgiving celebrating with your family and friends.
This will be a short week. Monday is our Thanksgiving Readers’ Theater. It will be at 11:45 in our classroom. I hope all of you are able to come. Remember, it only lasts about 15-20 minutes, so don’t be late! If you are checking your child out afterwards, then be sure to sign them out. Tuesday is an early release day. School will let out at 11:00.
Again, I hope you all have a happy Thanksgiving!
Mrs. Benson

It is certainly hard to believe that it is already April! The weather has been wonderful! Our class is continuing our study of Ponds and Pond Life. This is reflected in our writing as well as our science. There will be no new spelling words this coming week. We are focusing on our Author’s Tea books that each student will be sharing with parents on April 29th at 11:30. Again you will receive more information and an invitation to the tea at a later date. In our word work this week we will continue working with contractions; putting them together and taking them apart. Reading comprehension will remain our focus in reading as I retest the students this week on their levels and fluency. Although we have finished  our unit on money and coin collections in math; continue to practice counting coins as we move into identifying 2 and 3 dimensional shapes. This Friday is the end of the 5th six weeks.

Here are some upcoming dates to remember:

April 10th Town Hall Meeting to discuss the current budget of our schools. This meeting will be held in the High School Cafeteria at 3:00 and is open to the community.

April 12th Chocolate Bunnies arrive and will need to be picked up by parents. (You will receive a note when they are separated and ready.)

April 14th Report Cards

April 21th Easter Party will be held at 11:30

April 29th Author’s Tea will be held at 11:30 in our classroom

May 13th Champs Assembly that will be hosted by our class on stage at 8:00

I hope these dates help and I will add more as they occur. This is definitely a busy time of the school year.

Thank you,

Mrs. Benson

Hope you enjoyed your Snow day! I know I enjoyed the time I spent with my family. Please be aware that the make-up day will be February 21st. This will no longer be a holiday. I also want all  parents to do their best to combat the flu. The flu has really hit the primary school hard this season. We are doing all that we can at school. The nurse tells us the key is to wash hands. We do this as well as use the antibacterial soap. If  sickness is going through your home, Lysol their things before returning to school, wash hands frequently at home, and make sure everyone is bundled up before getting out in this extremely cold weather. Hopefully we can cut down on some of the sickness from spreading. Because of the amount of sickness and absences last week and the snow day, we will still be covering some of the same lessons.

After having our spelling test on Monday, since it was planned for this past Friday, we will not get new spelling words this week. Instead we will work on our writing about the penguins we have studied and try to put in place the types of words we have studied. These include, synonyms, antonyms, homophones, compound words, singular and plural nouns, verbs, and adjectives.

Don’t forget valentines and boxes are due Friday. The party is on Valentine’s Day, the 14th at 11:30; and conferences are scheduled for the 15th, which is an early release day.

Again, I hope you enjoyed your long weekend. Tomorrow we will be back to work.

Mrs. Benson

Brace yourselves! This is the busiest month of the school year and the shortest! This month , beginning Monday, we will celebrate the 100th day of school and explore all the different ways to count to 100. Next we will celebrate Valentine’s Day and immediately following that we will research and learn about some of our most famous presidents for President’s day. We will conclude the month, because it is Dental Hygiene Awareness Month, with a study of our teeth and how to care for them.

In our word work this week we will be defining and using synonyms and antonyms. We will conclude our study of penguins in science and begin a writing assignment on Antarctica to wrap up this study.  Our Wee Deliver program at school begins on Monday so letter writing will also get into full swing. In math we will begin a chapter on measurement, including length, capacity, and weight. Our guided reading groups will continue with some groups moving into chapter books and others working on fluency and other skills.

Be sure and check your child’s folder each Monday for graded papers and go over those papers with them. Also be aware of several important notes that will be coming home this week. One concerns the Valentine Party and the valentine list and the other confirms your time for your parent conference.

Can you believe we have had 100 days of school?!?

Mrs. Benson

I hope everyone enjoyed their 3 day weekend. I know I did! But now it’s time to get back to work with only 4 days to do it. This week in our word work we will be begin exploring compound words. We will continue to use adjectives, nouns, and verbs in our centers and in our writing. The students will also receive their new spelling words this week. Look for the yellow writing paper with the new words on Tuesday with their graded papers. These words will be in addition to the 50 words that were sent home last week. By the end of the year we will have 100 NO EXCUSE WORDS.

Continue to work on TIME at home and practice TIME often. Even though we are through with this chapter in math, it will continue to spiral back around. This week we will be analyzing number patterns and skip counting by 2’s, 5’s, and 10’s.

Just a reminder to continue to read each and every night, practice all NO EXCUSE WORDS at home (reading and writing them), and always watch for weekly math homework. Thanks to all of you that always make sure this gets done and promote responsibility in your child.

CHAMPs assemblies begin this week so make sure no child it tardy on Fridays so they won’t miss the assembly. Thank you for all you do!

Mrs. Benson