Lions and Tigers and Bears… Oh My!!

April is here and hopefully it will feel like spring soon. This cold, wet weather is not the best condition for 6 and 7 year olds. Parents, I realize baseball and softball season is in full swing, but be aware of your child continuing his/her reading each day. We continue to have lots to do and reading each day at home help push the students closer and closer to their reading goal.

Word Work/Reading: Students will continue to read and use contractions in their writing and reading. Students will also begin this week to read for comprehension and record their proof from the text or passage read.

There are no new spelling words this week.

Writing: Students will analyze and write facts learned about our Texas State Symbols.

Social Studies: Research, read and discuss facts about the great state of Texas. Use these facts in our writing and use map skills to find important places in Texas and around.

Math: Students will continue to build greater numbers with 10’s and 1’s  and begin combining these. As always, problem solving with addition and subtraction continues.

Dates to remember:

April 11th–First Grade Field Trip to Caldwell Zoo

Leaving at 8:30 and returning at 2:00 (about) Please bring a sack lunch

April 23rd–School Holiday

April 25th–First Grade Field Day  12:30-2:30

Thank you,

Mrs. Benson

 

Correction!

Last week I posted the wrong date for the weather make-up day. The school holiday is Monday, April 23rd.  School will be in attendance on Friday, April 20th.

Our Easter Party is this Thursday, March 29th at 11:15. We will start our party outside with the egg hunt and some games that the first grade teachers will be in charge of. We will then go back to the classroom for our Easter treats. If parents want to check their child out after the party, they can sign them out in their classroom.

Please have your 12, candy-filled eggs at school this Tuesday. Have your child bring their bucket or basket this Thursday for the party.

You should have received a note last week about our upcoming field trip to the zoo. Another note with a parent permission form to sign, will come home soon as a reminder.

Thank you for everything you do.

Mrs. Benson

Spring Fever

I hope you all enjoyed your Spring Break and had a relaxing time to be ready to push through until May. I know I did and now we are all anxious to get started.

This week in class:

Guided Reading: Students will continue guided reading lessons and work on what they specifically need help with. For some it is blending, for others it may be fluency, comprehension, or building their endurance by reading longer texts.

Spelling: Students will have new spelling words today; however; the test will not be until next Wednesday. Please study these words at home.  way, may, find, water, use

Writing/Word Work: Students will be discussing when to and when not to use capital letters. This will be assessed by observation, their writing in their daily reading journal, and their use of capitals in all of their independent writing; including their spelling dictation. We will also begin discussing the summary or main idea of the stories we read or listen to.

Math: Students will continue all of our past skills; such as, addition, subtraction, problem solving, skip counting, time, and coins. They will also continue counting groups but on a deeper level this week. Such as, how many feet do 4 dogs have? Or how many hands do 5 people have?

You will receive several very important notes that will be sent home today. I noticed some students still have notes from before the break in their folder. Please check your child’s folder each day. Read and send back the ones that need to be. Also, check for graded papers today and go over these with your child.

Upcoming dates to remember:

March 29th – Easter Party at 11:15

March 30th- School Holiday

April 11th- 1st grade field trip to Caldwell Zoo

April 20th- School Holiday (April 23rd is no longer a school holiday. This will be a make-up day for bad weather.)

Thank you,

Mrs Benson

 

Please Quit Raining!

We have been stuck inside the building for many days of the past 2 weeks. Hopefully, the rain will stop and we can get out more. Being inside so much has made the children a little restless. Please talk to your child about maintaining self-control and good listening skills. This will help everyone.

I’m sure you have heard or discussed the events of the last two weeks concerning security at our schools. Please know that this is one of the top priorities of the administration and faculty. We have already begun staff development for all school personnel. We will continue the discussion and putting the best age-appropriate practices to action. If you have any questions or concerns, our administration will do their best to answer them.

This week in class:

Word Word: As we cycle back to antonyms and synonyms, we will add homophones to our word bank. Knowing these is so helpful in our writing and understanding what we read.

Reading: Levels have bumped up a little so be sure and read each day with your child and write a summary of their reading. Stamina is the key. Books and passages are longer, but getting through them is crucial.

Math: As we continue problem-solving in addition and subtraction, we will add adding groups this week. Time and coins continues.

Spelling: Because I was absent last Friday, the spelling test will be this Wednesday. Please study at home.

Upcoming Events:

March 8-Thursday- 1st Grade Play at 9:00

March 12-16-Spring Break

March 29-Easter Party (Time to be announced)

Thank you for your support,

Mrs. Benson

Presidents Day Holiday

I hope you all enjoyed your extended weekend as we celebrate Presidents Day. This week, we will be discussing presidents from the past; as well as, the present.

I want to thank Lori Sizemore and the other moms who helped plan and put on our Valentine Party. The kids had a blast!

This week in the classroom:

Word Work: Students will continue to use nouns, adjectives, and verbs in their writing and adding new ones to their vocabulary. We will also expand our vocabulary by using antonyms (opposites).

Math: As we continue telling time to the hour and 1/2 hour and adding same coins, we will be using patterns to associate with skip counting. Your child is responsible for skip counting by 2’s, 5’s, and 10’s to 100. Practice these at home.

There will be no spelling this week, but we will be writing about multiple topics.

Upcoming dates to remember:

Feb. 28 – Early student release at 11:30

Mar. 8 – First Grade play at 9:00

Mar. 12-16 – Spring Break

Mar. 19 – Student Holiday/Staff Training

Mar. 20 – Spring Pictures

Thank you for all you do!

Mrs. Benson

Happy Valentine’s Day!

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

 

 

100th Day of School!

Monday will be the 100th day of school. We have a few activities planned to focus on the number 100. The students have really learned a lot in the past 100 days with 72 school days to go.

Your child may have mentioned to you, but we have a student teacher from UT Tyler that will be with our class most of the semester. Her name is Ms. Chelsea Jones and she is already doing a great job.

This week in class:

Guided Reading: Students have been tested for progress and levels have been adjusted. Guided reading groups will begin with more activities focused on fluency, meaning, and comprehension.

Math: Students are continuing to focus on tens and how knowing partners of ten and how tens relate to 100. Time by using an analog clock and coins will be introduced with much practice. And as always, addition and subtraction in computation and problem solving never stops.

Word Work/Writing: This past week, students learned about nouns and began identifying these nouns in their reading and writing. This week we will begin describing these nouns by using adjectives to describe them. We will be adding the describing words into our writing to add more details and make it more exciting.

Science: We have begun a unit studying Penguins. We will continue Penguins this week.

Thank you,

Mrs. Benson

Happy New Year!

I can’t believe we have completed half of our school year. The students have progressed well. I’m very proud of them as I know you are.

This week:

Word Work: Students will be working with  /vowel-r/ blends such as: /ar/ /er/ /ir/ /or/ /ur/. Please notice how your child begins to use these in their reading journal entries and applying them to their reading.

Guided Reading: Look for different levels of books to come home for nightly reading. Encourage your child to push forward and use meaning to figure out difficult words.

Students will be continuing penmanship and spelling this week with the test being on Friday. Please look for this week’s words to come home with Monday’s graded papers.

Math: Students will begin discovering measurement in length by using non-standard units.

Upcoming Dates to Remember:

January 15th – MLK School Holiday

January 24th – Early Student Release at 11:30 for Teacher In-Service

Thank you and Happy New Year!

Mrs. Benson

 

 

Wow! What a Crazy, Sickly Week!

I hope all is well at your home and you have fought off the flu or strep that has stricken our school. Fortunately, our class was not hit hard, with only 2-3 being hit. To those, I hope you are on the mend and feeling better. To the others, keep washing your hands and now that you are home while our school is being disinfected, wash your hands regularly and stay out of the grocery store. The germs are everywhere!

Next week will continue as planned.

Monday- Your boy/girl puzzle is due.

Tuesday- Primary Pajama Day- Early release at 11:45. Lunch will be early.

Wednesday- Party Day at 9:00- Lunch will follow at 10:10. Students can be signed out in the classroom.

Thank you to all that have helped make this a successful party. And thank you to Lori Sizemore for being a super room mother. I hope to see you all at the party, but remember, if you or your children are sick please stay home. This is for the protection of everyone.

Merry Christmas,

Mrs. Benson

Christmas is Just Around the Corner

The Christmas Season is among us and spirits are high. Even so, there still is work to be done. Remind your child that these are the times to stay focused on all expectations; academically and behaviorally.

This week:

Word Work: We will continue inflectional endings. The /ed/ ending makes 3 sounds: /d/  /t/  /ed/

Reading: We are coming to the end of the nine weeks period, students will be tested to see their progress.

Math: Taking surveys and analyzing data.

Writing: Christmas Stories- Now we are looking for a beginning, middle, and ending. Revise to check for capitals, punctuation, and spelling of no-excuse words.

Social Studies: Christmas literature with artwork and discuss customs and traditions of the season.

Upcoming dates to remember:

Dec. 19th- Early Release Day for students at 11:45 Lunch will be early also. This is also the Primary’s Pajama Day.

Dec. 20th- Christmas Party at 9:00. Early Release Day @ 11:45

Students will be exchanging 100 piece puzzles at the party. Boys exchange with boys/Girls exchange with girls. A note about this will come home this week.

Thank you for all you do!

Mrs. Benson