Dear Parents,
Congratulations to your children for successfully completing first grade! I have been so proud of their hard work and the growth that they have made since the school year began. This has been a wonderful year, and I am grateful for the kindness, encouragement, and support that you have given this year. I am so thankful for your involvement in our class and school activities. It has been a pleasure working with all of you. ------------------------------------------------------------------- P.S. I have compiled all of our class photos for this year, and I will try to send out one last email this next week to share them with you. P.S.S. I will be locking in the final grades for this term over the weekend. If your child did not return the May reading calendar, you can email the minutes to me, and I will enter that score. (You can find out by looking on ASPIRE.) P.S.S. Report cards will not be mailed out, but you can print a copy from ASPIRE.
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Hello Parents,
Our final week of first grade has begun! This is what our week looks like: MONDAY - A.M. - Core Knowledge (Frontier Explorers), Pinocchio, P.M. - Core Knowledge, Self-Portraits, Music TUESDAY - A.M. - Finish Core Knowledge unit, Pinocchio, Dance Festival Practice P.M. - End of Year Cleaning (desks & classroom), CK Books, Pinocchio Please send a Magic Eraser type sponge to school with your child. (Thank you) WEDNESDAY - A.M. - Sign Friendship Books P.M. - DANCE FESTIVAL @ 12:45 WEAR BRIGHT COLOR SHIRTS and dark uniform bottoms (if you have them). If the weather holds and we are outside, I believe that our class will be facing the east side of the field for our performance. THURSDAY - A.M. - FIELD DAY Activities : WEAR HOUSE SHIRTS / or HOUSE COLOR SHIRTS P.M. - CLASS PARTY - 1:30- 2:45 - YOU ARE WELCOME TO JOIN US FRIDAY - A.M. - Movie:” Milo & Otis” and saying goodbye Hello Parents,
We have had a great week. We finished our unit on the Birth of our Nation. We learned about the 2nd Continental Congress and the writing of our U.S. Constitution. We read about George Washington, who became our first President, and about two significant Founding Fathers: Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson. We recreated an original American flag, and we have drawn and painted still life flowers. Our class has also practiced writing the main idea and details for both narrative and informative passages. DIBELS - Our state reading assessment is underway and will continue into next week. Thank you for making sure that your child is here at school. We are excited to see the growth that each student has made this year. MAY BOOK REPORTS - Our genre for the May book report is Poetry. The students are to read a book of poems, not just one poem, and then put together their “poet -tree” book report. These will be due on May 17th, which is the end of next week, so please don’t wait to get this started. LIBRARY - Next week will be our final library visit here at school. All books are due by May 17th. The home reading program (baggie books) has just finished its last week as well. If you have any books that still need to be returned, please bring them as soon as possible. OCS SURVEY - The school has sent out an end of year survey. This is a great chance for you to let us know how we are doing, and how we can better serve you. Thank you for taking a few minutes to respond. DANCE FESTIVAL - Our first grade team is learning a dance to the song “We Go Together,” from the Grease soundtrack. They are doing a great job, but you are welcome to help your child practice at home as well. Our performance will be on May 22nd. Hello Parents,
This week we read about the Declaration of Independence and the Revolutionary War, as we are learning about the birth of our nation. We drew some Van Gogh-style flower drawings today, which we will paint next week. As always, we are diligently practicing our word patterns and reading fluency. Here is what is coming up next week: APRIL BOOK REPORTS & READING CALENDARS will be due on Wednesday, May 1st. We are having fun guessing the riddles from those reports that have already been turned in. Our genre is Science Fiction or Fantasy. I will attach the book report form in case you need an extra copy. DIBELS state reading assessments will begin on Wednesday and continue through May 8th. Please be sure that your child is present during this week so that we can see the progress that your child has made this year. We have been working really hard, and I am expecting great results! TEACHER SURVEY - The school has sent out an email regarding teacher surveys. Thank you very much for taking the time to let us know how we are doing. All of your feedback is completely anonymous, but it is very helpful to me as I see the things that you appreciate and the things that you would like improved. Here is the link: End of Year Teacher Survey TUESDAY ABSENCE - I have a teacher conference that I will be attending on Tuesday, so I will not be at the school. Ms. Dastrup will cover my morning classes, and Ms. Passi will be with our class during Core Knowledge time. I am very grateful to be working with such amazing instructors who take such great care of the kids here in first grade. MAY / JUNE BIRTHDAYS - There will be a birthday lunch table set up on Wednesday, May 1st for kids with May & June birthdays. If your child has a summer birthday and did not celebrate his/her half-birthday in class this year, please send me an email and we will plan a day in May to celebrate. TISSUE REQUEST - We are out of tissues, so if you have an extra box that you would like to send our way, that would be fantastic! All of our other supplies are looking fine. We will need some “magic eraser” sponges during the last week of school. That would also be a great thing to send if you are able. Thanks for all of your wonderful support. It is truly bittersweet to have this year coming to an end. I have so enjoyed working with you and your wonderful children! Hello Parents,
Can you believe that there are only 25 more days left of school? We still have so much to learn, and so much to do. I love this time of year - it is so exciting to see how much our class has accomplished in first grade so far! We have learned about the thirteen colonies and the Boston Tea Party this week. We have been writing encouraging notes for the sixth grade class as they are preparing for their RISE end of year test, and we have begun practicing our dance for the school Dance Festival. (We will perform on Wednesday, May 22nd.) DIBELS - We will begin the end of year DIBELS (now Acadience) reading test in a couple of weeks. Please plan for your child to be present during the week of May 1st - 8th. Thank you for taking the time to read with your child each day. FUN RUN PLEDGES - The date to turn in pledge money from the “Mustache Dash” Fun Run has been extended to Monday. Today our class had a popcorn party for earning 300 Hero Cards! That is a really fantastic accomplishment, and the kids enjoyed celebrating! The money that is raised from our fun run goes directly to our Hero Program: weekly prize drawings, ambassador lunches, and other rewards like our class enjoyed today. Thank you so much for supporting this program. It is so foundational to creating the unique, positive culture that we have here at Odyssey. Have a lovely weekend and a happy Easter celebration! P.S. I sometimes play learning videos as the class is getting ready for recess. They thought this video was SO funny, and I wanted to send it along so that you could share a laugh with us. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZcdiP8R_3Oo Attachments area Hello Parents,
Your kids have done such a great job coming back from spring break and jumping right back into learning. I am enjoying this time of the school year with them - they have become so responsible and independent, and you can see the pride that they have in the good work that they are doing. We have been learning about early American colonists, and we will continue in the next few weeks learning how our country became a nation and about the early explorers of the American Frontier. FUN RUN PLEDGES - We had a great time at our Mustache Dash Fun Run today. We sent the students home with the lap cards stuck on the back of their shirts or jackets. This next week is the time for them to collect the pledge money from their sponsors, and turn it in at the front office by Friday, April 19th. CONGRATULATIONS - Congratulations to Arnav, our April Ambassador of Dignity. Arnav is such a pleasant person to be around. He is very kind and never shows disrespect to another student. At the same time, he is always humble, but confident in his own successes. We happy that Arnav is part of our class. BOOK REPORTS - Our April book report genre is science fiction & fantasy. Have a great weekend. I hope that there will be some warm sunny weather for you to enjoy! Hello Parents,
We have had such a great time this month learning about animals and their habitats, and hearing some classic fairy tales. We have learned how plants grow and the jobs of each of the plant parts. The kids have been excited to see the grass heads growing some long “hair.” In our writer’s workshop we have been reading and writing reports about animals. We are reviewing the rules for short vowel and long vowel sounds in words, and practicing our sight words and sentence writing. THANK YOU to our parent volunteers who braved the stormy weather to chaperone our field trip to the aquarium. Julie Atwood, Amy Andrew, Kyra Harris, Jenna Nielson, and Kristina Gregory, you all were fantastic guides for our excited, inquisitive students! The kids had a great time. THANK YOU to all of you who showed such kindness to Ms. Dastrup and me during our Teacher Appreciation week! We feel so loved by you all, and we are so grateful to be working with such caring, supportive THANK YOU to Kristina Gregory for the GORGEOUS door decoration! THANK YOU to Genia Smoot for listening to our kids during voyager time, and to our parents who have been volunteering in our library and at the book fair. BOOK REPORTS - If your child did not turn in the March book report, I sent a copy of the book report form home so that he/she can complete it over the spring break. I also sent the new reading calendar and book report form for April home in case you want to get a head start. CONGRATULATIONS to our third term Academic Award recipient, Varuni. She has consistently gone above and beyond throughout the year, and her love for learning shows in her work. Congratulations also to Jaxon, who received our Citizenship Award this term. Jaxon is a fantastic student, as well as being a responsible person and a kind friend. Congratulations to John for being such a great Ambassador of Trust during this month of March. John always models dependability and honesty in everything he does. I apologize that my communication has been so sparse this month. I plan to do better when we return from spring break. Enjoy this next week of spring break. I hope that you all have a wonderful week of traveling, playing, and relaxing. Hello Parents,
It was so great to meet with you this week during Parent-Teacher Conferences! Thank you for taking the time to be here. I am very proud of our hard working students, and I know their success is due to your support. Thank you. This week we learned about the Arctic Tundra, the Sonoran Desert, the East African Savanna, and the Temperate Deciduous Forest habitats, and the animals who live there. We have also enjoyed learning about Dr. Seuss and reading his books. ( It was nice to see many of you at the Parents and Pastries reading time.) Thank you for helping your children to complete their February book reports. They look fantastic! I am always excited to see the variety of people that our students choose to learn about. Please remember to send reading calendars next week if your child did not turn them in today. FIRST GRADE FIELD TRIP - Our field trip to the Living Planet Aquarium is coming up on Wednesday, March 13th. I will be sending out permission forms on Tuesday, and they will be due back by next Friday, March 8th. I will also be sending out a chaperone request sometime next week. NO SCHOOL MONDAY - Enjoy your long weekend. Our staff will be here on Monday for training and meetings, but you all have a free day! I hope that you enjoy the time to relax together. See you next week! Hello parents,
We have completed our unit on Geology, and our class will be learning about Animal Habitats over the next few weeks. This is such an enjoyable unit for our first graders! We have been doing some dyad reading during our voyager time during this short week, but we will return to our reading groups next week. BOOK REPORTS - Biography / Autobiography reports are due next Thursday, February 28th, so please be sure to have a book selected this weekend. Let me know if you have questions about this report. If you need help with printing, send a file to my email, and I will print it here at the school. DIBELS SCORES - I have received the mid-year DIBELS scores, and I am pleased with the growth that I am seeing in our students. Please be sure that your child is reading each day - I want all of our students to become strong, competent readers before they enter 2nd grade. I asked several students who have made exponential progress to share with their classmates what they are doing to see such growth in their reading. Here are some of their responses:
They all said that they are reading books that are a little bit challenging for them. PARENT-TEACHER CONFERENCES / EARLY OUT - I look forward to sharing your child’s progress with you at parent-teacher conferences next week (Wednesday and Thursday). If you have not yet signed up, you can contact the front office to set an appointment. WE WILL HAVE EARLY OUT DAYS ON BOTH WEDNESDAY and THURSDAY (Feb. 27,28) next week to accommodate our conference schedule. BOOK FAIR - Stop by to check out our book fair this week. You will find some great books to encourage your child to read. I will have a class wish list available if you are interested. KINDNESS WEEK - Next week we are celebrating Kindness Week. This is a list of the activities if you would like your child to participate: Monday: Kindness day- wear a pink or red shirt with approved uniform bottoms / Give a Compliment Tuesday: Ride the Kindness Wave- wear Hawaiian print shirt or leis with approved uniform bottoms / Random Acts of Kindness Wednesday: Powered by Kindness- wear a superhero shirt or cape with approved uniform bottoms / Smile! Thursday: Don’t turn your back on Kindness- wear your uniform shirt backwards / Tell Someone Thank You Friday: Stomp out bullying- wear your favorite shoes with your approved uniform shirts and bottoms / Fist-bump Friday PARENTS AND PASTRIES - Plan to join us next Friday morning, March 1st as we celebrate the legacy of the great children’s author, Dr.Seuss. Bring some books and find a place to enjoy a shared reading time with your child. The school will be open at 7:45, and we will read until school begins at 8:15. I would love to see you there. Thank you so much for your partnership in this wonderful educational journey! |
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