First Grade Newsletter
November 13, 2009
Mrs. Eriksson’s Class

Storyline:
The children have continued to write in their “travel journals”. The entries and poems they have written are very rich. They are taking on the character of one of the Fritz family members and have written as if they actually experienced the activities on the itineraries! This is where storyline come to life!

Important Upcoming Dates:
November: Pennies for a Cause
Giving Campaign: The PTO is raising funds for our school. This is a onetime donation for the year. Please donate what you can, no amount is too small.
November 20: Lion, Witch and Wardrobe Play at Summit High School.
Nov.23 -27: Thanksgiving Break.

The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
This is a play put on by BEAT, a local performance company. We will be departing school at 9:05 am on Friday, Nov. 20. Please make sure your child is at school by 8:55 and in the classroom. Please let me know if your child will not be at school. If you feel you can donate $2.00 for the bus that would be wonderful. I am covering the cost of the play with funds given to my classroom account from the Parent Teacher Association (PTO). This is a great example of how your donations to the Giving Campaign are put into use!

Homefun for the Weekend
Poem folders
High Frequency Words

NEXT WEEK
I am not sure what happened, as I was going to send these home last week. I think I will wait until after Thanksgiving to begin sending the book envelope home. When you receive the envelopes, please read over the information, as it is important to the success that we want our children to feel. This will be reading homework for the children. Books will be sent home on Mondays and will need to be returned on Mondays.

Math:
Last week in Math we:
Took the Unit 2 math assessment. I am happy to say the children did very well. After I finish recording the assessment, I will send it home.
Solving number stories. Ex. If one chicken laid three eggs and another chicken laid 4 eggs, how many eggs are there altogether.
We discussed patterns, labeling patterns and cycles of patterns.

Math Vocabulary we worked on this week:
Patterns
Cycles of patterns


Reading:
We worked
• With the “ub” word family
• In skill set groups – curriculum depended on the needs of each groups.
• In guided reading groups we worked on word solving strategies based on
phonics rules, content, vocabulary and comprehension
PE/Music:
We do have any specials this week.


Writer’s Workshop:
This week we completed a Cinquian Poem and wrote a journal entry about skiing, nordic skiing or snowboarding. In the journal entry, our focus was beginning, middle and endings of stories. I children wrote wonderful pieces. You will be able to read them when their topic books come home after Thanksgiving.

I hope you have a nice weekend.

Becky