Indian Creek First Grade News
News for April 16th-20th
NO SCHOOL APRIL 20th-BAD WEATHER DAY
Almost There.....Still Focused on Learning
We are seeing a rise in off task behaviors that take way from our academic atmosphere. It is little things -sidebar conversations while the teacher is presenting lessons, touching others, not completing work in a timely manner, being disrespectful to teachers and peers (eye rolling, teeth sucking, talking back, name calling), not accepting "no" as an answer. It is so sad when student learning is stopped due to a misbehavior or poor attitude.
Our school has worked very hard adopted Capturing Kids Hearts and Morning Meeting to help easy these concerns. We are using a lot of positive rewards with your children -Falcon Bucks and Class Dojo Points. We are asking the 4 questions to refocus children:
1) What are you doing?
2) What are you supposed to be doing?
3)Are you doing it?
4) What are you going to do about it?
We will be holding firm to our routines and social contracts. All 4 classes have adopted using "safe places" -(It is not a time out spot) where students can go regain their self control. Sometimes student might visit another classes "safe place" - which is fine. The idea behind the "safe place" is that students can elect to go to the "safe place" on their own or with a suggestion of an adult. They are learning self-governess and calming techniques before there is an escalation. Our safe spots have calming objects-yoga books, breathing techniques posters, stuffed animals to cuddle with, calming bottles with floating objects inside and other fidgets to remove tension. Once a child has regained their self control-they are ready to talk about the problem or issue.
Please help us by encourage your child to do the right things everyday. If your teacher calls or sends home a think sheet please speak to your child. Know that you have four very dedicated teachers who are alway thinking of your child's safety, the classes' safety and honoring our learning time together.
What We Are Learning This Week
Language Arts/Reading/Writing: This is our final week of Poetry. Many student have embraced this unit and are even checking out poetry books from our school library. This is a great way to practice fluency and accuracy in reading. We will also be writing poetry as well-we are using sensory words like sticky, stinky, loudly, tasty. We will be working on rhyme, alliteration,and rhythm. We will also be checking for understand of prose and making inferences. We will be checking to see if we can draw a conclusion on what the author wanted us to learn from their prose.
As side from Mother Goose poetry, some other poets to look at are:
A.A. Milne's Now We Are Six (author of Winnie the Pooh Stories)
Lewis Carroll's Jabberwocky (Carroll as wrote classic stories like Alice In Wonderland) Robert Louis Stevenson's Rain from Children's Garden Verses (Stevenson wrote stories like Treasure Island and Kidnapped).
Here is a link to a poetry launch site: http://www2.nkfust.edu.tw/~emchen/CLit/poetry_online.htm
Social Studies: As we explore citizenship-look exploring Texas symbols, mottoes and state customs. We are going to start with symbols this week. We will look at the Texas Flag, the Alamo, the different major cities in Texas such as Austin, Houston and our Dallas.
Spelling/Words Their Way: We will NOT have Words Their Way this week.
On Monday, we are also giving your child a list of 5 high frequency words. On Thursday, we will have a sight word test on the following words-once, gave,always, soon, has. Please work with your child to learn them. Children should be able to read these words with fluency and automatically without thinking about them.
Math:We will done geometric shapes. We are moving into a Measurement Unit. The first big chunk of this unit is using clocks and telling time. You child will have to know the difference between hour hand, minute hand, second hand on an analog clock (aka-old fashioned round clock) and know on a digital clock where the hours and minutes are. We want your children to know the time to the hour,1/2 hour,and 1/ 4 hour.
We are also working on IPS questions that show comparisons. It is learning a lot of common everyday math vocabulary.
Science: Now we have launched into living and non-living. This will be an important as we start exploring life-cycles and classification of animals. We will be exploring animal traits and adaptations.
Field Trip is Coming
WHEN: THURSDAY APRIL 26th
HOW: BY LISD PROVIDED BUS
WHERE: Lewisville ISD Environmental Learning Center (LISDOLA)
Please remember it is in the WOODS. Please dress appropriately.
We are asking for :
- Blue Fun Run T-shirt as top layer followed by long-sleeve shirt
- long pants or jeans
- crew socks
- good walking shoes
- hat
- possibly light coat/hoodie
- Your child will need a disposable lunch with refillable water bottle. Please do not send soda's or other sugary drinks. We prefer water.
Student will be responsible for carrying their own items-less is better
Please label all items sent
Yes, the whole day will be outside. There are bugs-mosquitoes and ticks that enjoy living hosts. If you feel the need to have our child with sprayed with insect repellent or sunblock -you will have to do so before you send them to school. Teachers are NOT allowed to apply either bug spray or sunblock to your child. You can go to big box stores and get bug bands instead of sprays. Please if you do so, place around your child's ankle over the socks. If it is on their wrists they more likely to play or chew on it.
Yes, there are bathrooms there and they do have running portable water. We will make sure that students have taken care of personal business before heading out on the trails. We prefer if the classes stay together as a group. Students will not be able to leave the group at any time without an adult. They maybe told no they can't go to the bathroom right now and they may have to wait.
We will have learning goals and short lessons to complete during the field trip. Sadly enough it is not a picnic or blind romp through the woods. Chaperones maybe asked to carry lesson bag and/or lead some scripted lessons on the following topics: Animal Tracks,Beavers,Forest Floor Critters,Interesting Insects,Not Natural Objects Hike, Sorting Soil, Spider Web, Trees are Plants, River Model/Watershed, and Woods Walk.
The main idea of our trip is to show children how we impact the environment and how we can be good stewards of the planet we live on. We leave only footprints and take only memories.
Important Dates
April
19 - Monthly Reader, Volunteer Open House
20 - Bad Weather Day - NO SCHOOL
26 - 1st Grade LISDOLA field trip
26 - PTA meeting 6:30 PM 5th grade Music Performance
27 - PTA Bingo Night
30 - Kindergarten Parent Meeting - 5:00-6:00 PM
May
4-Field Day
10 Monthly Reader Day
7-11 Staff Appreciation Week (Teachers, MAPS teacher and Specialist)
14-16 STARR Testing -CLOSED CAMPUS no visitors at lunch
24 PTA meeting at 6:30
28 Memorial Day- No School
29-31 Last Book Fair
June
1-Recognition Rally 8:45
6- End of Year Parties
7-Last Day of School and Early Release at 11:45
Teacher Contact Information
Mrs. McDuffie
Office 469-713-5180
E-mail: McDuffieT@LISD.net
Team Lead
Mrs. Bermudez
Office 469-713-5180
E-mail: BermudezC@LISD.net
Ms. Denison
Office 469-713-5180
Email: DenisonT@LISD.net
Mrs. Freedenberg
Office 469-713-5180
E-mail: Freedenbergr@LISD.net
Indian Creek Elementary
2050 Arbor Creek, Carrollton, TX 75010
phone number 469-713-5180