Mrs. Jansen's First Grade Class
Weekly Newsletter: November 16, 2015
KEYSOR PRIDE
We are Respectful, Responsible and Safe.
Continuing in showing our Pride, halfway through the quarter!
What a great beginning part of November we have had! The children did a wonderful job during our Veteran's Day assembly last week, while still enjoying humming and singing "You're a Grand Old Flag" and "This Land Was Made for You and Me." Thank you to all of our families for supporting the celebration through dress, conversations at home and/or joining our celebration through being a Veteran to our country. Also, an enormous "THANK YOU!" to everyone for the wonderful donations received in our KirkCare Food Drive. Together, our class donated over 95 canned goods and meals to our local families via KirkCare. Again, your generosity is so great appreciated!
Congratulations also to our two recent Leaders of the Week: Elie and Chloe! Elie shined as our Leader of the Week last week, through being a hard, focused worker in all learning activities, while also continuing to be a kind friend. We are also celebrating Chloe, who loves working independently and collaboratively with her friends! Way to go girls!! Additionally, way to go for our Students of the Week: Desmond and Chloe. Desmond has been working really hard in class, caring for our classroom setting and making sure his writing is showing lowercase letters. Chloe continues in a positive light with her participation during our lessons and showing her Keysor PRIDE.
Congratulations also to our two recent Leaders of the Week: Elie and Chloe! Elie shined as our Leader of the Week last week, through being a hard, focused worker in all learning activities, while also continuing to be a kind friend. We are also celebrating Chloe, who loves working independently and collaboratively with her friends! Way to go girls!! Additionally, way to go for our Students of the Week: Desmond and Chloe. Desmond has been working really hard in class, caring for our classroom setting and making sure his writing is showing lowercase letters. Chloe continues in a positive light with her participation during our lessons and showing her Keysor PRIDE.
Special Classes/Activities Schedule:
Monday, Nov. 16th: D Day - Library with Mrs. Ems, books are due; Green Schools Quest meeting, 4-5 p.m. in my classroom. Interested parents and staff are welcome! Keysor Fundraising Night at St. Louis Bread Co. from 4-8 p.m.
Tuesday, Nov. 17th E Day - Art with Mrs. Lang
Wednesday, Nov. 18th: A Day - P.E. with Coach Widamen; Wellness Wednesday (Trail Trotters) PLEASE NOTE: every child that either walks/rides their bikes to school and/or participates in Trail Trotters, counts towards our class 'foot' on the Wellness board and we are up to 8!
Thursday, Nov. 19th: B Day - Music with Dr. St. Clair
Friday, Nov. 20th: C Day - Wellness with Mrs. Ehrlich
**Please remember to register you child for the GO! St. Louis Read, Right and Run Marathon by Nov. 30th. Registration may be completed at: https://register.chronotrack.com/r/14932
Tuesday, Nov. 17th E Day - Art with Mrs. Lang
Wednesday, Nov. 18th: A Day - P.E. with Coach Widamen; Wellness Wednesday (Trail Trotters) PLEASE NOTE: every child that either walks/rides their bikes to school and/or participates in Trail Trotters, counts towards our class 'foot' on the Wellness board and we are up to 8!
Thursday, Nov. 19th: B Day - Music with Dr. St. Clair
Friday, Nov. 20th: C Day - Wellness with Mrs. Ehrlich
**Please remember to register you child for the GO! St. Louis Read, Right and Run Marathon by Nov. 30th. Registration may be completed at: https://register.chronotrack.com/r/14932
Dancing to Fall
Our kids LOVE to dance and it's a part of our everyday at school. During our morning meetings and brainbreaks, the kids enjoy having movement opportunities woven in. Also, within their learning lessons in music, their understandings about the Fall season are extended as they sing and dance to the enjoyment of this favorite season, through raking, bagging and tossing leaves (using their jackets and hands in dramatic play). What fun having their curricular extensions across their entire learning day!
Focusing our Story Elements: Character's Feelings
As we move into this week, the children will be listening to a variety of picture books including The Little Red Hen, Mrs. Wishy-Washy, and A Chair for My Mother. In the stories, the children will be thinking about the characters feelings and how they can change when they learn a lesson. A great extension to this learning at home, would be asking your child when reading together, "Would you feel the same way as this character?" usually pausing at different points during your story being shared.
Finding Out About Light & Sound
Last week, we continued out work with understanding light as the children completed inventory and research work in Project IDEA through identifying sources of natural and man-made light. They made some awesome connections to their play spaces outside, discovering our solar panels on the Hoffarth House, that collect natural light to become an energy source for man-made lights of our security and floodlights used for safety outside. They enjoyed using their iPads to record their observations.
This week, we will complete our light studies and move into learning about how sound functions in our world.
This week, we will complete our light studies and move into learning about how sound functions in our world.
R Blends and further Sight Word growth
Last week, we began our two week study of "R Blends." We first explored the "R Blends" of pr, br and cr. This week, our studies will move into thinking about gr, dr, and tr blends, in words like grade, drive, and train. Also, last week the children worked with the new sight words: or, her, friend, day, which. This week, we will move into: not, write, way, after, has
Writing Workshop
Last week we finished off our mini-workshop, with creating our first Student Treasure book: Helping Others. The final piece was sent to the publisher on Wednesday and we should have all ordered books returned to us prior to Winter Break! So that everyone can see a preview of what was created by your little ones, I will place their pre-final drafts of their way of helping others, upon our hallway bulletin board outside our classroom.
With our mini-workshop complete, we are now moving into our Informational Writing unit, with the children creating 'All About' or 'How-To' books. These books will be completely non-fiction pieces, as the children will be sharing facts about a topic they are very familiar with. This work will take them back into their mini-book making, as well. They are off to a great start with creating title pages for their various books. This week, we will move into fact sharing using transitional words like: first, next, then, after that, & last.
With our mini-workshop complete, we are now moving into our Informational Writing unit, with the children creating 'All About' or 'How-To' books. These books will be completely non-fiction pieces, as the children will be sharing facts about a topic they are very familiar with. This work will take them back into their mini-book making, as well. They are off to a great start with creating title pages for their various books. This week, we will move into fact sharing using transitional words like: first, next, then, after that, & last.
Continuing in Math Rotations with Subtracting
The kids are really enjoying their math station rotations. During our lessons together, the children are able to receive more individualized support as they explored addition combinations this week, of various numbers together to result in the same sum, i.e. 10 + 5 = 8 +7 = 12 +3. This week, our work will move into some similar practice with subtraction of double digit numbers with 10's and single numbers. The children will reviewing their sets of 10 work to solve these problems.
Science Studies: Light & Sound
It's been so neat to see the engaging learning lessons the children have learned about light, thus far. As we begin this week, we will revisit the topic of light when thinking about how light "bounces" off surfaces to show their color. Then, we will move this 'bouncing' into thinking about sounds, their volume, variety and how sound waves also like to 'bounce' off our ear drums to create the array of sounds we enjoy each day.
Mrs. Traci Jansen
Email: traci.jansen@kirkwoodschools.org
Website: http://keysor.kirkwoodschools.org/pages/Keysor_Elementary/Classes/Jansen
Location: 725 N Geyer Rd, Kirkwood, MO, United States
Phone: 314-213-6120 (2164)
Twitter: @TraciJansen