FIRST GRADE Newsletter
November 14-18, 2022
Costumes For The First Grade Program:
Your child will need to wear to school (on the day of the performance) blue jeans or black pants and a plain colored t-shirt for their performance on Thursday, November 17. There will be 1 dress rehearsals during the day (no visitors, this rehearsal is just for the kids) with the main program beginning at 5:30pm. The PTA will conduct a meeting before the 1st graders perform. 1st graders will line up in the gym and put on either a collar (Pilgrim) or vest (Native American).
A WORD FROM OUR FIRST GRADE COORDINATOR:
Hi Families!
Can you believe we are almost at the end of the first semester? I am so proud of all our kids and our teachers! We truly have the best at Bear Creek Elementary.
The time has come for us to start planning Winter Parties, which will be held December 21st. Right now, I want to provide a heads-up, as we will need a good number of volunteers for the party and volunteers to decorate the classrooms, which will be done after school on December 20th.
Parties will be held at the same time for each class and I believe it would be beneficial for each class to have a good number of volunteers. Please mark your calendars with the dates above and keep an eye out for an email to sign up for volunteer opportunities or donation opportunities for our parties.
You don't have to be in PTA to help with winter parties, but if you haven’t had the opportunity to sign up for PTA we would love for you to join us. If you are interested in joining, please sign up here: https://www.bearcreekpta.org/ .
There is a general PTA meeting on Thursday, 11/17/2022 at 5:30 PM, right before the 1st grade program. Please attend if you are interested in hearing about what is going on, our budget or if you want to hear more about volunteering opportunities with PTA.
Additionally, if you have not had the opportunity to complete your background check, please use the following link to do so. Complete your GCISD Background Check Here
If you have any questions about the upcoming winter parties, please feel free to message me.
Thank you,
Katie Cooper
Grapevine Parade of Lights
Your child has the chance to be in the parade!!!!
From November 2nd to November 18th, campus administration will be tracking student tardies. Each day that a student is in class by 7:40 am will count as a ticket in a raffle to ride the float in the December 1st Parade of Lights. This means that each student who is on time each day automatically gets 13 chances to have their name drawn. Campus administration will notify the winners and their parents by the end of the day on November 18th.
Book Bags Will Resume November Nov 7th
NEW:
Your child will be keeping their book bags for a little longer. Starting next week (Nov. 14th), your child will keep their book bags for two weeks. That will provide you and your child more time to reread each book which helps with their fluency. The book bags will need to be returned Friday, November 18th. Your classroom teacher might tell you to keep the books during the week of Thanksgiving and ask them to be returned the following week.
Classroom Needs
- We are running low on treasure box items, so if you'd like to donate any small trinkets or party favors to replenish our treasure boxes we would greatly appreciate it.
- If you have legos that your kids have outgrown and would like to donate, we could also use those for fun Fridays.
- Paper towel rolls
Thank you!
Sight Words
Students are expected to know:
- 25 by the end of 1st nine weeks
- 50 by the end of 2nd nine weeks
- 75 by the end of 3rd nine weeks
- 100 by the end of 4th nine weeks
If you're child already knows ALL 100, they should have received the Second grade word list to practice. Reach out to your child's teacher if you need the Second grade list.
Trick Words (sight words) We have currently or about to cover:
- the, a, and, is, his, of
- as, has, to, into, we, he, she, be, me, for, or
- you, your, I, they, was, one, said
- from, have, do, does
- were, are, who, what, when, where, there, here
Ipads
All Students NEED to have their Ipad charged everyday! We use our ipads everyday, so it is very important the ipads have a full battery each morning.
Teachers do not have extra chargers or outlets to charge dead ipads. Please remind your child to charge their ipad each night before going to sleep.
RULES:
- Do not download apps at home
- Do not use ipad to take photos
- Do not put a password on ipad
- Keep ipad away from food and drinks
- Must be charged every day
- Must be brought to school every day
- DO NOT put stickers on your ipad (students will need to remove stickers already on their ipads)
Book Bags UPDATED
This week students will receive 4 books that are specific to their reading level. Please make sure your child is reading those books every day for the two weeks. Students should be able to retell the story and answer comprehension questions that you ask about the books. Rereading books helps to build accuracy and fluency. This is the students' homework, so it is important they are reading 20 min each night.
- Please make sure ALL books are put back in the book bags before returning them on Fridays. Students will keep the books for two weeks.
- Please DO NOT put library books in the red book bags.
Lunch
Lunch Visitors:
- If you want to eat lunch with your child, please complete the SignUp Genius for NOVEMBER.
- We have a limited number of visitor tables set up for each lunch period. Visitors must sit at a designated table with their child.
- You must bring a valid ID when you come to check in for lunch visits.
- Thank you for your support!
- The BEST way to pay for school lunches is online using the student's lunch account. We have recess before lunch so it's easy to misplace/lose money while on the playground
If you need to add money to your child’s account, click the following:
Ms. Brooks' Wish List
Mrs. Herring's Wish List
Mrs. Wheeler's Wish List
This week we are learning:
Science: Observe the parts of soil by the properties of size, texture and color.
ELAR: Retell the story elements in a story.
Social Studies: Understand economic choices.
Important Dates
11/15 - Picture Retake in the morning
11/17 - First grade Thanksgiving Program 5:30
11/19-11/27 - Thanksgiving Break
12/1 - Grapevine Parade of Lights
12/2 - Cookies with Santa
12/7 - BCE Spelling Bee
12/12-16 - BCE Literati Book Fair
12/21 - Early Release @11:45 for Holiday Break
Bear Creek Blast
Show your spirit
On Mondays, have your student show school spirit by wearing a Bear Creek shirt!
On Fridays, have your student show support for a college by wearing a college T-Shirt! (It does not have to be a college listed below. Those are the colleges we have adopted in our classrooms.)
Mrs. Herring
Louisiana Tech University
Ms. Ormsby
Kansas State
Ms. Brooks
Texas Tech
Mrs. Wheeler
Louisiana State University