Mrs. Jansen's First Grade Class
Weekly Newsletter: May 9, 2016
KEYSOR PRIDE: MISSION & VISION
Community - Character - Achievement - Impact
"The Keysor community works together to support all learners on their journey as empathetic, creative and critical thinkers who actively impact the world around them."
"The Keysor community works together to support all learners on their journey as empathetic, creative and critical thinkers who actively impact the world around them."
Fun Times are Continuing On!
Thank you to the many families who joined us last Friday for our final First Friday Reading for the year. I hope you enjoyed good times with your little one, sharing in reading experiences or showcasing their current writing projects.
Last week was our first, for our "Popping Into Second Grade & Summer" balloon popping experiences. The kids are loving the opportunity to choose the next day's experiences, with each child in class having the opportunity in doing so. Last week we enjoyed popsicles, a dance party, and more. On Monday this week, we will be switching our schedule for the day, with Math & Science in the morning and our literacy block in the afternoon. We'll also tie our "Cleaning the Classroom" balloon pop from last week to some cubby and folder clean-outs that will be bringing many items home during the afternoon. Please be sure to take a look in your child's backpack for their stay-at-home items.
Also, congratulations to our two students of the week, Ruby and Jonah. We will continue to recognize great behavior demonstrated in the room, through the 20th of May. Thank you for your continued encouragements of great behavior through the end of the year!
Last week was our first, for our "Popping Into Second Grade & Summer" balloon popping experiences. The kids are loving the opportunity to choose the next day's experiences, with each child in class having the opportunity in doing so. Last week we enjoyed popsicles, a dance party, and more. On Monday this week, we will be switching our schedule for the day, with Math & Science in the morning and our literacy block in the afternoon. We'll also tie our "Cleaning the Classroom" balloon pop from last week to some cubby and folder clean-outs that will be bringing many items home during the afternoon. Please be sure to take a look in your child's backpack for their stay-at-home items.
Also, congratulations to our two students of the week, Ruby and Jonah. We will continue to recognize great behavior demonstrated in the room, through the 20th of May. Thank you for your continued encouragements of great behavior through the end of the year!
Special Classes/Weekly Events Schedule:
Monday, May 9th: B Day - Music with Dr. St. Clair
Tuesday, May 10th: C Day - Wellness with Mrs. Ehrlich; Spring Book Fair begins (Buy 1, Get 1 Free)
Wednesday, May 11th: D Day - Library with Mrs. Ems: books are due; Wellness Wednesday for walking, running or riding your bikes to school
Thursday, May 12th: E Day - Art with Mrs. Lang
Friday, May 13th: A Day - P.E. with Coach Widamen
Tuesday, May 10th: C Day - Wellness with Mrs. Ehrlich; Spring Book Fair begins (Buy 1, Get 1 Free)
Wednesday, May 11th: D Day - Library with Mrs. Ems: books are due; Wellness Wednesday for walking, running or riding your bikes to school
Thursday, May 12th: E Day - Art with Mrs. Lang
Friday, May 13th: A Day - P.E. with Coach Widamen
It's Moving Time!
As the year also comes to a close, we will be packing up many things in the classroom as well. If you happen to have ANY extra boxes at home (a little larger are perfect), we would welcome them at Keysor. Just email to let me know if you have any to donate. Thank you in advance for your consideration!
Zoo Field Trip & Animal Research
We are 3 for 3 in our field trips this year! The Zoo trip provided for another gorgeous day, many journaling opportunities and terrific memories by all. The children documented through drawings, labeling and individual notes, the experienced settings and animals that were dwelling within the habitat spaces of the Zoo. This work will extend into their decisions about what type of presentation format they would like to complete in sharing all that they will be learning on creating a sustainable habitat for their animal of study. We will also be using Zoo kits, shared with us by the education department at the Zoo to learn even more, through artifacts, models, and posters provided.
Always in our Heart
Wishing all of our moms a wonderful Mother's Day weekend! I hope you enjoyed the personalized gifts the children created for you, for your special day. As mommy to two incredible guys, the time when they're little passes so incredibly quick. Therefore, I hope you loved their little fingerprints captured in time, celebrating their love for you! I even made one keychain heart with my boys that I'll treasure forever. :) <3
Sight Words and Sound Focus
Our sight words this week are: giant, around, forest, knives, once
As we conclude our suffix work, the children will be moving into some contraction practice with combining 'is' and 'will' to the root word, such as: she & will = she'll, he & is = he's.
Due as well to our shortened instructional week last week, the children will also explore letter sounds, through thinking about letters that make two sounds, such as 'c' and 'g.' Also, there will be some review experiences with the 'r' sound being made by 'ar' and 'or' combinations.
As we conclude our suffix work, the children will be moving into some contraction practice with combining 'is' and 'will' to the root word, such as: she & will = she'll, he & is = he's.
Due as well to our shortened instructional week last week, the children will also explore letter sounds, through thinking about letters that make two sounds, such as 'c' and 'g.' Also, there will be some review experiences with the 'r' sound being made by 'ar' and 'or' combinations.
Writing Workshop: Realistic Fiction Story Workshop Continued
More incredible work in story creation by the kids this week. Several are in the publishing process, while other continue to develop their drafts. Each day the children are also experiencing mini-lessons focusing their stories to sequencing of events, adding details and more. As one story ends, another is abounding. Love this time of year!
Reviewing Adding Numbers through 100
As our year nears it's end, we will be spending time this week reviewing strategies for adding numbers through 100, including decomposing (breaking numbers down into tens & ones), using an open number line, visual depiction in tens and one, and illustrating the children's thinking. All of this work will support our final assessments of the quarter as well.
Character Study - David & More
Our character study work for the past four weeks has been terrific. The children have investigated stories that they hadn't previously heard, realized relationships between the characters in the text and learned a lot about how an author is very descriptive in sharing the characteristics demonstrated by their stories characters. This week, we'll extend our work into the children exploring the character of David in the No David! collection and then move into picking out their favorite character of study from our past month, or bring in a stuffed animal of choice (this will be tied to a 'popping' reveal) and tell about it's adventures around Keysor, sharing location, characteristics and behaviors, all in a digital format. So, definitely MORE to come!
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