Owlet News
November 17, 2015
Conferences
Parents and Guardians, thank you for visiting with me regarding your child's first months of first grade. The last week was a complete whirlwind for me! I had two viruses take over my own house and infect my three children. I feel blessed, as my kids are on their way back to healthy, and I managed to stay healthy (though exhausted) myself. Needless to say, it has been a busy couple weeks; however, I would like to apologize for not getting a newsletter to you. I am glad we connected at conferences, nonetheless. As always, please contact me if you have any additional questions or concerns. Thank you!
Reading
Students are continuing to work in their small reading groups in the morning. When not meeting with me, students are responsible for independent learning. Students are working on "Reading to Self," "Working with Words," and "Listening to Reading" on Raz-Kids on the iPads.
As a whole group, students read the story How Animals Communicate. We worked on reviewing phonic words with the short i sound.
Writing
We continue to work on developing our writing skills. This week we focused on writing detailed sentences with an uppercase letter and end punctuation. Students should be able to complete this task now. We have also been working on factual writing versus opinion writing.
Students are also working on identifying verbs, adjectives, and nouns. We are in the very beginning stages of grammar.
Math
This week began our work with geometry! Students will be working on composing and decomposing 2-D shapes, describing and sorting shapes, and using triangles and squares to make various quilt designs.
Are there any parents or grandparents who quilt and would like to help sew a small class quilt? If not, we will simply make a paper class quilt. ;)
Zappy Happy
Students learned a new game of tag: Zappy Happy. I am encouraging students to work on peaceful play outside during recess. We have had a lot of rough play lately, and that seems to only lead to hurt feelings or body parts. Ask your child about Zappy Happy and appropriate playground behavior.
Little Yogis
We went on a couple yoga adventures last week. The first one was in honor of Veteran's Day. Students went on a journey as participants in the armed forces. We traveled in the air, on boat, through the desert, and marched, crawled, and even did a little basic training. Our second journey was to imagine how Zappy Happy can really create peace. I am hoping to see some Zappy Happy kiddos on the playground next week!
A Camel in the Desert
Trees in the Forest
Zappy Happy Students
Author Study: Jim Litwin
Last week I introduced our new author to study: Jim Litwin. He is the author of the Pete the Cat books. Students have enjoyed reading books about this groovy cat. We have included small stories about our very own Pete. The students love the musical component to these books. Pete always has a song and dance to go with his story!
UPCOMING EVENTS
Fall Reading Festival
Students will be participating in our school's Fall Reading Festival on Tuesday, November 24th, the day before Thanksgiving Break. Students will be traveling to different classrooms to participate in a read aloud and various activities that afternoon.
Flashlight Reading
Thank you for supporting our Flashlight Reading event. I cherish these moments when we can celebrate our love for reading with our loved ones. Our next reading event will be before our Winter Break. I am tentatively looking at Wednesday, December 23 at 1:30 again. Be ready for another fabulous performance and lots of love from your firstie.
We are in this together!
I value your voice and ideas in our classroom. I appreciate your thoughts and concerns. Please, never hesitate to contact me!
Email: leah.olson@isd300.k12.mn.us
Website: http://www.edline.net/pages/La_Crescent-Hokah_ES/Classes/100_2GR_OLS%20
Phone: 5078955108