First Grade Newsletter
December 20, 2018
Important Dates
- Friday, December 21st- Early Release at 12:00
- Monday, December 24 - Monday, January 7th - Winter Break
- TUESDAY, January 8th - Back to School!!
- Wednesday, January 9th - Field Trip to the Outdoor Learning Center
- Wednesday, January 16th - Science Fair Projects due
- Thursday, January 17th - Multicultural Night 6-7:30pm
Early Release on Friday
We will be releasing students at noon on Friday, December 21st. Enjoy your Winter Break! We will see you back on TUESDAY, January 8th!
FIELD TRIP!
Please be sure that your child has:
* long pants
* socks
* closed toed shoes
* appropriate outwear based on the weather forecast
* a home lunch
If you haven't returned your child's permission slip yet, please do so by Tuesday, January 8th. They will not be able to join us on the trip if we do not have a signed permission slip from you.
Lost and Found
Also, this is a good time to make sure that all jackets, coats, lunchboxes, water bottles, etc...have a name on them! If there is a name, it is more likely to be returned to the owner.
Bronco Press
Bronco Press is a wonderful opportunity for students to showcase their writing talents by publishing a book. Bronco Press is open to all students in kindergarten through 5th grade. The Bronco Press template and step by step instructions can be found on the PTA website http://www.barksdalepta.org Follow the link, PTA will then bind the books. All student authors will be presented with their bound books at a special author’s reception. What a wonderful treasure and keepsake! The Bronco Press is a part of the principal’s triathlon recognition program.
Six Flags READ TO SUCCEED Program
Once again Barksdale will be participating in the Six Flags Read to Succeed reading incentive program. It’s very simple. Students are to record their reading minutes over the next weeks and months. When they have completed 6 hours worth of reading, then they may turn in their recording log and will receive a FREE Six Flags ticket for the summer.
**Students may count the minutes they read weekly for 1st grade! Just record the minutes in both their reading log and the Six Flags form.**
Reading logs will be due Friday, March 1st. Tickets will then be received some time in May.
Students can begin now to record their reading minutes. Anything counts!! Reading at school, reading at home, parents reading to the students
What We're Learning
Language Arts & Social Studies
We've had a great time this week using Gingerbread Man stories in Language Arts. We've compared story elements of different versions of the books, we've written letters to persuade our Gingerbread cookies to come back, we've talked about characteristics of various characters in the story.
In January, we will begin really focusing on identifying the main idea and details of a story. We will be focusing on writing paragraphs that explain how to do a task. We are also focusing on capitalizing the beginning of a sentence, the pronoun I, correct spacing and ending punctuation. At this point in the year, students need to be using lower case letters in their writing. We've learned almost all of the lower case letters at this point. As you see them using capitals in their writing at home, please encourage them to use lower case letters instead.
In social studies, we will be starting our unit on important Americans. We will be learning about Martin Luther King, Jr., Abraham Lincoln, George Washington, Sam Houston, Eleanor Roosevelt and many others that have been an important part of American History.
Math
This week we've been exploring fractions. We've learned about equal parts (fair shares), halves and fourths. We are focusing on the language of fractions as in "3 out of 4 parts are red".
When we return in January we will be working on the concept of understanding equal (3+2 = 4+1). We will also be working on word problems that focus on subtraction.
Science
In science, we are finishing up our first engineering unit. This week, students have been designing and testing their windmill blades. Their goal is to build a windmill that spins and then lift a cup of weights. It's been amazing to watch their creativity and engineering skills.
December's Bronco Bests
Jason J.
Jisela F.
Eileen P.
First Grade Team
Email: firstname.lastname@pisd.edu
Website: https://sites.google.com/a/pisd.edu/first-grade-barksdale-elementary/
Location: 2424 Midway Road, Plano, TX, United States
Phone: 469-752-0100
Twitter: @bbengaged1