The Gower Gazette
Follow us @MsGowersClass October 16, 2015
In The News...
Wow, track out is almost here... just 3 more school days away! It has been a busy week in our classroom! The kids have worked hard to fill up the Wowser Jar so they can have a Wowser Party and they did it today!!! We will celebrate next week. I was very proud of them and how well they listened at our Fall Party. Many thanks to Matthew, Maia, & Roscoe's mom for planning such a fun event. The kids loved it and had a great time. It was really good to see many of you there.
In Language Arts we focused on "l" blends through Letterland. The kids did a great job working with their spelling words through Daily 5 and are really showing improvement on their tests. Our Book of the Week this week was Scaredy-Cat Splat. We focused on the following Café strategies: Reading books again and again and again to build fluency; Using prior knowledge to understand word meanings for building vocabulary, Using pictures to help increase accuracy, and we focused on “who, what, where, when, how, & why” for comprehension.
Writer’s Workshop was a lot of fun this week. We focused on persuasive writing and used the book I Wanna Iguana to help understand how persuasive writing works. They LOVED this book! We talked about letters and how they are set up with : the date, greeting, body, closing, and signature. The students all wrote Ms. Weida and me some GREAT persuasive letters this week. They were quite creative with their reasons and persuasive ideas.
Your kids are rocking math! They are demonstrating good understanding with all the methods I’ve taught and are really learning how to explain their thinking. I’m enjoying watching their wheels turn and seeing their excitement during math time.
In Science, we began focusing on motion. The kids shared what they thought motion was/meant and then to build our background knowledge we watched an interactive video on Discovery Education tiled What is Motion. We will do our first experiment with motion next week!
For Social Studies, we enjoyed learning a little more about Christopher Columbus and his famous journey back in 1492. Ask your child to share with you some information about him. See if they can tell you the name of his 3 ships!
Spirit week was a blast! The kids looked awesome each day and I got some great pictures. I will share these with y'all soon.
Next week the Scholastic Book Fair begins. Our class will be touring the Book Fair Monday morning at 9:30; the kids will make a wish list. We will buy books on Tuesday at 1:30. There is a family night during our track out if you would like to bring your child then instead to buy books it is on Friday, Oct. 23rd from 6-8pm. Also during our Track Out, our school will host our annual Math & Science night. It is on Thursday, Nov. 5th @ 6:15. I will be there and hope to see all of you there too.
Next week homework folders will NOT go home. On Monday your child will bring home a ziplock bag with track out info. Track out practice is not manditory, but suggested. One of the most important things your child can do during break is READ, READ, READ! If you do nothing else please make sure he/she reads every night. In their packet they will also have 2 books with written comprehension sheets (fiction & non-fiction) and a copy of the Rainbow Words to practice. Our track out contest is on again too; whoever uses IXL, Raz-Kids, & Spelling City the most will earn no homework for a week... and yes, it can be a tie!!! Don't forget about your child's Social Studies project over break too. This is a great time to work on it and get it done. Be creative. You will find a rubric for grading these projects inside your child's track out packet.
Keep up with my website while we are track out. There will be a Track Out Math Stumper; Reading Log on the Read and Respond Blog; and I would love to read posts on the Post it about what your child liked best about this 12 weeks of first grade! I will be working on the Write with Me too; with this the kids can collaboratively write a story together that we will publish at the end of the year. For our Blog, if your child reads at least 5 books during track out then he/she will have lunch with me, but they must write a brief summary of the stories read on our Blog! If you do not have internet access then just record your child's reading on paper and send it in when we track back in.
Our Boosterthon Kick-off is on Wednesday at 3:00. Information for collecting pledges will go home next week. Please, please work on getting as many pledges as possible. We will earn 10% of what our class collects for our very own classroom. This will help us get needed supplies.
Last but not least, we WILL be tie-dying our class shirts on Monday. This can be a little messy, but a lot of fun. Please send your child in with not so new clothes. Dye does not come out and I don't want their good clothes to be ruined.
I hope you all have a super weekend. Stay warm- it's suppose to get a bit cooler over the next few days!
Take care!
~Ms. Gower
October Birthdays
Colson- 19th
Roscoe- 27th
We Could Use...
- Colorful Copy Paper (especially green and yellow)
Reminders...
- Mon. Oct. 19th- Tie-Dye T-Shirts (don't wear good cloths)
- Wed. Oct. 21st- Boosterthon Kick Off & Track Out
- Oct. 19-23rd- Scholastic Book Fair
- Fri. Oct. 23rd- Book Fair Family Night 6-8 pm
- Thurs. Nov. 5th- Math & Science Night @6:15
- Thurs. Nov. 12th- Track Back In
Congratulations!!!
- Allison- 5.7
- Maia- 6.3
Notes-
- Volunteers: With tracking out and next week being a short week, we will not use volunteers. Volunteering will start back on Mon. Nov. 16th. Thanks!
- Project: Don't forget to help your child work on his/her Social Studies project over break. Make them creative =)
WSES- Embracing the Needs of Every Child!
Email: egower@wcpss.net
Website: msgower.weebly.com
Location: 6800 Dwight Rowland Road, NC, United States
Phone: (919) 557-2953
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Ms-Gowers-First-Grade-1452423628393033/timeline/
Twitter: @MsGowersClass