Newsletter 10-30-15

Mueller Moments

1st Grade * Bauer Elementary * Mrs. Holly Mueller * hmueller@hpseagles.net

October 30, 2015

I wanted to share a few quick reminders, especially with conferences and report cards coming up!

Halloween: A big thank you to Erika Simpson for coordinating our Halloween party, as well as to the many families that donated food and supplies, volunteered during the party, and watched as we paraded around Bauer. It was a perfect party day! 

Coming up:

• Star Student: Amelia Gates
• Tuesday, November 3 & Wednesday, November 4 - Parent/Teacher Conferences 
• Tuesday, November 3 - PE Day - Wear your gym shoes!
• Wednesday, November 4 - Book Fair Preview
• Thursday, November 5 - Book Fair Shopping
• Friday, November 6 - PE Day - Wear your gym shoes!
• November 25-27 - No School
• Thursday, December 10 - Holiday Music Program

Book Fair: We will be previewing the book fair on Wednesday, November 4th. This will be our opportunity to see what books are there, and make a wish list of what we might want to purchase. On Thursday, November 5th, we will be shopping at the book fair. If you choose to send money in for your child, the easiest way is to send money in a Ziploc bag with your child’s name written on the outside. This allows them to bring any change home safely.   

Report Cards: On Monday,students will be bringing home report cards in take home folders. You do not need to bring these to conferences. I have a copy here for us to go over. Please note that there are many areas without scores. Due to the comprehensive nature of our standards-based report card, many scores will not be recorded until the entire standard has been presented and assessed. Many of the unmarked areas are ongoing and will be assessed and reported in upcoming terms. 

Parent/Teacher Conferences: I am truly looking forward to meeting with all of you on Tuesday and Wednesday. Conferences are one of my favorite times of the year. After spending many hours with you children each week, if is a joy to connect with each of you. If you need a reminder of your conference time, please let me know. Our time goes very quickly, and the nights are jam packed. Please arrive on time to keep the schedule moving. If we get to the end of our 15 minutes and you feel there is more to discuss, we can always set up an additional time to meet. When you come this week, be sure to take your family picture home with you. Thank you for sharing these with us!

Math Assessment: We will be taking our unit 2 math test on Tuesday. There will be a review coming home on Monday. Please take a moment to help your child practice some similar problems that evening. Thank you!

I hope you had a wonderful long weekend with your children! I look forward to hearing their stories on Monday when we share “good things” with each other!

For your children!

~ Holly R. Mueller

Happy Halloween!

A big thank you to the many families that helped to put our party on today! Students enjoyed a fun craft, game, and treats. Have a wonderful long weekend together! 

Newsletter 10-23-15

Mueller Moments

1st Grade * Bauer Elementary * Mrs. Holly Mueller * hmueller@hpseagles.net

October 23, 2015

We had a great week growing as 1st graders! The weather continues to be on our side. Outdoor recess allows us to move our bodies, which helps us learn in the classroom. It is hard to believe Halloween and just around the corner. 

HALLOWEEN Party: Our party is coming up next week on Thursday. If you would like to watch the parade, please head to the gym at 2:30pm. PLEASE do not come to the classroom before. We will be getting changed for the parade. The excitement on this day is fantastic, but with 27 students, there are already a lot of bodies in here while we put on costumes. It is a bit much to have parents in during that time. If you plan to come to the party, please join us AFTER the parade. Thank you to Erika Simpson (Kaleb Roof’s mom) who will be running our party. For those of you that signed up to help, she will be connecting with you for donations or needs. Looking forward to a fun, busy day!

HALLOWEEN Costumes: Please make sure costumes can fit in your child’s backpack, and can be easily put over clothing. Students will not be able to use the bathroom to change. We just don’t have enough bathrooms at Bauer to do so. All costumes need to follow the Bauer guidelines. 

Star Student: Savannah Garvelink

Wednesday, October 28 - PE Day - Wear your gym shoes!

Thursday, October 29 - Halloween Parade @ 2:30pm and Party @ 2:45pm

Friday, October 30 - NO SCHOOL

Tuesday, November 3 & Wednesday, November 4 - Parent/Teacher Conferences 

Reading Workshop: We continued to work on reading strategies. This week we practiced using Eagle Eye, Lips the Fish, Chunky Monkey, and Stretchy Snake. We were introduced to our reader’s notebooks this week (a composition book). On Thursday, students decorated them with pictures of their favorite books, and on Friday, they used them to record reading strategies. We will use them often throughout 1st grade.   

Writing Workshop: We continued to work on making our writing better for readers. We started learning about a 5 Star Sentence. We learned the first two points and practiced them in our writing: using capitals letters and finger spaces. Next week we will learn about that other three. 

Math: This week we went from addition strategies to subtraction strategies. This is a big jump for students, and we will continue to work on these strategies throughout 1st grade. We will wrap up our unit next week, and will take our test. 

Science: We finished our study of Properties of Matter this week. We learned that we can describe matter in terms of a solid, liquid or gas, things that sink or float, attributes, and we also learned about magnets. Students really enjoyed being scientists! We will take a little break from science and social studies as we dive into spelling in the next few weeks. 

LEAD Time: We had our first habit assembly on Friday which focused on synergizing. Ask your child to tell you what it means to synergize. We also talked about being proactive with bullies - you may have heard the saying: “Be brave. Be bold. A teacher must be told.” This was a chant from the book/movie: Howard B. Wigglebottom and the Bully. 

For your children!

~ Holly R. Mueller

Be the Leader!

Newsletter 10-16-15

Mueller Moments

1st Grade * Bauer Elementary * Mrs. Holly Mueller * hmueller@hpseagles.net

October 16, 2015

Those teeth continued to exit mouths in our classroom! Such excitement! It is hard to believe we are six weeks into the school year already, and getting ready for our first report card and conferences in just a few weeks. There is nothing better than stepping back and looking at the growth these amazing learners have made in such a short time! 

Coming Up: 

Star Student: Ainsley DeBoer

Tuesday, October 20 - PE Day - Wear your gym shoes!

Wednesday, October 21 - Holiday Posters are due for contest (candle poster - coming home today in Take Home Folders). This is optional. 

Friday, October 23- PE Day - Wear your gym shoes!

Thursday, October 29 - Halloween Parade and Party

Friday, October 30 - NO SCHOOL

Tuesday, November 3 & Wednesday, November 4 - Parent/Teacher Conferences 

Reading Workshop: This week we wrapped up Unit 1, and began Unit 2: Tackling Trouble. In this unit we will focus on strategies to use when we get stuck, as well as retelling our stories. We will be reviewing animal strategies (stretchy snake, lips the fish, etc.). There is a bookmark in your child’s WEB book bag that you can use to remind your child of these strategies when reading at home. 

Writing Workshop: We finished up Unit 1 with our writing celebration on Monday. We read our stories to some friends on Monday. Students are bringing home their stories today in Take Home Folders. On Tuesday and Wednesday we completed an On Demand writing assessment to see how students have grown as writers. WOW! I was truly impressed with this group of writers as a whole. They have some so far in such a short time! These stories, along with a rubric, are in Data Notebooks in the writing section. I also included their very first On Demand assessment piece. Have fun looking at their progress! We began Unit 2: Writing for Readers on Thursday. Ask your child the difference between a seed story and a watermelon story. 

Math: We continued finding strategies for solving addition equations. We learned the Counting On strategy, and counting on from the greater number. We also learned how to play the Number Quilt game to practice solving equations. 

Science: We wrapped up our social studies unit on citizenship, and moved on to science. We will spend the next two weeks studying the properties of matter. This week we discussed what science is and what a scientist does. We learned about attributes, and experimented with sinking and floating. 

LEAD Time: This week we dove a little deeper into habit #1, Be Proactive. We read a poem, watched a short video, and read the book, “Alexander, Who Used to be Rich Last Sunday.” We also talked about being proactive and things in our control, and things out of our control.  

A Quick Shout Out: When you come into our classroom, you will notice that we have two wonderful rugs for whole group learning and activities. These were graciously donated by Columbo’s Floors to Go on Port Sheldon. These would have cost me hundreds of dollars out of pocket. Thank you Columbo’s for supporting our schools! 

For your children!

~ Holly R. Mueller

Newsletter 10-9-15

Mueller Moments

1st Grade * Bauer Elementary * Mrs. Holly Mueller * hmueller@hpseagles.net

October 9, 2015

Things were really rolling in first grade this week! We loved working with partners, diving into a new math unit, and fixing up a writing piece. First grade is definitely the year for loose teeth, and it seemed just about every child had a loose tooth this week. I love their excitement over the idea of loosing a tooth (and it usually makes for a great small moment topic to write about)! We even had two finally fall out today!

Coming Up: 

Star Student: Jesenia Brouilette

October 12-15 - Coin War (see Take Home Folder)

Monday, 10-12 - PE Day - Wear your gym shoes!

Thursday, 10-12 - PE Day - Wear your gym shoes!

Friday, October 16 - Parent/Teacher Conference Forms Due

Thursday, October 29 - Halloween Parade and Party

Friday, October 30 - NO SCHOOL

Tuesday, November 3 and Wednesday, November 4 - Parent/Teacher Conferences 

Reading Workshop: We had such a fun week meeting our reading partners, and learning 3 different ways to read together: taking turns, echo reading, and choral reading. At the end of reading workshop I always ask our readers, “What went well for you as a reader today?” When a student raised her hand and said, “I had so much fun reading today,” it really made me smile! Thank you for helping your child with reading their WEB books at home. Remember, the goal is for them to be easy reads. A hard one every now and then is okay, but if they are hard too many days in a row, be sure to let me know. 

Writing Workshop: This week we wrapped up our first writing unit. We worked on adding dialogue and endings to our stories. We selected one story we were most proud of, and we “fixed and fancied” our story. We used writing partners to help up fix our stories, and we were able to color the pictures with crayons to fancy them. You child is bringing home all of the other stories they have written throughout our first unit today. Enjoy reading them! On Monday we will celebrate our stories by reading them to each other.   

Math: We began Unit 2 this week - Addition and Subtraction Strategies. We learned how to represent and solve addition equations using a circle drawing, as well as the meaning of the equal and not equal signs. 

Social Studies: We continued to learn about citizenship, and that good citizens are responsible, help solve problems, and honor the United States. We made posters as teams about what to do if they see someone being a bully as we learned about solving problems. We will take our assessment on Monday. On Wednesday we will begin a science unit: Properties of Matter. 

LEAD Time: Now that we have learned all of the 7 Traits of Happy Kids, we will begin LEAD Time. This is a time of day that is dedicated to further understanding the 7 traits, and developing leaders. This week we read the book, “Mr. Peabody’s Apples,” as we discussed Habit #5 - Seek First to Understand. We also combined a lesson with social studies when we made our posters about bullying. 

For your children!

~ Holly R. Mueller

Good Citizens Help Solve Problems

Students worked together to make posters this week about what to do if they see someone being a bully. This went along with our citizenship lesson - good citizens help solve problems. 

Book-it!

Last Friday your child brought home their October Book-it form from Pizza Hut. Store this somewhere safe and mark off each time your child reads for 20 minutes. This can be your child reading to you, or you reading to them. If your child completes at least 20 days of reading, he/she will receive a free pizza certificate. 

Here are two free kindle books you may take advantage of:

Newsletter 10-2-15

Mueller Moments

1st Grade * Bauer Elementary * Mrs. Holly Mueller * hmueller@hpseagles.net

October 2, 2015

We had such a fun spirit week! I loved seeing students in their pajamas, creative hats, crazy socks, and more. They handled their special days so well. We capped it off with a pep rally this morning. Lots of energy was shared! We live in such an amazing community, and it was fun to celebrate it here at school. 

Coming Up: 

Star Student: Silas Bear

Wednesday, 10-7: PE Day - Wear your gym shoes!

Reading Workshop: This week we worked on building better reading habits by looking at the cover and the pictures in a book, and thinking of what kinds of words might be in the story. We also talked about retelling a story across our fingers (first, next, then, after that, finally). We used this strategy when we were writing our small moment stories, and we learned it helps us in reading too! We finished reading The Chocolate Touch this week. Ask your child how the book ended and what lesson John learned (you can prompt them with the word greedy or selfish if they need a reminder). Ask your child what chapter book we are reading now - it is a classic tale I am sure you remember from school! Also, please note that Book It calendars are coming home today. Monday students will be bringing home their first WEB books. Look for information on this by Monday on the blog. 

Writing Workshop: This week we worked on stretching out words to write all of the sound we hear, just like stretching out a rubber band. We also learned there are some words we can’t spell out, and we just have to know them in a snap (snap words). We learned about including the 3 w’s in our stories: who, what and where. We met with writing partners for the first time, and learned the routine of how to work with a writing partner.   

Math: We took our Unit 1 math test this week, as well as the Inqwizit online math assessment. We learned two new math games that will come in handy for math workshop in Unit 3. I was very pleased with the results on our first math test overall. There tests are in data binders. Please take a moment to look at your child’s results. 

Social Studies: This week we started our first social studies unit: Citizenship. We learned what a citizen is, that a good citizen follows rules, is fair, and shows respect. We learned we are citizens at home, school and in our community. Talk with your child about how they can be good citizens at your home. 

Data Notebooks: You will notice a few additions in data notebooks. You will see math tests are in their binders, as well as your child’s current reading level.

7 Traits of Happy Kids: This week we learned about the final 2 traits:

6. Synergize. (Together is better.)

7. Sharpen the saw (Take care of you!) 

For your children!

~ Holly R. Mueller

Writing Partners

We worked with writing partners this week. Here are a few of them (some friends were off writing already!)

Spirit Week Fun!

Enjoy these photos from spirit week! 

Hat Day:

Crazy Sock Day:

Eagle Pride: