Friday, December 18, 2015

Newsletter 12-18-15

Mueller Moments
1st Grade * Bauer Elementary * Mrs. Holly Mueller * hmueller@hpseagles.net
December 18, 2015

Wow! Can you believe it is already time for winter break, and 2015 is coming to a close? We had such a wonderful week. Even with all of the excitement and craziness in the air, this group of children is such a pleasure to be with each day. Kudos to all of you for raising the incredible human beings!
  • Holiday Party: I would like to extend a big thank you to Jessica Noble for organizing a wonderful party for our class, as well as to the many parents that volunteered their time to help at the party, and made and/or donated treats and supplies. Hopefully those of you there were able to attend enjoyed the time with your child. I posted a few pictures on our blog.
      • Mrs. Gleason and I would also like to thank you for all for the lovely gifts and notes this week, and for the scarves we received from the class. Thank you for loving us!
  • Coming up:
    • Star Student: Chester Karasinski
    • Wednesday, January 6 - PE Day
    • February 8-9 - Winter Break, No school
  • Reading: We wrapped up unit 3 where we studies characters. We will begin a unit on informational writing in January. Your child brought home 5 WEB books today. This is to allow for extra practice over break. Please remember to having your child read, and read to your child, as often as possible in the next two weeks. You child is also bringing home their January Book-It calendar. 
  • Writing: We wrapped up our unit on opinion writing today with reading our letters to 2nd grade students in Miss B’s class. We will begin our unit on “How to” letters next.
  • Math: We began unit 4 in math which focuses on place value concepts. This week we worked on teen numbers being made of one ten and some more. If you are looking for an easy game to player break, try this one (your child should be familiar with it): the person who is “it” picks a number between 1-100 (or 1-20, 1-50, etc.). The other person or people have to try to guess the number. The person who is “it” then says GREATER or LESS, and guesses continue to be made until finding the number. It is great for number sense, and easy to do in the car or on the go! 
  • Please also have your child practice on xtramath.com over break. I sent home another sheet with passwords to everyone in their folders today. This is important practice! Each time your child completes a session, it is logged and I am able to see it. Students have an incentive for logging in often over break!
  • Data Notebooks: Due to the craziness that can sometimes occur during breaks (maybe it is just my house?), we did note send data notebooks home today. 
  • We could still use some band-aids and slider ziplock bags if you are able to donate any. Thank you to those of you that donated tissues and pencils already. And as I mentioned last week, crayons for your child would be a great stocking stuffer! 
Have a wonderful holiday and enjoy the time with your children!

Merry Christmas!

~ Holly R. Mueller

Merry Christmas!

Presents!
Writing Celebration

Party Time
Mrs. VanBergen Reads to Us

Friday, December 11, 2015

Newsletter 12-11-15

Mueller Moments
1st Grade * Bauer Elementary * Mrs. Holly Mueller * hmueller@hpseagles.net
December 11, 2015

What a wonderful week we had together! It was wonderful to return this week and get everyone back into routine. It is hard to believe now that there is only one week until break. Time is flying! 
The Christmas program was wonderful last night. Thank you for making the effort to attend. Students are always so proud to perform for you!
  • Holiday Party: Thank you to Jessica Noble for organizing our holiday party. It will be next Thursday at 2:45pm (we have started planning them on Thursdays just in case of snow days - looks like we will be just fine this year!). If you plan to attend the party, would you please let me know? We want to have an idea of the amount of help we will have. Thank you!
  • Coming up:
    • Star Student: Autumn Huizinga 
    • Tuesday, December 15 - PE Day - Wear your gym shoes!
    • Thursday, December 17 - 2:45pm - Holiday Party and wear green and red spirit.
    • Friday, December 18 - PE Day - Wear your gym shoes! 
    • December 21 - January 1 - Winter Break, No school
  • Reading: This week we continued our study of characters. We looked at characters feelings and how they change in the beginning, middle and end of the story. We also learned how we can make connections between characters and ourselves. We started reading the second book in the Meet Addy series. (Meet Addy is my favorite read aloud, and since I was out for the majority of the book, I had to read this one with them!)
  • Writing: We continued our opinion letter writing unit. This week we worked on selecting topics that are changes we would want to see in the world, using a mini small moment in our writing, show don’t tell, and using a graphic organizer tool to include all of the parts of a letter. 
  • Spelling: We began finished unit #6 which was our assessment. These are in the writing portion of data binders. Be sure to go over these with your child. We began unit #7. Our new words are was, for, and he. 
  • Math: We took our test for unit 3, our pre-test for unit 4, and learned some math games we will practice in math workshop in the coming weeks. Please be sure to have your child practice on xtramath.com if they have not in a while!
  • Social Studies: We wrapped up our economics unit this week. Your child should be familiar with terms such as: producer, consumer, goods, services, and scarcity. Please use these words at home, especially as you think of Christmas wish lists! 
  • We are short on a few classroom supplies. If you are interested in donating any of the following, we would gladly take them: Pencils, sandwich or snack sized ziplock slider bags (these are easier for students tackles than zipper bags), band aids and tissues. And if you are looking for stocking stuffers for your child, a new box of crayons isn’t a bad idea:) 
For your children,

~ Holly R. Mueller

Christmas Program

Enjoy these precious photos from last night!