Mrs. Mueller's 1st Grade: March 2016

Thursday, March 31, 2016

Newsletter 3-31-16

Mueller Moments

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

March 31, 2016

How can it be spring break already? I hope you all are able to find sometime to build memories in the coming week. I will be headed to Cape Canaveral, Florida with my family and extended family. We are looking forward to unwinding after a long winter. Once we are back, the next two months will fly by before we know it. We are only 3/4 of the way through our year though. We have much learning ahead of us in the next 9 weeks!

I would like to thank everyone that was able to donate issues and/or hand sanitizer to our classroom last week. We will definitely put everything to use. You are such a giving group of families. Thank you!

Coming up:

Star Student - Tristan Thompson
April 1-8 - Spring Break
Tuesday, April 12 - Library - Return library books! and PE Day
Friday, April 15 - PE Day
Thursday, May 19 - 1st Grade Field Trip - more information to follow

Reading: We have been busy with our cross genre topics. We dove into our topics to compare books, check facts, record our wonderings about a topic, and record new words that we have learned.
Writing: We finished our Personal Narrative unit with a writing celebration and a final assessment piece last week. These are in data notebooks in the writing section. I am not going to send home data notebooks today due to spring break (less chances of losing any!), but be sure to check them out next time they come home. We also enjoyed a little mini unit on poetry this week. We worked on poems about seasons and other topics using our 5 senses.
Math: We are continuing through unit 6. This week we made a big jump as we worked on Comparison Bar problems. Be sure to watch the videos I will be sending home in regards to this homework. It can be very confusing at first, but hopefully will make more sense with the videos. We did today's homework in class instead of sending it home!
We also explored a new website for math www.mathplayground.com - your child may want to check it out over spring break. Lots of fun games!
Science: We wrapped up our study of weather and of the sun with our assessments today. We have been busy observing the weather, studying the effects of sunlight on plants, and learning about various types of weather. We will begin a story of life cycles following spring break.

Have a wonderful week,

~ Holly R. Mueller

Friday, March 18, 2016

Newsletter 3-18-16

Mueller Moments

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

March 18, 2016

This week seemed to fly right on by! Here is a quick update on our week, and where we are headed. It is hard to believe spring break is only 2 weeks away!
Coming up:

Star Student - Elijah TenBrink
Monday, March 21 - Bring a Nonfiction Book from home or library to school
Tuesday, March 22 - Library - Return library books!
Wednesday, March 23 - PE Day and Wear a Pin with Words Day
March 28-31 - BOGO Book Fair
April 1-8 - Spring Break

Reading: This week we began a new unit looking at reading across genres. We compared fiction to nonfictions books, sorted our books by topics and by genre, and discovered we can learn from nonfiction books and fiction books.
Writing: We selected a piece that we are the most proud of and used a checklist to fix up our work. We added an about the author page, a title, and colored our piece. Next week we will celebrate our writing, and write our final assessment piece for narrative writing.
Math: We began unit 6 this week. We learned that we can sort and categorize data. We started by sorting bugs, and are moving into comparing data. As stated on my email, please be sure to save the parent letter that came home. We will be learning about “Comparison Bars”, which is a new concepts for parents and students, and having the letter to refer to is helpful.
Science: We continued learning about weather this week. Ask your child what they learned about temperature, clouds and wind. Michigan sure does provide a great opportunity for teaching weather this time of year. We are able to observe many types.

For your children,

~ Holly R. Mueller

Friday, March 11, 2016

Newsletter 3-11-16

Mueller Moments

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

March 11, 2016

What a great week! I loved having a chance to sit down with all of you at conferences. It has been great to see so many logins on Raz Kids since conferences as well! Finishing our week off with Read and Feed today was fabulous. Thank you for all of the donations. Students came in ready to read today! We had several mystery readers read to us this week as well. Ask your child who they were!
Coming up:

Star Student - Kaleb Roof
Monday, March 14 - PE Day
Tuesday, March 15 - Eagle Pride Day!
Thursday, March 17 - PE Day and WEAR GREEN Day!
April 1-8 - Spring Break

Reading: This week we worked on being able to give a summary of our book. We did this by answering three questions: Who? What? Now What? We learned that this summary is different than telling all of the details of the story. Have your child practice this at home. Yesterday we finished our final book in the Addy series. The books are so good! Ask your child to tell you how it ended. Your child (both boys and girls!) may be interested in checking out other American Girl series’ at the library for you to read to them.
Writing: We continued our work on small moment topics as we worked with partners, made sure we included features from books by our favorite authors, and made sure we included the heart of our stories.
Math: We finished unit 5 and took our test this morning. Next week we will work on cleaning up our tests, previewing unit 6, Comparisons and Data, and getting started. Helpful hint: Save the math parent letters that come home for this unit! It will help you with their homework!
Science: We began a new science unit about our sun. We will then move into weather next week.

For your children,

~ Holly R. Mueller

Friday, March 4, 2016

Mueller Moments

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

March 4, 2016

I look forward to seeing all of you next week for conferences.
BandAid Collection: Thank you to everyone that donated bandaids! We have a ton to send on to Helen DeVos Children’s Hospital. Students enjoyed watching our collection grow.
Coming up:

Star Student - Angela Ragar
Monday, March 7 - No School, Record’s Day
March 8-9 - Parent/Teacher conferences
Wednesday, March 9 - PE Day
March 11 - Read and Feed Day

March is Reading Month: We enjoyed an assembly to kick of reading month this week. Our theme is Reading is Sweet, a CandyLand theme. Be sure to ask your child about Grandma Nutt’s appearance at our assembly. No need to keep track of the items on the calendar sent home. We will keep track of participation items in class.
Read and Feed: Thank you to those of you that donated items already for our snack mix on our Read and Feed day. We are all set with Goldfish and Pretzels. A few others ideas of items that we could use for our mix include: gummy bears, marshmallows, teddy grahams, Chex or Crispix cereal, and m&m’s. Your child may bring a small blanket, small pillow and/or a small stuffed animal. NO sleeping bags please. He/she must be able to carry everything on their own. They may also bring 3-5 books from home if desired. And your child may wear PJs as well!
Reading: This week we worked on practicing all of the strategies we have been working on that good readers do by practicing one book that we read to a kindergarten friend today. We enjoyed practicing the words, and reading for fluency.
Writing: We continued our work on small moment topics this week as we learned how to add leads to our stories, as well as endings. We also worked on adding ellipses to our stories.
Math: We completed our interim math assessment this week. We starting our work with numbers through 120. We worked on counting larger amounts using groups of 10, and practiced writing and working with numbers through 120.
Social Studies: We completed out Me on the Map geography unit. Most students have mastered their address. A few students still need to work on learning this.