Newsletter 5-6-16

Mueller Moments

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

May 6, 2016

May has arrived! Monday morning we returned to a very exciting discovery in our classroom. Our butterflies had emerged! We have enjoyed observing and studying them this week. We were able to let them fly free today. It was so fun to watch their life cycle before our eyes! Check the blog for photos. We could not have had a more perfect day to do this!

Another highlight was our pizza party on Thursday. We are very grateful for the kindness of Porch Steps for our lunch!

• Coming up:
• Star Student - Braedon Roose
• Tuesday, May 10 - Library - Return library books!
• Wednesday, May 11 - PE Day
• Thursday, May 19 - 1st Grade Field Trip

• Reading: We continued our exploration of characters this week. We thought about a characters feelings and why they are feeling that way, and noticed parts in our stories when characters change their feelings. We finished reading Mr. Popper’s Penguins this week. This is a classic tale you may have read when you were a child. If your child has not seen the movie yet, that may be fun to watch on a rainy day. (And talk with your child while doing so about ways the movie and the book are alike or different.)
• Writing: This week we selected one of our informational writing pieces to fix up. We worked on editing our stories, making sure they included a table of contents, introduction, conclusion, text features, a big idea, and supporting details. We will be celebrating our stories on Monday, and will write our final assessment piece next week. 
• Math: This week we worked on telling time to the half hour. Please ask your child to check the clock at home when you notice it is on the hour or half hour. Continued practice is appreciated. We also studied 2D shapes and attributes of those shapes: circle, triangle, square and rectangle. We then moved into fractions as we explored halves and fourths. Next week we will explore 3D shapes. Thank you to all of you that signed up to donate snacks for our snack mix next week. If you can send them in by Monday it would be appreciated. 
• Science: We continued our life cycles study this week. Observing our caterpillars transform into chrysalides, and then butterflies, was definitely a highlight. We also explored some other animal life cycles, including frogs, penguins, bats and snakes. We learned about traits and how animals have traits and are similar to their parents. We discussed our own traits and how they are similar to our parents. 
• Field Trip: Our field trip will take place on May 19. A big thank you to the following adults that will be joining us on our trip: Jason Baer, Sue Gunnink, Beth VanWieren, Walt Kniowski, Catalina Munoz, Wendy Ninan, Julia Bange, Jessica Noble, Janice Ponstein, Emma Ragar, Erika Roof, Kristina VanKampen, Melissa Wayne, Carie Wojtas, and Justin Roose. Chaperones you may drive separately or on the bus with us (as space permits). This is such a fun field trip. We cannot wait to go!

For your children,

~ Holly R. Mueller