Happy Friday and Happy Winter Break!

Our first grade class wishes you a very Merry Christmas!

 Thank you for supporting Bauer Elementary and earning us a Marco's Pizza Party! Yum!

Have a wonderful break!

Merry Christmas!

Dear Families,
What a wonderful party we had this morning! So smooth, low key, and fun for our first graders! Thank you for the many hands that made the party run so smoothly. Thank you to the volunteers in the classroom, as well as those that supplied the game, craft, snacks, and ornaments. You are all appreciated! Many thanks to for the class gift of my favorite things! What a treat! Thank you!

We are in the home stretch now. A reminder that your child does not need to pack a lunch tomorrow unless they do not want to have pizza for lunch. It is also pajama day. So fun!

Please check your child's folder for some important information regarding kidsa-z.com. They are super excited to try this at home, and you will need the info on their paper in order to do so. I will post the instructions on here later on as well in case the paper gets misplaced.

If you have not had a chance lately with the hustle and bustle of the holidays, please take some time over break to really look at what your child is doing as a reader and writer. They are blowing me away! First grade is so much fun right now as students are truly taking off! Enjoy!

I hope you all have a wonderful holiday together and are able to enjoy this family time. Thank you for the gift of trusting me with your children. It is truly a joy to be their teacher.

Merry Christmas!

First Grade News

There truly is no greater excitement than an elementary classroom the week before Christmas! There is so much energy and joy!

Many students enjoyed being consumers this week at Santa's Secret Shop. I wish you could see their excitement as they pick out the perfect gift for a family member. They are so proud of their purchases! Many thanks to our volunteers for helping to make this a such a successful experience for our students. 

Pizza!

Our exciting news of the week is that we were the class with the most Marco's Pizza orders on Tuesday, and we won the Marco's Pizza Party! Thank you for supporting Bauer and mentioning our class name. Our pizza party will be on Friday, December 22 - perfect timing! Your child will not need to bring in a lunch or order a lunch that day unless they do not wish to eat pizza (they can still eat in the classroom with us). I will provide juice boxes. If there is a parent that would like to donate a bag of carrot sticks and another to donate fruit (maybe grapes or something easy to serve), please let me know. It will be nice to balance their meal a little! Again, thank you for your support!

Christmas Party:

Katelyn Gates and many other parents have been busy planning our Christmas party - thank you! It will be THURSDAY at 9am. Adults are welcomed to attend the party. If you do not have a background check on file yet, please email Mrs. Opple for a link to the form kopple@hpseagles.net. It is a simple form that is very easy to complete. Thanks!

Coming Up:

We have a busy week ahead! Check out the spirit week info that is below as well. Students will still be going outside each day, so on pajama day especially, make sure your child has snow gear to bundle up! (And no slippers please - school bathrooms, the lunchroom...I will leave it at that!)

• Thursday, December 21: Christmas Party - 9am 
• Friday, December 22: Marco's Pizza Party and Last Day of School Before Break
• December 23 - January 8: Winter Break
• Friday, January 12: Early Release Day

First Grade News

What a wonderful celebration we had today for Ms Moore! We were able to celebrate her time with us, enjoy a tasty treat, and shower her with goodies to get her ready for her new classroom (thank you, families!). This is my first time taking a student teacher in my 18 years of teaching. I could not have asked for a better future teacher to work with. We have been so fortunate to have Ms Moore teach these first graders, all while they were teaching her. Scroll to the bottom for pictures from today!

This morning we had our first opportunity to use laptops. Mrs. Chatfield's 4th grade class buddied up with our first graders to teach students how to remove laptops from the cart, how to log in, how to use a reading website, and how to log out and return laptops to the cart. We appreciated their help!

Coming Up:

• December 12: Marco's Pizza Night (be sure to mention my name - we'd love to earn a free pizza party!)
• December 14: Santa's Secret Shop - we will shop at 9:30am
• Thursday, December 21: Christmas Party - 9am (wear red and green!)
• Friday, December 22: Last Day of School Before Break
• December 23 - January 8: Winter Break
• Friday, January 12: Early Release Day

• Reading: This week we continued our character unit. We studied what our characters like and dislike. We also thought about what our characters might be thinking. We have to use the words on the page and the picture to figure out a character's thoughts. Finally, we practiced reading in a storyteller voice to better represent our characters. 
• Math: We completed our unit 3 test this week - it was so fun to see students show all they have learned about story problems. Their work as readers and mathematicians paid off! Unit 4 will begin next week. We will be studying place value and learning about tens and ones. So far we have been working with numbers 1-10. We will move on to 2-digit numbers. 
• Whiteboard Practice: This week we learned about 5 different ways that the /a/ sound (like in day) is made - ai, a, ay, eigh, ey. Have your child write these headings on the top of their board. Then have them read a page from their WEB book (or any book). If they notice a word with the /a/ sound, have them record it in the correct column. If it does not fit in any of the columns, like in the word break, write it on the bottom. This is the /a/ sound, not the letter a. The word have, for example, should not be recording because it does not make that sound. Your child practiced this in reading workshop this week, so it should be familiar to them. They could follow up by writing a sentence with one of the words, remembering to say as they write!

Enjoy these pictures of our celebration with  Ms Moore!

We love you, Ms Moore!

We made an ornament for Ms Moore with our fingerprints. 

Our gift basket for Ms Moore filled with supplies for her future classroom. 

Our yummy treat!

First Grade News

Wow! What a way to return from Thanksgiving break with an amazing holiday program. I was so proud of each student on Tuesday night. They sang their hearts out and truly shined on stage! What a wonderful way to get into the spirit of the holidays. Enjoy these pictures!

Coming Up:

• Friday, December 8: Ms. Moore's last day student teaching with us
• December 12: Marco's Pizza Night (be sure to mention my name - we'd love to earn a free pizza party!)
• December 14-15: Santa's Secret Shop
• Thursday, December 21: Christmas Party - 9am (wear red and green!)
• Friday, December 22: Last Day of School Before Break
• December 23 - January 8: Winter Break
• Friday, January 12: Early Release Day

Next Friday, December 8, will be Ms. Hillary Moore's last day student teaching with us. It has truly been a pleasure to watch Ms. Moore learn and grow with your children. She has done a fantastic job partnering with me to teach your children. She will be a wonderful addition to the profession of education. Our class will enjoy a little celebration next Friday with Ms. Moore. The good news is that she will be staying with us here at Bauer as a long term sub in 3rd grade with Mrs. Scholma's maternity leave January-spring break. Our first graders are happy to know they'll get to see her around our school!

Reading: We continued spying on our characters this week by learning what our characters like and dislike, and looking at the pictures and listening to the words to determine how a character is feeling.

Writing: We have begun a new informational writing unit focused on how to stories. Students explored how to stories and learned text features and brainstormed how to topics to write about. 

Math: We are wrapping up our math unit focusing on story problems. We will take our test next week.

Social Studies: We are learning about economics right now. So far we have learned about needs vs. wants (a great topic this time of year!), goods and services, producers and consumers, and next week we will learn about scarcity. Ask your child to tell you about what we need and how that is different from  what we want. 

Word Work: 

We learned three different sounds for the letters "ea" - the /ee/ sound like in feet, the /ai/ sound like in steak, and the /e/ sound like in bread. Have your child write three columns with: 

1. ea 2. ea 3. ea at the top. Then have them write feet, steak, and bread under 1, 2, and 3. Then have them search in books for more words with ea. Be careful - some words won't fit. Learn actually does not fit - ear says /r/ in the word learn. You may find other sounds, like ear and heart, that would actually make a 4th column. Have fun exploring in books for more words! And as always, be sure to have your child say as they write!

Have a wonderful weekend. Enjoy the sunshine! (And take some time this weekend to get snow pants, boots, etc. ready for next week. Just in case. If we are all prepare, maybe it will hold off just a bit longer....!:)