Kwanzaa Holiday Kick Off

Welcome back from break!  Hope everyone had a restful and happy Thanksgiving!  Only 3 weeks left of the semester.  This truly is my most favorite time of the year.  We will continue to go strong with the academics, but we also get to hit the standards while teaching all about the holidays celebrated during this time of the year.  More of that below.  This blog is going to be full of good information, so read on...

Math:  We will begin Module 2, more operations and algebraic thinking, but fun new concepts this week like three addend addition.  Students will also be looking for ways to make a ten within those three addends.  

Language Arts:  We will be sticking with stories from our Hartcourt series for the next three weeks.  This week our story is "How to Make a Butterfly."  I will also be concentrating on teaching the children some of the CAFE strategies from Daily 5.  These are strategies they can use when reading independently to help them become better readers.  This week we will work on back up and reread and cross checking.

Science:  We will wrap up science for the semester with a lesson and test on the inquiry process.  We will continue science after we return from our winter break.

Social Studies:  I will be keeping our kids for the next three weeks to teach them all about the holidays celebrated at this time of year.  Each week we will learn about a different holiday, who celebrates it, how they celebrate, when they celebrate, and why - the importance behind that particular holiday.  I absolutely love this unit!  Each Friday we will wrap up our studies with a celebration.  I will be sending home a paper sign up sheet on Monday for supplies/items we will need to make these celebrations possible.  Please return to me by Wednesday, and I will send out a final sign up by Thursday.   Our first holiday is KWANZAA!  Please do not tell your child any information about this holiday, because I love when we sit down and do our KWL (what do you know/want to know/what did you learn) chart and they realize they really do not know a thing about Kwanzaa, and by the end of the week they are just brimming with all kinds of knowledge about this holiday!  The following week will be Christmas, followed by Hanukkah.  

Other Happenings:

• Canned Food Drive - Don't have all the details, but pretty sure it has officially started.  Please bring in your cans of food to help stock Marshall's own Parenting Arizona Coordinator's Peggy Murray's shelves.  As always, there is a contest for the class that collects the most cans.  I think it is a great way to teach the kids a small way of giving back to others.  Food will be collected during our canned food parade on Friday, December 8th.  More details to come. 

• Special Early Release - Thursday, December 7th at 12:25.  Please make plans for childcare.   

Don't Forget:

•  Thursday December  7^th – Special Early Release @ 12:25
•  Friday December 1^st – Kwanzaa Feast
•  Friday December 8^th - Christmas Craft Morning
•  Friday December 8^th – Holiday Canned Food Drive
•  Friday December 15^th – Hanukkah Celebration

That's everything for this holiday kick off week!  Habari Gani... your kiddos will know what this means by the end of the week.  Ask them to teach it to you.  - Ms. Shaw

Thanksgiving Week Updates

Happy Thanksgiving Week!  Although it is a short one I wanted to give you a quick update anyway.  First things first, NO HOMEWORK!  Whoo hoo!  Only two days of school, so there is no need.  Here is what our short week will look like academically...

Math:  We will take our final test in Module 1.  When we return from break we will begin Module 2.

Language Arts:  We will finish our last 2 Frog and Toad stories, which our students have just loved!  I wish you could hear their laughter as we have read these stories out loud!  We will also be reading about turkeys and working on concepts such as main idea and details, and finding information in our text, and using text to answer questions.

Science:  We will end our body unit with labeling our body parts on our bags.  Then we will review and test on the scientific process one more time.

Social Studies:  Our last switch for the semester.  The kids will have a final Thanksgiving lesson with Ms. Reger.  

Thank you to the families who attended Parent University!  It is always such a great night to work together, go over data, and learn new ways to help your child at home to ensure continued success at school.  To those of you who could not make it, your folders will be going home on Monday.  These folders include our data graphs (Oral Reading Fluency, High Frequency Words, and Math Computation) that show our goals for winter and end of year.  Your child's folder will have an assigned number for your child, so you can see where they fall in these areas compared to where we want them to be on our goal lines.  There are also activities to do at home.  If you have any questions, please feel free to stop in before or after school.

Don't Forget - No School, Wednesday, November 22nd - Friday,  November 24th

Happy Thanksgiving! 

This year I am thankful for this amazing bunch of students who make me laugh and love my job.  I am thankful for such a supportive group of families who work hard helping to make sure our kiddos reach their full potential!  I hope everyone has a safe and happy Thanksgiving! 

Updates for Week of November 13th-17th

Happy week before Thanksgiving.  Our last full week before the break.  As always we are going to pack in as much as we can during the next five days.  Here's the scoop...

Math:  We are going to finally wrap up Module One with relating subtraction facts from 10 and 9 to corresponding decompositions (ex: 10-2=8 so 10-8=2), and looking at the addition facts to solve subtraction and relate addition and subtraction facts.  

Language Arts:  Our Hartcourt story for the week will be "Fun with Fish."  Poor Hasel and Gretel, we had so much to do last week we simply did not have enough time to get to them again.  We will find time for them at some point this year.  Instead last week I decided to begin our "Frog and Toad Are Friends" stories, and the on to "Frog and Toad All Year."  We are focusing on comprehension with these stories, and building reading skills.  

Science:  We will be putting the final organs on our body bags and labeling them to test what we have learned, wrapping up our unit on the human body.

Social Studies:   The students will also be wrapping up their unit on Thanksgiving as they end their story with Jack and Annie in Plymouth.  They will be finishing their work in their Thanksgiving workbooks, and will probably have a comprehension exam to follow.

Extra Scoop:

Parent University:  Parent University is this Wednesday, November 15th.  Again, I would really love to see every family in attendance Wednesday night.  We will be reviewing reading and math data and talking about what we can do to partner to help your child reach our end of the year goals.  Don't forget we will be meeting at 5 in the gym for dinner, with the 1st grade break out session beginning at 5:35.  It would be awesome to see every family there!

No homework until Tuesday!  It will still be due on Friday.

Cherry on Top:

Wednesday, November 22-Friday November 24 School Closed (Thanksgiving)

Thursday, December 7 -  Special Elementary Early Release @ 12:25 

In the Pipeline Pictures

The Children's Museum of Phoenix has an exhibit called "In The Pipeline."  As a part of their exhibit they sent over pipes, connectors, and banners for our students to imagine, engineer, and construct whatever they chose to create.  Our class had a chance today to go into our Science Lab and do just this.  We broke into four teams and the kids discussed what they wanted to build, how to build it, and then they got busy constructing.  It was fun watching them work together, figure out why connectors were not working, discuss how to fix it and then solve their problems.  At the end each team had some very cool designs.  Check out the pictures below.

 The first team originally wanted to build a pyramid, but quickly learned there wasn't any connectors that would let them make 4 triangular sides that would meet at a point at the top.

They opted for a hotel with a television set instead.

 This team built a house, you can't see it but there are stools inside for them to sit on.

 The third team built a castle house.

The final team went big.  A really tall shower!  LOL!  

 Everyone pitched in for clean up time.

We even had amazing banner folders!

What a blast!  Lots of engineering brains for sure!

First Week of November

Happy November!  I don't know about you but I am beginning to catch the holiday bug that comes with this time of year!  Crisper air, growing first graders, and lots of excitement!  Here's what is in store for our short Veteran's holiday week...

Math:  This week we will look at subtraction and relating facts to fives, tens and doubles.  We love working with numbers like fives and tens!

Language Arts:  In Hartcourt we will continue to read our story "Where Do Frogs Come From?" which teaches us the lifecycle of a frog.  Last week we had so much fun reading many Anansi stories.  He is a very tricky spider with many funny stories.  We also decided to read "Enemy Pie" and make friendship pies for our bulletin board.  They turned out really cute, feel free to stop by and check them out!  This week we will get to Hansel and Gretel, since we ran out of space in our busy days to tend to them last week.  Then it will be on to Frog and Toad.

Science:  We did not get to do as much science as we wanted last week, with halloween and a bit of switching with our schedule.  However, the students did have a lot of fun learning about the digestive system.  This week we will add the digestive system to our body bags. 

Social Studies:  Learning about the first Thanksgiving continues.  The students will be studying about the contributions of the Wampanoag people and the struggles of the Pilgrims.

Don't Forget...

Monday is our Thanksgiving family luncheon.  Lunch is at 11:35 but I suggest showing up a few minutes early to park and pay.  Please do not send money with your child, the cafeteria will not be taking prepayments.  

There is NO SCHOOL this Friday, November 10th in honor of Veterans Day.  Thank you to all who have served!  

Parent University:  I want to take the time to personally invite and encourage all my families to attend this very important and informative night.  The teachers here at Marshall really feel that of all nights, Parent University is one of the most beneficial nights you can attend to build a partnership with us here at school to promote your child's learning.  Every parent that has ever attended has only said positive things about their evening spent with us here at school, about how much they learned to help their children at home, and how much they better understand what is happening here at school!  This is our goal, and I want you to be a part of it.  Please make plans to join us on Wednesday, November 15th from 5:00-7:15.  The best part of the night is you do not have to worry about cooking or what to do with your kiddos because we provide dinner and child care!  It's almost like date night, or a night off!  Woo hoo!  Dinner will be held in the gym from 5-5:30, followed by break out sessions that you can sign up for.  This flyer went home with your child last week.  If you need another, please write me a note in the agenda communication log and I will get it to you immediately.  If you are planning on attending please fill out your form and send it in to me ASAP.  I look forward to seeing each and every family there!

Save the Dates:

• Wednesday, November 15th - Parent University 5-7:15
• Wednesday, November 22nd - Friday November 24th                                   School Closed (Thanksgiving Holiday)
• Thursday, December 7th - Elementary Early Release @ 12:25

 Hope you all are ready for our short week ahead!  - Ms. Shaw