April 2019

Happy April!  I cannot believe we are headed into the final two months of school.  Third quarter FLEW🌬 by way too fast.  Our final stretch promises to be busier than ever.  I will be sending home a paper calendar with a list of important events over the next two months.  Please post this where you can refer to it and add to it if necessary.  Here's the scoop on what is happening for this upcoming week...

Math:  We will finish our unit on comparing 2 two digit numbers this week (>, <, =).  This will include being able to write the correct symbol when comparing and being able to read the number sentence correctly.  Sometime this week we will also begin a new program called Reflex Math.  This is a fluency program that is designed to help us become quicker at our basic math facts.  I will share more details about this after I get it up and running this week, and have a chance to see how it goes this week.

ELA:  We will be reading stories out of our NatGeo series this week.  These stories tell about life long ago and compare to life now.  We will also spend the next few weeks reading and researching about two inventors, Benjamin Franklin and Alexander Graham Bell.  

Science:  Last week we began our motion unit where we learned about how an object needs to have a force acted upon it in order to move.  We also learned that two types of force are a pushing force and a pulling force.  Last week we experimented with a pushing force with tops.  This week we will experiment with spinners to better understand the concept of a pulling force.  

Social Studies:  The students have wrapped up their Civics and Government unit with Mrs. Ogg.  They are headed to Ancient Greece next.

SUZUKI Violin Performance on Tuesday:  This Tuesday, April 2nd is our 1st Grade Suzuki performance.  This is your first opportunity to come and see what your child has been working so hard at learning in Suzuki this year.  The performance will begin promptly at 5:45, with students asked to arrive at (but no earlier than) 5:30.  All family and friends are invited.  Students are asked to arrive in dress attire, there will be bowties for the boys to borrow if they should need one.  The concert will be held at FHS in the Hurley Auditorium.  I hope to see everyone there!

Guardian Air Landing:  Mrs. Ogg has arranged a special helicopter landing from guardian air.  They have received permission to land their helicopter so that they can come give a special presentation to our first graders about who they are and what they do.  This is going to be a special surprise for the kids on Thursday morning.  Thank you Mrs. Ogg and Guardian Air!

Field Trips:  You will notice on our calendar we are in the beginning stages of planning for several field trips for the end of the year.  As of now we have the dates and times solidified, but have not yet finished working on chaperones and permission slips.  These are in the works and information and slips should be out to you soon.  Our two big field trips are Harkins in April to see the Disney Earth movie on Penguins (we will be doing a Penguin study to go with this), and our annual Bearizona trip in May to go with our big bear research project.  Each field trip requires a certain amount of chaperones per a certain amount of students (which we split between the classes), and those chaperones are required to ride the bus with us without any other children for insurance purposes.  As soon as I know how many chaperones I will need for each field trip I will let you know.  For the Bearizona field trip, keep in mind that if you want to Chaperone you will be in charge of a group of 5 students for the entirety of the day, not just your student.  Other field trips include Heritage Square (I will need a couple of parents to help walk with to and from the square), the Library, and the last day of school we will be going to Thorpe Park (all are welcome to join us there as well).  As I said, there will be a lot more information on all of this as each event draws near.

What a way to kick off April!  So much great stuff happening.  By the way, tell the kids no spider jokes tomorrow-they do not work with me! 😀 💜-Ms. Shaw