Halloween's a wrap

Thanks for all the parent helpers who came to help and be a part of our Halloween Party on Friday!  It was a big success!  I hope you were all able to stay warm and dry trick-or-treating!

There is no school tomorrow.  It's a teacher inservice day!  Enjoy that extra day with your kiddos!!

If you haven’t heard the news, we have hired a new first grade teacher to help us with our large class sizes.  His name is Mr. Wissner!  He is going to be a great addition to our staff.   He will be shadowing in our classrooms the week of November  9^th.  He will start with his new class on the 16^th.  We will sadly have to say good bye to 7 of our friends in our classroom.   If you happen to be one of the 7 families, I just want to say thank you for sharing your child with me for the past 2 months.  I have fallen in love with them and am going to be super sad to see them go.  I also want to say thank you for being flexible and willing to make this change.   After meeting Mr. Wissner, I can assure you that they will love him!

Just a reminder that there is also no school on November 19 for parent teacher conferences.  A note should be coming home soon!  If you are a family that will be joining Mr. Wissner's class, your conference will be with Mr. Wissner and myself.

Upcoming Events

This week we will be heading to Geers Farm for a field trip!  We will be leaving school just before 9 and arriving back to school shortly after 11.  If you signed up to chaperone, it does cost you $4 as well.  I sent home reminders on Friday to those who still owe money.

The book order is due this week on Wednesday the 21st!  There's still time if you would like to order some books!

A note went home last week about the Halloween party.  If you didn't receive one, please let me know.  Here's a list of what students need to bring what:

1 bag of pretzels – Olivia

1 bag of mini marshmallows – Khloe

1 bag of mini marshmallows - Ellie

1 big bag of m&ms – Kaylee 

1 big bag of m&ms – Reed

1 bag of chocolate chips – Caleb

1 bag of candy corn – June

1 bag of candy corn – Xander

1 can of peanuts – Mason

1 can of peanuts – Joshua

1 bag of popcorn - Bella

25 paper cups - Akira

Please let me know if you are unable to bring the item listed above and I can take care of it for  you.

October news week 1

We had a pretty good start to October already!!  We have taken down our No David School Rules and put up some crazy looking pumpkins!  There are no two pumpkins alike in the pumpkin patch and there are definitely no two pumpkins alike in our class either!  Looking forward to a fun filled October!

We are starting a new unit in math.  It's all about adding and the strategies that we use to do this.

We are starting book it this month as well.  There will be a calendar coming home with your child.  They need to read 50 minutes a week to earn a Pizza Hut coupon.  Please be sure to turn this in the first week of November in order to get your coupon.

We will be taking a field trip to Geers farm later this month.  There will be more information coming home letting you know the details!

Halloween is at the end of the month.  I will be sending home information about this as well!!

If you have filled out a sheet to volunteer, I will be contacting you this month to set up a time!

3rd Week of School

We are entering our 3rd week of school already!  We are learning the routines of the classroom and what it's like to be back in school.

We now have 5 chrysalis waiting to hatch.  We are super excited for that moment to come!!

This week we started bringing home our take home folders to work on reading.  Everyone brought back their folders today and read last night!!!  This has only ever happened one other time in my 6 years of teaching!!!  I'm super impressed!  Remember to only write down the books on their reading logs that come home in their folders.  I give prizes out for reading and want to make sure everyone is doing it the same way to earn their prize.  Please feel free to have your child read more, but please don't put them on the reading log.

This week's student of the week is Caleb Brainerd!  He loves to work on engines with his uncle and ride motorcycle with him as well.  He likes to watch the Lego movie and read Clifford the Big Red Dog books.

I would love to add a picture of him here, but for some reason it won't let me.  Hopefully next week I have it all figured out!!  Ha ha!!

Our first full week!

This week, I hope to get more routines established!!  Last week we got to know each other and learned a lot about what first grade is going to be like.  I think it went well!!

This week I am sending home a spelling list.  These should be studied for a test on Friday.

There is an open house at the library:  September 19 from 9-1 to celebrate its 20 year anniversary.  There will be door prizes, refreshments, a special story hour and a craft starting at 10.  Hope to see you there!

I see that many of you have logged onto Class DoJo!  I use this for students to earn points to spend on coupons and a class store.  You can check it daily to see what your child has earned points for or lost points for.  If you have any questions, you can contact me through Class DoJo, email, or phone.

Next week we will be bringing home reading folders daily.  These are books that your child has had in his/her book box.  Please have your child read the book to you and then sign that it has happened.  Your child will receive a stamp on his/her reading log and also earn a DoJo point.  Once your child has read 25 books at home, he/she will bring 2 books home!!  Every 25 books read, your child gets to go to the prize jar!!  Reading at home is super important in first grade.  Practice makes great readers!!

We have 5 caterpillars in our classroom that we are watching transform!  One is a chrysalis already and this morning when we got her we had a mother one in a J.  Stay tuned for more from our butterfly garden!!

Welcome to a new year!

I was so excited to meet you all at open house this week!  I can't wait to see what this year has in store for us!  I hope you all enjoy your labor day weekend.

This weekend we are heading to our cabin in Canada!  I can't wait!!  We like to ride four wheelers and go fishing while we are there.  At nighttime, we like to go look for bear and deer.  Hopefully this time we get to see a moose!

This summer, we got some baby bunnies.  They are the cutest little things!  One is named Clover and the other is Ezekiel.  We are going to miss cuddling with them when we come to school.

Another place we like to go to during the summer is the beach!!  I love going to Lake Michigan, but we mostly go to Lake Missaukee.  I'm going to miss going to the beach for sure!!

If you haven't brought in your school supplies, please be sure to get them in as soon as you can!  If you need to know what you need, here is a list:

1 two-pocket plastic folder

2 boxes of 24-count crayons

4 large glue sticks

1 package of pencils (these will be shared so if your child has special ones, he/she may want to leave them at home for homework)

3 wide ruled spiral notebooks (tablets)

1 box of Kleenex

1 pencil box (hard case that will fit crayons, pencils, glue sticks, etc.)

1 set of headphones/earbuds, whichever fits your child the best

1 bottle of sanitizer

Let me know if there is anything else I can help you with!!  Can't wait for Tuesday!

Valentine's Day party

We are still planning on Valentine's day party on Tuesday afternoon.  If you are unable to bring what you planned on, please let me know as soon as possible so that I can make other arrangements.

Parent teacher conferences have been rescheduled for this coming Thursday, February 19.  If you are unable to make it, please let me know as soon as you can.  Thanks!!

It's Assessment week

I can't believe that we are half way through this school year already!!!  That means that we will be doing our mid-year testing this week.  Please be sure to have your child here and well rested so that we can obtain the best possible results.

Thursday and Friday are half days!!  Please keep this in mind when planning for the week.

We are collecting donations for themed baskets to raffle off for PTO fundraiser.  The first grade theme is snacks.  These can be any snacks that are non-parishible.  You can send them in with your child and I can get them to the right person.  Thanks for supporting the PTO!!

Please remember to dress your child for the cold weather.  You never know when it will be warm enough for them to go outside, so always be prepared is my motto!!!

Happy New Year!

I hope that everyone had a great 2 weeks off!!  I know I did!!  I'm a little bummed that the snow came at the end.  Oh, well, that means lots of snow on the playground!!!

Here's a peek back at our December fun:

We made some yummy gingerbread houses.  I hope they made it home without being eaten so that you could see their creations.  We had a lot of fun!!

We celebrated 2 half birthdays!!

At our Christmas party we played some minute to win it games.  I think we all had fun watching and participating!!  Even the helpers had to get involved!!

Here's to a brand new year!!  I can't wait to see what 2015 has in store for all of us!!  See you on Monday!