Field Trip

We had a GREAT field trip to Ellington Agricultural Center last week! The Metro Mounted Patrol officers did a great presentation for us. They let all of the students(and the teachers that wanted to) sit on and pet some of the horses. I will be sending home pictures of all of the students sitting on the horse in the next week or so. We also went on a fun nature trail and got to visit a museum. The kids had a great time!

Happy Fall, Y'all!

We have had several things going on the last couple of weeks! First of all, let me thank all of you that came out to Grandparent's Day and parent teacher conferences. We had a great turn out for both, which is always awesome!

The week of 9/11 we made drawings for police officers, fire fighters, and a soldier thanking them for all they do for our country. We sent them to the Columbia Fire Department, Lewisburg Police Department, and to a local soldier who is in the National Guard and has served time over seas. I asked for them to take pictures so I could show the students our different heroes with the drawings they colored. They have graciously done so!

 The first pictures are from two of the fire stations in Columbia.

The LPD took a step farther than just sending a picture. They sent two officers, Officers Cuevas and Christmas, to our class and presented us with a poster and a challenge coin. They thanked the students for their drawings and explained that the Chief only gives the challenge coin to people who have really done something special. We now have the challenge coin in our classroom and the poster is hanging outside in the hallway. These are some pictures from that day.

In the last weeks we have also done a unit on apples. We learned all about Johnny Appleseed, tried three different types of apples and picked out our favorite kind, and also made homemade applesauce. The kids were most excited about the homemade applesauce. They got to help put in the ingredients and of course they were all taste testers.

I always enjoy doing fun projects with the students and they really love it too! It's always a nice treat to experience a fun way of learning. :)

DON'T FORGET: 
Field trip: Wednesday, October 3, 2012
Please send in the money no later than TUESDAY!
 The bus will be leaving at promptly 8:15. 
  

Progress Reports and Other News

Progress reports are going out tomorrow! This year 1st grade is doing a standardized report card. This is going to be similar to what you were used to in Kindergarten. The progress report is going to be like the report card, just on a different type of sheet. If you have any questions about this, please write me a note, e-mail me, or give me a call at the school.

So far the Stanford 10 testing is going well in the classroom! The students have not seemed very tense or upset about the test even though it is the longest test they have ever taken. At the end of the day on Tuesday there were even several students who said they "LOVED" taking it. I have a class full of students who love learning and trying new things! :) We have our last test tomorrow.

Although we have been testing, we have been learning about our community helpers such as firefighters, police officers, and our armed forces. In remembrance of 9/11 we have been drawing pictures on "Thank You" cards for these community helpers. I have a class full of creative and talented artists as well. We have also been learning about Johnny Appleseed since his birthday is in the month of September. I plan to make homemade applesauce on Friday and also let them sample red apples, Granny Smith green apples, and yellow apples. We are going to discuss and graph which apples they like best!

Look for pictures to be posted soon of our apple projects!

One more piece of news: The book fair will be going on next week Sept. 17-20! 

We made it! :)

Congratulations to everyone! We made it through the first week of school. Last week we worked mainly on procedures and following the rules. We read several Kevin Henkes books and completed several activities that went along with the books. We also reviewed some Kindergarten math skills and started handwriting practice.

There have been several schedule changes in the last week concerning our related arts days and times. There are several teachers at school trying to work out the kinks and get those finished for us. As soon as I have a final copy, I will send a revised Related Arts Schedule home in your student's agenda folder.

Starting Monday the students will begin having homework. Occasionally, we will get to finish a homework sheet in class. If this happens, I will still send the sheet home so you can see that it is complete. It is important for you to go over their homework each night with them. Your student needs to read the assigned reading passage to an adult. On the assigned phonics sheet, there is a box that beings with "Dear Parent," in it. This box gives you instructions on what to do. I will be going over the instructions during the lesson, but just in case they forget, this is a useful resource!

I am attaching the very first pictures of our class this year! The first is a picture of the class with a flower glyph that we did. The number of petals is the number of letters in their first name. The number of leaves is the number of vowels in their name, and the number of Popsicle sticks is how many syllables are in their names. The second is one where they all wanted to do a funny face. The last is just a super cute picture of the whole class! Enjoy! I'm looking forward to another great week! 

Vote for Oak Grove!

Please take the time to vote for Oak Grove Elementary! For every 25 votes, we get a $25 gift card to Target. So far, we have earned $75 dollars. Depending on the number of votes we get, we could earn $10,000!!! How awesome would that be?! Just click the link below.

Give With Target

Welcome to a New School Year!

Hello parents of my 2012-2013 class! I hope everyone has had an amazing summer and is ready to get back into the swing of the school year. I'm so excited to be meeting all of you and all of your children! I hope that you will check back with my blog often. I will be doing my best to keep you updated with all kinds of information on here and by sending letters home. If you would like to see more on the blog let me know! I'm always open to suggestions and comments. I want to extend a huge welcome to all of you! It's going to be a great year!