February 13-17

I am so excited and pleased with our BSU intern, Ms. Yurek. She is doing a fabulous job working with small groups and teaching lessons throughout the week. She even took my class the day I was so sick. I am looking forward to her opportunity to take my class again this week, as I will be traveling with our first grade team to Portland on Friday to get further training in math instruction. Ms. Yurek has a passion for teaching and a love for the students. We are blessed to have her in our class!

We will be celebrating Valentine's Day on Tuesday at 1:30. Please let me know if you can bring anything for the party. We are in need of cookies or cupcakes, sliced fruit, and apple juice. Some Valentine plates, cups and napkins would be nice also. Your child can bring in their Valentine's Monday or Tuesday to pass out.

Roaring Springs information will be sent home soon. Please follow the directions and expectations for your child to earn a day pass at Roaring Springs. I have high expectations for this reward and expect parents and children to meet the requirements in full. These are due back to me by March 31st.

Class pictures are scheduled for Thursday, February 23rd. If you plan on purchasing them, you must send in payment prior to Feb. 23rd. Individual pictures are optional. Your child will not get individual pictures unless you prepay for them. Picture packets will be in their homework folder this week.

Homework:
We are beginning to use our basal readers in our reading this week, which means that there will be less decodable books coming home on their bookrings. It is very important that you continue to have your child read nightly! If your child is struggling in reading, pull the books that you have put in their library shoebox and review those. If your child is fluent and meeting the first grade fluency expectations (39-60 wpm), then encourage them to begin reading books of their choice. Be sure the books are at their reading level and not at a frustration level. One way to check is to have them read a page, if they miss less than 3 words, it is at their independent level.

We are continuing to work on number sense in math, using the 100's chart. These are the skills you can continue to reinforce at home: skip counting (by 2's, 5's, 10's), finding numbers 10 more and 10 less, 1 more and 1 less, comparing numbers (using > < =,) place value, and addition/subtraction facts (starting at 5).

Spelling test is on Friday. Please take time to practice the words nightly. Some fun activities is using shaving cream in the bath tub, writing on the mirror with dry erase markers, using spaghetti noodles, or playing the dice game (I will try to remember to send home a copy of this in their homework folder).