The Solar System and Planets

Sun / Moon / Stars

Important dates: 12-15 Testing………..16th-Parent/Teacher conferences (NO SCHOOL)

Spring Break: No school on the 19th and 20th

Student of the month is Ryder

Student of the Month:

   Arnav Chauhan

Important dates:

•    Mar 12-16 – Testing
•    Mar 16 – Parent/Teacher Conferences – NO SCHOOL!!
•    Mar 19-20 – Spring Break! NO SCHOOL!!
•    Mar 7 – Jordan’s Birthday!
•    Mar 8 – Ms. Rachel’s Birthday!

Themes:

•    Feb 26-Mar 2 – Dental Health
•    Mar 5-9 – Dental Health
•    Mar 12-16 – Testing
•    Mar 19-23 – Bugs/Insects
•    Mar 26-30 – Bugs/Insects

Ooey Gooey Messy Days:

•    Feb 28 – Egg experiment
•    Mar 1 – Playing in applesauce
•    Mar 2 – Painting with a toothbrush
•    Mar 7 – Using wet glue
•    Mar 9 – Painting with dental floss
•    Mar 21 – Painting
•    Mar 22 – Using wet glue
•    Mar 23 – Make Dirt-and-Worms! YUM!
•    Mar 28 – Using wet glue
•    Mar 30 – Painting

Language Arts:

During the month of March we will begin reviewing our alphabet. That’s right – I said reviewing!! We have officially gone through the entire alphabet! So, starting over with the letters “Ff”, “Ss” and “Bb”, and with a little help from our friends Farley Fox, Sadie Seal, and Baby Barnaby, we’ll be reviewing and relearning their songs, their sounds, and how to identify and trace their letters. 

Math:

Our counting goal will stay at 55 for the month, but we’ll be moving up to learning to identify the numbers 14, 15 and 16.  And don’t forget about shapes! We will practice recognizing and drawing the following shapes: Circle, Diamond, Oval and Rectangle.

Science/Social Studies:

For our Dental Health theme we’ll do an experiment that will help the children realize how important brushing their teeth can be. All it takes is an egg, a tea bag, and a toothbrush!! After boiling the egg with the tea bag it be stained brown, but giving each child a chance to “brush” the egg will show them this is what happens on their teeth, too, when the stains begin to disappear! We’ll also focus on the proper way to care for our teeth as we start brushing our teeth every day after lunch.

For our Bugs/Insects theme, we’ll talk about many of the creepy crawlies and why they are important to our world. Then we’ll read my own personal favorite children’s book, “The Very Hungry Caterpillar” and discuss how a caterpillar builds a cocoon and turns into a butterfly!!

Special Projects:

-Soldiers’ Angels~

I received an email from Steven on February 11th, thanking us for January’s Super Bowl Care Package. He said that it arrived just in time for the game. He also let us know that he’s changed jobs and that it is career progression. He ended his email saying, “I thank you for continuing to send the emails; really makes for fun reading.”

And I want to thank all the families who donated items for February’s care package! Not only did we send our Soldier the Valentine’s the kids brought specially for him, we were also able to send him a special Valentine’s Day treat; something he has been in need of since we first adopted him in August – a new pillow!

This month’s Care Package theme: “We’re LUCKY to have a Soldier like YOU!”

What better way to show our appreciation than to send our soldier lots of things for good luck? Here are a few suggestions:

• Paper Shamrocks/St. Patrick’s Day decorations
• A Blarney stone
• Green St. Patrick’s Day necklaces
• Green candy
• Green drink mix
• A funny green hat
• ANYTHING ST. PATTY’S DAY!

 For details on the Soldier’s Angels Project, go to www.soldiersangels.org.

-The Flat Stanley Project~

So far, our class has sent out 3 Flat Stanleys – one to North Carolina, one to Pennsylvania, and one to Nebraska – and I hope to send out more before we’re done. If you haven’t already, please discuss with your child where you would like to “send” their Flat Stanley. We want Stanley to explore, so if possible, please send him someplace far away – out of state is encouraged!

Who’s house will Stanley be at next?? See below for Stanley’s March “Weekend Schedule”:

•    Feb 24-27 – Airyanna
•    Mar 2-5 – Logan
•    Mar 9-12 – Jakoby
•    Mar 16-21 – Lemuel
•    Mar 23-26 – Cameryn

For more information on the Flat Stanley Project, go to http://www.flatstanleybooks.com/

 Show and Tell:

•    Mar 2 – Something to do with TEETH!
•    Mar 9 – FREE CHOICE!
•    Mar 16 – FREE CHOICE!
•    Mar 23 – Something to do with BUTTERFLIES or CATERPILLARS!
•    Mar 30 – Something to do with BUGS or INSECTS!

March 16- NO SCHOOL, Parent/Teacher Conferences

March 19-  NO SCHOOL, Spring Break

March 20-  NO SCHOOL, Spring Break

 Student of the Month:  Sabine Khan

Show and Tell:      March 2- Something that belongs to a community helper or is 

                                 related to one. (i.e.  a firetruck, police car, hard hat, etc.)

March 9- A ball (any type will do)

March 16- NO SCHOOL

March 23- Free Choice

March 30- Dress like what you want to be when you grow up.

Language Arts:  This month we are going to be working on the y the makes the long e sound, in words like jelly.  We are going to be learning the long I sound, in words like bike.  We are also going to be learning the soft c sound, used in words like nice. 

Math:  We are going to be continuing doing fast math.  The kids are getting much faster at doing their math problems.  We have also started the first grade portion of our math curriculum, where the kids will be starting to do some review and then they will be moving into doing a little more difficult work. 

Science:  This month we are going to be learning about the solar system.  The kids will be learning about the planets and other parts of the solar system.  This is always a fun theme for the kids to learn about.  We will be doing several activities and songs to help them learn about their world and the other planets.

Social Studies:  This month is community helper month.  We are going to be spending the month learning about the people that help out in the community, including firemen, police, construction workers, and bakers.  We are going to try to get some actual community helpers to come and speak to the class.   If any parents have a job that they would like to come talk to the class about, please let me know and we can set up a time for you to come in.  This is your chance to come share what you do with the class. 

Upcoming Events:

• March 12^th – 15^th is 3^rd quarter testing.
• March 16^th is Parent-Teacher Conferences from 8 am to 12 pm
• Spring Break – March 19^th & 20^th

Theme Week:

• March 5^th – 9^th:  Dental Health
• March 12^th – 16^th:  Testing
• March 21^st – 23^rd:  Bugs/Insects
• March 26^th – 30^th:  Bugs/Insects

Show-n-Tell:

• March 9^th: Free Choice
• March 16^th: No School!
• March 23^rd:  Something GREEN!
• March 30^th : Starts with F

Language Arts: We’re working on the letter C, D, E, and F. The student’s cutting has improved a ton since 2^nd quarter testing! But they are still doing activities to help improve and get those cutting muscles under control. They are doing lots of activities to help them improve with recognizing more letters. And of course, lots of the activities are theme related art work. 

Math: P 3 students are working on their recognition of the numbers 8, 9, 10, and 11. The shapes the students are working on are squares, triangle, circle, and diamond. I love to still have them do crafts to recognize numbers and shapes, but they are doing more of patterning, separating, and counting. For dental health theme week for example, the class is counting teeth (marshmallows).

Centers: More folder games and puzzles! Shaving cream, gluing pictures, building blocks, leggo’s, coloring, our discovery box, and lots more fun!

*We are doing more science experiments as a class, that involves the color changing activities and more. They’re fun group activities and totally safe because Miss.Emily is in control of them!*

Dates to remember:

2-12-2-15 3rd Quarter Testing

3-16 CLOSED for parent teacher conferences.  A sign up sheet will be posted outside of the classroom

3-19 – 3-20 CLOSED FOR SPRING BREAK!!

Student of the month: Tyra Gatewood. She has done a great job in the classroom and loves being a great helper!! She is also such a great friend to have in our class. Way to go Tyra.

Themes:

Dental Health week

Testing

Bugs/Insects

Show-and-Tell:

3-2 Anything to do with a dentist

3-9 A healthy snack to share w/ class

3-16 CLOSED

3-23 A bug

3-30 something that starts with I or a ladybug

Messy Days:

3-1 gluing

3-5 playing in toothpaste

3-6 toothbrush painting

3-7 gluing/ playing with toothpaste

3-12 hand print leprechaun

3-14 paint a shamrock

3-15 shaving cream play

3-21 color with markers and playing in dirt

3-22 hand print caterpillars

3-23 foot print butterflies

3-26 dirt with bugs

3-27 painting paper plates

3-28 dirt with bugs and a gluing project

3-29 gluing project

3-30 hand print spiders

LA:  The letters for this month will be the letters D, and I. We won’t have a letter for testing week and then we won’t have a letter the week of March 19-23 because we are only here for 3 days. We are going to be doing Dental Health for the letter D. We will continue to trace our letters once a week. We are also going to work on cutting the words out for the week. For the letter I we are going to be making inchworms. We are also going to be doing another tracing work sheet and then I am going to be playing musical chairs and hide the pictures that start with the letter of the week!! We are also going to work on recognizing our letters in our names and recognizing the first letter of our names. The name puzzles that I have made for the classrooms are really popular.  The children love them!

Math: We are going to focus on counting to 20.  By this time of year, the students should all be recognizing their shapes and colors. The class has also been focusing on sorting by colors. Last month they sorted bears and hearts. This month they are going to sort teeth and bugs.

REMINDER: Now that the weather is getting warmer please remember that we go outside both in the morning and the afternoon! It will still be chilly in the morning and wonderful in the afternoon!!

March 12-15 TESTING WEEK–this is an important week for your child to be in attendance

School closed for parent teacher conferences March 16–there will be a sign up sheet for conference times posted on the bulletin board outside classroom

March 19-20  No School

Student of the Month:  Aurora Santos  Thank you Aurora for being such a great role model for our classroom.  Please check out Aurora’s poster in the elementary hallway.

Themes for March:

Science: Insects

Social Studies: Community Helpers

Language Arts:  We are almost finished with our alphabet!  The E1 classroom centers around Jim Stone’s Animated Alphabet which incorporates characters for each letter teaching identification and letter sounds in a fun way.  During the week we will also learn to write the letter first tracing then independently.  On Tuesday we will do a craft that focuses on the letter of the week.

Week 1: “Z” Zachary and Zena Zebra

Week 2: testing week

Week 3: short week, so we will focus on upper/lowercase matching

Week 4:  “I” Ichabod Ichthyosaurus

Math:  We will be continuing addition story problems and number identification.  This month I will introduce ordinal numbers.  We will also begin recognizing and matching number words. 

Show and Tell:

Every Friday afternoon we will have show and tell in our classroom. I will have themes listed on my blog for each week that I would like for the kids to follow. Let me see your creativity! You can use toys, books, photos, objects, food, cut out of magazine, etc! Please help your child choose their item to bring and help them rehearse things to talk about. They will be given time to present their item and talk about it, followed by questions from the class.

Friday March 9: an animal found in the zoo

Friday March 16: free choice

Friday March 23:  Insects

Friday March 30:  something related to spring

We will celebrate our Valentine’s Party on Tues Feb 14 at 3 pm.  Please bring a Valentine to each child in our class.  I will be sending home a class list with the names of each student.  I will let the children pass out their own cards by identifying their peer’s names.  For handwriting practice, please have your child write their own name on their cards.  I will have a sign up sheet on the bulletin board outside my classroom to bring treats and supplies for the party.

Student of the Month:  Braylon Booth!  Braylon has shown great intellectual growth in my classroom and is a friend to many.  Come check out his poster in the elementary hallway.

Themes:

Social Studies: Maps

Science: Simple Machines

Language Arts:

We continue with Jim Stone’s Animated Alphabet series which includes letter identification and letter sounds using characters, stories and songs.

Characters for February:

“L” Lizzy Lamb and Lonnie Lion

“N” Nellie Newt

“V” Victor Vampire

“Y” Yakety Yak

“E” Edgar Elf and Ellie Elephant

Tuesday will continue to include a quality children’s read aloud and activity.

Math:

Things we will continue to work on for the month of February in math include AB and ABC patterns, money, counting manipulatives, identifying numbers and counting to 50.  We will also continue addition story problems and writing our numbers.

Show and Tell

Every Friday afternoon we will have show and tell in our classroom. I will have themes listed on my blog for each week that I would like for the kids to follow. Let me see your creativity! You can use toys, books, photos, objects, food, cut out of magazine, etc! Please help your child choose their item to bring and help them rehearse things to talk about. They will be given time to present their item and talk about it, followed by questions from the class.

Friday Feb 3—Something “L”

Friday Feb 10 –Related to Valentine’s day

Friday Feb 17 –free choice

Friday Feb 24 –something yellow

Friday March 2– something with wheels

Upcoming Dates: February 14- Valentines Day Party 3:00 pm   (Please bring a card for everyone in the class.)

Girls- Ameera, Angel, Kaliya, Aaliyah, Nevaeh, Sabine, Kaitlyn, Alysha

Boys- Jahmari, Deaven, Roshawn, Tristan

Show and Tell: Feb. 3- A machine or something with wheels.

Feb. 17- Something you love

Language Arts- This month we are going to be learning about double letters in words; the long o sound spelled “ow” and “oa”; the long e sound spelled “e”, “ee” and “ea”; and the long a sound spelled “a_e”.  We will continue with spelling and daily work to develop their reading and writing skills.

Math- This month we are going to be getting quicker at addition. The kids are going to be doing a lot of focusing on addition. They will also be learning about telling time and money. They will be getting better at number recognition and how the numbers work together.

Science- This month we are going to be learning about magnets and machines. We are going to be learning about the way things work. The kids will be learning about the different parts of a machine, including gears, pullys, levers, and inclined planes. They will be doing hands on activities to help them make machines move.

Social Studies- We are going to be learning about maps this month. We will be looking at maps of our classroom, city, and state. They will also be looking at maps of our country and world. We will be finding ourselves on the map. They will be playing games and doing activities to help them learn how to read a map and follow directions.