Tomorrow we will begin our study of winter holidays around the world.  Over the next two weeks, our class will visit each of the other first grade classrooms to learn about a winter holiday celebrated in another country.  We hope to expand the childrens' awareness of the beautiful patchwork of our global community.  This is a wonderful opportunity for you to discuss your holiday traditions as a family, why they are important to your family,  and how they may be the same or different as other holidays from other countries or cultures. 

We will finish our math unit on graphing this week.  Please ask your child to describe the process of collecting data, representing data, and describing data.  You may want to review the questions from last week's post with your child in preparation for the graphing assessment.

Thursday, December 20 will be our "Grinch Day."  If you have a copy of Dr. Seuss' How The Grinch Stole Christmas, I would love to borrow it for the day.  We will have regular lessons during the day, just with a Grinch theme.  Students are welcome to dress as their favorite character from the story.  :-)

Friday, December 21 will have the school sing-along in the morning and our class party in the afternoon at 1:00.  The room parents will be in touch with more information. 

Please note that there will be no homework packet the week of December 17-21, and we will not have spelling tests that week.

Finally, Mill Run is in contact with an elementary school in New Jersey whose students lost their homes and entire personal belongings in Hurricane Sandy.  The first grade classes are collecting gifts for two kindergarten students:  Gianna and Hannah.  One of our third grade teachers will be delivering the items we collect this weekend, so if you would like to contribute, please send in any donations by Friday, December 14, before 2:00 pm.  Your generosity is much appreciated! 

Here are the wished-for items from Gianna and Hannah's families:
- wrapped and labeled toys or games
- gift cards to Walmart, Toys R Us, gas stations, Lowes, Target, or Sears

Thank you!

We have begun our social science unit on economics.  In first grade, that means we will learn about the differences between wants and needs, goods and services, and consumers and producers.  Here are some ideas for you to support our learning at home:

• Look around your home.  Discuss which items are wants and which are needs.
  
• Discuss your job.  Ask your child whether you provide a good or a service. 
  
• Ask your child to help you identify ways you are a consumer.  Have you ever been a producer? 
  
• Discuss the importance of saving money and making wise choices about spending.  
  

In math, we have begun a unit on graphing.  In graphing, we will explore the following questions:

• How do we collect data? We can use a survey.
  
• How can we represent the data we collect?  We can use a table, bar graph, pictograph, or a tally chart.
  
• Why is it important to represent the data accurately?  We want our audience to be able to interpret our graph.
  
• What language can we use to interpret a graph?  We can discuss results using terms like more than, less than, fewer, greater, equal, and about.  For example, "There are more students bringing lunch from home than students buying lunch today." Or, "Fewer students will buy a salad than students who will buy pizza."  
  

Thank you for your support with practicing the sight words listed on our word wall.  It is wonderful to see the students gaining confidence with reading and writing these words.  Mastering these will help the children make connections to other words.  

I will close with one of my dad's favorite jokes.  :-)

Why did the chicken cross the playground?
.
.
.
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To get to the other slide!
  

Happy Thanksgiving!

We are thankful for so many things in first grade!  If you didn't get to see the students' computer lab project, please scroll down to the blog post from last week.  The children were given the prompt, "I am thankful for," and we quickly brainstormed as a class different things that might make their lists.  This is a somewhat brief writing project, since the children needed time to be able to type their work.  As the year progresses, we will be publishing our writing more and more on the computer.  If your child needs extra keyboarding practice, you may want to explore: http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/typing/.

This is a free online resource that encourages children to become more familiar with the keyboard.  First graders often find it difficult to use the traditional hand positions for typing since their hands are still pretty small, so for us, we are aiming for the children simply to develop their familiarity with a qwerty keyboard rather than traditional touch-typing skills.  

I received a couple of questions from parents about the "tardy" policy at school.  Our school day begins promptly at 7:50 am.  Children need to be in their classroom (not just in the school building) at 7:50 to be on time for school.  Children who arrive after the 7:50 bell must check in with the school office and get a tardy slip.  However, please consider that the children often benefit from a few extra minutes to take care of their morning routine.  Children who arrive earlier are able to turn in their daily folder, pack their coat in their backpack, make their lunch choice, and sharpen two pencils to be ready for the day, all without rushing or worry.  Having a peaceful start to the morning can make such a difference.  So, even though it is not required, please consider helping your child arrive at the classroom no later than 7:45.  Thank you for your consideration of this suggestion!

Now that it is getting colder, I am asking the children to wear their jackets to recess.   I generally ask the children to wear whatever jacket they wore to school in the morning.  Our usual recess time is close to 10 am, so it is often still chilly.  Please make sure that your child's jackets are labeled with his/her name.  Thank you!

Next week, we will be finishing our history unit focusing on past and present.  You may want to discuss some concepts with your child such as:
- How have schools changed from long ago to today?
- How have houses changed from long ago to today?
- How has transportation changed from long ago to today?
- How has family life (children's games and chores, e.g.) changed from long ago to today?

We will also be finishing our math unit on skip counting.  You can help your child be prepared by practicing counting to 100 by ones, twos, fives, and tens.  The students also need to be able to count backward from 30 to zero.

Finally, one of our goals in first grade is for the students to share their writing with others.  One way we will do this is to take turns sitting in the "author's chair" and reading our writing to the class.  Almost all of the children had the opportunity to share their writing in the last few days.  I will add the last couple once we return to school next week.  The children were reading their favorite pattern book.  Next week, we will be writing nonfiction question and answer books.  

Thank you again for your tremendous support and enthusiasm during AEW week.  I told the children that I would be mentioning them by name as I make my "I'm thankful for" list on Thanksgiving.  I am also thankful for the gift of working with a wonderful group of parents.  Thank you!!

Mill Run is buzzing with preparations for American Education Week!  Here are a few notes about the events that involve our first grade classroom.

On Thursday, November 15th, we will have a special program in our classroom beginning at 11:30 am.  We will also have a special activity for you to complete with your child.  The children also enjoy having some free time to show you their classroom.  From 12:15-12:45, you are invited to a special turkey feast in the cafeteria, hosted by Mr. Vickers.  From 12:45-1:15, please plan on taking your child to the library to visit the book fair.  At 1:15, we will return to our normal classroom routine.  

As part of the American Education Week festivities, Mill Run has three theme days.  On Wednesday, November 14th, students are encouraged to wear patriotic colors.  Teachers will wear clothing representing their alma mater.  On Thursday, November 15th, students and teachers are encouraged to wear a shirt or jersey representing their favorite sport, team, or player.  On Friday, November 16th, we will all wear Mill Run colors or spirit wear.  Since our special turkey feast is on Thursday, please feel free to join in the fun by wearing your favorite sports jersey or shirt.  

Also, please remember that due to the turkey feasts for other grades, our snack and lunch schedule will be altered somewhat on Wednesday, November 14 and Friday, November 16.  Students will be able to purchase lunch from the cafeteria on these days, but many children prefer to bring lunch from home since we will be eating in the classroom. 

In academic news, we have begun our social studies history unit focusing on comparing and contrasting the past and present.  We will focus on learning about the first Thanksgiving as a way to access these concepts.  In math, we have begun a unit on skip counting.  First grade students are expected to be able to count to 100 by 1s, 2s, 5s, and 10s.  They also need to be able to count backward from 30 to 0.  In addition, we will be exploring problem solving using skip counting skills.  For example, on Friday, the children worked to solve this problem:  "There are 8 children in a group.  How many hands are there?  How many fingers?"  The students are encouraged to show their thinking using pictures, words, numbers, symbols, or charts.  In reading, we are building on our comprehension skills by practicing making connections.  We are also continually working on our decoding skills.  In writing, the children are writing pattern books.  This is an opportunity for the children to build stamina, practice spelling unknown words, add details, and check for beginning capitals and ending punctuation for each sentence.

Finally, we are beginning to include math pages with the weekly homework packets.  Please make sure your child completes both sides of the math page labeled 'homework.'  The math page labeled 'enrichment' is optional.  Also, the word study lists going home on Monday have a few oddball words.  For the children sorting short e and long e words (on pink paper), there is one oddball:  "been."  For the children sorting short a, short e, and short i words (on green paper), there is one oddball:  "what."  These words could also be sorted by initial digraph (ch, sh, th, wh) for enrichment.  When sorted that way, there will not be an oddball.  For the students sorting the -ick, -ack, -ock, and -uck word families (on salmon paper), there are no oddballs.  This is a great list for the 'word hunt' homework activity.  

Please enjoy these photos from Mill Run's Book Character Parade last week.  The children did a wonderful job choosing a character and deciding how to bring that character to life for the parade.  Many thanks to the parents who attended the parade and helped make the children feel so special!

Here are a few 'housekeeping' notes for November:

*  Please save the date for American Education Week!  On Thursday, November 15th, we will have a special program here in our classroom at 11:30 am.  The children will make a brief presentation about Thanksgiving, and we will have time for parents to enjoy time together with their children.  At 12:15-12:45, you are all invited for a Turkey Feast hosted by Mr. Vickers in Mill Run's cafeteria.  Following the feast, I am told that parents are encouraged to take their children to the library to shop at the book fair.  This is shaping up to be a tremendous celebration of our school and classroom community.

*  Due to the turkey feasts for other grades, our snack and lunch schedule will be altered somewhat on Wednesday, November 14 and Friday, November 16.  Students will be able to purchase lunch from the cafeteria on these days, but many children prefer to bring lunch from home since we will be eating in the classroom.

*  In homework news, the current homework packet is being stretched until Friday, November 9 due to our two hurricane days and the short week this week.  Thank you for understanding.  Also, there will be no homework the week of Thanksgiving.  As a reminder, you only need to return the homework cover sheet with your initials.  Homework is only checked for completion.

*  We have welcomed a new student to our class, and he is already fitting in beautifully.  We now have 27 students:  13 girls and 14 boys.  I will send an updated class list shortly.

*  Thanks again for your incredible support during our parent/teacher conferences.  It is a real pleasure to share good news with you about the wonderful things your children are doing at school.  Report cards will come home in your child's backpack on November 14.  Please return the report card envelope the next day since we will re-use them throughout the year.

I hope you can tell when we meet for our parent/teacher conference just how much I enjoy sharing good news with you about all that your children are accomplishing at school.  This is one of the many things I love about teaching!

During our conferences, I am hoping to provide you with a snapshot of your child's adjustment to first grade as well as a quick overview of his/her academic progress.  Based on some very insightful questions that I have received in the first few conferences, I would like to provide a few notes for everyone.

The two formal literacy assessments that we conduct at Mill Run for first graders are the Phonological Awareness Literacy Screening (Pals) and the Developmental Reading Assessment (DRA).  These assessments provide me with a wealth of data that I use to best differentiate reading, writing, and word study instruction for each child.  The Pals website has abundant information about the program, but best of all, it has a tab just for parents.  If you visit:  https://pals.virginia.edu/parents-monthly-activity.html, you will see background information about the assessment as well as ideas for parents to use at home for further enrichment.  

If you are looking for more context regarding your child's DRA score, one tool that is available to parents is "bookwizard" on the scholastic.com website.  Scholastic makes it very easy to search for books within a certain level.  However, please use this with caution!  It is much more important for a child to learn to love reading than to learn to identify with a particular level.  Levels are primarily useful at school in a small group, instructional context.  Also, many children change rapidly from one level to another.  So, for reading at home, please focus primarily on books that make your child happy.  :-)

This week, please remember that Wednesday, October 31 will be Mill Run's Book Character Dress Up Day.  Here are some key reminders:
     *  Students bring their costumes to school and change into them immediately before the parade.
     *  Students should have a copy of the book, the book cover, or a drawing of the book cover to carry during the parade.
     *  Parents arrive at the gym at 1:15 to form the audience for the parade.
     *  The parade will begin at 1:30.
     *  No masks, weapons, or scary items, please!
     *  In class this week, each student will have the chance to tell the class  about how they chose this particular character.

Thank you so much to one of our parent chaperons for sending along this batch of photos from the field trip.  It seemed easier to make a new slideshow than to add them to the first one, so I hope you don't mind checking two places for views of your child on the field trip!

Also, I received some very good questions about the word study homework from one student's parents.  I'm guessing that they are probably not alone in wondering about the oddball words, so I will copy my answer to them here, to share with all of you.  Please note, however, that the word lists are differentiated according to the children's spelling needs.  We will discuss this in more detail at our conference, but please know that not everyone has the same list. 

We have reviewed the sorts in class, including the oddballs, but it takes awhile to get used to the concept.  In a few weeks, all of this should be very routine for your children.  Here is a quick summary:

The oddball words are the ones that look like they should belong in the main feature categories, but they don't sound right.  So, one group's  words this week are sorting CVC (consonant-vowel-consonant) words with short /a/ sounds and short /o/ sounds.  'Cat' and 'sock' are the headers.  Jam, had, cab, ran, sad, map, and ham all belong under the heading 'cat.'  'Was' looks like it should belong there, but it's different.  It's an oddball.  Likewise, hot, mop, fox, box, mom, lot, etc, all belong under 'sock.'  They all have a short /o/ sound in the middle of the word.  'Boy' looks like it should belong there, since it has an o in the middle position, but it's a different sound.  It's an oddball.

For that set of words, 'was' and 'boy' are the only oddballs. If a word sort includes oddballs, they usually only have a small number, just to highlight the contrast. Spelling patterns in English can be so helpful, but it is critical to remember that there are exceptions. I hope that in older grades they discuss the reasons behind the exceptions, but for us, it's enough just to know that exceptions exist.

The spelling test on Friday will consist of ten words selected from each category of word study words. There will also be a sight word dictation sentence to bring in the word wall words.  These are the words in bold on the word wall page of this website. This sentence will be very simple at the beginning, e.g. "You can do it." "Look at me." "I can see you." This is another way for me to check not only that the children can apply the word wall words but also that the children remember to begin sentences with an upper-case letter and finish with the correct punctuation mark.

Thanks very much to this family for taking the risk and asking questions!  I hope that these answers are helpful to everyone!  :-)  

Many thanks to the parent chaperons for helping to make our field trip a success on Friday. Wow! Literally, we couldn't have done it without you!  Although I was disappointed by the lack of service provided by the farm, the students did not seem to mind.  In fact, I was tremendously impressed with our group's patience, cheerful attitude, and good manners.  If you were not able to join us at the farm, you should know that your children did a fantastic job.  Several parents were helping to take photos on Friday.  I will add them to the slideshow below as I receive them.  Stay tuned!

In other classroom news, we have completed our math unit on patterns.  Your student should be able to tell you the difference between a repeating pattern and a growing pattern.  She/he should be able to give you examples of both types of patterns and be able to represent those patterns in more than one way, e.g.  a clap-snap, clap-snap pattern could also be represented as an AB pattern or as a square-triangle pattern.  We will be studying sorting and two-dimensional shapes in the last few weeks of the first quarter.  For sorting, I am collecting buttons and lids.  If you happen to have any loose buttons in your junk drawer, we would love to have them for our math work.  Any lids that can be salvaged before you toss them in recycling would be wonderful.  I found about ten lids in my family's recycling bin yesterday - everything from laundry soap to a chip container.  We are hoping to have a wide variety of sizes, colors, and textures.

On Monday, your child will be bringing home our first homework packet of the year.  We will add components to the homework packet as the year progresses, but for now you will see three types of assignments on the cover sheet:  daily reading, word study, and an optional double-sided handwriting page.  Please initial at the top of the page to indicate that your child has completed the assignments.  Only the cover page needs to be returned on Friday.  Please let me know if you have any questions about homework.  

And, parent/teacher conferences will begin the week of October 22.  We will spend time discussing your child's adjustment to first grade, strengths and areas for improvement, and the results of your child's reading assessments.   These assessments are tremendously helpful to me as I work to focus our classroom instruction to meet the individual needs of each student.  If you have specific questions that you would like me to address during our conference, please send them to me as soon as possible.  

Thanks again and again for sharing your children with me.  I am the luckiest teacher in the school!

We had a wonderful week together in first grade.  At left, you see our counselor, Mrs. Fulkerson congratulating our first star citizen, NW!  Each month we will recognize a new star citizen, a student who goes above and beyond to follow the school code.  Congratulations!  

Below you will see another star, CM, who was chosen to participate in the African Acrobats assembly that was provided by our generous PTO!  You will also see Mr. Vickers taking part in the hat-juggling act and one of the performers in the midst of a terrifying stunt.  Oh my!  Needless to say, they reminded the children not to try this at home!  

Classroom Notes:
This week Mill Run is collecting coins to support Mill Run East, a school in the Philippines.  Small change can make a big difference, so thank you for allowing your children to participate.

Wednesday is picture day.  Our pictures will be taken first thing in the morning, so please make sure your child is on time.  You are welcome to send the order envelope in on Tuesday or Wednesday.  The children give the order envelope directly to the photographer.  Make-up pictures will be in November.

We are excited for our field trip this Friday, October 12th to Great Country Farms. Please make sure your child has the following for our fun day:

• Sneakers (or other shoes suitable for walking at a farm)
  
• Appropriate clothes for the weather
• Please be prepared if rain is in the forecast. We plan on going, rain or shine.
• Your child will receive his or her field trip shirt the morning of the trip, so be sure they can slip their shirt over top of their clothes.
• Packed lunch, clearly labeled with your child's name.

If you are meeting us at the farm, please be prepared to pay $8 upon your arrival.

I will gladly accept donations of buttons for the class to use in an upcoming math project.  The goal is to have a wide variety of sizes, colors, and textures, so any button will be added to the button jar with great enthusiasm!  :-)