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Recap of the Week of March 28

Happy April Fool's Day! We are getting so close to spring break. We keep working hard, but most of us need a break from school to relax and reboot. We can do this! One more big week of learning, and then we can rest. Here is a review of our week:

Spelling: Our spelling pattern this week was long -o spelled -oa. Next week, we will work with the long -o spelled -ow. Remember to keep practicing those Most Know Words!

March Reading Incentive: We filled our pot of gold with reading coins. Reading is GOLDEN! Thanks for reading with your scholar for 20 minutes each night. If you want your kids to be strong readers, then they need to practice. Thanks for all you do to help them become stronger readers.

Making Meaning: Our mentor text this week was An Elephant Grows Up. We practiced many of our comprehension strategies with this book: visualizing, wondering, and making connections. We also continued our work with nonfiction text features. Scholars should be able to identify and explain these text features: table of contents, headings, illustrations, photographs, captions, keywords, glossary, diagrams, labels, timelines, maps, and the index. They will be assessed on these text features later this month.

Vocabulary: We learned four new words this week: popular, remain, gather, and vegetation. We discussed synonyms for these words. We practiced answering questions in complete sentences as we applied what we knew about these words.

Shared Reading: Our mentor text was the poem "The Secret Garden." We practiced reading this poem chorally, echo reading it, and reading it with partners. We discussed whether the title was a good one and why. We found the poem's pattern, and we took turns reading it. Then, we added this poem to our poetry notebook. Scholars will illustrate our poems later this year, and then these poetry notebooks will come home.

Math: We are working through our money unit. Scholars are able to identify coins by their names and their values. We have studied the penny, nickel, dime, and quarter. Scholars know the name of the president on each coin and what the symbols on the back of the coins represent. We are able to represent an amount of money in different ways. For example, $.20 may be made with two dimes or four nickels. We also are getting better at counting coins. We will continue working on these skills next week.

Compound Words: Our grammar focus this week was compound words. Compound words are so much FLIPPING FUN! We read the mentor text If You Give a Pig a Pancake. We practiced making compound words and finding the two words that made compound word. We read poems with compound words. Then, we read compound words written on mini pancakes. If we read the word correctly, we flipped the pancake on a spatula into our pot. We loved this activity! There were many smiles as kids pushed themselves to decode compound words. Lastly, we made compound word recipe books. We practiced joining smaller words to make longer compound words and writing them in sentences.

Family Groups: After mass on Wednesday, we met with our family groups. We made paper angels that are hanging on our family group trees. We also played a game of Kahoot! The focus of the game was our all school book.

March Tournament of Books: The All Stars LOVED our Tournament of Books. Today, we voted on the last book to enter the Elite 8. The Elite 8 were: Press Here, The Invisible Boy, Dragons Love Tacos, The Couch Potato, Duck! Rabbit!, The Legend of Rock, Paper, Scissors, Can I Be Your Dog?, and Earth! We also voted on the Final Four. There were MANY CLOSE competitions. Our Final Four were as follows: Press Here, The Couch Potato, Earth!, and The Legend of Rock, Paper, Scissors. The two books voted to the championship round were Press Here and The Legend of Rock, Paper, Scissors. The kids cheered when the 2022 Book of the Year was announced. Our winner was The Legend of Rock, Paper, Scissors. I loved the excitement the All Stars had as they voted and engaged with these books. Many of them have mastered writing a paragraph to support their choices.

• Late Start: Thursday, April 7

• Living Stations: Thursday, April 7

• Spring Break: April 11 - April 18

• No School: Thursday, May 5

• Winter Gear: Please continue to send hats, mittens, and boots. It's been really chilly at recess this week!

• SWS Spirit Wear Fridays: All Star may wear any SWS to school on Friday with nonuniform bottoms.

• Library Books: Please return library books on Mondays.

• PE Shoes: Please make sure your scholar wears running shoes on Tuesdays and Thursdays for PE.

• Please send your All Star to school with a sweater or sweatshirt. The temperature in our classroom fluctuates quite a bit!

Recap of the Weeks of March 14 and 21

To all families who attended, supported, donated, bid, planned, enjoyed, and volunteered at the auction, THANK YOU! It was a HUGE success! It was a wonderful evening. I was inspired by the community's generosity. There is a true love for SWS in our community. I am blessed to teach your children. Thank you for all you do!

In the past two weeks, we have been very busy. I hosted two room transformations. Check our our pictures in our class book. It's fun to flip through the pages and see the All Stars. Here is a recap of the past two weeks:

Spelling: We continue our work with vowel teams. We have learned a few new spelling patterns: long e spelled -ea and long a spelled -ai and -ay. This week, we are working on long o spelled -oa.

March Reading Incentive: This month, scholars are reading for gold coins because Reading is GOLDEN! Our pot of gold is overflowing with gold coins. Keep sending those coins to school. I am tracking how many coins your scholar returns.

Making Meaning: We are working to master the following nonfiction text features: table of contents, headings, illustrations/ photographs, captions, keywords, glossary, diagrams, labels, timelines, index, and maps. Our mentor text last week was The Day in the Life of a Garbage Collector. We focused on timelines, and we made timelines of our school day. These should have come home. Two weeks ago, our mentor text was Velociraptor. We focused on diagrams, labels, and captions. We visualized what a velociraptor looked like, and we drew diagrams with labels. We will continue our work with nonfiction text features this week. Our mentor text this week is An Elephant Grows Up. In this book, we are focusing on maps, keywords, and the glossary. Please read nonfiction texts with your scholar, and let them identify these text features.

Vocabulary: We learned eight new words: inspect, dump, destination, contents, disappear, study, pack and ferocious. We worked with our partners to answer questions about these words and prove our understanding of them.

Shared Reading: We read the mentor text Bugs for Lunch. We used our knowledge of nonfiction text features to expand our learning. In the back of the book, we read more about each animal in the Did You Know section. Then, we looked back at the text and saw how what we learned was reflected in the illustrations. Last week, we read the book Listen to the Rain. It was a perfect book to read because it was raining while we read it. In this book, the words and illustrations mimic a rainstorm: they start soft and slow, build to loud, and drop back to quiet. We identified the adjectives the author used and sorted them. Our favorite part was making a rainstorm with our hands.

Math: In math, we completed our graphing unit. Scholars are now able to obtain data, sort/ organize data, and analyze data. They are fluent with tally charts, bar graphs, and picture graphs. The hardest skill is comparing data: how many more, or how many less. I hosted a Donut Day room transformation to assess their mastery of graphing standards. It was a fun and engaging day! We are now starting our money unit. Scholars need to be able to identify each coin by name and value.

All School Book: We finished our all school book and will have family groups on Wednesday to share what we remember about it. It should be fun!

March Tournament of Books: The All Stars have picked six of the Elite Eight books in our tournament. Our current winners are: Press Here, The Invisible Boy, Dragons Love Tacos, The Couch Potato, Duck! Rabbit!, and The Legend of Rock, Paper, Scissors. We will add the last two books this week. Next week, we will narrow it down to our Final Four. The team is LOVING this tournament!

Saint Patrick's Day: We had an amazing day of learning on Saint Patrick's Day! I hosted a Leprechaun Reunion room transformation. The team worked through ten spiral math review challenges. They loved it! They looked adorable in their shamrock derby hats, beads, and bowties. We learned about St. Patrick and how he used shamrocks to teach about the trinity: God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. We practiced saying the Glory Be. Then, we made a shamrock art project with the Glory Be on it. These are hanging in the hall. In the afternoon, we worked on a STEM challenge. All Stars were give 30 pennies and told to construct a bridge for a leprechaun. Then, they worked in partnerships with 60 pennies to construct bigger bridges. For pictures of this fun day, check out our class book.

Lent: We participated in the all school rosary and the all school stations of the cross. We also went as a whole first grade to church and had stations of the cross. It was neat to have our scholars get to really look at and see our statutes in church. We continue to pray a decade of the rosary every day during morning meeting. We even got to sing in the choir when the other first grade lead mass.

• Family Groups: Wednesday, March 30

• Late Start: Thursday, April 7

• Living Stations: Thursday, April 7

• Spring Break: April 11 - April 18

• No School: Thursday, May 5

• Winter Gear: I will require that scholars wear whatever winter gear you send with them. It's been very cold the past few days. Please continue to send hats, mittens, and boots.

• SWS Spirit Wear Fridays: All Star may wear any SWS to school on Friday with nonuniform bottoms.

• Library Books: Please return library books on Mondays.

• PE Shoes: Please make sure your scholar wears running shoes on Tuesdays and Thursdays for PE.

• Please send your All Star to school with a sweater or sweatshirt. The temperature in our classroom fluctuates quite a bit!

Recap of the Week of March 7

It felt SO good to FINALLY have a FULL WEEK OF SCHOOL! The team was especially chatty this week. Many times during the school week, we needed reminders about expectations for participating responsibly. I am optimistic that we will get outdoor recess this coming week. Playing outside should help with our extra energy. In the classroom, we enjoyed a few more movement breaks than normal to get the wiggles out.

Spelling: Our spelling pattern this week was the long e spelled -ee. Scholars performed really well on our weekly spelling test, and I've heard them applying this phonics pattern in their reading too.

March Reading Incentive: This month, scholars are reading for gold coins because Reading is GOLDEN! Each time your scholar reads for 20 minutes, sign a gold coin and send it back to school. I am tracking reading minutes this month. Our pot of gold is already filling with gold coins.

Making Meaning: Our mentor text this week was Throw Your Tooth on the Roof. We compared and contrasted different tooth traditions around the world. Comparing and contrasting is a challenging skill for most scholars. Please continue to practice it when you read at home. We also practiced visualizing. I did not show the pictures to the scholars as I read about the traditions. Instead, scholars had to turn on the movie players in their minds and make their own visualizations. We are starting to learn about nonfiction text features. This week, we learned about some text features found in most nonfiction books: diagrams (and labels), the table of contents, and the author's note. As you read nonfiction books with your scholar, be sure to identify and name nonfiction text features. We will continue our work with nonfiction text features for the next few weeks.

Vocabulary: We learned four new words: crush, powerful, match, and adult. We discussed how to determine which definition of a word is correct when the word has more than one meaning. Scholars learned that they needed to listen to the word in the sentence to figure out the word's meaning. We also learned that the suffix -ful means full of, so powerful means full of power. We applied this to other words: grateful, meaningful, colorful, and faithful.

Shared Reading: Our mentor texts were two poems: Mice and Caterpillars. We clapped on syllables in these poems. We reviewed our understanding of stanzas. We also enjoyed echo reading and chorally reading these poems. Lastly, we added them to the table of contents in our poetry notebooks. We discussed how this text feature is found in fiction and nonfiction books. The team was excited when they named it as a text feature in our poetry notebooks.

Adjectives: We learned that adjectives are parts of speech that describe nouns. We practiced describing nouns with adjectives, identifying adjectives in sentences, and sorting adjectives by the five sense. We completed our adjective learning packet. On Friday, we had fun sucking on lollipops. We described our lollipops with adjectives, and we colored paper lollipops to match our adjectives. Our luscious lollipops are hanging in the hall. Next week, we will review the parts of speech we have learned in the past few weeks: nouns, verbs, and adjectives.

Math: We completed our measurement unit. We learned that height is a vertical measure of how tall something is, and length is a horizontal measure of how long something is. We learned the suffix -er when comparing two objects and the suffix -est when comparing three or more objects. This intersected well with our adjectives unit. We practiced measuring with paperclips and craft sticks. When measuring with nonstandard units, we learned to use a start line to help us. We also learned that it is important to use units that are the same size and to avoid gaps and overlays when measuring. We learned to look at the key to determine how many units is represented for each object we are using to measure. For example, if one craft stick is two units, then we will skip count by twos when determining the number of units.

Math Fluency: Scholars continue to knock my socks off with the speed by which they are clearing levels. It's wonderful to see their excitement with fluency. As students pass all addition levels A to Z, they will move into subtraction. They were so excited when I brought out the subtraction sheets.

WIN TIME: For the next few weeks, we will be focusing on math skills during WIN TIME. Specifically, students will practice their skills with money, time, and measurement.

All School Book: We started reading the all school book The Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Franiweiler. As students listen to this chapter book, they are practicing visualizing. This book is about two children who run away and live in a museum for a few days. It's been an interesting read.

March Tournament of Books: I am hosting a March Tournament of Books. In this tournament, I read two stories, and then scholars vote on their favorite book of the two. Their vote by naming their favorite book and writing one reason why they chose the book. Next week, I will require two reasons. The following week, I will require three reasons. As they complete their ballots, students are practicing writing a paragraph. They LOVE this tournament! In our first two match-ups, Press Here defeated If. Similarily, The Invisible Boy defeated The Oldest Student. I enjoy reading why students vote for their choice. Scholars also illustrate their favorite part of the story. The scholars beg for me to read stories from the Tournament of Books. Helping children fall in love with reading is one of my favorite parts of teaching!

The Invisible Boy: We read the book The Invisible Boy. In this book about friendship, a student feels invisible because he doesn't have any friends. All of that changes when a new student comes to the class. The new student befriends the boy. When this happens, the boy is drawn in color and is visible. We talked about what we could do to make sure kids don't feel invisible. I also put white sheets of paper on each desk. I wrote each student's name on their paper in white crayon. As I see students being kind to each other and filling buckets, I ask them to color part of their sheet in marker. Slowly, the white papers are becoming colorful reminders of spreading kindness and joy. I will send these home as they are completed.

Family Groups: On Thursday, we met in family groups. Scholars worked with their buddies to create a lenten scene. These were sent home on Thursday.

• MUSIC/ PE SWITCH: This week, we will have Music on Tuesday and PE on Wednesday.

• MASS: We are singing at mass on THIS Wednesday, March 16. Please join us if you can.

• STARRY NIGHT: Mark your calendars and join us for this wonderful event on Saturday, March 26. PLEASE JOIN US!

• DAILY READING: Your scholar must now read for 20 minutes each day. Please return a gold coins for each 20 minutes that your scholar reads. I AM TRACKING HOW MANY MINUTES YOUR SCHOLAR READS.

• SNOW GEAR: I send all snow gear home on Fridays. Please make sure that your All Star has appropriate snow gear: hats, mittens, boots, snow pants, and coat. They go outside, even if they forget something.

• SWS Spirit Wear Fridays: All Star may wear any SWS to school on Friday with nonuniform bottoms.

• Library Books: Please return library books on Mondays.

• PE Shoes: Please make sure your scholar wears running shoes on Tuesdays and Thursdays for PE.

• Please send your All Star to school with a sweater or sweatshirt. The temperature in our classroom fluctuates quite a bit!

Recap of the Weeks of February 21 and February 28

Thank you for taking time to meet with me during conferences and discuss your All Star's growth. I am blessed to partner with you in the education of your children. Thank you for sharing them with me! Here is a quick recap of our learning the past two weeks:

Spelling: We reviewed our silent e word pattern. Keep practicing those words!

February Reading Incentive: Thanks for reading with your scholars! They take great pride when they come to school and hang their hearts on our incentive board. On March 1, I distributed treats to conclude this month's Reading is OH SO SWEET incentive. Next week, I will send home our March reading incentive.

Making Meaning: We concluded our unit on making connections with nonfiction texts. We compared and contrasted a nonfiction book about sleep with a nonfiction article about sleep. Students worked to dig deep to make meaningful comparisons. This is a tough skill, and I encourage you to keep working on it at home. After reading two books, ask your scholar, "How are these books the same or different?" We started our nonfiction text feature unit. We also read the book Dinosaur Babies. In this book, we made connections to our prior knowledge. There are three types of connections we practiced in this unit: text-to-text connections, text-to-self connections, and connections to prior knowledge. All of these connections help students better understand what they are reading. Keep practicing these skills.

Vocabulary: We have learned eight new words in the past two weeks: essential, relax, nervous, trust, evidence, discover, gigantic, and protect.

Shared Reading: Our mentor text was the book I Love Our Earth. In this book, we identified adjectives and replaced them with our own. We also practiced reading punctuation: ellipses, commas, and periods. We know that punctuation are clues the author gives for how we should read the story. When we read punctuation, it helps us better understand what we read. We are working hard on reading punctuation when we read aloud.

Grammar: We finished our verbs unit. Scholars learned the verb rap. Ask them to sing it to you. They played charades with action words. We participated in superhero training with verbs. Finally, we completed our verb learning packet.

Math: We completed our telling time unit. Scholars should continue practicing telling time to the hour and half hour. Many scholars are able to now read time to the minute on an analog clock. I challenged scholars with elapsed time problems. They enjoyed this challenge.

Math Fluency: WOW! Scholars are cruising through the levels! Their joy and excitement is contagious. They have embraced being SUPER IMPROVERS! I love their energy. It's great to see them so excited to learn.

WIN TIME: We continued our work with literacy skills. Depending on which group your scholar tested into, we worked on these skills: contractions, quotation marks, commas in a series, apostrophes, or writing a friendly letter. Next week, we will practice math skills during WIN TIME.

Assessments/ Conference Reports: Scholars were assessed in math and literacy skills. I shared this information with you at conferences. We also spent time completing conference forms. On these forms, scholars rated how they are performing at school in a variety of areas. These forms were also shared at conferences.

TWO's DAY: On Tuesday, 2-22-22, we celebrated TWO's DAY! Of course, Mrs. Dalsin wore a TU-TU with TUbe socks. We snacked to TOOtsie rolls. We also worked on our time capsules. We took a class picture, and everyone signed it. I added special notes to everyone's time capsule, in addition to the notes that came from home. Time capsules were distributed at conferences. Thank you for your help with this special project.

Elf Junior: We attended the junior high play Elf Junior. The team loved it! They were polite and respectful during the performance. It's a good show. I hope you make time to see it as a family.

Virtus Lessons: As mandated by the archdiocese, students must participate in two Virtus lessons annually. We completed these lessons this week. Students learned about safe adults and safe friendships. We discussed safe adults and identified safe adults at home and at school. We also discussed the importance of talking to our safe adults when we feel uncomfortable. In the second lesson, scholars learned about a safety plan when they feel uncomfortable: say no, get away, and tell a trusted adult what happened.

• LATE START: We will have a late start on Thursday, March 10. School will begin 90 minutes late.

• FISH FRY: We will have the annual Fish Fry on March 11. Please return your tickets.

• STARRY NIGHT: Mark your calendars and join us for this wonderful event on Saturday, March 26. PLEASE JOIN US!

• DAILY READING: Your scholar must now read for 20 minutes each day. Please return a hearts for each 20 minutes that your scholar reads. I AM TRACKING HOW MANY MINUTES YOUR SCHOLAR READS.

• SNOW GEAR: I will send all snow gear home every Friday. Please make sure that your All Star has appropriate snow gear: hats, mittens, boots, snow pants, and coat. They go outside, even if they forget something.

• SWS Spirit Wear Fridays: All Star may wear any SWS to school on Friday with nonuniform bottoms.

• Library Books: Please return library books on Mondays.

• PE Shoes: Please make sure your scholar wears running shoes on Tuesdays and Thursdays for PE.

• Please send your All Star to school with a sweater or sweatshirt. The temperature in our classroom fluctuates quite a bit!

Recap of the Week of February 14

How is it already the end of our school week?!? This week flew by! We had another fun day of learning.

Spelling: We learned that the letters u_e can make two sounds: yoo (as in use), and oo (as in flute). With the short week, we worked extra hard to master this spelling pattern.

February Reading Incentive: Keep sending in reading hearts! Reading is OH SO SWEET!

Making Meaning: We continue our work with nonfiction texts. Your scholar should be able to explain the difference between fiction and nonfiction texts. Our mentor text was Using Your Senses. We began learning about nonfiction text features. This week, we learned about the table of contents, headings, diagrams, and labels. As you read nonfiction texts with your scholars, be sure to have them identify the nonfiction text features used in the text. We practiced making text-to-self connections.

Vocabulary: We learned four new words this week: audible, inaudible, earsplitting, and faint. We learned about antonyms and applied our understanding to classroom discussions about these four words.

Shared Reading: In shared reading, we revisited poems we had already read. We were surprised how much we had grown as readers! We practiced counting syllables in words and feeling the rhythm of each poem. We learned that rhythm, like alliteration and onomatopoeia, makes poems fun!

Math: We completed our unit on numbers to 40. We practiced ordering, comparing, and completing number patterns for numbers within 40.

Math Fluency: Scholars got VERY excited to bring home a white board marker and math fluency sheets in a plastic page protector. We had a record number of students level up this week! Way to go All Stars!

WIN Time: We are working on literacy skills during WIN time. Depending on which group your scholar tested into, we worked on these skills: contractions, quotation marks, commas in a series, apostrophes, or writing a friendly letter. We will continue working through this set of skills for the next few weeks.

Dental Health: We learned about dental health and read our Scholastic News on this topic. Please check backpacks for dental health kits.

Valentine's Day: We had fun making Valentine's Day bags and passing out treats to classmates.

TWO's DAY: On Tuesday, 2-22-22, we will be making time capsules. This class will be seniors in high school on 3-3-33. My hope is that they will open their time capsules on this date. Don't forget to send a letter to your scholar on Tuesday in a sealed envelope. Thanks for your help with this special project!

• STARRY NIGHT: Mark your calendars and join us for this wonderful event on Saturday, March 26.

• DAILY READING: Your scholar must now read for 20 minutes each day. Please return a hearts for each 20 minutes that your scholar reads. I AM TRACKING HOW MANY MINUTES YOUR SCHOLAR READS.

• SNOW GEAR: I will send all snow gear home every Friday. Please make sure that your All Star has appropriate snow gear: hats, mittens, boots, snow pants, and coat. They go outside, even if they forget something.

• SWS Spirit Wear Fridays: All Star may wear any SWS to school on Friday with nonuniform bottoms.

• Library Books: Please return library books on Mondays.

• PE Shoes: Please make sure your scholar wears running shoes on Tuesdays and Thursdays for PE.

• Please send your All Star to school with a sweater or sweatshirt. The temperature in our classroom fluctuates quite a bit!

Recap of the Weeks January 31 and February 7

It's been a busy two weeks. We enjoyed all of the special activities during Catholic Schools Week. This past week, we had fun celebrating the 100th day of school. With all of this fun, we squeezed in a lot of learning too!

Mass: The All Stars made me so proud when they led the school in celebrating mass. They read beautifully, and their singing filled the church. Thank you for all of your helping in getting them ready with their mass parts.

Spelling: We worked hard to master the silent e spelling patterns to make the long i and long o sounds. This week, we will focus on the spelling pattern u_e. This spelling pattern makes two different sounds: yoo (like in use) and oo (like in flute). With Valentine's Day and a short week, please make time to practice this spelling pattern at night. I may send a few games home to practice reading words with the u_e spelling pattern.

Gumball Sight Words: We have had MANY All Stars pass sight word levels. In fact, many students are passing multi-levels each week. I love the team's drive to clear levels.

February Reading Incentive: This month, the All Stars are reading for hearts. Please sign and return reading hearts every day. I am recording how many hearts each student returns. I will have random drawings and prizes throughout the month for students who return their hearts.

Grammar: We completed our work with nouns. This week, we will participate in WIN time. Our focus will be quotations marks, commas, and apostrophes.

Making Meaning: We have practiced the skill of wondering with two additional mentor texts: The Bumblebee Queen and Down the Road. We also continued our work with visualizing. These comprehension skills will help scholars better understand the books they read.

Vocabulary: We learned four new words during CSW: wriggle, snuggle, cooperate, and underground. This past week, we learned these words: wobble, meadow, fond, and sob.

Shared Reading: We enjoyed reading the poem This Little Turtle and making hand motions while we read. We also clapped on syllables and learned about stanzas in poems. During CSW, we read the book No Two Alike. We discussed how the illustrations and text work together to tell a story. We also practiced reading punctuation as the author intended. We learned that italicized words should be read slowly and with meaning. An ellipsis tells the reader to pause and that more of the sentence is coming. We practiced reading these punctuation marks. We also discussed the meaning of the story.

Math: We finished our unit on addition and subtraction within 20. We are now extending our understanding of place value to numbers within 40. We will compare, order, and complete number patterns with numbers to 40. Scholars should also be able to read and write numbers to 40.

Math Fluency: As a heads up, I am giving scholars 75 second to complete written math fluency levels. If they ask to complete an oral test, I limit them to 60 seconds. I noticed that this team writes much slower than my previous classes. When no one was passing math fluency levels, I began giving scholars more time to complete their assessments. For this team of learners, 75 seconds is their sweet spot: it's a challenge, but it is doable. If your scholar asks to test at home, you may give them 75 seconds to complete all 60 problems (if they are writing the answers). Thanks for working on fluency at home!

• STARRY NIGHT: Mark your calendars and join us for this wonderful event on Saturday, March 26.

• DAILY READING: Your scholar must now read for 20 minutes each day. Please return a hearts for each 20 minutes that your scholar reads. I AM TRACKING HOW MANY MINUTES YOUR SCHOLAR READS.

• SNOW GEAR: I will send all snow gear home every Friday. Please make sure that your All Star has appropriate snow gear: hats, mittens, boots, snow pants, and coat. They go outside, even if they forget something.

• SWS Spirit Wear Fridays: All Star may wear any SWS to school on Friday with nonuniform bottoms.

• Library Books: Please return library books on Mondays.

• PE Shoes: Please make sure your scholar wears running shoes on Tuesdays and Thursdays for PE.

• Please send your All Star to school with a sweater or sweatshirt. The temperature in our classroom fluctuates quite a bit!

Recap of the Week of Jan. 24

Happy Catholic Schools Week! Today, we officially begin CSW! I am so grateful that you are making the choice to send your children to SWS. SWS is committed to growing the whole person: social, emotional, academic, and spiritual. We are blessed to be part of a caring learning community that roots itself in Christ! I am grateful for the opportunity to grow in faith with your children. Thank you for making the sacrifice to send your children to this amazing school. We will have a blast celebrating CSW this week!

We were busy this past week. We finished NWEA testing. I am so proud of the growth your scholars demonstrated on these exams. I am analyzing the data to inform my instruction. My goal is to see another set of gains when the team tests at the end of the year. You should have received your scholar's report card this week in the mail. If you have any questions or concerns, please reach out. I am happy to discuss your scholar's growth. Here is a summary of last week's learning:

Spelling: Scholars did a great job with the spelling pattern a_e. We will continue our work with silent e this week. Please continue to practice the Must Know Words. With CSW, we will not be practicing our spelling words daily. PLEASE PRACTICE THEM AT HOME!

Gumball Sight Words: We have so many CSW activities this week, so it will be difficult to test sight words. I will try and squeeze it in where I can. Be patient with me this week. There are so many fun activities this week, and our schedule will be very different.

January Reading Incentive: Please bring in all completed snowballs on Monday. We will start our February reading incentive later this week.

Grammar: We learned that nouns are a part of speech. Nouns may be people, places, or things. We worked on identifying nouns that are people and places. We will continue our work with nouns this week.

Making Meaning: Our mentor text was George Washington and the General's Dog. This is one of my favorite read alouds. In this biography, scholars practiced the skill of wondering. When students wonder about what they are reading, they actively engaged with the text. This increases comprehension. We will continue working with the skill of wondering this week.

Vocabulary: We learned four new words this week: hero, persevere, track, and respect. We discussed how persevere and tenacity are synonyms.

Shared Reading: Our mentor text was the poem Kick a Little Stone. We chorally read and echo read this poem. We discussed and identified compound words in the poem. We also clapped on the syllables in each of the words. We refreshed our memory; syllables are beats in a word. We learned that every syllable has only one vowel sound. We practiced counting the syllables in a variety of words. We also practiced visualizing with this poem.

Math: We continued our work with addition and subtraction within 20. We completed real word problems. We named whether number sentences were true or false. We found missing addends, minuends, and subtrahends. Yes, we even learned all of this fancy math vocabulary:). Finally, we practiced balancing equations. Scholars were able to show me their learning with our room transformation challenges.

Race Day Room Transformation: Mrs. Dalsin surprised us with a fun Race Day room transformation. We started the day by making our own racing hats. Then, we completed 12 math challenges. When we finished all 12 challenges, we earned a certificate, racing pencil, bookmark, and pull back car. We had fun racing the car on the front racetrack. In the afternoon, we completed a stem design challenge.

STEM Design Challenge: Scholars learned about simple machines: wheels, axles, and inclined planes. We discussed how wheels and axles work together. Then, scholars were told they would get to make a car from a set of materials: cardboard wheels, cardboard body, wooden dowels, straws, and tape. The challenge was to create a car whose wheels would turn and spin when it rolled down an incline plane. Scholars independently created a blueprint for their design. In partnerships, they came up with a team design. Then, they had twenty minutes to build their car. They were allowed to test their design and modify it as needed. Then, we met as a class at the racetrack and cheered for each other as cars raced down the incline plane. It was an amazing STEM design challenge! The All Stars did a great job communicating, being creative, collaborating, and using critical thinking skills to solve the challenge. I sent scholars home with an extra car kit because they wanted to try and make their own car. There is no requirement that this project is completed. This was an opportunity for scholars to share and extend their learning.

CSW: There are MANY CSW events this week and dress up days. Please make sure to check the schedule below.

• DATES FOR YOUR CALENDAR:

  • • Monday, Jan. 31: Wear red, white, and blue. Community leaders will come to school and share what they do to keep us safe. We will write thank you notes to New Prague police officers for their service. We also go to the Book Fair on Monday during our library time.

    • Tuesday, Feb. 1: Mismatch Day/ Fashion Disaster. We will go bowling in the morning. Please make sure you return your permission slip, and PLEASE send $6 to school if you forgot.

    • Wednesday, Feb. 2: Dress your best. We will go to mass and then play BINGO in our family groups. We also get to have a donut snack.

    • Thursday, Feb. 3: Sports Day. Wear a sports jersey. Today, we will have our school olympics. SWS students will take on the teachers in a series of fun games.

    • Friday, Feb. 4: PJ Day! Wear your PJs! In the morning, we will get to read with our buddies in family groups. In the afternoon, we get to watch a movie with friends from first and second grade. We'll also get a snack from our teachers.

    • Wednesday, Feb. 9: Class Mass! I will be sending home parts soon.

• STARRY NIGHT: Mark your calendars and join us for this wonderful event on Saturday, March 26.

• DAILY READING: Your scholar must now read for 20 minutes each day. Please return a snowball for each 20 minutes that your scholar reads. I AM TRACKING HOW MANY MINUTES YOUR SCHOLAR READS.

• SNOW GEAR: I will send all snow gear home every Friday. Please make sure that your All Star has appropriate snow gear: hats, mittens, boots, snow pants, and coat. They go outside, even if they forget something.

• SWS Spirit Wear Fridays: All Star may wear any SWS to school on Friday with nonuniform bottoms.

• Library Books: Please return library books on Mondays.

• PE Shoes: Please make sure your scholar wears running shoes on Tuesdays and Thursdays for PE.

• Please send your All Star to school with a sweater or sweatshirt. The temperature in our classroom fluctuates quite a bit!

Recap of the Week of Jan. 17

Happy Second Semester! We are officially half we through our school year. Time continues to fly by. It was another busy week of learning for the All Stars. Here is a summary of our week:

Spelling: I tested the team on their Must Know Words on Tuesday. Please continue to practice these words with your scholar. We want these words committed to memory so that scholars spell them correctly in their writing. If your scholar missed any words on this test, please continue to practice them.

Phonics Skill: This week, I introduced the silent e. It makes the first vowel say the long vowel sound. We focused on long a, silent e words this week. Examples include the following words: game, race, and make. I sent home a phonics game you can use to practice this skill with your All Star. Play the game for at least ten minutes to practice this phonics skill. Next week, our spelling words will test this skill.

Gumball Sight Words: I continue to see HUGE growth with sight words. Thank you for continuing to work with your All Star. You deserve a BIG pat on the back! I couldn't do it without you! THANK YOU!

January Reading Incentive: Keep those snowballs coming to school! This is the most excitement a reading incentive has EVER generated! The kids love looking at which team has more snowballs. They cheer when teammates bring in snowballs. It is so fun!

Grammar: This week, we learned about prepositions that tell when and where. Scholars practiced orally generating sentences with prepositions. Then, we transitioned to writing sentences with prepositions. I challenged them to write sentences with prepositions in their journals because prepositions make writing more interesting.

Making Meaning: Our mentor text was An Extraordinary Egg. Ask your scholars about this book. They loved it! Many of them were gut laughing as I read it. I used this book to introduce the comprehension skill of WONDERING. Good readers wonder before, during, and after they read. Wondering requires actively thinking about the book while you are reading it. Scholars are learning to ask questions and find evidence in the text if their questions are answered. We will continue to practice this skill for the next few weeks. We also compared this story with a previous read aloud by the same author: It's Mine. We completed a double bubble graphic organizer. A double bubble graphic organizer is similar to a Venn diagram. Scholars identified similarities and differences between the two stories. I was impressed with how critically some scholars thought about the text.

Vocabulary: We learned four new words this week: ordinary, extraordinary, exclaim, and astonished. We discussed that ordinary and extraordinary are opposites. The team learned that antonyms are opposites. We also discussed how words can have different meanings. For example, WATCH can be a noun or a verb. To determine the meaning of a word, we have to think about how it is used in a sentence.

Shared Reading: Our mentor text was the big book Beetle Bop. We had fun exploring how typography enhances a story.

Math: We continued our work with addition and subtraction within twenty. Scholars learned these strategies: doubles, doubles plus one, subtraction by counting back, and subtraction by counting on. I sent home a math game to practice doubles.

Math Fluency: We had SO many students level up this week. WOW! Keep practicing those facts. If your scholar passes at home (written or oral), please sign the sheet and return it. We want to continue our momentum.

MLK: We celebrated Martin Luther King, Jr. on Tuesday. I loved listening to your All Stars share their dreams for a better tomorrow. They are inspirational! I love their optimism. They give me confidence that the future is bright!

REMINDERS:

• DATES FOR YOUR CALENDAR:

  • • Monday, Jan. 24: NWEA Math Assessment (DATE CHANGED!)

    • Monday, Jan. 31: Start of CSW (Catholic Schools Week... more on this soon!)

    • Wednesday, Feb. 9: All Star Class Mass

• STARRY NIGHT: Mark your calendars and join us for this wonderful event on Saturday, March 26.

• DAILY READING: Your scholar must now read for 20 minutes each day. Please return a snowball for each 20 minutes that your scholar reads. I AM TRACKING HOW MANY MINUTES YOUR SCHOLAR READS.

• SNOW GEAR: I will send all snow gear home every Friday. Please make sure that your All Star has appropriate snow gear: hats, mittens, boots, snow pants, and coat. They go outside, even if they forget something.

• SWS Spirit Wear Fridays: All Star may wear any SWS to school on Friday with nonuniform bottoms.

• Library Books: Please return library books on Mondays.

• PE Shoes: Please make sure your scholar wears running shoes on Tuesdays and Thursdays for PE.

• Please send your All Star to school with a sweater or sweatshirt. The temperature in our classroom fluctuates quite a bit!

Recap of the Week of Jan. 10

I hope you all enjoyed the snow day! My high school daughters were so sad that they couldn't go to school because they were supposed to have final exams on Friday. As for me, I was happy to stay safe at home on Friday and watch the snow instead of drive in it.

This weekend, I am finalizing first semester grades. The All Star Team has grown SO much! If you have any questions or concerns about your scholar, please contact me. I am happy to meet with families and discuss the development of your student.

We had a busy week in the All Star classroom. Here is a summary of our learning:

Spelling: We took a developmental spelling test on Thursday. It is fun to see how much the All Stars have grown in the use of phonics to spell. We did not get to take our spelling test because of the snow day. When we get back to school on Tuesday, I will test the All Stars on the Must Know Words. This week, we will learn the long a spelling pattern spelled a_e. I will NOT send home a new list of words this week. In class, scholars will practice spelling long a words with silent e. This is a tricky concept, and I want scholars to be comfortable with it. As a result, we will practice adding silent e to words this week, and we will test the skill next week for spelling.

Gumball Sight Words: This past week, scholars did amazing on their Gumball Words. Please continue to practice these words with your scholar.

January Reading Incentive: Keep sending reading snowballs to school. Snowballs must be signed by an adult. The All Stars are keeping a close eye on which team is winning the book blitz. They are having a lot of fun with this reading incentive. Reading is SNOW much fun!

Grammar: We finished our work with commas in a series. This coming week, we will turn our attention to prepositions.

Making Meaning: This was our last week practicing the skill of visualizing with fiction books. Our mentor text was "The Snowy Day." I read the story to the class without showing the pictures. We practiced story retelling and discussed our mental images. Scholars drew pictures of their visualizations. We also practiced visualizing during independent daily reading.

Vocabulary: This week, we learned four new words: firm, frigid, adventure, and pile.

Shared Reading: Our mentor text was the story "Up, Down, and Around." We learned how to read and spell these words, and we wrote sentences with them. We discussed typography and how the way words are printed on a page add meaning to the text.

Math: We started our new math unit: Addition and Subtraction within 20. We practiced using a variety of addition strategies: counting on (starting with the bigger number), hopping on a number line, making a ten, and doubles. Scholars should memorize their doubles facts through double 10 (2+2=4, 3+3-6, 4+4=8, and so on). In the coming week, we will turn our attention to subtraction within 20. I did not send home a math game this week because of the snow day. As a heads up, the math games I send home are meant to be a fun way to practice math skills. There is no need to spend more than 15-20 minutes playing these games.

Math Fluency: Keep practicing! If scholars pass a level at home, please sign the fluency sheet and send it back to school.

MLK: We began our study of Martin Luther King, Jr. His message of peace and inclusion is inspirational. In the coming week, we will continue to learn about his dream, and we will discuss how to keep his message alive.

REMINDERS:

• DATES FOR YOUR CALENDAR:

  • • Monday, Jan. 17: NO SCHOOL (MLK Day)

    • Tuesday, Jan. 18: Preschool Open House

    • Thursday, Jan. 20: NWEA Reading Assessment

    • Thursday, Jan. 27: NWEA Math Assessment

    • Monday, Jan. 31: Start of CSW (Catholic Schools Week)

    • Wednesday, Feb. 9: All Star Class Mass

• STARRY NIGHT: Mark your calendars and join us for this wonderful event on Saturday, March 26.

• DAILY READING: Your scholar must now read for 20 minutes each day. Please return a snowball for each 20 minutes that your scholar reads. I AM TRACKING HOW MANY MINUTES YOUR SCHOLAR READS.

• SNOW GEAR: I will send all snow gear home every Friday. Please make sure that your All Star has appropriate snow gear: hats, mittens, boots, snow pants, and coat. They go outside, even if they forget something.

• SWS Spirit Wear Fridays: All Star may wear any SWS to school on Friday with nonuniform bottoms.

• Library Books: Please return library books on Mondays.

• PE Shoes: Please make sure your scholar wears running shoes on Tuesdays and Thursdays for PE.

• Please send your All Star to school with a sweater or sweatshirt. The temperature in our classroom fluctuates quite a bit!

Recap of the Week of Jan. 3

Thank you for the love you sent my way before Christmas break. I am humbled by your kindness. Getting to teach your children brings me so much joy. I love their enthusiasm for learning and their excitement for making each moment count. They are reflections of all that is good in our world. I am blessed!

It's hard to believe that it is already January. Happy New Year! I hope you all had an amazing holiday break. It's been fun to be back in the classroom with the All Stars! We started our week with a New Year's room transformation. The All Stars worked through fourteen New Year's challenges to unlock the new year. We celebrated by toasting each other and having a balloon drop. I updated my phone over the holiday, and now my pictures are taking forever to load. I have some darling pictures that I hope to share soon.

This week, I finished most of our report card assessments. This team of scholars continues to grow. It's a joy to be part of their journey. Thank you for sharing them with me and for partnering with me this year.

Here is a summary of our learning this week:

Spelling: We reviewed the digraphs ch, tch, sh, ph, and wh. Our spelling lists are getting more challenging. Please practice SPELLING and READING the words on each spelling list. Next week, our spelling test will be a review of the 27 Must Know Words we learned this semester. Many of our Must Know Words do not sound spell and must be memorized. Please review these words with your scholars and confirm that they have all 27 words committed to memory.

Gumball Sight Words: We are back to testing our Gumball Sight Words. Our goal was to have the first 100 words completed before winter break. Sight words need to be memorized and recited in a SNAP. If a scholar needs to sound out the word, then it isn't memorized. Please continue to practice these words with your scholar. These words show up continually in our reading, so the more words committed to memory, the easier reading becomes.

January Reading Incentive: On Monday, scholars will bring home snowballs that they should complete for our reading incentive. This month, I divided the class into two teams: North Pole and South Pole. During our Winter Book Blitz, we will see which team brings in the most reading snowballs. My expectation is that scholars read for 20 minutes every night. Please sign, cut out, and return snowballs for each 20 minutes of reading. It will be fun to see which team WINS our book blitz.

Grammar: We focused on using commas in a series of three or more things: I like reading, math, and science. We talked about how the comma hugs the word it follows. Next week, we will continue our work with adding commas in a series when we write.

Making Meaning: We continued learning to visualize. This week, our mentor text was "Sheep Out to Eat." We practiced story retelling, and we enjoyed sharing our visualizations with our partners. We even drew our mental images from books that we chose to read during IDR (independent daily reading). We are getting better at this skill.

Vocabulary: This week we learned four new words: appetite, chomp, commotion, and pout. We reviewed the inflectional ending -ed. It makes three sounds: /id/, /t/, /d/. When -ed is added to an action word, the action happened in the past. Scholars are getting better at recognizing action words and adding -ed. For example, our spelling word this week was SPLASHED. Although the ending sound is /t/, most scholars knew to spell /t/ -ed because it is an action that happened in the past. We will continue to work on adding the inflectional ending -ed to words, so we can get better at this skill.

Shared Reading: Our focus this week was the poem "In a Winter Meadow." We had fun acting it out and making hand motions as we practiced echo reading and choral reading. We also practiced visualizing with this poem.

Math: We finished our numbers to twenty unit. Our room transformation was a great review of the skills we learned. We will revisit place value, number patterns, comparing numbers, and ordering numbers when we get to numbers to forty next month. In math, I read the book Tacky the Penguin to introduce the concept of odd and even. Tacky is an ODD bird. While his companions are together in pairs, he is always alone doing his own thing. We learned that EVEN numbers always have a partner. ODD numbers do not have a partner; they have a left-over (Tacky). Scholars learned to look in the one's place to determine if a number is ODD or EVEN. They were so excited when they could state if a large number like 324,568 is ODD or EVEN. Next week, we will begin adding and subtracting within twenty. This is a longer unit that will bring us to the first week in February. To help students prepare for NWEA testing in two weeks, we will be doing math practice on our iPads and not paper worksheets. As a result, less work will be coming home with this math unit. If you have questions or concerns, please reach out.

Math Fluency: This week, we continued with math fluency. Please work on math fluency daily with your scholar. This is a true partnership, and we will have to work at home and at school to see continued growth. If scholars review the first page of flashcards daily, they will commit those facts to memory and be ready for more facts. Keep practicing! If scholars pass a level at home, please sign the fluency sheet and send it back to school.

Enjoy the rest of your weekend! I am off to a hotel with my mom, sister, and our daughters for a fun overnight. It should be a blast!!

REMINDERS:

• DATES FOR YOUR CALENDAR:

  • • Tuesday, Jan. 11: SNOWMAN CELEBRATION

    • Wednesday, Jan. 12: PICTURE RETAKES: Picture retakes are Jan. 12.

    • Thursday, Jan. 13: 90 MINUTE LATE START: This Thursday, Jan. 13 is a 90 minute late start.

    • Monday, Jan. 17: NO SCHOOL (MLK Day)

    • Tuesday, Jan. 18: Preschool Open House

    • Wednesday, Feb. 9: All Star Class Mass

• DAILY READING: Your scholar must now read for 20 minutes each day. Please return a snowball for each 20 minutes that your scholar reads. I AM TRACKING HOW MANY MINUTES YOUR SCHOLAR READS.

• SNOW GEAR: I will send all snow gear home every Friday. Please make sure that your All Star has appropriate snow gear: hats, mittens, boots, snow pants, and coat. They go outside, even if they forget something.

• SWS Spirit Wear Fridays: All Star may wear any SWS to school on Friday with nonuniform bottoms.

• Library Books: Please return library books on Mondays.

• PE Shoes: Please make sure your scholar wears running shoes on Tuesdays and Thursdays for PE.

• Please send your All Star to school with a sweater or sweatshirt. The temperature in our classroom fluctuates quite a bit!

Recap of the Week of Dec. 6

I hope you all enjoyed the SNOW DAY! My kids loved sledding in the backyard. We live in the country and tie sleds behind our RZR. Matt loves driving them all over! They came in from sledding happy and tired. Ah, my two favorite things:) I hope you were able to enjoy our winter wonderland.

This week, we were very busy. Here is a summary of our learning:

Spelling: We mastered spelling the digraphs ch and tch. Our spelling lists are getting more challenging. PLEASE work with your scholar every night to practice our words. We will take our spelling test on Monday because of our snow day. As you know, each week I add one review word to our spelling list. If you want a list of our MUST KNOW WORDS, please click here: MUST KNOW WORDS. Next week, we will continue our work with digraphs. We will be on Week 8 this week, if that helps for reviewing our Must Know Words.

Gumball Sight Words: Keep practicing those Gumball Sight Words! Remember, the goal is to have the first 100 words completed by the end of December. I have started retesting the first 100 words to confirm that students have committed them to memory. I will begin assessing the second 100 words this week.

Reading Ornaments: This month, scholars are reading for ornaments. Every night, please listen to your scholar read for 20 minutes. Then, cut, sign, and return a reading ornament for our reading tree. I am tracking reading minutes this month. Each scholar should return 15 ornaments before leaving for Christmas break. Please send them in when they are completed. THANKS for your help with this!

Writing/ Grammar: We finished our work with types of sentences. All Stars are getting better at adding ending punctuation to sentences. My goal is for this skill to be automatic by the end of the year. Our focus until Christmas break is writing the date. You write the date like this: Sunday, December 12, 2021. Scholars need to accurately capitalize days of the week and months of the year. They also need to know where the commas go in the date.

Making Meaning: We continued our work with visualizing. Visualizing is when we turn on the movie player in our minds and make mental pictures while we read. Our mentor text this week was a variety of poems. I distributed Student Response Journals for the first time. Scholars will use these throughout the year to practice their comprehension skills. They will also use them to write in response to reading. This week, scholars illustrated their mental image after listening to the poem "The Balloon Man."

Shared Reading: Our focus this week was the poem "Listen." We used this poem to practice visualizing. We also discussed rhyming and onomatopoeia. Rhyming words have the same ending sound. Onomatopoeia is when a word makes the sound it says says: buzz, hiss, crunch, scrunch.

Math: We finished our shapes unit and began working on numbers to twenty. The focus of this unit is place value, number patterns, comparing numbers, and ordering numbers. We should finish this unit before we leave for Christmas break. Scholars should be able to read and write numbers to twenty.

Math Fluency: We continue with math fluency. Students are starting to pass Level A and move to Level B. Please continue to work on math fluency daily with your scholar. This is a true partnership, and we will have to work at home and at school to see continued growth. If scholars review the first page of flashcards daily, they will commit those facts to memory and be ready for more fact. Keep practicing!

Religion: We are learning about Advent and the nativity story. This is my favorite time of the liturgical year! This week, we completed another chapter in our religion book, as well as our Promise Magazine.

STEM: I added pictures and videos of our Thanksgiving STEM Challenge to our virtual book. Check them out! Next week, we will have fun with our December STEM Challenge.

REMINDERS:

• DONATIONS FOR GINGERBREAD HOUSES: I need many donations for our gingerbread houses. Please consider donating. If you are able to donate, please click here: Sign Up for Gingerbread House Donations

• DAILY READING: Your scholar must now read for 20 minutes each day. Please return an ornament for each 20 minutes that your scholar reads. I AM TRACKING HOW MANY MINUTES YOUR SCHOLAR READS.

• HAY: Please bring in pieces of hay to create a soft bed for Jesus of our good deeds.

• DATES for your CALENDAR:

  • • Friday, Dec. 17: Students may wear an ugly Christmas sweater, or red and green to school.

    • Monday, Dec. 20: Students may wear PJs to school and bring an extra snack.

    • Tuesday, Dec. 21: Christmas Concert!!! There will be afternoon and evening performances.

    • Wednesday, Dec. 22: All Star Christmas Party!

• SNOW GEAR: I will send all snow gear home every Friday. Please make sure that your All Star has appropriate snow gear: hats, mittens, boots, snow pants, and coat. They go outside, even if they forget something.

• SWS Spirit Wear Fridays: All Star may wear any SWS to school on Friday with nonuniform bottoms.

• Library Books: Please return library books on Mondays.

• PE Shoes: Please make sure your scholar wears running shoes on Tuesdays and Thursdays for PE.

• Please send your All Star to school with a sweater or sweatshirt. The temperature in our classroom fluctuates quite a bit! We need to keep a window open, and it's cold by the window.

Recap of the Weeks of Nov. 22 and 29

It's been a couple of busy weeks in the All Star classroom. I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday. As a heads up, I was busy this weekend at Susie's gymnastics meet. As a result, I didn't have time to upload our class pictures for the past two weeks. I will try to get that done soon. Thanks for your patience. In the meantime, here is what we have been up to:

Spelling: We mastered spelling the digraph th. Our spelling lists are getting more challenging. PLEASE work with your scholar every night to practice our words.

Gumball Sight Words: Keep practicing those Gumball Sight Words! Remember, the goal is to have the first 100 words completed by the end of December. I have started retesting the first 100 words to confirm that students have committed them to memory.

Reading Ornaments: Our reading turkey in November looked amazing with all of the feathers. This month, scholars are reading for ornaments. Every night, please listen to your scholar read for 20 minutes. Then, cut, sign, and return a reading ornament for our reading tree. I am tracking reading minutes this month. Each scholar should return 15 ornaments before leaving for Christmas break. Please send them in when they are completed. THANKS for your help with this!

Writing/ Grammar: We finished our work with types of sentences. All Stars are getting better at adding ending punctuation to sentences. My goal is for this skill to be automatic by the end of the year.

Making Meaning: This week, we worked on visualizing. Visualizing is when we turn on the movie player in our minds and make mental pictures while we read. We will be working on this skill for the next few weeks. This week, we had fun visualizing what was in the mystery box. We asked Mrs. Dalsin questions about what was in the box. Then, we got to feel it. We wrote about our predictions. Then, we shared our writing. Most of us guessed that a sea shell was in the box, and we were right. We were surprised that our illustrations were so different. Mrs. Dalsin told us that the movie players in our minds draw on our background knowledge and lived experiences. As a result, even though we hear the same story, we may see it differently in our mind. We also listened to the poem "The Green Giant." We illustrated our mental images. We had to use textual evidence to explain why our drawings were the way they were. Finally, we learned that our mental images may change as we read. We read the funny poem "My Neighbor's Purple Dog." Mrs. Dalsin had us draw our mental images before, during, and after reading the poem. We laughed when we found out the dog was really a crocodile!

Shared Reading: This week, we reviewed four poems we learned earlier this year. We were surprised how much we have grown as readers. Four of us got to be Mrs. Dalsin's student teachers and use her pointer to lead the class in chorally reading the poems.

Math: We are working on our shapes unit. This week, our focus was 3D, solid shapes. We learned how solid shapes move: roll, stack, slide. We are now able to identify these solid shapes: rectangular prism, cube, sphere, cylinder, pyramid, and cone. We are also able to name the 2D flat faces that are on 3D solid shapes. We had fun identifying real world examples of 2D and 3D shapes. We also go to make models with 3D shapes. The highlight of the week was getting to play pattern BINGO. We are getting really good at naming patterns with letters and isolating one unit of a pattern.

Math Fluency: We started our math fluency program. Scholars have already grown so much! Most kids started at around 18 correct answers in 60 seconds. Now, I'm consistently seeing scores in the 40s. WOW! Please only have your scholars practice the first page of the flashcards I sent home. We are looking for mastery of just a few problems at a time. I wish you could hear all of the celebrations in our room after the tests. The All Stars get very excited if they answer one or two more problems than the day before. We are also learning how to manage our frustration if we don't get as many problems completed as we want.

Religion: Our class mass was fabulous! We missed Mrs. Gorr and getting to sing, but we loved leading the school in prayer. Thanks for helping the team prepare at home. I appreciate it! We continued our work with our Promise magazine. We also learned about Advent.

STEM: The week of Thanksgiving, we learned about the Macy's Day Thanksgiving Parade. We listened to the book ¨Balloons Over Broadway." Then, we worked in groups to make our own balloon animals for our Bee Bot balloon parade. We learned that compromise is hard, but the end result is AWESOME! Teams chose their own animal and had to agree on everything: what shape the eyes should be, how to make the hair, what color balloon, etc. It was fun to watch teams exchange ideas and work together. Then, they learned how to write code for their Bee Bot robot. After mastering moving forward, they had to program their robot to turn around or reverse back to the starting line. They learned the importance of writing down every step in their code, so they could more easily de-bug it (if necessary). Most scholars were proficient at programming their Bee Bot by the end of the unit. On the Wednesday before Thanksgiving, we had a Bee Bot parade with the balloons. Then, scholars came back into the classroom and programed their Bee Bot to move through a series of challenge courses. I took a lot of pictures and videos. I will try and post them soon! There was so much learning and excitement during this unit. I can't wait to get the Bee Bots back out! The team loved it!

REMINDERS:

• DAILY READING: Your scholar must now read for 20 minutes each day. Please return an ornament for each 20 minutes that your scholar reads.

• HAY: Please bring in pieces of hay to create a soft bed for Jesus of our good deeds.

• DATES for your CALENDAR:

  • • Monday, Dec. 6: Students may wear Christmas socks and Christmas headwear (Santa hats or something else fun).

    • Friday, Dec. 17: Students may wear an ugly Christmas sweater, or red and green to school.

    • Monday, Dec. 20: Students may wear PJs to school and bring an extra snack.

    • Tuesday, Dec. 21: Christmas Concert!!! There will be afternoon and evening performances.

    • Wednesday, Dec. 22: All Star Christmas Party!

• SWS Spirit Wear Fridays: All Star may wear any SWS to school on Friday with nonuniform bottoms.

• Library Books: Please return library books on Mondays.

• PE Shoes: Please make sure your scholar wears running shoes on Tuesdays and Thursdays for PE.

• Please send your All Star to school with a sweater or sweatshirt. The temperature in our classroom fluctuates quite a bit! We need to keep a window open, and it's cold by the window.

WOW! What a busy couple of days for the Dalsin Family! THANKS FOR ALL OF YOUR SUPPORT FOR MY DAUGHTER NELLIE! She took 14th place at the MSHL State Diving Meet! She appreciated all of the well wishes, prayers, and positive energy.

The All Stars had so much fun with our Game Day! They worked hard to complete our math challenges. When asked what they liked best, here is what they said: the challenges, the prizes, the wrist guards and colorful uniforms, the decorations... EVERYTHING! I was proud of how hard they worked. Their smiles tell the whole story!

Recap of the Week of November 15

Thank you all for your love and support this week as my daughter Nellie competed in the MSHL Swim and Dive Competition. She earned a spot in the finals, and we had fun cheering for her. She ended up taking 14th place! HOORAY! I couldn't be more proud of her determination and drive. It was so much fun being part of her fan club! From prayers, to card, to kind words... I felt all of your support, and so did Nellie. THANK YOU!

The All-Stars had another great week of learning. I hosted our first room transformation. On Monday, the team was surprised to find our classroom decorated for Game Day. All Stars completed ten math challenges to earn a certificate and a prize. Some scholars even participated in our challenge round and used their number sense to solve algebraic equations. They had a great time showcasing their understanding of addition and subtraction within ten. I look forward to our next room transformation! Even more exciting, on Friday we met our newest All Star: Cami. Welcome to the All Stars Cami! Here is a summary of the rest of our week:

Spelling: This week, we mastered spelling short /e/ words. Next week, we will not have a spelling test because it is a short week.

Gumball Sight Words: Keep practicing those Gumball Sight Words! Remember, the goal is to have the first 100 words completed by the end of December. I will retest the first 100 words in the next few weeks to confirm that students have committed them to memory.

Reading Feathers: If goes without saying that if you want to get better at something, then you have to practice. Scholars MUST be reading for 20 minutes EVERY NIGHT! At this point in the year, it is critical that scholars practice their decoding skills daily. Some All Stars are doing a GREAT job with turning in reading feathers. Our turkey is looking great! Others, RARELY return feathers. PLEASE READ WITH YOUR ALL STAR DAILY! THIS IS THE BEST THING YOU CAN DO TO HELP THEM SUCCEED ACADEMICALLY at this point in the year. READ! READ!! READ!!!!

Writing/ Grammar: We continue our work with types of sentences. This week we focused on exclamations, and I introduced commands. Scholars are doing a good job of understanding when to use a period, exclamation point, and question mark. They sometimes forget to add ending punctuation when they are writing, but they are getting better at punctuating their sentences.

Making Meaning: This week, our mentor text was Peter's Chair. We worked on story retelling. We also made text-to-text connections between Peter's Chair and a previous mentor text McDuff and the Baby. We talked about similarities and differences between these stories. Then, we practiced sequencing the events in Peter's Chair. Scholars each wrote about one part of the story. Then, we put the story in order from what happened first to what happened last, and our writings made a timeline of the story.

Vocabulary: We learned four new words this week: mutter, arrange, collapse, and resent. We talked about how the inflectional ending -ing and -ed change the meaning of a base word. We also talked about shades of meaning with the word mutter; mutter is similar to talking, but it is talking in a low, unclear way.

Shared Reading: Our mentor text this was was The Busy Little Squirrel. We used this book to discuss how to read punctuation. When you read a question, your voice goes up. When you read a period, your voice goes down. Finally, you read an exclamation in an excited voice. These lessons on fluency paired well with our grammar focus: types of sentences. It is important for scholars to read with expression. It helps them better understand the author's message. When reading with your All Star, encourage them to read the punctuation with expression. We also discussed the pattern in this book, and how patterns exist in literacy like they do in math. When we find a pattern in a book, it helps us read the book because the words repeat in an orderly way.

Math: Our Game Day room transformation was the end of our addition and subtraction units within ten. We are now working on our shapes unit. This week, our focus was 2D, flat shapes. Scholars should be able to identify these shapes: circle, oval, triangle (right and equilateral), square, rectangle, trapezoid, hexagon, octagon, and rhombus. We learned how many sides each shape has, as well as the number of corners (or vertices). We had fun sorting shapes and learned that there are many ways to sort attribute blocks: size, color, shape, number of sides, number of vertices, and thickness. On Friday, I introduced scholars to the concept of equal shares. This lesson lays the foundation for later learning of fractions. We discussed how 1/4 means one piece out of four. Scholars divided shapes into two equal parts (halves) and four equal parts (quarters). They should be able to identify half circles (or semicircles) and quarter circles. Some scholars made the connection that there are four quarters in one dollar, just like there are four quarter circles in a whole circle.

Religion: Thank you for the many donations of food for our food drive. In class, we completed our Promise Magazine. When I was out at Nellie's meet on Thursday, scholars also completed Chapter 9 in our religion books. We will not complete any pages in our religion book next week because it is a short week, and we will be getting ready for our class mass on December 1. Mass parts will come home on Monday. Please work with your scholar daily to help them fluently read their mass parts. Thank you in advance for working on this over the long holiday weekend.

Social Studies: We revisited how to help everyone feel like they belong in our classroom. We completed a Scholastic News about belonging. We read a book about our class being a family, and we met our new All Star. Cami joined our class on Friday. Welcome to the All Stars Cami!

W.I.N. TIME: WIN stands for What I Need. To meet the needs of every learner, the first and second grade teachers introduced WIN Time this week. During WIN Time, scholars are grouped based on their NWEA scores for specific learning targets. This week our focus was patterns. We will continue with this strand next week too.

REMINDERS:

• DAILY READING: Your scholar must now read for 20 minutes each day. Please return a feather for each 20 minutes that your scholar reads. Don't forget to color it and cut it out. Our reading turkey looks so good with all of the colorful feathers! The All Stars will be GOBBLING UP BOOKS this November!

• SWS Spirit Wear Fridays: All Star may wear any SWS to school on Friday with nonuniform bottoms.

• Library Books: Please return library books on Mondays.

• PE Shoes: Please make sure your scholar wears running shoes on Tuesdays and Thursdays for PE.

• CLASS MASS: Our first class mass is Wednesday, December 1. Mass parts will come home on Monday.

• Please send your All Star to school with a sweater or sweatshirt. The temperature in our classroom fluctuates quite a bit! We need to keep a window open, and it's cold by the window.

• NO SCHOOL: There is NO school next Thursday and Friday in honor of Thanksgiving.

Last Thursday, I drove to Mankato to watch Nellie compete at the section meet for high school diving. My parents, Matt, Susie, and Mary Jo all came to support the NP diving team. Nellie took first place in Section 1A and won a bid to the state diving meet this week. She was even named the Diver of the Year for Section 1A. It was an emotional night! We were so excited when she won the meet!

On picture day, the All Stars sung at mass. The team looked so good, I just had to take a picture!

Happy November

Thanks for your patience while I put together our weekly review. Between conferences and Nellie's diving schedule, the past couple of weeks have been very chaotic. Thank you all for meeting with me for conferences. I love getting to celebrate the growth of each All Star. I can't thank you enough for your partnership.

Spelling: This week, we are working on short /e/ words. This will be our last focus week with short vowels. Scholars should be able to accurately spell all CVC words at this point. If they slow down their sounds, they should also be able to spell short vowel words with blends.

Gumball Sight Words: We had almost everyone pass at least one level of sight words this week. Keep practicing those words! Remember, the goal is to have the first 100 words completed by the end of December. Use the flashcards I send home to quickly practice the words each night. I will be retesting the first 100 words in the next few weeks to confirm that students have committed the words to memory.

Writing/ Grammar: We continue our work with types of sentences. We spent last week asking each other questions and answering in complete sentences. I let students interview me and ask me anything they wanted. We had some giggles about what they wanted to know. Our focus this week is exclamations. Next week, we will finish this unit of study by exploring statements.

Making Meaning: We continue working on story retelling. In the last two weeks, we read two mentor texts: Curious George Goes Camping and Angelina and Henry. Both of these stories were about camping adventures. We compared and contrasted them. We identified the characters, setting, plot, problem, and solution for each story. Scholars are getting really good at retelling stories. Please practice this skill with books from home.

Vocabulary: We learned eight new words since I last updated our webpage: curious, wander, odor, odd, twirl, moan, howl, and flash.

Shared Reading: Last week, we worked on dividing words into syllables. We had fun reading two poems: Bippity Boppity Bumblebee and Kitty Caught a Caterpillar. This week, we identified patterns in our story and focused on reading punctuation.

Math: We completed our unit on subtraction within ten. Scholars learned about fact families, related facts, balancing equations, true/ false equations, and real world problems. We will continue to practice these skills throughout the year. For the next couple weeks, we will take a break from computations and focus on shapes. I sent home our fact family turkeys.

Religion: We completed our Promise Magazines. We also completed Chapters 7 and 8 in our books. I finished assessing students on prayers. Some students have already mastered ALL of their first grade prayers. I will be sending home copies of the prayers that your scholar still needs to master. Please mark your calendars for December 1. This is our class mass. Mass parts will be coming home soon.

Social Studies: We learned about Veteran's Day. We also completed our Historical Inquiry lessons. I put some artifacts in a bag, and scholars guessed what they were: telephone, zip stick, walkman, cassette tape, and floppy disk. Then, scholars worked in pairs to compare pictures of classrooms or playgrounds from the past with classrooms and playgrounds from the present. They presented their findings to the class. We also read about schools long ago. We will continue with this unit next week.

W.I.N. TIME: WIN stands for What I Need. To meet the needs of every learner, the first and second grade teachers introduced WIN this week. During WIN, scholars are grouped based on their NWEA scores for specific learning targets. This week our focus was patterns. We will continue with this strand for next week too.

Family Groups: We had a lot of fun in our family groups. We worked with our buddies to make lists of things for which we are thankful. We played a name game, and we brainstormed how we show our thankfulness at school.

Patriotic Rosary: Today we attended the Patriotic Rosary. I have never been part of this before. It was very moving. What a wonderful tribute to God, family, and country!

Wildcat Cart: The All Stars were thrilled to see our friendly SWS wildcat and eat treats from the Wildcat Cart on Monday. Thank you Home and School!

REMINDERS:

• FOOD DRIVE: Please bring food for our all school food drive by Wednesday, November 17.

• DAILY READING: Your scholar must now read for 20 minutes each day. Please return a feather for each 20 minutes that your scholar reads. Don't forget to color it and cut it out. Our reading turkey looks so good with all of the colorful feathers! The All Stars will be GOBBLING UP BOOKS this November!

• SWS Spirit Wear Fridays: All Star may wear any SWS to school on Friday with nonuniform bottoms.

• Library Books: Please return library books on Mondays.

• PE Shoes: Please make sure your scholar wears running shoes on Tuesdays and Thursdays for PE.

• CLASS MASS: Our first class mass is Wednesday, December 1. I will be sending mass parts home soon.

• Please send your All Star to school with a sweater or sweatshirt. The temperature in our classroom fluctuates quite a bit! With the heat on, it can get quite warm. We keep a window open, and it's cold by the window.

• NO SCHOOL: There is NO school next Thursday and Friday in honor of Thanksgiving.

Happy Halloween! There was so much joy in our classroom today. Even Mrs. Dalsin got in the Halloween spirit and dressed up as Pinkalicious. It was a perfectly pinktastic day!

PUMPKIN INVESTIGATING: Measuring with Nonstandard Units

Writing text-to-self connections about our mentor text Crankenstein. I get cranky when...

Weeks of October 18 and October 25

Happy Halloween! Thanks for sharing your All Stars with me! Today was a WONDERFUL! I love experiencing holidays through the eyes of children. Their joy is contagious:)

When we only have three days of school, I don't update our website. So much has happened in the past two weeks. This week was a high energy week. The All Stars started counting down to Halloween on Monday.... YIKES! We've had a lot of fun, and we've learned a lot. Here are some highlights from the last two weeks:

Rhyming Share and Tell: The All Stars were all smiles when they guessed the rhymes for our rhyming share and tell. Thanks for your help with this activity.

Spelling: This week, we mastered short /o/ words. Next week, we will NOT have a spelling test because it is only a three day week. Please keep practicing our must know words from all of our spelling weeks. Each week, I test one must know word from a previous list.

Gumball Sight Words: We had many scholars pass at least one level of their sight words this week. Keep practicing these words. Scholars must be able to read their words in a snap to pass. This means, they have the words committed to memory and quickly recall them. If scholars are unable to immediately recall one of the words on their list, then they need to keep practicing their words. The first 100 words were learned in kindergarten, so I'm hoping that most scholars will pass these lists in the next couple weeks. The second 100 words are new for first grade.

Writing/ Grammar: This week, we learned that there are four types of sentences: statements, questions, exclamations, and commands. We are learning about ending punctuation for each of these sentence types. Our focus this week is statements and questions. Statements are telling sentences that end with a period. Questions are asking sentences that end with a question mark. Last week, we wrote friendly letters to veterans for Veterans Day. We did a directed drawing for the cover of our cards. Your scholars worked very hard on these cards. They were so well done! We went through the writing process from rough draft to final draft with this project. I was impressed with their tenacity!

Making Meaning: Our mentor text this week was Crakenstein. We practiced retelling this story on Retelling Road. We discussed the setting, characters, plot, problem, and solution of the story. We also made text-to-self connections. Then, we wrote about when we get cranky. We started with a rough draft, or sloppy copy. Then, Mrs. Dalsin edited our writing. Finally, we copied our writing onto our final draft paper and made a Crankenstein craft. These are hanging in the hallway. Check them out when you come for conferences!

Vocabulary: We learned four new words this week: miserable, possession, humorous, and beam.

Math: We started a new math unit: Subtraction within Ten. Scholars a doing a great job with our daily real world anchor tasks involving subtraction. This week, we learned four subtraction strategies: taking away, counting back, counting on, and number bonds. Scholars are getting better at using a number line to subtract. I keep telling the team that in subtraction, we start with the whole and take away one part to get another part. Generally, subtraction problems are written like this: 10-6=4. I've challenged some scholars by writing problems like this: 4=10-6. Seeing subtraction problems written with the difference first is tough for some scholars. We will continue working with subtraction for the next couple weeks. As we practice, students will begin to see how addition number sentences are related to subtraction number sentences. Today, I gave students 7 minutes to write the numbers 1-120 on a 120's chart. We did this activity at the beginning of the year too. I'm excited to share you All Star's growth in their number sense when we meet for conferences.

Religion: We completed our Promise Magazine. We also completed Chapters 5 and 6. Students were assessed on our first semester prayers: Sign of the Cross, Grace before Meals, and Guardian Angel. I will share the results of these assessments with you at conferences. We ended the week with a classroom prayer service about Jesus being the light of the world. We made pumpkins to remind us of Jesus' presence in our hearts and our world.

Science: We learned about the lifecycle of a pumpkin. We listened to two pumpkin lifecycle books. We role played and acted out the lifecycle. We completed a pumpkin sequencing activity. We also completed a pumpkin investigation booklet. Scholars had fun measuring the height, weight, and circumference of a pumpkin with linking cubes. They also got to taste pumpkin seeds. Most scholars liked the seeds. For fun, we painted pumpkins. I'm so sorry if the All Stars came home with paint on their shirts. Painting pumpkins is fun, but messy!

STEM: My goal is to have one large STEM project each month. This month, students were given a small pumpkin, 20 straws, and masking tape. Their objective was to create a stand to support their pumpkin. They worked independently to create a blueprint. Then, they worked with partners and revised their blueprints. Lastly, partners worked together to build their pumpkin stand. It was fun to watch the All Stars collaborate on this engineering challenge.

Boo BINGO: We had a fun playing Boo BINGO! Everyone got a prize, and they were so kind and appreciative.

REMINDERS:

• DAILY READING: Your scholar must now read for 20 minutes each day. Please return a feather for each 20 minutes that your scholar reads. Don't forget to color it and cut it out. Let's see how colorful our turkey can be! The All Stars will be GOBBLING UP BOOKS this November!

• CONFERENCES: Please be sure to sign up for a conference time. I'm excited to share your scholar's growth with you!

• SWS Spirit Wear Fridays: All Star may wear any SWS to school on Friday with nonuniform bottoms.

• Library Books: Please return library books on Mondays.

• PE Shoes: Please make sure your scholar wears running shoes on Tuesdays and Thursdays for PE.

• DONATIONS: Thank you for all of your donations to our classroom! I appreciate all of your support!

• CLASS MASS: Our first class mass is Wednesday, December 1. We will be singing with the other first grade at their mass on Wednesday, November 10. You are welcome to join us for these special celebrations.

• SPELLING: THERE IS NO SPELLING TEST NEXT WEEK!

• Please send your All Star to school with a sweater or sweatshirt. The temperature in our classroom fluctuates quite a bit! With the heat on, it can get quite warm. We keep a window open, and it's cold by the window.

• ALL SAINTS DAY: We will have mass Monday, November 1 to celebrate All Saints Day.

• ALL SOULS DAY: We may walk to the cemetery and participate in saying the rosary on Tuesday, November 2. This will depend on the weather and our schedule.

Cool Blue Capital Day was a HUGE success! The All Stars are SO COOL!

Love these smiles! The All Stars mastered learning the lifecycle of an apple.

Week of October 10, 2021

Fall is HERE! I hope are able to enjoy the fall colors that make this time of year so beautiful! My family had a busy weekend. Nellie participated in the NPHS True Team Swim and Dive meet on Friday in Austin. She earned first place and was the Section 1A diving champion. It was fun to watch her team cheer for each other. On Saturday, MJ came home from the U of M, and it always fills my heart to have all of my kids home... even if it is just for an overnight:). Thanks again for your patience as I put together this weekly summary. It was a busy weekend in my family.

Here is a summary of our week:

Shared Reading: Our mentor text was the book Over in the Meadow. In this counting rhyme, we practiced our rhyming skills. We learned that rhymes have the same ending sound. Rhyming words can be spelled differently, and that is fine. In morning meeting, we played a fun game of FIND YOUR MATCH. All Stars were given picture cards and had to find their rhyming partner. Don't forget to fill the brown bag I sent home with two rhyming objects. We will have fun sharing and guessing rhymes this week.

Spelling: This week, we mastered short /i/ words. Next week, we will NOT have a spelling test because it is only a three day week. We will review our short /a/ and short /i/ spelling patterns next week.

Gumball Sight Words: We had many scholars pass at least one level of their sight words this week. Keep practicing these words. Scholars must be able to read their words in a snap to pass. This means, they have the words committed to memory and quickly recall them.

Writing/ Grammar: This week, we continued practicing the rules for capitalization. I use the acronym MINTS to teach capitalization.

M- Months of the year and days of the week

I- The pronoun I

N- Names of people, places, and pets

T-Titles of books, movies, and songs

S- Start of sentences.

We celebrated all that we knew on our COOL BLUE CAPITAL DAY. We were so COOL as we wore sunglasses and practiced writing sentences with capital letters. We used our cool blue capital pens when we wrote words that needed to be capitalized. On Wednesday, Mrs. Dalsin gave each teammate one MINT as they completed an assessment page in their capitalization packet. These packets will come home before MEA.

Making Meaning: Our mentor text was Matthew and Tilly. We practiced retelling this story on Retelling Road. We discussed the setting, characters, plot, problem, and solution of the story. We discussed the story's message, and we made text-to-self connections. We also wrote about a time we felt like Matthew and Tilly.

Vocabulary: We learned four new words this week: crabby, rescue, stomp, wonder. We had fun acting out these words.

Math: We continued practicing addition within ten. We reviewed that zero is "a big fat nothing." I say this to the kids to help them remember that zero doesn't change the value of the numeral to which it is added. We solved addition problems to ten with missing addends. We completed our Rainbow to Ten and named all of the number partners that make ten. In guided math, we practiced balancing equations to ten. Some students are beginning to balance equations with missing addends. This is upper level thinking, and I love seeing your children light up when they solve these problems. We also continued our work with real world problems within ten. I challenged them by giving them real world problems with missing addends. They met my challenge and soared!

Religion: We completed our Promise Magazine. We also completed Chapter 4: God is our Holy Father. This is my first year with this religion curriculum, and I love our religion book. Please keep practicing our first grade prayers. This semester, I will assess your students on these prayers: Sign of the Cross, Grace Before Meals, Guardian Angel, and Glory Be. I will begin working with the team on learning the Glory Be soon. Next semester, we will learn the Hail Mary and Our Father.

Science: We learned about the lifecycle of an apple tree. We role played and acted out the lifecycle. We completed an apple lifecycle sequencing activity. Then, we made apple lifecycle hats. The All Stars mastered learning the stages of this lifecycle.

REMINDERS:

• SWS Spirit Wear Fridays: All Star may wear any SWS to school on Friday with nonuniform bottoms.

• Library Books: Please return library books on Mondays.

• PE Shoes: Please make sure your scholar wears running shoes on Tuesdays and Thursdays for PE.

• HALLOWEEN: We will be celebrating Halloween in school on Friday, October 29. Scholars may bring a costume and put it on after lunch for our class party. Costumes must fit over your scholar's clothing. Weapons, make up, and masks will not be allowed. We will only have a few minutes to get into costume, and will we be dressing in the classroom. Please send something that is easy to put on. There is NO requirement that All Stars bring a costume.

• PUMPKINS: Thank you for all of your donations to our classroom! I appreciate all of your support!

• CLASS MASS: Our first class mass is Wednesday, December 1. We will be singing with the other first grade at their mass on Wednesday, November 10. You are welcome to join us for these special celebrations.

• SPELLING: THERE IS NO SPELLING TEST THIS WEEK!

• Please send your All Star to school with a sweater or sweatshirt. The temperature in our classroom fluctuates quite a bit!

• FALL BREAK: We have a three day week this week because of our fall break. Enjoy this extra time with your All Stars.

• ALL SAINTS DAY: We will have mass Monday, November 1 to celebrate All Saints Day.

• ALL SOULS DAY: We may walk to the cemetery and participate in saying the rosary on Tuesday, November 2.

First Grade Fun and Service! Cleaning the bleachers for our marathon service project.

Week of October 4

SO MANY HIGHLIGHTS THIS WEEK:)

Shared Reading: Our mentor text was the poem Hippopotamus Stew. We had fun rebuilding this poem and adding actions to it. Seeing the smiles of your children as they acted out the poem was fabulous! I love watching kids fall in love with literacy. We also illustrated this poem. I kept these drawings and will add them to our poetry journal throughout the year.

Guided Reading: We continue to work hard in guided reading. This week we added spelling practice to our guided reading rotations. We had our first spelling test on Friday. As a whole, the All Stars did great! Keep practicing those spelling patterns.

Gumball Sight Words: We had many scholars pass at least one level of their sight words this week. Keep practicing these words. Scholars must be able to read their words in a snap to pass. This means, they have the words committed to memory and quickly recall them.

Writing/ Grammar: This week, we focused on the rules for capitalization. I use the acronym MINTS to teach capitalization.

M- Months of the year and days of the week

I- The pronoun I

N- Names of people, places, and pets

T-Titles of books, movies, and songs

S- Start of sentences.

The team did a good job learning these rules. We will continue practicing them next week.

Making Meaning: Our mentor text was It's Mine. We learned how to retell stories. We walked on Mrs. Dalsin's Retelling Road as we discussed the setting, characters, plot, problem, and solution of the story. We also discussed how in fables, the author usually has a message for the reader. In this story, the message was sharing is caring. We wrote about a time we shared in school.

Vocabulary: We learned four new words this week: quarrel, peaceful, rumble, tremble. We had fun acting out these words.

Math: We continued learning about number partners and addition strategies. We learned to count on from the bigger number and to solve for missing addends in number bonds. We continued our work with anchor tasks. Each day, we practice solving a real world problem. We love it when the problems are about students in our class. We are getting better at proving our math thinking. Check out our anchor task pictures in Math.

Religion: We completed our Promise Magazine. We also partnered with the other first grade to complete our marathon service project. We had fun cleaning the bleachers. We made cards for our sick classmate, and we prayed over a stuffed animal. We poured our loved and healing into the stuffy as we prayed.

Science: We learned about about the scientific method. We completed our first experiment. It was so much fun! We worked our way through the scientific method as we discovered whether popcorn floats. We learned that popcorn does float. We were all smiles as we worked with our partners on this experiment.

REMINDERS:

• SWS Spirit Wear Fridays: Your All Star may wear any SWS to school on Friday with nonuniform bottoms.

• Library Books: Please return library books on Mondays.

• PE Shoes: Please make sure your scholar wears running shoes on Tuesdays and Thursdays for PE.

• HALLOWEEN: We will be celebrating Halloween in school on Friday, October 29. Scholars may bring a costume and put it on after lunch for our class party. Costumes must fit over your scholar's clothing. Weapons, make up, and masks will not be allowed. We will only have a few minutes to get into costume, and will we be dressing in the classroom. Please send something that is easy to put on. There is NO requirement that All Stars bring a costume.

• PUMPKINS: We are seeking donations of bowling ball sized pumpkins for our party on Friday, October 29. If you are able to donate, please let me know. We need 14 total pumpkins.

• CLASS MASS: Our first class mass is Wednesday, December 1. We will be singing with the other first grade at their mass on Wednesday, November 10. You are welcome to join us for these special celebrations.

• SPELLING: We will have spelling tests every week. Please help your scholar study. A few minutes of practice each night will be very helpful.

• 90 MINUTE LATE START: On Thursday, October 14, school will start 90 minutes later than normal.

Week of September 27

We had another great week of learning. Here are some highlights from our week:

Shared Reading: Our mentor text was the book Flower Garden. The All Stars practiced echo reading and chorally reading this text. On Thursday, I wrote one sentence from the book on a sentence strip, and we discussed how we knew where each word ended and the next began. Then, I cut the sentence into words, and we took turns rebuilding the sentence in a pocket chart. Teammates easily identified the first and last words of the sentence because the first word started with a capital letter and the last word was followed by ending punctuation.

Guided Reading: We are underway with guided reading. This week, scholars needed reminders about how to work independently, but I'm seeing glimpses of greatness in all of them. In the next few weeks, the procedure for guided reading will be a well-oiled machine, and we will hit the ground running!

Gumball Sight Words: Thanks for your partnership this year in helping your scholar master the first 200 sight words on the Fry list. My goal is to assess scholars every Monday on their sight words. If your scholar wants to test early, please send their word list back to school. I will do my best to test them in the morning before we begin our day.

Writer: This week, we focused on the G.U.M strategy: guess, underline, and move on. When scholars are writing and come to a word they don't know how to spell, I want them to stretch the sounds of the word out like bubble gum and write the sounds they hear. This is very hard for some All Stars. We will continue to work on this skill throughout the year. To keep this week's lessons fun, I let the team chew one piece of bubble gum during writing this week. It made me giggle to watch some of the try and blow a bubble before throwing their gym away on our way to Music.

Making Meaning: Our mentor text was Places in my Neighborhood and People in my Neighborhood. We discussed nonfiction text features and made text to self connections with these books. The All Stars enjoyed talking about their neighborhoods with their turn and talk partners.

Vocabulary: We learned four new words this week: neighbor, neighborly, rush, and spot. We discuss how the word spot has two meanings. When trying to figure out which meaning is correct, scholars learned that they need to listen to the words in the sentence to see which definition makes sense.

Grammar: We continue to work on writing complete sentences. Our focus this week was adding strong finger spacing between words and making sure our sentences end with punctuation.

Math: We started learning about number bonds. We learned the number bond cheer: part, part, whole. We are able to identify the whole and the parts in a number bond. When given the parts, we can add them together to make the whole. When given the whole and one part, we can find the missing part. We checked our work on the math balance. We even got to make number bond chains that will be displayed in our room. Our math game this week is Connect Four (addition). You may keep the game, but please return the homework ticket.

Religion: We completed the third chapter in our religion book: God is our Father. We celebrated St. Wenceslaus on Tuesday. We also got to attend adoration. On Wednesday, we celebrated St. Gabriel because it was the Feast of the Archangels. St. Gabriel is the patron saint of the All Star classroom. We pray to him often. The All Stars made St. Gabriel sun catchers. They are gorgeous. I'm keeping them in the classroom for a while before sending them home. As the sun pours through them, we can feel God's message of hope and love. We are blessed to learn in a Catholic school where we can celebrate God's love. Check out our class picture below!

Science: We continued learning about what scientists do. We used magnifying glasses to more closely observe flowers in the Mary Garden. We recorded our observations and shared our findings with the class. As we looked more closely at flowers, our list of curiosities grew. We listened to the book Seven Blind Mice, and we learned the importance of not rushing to judgement. We learned to look at the whole, as well as the details, to most accurately describe something.

Kindness with Ms. Dietz: On Thursday, Ms. Dietz (the school counselor) came to our classroom and gave a lesson about being kind to others. We listened to a story, and we talked about how we can be kind to ourselves and others.

Marathon Update: Please join me at the marathon on Saturday. Arrive at 8:45. Your All Star may want to wear something with pockets because for each lap students run, they will earn a ticket that they won't want to lose.

REMINDERS:

• Marathon Shirts: Please wear your BLUE marathon wildcat shirt on Friday.

• Marathon Money: Continue to send in your marathon money in an envelope labeled with your scholar's name and dollar amount.

• Library Books: Please return library books on Mondays.

• PE Shoes: Please make sure your scholar wears running shoes on Tuesdays and Thursdays for PE.

Number bonds paper chains were so much fun to make. Teammates asked if they could make more than one. Love it!

Week of September 20

The All Stars are working hard! Here are some highlights from our week:

Shared Reading: Our mentor text was the poem "Willaby Wallaby Woo." We had fun playing a rhyming name game with this poem and looking at how our names are similar and different. Scholars identified vowels and consonants. We also learned that names begin with capital letters.

Guided Reading: We began guided reading rotations this week. Next week, we may be ready to begin guided reading groups. When scholars are not working with me, they work through different stations: word work, read to self, and work on writing.

Sight Words: We learned new sight words this week: they, saw, his, her, out, come, do, of, have, put. Sight words must be committed to memory and recited in a snap (without sounding them out). Mrs. Radamacher will be in our classroom daily during guided reading, and she will work with scholars on testing their sight word growth. This week, she began working with scholars to identify which of the first 200 words on the Fry Sight Word List scholars already know. By the end of first grade, scholars should master all 200 words.

Being a Writer: Our mentor text this week was Farmer Duck. We wrote stories about how we help others. We also added details to our illustrations, and then we added more details to our stories to match our illustrations.

Making Meaning: Our mentor text was When I was Little. In this story, the author compares herself to when she was a baby. We made text to self connections. Then, we wrote about our connections and illustrated our writing. These writings will become a class book. We also worked on retelling the story.

Vocabulary: We learned four new words this week: independent, memory, disgusting, and scrumptious.

Grammar: We continue working on complete sentences. We know that every complete sentence has four parts: capital letter, finger spacing, ending punctuation, and a complete thought. We worked on identifying the naming part and telling part of sentences. We also started Fix It Up sheets. On these sheets, scholars identify the errors in sentences and fix up the sentences. Currently, they are looking for capital letters at the beginning of the sentence and ending punctuation.

Math: We completed our first unit in math: numbers to ten. Scholars should be able to do the following:

• read number words through ten

• compare numbers within ten with the proper comparison symbol: >, <, =

• use these terms correctly: greater than, less than, equal to, same, fewer, more

• complete number patterns within ten

• add one more and one less than a number (within ten)

• subitize numbers within ten (represent numbers to ten in a variety of ways: as a numeral, tally marks, tens frame, picture, dice, number sentence, etc...)

Religion: We completed the second chapter in our religion book: God is good. We learned that God made the world good. We also went to the church, and we found symbols. Our Promise magazine went home.

Science: We started our first science unit: what is a scientist. We discussed what scientists do and what they look like. We completed a fun activity on Mystery Science where we observed our hands and asked questions like a scientist does. Our observation journal and wondering sheet went home.

Technology: We started using our iPads to get us ready for taking our fall NWEA tests. We completed assignments on Raz-Kids, Seesaw, and IXL.

NWEA: We took our fall NWEA tests. These tests identify skills that students have mastered and those that need to be mastered. They provide a baseline by which to measure student growth.

Marathon Update: Keep those donations coming! We are only half way to our goal.

REMINDERS:

• Marathon Shirts: Please wear your BLUE marathon wildcat shirt on Friday.

• Marathon Money: Continue to send in your marathon money in an envelope labeled with your scholar's name and dollar amount.

• Library Books: Please return library books on Mondays.

• PE Shoes: Please make sure your scholar wears running shoes on Tuesdays and Thursdays for PE.

Happy Dozinky Weekend!

This past week, we settled into our daily routines. Here are our highlights:

Shared Reading: Our mentor text was This is the Way We Go to School. In this story, we learned about how children all over the world go to school. We made text-to-self connections and continued building our classroom community.

Guided Reading: We continue to practice independence and building our stamina. This week, scholars practiced word work stations and read to self stations.

Sight Words: Keep practicing those sight words! Your scholar should know these sight words in a snap: he, she, can, to, no, go, yes, get, is, down, my, by, here, where, I, a, like, the, see, is, are, me, at, am, isn't, can't. These words will support our decodable readers when we moved to guided reading rotations in two weeks. If your scholar doesn't have these words down, please work on them daily.

Being a Writer: Our mentor text was Things I Like. We made text-to-self connections. We wrote our first stories using the sentence frame, "I like to..." We got to sit in the author's chair and read our stories to the team. We also learned how illustrations match and add details to the text.

Making Meaning: Our mentor text was Quick as a Cricket. We practiced retelling parts of the story and making text-to-self connections. We made a class book where we compared ourselves to an animal using the sentence frame: I am as ___________ as a _________________.

Vocabulary: We learned four new words this week: rapidly, bold, timid, and delighted. We learned that synonyms are words that mean almost the same thing. We also learned that antonyms are opposites.

Grammar: We learned that complete sentences have four parts: capital letters, ending punctuation, finger spacing between words, and a complete thought. A complete thought means that the sentence has a naming part and a telling part. This skill will be practiced again next week.

Math: We continued with our numbers to 10 unit. This week, we practiced comparing numbers with the less than, greater than, and equal symbols. We also worked on subitizing numbers to 10. This will increase our number sense and help us when when we begin adding and subtracting numbers within ten. We completed number patterns within ten. The entire team is fluent in counting up and back within ten. We continue to work on reading and spelling our number words to ten. Please play the apple bump math game that was sent home. The white cover sheet should be returned to school.

Religion: We completed our first chapter in our religion book. We learned that Jesus is our friend. We continue to pray the Angel of God prayer each morning and afternoon.

Social Studies: We completed our digital citizenship unit. These lesson focused on being safe online. A coloring book went home.

Friday Fun: On Friday, we played with our collaborative play buckets. Scholars enjoyed working together to build a variety of structures. Enjoy our pictures.

Marathon Update: We earned the big squishy Rickie last week because we were the third top earning class. Keep those donations coming!

Dozinky: It was fun to see so many families at the parade. Thanks for your participation!

REMINDERS:

• Marathon Shirts: Please wear your BLUE marathon wildcat shirt on Friday.

• Marathon Money: Continue to send in your marathon money in an envelope labeled with your scholar's name and dollar amount.

• Scholastic Book Orders: Thanks to everyone who ordered! I am still able to order books, so if you would like to place an order, please do so online.

WE ARE ALL AUTHORS! THE ALL STARS PROUDLY READ THEIR "I LIKE" STORIES IN THE AUTHOR CHAIR!

September 13, 2021

Today was our first Monday as All Stars. We had a great day of learning. We started our day with guided discovery and learned about what we can and cannot do with markers. Then, we colored the cover of our writing folders. Next, we listened to the story Giraffes Can't Dance about a giraffe who dreamed of dancing. We talked about our hopes and dreams for first grade. Then, we wrote about our hopes and dreams. These are hanging in the hall. Scholars also learned about fairness. I asked them to define fair. Not surprisingly, they told me that fair means equal. I challenged their definition with a fun lesson about equity. Each student pretended to have an injury. Some of us had broken bones, and others had small scratches. I was the doctor, and I gave everyone one bandaid to fix their injury. We talked about whether it was fair for me to treat all of the injuries the same. We decided that it wasn't fair; some injuries needed more than just a bandaid. I told the team that during the year, I won't treat everyone the same; however, I will give every teammate what he or she needs. We talked about how we are all alike, and we are all different. We need to appreciate our differences and trust that I will be equitable; I will do my best to meet the needs of each scholar. This was such a fun way to learn about equity! We learned two new sight words today: here and where. In math, we continued practicing our numbers within ten. We learned a new math game, and the team loved it! Keep working on learning those number words. During math workshop, we are working on keeping our voice at a whisper when we play math games. We had library and art for the first time. In the afternoon, we went outside to the Mary Garden for our religion lesson. We learned that Jesus is our friend, and God loves us. At the end of the day, we learned that our class brought in the third most money for the marathon today. We were excited to welcome Naomi the squishy as an honorary All Star. Have a wonderful evening! I look forward to "seeing" you tomorrow at our parent meeting.

REMINDERS

• Please join me tomorrow for our parent meeting. I'm excited to share with you my teaching philosophy and what you can expect this year with your All Star.

• Marathon money should be brought to school daily.

• Please join us for Dozinky! I will be walking with the SWS float at Dozinky. I'd love the All Stars to join me. Information went home about this wonderful opportunity. Wear your red SWS shirts, and join the school community at 11:45 in line. We are float #49. Bring an ice cream bucket with a handle to hold and carry candy.

• BOOK ORDERS!!! If you want to order books from Scholastic, an order form went home today. Each order earns the classroom a book. All orders may be done online. Please have your orders in by Friday. If you order, and you want the books to be a gift, please let me know by email.

• LIBRARY BOOKS should be returned tomorrow. Please send them back to school.

Fairness is.... A Lesson in Equality versus Equity

My hope and dream is that the All Stars gain a true love of literacy! I tried to capture all of the smiles in the library today:)

September 10, 2021

We ended our week strong! Today, we learned about the difference between tattling and reporting. We had our first fire drill. The All Stars did awesome with our drill! We read Alexander and the Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day. We talked about how sometimes, we just have a bad day and need a break. I introduced my RETHINKING chair. It's a spot where scholars may go when they need a break. It's also a spot where I may send scholars when then need to regain self control. When scholars sit in this spot, they will do a few breathing exercises and let their bodies calm down. Today, we also read NO David!, David Goes to School, and David Gets in Trouble. These silly books made us giggle. We talked about which rules we like best from our Code of Cooperation. We did a sorting activity about appropriate and inappropriate school behavior. We wrote about our favorite school rule, and we made our own Davids. They are adorable! I was impressed with our first writing project. Scholars needed reminders about finger spacing and ending punctuation, but they did a great job with their sound spelling. We continued working on our sight words this week. Your scholar should be able to read all of these words in a snap: he, she, can, to, is, yes, no, go, get, isn't, can't, by, my, down, is. Lastly, we read the story A Quiet Place, and we discussed our favorite quiet places. Scholars wrote a sentence about their favorite quiet place and illustrated it. These will be assembled into our first class book. We ended our day with Music, and then we went outside to play with the other first graders for a little bit. Enjoy your weekend! I look forward to talking with you at our Google Meet on Tuesday.

As always, thanks for your partnership! Enjoy this beautiful evening.

REMINDERS:

• Google Meet on Tuesday at 6:00 (September 14)

• Please continue to bring in Marathon money.

• BLUE Marathon shirts may be worn on Fridays. Please make sure your All-Star wears the new BLUE shirt.

The All Stars holding their watercolor self-portraits. These will hang in the school hallway by the office all year as a reminder that we are designed by God. We are all alike, and we are all different.

September 9, 2021

Our focus today was talking and interrupting. Our class is VERY chatty. They like to talk to each other, but they also want to participate often. These are all wonderful characteristics. We are learning how to participate appropriately. Our mentor texts were Lacey Walker Nonstop Talker and Interrupting Chicken. After discussing each book individually, we compared these texts with a double bubble graphic organizer. We identified how they were similar and how they were different. It was fun to see teammates dig deep with the text and find meaningful commonalities and differences in these texts. With daily calendar, we continue our development of number sense. We are doing well with building our stamina in guided math. Today, we played partner games. Our voice levels were much higher than the previous couple days, so we had to stop and rethink. In the afternoon, we celebrated the Blessed Virgin Mary. It was her birthday on September 8, and today we talked about gifts we could give her. The team came up with beautiful ideas: helping others by giving them food and money, praying for others, and being kind. We discussed being part of a faith family and that we are all part of God's family. We also talked about how at school, we are a school family. We went to the Mary Garden for this lesson. After our discussion, we prayed the Hail Mary as a class. Then, we found a comfy spot and colored Mary's birthday sheet. These birthday sheets were sent home. I took a few pictures of the All Stars enjoying this outdoor lesson. I missed photographing a couple scholars! I'll get them next time:)

September 8, 2021

Today we got to celebrate mass as a class. The kindergarten teachers trained the team well, and they were absolute cherubs during mass. I am so proud of them. They participated fully and with innocent hearts. As I watched over them, I could feel God's love and grace. It was a wonderful celebration of faith.

Today, we listened to stories to help us come up with our class contract. Our favorites were Officer Buckle and Gloria, What if Everybody Did That?, and Do Unto Otters. The All Stars came up with an amazing list of rules. As a former contract attorney, I gave the All Stars a mini lesson on contract law. I explained that by signing our Code of Cooperation, they agree to be bound by our class rules. Each scholar proudly signed our contract. It is now happily hanging on our wall to help us remember to be kind, safe, polite, engaged, and have fun. Each scholar's paper doll is also hanging around our contract, as is the wrinkled heart from last week's lesson about being kind with our words.

We continue to build our number sense with numbers to ten. The All Stars had fun stickin' it to ten by putting star stickers in tens frames. We are working on building our stamina during math workshop. We did a good job today of keeping our voices low and being cooperative with math manipulatives. Keep working with your All Star on representing numbers to ten in a variety of ways: tens frames, number words, numerals, pictures, tally marks, base ten blocks, and fingers. We listen to a number rap daily to help us learn to read and write our number words (1-10). We also continue to practice reading letter names and sounds.

REMINDERS:

• Please bring in marathon money daily.

• Tomorrow (Thursday, September 9) is a 90 minute late start. Cars may drop off at 8:45. We will start school at 9:00.

September 7, 2021

I hope you all enjoyed the long holiday weekend. I squeezed in time to spoil my two high school girls and check in with my college kids. It was a wonderful weekend! I hope you were able to relax and enjoy family.

It was fun to have the All Stars back together in class. I was impressed with how well they remembered our morning routine. I started the day with a wonderful read aloud titled We Are All Alike, We Are All Different. We talked about how God made us in His image and likeness. We are all unique and special. This year, we will celebrate our differences and embrace our similarities. We drew and watercolor painted self portraits to remind us that we are made in God's image and likeness. These will hang in the hall for the year. They turned out adorable! The team will cut them out tomorrow, and I'll snap a picture when we get them hung up in the hall. We also went to the church and discussed proper mass behavior. I'm excited to celebrate our first mass together tomorrow. We learned another few sight words. Our list of sight words now includes these words: he, she, can, to, get, yes. Please review these words with you scholar daily. I will be sending flashcard home when we complete all of the words in this sight word set. We completed an assessment for math to get a baseline of our number sense. We had seven minutes to complete a 120s chart. We reviewed numbers 0-10, and we began practicing writing these numbers correctly. Mrs. Dalsin is VERY PICKY about penmanship. Please look at how your scholar holds a pencil and correct any wonky grips. Also, watch your scholar to make sure they start forming letters and numbers at the top and not the bottom. We started building stamina for math workshop. In order for Mrs. Dalsin to work with small groups during math, the team needs to be able to work on their own. We are building that stamina now. We had PE today, and then we reviewed letter names and sounds. Teammates should all be able to name the vowels. Lastly, we did a graphing activity with our first names. We learned that most All Stars have six letters in their name. Thanks for all you do! Have a wonderful evening! I'm off to St. Peter to watch my sophomore (Nellie) at her diving meet. Fingers crossed she has another great meet!

REMINDERS:

• Please bring in marathon money daily labeled with your scholar's name.

September 3, 2021

Our day flew by! We listened to the story Chrysanthemum by Kevin Henkes. In this story, we learned that words hurt, and it's hard to fix a wrinkled heart. After this lesson, students colored and cut paper doll selfies. These will also hang in our room as a reminder of this very important lesson about kindness. We completed our bus safety unit. Scholars went home with bus safety coloring books. We reviewed letter names and sounds, and we reviewed the difference between consonants and icky sticky vowels that hold words together. Mrs. May came into our classroom and helped us get our iPads logged into Seesaw. We had our first indoor recess. I learned that this team LOVES legos! After lunch, Mrs. Dalsin read the book Winners Never Quit by Mia Hamm. We continued our discussion of TENACITY. We also talked about making mistakes; mistakes are proof that we are growing. We attended an assembly for the marathon, and we met our new school mascot: the SWS Wildcat! The team was so excited! We ended our day with Music and making our September calendars. It's been a wonderful week of learning! Enjoy the long weekend, and I will see the All-Stars back in class on Tuesday.

REMINDERS:

• Please send a sweatshirt or sweater with your All-Star. The temperature in our classroom fluctuates a lot.

• Check roundtrip folders daily. There is a lot of information in the folder today. Your All-Star's student ID is in today's folder. These ID cards may be used to enter district sporting events free of charge. Do not let the ID cards go in the dryer, or they may get ruined. Marathon packets also came home.

• Please send marathon money to school in a sealed envelope with your All-Star's name on the outside. The recording sheet does not come back to school. As a former Marathon Mom, I know what a huge fundraiser the marathon is for SWS. Please help us meet and exceed our goal!

September 2, 2021

Thank you All Star Families for your generous donations to our classroom. I am humbled by your kindness. To the families who surprised me with the Dollar Tree gift card and the PlayDoh, THANK YOU! There was no name listed for me to write a thank you note for these donations. I am very grateful for your gifts! They will go to good use.

The All Stars are on a roll! Today, we continued learning how to be first graders. We got to play the mystery box game twice. The first time, we were surprised to find that glue sticks were the mystery object. In the afternoon, scissors were in the box. We reviewed the DOs and DON'Ts for glue sticks, scissors, and pencils. We practiced writing our letters from A to Z with our new pencils. We glued our first day of school pictures into iPhones to practice using our glue sticks. These finished projects are hanging up in the hallway. We also practiced cutting with our new scissors by cutting folder tags for our work in progress folders. The highlight of our day was when Mrs. Rademacher came to our classroom to talk about germs. After showing us how to wash our hands, she gave us a small about of lotion that is visible under black light. These were the "germs." Then, we went to the restroom and washed our hands really well. We came back and were surprised to see if any germs were left on our hands. This was a fabulous lesson about the importance of washing our hands well. We got to go to PE today, and we talked about how happy we are to get to have specials as a whole first grade class. After lunch, Mrs. Dalsin read us one of her favorite childhood books: The Little Engine that Could. We discussed TENACITY. We learned that Mrs. Dalsin is going to push us to do our best this year. Even when it is hard, we are going to have TENACITY. We've got grit, and we won't quit!

REMINDERS:

• Tomorrow is our Marathon assembly. Please have your All Star wear their new marathon shirt that came home.

• Please check round trip folders daily. Scholars may need help at the beginning of the year remembering to show you what (if anything) is in their folder. Please encourage them to show you their folders each night.

• Don't forget to pack a snack for your All Star.

• It was actually chilly in our classroom today... I didn't think that was possible:). Please tuck a sweatshirt or sweater in your All Star's backpack.

September 1, 2021

Welcome to First Grade All Stars! We had a busy day in the All Star classroom. We learned many routines: greeting Mrs. Dalsin, participating during morning meeting, using our coat closet, walking in line, using the bathroom and washing our hands, getting snack milk or juice, playing on the playground, getting our lunches and using the cafeteria, and leaving for the day. We played a game of follow the leader (both inside and outside) to practice walking in a line. That was a lot of fun! We passed Mrs. Dalsin's mystery box around the circle and guessed what was inside. We were surprised to see crayons in the box. We learned that Mrs. Dalsin has high expectations. We will work hard this year to create five star drawings. Our pictures will be detailed, colorful, and neat. We read a funny story titled First Day Jitters about a teacher who was nervous to start at a new school (hmmmm.... just like Mrs. Dalsin). We graphed how we felt about coming to school, and we analyzed our data. Later in the day, we read the poem Jitter Juice, and Mrs. Dalsin made the team Jitter Juice. This was definitely the highlight of the day! We listened as our worries floated away with all of the bubbles and fizz. We even had time to squeeze in Music class with our first grade friends from the other class. We ended our day with a gratitude circle, and we said one thing for which we are grateful. WOW! We sure had a busy first day!

REMINDERS:

• If you want to attend piano classes, please contact our music teacher (Mrs. Gorr) and request information. Space is limited.

• Please send a snack daily with your All Star.

We LOVE Graphing!

We worked on comparing data, counting, and representing data in different ways: tally marks, numerals, written words, tens frame, and base ten.