Apple Taste Test

We had a great day today in first grade.  Happy Birthday, LaShane!  Thank you for the yummy cupcakes!  

Today we taste tested 5 different kinds of apples.  Thank you to Zachary's mom and Mariana's mom who helped me out a lot by donating apples for our taste test!    The kids had a great time trying the different kinds of apples.  We found out some favorites and we even had a few spit them out into the trash!  ha ha (Granny Smith's are too sour for some of us!)  We were a little worried about how it was going to go because one of our friends was crying before we started because she doesn't like apples.  With a little encouragement from all of our first grade friends and a few stories from me about previous first graders who felt the same way and tried the apples and LOVED them, we were able to get her to be brave and try them!  She liked them all!  What a great life lesson we all learned today about being brave and trying new things!  It later turned into a big discussion about foods that we don't like and how we might like them one day and also foods we like now but might not like later.  

Look at her-- yeah... she clearly hates apples!  LOL

Have a great weekend everyone! Don't forget to read and record books for your Reading Logs, which are due Monday!  

Hugs and High Fives!  

Just a few things...

Wow!  What an exciting time of year!  It never ceases to amaze me how quickly things get so busy!

I will send home a reminder note about parent teacher conferences tomorrow to remind you of the time you signed up for.  If you didn't sign up at Open House I will give you some options for some times that are available.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MAKAELYN!  THANK YOU FOR SHARING CUPCAKES WITH THE CLASS TODAY!

Congratulations to Dean who got to move up to level four of our Math Mad Minutes Addition Club!  Keep practicing those math facts at home everyone!

There is MATH HOMEWORK in your child's take home folder tonight.  Please have them complete the worksheet, check it, and help them correct any mistakes.  Have them put it back in the right side of their take home folder and bring it to school to turn in tomorrow.

Parents/ Guardians, please remember to check take-home-folders every night.  Check your child's behavior chart.  Check the right side for papers that need to be returned to school.  Check papers on the left side and leave them at home.

Spelling Test Friday: mom, pot, stop, not, nod, hops, hot, on, no, with
Bonus: September, Monday

Keep working on the assignments in the Reading Homework Journal (RHWJ-- yellow composition notebook).  All of those should be completed and signed by Thursday.

Please remember to listen to your child read every night!  This will make a HUGE difference in their education.  Log any books you read together on the Reading Log in your child's folder.  They are supposed to have at least 4 entries a week and those are due on Mondays.

If you're looking for a way to practice spelling words and enjoy this beautiful weather at the same time, pick up some sidewalk chalk from the dollar store and have your child write their spelling words on the sidewalk!  This works for math facts, as well!  So much fun!

Thanks to those of you who volunteered to send in apples.  If you're still interested there is still time.  Just let me know and I will let you know what kind we need!

Hugs and High Fives!
Ms. Bleich

Week of September 19

Hello first grade family and friends!  I hope everyone had a great weekend and enjoyed the beautiful weather after Friday's downpour!

This week we are preparing daily for our first reading test, which will be on Thursday, September 22.  If you complete the Reading Homework Journal Assignment with your child it will help them greatly in getting ready for their test!  The homework this week acts as a review/study guide.  

I am sending home math homework tonight.  Please have your child complete it on their own.  Check their work.  Then help them to correct any mistakes that they made.  They should turn it in tomorrow.

Spelling words this week:  did, pat, tan, hand, all, tall, will, an, can, by
Bonus Words: friend, Sunday (Sunday is worth 2 points-- one for correct spelling and one for a capital S)--  Test on Friday, September 23

Specials schedule this week:
Monday- Computer
Tuesday- PE
Wednesday- Art
Thursday- Music
Friday- Library

Tomorrow is an early dismissal day.  Students will be dismissed at 2:00.  Please plan accordingly.  Tomorrow is also hat day.  If your child brings in $1 they may wear a hat all day.  The money goes toward our Character Education Program.

Thank you to Mariana and Tanaja who brought in snacks to share with the class this week.  It's nice to have such generous friends.  I use the extra snacks for when students forget to bring one.

Congratulations to Zachary and Dean who moved up to the next level in our Math Mad Minutes Club!  Keep practicing those math facts at home!  You'll be amazed how much just a little bit of practice will help your child to memorize and retain those facts!  As of now we are mainly working on addition but we will move on to subtraction soon.

We are wrapping up our Bee Unit.  Your child should be able to tell you the main body parts of a bee, how they help people, how they make honey, and the stages of their life cycle.  We are taking part in a honey taste test today, which is usually everyone's favorite part of our bee unit!  Sweeeeeeeet!!!!

We will begin discussing the tall tale of Johnny Appleseed tomorrow.  Next week we will do an apple taste test.  If you are interested in donating apples for our taste test, please let me know by sending in a note with your child or sending me an email by Friday.  tricia.bleich@wssd115.org  I will then compile a list of the people willing to help and assign each person a certain type of apple to purchase.  Please do not go out and buy apples on your own without finding out what kind we need.  I like to have a wide variety and by assigning one kind to each volunteer it helps us from getting 23 of the same kind!  Thank you so much for considering this!

Hugs and High Fives!  :)

First Grade Reminders

Greetings from room 116!  I just want to start by saying that these kiddos are REALLY getting the hang of things!  We have been adding new things to our routine each week and everyone is doing a great job of learning how to be responsible!  

Happy Birthday to Tanaja, who celebrated her 7th one yesterday.  Thank you for the yummy cupcakes you brought for us.  Thank you, Simon, for bringing extra class snacks for us today.  I love the kindness and sharing!

Just a few reminders:  
1. Tomorrow is the spelling test over the following words: sit, him, lip, ill, hill, is, in, it, and, I
Bonus words: grade, play

2. Please remember to read with your child each night. Please record the books they read on their Reading Log, located in their take home folder.  Your child should have at least 4 entries a week. If you need books you can visit the public library or read the Whiteside library book that your child brings home each week.  Soon, I will allow students to borrow books from our classroom.  I will also be sending home a book order soon so that you may order books at a discounted price.  In the mean time, ANYTHING they can read is helpful!  Most of us have smartphones, so even if you don't have books you could find a children's article online.  If your child is reading chapter books you can record one chapter of the book or a series of several pages as one whole entry.  

3. Study spelling words as needed.  You know your child the best.  If they have a firm grasp over the words, perhaps only once or twice a week is needed for practice, in addition to what we do at school.  If your child struggles with spelling, please make it a habit to practice nightly, or as much as needed.  I keep a copy of my own kids' spelling words in my car so we can practice as we drive around town.  I also keep a copy next to their beds so that when we are done with bedtime stories we can quickly go over the tricky words.  You can download the Spelling City app to your phone and look for my page (Mrs. Bleich) for our weekly words and fun games to play.  (It's easiest to find if you search by school.) These are just a few ideas you can try if you need ideas.  

4. Please remember assignments in the reading homework journal are due each Thursday.  We had several students not have theirs done today.  I realize we all lead very busy lives but these assignments are important to your child's growth in first grade.  Please make every effort to take the time to do these with them.  


You may have noticed a math paper come home this week with 30 addition problems.  This is our "Mad Minutes Math Club."  Students get 2 minutes to complete 30 problems correctly.  As of right now, we are only doing addition.  Subtraction will start soon.  We do these on Monday.  If your child completes each problem CORRECTLY they will get to "move up" to the next level.  I have a chart in my room to keep track of progress.  It becomes an exciting challenge for our class and they get really excited when someone reaches the next level.  Congratulations to Dean who was the first student in our class to advance to level A2!  Awesome job!  When your child brings the paper home please have them practice the problems.  This will help with fact memorization.  Flash cards are a great purchase at the dollar store for fact memorization, as well!  

Hugs and High Fives!  
Ms. Bleich

Hello first grade families!  I hope you all enjoyed your labor day weekend.  

Here are some important reminders:

*Please check your child's take home folder EVERY NIGHT.  Papers that may be left at home should be on the left side and papers that need to be completed and returned to school should be on the right side.  I give explicit instructions on which side to put the papers on but sometimes kids get their left and right mixed up, even with labels and multiple reminders.  So if you see a paper on the left that looks like it might have been homework-- it might have been put on the wrong side by mistake.  Give your child the benefit of the doubt and ask them.  I tell them every day what needs to be brought back and what their homework is, so they should know.  If you question their judgment, just email me and ask.  The safest bet would be to have them do the work and turn it in!  
*Reading Logs should have been completed with at least 4 reading entries yesterday (since they are due on Mondays and this past Monday we did not have school, they were due on Tuesday)
*Reading Homework Journal signatures (yellow notebook in your child's backpack) are due tomorrow (these are always due on Thursdays)
*Spelling Test on Friday, September 9-- The spelling list came home last Friday.  The words are: am, at, has, as, sat, mat, ham, Sam, the, are.  Bonus words: school, first

Congratulations to Dean whose name was picked from the August star students, and was recognized as one of our Star Students of the Month!  Each time your child earns a star student award they get entered into the monthly drawing.  They win a prize and their picture gets posted on a bulletin board outside the cafeteria.  Way to go Dean!!  

Thank you to Samuel and LaShane who brought in extra snacks to share with the class this week!  You are so kind!

Sunday, September 11 is Patriot's Day.  Please have your child wear red, white, and blue to school on Friday, September 9.  

September's Character Education Word of the Month is: Respect
Ask your child what they learned about what it means to be respectful at school and at home.  

We started learning about Bees today!  Beeeeeee on the look out for some bee experts coming home to you every day for the next week and a half!  

I will be testing over Kindergarten sight words tomorrow and Friday.  Your child should have mastered these words in Kindergarten.  I sent home sight word flashcards the first week of school for them to cut out and practice at home.  We have also been practicing them every morning.  If your child has a good mastery of these words, please move on to practicing the Units 1 & 2 sight words that came home yesterday.  

If you see a T in the top right hand corner of a paper, it means that we did the work together.  I started doing that with my small groups today.  

Have a wonderful Wednesday!  
Hugs and High Fives!

Pictures from STEM Monday- spaghetti and marshmallow structures

Well this week has certainly flown by!  It's hard to believe it's almost Friday!

We have been hard at work this week.  We have done a lot of baseline testing so that I can see what these smart kiddos know already.  We have been doing a lot of number and letter writing, as well.  Please use the handwriting paper I sent home last week to have your child practice their writing.

We have created a math journal and a phonics journal, which we will work in every day.  Students get to cut and paste different activities in these journals and complete them.  They seem to really like these hands on assignments!

We started working in our math books today.  Your child brought home a ziploc bag of math vocabulary words.  They will bring home vocabulary cards at the beginning of each new chapter. Please keep these in a safe place at home.  I keep my own children's in a ziploc bag hanging from a magnet clip on the refrigerator so they are easily accessible when it is time to practice.  Another great place to keep them is in the car.  You can practice them with your child on your way to school, coming home from the store, going to grandma's, etc.  There will always be a vocabulary section on our chapter tests.  I will read the words and definitions to the class and they will be responsible for matching the word with the definition.  This will be done through drawing lines to match, fill in the blank, multiple choice, etc.

We had a series of emergency drills this week.  We practiced what to do in case of a fire, severe weather, and an intruder in the building.  Ask your child what they learned about what to do in case of an emergency at school.

Finally, we started STEM on Monday!  What is STEM, you ask?  It stands for Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics.  It is a student led discovery and activity or experiment.  It usually involves solving a difficult problem or creating a unique structure given only a certain amount of materials.  We started STEM in my classroom last year and Monday quickly became everyone's favorite day of the week!  I had several parents contact me saying that their child was always excited to come to school on Mondays because it's STEM day!  This week we made spaghetti and marshmallow structures.  It is always enjoyable to see how their little minds work and this time I even saw some team work, which was extra special!  I hope you enjoy the pictures!

Hugs and High Fives!
Ms. Bleich