Happy Earth Day

I thought today would be a great day to start our new classroom blog. My Schoolnotes account just never seemed to work for me. My hopes are that this will be a paperless way for you and your family to better stay informed about what is going on in our classroom...and maybe save a few trees along the way!

Thank you to all the parents for coming to the student-led conferences. The students enjoyed showing you their work, reflecting on their goals, and sharing the things they are doing in the classroom. I hope you find these conferences to be a way to connect with your child. It is wonderful for the students to gain confidence by sharing their classroom experiences with you, one-on-one. I hope that those that were unable to come will plan to come make it up...as this is a requirement for students attending a PYP campus.

Field Day is coming up on May 9th. Our class team name will be The Monarchs. Our team color is YELLOW. I will need everyone to bring in a white t-shirt no later than May 5th...as they need to be painted. The students are very excited about Field Day!

April 25th is "Free Dress Day."

May 13 is the Spring Music Program for 1st and 3rd grade. Remember that our class will be wearing white shirts (they can be school shirts)and any color pants/skirt. They need to bring a non-breakable bowl and spoon and if you have an apron...they can wear that, too.

We continue working on our planner, “Working 9 to 5”. The central idea is... people with different jobs work together to organize a community. We've been inquiring about different types of jobs, what goods and services do for us and how a community is dependent on jobs. A nice addition to our planner has been time spent with our Junior Achievement representative, Mr. Steininger. We've also enjoyed hearing all about professions within our classrooms' parents. If you are interested in sharing the "story" of your job there's still time...just let me know!

Our last planner will be "How We Share Our Planet," which will be a relevant way to end our year together. The central idea is...the environment is affected by human activities. We will inquire into what makes up the environment, what damages the environment, how we can improve the quality of our environment and the importance of protecting our environment.

I’ve been administering the last TPRI (Texas Reading Inventory) this week. This will be the last testing for 1st grade. I am testing reading frequency…which should be at least 60 wpm. (FYI…they should be reading at least 90 wpm by the end of 2nd grade). Be on the lookout for your child’s reading fluency results in the next week or so.

*** Which reminds me, please send a tin can from your recycle bin to school. We will reuse these in a fun project this week to celebrate Earth Day in our classroom!