Friday the 13th...of May that is.

May 13, 2016

Dear Families,

I hope you had a great Mother’s Day! Let’s hope that we have seen the last of the snow and hail! We now have 9 days of school left. Wow! Thank you to all who made the Botanic Gardens trip great. I caught a flu bug and couldn't attend.

Ø Reading – As we finish off the year in reading, we will be doing some Readers’ Theatre.  Only the scripts will come home to practice. Many of the children are already reading above grade level. I’ll inform you of the results at the end of the year. Please remember to continue to have your child read over the summer to fight the summer reading loss. The MAP reading test and PALS is complete. Results will be with the Friday folder.

Ø Writing – Our personal narratives will be complete next week. We will finish the year writing about plants and mealworms/beetles. It will be done by the end of the year.

Ø Math – We are just finished with our last chapter of the year – fractions and geometry. Unit 9 is a review unit. You will find the Unit 8 benchmark papers in the Friday folder. The MAP math test is complete. You will have the results with the report card. We will no longer have math or spelling homework.

Ø Science – our Brassica and Mustard seeds are growing strong and healthy. Some have flowered and some have their seed pods already. Mealworms will go home as they turn into beetles. Feel free to release them outside. Since each one that went home won’t survive long, I don’t expect them to impact the environment the way the whole culture would.

Ø Our Celebration of Learning will be on May 24^th at 11:30 with field day activities taking place from 12:00 – 2:00. Come see all the wonderful pieces of learning that we have accomplished.

Ø If you have any pictures that you could share in digital form, please send them to me as I prepare our first grade movie. Thank you in advance for considering this request.

I hope you have a great weekend.           Sincerely, Susan Stark

April Showers...Snow storms?

April 22, 2016

Remember: We will have school on Friday, May 6th and Friday, May 13th. We will be testing during regular school hours during the week of May 2nd. Please have your child well-rested and on-time during that week.

Dear Families,

The weather has been very nice lately. Here’s hoping that spring has finally sprung!

Our mealworms are growing quickly and some have begun its metamorphosis. We enjoy playing with our little friends and watching them grow.

Our Mustard Seed and Brassica plants have sprouted and grown quite tall. Once the budding and flowering begins, we will need to be little bees to pollinate the flowers. Our classroom is alive with nature. You can stop by after school sometime to see what’s happening.

My son is going in for surgery on his foot on Friday, April 29 to correct some football injuries. Mrs. Ellsworth will substitute for me that day. My plan is to make it back for the Family Festival and fun run. I hope to see many of you there.

Here is a brief update of what’s ahead:

Ø Our field trip to the Botanic Gardens is coming up on May 10th. I am still missing some permission slips and fees. I will draw names out of a hat next week to ride on the bus. I’ll announce the names of the chaperones soon. If you want to drive separate, you can. You may pay the entrance fee and meet us just inside the door.

Ø If you know your child will not be returning to Prairie Hills next year, please make sure you let to office know. We are in the process of making class lists.

Ø May 24^nd is field day. We will start with a Celebration of Learning in the classroom at 11:30 – 12:00. That will be followed by field day activities at 12:00. All are welcome to attend.

Sincerely,

 Susan Stark

March came in like a lamb!

                   

Be sure to ask your child about how a bat uses echolocation.                          March 4, 2016

Dear Families,

            As I write this letter, the beautiful sunrise is stretching across the sky. March has definitely come in like a lamb, but with very strong lion winds. You sure can feel that spring is just 16 days away. However, we often get a big snow in March. Don’t you just love Colorado weather?

             

There is much activity going on in our class. We are beginning to write Procedural Text or “How-to” text. We have been reading many How-to books. We have been having so much fun trying our hand at a different kind of writing. I love watching their writing take on their personal voice.

            

In math, we will move on to Unit 7 next week. The parent home link was in their homework folder on Thursday, March 3. Please be sure to keep it as reference for the unit. The students did well with the number sense of fact families and names for numbers in Unit 6. You will find the summary and grade sheet of their work for Unit 6 soon. I will let you know when grades are posted.

           

Our focus was on science this week as we continued to look at sound and began looking at light. We explored vibrations using rubber bands, experimented with sounds waves by observing the waves made by dropping an object in water and viewed salt moving as we made our own sound waves. Next Friday a letter will go home explaining the “make your own instrument challenge”. This can be a fun family project.

Please remember:

Ø Please return the blue folder surrounding the report card.

Ø Please send in Box Tops for Education.

Ø Today we had an assembly to kick off the Meadowlark Miles Family Festival. Please be sure to read the packet of information in their Friday folder. PTO will be raising money to refurbish our book room. After 13 years, many of our reading group books are falling apart. Thank you for your continued support.

 

Sincerely,

Susan Stark 

Valentine's Day Class List

Valentine’s Day List

 Mrs. Stark

Ava

Kieran

Jaylin

Tanner

Harper

Lauren

Caleb  

Brock

Kaiden

Kenadee

Fabian 

Jordyn

Maisie

Isabella

Amelia

Shaylee

Luca

Maksim

Jacob

Andrew

Allison

Fabulous February

February 5, 2016

Dear Families,

New Book-It reading sheets were in the homework folder on Monday. I will accept January’s sheet until next Friday. There is only one more month (March) in the program.

            Mathematically speaking, we began Unit 6 this week. This was our first look at clocks using only the hour hand. Unit 5 benchmark papers will be coming home at conferences. We finished up with our first math journal and it came home today along with the Friday folder. Please remember there might be some unfinished pages for a variety of reasons such as an absence or a teacher decision to not finish because we ran out of time. Feel free to finish as much or as little as you want at home. The book is not to be returned to school.

            In reading, we are finishing our look at who is telling the story/point of view and story elements – setting, characters, plot and retelling the story. Depending on the book your child is reading, it could take the form of a chapter book study, a narrative or a story map. Next week you will see some samples of what your child is working on, along with the Unit 4 literacy benchmark papers.

We are just about finished with our informational piece about a mammal of our choosing. We should be mostly finished with it and are eager to show our first attempt at a multi-paragraph report.

As we finished our Economics Unit, we moved into our next science unit on Light and Sound. It promises to be a fun month of experiments. The Economics benchmark papers will be in their Friday folder.           

Our Hundredth Day celebration will be on Monday, February 8^th. Our Valentine’s Day party will be on Tuesday, February 9^th. If you volunteered to help or attend, you should have been contacted by Mrs. Johnson. If you are not sure, please send me a note. You will find a copy of the class list on the reverse side of the note if you want to address the valentines. We will be making our valentine bags on Monday.

Remember that there is no school on Wednesday, February 10^th, Thursday, February 11^th and Friday, February 12^th, so there won’t be any homework or Friday Folders next week. Your student-led conference time will be sent in a reminder email from Sign-up Genius. If you did not sign up, I assigned you a time.

Thank you for your continued support.

Sincerely,

Susan Stark

Happy New Year 2016

January 8, 2016

Dear Families,

Happy New Year 2016! Welcome back to school. I hope your break was healthy and restful. We are gearing up for some great topics and I thought I would take a moment to give you a preview.

This week we finished our study of geography and the cultures that are affected by landforms. The benchmark papers will come home next week along with report cards. Then, we will begin our study of economics, jobs and saving for short term goals. I am inviting you in to talk about your job. You could come in the afternoon on Jan. 22 or 29 at 1:45. Please let me know if you are interested. You only have to talk for 5 – 10 minutes. We are an awesome audience!  

Student-led conferences are coming on February 9. Watch for your sign-up genius invitation.  It should be coming soon. The students are looking forward to showing you all their work. Remember, your child must be present to lead the conference. I will share midyear testing with you at this time.

Reading – Our goal is level 10 - 12 by the end of January. I am excited to see what the midyear testing will show. I know everyone has improved! Our focus turns to character traits. As we identify those traits, we will look to the text to find supporting evidence of our choice. If I think the character is friendly, I want to show where in the text I find that out. We also are looking at who is telling the story.

Writing – As we celebrated a new year, we wrote some resolutions to be a better person. When you come for conferences, they will be published on the wall. I will give the midyear writing sample next week and move into research writing about an animal. We have done some shared research already about penguins.

Math – We will be finished with Unit 5 in Everyday Math in January. We’ll take the unit test this month and then I’ll send the first Math Journal home. There might be some unfinished pages for a variety of reasons such as an absence or a teacher decision not to finish because we ran out of time. Feel free to finish as much or as little as you want at home. The book is not to be returned to school. The 100^th Day of School is around the corner. We will be celebrating this event with many stimulating and fun math activities around 100. Begin to help your child think about a collection of 100 things that can be put on a poster to show grouping strategies. More information will go home soon.

Spelling – Keep up the good work with helping your child be prepared for the Friday quick check. Afterwards, the students are expected to use the pattern or spell the high frequency word correctly in their writing.

The January Book-It form was in the homework folder. Please return the December form by next week for a Pizza Hut certificate. Book orders are due Jan. 14.

 Thank you,

 Susan Stark 

December is here!

                      December 4, 2015

Dear Families,

I hope you had a happy and healthy Thanksgiving. I am so thankful that the weather finally has been warm enough for the children to play outside for some of the days. With the breaks, we have been able to get a lot accomplished. Math Unit 4 will be finished next week and should come home before Winter Break. We will also finish another Literacy Unit (3) and Social Studies Unit (3). You will be able to view grades on the Parent Portal until December 7 when the portal will close for teachers to input grades for the report card. Report cards will come home on January 14.

By this time of year, first graders should know at least the first 50 sight words. I will be testing students to make sure they know them. I will send a list soon if your child needs more practice. Please help them learn these important words. Thank you for all you do to help your child be most successful.

The Pizza Hut Book-It program continues this month. I will take November sheets for another week. I sent December’s sheet home on Tuesday.

 With Winter Break nearly upon us, I want to wish you Happy Holidays. If you need ideas for stocking stuffers or little Hanukkah gifts, crayons (If you sent in two boxes at the beginning of the year, I will give them their next box in January.), markers and glue sticks are in need of replacement.

 Our party on the 17^th will be a breakfast theme from 8:30 – 9:30.

Students may come to school in their pajamas. Thank you for your support. Happy Holidays!

                                                                                                                                           Sincerely,                                                                     Susan Stark