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

Happy Thanksgiving

November 20, 2015

Dear Families,

Student Council is still collecting Box Tops for Education. Please send in all that you have on the collection sheet. We have more if you need a new one. They will be collected monthly and counted throughout the year. Thank you for all you sent in already.

This is our third year for Standards Based reporting in our District and our first year that grade book has been open through Infinite Campus. Semester report cards will be going home soon. All of us have been working diligently to show you how your child is doing in the interim. At conferences, I told you about how in math, literacy, social studies and science you can expect an evidence packet which shows how your child has done on the current benchmarks. The same scores can be viewed on Infinite Campus grade book.

As of this Friday folder, you now should have 3 packets for math. Unit 4 will go home prior to Winter Break. You should also have two literacy packets, one Social Studies packet and a Science packet covering our Earth, Moon, Sun unit of study. Before Winter Break, you will have another literacy packet and a couple of social studies packets covering geography. It was a big change for all of us these past 2 years. I believe it is for the best, accomplishing the highest goal of communicating with you how your child is doing compared to the standard. It helps me know what I need to work on to assist your child in meeting that standard or when to push to exceed the standard. My greatest hope is that by the time you get the report card, it will only be confirmation of what you already know about your child.

Next week, we will have our first ever full week break. Have a safe and Happy Thanksgiving. I am thankful for you and your children. I love my job!

Sincerely,   Susan Stark

Happy November!

October 30, 2015

Dear Families,

Happy Halloween! This week just sped by. I can hardly believe it is almost November! I want to thank all of you that helped organize and run our Halloween activities at the party. Mrs. Johnson took on the role of party organizer and did a fantastic job. Thank you to her great team – Mr. Johnson, Mrs. Hilyard, Mrs. Saenz, Mrs. Martinez and Mrs. Shults.  Also thank you to all who donated items for our party.

I truly feel blessed with the most wonderful group of parents. It isn’t hard to see why your children are caring, supportive of each other and eager to learn and help. I want you to know that I appreciate what all of you do every day.

I picked the volunteers for the November 10^th field trip. Please contact me if you haven’t received information about whether you are going or not. I have not received all the permission slips (a new one will come home in the Friday folder if this pertains to you) and/or money for the trip. If you are having trouble paying online, just send in cash or check. If you already paid, I have received confirmation.

We have been going to the library individually when needed. In the classroom, we are reading for 20 minutes (Read to Self). That is followed by 5 - 12 minute rotations of Word Work, Work on Writing, Listen to Reading/Library Visit, Raz-Kids (or other literacy computer based program) and Read to Partner. The goal is to be on-task and productive throughout reading time. Many children meet these goals daily. They are the ones who are becoming stronger readers and writers. Periodically, I assess each child to assure they are reading right at their instructional level. Sometimes it means moving the whole group slower or faster. At other times, it means one or more students will change groups to meet their needs. With flexible groupings, no one is forced to catch up to others or slow down to wait.

Our Everyday Math 4, Unit 3 continues for another week or so. Last week the Unit 2 packet of benchmark papers and grades went home. I hope you have had a chance to review it with your child. The grades have also been posted. Let me know what you think about having access to grades.

A message from PTO:

We are kicking off our winter drive early this year due to the need of our sister school North Mor.  They are in great need of gently used or new winter coats and boots.  With the fast approaching cold weather the drive will be from October 26th until November 16th.  The collection box is in our room.

November 5th: fundraiser deliveries: please make sure you have someone to help your child if your order is large or contains frozen food.

November 12th: 1-item parties from 12:35-1:55 pm - more details to follow.

November 13th: Limo rides from 1-2 pm - more details to follow.

November 17th: Chipolte spirit night from 4-8 pm.  

We were focusing on the phases of the moon this week. Since the sun was not very cooperative this week, we skipped the sun portion of our Patterns in the Sky. Hopefully, we will be able to address the sun soon. Please point out the moon whenever you can.

Please send in your pumpkin recording sheet. I’ll accept it all next week. The November recording sheet will come home in the homework folder.

Sincerely, Susan Stark