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Mrs. Brecht's Classroom News
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Mrs. Brecht's First Grade Classroom Fall/September 2009 Welcome to First Grade. This year 1B has 21 students. We are very busy already! We have begun our study of Butterflies/Caterpillars and Moths. We have two monarch caterpillars that we hope will make a chrysalis and emerge a Monarch Butterfly. In 25 year of teaching I have never had a failure with these caterpillars, so I hope this won't be the first! We are also studying the author, Kevin Henkes. Our next units of study will be Curious George and the author H.A. Rey, fish, frogs, ponds and apples. We will begin our reading centers and guided reading time. Students will be reading at their level every day. We will also begin our Writer's Workshop time in the mornings. Jolly Grammar Spelling and Dictation will begin on Tuesday, September 8th. The spelling words are listed on this web site. We are not sending home the list and we are not asking for any formal spelling word studying at home. We want you to be informed of the words and what your child is working on during the week. We will do all the work here during our Jolly Grammar time. October/November 2009 Our October has been busy. We were investigating many Autumn things. We also celebrated our Homecoming. the visit to the fire station was a lot of fun. We got to aquirt water into the street. We used a microscope in the science center. We also did leaf rubbings in the science center. Our bat skeleton hung in the science center. Many investigations happened while the bat hung upside down. Our favorite units were on spiders and bats. Your children know what color spider blood is and they would love to share what they know about spiders. Karen Phelps Benton County Naturalist came to visit us this month. She told us about Wild Cats and also Bats. Halloween is here! Trick or Treat safely! NOVEMBER 2009 This month will be spent on learning and investigating about Native American tribes. We will study many different tribes. We will be reading a lot of nonfiction books, legends and fiction stories this month. We will also have a week of Cowboys and learn about their jobs and what life is like on a ranch. There will be a surprise in the room for the 1B children during that week! We will also be studying turkeys. We will be reading nonfiction books about turkeys. Karen Phelps, Benton County Naturalist will be visiting us during the month of November. We will be singing at the Veterans Day Program on Wednesday, November 11th. December 2009 We will kick off the month with our Traditions Around the World unit. We will study Holiday traditions from Germany, England, France, Sweden, Mexico, Africa, Hanukkah and Italy to name a few! We will explore their family traditions, holiday happenings and what the children experience in those countries compared to what we do here in the USA. We will have a gift exchange. Boys will bring a boy gift, Girls will bring a girl gift. We will have a girl grab bag and we will have a boy grab bag on our party day. Please don't spend more than $5.00 for the gift. If there is a concern/need about the gifts please notify me and I will use a donated gift here at school. Christmas Program is Tuesday, December 15th in the evening. January 2010 Welcome back to School! We are very busy finishing our 2nd quarter of first grade. Report cards will be sent home The week of January 18th. Karen Phelps will be visiting us this month and talking about habitats. We will have the Iowa Skippers visiting us as we prepare a school wide study on a healthy heart and Jump Rope for Heart. We will be studying about Winter/Snow, Animals in Winter, Hibernation, Migration, Penguins and we will end the month with Silly business. We will continue our work in our guided reading/reading centers groups as well as our Jolly Grammar work and Jolly Spelling. In our math study we are working on all the addition and subtraction facts 0-20. We are also working on the addition and subtraction fact families. We will continue to also work on our geometry work with tangrams and pattern blocks. We are working on the components of a story. We are talking and writing about what makes a story interesting. February 2010 In the month of February we will have to make our predictions about the Ground Hog seeing his shadow or not. We are hoping for an early spring! Ground Hog update---he didn't see his shadow here!!! However Phil saw his shadow in Pennsylvania. We think we will have an early spring and Pennsylvania will have 6 more weeks of winter! We are watching Lily the Bear as she is hibernating with her cub. You can view Lily as well at home. www.bear.org we are really enjoying watching what she does as she hibernates and seeing the cub in the den. Often times she is just sleeping and we giggle at the notion of her belly moving! It is really great learning to see this live on our computer. We will also be talking and learning about the Continent of Africa. We will be sending home a paper asking that you help your child research an African Animal and return the report sheet to school. The reports will be laminated andhung in the hall for viewing. In the middle of the month we will be studying about the Winter Olympics, sporting events and Canada. We will be continuing to work on our 0-20 math facts. Students will be taking a math facts test every Friday. Those students that receive 90% or better will be given an extra recess supervised by our principal, Mrs. Strempke. We will continue to work on the Fact Families through 20. Karen Phelps will be visiting us this month and talking to us about Prairies, Meadows etc. March 2010 March starts off with our prediction of whether we are going to see March coming in like a lamb or a lion. We then will start learning about all the kinds of rocks and minerals we have in our area. The children really enjoy becoming aware of all the "old" rocks that are around and what rocks are used for in our daily lives. The sun, moon and stars will be studied next in the month of March. We will also be busy learning about careers and spring as the month closes. During the months of March, April and May we will be working on map skills. We will be reading, designing and recording information on maps. The children love the maps unit. It will be an extensive unit taking us to the end of the year. We are continuing our work on our addition and subtraction facts and fact families through 20. Karen Phelps will visit this month and talk to us about Geology and will have experiments for us to perform in the room. Be sure to call the office and get signed up for your spring conference. April 2010 Those of you that didn't have your conference in March have an opportunity to sign up for an April date. Call Cathy in the office, 227-7142. During the month of April we will be studying about Baseball, Softball, Track and Field, Summer Olympics, Farm Animals and Bugs. We will continue our work on maps. It will take us to the end of the year. The children are really enjoying the maps unit. We are continuing to work on our basic facts through 20. Karen Phelps will be visiting us this month and talking about animal hygiene. We will have Spring Break from April 2nd-5th. We will resume classes on April 6th. V.I.P. Day is in May. More information will be updated here as we receive it from the V.I.P. Committee. May 2010 The end of first grade is near. We will be assessing children and reporting their progress. We will be wrapping up our maps unit this month. The children are so excited about maps and all they've learned. We will have our V.I.P. Day this month. More information will be sent home about this day. Our final testing will take place. Report cards will go home at the end of the month. All library books need to be back. We are asking that all ELL books be back to us by Friday, May 7th. If an ELL book is lost we ask that $4.50 be sent to school to replace the book. Thank you.
Mrs. Brecht's First Grade Norway Elementary
Benton Community
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