Sandra Tarantino

November 9, 2009

We were fabulous in our First Grade Performance at PTA last Thursday evening!  Thank you all for coming to hear us sing!

This week in math, we are comparing numbers and learning more about place value.  In our Words Their Way Phonics program we are practicing s blends.  This week we are identifying our phonics words that are nouns.  We are also identifying base words and suffixes.  In science we are beginning a new unit on sound.  We will be learning to differeniate between sounds in terms of high and low (pitch) and loud or soft (volume).

Looking ahead:

Wednesday, November 11:  Still Elementary School Veteran's Day Breakfast Our first grade students have made placemats for our Veteran's tables at this event.

Friday, November 14: Still's Fall Festival We look forward to seeing you there!

Tuesday, November 17:  Mrs. Benson's last day as our student teacher.  We will all miss her and wish her the best of luck as she graduates from KSU!

Thursday, November 19: Mrs. Tarantino's Class Cultural Feast 

Wounded Warrior Project:  Please participate by making a donation of any amount if you wish.  As an incentive, we are selling three bracelets - red, white, and blue for $1 or two patriotic pencils for $1. Still's goal is to be able to purchase three backpacks, each costing $99.  These backpacks are filled with clean clothes and a phone card so that the wounded soldier can call home.  We hope all of our school community will support this worthy cause and thank you in advance for your participation!

November 2, 2009

We're off to a new month and a shortened week this week, as tomorrow is a Student Holiday and a Teacher Professional Development Day. 

Please remember our PTA night on Thursday featuring our fabulous First graders!  All first graders should report to their classrooms by 6:15, dressed in jeans with their class shirt neatly tucked in.  If your child does not have a class shirt, any nice t-shirt will be fine.

In reading this nine weeks we are focusing on main idea and details.  Our Words Their Way Phonics words focus on the st consonant pair.  In math we are compairing numbers using greater than and less than.  We will also practice our subtraction fact fluency with a timed test of 50 problems in 10 minutes.  In social studies we are learning about Thomas Jefferson and his character traits of fairness, equality, and commitment.   Later this week and continuing into next week we will be studying sound in our new science unit with Mrs. Benson.

A special thank you for our Literacy Center Volunterers last week; Mrs. Lapointe, and Jack's aunt,    Mrs. Michna, and Mrs. Quick!  Also for Mrs. Jerabek and Mrs. Hill who help us each week with centers and AR.  Thank you to all of you who are sending in toilet paper rolls for our science activity.

PTA Performance

Please mark your calendars today for our First Grade PTA Performance on Thursday, November 5th!

Our fabulous first graders will be singing several special songs under the direction of Ms. Talley.

Please have your child met us in our classroom at 6:15 for our 6:30 performance.

Our children will wear their class/Still t-shirt tucked neatly into a pair of jeans.  If your child doesn't have a class or Still t-shirt, anything orange will be great.

We look forward to seeing you then!

October 16, 2009

Report Cards are coming home with your child today.  Please remember to sign the signature card and return it in the envelope provided on Monday morning.

Next week in Words Their Way Phonics, we will be learning more about the th and wh sounds.

In math, we will learn more about related facts such as 7 + 5 = 12 and 12 - 7 = 5, and fact families to 12.  This quarter we will be learning our addition and subtraction facts to 12.  We will be practicing with timed tests to improve our fluency, so please continue to practice at home. 

For science, we are learning more about magnets.  We are learning that objects can be magnetic or can be repelled from a magnet.  We enjoyed sharing our magnetic objects we found in our homes earlier this week.

Our writing, is displayed outside of our classroom, please stop by to read our stories about how to grow pumpkins.  We are using transitional words to help describe a sequence of events.

Thank you to our mystery reader!  We enjoyed hearing Josie's mom, Mrs. Dunlap, read several special stories to us.

We need glue sticks, if anyone has some extra they would like to donate for our classroom.

Looking Ahead:  Wednesday, October  21st  is an Early Release Day

October 10, 2009

We've had such a busy week reviewing and assessing what we have learned this first nine weeks!

Next week we will learn about the ch and sh sounds in our Words Their Way phonics program.  On our Friday Word Check I will begin giving a handwriting suggestions, so that we can begin improving our handwriting even more.

We will be learning more addition and subtraction fact strategies as we practice recalling our basic facts in a quicker manner.

We have completed our Benjamin Franklin unit.  Mrs. Benson will begin teaching us about magnets next week.

Looking Ahead:

October 16: Picture Retakes

October 16: Report cards will be sent home.  Please sign and return the signature card only.

October 21: Early Release

A warm thank you...to Jake's and Stefan's moms for helping out in our classroom this week, and to all of my wonderful parents for all you do for this fantastic first grade class!

October 2, 2009

It's hard to believe that October is here already!  Our first nine weeks of this school year are quickly coming to an end.  We are off to a great beginning!

In phonics with Words Their Way, we are continuing to assess the spelling of our word sort words weekly.  This next week's focus will be on short i words.  On Monday, your child will have these words listed in their agenda.  We are also practicing using our very best handwriting with proper formation of our letters.

In math, we have worked with graphs and tally tables and will continue to review the math concepts previously taught next week.  We have learned about fact families.  Please stop by to see your autumn fact family trees outside of our classroom! It is important to continue to practice writing numbers up to 30, making fair trades with coins up to .30, place value, as well as addition and subtraction facts through 10.

In Social Studies, we are learning about Benjamin Franklin and his contributions to our country.  This past week we read, So Said Ben, and learned about him as a writer.  We have graphed our favorite sayings from his almanac and have them posted in our classroom.  Next week we will focus on Franklin's inventions using a fascinating book, Now And Ben.

We're writing scarecrow stories using a beginning, middle, and end, which we will edit and rewrite this next week.

Congratulations to Jake Hill who has been selected as our October Kiwanis Terrific Kid!

A warm thank you to the Kiwanis Club for a donation to our Still Elementary Social Studies Department!  We will now be able purchase more literature for our media center to help bring social studies alive for our students.

Looking Ahead...

October 7: Walk to School Day

October 8: PTA

October 16: Picture Retakes

October 16: Report cards are sent home

October 21: Early Release

Happy Fall!

This week in your child's agenda, you will find some of our Word's Their Way Phonic's Sort Words.  On Friday we will have a phonic's spelling assessment of these words.

In math this week we will finish our subtraction strategy unit and take a test over it.  Next, we will move on to math word problems.  We will continue to practice fair trades with money as well as review tens and ones.  There are two centers this week where the children will also practice using money.

We are finishing up our science weather unit with a review of the water cycle.  I think we have had continuous precipitation since we began our study of weather!  Last week we used the internet to find out the weather conditions and temperature here in Powder Springs.  Since we had two visitors from France and South Africa last week we compared our weather to the weather in their countries. 

Later this week we will begin to learn about Benjamin Franklin and the contributions he made to our country.

We practicing writing stories using adjectives, colorful describing words, and also using sequential order. 

Once each week your child has an opportunity to go to a center with independent reading time and AR testing time.  The children may also visit the media center each day during center time to check out books.  Please be sure that they are reading fifteen minutes each night.

A special thank you to Hailey's mother for being this week's Mystery Reader!

Happy Fall!

This week in your child's agenda, you will find some of our Word's Their Way Phonic's Sort Words.  On Friday we will have a phonic's spelling assessment of these words.

In math this week we will finish our subtraction strategy unit and take a test over it.  Next, we will move on to math word problems.  We will continue to practice fair trades with money as well as review tens and ones.  There are two centers this week where the children will also practice using money.

We are finishing up our science weather unit with a review of the water cycle.  I think we have had continuous precipitation since we began our study of weather!  Last week we used the internet to find out the weather conditions and temperature here in Powder Springs.  Since we had two visitors from France and South Africa last week we compared our weather to the weather in their countries. 

Later this week we will begin to learn about Benjamin Franklin and the contributions he made to our country.

We practicing writing stories using adjectives, colorful describing words, and also using sequential order. 

Once each week your child has an opportunity to go to a center with independent reading time and AR testing time.  The children may also visit the media center each day during center time to check out books.  Please be sure that they are reading fifteen minutes each night.

A special thank you to Hailey's mother for being this week's Mystery Reader!

September 13, 2009

Last week....We finished our CoGAT testing!

As a tribute for 9/11, our class wrote letters of appreciation to two Army soldiers who are currently deployed.

This week....We will continue working in Guided Reading Groups and having literacy and math centers.  In science, we will learn more about the weather.  We will be keeping a weather journal in class.  In math we are practicing addition strategies such as doubles and counting on using a number line.  Later this week, we will learn subtraction strategies.  Please continue to practice both addition and subtraction facts to 10.

A special thank you to Mrs. Hill, Jake's Mom, who came in to read us an AR book and explained this year's AR program.  We are taking AR tests and will have a special story in the Media Center this week.  The children can check out library books each day and will have an extra opportunity on Thursday when we go together.

On Friday, we will work with Mrs. Cone on some special activities!

We are in need of some Treasure Box items, we apprectaie any donations!

September 8, 2009

Happy Labor Day Weekend!

Last week in match we completed our subtraction unit and played subtraction bingo on Friday afternoon!  This week we will be taking a subtraction chapter test.  We will continue to learn more addition and subtraction strategies.  We are also working with the calendar and learning about the duration of time.   A week has seven days, a year has twelve months etc.

We have completed our landform study and have begun our science unit on weather with Mrs. Benson. We are observing the weather each day and taking turns reporting on the daily weather conditions.

We have begun guided reading groups.  Several times each week your child will bring home a little book to reread to you.  Please be sure that these are returned the next day.

Weekly Behavior Reports are now going home as needed.

This week we have CogAT (Cognitive Abilities Testing) on September 9, 10, and 11.  Please be sure that you child is getting plenty of sleep each night and is bringing a healthy snack daily.  Due to testing, our specials will begin at 1:15 on those days.