Funky First Graders

Wallwisher Update

2010-05-14T14:16:00.001-04:00

We are back online and your child's post should show up! Thanks for the information: Caden, Gavin, Rebecca and Abigale!!

Wallwisher.com

2010-05-14T08:22:00.002-04:00

Hi Parents!
I am having trouble getting into my wallwisher account. I have contacted them and hope to hear back soon! Sorry for the inconvenience.

Poetry

2010-05-12T20:01:00.003-04:00

We have been writing poetry in our class during Writer's Workshop daily! Since last year, the student's poems have grown so much! They seem to really get what a good poet does when he/she writes a poem. We have been writing like we are musicians, using line breaks. Ask your child what those are and then have them log on below and write our class a poem! We will share it in class.

http://www.wallwisher.com/wall/HYWuXuNuKV

How animals grow and change

2010-05-12T19:46:00.002-04:00

We had so much fun at the zoo this month! We saw a lot of animals and learned some new things that we didn't know!
We now have tadpoles in our classroom and we are enjoying watching them grow and change. They are starting to develop legs! We have watched videos on animals as well.
I would like to challenge your kids to look on the link below and post an amazing animal fact! It is a new thing that I would like to try. I hope that you enjoy looking at our class wall about animals!

http://www.wallwisher.com/wall/pMhBTBxtv7

Sleepover!

2010-02-16T19:00:00.002-05:00

We had such a great Sleepover day on Jan 29th! We studied all about our solar system from planets to stars to the sun. The children were very excited about our celebration day to bring it all together. We started with a breakfast that had a Stormtrooper there! We danced and ate and it was so much fun! Then we were on to the planetarium that our PE coaches set up! It was amazing. We danced and sang space worm songs and made out of this world picture frames! Mrs. KK and Mrs. Willett set up the coolest lightshow movie and dance party in the media center. We had a remarkable day that holds memories that will last a lifetime for the kids and myself. I am so lucky to work with people who always think out of the box and create unique experiences for our students.

Six Dinner Sid

2009-11-13T14:45:00.004-05:00

Six Dinner Sid is a book by Inga Moore. It is about a cat who lived on Aristotle Street who had 6 different owners who fed him 6 different dinners. When he got a bad cough, he was taken to the vet 6 times and given 6 spoonfuls of medicine. The vet found out it was the same cat and when the owners found out, they only fed him one dinner. So Sid deceided to move to another street. Since they knew about Sid, they didn't care that he had six dinners.
Vocabulary:
Perfect- everything that is exactly right
Suspicious- Something is not the way it should be
Gullible- easily tricked
Nasty- bad or very umpleasant
Damp- slightly wet
Versatile- able to change easily

Matter

2009-10-10T08:43:00.002-04:00

We have been learning about Matter in science! During this experiment, the students put on their scientist hats, got their science journals and did an experiment. We learned that jello starts as a solid, turns into a liquid and then becomes a solid again. They made predictions in their journal as Ms. Thomson and I preformed the experiment. They really enjoyed this hands on and I think they have a better understanding of how things can change when they get to "see" it happen!

Literacy Parade/Carnival

2009-10-06T21:33:00.003-04:00

Hello All!
We are quickly approaching the literacy parade, trick or treating in the hallways and the fall carnival. It is all on October 23rd. We will have fall centers following the parade in the morning. Parents are asked to observe and take pictures from the dining room. Children are to find a character from a book to dress up as. Please make sure the costumes are school appropriate. They are also going to need a change of clothes as we have PE that day for resource. If you are a volunteer, you are welcome to stay and help with centers. The children will rotate around centers in the morning and after lunch, we will go to a normal schedule.
Trick or Treating will be in the hallways beginning at 6pm that evening. Immediately following is the fall carnival! Make sure you set some time aside to visit this yearly tradition for us here at Chets! There will be games, prizes, food and lots of fun!

!st day of 1st grade!

2009-09-18T07:42:00.004-04:00

Skills Block

2009-09-17T16:17:00.002-04:00

We have been reviewing Kindergarten skills for the past 2 1/2 weeks of first grade. Please review these at home as well. We have been talking about blends, word families, sight words, vowels and text talk vocabulary. I give them a blend...for example "st" and have them come up with as many words as they can that have that blend. Or you could have them look in books for that blend!
Also, it is very important to build up your childs reading fluency this year. They should be reading their book in a bag at least twice a night, if not more! I have been testing students this week and see that over the summer, some of them have been reading slower that last year! Please make sure that you are having them read to you every night!
We are going to have a great year!

Wish List/Orientation

2009-08-21T11:37:00.001-04:00

Hi all!
I forgot to pull my screen up to reveal the wish list. These are a few things we could use during the school year.
Renusit pop up air fresheners
Cardstock
Pencil top erasers
Treats for treasure box
hot glue sticks
HP color ink #22
HP black ink #21

I appreciate all of you that came to orientation to meet me and check out our funky new classroom! I can't wait to get started learning on Monday!!

Earth Day!

2009-04-22T21:16:00.005-04:00

Today was Earth Day! Mrs. Wilson...aka "Luke's mom" came in to read to the class today. It was a beautiful day, so we went outside to listen to her stories! She read Michael Recycle and The Lorax. The kids loved being outside in the fresh air learning how to take care of our world! Mrs. Wilson also got us another plant for our classroom! She says it brings oxygen into the air to help promote better air for breathing! (which we need in our sick classroom right about now) Some lucky student will be able to feed the plants every week! (So Ms. SR doesn't forget) Make sure you ask your child about our new pet as well!!

2009-04-22T20:41:00.002-04:00

We had a great time visiting Wolfsons Childrens Hospital in March! We were able to see the ambulance, xrays of a snake and a robot that gave out all the medication in the hospital! We then went to the park for lunch and playtime! The kids had a blast on all the neat equiptment and we had the park to ourselves!

Curriculum

2009-03-18T18:41:00.001-04:00

What is your child learning? Go to duvalschools.org and follow the steps below to see!

Clicking on the Riverdeep/Curriculum icon listed under the QuickLinks section
Clicking on the “Help Your Kid” menu link on the “Parents” dropdown list
Selecting “Know what my child is learning?” in the “How Do I…” dropdown list

Eric Carle

2009-03-04T17:40:00.008-05:00

Our Eric Carle author study is going great! The children are really enjoying reading all of his books and responding to them. We are learning how to quickly respond to his books in Reader's Workshop by writing our connections or favorite parts. In Writer's Workshop, we have created a Rubric, which is a way that we "grade" your child's writing. We talked about making sure you begin with a great lead sentence to include the author and title of the book. Then we went on to discuss what we would add in the middle of our writing, which was lots of details, connections and favorite parts. Our ending was to "wrap it up." That means make a good closing for your writing. "Finally" and "At Last" are great ways to tie up a piece of writing. Below are some examples of story boards that we made to retell stories and pieces of writing that we have been doing. I have also included a picture of the Rubric that we, as a class made, for Writing.

Coffee Talk

2009-02-25T18:38:00.003-05:00

Our Instructional Technology Coach, Mrs. Hotlsman, offers "Tech Coffee Talk" for parents to come who have technology questions in our ever changing world. Here is a link to her blog! Check back for upcoming dates!
http://tech4families.blogspot.com/

2009-02-19T11:52:00.002-05:00

Our February Book of the Month is The Impossible Patriotism Project. It is about a class who has to come up with a patriotic project to share. Caleb can't think of anything to do! He really wants his dad's help, but his dad is overseas in the military. Then he realized his dad can help him! He presented a picture of his father in uniform and told the class "my dad is an example of patriotism."
Such a great book! We then as a class sent the troops an ecard and all made the troops post cards of our own to thank them for what they do!

2009-02-18T10:12:00.002-05:00

We have recently started our Eric Carle author study! We are very excited to get to know all about him and his books. We are reading and writing about him everyday in Readers and Writers Workshops and we have even commented on his blog! We will be very excited if we get a response from him!

2009-02-13T15:41:00.002-05:00

We had such a great time at our Valentine's Party! We decorated cookies, made hats, passed out Valentines and played sight word bingo! A huge thank you to Mrs. Shively for making cookies and helping out with the centers. And a big thank you to Mr. & Mrs. Wilson for reading books to the kids and leading the bingo game. Have a wonderful Valentines Day on Saturday! See everyone on Tuesday!

2009-02-04T18:05:00.003-05:00

We had so much fun on our 100th day of school! We started the day making 100 day hats and making fruit loop necklaces. We then drew and wrote 100 things. For Math Workshop, we graphed M&M's. The kids really enjoyed this project. We had some very creative homework assignments come in. We had a few 100 day hats, some shirts with buttons and jewels and a really cute 100 gerber daisy bag! Only 80 more days of school until 1st grade! Keep up the good work!

100th Day of School!

2009-02-02T12:00:00.003-05:00

Today is our 100th day of school! We have been busy with projects since this morning. I will be updating the blog later with some good pictures! A huge thank you to Mrs. Berndt (Abigale's mom) for donating Fruit Loops and M&M's for our counting projects!

100th day!!

2009-01-26T13:51:00.003-05:00

February 2nd is our official 100th day of school! I have plenty of projects planned for that day and was wondering if we could get a couple big bags of M&M's and a couple big bags of fruit loops donated. If you are willing to send these in, please email me or leave a comment! I appreciate all of the help.

Blends and Digraphs

2009-01-20T07:15:00.002-05:00

A blend is two or three letters that combine together to make one sound. Such as, sk, sl, pl, and tr. A consonant digraph is two consonant letters that combine together to make one sound. Such as, sh, ph, ch and wh. We have been working on these in class for the past couple of weeks. A good game to play at home is to tell your child to find or think of something that starts with the "tr" sound and then set a timer for one minute and see if they can do it! Play this game while you are cooking dinner or getting ready for bed!

Tale of Desperaux

2009-01-20T07:09:00.004-05:00

We had a great field trip on January 8th! We went to see "The Tale of Desperaux." Then we went to play at Sunshine State Park where we had a picnic!

Relay for Life

2009-01-06T18:57:00.004-05:00

Relay for Life is coming to Chets Creek Elementary on May 1, 2009! We are looking for teams to sign up! If you have a work group or just a group of friends that would like to "Walk For The Cure," check out the website below and get signed up! It gives all the information on what the relay is all about. It is one of our ways of giving back to the community in the fight against cancer!

http://main.acsevents.org/site/TR?pg=entry&fr_id=13411

Traveling Chet

2008-12-14T10:18:00.006-05:00

We had such exciting adventures with Chet over Thanksgiving. We took a sailing trip around Pensacola Bay in Pensacola, FL, visited Bryant Denny Football Staduim in Tuscaloosa, AL (where my Papa went to college) and got to sit in the cockpit with the pilots on our Southwest flight from Birmingham, AL back to Jacksonville. While our travels were fun, we're looking forward to seeing all our friends tomorrow at school!
Abigale

Holiday Break

2008-12-10T20:32:00.002-05:00

I know you are probably wondering what you should work on over the holiday break. Make sure you are reading daily! Practice counting numbers...Possibly by 10's, since the children do it everyday. Have them tell you a number story. You could also start a journal of what you are doing over the break. Have your child blog about it! I would be super impressed!!
Have a wonderful break! I will be thinking about all of you! And I can't wait to see you in January!

Pow Wow

2008-11-18T20:59:00.007-05:00

Friday is Pow Wow! This is our annual Kindergarten tradition. We have been learning so much about our tribe, the Nez Perce, that it is nice to finish up this unit with a great celebration. We have been busy in the classroom making costumes, doing crafts related to our tribe and learning new songs and dances. Please bring your child to school as early as 8:30 to get dressed up and ready to go! Pow Wow will begin on the soccer field at 9:15 am. We will be doing Pow Wow centers to follow in different classrooms. I could use some help from parents! (If you have an ID badge)
A HUGE thank you to Saray Shively ("Shania's mom") and Michelle Wilson ("Luke's mom) for spending a great deal of their time last week making all of our costumes! I don't know what I would have done without them!!! I am so lucky to have great parents!!

Make-N-Take

2008-11-18T20:53:00.012-05:00

I would like to thank Zachary, Yazmin, Denalia, Abigale, Shania, Cole, Luke and Isabella's families for participating in Make-N-Take night tonight! We had a great time listening to our Pow Wow music and making teepees. We have been learning so much about our tribe and it was nice to take a break and spend some time together.

Halloween

2008-10-23T23:08:00.002-04:00

I hope everyone is gearing up for a great Halloween! I just wanted to share with you that my puppy will be participating. The kids loved seeing my dog, Stanley, in his costume for this year!

Fall Centers and Fall Carnival

2008-10-23T23:01:00.007-04:00

We had such a great day! Our parade of costumes went great! After that, we went back to the classroom to do Fall Centers. We ate cookies, painted, colored and made picture frames!
A huge thank you to all the parents/grandparents who helped with the "Needle In The Haystack" booth at the carnival. I couldn't have done it without you!

Fall Centers

2008-10-19T16:06:00.002-04:00

Would any of my parents be willing to donate some plain sugar cookies for decorating on Thursday, October 23rd? I have gotten everything for the centers except the cookies. We would just need 25 or so cookies!
I appreciate it!

Science Workshop

2008-10-16T18:54:00.003-04:00

Mrs. Harbour visited our class on Tuesday to teach a lesson in Science Workshop. She had the children use their 5 senses to explore pumpkins. She even cut open a pumpkin in our classroom for the children to explore and observe!!
Thanks Mrs. Harbour

Harry The Dirty Dog

2008-10-16T18:50:00.004-04:00

We had a great time on our field trip to the Florida Theater to see Harry The Dirty Dog! We started at the Kids Kampus downtown for playing and lunch and then made our way to the theater. We really enjoyed the show! I think all the kids were tired out when we got back!

HOMEWORK

2008-10-14T20:28:00.001-04:00

Please make sure you are helping your child with their homework nightly and sending it back into class on Fridays in their orange homework folders. We are having problems with it floating around in their back packs or being in their planners. It really needs to be in the orange folders to help Mrs. Cordoza and myself stay organized.

Literary Parade

2008-10-14T20:25:00.003-04:00

On Thursday, October 23rd, the children will be able to dress up as a favorite character from one of their books! Send them to school in their costume, with the book of the character they are dressed up as. Please make sure the costume is school appropriate!

We are also asking for donations of bags of candy for the teachers to hand out the evening of the Fall Carnival. If you could, please send one in the classroom this week!

An Adventure Around The World

2008-09-29T11:54:00.002-04:00

Our Fall Carnival is right around the corner! It is on Thursday, October 23rd. We have the "Needle In A Haystack" booth and I will be sending home letters about having you volunteer for this booth. It is from 6-9 and we usually do a 30 minute block of time for you to help out. Please start thinking about if you will be able to volunteer!

Open House

2008-09-22T20:51:00.003-04:00

Thanks to all of those who attended our Open House. It was nice to meet some new parents! I hope you have a better idea of what we do in the classroom on a daily basis. Please don't hesitate to call or email me if you should have any questions!

Bulletin Board

2008-09-22T20:43:00.003-04:00

Check out our Standards Based Bulletin Board outside our room. We have been learning about different patterns during our Math Investigations. We had a Clifford Day where we made hats and patterned bones!

Science!

2008-09-22T20:38:00.005-04:00

We are learning about our 5 senses in Science. I brought lemon for the kids to taste and vinegar for them to smell! They loved this hands on activity.

Field Trip T-Shirts

2008-09-14T17:29:00.003-04:00

A green field trip t-shirt form was sent home in your child's planner last week. Please make sure you look it over and purchase a shirt if you can. I like for the children to be in the same color when we go on field trips. Please make sure you send in the exact amount of cash when placing the order! Thanks!

Room Parent

2008-09-14T17:22:00.003-04:00

Mrs. Wilson (Luke's mom) has expressed that she is willing to take on the co-room parent responsibility. This is basically helping organize classroom parties, special events and Pow Wow, which is coming up in November! If anyone is willing to help her out, it would be greatly appreciated! Please email me if you are interested and I will pass on your information to her.
Thanks so much

Calendar Math

2008-09-14T17:18:00.002-04:00

Calendar Math is an important part of our day. We begin each math time with exploring the calendar math elements. This month we are learning ones and tens, days of the week, months of the year and birthdays! The children get very excited to do math everyday and to sing new songs that help us learn.

Literacy Stations

2008-09-14T17:12:00.003-04:00

We have begun to explore our literacy stations! The children are very excited about it and it keeps them engaged in learning as I will begin to pull small groups for reading. In these stations, they explore writing, the ABC's and different genres of books!

Supplies and Wish List

2008-09-03T20:27:00.002-04:00

I'm sure all of you have heard that Duval County has made several budget cuts this year, one of those cuts being supplies! It would be so GREAT if I could get your help with supplies this year! Items we still need off our wish list are:
1. 12 single metal hooks for hanging backpacks on
2. plain white copy paper
3. colored Expo markers
4. white cardstock
5. a 4 step, step stool (I'm short and can't hang charts high on the walls!)
6. books by Eric Carle
7. Books by Laura Numeroff

If I think of anything else or you think of anything, please let me know! We can ALWAYS use supplies and thank you in advance!

Fun Friday Snack

2008-09-03T12:24:00.003-04:00

At Orientation, I had a sign up sheet for Fun Friday Snack. It can be a simple as gummies or cookies for the whole class. We have 24 students and not all of the Fridays were taken. All of September has been covered! Look back for updates about October. Thanks for the help.

Reading Bags

2008-09-03T11:57:00.002-04:00

Today I introduced reading bags to the students. These were the red and white bags that you purchased from Target. They are going to stay at school and will have leveled books in them for the students to read when they finish seat work. This will help the students become organized and learn how to be responsible for their things at school!

Reminder

2008-08-24T17:02:00.000-04:00

Well we are ready to start again this week! A few reminders...
Don't forget to check your child's planner daily.
Send in all completed forms from your orientation packet as soon as possible.
Lunch money needs to be in an envelope with your child's name.
We start resource on Monday! I will post the schedule tomorrow.

2008-08-19T22:39:00.000-04:00

What a great first day! I really enjoyed getting to know all the kids. I will put the resource schedule on the blog as well as on the newsletter on Monday. Please don't forget to give your child lunch money if they are buying lunch. Feel free to leave comments on the page!! Your comments and thoughts are encouraged! :)

1st day of school!

2008-08-14T21:06:00.000-04:00

I am so much looking forward to the first day of school on August 18th! I can't wait to meet all my students and start another successful year!

Ms. Stresen-Reuter's dog Stanley

2008-07-25T15:17:00.001-04:00