Thursday, October 10, 2013

Rumplestiltskin

Dear Parents, I just wanted to let you know that your children were excellently behaved at the play we saw today. They were an attentive and polite audience. They even thanked the actors as we left the auditorium! I was so proud and I knew you would be also. Thank you for all you do, Brook Bauer

Monday, October 7, 2013

News and Notes

This is the last week of the grading term and all AR tests need to be taken by Wednesday for the points to count toward this quarter's AR party. Please encourage your child to do his or her best this week. I am having trouble getting the newsletter to attach again. The spelling words are: us bus bug rug mug must with then she use The sight words are: do how their if gives out people green zero of Please practice these and the fluency passage every night. I can not wait to see you all tomorrow at parent night! Don't forget the book nook is open every Tuesday and Thursday from 2:30 - 5:00.

Tuesday, October 1, 2013

Extra Tidbits from Mrs. Bauer

This week we are completing a writing assignment.  Your child had to identify characters and setting.  They had to write a story with a beginning, a middle, and an end.  We used a graphic organizer to get our thoughts in the right order.  Then we edited our spelling and added details and transition words.  We are finishing this writing assignment by putting our completed work down in our very best handwriting.  I can't wait to show it to you!

We are almost finished with The Wizard of Oz.  We have really enjoyed learning about the characters in that book.  I can not wait until October 8th for you to see our Yellow Brick Sight Word Road!  We had some super parent and grandparent volunteers who did so much work on it and the 1st grade teachers are so thankful!  Our class will be submitting the Tin Man from the book as our pumpkin for the Fall Festival pumpkin contest. 

We are reading "Boots for Beth" this week as our comprehension story.  The th sound is our spelling and phonics focus. 



We are working with number sense to 120 in math.  We are working with number lines, number charts, tally charts, and graphs.  We are also learning to use pictures to help us solve addition and subtraction problems.  We are learning to use number sentences.  We are learning to represent numbers in many ways.  We are also learning to explain how we arrived at our answers. 

We are continuing to work with the water cycle in science.  This week we are doing some work with literature about the water cycle.  For example, today we read the book Follow the Water from the Brook to the Ocean.  We will also be learning about rainbows this week. 


Rainbow Experiment



This week in social studies we are working with map skills and we are revisiting the continents and oceans as we do an activity with the book How to Make an Apple Pie and See the World

News and Notes - October 1st

I am so sorry that our newsletter was not put on the blog last week.  I was having issues with the internet and I just could not get the newsletter to attach. 

Here is the one for this week:


Monday, September 16, 2013

September 16

Here is today's news. I am so silly! I completely forgot to staple the fluency onto the newsletter and homework - even though it was right there! I am attaching it here for those of you who really want to keep up with it and I have already put it in the students' cubbies to go home tomorrow for those of you who will let it wait until tomorrow.

We are working on the water cycle and the forms of water in science. Please let your child do some simple experiments with water.
-Put some water in a bowl near a window and see how long it takes it to evaporate. You might want to put another bowl outside and see if that water evaporates faster or slower.
-Allow your child to freeze some water and observe it melting.
Encourage them to take pictures of it and write about it.

We are learning about landforms in social studies. Let your child find one interesting fact about mountains in general, a mountain range, or an individual mountain to bring in and share with us this week. If you have any pictures of mountains from vacations or places you have lives, please send some to share.

Building Fluency
 Listening to your child read builds his/her fluency and is something you can do to help your student become a better reader. This activity will only take about 2 minutes per evening.
 Set the timer for 1 minute and let your child read without any assistance from you.
 As you listen, circle each word your child misses. However, if your child misses the word, but then corrects himself, do not circle it. When the timer goes off at the end of the minute, mark where the child stopped.  Count the total number of words that your child read and then subtract the number of words you circled.
 We want to see the number of errors go down and the number of words correct per minute (WCPM) go up.
 Your child should read the passage each night, Monday through Thursday. Celebrate with your child as you watch his fluency improve. Students will receive a grade on their fluency readings in class on Mondays. We will let you know your child’s goal and how they will be graded once we start grading procedures.
Practice reading nightly to help your child become a better reader!

Visiting Aunt Rose

My Aunt Rose invited me to spend the weekend. Aunt Rose doesn’t 12
have kids. She said I could be her kid for two days. She’s like my big sister. 29
I like to go to visit my Aunt Rose’s home. She likes to do the same 45
things I like. I like to go swimming. So does my Aunt Rose. The pool where 61
she goes also has a hot tub. I like to sit in the hot tub. So does my Aunt Rose. 84
I always bring my swimming suit when I visit. 90

If your child finishes before the 1 minute, have him/her read it again!


Please do not hesitate to call or email me if you have any questions or concerns. Thank you so much for letting me work with your sweet children every day.

Thursday, September 5, 2013

WEATHER

Here is the tornado in a jar activity that we did in class. On this site you will also find a lot of other information and activities about weather. http://www.weatherwizkids.com/experiments-tornado-jar.htm

News and Notes for Labor Day Week!





  • Progress reports go home tomorrow.

  • Don't forget the Back to School Dance tomorrow night --- 1st graders must be chaperoned.

  • Please do the fluency check with your child and study the sight words and spelling words every night.

  • Ask your child what he or she has learned about weather and seasons.

  • Ask your child to name the 4 oceans and the 7 continents.  They should all be able to do that and tell you some facts about each one of the continents. 

  • Encourage your child to read his or her library book nightly and take at least two AR tests a week.

  • Thank you for all you do!  Your children are amazing and I know it is because they have wonderful parents.