Monday Mini-Report

Abstract Tree Silhouettes done in tempera paint.  

We learned all about primary colors (red, yellow, blue) and making secondary colors (orange, purple, green).   As you can see, your child created their own lovely colors with only red, yellow, blue, and white!

Today, please look for a math review sheet coming home with your child.  We will be giving a math assessment for this unit this week (Comparing and Ordering Numbers), and it would be helpful for your child to complete the review we sent home today. 

Mrs. Morissey has been doing some reading assessments and soon we will be sending home books that are just right for your child's level.   While she was assessing on Thursday, I was able to come in and do another art project with the class.   We learned about the artist Friedensreich Hundertwasser.  He paints very colorful paintings including these kinds of faces: 

We practiced drawing contour line drawings with Sharpie to create a face without lifting our pens from the paper!  This is pretty tricky, but they did a great job.

This Friday is our school's dance marathon!  Thank you to everyone who has turned in pledges.  This looks to be a really fun fundraiser.

Looking ahead, school pictures (individual and class) will be taken on Monday, Oct. 10th.

Monday Mini-Report

Happy Monday,  

Look at our warm and cool landscapes we created today.  Your children did an amazing job!  And I'm so proud of them for using only warm or only cold for either the sky or the hills.

It was kind of messy, as you can see!   We get a lot of use out of those babywipes you sent in.   This is also probably a good time to remind everyone that Mondays are a great day to dress for mess.

Each week, I will be displaying our artwork in the hall.  As I take down the previous week's artwork, I will be collecting them so that I can compile them in ONE neat book for each child to take home with all his or her artwork for the year.   Actually, it ends up being about 3 books during the year.  Look for the first of these books right before the winter vacation.

Today we started writing in our journals.   What enthusiastic writers we have!   It was fun to hear them share their writing today.  

Thank you to everyone who was able to attend curriculum night.  We enjoyed seeing all of you there.   If you did not get a chance to sign up for conferences, Mrs. Morissey will be contacting you so you can sign up for a spot. 

This week, our class learned about dental hygiene and were terrific listeners to our guest dental hygienist who came in to speak.   Remind your children to fill in their teeth-brushing chart.

In math, students are working on comparing and ordering numbers.   At home you can reinforce what we are learning by using  "greater tha and less than" when talking about two or more numbers.

This week we will be giving 1st grade reading assessments. I will be teaching Thursday morning while Mrs. Morissey gives some of these reading assessments.  Mrs. Morissey will be able to discuss these with you at conference time.  

Have a wonderful week.

Happy Monday!  We had a wonderful day today.   We studied the artwork of David Hockney (who is famous for his pool paintings) and painted swimming self-portraits.   I think they are all adorable.  You can see them up close in the hallway outside our room.

Your child should be bringing home a September calendar that we filled out in class today.   Each month, we will be creating a calendar page that they can take home and put on their wall.

You can also ask your child about the book Ish that we read today.    We learned that our artwork doesn't have to look like anyone else's and that it doesn't even have to look exactly like what we are trying to draw.   For instance, our swimming portraits look self-portrait-ish.

Curriculum Night:

Tuesday at 6:30 pm.   We will be going over the 1^st grade curriculum, 1^st grade expectations and any other questions that need answering. There will also be a chance to sign up for your Teacher-Parent-Child Goal setting conferences. They are quickly approaching, Oct. 3, 4, and 6^th. Be thinking about a time that works well for you and come prepared with a few good time slots.

SANDBURG STUDENT HANDBOOK:

 Please take a minute to look through it with your child, sign the single paper and return that to me. You and your child have hopefully taken a chance to look through it together.

VOLUNTEERING IN THE CLASSROOM:

YEAH! We are so glad to know there is interest and enthusiasm! We will have our sign-up sheet available at Curriculum night and plan on getting volunteers scheduled and ready to go the first week of October.  Until then be thinking of how you might like to contribute to this great bunch of kids! Also, there will be many opportunities that PTSA will be requesting support from parents throughout the year.  Maybe this is the job for YOU! J

 If you have any questions please let us know. Have a great day and we’ll see you Tuesday

Happy First Day

Dear Parents of our Wonderful First Graders,

We had a terrific and fun-filled day today!  Mrs. Morissey and I agree that we have a fantastic group of first graders this year.   They are fun to get to know and I can tell that they will make some good friends this year.

Tuesdays, our class has two specialists in a row.   We have music and PE.  I bet your child will have lots to tell you about both of those activities as well as the new playground at our school.

It looks like the weather this week is going to be warm, so please send a water bottle to school with your child that way they can have water at their desks.

Tomorrow, Wednesday, is an early release day (like all Wednesdays).   School dismisses at 2pm.

Our weekly schedule can be found on a tab at the top of this blog.  You can also find information about lunch, volunteering, etc.   If there is anything special you'd like us to include on this blog, just let me know.

Thanks so much for sharing your children with us this year.

Erin Subcleff and Sheri Morissey