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

Mother's Day Tea and Art Show

Mary Cassatt Tea

It's time to celebrate all you wonderful 1st grade moms!   Our class would like to invite you in for tea and an art showing on:

 Monday, May 9th (the Monday after Mother's Day)

from 2:45-3:30.  

The first graders don't know about this yet...I will let them know on Monday, but I wanted to let you know as soon as possible so that you can all try to be there.
I hope you can make it!

Weekly Update

Happy Monday!   Take a look at these gorgeous Chinese vases.   Today we learned all about Henri Matisse and that he often used the same props in many different pictures.  One of those props was a Chinese vase.
We had fun visiting this website about Matisse.   Your children may enjoy exploring it some more at home as well.

As you already heard, we had to cancel our field tirp to the UW botanical gardens due to bus issues.  We are working hard at rescheduling this fun field trip.  We will let you know as soon as we can set a date.

During MATH we are working on Tens and Ones as well as our Morissey Market.  During the market, students earn money throughout the day and then have a chance to work with money and buy things on Fridays.  

Since April is National Poetry Month, we will be studying poems on Mondays.  Today we read a poem titled Cures for a Boring School Day which we all thought was pretty funny since every day in first grade is fun and fast paced.  Then we wrote our own silly class poem.  Here it is:

Cures for a Boring School Day

Weigh chickens

Do ART all day

Eat bacon until you're fat

Blow a gumball until you fly away

Make a book without words

Do nothing at recess

Play math games

Do a little bit of everything!

Our class blogger:

Also, from a previous email...

We no longer have a ‘spelling’ grade on our district report cards for first grade. It is an applied spelling grade- which means, the spelling that students use in their daily writing, journals, writing prompts, etc (not tests).

Our 1^st grade team feels that it is still important to grade students on the weekly words that they are practicing and being tested on, as they are important 1^st grade words to know and the idea is that they will practice and remember these words so that they will use them correctly in their daily writing.

So, the plan is give an ‘applied spelling test’ after every three lists. After lists 1, 2 & 3 and then 4, 5, 6, etc. The ‘applied spelling test’ consists of three sentences that we read to the class. The sentences include words, and spelling rules rules, that have been practiced in their weekly spelling lists. These grades will be entered into the Skyward grading system, under the applied spelling section. The weekly test scores are just for your information, and also to give the kids immediate feedback about how they have done- these weekly grades are NOT entered into Skyward.

The applied spelling test for Lists 1-3 will be coming home tomorrow.  =). We will be doing another applied spelling test for Lists 4-6 sometime in the next week or two.

Please let me know if you have any questions.

For the Week of oct. 18th-22nd

Wild Things from the book Where the Wild Things Are

Hi Parents,

The Pumpkin Patch Field trip was so much fun.  Thank you to our parent chaperones.   You made the day go so smoothly.  

Conferences begin this Thursday.  Students have been working on creating goals for themselves.   I think you will be delighted by what your child shares with you at the conference.

Lately, they have been very busy learning how the numbers 6,7,8, and 9 can be broken into parts of the whole in different ways.   At home, you and your child can make a game of seeing how quickly they can add two numbers that add up to either 6,7,8, or 9.

The Halloween Party is coming up!  It will be on Friday, Oct. 29th.  Students change into costumes at 1pm.   Party will follow.   The all school parade starts at 2:15.  Please contact Julie Main [julie-main@comcast.net], if you are interested in helping out in any way.

October News

Happy October!

Please see the 'Upcoming Events' Section on the side of this blog for important dates this month.

Your child is bringing home a letter today describing the new Family Access program.  This is a chance for you to check online to see your child's grades.   Currently we are working on a manageable routine for entering grades.  This will be an additional form of communication this year.

Reflections:  This is a nation-wide PTA arts program (contest).  Students may enter artwork, writing (poems, stories), photography, musical compositions, dance, and video performances.   All entries are due to the office by Oct. 15th.   This is a great activity to do at home and a wonderful chance to be creative.  I hope many of our students enter.  The theme this year is "Together We Can".  More information about rules, etc., can be found on our school's PTA website  here

Speaking of art... here is today's project:  watercolor and tempera  fall trees.  This class just loves art time - and they always do such amazing work.

Our volunteer program has gone into play - thank you to all you parents who can help out.   I will be attaching the volunteer list to this blog shortly.

Scholastic Book Orders:  Thank you to Patty Bredice for volunteering to do our ordering.   You can order scholastic books online as well as on the paper form.

Now it’s easier than ever to find the perfect books for your child—shop our NEW online Book Clubs Web site. Choose from a much-wider selection of books than in the printed flyer. Plus, you can send your orders directly to me online and use your credit card to pay.
Best of all, we earn a FREE book for the classroom library every time a parent places an order online.
It’s so simple! Here’s how it works:

• SIGN UP at www.scholastic.com/parentordering. On the parent page, register by clicking click the “Don’t have a user name or password?” link. When prompted, enter the one-time Class Activation Code shown above. This unique code ensures that your order is sent to me.
• Class user name:   morissey
• password is:  books123
• SELECT the books you’d like to order—choose from thousands of titles—many more than in our monthly flyers.
• SEND your order to me online by the due date and your child’s books will be delivered directly to my classroom.

Ordering online is fast, easy, and secure.
Of course, you can still order using the form from the printed flyer. But why not see for yourself how convenient it is to order online?

Remember, goal setting conferences are coming up Oct. 21-25.  This is our chance to sit and discuss year-long goals for your child.    Mrs. Morissey will be working all these 1/2 days since she will be leading most of the conferences.   If you would like me to be available at your conference, please let me know and I'll arrange to be there.

Thank you again for being such a wonderful group of parents to work with.  Your children certainly take after you.

Curriclum Night Follow Up

We had a wonderful time on Curriclum Night.  We hope you enjoyed it as much as we did.  It was fun to see so many faces and to share our plans for this terrific year.    Please feel free to send us any questions you might still have about how first grade operates.



First grade "Weekend News" writing



We are in the process of configuring our volunteer schedule, and we will be sending home an email to the volunteers when we finally have it set.    If you did not get a chance to sign up for a spot and would still like to volunteer, just let us know and we can find a place for you.

Likewise, if you signed up for a spot that isn't going to work out, we can also switch you to a different time.

Thank you to all the parents who have returned the Rainbow Reading contract sheet.   Your child will soon be bringing home books to read as homework.

Speaking of rainbows.... your child created an abstract tree silhouette today that absolutely radiates a rainbow of colors.  These were made with chalk pastels on black paper and are currently hanging in the hallway outside our room.   Your children are incredible artists.

Tuesday Message

Hi Parents,
We had our first "Subcleff" day together and time flew by.
We read, "Ish" by Peter Reynolds and students drew an 'ish' drawing of themselves. This was tricky, because I had them draw their pictures without lifting their pens! Their amazing artwork is out in the hallway.

Each Monday (or whichever day I am here), we will be creating art that I will display in the hallway for one week.  Then I will save them to collect and bind into a book. I usually end up sending home about 3 books of your child's artwork during the year.

Today I sent home three important pieces of paper with your child:

1. An emergency card with a cover letter for each student Please look at what is already in the system and make changes if necessary. This needs to come back to school as soon as possible.
2. The Student Handbook. Please review the information in this book.
3. A separate piece of paper for you to sign that says you and your child have read the handbook. Please return this to school as soon as possible.

Thanks so much,
Erin Subcleff