There will be NO homework until the week of April 30th due to FCAT and ITBS Testing!

Enjoy the two week break! :)

100 days old!

It's hard to believe that the 100th day of school has already come and gone!  We certainly had an extra fun day!

Here are few pictures of our 100th day of fun extravaganza:

 Our sweet "old ladies!"

                                The handsome "old men"

 

 Our three wonderful 100 item t-shirts!!! So creative!

The final pictures were taken while we made our 100 fruit loop necklaces in groups of ten.  We first sorted them by color, then into groups of ten, then added them to our necklaces marking each group of 10 with a hanging number.  Most of these didn't make them home as we ate our tasty necklaces! :)

Be on the lookout for our Valentine Breakfast info sheet coming home this week!

Happy Holidays

Dear Parent/Guardian(s),

We have been working very hard and doing a good job with reading, writing, and math this semester.  I am so pleased with all our progress.

The time has come for a little vacation.  I hope you will find some interesting things to do during that time. I’m sure you all have lots of exciting things planned. 

While enjoying your time away don’t forget about reading, writing, and math! This is what your child should be doing successfully if they have mastered all benchmarks:

-Recognize over 100 sight words and reading at an AR level of 1.3 or higher.

-Comprehend the main idea and details of a story, and identify the main character and setting of a story.  They should also be able to identify and provide examples of a noun, verb, adjective, and pronoun.

-Your child should write consistently with beginning, middle, and ending sounds, and show knowledge of capital and end marks. They should know and apply a “writer’s eye” strategies {use capitals at the beginning of a sentence, lowercase in appropriate places, space between words, and proper punctuation.}

-In math, your child should be able to add and subtract to 18, recognize numbers to 100, count to 100 (by 1’s, 5’s, and 10’s), count to 20 by 2’s, identify place value of ones and tens, identify numbers greater than/less than to 100, and solve simple word problems.

If your child is struggling in any of these areas, now is the perfect time to “play school” and assist them mastering these benchmarks.  Here are some good ideas for reading and writing activities using a newspaper or magazine:

-Cut out words that belong to word families you have studied.

-Collect interesting pictures. Be ready to explain what they are about and write about it.

-Learn a new word every day.

-Collect interesting new items to write about.

-Collect interesting cartoons and draw one of your own!

-Pretend your have made an amazing discovery or invention.  Write an article about yourself! J

-Help your mom by writing the grocery or “to-do” list.

-Write about your vacation and draw an illustration to match the words.

-Make sight word flash cards and have someone hide them around a room.  When you find the word you have to read to keep it!

There are so many fun and exciting ways that you can help your child continue to grow.  Use your imagination and let them do the same! J  I am so grateful

for such amazing student’s and families that make up our fantastic

first grade class.  Enjoy your holiday break and I will see you all again

in the New Year!

                           With great love and gratitude,

                                    Mrs. McHaffie

From my family to yours...

Photo Card

View the entire collection of cards.

Holiday Spirit!

This week has been all about Gingerbread men!!!  We've started reading the many different versions of the fun story and comparing and contrasting them! We will continue our fun activities with these fun and tasty treats next week. 

Next week will look something like this:

Monday - Gingerbread Men activities continue

Tuesday- wrapping up gingerbread men/ 'There Was an Old Lady' fun

Wednesday - Holidays around the world - how we celebrate

Thursday - Caribou (reindeer) study

Friday - Grinch Day

The following week:

Monday - Take a mouse to the movies!

Tuesday - Polar Express Day

Wednesday - Pajama Day & AR read-a-thon day!

Happy Fall

Have a very relaxing and wonderful

Thanksgiving!!!

Reading Buddies

One of our favorite things about Friday's is when we get to see our reading buddies!  Our class has partnered up with Mrs. Green's third grade class this year to be reading buddies.  During this thirty-minute time we are practicing buddy reading {just like we do during the Daily Five}, using and applying reading strategies we've learned in class, and helping one another to become better readers.  Some of us share reading buddies, which makes it even more fun!

Here are a couple pictures of us reading with our big buddies.  Boy, do we love reading with them!

 Here we are practicing sitting EEKK!