End of Year Celebration

We will have our end of the year celebration on the last day of school after our scheduled brunch which ends at 10:00 am.

Unfortunately

Unfortunately I forgot, but I had intended to tell parents that I had mentioned to the kids that they should retell to you the story, Whistle for Willie, which corresponds to the inferences made on the reverse of their homework tonight; but, alas everyone should already be tucked in for the evening.

Contest

If anyone is interested, I have received notice of the following contest:

21st Annual "Jr. Fire Chief for a Day" Poster Contest

The goal of this contest is to encourage people of all ages to enjoy a safe holiday celebration by attending a public fireworks display.

Six grand prize winners will be chosen from all entries submitted by Friday June 15th, 2012. The winners will be honored as "Jr. Fire Chiefs for a Day" on June 28th, 2012.

The words: "Visit a local professional fireworks show" must be included in the design of the poster. Maximum poster size is 12" x 18". Posters are to be flat and two dimensional. Artwork must be done in ink, crayons, pencil, acrylic, water colors, or tempera paints. No cutting/pasting, overlays, computer generated artwork may be used. Entrants must attend school in Los Angeles County, grades 1 through 6.

All posters should be mailed directly to:

Los Angeles County Fire Department

Employee Services Section (Attn: Poster Contest, Room 255)

1320 N. Eastern Avenue, Los Angeles, CA 90063-3294

The following information is to be included in the following format on the reverse of the poster:

NAME:____________________________HOME PHONE:________________

HOME ADDRESS:___________________CITY:____________ZIP:_________

SCHOOL/SCHOOL DISTRICT:_____________________________________

GRADE:______TEACHER:______________________PHONE: (310)320-8570

PARENT/GUARDIAN SIGNATURE:________________________________

If you would rather have a copy of the entrant form, write "contest" on the NAME line of your child's homework and I will send home a copy.

Unit 6 Week 2 Preview

This week we will recall things we've learned to do that were difficult as we see that learning things can be an adventure. Our oral vocabulary words are: dare, permit, humble, predicament, and solution. Our high-frequency words are: along, early, instead, nothing, and thought. Our reading vocabulary words are errand, and suddenly. We will again be asking questions as a reading strategy to improve our reading skill of making inferences. We will focus on variant short-o spellings 'aw', 'au', and word families _all, and _alk for phonics. For grammar we will review pronouns. We will be writing a report on a job we are interested in using a Tree Map to organize our ideas.

We have begun our fractions unit in math. We will add like fractions, find some equivalencies, and find equal parts of a whole.

This week we will also be taking our final reading skills battery.

Notes for the Week

Twenty students passed the math test with an adjusted score of 17 or better. Two students made a perfect score.

The first grade teachers have decided to have the students wear jeans and a white shirt on the day of the Spring Dance.

Reminder: Last reading logs of the year are due Thursday.

One Hundred Fifty-Ninth

We took topic 20 math test today.

There is no homework.

One Hundred Fifty-Eighth Day

There is no homework today.

Math test tomorrow.

Unit 6 Week 1 Preview

In our last unit we will explore adventure itself. We will learn we can find adventure in our daily lives: in the places we go, in the things we learn to do, in our jobs as we grow, in very special days, and even in our imagination.

In week one, we will talk about the places people can go, how they get there, and what they do when they arrive. We will learn how we can gather information for report writing by interviewing people and other types of research. Our oral vocabulary words are: adventurous, anxious, inquisitive, insignificant, and route. In phonics we will focus on words with 'oo' spellings. Our high-frequency words will be: always, father, four, love, and mother. Our comprehension skill will again be visualizing in order for us to explain the difference between fantasy and reality, our comprehension strategy. In grammar we will learn about subjects and predicates.

In social studies we will discuss some basic economic concepts like goods and services, work and compensation, and how products come to market.

In math we will continue our work with regrouping in order to subtract.

Unit 5 Week 5 Preview

This week we will take a look at the growth and development of animals in nature. We will reread and summarize reading selections as our comprehension strategy to improve our comparing and contrasting skills. Our oral vocabulary words are: mature, newborn, process, remain, and slender. The reading vocabulary words are cub and wild. Our reading sight words will be: air, enough, eyes, learn, and open. Our phonics focus is diphthong /oi/ spelled 'oi_' 'oy'.

Second Parent Discussion Question

Was this blog useful? Is there any information that you would have found helpful that was not included here? Do you have any other comments about the use of this forum this year?

Unit 5 Week 4 Preview

We will compare the characteristics of the four seasons. Our oral vocabulary words are: blaze, increase, observe, outline, and scorch. Our spelling pattern focus will involve the diphthong: 'ou', 'ow'. Our high frequency reading words are: against, below, fall, orange, sure, and yellow. Our reading vocabulary words are: wondered and season. We will again practice our reading comprehension strategy of visualization in order to develop the comprehension skill of sequencing. 

Our talk of the four seasons will of course lead to discussion of the Earth's rotation and revolution in science. We will discuss myths and facts regarding these concepts. 

We will work with art application standard 2.3 to use media to create form in works of art.

We will again revisit the concepts of past and present in social studies.

Reminder and Notes

Reminder: Please remember that we've have had our last early dismissal Tuesday for the year. Starting next Tuesday dismissal is the regular time of 2:04.

This past week we took our Topic 18 math test. Results are forthcoming. We also took our final district writing test. Those not passing will write to another prompt in a few weeks for another chance to pass.

Your child now holds the last reading log of their 1st grade year.

Notices of Unsatisfactory Performance will be sent home next week. Those students in a position to end the year with a grade of 1 or 2 in a major subject will receive a notice. Students not passing the last district math exam or the writing LPA will automatically receive a notice if they have yet to pass a classroom equivalency test. If you have not already been informed of the possibility of your child being retained in 1st grade, your child will be advancing to 2nd grade next year.

Unit 5 Week 2 Preview

This week we will be focusing on many different scientists how they develop questions to discover new things about the world around us. We will read about the many contributions of Benjamin Franklin and read again about Alexander Graham Bell. We will also read about the important contributions of George Washington Carver to the field of botany. We will again use the strategy of summary to develop our skill of making inferences, which is probably one of the more difficult comprehension skills to master. When making an inference about material we've read, we connect what we've read to what we already know to draw a conclusion which has not been explicitly stated by the author. Our oral vocabulary words will be: career, curious, fascinating, improve, and investigate. Our site words will be: grew, house, knew, and would. Our reading vocabulary words are: curious, and idea. For spelling and phonics we will focus on the r-controlled vowel 'a' (harm, yarn).

We are continuing with our coin counting in math and will be coming up on a test early next week.

In social studies we will be reviewing the concept of needs vs. wants and the use of money as the basis of our trade system.

For science we will be doing the "fountain experiment" to see how air pressure will interact with water.

News for the Past Week

We started the week with our 3rd and final district quarterly exam. We took a portion of the test on 3 consecutive days. Of the 23 students taking the test 5 scored perfectly and altogether 19 students passed with a "proficient" rating.

We enjoyed a field trip to the Gene Autry Museum on Thursday and learned much about westward expansion and immigration.

On Friday we explored air pressure and got a feeling for how strong it can be and used it to launch small projectiles.

Unit 5 Week 1 Preview

We will be looking towards the sky to see what we can learn this week in our new unit on nature. We will read pourquoi tales from a few indigenous cultures. Our vocabulary words are: discover, dusk, mysterious, pale, and scatter. We will spell with r-controlled vowels. Our comprehension strategy will be to generate questions in order to develop the skill of identifying cause and effect. Our high frequency words will be: another, climbed, full poor, and through. We will discuss "voice" as a writing trait.

Topic 16 Math

You should have already received your child's Topic 16 math test at this point. All enrolled children present to take the test passed. The adjusted passing minimum score was 16.

Unit 4 Week 5 Preview

We will explore animals working in teams. Insects in colonies, cleaner fish, and the protective nature of herds are a few examples. We continue to work on narratives using a flow map to brainstorm beginning, middle, and ends to our creative response to literature stories. Our oral vocabulary words are: behavior, group, plead, soar, and vivid. In phonics we will continue work with long-vowel 'e' and use its spellings 'y' (sunny) and 'ey' (monkey). Our high frequency focus words are: also, because, blue, or, other, and until. We will analyze text structure in order to hone our retelling comprehension skill.

In spite of the fact we are still working on the weather unit in science, it will be necessary to overlap our 3rd unit and immediately begin our growing plants and animals-life-cycle unit.

In Social Studies our work with relative direction came in quite handy when we were left a map of sorts to a hidden stash before our break. We will continue work with maps intermittently in the coming weeks.

We will continue our study of coins and counting money in math as this concept will be covered in our next and final District Quarterly Math Exam which comes up in less than two weeks' time. The test appears rigorous yet fairly straightforward. We will soon be taking timed math tests as well to show our ability to apply math strategies learned this quarter.

Some of Room 11's work is currently being displayed in the main office for the month of April.

Unit 4 Week 4 Preview

We are continuing our discussion of teamwork, in particular, how in working together, teams can accomplish big things. We have been interactively writing a narrative in response to literature we've read this year. We will work on story structure, organization, and word choice. Our comprehension focus strategy will be visualization; our focus skill will be problem and solution. Vocabulary words for the week are: approach, assist, determined, quarrel, and view.

Individually we are working on and completing our Social Studies/Language Arts projects which will be on display for Open House (TBA). Seven students have worked steadily enough this week to finish. More are very near completion.

Also in Social Studies we will discuss transportation of long ago. We will continue our work with maps adding the concept of relative direction in greater detail. We will use what we learn with relative direction to locate hidden treasures.

In science we continue our study of air with lessons on resistance, propulsion, and pressure.

Results of the last two topic math tests are forthcoming.

One Hundred Twenty-First Day

Will be getting back on track posting plans soon. Plans and evaluations consumed much energy and time.

We are working hard on on a Social Studies/Language Arts project. We combine our map making skills, our imagination, and our describing and persuasive writing skills for one big project.

We set a 2011-'12 record with Topic 14 math test. We had 7 students with 100%. A passing score was 14 points.

This week we have been learning about Cesar Chavez and working together to accomplish a goal.

In science we are exploring the properties of air and it's effect on weather. We will continue to record weather measurements and observations as standard requirements.

Home Projects

The 1st grade will be hosting the Citizen of the Month Assembly at the end of March. One child will be chosen to read an essay on the subject of sportsmanship. All students wishing to read a speech to the student body need to submit their essay by the 16th of March. One essay will be chosen from those submitted. This is good public speaking experience and an excellent opportunity for video memories.

For social studies we have been working on neighborhood maps. At this point in the year I like to suggest that parents direct students to a mapping program on the Internet and locate your home's satellite photograph. Magnify the view to approximately 100ft/inch. Size to show their block and a portion of surrounding blocks. Have your child make a simple map with legend (key) under your direction but in their hand. On your child's map, buildings could be shown as simple rectangles. Print a view of the satellite picture (preferably w/o address and real estate information, which can be blacked out if necessary) and attach to the hand-drawn map and send with your child to class.

One-Hundred Third Day

Our reading batteries are complete. We have one more day to complete the writing test. Unfortunately, students who missed any portion of the writing process due to absences are unable to make up that time. The good news is many of the students have not needed the entire amount of time allotted for taking the test, but some have. We will take our science test on the states of matter this Friday.

One Hundred- First Day

Today we celebrated our 100th day of first grade (one day late). Unfortunately the 100th day just happened to coincide with reading battery tests, so much of our morning was spent juggling testing with other activities. A big thank you to Mrs. Eure for occupying groups of readers while others were tested. Also, thank you to the parents who donated treats for our afternoon celebration. Some students may not be too starving come dinnertime this evening.

100th Day

Everyone seemed to enjoy our trip to the museum. My group was very lucky to get a marvelous docent for the architectural/garden portion of our study. She was very impressed with our knowledge of the elements of art. Later we spent time exploring 19th century art in good detail. We took time with a suite of Degas' work comparing and contrasting two paintings and then some of his small bronze ballerinas. A special thank you to Mrs. Sterling who accompanied us to the museum and really helped to make our trip go smoothly.

Unit 4 Week 1 Preview

Our new theme for this unit is teamwork. We will begin the unit discussing the advantages of using teamwork and what team members do. This week we will use the spelling rules: 'ai_', and '_ay' to spell the long vowel-a. For comprehension we will learn how to generate questions during reading in order to make predictions. We will discuss comparatives and superlatives and use them to make a small fold out book. Our vocabulary words will be: encourage, friendship, relationship, rely, and suggest. Our sight words will be: across, carry, eight, once, upon, and walked. In grammar we will distinguish between the two verbs: was and were.

In health, we will talk about safety and safe habits.

Additionally, this week all 1st graders will take their reading skills battery for fluency and comprehension.

We will also attempt to get in a math test.

On Wednesday is our field study trip to the Getty Museum. We will be enjoying as well as examining and comparing art for a variety of elements: line, color, texture, shape, and subject matter.

This will be a busy week with Our 1ooth day of school celebration on Thursday.

Hundredth Day of School

We will be celebrating the 100th day of our 1st grade year on Feb. 23rd 2012. Our traditional celebration has been downsized in recent years due to administrative constraints, but we still celebrate with afternoon treat sharing and games to mark the occasion. If you would like to send treats along with your child to share with the class for Thursday afternoon it would be appreciated.

Ninety-Second Day

Creeping up on the 100th day of school, we have already passed the half-way point. Today we read poems with figurative language written by Kindergarten and 1st grade aged students. We then tried our hand at writing our own poems in order to "paint a picture with words."

We completed our 2nd quarterly district math exam yesterday. Two students passed with a perfect score. Fourteen students passed missing only 1 or 2 questions on the objective portion. All students met at least the minimum criteria on the objective portion of the exam.

Unit 3 Week 5 Preview

This week we will analyze text structure in order to use our comprehension skill, compare and contrast. We will compare children from all parts of the world to find similarities and differences in their daily activities. Our vocabulary words are: culture, custom, language, similar, and skill. Our high frequency words will be: any, boy, by, does, friend, girl, and water. We will spell words which begin with 3 consonants. We will examine short-vowel verbs which require double consonants to be added with inflectional endings.

We will continue our work writing descriptive sentences first using a Tree Map to record sensory details. We will make our first Double Bubble Map and a Venn Diagram to compare and contrast two things.

Eighty-Seventh Day

We had an interesting conversation about Goldilocks. We found her to be resourceful (able to solve her problems of tiredness and hunger) but unwise. We also discussed recycling, reusing, and repurposing.

We took topic 12 math test today. When all are finished, scores will be posted.

We will likely go ahead and take our social studies geography test tomorrow.

Unit 3 Week 4 Preview

We will be discussing how we can be creative and resourceful and likewise how the characters in our selections exhibit these characteristics and what it is that inspires them. Our vocabulary words for this week are: create, hobby, inspire, resourceful, structure. Among our selections this week is a fantasy by Harry Horse called A Friend for Little Bear, in which a resourceful toy bear learns the importance of friends over collecting possessions. Another selection is Karen Lynn Williams' story Galimoto about a resourceful child in Africa who has to make his own toys from found objects.

Our comprehension strategy will be making inferences in order to draw conclusions, our comprehension skill. Our sight words will be: after done, find, old, new, work.

We will continue with final silent 'e' long vowel spellings for the remaining vowels along with open syllable long vowels as well as the remaining stanzas of our vowel poem.

Everyone should have brought home a world map at this point labeled correctly from which to study for our next social studies test. We will also discuss the concepts of reusing, repurposing, and recycling.

We will also be taking a look at and finding symmetry in a variety of shapes and using the idea for a few art projects.

We have to cover some difficult math concepts in this topic. Please check to be sure your child has completed all classroom assignments as well as homework assignments in order to reinforce concepts presented in class.

Reminder: reading logs are due Jan. 31.

Eighty-Second Day

We took our topic 11 test with some very good results. Twenty-one passing scores of 15 (scaled score) or greater were achieved: 5 students earned a perfect score.

In spite of so many students passing I was disappointed to see so many unfinished classroom work assignments in students' homework folders. With the handful of students not passing, it seems to make sense to me that parents should see that their child finishes classwork which is sent home daily with homework.

We did not have time for a new math lesson today so there was no homework.

Unsatisfactory Notices

Notices of unsatisfactory performance (unsat) will be going home shortly. They will not include notice of science or social studies grades not meeting standards as we have yet to have had significant assessment this reporting period in these subjects. Information on these subjects will be available at parent conferences. With regard to writing, several students may receive an unsat despite passing our last writing assessment due to an initial struggle with the assignment.

Eighty-First Day

The following coming instructional week's preview will be forthcoming; we have slowed to a snail's pace in order to fit in assessments.

We will hopefully take Topic 11 math test tomorrow.

At the end of the week, we will be taking home our world maps to be studied for our social studies test.

Seventy-Seventh Day

We took a writing assessment today. Exactly 50% of the students passed. After some follow-up instruction, those students not passing will be allowed to retake the exam before second reporting period unsatisfactory notices go home.

We have also begun testing fluency and comprehension for this reporting period. Students must read 45 wpm and pass a comprehension test, and read 108 sight words fluently in order to get a 3 on the next progress report.

Seventy-Sixth Day

If you are still holding on to a DonorsChoose gift certificate, please return it with your child so that it may be passed on to someone who will use it. The deadline is approaching. The teachers at Caroldale would like to make sure that all of the money that was offered to our school will go to our school. Again, thank you to those families who acted quickly and put the certificates to use.

Starting January 23, select Starbucks stores in the city of Los Angeles will hand out $10 DonorsChooseLA.org gift cards to customers. These cards will enable a wider audience of Angelenos to support you and your students. Cards will be in stores while supplies last and are limited to one per donor. (Give them to friends.)

Unit 3 Week 3 Preview

This week our literature focus will be different types of art. We will take a brief look at art from other nations. Our vocabulary words are: astonishing, complicated, continue, original, and talented. Our high-frequency words will be: every, from, into, people, soon, and your.

Our ability to write persuasive and descriptive sentences will be evaluated.

We will spell with the digraphs: ch, -tch, wh, and ph.

In social studies we will again compare the past with the present and examine the flag as a national symbol.

Seventy-First Day

In order to add interest to blending lines we were introduced to two new words today: smite (and hense smote, but not smitten), and vile.

We struggled with our math lesson today. We may need to go back and revisit the concept in today's math homework. Today's lesson was cut short due to time constraints.

Our social studies book mentions 5 oceans. In years past we have only taught 4 oceans while some sources claim there to be 3. The oceans we will designate for testing/standard purposes will be: Pacific, Atlantic, Indian, and Arctic.

Thank you to those who have already taken advantage of the DonorsChoose.org gift cards or who have already returned them. Your timeliness is appreciated as the funds will only be available for a limited time.

Seventieth Day

Welcome back to everyone.

Almost all students went home today with a gift certificate to spend at DonorsChoose.org. Each certificate includes a unique redemption code for real money as a gift to the parents of LAUSD from the Wasserman Foundation. If you choose not to or are unable to use the gift certificate, please return the card to me so it may be given to another family who did not receive one. Room 11 does have a project listed on the site (please ignore the typographical error in the title-don't know how that got there). The project can be found under LAUSD, Caroldale, math and science, grades PreK-2.

Unit 3 Week 2 Preview

This week we ask the question: What do family members do with one another to have fun? Our comprehension skill focus will be to make and confirm predictions using the strategy of analyzing story structure. We will take a brief look at alliteration (consonance). We will continue our exploration with long vowel spellings in particular: long vowel-i spelled i_e (like, nice) or 'i at the end of a syllable' (pilot, riding). In grammar we will examine present-tense verbs. We will be using the skill of persuasion in our writing over the next 2 weeks.

Our oral vocabulary words are: typical, possessions, connections, relief, and support. Our high-frequency words are: call, funny, how, more, so, there.

As you read with your child at home, please continue to predict and confirm as you read (What do you think will happen? Do you think Goldilocks will get caught?). When finishing a fiction selection or chapter, ask your child to confirm predictions and summarize what happened. When reading a nonfiction selection, have your child state the main idea and details.

Please continue to have your child collect family jokes, anecdotes, and riddles for the next few weeks in order for us to complete our Unit Project.

In social studies we will continue to compare the past and the present. We will also work towards understanding our location in the world while learning the continents and the oceans (tested). We will compare globes and maps.

In science we will continue our exploration of the forms of matter, in particular small particle solids. We may even get a bit messy again. No worries, everything will wash out.