January 17 Newsletter

Mrs. Bali’s First Grade News

January 17,2013

Review of our week:

         This week I have spent some time assessing and doing some reviewing where we needed it. I wanted to assess a few more things, so I will send progress reports on Tuesday. In Math we started our next chapter.  I was very happy with the math test we took. We have been working on nouns, verbs and adjectives, so we can write a snowman story.

We will also have our store next week.  I have some students who have earned more than $2 to spend.  I had some who had less than $.10.  When they turn their reading records, homework and take home books in, I keep track and give them money every week.  If your child didn’t earn very much this last quarter, please help them earn more for next quarter.  I think this is a very good life lesson.  When you work hard and do your work, you will receive rewards for it.

Homework:

         The most important homework your child should be doing everyday is reading for 20 minutes every night.  We are getting close to the end of the month, so please make sure your child is doing their reading and filling in their mittens.  I am sending home some worksheets; they are due back by Friday.  

         After your child has finished reading their book, I would like you to have them tell you what happened in the book and also ask them some questions to clarify.  Most of them are getting to the point where they can decode very well, now we need to start working on comprehension.  I am sending home another comprehension worksheet with a story and a few questions.  Please sit down with your child and help them with this.  You need to sign it and return it by Friday.

         I am going to send some a paper each week with some different ideas for your child to practice their spelling words

Progress Reports:

         I will send home progress reports next week. I hope that you all have a chance to look over them.  Please look at how many days your child has missed or has been late this quarter.  They are missing a lot of things when they are gone or late.  Also, there might be things I didn’t have a chance to assess with your child because they were gone.  If you check out our blog you can see which students had 100% attendance this last quarter. If you have any questions please let me know.  I need you to look over your child’s progress report, sign the bottom and return it on Monday. 

DIBELS:

         We just did our mid-year Dibels assessment.  I am including your child’s scores with their progress report.  I wanted to explain a few things.  The nonsense word fluency is the same as what I explained during SEP’s in October.  The benchmark has just gone up.  This time they did oral reading fluency.  Each child had 3 different stories to read for 1 minute each.  They counted how many words they read correctly which is the first score.  Then there is an accuracy percentage.  So, if your child read 23 words and had an accuracy percentage of 92% your child was able to read 23 words a minute and there were just a couple they either got wrong or skipped.  If the percentage is lower, your child has more words they were not able to read or they are skipping.  I know this is kind of confusing, please let me know if you have any questions about your child’s scores.  We have made a lot of progress from the beginning of the year.

Math Tutor:

         I just wanted to remind everybody about the Math Tutor they have after school.  If any of you are interested in it, let me know and we can come up with a plan that will work for your child.

100^th Day of School:

We are going to have a 100^th day snack.  Other years we have had a snack of 100 things.  I saw a fun thing where they took doughnuts at a pretzel stick to make the number 100.  I decided to do that this year.  If would be willing to send a box or a small package of the small doughnuts, I would appreciate it. Each child would need 2, so we would need around 50 doughnuts. We also need a package of stick pretzels.  Will you please let me know if you would be willing to send some, so I will know how many extras I will need to buy?  Thank you.  The 100^th day is on Monday, January 27.

FYI’s:

* Keep saving your Box Tops. 

* Thanks for everything you have done. I really want to                      thank all of you who come in and read in the mornings.

Upcoming Events:

·      Friday, January 24 – Family Fun Day

·      Monday, January 27 – South Family Movie Night

·      Tuesday, January 28 – Celebrate MaCray’s ½ Birthday

·      Friday, January 31 – Family Fun Day

·      Friday, February 7 – Family Fun Day

·      Friday, February 7 – Celebrate Josh’s Birthday

·      Friday, February 14 – Valentine’s Party

·      Friday, February 14 – Family Fun Day

·      Monday, February 17 – No School (President’s Day)

·      Friday, February 21 – Family Fun Day (Thorley Family)

·      Friday, February 28 – Spelling Bee 2:00

·      March 3-7 – SEP Week (School gets out at 2:30.)

·      Monday March 3 – Celebrate Addy’s Birthday

·      Friday, March 7 – Celebrate Denym’s Birthday

·      Monday, March 10 – Spring Pictures

·      Friday, March 14 – Celebrate William’s Birthday

·      Friday, March 14 – Family Fun Day

·      Friday, March 14 – End of 3^rd Quarter

·      Monday, March 17 – Art’s Night @ 6:30

·      Wednesday, March 19 – Celebrate Izi’s Birthday

·      Friday, March 21 – Family Fun Day

·      Wednesday, March 26 – Celebrate Ashlyn’s Birthday

·      Friday, March 28 – Family Fun Day