10-27-17

Dear Unicorn Families!

It’s Spiders and Cider tonight.  I will see many of you there based on what the children have told me.  I am excited for the event.  Please remember, no masks, weapons or scary costumes.  There will be many little children there and we do not want to give anyone nightmares.  Please also remember that there are no costumes during the school day.  Halloween is a very exciting time but we would like the least number of distractions in the classroom as possible.  This also means no candy if possible.  Candy has a negative effect on a child’s attention span and focus. 

       Calling all volunteers!  Our school runs with the help of parents that can give a little bit of time to make fabulous things happen for all kids.  Our garden needs some parental support.  There is a sign-up for daily watering that takes a short amount of time and can be done any time of day.  On Wednesdays, parent volunteers provide a gardening club weekly from 11 to 1:00.  We are looking for parents to help supervise the children from all grade levels.  If you are interested in helping out, please go to the FFO website – www.sunriseffo.org and look for volunteer options.  You can also email Emily Franklin at EmilyEFranklin@gmail.com to ask more questions or she can sign you up!  Thank you for your support.   

       As we finish the last full week of October (wasn’t September just last week?), we continued with our plant unit.  We sorted seeds, we observed seeds growing in our classroom and we talked about how seeds travel to new places.  We did visit the garden to do another observation of our decomposing pumpkins and to check out the worms that recently joined our garden community.  There were only a few that wanted to get their hands dirty with the worms.  In reading, we started talking about mental imagery.  We read some books this week that use figurative language to help build those images in our minds.  We will start with some poetry next week as we continue to explore mental imagery and how it helps us to understand what we have read.  This week we began to talk about editing our stories and going back to make sure they have all the important information needed to be a complete story.  Next week, I will introduce a check list that your child can use to help the process. By the end of next week, I will post a sign-up genius to help us publish some books.

       Jump Rope for Heart ends next week.  This has been a very successful fundraiser, thank you to all who have helped out.  Steppers begins on Friday, November 3^rd, if you would like to help out tracking laps, you can sign up on the FFO website.  Thursday, November 9^th is a full day of school and there is no school on Friday, November 10^th.  Thank you to the families that collected Box Tops and sent them in.

I hope everyone has a fantastic fall weekend and a safe happy Halloween if you celebrate! 

       Mrs. Berk

10-20-17

Dear Unicorn Families!

As excited as the children were about investigating pumpkins, they now think the opposite of decomposing pumpkins!  They think those are very gross.  With the nice warm weather, the mold microbes have taken over and are using all the food that the pumpkins are offering.  We will continue to make observations for the time being.  We continued to investigate seeds this week and we will finish up next week as we put some seeds in plastic bags and start the growing process.  We finished up our Mem Fox unit and we will start with mental imagery next week.  We will use short poems to have the children create mental pictures of what they are reading in the poem.  In small groups and with group lessons, we are working hard to make sure we have all the parts of a personal narrative, so that soon we will be able to write one that we can publish. 

I hope the first week of spelling went well at home.  Please check your child’s backpack on Monday for the corrected spelling test and new list to study for next week.  If you have any questions, please let me know.  I will give the words out of order and I change the way I make the order each week to see if they have mastered the words.

As Halloween comes closer, please remember to send healthy snacks to school like granola bars, crackers, cheese sticks or fruit.  Research shows that sugary snacks like candy, rice crispy treats or cookies make it much harder for children to focus on school work.  Also, there will be no costumes on Halloween day.  If you are coming to Spiders and Cider on October 27, please remember that weapons and full masks are not allowed on campus.   If you have any questions, please see the FFO website for more details.  All tickets can be purchased through the FFO website.  The address is www.sunriseffo.org.

Thank you to the families that sent in Box Tops.  There will be another collection in spring, so please keep saving them.  You can bring them in any time, our collection box is always on the counter.  There are many events coming up over the next couple of weeks.  Jump Rope for Heart finishes up on November 3^rd .  We have a day off for Veteran’s Day on November 10^th.   The First Grade Parent Breakfast is on November 17^th.  Please watch your child’s homework for all upcoming dates.

I hope everyone has a wonderful fall break. 

       Mrs. Berk

10-11-17

Dear Unicorn Families!

The squeals of excitement this week made my heart burst with pride as I watched your children so excited to learn and get their hands dirty!  We estimated, measured, cleaned, counted and recorded information about our pumpkins.  I would like to thank the three moms that came to help on Tuesday.  You made the day run smooth and I truly appreciate the clean pumpkin seeds (Total number of seeds – 2765)!  The learning will continue as we watch and record information about our pumpkins as they decompose in the garden over the next couple of weeks. 

We will also deepen our understanding about seeds, learn the parts of a seed, and look at the life cycles of a food producing plant, a flowering plant, and a non-flowering plant.  We will also discuss how seeds travel.  In reading, we will finish up our author study on Mem Fox.  We will continue to talk about characters in a book and compare them with other books.  In the near future we will use poetry to look deeper into mental imagery.  We will continue to write personal narratives.  We will make sure each story has the details that it needs to be a complete story.

We have been working on Geometry. We have been manipulating shapes and looking at multiple ways to make a hexagon. We have also been filling in a shape with more and fewer blocks. We will continue to explore shapes by describing and sorting them. 

 Spelling starts on Monday.  I spoke with many of you about this at conferences.  Spelling is individualized.  I have children starting in multiple different places based on their skills. Please check your child’s backpack for the letter and the words they are to study this week on Monday.  Tests will be Friday each week.  I will send the new set of words home each Monday. 

I plan on adding a handful of items to the other information page on the website this weekend.  The first is a playdough recipe.  Playdough is a great hands-on way to do a variety of learning and this batch will last 6-12 weeks in a sealed zip lock bag or Tupperware.  I will add some suggestion on books to read with your child or have your child read on their own.  We talked about cooking with pumpkin during this week.  I will put up the recipes that I have cooked with children in the past.

There are many upcoming events on the Sunrise calendar.  Currently the Jump Rope for Heart fundraiser is going on.  Box Tops are due this week for the fall collection.  There will be another collection in February as well.  The money goes toward helping to buy items for the classroom.  Spiders and Cider is coming up on Friday, October 27^th.   There are plenty of volunteer opportunities if you would like to get involved in the school community and you can find them on the FFO website.

I hope everyone has a wonderful fall break. 

       Mrs. Berk