Thank you to everyone for donating items - pumpkins,  pumpkin muffins (Yum!),  candy corn,  apple juice,  carving tools,  cups, napkins, etc - for our Pumpkin Fun time!  Especially THANK YOU to those who donated the precious gift of time.  By the looks on the students’ faces and size of their smiles, they had a wonderfully fun time.   

THANK YOU!

Mark Your Calendar!

• Mon-Fri, Nov. 2-6 Book Fair  - The Book Fair will be open from 7:45 until 4:00. Come join the fun! Our Book Fair will be open on Tuesday from 7:45 – 7:00. Plan ahead! Wednesday is our Monster Mash Picnic. Students may invite someone special in their life to bring lunch to them and enjoy that lunch on the deck. After lunch, visitors may visit the Book Fair.
• Nov. 9 - 13 - Love Your School Fundraiser
• Wednesday, Nov. 11 - Veteran’s Day - school holiday/ staff development
• Mon., Nov. 23 Kiker Math day - all day
• Wed - Fri, Nov. 25 - 27 - Thanksgiving Holidays

Reminders:

• No library this week due to the book fair.

Specials -
M-art
T-P.E.
W-music
TH-art
F-P.E.

Homework -

-read 10-20 minutes every night.  Look for the small guided reading books to practice at home.

-Spelling Tic-Tac-Toe / week 6: hop  top  log  hog  hot  lot  frog  stop  fast  wink  our  they -Look for the green poetry folder to come home on Tuesday.  Practice at least 2 poems, record them in the reading log  and return the folder the next day.

-Math - Sunshine Math - Students must complete the 1 star problems.  They may complete the additional problems for enrichment.

This week in:

Reading - This week we will review re-telling a  story and sequence, then think a little deeper into the meaning by identifying plot.  We will use  the Somebody, Wanted, But, Then  strategy and using  the 5 finger retelling strategy.

Writing -We are continuing to work on using a capitalization and punctuation checklist with periods, question marks and exclamation marks. This week we are exploring various procedural texts (how- to’s) and identifying the elements of procedural text.  We will brainstorm an idea for a classroom how - to.

Math -  The students continue to  work on listening to the problem solving strategies of others and explaining that strategy in their own words and making comments. This week’s focus is subtraction.

Science -  This week we are finishing our magnets unit and will begin investigating air and wind as we start our Sun, Earth and Moon unit.

Thank you to everyone for the birthday wishes last week.  I had a wonderful day and enjoyed plenty of pampering over the weekend.  A big THANK YOU to our room parents, Diana H. and Myra S.  A Shutterfly page has been created for our classroom.  This will be another opportunity to share info, photos, videos, etc.

Mark Your Calendar!

• Friday, October 9 - Kiker Field Day. Please make sure your child is dressed appropriately. Also, it is recommended to apply sunscreen before coming to school, wear a hat, and bring an extra water bottle. We look forward to a very fun-filled day! Check your email or the Shutterfly page to download Track and Field forms.
• Monday, October 12- Student holiday/parent conferences.  
• Friday, October 23 - Report cards go home
• Friday, October 30- Book Fair preview only
• Saturday, October 31- Kiker Fun Run

Reminders:

• Library day is this Thursday!  I will also remind students Wednesday afternoon to return books.  Students will begin checking out 2 books in November.

Specials -

Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday
music	art	P.E.	music	art

Homework -

read 10-20 minutes every night.  Look for the small guided reading books to practice at home.  Thank you for listening to your child read each night!

Spelling Tic-Tac-Toe / week 2 : dad sad nap tap sack back man cat it too

Math - Sunshine Math - students HAVE to complete the 2 one star problems and 1 two star problem of his/her choice.  

This week in:

Reading - This week we are continuing to explore and compare fiction and nonfiction (expository) text and notice how nonfiction text features help us to better understand what we are reading.

Writing -Students are completing their first personal narratives and are beginning to publish.  This week we will work on editing and revising with a focus on rereading what we have written and checking to make sure we have written complete sentences.

Math -  This week we will continue exploring place value of numbers and begin using place value in problem solving situations.

Science -  This week the students will continue science/health/social studies rotations.  The students  will go to Mrs. Harm’s class and learn about Maps and Directions.

Thank you to everyone for responding and choosing 3 convenient times for the  October conferences.  Please check your child’s folder this week for a confirmation note detailing your conference time.

Mark Your Calendar!

• Friday, October 9 - Kiker Field Day. Please make sure your child is dressed appropriately. Also, it is recommended to apply sunscreen before coming to school, wear a hat, and bring an extra water bottle. We look forward to a very fun-filled day!
• Monday, October 12- Student holiday/parent conferences.  
• Friday, October 23 - Report cards go home
• Friday, October 30- Book Fair preview only
• Saturday, October 31- Kiker Fun Run

Reminders:

• Library day is this Thursday!
• Enrichment fees are due NOW!  This fee helps to fund our fall and spring field trip and class t-shirts. If you have not yet submitted your payment of $22.00 for the entire year or $11.00 for the fall semester

Specials -

Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday
art	P.E.	Music	art	P.E.

Homework -

read 10-20 minutes every night.  Look for the small guided reading books to practice at home.

Spelling Tic-Tac-Toe / week 1 : man ran can cat hat mat not up

Look for the green poetry folder to come home on Wednesday.  Practice 2 poems, record them in the reading log  and return the folder the next day.

Math homework will start next week!

This week in:

Reading - This week we will begin guided reading instruction.  The students will bring home small books that we have read together.  They should practice reading the books at home to practice reading strategies and for fluency. This week we will begin to explore expository text features.  We will focus on the text feature photographs and think about how photographs help us better understand  a text.

Writing -This week in writing we will continue working on our stories.  We will work on problem solving when we are unsure of the spelling of a word.  We will practice using the word wall and using a writer’s toolkit with sound cards.

Math -  We have been working on place value.  The children have learned that the place of a digit in a number matters and depending on its place a digit can represent tens, or ones.  This week we will learn about composing and decomposing larger numbers 100 to 120.

Science -  This week the students will continue science/health/social studies rotations.  They will go to Mrs. Watson’s class and learn about Scientific Inquiry.

Fall conference sign up forms will be coming home this week in your child's white Kiker folder. Please select 3 times that would be most convenient for you. I will try my best to accommodate your choices, but times will be scheduled based upon earliest forms returned. You may also complete the Google form using this link - https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1IAzZISSnTzzEBhnfYc77ELcjoF1Woc7A7U8fcl4BULo/viewform?usp=send_form .

Reminders:

• Library day is Thursday!
• Enrichment fees are due NOW!  This fee helps to fund our fall and spring field trip and class t-shirts. If you have not yet submitted your payment of $22.00 for the entire year or $11.00 for the fall semester

• Monday, October 12- Student holiday/parent conferences.  Please look forward to an email or notice in your child’s white Kiker folder for an opportunity to sign up for parent conferences.

Specials -

Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday
P.E.	Music	Art	P.E.	Music

Homework -

read 10-20 minutes every night.  

Look for the green poetry folder to come home on Wednesday.  Practice 2 poems, record them in the reading log  and return the folder the next day.

Spelling homework will start next week!

This week in:

Reading - Every week we continue to build reading stamina by reading to self every day.  The students also read with a friend and have really enjoyed reading poems to each other.  This week we will continue to work on the comprehension strategy of identifying the problem and solution of a story.  We will also categorize words into nouns and verbs to help us determine meaning of new vocabulary.

Writing -This week in writing we will continue working on our stories.   We will learn how to write in complete sentences.  A complete sentence is a complete thought that tells who or what the sentence is about, and what happened. It starts with a capital letter and ends with a punctuation mark.  We will also learn how to use our word wall list to spell the first grade sight words correctly.

HOW CAN YOU SUPPORT YOUR CHILD'S LEARNING AT HOME?

Please encourage your child to form the letters correctly. Almost all of the letters in alphabet start at the top move to the bottom.  Some children have the habit of forming the letters from the bottom to the top and this will affect their handwriting as well as speed in writing.  Also please have your child practice writing their names neatly starting with capital letter and then lowercase letters.  

Math -  We have been working on place value.  The children have learned that the place of a digit in a number matters and depending on its place a digit can represent tens, or ones.  This week we will learn about decomposing numbers and describing the numbers in expanded form.  For example, 34 is actually 30 and 4 and 52 is 50 and 2.  We will also compare numbers using number line.   We will review the vocabulary, greater and less than.  For example, looking at a number line, what number is one less than 17? or 16 is one less than what number? We will apply our knowledge of number line and number comparison to solve everyday math problems.

Science -  This week the students will start science/health/social studies rotations.  They will go to Ms. Sebek’s class and learn about Whoa and Go foods.

Thank you all so much for helping your child complete the Family culture “quilt square”.  The students did a FABULOUS job presenting their squares and sharing about their families.  It was very enjoyable! Thank you all again for your support at home.

Reminders:

Library day is Thursday!

Friday, Sept. 18 - Deadline to pay the Kiker 1st grade enrichment fee. This fee helps to fund our fall and spring field trip and class t-shirts. If you have not yet submitted your payment of $22.00 for the entire year or $11.00 for the fall semester, please try to submit your payment by this Friday.  Enrichment fee scholarships are available.

Monday, October 13- Student holiday/parent conferences.  Please look forward to an email or notice in your child’s white Kiker folder for an opportunity to sign up for parent conferences.

Specials -

Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday
Music	Art	P.E.	Music	Art

Homework -

read 10-20 minutes every night

This week in:

Reading - We are continuing to build our reading stamina by spending time reading to self each day.  We are also learning about what readers think when they are reading.  We will continue to sequence events into beginning, middle and end and identify the problem and solution of fiction selections.

HOW CAN YOU SUPPORT YOUR CHILD'S READING AT HOME?

Make reading time a special time where you and your child can sit together comfortably.  Pick a time in the day that you know your child is not too tired to read. Maybe your child likes to read after school, or before bedtime.  Sit beside your child, turn off the TV and have your child read to you.  If your child is stuck on a word, try some of the strategies from the help page that was placed in last week’s folder.  It is also important that you read to your child, if not every night, at least some of the time.  Children need to hear fluent reading with expression from a parent.  Do a picture walk (talk about the pictures) together before reading.  As you read, stop periodically and see if your child has understood the story so far.  Read together, laugh together and make this a special time.

Writing - We will continue writing stories about our lives.  This week we will learn how to "zoom in" on one thing and write about a small moment in time, something in our life that happened over a small few minutes.   We will read stories or part of stories that have those moments in them and see how famous authors writes about those times.

Math -  We will explore placement of digits in numbers and how the value of the number is affected by the placement of the digits.  We will use magnetic ten frames to help us build numbers.  We will learn to compare teen numbers.  We will apply all of this knowledge in problem solving activities.  We will also learn how to construct a tally chart.

Science -  In science we will learn about properties of objects and how we can classify objects as solid, liquid, or gas. We will investigate each state of matter and determine the special characteristics of each one.  We will also investigate the changes of matter and what causes matter to change.