Weekly Update

Happy Friday!

Our 3rd Quarter is off to a great start! We had a few normal school days this week, so we've able to catch up on things that we've missed, start some new units, and get reacquainted with our school routines and procedures. :)

Important Information About Remind:
If Verizon is your cell phone carrier, there are some changes coming to the Remind text messaging service on January 28th. Please remember that you must have the Remind app downloaded and notifications enabled to ensure you continue to receive my Remind messages.

Quarter 2 Report Cards:
Second quarter report cards will be issued today. Report cards will be issued electronically; I will not send home a paper copy. Your child's report card will be available for viewing in your ParentVue account. If you need assistance logging onto your ParentVue account, please contact Mrs. Sciortino in our school office.

Muffins With Moms:
The PTA will host a "Muffins with Moms" breakfast next Friday, February 1st at 7:00 a.m. in the Pinebrook cafeteria. Come enjoy a light breakfast with your child while socializing with other Pinebrook families and staff members. Please RSVP for this event.

100th Day of School:
The 100th Day of School is coming! Weather permitting, we will mark this special day on Wednesday, February 6th. (If we have more snow days between now and February 6th, we will adjust the date so it aligns with our 100th day.) The 1st grade teachers and I have been busy planning for this day! A friendly reminder, students are invited to dress like a 100-year-old boy or girl, or make and decorate a t-shirt with 100 items for our 100th day celebration.  :)

Valentine's Day Party:
Mark your calendar...our classroom Valentine's Day party will be Thursday, February 14th from 1:20 p.m.-2:20 p.m. All families are welcome to attend. The kids will exchange Valentine's Day cards at the party, and I sent home a class roster in last week's Thursday folder for those of you who would like to get a headstart. The card exchange is completely voluntary, but usually most students participate in this. If your child brings in Valentine's Day cards, please be sure that he/she has one for every student in the class. If your child wants to attach a little "something" to their cards, please don't attach any candy or food...little items like pencils, erasers, tattoos, stickes, etc. are fine.

Focus Areas for the Coming Week:

• Reading- We will learn additional tools for solving and checking hard words and we will then be using our tools to understand what we read. We will ask, "does that make sense, does that look right, and does that sound right?" to check our reading. 
• Writing- We will continue to learn how to edit and practice paragraph writing using the Four Square method. 
• Math- We will continue our addition unit, in which we learn strategies for adding two numbers. We will learn that addition is a part/part/whole relationship...part+part=whole.
• Science-We will continue our Matter unit. We will conduct experiments to observe how certain liquids interact with other liquids, and whether certain solids to dissolve in water. 
• Holidays-We will learn about Groundhog day and collect date from a survey to predict whether or not the groundhog will see his shadow. 

Questions, comments, and feedback are always welcome!

Enjoy the weekend! :) 

Weekly Update

Happy Tuesday!

I hope that you all enjoyed the four day weekend with your kiddos! It was definitely quiet here on Friday. :)

Important Information About Remind App! PLEASE READ!
If Verizon is your cell phone carrier there are some changes coming to the Remind text messaging service on January 28th. Please read this message from Remind to see how you might be affected and what you can do to ensure you keep getting your Remind messages from me! I am copying and pasting the information from Remind:

"Recently, we learned that Verizon will be charging Remind a new fee that makes it impossible for us to continue supporting free text messaging for anyone who has Verizon Wireless as their phone carrier. Please read on for all the important details—we promise to keep this as short as we can.

What’s happening?
To offer our text messaging service free of charge, Remind has always paid for each text that our users receive or send. Now, Verizon is charging Remind an additional fee intended for companies that send spam over its network. Your Remind messages aren’t spam, but our efforts to resolve the issue with Verizon haven’t been successful.  As a result, the Verizon fee will increase our costs of providing text messaging by 11X—pushing our annual costs into the millions of dollars. This isn’t financially feasible for us to support, and it’s forcing us to end Remind text messaging for everyone who has a wireless plan with Verizon.

How will this affect you?
Beginning January 28, 2019, the people in your classes who normally get your Remind messages as texts will no longer receive these messages if they have Verizon Wireless as their phone carrier.

What can you do?
To make sure people in your classes continue receiving your messages, ask them to download the mobile app or enable email notifications—both of which are free of charge. Our team’s also working hard on a solution that allows your classes to continue to use Remind by text, and we’ll share more details with you before January 28."

If you have Verizon, please be sure you have the Remind app downloaded and that you have notifications turned on so you will continue to receive my messages through the Remind app. Thank you!

Quarter 2 Report Cards

Second quarter report cards will be issued Friday, January 25th. Report cards will be issued electronically; I will not send home a paper copy. Your child's report card will be available for viewing Friday afternoon in your ParentVue account. If need assistance logging onto your ParentVue account, please contact Mrs. Sciortino in our school office. 

Crayon Donations

At the beginning of the year, each child was asked to bring in two packs of 24 crayons. We ask for two packs of crayons so that we can switch out our old broken crayons for new ones halfway through the year. On Friday, as I was beginning to change out the students' baggies of crayons, I noticed that many students did not bring in two boxes of crayons at the beginning of the year, so I withheld giving students their new crayons today. If anyone would like to donate a 24 pack of Crayola crayons to our classroom, it would be more than greatly appreciated. Thank you!

100th Day of School

The 100th Day of School is coming! Weather permitting, we will mark this special day on Wednesday, February 6th. (If we have more snow days between now and February 6th, we will adjust the date so it aligns with our 100th day.) The first grade teachers and I have been busy planning for this fun day! Please review last week's Thursday folder for a note inviting students to dress up for our 100th day. Students may dress like a 100-year-old boy or girl, or they may wear a special "100 item shirt."

Valentine's Day Party

Mark your calendar...our classroom Valentine's Day Party will be Thursday, February 14th at 1:20 p.m. in our classroom. All families are welcome to attend. The kids will exchange Valentine's Day cards at the party and I sent home a class roster in last week's Thursday folder along with information about creating their valentines mailbox. The card exchange is completely voluntary, although historically, majority of the class participates. If your child brings Valentine's Day cards, please be sure that he/she has one for every child in the class. If your child wants to attach a little "something" to his/her Valentine's Day card, please do not attach any food or candy. Little items include pencils, erasers, stick on tattoos, stickers, etc. 

Focus Areas for This Week:

• Reading- We will learn tools for solving and checking hard words. We will ask, "does that make sense, sound right, and look right?" after solving a hard word.
• Writing- We will practice editing and paragraph writing using the Four Square method.
• Math- We will begin our addition unit, in which we learn strategies for adding two numbers. We will learn that addition is a part/part/whole relationship... part+part=whole
• Science- We will begin our Matter unit. We will explore the three states of matter and conduct a few matter experiments. 

As always, please reach out with questions, comments, or concerns.

Weekly Update

Hi Everyone!

Happy Friday! The first grade teachers have had a busy week! We've started talking about both our 100th day of school celebration and Valentine's Day. I am so excited to share plans for these special days in the next couple of weeks. :)

I'm also finishing up our mid-year literacy assessments and I am absolutely over-the-top proud of how much progress the kids are making. Thank you for all you're doing to support their literacy growth and development!

I'm keeping my update super short this week!

Focus Areas for the Coming Week:

• Reading-We are continuing our "Readers Have Big Jobs" unit, in which we will discuss ways can support their own reading growth and be responsible for fixing up a tricky word at the first sign of trouble. 
• Writing- We will finish editing and publishing our nonfiction All About chapter books. 
• Math- We will finish our money unit.
• Social Studies- We will talk about the life and contributions of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. 

Please let me know if you have any questions, comments, or concerns.

Just like every other teacher, I am SO ready for the snow this weekend! We need some snow to brighten up the gloominess of winter. I hope you all enjoy the weekend with family! 

Weekly Update

Happy Friday!

We are settling nicely back into our normal classroom routines. As much as I love to spend endless days in my workout clothes over winter break, I have to admit it feels really good to see the kids (they always grow so much over break!), begin to reestablish procedures, and get back to business!

I have just a quick update for you this week.

Mid-Year Literacy Assessments:
Over the next month, I will administer the mid-year Developmental Reading Assessment (DRA). Remember, the DRA assesses a student's ability to decode words, read fluently, and retell/comprehend a story. In preparation for our mid-year assessments, please ensure your child is reading each night at home. Please use the discussion guidelines on your child's weekly homework to talk about his/her nightly reading.

Box Tops for Education:
Box Tops for Education are due next Friday, January 11th. If you lost the collection sheet, please send Box Tops to school in a plastic bag with your child's name on it or on the Box Top sheet provided by the PTA.

Focus Areas for the Coming Week:

• Reading-We have started our "Readers Have Big Jobs" unit, in which we will discuss ways in which readers can support their own growth, such as stopping at an unknown word and trying different strategies to solve it. This is a great opportunity for you to support your child in using their decoding strategies at home too!
• Writing- We will continue writing our All About Books, and begin to add nonfiction text features to our books, such as captions, diagrams, table of contents, and a glossary.
• Math- We will continue our money unit. We will  count groups of like and unlike coins.
• Science- We will discuss winter changes and adaptations that humans, plants, and animals make in preparation for winter. 

Please let me know if you have any questions, comments, or concerns. 

I hope you have a relaxing weekend planned after the intensity of the holidays!

Happy New Year and Quick Update

Hi Everyone!

Happy, Happy, Happy, New Year! I have read books, slept in late, and worn workout clothes all day. I have ate too many cookies, cakes, and drank too much coffee. I suppose it is time to get back into a normal routine and come back to reality.

This week, school will also be about reestablishing routines, reminding the kids about rules and expectations, and reconnecting as a classroom family.

Here is a quick update:

Mid-Year Literacy Testing:
Over the next month, I will administer the mid-year Developmental Reading Assessment (DRA). Remember, DRA assesses a student's ability to decode words, read fluently, and retell/comprehend a story. In preparation for our mid-year testing, please ensure that your child is reading each night at home. Please use the discussion guidelines on your child's weekly homework sheet to talk about his/her nightly reading.

No Written Homework This Week:
We will not have new sight words this week, so there will be no written homework. We will review the sight words that we had the week before break. Please get back into the routine of reading every night for 20 minutes. Please remember to record the nightly reading in your child's agenda.

Focus Areas for This Week:

• Reading-We will be reviewing nonfiction text features, practice routines for independent and partner reading, and begin to introduce our new reading unit. 
• Writing- We will write about our New Years goals and resolutions. We will continue writing our All About, Nonfiction Chapter Books. 
• Math- We will begin our money unit in which we identify and discuss coins and count like groups of coins. 
• Science-We will discuss winter changes and how animals prepare for the winter. 

As 2019 begins, I wish each of you a year filled with joy, peace, and happiness. I remain thankful for the blessing of your sweet children, you, and the support you offer each day. Please let me know how I can assist you in the new year! :)