Button Donations!

Hello Families!

In our first grade classroom we will be learning about sorting! As part of our sorting unit, we will be doing an activity that includes students sorting buttons! We are looking for any donations that you may have of buttons that our first grade classroom could use!

Thank you!

Box Tops!

Reminder: Box Tops will be due again on Friday! If your child has been working hard to collect box tops, please remember to send them to school with your child by Friday. Whichever class raises the most box tops at the end of the year earns an ice cream party! YAY!

Weekly Update and Important Report Card Information

Good Morning!

IMPORTANT INFORMATION ABOUT REPORT CARDS:
Quarter 1 report cards will go home on Wednesday, November 15th. Please note this important change to our report card delivery system: Paper report cards will NOT be issued. Your child's report card will be available for electronic viewing by logging into your ParentVUE account.

Last week, Mr. Thiessen sent an extremely detailed email about this change to the entire Pinebrook community. This email outlines all the directions needed to access your student's report card. If you do NOT have a ParentVUE account, you MUST contact Mrs. Sciortino in our school office at 703-957-4325 to obtain and authorization key. I apologize in advance, but I am not able to help you with obtaining or accessing your ParentVUE account. You must go through Mrs. Sciortino.

American Education Week:
I hope you will join us in our classroom on Thursday, November 16th from 9:45-10:30am to celebrate American Education Week. Students will present the ABC's of Thanksgiving. Our recess is immediately following the ABC's of Thanksgiving, so please be prepared to say goodbye at 10:30am. I sent home information about American Education Week, last week. I expect each of your children to be practicing their lines at home. We are also practicing this at school to be prepared for the presentation on Thursday.

Focus Areas this Week:
Reading-We are continuing our Word Deceives unit. Students earned their word detective badges last week and are excited to continue the hard work of being a word detective and solving unknown words.
Writing- Students are practicing handwriting and we will begin a Thanksgiving writing project
Math-Students are continuing to build and represent patterns.
Social Studies- We will begin our Long Ago and Today unit as we make our final preparations for American Education Week and the ABC's of Thanksgiving.

We have officially survived the first quarter and I thank you all for your continued support at home! Please be sure your child is using Dreambox and Raz-Kids at home :)

Thank you!

Friday Update

Happy Friday!

First, I want to thank all of the wonderful families who helped plan and came to support students at our Fall Party on Tuesday! The students had a blast and it was a HUGE success! THANK YOU!

Field Trip:
Our field trip to Claude Moore Park and Heritage Farm Museum is on Wednesday, November 8th. We'll enjoy a nature walk through the park while we observe seasonal changes and learn how animals prepare for winter. We'll attend the apples program at the museum to learn about different types of apples, play some apple games, and press some apple cider. Your child should bring a disposable lunch on the field trip. Please watch the weather to decide what to wear; layers are best as the temperature fluctuates while we move in and out of the sun in the park. Children should wear sneakers; no sandals please.

Turkey of the Year:
Turkey of the Year voting is continuing. Sad to say that I am no longer in the competition after today's voting :( A lot of our students were disappointed. However, please encourage your child to still read so they can continue to vote for the other staff members who are still in the competition!

American Education Week:
Please mark your calendar for American Education Week celebration on Thursday, November 16th. Time TBA. Our celebration event will be in our classroom (Room 3) in the morning. Students will present the ABC's of Thanksgiving.

Pine brook Veteran's Day Program!
Please read the following message from the Pinebrook office regarding our Veteran's Day Program:

Calling All Veterans!

You are invited to participate in Pinebrook's Veteran's Day Celebration

At Pinebrook Elementary, we love to celebrate and honor our families, especially those who have served or are currently active in the military. We would be honored to have you join us and share your stories with two classrooms of students (parents and extended family military members welcome) for our Veteran's Day Celebration to be held on Friday, November 10th from 8:00am-10:15am. 

Schedule of Events:

8:00-8:25 Veteran's Check-in at the front desk and proceed to the library 

8:30-9:10 Program Begins/ Veteran's share their story with two different groups of students

8:30-8:50 Session 1

8:50-9:10 Session 2

9:15-9:30 Photos of Veterans with their students 

9:30-9:45 Pinebrook Veterans Day Parade

9:45-10:15 Juice, Coffee, Bagels for Veterans

Focus Area for the Upcoming Week:

• Reading- Students are continuing to work on our Word Detectives unit to learn how to solve tricky words
• Writing- Students are continuing handwriting practice and letter formation
• Word Study-Students will begin a new word sort on Thursday
• Math-Students will continue their Patterns unit by learning about different types of patterns and creating patterns
• Social Studies-We will learn about Veterans Day and begin preparing for American Education Week

Students will not have Sight Word Homework November 8th-November 10th due to the short week. Students are still expected to read every night. 

I will see some of you on Monday for Parent/Teacher Conferences! Remember Monday and Tuesday are student holidays and students will return on Wednesday, November 8th. 

Enjoy the nice long weekend! :) 

Week of October 24th-27th

Hello Families!

Last week was an exciting week for our first grade class! We had fifth grade visit our classroom on Friday to help our class with pumpkin investigations and on Friday we all decorated our pumpkins! They look awesome!

Field Trip:
Our 1st grade field trip to Claude Moore Park and Heritage Farm Museum will be Wednesday, November 8th. Information letters and permission forms went home in Thursday folders last week. Please kindly return the permission form and payment as soon as possible. Thank you to everyone who already has! Please contact me with any questions. Chaperones will be determined this week. 

Fall Party:
Please mark your calendar for our Fall party on Tuesday, October 31st from 12:15-2:00 pm in our classroom. All families are welcome to attend! (NO costumes, please). You received a permission form in Thursday folders a few weeks ago. Some students still have not returned their permission form. They are due tomorrow. Your child must return this permission form to participate and to eat any party food. Our amazing Room Moms and I thank you for your help! 

Check out our 1st Grade Symbaloo Page!

Our Instructional Facilitator of Technology, Mrs. Clark, compiled a Symbaloo page for us! Symbaloo is a visual bookmarking tool that makes it simple and fun to organize multiple websites.  Our 1st Grade Symbaloo has links to a variety of sites that cover multiple disciplines...everything from Mouse Skills (check out "Bees and Honey"), to science, to math, and holidays.  Our Symbaloo sites are a perfect "something more" to supplement your child's weekly homework. You can access the Symbaloo by clicking HERE.  You can access it by going to the Pinebrook Homepage.  Once there, click "First Grade" under the "Classrooms" tab.  Look to the left under the heading "First Grade".  At the bottom of that list, you'll see "First Grade Symbaloo." 

Focus Areas for the Week

• Reading: We will be working on retelling our stories using character names, setting, problem and solution. We will also we working on connections to self and other texts. 
• Writing: We will continue to work on handwriting skills and word study sorts
• Math: We will finish our Number Sense unit and take a short test. Then, we will begin our Patterns unit.
• Science: We will continue learning about pumpkin life cycles and day and night.

Library will be on Thursday this week. 

I hope everyone has a fantastic week!

Friday the 13th! :)

Hello Everyone!

It has been a short but very busy week as always!

In honor of Fire Safety Week, a parent from Mrs. Lomardo's class is a firefighter and came to speak to all the first graders about fire safety today. We are so thankful for his willingness to come speak with us! Please ask your child about our visit with Mr. Zumwalt today! :)

Pumpkins:
We will complete an in-class pumpkin investigation on Thursday, October 19th. Each child will need his/her own small pumpkin. I sent a note home about this last week. Please send your child's pumpkin to school by Thursday. Also, please write your child's name on the bottom of the pumpkin.
Fifth grade students from Mrs. Noel's class will be supporting our students in the pumpkin investigation and creating videos on the iPads to upload to our school's Loudoun Creates YouTube channel! SO EXCITING!

Next Week is Spirit Week:
We will have a Spirit Week next week (October 16-20) to raise awareness for bully prevention. Themes each day are:

• Monday- Mismatch Day
• Tuesday- Dress Like a Superhero Day
• Wednesday- Inside Out Day
• Thursday- Wear 2 Different Shoes Day
• Friday- Pinebrook Colors or Spirit Wear Day

Fall Conferences:

Thank you to those of you who have signed up for a Parent/Teacher Conference. If you have not yet signed up, please do so at your earliest convenience.

Fall Party:

Please mark your calendar for our Fall Party on Tuesday, October 31st from 12:15-2:00 p.m. in our classroom (Room 3). All families are welcome to attend! (NO costumes please) A food permission form went home with your child yesterday. Your child must have written permission to eat any party food. Our awesome Room Moms and I thank you for your donations. 

Extra Clothes:

Since first graders are still prone to bathroom accidents and playground slips, please consider tucking an extra set of clothing (including underclothes) into your child's backpack. I will not collect and store the clothes in our classroom. The extra set of clothing will simply sit at the bottom of your child's backpack until it may be needed. Thanks!

Water Bottles:

If you are not already doing so, please begin to send a water bottle to school each day with your child. We do NOT have an in-class water fountain. The kids get tired and thirsty over the course of a long morning and water goes a long way toward helping them stay energetic and attentive.

Focus Areas for the Coming Week:

• Reading- We will talk about making predictions and using what we know from the cover of a book to think about what a story may be about
• Writing- We continuing to work on handwriting, as well as, talk about how to add details to our stories.
• Math- We will be finishing up our first unit (Number Sense) and students will have their first math test the following week. Our next unit will be Patterns.
• Science- We will learn the parts and life cycles of both apples and pumpkins!

Have a SUPER weekend!

Conferences, Fall Party, and Pumpkins...Oh My!

Hello Everyone!

This post is full of important information, so please read through the end!

Please Sign-Up for a Conference!
Parent/Teacher conferences will be held at the end of the first quarter. I am using Sign Up Genius to schedule conferences. You can sign-up for a conference time by clicking HERE. If you are unable to attend a conference on one of the dates/times listed, please send me an email to make alternate arrangements.

Important Information about Homework:
Starting on Monday, October 10th, your child will be coming home with a weekly sight word homework assignment. The assignment will be given at the beginning of each week and will be due each FRIDAY.  Your student will be receiving a list of five sight words that they are to practice writing throughout the week. Sight words for each week will also be listed in your child's agenda book. Several students are also still not completing their nightly reading homework. I cannot stress enough how important it is for your child to be reading at least 15 minutes each night. I also request that you list what was read, number of minutes, and signature each night so I am aware whether or not your child read.

Fall Party:
Our Fall Party will be held on Tuesday, October 31st. All parents are welcome to join in on the fun...but you will probably be put to work :)

If you are able to come, please come in 30 minutes prior to the party start time to help set up.

Pumpkins:
The paper was sent home yesterday about our upcoming Pumpkin Investigation. I am asking that each child bring in one small pumpkin by Thursday, October 19th.  We will be observing, measuring, and decorating our pumpkins!

Focus Area for the Upcoming Week:

• Reading: We will be learning how a reading partner can help us with identifying unknown words and learning skills to decode unknown/difficult words.
• Writing: We will continue to work on our nice neat handwriting and correctly forming our letters. 
• Math: We will work on our number sense unit.
• Social Studies: We will finish up with seasons and discuss fire safety.

I hope you all enjoy the long weekend! :)

Hillary