Weekly Update and Happy Thanksgiving!

We have a short week coming up, and then 5 wonderful days to spend with family and friends. Here's what you need to know for next week's short week and the week after...

Thanksgiving Travel:
If your child will be absent next week, and/or leaving early on Tuesday, please kindly notify both the office and me in advance. For absences, you may use the online absence excuse form on the Pinebrook homepage. For early dismissal, you may use the early dismissal form on the Pinebrook homepage.

Thanksgiving Reading Incentive:
I will sending home a Thanksgiving reading incentive with your child on Tuesday, November 26th. Please be sure to check your child's homework folder on Tuesday when they return home for this item. Reading incentives will be due back on Monday, December 2nd. I will not accept any late submissions.

No Homework Packet Next Week:
There will be no homework packet next week due to our short week. PLEASE READ!

Volunteers Needed:
In social studies, we are learning about economics and holiday traditions around the world. In the next week, the 1st graders will spend some time "visiting" other countries to learn about holiday traditions from from many cultures. As a culminating activity to this unit, our 1st grade class will host a "World Market" on Tuesday, December 17th. At the market, each class will "sell" an item representing a particular culture or country. Students will "shop" for items from other classes using play money. They will need to budget and save their dimes, and prioritize their purchases since they will not have enough money to buy everything. At the market, we would like to showcase cultures and cultural artifacts from around the world. Would you like to set up a table at the market to showcase your family's cultural heritage, and speak to student's about your holiday traditions who may visit your table? If so, please return the "Wanted: First Grade Parents" slip that I sent home in yesterday's Thursday folder.

Gingerbread Houses:
Our class will be completing a reading unit about Gingerbread stories the week of December 9th. As part of this unit, our students will have the opportunity to create their own gingerbread house on Tuesday, December 10th. To make this possible, we will need your help. Each student will be receiving a letter about our gingerbread houses with a few items highlighted to donate to our gingerbread house making. If you are unable to send in the items, please let me know, so I can make sure that we have those items for our students. I will also be looking for volunteers to help out!

Focus Areas for the Coming Short Week (11/25, 11/26) AND the Week of 12/2-12/6:

• Reading-We will finish our Word Detectives unit by talking about unusual words, such as contractions. We will practice reading and writing our 1st grade snap words. 
• Writing-We will complete a few fun Thanksgiving writing projects, work on editing writing, and practice writing in a sequence. 
• Phonics-We will use words that we know to help us solve new words. 
• Math-We will finish our fractions unit. We will continue to explore the concepts of halves, thirds, and fourths, and discuss fractions of a whole and fractions of a set. 
• Social Studies-We will talk about Pilgrim life. We will finish learning about economics. We will begin our Holidays Around the World rotations, whereby the first grade teachers rotate through each other's classrooms teaching the students about holiday traditions from other countries and cultures. 

As always, I welcome your questions, comments, and feedback. 

Happy Thanksgiving! And safe travels for those who will be heading somewhere else for the holiday! I have a lot to be thankful for this year including your sweet kiddos and all of your support!

Weekly Update

Hi Everyone,

Happy Friday! I hope it has been a good week! After our first 5 day week in a while, we are ready for the weekend!

Quarter 1 Report Cards:
A friendly reminder that Quarter 1 report cards were issued on Monday. If you've not yet done so, please log into your ParentVue account to view your child's report card.

Thanksgiving Plate:
In last week's Thursday folder, I sent home a note about Thanksgiving, along with a "plate" for your child to decorate with things he/she is thankful for. We will use the decorated plate for an in-class project. Please help your child decorate his/her plate with pictures of things he/she is thankful for. The projects will go through the laminator so, please use only flat pictures or decorations. Please send the decorated plate back to school by this coming Monday, November 18th. Thank you!

Reading Homework:
I have noticed that many students are not reading each night. This could be that they are forgetting to complete their daily reading homework along with a page in the homework packet, or parents are forgetting to sign their agenda. I kindly ask that you please sign your child's agenda each night. I check student agendas every morning and if there is not a signature, then I mark that your child does not have their homework completed. There is a homework completion portion of the report card and your child's nightly reading counts towards that.

School Picture Retakes:
School Picture Retakes will be Friday, November 22nd. Picture retakes are for students who were absent on picture day, or students who have paid for a picture package and would like to have the photos redone. If you believe either of those apply to you, please send me a message and I will give you the details about picture retakes.

Focus Areas for the Coming Week:

• Reading- We will continue our Word Detectives unit. We are learning ways to decode difficult words. (Please be sure to ask your child about the strategies they are learning and encourage them to try them at home). Next week we will practice paying attention to word endings and vowel sounds. We will find parts of words we know (for example, looking for a little word inside a big word), and pay attention to words that don't follow regular phonetic spelling patterns (like "have" or "of"). We will practice smoothing out our voices to read with fluency.
• Writing- We will finish our How-To unit, in which we are teaching our readers to do things. We will also start a few fun Thanksgiving writing activities. 
• Math- We will begin our fractions unit. We will talk about a wholes and sets, and parts of wholes vs. parts of sets. We will talk about the words numerator and denominator. We will practice identifying wholes, halves, thirds, and fourths. We will practice writing fractions that represent fractions of sets and fractions of wholes. 
• Social Studies- We will begin our economics unit. We will explore the concepts of wants and needs (things we want to have vs. things we need to stay healthy, safe, and alive), goods and services (goods are things that people buy, services are things we pay people to do for us), and consumers and producers (consumers are people who buy/use goods and services, producers are people who make goods or provide services). 

As always, I welcome your questions, comments, concerns, and feedback. 

I hope that you all have a wonderful weekend!

Weekly Update

Hi Everyone,

Today marks the end of our first quarter. The school year is passing quickly! We had such a fun week with Halloween! I am so pleased with our little classroom family, and with the growth that the kids are making! :)

Shout out to all of you who came to our Fall Party and helped out! I could not have done it without all of you, especially our AWESOME Room Parent! It truly takes a village!

50th Day Celebration:
We will celebrate the 50th Day of School on Thursday, November 7th with some 1950's themed activities. (I sent home a note with all the details). Students are invited to dress in 1950's-style attire for the day. We will learn fun dances, complete some crafts, and have root beer floats. If you do NOT want your child to have a root beer float (made with root beer soda and vanilla ice cream), please let me know as soon as possible, and before next Thursday, November 7th.

No Homework Packet Next Week:
There will be no homework packet or new words of the week next week due to our short three day week.

Turkey of the Year:
Turkey of the Year voting began today, and will go on for the next few Fridays! Your child must read to vote for the staff member he/she would like to see come to school dressed in a turkey suit. One hour of reading equals one vote. Each Friday, please sign and return that week's voting slip. If you lost the voting slips, please write a note to indicate how many hours your child read during the previous week, sign it, and send it to school on Friday.

Focus Areas for the Coming Week:

• Reading-We will continue our Word Detectives unit, which we learn strategies for solving hard words. (Be sure to ask your child about the detective missions we have been solving from the Super Secret Detective Agency)
• Writing- We will continue with our "How-To" writing unit. This is a writing unit it which we teach our readers how to do something or how to make something. 
• Phonics- We will continue doing detective work by working on the case of the Silent -e. 
• Math-We will finish our Geometry unit. We will count sides and vertices in polygons, identify right angles, and complete some fun Geometry projects. 
• Social Studies- We will finish learning about pumpkins and learn about the significance of Veteran's Day and prepare for Pinebrook's Veteran's Day celebration. 

It's been a delight to visit with so many of you at conferences. Thank you for taking the time out of your busy schedules to talk with me about your child's progress! Thank you for being vested in your child's social, emotional, and educational development. 

Don't forget...the kids will not have school on Monday and Tuesday due to Teacher Workdays. Enjoy the long weekend! 

Weekly Update

Hi Everyone!

We had a fantastic day today! Lieutenant Mettinger from Loudoun County Fire and Rescue came to talk with us about fire safety. There is information about today's visit in your child's homework folder. This afternoon, we also began to conduct our pumpkin investigations! We rotated throughout each first grade classroom, conducting experiments and recording observations along the way. Unfortunately, we were unable to finish, so we will pick up with it next week. Please ask your child about their fun Friday! :)

It's the time of the year when the calendar begins to fill up quickly, both at home and at school! I have many things to tell you about.

Important Information About School Photos:
Fall pictures will be taken on Tuesday, October 29th. I sent home information about pictures in last week's Thursday folder. This will be a day for individual pictures only; a whole class picture will be taken in the Spring. Following are some guidelines to help facilitate your picture order/purchase:

• If possible, please order your child's pictures online. It's the fastest, easiest, and most convenient way to order your child's pictures. If you order online, you will not need to send anything to school with your child on Picture Day!
• If you are not ordering online, please fill out the payment envelope, enclose your payment, and send it to school on Picture Day. Your payment envelope must include your child's name, my name, your "look" (or background) selection, your package selection, and your payment. 
• Picture purchase is optional

Fall Party:

I hope to see many of you at our Fall Party on Thursday, October 31st. It will begin at 12:00 p.m., but parents may come in at 11:30 to start setting up the activities. I will have the students outside for recess to get some energy out before we begin the party. I sent home a food permission form for the party today. Please sign and return the food permission form by Thursday, October 31st. Since no costumes are allowed that day, please help your child contribute to our festive atmosphere by dressing in something orange or Halloween themed (a Halloween shirt, hair ribbon, etc.)

Turkey of the Year:

Turkey of the Year voting begins next week, and will continue for the next few Fridays! Your child must read to vote for the staff member he/she would like to see come to school dressed in a turkey suit. One hour of reading equals one vote. Each Friday, please sign and return the week's voting slip, which came home in yesterday's Thursday folder. If you lost your voting slip, please write a note to indicate how many hours your child read during the previous week, sign it, and send it to school on Friday. 

Parent Teacher Conferences

Conferences have begun! If you conference is before school, please let the front office know that you are here for a conference and come on down to Room 3. You should not need to sign in for a conference before school. If your conference is after school, please ring the school bell, be prepared to show your photo ID to our office staff, and sign in at the office. You may walk to our class after you sign in. If you have not signed up for a conference, please do that ASAP using the Sign-Up Genius by clicking HERE.

50th Day Celebration:

We will celebrate the 50th Day of School on Thursday, November 7th with some fun 1950's themed activities. (I sent home a note with all the details.) Students are invited to dress in 1950's-style attire that day. We will learn fun dances, complete some crafts, and have root beer floats. If you do NOT want your child to have a root beer float (made with root beer soda and vanilla ice cream), please let me know as soon as possible, and before November 7th. 

Veteran's Day:

Please read the following message from our school office regarding Veteran's Day:

"Pinebrook Elementary students and staff would like to honor our Veterans during our annual Veterans Day Celebration that is being held on Monday, November 11, 2019. If you, a family member or neighbor are a Veteran please join us for this special celebration. All are welcome to attend!  This year, Veterans will not be asked to speak to a classroom of students. We invite you to come, relax, and allow us to honor you."
Schedule:
8:00-8:30 Breakfast in the Library 
8:30-9:15 Celebration in the gymnasium
Please RSVP for our Veteran's Day celebration by clicking HERE

Focus Areas for the Coming Week:

• Reading-We will begin our Word Detectives Unit, in which we become word detectives who solve cases involving tricky words and letters. 
• Writing- We will begin our How-To unit, in which we learn about procedural writing, and tach our reader how to do something. 
• Math-We will continue with our Geometry unit. We will identify plane shapes in the environment, talk about the number of sides and vertices in circles, squares, triangles, and rectangles, and define a right angle. 
• Science-We will finish our pumpkin investigations. We will paint our pumpkins so they are festive and ready for Halloween!

Please let me know if you have any questions, comments, or concerns. Don't forget--No school on Monday due to the Teacher Workday. 

I hope that everyone has a fun-filled weekend! Can't wait for another week of fun next week! :) 

Weekly Update

Hello Parents! Happy Friday!

Sometimes short weeks feel like long weeks, but this one flew by! We had some beautiful days in the sunshine at recess this week, and didn't mind a rainy day for indoor recess too. As the weather begins to cool, please be sure to send a jacket with your child each day.

This morning we attended a NED assembly in anticipation of next week's Spirit Week to mark Pinebrook as a bully-free zone! Please ask your child about this fun assembly!

I have several things to share with you this week...

Parent Teacher Conferences:
Conferences will begin next week! If your conference is in the morning before school, I will meet you at the front door if our school staff is not here yet to let you in. If your conference is after school, please ring the school visitor bell, be prepared to show your photo ID to our school staff, and sign in at the office. You may walk to our classroom after you sign in. If you still need to sign up for a conference please click HERE. If the available dates/times do not work with your schedule, please send me an email so I can make further arrangements.

Next Week is Spirit Week:
Next week we will have a Spirit Week to celebrate Pinebrook as a bully-free zone! Themes for each day are as follows:

• Monday- "We are all tied together"- Wear bowties, neckties, bows, ribbons, etc. to symbolize that we are all tied together to prevent bullying. 
• Tuesday- "Take a walk in someone else's shoes and wear red for the Nats"-Wear mismatched shoes to symbolize what it is like to walk in someone else's footsteps AND to celebrate the Nationals in the World Series
• Wednesday- "Unity Day"-Wear orange to honor Unity Day and be unified against bullying
• Thursday- "Team Up Together"-Wear sports attire to team up against bullying. 
• Friday-"Be a Superhero Against Bullying"-Dress up like a superhero to prevent bullying

Pumpkins:

If you haven't done so already, please send your child's "pie-sized" pumpkin for our pumpkin investigation. Please send in the pumpkin no later than Wednesday, October 23rd. Please label your child's pumpkin with his/her name on the bottom. Black permanent marker works well for this!

Important Information About School Pictures:

Fall pictures will be taken on Tuesday, October 29th. I sent home information about pictures in yesterday's Thursday folder. This will be a day for individual pictures only; a whole-class picture will be taken in the Spring. Following are some guidelines to help facilitate your picture order/purchase:

• If possible, please order your child's pictures online. It's the fastest, easiest, and most convenient way to order your child's pictures. If you order online, you do not need to send anything to school with your child on Picture Day!
• If you are not ordering online, please fill out the payment envelope, enclose your payment, and send it to school on picture day. Your payment envelope must include your child's name, my name, your "look" (or background) selection, and your payment. 
• Picture purchase is optional.

Fall Party:

Please mark your calendar for our Fall party on Thursday, October 31st in our classroom. Our party will start approximately at 11:30; I will confirm the exact time next week. All families are welcome to attend! (NO costumes please!) I will send home a food permission form in next week's Thursday folder for all food items being served during the Fall party. Please return the signed food permission form by Thursday, October 3st. Our fabulous Room Parent, Mrs. Ramineni, has been working very hard to prepare for our Fall party. If you are able to, please offer any support by volunteering to help out during the party, donating food items, or money to purchase the awesome crafts and games. She cannot do this alone, so let's all work together to make this an awesome party for Room 3! Mrs. Ramineni has graciously created a Sign Up Genius for our party. Please click HERE to offer your support. If you have any questions, please email her or I. 

50th Day Celebration!

We will celebrate the 50th Day of School on Thursday, November 7th with some fun 1950's themed activities. I sent home a note with all the details in last week's Thursday folder. Students are invited to dress in 1950's-style attire that day. We will learn fun dances, complete some crafts, and have root beer floats. If you do NOT want your child to have a root beer float (made with root beer and vanilla ice cream), please let me know as soon as possible, and before November 7th. 

PAWS for Knowing Your Student ID!

As we continue through the school year, the students will use their student ID numbers (often called "lunch numbers") more often. I am going to start giving 3 Puma Paws to any student who can memorize his/her ID number for signing onto the computers and for purchasing lunch/food items in the cafeteria. 

Focus Areas for the Coming Week:

• Reading-We will working on story comprehension and retelling and talking about our favorite parts of stories. 
• Writing- We will be completing some fun Halloween themed craftivities with writing
• Math- We will continue with our magnitude and estimation unit. We will also begin our geometry unit. 
• Science/Social Studies-We will finish our study of Famous Virginians and we will begin to investigate pumpkins

Thank you for all that you do! As always, comments, questions, and feedback are welcome!

I need to apologize for not updating the blog last Friday. I was in Whistler, British Columbia for a wedding. 

I hope to do some much needed relaxing this weekend! Many of your kiddos shared that they would be going to Cox Farms this weekend, so I can't wait to hear about their fall-themed weekend! Enjoy!

Weekly Update

Happy Friday!

Yesterday's Puma Olympics was a HUGE success! Room 3 could not stop talking about how much fun that they had! Thank you to all the families who came and supported Team Drumheller Diamonds!

Just a few quick items for you...

Please Sign-Up for a Conference!
Parent/Teacher conferences will be held at the end of the first quarter. I am using a 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 those dates/times listed, please send me an email to make alternate arrangements. I am excited to meet with each of you to discuss your child's progress!

Scholastic News and Science Spin Money:
Please kindly remember to send Scholastic News and Science Spin money if you have not yet done so.

Thursday Folders:
Thank you all for being patient with me this week...I am so lucky to have awesome parents part of Room 3 this year! Your child received their Thursday folder today. Please empty your child's folder sometime over the weekend and have them return it to school on Monday so we'll be all set for next Thursday. :)

Nightly Reading:
I know that everyone has busy nightly schedules with after school activities, but I was hoping that you would sign your child's agenda each night with the title of the book(s) that they read and your signature. I do check your child's agenda every morning to make note of those who are reading each night. Thank you so much!

Focus Areas for the Coming Week:

• Reading-We will learn how reading partners support each other to build positive reading habits.
• Writing- We will continue writing small moment stories and study other authors to use as mentor texts. 
• Phonics-We will study high-frequency (snap) words to learn about phonics
• Math-We will continue with our patterns and sorting unit. We will identify and create growing and repeating patterns. We will sort objects based on attributes.
• Social Studies- We will finish learning about Christopher Columbus and begin learning about Famous Virginians and their contributions to our country. We will learn about Christopher Newport, Chief Powhatan, Pocahontas, Thomas Jefferson, Maggie Walker, and Arthur Ashe. 

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

I am once again traveling back to PA for the weekend! We are celebrating one of my best friend's this weekend with her bridal shower! I cannot wait for some cooler weather to kick in tomorrow! I hope you all have a fabulous fall weekend!

Weekly Update

Happy Friday!

We had a delightful week in Room 3, and we ended on a high note with a Den Rally! Today's topic at the den rally was responsibility. Donuts for Dads was a success, and tomorrow is the Fall Festival! It's a great time to be a Pinebrook Puma!

Just a few items for you...

Scholastic News and Science Spin Money:
Please kindly remember to send Scholastic News and Science Spin money if you have not yet done so.

1st Quarter Interim Progress Reports:
1st Quarter Interim Progress Reports  ("interims") will be issued on Wednesday, October 2nd. If your child receives an interim, it will be emailed to you on Wednesday, October 2nd using the email address on file in your ParentVue account. You can update and/or verify your email address by logging into your ParentVue account. If you are unable to access your ParentVue account, please contact the school office.

Puma Olympics:
Our Puma Olympics will be held on Thursday afternoon. Students will spend time outside participating in a variety of team-building and cooperative games. Please be sure that your child comes to school dressed in comfortable clothing and athletic shoes/sneakers.

Fall Fundraiser:
If you have not yet registered your child for our Fall Fundraiser, it is not too late! Right now Team Drumheller is in the lead with the most donations! If we win, then our classroom will receive a $100 Amazon gift card to buy some awesome things for our classroom!

Class Directory:
Please review the classroom directory to verify that your information is correct or if I need to make any changes. I appreciate all those who already sent me an email just to say that it was all correct or to change up a few items. As soon as everyone responds, then I will send out the link to the final draft. :)

Focus Areas for the Coming Week:

• Reading-We will learn about habits for solving hard words in our reading
• Writing- We will continue writing small moment stories, but revising to make our stories really come to life. 
• Phonics- We will begin our study of words by looking at letters, vowels, syllables, digraphs, and blends
• Math-We will begin our patterns and sorting unit. We will identify and create growing and repeating patterns, pattern units, and patterns in our world. 
• Social Studies-We will talk about Christopher Columbus and Columbus Day. 

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

I cannot believe October begins next week! Where is the fall weather?!

I will be stopping by the Fall Festival tomorrow so I hope to see many of your kiddos there! Have a wonderful weekend :)