Class News

January 30, 2009
Dear Parents and Students,
We have had a very busy week. We have had the DIBELS test, a math test, and the Bear Activity. I hope you received the paper from the DIBELS report. Please continue to read with your child each night. I am so excited to see the growth they are making in all areas. First grade is such a fun year! Your child is learning and growing so much.
Please remember that entries are due next Tuesday for our school writing contest. Remember it needs to be your child’s best work. Their story needs to have a title that includes: title, author, illustrator, grade level, and teacher name. Please contact me if you have questions. I am excited to see the awesome stories that our class will turn in.
Yesterday was our January Bear Activity. Magic Mike the Magician came to our school. He had a lot of fun tricks to share. He brought Chief, the Utah Blaze Mascot, with him. Magic Mike also talked to us about the magic of reading. As a school we are participating in Ken Garff’s “Road to Success” program. Our school has set the goal to read 20 minutes a night, with 100 minutes a week read by each student. These minutes can be minutes you read to your child or that they read to you. For the month of February we will be having a contest to see which class can read the most minutes. There is a special reward for the top class. Please help our class by reading with your child and turning in their reading trackers.
We took our math test on Monday. Your child should have brought home their new chapter story. We will be focusing on money. Please help your child practice at home. In first grade your child needs to know the name of and how much a penny, nickel, dime, quarter, half-dollar and dollar are worth. We have been practicing counting change this week, and will continue to do so next week.
Next week we will be celebrating the 100th day of school. We have been working very hard on counting and writing to 100. We have practiced counting by 1’s, 2’s, 5’s, and 10’s. We will have a celebration on Tuesday February 3rd. Please help your child return their brown bag full of small items. They will be using this for an activity as part of our celebration.
Yesterday I sent home February book orders. These are due next Thursday February 5th.

Thanks for all you do,
Mrs. Shaffer