Veteran's Day

Veterans Day

by Cheryl Dyson

On Veterans Day we honor all,
Who answered to a service call.
Soldiers young, and soldiers old,
Fought for freedom, brave and bold.
Some have lived, while others died,
And all of them deserve our pride.
We’re proud of all the soldiers who,
Kept thinking of red, white and blue.
They fought for us and all our rights,
They fought through many days and nights.
And though we may not know each name,
We thank ALL veterans just the same.

This week we have been learning about our nations heroes, veterans.  We are learning about the different branches of the armed forces and the reason behind Veteran's Day.  Also, we learned how to write a friendly letter so that we could send a veteran a thank you letter.  If the student knows a veteran I encouraged them to take them home and mail them to that person.  Please help your child by sending these letters to the veterans they wrote to.  

Thinking and working on our letters

Harvest Celebration

Last Friday we had our Learning Lane harvest celebration.  This was a chance for students to do an activity in a multi age group.  Students were split up into 6 different groups.  They then rotated to three different stations that pertained to fall/harvest themes.  After we were done we wrote about which station was our favorite one and why.  It was an exciting day to learn, grow, and enjoy new friends!  Here are some pictures from some of the different stations that we did!

Q-tip fall leaf painting

More Q-tip art

Geo boards

Weighing different objects

Working together to finish floor puzzles

Making pumpkin-chip cookies

Vegetable print art

Harvest Celebration

In an early post I said we would be having a harvest celebration next Thursday.  As a Learning Lane community we have decided to do a celebration together on Friday.  We will be planning special activities in the afternoon that go around the harvest theme.  It will be similar to our fun Friday time, but it will be extended so that students will visit 3 different classrooms over 3 blocks of time.  We are looking forward to doing this in place of a party alone on Thursday.  I look forward to sharing photos with you!

Fun Friday!

Last Friday we had our first official 'fun Friday'.  This is a 30 minute block in our afternoon every other or every few Friday's.  During this block we offer the students of our community the opportunity to make a choice of what activity they would like to participate in for that block of time.  Each teacher in our community plans an activity or craft.  These crafts are sometimes themed around the season or holiday that we are currently in.  So, most of the themes this past week were around fall.  Fun Friday is an opportunity for students to meet other teachers, mentor and be mentored by peers younger and older then them, and practice listening and direction following skills.  Also, most projects will help increase fine motor skills and creative thinking!  On top of this, fun Friday is a chance for students to simply, have fun!!!  Here are some pictures of some of the activities that students on Learning Lane participated in last Friday.

Working on Pumpkin Watercolor Pictures

Adding eyes to our pumpkins

Leaf Art with Mrs. Roy

Beautiful leaf creations

Mrs. Flanagin giving directions on scarecrow making

Collecting beautiful leaves for our pumpkin pictures

Too many nice ones to choose from!

Mask making with Mrs. Shanks

Spider web painting with Mrs. Scorza

Learning through technology!

Thursday we had the opportunity to use the laptops in our hallway.  We were able to log into our xtramath accounts.  This website is a great tool to help build students addition and subtraction fluency. Students are able to access this account at home for extra practice!  If you need the code resent to you please e-mail or send me a note.  Students were very excited to try and beat the teacher with their fact knowledge.  After practicing our facts students were allowed to go on a great site called starfall.com.  This website has literacy and math games.  It is fun, interactive, and great practice on the skills that 1st graders are working on.  Also, don't forget about RAZ Kids!! Students are accessing this site here at school during literacy centers, but please try to take advantage of this site at home too!  Thank you for sending in earbuds and headsets, it made our whole class computer time a lot quieter.

Working hard on xtramath

Just a little excited about computer time!

Starfall time

October 

Here are some important dates to keep in mind for the month of October!

4th - No School, teacher workshop day

14th - No School, Columbus Day

18th - Progress Reports Come home

28th, 29th, 30th - Parent Teacher Conferences 

*I will be sending sign up sheets for this next week!

31st - Harvest Party

Little Gardeners!

We have talked a lot about plants over the last month.  We have learned the different parts, what a plant needs, and the plant life cycle.  Now, it was time for us to try our hands at growing our own plants.  Each child was giving the choice to grow either a sunflower or bean plant.  They will be responsible for providing their plant with what it needs to grow.  I hope with this beautiful sunny weather we will be able to grow some nice looking plants!

The start of our little garden

Headphone/Earbuds

Starting tomorrow we are going to start to use computers in our classroom.  We will be using Raz kids during DAILY 5 center time and Xtramath.org once a week to help with our addition fluency.

I am very excited to students to use technology in the classroom to enhance their learning opportunity. Many of the sites we use have sounds, and it can get a bit confusing for students to have all of the computers going off at the same time.  So, in order to help with this, please have your child bring in a set of headphones or earbuds to stay in their cubbies at school.  Thank you so much for helping me with this

Also, thank you to all for being so supportive as the school year has started.  I am overwhelmed by your generosity to help in the classroom and support your child in their learning!

Happy Birthday Johnny Appleseed!

Yesterday we read a book about Johnny Appleseed, and as we did we discovered that the next day was his birthday!  Well, I had been planning to have us make applesauce at some point, but now that I knew with this exciting news I had to push it up to today!  This morning we talked about information writing, and how some stories and writing teach us things.  One type of writing that does that are 'how to' stories.  So, today we worked on a how to make apple sauce piece.  Of course it isn't much fun if you actually don't get to try it out.  So, here are some pictures of us learning about recipes, measurement, and crockpots.  :)  At the end of the day we finally got to enjoy our homemade applesauce, and boy did it smell yummy all day!

Our ingredients

Putting our applesauce together

Hmm, is it time yet? (question of the day)

Butterfly Excitement!!!

In second grade the classes study butterflies.  Ms. Johnson was kind enough to let us in on the excitement.  We were able to watch a caterpillar form its chrysalis!  It was super exciting to watch, now we are looking forward to seeing them emerge from them as a beautiful butterfly!  Thank you Ms. Johnson for letting us in on this exciting learning.

Caterpillar to Chrysalis Metamorphosis Timelapse

We're on the Move!!!

As you may have read in a flyer I sent home this week, the learning lane community is starting to move students to better help your child in their reading learning!  After meeting as a team, we have placed students in reading groups that best suits their reading abilities and needs.  If you have any questions about how we placed your child, or what teacher they are meeting with during guided reading please do not hesitate to call or e-mail.

Here are the teachers of Learning Lane!

Mrs. Saunders - 1st grade teacher

Mrs. Shea - Kindergarten

Mrs. Shanks -Kindergarten

Mrs. Scorza - 1st grade

Mrs. Roy - Special Ed.

Ms. Johnson - 2nd grade

Mrs. Flanagin - 2nd grade

Studying Plants

This trimester we will be studying plants during science.  We have been learning about the parts of a plant, what plants need to grow, and soon we will be talking about the life cycle of a plant.  During this study we will do some experiments, examine seeds, hopefully grow something ;), and do different activities around plants.  Here is one of our first experiments around plants.  We have 3 potatoes. Two of the potatoes are older and already have eyes growing, and the other potato is newer.  We put each potato in a different solution.  Container A has water and food coloring, Container B has bubble solution and water, and Container C has just water.  We have made a couple predictions about what may happen to each potato, and now we are just anxiously waiting for some results!!

Constitution Day

Constitution day is on September 17th!  In honor of this day we will be wearing red, white, and blue as a school.  It is important that our students know what our country is all about.  In our class we will be talking about the importance of our flag and pledge of allegiance.  Also, Mrs. Perry the librarian has some different things planned to help teach about the constitution.  Here is a great link and video to tell you more about this day.

http://constitutioncenter.org/constitution-day/

What is a Scientist?

This week we opened our science unit with asking ourselves, what is a scientist?  Everyone had some great ideas to add to our anchor chart.  One major thing we talked about is that scientists make predictions!  This worked perfectly with our reading this week because, we were working on making predictions about the stories we read and listen to.

I took out our 'science' supplies, and we began to make predictions about what me happen.  Our supplies consisted of baking soda, vinegar, food coloring, a tray, and droppers.  The question I asked was; what will happen if I sprinkle baking soda onto this tray and, then we drop colored vinegar onto the powder?

Our next job was to record our predictions onto our recording sheet.  We had talked about how scientists write down everything so that they do not forget what they have tried or predicted.

Scientist hard at work!

What might happen?

Then the fun part came, we did our experiment!! Some were surprised by what happened and others were excited that their predictions were correct!

Wow!!

Tiny explosions

Science Rocks!

Newsletter 9/6

September 6, 2013

Saunders’ Newsletter

Dear Families,

I hope that you have found your child having a great first four day week!  I know that they are very tired, and that it will take some time for them to adjust to the long learning days.  Please do not be surprised if your child is falling asleep earlier than normal or, too tired to practice spelling or read at night.  

Because we are all adjusting to a new school year, we will not have have our first spelling test until next Friday, September 13th.  I hope you have had a chance to check out the Spell City account at http://www.spellingcity.com/krissaunders1/.  This is a fun way to have your child study their words during the week.  

This week we have been extremely busy!  We have been learning the routines for not only our classroom but, also for the common areas in our building.  I am very proud of everyone for how well they have been doing on our routine of Daily 5.  This is what we will be doing during our reading group time.  Daily 5 is a way for students to practice different literacy skills independently.  To read more about what Daily 5 is you can go to http://www.thedailycafe.com/ and click on Daily 5.

Also, we started science this week.  We talked about what a scientist does, made predictions on an experiment, and performed our very first experiment!  Please ask your child about this exciting experience.  I will be posting pictures and explanations on our experiment on our blog at http://mrssaundersclassroom.blogspot.com/.  From now on I will be posting most of my newsletters on my blog.  If you would like a paper copy please e-mail or send me a note to let me know.

Finally, next Thursday, September 12th will be open house!! This is always a special night for students to show off their work and classrooms to their families.  Open house will be from 6-7:30.  Because of the size of our school we are encouraging families with children in k-2 to come towards the beginning of open house if they are able to.  I look forward to meeting you that night!

Sincerely,

 Mrs. Saunders

Spelling!!

Dear Families,

Because this week was only a 4 day week, we will be having our 1st spelling test next Friday, September 4th.  This will help you have an extra week to establish study habits. Also, it will give you child a  chance to continue to adjust to being back to school.  

Here is the information again on spell city.  

Spelling City

Dear Parents,

This year, we will be using VocabularySpellingCity.com in our classroom.
VocabularySpellingCity is a website that helps students learn their weekly spelling and vocabulary words while having fun at the same time.

As a teacher, I will put up my weekly spelling lists on VocabularySpellingCity and your children
can review the words, and play spelling and vocabulary games with their words to reinforce the
learning process.

Here’s how to help your child master his or her spelling and vocabulary words:  Simply go to www.spellingcity.com to see how the site works.  To get started, click on “Sample Lists” and choose any list you like.  Then try the Teach Me, Test Me, or Play A Game link.  You can find our class’ spelling lists by using the Find A List feature and searching for my name, Kristen Saunders, or you can go directly to my VocabularySpellingCity homepage at http://www.spellingcity.com/krissaunders1/.  You can bookmark this URL on your computer to make it easy for your child to access the class’ word lists!

Many kids enjoy building their spelling skills with Spelling City. Please encourage your children to spend about twenty minutes, two nights in a row before their weekly test. Let’s work together as a team to ensure that your child becomes an independent, lifelong learner.

Yours truly,
Mrs. Saunders

Welcome to First Grade

Welcome to a new school year. I am excited to meet your child and family.  This year will be lots of fun and learning. First grade is a huge transition from Kindergarten and the expectations are very different. Your child will come home tired for the first few months of school.  There is not much play time in first grade. They will have recess every day at 10:30. Also, your child will need a snack daily to help keep them going during the day. It is very important that they have healthy snacks and drinks.  Please do not send them candy or soda.

In first grade children love to bring things in to show their friends.  Unfortunately this causes many issues. I ask that no toys be sent to school. I understand that some children have a long bus ride or go to after school care and are allowed toys then. This is fine as long as they remain in their bags during the school day. Any toys that are taken out in the class will be kept until the end of the year. Thanks for your help with this. 

Homework will consist of spelling and math.   Each week you will also receive spelling words to practice with your child. They will be tested at the end of the week. Also, your child will have three math practice that coincide with our daily lessons.  Please return the math home work the next day, and the spelling is for your use at home.  The only other homework that will come home is work that is not completed in school. Please encourage your child to complete their work at school. This is where it should be done as I am there to assist in anyway that may be needed.  We highly encourage you to continue your bed time story routine.

At the end of the year I sent home a flier with your child from Mrs. Scorza and myself.  I just wanted to fill you in some more on the team teaching that we will be doing this year.  I will be testing your child early on in the year to see what her/his needs are in reading and math.  Then, the team members of learning lane and I will decide on what flexible groups your child will continue to grow at their academic level.  This may mean that your child will work in a reading or math group for part of the time with another teacher of learning lane.  The groups will be evaluated throughout the year, and I will try to keep you informed as to your child’s progress and moving of groups between classrooms.  If you have any questions concerning the team teaching that learning lane and I will be doing please do not hesitate to contact me.

I am looking forward to seeing your child grow this year as a learner!  You will be fascinated by the changes in your child this year.  Please do not hesitate to email or call with any questions or concerns you may have. Remember if I don't know about them I can not help resolve them.  You may email me at kristen.saunders@lakeregionschools.org or call and leave a message with the office at 693-6828.

Sincerely,
 Mrs. Saunders

3rd Trimester!

Dear Families,

Wow, I can't believe how quickly the year is going.  We are now in the third and final trimester.  This week are parent-teacher conferences.  I am looking forward to meeting up with each of you to talk about how your child has done during second trimester.  Also, during this week we will be having the buy 1 get 1 free book fair.  I have also sent home book orders, if you are interested in ordering through the scholastic book order please send it in by Friday.  Friday has become a school day now because of the amounts of snow days that we have had this winter.  So, April vacation starts April 13-21.  I hope that you are able to enjoy some beautiful weather during break!  Below I have writing 3rd trimester's benchmarks.

Reading

*Reads at a level 16 or 18, according to the   

Developmental Reading Assessment (DRA).

*Uses multiple strategies for solving unknown words 

like: picture clues, rereading the sentence, reading 

for meaning or applying phonics to decode words.

*When reading out loud, student reads in 5-6 word 

phrases and uses punctuation to change their voices.

*Works to make predictions, retell, make connections, 

ask and answer questions about

 a story.

*Identifies the characters, setting, problem 

and solution in a story.

*Identifies the headings, table of contents and 

glossery in a nonfiction text.

*Reads 90-100 of the first grade sight words.

Writing

*Writes 5-6 simple sentences on a topic.

*Uses adjectives (descriptive words) in sentences.

*Uses punctuation at the end of a sentence and 

capitalizes the first word of a sentence, names of 

people and the word I.

*Uses appropriate spacing between words.

*Begins to spell words with common spelling patterns.

Math

*Solves problems that require the addition of 3 whole 

numbers (2+3+5=).

*Uses strategies like counting on, doubles, +/- 1, 

counting back and fact families to solve addition and 

subtraction problems.

*Adds or subtracts 10 math problems accurately in 2 

minutes.

*Reads, writes and compares numbers to 120.

*Measures obects to the nearest whole unit.

*Reads and writes time to the hour and half hour.

*Answers simple questions about a graph.

*Describes, names and compares 2-D and 3-D shapes.

*Divides circles and rectangles into halves and 

quarters.

Spelling

We will be replacing the challenge words with a 

sentence that will be dictated to the children.  We will 

expect kids to use appropriate upper and lower case 

letters.  We will be looking for letters to be sitting 

properly on the line and for appropriate spacing between 

the words.  These are conventions that we have been 

working on with our handwriting program.  We have also 

talked about these conventions during our writing time.