Weekly Newsletter- volume 32

- Team Time- The last two weeks we have been working on vowel teams. These are words that have two vowels side by side and the first vowel is long, saying its name. Some examples of vowel teams are: “oa, ee, ea, ie, ai, ay”. Some of these words are: “goat, rain, meet, treat, and play.”

- Math- We have started to work with non-standard units of measurements. This is not the typical way to measure using rulers and measuring tapes. We have been using things like counters, unifix cubes, toothpicks, and paperclips to measure. We have found that you can measure with anything as long as they are all the same length and we list what we are using to measure.

- Reading and Writing- This week we read many stories discussing ways we can help protect our Earth.  We brainstormed as a class what we can do to help protect the Earth and its valuable resources, since Monday was Earth Day.  They came up with some great things they can do to Recycle, Reduce, and Reuse.  We talked how easy it is to follow the 3 R’s!

- Science- We continued to observe our plants and boy have they changed! Almost everyone has two plants that are growing. First the roots started to sprout, then came the stem, and last was the leaves. The plants will be coming home this Thursday with an explanation sheet of how to transport the plant so it can continue to grow in a larger space.

- Important Information:

- Earth Day Projects- We had some very cool and creative ideas on how to help out our Earth.  We really enjoyed hearing how the students took care of the Earth.  Remember Earth Day should be every day!

- Family Fancy Dance- Our first Banks Road Family Fancy dance is coming up on Friday, May 24th from 5:45 to 7:45. All Banks Road students are able to attend with their family and celebrate another great school year. It will be free for all students and their families and we will have a DJ and photographer on hand. Hope you can come and make this dance a great success!

- Individual Spring Pictures- These pictures came home a few weeks ago. If you would like to purchase the pictures, make a check out to Lifetouch. If you don’t want any of the pictures or not all of them, those can be returned to school.

- May Scholastic- Our last Scholastic book order for the year will be going home Tuesday and are due Monday, May 13^th. Remember, you can order online using our activation code: G229M.

Homework for the week of April 29th

Math	Complete attached Math Expressions page and other math sheets: 10-1 (Homework- front and Targeted Practice – 2nd sheet) “Data” and “Cube Stack”
Writing	Your child will need to write a story. It can be about anything, but it needs to have between 6 to 8 sentences and include 1st grade expectations of capitals, correct punctuation, and correct spelling. Then they will need to use the checklist to make sure they did everything and add details to their story.
Reading	Read your “Book in a Bag” to Mom or Dad. Parents complete the Parent Participation Sheet. Your child should continue to read their “Book in a Bag” several times throughout the week. They should be able to retell the story with little assistance from you. If they are struggling, have them read the book again and again.
Word Study- Contractions	Do the sheet “What’s the Scoop?” Follow the directions on the sheet. They will read the sentence, circle the two words that can make a contraction, find the matching contraction, color it, and then write the contraction above the two words.

Weekly Newsletter- volume 31

-   Team Time- Last week we were working with compound words. These are two separate words that we put together to make a new word. Sometimes the new compound word are similar to their individual words like “doghouse” and other times they are completely different from each words individual meaning like “butterfly.” Compound words do not have a space between the words.

-   Math- Last week we started working on adding two 2-digit numbers. We first learned how to do our proof drawings using 10 sticks and ones. If there are more than 10 ones, we can circle the ones, cross it out, and add a new 10 stick. We also learned how to do the building method of addition and adding the new ten above or below. See the math parent letter attached to this, for an example of each of these methods.

-   Science- Last week we first observed the four different seeds with our senses of sights, touch, smell, and hearing. Then we planted our seeds. There are 4 different seeds are pumpkin, sunflower, kidney bean, and pea seed. Ask your child which seed they planted.

-   Wilson Fundations- We have been working on closed syllable words. Words have parts that go together called syllables. A syllable is part of a word that can be pushed out in one breath. Closed syllables have only one vowel and must be followed by or closed in by a consonant and it can be more than one consonant. A closed syllable gives the vowel the short sound. Examples include: bath, bat, it. Me is not a closed syllable word because it does not have a consonant after the vowel AND because it is a long vowel. 

-   Important Information:

-   Family Fancy Dance- Our first Banks Road Family Fancy dance is coming up on Friday, May 24th from 5:45 to 7:45. All Banks Road students are able to attend with their family and celebrate another great school year. It will be free for all students and their families and we will have a DJ and photographer on hand. Hope you can come and make this dance a great success!

-   Family Fun Night- come on out to the multi-purpose room for Family bingo night! You can bring your own dinner and eat with fellow Trailblazers. There will be desserts that you can purchase.

Homework for the week of April 15th

Math	Complete attached Math Expressions pages: 8-5 (Homework- front and Targeted Practice - back) 8-6 (Homework- front and Remembering - back)
Spelling	Sight Words this Week: many        before       called       every     follow Your child needs to choose 2 of the 6 activities listed.  In addition, they should also read the sight words to a parent each night. Please make sure you are using your neatest handwriting and using the lines correctly. Pick 2 of the choices below: *Write each sight word 3x each. *Use each sight word in a sentence. *Rainbow write your words in 2 colors for each word. *Write your sight words in ABC order. *Write each word neatly. Trace over all the vowels in each word with a blue crayon. *Write a story and use each of your sight words. Underline each word as you use it in the story.
Reading	Read your “Book in a Bag” to Mom or Dad. Parents complete the Parent Participation Sheet. Your child should continue to read their “Book in a Bag” several times throughout the week. They should be able to retell the story with little assistance from you. If they are struggling, have them read the book again and again.
Earth Day (Monday, April 22nd)	We have been talking about simple things we can do to protect the Earth.  Work on a project this week that helps out the environment.  Ideas include: picking up trash, making a recycle man (everything is able to be recycled), make posters on how we can care for the environment; tell people ways to reduce the amount of water you use, etc.  Be creative and have fun!  The Earth will be thankful!

Weekly Newsletter- volume 30

-   Team Time- Last week we worked on contractions. This is where the first word stays that same and the second word gets shorten and an apostrophe is added. For example, if we had the words we and have- we stays the same and the “ha” get taken out and the apostrophe gets added to give us the contraction we’ve. We have worked on recognizing, reading, and spelling contractions.

-   Math- Last week we worked on finding 1 more, 1 less, 10 more, or 10 less of a given number. The number to the left would be 1 less. The number to the right would be 1 more. The number above would be 10 less and the number below would be 10 more. We also worked on solving word problems were we used ten sticks to add decade numbers to a given amount.

-   Science- Last week our plants and animals came in and that began our Living Organisms unit. We made our aquariums for our male and female guppies, snails, and the plants elodea and cabomba. Then we made our terrariums for our millipedes, pill bugs, moss, and conifer seedlings. Ask your child what they did to make these for our classroom.

-   Wilson Fundations- We have been working on closed syllable words. Words have parts that go together called syllables. A syllable is part of a word that can be pushed out in one breath. Closed syllables have only one vowel and must be followed by or closed in by a consonant and it can be more than one consonant. A closed syllable gives the vowel the short sound. Examples include: bath, bat, it. Me is not a closed syllable word because it does not have a consonant after the vowel AND because it is a long vowel. 

-   Important Information:

-   Scholastic- March and April Scholastic book orders this Friday, April 12^th.

-   Conferences- Thank you to everyone who has already come to our Student-Led Conferences. The kids are so excited to share with you what they have learned this year. I can’t wait to meet with everyone else in the next few weeks. As always, please let me know if you have any questions or concerns about anything between now and the end of the school year.

Homework for the week of April 8th

Math	Complete attached math worksheets: “More Hundreds Board Puzzles” where they are filling in the given number with 1 more, 1 less, 10 more, or 10 less. And the sheet “Equality Journal Prompt” where they are giving an equation that is true (equal) and an equation that is false (not equal).
Spelling	Sight Words this Week: would     after     also     way    boy Your child needs to choose 2 of the 6 activities listed.  In addition, they should also read the sight words to a parent each night. Please make sure you are using your neatest handwriting and using the lines correctly. Pick 2 of the choices below: *Write each sight word 3x each. *Use each sight word in a sentence. *Rainbow write your words in 2 colors for each word. *Write your sight words in ABC order. *Write each word neatly. Trace over all the vowels in each word with a blue crayon. *Write a story and use each of your sight words. Underline each word as you use it in the story.
Reading	Read your “Book in a Bag” to Mom or Dad. Parents complete the Parent Participation Sheet. Your child should continue to read their “Book in a Bag” several times throughout the week. They should be able to retell the story with little assistance from you. If they are struggling, have them read the book again and again.
Wilson Fundations	Complete the Wilson Fundations sheet.  We have been working on “closed syllable words.” These are words that have only 1 short vowel and are followed by at least one consonant after the vowel. An example is: this. *Please make sure this sheet is turned in on Friday with all of the other homework.

Poe Health Center Field Trip

Talking about what are healthy choices for our teeth.

Sammy adding toothpaste to the giant toothbrush.

Sammy and Luke brushing Mr. Big Mouth's teeth



Learning about primary teeth vs. permanent teeth




Permanent teeth kicking out the primary teeth




Captain Super Smile (aka Ms. Esposito) showing us how to clean our teeth!



Girls climbing the rock wall.

Boys on the captains tower!

Our wonderful class!!!!

Newsletter volume 29

-   Reading- Last week we started reading lots of wonderful Spring books, hoping that would bring on the warm weather. We also focused on literary, or fiction, books and focused on analyzing the character. We don’t want to describe them as just a boy or girl or a person or an animal. We want to describe them with characteristics that describe their personality, like energetic, talented, silly, stubborn, crazy, etc.

-   Math- Last week we were working with pennies, nickels, and dimes to show a given amount. We worked on showing amounts with different combinations- like no nickels, the most amount of coins and the least amount of coins. We also worked on trading in 7 pennies for a nickel and 2 left over pennies.

-   Wilson Fundations- Last week we finished up our unit with blends and the suffix –s. Blends are two consonants that are side by side, that get their own tap. We never tap out the suffix –s, so we have to add the –s when we are blending in the word. An example would be the word “flags”. The /f/, /l/, /a/, and /g/ would each get their own tap and blend it together to say “flag”, and then blend it again to add the suffix –s for “flags.”

-   Easter- We celebrated Easter and spring by doing a few fun activities.  We worked very hard on making beautiful egg mosaics and read lots of colorful and fun Spring and Easter books.  It was so much fun!

-   Important Information:

-   Scholastic- March and April Scholastic book orders went home last week.  If you are interested in buying, order form and money needs to be turned in no later than Friday, April 12^th. 

-   Conferences- I have received conference sign up from all but 3 people. Please return these as soon as possible, since conferences start this Thursday. I can’t wait for your child to show you how much they have learned and improved this school year.

-   Field trip- Thank you so much for our wonderful volunteers (Kaitlyn’s mom- Mrs. Perez, Hayden’s mom- Mrs. Bakogiannis, and Seth’s grandma- Ms. Stocksdale) that we had on the field trip to make it such a fantastic day.

-   Spring Pictures- We will be having our Spring pictures on Tuesday, April 9^th. This will be individual and the whole class. If you are interested in the class picture, you will need to return the form and $12.00 before next Tuesday. You will not pay for the individual picture till later, however if you would like to specific background or stance, you can return that form before the 9^th. Please let me know if you have any questions. Thanks!

Homework for the week of April 1st

Math	Complete attached Math Expressions page and other sheet: 8-3 (Homework- front and Remembering - back) ****Do not do problems 1, 2, and 3 on the back**** Working with Tens Journal Prompt (make sure to explain they explain their thinking and write an equation for 10 more and 10 less)
Spelling	Sight Words this Week: our      over       come       water     where Your child needs to choose 2 of the 6 activities listed.  In addition, they should also read the sight words to a parent each night. Please make sure you are using your neatest handwriting and using the lines correctly. Pick 2 of the choices below: *Write each sight word 3x each. *Use each sight word in a sentence. *Rainbow write your words in 2 colors for each word. *Write your sight words in ABC order. *Write each word neatly. Trace over all the vowels in each word with a blue crayon. *Write a story and use each of your sight words. Underline each word as you use it in the story.
Reading	Read your “Book in a Bag” to Mom or Dad. Parents complete the Parent Participation Sheet. Your child should continue to read their “Book in a Bag” several times throughout the week. They should be able to retell the story with little assistance from you. If they are struggling, have them read the book again and again.
Wilson Fundations	Complete the Wilson Fundations sheet.  We have been working on blends and then adding the suffix /s/. These are words that have a blend in the word, for the base word, and then we add the suffix /s/ to make it plural. *Please make sure this sheet is turned in on Friday with all of the other homework.

Reminder:  Please return your assignments completed, including name on all of the homework, in your Homework Folder on Friday morning!  J