Ms. Spang

For the next several weeks, K.E.S. will be collecting NEW TOYS to donate to the Maine Children's Cancer Program and their Owie Box.  Due to health and safety standards, all toys must be NEW and UNUSED.  This precaution is necessary for the children in treatment whose immune systems may be weakened and are susceptible to germs and infection.  If you would like to contribute to this project, please have your child bring a new, unwrapped toy to K.E.S.  Any new toys would be greatly appreciated.

Posted by Ms Spang at 5:46 PM | Permalink

On Tuesday, October 7th, there will be a volunteer training directly after school in our room.  I will go over the procedures and schedule for our volunteer programs.  These programs will begin the following week after the Columbus Day weekend.

This week Guided Reading will begin in the classroom.  The children are doing well with our schedule and are beginning to be independent enough during centers for me to begin our reading groups.  Your child will be bringing home a blue "bookbag" each night.  The books in the bag should be either books we have read together or books they should be able to read.  Each night I will ask you to listen to your child read and fill out the form in their bookbag.  There is a note in  your child's bookbag explaining this process.  Please help your child remember to pack his bookbag every day.  Bookbags will not go home on the weekend.

We have begun our 2nd year long unit in the Science Companion program.  This unit is called Collecting and Examining Life.  We began by using magnifying glasses to try to determine two different substances.  We then placed each substance in water and observed for several days.  One of the substances was alive!  The children were so excited to see the brine shrimp in their containers.  We learned that one criteria of something that is alive is that it can move.

We also had two exciting days watching our butterflies come out of their chrysalis.  Two came out on Monday and the other two on Tuesday!  Thank you again to the Aker family for supplying the monarch caterpillars.

Mrs. Kugler took us outside for a spanish class this week.  We were able to go on a color hunt outside.  She took pictures of each of us pointing to a specific color.  She will make it into a book for our classroom!

This week is also Fire Safety Week.  We will discuss fire safety at home and at school.  Wednesday is an Early Release Day.  Remember to send me a note if your child is to do something other than their regular routine!

All for now

Dee

Posted by Ms Spang at 1:51 PM | Permalink

 Friday, October 3rd is Picture Day at KES!  Please send in your envelope to school this week.  Let me know if you need an additional form.

I am also collecting money and permission slips for our field trip to "Backstage at the Nutcracker".  The money and permission slips are due by Wednesday, October 1st in order for us to reserve our space at the Merrill Auditorium.

Every Wednesday during the month of October is an Early Release Day.  This will begin on Wednesday, October 1st.  If your child is to go some place other than their usual stop, please send in a note indicating where they will be going.

Several children have asked me to send another notice about their "Sharing Day".  I am listing the children and their day of the week below to help with this matter.

Monday - Anastasia, Avis, Charlie, Derrick

Tuesday - Dylan, Emily H., Emily L., Emma

Wednesday - Ethan, Isabel, Isabelle, Jared

Thursday - John, Joshua, Lily, Ricky

Friday - Owen, Rory, Sam, Sean, William

We have completed Unit 1 in our math program and have begun Unit 2.    Some of the concepts in Unit 2 will be using number grids to count up and back using numbers 0-100, telling time to the hour and counting pennies and nickels.  If the Home Link asks you to send in coins for your child's tool kit, please disregard.  I have the coins in the classroom that they will add to their tool kit.  I try to cross out the request when it comes up, but sometimes it does slip by me!

Trick Words will be added to our Word Wall this week.  These are words for the most part that cannot be tapped out to spell.  The words for this week are:

a, the, of, and, bear

Bonus Words:  fall, mammal

The goal is for the children to use and spell these words correctly in their everyday writing.  We will be adding 5 words each week along with 2 bonus words.  You will find a letter going home on Monday explaining "Trick Words".

This week I will be introducing Metacognition and Schema to the children.  They will be bringing home a bookmark later in the week with the words to 2 songs explaining metacognition and schema.  I hope the children will be able to explain these to you.

In spanish we are expanding our knowledge to color words -

Rojo - Red

Amarillo - Yellow 

Verde - Green

Marron - Brown

Blanco - White

Naranja - Orange

Negro - Black

Azul - Blue

Gris - Gray

 Morado - Purple

Keep your fingers crossed that we will witness a metamorphosis this week!  We are hoping the butterflies will come out of their chrysalis either Tuesday or Wednesday.

Have a wonderful week,

~Dee

Posted by Ms Spang at 2:08 PM | Permalink

 The October Book Orders are due Monday, September 22nd.

Our trip to Harris Farm was a great kick off to our Harvest study.  As soon as we got off the bus we took a hayride to the potato field.  Here we had to dig in the ground for a potato to make sure we didn't get a green potato.  A potato turns green if it gets too much sun!  We then got back on the hayride to go to another field.  At this field we picked green beans, peppers and corn.  We could pick one ear of corn for our bag and another to eat right there in the field.  It was so juicy and sweet!  Our last item to pick was a pumpkin for our bag.  It was a great trip.  Many thanks to our wonderful volunteers - Ricky and Lily's dad, Rory's mom, Emily L's mom, Emily H's mom, Isabel's mom, Sean's mom, and Mrs. Dixon!  On Friday we had fun doing Pumpkin Math with the pumpkins we picked!

We have 4 new additions to our class.  Thanks to Avis' family we have 4 monarch caterpillars that made their chrysalis this week.  We hope to have 4 monarch butterflies in 2 weeks!  This week we will learn the characteristics of insects.  We will add a few vocabulary words while introducing insects (head, thorax, abdomen, wing, antenna)  In November we will go into more depth with our study of insects.

We are close to finishing our first Unit in math.  Practice counting by 1's, 2's, 5's, and 10's.  The practice is essential for the children to master these skills.  Thank you again for your help in returning the math home links each day.

Mark your calendars for this Thursday, September 25th.  KES is having their annual Ice Cream Social.  This event is fun for the whole family.  You can come for dinner (hot dogs) or just for dessert (ice cream).  Whatever your pleasure I hope to see you there!

Have a great week,

~Dee

Posted by Ms Spang at 10:59 AM | Permalink

Our first field trip is scheduled for Thursday, September 18th.  We will be visiting the farm in the morning, so please dress your child for the cool morning temperatures.  Thank you for sending in the permission slips along with the money for the trip.  If you haven't returned your slip yet, please send it to school soon.

Our Teddy Bear Parade was a great success.  Thank you to all who were able to come and watch us.  The children really enjoyed having their bears at school.  Now that Teddy Bear Week is over, the bears and stuffed animals are to stay home.

Our math program is off and running.  We will begin our Home Links on Monday. (Look for the pink paper)  Please send them back to school the next day.  We are learning basic routines that we will incorporate into our program all year.  Some of the math concepts we will be working with are listed here - (calendar, thermometer, money, time, weather, tally marks, number line, counting by 1's, 2's, 5's and 10's.)

We have begun our science unit on weather.  The children were very excited to have a Science Home Link last week.  Look for a science Home Link on Monday. (green paper)  We have been talking about weather words, meteorologist, and thermometers.  The science thermometer study correlates with our math study of thermometers and temperature.

We all have been enjoying our spanish classes.  The children are so excited about learning spanish!  I am amazed at how easily they pick up what has been taught so far.  I have listed the greetings and directions we have learned so far.

Greetings

Hola (Hello)

Buenos dias / Buenas tardes (Good morning / Good afternoon)

Adois (Goodbye)

Como te llamas? (What is your name?)

Me llamo...(My name is...)

Se llamo...(His/Her name is...)

Directions

Levantense (Stand up)

Sientense (Sit down)

Levanten la mano (Raise you hand)

Bajen la mano (Put down/lower your hand)

On Monday we will begin Guidance with Ms. Roux.  Ms. Roux will meet with us four times over the next two weeks. 

I will be setting a date soon for our Volunteer training.  Thank you for returning the volunteer sign up sheets.  We will begin our volunteer programs in October.

Thank you all for subscribing to my blog.  We are off to a good start!

~ Dee

Posted by Ms Spang at 3:34 PM | Permalink

Our first Early Release Wednesday is tomorrow!

The first graders will have lunch at 11:10 and dismissal will begin at 12:00.  If your child is going home other than their regular routine, please send in a note in the morning.

Thanks for your help with this matter!

~Dee

Posted by Ms Spang at 7:09 PM | Permalink

This week is Teddy Bear Week.  Please allow your child to bring a bear to school this week.  We will be studying bears and the characteristics of mammals.  We have lots of activities planned around our bear theme.  On Friday we will conclude our unit with a Teddy Bear Parade.  If you are able to come and watch us parade around the school, we would love to have you.  Our parade will begin at 8:45.  We hope to see you there!

We have Art on Monday with Mrs. Marquis.  Please remind your child to bring in their art shirt.  We will wear them at every art class to protect our clothes.  The children will keep their art shirt in their cubby for the year.

Our Sharing Time will begin on Monday also.  If your child has Monday as their sharing day, they may bring in an item to share.  Please leave the toys at home!  A book, picture, something they made etc. are all appropriate items to share.  If a child is absent on his day to share, he/she will just share on the next school day.

The first week went very well.  The children are all very excited about everything at school.  Let's hope the weather is just a little bit cooler now that we are inside for most of the day.

I want to thank all of you for helping to make our first week a success.  Thank you also for sending in supplies for the classroom!

All for now,

~Dee

Posted by Ms Spang at 4:33 PM | Permalink

We had a wonderful first day of school!  Thank you for filling out and returning the many information sheets to me.  If you just received them today, please fill them out and return them to school ASAP.

Snack seemed to go well in the afternoon.  Please remember to send a snack in every day.  Also, remember to send a note if you will be picking up your child after school.

All for now,

~Dee

Posted by Ms Spang at 7:20 PM | Permalink

 Welcome to a new school year!

The Parent Informational Meeting is Wednesday, August 27th at 5:00.  I hope to see you there!

I will be meeting your child on Tuesday, September 2nd in the cafeteria of KES!

Enjoy the rest of our treasured summer!

Posted by Ms Spang at 8:22 AM | Permalink

 Summer is wonderful!  I hope you are having fun with family and friends!  As the new school year is approaching, just a reminder to unsubscribe to our 1st grade Blog.  You will want to subscribe to your child's 2nd grade teacher's Blog for important information and announcements throughout the next school year.  Enjoy the rest of the summer!

Dee

Posted by Ms Spang at 8:28 AM | Permalink