Seattle, Purple Hand Cookie, Easter, and Other Updates

Wow! These last two weeks have been such a blur!

St. Patrick's Day, Purple Hand, Report Cards, Spring Pictures, Spring Break, Assessments and Easter

I'm looking forward to getting back to routine and enjoy the time we have left in this school year.

Here are some important dates to keep in mind as the quarter progresses:

4/1/16 Friday-Report cards go home

4/4-4/8/16- Scheduled conferences

4/8/16- Last day of Penny Wars

4/4-4/22/16- Raffle basket collections (more info in Wednesday Folders this week)

4/11/16- PIR Day No School for Students

4/22/16 - Vacation Day No School

4/29/16 Friday- Carnival

5/2- 5/5/16 - Teacher Appreciation Week

5/6/16-Vacation Day No School

5/25/16-Field Day - K-3 AM, 4-6 PM (Volunteers needed!)

5/30/16-Vacation Day No School

Also, Mrs. Neese found these wonderful videos from Billings Clinic. I've been listening to these on and off over the last week, and they have a lot of interesting points for teachers and parents. Check it out if you have time!

Here are our photos from measurement, the UnWaxed Museum, graphing activities, and a totem pole I found in Seattle (for some of the kiddos that read about Alaskan totem poles in their differentiated readers).

Almost Spring Break!

School gets out at noon on Thursday, March 24.  There is no school on Friday, March 25 or Monday, March 28.  School resumes Tuesday, March 29. I will have a guest teacher on Tuesday because mt husband and I are spending Easter in Seattle.

Since last week was full of assessments we are taking it easy this week and have lots of fun Easter centers and activities planned.

We will not have reading groups this week.  We decided that it would be nice to take a week off and start our new reading groups after the break.

There will be no spelling this week.  We will continue to work on more high-frequency words in class.

In writing, we have one more writing assessment to finish this week and then we will be working with the book, Duck Rabbit.  This is a cute book about whether the image is a duck or a rabbit.  The kiddos will be working on an opinion piece whether they see a duck or a rabbit.  It will be interesting to hear what the kiddos see.  I see a duck!  What do you see?

We will be starting our measurement unit this week. This is one of my favorite concepts to teach.  We have so much fun with it! This week we will continue to work with nonstandard measurement. We will be using bunny feet to measure items around the classroom. We will be using bunny sling shots to launch marshmallows and will measure the distance.  We will be working on graphing jelly beans.  This will be such a fun math week!

Happy Easter!  Enjoy your extra family time and safe travels to those who are traveling.

Congrats to our March Purple Hand Cookie Award Recipient, Jonathon! Way to go, bud!

Check out our St. Patrick's Day fun!

Help!

We've been having an issue in our class that has grown more difficult over the last few weeks. With a combination of the time change and spring fever, the kids seem to be testing the boundaries more and more.

I've heard the kiddos talking about a game called "Five Nights at Freddy's 2" over the last few months, but with the arrival of toys and other collectibles that seem to be showing up at school, the obsession has become extremely distracting for our learning environment. I would appreciate that the all toys stay at home and a conversation be had about appropriate games for 6 and 7 year olds. Unfortunately, their brain development hinders them from being able to tell what is real and what is not when playing games and watching TV, and out of anxiety they like to talk to friends about it to figure out if it is real or not. This causes many side conversations and inappropriate drawings and games at recess. 

If you're ever curious if a game is appropriate for your child(ren), check out this great website for reviews of games, movies, songs, etc. "Five Nights at Freddy's 2" was given at 12+ rating, but individual reviews are varied. 

I'll give it a week or so to slow down and then I'll be making individual phone calls.

Thanks for your understanding!

Mrs. Dimock

Important!

Picture day is Wednesday, March 16.  Every student will have an individual photo taken and the pictures will be sent in a packet for review/purchase a few weeks later. We will also be taking a class photo, so even if you're not planning on purchasing individual pictures, it will be important to dress for the occasion. Thanks!

Also, we will be starting the Bitterroot Penny Wars! I tried explaining it to the kiddos today, but I might need some help with getting the instructions across ; )

Here is a note from Student Council!
"For this fundraiser, each classroom will place a
large empty container at the office (we will provide the containers). The
students will compete against other classes in the school to raise the most
money for the Braveheart Program, which provides resources for children
struggling with personal loss in their lives. All spare change and paper
money counts.

However, there is a catch. Classes should put pennies in their own
classroom jugs to count as a positive (+) gain in the war. Other change and
bills count against your classroom (-). Put those bills/coins in other
classroom jugs. For example, if a class has 120 pennies in their own jug,
another class can put a dollar bill and 2 dimes into that jug to cancel out the
pennies. This places the class back at zero in the war. It is possible for your
class to be in a negative balance as well, if more silver change and bills are
in your jug than pennies. No money amounts will be posted during the four
weeks of this event. Students must rely on looking at the jugs to determine
where to put their own change during the war. Don’t let a class get too many
pennies, without throwing some other change in to cancel it out.

On April 8th, at the end of the event, the money will be taken to the bank,
counted, and donated to the Braveheart program. A very small award may be
presented to the classroom that wins the Penny War and to the classroom
who has the most money in their jug overall. However, it is important to
realize that this event is for a positive cause of community service and not
simply a means to have a classroom celebration. This fundraiser has proven
to be very effective when I have organized it in the past, and I can only
imagine what kind of results we could have at Bitterroot.

If you have any questions about the organization please speak with Mr.
White. If you have any questions about the fundraising war, please ask Mrs.
Neese, Mrs. Anderson, or Mr. Crofutt."

FYI 3/13/16

What a beautiful weekend!? I can't wait to get started on our Quarter 3 assessments this week. I know the kids are growing like weeds mentally and physically!

We'll start the week with reading level checks and a few math "show what you know" assessments. The kiddos will get a chance to demonstrate their opinion, informative, and narrative writing skills. With that being said, make sure they are getting plenty of rest and have a good breakfast to start the day. I swear they've all grown an inch or more in just the last quarter!

The spelling will be a little different this week. It is part of the first grade curriculum to know the first 1-25 sight words of the list. Practice using these words this week and maybe even make flashcards so they'll remember them quickly. It really helps with reading levels!

the, of, and, a, to, in, is, you, that, it, he, for, was, on, are, as, with, his, they, at, be, this, from, I, have

No sentence!

Also, make sure that if you'd like a spring conference to call, text, or email me to set up a time. If I don't hear from you by the 15th, I'll be writing a comment instead. Thanks!

Wishing you well,

Mrs. Dimock

Sight Word App

Hello! I found a free app called Sights by Educasic that will supplement your child's sight word learning. Below is my class code for easy sign-up!