Happy Fall!

It was great seeing so many of our Bitterroot families supporting local schools at Saturday Live!  Thank you to all who supported Bitterroot by attending Saturday Live and/or donating candy for our booth.

It is going to be a fun week in first grade!  To celebrate Johnny Appleseed's birthday we will be doing many apple activities this week.  We will be experimenting with different liquids to see which liquid helps to prevent sliced apples from browning. Also, we will be taste testing different kinds of apples (thanks to some very generous families!) and graphing our results.  We will also incorporate some apple fun into our writing!

During our reading block we will be starting our second week in the Wonders series.  This week we will be investigating and trying to answer the essential question, "What is it like where you live?"  We will be reading many different books throughout the week to help us answer this question.  Our phonics focus will be short i as in insect.  Please be sure to work on identifying the short i sound with your kiddo this week.  A quick idea to help with phonics-say one word that has a short i sound and one that does not have the short i sound such as, dog and dig.  Then have your kiddo identify which word has the short i sound.  Also, please be sure your kiddo is practicing reading and writing the high-frequency words.

During writing we will continue our personal narratives-a story that really happened to you.  I have already seen such an improvement in the kiddo's writing this year!

In math, we will keep working on addition strategies.  This week is all about making ten and doubles.  We will incorporate lots of math songs and hands-on activities to master these skills.  If you have a dice at home you can help your kiddo with both of these strategies.  For making 10: roll a dice, have your kiddo say how many is needed to make 10.  For example, the dice shows 3, your kiddo would say 7.  Doubles:  roll a dice and have your kiddo say the doubles fact.  For example, the dice shows 4, your kiddo would say 4 + 4 = 8.

Make and Break 

Human number line!

Rainbow Tens

9/19/16 Update

Welcome to another full week!

We have noon dismissal on Thursday, September 22.

Saturday Live is this Saturday.  Thank you to those who donated candy for our booth.  PTA is still looking for volunteers to help with the Candy Shack.  You can sign up to volunteer on the PTA blog, http://bitterrootpta.weebly.com/.

The PTA coupon book fundraiser has ended.  If you have not returned your child's envelope please do so ASAP.

First graders will have a hearing screening on Monday.

Mrs. Neese, the school counselor, will be teaching us about whole body listening on Wednesday.

This week is super exciting...we start reading groups!  I love teaching reading groups!  We will be working on visualizing as we read and decoding short a words.  I will also be setting reading goals with the students this week.  Send me an email if you are interested in helping your child with their reading goal at home and I will let you know what their goal is and give you some ideas on how to help them.

The spelling rule for the week and the spelling words can be found on the right hand side of the blog.  However, we will not be having weekly spelling tests.  I find it is more important for the students to be familiar with the spelling rule rather than be able to memorize a list of words.  I will have Spelling City loaded up soon, which is a fun practice site. Also, be sure to have your kiddo practice the high-frequency words.

We are continuing to work on addition strategies in math.  This week we will learn how to use the greater number to count on.  We will also use the number line to add.

Have a wonderful week!

Here We Go!

I hope you had a great weekend! I spent the weekend celebrating my birthday with my family and getting ready for the week. 

This week we will be hitting the ground running! We are doing great with assessments and the kids are building reading and writing stamina, giving me time to work one on one with students. 

In reading, we will continue reviewing letters, sounds, and blending/segmenting. In math, we will use properties and strategies to begin adding. In spelling, we will continue reviewing letter formation and writing whole words. 

FYI's

9/13 Open House 6:00-7:00 Grown Ups only!

9/15 PTA Meeting 6:30-7:30

9/22 Early Out 12:00

I really hope to see you on Tuesday for Open House. It is such a great time for Q&A and you'll get to see all of the great things we've been doing in first grade. I'll post the slides on the blog after Tuesday, but if you have any questions and aren't able to make it, you have my number!

Wishing you well,

Mrs. Dimock

Check out these awesome EEKKers! (Elbow, elbow, knee to knee, book in the middle so we can both see!!)

Update from PTA

A little note from PTA

"Thank you to everyone who has participated in our fundraiser.  We are so grateful for your support.  Our fundraiser will conclude on Wednesday, September 14th.  All fundraiser packets must be turned back in with money for orders on that day.  Our goal is to have all the orders filled and ready to send on Friday, September 16th.

We will again be having rewards for the class with the highest per student average of books sold for K-2 and 3-5.  Those two classes  will win a Cinnabon party.

Included in our Grand Prize drawing this year are two family passes as the Reef, a family art outing at In Good Glazes, a family movie night package, and several STEM related science kits.

We will have a drawing for our grand prizes the week of September 19th.  For each book you sold, you get an entry.  For every 3rd book you sold, you get a bonus entry.  If you turn in a monetary donation, you will get an entry for each $10 you turn in.

Again, thank you all for your help with this fundraiser.  We could not do all the fun activities at Bitterroot without your continued support!"

4 Day Week!

Our first full week was FULL of fun and learning. I am so impressed with this class's ability to read-to-self. We made it to 6.5 minutes on Friday. We'll be to 20 minutes before we know it! 

This week:

Monday-No School!

Reading- Wonders Start Smart Week 2. Review letters, sounds, and blending words together. The kiddos are working hard on letter formation and asking questions about reading. We will continue to practice Daily 5 so that we will be able to hopefully start choices and small group/conferences next week.

Math- We are still reviewing numbers 0-20, number identification, and strategies.

Specialists-Tuesday music and Thursday P.E.

We are FastBridge testing this week in the afternoon. These are done one-on-one and cover skills from letter naming to decomposing numbers. It will give us enough information to best guide instruction to meet our students. Thanks for your patience!

Reminder- Green folders go home Wednesday, please return Thursday. Reading binders go home Fridays, please return on Monday (or the next day of school if no school on Monday). 

Wishing you well,

Mrs. Dimock