May

Happy May everyone! Hopefully the sun will continue to shine a little more often. We have been, and will continue to be, very busy in the classroom! On may 7th we all participated in IVE's annual Walk-a-Thon. Everyone was terrific and did a lot of laps! I am so proud of them.

Your children continue to work very hard in their reading groups. In class we continue to read a variety of stories, discuss main characters, settings, and work on making predictions. In writing we are working on adding details to sentences, making sure sentences make sense, checking for correct spelling as well as capitals and endings. Please help your child look for these same things in their writing at home.
I am reading Charlotte’s Web to the class as it ties in well with our upcoming science unit on insects.

Speaking of science, we have been learning about plants. We have diagramed a plant and labeled the main parts, learned about plant life-cycles, looked inside a seed and have planted seeds in class. Your students have learned about all the essential elements needed to grow a healthy plant. Our new science unit is Insects.
On Tuesday, May 11th, the Science To Go program will come to our class to teach about insects!! Students will be able to observe insects and insect parts, play insect games, puzzles, use microscopes to view insects up close, and much more. We will also hatch butterflies in our room! Students will be able to observe all the stages of butterflies! In fact our caterpillars have now arrived and are busy eating! It will be a great experience to watch them go through each stage of their life-cycle.

In math we are currently in Unit 9: Place Value and Fractions. In this unit students are learning more about place value and how it relates to the numbers in our life. This unit also begins to develop students skills in mentally adding and subtracting with multiples of 10 in preparation for adding and subtracting 2-digit numbers. Students are also learning about fractions, fraction words, and the basic meaning of fractions. Please refer to your home-link letter for ways to assist at home. Don't forget to remind your student to do their math homework!

Here are some important dates you may want to remember:

May 6 - Art and Garden Docent
May 7 - Walk-A-Thon - First Grade walks at 8:35 - 9:35 am
May 12 - 18 - MSP Testing (first grade does not do this test)
May 18 - PTA Meeting @ 7pm
May 20 - Volunteer Luncheon - Hope to see you there!
May 24 - First Grade Music Program @ 2:00
May 28 - May 31 - No School - Memorial Day weekend
June 6 - The annual first grade picnic. Information to come home soon!
June 10 - Field Trip to the Woodland Park Zoo
June 14 - Field Day
June 17- The last day of school, can you believe that?

It is truly remarkable that we only have about 4 and 1/2 weeks of school left! The students have all worked so hard, learned a lot, are becoming more independent, and are a joy to teach. Thank you all so much for your kindness and support. We have a lot left to learn and many fun activities and I look forward to it being a wonderful and successful last month of school.

Thank you!

Cheryl Churchill