Weekly Update

Happy Friday!

Our 3rd quarter is off to a great start!  We had a few normal school days this week, so we've been able to catch up on things we've missed, start some new units, and get reacquainted with our school routines and procedures.  :)

Important Information about Remind!  PLEASE READ!
If Verizon is your cell phone carrier (like me), there are some changes coming to the Remind text messaging service on January 28th.  Please remember that you must have the Remind app dowloaded and notifications enabled to ensure you continue to receive my Remind messages and videos. 

Quarter 2 Report Cards:

Second quarter report cards will be issued today.  Report cards will be issued electronically; I will not send home a paper copy. Your child's report card will be available for viewing in your ParentVue account.  If you need assistance logging onto your ParentVue account, please contact Mrs. Sciortino in our school office.

Muffins with Moms:
The PTA will host a "Muffins with Moms" breakfast next Friday, February 1st at 7:00 am in the Pinebrook cafeteria.  Come enjoy a light breakfast with your child while socializing with other Pinebrook families and staff members.  Please RSVP for this event by clicking HERE.

100th Day of School:
The 100th day of school is coming!  Weather permitting, we will mark this special day on Wednesday, February 6th.  (If we have more snow days between now and February 6th, we will adjust the date so it aligns with our 100th day.). The 1st grade teachers and I have been busy planning for this fun day!  Please see yesterday's Thursday folder for a permission slip for the food involved in our 100th day stations.  Please kindly sign and return it as soon as possible.  A friendly reminder that students are invited to dress like a 100-year old boy or girl, or make and decorate a t-shirt with 100 items for our 100th day celebration.  :)

Valentine's Day Party:

Mark your calendar...our classroom Valentine's Day party will be Thursday, February 14th at 1:30 pm in our classroom.  All families are welcome to attend. The kids will exchange Valentine cards at the party, and I sent home a class roster in last week's Thursday folder for those of you wanting to get a start on those. (Shout out to the Type A peeps!) The card exchange is completely voluntary, although historically, the majority of the class participates.  If your child brings Valentine cards, please be sure he/she has one for every student in the class. If your child wants to attach a little "something" to his/her Valentine cards, please don't attach candy or food... little items like pencils, erasers, tattoos, stickers are fine. Please watch for more details regarding the party soon!

Focus Areas for the Coming Week:

• Reading:  We will learn additional tools for solving and checking hard words.  We will ask "does that make sense?", "does that sound right?", "does that look right?" after solving a hard word.
• Writing:  We will continue to practice paragraph writing using the Four Square method.  We will check our sentences for capital letters, periods, spaces, proper sight word spelling, and proper letter formation.
• Math:  We will continue our addition unit, in which we learn strategies for adding 2 numbers.  We will learn that addition is a part/part/whole relationship... part+part=whole.
• Science:  We will finish our Matter unit.  We will conduct experiments to observe how certain liquids interact with other liquids, and whether certain solids will dissolve in water.  We will make snowflakes and paint with Epsom salts to explore the changing states of matter.

Questions, comments, and feedback are welcome.  

Enjoy the weekend!

Weekly Update and Important Information About Remind!

Happy Friday!

I am writing from a quiet classroom today!  The school has such a different vibe when it's just us teachers here.  I love time with the kids; I love time alone in my happy place. :)

Important Information about Remind!  PLEASE READ!
If Verizon is your cell phone carrier (like me), there are some changes coming to the Remind text messaging service on January 28th.  Please read this message from Remind to see how you may be affected, and what you can do to ensure you keep getting your Remind messages and videos from me!  I am copying and pasting the email I received from Remind:

"Recently, we learned that Verizon will be charging Remind a new fee that makes it impossible for us to continue supporting free text messaging for anyone who has Verizon Wireless as their phone carrier. Please read on for all the important details—we promise to keep this as short as we can.

What’s happening?
To offer our text messaging service free of charge, Remind has always paid for each text that our users receive or send. Now, Verizon is charging Remind an additional fee intended for companies that send spam over its network. Your Remind messages aren’t spam, but our efforts to resolve the issue with Verizon haven’t been successful.  As a result, the Verizon fee will increase our costs of providing text messaging by 11X—pushing our annual costs into the millions of dollars. This isn’t financially feasible for us to support, and it’s forcing us to end Remind text messaging for everyone who has a wireless plan with Verizon.

How will this affect you?
Beginning January 28, 2019, the people in your classes who normally get your Remind messages as texts will no longer receive these messages if they have Verizon Wireless as their phone carrier.

What can you do?
To make sure people in your classes continue receiving your messages, ask them to download the mobile app or enable email notifications—both of which are free of charge. Our team’s also working hard on a solution that allows your classes to continue to use Remind by text, and we’ll share more details with you before January 28."

If you have Verizon, please be sure you have the Remind app downloaded, and that you have notifications turned on so you will continue to receive my messages and videos through the Remind app.  Thank you!

Quarter 2 Report Cards:

Second quarter report cards will be issued Friday, January 25th. Report cards will be issued electronically; I will not send home a paper copy. Your child's report card will be available for viewing Friday afternoon in your ParentVue account.  If you need assistance logging onto your ParentVue account, please contact Mrs. Sciortino in our school office.

Homework Next Week:
I did not send home paper homework this week due to the shortened week and delay days.  I am going to send this week's homework packet next week, so you'll notice it has the dates "January 14 - January 17" at the top.  This is okay!  It will be due (as normal) next Friday.  Please let me know if you have any questions!  :)

100th Day of School:
The 100th day of school is coming!  Weather permitting, we will mark this special day on Wednesday, February 6th.  (If we have more snow days between now and February 6th, we will adjust the date so it aligns with our 100th day.). The 1st grade teachers and I have been busy planning for this fun day!  Please see yesterday's Thursday folder for a note inviting students to dress up for our 100th day.  Students may dress like a 100-year old boy or girl, or they may make and wear a special "100 item shirt".  

Valentine's Day Party:

Mark your calendar...our classroom Valentine's Day party will be Thursday, February 14th at 1:30 pm in our classroom.  All families are welcome to attend. The kids will exchange Valentine cards at the party, and I sent home a class roster in yesterday's Thursday folder for those of you wanting to get a start on those. (Shout out to the Type A peeps!) The card exchange is completely voluntary, although historically, the majority of the class participates.  If your child brings Valentine cards, please be sure he/she has one for every student in the class. If your child wants to attach a little "something" to his/her Valentine cards, please don't attach candy or food... little items like pencils, erasers, tattoos, stickers are fine. Please watch for more details regarding the party soon!

Focus Areas for the Coming Week:

• Reading:  We will learn tools for solving and checking hard words.  We will ask "does that make sense?", "does that sound right?", "does that look right?" after solving a hard word.
• Writing:  We will practice paragraph writing using the Four Square method.  We will check our sentences for capital letters, periods, spaces, proper sight word spelling, and proper letter formation.
• Math:  We will begin our addition unit, in which we learn strategies for adding 2 numbers.  We will learn that addition is a part/part/whole relationship... part+part=whole.
• Science:  We will begin our Matter unit.  We will explore the 3 states of matter and conduct some matter experiments.

As always, please reach out with questions, comments, or concerns.

Enjoy the weekend!  Sunday is our wedding anniversary!  Leo and I have been married 23 years.  I'm not sure whether to be happy or frightened because it means I'm old!  

Weekly Update and My Big News!

Hi Everyone!

Happy Friday!  The first grade teachers have had a busy week!  We've started talking about both our 100th day of school and Valentine's Day!  I am excited to share plans for these special days in the next couple of weeks.  :)

I'm also finishing up our mid-year literacy assessments and I am so absolutely over-the-top proud of how much progress the kids are making.  Thank you for all you're doing to support their literacy growth and development!

I'm keeping my update super short this week!

In Need of Disinfecting Wipes:
Thank you to those of you who sent disinfecting wipes this past week!  This is a continuous need in our classroom; I will gratefully accept them anytime you may send them in.  :) 

Focus Areas for the Coming Week:

• Reading:  We are continuing our "Readers Have Big Jobs" unit, in which we talk about ways readers can support their own growth, such as stopping at an unknown word and trying different strategies to solve it.
• Writing:  We will finish editing and publishing our All About Books.
• Math:  We will finish our money unit.  
• Science:  We will finish talking about winter changes and adaptations people, plants, and animals make to prepare for winter.
• Social Studies:  We will talk about the life and contributions of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Please let me know if you have any questions, comments, or concerns.

My big news is that we are getting a puppy!  (I don't know whether to laugh or cry.)  Leo has been researching and waiting for a couple of years, and the day is finally here!  He and the boys are picking him up today.

This is Winston, our English Bulldog:

 Wish us luck!

Weekly Update

Happy Friday!

We are settling back into our normal classroom routines.  As much as I love to spend endless days in my workout clothes over Winter Break, I have to admit it feels really good to see the kids (they always grow so much over a break!), begin to reestablish procedures, and get back to business!

I have just a quick update for you this week.

Mid-Year Literacy Testing
Over the next month, I will administer the mid-year Developmental Reading Assessment (DRA).  Remember, the DRA tests a student's ability to decode words, read fluently, and retell / comprehend a story.  In preparation for our mid-year testing, please ensure your child is reading each night at home.  Please use the discussion guidelines on your child's weekly homework sheet to talk about his/her nightly reading.

In Need of Disinfecting Wipes:
We are in need of disinfecting wipes to keep our classroom tables, chairs, and surfaces clean and germ-free.  Please consider sending disinfecting wipes (NOT baby wipes) to school for our classroom use.  Thank you!

Focus Areas for the Coming Week:

• Reading:  We have started our "Readers Have Big Jobs" unit, in which we talk about ways readers can support their own growth, such as stopping at an unknown word and trying different strategies to solve it.
• Writing:  We will continue writing our All About Books, and begin to add non-fiction text features to our books, such as captions, diagrams, and tables of contents.
• Math:  We will continue our money unit.  We will count groups of like and unlike coins.
• Science:  We will talk about winter changes and adaptations people, plants, and animals make to prepare for winter.

Please let me know if you have any questions, comments, or concerns.

I hope you have a relaxing weekend planned after the intensity of the holidays. Enjoy!

Happy New Year and Quick Update

Hi Everyone!

Happy, Happy, Happy New Year!  I have had coffee, cookies, and too many carbs. I have read books, slept late, spent endless days in my workout clothes (even if I never got around to working out!), and binge watched Hulu. I suppose it's time to return to routines, wear pants with buttons, and cook something with vegetables.  

This week, school will also be about reestablishing routines, reminding the kids about rules and expectations, and reconnecting as a classroom family.  

Here's the rest of your classroom news:

Mid-Year Literacy Testing:
Over the next month, I will administer the mid-year Developmental Reading Assessment (DRA).  Remember, the DRA tests a student's ability to decode words, read fluently, and retell / comprehend a story.  In preparation for our mid-year testing, please ensure your child is reading each night at home.  Please use the discussion guidelines on your child's weekly homework sheet to talk about his/her nightly reading.

No Written Homework this Week:
We will not have new sight words this week, so there will be no written homework.  We will review the sight words from our last week before break. Please get back into the routine of reading every night for 20 minutes.  Please remember to record your child's reading in his/her agenda.

Focus Areas for the Coming Week:

• Reading:  We will be reviewing our good reader strategies for our mid-year literacy testing.
• Writing:  We will write about our New Year's goals and resolutions.
• Math:  We will begin our money unit, in which we identify and explore coins, and count groups of like and mixed coins.
• Science:  We will talk about winter changes and how animals prepare for winter. 

As 2019 begins, I wish each of you a year filled with joy, peace, and happiness.  I remain thankful for the blessing of your sweet children, you, and the support you offer each day.  Please let me know how I can assist you in the new year!