Lion Dance Schedule-- if you're interested in watching Summitt's Lion Dance Team!

Jan. 21

11:50 a.m. – Vietnamese community celebration at Travis County Expo Center, 7311 Decker Lane

3 p.m. – Connally High School, 13212 N Lamar Blvd

Friday, Jan. 27

8:30 p.m. – Hanovers, Round Rock, 16912 N Interstate Hwy 35

10 p.m. – Hanovers, Pflugerville, 108 E Main St

Saturday, Jan. 28 (Happy Lunar New Year!!)

10 a.m. – Kiddie Academy, Pflugerville, 2617 Kelly Ln

12 p.m. – Tea Lounge, 1700 W Parmer Ln #210

2 p.m. – Asian American Cultural Center, 11713 Jollyville Rd

5 p.m. – Nanami Sushi, 9001 Brodie Ln

8 p.m.- Chinatown Mopac, 3407 Greystone Dr (firecrackers!)

Sunday, Jan. 29

10 a.m. to 1 p.m. – Hong Kong Supermarket Center, 8557 Research Blvd (firecrackers!)

2:50 p.m. – IBPS Temple off 360, 6720 N Capital of Texas Highway

4:45 p.m. – Families with Children from China, at Asian American Resource Center, 8401 Cameron Rd

8 p.m. – Chinatown Bee Caves, West Woods Shopping Center (firecrackers)

Monday, Jan. 30 

8 p.m. – Chinatown downtown, 107 W 5th St (firecrackers)

Thursday, Feb. 2

8 a.m. - Summitt Elem. Day show

Friday, Feb. 3

7 p.m. – Summitt Elem. Night show

Saturday, Feb. 4

2 p.m. – 5 Star Auto, 904 Prairie Trail (firecrackers)

6 p.m. – Chinese Society at Asian American Resource Center, 8401 Cameron Rd

8 p.m. – Umi Sushi, 5510 I-35

9:30 p.m. – AREAA, 8140 Burnet Rd,

Sunday, Feb. 5

11:30 a.m. – Mr. Natural, 1901 E Cesar Chavez

2-5 p.m. – Chinatown Shopping Center, 10901 N Lamar Blvd (firecrackers)

MLK, Link Party, Dimes/Quarters!

We continued our money unit this week. We worked on identifying what the heads and tails of dimes and quarters look like and how much they are worth. I am so amazed at how quick these kids are picking up money. Previous lessons we have done throughout the year are being incorporated into our money unit like the ability to skip count by 1’s, 5’s, 10’s and place value. It helps a lot of the children to see the amount of money as “how many tens?” and “how many ones?” and break it down into “how many dimes and how many pennies will I need?”

Parents, please feel free to practice counting real coins that you find on the floor at home, between the couch cushions, or even coins dropped on the floor in the car : )

We continued our math warm-up counting coins and making certain amounts. The children could have used the fake coins we had in class (which they preferred) or they could have drawn out the picture.

We wrapped up our lesson on Dr. Martin Luther King this week. On Friday, we drew a picture and wrote about what our dream for the world was. Some kids wrote about how they wished no one would litter and keep the world a beautiful place to live in and some wrote about how they wished everyone would be nice to each other and get along.

On Friday, the kiddos got to bring in their teddy bears. They worked on compare/contrast in Mrs. Skalaban’s class with each other’s bears and then wrote about a story with their bear that included a problem and a solution.

Both classes earned their link party on the same day! Mrs. Skalaban’s class voted on a toy party and my class voted on a popsicle party. We celebrated both parties on Friday.

Pennies, Nickels, Vietnamese Writing, MLK and New Class Pet

This week, we mainly focused on identifying pennies and nickels and counting them. The kids did a great job with this. Each day, we did a warm-up in our circle spots. Here are some of the activities we did in the pictures below.

We wrapped up our CH and TR unit in VLA. Next week, we will be working on words with GH and G.

 All week, we have been learning about MLK. I love how engaged the kids are when we start Social Studies. It’s so shocking to them how different our world was back then compared to now. We read books, watched videos and discussed the impact MLK had on our world. We will be continuing our MLK unit when we return back to school this week. 

 We received our new class pet this week. It is a fire bellied toad. He will join our class for two weeks before he is returned. Look at how cool his belly is!

The first grade teachers got together for our meeting and I didn’t realize how busy the next couple months will be. Here are some upcoming events:

January 28^th- Lunar New Year (Practicing on stage and dress rehearsal)

February 2^nd- Tet Day Show

February 3^rd- Tet Night Show

February 8^th- 5^th Grade Science Expo

February 14^th- Valentine’s Party

March 7^th- First Grade Folk Dance

3 Days in March- Generation Zero Class Presentation

March 31^st- Junie B. Jones Field Trip

April 19^th- Austin Nature Center Field Trip

Welcome Back!

I hope everyone had a great winter break. Congratulations to the students who completed their hot cocoa and cookie party challenge! We gathered all the students into the commons and they got to enjoy a cup of hot cocoa and some cookies. I could tell they had a blast! Thank you parents for working with your child at home. When you're reading at home, practice asking questions that will help your child reflect back on what they are reading. They will be taking their monthly ISIP this upcoming week in Mrs. Skalaban’s.

In math, we continued working on odd/even. We created monsters and had to determine if the number of body parts were odd or even. The kids had a fun time creating their monsters. Next week, we will start our unit on money. We will start with identifying and counting pennies and nickels. Parents, please review skip counting by 5’s and 10’s with your child at home. This will help when we are calculating and counting coins. Money is usually a hard concept to grasp in primary grades.

 In Mrs. Skalaban’s class, the kids worked on setting goals for 2017. They talked about what a new year’s resolutions is and they made some goals for themselves to set at home and for school.

So we won the attendance award for November + December!! We had 100% attendance 23 out of the 31 days. Because we won, Mrs. Cumming rewarded us with a popcorn/strawberry limeade party on Thursday. Keep up the good work! This month, we will be working towards winning a party for the class who has the least tardies.