Hero-Up Field Day!!!

Thank you to our homeroom mom, Kate, for all the time she has spent on helping with our school’s Spring Fling. Thank you to the Schulze family for our awesome baskets. And thank you to the families who donated money towards our baskets.

We had SUCH a great Field Day! We were lucky to have beautiful weather and a smooth busy day. Field Day is one of my favorite days of the school year. I told the kids that the most important thing I wanted them to remember during Field Day was to have fun but also show good sportsman ship. They did such an awesome job with that even when losing during some stations.

 Check out some of the superhero gear!

 During math this week, we worked on comparing numbers and drawing base 10 models. It’s so amazing to look back and see how much they have grown academically and physically since first day of school. We started comparing 2 digit numbers and then worked our way up to 3 digit numbers. I pulled a small group with me and we compared 4 digit numbers. 

I pulled out the tablets and the kids got to play on any apps on it if it was math related during math centers.

We took our sound check and the kids did pretty well on it. Next week we will study 2 new blends. The kids have gotten a lot faster in writing their sentences during VLA time. The average amount of time I give them is 20 minutes now-a-days.

This month’s calendar will have a “May Fun Calendar” attached on the back. Each day in May, first celebrates a certain theme. Please stop by the classroom and sign up for an item to help for the May fun! We need volunteers to help sign up for popcorn, watermelon and animal crackers.

Austin Nature Center and Celebrating Earth Day!

We had a fun-filled field trip to the Austin Nature Center on Wednesday of this week. This was our last field trip. The kids had a great time exploring the different rooms and touching all sorts of animals. Here are some pictures from our field trip.

We’ve been doing different activities and watching different videos in class all week for Earth Day.

The 3 R's

Each year, the AISD science center sends us guppies and snails for our classroom for science. We received them this week and set up their habitat. We also received our class pet this week. It is a hedgehog. The hedgehog hasn’t came out yet so the kids are still waiting to see him. At the end of the year, Suzanne and I start to sell the guppies and snails in bead store so don’t be surprised if your child comes home with a guppy or snail ;) 

We finished out our unit of measurement this week. This week, we learned how to measure with a ruler to the inch and half inch.

We took our Vietnamese sound check this Friday. The kids did a pretty good job on it. We will start practicing new words next week.

 In science, the kids learned parts of a plant. These fabulous creations are hung up on our science bulletin board.

Mrs. Cardosa came in this week and taught us about growth mindset. “I cannot do this YET, but I can do this.” They watched this little clip with her also.

Giraffes Can't Dance

Happy Easter Weekend

This week in math, we started our unit of measurement. This week we worked on measuring weight. Next week, we will measure length.

As a class, we guessed the capacity each one of these containers could hold. They would write down the number they thought then we would count how many could really fit in each container. When we got up to container 6, we counted up to 420 unifix cubes…all in VIETNAMESE.

We did our monthly Vietnamese theme writing this week. They wrote about what their rabbit’s name was, what their rabbit liked to eat, and what their rabbit liked to do. Look at these super cute drawings and neat handwriting!

 In health, we briefly worked on road signs vs. food signs and also different safety signs. They matched the sign to the word and then on the back of their paper, they drew a community using all of the road safety signs from their paper.

The kiddos got to take home their plants they planted and observed in science with Mrs. Skalaban. It was so cool to come into the classroom one morning and see the plants sprouting up from under the dirt over  night.

For Librarian Appreciation Week, we made a book for Mrs. Richey and the first grade team bought her lunch. We had library this week and the kids got to do a fun Easter egg hunt in the library. Next week will be computer lab.

Thank you all who pitched in and helped donate to our Spring Fling Basket! Spring Fling is right around the corner.

Don’t forget we have a field trip on Wednesday. Crossing all fingers and toes that it won’t rain. Please have your child bring a sack lunch because we will be eating there and not on campus. This will be the last field trip for the year.

Happy April! Book Fair, Fractions, Generation Zero, Kites, and Guidance Lesson

This week, we celebrated Book Fair week. I remember as a kid loving when the Book Fair came to school. To me, it was like the best week ever at school. So many cool books in one location! We went as a class on Tuesday to preview and the students had the chance all week go buy books. As the math teacher, it made me so proud to see they were able to count their dollars and coins in order to purchase their books.

We wrapped up our fraction lessons this week. We drew fractions, colored fractions, wrote out fractions with numbers and wrote out fractions with words.

We practiced our EN, ON, and UN blends this week and did our weekly writing in our VLA journals. We have been taking advantage of the beautiful weather lately by going outside and practicing our sight words with chalk on the sidewalk. If you can donate some more chalk to the class, that would be greatly appreciated!

In Mrs. Skalaban’s class, the kiddos wrote a how-to paper. They wrote a “how-to fly a kite.” Mrs. Skalaban took the kids outside and they did the whole process step-by-step so the kids could see to help them write about it.

We had our last lesson of Generation Zero this week with Mrs. Sarah. She taught it the differences between what goes to compost, recycle, and landfill. Ask your child to sing you the songs she taught them on Thursday.

Mrs. Cardosa did a guidance lesson on complimenting friends this week. She had a yarn ball and they had to roll it to a friend sitting in the circle. To person they rolled it to, they had to pay a compliment to them. At the end of the lesson, the yarn got really crazy and tangled. I guess that was expected with 42 compliments being paid. Some compliments that kids had were:

I like your shirt

I like your shoes

I like your curls

I like that you are always quiet and listening

I think that you’re funny

I think you are nice

Please remember that we do not have school on Friday because it is Good Friday.

I just realized that on their April calendar I typed that computer lab and library were on Tuesdays. Please excuse me for getting my days mixed. There’s just so much rescheduling going on lately that I’m starting to lose my mind :-)  Library and computer lab will be on Thursdays.

Fractions and wrapping up March!

This week, we started our lesson on fractions. We worked on writing fractions (number and word form) and coloring fractions. We made fun fraction caterpillars.

We took advantage of the beautiful weather on Friday by going outside and writing our Vietnamese sight words on the sidewalk. We will be having our Vietnamese sound check this Friday.

The kids had a great time on the field trip Friday. Every time I would look over, the kids were laughing their heads off. Here is a short video clip of Junie B. Jones Essential Survival Guide!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Z-jsLf2TK8

Body Parts, Generation Zero, Lucas Miller, 3D Shapes, New Class Pet

In VLA this week, we ended our unit on AN and IN blends. I graded their sound checks on Friday and they did very well! Next week, we will have 3 different blends we will work on. Also in VLA this week, we learned about our body parts in Vietnamese. Here is an activity we did that’s hung up on the wall by the bathrooms in the back of the room.

A group from Keep Austin Beautiful came and did 2 lessons with us on Tuesday and on Thursday. On Tuesday, Ms. Sarah taught us about our community and different vocabulary words like compost, recycle, plastic, paper, landfill, and etc. She taught us the difference between things we should recycle and things we should throw in the trash can. Then we went outside and had a little relay race.

On Thursday, Ms. Sarah came back and helped us build a little compost bin with worms inside that we will be keeping in the classroom. The kids helped her shred newspaper and squirt water in the bin. They even got to touch and observe worms…yuck :-/ We will have one more lesson in April.

We did our monthly Vietnamese writing. This month we wrote about “If I caught a leprechaun, I will…”

Some said they would steal his gold, some said they will catch him and lock him in their room, some said they would trap him in a cage, some said they would trap him and then feed him dessert.

Lucas Miller, a singing zoologist visited Summitt this past week. You can check out some of his catchy songs on YouTube.

In Mrs. Skalaban’s class, the kids wrote about The Legend of the Bluebonnets and painted lovely pictures of Bluebonnets.

My homeroom class earned their link party. They voted on a toy party so we celebrated it on Friday.

We wrapped up our unit on shapes and will be starting fractions for the next two weeks. On Friday, we learned about which shapes stack, roll, or slide.

INTRODUCING…..our new class pet!

Please remember that we have a field trip to watch Junie B. Jones this Friday! Please have your child wear their yellow tie-dye shirt and bring a sack lunch if you checked the option to bring a lunch.

Next week, I will be sending home another field trip permission slip to the Austin Nature Center. This will be our last field trip of the year.

AN IMPORTANT MESSAGE FROM MRS. RICHEY!

The Happy Camper Book Fair begins, Monday, April 3 and runs through noon on, Friday, April 7.  While book fair is an annual highlight for many of our students, there are those students who spend a tortured week looking at all they cannot afford.  In fact about 30%, that’s over 200 of our students are considered economically disadvantaged.  If the remaining 600 students from mid to high range SES homes can each donate $1 or $2, we might have up to $1200 to help those students purchase new books.

Please consider participating in our All for Books change drive, so that we make sure all our Summitt Eagles are able to purchase one new book of their very own.

How Can Your Classroom Participate:

1. Pick up a change bucket from the library on, Monday, March 27.  This will be yours to keep, so pick one you like!
2. Explain the All for Books change drive to your classroom.
3. Listen for the announcements each afternoon to find out what coin to bring the next day, and which classrooms are in the lead.
4. Each morning, collect change and count up your total.  Let Mrs. Richey know how much money your class has collected by 1:30 each afternoon.
5. The classroom with the most change on, Friday, March 31, wins a Make-Your-Own Trail-Mix Party and 45 Minute Reading Camp-Out in the library!

Funds will be distributed amongst students throughout the week of bookfair.  Thanks for your support!