Martin Luther King

We will be talking about Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. this week. Please take a few minutes to discuss him with your children. There is a wonderful video on you tube that you can watch {HERE}. This is one of my favorite books about Martin Luther King, it made such a moving and powerful video. The kids loved it today, and would enjoy watching it with you!

Here is our newsletter for this week.


Make sure to drive carefully in this weather and be safe. Are you signed up for Flash Alert yet? Make sure you sign up now! This will send you a text and/or email as soon as the decision is made to cancel or postpone the school day. This information is much faster than waiting for the news. Have a great rest of the (short) week!

For more specifics of the activities we will be doing this week, visit my first grade teacher blog First Grade Fanatics.

New IXL website

The Molalla River School District recently purchased IXL for the whole district. So that means we have a new website to go to and log in. All other info will remain the same with your child's accounts, like their awards, usernames and passwords. The only thing that is changing is the site they go to in order to log in. Click below to go the the new website, and don't forget to save it!

https://www.ixl.com/signin/mrsd

Hopefully your child is getting atleast a few chances a week to get on IXL and practice the math concepts we've learned so far. This practice is vital to their math success. Thanks for the support, and have fun on IXL!

Happy New Year!

Oh my goodness!!! I blinked and suddenly a few months have gone by without any blog posts! Time flies when you're having fun. :-) I apologize, and will try not to let that happen again. I hope that everyone had a great Christmas Break, and that they kids are all ready to start back to school. This short week may be a little rough, so please make sure kids get early bed times.

Thank you to all of the wonderful parents who joined us for our Christmas party. Here are a few pictures I thought I'd share.


















Since it's a short week, our weekly newsletter won't come home until next Monday. Have a great rest of the week!

And thanks again for the thoughtful Christmas presents. I felt very loved!

Monday, Monday...

I hope everyone had a restful weekend, and that you're all ready for a busy week! Please make sure you check backpacks today. I sent home quite a few things today, so make sure you take a look.

Last spring our PTC generously bought me 5 iPod touches to use in my classroom. If they were found to be useful, the thought was that maybe then we'd have a goal to buy some more for other classrooms later. I finally got them into the kiddos hands this last week. They are filled with fun and exciting apps that really help reinforce concepts with the kiddos. We are using this during word work at Daily 5 time, as well as when kids come in in the morning, and as they finish up early whatever activity we are doing at the time. They are also able to earn time on the iPods with good behavior, and it seems to be working for most of the kids. Not everyone has gotten on them, but we are pretty close! I'm currently working on creating a list of favorite apps that are useful and educational for first graders. When it's all done, I will definitely share it with you. Apps are expensive, so of course we are always looking for iTunes donations. :) Here's some fun pictures of some of the kids sharing the iPods with a partner.






I will be out of the classroom on Thursday and Friday, but will be able to check my email. Please make sure to send any changes by note to the office since I will not be there.

Have you checked out IXL yet? Please have your child get on as much as possible. Feel free to explore the site. Please send me an email if you need your child's password or username.

Thank you to those who made it in for a conference last week! It was nice to meet some of you. Don't worry if you didn't get a note for a conference. These were just optional, and regular conferences will be held in November the week of Thanksgiving.

Make sure to get in your Pinkalicious permission slips. We are looking for 6 volunteers per classroom. Please make sure you have been cleared through the district before signing up to volunteer.

We are still in need of weekly volunteers. If you have a few hours to spare, please let me know. We'd love to have you!

Have a great week!

Happy Wednesday!

Hope everyone is having a great week! I meant to get this up on Monday, but hopefully everyone found it in backpacks on Monday. Please make sure to also read the back side. There was a great letter giving you more information on Daily 5.

A few things to note:
* Book orders were sent home this week. This is a fantastic, and cost-friendly way to build your home library. Please send any orders back by next Monday, October 10.
*IXL usernames have gone home. Please have your child getting on the computer to work on IXL at home. Let me know if you need your child's username or password.
*If you got a conference paper, please return it asap. If you didn't get one, and would like to meet, please let me know asap as well.
*Please work on learning to tie shoes at home. I know it's hard for first graders to master {trust me, I have a first grader! ;-) } but it really saves huge amounts of time if they can tie their own shoes.
*Our class is quite chatty, and has some trouble getting focused and following directions. Please just check-in with your child and have a conversation about appropriate times to talk in class. Any support at home is a huge help in reinforcing the expectations at school. Thanks for your help!

Have a great week!

Yum, Yum Applesauce!

Today we wrapped up our focus on apples by making applesauce. We did a great sequencing activity, learned some new words, did a writing activity, a little bit of graphing and voila! We cooked it all day long, and it was Yum-my! Thanks for sending in the apples!

Don't forget our fundraiser starts today! The kids all brought home their packets to look at. Please only allow them to sell to people they know. With budgets as tight as they are, this really helps raise money for our classrooms, field trips, assemblies and supplies. The fundraiser goes until October 10th, so sell, sell, sell! Thanks for supporting our school!
Have a good weekend.

IXL

Today we FINALLY got to get on the computers! I introduced the kids to the website IXL, which our school has purchased accounts for. Each student has a username and password, and can access the site from any computer. This is an AMAZING tool for practicing and reinforcing math concepts that we are learning at school. A note with more information will come home today, including your child's log-in information. Please keep this in a safe spot. Practice at home is so much fun for the kids, and really helps them advance in their math skills.


Don't forget, tomorrow is late start. We are making applesauce tomorrow so please make sure you've sent in your apple. Have a beautiful afternoon!