Happy New Year!
We hope you all had a fabulous winter break. IMPORTANT INFORMATION (grab a snack--we've got a lot going on!) School starts at 8:40 and gets out at 3:20. We will always enter and leave the building at the first grade doors! Bring your folder daily to school! *** REMINDER: Starting January 13th students will be required to speak Chinese only in Chinese class (no more English!!). Ms. Mack has noticed a major difference in students' efforts to speak Chinese only! Please continue to support your student by encouraging informal Chinese practice at home, and by practicing strategies they've learned in class. Some strategies are: they can act something out, draw a picture, or point to something and say "How do you say this in Chinese?" Many students are already practicing these strategies and it is SO AWESOME! We know that family support goes a long way in helping these awesome first graders to develop the confidence and positive attitude necessary to be successful participants in the DLI program. We are immensely proud of their progress so far and are excited to see continued growth. We hope you will continue to be inspired by their efforts and take comfort in knowing that while this is a challenging goal, thousands of first graders across the state of Utah and the Nation are embarking on the same journey! As an incentive to invest in the Chinese only policy of the program, we will be having a small Chinese party on Monday to celebrate this impressive and important step in their Chinese learning careers! (Yahoo!) Winter Clothing Hooray! We have had so many great, snowfalls this year! But with snowy storms come freezing and near-freezing temperatures. Brrrrrr. We're learning about weather, seasons, the water cycle, and our calendar in math and science right now and it's the PERFECT time to talk about dressing JUST RIGHT for the weather forecast. Please, please, please help your child choose appropriate clothes for school AND outdoor recess. It can get so cold for them when they only come with a hoodie on or a long sleeve t-shirt and no jacket. PLEASE make sure your child has these ON or PACKED in their backpack EVERY DAY until springtime: WARM, WINTER COAT (not just a hoodie or light jacket) MITTENS OR GLOVES HAT TIP: Please label each clothing item with your child's name so we can keep their clothing safely organized! You may also wear or send warm snow boots and snow pants, if you wish. Again, hoodies are just fine for IN school but we also need to wear a winter COAT on top when we are outside! Attendance Contest With winter weather here the amount of students tardy and absent have increased. Sometimes this is inevitable and out of our control, but oftentimes it can be alleviated by a little extra preparation. Our class Mr. Potato Head challenge is still going on. The bell rings at 8:40 and we track tardies starting at 8:45. Please plan ahead to get your child here consistently on time every day. When students are excessively absent and/or tardy, they do not receive the interventions, instruction, and practice they need to keep progressing and we often times see undesirable behaviors increase. Make a plan to be on time. While it takes longer to get on all our winter gear and we do need to be extra careful as we travel, we can still be prepared and arrive on time. This is also a courtesy to our classmates who do arrive on time as late arrivals interrupt the flow of instruction and distract from what we are learning. TIPS THAT MAY HELP: --Get clothing laid out and homework done the night before. --Try going to bed extra early (it gets darker earlier now anyway so we can wake up on time and not get too sick and sleepy at school). --Plan extra time into getting dressed for the outside and traveling to school. We have to be extra careful as we travel to be safe :) --Try providing a motivating tool to getting ready earlier and being on time. Charts, stickers, a family outings after 5 on-time arrivals…whatever works for you and your family! Homework packets were sent home yesterday, but will not be sent home next week because we have Friday off. Homework has always been optional, so please contact Ms. Mack if you would like to add your student or take them off the list. Homework should continue to be adapted to meet the needs of your student. No school on January 17th-- It is a Teacher Data Day! No school on January 20th--- It is MLK Day! LUNCH CHOICES Monday: Mini Pizza Calzones, Hamburger, Grilled Cheese Tuesday: Breakfast Burrito, Mini Corn Dogs, or Chef Salad Wednesday: Teriyaki Wednesday: Crispy Chicken Drumstick, Chicken, Cheesy Nachos, Tuna Sandwich Thursday: Orange Chicken, Chicken Nuggets or Taco Salad Friday: Pizza, Bean and Cheese Burrito, or Turkey Sandwich Monday: Walking Taco, Hamburger, Grilled Cheese Tuesday: Pork Chop Dinner, Mini Corn Dogs, or Chef Salad Wednesday: Teriyaki Chicken, Cheesy Nachos, Wow Butter and Jelly Sandwich Thursday: Crunchy Fish Filet, Crispy Chicken Sandwich or Taco Salad Ms. Terry added more slots to her sign up! Here is the link if you want to sign up! :) http://www.signupgenius.com/go/20f094ba9ac2ba7fd0-volunteer WHAT WE ARE LEARNING ELA: Our story this week will be “What do we learn as we grow and change?” The story is an animal fantasy story titled “Ruby in Her Own Time.” We will be working on comparing and contrasting two things. Our phonics focus this week will be consonant patterns –ng and -nk. Here is a link for additional practice words. We will be using this to help us practice. We will also be working on compound words. The conventions focus will be all about verbs that add –s. We will also be working on writing informative paragraphs this week. The students will be gathering information, forming complete and detailed sentences as well as providing a sense of closure to the paragraph. We have been working diligently on improving our sentence structure. CHINESE: Students will be reviewing reviewing units 1-5 of Mandarin Matrix . MATH: Students will be wrapping up unit 7 this week. Put their knowledge to the test by asking them to count by 10s in Chinese up to 120 (10, 20, 30, etc.). You can also challenge them by asking them to start counting from a random number (i.e. "Count by 1s from 67 to 79," "Count by 10s from 33 to 103", etc.). We will continue to practice extending the counting sequence and using strategies to count beyond 100. We will review counting by 10s, and counting on a number chart to 120, and will learn counting on an open number line. Encourage your child to share what they are learning in school, and especially to demonstrate that knowledge with as much Chinese as they can! SOCIAL STUDIES: This week we will talk about the difference between Chinese names and American names. We are going to hold a special Chinese Name Ceremony, and practice writing our Chinese names! We will continue discussing seasons and weather.
1 Comment
Heather Weaver
1/5/2020 10:34:30 pm
Am I supposed to be doing anything to help with a Chinese name for my student?
Reply
Leave a Reply. |
TeachersMs. Terry and Ms. Mack are so excited for this year! In Ms. Terry's class, students will speak, read, and write in English. In Ms. Mack's class, students will be speak, listen, read, and write in Chinese. Archives
April 2020
Categories |