Happy New Year!
We hope you all had a fabulous winter break and wanted to take this opportunity to thank all who contributed to the class gift (and brought other additional gifts). We were so touched by your incredible generosity, kindness, and thoughtfulness; and we feel so loved and appreciated! Please enjoy the photo above displaying the students' spectacular winter penguins all dressed up for the chilly weather! 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 14th 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. 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 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. Purple class is almost done putting theirs together and will soon earn their first prize (yahoo!). Green class...let's just say we have a little way to go :) The bell rings at 8:40 but we will be taking attendance at 8:45. Please plan ahead to get your child here consistently on time everyday. When students are excessively absent and/or tardy, they do not receive the interventions, instruction, and practice they need to keep progressing. The result of poor attendance is oftentimes poor performance and lowered abilities in the classroom. 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 outing to the library after 5 on-time arrivals…whatever works! Please contact Ms. Terry if Lexia is still not working for you. We have another option for logging on if the "clever badges" continue to have problems! Thank you to all those who are having their students do Lexia at home! 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 18th-- It is a Teacher Data Day! No school on January 21st--- It is MLK Day! LUNCH CHOICES Wednesday: Teriyaki Chicken, Cheesy Nachos, Wow Butter and Jelly Sandwich Thursday: Crunchy Fish Filet, Chicken Sandwich (spicy or regular), or Taco Salad Friday: Pizza, Bean and Cheese Burrito, or Turkey Sandwich Monday: Corn Dog, Hamburger, Grilled Cheese Tuesday: Chicken Noodle Soup, Mini Corn Dogs, or Chef Salad Wednesday: French Toast Sticks, Cheesy Nachos, Tuna Sandwich Thursday: Macaroni & Cheese, Chicken Nuggets, 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: We will be reading a story titled “Life in the Forest.” It is an informational text. The question of the week is “What changes can be seen in nature?” The phonics focus is u_e, e_e and -ed. We have learned that -ed says /d/, /ed/ and /t/. We are working on identifying main idea and details of a text. We will be working on writing letters, stories as well as learning how to pull facts from an informational story. One thing we are working very hard at is making sure we are following directions first time and staying with the class. Often, we think we know what is happening next so we race ahead to only find out that the next step was different than what we thought. Our spelling words are huge, June (the capital is important!), rule, tube, use, cube, cute, flute, rude, mute, water and under. Water and under are our high frequency words. CHINESE: Students have finished reviewing units 1-5 of Mandarin Matrix and we are now moving on to unit 6! It is astonishing how much your amazing Chinese speakers have learned so far. This week we will read two new stories called "Gardening" and "It's Raining". Students will practice reading and writing the following new characters: boy, girl, rain, dirt. We will be practicing the following language features: " ...... needs .....", "What else does it need?" ".....also needs .....", "Mine/yours is very big/small.", "Why is mine....?", "Too many/too few....", "It's raining," "....isn't there/is on top/is underneath/is inside.", "On top/underneath inside ......" 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 have talked about the difference between Chinese names and American names, held a very successful Chinese Name Ceremony, and practiced writing our Chinese names! We will continue discussing seasons and weather.
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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
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