Homework

Your child should have brought home their homework folder today. And if they just turned it in from last week today, it's just fine. When there's no school on Friday, try to have them bring it Thursday, but if they forget, I will still take it the following Monday.

Inside is their math homework, reading slip, and a paper we began (some finished) today that is writing the character for "month" 月

If it is not finished, please have them finish it, making sure to follow the correct stroke order. If it is done, ask them to show you the correct way to write it. (Steps can be found on the top of the sheet)

We'll be working a lot with sorting and bar graphs this week, so if they're eating or playing with anything that could be sorted or counted and put into groups, do it! We're also doing money, beginning with the penny and nickel.

Also, the directory is finished. Look for it in the Thursday notes this week.

click here for a great printable book on months of the year

Fall

This coming week we will be focusing on shapes; their attributes, names, and where they are found in the world around us. If you have time, encourage your child to find and then draw or take a picture of a shape somewhere in their house. They can then share these with the class.

We will be learning circle, square, rectangle and triangle in Chinese. Some of the more difficult ones to remember (in English) are : rhombus, hexagon, trapezoid and parallelogram.

We will also be talking about months of the year and seasons as we watch the leaves start to fall. Review with them the months in order, or ask them "What's the month/season after____?"

Chinese vocabulary will be shape words, how to ask about shapes, and memorzing the characters for the different colors.

I am awesome!

Not me. That's the book we've been working with this week, as we continue to learn vocabulary about ourselves. We've been talking about how to be nice to others and how to make friends as well. So if you're looking for some dinner conversation, ask them what it means to be a good friend, what it means to be a good student, and why would want to be either.

We took our September math benchmark tests today, so I have a much better picture of where each student is and will start to differentiate more accordingly.

Thank you so much to the parents who have volunteered this week! Thanks in particular to Maddison Watt's lovely mother who is typing up the directory for us. We get that copied and sent home to you sometime next week.

This is a great group of kids, and they all seem to be getting along very well. We're having lots of fun and learning so much every day!

Also, this is a great website for parents interested in learning Chinese

http://chinesepod.com/

Who are you?

This first month has been/is focused on learning about ourself and each other.

So we're working with names this week. Asking what their names are, answering, counting letters in names, graphing them, and so on.

Also

"How old are you?". "Ni ji sui?"

"I am _____ years old." "Wo ____ sui."

"I am awesome!" "Wo hao bang!"

SEP's and volunteers

It was wonderful to meet so many of you! I'm so excited your children are part of this great program. It has been so fun so far, and they are soaking up the language.

Many mentioned interest in volunteering. I would love to get a directory put together, if there is anyone available to help with that, I can send home the forms I've collected and you can volunteer from home.

Also, I would love help Monday- Thursday 9:15-10:15 for my morning class and 12:35-1:45 for my afternoon class.

Please email me at bchipman@graniteschools.org if you are interested.

Post labor day labor

We're back! And this short week we are continuing to talk about our family, our names, love, and number concepts. Benchmark tests for reading took place last week and are finishing up this week, and math tests will be next week.

This week's homework was sent home with my morning class, and will be sent home with my afternoon class tomorrow (we had an assembly at the end of school today). See Mrs. Cretsinger's folder for new reading slips.

Math concepts this week are

being able to write numbers 1-10 correctly

associating number symbol with amounts

one more and one less

adding groups of objects together

counting out loud to 20

what an addition sentence looks like (symbols for add, equals, subtract)

story problems

ABB patterns

Math

Great week so far. We're starting to do some simple assessments for math so I know where everyone is. We are working with language to introduce ourselves and our family, such as "This is my father/mother/little sister etc." and "My name is".

I will teach all the math in chinese, but any English words that are necessary (such as months, money names, greater than/less than) will be reinforced by Mrs. Cretsinger.

Here is a website with some online practice for different math concepts that might be a fun way to review with your child at home throughout the year.

http://www.ixl.com/math/grade/first/