Snacks – This is the monthly reminder to please send in snack items for our snack shelf (only if your child participates in the shared snack).

Science-Plants We are continuing our plant unit. We currently are growing grass (I know, pretty amazing), alfalfa, and brassica. We soon will add wheat (grown in straws) to the mix. Brassica is a fast growing plant that quickly advances through the plant life cycle. We are growing grass and alfalfa to show that some plants can be cut (grass) and continue to thrive while other plants die when they are cut. Simple, yet something to be considered.

Social Studies In our social studies we continue to work on two separate, yet sometimes overlapping, projects. The theme for both is American history. We have created a flag art piece and written information about the American flag as well as the Liberty Bell. We have also studied George Washington. In October, we will be learning about the White House, Bald Eagle, and Abraham Lincoln.

Math – Each month we will develop skills in many different math areas. For September we counted nickels and pennies, learned about tally marks, worked with place value (ones and tens), discussed greater than/less than, odd/even numbers, and story problems. In October, our calendar time will involve geometric shapes as well. There will also be a focus on fact families. “Number Club” on Fridays, Beat the Clock folders, and a couple of online math sites allow for individualizing instruction.

Sharing Days The photo above has the names and days for each student in October. Clicking on the photo will increase its size for readability. The students not listed in October will be sharing in November. If a student forgets to bring an item to share, s/he can do it the next day. If a child does not want to share anything, the child will just let us know on that share day.

Fall Conferences Parents may sign up for fall conferences using the following link: http://signup.com/go/PRiRTTX
This is the same site that we use for all of the volunteer activities at Adams. It allows you to sign up for a time that you like and easily change the time if you need to without contacting me. I just check the site to see who has signed up for a conference and at what time. I know it is well ahead of time but I like getting it out to parents early. The school calendar includes time to prep for the conferences as well as the conference time with parents but I like to begin Tuesday after school to spread them out. Otherwise I feel like my conversations are on a loop. If your family chooses to go on a vacation instead, I will send home a form with their current assessments in a variety of areas.

Reading homework I hope the reading envelopes with monthly “challenges” is working for your child. The child may read the book that is in the envelope or a book that s/he is currently reading at home. The envelope may come back each day for a new book or stay at home if books are being read from a home library. We will need the envelope at the end of each month to change the calendar on the envelope.

Upcoming Events:

Friday, October 5 – Two hour early release (Building professional development)
Tuesday, October 9 – Picture Day
Week of October 15th – After school clubs begin
Thursday, October 11? – The Melon Shack – Hayride, corn maze, pumpkin, slide. The question mark is because nothing is final until a bus has been approved.
Friday, October 19 – Autumn Amble 9:30-10:05. This is a fall schoolwide AIM event.
Friday, October 26 – Sock Hop and Book Fair Kick-Off
Tuesday, October 30 – Field trip – CHS – Preview of the Corvallis High School Play – “The Miracle Worker” – Permission slip will be sent home soon.
Tuesday, October 30 (after school) – November 2 – Parent/Teacher conferences

Well we have all survived our first week in first grade. Hopefully, it was a relatively easy transition for the kiddos. I plan on using this blog to keep parents informed about activities in our classroom. I will email you when I update the blog but it is also accessible through the Adams website under STAFF.

We always try to begin the school year with a few fun activities. Ms Dixon and I used an app called Chatterpix to combine the students’ photos from June and Ms Dixon’s voice for great pieces of advice on day 1 of school. The students also wrote down information about themselves and then crumpled the paper into “snowballs” and threw them at Ms Dixon and me. We then uncrumpled the snowballs and read the information about each child. We also had a Skittles activity. Each student was given a Skittle. They needed to share a piece of information about themselves based on the color they were given. For example, if your Skittle was orange, you needed to tell us what you liked to do during recess.

Classroom snacks – Very important. We have a shared shelf for classroom snacks. Students may either bring their own snack or share one from our snack shelf. I will email parents when the shelf becomes dangerously close to being depleted. Popular items are pretzels, Ritz crackers, goldfish, and graham crackers to name a few. If you want to participate in the shared snack, then sending in an item once a month should suffice.

Class parent – Each class needs to have a classroom parent that is a link between the APT and the classroom families. I have not been told by the powers that be that I have one yet, so if you are interested please let me know.

Our specialist schedule: Monday – Library, Tuesday – Music, Wednesday -PE, Music Thursday – PE Friday – Art. I know none of this is interesting but hopefully informative.

Ms Kelly Dixon, OSU student teacher, will be in our class the entire school year with varying hours per term. She will spend all of September in our room. During fall and winter term, she will be at Adams three days a week. Spring term will be every day. The full year program really prepares them for teaching since they are able to see the children grow from day 1 to 172.

Our curriculum night is scheduled for Tuesday, September 18 at 6:00. Our Adams School Block Party will be on September 26, beginning at 5:30. It was amazing last year.

I have included the sharing calendar for September. Your child may bring a item to share with the class on their day. If the child forgets their share item, they can simply bring it the next day.

Squeeze in some fun this weekend and cheer on the Beavers!! Margie McShane