January 26, 2013

I hope everyone enjoyed the three day weekend with Monday being reserved for parent/teacher conferences. Last week was another productive week for the students, and filled with some new challenges in both Math and Language Arts. Concepts in both subject areas have been gradually getting more challenging for the students, as expectations in all grade levels have increased. Most of the students have rallied to meet the added challenges with additional support from myself and our classroom aides.

The Science unit on soils has struck a lot of interest in our class with the live red worms and composting component as part of the learning process. Another highlight from last week was the visit of Mary Timm from the Tetlin Wildlife Refuge. She has introduced the students to Mallard duck characteristics through using shapes that they colored and cut into a duck. The next visit, she plans to help the students draw their own Mallard to send into the duck stamp competition. All the students were very proud of their Mallard creations, and as you can see in the photo to follow, we have the ducks displayed in our room.

 

On Friday, the planned visit from Tetlin Environmental Technician,Theresa Christiansen, to do an "Ice Safety" activity was postponed due to illness. It has been rescheduled for this Friday. Hopefully, I will have something to share on that subject next week.

Please remember to turn in any book orders at the end of the week if you would like to buy books for your child. Also, the spelling words are getting harder for the 1st graders so remind your child to study them and write each word at least three times each nightly. If you have any books I have sent home that have not been returned, I would appreciate them back to use with other students. 

Stay warm and have a great week!

January 20, 2013

 Weekly greetings! As always, last week flew by and we are moving into the third week of January already! This week there will be two special activities for the students. On Wednesday, Mary Timm from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Tetlin Refuge, will return to work on pictures with the students for the junior duck stamp competition. Also on Friday the Tetlin Environmental Technician, Theresa Christiansen, will visit and talk with the class about ice safety.  Other activities of interest will be a new Science unit starting on Monday for the afternoon students on soils and composting now that the red worms for the project have arrived alive.

With the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday this Monday, we began studying the important role he played in our countries history. The class also picked a three word phase to create an inspiring poster to display in out room to encourage each other, just as Martin Luther King Jr. was able to inspire others with his words. Furthermore,  a favorite weekly time for the class is Art each Friday. The students have been exploring aspects of watercolor painting. They really enjoy sharing their creative ideas with each other. I hope their colorful creations made it home on Friday for you all to see. A few photos to follow are from last week's Art session.

Please continue to look for homework every Monday through Thursday night. The first grade will have a spelling list weekly that they need to study each night. Also, I am sending home simple readers for them to read to someone at home each night. The Kindergarten have had numerous paper books sent home from the themes covered in the reading curriculum and they should be reading them to someone at home also. This will help them with the sight words that have been covered and simple words to sound out.

Feel free to contact me with any questions you might have, and you are always welcome to sit in on our weekly PLC [Professional Learning Committee] meetings on Friday to discuss best practices and methods in teaching to improve student learning.

January 13, 2913

Our first week back flew by! We jumped right back into a regular schedule and we were all tired by then end of the week after adjusting from being on vacation.

A few highlights were the arrival of the new teacher for the upper grades, Barb Baysinger, and the visit from Mary Timms to share about things animals do in winter. The students really enjoyed her presentation, and even did a puppet show using numerous animal puppets to review the information. By the end of the week, the class had filled their reward bottle with beans for good behavior and we had "Show and Tell" on Friday. Most everyone brought something to talk about, but the favorite of the group was Buddy the toy poodle that Bridgette shared about. I have included a couple pictures of Buddy's visit to school.

Please look at the "See Saw" book order form in your child's homework folder. If you would like to order books, just fill in the form on the back and return it to me with the money. I will send it to Scholastic Books to be filled at the end of the month. Also, remember to ask your child about nightly homework. There were 10 students from last semester that got acknowledged on Friday for not missing more than two full weeks of doing their homework. I will do the same thing at the end of our school year.

Enjoy your week and I hope this warm weather continues!

January 4, 2013

Warm wishes for the New Year! On Monday, we will start back to school for the second semester. I trust the students will be as eager as I am to back at school. Despite the sad loss of Mr. Cudney just before the holiday break, we tried to move forward by writing letters to Mr. Cudney's family in addition to finishing Christmas gifts and cards.

 

 The first grade also completed a unit in Science on animals at night [nocturnal] and animals that are predators or prey. The students made masks of their favorite animal and then played a game using the masks.

This week, Mary Timms from the US Fish and Wildlife Service in Tok, will be following up on the animal unit with a focus on animals in winter.

As we move into the second half of the school year, please continue to look for homework on Monday through Thursday nights, and completed class work to be reviewed on Fridays.

December 18, 2012

When I wrote the last post on Sunday night, I fully intended it to be the last posting for this
semester...Unfortunately, the school suffered a tragic loss on Monday when we realized Mr. Murv Cudney had passed away sometime over the weekend. With the school closed on Monday, and Tuesday morning dedicated to grief counseling with all the students, our last week before break has not gone as planned. We will be trying to move forward with as normal a scheduled as possible for the remainder of the week despite the huge hole we feel inside with Mr. Cudney gone. He was a caring friend and committed teacher who will be greatly missed. The photo below was taken of Mr. Cudney and his class last Thursday when all the students got their new Tetlin Eagles sweatshirts.

December 16, 2012

 We have just five more days before the end of the second quarter. I guess the old saying, "Time flies when you are having fun." has certainly applied to the first half of our school year!

A real highlight from last week, was the lovely gift of Tetlin Eagles sweatshirts that were given to all the students and staff. All the teacher and students had a photo taken together by the school Christmas tree. Unfortunately, two students from our group were out absent that day.

With the end of the quarter rapidly approaching, we have continued to make an academic push and most of the students have really rallied to keep up with class assignments and homework daily. We have made time for some fun Christmas projects in preparation for the holiday.

 On Friday, after reading and acting out the old folktale of "The Gingerbread Man", the students even cut out and decorated gingerbread people that were baked and shared with others at lunch time.

Please remember to ask your child about homework nightly. Every Friday there is a math and spelling test for the first graders, and this week will be no exception.

This will be my last note until we return after the break. I wish you all a wonderfully happy holiday and prosperous New Year!

December 9, 2012

It has been so nice over the last few days to have the temperatures rise a bit and I hope the warmer temperatures will hold through our next two weeks before Christmas break. Over the last few weeks the academic expectations have increased, and the students have been working hard on a variety of concepts. On Thursday and Friday each week, the class has more time to make special projects that tie into current units being taught. As we draw closer to the joy-filled holiday season, the students have been making decorations for our classroom. Part of the class was missing for various reasons last Friday when the group pictured below were making tissue covered trees.

Please watch for nightly homework Monday through Thursday, and Friday the completed weekly work will be sent home for you to review with your child. For both kindergarten and 1st grade groups, there is a list of sight words to practice nightly that are copied on bright yellow paper. Those words will allow your child to be a more fluent reader and they will need your help to practice. Also, the 1st  graders have a list of ten spelling words weekly to study for the spelling test each Friday.

In closing, there will be a spaghetti dinner at the school on Thursday that is sponsored by the student council to help raise funds for a school trip. Hopefully, I will have a chance to visit with many of you then.

Have a wonderfully warm and productive week!