The holiday travels continue...

This last week we traveled to France and England. The children learned about the tradition of the yule log, both the one that is burned and the delicious cake. They made yule log ornaments to hang on their trees. The children were especially delighted to learn about the traditions of Mrs. C. Her mother is from England and Mrs. C. lived there when she was a student so they learned all about her childhood traditions. They learned about Father Christmas and how he is a tall, skinny man (not at all like our Santa). They also now know that children in England leave Father Christmas a serving of Christmas pudding (not really a pudding at all) instead of cookies. The best part for the children was to learn about the crackers Mrs. C. had next to her plate during her Christmas Eve dinner.

This is our last week before our winter break and we will be busy. On Monday and Tuesday, we will learn about Hanukkah. On Wednesday, we will study Winter Solstice. We have much more writing and math to do but we also have some fun assemblies all week. Friday will be our short but fun day. We will have a school sing-a-long, where the students will be performing the songs we have been practicing. We will, then, have a Polar Express Pajama party. Be sure to have the children wear their pajamas!!

We have been a travelin'...

If your students have shared with you already, we have been traveling the world! We are on a whirlwind tour of different states and countries to see how the holiday season is celebrated around the world. On Nov 29, we flew to New York City to see the lighting of the largest Christmas tree and ice skating at Rockefeller Center. On Nov. 30, we zoomed to Santa Fe, New Mexico to see the lighting of the farolitos or luminarias in the city center and learn about the Las Posadas (The Inns) that occurs from December 16 through December 24. From there we visited Sao Paulo, Brazil, where we learned that the summer weather made the holiday season very different from the one we know. From December 5-7, we spent our time on the African continent. First in South Africa, then onto Botswana and finally, Nigeria. The children learned that barbeques on the beach are another way to celebrate. Mrs. C liked the thought of the holidays occurring in the summertime! At the end of last week we ended in Madrid, Spain. We learned that the children in Spain actually look forward to January 6, Three Kings Day, since they receive presents that day from the Kings. Ask your child to share with you some of our adventures as we continue our travels through January 10.


We have also been writing so much more. We have learned the proper way to write a sentence and how to make it so much more interesting with our use of words. Math is zooming quickly as well. We have been learning geometry, addition and subtraction. We've had great fun as we learn so much!

Thank you!

I had a wonderful time meeting with each of you and discussing your child’s success over the last 10 weeks. We have so much more to do and I know that we can work together to have another successful term.

Thanksgiving is fast approaching! We have begun studying the origins of the holiday and will continue this week as we learn more about the holiday and family traditions. On Friday, November 18, we will be having a Thanksgiving dinner in our classroom during lunchtime. The school lunch program has a traditional turkey dinner with all the trimmings and I encourage you to purchase this lunch for our dinner. We will get our lunches and return to our classroom for our dinner.

We are starting our geometry studies in mathematics and I encourage you to ask your children to share their new knowledge of shapes and the difference between plane and solid shapes.

A New Beginning!

We have successfully completed our first term of first grade! We have been so busy that it has flown by!

Now that we are in the full swing of first grade, there will be a few changes to assist the children to continue to progress. The biggest change will be the addition of weekly homework packets. On Monday, I will send home a packet of math worksheets, a fluency practice sheet, and a spelling word practice sheet. At the beginning of the month, the packet will include a monthly project calendar. They are pretty self-explanatory but please let me know if your child is having difficulties with them.

I didn’t have very many students report their nightly reading to me for the first term. The students do receive a grade on their report card for this at home reading so please be sure to complete the form I provide in their take home folder. Reading is the basis for all learning and the more they read the better they will become at all subjects.

I look forward to meeting with you all this week at Parent-Teacher Conferences. If you have not made an appointment already, please contact me so I can get you on the schedule.

Thank you to Amber Eyre, Robin Alvey and Daniel Whitney for their help with the field trip!

Thank you to Amber Eyre, Elizabeth Ward and Andrea Rasband for our FANTASTIC Halloween Party!

Sure hope...

everyone enjoyed their fall break! We have been learning so much and the children have deserved a rest!

Last week, we dissected a pumpkin and learned how it grows. Ask your child to share the life cycle of a pumpkin with you and how they liked the taste of roasted pumpkin seeds. Our week ended with a class spelling bee. The children did wonderfully with their spelling!

This week will be another busy week! We continue learning about living things in science and the students will be creating a research report on animals. We will explore the many different ways to add and perfect our sentence writing.

Mid-week, we will be taking a long field trip! We are so excited to visit a pond, the aquarium and Wheeler Farm to extend our living things learning.

Passed mid-terms and cruisin' into the end of the semester...

Hopefully, all of you received your child's mid-term report cards and the lists of missing assignments. I have received phone calls, visits and letters from some of you but I want to clarify a few things. First, the list of missing assignments do not necessarily mean that your child did not do the work but they may have forgotten to write their name. I have weekly gone through the "no name" basket with the children and they have claimed a few. If I am concerned with their overall grade due to missing assignments, I will notify each of you personally. Second, I have made a change to how the students turn in their assignments to me, in hopes that we can have fewer missing assignments. And finally, you will have noticed that the students receive grades in first grade for their life skills as well. This includes listening and following directions, completing their work and staying on tasks, etc. The students are graded each day on how well they complete these skills. If a student has to ask more than two times for additional directions, they will begin to have a reduction in their listening and following directions grade. If they are not completing their assignments in a timely manner, they will also receive a reduction in that grade. I hope that these explanations help to clarify some of your concerns. If not, please feel free to contact me at theresa.christensen@jordan.k12.ut.us or send me a letter.

Time is moving quickly...

It is hard to believe that October is already here. Time has been moving very quickly in our first grade class. We are already at mid-terms! Watch for your child's mid-term report and missing assignments sheet in their folders this week. If you need to discuss concerns or questions, please contact me at theresa.christensen@jordan.k12.ut.us.

Last week, we enjoyed learning about Johnny Appleseed and trying a new apple treat. In science, we learned about the life cycle of an apple and it was delightful to hear about the children's own apple trees!In math, we took our first state/district required math test and the children did very well on it! Good Job!

This week, we will continue learning about skip counting (2, 5, 10) and patterns. We will also continue our social science unit on community and work as a class to create an alphabet book. We begin our yoga class on Wednesday and look forward to learning all about it!

What a week we had...

Wow! It has been four weeks already and we are in the full swing of things at school. In just the last week, we saw all sorts of vehicles  but the highlight for the kids and me was the landing and  take off of the AirMed helicopter on our playground! We, then, wrote about our experience and are excited to share it with our parents at Parent Teacher Conferences in November.

On Thursday, we continued our adventures within our community with a walking field trip to Ream's grocery store. This field trip tied into our unit on nutrition AND our unit on community helpers. James at Ream's was kind and showed us all sorts of neat things. We saw the inside of all the freezers. Boy, were they cold! We also traveled through the bakery and met with the produce manager. We ended our field trip with an apple and a cookie to eat on our way back to school.

A special THANK YOU to Mrs. Eyre, Mrs. Brands and Mr. Faafia. Mrs. Eyre and Mrs. Brands accompanied us on our trip and Mr. Faafia provided Caprisuns as refreshment during our long walk! You are very appreciated!

We start this week with a bang! Monday is Johnny Appleseed's birthday and we will be learning and writing about him while we incorporate apples into our lessons. On Thursday, we have a safety assembly and the week ends with a Fall Carnival and Cultural Fair from 5:30-7:30. There will be inflatables as well as dances and displays of the cultures within our community. Hope to see you and your family there!

Yo, Ho, Ho, a pirate's life for us...

We had a fun Pirate day on Friday! The children were able to dress up as a pirate (or in rainbow colors). We began our morning by meeting with the other first grade pirates on the playground. We played a game of “Pirate Pokey” and then the Captains (teachers) exchanged treasure maps. The children learned a little about map making, how to read a map and a few of the symbols associated with maps. This knowledge was put to good use as we followed our map to find the treasure hidden in the school. In the afternoon, we read, “How I became a Pirate” and practice finding our alphabet in a hidden map.

This week we will continue learning about nutrition as we walk to Ream’s grocery store. We also look forward to learning about the different types of books and how we can use them.

Where we have been...

Second week has passed us by quickly and we have been very busy! We learned about poetry and rhyming starting with writing poetry and ending with a grand finale on Friday. The children individually recited a poem to the class. They all did a wonderful job!  This last week, we also learned to sort by color and size. We used shapes, colors and leaves. The children were able to visit the computer lab and library for the first time.

This week, we will continue celebrating different colors. Don’t forget to have your child wear the color of the day! We will be learning when and why when capitalize words as well as correct punctuation of sentences and the -an word family. In math, we will continue learning about more or less, number line and introducing the penny and nickel. 

Thank you to Amber Eyre, Andrea Rasband and Elizabeth Ward. They have volunteered to be our room mothers. We will be planning our class parties on Friday, September 16 at 1:45 during the room parent social. If you have any ideas or suggestions, please let me or one of these ladies know.

What a great first week!

We had a great first week! We learned about each other and made new friends. We learned about school manners and the way to behave in class, the hallway, assemblies, the lunchroom, and the playground. We reviewed our alphabet, numbers, kindergarten words and how to take care of our bodies.

This week, we will be celebrating different colors. Don’t forget to have your child wear the color of the day! We will also be learning about poetry, rhyming and the -at word family. In math, we will be learning how to compare numbers and decide which is more or less. In science, we will be learning about sorting and classifying. The children will also be doing some testing on Thursday, September 8. Please have them eat a good breakfast!

Thank you to those who have volunteered to bring snacks. We still have some days available if you didn’t get a chance to see the list. In September, we have the 9th, 13th, 14th, 15th, 16th, 19th, 20th, 21st, 22nd, 23rd, 28th, and the 29th. If you are able to help with any of these days, please email me at theresa.christensen@jordan.k12.ut.us. Thank you!

I had several parents sign up to help in the classroom and on field trips. I will need help in the afternoons from 1:00 - 2:55. Please let me know if you are able to help on a particular day.
I need two parents who are willing to be our room parents. They will help plan parties for holidays. There will be a room parent social on Friday, September 9 at 1:45. Please let me know this week if you can commit to being a room parent.

We introduced Mrs. C’s Share bag on Friday. Each Thursday, one child will bring home the Share bag. They can bring two items that fit in the bag that tell us about who they are and what they like. Please watch for it!

Welcome to First Grade!

Hello and welcome to the new school year!

As a parent myself, I know how important communication with your child's teacher can be! This blog will be a way for me to communicate activities, accomplishments and curriculum with each of you. However, if at anytime you have a question about the classroom or personally about your child, please feel free to contact me at theresa.christensen@jordan.k12.ut.us.

I am excited for our new year!