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!