March is in like lamb!

Well, it's almost time to say good-bye to February.  It was a busy, busy month for firsties!  We celebrated Groundhog's Day, 100th Day of School, Valentine's Day, President's Day, and Dental Health.  That was a lot to cram into such a short month.  Good thing it's Leap Year and we get one extra day!  March is looking like it is going to be just as busy.  We will start with the read-a-thon and celebrating Dr. Seuss' birthday.  Next, up is St. Patrick's Day and then we reach the end of 3rd quarter.  Time flies when you are having fun!

In celebration of the read-a-thon student council has declared next week as spirit week!  The themes are as follows...

Monday, February 29th:  Sweat It Out With A Good Book- Wear Sweats

Tuesday, March 1st:  Get a “Kick” out of Reading- Wear Western Clothing

Wednesday, March 2nd:  Knock your socks off with a good book- Wear Crazy Socks

Thursday, March 3rd:  Hide in a good book- Wear Camo

Friday, March 4th:  Get your “Paws” on a good book- Wear Bobcat Spirit Wear/Colors

Students may come in before school to read on Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday.  Be sure to send their read-a-thon envelopes with them so I can sign them.

 Please read the following from the PTA blog about the road construction that is starting next week.

Good afternoon!
On behalf of Knife River, welcome to Bench Boulevard road construction email updates. Our goal is to serve residents near the project by providing direct, timely updates each week.
As you may be aware, on Wednesday, March 2, Knife River will begin reconstructing and modernizing the remaining stretch of Bench Boulevard. Early construction will occur north of Barrett Road and related utility relocation will continue south of Wicks.  
Throughout the project, crews are anticipated to work Monday through Friday from 7 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. During construction, there may be occasional brief delays, side street closures, short-term driveway impacts, and detours for adjacent residents and businesses. We encourage through traffic to use alternate routes such as Main Street or Hawthorne Lane when possible.
Safety is our top priority while working in your neighborhood – please partner with us to ensure the safety of all residents and crews on Bench Boulevard. We ask drivers and pedestrians to obey all signage and flaggers while we make roadway improvements. Please be aware that fines in work zones will double.
Weekly notifications will also be available in the Billings Gazette and online at http://mdt.mt.gov/pubinvolve/benchblvd. Residents can also tune in Mondays for updates on the following radio stations:
102.9 FM Cat Country
97.1 FM PopCrush
103.7 FM The Hawk
Thank you again for requesting email updates. We are here to serve you – for questions or concerns about the Bench Boulevard Project, please call 406-281-2098 during business hours or email info@bigskypublicrelations.com.

In reading this week we are working on different text features and how they help us better understand what we are reading.  We will be working with terms such as, headings, captions, table of contents, index, etc.

We are continuing to work on our book reviews.  So far, we have selected our books and have starting working on our planning webs.  Next week we will start out by writing our introductions.

In math, we are moving on to adding multiples of 10 to a number.  This is another tough concept.  We start by using manipulatives so the students can really see and understand what we are doing and then move on to drawing pictures to represent the problems.

Have a fabulous week!

Read-a-Thon Starts This Week!

The Read-a-Thon begins on Wednesday.  Students are encouraged to get pledges and read, read, read!  There will be some great prizes awarded to top readers.  We will be having a read-a-thon kick off assembly on Wednesday.  More information will come home on Wednesday.  I will allow students to skip morning walk and come to the classroom at 8:10 on Friday to get 15 minutes of reading time on their reading log.

We are starting a new reading comprehension unit.  Our focus will be using illustrations and text features to better understand what we read.

We have finished writing our Billings book.  It turned out darling.  We are moving on to writing book reviews.

In math, we will continue to practice with 10 more, 10 less, 1 more, 1 less.  Next, we will start finding multiples of 10 more than a given number.  Ex.  what is 30 more than 49.

Have a great week!

Another short week!

Welcome Back!  After the past few crazy weeks it was nice to have a few days off to get some relaxing in.  I hope you were able to enjoy some extra family time and get some relaxing in too!

Thank you to those who donated items for our Valentine's Day party.  The kids had a blast!  We played a Minute to Win It game- how many candy hearts can you stack with two non sharpened pencils, mixed up sentence candy bar hunt, passed out Valentines, and enjoyed each others company while having some delicious snacks.  It was a great time!

February is dental health month.  Now that we are done with Groundhogs Day, 100's day, Valentine's Day and all of the other fun interruptions,  we are starting our dental health unit.  February is a busy month!

In reading, we have another close read this week with the book, "This Is Our Earth."  We will continue learning about natural resources with a focus on why we need to protect the earth and what we can do to protect the earth.

In spelling, we will be learning about long a.  I am also going to start grading handwriting.  I will choose 10 kids one week and 9 the next.  They will get a percentage.  All letters need to be on the line properly. Pay attention to the top line, bottom line ,and the middle line.  Here are some links that you can print off practice sheets.  Just click!

lower case letters
upper case letters

I was hoping to wrap up our Billings book in writing last week.  However, the kids are really into it and are taking their time to do an excellent job.  We will continue to work on our Billings book and hopefully wrap it up this week.

In math, we will continue with greater than, less than, equal to, 10 more and 10 less.

The Lion's Club will be here tomorrow afternoon to teach us about the American flag.  They come out every year to give this presentation to first graders throughout our school district.  The kids learn some cool facts about the flag and even get a flag to take home!

Valentine's Day Fun! Have a great week!




desks in a heart shape

It's Almost Valentines Day

What a fun week we had.  The kids were so adorable dressed up as 100 year olds!  It was a day full of 100's, from reading to writing to math.

We had an assembly on Thursday celebrating "The Bobcat" award.  This award is given to one student in each class that shows kindness and compassion towards others.  Cloe was the recipient.  Congratulations Cloe!

Friday we were invited to watch the NOVA performance.  It was great!  Students in 4-6 try out for the play and practice for two weeks after school. They put on three performances and did a fabulous job.

Spelling was a tough one last week.  This week shouldn't be as difficult.  The words and sentence are: cuff, sniff, tell, still, kiss, dress, jazz, fizz, funny, will
Tell her to get the dress.

In math this week, we will be working on numbers that are ten more and ten less.  We will review greater than, less than, and equal.

In reading, we will read "Our Natural World" and discuss what are earths natural treasures (wind, water, bees, etc.) in reading group.

We will be finishing up our "Favorite Places" book in writing.  Each student chose a place in Billings that they think a new student should go.  They had to state their opinion, give reasons, and try to convince the reader.

We will be celebrating Valentines Day on Thursday the 11th.  We will make our Valentine Bags on Monday or Tuesday so there is no need to create anything at home.  If you would like to donate stickers to accessorize their bags, that would be great!

Since Thursday is a half-day, we will be having healthy snacks in addition to a few Valentine treats. We are asking for healthy snacks to fill the kids up on the half-day. Some ideas are meat and cheese platters, cut up fruit and vegetables, crackers, cheese sticks, and juice.  If you’d like to donate, please call or email so that we make sure we’re not doubling up or overdoing it on one item.

Here is a list of the kid’s names. Please make sure each student receives a Valentine.

Aiden          Alex

Anthony     Averi

Bryton        Cameron

Carson        Chanel

Cloe            Dadriam

Emma         Hailey

Joel             John

Layne         Loren

Mikela        Riley

Thomas

Have a great week.  Remember school dismisses at 12:00 on Thursday the11th and there is no school on Friday the12th and Monday the15th.