Summer Reading for 6-9 Year Olds

Are you in the mood for a great book? Click HERE to link to a book list that your child will love. Print out the list and take it with you when you go to the library.

I look forward to hearing about your favorite books! My blog is always open. Stop by anytime.

Have a great summer!

End of the Year Celebrations

First Grade News Flash

The end of the year is almost here! Let’s celebrate all we have learned and all the fun we have had!!!

Awards Day will be Thursday, May 31, 2012 from 12:30-1:00pm in the gymnasium. This Awards Day will be combined for ALL first grade classes.
Ms. Matthews will be announcing student award winners. You are welcome to join us.

The next day, we will enjoy our End-of-the-Year Celebration (Friday, June 1, 2012 from 2:00-2:45pm). We will be reviewing all of the fun we have had and sharing some of our outstanding work. Please visit our Google Group or contact me or Becky Cooper if you are interested in volunteering for this fun event!

Thank you for all of your help. We look forward to seeing you at our celebration!

                                                                        Sincerely,

                                                                        Mrs. Harrell

Thank you, Donors!

With a nudge from Andreya Gomez (Thank you!), I recently signed up with DonorsChoose.org to propose projects that promote the education of our youth. The project, "Read to Learn" was fully funded thanks to some faithful parents and kind strangers. Thank you for your support! We have received over 35 books, including books on CD for our listening center. So far we have read a lot about Earth Day and simple machines. The books cover many nonfiction and historical fiction topics. Thank you to all who contributed to this project and to all who promote the love of reading!


My next proposal will be to seek funding for a book display case to make it easier for, "young readers [to] find what they're looking for even if they don't yet know what it is (Atwell, 2007)."

What are you reading?

From parent to parent...

"You never know what will enhance a child's life. As parents, it's our job to introduce a child to things like music, books, theater, lacrosse, tennis, gardening, travel, karate, travel, camping, knitting, fishing, etc. We're like doctors doing those allergy scratch tests: Just expose the patient to everything you can think of and watch for inflammation" (April 2012, Carolina Parent, 72).

I love that quote. The image is great!

I just finished reading Carolina Parent magazine for April. I enjoyed reading several articles. I recommend, the news section on page 8 for the upcoming Reading Events and the Toolbox: Parenting Resource of the Month. You can grab a copy of the April Carolina Parent magazine in the lobby at Creekside.

Blog About Books

One of the best ways to find out about great books is from your friend's recommendations. For homework in April, your child will be asked to use the Blogging About Books tab to write about a book they have read. The blog post should include the title and author, a little bit about the book, and whether they liked the book or not. Your child may also choose to recommend it to someone. Please see Mrs. Haydon's Blog to see how her class is blogging about books.

News Flash!

Hello, all! I hope you are having a pleasant weekend. Remember, tomorrow is a teacher workday. Some students were telling me that they plan to work on their fish projects on Monday. I have heard many great ideas. I can't wait to see what they come up with!

Classroom Update: We have started to tally up our good behavior. Each time our class receives a compliment, or earns a perfect score in Specials, or transitions well throughout the day we record our accomplishment with a tally mark on the board. When we collect 30 tally marks we will celebrate with a voted upon activity. We already have 4 tally marks! We voted last week for our first celebration to include "Performances." Several students will showcase their talents. Please let me know if you would like to join us.

J March 26th—No School Teacher Work Day

J March 27th—Beginning of the 4th Quarter

J March 29th—Report Cards go home

J March 30th—Rock Presentation

J April 2nd—PTA Meeting at 7:00pm

J Spring Break—April 6th-April 13th

J April 19th—Volunteer Breakfast 8:35-9:30

J April 25th—Last Early Release Day at 1:30pm

J April 26th—Field Day!

Cairo is Coming to Our Classroom

On Thursday, March 8, 2012 our awareness of what life is like in Africa will be broadened. We are lucky to have the opportunity to experience the contents of a Cairo Culture Kit, which has been carefully collected by researchers at UNC. The contents will include popular games, books, movies and shows. It will also include Egypt's national flag, a uniform, and a natural toothbrush (made from a fragrant twig). 

To prepare for the Cairo Culture Kit we need to collect a culture kit of our own. Think about the popular books, movies, and games that your children interact with daily. Does your family have any favorite Disney books or movies? Do you read books to your children that teach a lesson? Do you ever let your kids play games or work with puzzles because you find them educational? What kind of toothbrush does your child use? Please send an example of one of these items to school by March 8th, so we can compare and contrast our culture kit with the Cairo Culture Kit. Here is a link to the article that one of you awesome parents sent me...Culture Kits Provide Students Global Perspectives. Thank you!