The promised pics

These cuties are so much fun! You can't look at these without wanting to be part of every single day of 1st grade. I'm pretty sure I'm the luckiest person in the world!

 

 Some of the fastest runners in the school!

 Playing basketball with the SUU team after the walk-a-thon. I think we kicked their trash!

 

hot, sweaty, and still smiling

 

 

 After race refreshment

Run like the wind!

We did it! And.....We earned a PIZZA PARTY and the highly coveted Golden Sneaker Award!

Our Apple Book

 (sorry for the crazy photo....who took that picture anyway??!)

Eat an Apple

 

Save the Core

 

Plant the Seeds

 

And Grow Some More!

 

Amazing work from Noah in his "drawing and writing book for Writer's Workshop

 

No David!

from our author's study of David Shannon

 

Working hard on math finding the "part, part, whole" or "addend, addend, sum"

Our ADORABLE class in our cute designer shirts with our hard earned Golden Sneaker Award

Super Silly

So cute-right?!

We went to the Pumpkin Patch

After picking the perfect pumpkin

Happy Fall Y'all!

October

Thank you so much for coming in for SEP’s. I love meeting with parents and talking about all the great things your children are doing in school. I appreciate everyone keeping their appointment time.

Also, a big thank you to all the moms that are coming in our room to help. We love having our moms here! We are starting our reading groups this week and will settle into a regular routine.

Don’t forget we are going on a fieldtrip to Judd’s Pumpkin Patch on Tuesday, October 7. Each student is allowed to choose a pumpkin to bring home. Thanks PTA for paying for them for us! Make sure your child is dressed appropriately for the fieldtrip. Several parents have asked if they can go with us. We are not taking any parents on this fieldtrip. We will have others throughout the year we will need help with.

This month we will finish talking about pumpkins. We will also talk about animals, Halloween, and fall.

In math we are working on adding doubles, doubles plus one, and ten frames. We are also continuing with our daily math fact drills. Students not passing the drill on Friday will retake it until mastered. There are 40 problems on each page. Students must pass at 100% accuracy. They can do it! I will post those on the blog so you can access them to practice at home.

In our phonics program we have been learning about homophones, compound words, possessive nouns, quotation marks, and past tense verbs! Whew! Try to quiz us on some of our skills to help keep them fresh!

We are almost done with our author’s study of David Shannon. We have learned a lot of cool facts and information about him. We love David Shannon books and we are artists like he is! For October we will learn about Mo Willems. He is the author of the very popular Don’t let the Pigeon Drive the Bus and other books. We will practice being an illustrator like he is and write in the persuasive genre.

Remember to read every night for 20 minutes and return your reading calendar at the beginning of each month. 1^st grade reading is 400 minutes per month. Fluency folders can still count as reading time. Remember students can only pass off ONE page at a time. The goal is to know the words fluently, not pass off all the lists. As I have checked with students at school they are missing words on lists signed off at home. Practice  Monday-Thursday, pass off signed off lists on Friday. Don’t go on to the next list until the current list is passed off at school. I have had some students go back and reread lists previously signed off because they weren’t solid on the list yet. Fluency folders and homework folders should come back to school every day.

We will be out of school on Thursday-Wednesday October 16-22 for UEA, Harvest Holiday, and teacher training. We will resume school on Thursday, October 23.

Remember our regular early-out Wednesday at 1:30. Also, students are not allowed in the building until 8:30. As the weather is getting colder, please don’t drop them off too early.

Reading bags (Dr. Seuss) are due back each Monday. Students should read the books at home and become familiar with them so they can read them fluently at school. They are allowed to self-select the books in the bag.

Our weekly schedule:

Monday: library, art

Tuesday: PE

Wednesday: early-out

Thursday: music, computers

Friday: PE

If you have any questions please call me at school 586-2860, or on my cell 435-463-1170. Or you can text me any time.

Remember to call the school to excuse your child if absent. You can also text to let me know.

If you haven’t signed up for “Remind 101”, do so right away. It’s the easiest way to get quick information to you.

Thanks again for all you do. I LOVE Fiddler’s Elementary and 1^st grade! Your children are amazing students. Every day is so much fun! Thank you for sharing them with me. I am so blessed to know all of you and spend my days with your cute little ones.

Check back in a day or two....I will post recent pictures and the timed drills for math.

First day Firsties!

The first day of First Grade was fun for us all! After a few jitters to start out we settled right in. By lunchtime I felt like we had been a classroom forever! I love that feeling of a "class family" right off the bat. I know immediately it's going to be an awesome year! That is due in great part to you. Thank you so much for EVERYTHING! I am excited to work with all of you this year.

As you can see our classroom is very "Seussical". Take a look at our first day photos. I think they are pretty dang cute!

Welcome

Welcome to 1^st Grade! I appreciate so much the kindness and generosity shown me so far. Thank you for the warm welcome. I am so excited to have your children in my class and to work with you this year.

A few things I want to make you aware of:

·     Return the paperwork from back-to-school night as soon as possible if you have not already sent it back.

·     We will be ordering our class T-shirts soon. We have already drawn our self-portraits (they are great!). If you want your child to have one they are $8. This is NOT a Fiddler’s Elementary school shirt. I would like all the students to have one if possible. Watch for the order form this week.

·     Send $6 for Scholastic News. We will be reading it each week in class. It will start in 2 weeks.

·     We do not have “sharing” or “show-and-tell” in our class. Instead we have “news”. Each student is responsible to bring news once a week. There are assigned news days. Refer to the paper I gave you at back-to-school night for your child’s assigned day.

·     I am sending home the list of 1^st grade sight words that we will work on this year. We will have several activities and homework assignments that will use these words. The list is for your reference.

·     Check our class blog regularly and often. Any information you need should be on there. jonesjems.blogspot.com

Thank you for sharing your children with me. I am looking forward to a great year and am so appreciative of your confidence in me. I am so grateful to each of you and to share with your children in the joy of discovery we call learning.

If you have any questions or concerns please call or text me. Or, as always, feel free to drop by our classroom. 435.586.2860 (school) 435.463.1170 (cell)                                     Mrs. Jones

Welcome to 1st Grade!

Welcome to 1st grade! It's going to be great!
I can't wait to meet you, please save the date.

On Tuesday, the 12th day of August you'll come.
We'll meet in our classroom-it's room number 1.

I'm including a list of things you will need
To help you in school and to learn how to read.

Our classroom is awesome! Our classroom is cool!
It the very best room in the entire school!

We'll make new friends. We'll play and have fun.
We'll work and we'll read every day-every one!

Our first day of fun will be August 14th.
Come in with a smile and please find your seat.

Until then keep playing. Enjoy all the sun.
School will start soon when summer is done.

 Some things you will need to bring with you for back to school night:
* backpack-standard size-NO wheels (it can come on the first day of school)
* "spacesaver" pencil box for your desk
* zippered pencil pouch for your calendar book
* $8.00 for your class T-shirt
* $6.00 for "Scholastic News"
* 1" binder for calendar book
* 25 sheet protectors for your portfolio (I already have the binders for those)
* ear buds (not head phones) for personal use 
* bottle of water (or water bottle) to leave at school

On Tuesday, August 12 we will have back to school night. I am so excited to see you there! Please come to our classroom at 6:30. There will be a general meeting in the gym at 7:00 to meet/hear from our new principal Mrs. Jones (cool name huh!)

School will start on Thursday, August 14. It is 8:55-3:30 (8:55-1:30 on Wednesdays)

Thank you for sharing your children with me. I am so excited for a new year to start. I get so anxious every fall, but this year I am especially looking forward to it! 

Please drop by our classroom any time, and if you're available we'd love to have you stay and help for a while! We will have a sign-up sheet in our classroom for volunteers.

If you need to contact me you can reach me by email: merilee.jones@ironmail.org; by phone 586-2860; (school) or by text 435-463-1170 (cell).

Almost Done.......

We are almost done with school! I know everyone is so excited, but please hang in there with me for 20 more days!

For the next few weeks we will finish our unit on whales and mammals. In math we are working on adding and subtracting within 10. For writer's workshop we have been working hard on writing sentences to go with our stories. Remind your children of three things good writer's use: uppercase, spaces, and punctuation.

As we are going into testing time it would be good to practice uppercase and lowercase letter writing, recognizing all the letters, and the sounds of all the letters, first and last name, shapes (2-D and 3-D), adding and subtracting within 10, writing a sentence with uppercase, spaces and punctuation (this is a sentence that is dictated to them. Spelling is not tested). Students also need to pass off at least the first 3 sight word lists.
We are working on all of these testing items in class. Most students are doing well. Our testing window will end after next week. Make sure your child is here during testing time. It is difficult to make up testing. Some of the testing is online and when the window closes they cannot make it up. Students should have plenty of rest, a good breakfast, and be prepared for testing each day at school.

We had a great time at our Easter Candy Hunt fieldtrip. Thank you for all the candy and for all the help. Pictures will post below.

Since the weather is getting warm we are asked to remind parents about the school dress code. If you have any questions please refer to the code you were given at the beginning of the year, or you can access it on our school website. As a reminder, no flip-flops, no tank tops (shoulders must be covered) no tummies showing, no short shorts.

As we wind up the last few weeks of school check to make sure ALL books are turned in including library, book in a bag, and our class take home library (Dr. Seuss bag). There is a fine attached to any missing books.

We have a busy schedule for the rest of the year. Please note the calendar items. If you have any questions let me know. I will try to keep you well-informed.

Monday, April 28 Fireman is coming to talk about fire safety.
Friday, May 2 DIBELS testing for our class
Tuesday, May 6 Fieldtrip to Cedar High to practice for our program. PM STUDENTS WILL COME IN THE MORNING THAT DAY (8:55-11:40)
Wednesday, May 7 Last day of library. ALL books are due back by that day.
MAY 12-16 PM STUDENTS WILL ATTEND MORNING KINDERGARTEN THE ENTIRE WEEK! (8:55-11:40, Wednesday is 8:55-10:55)
Monday, May 12 Program practice at school with entire Kindergarten (this is just a outline of our schedule. Parents don't need to do anything for our school practice days).
Tuesday, May 13 Program practice at school with entire Kindergarten.
Wednesday, May 14 Dress rehearsal for school studentbody.
Thursday, May 15 School Walk-A-Thon. OUR PROGRAM WILL BE THAT NIGHT AT CEDAR HIGH SCHOOL AUDITORIUM 7:00. STUDENTS SHOULD WEAR "SUNDAY BEST" AND BE IN THEIR SEATS READY TO PERFORM BY 6:50. More information will come about the program. Please put it on your calendar and plan to attend.
Friday, May 16 Field Day. Students are encouraged to wear clothes that can get wet. We will be having some water games. Students are also asked to bring FILLED water balloons. We will have a water balloon fight at the end of field day.
Tuesday, May 20 5 Buck Pizza Field trip. Students are asked to bring $1. donation. A.M. class will go at 9:15, P.M. class will go at 2:00.
Wednesday, May 21 Read-a-thon. Students need to bring their books with the purple "schoolhouse stamp". We will also have a cleaning day that day. We will discuss the possibility of wearing pajamas that day:).
Thursday, May 22 Reward movie for students who have earned it. PM STUDENTS WILL COME IN THE MORNING.
Friday, May 23 Last day of school. Awards assembly. PM STUDENTS WILL COME IN THE MORNING. School will be over that day (for Kindergarten) at 10:55.

Have a great, safe summer!

Thank you for the support this year. I have enjoyed working with you and your cute children. I have a lot of mixed emotions as I say good-bye to Kindergarten after 10 years. I am looking forward to 1st grade as it has been a dream of mine for many years. Hopefully I will see you around town and get to say "hi". I appreciate your help, your generous donations, your time, effort, and consistency as we work together to make school a positive, successful, safe place for children.