January Students of the Month

Congratulations to our January Students of the Month!

Nick and Kaitlin were presented their awards by Mr. Koven.

Good job, kids!

Valentine's Day Preparations

Valentine's Day is a favorite with first graders! They love cutting hearts, decorating cards, and making pockets for all their goodies. It's hard to contain the excitement this week, and they will be more than ready by Friday to open cards from all their friends.

We fold and decorate heart shaped pockets, and then put them up in alphabetical order so the kids can play "post office" and deliver the mail on Friday.
We've practiced cutting hearts with several other projects, and the kids are getting really good at it now.

We go through quite a lot of paper with this project!

The pockets get really full by the time everyone has delivered their valentines.

The rest of the pictures speak for themselves!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Putt Putt Golf

Come to the PTO Putt Putt Golf course this weekend! The theme of the first grade hole this year is a Norwegian "Gnome Crossing." The students learned about rosemaling, gnome legends, and the Norwegian flag as they helped make the decorations for the hole. Read facts about rosemaling and gnomes as you putt your way to the little Norwegian lodge!See the yellow cup down by the fireplace?

Looks like a warm and toasty way to spend a cold Minnesota weekend!

Our Norwegian hole is just one of 18! Come join us for some great family fun, and support the PTO as they raise money for Elementary School projects.

Saturday, Jan. 31, 10:00-5:00
Sunday, Feb. 1, 12:00-5:00

Food and other games are also available!

Phy. Ed. Fitness Tuesday

Fitness Friday is always the kid's favorite day in Phy. Ed., but due to the crazy schedule we had last week because of snow and cold, we had Fitness Tuesday instead. Now that doesn't have quite the same ring to it, but the kids still had a great time! A variety of centers are set up all over the gym, and the kids rotate through the various activities. Everyone participates, and they get lots of exercise!

The climbing wall is a challenge.

Hang on!

Tri-pod Hockey is a new activity this year.

Stretch for that ball!

Here it comes!

Block the hole!

Got it!

Scooters are lots of fun, too.

Hang on, and watch out for that shoe lace!

This is fun!

Don't run over any fingers or toes.

Another challenge is the ball scoop.

Catching the ball is a real trick.

I think he might do it!

The hipppity hops get everyone jumping.

Jump higher!

The steppers get our heart rates going.

I tried this a few times, too, and I think I could use one at home.

Another center is bowling. It's hard to set up all these pins.

An automatic pin setter would sure be nice.

While all this is going on, Miss Bremer is checking kids on physical fitness skills.

How far can you jump?

Some of the other activities are rope climbing, running, and volley-ball. The gym is a very busy place every Friday, and the kids love it!

We are very ready for drinks when class is over!

We usually work up a pretty good sweat during the 25 minute period.

We learn lots about sharing during Phy. Ed., and we take turns for drinks, too!

Our Phy. Ed. staff does a great job of teaching the kids life-long physical activity skills, and encouraging them to keep active!

December Students of the Month

Congratulations to the December Students of the Month!

Keep up the good work!

The kids are always excited to have Mr. Koven visit our classroom. He hands out birthday pencils each month as well as the Student of the Month certificates.

Coming soon: Phy. Ed. Fitness Friday pictures!

New Year, New Things to Learn!

We're back to school in 2009! The kids all seemed very ready this week to get back into their school routines. We started a new theme in Reading (Home Sweet Home), a new chapter in Math (Geometry and Fractions), a new unit in Science (Space), and all our Centers were new, too. Guess who worked during vacation?

Our story this week was "Moving Day," about a hermit crab who had to find just the right home to live in. We also practiced sounding out lots of new words using digraphs (sh, th, and ch).

All the kids are becoming more independent readers.


We often partner read, where the children read to each other and help each other sound out new words.

Each week, in addition to our main story in our anthology, we read three stories in a Phonics Reader. These stories provide additional practice on whatever sounds we are working on during the week.

Copies of these stories are sent home each week for more practice at home.

Our new Math Center is all about shapes. We can use shape templates to draw pictures, do a puzzle, manipulate solid shapes, make symmetrical designs, and read books.

At the Winter Center, we can make snowmen puppets, read books, do puzzles, make snowflakes, or write stories about favorite winter activities.

Our puppets were fun to make!

At the Science Center, we are learning about Space. There are lots of books to read, activity books to color, and also a space shuttle puzzle.

We can even design a space vehicle using Connects.

Since our current theme is Home Sweet Home, we have been talking about different kinds of shelters. We got to design log cabins using Lincoln Logs.

Kaitlin added some Ring-a-ma-jigs for towers on the roof.

This one has a fence all the way around the house, and multiple roof lines. Do we have some future architects in training?

Next week, we will be starting SNAP, our program for encouraging memorization of addition and subtraction facts. Please dig out the flash cards and spend 5-10 minutes of practice each night in preparation for 3-minute timed tests on Tuesdays and Thursdays! We will also start learning the long vowel sounds, so check out the new spelling words as listed on the Peek-at-the Week. They all have the long a sound, with silent e at the end.

Typically, January and February are huge growth months for first graders, particularly in reading. Encourage lots of expression in oral reading - watch for exclamation and question marks and remind your little reader to make his/her reading sound exciting and interesting!

Thanks again for all of your help!