Mrs. Jamar's 1st Grade!

Welcome back from Spring Break! The first week back is almost finished! That means only 6 more weeks of school until summer vacation!

This week the class has participated in the ‘Classroom Cares’ program through Scholastic Books. As a class, we read 50 books (so far) this week!! Because of this hard work, our class has helped donate books to kids living on military bases around the world. We all really liked helping other children that aren’t as fortunate to have a great library as we are. Each student received a certificate for helping to donate books! We hope to find more programs like this in the future!

Dear Parent,

             Your child should be bringing home a reader and two library books every night. It is very important that your child read these at least THREE times EACH at home. Please take the time and listen to your child read. School work will get harder and harder as the year goes on, and if they do not practice good habits now, they will get lost in the future. We are teaching them responsibility here at school, but we need your help at home. Many of the students bring excuses of ‘We didn’t have time’ or ‘My mom said…’ or ‘We stayed up too late’ or even ‘My mom wouldn’t let me read to her’. Please help us help your child by taking five or ten minutes and read with them EVERY night, and helping them get a good night’s sleep. Their fluency and comprehension skills will soar if they’re practicing at home and are rested when they are at school. If you don’t have time to work with them at home, please let them stay for the after school program as they have time to read to an adult.

          Your child takes book tests on their library books every day. They should be ready for these tests when they get to school if they’ve read the book three times at home. Most of the class is NOT ready, and takes class time to read their homework. This takes time away from vital instruction on reading and math skills they will need to pass on to second grade. Your child brings home a planner with all the homework for the week. After they do their homework at home, a parent or someone is to sign the planner and send it back to school. This is a school wide requirement, and this practice will not change as your child progresses through the grades. Please hold your children responsible for their homework. Don’t let them watch TV, play video games, get on the internet, etc. without going over their homework. We all have days and nights when things get by us, and we might neglect to do homework, and that’s understandable, but don’t let those occasional days become habitual. Soon we will be sending home new flash cards for math facts. This will be added to their reading homework and will need to be gone over EVERY night. Your child’s grades will get better and better with practice at home.

Thank you so much for your understanding and cooperation.

Ms. Wilson

swilson@cottonwoodps.org

This semester we will really be pushing reading fluency.  You may have noticed your child asking to get on a webstie called ‘Ticket to Read”.  This wonderful website is one that you and your child may go to, to practice their fluency.  They have been working on it at school and simply love it.  It’s very user friendly.  The website is: www.tickettoread.com.  Your child knows their username and password to get on the site.  If you have the internet or have access to the internet this is a wonderful, fun way to practice their reading comprehension and fluency.  If you have any questions about it please let us know.  The link to the site is on the right hand side of this site, under ‘Websites to Visit’.

Our first grade class achieved a great accomplishment! All children are on target for their CCC scores and are all ‘green’. We had a cake and cookie party to celebrate their hard work. GOOD JOB, GUYS!

Hanger due Thursday!!

Book orders due Friday!

You can order online at www.scholastic.com/parentordering or from the link on the side of this blog.

             User id: mrsjamarsclass              password: cottonwood

We are back from the break, and ready to learn! We hope you all had a nice break. Look for updates to come!

The Cottonwood Christmas program will start at 7:00 Thursday night.  Your child needs to be in THEIR CLASSROOM at 6:30 to prepare.  After Kindergarten and 1^st grade perform, we will lead them off the stage and back into the classroom. Please pick up your child in their classroom at that time. (Santa will enter the gym after 8^th grade performs.)

COSTUME: Kindergarten-1^st are dressing as puppies: Sweat tops and pants in colors of brown, black, tan, or white are recommended. Faces can have brown or black spots with brown or black noses.  Girls can wear their hair in dog-ears!

We had a great time at the Halloween Party on Friday! We want to thank all the moms and dads involved in making this a fang-tastic afternoon! 

• Book orders are due Friday November 6, 2009. You can order online at www.scholastic.com/parentordering
• If your child reads 6 AR books and passes 6 AR tests in one week, s/he will get a coupon for a free ice cream from Braum’s.
• If your child reaches their goal of 5 AR books/tests a week, they will receive a ‘Book It’ coupon (good for a free pizza at Pizza Hut) at the end of the month.
• We have a Twitter account. Follow us @cottonwood1st. If you do not have a Twitter, you can sign up for free at www.twitter.com. Once you do, you can ‘follow’ our class and get instant updates sent to your cell phone in a text. It doesn’t cost anything except what your carrier charges for incoming texts. This is a fast, simple way for us to communicate with our parents, and you can send us messages too.