Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween, First Grade friends! This is going to be a great weekend. On Saturday, October 29, River Church will be hosting a special Trunk-or-Treat at our school for the community from 6:00-8:00. It looks like tons of fun! They will have free haircuts, bouncy houses, lots of candy and games for our kids. We are excited - Cameron can hardly wait to put on his pirate boots and hat for this fun time!

Also, Harrison Bay State Park is hosting a Halloween Block Party from 5:00 - 9:00 on Saturday, October 29 that looks like lots of fun as well. They will have games, candy, and other treats for kids of all ages.

On Monday, we will cut and carve a pumpkin at school. The kids are super excited to touch the pumpkin and help dig out the seeds. We will read about pumpkins and how they grow from seed to picking. We have made Jack-O-Lanterns and named them and written about them this month as well.

*Special Note* - please do not allow your child to wear a costume to school on Monday. Mrs. Askins has asked that we not wear costumes or bring candy to school on this day.

Thursday night, November 3rd, the Huddle House on Brainerd Road is having a Hillcrest spirit night a portion of their proceeds for this special spirit night will go to Hillcrest Elementary. Teachers and staff will be on hand to serve dinner to you if you come in on this evening. Please consider coming out and joining us for this fun night! We really appreciate Huddle House for being a wonderful resource and partner for our school!

This week, we will continue to work on addition facts. We are spending a significant time on doubles (1+1, 2+2, 3+3, etc.) and near doubles - addition problems that are close to a double, like 4+5 or 6+7. Please review these types of addition problems with your student.

Spelling words for the week of October 31-November 4th will be:
it      sit     big     in     milk    

fixed    licked   him    dish    yelled     

Our students did a GREAT job on their spelling tests this past week, hurray!!! Keep working on these words throughout the week and we will test on Friday. Also, remember to have your child read their Baggy Book to you each night and return them on Friday. Your kiddos will get new books on Monday to take home for the week.

Thank you again for allowing me to be a part of your child's education - I treasure each and every one of them!

Mrs. Duggins

    

October 10-14

Happy Monday!  It's shaping up to be a great week already. Here are a few things we'll be working on this week:

-Using 10 frames to show or represent numbers through 10. Our kids will be given a number through 10 and they will show this using counters on a small grid. They will compare numbers, if they are larger than or smaller than 5.

-More addition and subtraction practice! We will use legos to add numbers together and string beads on pipe cleaners to add and subtract numbers.

-We are practicing our reading skills every day. I hope that your children are enjoying taking home their baggy books and you are hearing their budding reading skills. They are so excited about learning to read - they just need a laptop....The kind with two legs and two ears to listen to them read.

-Our spelling test will be on Friday this week. Here are our words:

bug    jug    quit     up     zag     zig    are    he     snug     must

I would like to say a big THANK YOU to Ms. R. Foster for spending some time volunteering in the classroom and taking materials home to prep. We really appreciate all the help you gave us - our math lessons will run much smoother having those things ready ahead of time.  If you are interested in volunteering as well, please contact either myself or Mrs. Gill in the office to set up a time and date. We can always use your assistance!

If there is anything I can help explain or give further clarification on, please don't hesitate to call or email
duggins_k@hcde.org.      

Sincerely,
Mrs. Duggins

October 3-7, 2011

Hello First Grade friends and families -

This is going to be a great week in First Grade! On Tuesday, Mrs. Duggins' class will be celebrating their compliment chain hitting the floor (this means we've had many compliments because of great behavior) by having a cozy reading & pajama day! I don't know about your child, but I can't wait to get to wear my comfy p.j.'s to school - it just makes the day even more fun to have something exciting like that to look forward to.  I am really proud of our kiddos for all their hard work and excellent behavior!

Don't forget - this is a short week for our kids. On Friday, there is no school for the kids, teachers will be having a work day on this day.

Since it is a short week, we will have our spelling test on Thursday and we will also have our end of Topic test for Math on Thursday as well - this will be on the subtraction lessons that we've learned so far. This is usually a short, 6 or 7 problem test just to get an idea how the kids understand the topic that we've just covered.

There are new October calendars in our G.O. books now that show the snack days and upcoming events on the calendar. Please refer to the calendar for your child's snack day - we now have 16 in our class, but it's not a bad idea to send in enough for 18 just in case that changes.

You may have noticed a book come home with your child this week from our classrom leveled reading library. This book is on your child's individual reading level. I would like for you to let them read it to you at least 1-2 times each night. Every time they read this book, you will likely see their accuracy and speed increase (we call this fluency). This is such a wonderful thing because it not only increases their comfort level and their feeling of reading success, but it also gets them ready to read other books with similiar wording. Please keep these in their backpacks when they are not in use and we will check them back in at the end of the week. On Mondays, they will get a new "baggy book" to take home and practice reading.

Thank you all for supporting your child's learning every day - I am really impressed by the number of kids that are returning their G.O. books and homework - that shows me that you are spending time reinforcing their learning at home. I cannot tell you how valuable that time with your child is!

Our spelling words this week are:
get     yet     play     yes     see     dug     help     are     wet     dry