February is HERE!!! YIKES AND YAHOO!

Mrs. Merrills 1st Grade Newsletter

My goodness! I cant believe how fast this year is flying by!! It
is already almost February! WOW!! How is this happening?...

Six Flags Reading: Keep reading and keeping track of the goal of
360 minutes!!! When completed, your child receives a treat from
the PTA and a free ticket to Six Flags!!! WOW! Keep reading!
Also, in your childs red homework folder is the Book-IT for
February and the Parent volunteer schedule for you to sign up if
you have extra time and want to come to our room! Plus, if you
want to order books, feel free! WE LOOOOOOOVE BOOKS! The
February book order is due February 13th!

*PLEASE DONT FORGET TO SEND YOUR FEBRUARY SNACK~ WE

HAVE 25 KIDS AND THEY REALLY APPRECIATE IT!!!
Valentines Day is coming, too!!!! Our party will be on
Friday, February 13th at 10:45! We are very excited to have a
Sweet Valentines Party! I know the marvelous moms have amazing ideas for
Valentines games, crafts, snacks, and fun galore! Thank you to ALL who can
come, help plan, and send in supplies for our party! Thanks to all who volunteer
to help us celebrate this holiday of love and friendship! Im certain we will
have a fantastic party for all to enjoy this kind-hearted holiday!!! In your
childs red homework folder, there is a class list for all 25 kids in our room so
everyone receives a valentine! We will pass out valentines during the day
before the party, that way we can enjoy the Valentine Stations set up by the
smashing party planners! Hip! Hip! Hurray! Heres an extra copy of our list
of kids

MRS. MERRILLS 1ST GRADERS!!!

Diya
Hannah
Michael Smith
Casey
Sofia
Tom
Libby
Olivia
MaLeigha
Annabelle
Abigail
Ben
Harley
Kaitlyn
Chase
Evan
Garrick
Elayna
Gavin
Daltyn
Peyton
Aidan
Mike White
Natalie
Conrad
VALENTINE BOXES~ We have decided to allow the children to make their
very own, fancy, one of a kind spectacular, original, award winning Valentine
Box at home! This way each box will be fabulously unique!!! Please help your
child to decorate their box at home before Friday, February 13 th and you can
send it to school any time before our Valentines Party!!! If you need help
getting a box for your child,
just let me know and we
can collect cereal boxes or
shoe boxes to help you!

THE 100TH DAY OF SCHOOL IS TUESDAY, FEBRUARY

3RD! You already received a note about this special day, and
thanks to all for sending in your item for our 100 DAY MIX
as well as your 100 day item to display and carry or wear in our 100 DAY
FASHION SHOW! Happy 100th Day everyone!

MADISON SCHOOL SCIENCE FAIR IS MONDAY

FEBRUARY 9th~! We cant wait to explore the demonstrations,
models, experiments, and collections! Sooo many
scientists from our class are entered! Thanks to all
for participating!!!!
NO SCHOOL ON Monday, February 18th to honor
PRESIDENTS DAY!
THEATER CLASS WITH THE NEWLY HIRED
QCT KELSEY IS MONDAY, FEBRUARY 2ND
9:55-10:40~!
First Grade Music Program~ FEB. 23RD: Mr. Wunderlich will
be conducting the 1st Grade Music Program on Monday,
Feburary 23rd at 6:30. Kids need to be at school before the show at 6:15 in
our classroom and we will see you downstairs in the gym for the sensational
show! This years musical performance is entitled, HOW DOES YOUR
GARDEN GROOVE? Our class will be vegetablesTOMATOES, EGGPLANT
AND PEPPERS. There are 8 speaking parts for our class and Mr. Wundelich
wants children to wear the color of their vegetable. Lets look forward to
this stunning performance from our singers!
What are we learning about???
CONTENT WORKSHOP: We have been working hard on our unit on space:
including the night sky, seasons, day and night, sun, stars, and phases of the
moon. The kids REALLY enjoyed this unit learned a lot!!! Check out the
CONTENT WORKSHOP tab on our website to see videos and pictures of your

childs learning! This week we should be ready to take our second Science
Assessment (test) about the moon, sun, and night sky. WE
just started CONSTELLATION PROJECTS!! This is a
project I am using with the 2nd graders in the Extended
Day program. The project is from the defined stem
website and involves teams choosing a constellation,
drawing it, researching and learning facts about the myth,
then writing what they learned. They will try to find their
constellation at home in the night sky and will receive a
stargazer map to help them! Also, your children will invent
their own constellation, draw it, and create a myth to go
with their unique constellation! The stories are SOOO interesting! We have
already read books about Casseopia, Orion, and the Great and Little Bear.
Teams chose their constellations and will begin research this week! Your
children are smashing scientists!
Our next unit for Feb. is LEADERS. We will review what being a
leader is, chart some good leaders, how we can be good leaders
(we all need reminders), and learn about some great leaders!!
WE will read and create informational webs on Abraham
Lincoln, George Washington, and our leader todaythe
President. Next comes the inquiry based learning. Your
children will be divided into teams of 3 or so, and they will choose a leader
they want to research and teach the class all about! They will do a leader
project by researching in informational books and information we discover on
the internet together. Teams will also be synergizing to write about their
leader, creating an informational web on their leader, illustrating a portrait of
their leader, and presenting it to the class!

AUTHOR STUDY/GENRE STUDY/INDEPENDENT READING

WORKSHOP:
INDPENDENT READING/ WRITING ABOUT THEIR READING
Your children have been writing in a booklet entitled, MY THINKING
ABOUT MY READING. In the beginning of the year, your children would

write the date, introduce the book they read, tell what they thought about
the book and WHY (just like weve been doing all year) to be more thoughtful
such as
*favorite part, least favorite part
*favorite character, least favorite character
*connections: what does the book remind you of?
*authors message: what is the author trying to tell kids who read it?
*how did the book make you feel?
*what do you wonder?
*who do you recommend it to? Why or why not?
NOW WE HAVE RAISED THE STANDARD FOR FIRST GRADE. We are
working on coming up with a BIG IDEA after reading (or listening to) a book.
The BIG IDEA can be about the story or character. Right now we have
focused on characters. Your children think of a strong adjective to describe
a character and then support their thinking with evidence and proof from the
book. What actions or behaviors PROVE the character is brave, kindhearted, lazy, dedicated, gullible, or whatever adjective you think! We even
have whole brain teaching moves that go with thisIf you have an opinion,
you need EVIDENCE and PROOF from a book I modeled with Ella The
Elegant Elephant, The Wednesday Surprise, Martin Luther King JR. and will
continue with more books read aloud! We also add a strong ending and write
like a book (conventions, punctuation). I will include a copy of this newly
revised 1st grade Writing About Reading rubric so you have it. Kids share into
the Share Circle and with partners a few times a week and everyone is scored
on this district rubric TWICE THIS YEAR STARTING NOW in first
grade. Their scores will be factored into their Reading placement on our
Madison Assessment Wall~as Below Expectations, Approaching
Expectations, Meeting Expectations, and Exceeding Expectations.
GENRE STUDY: WE finished our HOW TO GENRE STUDY, read TONS of
How To books, text mapped them together, text mapped books at the
Reading Kingdom for a few weeks, wrote what we were noticing, and wrote a
CLASS HOW TO BOOK: HOW TO GET A 4 IN GYM! We are ready to
illustrate this book, hang it by the gym for ALL to read, and send you a copy

soon! Next, we will be ready to write our own How To books in Writers
Workshop coming soon.
LANGUAGE STUDY: Our next Language Study in February is on SIMILES
AND METAPHORS!!! WE will learn the definition, read mentor texts, chart
examples, look for this amazing writing in books, and USE this amazing
language in our own writing and stories!!! After this Language Study we will
start a language study on PUNCTUATION! Punctuation IS A GOAL for many
of us as writers. Its time for us to learn about each punctuation mark and
its importancewe cant read, write, or speak without punctuation! We have
MANY mentor texts on punctuation and its importance. WE will chart each
punctuation mark, write the definition, list the reasons to use the
punctuation, and find examples in books. Check our website in February in the
READERS WORKSHOP tab for pictures of the books and your childs learning!
Spelling: We will continue sending an individualized Rebecca Sitton Words
to Learn list for each child. We have been doing the activities daily during
spelling time and at the Word Kingdom, plus weve done Cloze Procedure tests,
Achievement tests, Sentence Dictations, and I have been checking their daily
writing to see what words should be put on each childs list. This program
focuses on making sure priority words and first grade core words are spelled
correctly in student writing. We should CELEBRATE their fantastic spelling
and not worry so much about words on a list and tests on Friday. But,
spelling is on the report card next time. We will continue to practice at
school and work on word power~ *Reading and writing one word, can lead to
reading and writing millions and billions and trillions of words!* WE will be
adding more words to our pocketful of words in reading and writing. It really
helps to practice at home, too!
Reading: WE just finished testing all readers The benchmark
reading assessment was given to some readers, as well as running
records were given to ALL READERS IN OUR CLASS! Some
AMAZING NEWS ISMany readers have shown IMPRESSIVE
improvement and 96% of readers IN OUR CLASS are
MEETING AND EXCEEDING at this point in first grade!

WOW! Keep reading, retelling, and thinking about your books at home. Many
READERS are still working on trying multiple strategies when they are stuck
on a word, besides just sitting and looking at youthats not a strategy we
use! THINKING ABOUT THE STORY AND LOOKING AT THE TRICKY
WORD AT THE SAME TIME IS THE MAGIC TICKET!!! Dont just focus
on letters, but stop thinking.Dont just think about the story, but stop
looking.They need to THINK ABOUT THE STORY AND WHAT IT COULD
BE And SAY WHAT YOU SEESAY THE BIGGEST PART YOU CAN SAY~
Break words apart on the run into chunks they knowSaying sounds letter
by letter will NOT help you and is not effective. We do NOT want
someone saying d-i-s-m-i-ss. Say the biggest PART you can say, like
dis-miss. Children can say what they think about a book after reading it
What did they wonder? What connections did they have? How would they
describe the character? What is the authors message? What did they
visualize while reading they story?? To enhance the WRITING ABOUT
READING talk about a character, state an opinion: what adjective would you
use to describe the character, what proof and evidence do you have from the
book to support your thinking?
Writing:
We have been creatively WRITING FICTION during
Writers Workshop! Check our website on the WRITERS
WORKSHOP tab to see photos of charts weve made on How To
Write Book 1 of a series, How to Write Series Books, and How to
Write Realistic Fiction. Writers have created a character, setting,
details, dialogue, friends, and trouble for their character. They are getting
their characters out of trouble and BRINGING THEIR CHARACTERS TO
LIFE~ Make your characters MOVE .Make your characters THINK, AND
FEEL. UNFREEZE YOUR CHARACTERS! This week we will be revising and
editing our realistic fiction series books! All children will revise, edit, and
published a minimum of 2 books for their box setsome may even have 3 or 5
books! This was a fabulous creative writing unit and now we are ready to
celebrate soon before starting our next unit of study in February.
We will be writing HOW TO BOOKS in February, since we are experts
on this genre of writing after learning ALL ABOUT HOW TO BOOKS already

in Readers Workshop! Kids will brainstorm topics on which they are an expert
and will text map and write teaching books on how to do something!
Math: We finished up working on understanding Place Value in
Unit 5 using e-tools, base 10 blocks, 10 frames and more. This
test was scored as well as the last 3 tests: Unit 3, 4, and 5 to
find your childs TOTAL MATH SCORE and determine if he or
she is below, approaching, meeting, or exceeding expectations
in math. For the first time, your child had an OPEN
RESPONSE story problem to solve by themselves. For
this, the children are given 2 days on the first day they try to solve
the problem and I score their responses. Then, I chose 2 thinkers to
explain their math thinking with the class and share their strategy.
After this re-teaching and explaining, your child was given a second day and
second chance to fix up their math thinking. The total score for this story
problem was just 4 points added to the score of their first 3 math tests.
Some of us still struggle to master our 10 frames and this HAS TO BE
FAST AND FLUENT BY THE END OF 1ST GRADE. We continue to work on
this at kingdoms and in small groups. Kids have to be able to quickly recognize
that 8+___=10, and know in 2 seconds the answer is 2! Kids have 2 seconds to
know basic math facts!!! When this knowledge is solid, adding is always easier
if you can make 10! You can use 10 frame friendly numbers to add 3 numbers.
For example, 5+2+5.we know 5+5=10 so +2 more =12. Making 10 is a strategy
we learned with +8 and +9 facts. For example, to solve 8 +5, we would make a
tower of 5 cubes and think how many do we need to add to 8 to make 10 (2) so
we break 2 off our tower of 5. Now we made 10 (8+2) and we have 3 left
over. Its easy to solve 10+ 3= 13! Decomposing and breaking down numbers is
a new tricky strategy that we worked on with manipulatives during math
groups and is practiced in 2nd grade, too!
We are starting UNIT 6: DEVELOPING FACT POWER! Time and Money
seemed to be a struggle for some on the report cards, and will be revisited in
this unit, along with quarters! We will continue to work on time (a struggle
for several~ especially on the half hour) using time clocks, games, time
sheets, and the popular STOP THE CLOCK time game on the computer!

We finished up some of our addition basic facts ~ including doubles,

count-ons, and zeroes. We just learned our doubles +1! Butif your child
doesnt solidly know their doubles, they will have severe difficulty solving
doubles +1 and doubles +2. AT the NUMBER SENSE KINGDOM every week
are 6 lap tops for your child to log in and practice math facts on
XTRAMATH.ORG!!! We will be playing the Team Game more and will continue
to every Friday we can to strengthen our math fact power! We will be adding
multiple numbers (2+4+3) and introduce adding double digits (without
carrying). This will then conclude the addition facts. We will work on
subtraction next! We have introduced easy count backs (-1, -2, -3) already,
and will learn more. We continue to do the Common Core related Chicago
Math lessons and journal pages~ Thanks for helping your child with math
homework at home, too! Keep practicing time (only hour and half hour for
Common Core, 10 frames, problem solving, and anything to help your child
mathematically!
SCIENCE~ We have been working on Investigating Properties as well as
our NIGHT SKY UNIT! ON Friday, your students had the Science Lesson:
STRING STUFF: sorting string stuff according to different properties
with their Science partner. At a kingdom this week, they will sort
objects made of different materials~ fabric, glass, paper, metal, wood,
and plastic. WE will also chart objects made of MORE THAN ONE
MATERIAL. You will see a Science Assessment on these topics soon~ Our
next Science lesson in February is.The Mixed Up Shoe Store and we
incorporate the Air and Weather experiments, too! They work in small groups
with air and weather! Then, they write in their Science Journals about their
discoveries!!! WE will be ready in February for Lesson 4 on Properties Are
Properties Important?
JUNIOR ACHIEVEMENT~ Every Friday morning at 9:15-9:45, we are beyond
lucky to have Peytons Mom teach us Junior Achievement lessons to help us
grow into amazing adults! Ask your child about it on Fridays after school~
.
Thanks again for ALL you do! Your children are REALLY working hard having
STAR BEHAVIOR and earning lots of stars at school! We go shopping at our

STAR STORE every Tuesday with Marvelous Mom Volunteers, and the
children are loving it!!!! Some of us still need to remember to WORK HARD
during every workshop and all learning kingdoms: ALWAYS DO YOUR BEST~
showing the world how amazing and clever you are!!!! Stars are treasures for
all of us who work so hard to do the right thing, each and everyday! Your
people are RICH in star behavior! Hip! Hip! Hurray!

Thanks again for everything and let me know if you ever have any
questions or thoughts about anything!!! Mrs. Merrill