First Grade Newsletter, Volume 3
 
1st Grade Newsletter  9/13/07 by Nancy Imamura & Sayaka Matoba volume 3 The Second Week in the First Grade Classroom ! September 13, 2007 Dear Parents and Guardians, We are off to a great start in the first grade classrooms. We are very excited about having your child in our classrooms and are enjoying getting know each student better each day. During the first couple weeks we will be focusing on getting to know about each other, our school and the classroom rules, and routines. This week we started more academic lessons including math, Japanese writing, and English reading. We also had fun learning new Japanese songs which are connected to the Hiragana alphabet and math concepts. We appreciated your time filling out the sheet “Tell Me About Your Child,” It helps us to get to know your child quicker and better. If you have not returned the sheet, please do so. Also, we want to thank the families for donating snack this week to our classrooms. The children really look forward to having a little, “brain food” right after their third recess at 1:50- Thanks! You are doing a great job of getting your child to school on time, well fed, and rested. Tardies have been kept to a minimum. Thank you for getting your kids to school by 8:20.! Your child might bring home an orange behavior reminder form from the teachers. It will ask you to help remind your child to help learning in the classroom take place by being a good listener, looking at the teacher, keeping their hands on their desk or lap and most importantly, not making distracting noises and or talking to their neighbor. District testers come Monday 9/17 and hope to get first graders tested in two days. Eat a good breakfast to do your best. They will test student knowledge of letter names, letter sounds and their ability to segment ( hear sounds in words). \ Japanese Class Notes from Sayaka This Wednesday, the students, interns and I played a Japanese circle game outside called Toryanse.. Ask your child what they had to do in this game. The interns read a Kamishibai story “Otamajyakushi – a Tadpole story.” Kamishibai is a picture story on card with the words on the back. Friday is the first Japanese quiz on hiragana from a i, u, e o – na ni, nu,ne no, in order. Please study by completing the homework for the week. Field Trips West Eugene Wetlands Car Field Trips. Drivers requested. Students earn their participation on our field trips by proving they can be responsible, safe and respectful. Students not going will work with the homeroom that remains at school. Kabocha Group goes with Sayaka Sensei on ___TBA______. Donguri Group goes with Nancy Sensei on ____TBA______. They will come and do a class presentation prior to the field trips. The $50 fee will come out of our activity funds. Wednesday, October 24: Thistledown Farms. Car Field Trip. Drivers requested. We have a 9:30 tour. We will leave at 9:10 and leave Thistledown Farms at 10:30. Students bring a plastic grocery bag to carry their pumpkin. We encourage students to select pumpkins they can carry by themselves since the pumpkins will be used for math and art activities and will stay at school for a week before going home on Halloween. Heavy pumpkins tend to be dropped, and rot and need to be thrown out and don’t get a chance to be in our pumpkin decorating school wide contest. Each chaperone will lead a tallying activity in the store. Students will be tallying the number of vegetables and fruits of certain colors. The cost of $2.00 per person/or $94 plus 15 chaperones at $30 = $124 will come out of our activity funds. Families, please make sure your school fees are paid up. If not, please bring $2 for the field trip. Sally Foster Sally Foster orders are due October 2. The online ordering works well for out –of- town and out-of- state relatives. All Sally Foster monies will go to Technology. First grade is requesting another projector, stand and speakers for the Japanese Classroom. It would also be a “dream” if we could get a Smartboard. Don’t’ know what these new technologies are? Come visit the computer lab. Jackie Alonzo is our new Technology specialist. First graders have 70 – 110 minutes in the Tech Lab a week. That is 280 – 440 minutes a month per student. That is up from 70 minutes a month per student in Kindergarten. Calendar of Events: •Thursday, September 27: Picture Day. Send the money to your homeroom teacher. Students will be taking their picture order form and check to the library when they take their pictures. If you are ordering pictures, the money needs to be turned into the photographer at the time of the photo shoot. •Thursday, September 27: 6:40 – 7:20. Curriculum Night Kabocha Pumpkin Group Homeroom 12 meets with Sayaka from 6:45 – 7:00. Donguri Acorn Group Homeroom 13 meets with Nancy from 6:45 – 7:00. Kabocha Pumpkin Group Homeroom 12 meets with Nancy from 7: 05 – 7:20. Donguri Acorn Group Homeroom 13 meets with Sayaka from 7:05 – 7:20. Please do not ask us to assess individual students at this time. We would like to talk with you privately about your student’s progress either at conference, or anytime before that by special appointment. •Friday, October 25: Fall Festival: There will be a first grade booth that will need parent organizers and helpers. •Thursday, Friday November 1, 2: Parent Teacher Conferences. You will be assigned a 15 or 20 minutes slot to talk with us. We will be setting goals for your child for the school year. The teachers will try to meet together unless we fall behind. Please have your questions prepared. If your assigned time does not work for your family, please call Diane to reschedule. She will have the master schedule in the office. We lost a ½ a day of conference time this year, so the two days will be packed. Room Parents Do you like planning parties? (Halloween, New Year’s, Valentines, Children’s Day (May). Do you like to coordinate with and get to know other parents? We need two – four room parents to help out to get helpers for events such as the Fall Festival. There will be a first grade game booth. Also, prior to the Auction time in April, we will be needing parents to organize the class basket (select a theme and collect the items), and get a volunteer for the first grade auction art. It would be nice to plan a first grade picnic before the weather gets bad so you can meet all the new families. We have ten new first grade families. Welcome to Yujin Gakuen. No Peanuts Please Snacks and Sharing. Families are asked to contribute a snack item once every six weeks for 24 students. We don’t allow peanut products into the classroom. Also products processed in facilities which processes peanut products are not allowed. Please read the ingredients on the boxes carefully. Fruit is a great choice. You can send the snack on any day of the sharing/snack week. If your child would like to share a story, please let the teachers know.
Thursday, September 13, 2007