First Grade Newsletter Volume 7
 
Education Newsletter  October 4, 2007 Volume 7 Treasure Chest, Posters Winners and WOW prizes. First graders earn treasure chest prizes by reading blue slipped work at home. They help the class earn stickers on the “Be helpful” chart. They earn WOW prizes by being respectful, safe and responsible. Blue Slips and Treasure Chest By now you have probably heard all about our weekly treasure chest drawings. We put all the signed blue slips into a container. We have a drawing once a week of ten names. The first ten different names get to choose an item from our treasure chest of recycled “treasures.” Names not chosen are tallied. We keep track of those blue slip tallies to make sure students are reviewing finished work with their families. The more signed blue slips in the bucket means a better chance of having your name be one of the first ten drawn each week. Poster Winners Poster winners are drawn whenever the class earns a Classroom Wow. A Classroom WOW can be from other staff members who notice the great behaviors of our first grade classes or from the homeroom teachers for having great fire drills, etc. A Classroom WOW is also earned whenever the class fills up the Class Goals chart with twenty stickers. Our class goal has been “Be Helpful” for the last three charts . Five Classroom WOWs means that the class earns five- ten minutes of extra recess. Both classrooms have earned that the first month of school. When all students in the class have won a poster, we will start over again. with all the names to draw from. WOWS, Whoas and Red Tickets This year we are working our best to encourage students toward helpful behaviors by rewarding the positives. Yes, several students have been written up with Whoas. In the classroom, those have mainly been for repeated non-compliance and repeated disruption of learning. Let’s keep those to a minimum and instead work on earning WOWs. 25 Wows earns the student a red ticket to take to the office to win a weekly drawing. Those red tickets stay in the jug all year for a chance to be drawn. Wow Badges and Class WOW Prizes We have WOW badges students can earn for their first 50 WOWs. After that, each 50 earns a silver, gold, etc . star on the badge. In the past, first graders have earned over 200 - 300 WOWS. Let’s practice school and teacher expectations and earn those WOWs. Many WOWs have been written up during reading group times for paying attention, and following along with your finger and eyes. With each red ticket earned, there is also an automatic class WOW prize to choose from as well. Donguri, Acorn Group Homeroom 13 Treasure Chest We would appreciate donations when you do your cleaning and organizing of gently used items.We put these items in the treasure chest for students to choose when their blue slip names are called. Thistledown Farms We have 25 seatbelts in Green, Donguri Group 13. Confirmed drivers are: Robin Seno, Anna McCool, Gina Kau, Barbara Brasted Maki, Keri Lutje and Michael Acord. In Yellow Kabocha Group 12, we have 9 seatbelts. Confirmed drivers are: Yukino Wu and Pam Quan. Nancy and Sayaka can help out with this class with 7 more seatbelts, but we need two more drivers, or 8 more seatbelts. Don’t forget your booster seats. The Field trip is scheduled for Wednesday, October 24 from 9:10 - 10:45. Thank you. A big Thank You to the parents who have been volunteering for the 1st Grade! We appreciated your time and efforts. Donguri, Acorn Group Homeroom 13  Sayaka Sensei likes to have volunteers on Mondays from 12:30-1:00 or 1:00-1:35 and Fridays from 10:15-11:00 to help Donguri Group Math. Nancy Sensei has math on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 12:30-1:35 as well. Kabocha, Pumpkin Group Homeroom 12  Sayaka Sensei like to have volunteers on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 12:30-1:35 to help Kabocha Group Math. Nancy Sensei has math on Mondays from 12:30-1:35 and during the week in the morning. We need helpers to work with individual students. Please sign up on the volunteer calendar or just show up. First Grade Newsletter October 4, 2007 Volume 7 continued Sayaka’s Announcements •Japanese and English/English and Japanese Dictionary information is coming home soon. We are able to get a discount if we order 50 or more copies through Yujin Gakuen. We are asking other classes to go in with us. The cost will be around $30.00 •Sayaka Sensei will be starting WOW Winners every Friday. Students will take ONE WOW and put it in a jar. Otouban San for the week (Classroom leader) will pick three WOWs out of the jar. These three lucky students will get a prize. •Sayaka Sensei will be passing out Fantastic Fall Behavior Tickets (yellow) to students who have been listening with their EYES AND EARS, and working and lining up quietly. Examples of desired behaviors are: working hard in the classroom, picking up pencils and crayons, helping their friends speak Japanese in the classroom, and trying to speak Japanese in the classroom themselves. •Sayaka Sensei started introducing the sounds of Kanji Characters from one to ten. Studetns are very excited to learn how to read the new Kanji Characters. We are so pround of them!!Students just know hoow to read the Kanji, but are not writing them yet. The following Kanji characters have been introduced: 一 (ichi)　二(ni) 三(san) 四 (yon or shee) 五 (go) 六 (r(l)oku)　七(nana or shichi) 八 (hachi) 九 (kyu) 十 (jyu) Japanese Homework Packet Thank you for supporting your child at home! As a class, we are able to read 46 hiragana characters between 45 to 55 seconds! Japanese homework should get easier as the year progresses and your child becomes more familiar with the system. Hang in there!!
Thursday, October 4, 2007