Mrs.
Donzes
Newsletter
(2014-2015)
October 16, 2014
Learned about the H Brothers and the special sounds they
make. (Many students asked for a copy of this. Its attached
with this newsletter.)
Weve been reading many fall books and a special book with scary
stories complied from Joanna Cole and Stephanie Calmenson in a
book called, The Scary Book. The kids ask to hear stories from
this book daily.
We are using Sticky Post it Notes to keep track of our
thinking. You have probably seen many sticky notes come home
and wondered what they were from. There will be many more!
Kids have Turn and Talk Partners they use for sharing ideas
with. They are kids from our class.
We are learning about Text Features and the purpose the author
uses them in the Non-fiction book.
We are making our own book of Text Features.
We read many books to answer our questionWhy do leaves
change their colors in fall? (Ask your child.)
We are studying bats and the misconceptions that people have
about them. We are studying the text features in the nonfiction
books to help us learn more about them.
We are looking at words, and noticing how the word can be
changed into a different word just by changing the beginning,
middle or ending letter. They really need to be observant to the
letters. We will be changing vowel sounds next week.
Important Dates
Oct. 17:
HALF DAY! School
dismissed at 12:05
Picture Re-take Day and Chuck
E Cheese Night 3-9 Alpine Only
Oct. 20: The students will
bring home their take home
books. Everyone is excited! Make
sure they get returned the next
day. Parents please do not mark on
the yellow laminated card that is
in the baggie. That is for you to see if
they needed practice on something or if its a
new book.
Oct. 24: Popcorn Day
Oct. 31: Halloween parade
& party 2:30-3:30
Special Schedule:
Monday: MUSIC
Tuesday: PE
Wednesday: COMPUTER LAB
& LIBRARY Try to have books all
returned by Tuesday so your child knows they
can check out another book on Wednesday.)
Thursday: ART
Friday: P.E.
Mrs. Kim Donze Email address: [email protected]
Blog: kimdonzeclassroom.blogspot.com (Check out the site and the pictures.)
Office Phone #: 616-863-6362, Classroom phone #: 616-863-6363 ext. 4721
What a beautiful day we had last week for a walk a thon!! I have some
pictures I will put on this newsletter, otherwise check more out on the blog.
Look what we are doing in class:
Our Focus Lessons:
Math: Unit 2 covers a lot and your children will need to think
a lot and solve problems. We will find differences between 2
numbers, solve simple number stories, play 2-fisted penny
games with sums of 10, count by 5s, count nickels and
pennies combined, learn to tell time on an analog clock to the
hour, be introduced to AM and PM, and develop a sense of
the duration of a minute, and how that relates to the hour. The
children will also have opportunities to find the sum of three 1-
digit numbers, solve and make up number stories, and will
have experiences with subtraction number stories.
One important thing I really want to mention
is that many children have number (and
letter) reversals. I am trying really hard to
correct this and as you know 35 is much
different than 53. (This has come across as
we count and write numbers by 5.)Please
help me by having your child correct any
backwards numbers (and letters too) they
have. Thank you!
Word Wall Words:
Any word with an * next to it, means it
does not follow a rule for sounding out.
Oct. 20-24
big, *your, *very, just, an
Skill work: ig word family,
Oct. 27-31
*from, over, its, now, came
Skill work: ame word family/opposites,
rhyming words
Nov. 3-7
*come, ride, long, into, how
Skill work: ide word family/opposites,
rhyming words
Belmonts Best
Mrs. Thelen will invite these kids
to eat their lunch with her
during the week of:
Oct 20: Makayley Reynolds
Oct. 27: Reed Binney
Nov. 3: Cam Kasik
PTO has purchased a book for
each child again this year and
they will receive it at lunch on
their special day.
Special Notes:
You are invited to attend the Halloween party if youd like. Many
parents like to take pictures and see them in the parade. We will be
having recess at 1:45-2:15 and then putting our costumes after
recess at 2:15. If you need to help your child, please come at that
time. The parade begins at 2:30 and it is starting at our end of the
building so we need to be ready by then. The party will follow the
parade. The kids are really excited about Halloween!
Look for an e-mail soon about signing up for November
conferences through Signup Genius. This is new for
all of us so be patient with the system. Make sure
you sign up though. I will have great things to share
with you about your child!!
Writing: We are working really hard on our
narrative stories. Our current goal is zooming
in and focusing on a specific thing in our small
moments. I am also encouraging the kids to
only use a lowercase letter unless is it a name
or beginning of a sentence. This is very hard
for first graders. We will work most of the year
on this.
Science: We will focus on Weather and
the season of fall during October.
The Walk-a-Thon!!
We loved the apples and
water we had once we got
back to Belmont!
I took a few more pictures
that you can check out on
the Blog.
We have great memories!
We are just beginning the walk down
Belmont Ave. We were happy to have a few
parents join us this beautiful day! You can
see the police office in the background
helping with traffic.
Half- way point
