Monday, November 26, 2012

November 26th

I am sorry for not posting as often as I should have.  I wanted to catch everyone up with what we are doing this week and in the future.

I first want to thank all of the parents that came and helped last Wednesday with our Fall Party.  I know the kids sure had fun.  Some left that day saying it was the best day of school ever.  If you contributed through donations I would also like to say thank you! 

Secondly, I hope everyone had a restful four day weekend and enjoyed their holiday.  I know it sure was nice to see all of my family together.  I hope everyone got a chance to spend some quality time with their loved ones.  I also realized that this was the first time, in a long time, I had my whole immidiate family together, and for that I am thankful.  I hope everyone got a chance to pause and remember what they are thankful for as well.

Now that school is back into full swing and Christams break is approaching, life is again getting back into gear.  We have a lot to cram in these few weeks.  Today we read a story about kids around the world.  I introduced the idea comaping and contrasting.  I had the kids write a small blurb about something they do and if the kids in other countires do it too.  We will be touching more on comparing and contrasting this week.  We also took some time and made sure everyone was familiar with words that start with S.  I introduced the concept of CCVC words and CCVe words.  Your students can tell you what that means.  In math we began to talk about measuring things.  This week we are going to talk about different things to use as we measure various things.  We will also be touching on our subtraction and addition in our spare time.

I introduced a new story today that had everyone's attention.  I read, "The Elf on the Shelf".  We now have a classroom elf named Steven.  According to our story he leaves school when we do and returns when we do.  He is always watching over us.  At the end of the day he makes a quick get away and lets Santa know who is being naughty and who is being nice.  The studets loved this and we had some great writers today.  I was impressed with some of our entries in our writing journals. 

Friday, November 9, 2012

Veteran's Day!

Today we paused to remember our veteran's who have served our country.  We had a great student led assembly in which we sang songs and reflected on who greatful we are to have such brave men and women protect our freedoms.  The kiddos did an awesome job with the presentation.  The picture above is some artwork done by our 4th and 5th grade students that was on display today.

We also got a visit from the Easter Seals Rehabilitation Center.  They came in to educate us on how they help poeple with disabilities.  They taught us that we are all the same altough they may do things different than we do.  We will have a chance to help out our friends at Easter Seals in the near future.  We will be raising money soon and having a hop-a-thon.  There will be more information to come shortly.

Just a reminder that there is no school on Monday the 12th as we take an extra day to remember our vetarn's. 

Thanks and have a good three day weekend!

Wednesday, November 7, 2012

Another Great Day in Room #6 (11/7/12)

Today was a great day.  We are all mastering the L blend sounds and had fun playing a spelling game.  In reading we are working on reading with feeling and adding actions to our short plays.  We touched on how actors have to read with feeling in order to be entertaining.  Reading with feeling will also help us build our fluency.  In math we are plugging right along and today we discussed doing addition to check out work.  Tomorrow's homework will be about subtraction.  On the worksheet that is being sent home on Thursday there is room for you to show your addition work.  I told everyone if you use addition to check your work then you will never be wrong and that is why math is so awesome.

The big hit of the day was when we reviewed all the parts of speech.  We have talked about nouns and adjectives.  Today I introduced verbs.  Everyone seemed to be mastering the concept of verbs.  I simply said, "Verbs show action; action, action, action!"  We got a chance to listen to some of the classics while we review and do something new.  I had a few requests today to put links to the websites so you can watch the videos at home and review as you please.

Nouns
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ob2OdD0PMnI

Verbs
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=US8mGU1MzYw

The Verb Rap (This was a big hit!)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AHyLqPspWR0


Monday, November 5, 2012

November 5th

Today was Monday and it seems that everyone had a great weekend.  I know because we had a case of the chatty Cathies.  Everyone was a little more talkative than usual.  I have been stressing self control more and more.  Some of us are getting a little too friendly. 

With that said we did have a good day of making sure we were proficient with our phonics and grammar.  We reviewed the short U sound and talked about adjectives.  We did an activity where we had to describe ourselves.  We also got to watch oneof my favorite clips.  You can click on the link below.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Nuxeh4V1ng&safe=active

In math we are slowly mastering fact families.  After the second day of fact families, we are doing fairly well.  Just remember when you are writing your two subtraction facts that the biggest number at the top of the triangle goes first.  The biggest number always goes first in a subtraction problem.  Later in the week we will be talked about using addition to check our work.

Tomorrow we will continue our plays and talking about the setting, character, sequencing of stories and problems.  On Friday the goal is that everyone has read through their lines enough to act out their small skit, in a reader's theater style.  Tomorrow we will also briefly talk about the election and the significance of tomorrow's election.

If you have any questions please email at Robert.Moreland@evsc.k12.in.us.

Sunday, November 4, 2012

Family Fun Night

Family Fun Night sure lived up to its name.  I had a great time seeing everyone and helping out.  It was fun to meet some new faces as well.  Congrats to those who won something.  I also want to thank our room mother, Mrs. Parker, as well as everyone who helped put our basket together.  It sure looked great!  I am excited for this next week and what is has to offer!  Thanks to everyone and anyone who made Family Fun Night a huge success!


Thursday, November 1, 2012

1st of November

Whew!  It has been extremely busy around Oak Hill preparing for Family Fun Night and getting interventions organized in hopes of kicking them off next week.  We have been looking at each student's needs and have designed a thirty minute block to meet their needs.  We will have vocabulary building, reading comprehension, reading fluency and an excellerated math time.

This week has been working on stories that make you laugh.  The main selection this week, "On My Way to School", we discussed the characters, setting and what happened in the story in depth.  We have also been looking at constant blends with the letter L.  Our phonics skills are starting to be combined.  We are now making words that combine different sounds with short vowels and constant combinations.  The best thing we can do in order to make sure the kiddos are getting what they need is to just have them keep reading.  In class we sound out words and stress different sounds.  At home you can quiz your students to check their progress and see if they can sound out and decode the words.  In math we have been covering subtraction in great detail.  I have given them three options for subtracting.  I have told them if you have memorized the facts that is the ultimate goal, if you can cross things out, or use the number line.  If your student is missing a few questions here and there, don't get discouraged.  We will make it through.  Subtraction is a little more difficult than adding.  We still have a few more things to talk about.  nNext week I am going to show everyone how to check your answers using addition.

Halloween has come and gone.  Yesterday we enjoyed reading some Halloween stories and some Halloween crafts.  I know I have heard stories about trick-or-treating and it sounds like everyone had fun.  This week we have also enjoyed dressing up for spirit week.  I have enjoyed it myself.  Today, I dressed as my favorite book character, Waldo, from Where's Waldo.  We have been dressing up in order for Saturday's Family Fun Night.  Just a reminder that Family Fun Night is Saturday from 4-8pm. If you have any ticket orders please turn them in tomorrow.  I think that about covers it for now!  Check back soon for more updates!

Wednesday, October 24, 2012

Wednesday the 24th

The week is going by fast!  I had a few moments during my plan time to give you a quick update about the week thus far.  We have been working on retelling a story and reading fluently.  Tonight a book is being sent home with every student.  As your student reads this book you can see where they are on their fluency and what words they need to practice.  These selections have words in them that are high frequency words.  I encourage you to ask questions about the story and have them retell or even draw what they remember. 

The short "u" sound is coming along nicely.  From just my assessments by walking around the room and seeing everyone, this sound has been pretty easy.  A good way to review is by looking at our spelling words.  They all have a short "u" sound.

In math we have been working on interpreting graphs of all kinds.  We have also been working on our addition and subtration skills.  I have been finding creative ways to embed these basic problems into their brains for the rest of their lives.  We need to build a good solid foundation and understanding of addition and subtraction now.

On a different note, this morning Sheriff Harmon came in and talked to us about stranger danger.  He told us that we have to watch out for strangers and not to talk to them or take anything from them.  He told us only take things from prople you trust such as your parents and grandparents.  He told us that if they look funny, or something does not feel right to get help immediatley.  This was great for the kiddos, especially just before Halloween.

Don't forget to contact Mrs. Parker if you have anything for the basket.  Picture day is Friday, come looking your best!

Tuesday, October 23, 2012

Upcoming Events here at Oak Hill

It seems as if there are just so many things happening here at Oak Hill in the upcoming weeks that I just want to make sure that everyone knows what is going on.

Today a short letter was sent home regarding a classroom basket for Family Fun Night.  Here is what it said; Our first grade class will be collecting donations for our class basket for the Family Fun Night Chinese Auction with the theme of Get Up and Move.  The basket already has a 1 month class of Zumba donated.  Other items that could be donated might be jump ropes, hand weights, pedometer, exercise dvd, exercise ball, exercise mat, etc.  I would like items back to the classroom by October 29th.  This will be used as a Chinese auction item at Family Fun Night November 3rd.  If you would like your   item(s) picked up, please email Kimbra Parker at kimbraparker@wowway.com to arrange for pickup or drop off at her house.

Here is the list of things that are happening.

October the 31st-Paragon Money is due.  If you have been collecting Paragon money from the things you sold please be sure to turn the money in on this day.

Tonight (October 23)- CATS technology night.  Our 5th and 6th graders have been hard at work preparing a presentation about technology safety.  It begins at 6pm tonight.

Picture Day is Friday October 26th- Be sure to send in your orders this day.  I can keep them for you if you would like until the 26th.  Come to school looking your best!

Family Fun Night is November 3rd- It will be a fun night filled with laughter as you enjoy a relaxing night at Oak Hill with your parents.  There will be a cake walk, games, and some inflatables.  Come and join us on the 3rd of November from 4-8pm.

Thursday, October 18, 2012

Just a reminder this morning!

Today is Paragon pick up day after school.  The pick up time is from 2:30-6pm.  If you sold any items please come and pick them up.

Tuesday, October 16, 2012

October 16th

I have a few thoughts for you tonight and the rest of the week.  These past two days have been busy as usual.  We have been working hard on our topic of animal homes and the -sh and -th sounds.  We have also been talking about the different kinds of graphs.  So far, we have made a bar graph and a graph with tally marks.  We will continue our graphing with picture graphs and tables.  We have also been reinforcing knowing those plural nouns that do not follow a rule.  I have been telling the kiddos these irregular plural nouns are just words you have to know.  Usually if you say the words to yourself you can figure out the plural form of a word.

Today we were fortunate enough to have some awesome sixth graders come to our room and help us learn about bullying.  We got to watch a skit and listen to a story that explains how bullying is wrong.  The kids were told, "Bullying is Wrong, Stand Up Strong!"  It was explained that even if you are meaning to just have fun and joke with someone, it is still wrong.  Making fun of someone or picking on someone does not follow our Oak Hill rule either.  Remember, cats are cool, they follow the golden rule!

Be extra careful when going through you student's backpack tonight.  The picture forms were sent home today.  Picture day will be October 26th.  You can do one of two things with the picture forms. You may send it back to school until picture day and I will hold onto it for you, or you may send it to school with your kiddo on the 26th.  It makes me no difference.

If you have any questions let me know!
Thanks and Go Cardinals!!

Sunday, October 14, 2012

Upcoming Events at Oak Hill

After an exciting Cardinals game I got an email from Mrs. Shanks with some upcoming events that are happening here at Oak Hill.  Here they are!

October 18th, Paragon Pick Up- If you have anything to pick up from the Paragon fundraiser from earlier in the year Thursday is the day.  You may pick up your items after school.  For those of you that got a purple slip this past Friday, this announcement is for you.

October 23rd Cats Tech Night- Students in the upper grades here at Oak Hill have been working hard to prepare an informational technology night.  They will teach us a thing or two about the technology we have in the classroom and other topics they have been researching.  This event begins at 6pm that evening.

October 26th Picture/Report Card Day- School pictures are happening on this Friday.  Make sure you come to school looking extra spiffy for your first grade picture!  Report cards will also be sent home on this day.

October 29th-November 2nd- Spirit week in efforts to raise awareness for our family night at Oak Hill sponsored by the PTA.  Here is a list of what we can wear to school this week:

Monday--- Sports Day
Tuesday---pajama day
Wednesday--crazy hat and socks
Thursday--favorite book character
Friday---Wildcat Spirit


November 3rd- Family Fun Night sponsored by the PTA

November 9th @ 8:30am- Veteran's Day program at Oak Hill

Also, don't forget every Monday is Library Day so be sure to return those books so we can get new ones!!

Go Cardinals!!  Believe in 12 in 12!!

Thursday, October 11, 2012

Thoughts on Thursday the 11th

As I am winding down and getting ready to call it a day, I would just like to say a few things about the week thus far.  We have been working hard on retelling and summarizing stories.  Today we took a look at what we remembered from the Little Red Hen.  Everyone was able to not only tell me something about the story but they were able to use details from the story and tell me what happened in the correct order.  We will constantly be reviewing this topic throughout the year along with identifying the main idea of a book.  Our shapes discussion has gone really well.  It has been super easy for everyone.  Today all I had to do is ask a couple of questions and the kiddos came up with the answers.  We have worked on squares, rectangles, triangles and circles.  These shapes are what will be assessed on this semester's report card.  If you are wondering what they know about these shapes ask them about edges and vertices and how many each shape has and what the difference is between a rectangle and a square.  Before I finish this post i would like to say that today's spelling test was the best one yet!  A huge majority of the class got an A+ or only missed one.

Just a reminder that the Scholastic Book order is due and to be watching the memos coming home with an opportunity to help out in the classroom with the upcoming fall party.

Also, be sure to root on the Cardinals as they make another run in the playoffs!!

Monday, October 8, 2012

Monday the 8th

I hope everyone enjoyed their three day weekend and managed to stay dry and warm.  I hope you enjoyed the Fall Festival and have recovered from the greasy menu that it has to offer.  I may be working off that Donut Bank Burger for a few weeks.  Today I feel like we got a great start to the week.  I introduced two new topics and everyone seemed to be cacthing on rather quickly.  I introduced summarizing the text.  I explained that if I could retell the important parts of the story and who was in the story then I can summarize.  We will be reading all week and working on this skill.  If you are reading the stories at home ask questions that make your students summarize what they have read.  Ask them about the characters and what they have been doing and how thye may overcome a problem.  The other big topic this week is plural nouns.  We already knew that a noun is a person, place, thing or animal.  We now know that plural means more than one and we have to add an -s, or -es to make some nouns plural.  We will continue this week with plural nouns and talk more in depth about mouse becoming mice, and loaf becoming loaves.  We did talk about squares today.  This was an easy topic for everyone.  We did talk about verticies and edges.  Shapes are on the report card, so this week is all about squares, circles, rectangles and triangles.  We also had a visitor come in today.  My sister, Lindsay, who is studying pharmacy at Purdue and on a short break, came in and read with some students.  She helped out with improving our reading skills and asked questions about the stories that were read. 

Monday, October 1, 2012

A rather wet 1st Monday in October

I have a moment before I pick the kiddos up from specials and I wanted to update everyone on a few things that we did today that were new and somewhat of a review.  Today we read a book together and made predictions and talked about why the author wrote the story.  Tomorrow we will take that one step further and talk about the main idea of a story.  In our phonics for the week we began talking about the short "o" sound.  From my observations today this will be an easy sound to master and to use in our spelling and writing.  In math we are still talking about they ways to make numbers with tens and ones.  Tomorrow we will do a little review game and then on Thursday have a short assessment.  After the review day the assessment will be a breeze.  In our grammar part of the day we introduced the topic of adjectives.  Your students should be able to tell you what an adjective is and what it describes.  We also talked about the six reasons writers write.  They write to write a story, make a list, write a book, write a post card, write a letter, and to write a card.  We are going to make each one of these so the students are familiar with some of the different styles of writing.  We will end the day with a trip to the library and a small science discussion on clay and begin talking about what we found in you past experiments of getting the different kinds of soils wet. 

On another note, the Art to Remember packets went home.  If you wish to purchase anything please make sure it is returned by October the 8th.  Your student will have this in their backpack.

Thanks and have a great Monday, stay dry!

Thursday, September 27, 2012

September 27

As the week draws to a close I would like to share a few things that we have been doing in the classroom this week. This week has been kind of a catch up/review week.  Each day we have been talking about a certain aspect of reading and reviewing our phonics.  We have been reviewing characters, setting, the order of a story and the author's purpose.  Each day your students have picked a book that they have read out of their book bags and done a small activity to reflect these topics.  We will always be reviewing these topics as we read stories throughout the year.  Today we read "Chimpansneeze" and talked bout the author's purpose.  We came to the conclusion that the purpose was to tell us a funny story and to entertain. We also touched on what poetry was and how it tends to use rhyming words.  Next week we will be talking about the main idea.  I have also been meeting with each student individually to make some assessments and talk to them about their fluency and sight words.  As you read with your students remind them of voice inflection with exclamations and questions.  I have also noticed that some of us need to slow down when we read or try to read in a more consistent manner.  I am also going to start sending home a new reader this next week.  It is hard to believe that we are already on our second book.  It has a rabbit on the cover.  You may see the first book, the one with the mouse on the cover, come home for extra practice.  If your student can read every story in that book fluently with very little mistakes then they are right on target.  We are stressing reading because it is needed for everything, even math.  This week we are also going to begin some more intensive writing.  We are going to begin to talk about the 6 ways to write.  We will also be talking about adjectives.  Today we talked about proper nouns and sentences needing capital letters and punctuation marks.  I believe we have finally mastered the topic of capital letters and punctuation marks.  In math we have been talking a lot about place value.  We are focusing on ones and tens.  Tomorrow we are going to introduce the topic of adding the tens and ones in more ways than one to make a number.  For example, take the number 34.  You can make 34 by 30 + 4 = 34, 20 + 14 = 34 and 10 + 24 = 34.

ps-Just a reminder that next week is a shorter week.  There is no school on Friday.  Enjoy the Fall Festival if you make it down there!

Sunday, September 23, 2012

A special Thank You!

I wanted to say thank you to the families that came out last night and supported Oak Hill and the Aces. Unfortunately the Aces could not hold on to be Kentucky but everyone who attended and braved the nippy weather had fun and enjoyed a great soccer game.



Wednesday, September 19, 2012

Midweek and a chance to cheer on the Aces!

Hello everyone!  I want to first off thank those that ordered from our scholastic book order.  I am working on sending those orders in and they should be here sometime early next week.  I know some of the kids are excited to get something new to read.  Speaking of reading, I have been really stressing this week the importance of reading and the author's purpose.  Today we read the soccer story in our book and determined why the author would write something like he did.  We have been talking all week about the author's purpose.  We have also been talking about ways to read with a partner.  Today we talked about cross checking.  Cross checking is where a partner asks some questions to make sure you know what is going on in the story.  I have also talked about I read, you read.  The ultimate goal in this is to build stamina, make reading fun and increase comprehension as well as fluency.  I explained that your partner is there to help you with the words you are not sure about.  We have been good at this thus far.  I hope to continue this practice.  By doing this will also allow me to walk around the room and/or meet with students one on on in order to meet everyone's needs.  If you are reading at home tonight, practice the I read, you read and ask you students what EEK means, or use the cross checking method.

Here is an important announcement from the Aces Soccer team and Mrs. Shanks,
Oak Hill School has been invited to the U of E ACES Soccer game this Saturday, September 22, beginning at 7:00 p.m., at Arad McCutchan Stadium. U of E ACES will be playing the Kentucky Wildcats. All Oak Hill Elementary School students and families will receive 1 FREE youth admission with the purchase of an adult ticket. Adult Tickets are only $3.00. Students will get to enjoy inflatables too!!! Several schools around the Tri-State are in competition for the HIGHEST SCHOOL attendance. If our school WINS, we will receive NEW GYM equipment for all of your children to enjoy! Please join us this Saturday!

I am going to be there cheering on my Alma mater!!  Go Aces!!  I hope to see you there!! 
The Aces are doing well this year they are they are 4-1 and Kentucky is 2-4. 

Monday, September 17, 2012

Things to look out for

Don't worry nobody in our room is in trouble.  I have a few things from others that need to be shared as reminders of what is going on here at Oak Hill.  Of course they sent them to me on Monday and I don't want to wait and put them in the newsletter on Friday.

From Mrs. Shanks,
A friendly reminder that parents need to send any dismissal changes with each one of their children so that we know what each child is doing.  When it is sent with one child, we will assume that dismissal procedure is only for that child.  Also, please send notes in on a separate piece of paper instead of writing it into the agenda.  Another reminder is to always check out their child even if it is after dismissal. If the child is assigned to go to daycare, then check them out at daycare so that we know that child is safe.  We are responsible for our children until they reach their home.


From Mrs. Work,
October 1
Art to Remember forms will be coming home.  This is an opportunity to purchase a keepsake with your child's art work, ex. ceramic tiles, calendars, bookmarks and many more options.  The children will create the art projects in school during their art time.  These keepsakes are made in Indianapolis and are the highest quality of any company in the industry.  The orders will be back by Thanksgiving.  They make wonderful gifts and are a great way to treasure children's artwork forever.  We hope you enjoy this program and thank you for supporting Oak Hill. For questions, please contact Alice Work,
alice.work@evsc.k12.in.us.

Also, there was a yelllow PTA newletter sent home with your students today.  In the newsletter are some was to stay involved in the school and in the classrooms.  I know there is a small write up about how the library needs some volunteers.  If you are able to volunteer please email Tara Bradley at t.arab@hotmail.com.  The newsletter is full of dates to remember as well.

If you have any questions let me know!
Thanks,
Mr. Moreland

Monday, September 10, 2012

Monday the 10th

Today was a busy day for us and we had a first today.  We finally got to go to the library!  We got to check out 1 book of our liking.  I have told the students that they may take the book home or keep it with them in their book bags so they may read it when they have a chance.  Everyone was excited to get a book to their liking.  Our classroom does not have quite the selection as the library.

This week we are focusing in on words that have an "r" blend in them such as grab, trick, brick, drip, and trap.  Your students should also be able to recognize the short vowel sounds.  If you have some extra time, practice sounding out some "r" blend words and see if your student can get them.

Also, tomorrow we will begin making our compost bags.  Make sure you bring in some kind of organic material such as, leaves, peelings, egg shells, small sticks, pine needles, or even some dead bugs.  We will put this into our bag with some soil and worms.  The worms will eat away at the organic material making it turn into humus.  We will take a few weeks and watch this happen and make some observations.  Tomorrow will be a fun day in the science world!!

Sunday, September 9, 2012

Compost Needed

Parents, this week we will be making our own compost bags.  I need your help collecting things to put into the bag.  On Tuesday if you could send in some leaves, sticks, table scraps, peels, egg shells or whatever else you can find to make a compost bag would be great.  We are going to discuss what decomposers are and how they break down the things in the soil.  We are even going to put worms in the bags as well so we can make some observations about how the worms help break things down.

I apologize for not getting this up sooner but I have finally gotten my power restored from Friday night's storm.  This week is going to be a fun week as we talk about pets in our guided reading and we begin to talk about nouns as well as investigate all kinds of soils.  Hope you have enjoyed your weekend and I look forward to seeing everyone's smiling faces on Monday!

Thursday, September 6, 2012

Thursday's Math Homework

Today is Thursday and it is supposed to be math homework night.  Your students probably do not have any homework with them.  Don't get mad at them, it is my fault.  We were working so hard taking a look at soils and what kind of organic and inorganic matter is in the soil that I forgot to send the math homework home.  If you could please practice counting, get to at least 85 in a minute, and do some quick math facts, that would be just fine.  Again I am sorry and I will make sure it gets home next time. 
Thanks for your cooperation!!
Mr. Moreland

Wednesday, September 5, 2012

Wednesday, Sept. 5th

As I am sitting here watching the kickoff of the NFL season and grading a few papers, I thought I would give you a quick look at what we have been doing.  Today we talked about characters in a story. When you read about them, you have to know what their names are and what they are doing.  While we were practicing our read to self, we got a chance to draw a character or two from the stories we were reading.  I was really impressed with not only the drawings, but the writings that the students are doing.  One student wrote me a few sentences about Wall-E, and another wrote about the characters in Brave.  I loved what they did today!  The students have also been excited to be reading the books they got at Barnes and Noble last Friday.  In math we played a review game over the first chapter in our math lessons.  We will have a short assessment tomorrow.  If they do as well on the assessment as they did on the review game, then I will have an easy time grading them.  I was impressed yet again as they worked together to come up with the right answers.  The highlight for the day, your kiddos will tell you, was our introduction to our science lesson.  We passed out our science journals and talked about inorganic and organic matter.  We also talked about how dead things in soil is known as humus.  Tomorrow we are going to make some observations about soil and really get a hands on look at what soil really is.  The students are going to do most of the teaching and I will be there for some guidance.  We are going to talk about their discoveries.  It is going to be fun!!  At the end of our science lessons we will be making our own compost.  (It is in the near future.)  If you are looking for some extra things to do at home, you can always read or practice counting. Today we started counting by 2's, 5's and 10's.  Our goal is to skip count to 120 using 10's and 5's.  Well, that is all for this evening.  Look for the next update on Friday!



p.s.  Go Broncos!!, beat the Steelers in week #1

Sunday, September 2, 2012

Barnes and Noble Field Trip

This past Friday we enjoyed our field trip to Barnes and Noble.  We got a chance to hear a story, "Zoozical",  and make the hippo from the story.  This event helped us kick off our reading for the year.  All of the students were also allowed to pick out one book.  The kids were really excited and we had a few extra seconds to look around.  The staff at Barnes and Noble did a wonderful job getting things organized and helping the students get excited about reading.  In class we are working on reading to ourselves.  Some students have chosen to put the book they got in their book bag to read and others have chosen to take it home to read.  Either way works for me as long as we are improving our reading.       I hope everyone is enjoying their weekend and enjoys sleeping in one more day!  I do want to apologize for not sending home the spelling words on Friday.  I was trying to cram some things in the afternoon since we did not have much of a morning.  I am sorry and they will be sent home on Tuesday.
Thanks,
Mr. Moreland

Monday, August 27, 2012

Monday, August 27, 2012

I just wanted to mention something about the fundraiser that was sent home today.  Just so everyone knows, here are the important dates to remember.

Sale Starts-Aug 27
Quick Start Vouchers Due-Tuesday Sept. 4th
Order Forms Due-Monday Sept. 10th
Delivery-Thursday Oct. 18th
Money Due-Monday Oct. 29th

The students were told to sell to people they know and not to sell to stangers.  If you would like to send it to work with you to sell that would be fine.  Just pass it around the workplace.  The funds raised will go to help Oak Hill buy new computers and other new technological things. 

Keep reviewing the short a sound and practicing counting.  Today we worked on the short a sound and we found all the combinations that add up to 8.  Tomorrow we will talk about making 9.  We also talked about how the words in a sentence need to go in the right order.  This topic is pretty easy for just about everyone.  I was observing the students do a worksheet and I saw no wrong answers about the sentence order.

This week will go by fast and don't forget if you have not turned in your field trip forms and money please do so ASAP!

Wednesday, August 22, 2012

Midweek Look thus far

Today is Wednesday the 22nd.  Today we got a lot accomplished.  I am proud of everyone and how well they have been doing.  If you are looking for things do at home to help out with the work we are doing in the classroom you can practice counting, asking what number comes next and always be reading with your student and have them read to you.  Today we officially kicked off Read to Self.  We had a chance to see what it looks like and what it does not look like.  The students had fun modeling the correct and incorrect behavior.  I am impressed on how well everyone gets down to reading by themselves.  We are working on our reading stamina and making it 5 minutes of reading to ourselves.  Reading to yourself is the best way to improve your reading.  While we are reading we learned there are three ways to read a book.  They are, read the pictures, read the words, and retell the story.  If you are reading at home, you and your student can use this strategy to help with comprehension.  We have also continued to talk about the short A sound and using it in our spelling words.  In math we have began adding numbers.  Today we got to make our own adding book.  I will say, I think everyone is already farther along in the math book than where we are starting.  The first couple of lessons will be easy but by the end of next week we are going to be writing our own addition sentences.  We have also been talking about sentences and how they all start with a capital letter and they end with a punctuation mark.  We talked about statements, questions and exclamations.  We are also introducing the 7 healthy habits.  The first one today, was to be proactive.  We talked about how we make our own choices and we need to make them for good.  Nobody can make our own fun, we are responsible for that.  If you are bored try making something for someone or doing something nice for them.

If you have not already turned in your permission slips for the Barnes and Noble field trip please do so. It costs $2 for bus travel.  Every student will come home with a book.

Again if you have any questions or concerns please email me at Robert.Moreland@evsc.k12.in.us.

Thanks!!!!

Monday, August 20, 2012

A Look At Monday the 20th

Well we have successfully completed our 4th day of school.  Everyday we get busier and busier.  Today we got a chance to talk about picking books and using the I PICK method.  Each letter stands for a way to pick a book.

I-I choose a book
P-Purpose, why do I want to read this book?
I-Interesting, what is interesting about this book?
C-Comprehend, do I understand the book?
K-Know the words

We will continue to review these methods when we are choosing books for our book bag.  We are working on the most important reading skill which is reading to ourselves.  We also talked about building stamina when we are reading.  We have been reading books of our choosing for three minutes at a time.  In between reading we have also been reviewing the short a sound and have talked about the -an and -and word families.  We also read a story where we talked about comprehension.  We focused on retelling the story by remembering the beginning middle and end.
       
In math we have been practicing counting.  Today we began our math journal. Everyday it will have skills of all sorts.  We also wrote our numbers, and practiced which numbers come next in a number sequence.  We will continue these skills everyday.  We are going to start adding this week and using different methods.  The best thing that you can do at home is just practice some addition problems.  We are going to practice adding numbers up to 20.

The other thing that has changed is the related arts rotation.  The students are now divided up into 4 groups of 5.  They go to other classrooms now instead of us going as a class.  Look in your student's binder or folder for a note explaining this further.  I will also make a note of the groups and where they go in our newsletter.  Just ask your student which group they are in and look at the note that was sent home for reference about where the group is going.

We have a busy week left and are making great progress already!  It has been a great start to first grade!

Wednesday, August 15, 2012

Whewwwwww!  We made it through the first day of school!!  I enjoyed seeing everyone's bright and smiling faces today!  We had a fantastic first day of school.  Everyone came in and began working right away.  The only thing that was confusing for everyone was the supplies.  I am only asking for an additional 1/2 inch binder.  If you can't find one a 1 inch one will do as well. 

Today we colored some shirts that we will hang up to brighten our room.  We read a story and talked about the first day jitters.  We even got to share about what made us nervous.  Now that we are at school, we found out it's not so bad after all.  We also read two chapters of Wayside School.  Amongst explaining the procedures we also got a chance to start our writing journal and practice handwriting skills with our numbers and letters.  There was no homework for tonight but if you are looking for something to refresh their little minds you can have them start practing counting.  Try to have them get to 100 in a minute. 

I think that is pretty much a short summary of what we did today.  It was a great day and I am really excited to get the year going.  After today I can see that we really do have a great class!

Tuesday, August 14, 2012

Open House

It sure was fantastic to meet those of you that came to Open House on Monday evening.  I enjoyed meeting you and your students.  I am excited to get the year off to a great start!  I am also very very excited to be at Oak Hill.  I was at Scott 2 years ago and when the schools spilt. My assistant job was eliminated.  I spent last year at West Terrace helping out in the first grade.  Now I am back with some familiar faces and am excited to be back in the North school district.  I will do my best to keep you updated here at least twice a week about the things we have accomplished in our classroom and any upcoming events as well.  I look forward to a great school year!

Sunday, August 5, 2012

Welcome Back

Greetings everyone!!  This is Mr. Moreland.  This blog will help you stay informed with what we are doing in our classroom.  On here you will find upcoming events, field trips, announcements and anything else that you need to know or might want to know.