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!

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.

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.

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!!

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!!

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 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. 

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!