Accelerated Reader Program

We've earned our AR rockets! Some of these great readers have a 10 pt. rocket and some have a 25 pt. rocket.

These great readers are working hard to

earn their 10 pt. rocket.

AR works this way: Read a book and then take a test on that book on a school computer. If you answer all of the questions correctly, you earn 1/2 a point. In order to earn a 10 point rocket, you must read 20 books and answer all questions correctly. To earn a 25 point rocket, you must read at least 50 books.

First graders who earn 75 points by May 1st will be invited to attend the AR Field Trip. This trip, usually paid for by our great PTO, is to PlayStation in Trussville. There, we roller skate, drive go-carts, play goofy golf or arcade games or laser tag, eat pizza for lunch, and just have a good ole time!

I'd love to have every child attend this trip. SO read, read, read!!!!! We take a test everyday on our homework book. Books are available in the classroom for students to read and take tests during our school day.

Polar Express Day

POLAR EXPRESS DAY was fun! We wore our pajamas, read the book, and then watched the movie. During the movie, we drank chocolate milk, ate cookies, and received our bells.

Merry Christmas!!!!!!

Merry Christmas to all!!! Aren't these the cutest little elves you ever did see? Thanks to everyone for making our party a great celebration.

Happy Thanksgiving!

I hope everyone enjoys their holidays! You are all a blessing to me! Thanks for sharing your little ones with me!!! See you Monday, Nov. 30th.

THS Barnyard Visit

WATCH OUT!!!! THEY SPIT!!!!!!

Our trip to Talladega High to see the animals was the perfect end to our week! What fun! What great weather! There were bunnies, pigs, goats, a pony, a turtle, cats, and (my favorite) llamas. Everyone rode the horse!

THANKS MR. MILLER!!!

Thanks to Mr. Miller (Brady's Papa), we enjoyed pizza and cokes Tuesday afternoon. YUM YUM!!!

Guest Reader!

Thanks Wicked Queen from Snow White (aka Mrs. Robin Whitworth) for reading two great Halloween books to us! We enjoyed your visit and your stories! Come back again!

Halloween Week!!!!!

WOW! It's been a hectic Halloween Week! We've all pledged to be Drug Free. We've all trick or treated and partied. Our pictures show our good times.....

Where the Wild Things Are

Mrs. R. and her SWEET "Wild Things" went to see the movie Friday! It was our first field trip together and EVERYONE behaved PERFECTLY! Favorite parts of the movie include:

"when Max made that igloo," "when Max got eaten and spit out," and "when we finally got back for lunch!" Saddest part of the movie was "when Max came home and his mom was there" and "when Carol told Max he loved him."

To see all our comments, come visit. We wrote about our trip when we got back.

Good Citizenship - Oct. 15, 2009

Congratulations Chance!

Citizenship - 10/9/09

Congratulations Parker! You are our Citizenship Award winner this week!

Any Veterans Out There?

Are you a veteran or do you know one? I need some names for our unit on Veterans' Day. Please send me name and address so that our class may communicate with them. THANKS!!!!!

Breaking the Record

Graham Elementary took part in the nation-wide effort for the most participating in a shared reading. Thanks to Mitzi Hurst from Wal-Mart for reading Eric Carle's The Very Hungry Caterpillar to us. We LOVED having someone new read to us!

We are always happy to have someone read to us.

Citizenship Award - 10/2/09

Congratulations Brady! You are our Citizen of the Week!

Citizenship Award - 9/25/09

Congratulations Baylee! You are our Citizenship Award winner this week!

Sign Language and Reading

On Tuesdays, Mrs. Montgomery visits. She spends a few minutes teaching us some sign language and then she listens to every child read. She is a retired first grade teacher volunteering her time with us. She is GREAT!!!!!

SECOND 6 WEEKS BEGINS

Monday begins our second six weeks together. We will begin counting grades. Spelling tests begin this week. Remember conduct is a grade that will count towards Honor Roll.

Progress Reports for the first six weeks will be sent home on Thursday.

APPLE WEEK!

Next week is APPLE WEEK! We will test several types of apples, try out different apple products, and take a seed apart. Watch for our pictures and writings on these fun activities!

Citizenship Award - 9/18/09

Congratulations Marqeast! You are our Citizenship Award winner this week!

OUR CLASS DAY ROUTINES

EVER WONDER WHAT YOUR CHILD DOES AT SCHOOL ALL DAY LONG? WONDER NO MORE. HERE ARE SOME OF OUR DAILY ROUTINES!

SIGN IN TIME: Our first routine of the day is signing in just like moms and dads sign in or clock in at work.

JOURNALS: We write in our journals every day. We also have Learning Log journals to write what we have learned about in science and social studies. We write to Mom or Dad every week in our Parent Journals. We LOVE to read your letters back to us!

SEATWORK: Every day we complete several activities on our own - no help from Mrs. R. During this time, Mrs. R. meets with small groups of three or four to read.

CALENDAR: Math lessons involve the entire class practicing counting patterns, writing the date, reading graphs, counting money, telling time, memorizing math facts, and problem solving. Remember to practice those math facts at home. We have so much to cover in class that we are not able to completely memorize them at school.

MORNING MESSAGE: Every day we "fix" and read a letter from Mrs. R. She NEVER remembers to capitalize the first word in the sentence. She NEVER uses punctuation, and she ALWAYS leaves out letters in the middle of words! We practice our phonics and grammar this way! Sometimes we bring our "white boards" and markers to practice writing words.

This is our MEETING PLACE to learn science, social studies, discuss problems and find solutions, read books together, and share. Sitting together on the carpet close to Mrs. R. helps us focus our attention on the most important things to learn.

SNACK: Yum! Fruit and juice are good for us!

WORKSTATIONS: These different work areas give us a time to move around the classroom and play learning games. We can go to the reading workstation, the listening or writing ones, or we can make words at the Apple Center and the ABC center. Our computers, puzzles, math games and word Bingo games are also fun to do!

COMPUTER: We go to computer once a week. We practice math and reading skills for 30 minutes, and then we learn new computer skills for 30 minutes. Right now, we are working on creating a word processing document. We can change the font, the color, and the size of the type. Learning to save a file will be next.

GOING PLACES: No more kindergarten bubbles for us. When we walk in the hall, we proudly display our First Grade Signs!

PE AND RECESS: Of course these favorite times of the day! Even Mrs. R. likes getting outside!

CITIZENSHIP AWARD WINNERS!!!!

CONGRATULATIONS TO MAKALA AND MORGAN!! They are our first Citizenship Award Winners. Each week, we will announce a new winner. Citizenship Award winners have more than just good conduct grades. They make our world a better place with actions like picking up trash or helping out a friend in need. We can count on our Good Citizens to work well with others, show respect to authority, and learn about our country. Good Citizens are role models who always do their best at everything. Our class is filled with Good Citizens just waiting to be recognized. Watch for future winners!!!!

FLU AND STOMACH VIRUS

The flu and the stomach virus are at Graham. I wish they would go home! We've had several out this week with one or the other. We are washing our hands often, remembering to not touch the walls, and covering our mouths to sneeze and cough. I am a LYSOL freak and I spray twice a day. Still, we have missed these friends this week: Chance, Marqeast, Lacy, Brady (who wasn't sick, but had a little surgery), and Rodney. Hopefully, we will all be well and back at school on Monday.

REMEMBERING SEPTEMBER 11TH

Look at us wearing our RED,

WHITE, and BLUE in memory of those who lost their lives on 9/11/01 and in honor of all of the heroes. On Friday we told the story of what happened on that day, and we read a book written by First Graders. THANKS tto all for participating. EVERYONE wore red, white, or blue! WHAT A GREAT CLASS!

August 10, 2009 FIRST DAY!

Just look at these beautiful faces! We have had a GREAT first day of First Grade! This is going to be a wonderful year. Watch the Blog for more pics.

It was great to meet everyone at the Cookie Social! Thanks for making it a fun afternoon. I will see everyone again at 7:40 Monday morning! I know it is going to be a fabulous year!

Watch this site next week for pictures of our class. I'll try to keep it updated with lots of info and pics!

GREAT CLASS!

What a great year! This class was the best! Our end of the year was so hectic, and I didn't get to say Thank You enough to parents and kids for the great times together.

Summer advice: READ! Go to the library and check out all the great Frog and Toad books, the wonderful Max and Ruby series, and all the books on dinosaurs and horses. Also, stay sharp on those MATH FACTS. The second grade teachers start timing math facts. They love it when kids come into second grade remembering their facts.

I thank all parents for sharing these beautiful children with me this year. I am honored to have been a part of their lives. I consider them "mine" now so keep in touch! Have a safe and fun summer and come see me next year!

Upcoming Events

Thursday 6:00 pm - BBQ and Books

Friday 9:00 am - Music Program (K-3rd sing first)

Monday - NO SCHOOL

Tuesday - Awards Day begins with Kindergarten graduation at 9:00

BBQ and Books

I can't wait for you to see the books your children authored and illustrated. Every book is special. We'll be in the lunchroom from 6:00 - 7:00 so that you may pick up your BBQ plates and read the books. Don't take them home tomorrow! We are going to share our books with the other first grade classes on Friday. I'll send them home Friday afternoon.

Anslea's Journal Page 5/5/09

I like reading. It is fun. Reading makes you smart and sometimes it can make you feel like you're in a book. It tells you stuff that you never knew and sometimes it can help you with something too!


Teacher Note: I could not have said this better! Anslea is so right about reading! I believe that our entire class feels this way about reading. The Spring DIBELS scores were fantastic! If you'd like to know your child's score, please see me, call me, or send a note.

Important Happenings May 11-15

Wednesday, May 13th, is the AR trip to PlayStation in Trussville. We will leave the school between 8:00 and 8:30. Please don't be late to school that day, because we cannot wait. This trip is free to the students who earned it. They will be able to participate in the activities and will receive a ticket for lunch (two slices of pizza and a drink). Your child will pay only for additional snacks or to play video games. Graham PTO funds this trip for our students. Parents must provide their own transportation and pay their own costs. No siblings are allowed. In order to skate and to be safe riding go-carts, students need to wear tennis shoes and socks. I am on the AR committee this year and will be chaperoning the trip. The students in our class who did not qualify for the trip will spend the day with Ms. King.

Friday, May 15th, is Field Day. Please dress your child for outside activities. Tennis shoes are especially important this day. Sunscreen is a great idea. Students will need no more than $3.00 for drinks, face painting, and snacks. I will be the First Bank of Roberson's First Grade. I will keep your child's money in a money envelope while they play. I will stay in a central location in order to watch students participating in the activities and will hand out money envelopes to the children as they request them. I will also keep a basket for their prizes so that they won't have to lug them around. It will be a fun day!

Spelling TEST Thursday!!!!! We will take this test a day early because of Field Day. Don't forget to study!!!

Learning Sign Language

Mrs. Andrea Montgomery visits us every Wednesday. She always listens to each of us read to her. We LOVE reading to Mrs. Montgomery, because she is a great listener and always brings a treat! Mrs. Montgomery is a retired first grade teacher at the Alabama School for the Deaf. Today she taught us our first lesson in sign language. She gave us some homework.....practice fingerspelling at home and learn to fingerspell our own name.

THANK YOU MRS. MONTGOMERY for working with us each week. We are much better readers because of you!

Classroom News

Animals in our Room:

Hermit Crabs by Makala and Shun'tavis
Makala got them from the beach. They are just visiting at school. Hermit crabs get their food from a sponge. Hermit crabs got to have water or they will die. Hermit crabs have shells and they look like a turtle.

Bird Eggs by Caleb and Anslea
We have real bird eggs and we do not know what kind of bird eggs they are. We do think that it is a robin egg or a bluebird egg. The eggs are blue. They are not going to hatch because no bird is sitting on the eggs.

Ant Farm by Niles and Baylee
We have an ant farm. Ants make lots of tunnels. The worker ants are all girls. The boy ants help the queen ant. The queen ant lays all the eggs. Soldier ants guard the nest. Some ants can fight.

Caterpillars by Peter and Rachel
We got 2 caterpillars in our backyard. We got bark off a tree and we put the bark and caterpillars in the ham box. We took them to school. They are hairy and their fur can sting you! They are black and brown. They are fat and have a little bit of orange on them. We are going to watch them and see if they turn into a chrysalis.

Alabama by Genesis and Jake

We learned about Alabama. Alabama is a state. Huntsville is famous for rockets. Mobile is famous for Mardi Gras. Montgomery is famous because it has a governor and a bus boycott. Birmingham is famous for skyscrapers.

Earth Day by Alexis and Lindsey

We planted a tree for Earth Day. We had to wear green or rain forest clothes. It was pretty outside. We have 2 trees outside. We love them.

Math Facts by Sy'Nijah

We are learning math facts like 8+5=13 and 8+6=14. We are learning 8+4=12 and 8+3=11.

Poetry Alive

Easter Egg Hunters

Class News

Don't forget to send canned drinks or individual packages of chips for Field Day.   Every child should bring something.

Thursday is Recycling Day.   Send your cans!

AR ends Friday, May 8th.   

End of the Year Report Cards will be mailed.  Send a self-addressed, stamped envelope.   Six Flags tickets will be mailed with the report cards.

Spelling words for 5/1/09

late mule kite nose price

date joke kind find mute

Hello!

Hey Parents! This is a new step for me! I'm not as computer literate as I would like to be so bear with me as we learn to use this new form of communication. I'll try to update this blog with pictures and info each week.