Mrs. Clatterbaugh's Terrific Tadpoles

Welcome to May!

It is so hard to believe the end of the year is here already!  May is a fast and furious month!  CRCT is behind us and now we are on to finishing up the year.  Be sure to mark these dates on your calendar.  Thanks to all of my volunteers and families!  We have had a GREAT first grade year!  Have a wonderful summer and keep reading!!!!

May 5^th              80^th Anniversary Celebration

May 6^th                  First grade trip to the zoo wear comfy shoes and sunscreen!

May 9^th            All Books need to be returned to the Media Center

May 12            AR Picnic

May 14^th            Field Day

May 16th           Animal projects due!

May 20^th            Class awards in our classroom and book celebration

May 22^nd            End of the year party

May 23rd      Last Day of School

More April news...

I hope everyone has a wonderful spring break!  It is hard to believe it is April already!  The year is sure flying by.  Be sure to check out the post below for helpful hints for the CRCT. 

Dates to remember:

April 7-11 - Spring break!  Yippee!

April 15 - PTA meeting and DEAR night

April 23-25 - First grade CRCT

A big THANK YOU to Mr. Fincham for conducing our JA program!  The kids loved it and had a ball!  Thank you also to Mrs. Cooper, Mrs. Fincham, Mr. Hope, Mrs. Pappalardo, Mrs. Steinberg, and Mrs. Dirksen for helping out with centers this year!  As we prep for the CRCT, we are not doing centers every day.  Thank you for your support in the classroom!

Have a GREAT April!  :)

April News!

Hello families!  Welcome to CRCT helpline!  If you have any issues that can't be resolved with this little "help line" please let me know so I can assist you!

The CRCT is coming up in just a few weeks.  For first graders, this will be (for many) the first time they have had to sit for an extended period of time to take a standardized test.  We have been working on test taking strategies, sitting strategies, and reviewing for the test.  The main thing I want to stress is that we want to be RELAXED for this test...  I (along with Fenton) will be working with the children on relaxation techniques and relieving any test anxiety.  Each child approaches testing differently.  The main thing that will help relieve stress is to prepare, practice, and encourage.   As children work through the on line tests, they may come upon questions that are unfamiliar.  That is FINE!  We are still learning and working on skills! 

I sent home CRCT sign on numbers and passwords before the winter break.  If you have misplaced yours, please let me know ASAP so I can replace it for you.  When you access the website, please be sure to have your pop up blocker turned off...  you will NOT be able to access the tests with the pop up blocker on.

Encourage your child to complete the tests on their own.  As a parent, reading the questions and choices for them will be helpful. 

Reading

of the passages in the reading comp section needs to be done independently.  As we work through test taking strategies, you will see their confidence grow.  After they take a test, PLEASE EMAIL THE RESULTS TO ME, so I am able to see how they are doing.  As a parent you will be able to see where they may need some additional help.  If I am able to see the questions that are "difficult", I will be able to differentiate my lessons to focus on those skills. 

The more we practice at home and in school, the better prepared everyone will be.  Please have your child log on and practice 2 -3 times per week.  Even revisiting previous tests will be helpful. 

Again, let me know if you need assistance!

Have a great week!  :)

Leprechauns Have Come!

St. Patrick's Day arrived on March 17th and of course brought out the pesky Leprechauns!  Our class worked hard to create some GREAT traps!  We had a lot of creative ideas on how we were going to catch one!  We were super close, but they managed to escape!  They did mess up our classroom, trip our traps, and left us a little treat!  Hmmm... maybe NEXT year we will catch one!  :)  Good job everyone! 

More March News...

Our school silent auction is coming up on March 27th...  Mrs. Cox, Mrs. Wolsh and I have teamed up to be auctioned off...  we will be auctioning a "Sundae" party...  :)  Come bid on us and help out our foundation!

Our Class Books

By now I am sure you have had a chance to share our class book "The Who That Ate My What?!"  We were all so excited to get our "published" books!  We celebrated with a true author signing!  Enjoy the pictures of our celebration! 

Dr. Seuss Day!

Thursday, we had a FUN day celebrating Dr. Seuss!  We celebrated the day in our favorite PJs and participating in a bunch of fun activities.  We of course read a bunch of Dr. Seuss books!

One of our favorite activities involved reading Bartholomew and the Oobleck...  We read the story and then made Oobleck!  EWW!  It is a weird substance!  If you move it fast, it acts like a solid you can pick up... but as soon as you stop moving it, the substance will melt in your hands!  We made a mess and had a blast!

We also created Dr. Seuss hats to eat!  A Ritz cracker, frosting and gummy lifesavers makes for a yummy treat!

Check out the website www.seussville.com for additional fun activities!

February News!

It is hard to believe February is already here!   This month, we will be learning all about money, time, dental health, shadows and light, informational writing, and continuing to become incredible readers! Some reminders for the month, please continue to encourage your child to take the CRCT practice tests on the computer. Practice, Practice, Practice!

Thank you to everyone that has sent in donations for our class store!  The kids are LOVING earning Frog Dollars to spend.  Our frog Fenton is also enjoying visiting everyone's homes on the weekend.  He has a few more to visit and then may be making a repeat performance!  Thanks for taking great care of him!

Feb. 6th- Early Release

Feb. 7th- Picture Day!

Feb. 8th - Class book orders due. (remember to return your form even if you aren't ordering)

Feb. 14th- Valentine boxes due! More details to come...

Feb. 18th- no school

Feb. 19- teacher workday/ no school

Feb. 22nd- Six Flags reading logs due!

Feb. 26th- Technology Night- Hope to see you there!

It is hard to believe February is already here!   This month, we will be learning all about money, time, dental health, shadows and light, informational writing, and continuing to become incredible readers! Some reminders for the month, please continue to encourage your child to take the CRCT practice tests on the computer. Practice, Practice, Practice!

Thank you to everyone that has sent in donations for our class store!  The kids are LOVING earning Frog Dollars to spend.  Our frog Fenton is also enjoying visiting everyone's homes on the weekend.  He has a few more to visit and then may be making a repeat performance!  Thanks for taking great care of him!

Feb. 6th- Early Release

Feb. 7th- Picture Day!

Feb. 8th - Class book orders due. (remember to return your form even if you aren't ordering)

Feb. 14th- Valentine boxes due! More details to come...

Feb. 18th- no school

Feb. 19- teacher workday/ no school

Feb. 22nd- Six Flags reading logs due!

Feb. 26th- Technology Night- Hope to see you there!

Happy New Year and welcome back!

I hope everyone had a wonderful Winter Break!  We have a busy month ahead of us!  Thank you to everyone for my wonderful Holiday gifts and my birthday celebration!  The flowers and cookie cake were wonderful!  :)

This month we will be working on: Addition and subtraction facts to 20, fractions, time,  greater than and less than, place value, synonyms, antonyms, homonyms, nouns, verbs, adjectives, light and shadows, weather, and writing informational paragraphs!  We will also be starting our "Book Project" and author study.  Watch your child's FROG book for updates and ordering information.  The kids are so excited to be "published" authors!  :)

Dates To Remember:

1/7 - No school - teacher workday

1/21 - No School - MLK holiday

1/22-1/28 Conference week- Early release each day at 12:30  I look forward to conferencing with everyone!

Classroom Needs:

We are in need of items for our class store - dollar store, dollar bin at Target, gently used toys (McDonald's happy meals, etc) are welcome!  The children are busy earning "Frog" dollars and are excited to shop with their earnings!

We also are in need of hand sanitizer and glue sticks. 

Thanks for all of your support!  :)

December!

It is so hard to believe December is already here!  We have a busy month ahead! 

Dates to remember:

World of Coke field trip  - Thursday, December 6

Gingerbread House making event - Friday, December 14th  we will start at 11:30 (please send in supplies by 12/10)

Holiday Party - Thursday, December 20  (12:30)

Special thank you to our room moms Kim Cooper and Karen Fincham for organizing our party!

Thank you also for all of our great center helpers!  It really makes our morning run smoothly with your help!  If you haven't had a chance to volunteer for centers, we will be making a new calendar in January.  Let me know and I will send your name on to our room moms and get you on the rotation!

Special congratulations to our whole class!  We all have been reading like crazy and have all earned 6 AR points!  We all got to attend the AR celebration lunch this past Monday!  Way to go!  We had our picture taken and were on the school wide power point.  (see attached!)

Have a wonderful holiday season and we will see you all back in 2008!

November is here!

A Peek at some exciting activities and events coming up!

Nov. 5th and 6th- No school- student holidays!

Nov. 14th- First grade Thanksgiving play at 9:30 and lunch! Hope to see you there!

Nov. 16- Wear your favorite college attire.....Go GATORS! :)

Nov. 16th- Wellstar in-house field trip on nutrition

Nov. 21st- 23rd- Happy Thanksgiving! Thanksgiving holidays!

In our classroom, we will be working hard on writing descriptive paragraphs, fact families, shapes, patriotic symbols, long ago and today, nutrition, addition facts, subtraction facts, and Reading, Reading, Reading!!!!

Happy Birthday to Madison, Sofia, Drew and Taylor this month! 

Congrats to Nicholas our Character Ed student of the month!

Thanks to everyone for your supplies and help during our Fall Celebration/Rotation day!

A Peek at some exciting activities and events coming up!

Nov. 5th and 6th- No school- student holidays!

Nov. 14th- First grade Thanksgiving play at 9:30 and lunch! Hope to see you there!

Nov. 16- Wear your favorite college attire.....Go GATORS! :)

Nov. 16th- Wellstar in-house field trip on nutrition

Nov. 21st- 23rd- Happy Thanksgiving! Thanksgiving holidays!

In our classroom, we will be working hard on writing descriptive paragraphs, fact families, shapes, patriotic symbols, long ago and today, nutrition, addition facts, subtraction facts, and Reading, Reading, Reading!!!!

Happy Birthday to Madison, Sofia, Drew and Taylor this month! 

Congrats to Nicholas our Character Ed student of the month!

Thanks to everyone for your supplies and help during our Fall Celebration/Rotation day!