Mrs. Kurtz's Kool Kids

May

Newsletter

What fabulous researchers we have in first grade. The animal projects were very informative. The children enjoyed sharing the important facts about the animal they chose. I felt that this project was very successful. Thanks parents for helping your child shine.

Please be alert as to amount of money your child has in their lunch account. Be sure they have enough lunch money for this week and next week. All left over money in the account will carry over to next year unless asked to be returned.

I am missing a few of the reading books that I have been sending home. I have to return all my books – So if you have any books please send them back ASAP. THANKS!

CRCT testing week - The children were awesome. I think that they actually enjoyed taking the test. You could see their faces light up when they were asked a question that they knew. The scores SHOULD come back sometime in early June. You will receive a phone call when the scores can be picked up.

May at a Glance

Date	Event
1	3:00-Staff Kick Ball Game
2	Campus clean up Animal projects are due ( need extra time - Mon. )
5	I will be out: Major Doctor appointment for my daughter and then I will be attending the retirement luncheon given by the county. ( Yes, I am retiring this year. 32 years)
5	80th Anniversary celebration - Wear any kind of sprit wear that you may have.
6	Zoo Field Trip - * WEAR YOUR FIRST GRADE ROCK T-SHIRT * Wear comfortable clothes
7	Please send back the colorful envelope that will be used for sending home report cards. **Addressed and TWO STAMPS attached
9	All Library Books are due - Last day to take AR test
10	AR picnic - They all have meet the requirement to attend. YEA!!!
14	Field Day - * Water bottles, play clothes, tennis shoes * Sun screen should be applied before arrival to school ( I cannot put it on them.)
20	First Grade Awards Day - Every one is invited Time -
22	End of the year celebration for the students By this time all books and supplies would have been sent home.
23	Last Day of School - NO BOOK BAGS ARE ALLOWED
30	Report cards will be mailed

End of the Year Information

April

Happy Spring Time

I hope everyone enjoyed their short spring break. The children have enjoyed sharing and writing about how they spent time with their family and friends. They all seemed to have something wonderful to say.

Mr. Mike Melton, Lizzy’s dad, just completed his 5^th Junior Achievement Lesson . The lessons were about families and their wants and needs. Yes, we found out that having a Wii is a want and not a need. He presented each child with a Brand NEW ONE DOLLAR COIN. I tried to explain to them to put it in a safe place. Who knows, it could be worth more in about fifty years. If you see Mr. Mike please thank him for planning these 5 wonderful lessons. You might want to volunteer to do Jr. Achievement next year.

Animal Study: For the next three weeks we will wrap up our study of animals.

April 14-18 = Animal study in class

April 21-25= In class Panda Research

April 28-May 2 = Each student will be doing their own animal research at home and then sharing it with the class.

( Look for more info to come home. Start thinking about what zoo animal you would like to research.)

April 23-25 = CRCT test - Mrs. Troisi is planning to provide us with an extra nutritious snack on those days.

May 6^th - Field Trip to the Atlanta Zoo - We will welcome as many chaperones as we can get. Car pooling will be necessary.

I have been very impressed at how the children show excitement when they turn in their homework. The early birds wear a huge grin when they turn it in . Way to GOo to all !!!!!

March

March 27th: International Night Activities 6-8pm, Silent Auction to raise money for technology. Mrs. Kurtz, Mrs. O’Connor, and I will be auctioned off. We will be  cooking at Mrs. Cushman's house. Please bid on a chance for up to 6 children.

March Madness!!!!

Mrs. Kurtz's Kool Kats

Dr. Seuss' Day

Last week we all survived adventurous days with Dr. Seuss. We had fun rewriting many of his stories, looking for rhyming words, drawing The Cat in the Hat, and reading as many books as we could. Graphing gold fish and having pajama day were other ways we celebrated with Dr. Seuss.

Visit this website for more fun. - www.seussville.com

March Madness!!!!

I can not believe March is here. I have told the students that March is all about ME!!!  I have to make sure they have retained everything that I've taught. Then continue to teach skills for the CRCT test in April.

PLEASE remember to go online and have your child practice the CRCT practice test. VERY IMPORTANT!

Math: money, fractions, DOUBLE DIGIT ADDING WITHOUT REGROUPING

Language Arts: Writing an informational paper with 5 or more facts, words that need to be CAPITALIZED,correct punctuation marks, NOUNS, VERBS, ADJECTIVES, dictionary skills, commas in a series, word ending ( ing, ed ), word parts ( syllables ) and any other things that have to do with first grade language arts. WOW!!!! Does it ever come to an end?

Science - plants

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Dates to Remember:

March 4th - Early Release

March 8th - Movie on the Mount 5:30-9:00

March 9th - Daylight Savings Time

March 17th - Leprechaun traps are due ( OH NO - What kind of day will we have? )

March 20th - Report cards go home

February

February:

During the month of February we will concentrate on the following:

Math - money, time, fractions, continuing to master the addition facts and shapes

Language Arts- When to use capital letters, using the correct punctuation marks, nouns, verbs, adjectives, and writing super sentences.

Science - Shadows, Magnets

Health - Dental

Keyboarding Website

Hi. Here is a great website for keyboarding. It will recinforce what they are learning in the computer lab.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/typing/levels/level1.shtml

Upcoming Events:

Feb. 22 - Six Flags Reading Logs are due

Feb. 26 - Technology Night

Hi. Here is a great website for keyboarding. It will recinforce what they are learning in the computer lab.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/typing/levels/level1.shtml

January

                   Kurtz’s Kool Kids    -        Happy New Year!!!

CRCT test – Try to set aside at least TWO days a week for your child to practice the skills needed. The more they practice will result in confidence at test taking. If you need another copy of your child’s password let me know.

Computer Lab: In case you are wondering why our specials days changed it is because of our new computer lab classes. The FOUNDATION has provided us with a computer teacher. Therefore, students will be able to use the lab more often and have a qualified teacher to work with them.  Sounds great to me.

Check the calendar in your child’s folder for the day they will need to wear tennis shoes for P.E. and what specials they will attend.

Skills we are working on:

Money: Being able to quickly identify all the coins.

            Counting coins ( up to 10 coins)

            The price is .36 – What coins will you need?

            The price is .36 – You have .15 – What other coins 

            do you need?

Time: Telling time to the hour and half hour.

          Drawing the time on a clock ( hour / half hour ).

          Writing the time.

Math:

         Adding /Subtraction / Adding doubles / Adding      

         three numbers

        Word problems

Fractions

Reading : Please continue to have your child complete   

the reading log.

     Practicing retelling the story, naming the characters, and 

    stating the setting is very helpful.

Writing : Writing a great paragraph. ( Write an opening   

Sentence. Next share several major details. The last

sentence should be a conclusion.

Magnets

Canada

Please put names in all coats.

Conference Week – January 22nd -28th – EARLY DISMISSAL

12:30

December

Kurtz’s Kool Kids

Dec. 3^rd - AR Party

Dec. 6^th - Field Trip to the World of Coke

Please wear the neon green First Grade Rocks T shirt.

Pack your lunch and drink for those who are bringing a

sack lunch from home.

We plan to board the busses close to 9:15 or before.

Dec. 7^th - Pajama Party - Wear your P.J.’s

Dec. 20^th - 12:30 Classroom Holiday Celebration

FIRST GRADE ROCKS - PLEASE WEAR OUR NEON GREEN T-SHIRTS ON THURSDAY.

Wall of Fame: Congratulations to ALL the students in our room.

We are all on the "Wall of Fame" for completing the first step of Accelerated Reader. It was hard work but we did have fun reading. We will celebrate on Monday. The next party will be in May.

I want to thank all who came to see the First Graders perform their skit. The students enjoyed singing and wearing their costumes. My favorite song was " Don’t Eat the Turkey ".

CRCT - Last month your child’s computer code and the directions for taking the CRCT practice test went home. From now until the beginning of April please visit the site so your child will be comfortable with the testing questions. Some of the skills have not been formally introduced at this time. If for some reason you misplace the code, let me know and I’ll send it to you.

November

Kurtz’s Kool Kats – November

Dates to Remember:

Nov. 14^th – 9:30 First Grade Play ( starting time )

         Please arrive earlier so you can get a front row seat.

Nov. 14^th – Thanksgiving Lunch with parents – Time: 10:51

         You may join us back in our room after the play until lunch time.

Nov. 15th or 16th – In school field trip – Program on nutrition

Nov. 16^th – Wear your favorite college attire

Nov. 20^th – Thanksgiving play for the Kindergarten classes

Dec. 6^th – World of Coke Field trip – Permission letters will soon come home.

Upcoming lessons:

Sound

Today and Long Ago

2 and 3-D Geometric Figures –Shapes and their attributes

Addition and Subtraction Facts to 12

Writing –We are continuing to developing complete sentences beginning with a capital letter and using the correct punctuation mark.

Question Words????????

Adjectives and Describing Words

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Br-r-r-r – Please put names in all coats, sweaters, and any winter clothing.

Pumpkin Transformations:  The student’s transformations were outstanding. Each child’s face was filled with joy when they shared their transformation. THANKS Parents for helping your child shine.

What a fabulous Fall Holiday Celebration we had. Kudos goes out to Mrs. Sharon Troisi far all the hard work she did planning our celebration. As always, she could not have done it without the parents help. Kudos goes to all the parents who sent in items or came to help out.

      

October

October

Oct.20^th – Fall festival

We had a wonderful day touring Cagle’s Dairy two weeks ago. The students enjoyed having the not so fragrant cows come right up to them, feeding the calves, going on a hay ride, viewing the cows resting and feeding area, and watching the dairy worker actually milk a cow.

Erika’s mom took 93 pictures of the class enjoying our day. She put all 93 pictures on a CD for us for us to view. I want to thank all the chaperones who went with us that day. I hope all of you enjoyed this trip as much as I did.

Our weather study included the study of:

the  water cycle, lightning, rain, tornados, and other weather terms. We will continue to study weather throughout the year.

As a follow up to our study of producers and consumers we had a special day. Our class produced playdough and then sold the playdough to Mrs. O’Connors class. At that time we performed a skit on how to make playdough and we even wrote a song about making playdough.

Mrs. O’Connor's class made necklaces for us. We were the consumers.

Skills we are working on:

*Math fact family

*Addition and subtraction

*Contractions

*Writing sentences with a capital letters and with the correct punctuation marks.

*Writing months and days beginning with capital letters.

* Writing stories with a beginning, middle, and ending.

* Directional words

We will conclude this month with activities about fall, pumpkins, and bats.

We have enjoyed having mystery readers reading to us.

Mrs. Troisi ( our room mom ) has been working hard planning our fall celebration. I want to thank all of you who sent monies in to help support the celebrations for this year.

Upcoming dates:

Wed. Nov. 14^th – First grade will have a short Thanksgiving singing program. Parents are invited to attend. Time will be early morning. Parents are then invited to dine with their child during lunch that day.

Dec. 6^th – First grade field trip to the World of Coke. Chaperones will be needed.

September

September:

Welcome Kool Kats – First Grade is Kool !!! We have had a great beginning. I have really enjoyed how the students want to master everything we have studied. Thank you for sending the notebooks/binders back each day. I enjoyed once again meeting all my parents at Sneak A Peek. Reminders: snack each day, water bottles are okay, and complete reading logs.

Skills we are working on:

Math:::: *Telling time to the hour and minute and how many minutes are in a hour *Math facts – learning different strategies for addition *Patterns * Odd and Even – We really had fun doing many hands on activities to help learn this concept. *Skip counting – by fives, tens, and twos * Using a number line for adding and subtracting * Learning how to solve reading problems.

Language Arts:

*Reading Book Bags should start coming home this week. *Using a comma in a series (cat, dog, and ape) * Too, to and two * Using quotation marks (Sally said, “ “. ) * Checking the reading level of the students * Writing complete sentences and using the correct punctuation marks. * Beginning sentences with a capital letter. * Writing a story with a beginning, middle, and end. * Always capitalize the word “I”. * Guided Reading with books on the child’s level. * Writing numbers and letters correctly (always starting from the top )

Science: Germs