Ms. Horgan

January 30, 2012

Friends of Room 114,

I would like to thank all the families that donated food to the teacher appreciation luncheon.  The food was delicious!

Here are a few announcements for this week:

-       There is no school Friday, February 3rd.  This day is a professional development day for teachers

-       NWEA Winter scores are being sent home today.  On this sheet I have also included your child’s fall and winter reading level.  At this time in 1^st Grade students reading on level are reading at a level F or G.  If you have any questions please email me at slhorgan@cps.edu

-       Report cards will be sent home on Wednesday, February 1, 2012.

-       Please make sure that you clean out your child’s homework folder every night.  The only thing that should remain in your child’s folder are items they are returning to school, such as homework or notes to the teacher.  All items left in your child’s folder from the previous week will be recycled on Monday.

-       The $6.00 refund is being sent home today for those students that paid for all of this school year’s field trips at once.

-       There was a mix-up with traveling library books last week so not every student has a set go home.   Please remember that traveling library books are due back every Tuesday.  If your child has a set of books at home please make sure they return them to school.  Several students have many weeks of traveling library books still not returned.

-       Please pay the $9 fee for our field trip to the Merle Reskin Theater.  All money is due by February 6^th.

This week in reading workshop we will be reading all about games.  Students will read The Olympic Games and The Big Race.  During word study we will learn about the long a, soft c and soft g sounds.  We will also study phonograms-ake and –ace. During writing workshop students will complete their Hyde Park poetry inspired by the book Bronzeville by Gwendolyn Brooks.  Our completed poems will be displayed in the hallway outside our room.  In math we will discuss weight, area, greater than, less than and equal to. In science we will finish up our rock unit and complete the writing prompt, If I Were a Geogist.  In social science we will discuss resources and recycling.

Have a great week!

Stacy Horgan

Friends of Room 114,

Here are a few announcements for this week:

• - There is no school Friday, January 27^th.  This day is a professional development day for teachers
• - This Thursday, January 26th, Dr. Tatia will be presenting the “State of the School Address” at 9:30AM & 6 PM.
• - Please pay the $9 fee for our field trip to the Merle Reskin Theater on February 9^th.
• - January is girls’ month for snack.  If you have not yet provided a snack for 27 students please do so.
• - If you have not updated your contact information electronically yet, do so by visiting our classroom blog or through the following link: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/viewform?hl=en_US&formkey=dGsxTm5zZnZWV3hld3VfUjVJZUFScXc6MQ#gid=0

This week in reading workshop we will read various poems as part of our poetry unit.  During word study we will review the sounds of th, wh, sh, ch and ph.  We will also review ‘s and n’t contractions, as well as possessive nouns.  During writing workshop students will complete their small moment stories as we prepare to being a new unit of non-fiction writing.  In math we will also take the Unit 4 assessment.   Students will be assessed on their ability to tell time to the quarter hour, write simple addition facts, measure items in inches, compete a pattern and count change using pennies, nickels and dimes.  In social science we will discuss landforms and bodies of water.  We will also discuss direction of objects in relation to one another.

January 17, 2012

Dear Friends of Room 114,

I hope everyone had a great long weekend and enjoyed our typical Chicago winter weather.

Here are a few announcements for this week:

• - Last week I sent home a field trip notice for February 9^th, to the Merle Reskin Theater.  We will be seeing a play based on the Nancy Drew series.  The fee is $9 and must be paid two day prior to the field trip.
• - We originally had a field trip to the Shedd Aquarium that was canceled.  If you paid for all of this years field trips in advance you will be getting a refund of $6.
• - January is girls’ month for snack.  If you have not yet provided a snack for 27 students please do so.
• - Please make sure your child dresses appropriately for our winter weather.  I have suggested that each child keep an extra pair of socks in their backpack.  I also let children know that if there is a pair of shoes they would like to keep at school we have space for them.  Last week we had a lot of wet shoes and socks after brain boost and I am hoping to avoid this situation in the future.

This week in reading we will be reading non-fiction texts about the seasons.  We will also be reading poetry with seasonal themes.  During word study we will look at wh, sh and ph words.  We will also begin learning about contractions and verbs with –ed, -ing and –s endings.  During writing workshop students are completing their small moment stories that will be graded as part of their writing grade.  All students must submit three stories that they have been working on this quarter.  In math we will create home and school timelines.  We will begin to work on our number scrolls, writing numbers -9 to 1000.  In addition, we will begin to work on addition fact power.  Students will begin to practice instant recall of sums in 1- digit addition (0+0 thru 9+9).  In social science we will finish our unit on Martin Luther King Jr. and learn more about the states in our country.

Stacy  Horgan

January 9, 2012

Dear Friends of Room 114,

Happy 2012!  I hope everyone had a wonderful break.  I had an amazing time with friends and family.  I was fortunate enough to explore parts of the country I had not yet been to, sleep in and eat LOTS of delicious food.

Here are a few announcements for this week:

• • Before break I announced that we would have a student teacher from Ohio beginning today.  Unfortunately due to issues with certification she will not be able to student teach at a CPS school.
• • Please email me at slhorgan@cps.edu if you would like to set up a time to briefly meet in the morning to discuss your child’s progress.
• • There is no school Monday, January 16, 2012 in observance of MLK day.

This week in reading we will be reviewing sequence of events in books with animal themes.  We will be reading How Leopard Got His Spots and The Rain Forest.   Students will be introduced to homophones and the ch, tch sound.   During writing workshop we will write about our winter holiday adventures.  I will also be helping students edit their own work. In math we will review standard and non-standard measurement and telling time.  We will also use dominoes to write addition and subtraction problems.  In science we will continue our rock investigation.

Welcome Back!

Stacy  Horgan