Happy Holidays!

We have been busy little elves this first week back!  The students wrote about why Santa should hire them at the North Pole.  We discussed job applications and how people get hired.   We also had to cut out our picture like an elf! :) 

We threw in some photos from Clemson/ Carolina Challenge.  It was a blast and a lot of money was raised.  Thanks so much for the support!  OF COURSE...our TIGERS won!   

One of our "Wonderings" was learning another language.  We learned how to say excuse me today in Chinese... and students are making a Chinese counting book to 10...We are learning that life and customs are very different around the world!

Lastly, we read the Gingerbread Man and focused on literary text features:  characters, setting, problem and solution.  

Thanks for volunteering to help with upcoming Polar Express Day and Christmas Party!  We can't do it without you!  We are almost ready to deliver our books to 4K  for our November/December Project.  I think I found a connection with someone in Greenville to help get books to the lower part of the State damaged by the flooding earlier this year!  It IS the time for giving!  Thanks for all you do to help make our learning meaningful and fun!  We collected over 200 books in our class alone! 

Ready for the Holidays

What a fun week!  The kids had a lot of fun exploring careers and learning about solids, liquids and gases at Kids Senses!  It was a full day of fun learning!  We also enjoyed hearing from one of our School Board members, Mr. Craig Sims on the importance of leadership qualities.  Students need to be kind to everyone, they need to be hardworking, and trust worthy!  We applied those traits to how we can use them in OUR young lives!  ( ME INCLUDED!)  Teresa Ledbetter is a former teacher here and we enjoyed hearing about the ever changing laws and importance of listening! 

We enjoyed Parent Lunch and we uploaded our video through email of our Thanksgiving Skit Performance!  Thanks for listening to my 10 Marks speech!  I hope you are able to use that at home with your child and let me know if you have questions!

Have a blessed Thanksgiving!  I am very thankful for ALL of you!  Ask your child to read some of the things they wrote about from their thankful thoughts baskets on Thanksgiving this year! 

We are Thankful!

What a great week!  I am so thankful for the men and women who served our country.  Your children were the best greeters Oakland Elementary ever had! The kids are working on  Persuasive/Opinion Writing but they are writing daily about what they are thankful for so we don't miss this important holiday!   Those cups come home next week!  As you can see above, we have made cards, studied Indians and war ships, problem solved with doubles and worked on our new program, Ten Marks on the computer for math!  We are having a great year! Thanks for all the clorox wipes, snacks, and gently used books for 4K!  Looking forward to our Field Trip and Parent Lunch next week! 

Welcome November!

Our Community Helpers Unit is in full swing!  We had the best guests and the children learned about many interesting careers.  I was so thankful to have people come and give of their time...FREE!  

Mayor Huff of Inman joined us today and told about the qualities of a good leader.  We have a "Noticings' Chart" about what makes a great leader and we will add qualities with each visitor! :) We will move forward with the election process and pick a Class President of this month only!!

The children had so much fun carving pumpkins and candy graphing. This is a glimpse at learning in Literacy Stations.  The kids listened to a story about the life cycle of a pumpkin and responded with writing!  Great job everyone! :)

  Looking forward to our Field Trip to Kids Senses and seeing all of you at Parent Lunch.  We are writing each morning and adding to our thankful thoughts tupperware containers.  Those will come home the week of Thanksgiving!  WE are thankful for you and the children! 

Closing out October...

The kids did a wonderful job with questioning and learning how to annotate this past week.  Students  learned how to pick out words from our poetry and draw a picture on the side to show understanding...very different that illustrating.  This is a higher concept that prepares them for older grades! 

Flat Stanley photos and presentations were wonderful.  Students learned the importance of standing straight and tall, eye on the audience, and speaking loudly and clearly so everyone could hear you.  They were able to tell where they were in our community, what they do there, and why it is important to us! Those without access to photos drew a picture and presented.  It was all wonderful!

Congratulations for raising a great bunch of kids.  I think the children enjoyed getting awards and learning that hard work does pay off! :)  We are also very fortunate at Oakland to have THE BEST P.E. Teacher in the State!!  Coach Cabe puts her heart and soul into the well being of all students at Oakland.  I consider her a friend and I am proud to be part of 1 of 6 schools in the State of S.C. to be recognized as a "healthy school".  

Have a great weekend with all the harvest fun this and let's all get thankful as we head into next week.

Thanks for the support!

It takes a village to raise a child and you certainly do your part from Fun Run Support, to candy graphing, Christmas Basket for the Fall Festival, Clorox Wipes, Prize Box Items...and the list goes on and on and on... My birthday was wonderful with all the cards, flowers and treats!  It was a huge success and I hope I am blessed with 50 more years!  Chase's mother read a fun Halloween Book to the class and the students had fun chomping on "cheetoh bones" and " vampire doughnuts".  I am looking forward to talking with you about your child's progress this week and all the wonderful things they are doing in 1st Grade!  1st 9 Weeks was a success!

Bring in change to support our Class "Relay for Life" pumpkin!  The kids did a bat pumpkin based on all the informational writing and texts we have been reading. Don't forget our Flat Stanley Project!  Take a picture with Flat Stanley somewhere in the community and have your child email to annette.hyder@spartanburg2.k12.sc.us!

Have a great weekend! 

What A Fun Week

What a wonderful visit from the Fire Department last week.  An email was sent to make sure you go over a safe route at home for exiting in case of a fire.  Make sure your child knows your family plan! Check your smoke detectors as well as Fire Safety Week is celebrated during the month of October.

Thanks for all the FUN RUN support!  The kids have had fun winning prizes, talking about character traits this week, and writing goals for their futures!  We will talk about them at conference time at the end of our month!  Hope everyone can pick a time that works for them! More coming soon!

National Walk to School Day was a hit!  The Boiling Springs High School Football Players and Cheerleaders led us in some exercise and then we walked around the driveways of the school!  Good way to start the day as we focus on Health and Nutrition! 

FUN RUN IS FRIDAY!!! HOPE TO SEE YOU THERE!!!

October is almost here!

We ended our week with apple tasting!  What a great Fall activity thanks to you!  The students sampled delicious foods and some tried apple butter and apple chips for the very first time!  We graphed about our favorite treats with no problems!

The nonfiction writing about bats, raccoons, fireflies, and other nocturnal animals

was a huge success!  This week we did some close readings on bats and learned even more facts.  Did you know a vampire bat is the size of your thumb?!  Did you know that bat babies are called pups...just like dogs?! 

Here is a Literacy Group showing off text features that we are learning about.  The kids grouped in twos and looked through several nonfiction books to do a text feature scavenger hunt!

Boosterthon is coming our way!  More information very soon!  Also, look for Oakland's Walk to School Week.  It ties right in to Boosterthon and exercise!  

Who is our October Mystery Reader?!  I KNOW!  The kids will love this friend!

Life in the 1st Grade Lane...

Just wanted to give you a "heads up" as to what our Mornings look like!  We  have a flip chart where students make the spelling pattern for the week on the back of their classwork!  We then read our literature for the week! This week was nonfiction text.  The kids loved all of the facts so much that we are changing our "Bird Wonders" to "Bat and Owl Wonders"! Our writing shows some of our fact sentences.  Literacy Stations are always a good time for me to read with your child in small group and see where they are with reading.  If they improve...they move up groups.  If they struggle, they move to a lower group to get help!  Most are right where they need to be for now with the exception of a couple.  We love the new lego engineering sets.  I also wanted you to be aware that if your children are missing certain things consistently on their tests, NOTHING is on the test that I haven't gone over in class!  So when we struggle in math, we work at it...When we struggle in reading, we work at it...
When we struggle with listening...we work at it!  :)

A big thank you to our Room Mother, Mrs. Roberts. She ASKED if she could do something for the children to celebrate the 1st Day of Fall!  Thanks so much for thinking of us!

FYI - We are trying to upload the Weekly Newsletter.  Other classes are having issues as well. If it doesn't work, no worries.  You will get a copy every Monday!  Thanks for all the support!  Apple pictures coming next week!

A peek at our week!  Our history buffs wanted to know about the Great Depression mentioned in Uncle Jed's Barbershop so we took a history walk!  Dress Like a Pirate on Monday!
Have a great weekend!