August 23, 2013

This week we learned about how God created the world and everything in it in six days.  I hope your child shared with you the creation book he/she made.  While some scientists dispute the biblical account of the six-day creation, it is important for us to understand that God can do anything.  We put our trust in Him and in His Word. This week we will continue learn about how God always watches over us and protects us. 

A Look Ahead:

Religion:  The Flood

Memory: Psalm 139:4 *PLEASE work with your child on memory at home.

Reading:  We have spent the whole week learning about our Literacy Centers.  I was so proud of the class and they did great at centers for the first time! This week we will continue to practice them so we can work at our centers independently.

Grammar: Sentences, focusing on word order

Spelling:  Lesson 2

Phonics:  Hearing sounds in a sequence

Writing: Sentences

Math:  Continue review of numbers, begin ordering and matching

Science: First TEST WEDNESDAY over A2-A17 Living/nonliving 

Science books will come home Monday.

Social Studies:  Learning from each other

Art:  Piet Mondrain

It was great to get a chance to talk to you at Back to School Night.  I want to thank you for making your child's education a priority and thank your for the sacrifices you make to have your child in this Christian environment.  Please read through the yellow folder as I wasn't able to go into a lot of the details that are included.  If you have any questions please contact me.  I did forget to mention that the cafeteria no longer accepts change for milks.  Money must be put into your child's account.  You can send in a check or use the online service.  I must warn you that when I put money into the online service there were added charges and Zion is working with the company but nothing has been resolved as of yet.

We took our first spelling test today and you can see the test in your child's Friday Folder.  This was a practice test and I didn't record the grade.  I will begin recording the grades next week.  Please look at how the tests are graded.  The sentence must have all words spelled correctly, begin with a capital letter,  have no other capital letters, and end with an end mark. 
I will not be marking reversals and capital letters on the word portion but I will remind them to use lower case letters.  I will start marking these wrong once we have done a few tests.

Thank you for those who volunteered to clean the room.  I hope to have the schedule done and emailed to you next week.

Please make sure your child has headphones here at school.  There were a couple of kiddos who missed out of the  computer center because they didn't have headphones.

IN THE GREEN FOLDER:

*Please sign the Digital Citizenship Guidelines paper and return to school.

*For new students and parents who have not logged on to the online grade book there is an information paper and your activation code.

*Together We're Better/Scrip Forms (Free Money for School) Look at the ordering contest information sheet!

This has been a great week.  Your children are doing such a good job of learning our classroom routines.  Ask them about centers and check out the pictures of our first few centers, mileage club, and other activities this week!  I talk about the first graders being independent and I want to assure you I will teach them and help them along the way.  This will not happen over night it is a goal for the year.

Have a wonderful weekend.  Please set aside time to worship and praise our AWESOME CREATOR!!   New Bible Studies begin this weekend at ZIon.  This is a good time to start good worship and Bible study habits!

In HIM,

Amy

Making new words using the word chunk -at.

Math Experiments

Building Towers

Matching Numbers and Towers

We used our 5 senses to observe POPCORN.

taste

The main description of the popcorn was "PLAIN" I should have brought butter and salt.

Look what we did, we finished during morning work!

We are doing our morning devotions.

Following along in the liturgy during devotions.

Looking for things we know.

Finding the -at chunk.

Putting the Alphabet in order.

We like going to the classroom lib ray.

Under the desk is a favorite place to read.

Using whiteboards to practice sentences.

We LOVE mileage club!

Another lap

Buddies walking together

practicing tracing 

practicing cutting

matching rhyming words in Phonics

We LOVE shaving cream Spelling!

Mixing primary colors to get the secondary colors.

OUR FIRST TIME AT CENTERS

library

library

Phonics

Alphabet

Spelling

Computer

Memory Journal

Alphabet

THUMBS UP for centers

Practicing left and right

We made a Venn Diagram comparing a living and non living dog.

August 16, 2013

First Days of School, August, 16, 2013

 

This week we talked how God has a great plan for us. 

 A plan to give us a future in heaven with HIM!

     Enjoy this video from our first chapel.  The school is singing the refrain of our theme song.

We had a great first few days of school and I look forward to doing more academics next week.  This will be a short parent letter because I will share a lot of information at PARENT'S BACK TO SCHOOL NIGHT, TUESDAY, AUGUST 20 at 6:30.  

It is very important that at least one parent attend the BACK TO SCHOOL NIGHT.  I would like for you to attend the first and second sessions with me in our first grade room.  In the past we have had a separate night to go over reading information, but we would like to try to do it all on BACK TO SCHOOL NIGHT.  (Meeting in my room from 6:30-7:20)  If you have other kids you can attend the last session at 7:30.  This is for parents only no children please.

A quick look at next week:
Religion: Creation
Memory:  Jeremiah 29:11(memory is in your child's homework memory may be said any    

               dayTuesday-Friday)
Reading: Mrs. Masa will be testing our class to find a beginning point for their literacy groups.
Centers: We will begin learning about our center time

     Spelling: practice lesson 1
     Phonics: rhyming words
     Alphabet: ordering letters
Grammar: Sentences
Spelling: Lesson 1  Practice Test Friday
Spelling Words:   We will have a practice test on Friday over Lesson 1 -at chunk words
                        hat, cat, mat, rat, sat, fat, bat, pat
                        sight words: the, and
Spelling Dictation Sentence: The cat is fat.
Math: Review of numbers and shapes
Science: Plants
Social Studies: School Community
Art: Color wheel

I hope this will help you talk with your child about what we are doing next week in school.

Your child may bring a water bottle to school to drink during the day.  Please send a bottle that has a sippy type lid that pops up to keep spills to a minimum.

Monday we have PE so please have your child's clean gym shoes in his/her backpack.  The gym shoes need to be shoes that will not be worn outside and only worn inside at gym.  If you are reusing an old pair of shoes please scrub the bottom to make sure the shoes are clean and free from pebbles, bark, or dirt.  Thank You!

Please look in your child's green Friday Folder each week.  Please mark the church and Sunday school attendance and initial so that I know you have looked at the Friday Folder!  There isn't much homework in the green Friday Folder this week, but there is a very important note about the SCRIP-TOGETHER WE ARE BETTER, which is a very easy way to make money for our school.  Please read it carefully and buy your gift cards from Zion.

It has been an absolute pleasure getting to know your child this week and I look forward a terrific year.   I hope to see many of you in church this weekend.  Brayden C.'s mom is getting baptized this Saturday at Zion in the 5:00 service.  God's richest blessings to Lisa Cooseman!

Please enjoy a few pictures of our first days.  It will give you a small picture of our awesome 3 days :)  SEE YOU AT BACK TO SCHOOL NIGHT- TUESDAY, AUGUST 20, AT 6:30 !!

In HIM,
Amy

Zion Lutheran Bobcats 2013/14 School Year

Playing the I have...Who has Game

We are ready and we have a workspace on our desks!

We love to dance!

Working on our First Day Writing Sample

Sharing our Writing Sample

We Read the KISSING HAND.

We talked about our FIRST DAY FEELINGS.

We told how we felt at the beginning of the first day.

 We played with BOBCAT Playdough!

We prayed for others.

We made prayer cards to send to those who are sick.

We are reviewing the alphabet.

We learned how to  whisper read with our special phones.

We made letter tiles to use all year.

We practiced using our letter tiles to build our first and last names.

I pledge allegiance...

We have only ONE classroom rule.

We learned 9 lunch prayers.  Here we are praying the "cowboy" prayer.

 ASK ABOUT OUR HANDWRITING TODAY,
Let's say my hands were too messy to take a picture!

July 29, 2013

Welcome parents to First Grade!
I hope you are as excited for your child to be in First Grade as I am to have them.

This year our school theme is A FUTURE WITH A HOPE.  God has a plan for our lives and that plan is for us to live an eternity with HIM.  God sent Jesus to die and rise, to forgive our sins, and to give us a FUTURE AND A HOPE!

First grade is such a big year for your child.  I can't wait to be a partner with you as we help your child to grow spiritually and academically.

I look forward to seeing you Monday, August 12 at the Open House from 4:30-7:30.  

This will be an opportunity for your child to talk to me, see our classroom, pick out their desk, and bring their supplies to school.  Please label your child's supplies with his or her name or initials.  It is helpful to label each marker and crayon.  You DO NOT need to labels pencils as I will collect all the pencils at the beginning of school and we will share them throughout the year.

If you are a new family to Zion I would like to welcome you to our the Zion family.  I will be calling you soon to schedule a home visit.

Parents also plan on attending the BACK TO SCHOOL on August 20. This is a very important night where you will learn a lot about our First Grade.

There was a mistake on the supply list and my class will NOT need the 3 ring binder!  Sorry for the inconvenience, if you have already purchased it.

I hope you enjoy the last bit of summer and are ready for school!

See you at OPEN HOUSE.

In HIM,
Amy Bernhardt

abernhardt@zionharvester.org