| I will be using this site to share class announcements . |
| Two times per week your child will be bringing home a family literacy journal.This is a place where your child will communicate some of what we are learning to you. Your job is to respond to your child's journal with comments or questions about their writing. You will notice much improvement in your child's writing and spelling as the year progresses.We will start Family literacy journals next Tuesday. Look for them to come home on Tuesdays and Thursdays ! |
| We are so grateful to have the opportunity to walk to Meadows Library every two weeks. Your child will need a Boulder Public Library Card. We will be sending home a form soon. We do walk all year. The childrens' librarian (Cam) teaches us how to use the library and shares many great books! |
| Thursday and Friday will be days spent getting to know each other, learning the routines of first grade, and having fun making art, singing and sharing stories together.Much of the first few weeks of first grade concentrates on using non-violent communication(Giraffe Talk), discussing class agreements, forming friendships and learning how to work together. These are mighty and important tasks.Ask your child to share experiences with you, but remember that some kids will be more able or willing to share details while others will simply say"it's ok!" |
| Hello to new first grade families! New announcements will be the primary way for me to communicate important dates and events. Please check here frequently! School starts tomorrow at 7:55. You can enter through the door in the courtyard outside our room(room113)Please make sure your child has an individual snack for the morning,a packed or a purchased school lunch and plaenty of rest to start their day! Pick-up will also be outside our room in the courtyard. We dismiss at 3:10. |
| Your child will bring home an application for the Meadows Branch of the library today. If you have a library card from last year please send it to school. If you need a replacement, please fill out the form and write "replacement" on the top. Cam would like all forms completed so she has your current e-mail. We will start going to the library soon! It's great to have a parent volunteer for these times! |
| Please send in a small family photo that we will be using for our study of families and communities. We will make beautiful frames to decorate our room. The photo will be returned in the frame at the end of the year. Photocopies or paper copies are fine. Thanks! |
| Sorry-all the events from the events section keep disappearing from the web site-I am doing the calendar but then it's not there!!! Ghosts!!Your child will bring home a family age survey today for us to use in our family study next week. Don't forget to send a family portrait to school for us to use. Family literacy journals will come home to you next Tuesday! More about that later! |
| Plan on attending Back to school night this Tuesday at 6:30 in your child's classroom. This is a great time to ask questions and hear about the first grade curriculum at Horizons.This is an adults only event. |
| This year our classes is pleased to be 4/5 buddies with Peter's class and middle school buddies with Janice's class! We will start this Wed with meeting our 4/5 buddies. Ask your kids what they think about learning with older students! |
| Tomorrow 8/31 your child will bring home a blue composition book with a message about what we are learning in class. Please respond in writing to your child's message. Please print(not cursive)your response and ask a clarifying question that is directly related to your child's message. If your child writes about math, you could ask them what to solve a simple problem or say how much you enjoy math too! We will complete Family Literacy Journals on Tuesday and Thursday.Please remember to return it the very next day because it is hard for kids when their family forgets! They don't have a message to read the next day!Remember spelling is a developmental skill. Your first grader may or may not spell every word correctly at this time. Resist the temptation to correct spelling in this journal at this time! Thanks! |
| This Thursday 9/2 we are pleased to host a presentation from Eco-Cycle about how to use our school's Green Star School recycling and composting programs at school. We compost all food waste, paper towels and other items, as well as recycle paper,plastic and glass bottles. The staff at Eco-cycle does a terrific program for out first graders to value this action! |
| The entire week of Sept 13 is Horizons Outdoor Education Week. The kindergarten and first graders will be the only grades not going on overnight trips. Don't be surprised to see the almost empty parking lot after Tuesday!Here are our week's activities.
Monday-Horizon's pond activities in the morning(volunteers welcome!), Tuesday-Exploring our playground environment, Wednesday -Bobolink Trail Hike (Drivers Needed!), Thursday-Battasso Preserve Hike (drivers needed!), Friday-reflections.
IMPORTANT-If Your child gets hot lunch this week it will be a sack lunch.We need to inform the lunch staff of numbers of sack lunches needed by this week. You can not buy a lunch during outdoor ed week unless you sign up NOW!!!They require two week's notice for sack lunches.There is a sign up sheet in our class for drivers. Please help if you can-Thank you so much for your support. |
| We will be going to Meadows Library on Tuesday-We leave about 10:55. It's great to have a parent volunteer if you are interested.We have enough drivers to go to Heil Ranch next week. We changed from Betasso Preserve because we were able to get a Ranger led hike at Heil Ranch! Outdoor ed week is so important at Horizons. We attempt of convey the importance of respecting and protecting our beautiful Colorado environment. Eco-cycle did a wonderful job in reminding our class how to use our recycling and composting process at school. |
| Please remember to send in a family portrait so we can use them for our study of families around the world.We are reading , writing and thinking about our families and community and will be making maps of our Horizons Community this week.We completed a 4/5 buddy project last week by drawing our families next to our buddy"s families and discovering similarities and differences.In art Kara helped kids create beautiful self portraits that are now hanging in our room.Our full size stripped bodies will be hung in our room as soon as I can find something that will stick to the paint! |
| This is an exciting week at Horizons as higher grades all leave for their outdoor ed trips. Here is a recap of the first grade week! Tomorrow Monday at 10:10 we will explore the pond in our own back yard! We have lots of activities planed. We could still use a few parents to help with small groups from 10-12. On Tuesday we will spend most of the day outdoors on our grounds exploring nature on our playground!We will make nature observations, predict how fast ice will melt, watch a puddle evaporate, find leaves, rocks and seeds. Measure air temperatures,make air born toys and more.On Wed we will be driving to the Bob-o-Link trail head for a hike!We need a few more drivers! 9:30-1:30.On Thursday we have enough drivers to go on a Ranger led excursion at Heil Ranch.Friday is left for reflection.Remember drivers need to check in the office for a driver form AND ALL KIDS UNDER 80 POUNDS MUST HAVE A CAR SEAT OR BOOSTER! |
| Thanks to everyone for making outdoor ed week so sucessful. We are continuing with many environmental activities in the coming week. Last Thursday we collected over 20 different types of seeds from our playground!We are studying the "web of like" and discovering the inter-relatedness of all living things through food webs . We also discovered non-fiction as a genre this week! |
| Everyone has been so wonderful in participating in writing back to your child in our family literacy journals. They are going home on Tuesday and Thursday! Everyone will forget occasionally!When games or activities come home ,don't be concerned if you can't play the game that night-just respond with some words of encouragement! |
| On Monday September 27 kids will be sharing our first stories in our first authors party! Occasionally we have little celebrations of our writing and we each take a turn in the "author's" chair to read our writing to each other. Our first theme was dragons! You will be reading these stories and all your child's writing during family conferences the 3rd week in Oct. |
| We are waiting to design frames for family photos. Please send in a photo so your child can proudly display you in our room! |
| Skylines newsletter (on this site) contains very important information and dates! Don't forget to read it monthly-School photos are the first week in Oct! |
| Please ask me if you would like to see your child's results on the district standardized reading assessment-the DRA 2. I usually don't share the results with students during conferences , but I would be happy to show you their current reading level and skills. |
| individual and class photos will be taken on OCT 5. There will be a retake day if your child is absent or you would like a second chance for the perfect picture! |
| So Sorry!! I actually forget to send home the literacy journals last week although the kids wrote and are looking forward to sharing them with you!! They will go home on Tuesday! We also have library this Tuesday so don't forget to send books! |
| The hot lunch program has been experiencing some bumps due to long lines and not enough time for kids to eat. Please know that I always allow the kids to bring their lunches to our room to finish so they do get to eat! Look for the email from Sonny that addresses this issue and the changes in lunch times that we hope will fix this problem for students. |
| We love family conferences! You will receive your conference week day and time shortly. We seek to arrange a time that will work best for your family so if you have a specific day or time that you would like , please email me at school. Conferences are about 45 minutes and will include seeing all your child's work thus far! Kids love this special time. They are so proud to show you what they have learned and to play math games and read to you from a "just right"book.Conferences will be Oct 18, 19 and 20 this year. The rest of the week is staff planning so children do not have school. |
| Thanks again for your help in talking with your child about listening in school. It has led to a fantastic positive change in our class! I really want kids to love school and good behavior is the foundation of our fun together! Your kids are amazing. It's been such a pleasure seeing the change already.We are going to be learning and playing together in a fun, positive setting. |
| I will be adding a brief list of curriculum objectives that we are working on each week.Last week-math-counting objects using strategies of grouping(not 1-1 counting), counting by rote forwards and backwards, using a abacus with 20 beads, math games-roll to 20 and subtraction to 20.Language arts-choosing a just right book, sustained partner reading,word families, dragon poems, Halloween books! |
| Thanks to all for a fantastic conference week! I was so proud of the student's ability to share their work and learning with all of you. We are definitely gaining skills and having fun together. I am looking forward to the next few weeks before Thanksgiving Break! |
| The K/1 team will be celebrating Thanksgiving by having our annual Community Feast on Wed Nov 17th. Sign up in our room to bring a dish to share-enough for about 20 people. The event starts at 10:30 with singing and eating will follow!! We need volunteers to set up, and clean up. More info will follow next week. |
| Let's keep the fun and excitement of Halloween for a special home and neighborhood experience. The kids are usually so excited for this special day and evening. We will not be celebrating Halloween at school so no costumes or candy are needed! We do read lots of scary books and make some cool art work. |
| Our second session of Arts and Science begins this Monday. Kids will find out their class on Monday morning. There were six choices this time so hopefully all the kids have a class that they will love! Parents are welcome to teach Arts and Science Classes! If you are interested contact Wendy. WE need art, music, movement or science teachers to make A and S a fun and learning experience. |
| We need a parent to coordinate scholastic book orders for our class if we want to have this opportunity this year. Please let me know if you would be interested in helping with this!Thanks. |
| This Tuesday Oct 26th is our class's turn to visit Meadows Library. I returned all the past books that were in our class. Please send in any library books you may have at home. Don't worry about over due books! There is no fee and Cam the childrens' librarian is very forgiving! |
| Horizons K/1 classes are fortunate to be participating in MOVE again this year. This is a volunteer based program run by CU students interested in bringing more physical education to elementary schools. Our class will have move on Tuesday mornings. The kids really enjoy the non-competitive and active games during this time. |
| Yeah! Our fantastic musician friend Ernie will be singing and playing with our students each week starting this Tuesday after lunch. Another fun arts experience for the kids. Ernie also helps us learn the songs for our play and teaches us some great dance moves. |
| Sorry about the date confusion! Our annual K/1 Thanksgiving Feast will be at 10:30am on Nov 18! It will be held at Mt View Church across the street from the school in Barker Hall. Please sign up to bring a dish to share.Sign up outside our room or email me . The K/1 classes will be singing 3 songs at 10:30 so don't be late! |
| No school on Veteran's Day Nov 11th! |
| Please remember to return library books that may be at home! Thanks! Look for late slips in your child's Family lit journal on Thursday. |
| We will be taking a school bus to our trip to the CU museum to learn about the science of the senses. Our class will be starting this fun science unit this week. We will be doing some experiments and observations involving hearing and vision.Look for the field trip permission form tomorrow-Wed! Some day this will also be done through the web site-but for now we need parents to sign the paper.Thanks! |
| All the current email addresses should be correct now! I will do a test tonight. If you do not receive the email, let me know!Thanks |
| I hope you all had much fun and rest this last week! The next three weeks in first grade will concentrate on finishing our unit on our senses and learning about body systems. We are learning to make entries in our science journals now.In literacy we will be finishing our Word Family Spelling books and getting ready for the second level after winter break. Our focus in math will continue on building number sense and using problem solving strategies.We will be sending home family literacy journals on Tuesdays and Thursdays!(usually!!) |
| Please continue to read to or with your child each day. Kids can borrow books to read at home any time. We are learning to pick "just right" books that we can read independently and these can be found in your child's book box at school. I am really going to encourage kids to bring home books to share with you. Let's continue to model for students that reading is a wonderful and joyful thing to do at home either alone or with a sibling or parent. |
| The students have outside recess each day unless the temperature is below 20 degrees! They do need warm clothes, boots, hats, mittens and will be helped greatly if their names are on these items! You will get them back if a name is inside-if not????? who knows where all those single mittens go??? |
| Thanks to the many parents who have been attending our Horizons monthly council meetings. There is no meeting in Dec. |
| So many parents helped in making our beautiful Holiday Gathering really special! Thanks to Alice and Pita for the idea to walk our light spiral and to Jesse for stopping in and rehearsing with us on several occasions!Rebecca and Alice and Jesse added instruments to our songs to wonderful effect! I hope you all had a restful and fun few weeks off together. I miss the kids and am ready to return to school on Tuesday! |
| WE will our friend Karen next door but are so happy for her chance to take time with her family and be well. I will be working closely with Beth to plan the rest of the first grade year together. |
| Look for permission forms for winter sports coming this week. We will be taking ice skating lessons at Boulder Valley Ice in Superior. WE can always use a few parents to help lace up and locate mittens!! Last year's experience was 100% positive with fun had by all! We will go one day a week for three weeks. |
| Fran and Karen (Literacy support) have adjusted their schedules to work more closely in our first grade classrooms with students they have identified as benefiting from some additional support in reading. They will contact parents of those students and are happy to discuss the program or any questions about students concerning this program. Beth and I continue with Readers and Writers Workshop, literacy centers and Family Literacy Journals. Our class will move into the level 2 sight word spellers and small guided reading groups during this semester. |
| Every child will receive an envelope this week that will contain a book that is "just right" for them to practice at home. I have written a short description concerning "how to read with your child" that I hope will be helpful. Please read with your child every day if possible! There is no "wrong" way to do this! Enjoyment and pride as a new reader should be the number one goal for family reading time. We are considering offering a parent literacy night if there is interest from families! More info soon. |
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