Week 12

ablauwkaClass News

Notes for Parents:

  • I am looking forward to virtual parent teacher conferences this week! Please fill out this form before our conference to help make the most of our time together.
  • The annual P.E. C.A.R.E.S food drive began on November 4. We are asking for your help by bringing in non-perishable food items for Love Inc. in Hudsonville. Food items to consider are canned vegetables and fruits, pasta, rice, baked beans, black beans, kidney beans, peanut butter, tuna fish, etc. (please no ramen noodles, and please do not break apart packaged food) The food drive will continue until Nov. 18. We will be keeping track of how many items each class brings in.  The class with the most items brought in by NOON on Nov. 18 will win a P.E. C.A.R.E.S t-shirt and a bowling trip to Hudsonville Lane. (If allowed this year) This is a great opportunity for our students to care for their community, to teach our kids compassion and love for others.  Thanks for sharing in this service project with us at Georgetown!

Upcoming Dates:

  • Monday, November 16 – STEAM, Library
    • Book Fair Preview
    • Virtual Conferences
  • Tuesday, November 17 – Music
  • Wednesday, November 18 – Gym
    • Last day to donate food for P.E. C.A.R.E.S
    • Book Fair Shopping
    • Virtual Conferences
  • Thursday, November 19 – Art
  • Friday, November 20 – STEAM
  • November 23-27 – NO SCHOOL
    • Mon. & Tues. – learning packet for home
CELEBRATIONS
Quote of the Week: This week’s quote of the week went to Lily! She makes smart choices in the classroom, hallway, specials, and at recess. Thanks for always being a positive leader for your classmates. Way to go, Lily!
First Grade Family Time: This week Sawyer lost his very first tooth and joined the Lost Tooth Club! Keep having your kiddo practice tying their shoes!

OUR LEARNING

Word Study: We continued to look at silent e turning letters into long vowel sounds.  We also investigated that there are very few long e words with silent e (here, these, Pete).  We looked at how most often long e is made with ee or ea. Your Word Detectives did an awesome job spotting these vowel patterns in their books!

Writing: We continued working on our very one how-to writing pieces. We will be working on publishing a new piece this next week!
Math: We reviewed addition and subtraction at the beginning of the week and had our unit 2 test on Thursday! Our class did great, and I can’t wait to share them with you at conferences!
Reading: This week the detectives focused on using snap words we know. We practiced reading the ones we already know in a snap, we thought about if we could guess the word based on the context clues, we saw if the words reminded us of a snap word we already knew and we worked on having a word turn into a snap word. It was exciting because we got our own Word Detective Badges. We even created an advertisement to let the everyone know we are now Word Detectives!
We learned about the holiday some people celebrate called Diwali, the Festival of Lights! It is a festival that celebrates new beginnings. They had a blast creating these paper lanterns.

P.E. C.A.R.E.S Reminder

ablauwkaFirst Grade Blogs

I posted about the P.E. C.A.R.E.S food drive in the weekly update last week, but I wanted to send a quick reminder today before gym tomorrow!

Here is the information again:

The annual P.E. C.A.R.E.S food drive began on November 4. We are asking for your help by bringing in non-perishable food items for Love Inc. in Hudsonville. Food items to consider are canned vegetables and fruits, pasta, rice, baked beans, black beans, kidney beans, peanut butter, tuna fish, etc. (please no ramen noodles, and please do not break apart packaged food) The food drive will continue until Nov. 18. We will be keeping track of how many items each class brings in.  The class with the most items brought in by NOON on Nov. 18 will win a P.E. C.A.R.E.S t-shirt and a bowling trip to Hudsonville Lane. (If allowed this year) This is a great opportunity for our students to care for their community, to teach our kids compassion and love for others.  Thanks for sharing in this service project with us at Georgetown!

Scholastic Book Order

ablauwkaFirst Grade Blogs

You should have seen a Scholastic book order note come home in your child’s blue folder tonight for both November and December. These months are combined due to having winter break cut December short. Also, some parents choose to order these as holiday gifts. If this is something you are interested in, please let me know. When your order comes in I can leave it in the office for you to pick-up so that your kiddos don’t see them!

Here are the links to the November and December online catalogs. The flyer attached to the note is all about holiday books!

 

Week 11

ablauwkaClass News
CELEBRATIONS
Fort Day: Fort day was SO much fun!
Birthdays: We celebrated three special birthdays this week. Thank you for sharing your books with our class: Sydney, Finn, and Melwyn!
Quote of the Week: This week’s quote of the week went to Gabba! She is always kind to others and treats everyone with respect even if they do things differently than her. Way to go, Gabba!
First Grade Family Time: Gracie and Bryce joined the Lost Tooth Club this week! No friends joined the shoe-tying club… keep practicing at home!

OUR LEARNING

Classroom Jobs: We began classroom jobs this week, and the kiddos have been very hard workers!

Election Fun: We read the book Duck for President, and then we filled out a ballot to vote for Duck or Farmer Brown. After all the ballots were in, we tallied them up to see who won!

Word Study: This week, we continued our case of the silent “e.” We learned that “e” makes other vowels (besides a) say their names. We used our detective skills to study silent “e” words with o and i. We’re excited and wondering what we will learn next!

Writing: We began working on our very own “how-to” stories. I was so impressed by the creative ideas our class had!
Math: We practiced more addition and subtraction equations and even learned about vertical forms this week. To practice related addition and subtraction problems, we went on a hunt to find our matching equations!
Reading: The Super Secret Detective Agency continued to send us training missions this week! We received more missions which reminded us to do slow checks of tricky words and to be good reading partners.

Notes for Parents:

  • Reminder that this year’s Turkey Trot will be taking place this week… get ready to run!
  • Please sign up for a conference time if you have not had the chance to do so yet. Thank you! Here is the link: https://calendly.com/ablauwka/blauwkamp
  • The annual P.E. C.A.R.E.S food drive began on November 4. We are asking for your help by bringing in non-perishable food items for Love Inc. in Hudsonville. Food items to consider are canned vegetables and fruits, pasta, rice, baked beans, black beans, kidney beans, peanut butter, tuna fish, etc. (please no ramen noodles, and please do not break apart packaged food) The food drive will continue until Nov. 18. We will be keeping track of how many items each class brings in.  The class with the most items brought in by NOON on Nov. 18 will win a P.E. C.A.R.E.S t-shirt and a bowling trip to Hudsonville Lane. (If allowed this year) This is a great opportunity for our students to care for their community, to teach our kids compassion and love for others.  Thanks for sharing in this service project with us at Georgetown!

Upcoming Dates:

  • Monday, November 9 – STEAM, Library
  • Tuesday, November 10 – Music
  • Wednesday, November 11 – Gym
  • Thursday, November 12 – Art
  • Friday, November 13 – Early Release, no special
  • Monday, November 16 – virtual conferences
  • Wednesday, November 18 – virtual conferences

Week 10

ablauwkaClass News
FALL PARTY
First of all I want to say THANK YOU to all of you for making our fall party a success!!! I really appreciate all of your donations for the party and being so understanding of the changes we had to make this year due to this crazy time we are living in. We had SO much fun! I love this silly group of first graders!
Pumpkin Bowling: I was able to play pumpkin bowling with the kiddos!
Bingo: Miss Hutchison and her student teacher, Miss VanderKolk, played fall bingo in our class!
Directed Drawing: Mrs. Kuiper taught the kiddos how to draw these adorable pumpkins!
Craft: Mrs. Cooley helped them make these spooky spider hats!
CELEBRATIONS
Star Student: For our second round of star students, I would love for the kiddos to bring in one of their favorite books to share with the class during our snack time! They will get to read it to the class and take it home with them the same day. I will send home an email to you the day before, so they have some time to pick out their book!
Quote of the Week: This week’s quote went to Kendall! You always want to do your very best and you do not stop until you are proud of your work. Way to go, Kendall!
First Grade Family Time: Lily and Lucy joined the shoe tying club and Gabba and Sydney joined the lost tooth club this week!

 

 

 

 

OUR LEARNING

Word Study: This week we began our second word study unit, all about the mystery of the silent e. We worked on sorting words with the vowel ‘a’ that did and did not have an e at the end of the word. In words without an ‘e’ at the end, the ‘a’ said its short vowel sound. In words with an ‘e’ at the end, the ‘a’ said its long vowel sound.

Writing: We began our second writing unit, “How-To Writing.” Rasheed taught the class how to make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich this week with his mentor text for us! We began working together to write a how-to piece on how to wash your hands.
Math: We continued solving subtraction equations with circle drawings this week. Each table group came up with their own word problem and it was so fun to hear their stories. This week’s quiz will be coming home early this week!
Reading: This week we began our second unit of reading which is all about being word detectives. The Super Secret Detective Agency delivered us a top secret envelope with 5 missions for our class to complete. This week we completed two missions!

 

 

 

 

 

Notes for Parents:

  • Reminder that this year’s Turkey Trot will be virtual! Please check out the PE blog for more information.
  • Picture retake day will be Tuesday, November 3.
    • If your child was absent or you would like a retake, you can order online by going to geskusphoto.com/fallorders and use code 264BFISDGVNHA.
  • Please make sure you have signed your child up for our class’s Google Classroom as well as the specials’ teachers Google Classrooms. Reach out to me if you need help with this, I am happy to help!
    • Here are the codes for specials:
      Art –  g6zggka
      STEAM- vpcx5uq
      Music- l2n6kkn
      PE-ggalmj4
  • Look for a sign up email tomorrow morning for parent teacher conferences. They will be on November 16 and 18 over Zoom this Fall.

Upcoming Dates:

  • Monday, November 2 – Art, Library
  • Tuesday, November 3 – STEAM, Picture Re-take Day
    • Sydney’s b-day!
  • Wednesday, November 4 – Music
    • Finn’s b-day!
  • Thursday, November 5 – Gym
    • Melwyn’s b-day!
  • Friday, November 6 – Art
  • November 13 – Early Release Day
  • November 16 & 18 – Fall Conferences

Week Nine

ablauwkaClass News

FALL CELEBRATION

Please check out the link to our class party supply sign-up!

Costumes: Children will be able to wear their costumes to school and wear them the whole day. The intent behind this is to limit children gathering in the restrooms to change, and limit the number of children needing assistance from teachers and staff to get into their costumes. We invite you to send your children in a costume that includes no weapons or gore, and easily allows your child to participate in regular school routines and procedures. Can they take it off themselves to use the bathroom? Can they fit in their seat at their desk? Can they go down the slide or sit in the swings? Can they wear their mask? Please save bulky (i.e blowup costumes), or extravagant costumes for home use, and dress in a fun and simple costume for the school day. We are thrilled at the opportunity to celebrate with your children and look forward to creating another fun and memorable school event for them!

Booed: We were Booed on Friday, so we were able to enjoy some goodies! They are very excited to Boo a couple classes on Tuesday… but shh, we don’t want anyone to know it’s from us!

CELEBRATIONS
Star Students: We had our last star student this week, thanks for your help Briella! We will start our second round of Star Students the first week of November. Look for more information on this next week!
Quote of the Week: This week’s quote went to Sawyer! You kept on believing in yourself and worked hard to do your very best. Way to go, Sawyer!
First Grade Family Time: We did not have any new lost teeth or shoe-tying friends this week.

OUR LEARNING

Word Study: We had a review week for word study this week and helped to solidify blends and digraphs. We also focused a lot on some of the fundamentals of writing like punctuation and capitalization!

Writing: We spent the week fixing and fancying our final small moment narrative story.  Students will be bringing home pieces they have been working on these first nine weeks of school to share with you. I’ll save a few here at school too.  Next, we’ll be starting, How-To books.
Math: We began solving subtraction equations this week using circle drawings. The number of circles represents the total, a line crosses out the number being taken away (followed by a break apart stick), and the number of circles not crossed out tells us our answer! We also did a fun number talk; the students were flashed the picture of the ten frames for a few seconds and had to figure out how many dots were on the page. I loved hearing all of their logical reasoning on how they figured it out!
Reading: We wrapped up our first unit and reflected by making construction hats to show that readers “build” good habits! We celebrated these great habits and set goals for ourselves from this unit that we would like to carry over. The next unit we’ll start is Word Detectives.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Notes for Parents:

  • Reminder that this year’s Turkey Trot will be virtual! Please check out the PE blog for more information.
  • Picture retake day will be Tuesday, November 3.
    • If your child was absent or you would like a retake, you can order online by going to geskusphoto.com/fallorders and use code 264BFISDGVNHA.
  • Please make sure you have signed your child up for our class’s Google Classroom as well as the specials’ teachers Google Classrooms. Reach out to me if you need help with this, I am happy to help!
    • Here are the codes for specials:
             Art –  g6zggka
      STEAM- vpcx5uq
      Music- l2n6kkn
      PE-ggalmj4

Upcoming Dates:

  • Monday, October 26 – NO SCHOOL
  • Tuesday, October 27 – Art
  • Wednesday, October 28 – STEAM, Fall Celebration supplies due
  • Thursday, October 29 – Music
  • Friday, October 30 – Gym, Fall Celebration!!!
  • October 31 – Scholastic book orders due

Week Eight

ablauwkaClass News

FALL PARTY

Please check out the link to our class party supply sign-up!

CELEBRATIONS

Walkathon Winners: First grade was the top-earning grade level for the walkathon! We celebrated with an extra recess and popsicles this week. Ava also got to have her pizza lunch with Mr. Waldie!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Star Students: We had five special star students this week. Thanks for being my helpers Kendall, Lucy, Norah, Isaiah, and Breckon!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Quote of the Week: This week’s quote went to Atticus! He is always working to do his best even when something is difficult and he becomes frustrated. Way to go, Atticus!

 

 

 

 

 

First Grade Family Time: Lucy joined the lost tooth club and Claire and Finn joined the shoe tying club this week!

 

 

 

 

 

OUR LEARNING

Word Study: We graduated from Unit 1 and are now super Phonics Professors!  We continued to apply all we have learned about blends, digraphs, vowels, syllables, and keep practicing using, spelling, reading, and saying out snap words.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Writing: This week we finished trying out and copying Author’s Craft Moves and we worked on revising and editing.  We are excited to fix and fancy a final piece to publish next week as we wrap up this narrative unit.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Math: We learned a new addition strategy this week, counting on with hands. Students “knock” at the bigger partner, then use their fingers to count on the small partner. We made sure that we count up after the first partner and don’t include that first partner in our counting on. We helped Puzzled Penguin fix his mistake!

 

 

 

 

 

Reading: This week we focused on partner reading! We learned that partners do not tell one another what tricky words say, instead, they can cheer one another on and remind one another of good habits to solve tricky words!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

PBIS: We had our PBIS kick-off to help us focus on SOARing at school.  We got to talk to detective Stauffer and Detective Waldie to find clues and discuss ways we can SOAR in our class and at GES. We completed the mission and earned a class outstanding!

 

 

 

 

 

Notes for Parents:

  • Reminder that this year’s Turkey Trot will be virtual! Please check out the PE blog for more information.
  • This Friday will be an Early Release, so students will be dismissed at 12:15 pm. Also, next Monday, October 26, we will have NO school.

Upcoming Dates:

  • Monday, October 19 – Art, LIBRARY (books due)
  • Tuesday, October 20 – STEAM
  • Wednesday, October 21 – Music
  • Thursday, October 22 – Gym
  • Friday, October 23 – Gym, Early Release
  • Monday, October 26 – NO SCHOOL
  • Wednesday, October 28 – Fall Celebration Supplies Due!
  • Friday, October 30 – Fall Celebration

Week Seven

ablauwkaClass News

Fall Party

This year for our Fall Celebrations we are looking forward to having parties in our classrooms, much like years past.  This year will be slightly different, in a couple of ways.

  1. Parents and volunteers will not be able to attend.  (We will miss you!)
  2. Snacks can be sent in, but need to be store-bought and individually packaged.
  3. Games, crafts, and snacks need to be sent in 24 hours in advance (or more).

*Next week I’ll send up a sign-up link with all the things we’ll need.

Like previous years, we will be welcoming your children to wear costumes, if they wish.  One change this year is that children will be able to wear their costumes to school and wear them the whole day.  The intent behind this is to limit children gathering in the restrooms to change, and limit the number of children needing assistance from teachers and staff to get into their costumes.  We invite you to send your children in a costume that includes no weapons or gore, and easily allows your child to participate in regular school routines and procedures.  Can they take it off themselves to use the bathroom?  Can they fit in their seat at their desk? Can they go down the slide or sit in the swings?  Can they wear their mask?  Please save bulky, or extravagant costumes for home use, and dress in a fun and simple costume for the school day.  Fall or pumpkin t-shirts are a great alternative as well.

We are thrilled at the opportunity to celebrate with your children and look forward to creating another fun and memorable school event for them.

CELEBRATIONS

Walkathon Winners: Congratulations to Sydney, Isaiah, and Ava!

Star Students: We had five special star students this week. Thanks for being my helpers Ava, Evelyn, Gabba, Zoe, and Joshua!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Quote of the Week: This week’s quote went to Lucy! Her personality draws people to her, and she is always true to herself. Way to go, Lucy!

 

 

 

 

 

First Grade Family Time: Joshua, Major, Gabba, and Norah joined the shoe-tying club this week!

 

 

 

 

 

Stuffed Animal Day: The kiddos loved working with their stuffies on Monday!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

OUR LEARNING

Word Study: The first graders have learned/reviewed almost 50 snap words so far this year! Our friend Rasheed has been telling Mr. Waldie all about our word study time, so we wrote a letter to him explaining what Rasheed has taught us. We also had a surprise reporter (Mrs. Blauwkamp in disguise) pop in to interview the students because she heard about all the amazing things we have been doing!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Writing: We began studying the book Night of the Veggie Monster by George McClements to learn some new craft moves. We talked about how we can add ellipses and exact actions to our stories to make our writing stronger! The kiddos also had fun acting out their partner’s story to bring it to life.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Math: We started Unit 2 this week and focused on solving addition word problems. We talked about how sometimes it can take a long time to draw out the story, so we can use circle drawings instead. On Friday, we completed our first quick quiz; look for those to come home this week.

 

 

 

 

 

Reading: We have been working on building habits to solve tricky words. We had a reading celebration on Friday to celebrate all of the good reading habits we have built over the last few weeks! It was fun reading around the room on our towels with the lights off and the fireplace “on” in the background.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Notes for Parents:

  • Reminder that this year’s Turkey Trot will be virtual! Please check out the PE blog for more information.

Upcoming Dates:

  • Monday, October 12 – Gym, LIBRARY (books due)
  • Tuesday, October 13 – Art
  • Wednesday, October 14 – STEAM
  • Thursday, October 15 – Music
  • Friday, October 16 – Gym

Week Six

ablauwkaClass News

TURKEY TROT

This year’s Turkey Trot will be virtual! Here is a flyer with more information for you. You can also check out the PE blog as well: https://mvankoev.edublogs.org/

Download

CELEBRATIONS

Stars: We earned all 10 of our stars for having golden behavior!!! I am SO proud of how hard they kept pushing to reach this goal. We will celebrate by having a Stuffed Animal Day this Monday, October 5. Please have your child pick just ONE stuffed animal to bring in!

 

 

 

 

 

Star Students: We had five special star students this week. Thanks for being my helpers Claire, Melwyn, Bryce, Tucker, and Sydney!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Quote of the Week: This week’s quote went to Gracie for always having a smile on her face! She is very caring and always wants others to be happy. Way to go, Gracie!

 

 

 

 

 

First Grade Family Time: We didn’t have any friends lose teeth this week and only one friend joined the shoe tying club, but he was not at school on Friday afternoon. We will wait to celebrate him next week!

OUR LEARNING

Word Study: The word wall began to fill up this week as we reviewed snap words from kindergarten. We studied the words and looked for patterns the words shared. This will be a great resource to tie into writing time as well!

 

 

 

 

 

Writing: Our stories were brought to like this week! We made our characters move, talk, and feel, and we worked on telling our stories in small steps.

 

 

 

 

 

Math: We completed our first unit test this week, and I am so proud of how hard they worked! I plan to have these graded and sent home this coming week.

Reading: We continued to build good reading habits and discussed some of the bad habits we need to drop. We practiced scooping up words into phrases and rereading to see more. Our last half of the week was spent learning strategies to figure out tricky words!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Indoor Recess: We had indoor recess this week, and the kiddos learned the procedures to have when it is yucky outside. Check below to see some of the fun activities each group got to do!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Notes for Parents:

  • I goofed and forgot to send home the new lunch schedule for October, so please look for that on Monday!
    • Monday’s hot lunch options are: white – pancakes and egg omelet OR blue – garlic cheese bread
  • If your child participates in a fall sport, please email me their schedule! I would absolutely LOVE to come and support them at a game!
  • Don’t forget to have your child being a jacket to school in the morning! It has been pretty chilly at recess these past couple of weeks.

Upcoming Dates:

  • Monday, October 5 – Music, LIBRARY (books due)
    • Stuffed Animal Day
  • Tuesday, October 6 – Gym
  • Wednesday, October 7 – Art
  • Thursday, October 8 – STEAM
    • Jet’s Pizza Night
  • Friday, October 9 – Music