Pride Night/Pick Up

Hello Parents! 


Just wanted to post a quick note and remind you that Pride Night is tonight at Ridgewood High School. It begins at 7:00 andends at 8:30 P.M.. We hope to see you all there. Everyone in your family is invited!! Please come and enjoy the family fun! :) We also want to let you know that students are to be picked up INSIDE the gate after school. Please discuss a meeting place with your child so they know where to look for you. With about 250 students trying to rush out the front gate it is easier for parents to pick students up inside the gate. We welcome you in. There will be supervisors at the gate and teachers will be at the doors and in the courtyard, but not walking students all the way to the gates. Please talk with your child about where you will bepicking them up. We appreciate your continued support and look forward to seeing you tonight!! :) We look forward to a great PRIDE NIGHT!

Ms. Nikchevich

Welcome Back

Dear First Grade Family,

Welcome back to school!  I hope you are as excited as I am to start a brand new school year.  My name is Miss Nikchevich and I will be your child’s teacher this year.  I am very excited to have your child in my class and am looking forward to getting to know your child and your family.  This is an exciting year for your child.  Your child will make so much growth throughout the course of this year in reading, writing, math, and socially.  With both of our support your child will be sure to succeed! 

This year we will be learning new sight words, making important meaning out of both fiction and nonfiction text, and working on our reading fluency.  In math we will be little mathematicians as we work on adding and subtracting numbers within 20, learning about geometry, and measuring concepts.  We will learn how to be writers and authors.  Students will be writing stories and using rich language to enhance their writing while focusing on one main idea. It is going to be a BUSY year!

Your child is allowed to bring a snack for the morning.  We have a long morning so I do recommend sending them with something healthy to eat. Please stay away from chips and dessert foods.

I am thrilled that the year is beginning and I know we will be off to a great start!  Please let me know if you have any questions or comments along the way.  My email is jnikchevich@norridge80.net.  

Looking forward to a great year!

Ms. Nikchevich 

Beginning of the Year Update!

Hello Parents!

We hope you have been enjoying the start of the school year.  We know we have been.  We can't believe it is already the end of October.

In reading we have been working on many different concepts!  We have learned about main idea through reading nonfiction texts.  We worked on character, setting, and key details through an author study with Robert Munsch and now through the unit on Bats!  We will continue to work on these concepts throughout the year.  Please help your child at home by asking questions about what they are reading.

Don't underestimate how important it is to read with your child EVERY night.  Your child should be reading each night.  Find books that are appropriate for your child to read and that you can enjoy together.  Take advantage of tumblebooks and RAZ-Kids.  We have set it up so that it is at your child's instructional level, plus a few levels beyond.  Also, continue to work on those sight words! :)

In math we are working hard on new addition concepts.  We are already on chapter 3!  We started with addition, then worked up to subtraction, and now looped back to learn new addition strategies to help us solve more complex problems.  Help your child improve their math fact fluency by using the program xtramath.org.  If you need a new login please email us!

If you have any questions or concerns at any time please email or dojo BOTH of us.  This way we can both be updated on any information that you have for us.  If it is nighttime and you email us, please wait until the following school day to see if we respond.  Sometimes we will respond at night, but we do not always check our emails.  We try to respond as soon as possible.

We are looking forward to a great rest of the quarter!  We can't wait to see the student's Halloween costumes.

Have a wonderful week!
Miss Nikchevich and Miss Deignan

Week of Aug 24

Classroom News

Reading: In reading this week we continued to talk about character and setting. We did this by reading Brand New Books and Brand New Pencils. We learned how to describe a character and setting using adjectives. The kids are doing very well with this. They completed a variety of assignments related to character and setting.

Math: In math this week we continued to work on addition concepts. We learned how to add zero, add in any order, and put together numbers to 10.

What We’re Learning Next Week: 

Reading: This upcoming week we will continue to learn about character and setting. However we will also learn how to recognize events in a selection and problem and solution. We will be reading many books by the funny Robert Munsch. Please check out his books online at Tumblebooks...you will laugh out loud!!!

Math: We will be taking a Chapter 1 math test on Wednesday. We will begin Chapter 2: Subtraction Concepts on Thursday. Subtraction is a difficult concept to master. Please practice at home. Look for all these concepts in their homework.

Phonemic Awareness:

We will be working on the short i sound this week. It will be found with these endings:

-op -ot, -ock, -ox

Look for these endings in books that you and your child read! 

Welcome Back!

Classroom News

Welcome Back!  We hope you all enjoyed your time off from school and were able to do some fun things over break!

Reading:  In reading we did some reviewing on topics we have already learned and studied this year.  Students demonstrated that they have learned a lot so far in first grade!  We did a really fun activity to go along with the story Jack and the Beanstalk.  We can’t wait for you to see it when you come to Giles Night at the Museum!  We have worked so hard perfecting so many different fairytale projects for you to see! 

Math:  In math we wrapped up chapter 11.  The students have a firm understanding on three-dimensional shapes.  They understand that two-dimensional shapes are hidden in the flat surfaces of a three-dimensional shape!  This weekend be sure to complete the math chapter 11 review for Monday!

Writing: Students have been working well on their opinion writing.  We have some very opinionated students here in first grade.  It is great that they love to voice their opinions and say their feelings on so many different topics and ideas!

What We’re Learning Next Week:

Reading: Next week we will be beginning our new unit on the sun, moon, and the earth.  We will be intertwining science with our reading curriculum to learn about nonfiction text features.  A few of these features include bold words, labels, and captions.  We will be learning about why these are important as we read and what value they add to the text.  We will do a nonfiction text scavenger hunt and be locating the various features we have learned about in a variety of nonfiction books.

Math: We are going to be having our Chapter 11 math test on Tuesday.  Students have done a great job learning all about three-dimensional shapes!  They are able to recognize their various attributes and take them apart and put them together to create new shapes.  We will then begin to learn about two-dimensional shapes in chapter 12.  Students will be able to recognize there various attributes and look at how they are similar and different.

Writing:  We are going to be continuing to write our reviews.  We are continuing to edit and work on publishing our reviews.  Students are really enjoying writing their opinions on various ideas and topics!

Phonemic Awareness:

Students will be learning about the digraph oi and oy.

Example: oil and toy

Please practice at home using spellingcity.com

Important Information

Fluency Poems have begun again!  Your child’s fluency poem is due next week, April 17, 2015.

Please be sure to practice with your child every night!

Important Dates:

4/30: Night at the Museum

6:30 – 8:30 P.M.

                         

Happily Ever After!

Classroom News

Reading:  We wrapped up our fairy tale unit this past week.  It was a fun unit and students really enjoyed comparing and contrasting characters from a fractured fairy tale to the original version.  We were able to read so many great fairy tales!  We did a fun craft on The Three Little Pigs, which happens to be a crowd favorite!  We took our assessment on Friday.  Student’s put forth their best effort comparing and contrasting Goldilocks from the original version with Goldilocks from the fractured fairy tale.

Math: We began Chapter 10 this week!  We began to learn about picture graphs and how a picture graph represents data and gives us information.  We also learned how to make a picture graph and how we can use it to answer a question.

Writing: Students continued to write opinions about their collections this past week.  They learned that sometimes people will disagree with their opinions and that is okay.  We also learned it is important to give reasons to support our opinion.  This makes our opinions stronger!

What We’re Learning Next Week:

Reading: Next week we will be beginning a brand new unit.  We will be learning about point of view.  In a story sometimes the author tells the story and sometimes the character tells the story.  We will be reading a wide variety of texts and exploring who is telling the story in each text and using textual evidence to decipher how we know!  We will be studying first person point of view and third person point of view.

Math: We are going to be continuing along in Chapter 10.  Next week we will learn how to read bar graphs to find the number that a bar shows, we will make a bar graph to learn how it helps us to compare information, we will read tally charts, make tally charts, and practice problem solving to learn how graphs can help us to solve problems by representing data!  It will be a busy week in math!

Writing: We are going to continue writing opinion pieces.  We will be learning how to bolster our arguments and opinions.  We will be introduced to quotation marks and learn how we can use them in our writing.  We will also learn how to use a variety of punctuation marks and why they are important to include in our writing.  We will work on being persuasive and writing persuasive reviews!

Phonemic Awareness:

Students will be learning about the digraph ou.

Example: mouth and found

Please practice at home using spellingcity.com

Important Information

Fluency Poems!

Check your child’s fluency folder for their new fluency poem!

Fluency poems are DUE March 20!  Be sure to practice each week and make sure your child brings home their new poem!

Important Dates:

3/27: Report Cards Go Home!

Cinderrrrrella!

Classroom News

Reading: This week students compared and contrasted characters from the beloved fairy tale Cinderella.  We watched the original version and talked about the evil characters and the good characters.  We then noticed that this fairy tale also used the number 3 because there are three evil characters!  We then read the story Bigfoot Cinderrrrella.  This was a funny fractured fairy tale about a bigfoot girl named Rrrrella who charms prince charming by knocking him into the water!  We noticed many similarities between the fractured characters and the original fairy tale characters.  We also began working on Wanted posters!  We can’t wait for you to see them during our Night At the Museum in April! J

Math: We are finishing up Chapter 9.  We are really getting the hang of telling time.  We are practicing all day long and seem to really understand the concept!  Next week we will be taking our Chapter 9 test.  Look out for the practice test to go home.  We will have our test on Tuesday.

Writing: We began learning about how to write reviews!  Students loved judging their toys and deciding which one is the best and giving reasons for why it is the best.  This will be a fun change of pace for students.

What We’re Learning Next Week:

Reading: Next week we will be continuing to read more fairy tale stories.  We will be having our assessment on Friday.  We will be reading Goldilocks and the Three Bears both a fractured and original version.  Classes are going to be reading Jack and the Beanstalk and Sleeping Beauty.  We are also going to be doing crafts focusing on beginning, middle, end, and problem and solution.

Math: We are going to be having our Chapter test on Tuesday.  We will be beginning Chapter 10 next week.  We will be learning al about how to represent data using different types of graphs and how graphs and charts can help you to organize and interpret data.  We will learn how to read picture graphs next week, and learn to make our own picture graph.

Writing: We are going to be continuing to write our opinion pieces using our collections.  WE will learn how to explain judgments in convincing ways.  We will learn that often times opinion writers will expect disagreement and that you need to be able to have a counterargument ready.  We will also learn how to bolster arguments.

Phonemic Awareness:

Students will be learning about the digraph ow and ou.

Example: plow and round

Please practice at home using spellingcity.com

Important Information

Fluency Poems!

Check your child’s fluency folder for their new fluency poem!

Fluency poems are DUE March 13!  Be sure to practice each week!

Important Dates:

3/11: SIP Day Half Day Student Attendance