1. First Grade Weekly News! What’s new?! This week we will be working on forming opinions based on facts in a text and supplying reasons for our opinion, writing “opinion” pieces to tell how how feel about a topic and why we feel that way, identifying and using pronouns and contractions, identifying the author’s purpose (entertain or inform), discussing seasons, discussing important inventors, and using what we know about number patterns to skip count to 120. We will also be discussing place value to 120. February 1, 2016 Important Dates -Wed. 2/3  Preregistration for 2016-2017 school year begins -Thurs. 2/4  Geography Bee afterschool -Tues. 2/9  5 th Grade Musical Assembly -2/15-2/19  Winter Recess (NO SCHOOL) Homework Dreambox: 15 min Monday and Wednesday nights Math Facts in a Flash: Practicing math facts EACH night for 5 minutes Lexia: Tuesdays and Thursdays for 15 minutes EACH sitting. *Be sure to correctly log out to save your work! Reading: Reading for 15 minutes Monday through Thursday night (students can also use Starfall) **ALL accounts are working here at school, please let me know if you are experiencing issues. Homework Dreambox: 15 min Monday and Wednesday nights Math Facts in a Flash: Practicing math facts EACH night for 5 minutes Lexia: Tuesdays and Thursdays for 15 minutes EACH sitting. *Be sure to correctly log out to save your work! Reading: Reading for 15 minutes Monday through Thursday night (students can also use Starfall) **ALL accounts are working here at school, please let me know if you are experiencing issues. Notes from First Grade Teachers Bell schedule – School starts promptly at 8:55 and ends at 3:05. Remember that Tuesdays are “early out” days, and students are dismissed at 1:40. Please refer to the Simonds Daily Schedule for recess and lunch times. Please be sure to take your student to the restroom BEFORE school starts at 8:55am. Valentine’s Day Please see the Valentine’s Day sign up sheets outside of our classroom door. We will be celebrating Valentines day by exchanging Valentines and having a short celebration in class. (Note to follow). ( over ) In the upcoming weeks, you can review the details of our weekly classroom activities on page 2 of this weekly newsletter.

2. I hope you all had a great weekend with your families! Please feel free to see me before the morning bell or after school. However, it is best to send an email to set up an appointment… just in case! Thank you and have a wonderful week! Sincerely, Miss Rebecca Tucker rtucker@sjusd.org  Classroom Webpage  Remember, you can access my webpage through the Simonds Home Page online. This is also the best way to access the adaptive learning sites through “Student Links!” With the district driving us all toward equipping the students with 21 st century skills, we are implementing a new homework program this year in first grade. Your child will be using District Computer Applications in their weekly homework activities. Soon we will be adding a web- based program, Ticket To Read, funded by the PTA. These problem solving activities are a perfect way to address Common Core Standards and will prepare your children for the new wave of learning and testing they will face in their academic careers. Please remember that online homework is mandatory. District administrators, Mrs. Howell, as well as myself check these adaptive learning sites weekly for student progress. Thank you for your support and cooperation with this! Pennies for Patients The student council is organizing a "Pennies for Patients" fundraiser for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. Each classroom has a box to collect change to help people touched by blood cancers. In the 1960s the survival rate for the most common form of childhood leukemia was 3%. Today it's approximately 90% thanks to many research advances funded by the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. We ran this fundraiser a few years back and raised around $8000. We hope to make a difference again. Every penny counts. The students bring in change to the class box. There is a video link on Mrs. Hennessey's & Mr. Rise's webpage about this great cause. Star Student: Our Star Student this week will be Jake! He will share his poster with us, lead our line, and take home a special handmade book from his classmates on Friday!