Homework (tarea) 12/13/10-12/17/10

Querida familias:

Por favor, miran a la tarea para esta semana aqui.

Please view this week's homework here.

Homework (tarea) 12/6/10-12/10/10

Querida familias:

Por favor, miran a la tarea para esta semana aqui.

Please view this week's homework here.

Homework (tarea) 11/29/10-12/3/10

Querida familias:

Por favor, miran a la tarea para esta semana aqui.

Please view this week's homework here.

No homework week of 11/22 - 11/24 (No hay tarea para la semana 11/22 - 11/24)

There is no homework this week because of the short week. If you have not yet turned in your permission slip for Lawrence Hall of Science, please turn it in this week. You can download it here.

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Homework (tarea) 11/15/10-11/19/10

I had some computer issues this week, so I had to upload the homework in pieces. I apologize for posting it so late!

Reading log and spelling words
Math pages
Challenge 1
Challenge 2
Challenge 3

Tenia unas problemas con la computadora esta fin de semana, y entonces la tarea es en la pagina de internet, pero las paginas de la tarea estan separadas. Lo siento por enviar la tarea tan tarde!

Diario de leer y palabras ortografias
Paginas de las matematicas
Matematicas mas dificil (opcional) Pagina 1
Pagina Opcional 2
Pagina Opcional 3

News for Week of 11/1 - 11/5 (Anuncios 11/1 - 11/5)

Happy Halloween Eve! Thank you for sending treats and/ or coming to help with our Halloween party on Friday. It was a very fun day, and I was able to make a fool of myself by leading the sing-along assembly. A good time for all!

Reminder for Monday: We have a field trip to Cordonices Park and Berkeley Rose Garden, so please send your student to school with the following things:

-bag lunch
-walking shoes
-sweater or sweatshirt
-backpack
-water bottle

Feliz Halloween y dia de los muertos! Gracias para enviando comida y ayudando con la fiesta el viernes pasado. Estaba muy amusante para todos!

Para el paseo esto lunes, los ninos deben traer:

-un lonche
-zapatos para caminar
-una chaqueta
-una mochila
-una botalla para agua

Homework (tarea) 11/1/10-11/5/10

Please click here for this week's homework. There is no math homework on Monday because of the field trip. Also, please view the updated conference schedule here.

Por favor, miran a la tarea aqui. No hay tarea de las matematicas para lunes por que hay un paseo. Tambien el horario nuevo de las conferencias esta aqui.

Homework (tarea) 10/25-10/28 and other documents

Please click on the name of each document below if you would like to view it online:

Homework 10/25-10/28
Cordonices Park permission slip
October PTA newsletter (featuring Room 204!)

Por favor, mira a unos documentos importantes aqui:
Tarea 10/25-10/28
Permiso para el paseo a Cordonices Park
Boletin de noticias de PTA (Octubre) - En la pagina 2, hay un articulo sobre nuestro clase

Homework (Tarea) 10/18/10 - 10/22/10

Please click here to see this week's homework. Sorry for posting it late!

Por favor, miran a la tarea aqui.

Zoo Mobile!

Here are some pictures from our Zoo Mobile visit. We saw an o'possum named Lucy, a waxy monkey frog, a desert tortoise named Cactus, a blue-fronted Amazon parrot named Maya, and a chinchilla named Tabasco. We also got to touch a feather from a scarlet macaw.

Week of 10/12 - 10/15/10 (La Semana de 10/12 - 10/15/10)

I am now including math challenge pages with the homework. They will go home on Monday (or Tuesday this week) and they will be collected and graded on Friday. Please click here to view the homework.

Zoo Mobile is coming on Thursday! They will be bringing some zoo animals and doing a presentation on habitats. It will be very exciting!

Voy a incluyar paginas extras de las matematicas. Por favor, devuelven las paginas las viernes. Por favor, miran a la tarea aqui.

El jueves, unas personas de la zoologica en San Francisco van a traer unos animales a la clase y hacer una presentacion sobre los habitates.

Updates 10/6/10

I tried to post this earlier in the week, but it didn't work so I sent it as an email. Here is the post:

Contents:

-What happened yesterday?
-an updated parent classroom help schedule
-field trip info
-exciting Room 204 happenings

1) What happened yesterday?

The school has sent out a communication by phone, email and on paper (the paper version for our class will most likely go home tomorrow) with the following information:

"Good Evening Cragmont Families,

I am calling to inform you about an incident that happened at school
today. About 1:30 a teacher reported that a student had a device that he
called a bomb. I immediately followed district safety protocols and
evacuated the premises we called the Berkeley Police Department who
arrived at the school to inspect the device. They followed their
standard protocol which included destroying the device. After detonating
it, the police reported that there was no evidence of explosive
materials. I want to assure you that the entire school community did an
excellent job of quickly following safety procedures. It is important to
remember that at the end of the day there was no actual threat and the
children were not in any danger.

Thank you for listening and I will see you on campus!

Good Night"

Please do not hesitate to email, call, or speak to me with any questions or concerns regarding this incident. Our class (and the rest of the school) was amazing! They were quiet, orderly, and patient. Homework was excused because most children were not able to retrieve their backpacks from school.

2) Parent helper schedule

Thank you so much to those parents who have been able to help in our class! Below is a schedule of times when we need parent help. All of the listed times are times when parents are welcome to help in the classroom, so please email me if you are free during one of these times. Some of these times are new. I have included the names of people who are currently coming on a regular basis. I have put a star (*) next to times when parent helpers are especially needed.

Monday 11-12* (Reading centers) Ellen; 1:15-2:30* (Math and Reading Centers) Ellen
Tuesday: 1:30-2:30 (Math/ Writing) Lauren; (Vanavia checks homework in the a.m.)
Wednesday Cecilia checks homework in the a.m.
Thursday: 11-12* (Math/ Writing); 1:15-2:15 (Science) Jeff; (Cieline checks homework in the a.m.)
Friday: 11-12 (Math/ finish up time) Ellen; 1:45-2:30 (Centers) Ellen, Debra

Please view the updated weekly class schedule here.

3) Field trips

Thank you for turning in $15 for our December Lawrence Hall of Science field trip! I am collecting money now because I paid the fee up front to reserve a workshop on Slime!

I am in the planning stages for a field trip to Cordonices Park and the Berkely Rose Garden some time in November (hope for continued unseasonal warmth). Details to come.

4) Exciting happenings

Marble Party tomorrow! Your students earned a Marble Party because of their outstanding behavior! We will be watching a movie and having treats starting at about 2 p.m. Families are welcome, but not in any way obligated to come. :)

Music and Stories with Mr. and Mrs. Montgomery. My parents visit our class on Wednesdays. After lunch, my mom reads a story or my dad plays his guitar and sings with the kids. Some popular requests are "Jingle Bells", "The Spooky Song", and "Old MacDonald". Ask your student to sing "The Spooky Song"!

Very hopefully coming soon: the San Francisco Zoo Mobile is tentatively coming to the first grades next Thursday, 10/14.. More details very soon!

Very late posting of the week's homework (10/4-10/8/10)

I realized I never posted this week's homework online, so it's here now.

Also, click here to see the most recent, up-to-the-minute, play-by-play schedule of what we're doing in class throughout the week! Super exciting.

Homework (Tarea) 9/27/10 - 10/1/10

Please click here to view the homework. Por favor, miran a la tarea aqui.

Week of 9/20-9/24

This week in Room 204, we started Family Reading Wednesdays! Thank you to the parents who were able to come. If you couldn't make it, but you can come another Wednesday, always feel free to drop in between 9:10 and 9:40.

We have our first math test tomorrow (Friday), so look for those to come home next week. Homework seems to be going well, and I am working on getting it a little more organized so that parents are clear on which homework is assigned for each night. If you could make sure that you take all graded work out of the folder every night, that would be great!

We did a fun science experiment today where the kids got to experiment with blowing air on different items. You will find that they may bring home an odd assortment of things in a plastic bag. These are the things that we worked with in science today. Ask them what they discovered!

Ellen is working on scheduling parent helpers for the following blocks of time:

Monday 1-2:30 (Math and Centers)
Tuesday: 1:30-2:30 (Math/ Writing)
Thursday: 11-12 (Math/ Writing)*
Friday: 1:30-2:30 (Computers/ Centers)

*No one is scheduled for this block. If you can do it, please let me know!
__________________________________________________________
The following people are now on the schedule as follows:

Monday: Ellen 11-3(homework checking)

Tuesday: Vanavia - Czar's mom (10:30 - 11-ish homework checking)
Lauren 1:30-2:30

Wed: Cecilia - Daniel's mom (9-9:30 homework)

Thurs: Cieline - Koi's mom (9-9:30 homework)
Jeff - Nathan's dad (1:15-2:15 science)

Friday: Ellen (11-3); Debra 1-2:30

Family Reading Wednesdays!

Dear Room 204 families - On Wednesday mornings from 9:10 until about 9:40, we will be doing family reading. If you like, you can come in and read with your student. This is to promote family literacy and classroom community. You can bring a favorite book from home or choose one from our library and just sit and read with your student.

Hope to see you then!

Querida familias - Las miercoles desde 9:10 a 9:40, los estudiantes estarian leyendo con sus familias. Si ustedes querian venir a la clase an la manana, ustedes pueden leer con sus estudiantes. No es necesario. pero favor de venir si no estan ocupados.

Weekly class schedule (Horario de la semana)

Please view our updated weekly schedule here.

Por favor, miran al horario de la semana agui.

Homework for next week 9/20/10

Please click here for next week's spelling words and reading log. Unfortunately, I don't have electronic versions of the math, but I'm working on it. :)

Por favor, mira a la tarea para esta semana aqui. Ahora, hay las palabras ortografias y el diario de leer, pero todavia no tengo las paginas de matematicas en la pagina de internet.

Last week in Room 204 (9/13/10) and what's happening next week (9/20/10)

This past week, we started homework and had success in getting it back! It seems to have gone well at home. A few people even mentioned that their kids actually had fun with it. Yay! Please keep it up with reading and filling out the logs.

We started Environmental Science Classes with Mr. Hall on Thursdays. They are learning about weather and where it comes from. This goes nicely with science class, where we are starting a unit on air and weather. We did our first experiment this week with air bubbles in water, and it was fun!

We also started reading buddies with Ms. Tiglao's third graders on Friday, and they had a great time getting to know each other! Looking forward to continuing reading buddy time.

We continued with P.E. on Thursday afternoons and computers on Friday. We are learning to use Microsoft Word. We have been working on writing numbers and using tally marks in math, and we are moving towards our first unit test this week. The first spelling test was a smashing success, so keep up the good practice work!

Homework

This week's homework is now posted here.

What are we doing this year?

Please click here to view my year plan for Room 204. It is, of course, subject to change, but this will give you a general idea of what we are covering.

Week of 9/13/2010

We had a wonderful second week in Room 204! We started centers, social studies, and P.E. I'm looking forward to more new, exciting things next week, such as garden classes and reading buddies!

This week, will be starting homework. On Monday, I will send home a clear plastic envelope with a reading log, spelling, words, and a sheet of homework for Monday night. Please return homework folders everyday and keep an eye out for notices that will also go home in the folder!

Also, please remember to send your child with one or two favorite books on Monday so that they can share with the class. Soon, I will upload a curriculum calendar for the year, updated weekly schedule (a couple things have shifted since I sent home the printed one last week), and homework info. Please look for links to those documents on the blog.

I hope you are all having a great weekend!

Familias - Yo sabe muy poquito de espanol, pero voy a tratar escribir en espanol tambien. Lo siento para los errores y la puntacion mala. Esta semana, vamos a comenzar con tarea. Lunes, voy a dar una carpeta a los estudiantes con un diario para recordar los minutos de leer, una lista de las palabras ortografias, y una hoja de tarea. Algunas veces, tambien estarria anuncios en la carpeta. Favor de devuelen la carpeta cada dia.

Voy a fijar mas anuncios aqui muy pronto, entonces favor de leer esta pagina de internet frecuentemente. Gracias!

A quick poll to get to know my students :)

Please add a comment (by clicking on the words "1 comment" in red below) with your student's name and an answer to the following question: what is your student's favorite thing to do in his or her free time?

Example: Jill - watch movies

Great first two days of school (and the plan for homework)!

Hello Room 204 families! I just wanted to post a quick note to say that we have had a very nice start to the year. We are practicing routines like morning calendar (as some of you have seen), and we are starting to get in the swing of math and language arts.

Today, we did the first two math lessons, which were reviewing how to write numbers. We have also started reader's workshop. Right now, our focus is on "staying inside a book", or being focused while reading. In writing, we wrote a sentence (or so) about what we would like to do in first grade. Popular answers were "make new friends" and "do lots of art". :) We have also begun interactive read-alouds, in which the children have a chance to discuss ideas with partners and do physical actions to boost their comprehension. Finally, we played an interactive reading game in which students got to search the classroom and label things like "door", "rug", and "compost".

We will plan to begin homework on Monday, 9/13, so that we can start out with a whole week. Homework will be reading for about 20 minutes each night, usually doing a page of work (most often math), and practicing spelling words for our Friday quiz (first one will be Friday, 9/17). For now, please read with your student at home. One trick to choose an appropriate book is the "Five Finger Rule". As the child is reading a page, if they come across five words that they can't read, the book is too difficult. Thank you for supporting your Cragmont dragon!

First Day of School Letter

Please click here for the first day of school letter.

Back to School Night September 7th!

Lower grade teachers (such as myself) will have their classrooms open from 6-6:40, and then there will be a community meeting in the multi-purpose room from 6:45-7:15. For parents with kids in grades 3-5, those teachers will be in their classrooms from 7:20-8:00.

Please come! I will provide cookies. :)

Welcome!

Hello, and welcome to being a first grade parent in Room 204! I will be updating this blog every so often to give you news and just generally keep you posted on classroom happenings*. Please check here every so often to find out about upcoming events!

To help you get to know me a little better, here's a look at how I spent my summer vacation. I do education at the San Francisco Zoo during school breaks, so I got to hang out with baby penguins, feed a rhino, and do lots of other cool stuff. I'm also a huge baseball fan, so I threw in a picture of myself and the folks at an A's game.

Alrighty, now you know a little about me. I'm looking forward to a great year! Keep your eyes open for new posts on Room 204 News!

*I will never post picture of students on this blog, as it is a privacy and safety issue.