Monday, October 31, 2016

Tomorrow's Field Trip

Students are welcome to wear their red or blue spirit shirt on the field trip tomorrow. If they do not have one, their uniform or a plain red/blue shirt is fine as well. Please have them wear their regular uniform pants and shoes.
We are so excited for our fun trip to the pumpkin patch tomorrow! :)

Parent-Teacher Conferences

Parents, below is the link to sigh up for our 2016-2017 Parent-Teacher conferences. This year we are doing conferences over two days; Thursday, November 10 from 3:30pm to 7:00pm and on Friday, November 11 from 8:00am to 12:00pm. 

Each time slot is 15 minutes and are available until filled up. Please follow the link below to sign up for the time most convenient for you.


Here's how it works in 3 easy steps: 
1. Click this link to go to our invitation page on SignUp.com: http://signup.com/go/FKBabU 
2. Enter your email address: (You will NOT need to register an account on SignUp.com) 
3. Sign up! Choose your spots - SignUp.com will send you an automated confirmation and reminders. Easy! 

Tuesday, October 25, 2016

Character Parade

Reminder, the Character Parade is this Friday morning at 8:45 AM.
If students wish to participate, they may dress up as any character from a book of their choosing. This should not be a superhero/comic book character. Characters cannot be from a movie, unless it was a classic book first. In addition to dressing in costume, participating students must bring their book to school. 

Costume Guidelines:
-       Students must be dressed as a book character.
-       Students must bring the book to school with them.
-       Costumes may not include any weapons, blood, or masks.
-       Costumes may not portray violence or negative images. 

This Week in Mrs. Kirchner's Class!

Thursday, October 27th Field trip permission slips and money due
Please let Mrs. Kirchner or Mrs. Zimmer know if you would like to chaperone.

Friday, October 28th 2 hour early dismissal
Monday, October 31st No School!
Tuesday, November 1st: Field Trip to Montpelier Farms

Spelling Words:
1) land
2) sand
3) fast
4) past
5) sink
6) wink
7) flip
8) black
9) very
10) use

In Reading, we will be reviewing nouns. Students will have their test on Tuesday. We will be moving on to talk about verbs. We will talk about how verbs are "action words" and see how we can act out words we think are verbs. We will sort pictures to say if they are a noun or if they are a verb. We will use verbs to describe animal behaviors and actions.

In Writing, we will be finishing our Writer's Workshop stories. We began these stories last week. Students used a graphic organizer to think of who their story is about, what they will be doing, and where the story takes place. Each student was given a 4 page "book" that are writing and illustrating. These books will be counted as an assessment grade for Oral and Written. We will have a chance to have Author's chair. They will be allowed to share the stories they created with their classmates.

In Social Studies we will be talking about the American Flag. We will look at the symbols of our flag and discuss what they mean. Students will count the stars and stripes. Later, they will be able to create their own flag and talk about what their symbols would mean.

Monday, October 24, 2016


This week in Mrs. Zimmer’s Class!

**A lot of students forgot to turn in their health homework today! Please have them complete their “How a Bully Feels” worksheet and turn it in tomorrow to receive credit.  I handed out extra copies today to students who thought they lost theirs.

**Today we sent home a field trip permission slip to go to Montpelier Farms! We are hoping to receive all forms with payments by this Thursday, October 27th!

**Friday is an early dismissal day and school will be let out 2 hours early!

In math we are solving word problems with unknown partners.  These are a little tricky because we are used to solving for a total, and it is common to forget what the problem is asking for, which is the unknown partner. We are solving for the unknown partner by using math mountains, centimeter cubes, circle drawings, and counting on.  We are also starting to work on labeling our answers so we know what the number stands for. 

In science, we are finishing up our presentations from last week’s project.  Last week we learned about the parts of animals and how they protect themselves, so this week will learn about the parts of plants and how they protect themselves.  We will do an experiment by putting a celery stalk into a cup with water and food coloring to demonstrate what roots and stems do for plants and we will observe it over a couple days.  BrainPop Jr has a video about the parts of plants that is a great resource to re-watch at home.  We are going to aim to take our chapter 3 test on Thursday.

Since it is anti-bullying month, we will be focusing on this topic during Health for the rest of the month.  We will be focusing on ways to keep ourselves safe, what to do if we are being bullied, and also talk about self-esteem and complete self-esteem activities in the classroom.  This week we will do a self-esteem activity!

Thursday, October 20, 2016

Picture Day!

Picture day is on Monday. Students should wear their school uniform and a big smile! :)
Health Homework!

We ran out of time today during Health and didn't get a chance to complete the "How a Bully Feels" worksheet.  I asked students to finish it over the weekend and turn it in on Monday for credit.  It should be in their blue folder!

Have a wonderful weekend!

Monday, October 17, 2016


This week in Mrs. Zimmer’s Class!

In math we are finishing up Unit 2! Students have learned how to represent addition and subtraction equations in various ways.  We solved addition by drawing circle drawings, solving picture story problems, and counting on from the greater number.  We solved subtraction by drawing circle drawings and solving picture story problems.  We introduced vertical form problems and how we can use addition to solve subtraction.  On Tuesday we will be having a review day, and students will have a homework page that will help prepare them for the test on Wednesday.  In Unit 3, we will be working on solving for unknown numbers in addition and subtraction.

In science we are talking about how plants and animals have special parts that help them live.  We learned how animals get their food by using special parts of their bodies.  Birds use their beaks to crack seeds, camels use fat stored in their humps when food and water is scarce, lions have sharp teeth/claws, and strong legs to catch prey, and giraffes have long necks to help them reach leaves in the trees. We will learn how animals can protect themselves by using camouflage, hiding, and warning animals of danger.  Students will be drawing an animal of their choice on their paper and labeling what helps them live, what parts help them get and eat their food, and what they use for protection. Students will be presenting their projects at the end of the week!

Since it is anti-bullying month, we will be focusing on this topic during Health for the rest of the month.  We will be focusing on ways to keep ourselves safe, what to do if we are being bullied, and also talk about self-esteem and complete self-esteem activities in the classroom.  We will be working in groups to come up with certain scenarios, act them out in front of the class, and have other groups/students volunteer with different ways to solve the problems. Don't forget scholars can wear orange tops in support of anti-bullying month on Wednesday, October 19th! 

No school on Friday this week! :]

This Week in Mrs. Kirchner's Class!

10/21 No School!
No spelling due to a shortened week.

10/25 Noun test

This week we will be focusing on our writing skills.
On Monday, we will be reviewing nouns. We will work together to define what a proper noun is. We will look at nouns and label if they are a proper noun or a common noun. Students will share with their classmates how they know a word is a common or a proper noun. We will cut out nouns and sort them into two categories, noun or not. Students will also think about nouns that go along with different places. We will work together to think of both common and proper nouns for each place.

On Tuesday, our class will be working on the "who" and "doing what" in sentences. Students will look at pictures and determine "who" in in the picture and what they are doing. They will label the pictures and use their ideas to write a sentence about their pictures.

On Wednesday, we will have some time for D.E.A.R. I will continue to meet with students and conference to read together. We will set goals for moving up a reading level as well as look for specific skills that each student can be working on with their reading.  Students will complete their reading log, and work on pulling out the important details in the story.
We will also be reviewing long a and long i sounds. We will look for words with long a and long i in our classroom. We will also look for rhyming words.

On Thursday, we will have some time for Writer's workshop and author's chair. Students will work to write a story to go along with their graphic organizer they created last Writer's Workshop. After a time of writing, we will have a time of sharing. Students will have time for Author's chair where they sit in the teacher's chair to share their writing with the class.

Reading logs were sent out today. Reading logs are due every Monday.
Please allow your child to fill out the reading log on their own. We are practicing identifying the book's title. We want to improve our writing skills and the best way to do this is to practice! :)

It will be a wonderful week!

Thursday, October 13, 2016

Tonight's Homework Sheet

Mrs. Kirchner completely forgot to hand out the noun worksheet to my homeroom. I am so sorry about this. This worksheet will be handed out tomorrow instead. My homeroom does not have homework tonight.

Monday, October 10, 2016

This week in Mrs. Zimmer’s Class!

In math we are continuing to solve subtraction problems using pictures and circle drawings! We will be relating addition and subtraction problems by looking at the partners in the equations.  At the end of the week we will be introducing the vertical forms of addition and subtraction problems, which you will see on their homework for Thursday.

In science we are finishing up our habitat unit with a test on Tuesday! We did a lengthy review today in class to help prepare students for the test, and I think they all will do very well!  Our next chapter in science focuses on how the parts of living things help them survive.  Throughout this unit, we will be talking about what helps animals live in their habitat, how animals get food, what can help protect animals, what the parts of a plant are, and what helps protect plants.

Since it is anti-bullying month, we will be focusing on this topic during Health for the rest of the month.  We will be focusing on ways to keep ourselves safe, what to do if we are being bullied, and also talk about self-esteem and complete self-esteem activities in the classroom.


Don’t forget we do not have school on Wednesday this week!

This Week in Mrs. Kirchner's Class!

10/11 Continent Test
10/12 No School

There will be no spelling this week due to it being a shortened week.
In Reading, we will be starting our unit on nouns.  We will be watching Schoolhouse Rock to help teach us what a noun is: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qk4N5kkifGQ
We will be working together as a class to determine how we know if a word is a noun. We will be word detectives and look for nouns around our classroom. Students will cut, sort, and paste words into categories to determine if it is a noun or not. They will learn that a noun is a person, place, animal, or thing. As the week goes on, we will dig deeper into the types of nouns and talk about common vs. proper nouns.

Due to some confusion last week, Reading Logs have changed.
New Reading Logs will be used this week. Please let me know if this is an easier format.
Students will be asked to read 1 hour a week.
Reading Logs will be handed out every Monday, and turned in the following Monday.
They will have 1 week to read and complete their Reading logs.
Please initial next to each completed entry. Please allow your child to fill in their reading log on their own in order to practice their handwriting, as well as finding the book's title.
The minutes may be completed on any day from M-Su. This way, if there are some days that are busier than others, you may put off the reading until a night where you have more time :)

In Social Studies, we are ending our unit on learning the continents! The first graders have been doing an excellent job learning about their continents and even learned a fun song to help remember them.  You can find the song here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fqsCWZtZlk4
We will have our test on Tuesday, October 11th. We will be talking about oceans next.

In writing, we will talk more about using our graphic organizers to think about our own stories. We will talk about what makes a good main character, and how we can add detail in our story to make our characters "come alive!"

It will be a busy, fun week! :)

Wednesday, October 5, 2016

Homework Mistake

It has come to my attention that the continent homework assignment was mistakenly written under Wednesday on the homework page. This should have been written as Thursday night's homework. This has been corrected. Please accept my sincerest apologies for any confusion this may have caused! The continent worksheet will be handed out tomorrow,

Progress Reports

Progress reports were sent home this afternoon. In Mrs. Kirchner's homeroom, they were folded and placed into each student's blue folder. Students were reminded to place these folders into their backpacks at the end of the day :)

Monday, October 3, 2016

This Week in Mrs. Kirchner's Class!

-->Reading Logs begin this week. These will be turned in every Friday. It is homework to read Monday-Thursday.

Spelling Test Friday, October 7th
Continent Test Tuesday, October 11th

In Spelling, we are started a new list. This week, we are working on blends.
1) clip
2) flip
3) slip
4) flag
5) black
6) plan
7) win
8) sit
9) come
10) good

In Reading this week, we will continue to look at our punctuation. Students will review statements, questions, and exclamations. We will read sentences and determine what form of punctuation goes at the end. We will look at books and pictures and work together to come up with questions we have. We are working on writing sentences on our own, and remembering to use capital letters and punctuation. Reading Logs were sent home on Monday.

Reading Logs
Reading Logs will be passed out every Monday. Students are asked to read 5x a week for at least 10 minutes. Each level book they read should be read 3x in order to practice and develop fluency. These books do not need to be read 3x in a row. I would like to see them practicing throughout the week. For example, they may read the book once on Monday, once on Wednesday, and then again on Thursday.

Level 1 or 2 books do not need to be read more than once unless your child would like to read it again.

Each time your child reads a book, it can be marked on the Reading Log.
The 5x can be completed on any day of the week. For example, if it is busy on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and it is easier to read with your child on Monday 2x and Wednesday3x, that is absolutely fine.

Please check what day it was read (M-Th). I am asking that you check whether your child was able to read without help, with a little help, or if they needed help with the majority of the book.
Please initial or sign next to each entry (next to the box marking how much help is fine!)
These will be returned to school on Friday.
Students will be sent home on Monday with a ziploc bag with their name on it. In that bag will be 3 books your child has picked out. Please be sure these books are returned to their ziploc bag and returned to school with their reading log.

If your child is reading a chapter book:
Please mark the pages/chapters. They do NOT need to read 3x. I would like for them to read at least 10 minutes a day, M-TH.

Please let me know if you have any questions! :)

In Social Studies, we are continuing to work on learning our 7 continents. We watched a video and learned a song to help us remember. You can watch this and review with your child at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fqsCWZtZlk4
We cut out and glued the continents onto a globe. We colored and labeled the continents in our Social Studies notebooks. These notebooks should be coming home this weekend to study. We will be having a test next Tuesday. Students will be expected to use a word bank to label each continent. We will be practicing doing this throughout the week.

In Writing, we will have Writer's Workshop on Thursday. We will work on writing in a journal and sharing our writing with the class. We will review how to make out letters and use the lines to form uppercase and lowercase letters.

Have a wonderful week! :)

Sunday, October 2, 2016

This week in Mrs. Zimmer's Class!

This week in math we will be perfecting how to “count on” for 1-2 more days.   Then, we will begin to start solving subtraction equations.  We will work on solving subtraction by using drawings, and practice writing subtraction equations.

In science we are finishing up our rough draft of our habitat project.  Students worked really hard last week narrowing down the habitat and animal to focus on and creating a practice drawing of how they want their projects to look.  We will start making the final copy this week in class!  We are hoping to have the projects and presentations finished by the end of this week, but since this is our first project it is difficult to gage how long we will need to spend working on these.  Depending on time, I’d like to test over our habitat unit on Friday, but we may have to push the test into next week.  We will have a short review in class before the test.  Our class loved watching the Annie and Moby videos about habitats on BrainPopJr!  Students also had opportunities to play the games about each habitat in their table groups.  If you would like to review the habitats with your child at home, log in at https://jr.brainpop.com/.  The username and password are the same and it is: wesjr.  This website is a great resource (for all subject areas) to use throughout the year!

In health we are still talking about the importance of physical activity.  1st graders should be getting at least 1 hour of physical activity each day! I will be reading a story and students will be acting it out using their bodies.  Then, we will make up our own action story as a class.  This will not only help get the children moving, but also build listening comprehension.