Mrs. Jansen's First Grade Class
Weekly Newsletter: December 14, 2015
KEYSOR PRIDE
We are Respectful, Responsible and Safe.
A Festive Finish to 2015 in class!
Our week was such a success exploring the world-wide Hour of Code. The kids did a great job of tinkering, creating and coding during our array of coding experiences. The time spent in computer sciences was such awesome (learning) fun that the children decided and voted for our Friday morning meetings to now become Friday coding experiences. Each week, I'll plan to provide further practice opportunities in coding for the little ones to develop their knowledge and awareness in this area. Included to the side, is a Pic-Collage sharing their work that was enjoyed during this past week.
As we finish off our last week of December, we are celebrating Desmond as our Leader of the Week! Desmond is one of our sweetest friends in class and loves to read and share his learning with others. Great job Des! Also, congratulations to our two students of the week, Ryan and Sarah. Both continue to do a terrific job of demonstrating all elements of our Keysor Pride by:
As we finish off our last week of December, we are celebrating Desmond as our Leader of the Week! Desmond is one of our sweetest friends in class and loves to read and share his learning with others. Great job Des! Also, congratulations to our two students of the week, Ryan and Sarah. Both continue to do a terrific job of demonstrating all elements of our Keysor Pride by:
- Following all adult directions the first time
- Taking care of Keysor by cleaning and putting all things away
- Keeping their hands, feet and bodies safe
- Solving problems peacefully
Special Classes/Activities Schedule:
*WINTER FESTIVITIES WEEK @ KEYSOR*
Monday, Dec. 14th: E Day - Art with Mrs. Lang; wear comfy clothes/PJ's for the day (please wear tennis shoes as well); KSD School Board Presentation of budget recommendations at 7:00 p.m. at North Kirkwood Middle School Cafeteria.
Tuesday, Dec. 15th: A Day - P.E. with Coach Widamen & SKATING. Please be sure to send your child to school with their helmet, to be kept at school all week. The helmet will be sent back home this Friday; Fun Hat day too!
Wednesday, Dec. 16th: B Day - Music with Dr. St. Clair; Wellness Wednesday for walking, running or riding your bikes to school! Don't forget to wear your favorite holiday colors (and that's for ANY holiday)
Thursday, Dec. 17th: C Day - Wellness with Mrs. Ehrlich: SKATING; Wear your favorite festive sweater or sweatshirt.; Family Skate Night
Friday, Dec. 18th: D Day - Library with Mrs. Ems; Winter Celebration beginning at 2:30 in our classroom!
Monday, Dec. 14th: E Day - Art with Mrs. Lang; wear comfy clothes/PJ's for the day (please wear tennis shoes as well); KSD School Board Presentation of budget recommendations at 7:00 p.m. at North Kirkwood Middle School Cafeteria.
Tuesday, Dec. 15th: A Day - P.E. with Coach Widamen & SKATING. Please be sure to send your child to school with their helmet, to be kept at school all week. The helmet will be sent back home this Friday; Fun Hat day too!
Wednesday, Dec. 16th: B Day - Music with Dr. St. Clair; Wellness Wednesday for walking, running or riding your bikes to school! Don't forget to wear your favorite holiday colors (and that's for ANY holiday)
Thursday, Dec. 17th: C Day - Wellness with Mrs. Ehrlich: SKATING; Wear your favorite festive sweater or sweatshirt.; Family Skate Night
Friday, Dec. 18th: D Day - Library with Mrs. Ems; Winter Celebration beginning at 2:30 in our classroom!
Tower Garden Plantings
One week later and our seeds have created seedlings! The kids were able to transplant their rockwool surrounded seedlings into our tower garden within the stairwell nearest the classroom. During Winter Break the growing cycle will continue with our hopeful first harvest by the end of January!
Winter Break is near!
As our last week of December is here, so is Winter Break. During the time away from school there will be an opportunity for some map creations, Dreambox and Raz-Kids explorations, and more at home. If you are interested in further supporting academic activities during break, please let me know and I would be happy to supplement your time. Please continue as well to record your child's daily readings upon their December and Six Flags Reading Logs.
Night Tree Ornament & Garland Creation with our buddies
As we finished the week together last week, we continued in our Night Tree by Eve Bunting extensions through creating peanut butter birdseed ornaments and stringing popcorn garland with needles and thread. The stringing of popcorn was a first for many of our friends and a great way to bring past experiences of another generation to our friends of today. We plan to hang all of our tree's festive items this week, prior to break.
Sight Word Review
With the end of the quarter, we are completing a review this week of all sight words acquired, including:
find, part, about, word, may, not, write, way, after, has, or, her, friend, day, which, other, now, more, than, look, each, when, your, them, make, see, many, first, been, time
find, part, about, word, may, not, write, way, after, has, or, her, friend, day, which, other, now, more, than, look, each, when, your, them, make, see, many, first, been, time
Writing Workshop: Publishing and Winter Writing
Publishing of our All About books began at the end of last week, and is continuing during the first part of this week. The children are choosing to publish their stories through Notability, Keynote or a traditional hard cover book. The option they choose, will be a new one compared to their publishing choice during our previous workshop. Additionally, we'll finish off the week with a fun winter 'snow globe' writing.
Continuing with Assessments and Fractions
The children have been awesome learners as they have enjoyed creating 1/2's and 1/4's during this past week. Additionally, they have done a nice job sharing their review knowledge of adding and subtracting two digit numbers. As we finish the week together, the children will be completing a final assessment of their shape knowledge and showing their understanding of fractions.
Mapping Skills and Community Design
What wonderful 'flip' books the kids are creating, showing their place in the world. This week we will finish the books and begin designing our own communities. There will also be a connection piece sent home this week in your child's red folder, providing for a map creation experience with either your child's bedroom, home, neighborhood or city. Feel free to get creative with it, through use of symbols, etc. The homework assignment will need to returned after Winter Break.
Hour of Code: Home extensions (BONUS WEEK) & Makerspace
As shared above, the kids loved their experiences in coding. I wanted to share once again, the home extensions that could occur with your family's digital devices...
Coding Introduction (via Star Wars):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v7jSy_yE9U0&feature=youtu.be
Infinity Playlab:
https://videos.code.org/2015/infinityplaylab/infinity-playlab-intro.mp4
Flappy Bird:
https://studio.code.org/flappy/1
Angry Birds & Plant vs. Zombie:
https://studio.code.org/hoc/1
Elsa & Anna:
https://studio.code.org/s/frozen/stage/1/puzzle/1
Coding Apps for home digital devices:
The Foos, Kodable, Daisy the Dinosaur, Scratch Jr., Tynker, Cargo Bot, Light Bot One Hour Coding
Additionally, we will be heading for our first visit to the Makerspace at Keysor on Wednesday this week. The kids are really excited and I can't wait to see what their minds create, design or tinker with!
Coding Introduction (via Star Wars):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v7jSy_yE9U0&feature=youtu.be
Infinity Playlab:
https://videos.code.org/2015/infinityplaylab/infinity-playlab-intro.mp4
Flappy Bird:
https://studio.code.org/flappy/1
Angry Birds & Plant vs. Zombie:
https://studio.code.org/hoc/1
Elsa & Anna:
https://studio.code.org/s/frozen/stage/1/puzzle/1
Coding Apps for home digital devices:
The Foos, Kodable, Daisy the Dinosaur, Scratch Jr., Tynker, Cargo Bot, Light Bot One Hour Coding
Additionally, we will be heading for our first visit to the Makerspace at Keysor on Wednesday this week. The kids are really excited and I can't wait to see what their minds create, design or tinker with!
Mrs. Traci Jansen
Email: traci.jansen@kirkwoodschools.org
Website: http://keysor.kirkwoodschools.org/pages/Keysor_Elementary/Classes/Jansen
Location: 725 N Geyer Rd, Kirkwood, MO, United States
Phone: 314-213-6120 (2164)
Twitter: @TraciJansen