April News

April News

April 1st - Reading Month/Penny Drive Celebration
First grade won the penny drive!  Our prize is to watch a movie in the gym as a grade level.  We will be watching Toy Story 3 on Friday morning in our pajamas.  Your child may wear his/her pajamas to school that day, bring their favorite stuffed animal and bring their favorite beach towel to sit on during the movie showing:)  We will also be receiving pop and chips in the afternoon as a cummulation prize for reading month.  The pop and chips will both be Michigan made going with our Michigan Road Trip theme!

April 4th - 8th - Sprink Break :)

April 11th - MSU Butterfly Gardens
We will be leaving school around 11:30am to head to MSU to visit the butterfly Gardens.  All parents are welcome to join us there, however there is not enough room on the bus for all of us:)  We plan on arriving there around 12:15, eating lunch outside weather permitting and then visiting the gardens from 1:00-2:00pm.  We must leave by 2:00pm to get back to Hutchings on time.  Your child must pack a sack lunch this day as we will not be at school to eat lunch! We will be returning to Hutchings no later than 3:15pm and your child will be able to ride the bus home from school.  If you have not yet turned in your child's permission slip and money, please do so by this Friday or your child will not be able to attend the field trip with the class. Thank you!

April 12th - Fine Arst Festival (1st, 3rd, 5th grades)
Your child will need to arrive to school betwee 5:30-5:45pm.  We are the first performance and will start promptly at 6:00pm.  Please do not be late as it will be hard to get your child up on stage once the program has begun:)

April 22nd - Good Friday (No School) :)

I think that is it for now....more to come for the end of the year:)   Ms. Benear

MARCH FAMILY PROJECT

Roadtrip Through Michigan

Get out your maps of Michigan because we are on our way to learn

about different places in our wonderful state!

As a family…work together and find facts about a specific city in our super state. 

Please help your child find 3 interesting facts about the city they choose.  The facts should be child friendly (i.e.…Kalamazoo has a car museum or Ann Arbor has a cool bike trail).  Your child will then present the facts he or she found to the class using a poster, real life pictures, or any other prop to help relay these interesting facts to the class.

The best part is…you get to choose your city! 

Below are the students, their presentation date and their chosen cities:)

Jason B. – Sault Ste. Marie (March 22)

Abby – Frankenmuth (March 22)

Hannah – Charlevoix (March 22)

Alaina – Traverse City (March 25)

Justin – Cheboygan (March 22)

Aiden – Fenton (March 23)

Dylan – Detroit (March 23)

Andrew G. – Lansing (March 23)

Raleigh – Whitmore Lake (March 25)

Gabbey – Grayling (March 22)

Lilly – Lake Leelanau (March 23)

Elayna – Leroy (March 25)

Jason N. – Ann Arbor (March 22)

Liam O. – Lake City (March 25)

Bryant – Novi (March 25)

Ella – Houghton (March 22)

Nolan – Milford (March 23)

Sara – Mackinaw City (March 23)

Kendall – Grand Haven (March 25)

Liam T. – Ludington (March 25)

Stephen – Dearborn (March 23)

Lindsay – Cadillac (March 23)

Brevin - Holland (March 22)

March Family Project Rubric

Below is the rubric I will use to grade your child on his or her Michigan city report!

Child’s name: __________________________

_____ I told the class the name of my city.  It was ______________.

____  I told the class 3 child friendly facts about my city.

_____ I looked at the audience when I was speaking.

_____ I spoke clearly and slowly.

_____I used props, pictures or illustrations to make the information

          more interesting.

____/5

Comments: ________________________________________________

If you have any questions....please don't hesitate to ask:)

Ms. Benear :)

  

MARCH IS READING MONTH

March is Reading Month

Every March our school celebrates reading month!  This is always a big deal with all of the students as they try to read as much as they can and get cool prizes along the way! Our theme this year is "A Reading Road Trip Through Michigan!"  Your child was send home a sheet of slips to record their reading as well as a calendar of all the fun activities for the month!  Please help your child record his/her times on the blue slips....they cross off one Michigan symbol for every 15 minutes they read.  When one whole slip is complete, please send it back with your child to school!  Your child will then be entered to win prizes!  This year, there are individual, classroom and school prizes for reading. Also, every Wednesday is "Headlight Reading" day when the students may bring in their flashlights for silent reading time...they love this!  Every Friday will be a spirit day when your child may dress up according to the theme that day!! All information came home in a packet last week.  Please let me know if you have any questions....and please encourage your child to read as much as possible this month!!!

THANK YOU

Just wanted to say thanks for all you do for your child and our school:) Our carnival basket "Howell Pride" turned out great and raised some money that will be put directly back into our classroom!  The February president reports were outstanding:)  Thanks for helping your child with their props and with memorizing their four first grade fun friendly facts about their president!  I was very impressed:)

February Family Project

February Family Project

What better way to celebrate President’s Day than a Family Project? Your child is going to have a chance to teach the class about a president, but they need YOUR HELP. They will be teaching each other on February 23rd, 24th, or 25th (see below for day).

Please help your child learn about his or her president. He or she will have to find four facts about his or her president. Be sure to help him or her find four facts that are interesting to them. They may find it more interesting as to what kind of pets the president had rather than a war that was fought.

For the presentation he or she may dress up as the president and tell four facts, sing a song about the president with four facts, draw a picture about the president including four facts, make a book about their president with four facts, or be as creative as possible to teach the class four facts about their president. Attached is a rubric to help you! I will be filling out the rubric after each presentation!

Here are a few websites to help children learn about his or her president…
• http://kids.nationalgeographic.com/Stories/PeoplePlaces/Georgewashingtonicecream
• http://pbskids.org/wayback/prez/secrets/index.html
• http://www.socialstudiesforkids.com/subjects/uspresidents.htm
If you need any other assistance or have any questions, please let me know.

The children last year had a great time learning some interesting facts about all of the presidents! Some of their favorite facts were about pets, nicknames, and other facts first graders find interesting. Have a great time with this!

Thank you in advance! Ms. Benear :)



I will be scoring the presentations with this rubric:

Name_______________________________________

1. ___The name of the president was clearly stated.
The president was __________________________

2. ___Used a strong speaking voice.

3. ___Looked at the audience while speaking.

4. ___Used props, pictures, or illustrations to make the
information more interesting.

5. ___Taught four first grade friendly facts about their president.

Comments:____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________


___/5

HOWELL PRIDE

HOWELL PRIDE

Our carnival basket theme this year is "Howell Pride!"  We thought it would be nice to support our town and have a basket that shows where we are from:)  For those of you who do not know, every classroom compiles a basket (theme of their choice) to be raffled off the night of the carnival.  All the money collected for each basket goes straight back into the classroom that made the basket.  Tickets are $1 a piece and the winning ticket pulled gets to take the basket home!  So please help us out by donating anything to do with Howell Pride!  And don't forget to put some tickets in our basket the night of the carnival:)  We are also in need of someone to donate the basket/item to house all the Howell gear we collect, so let me know if you are interested or if you find something fun that will work!

Any questions, please ask!  Ms. Benear :)

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

Happy New Year 2011...Wow!

Just wanted to touch base and let you know about a few things.

1. Don't forget about the family project for January...the HOW TO project due Friday, January 14th! If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to ask.

2. We will begin our Rebecca Sitton Spelling program this week. Your child will have 5-6 words to work on each week. We will be working on these words during school hours too! I will write the new words on the blog every Monday as well as send the list home with your child. An explanation of the Sitton spelling program will be coming home today as well:)  Please be sure to help your child study and learn these words at home!

3. Please send an extra bag to school with your child to hold outdoor clothes if needed...the children are having a hard time fitting everything in their backpack. I had one parent ask if it was ok to leave extra snow pants and shoes at school so her child did not have to bring them home each day...YES!!! If you have extras your child may leave them in his or her locker!

4. Writing folders are coming home today!  Please have your child read through his/her writing pieces with you and together decided on the best/favorite piece to bring back to school to publish!  Please talk with your child about their writing, we have been working on using a bold beginning and an excellent ending.  Your child's pieces should show improvement in spelling, punctuation, ideas and organization at this point!  They are doing great:)

5. I will begin January testing next week (week of January 10th) so be expecting reading books to come home that are new and have not been practiced in class as they normally are!

I think that is it for now....thanks for a great 2010:)  Looking forward to all the leaps we are going to take together in 2011!  Please continue to encourage and support your child at home, they are doing great in class and I am so proud of each and every one of them:)

Welcome back!  Ms. Benear

January Family Project

First Grade Family Project

Each month we will be sending home instructions on a project your child will need your help with. These family projects will coincide with a grade level content expectation (GLCE) that we are working on at the time. Please help your child prepare to present his or her project to the class. Thank you so much in advance for taking the time to do these projects with your child. These projects help connect home to school.

January
The project for the month of January is a HOW TO project.

 

Be sure to use the attached packet to help you complete this project.

A HARD COPY HAS ALREADY BEEN SENT HOME

1. Please help your child brainstorm and list activities you can do together as a family. (ex. Make a sandwich, play a game, brush your teeth)
2. Choose one of the activities and decide what items you need to perform the activity. (peanut butter, jelly, bread, knife, plate, etc.)
3. After you have collected what you need, do the activity with your child. While engaged in the activity, be sure to talk about what you did FIRST, NEXT, THEN and LAST.
4. When you have finished the chosen activity please have your child draw a picture and write a sentence for each step of the activity. Be sure to begin step one with FIRST, step two with NEXT, step three with THEN, and step four with LAST.
5. Please return this family project by Friday, January 14th

Thanks so much!  Ms. Benear :)