August 30, 2017

Good evening families!  I have some updates for you for the week.

We had our curriculum night last night (Tuesday).  Thank you all for attending!  If you weren't able to come I sent home with your student the information we reviewed last night.  The biggest news of the evening was NO HOMEWORK for first graders.  

Instead of homework, we are focusing on our speaking and listening skills and students will have a note in their agendas about something we have been working on in the classroom.  This is a talking piece to encourage students to talk about what we have been learning.  

In addition to this, I will send home a weekly book for students to read.  This book will be on their reading level and will also have ideas for reading together at home.  I encourage reading at home and encourage making it a nightly routine.  

We will take a weekly spelling test beginning next Friday.  Students spelling words will be found on our blog as well as on their folder page (in the front of their blue folders) for practice at home.  

These words will also be practiced daily at school during our word work time so they will be familiar words for students.

I will be sending home students sight words next week as well.  This will help you to know where your student is in learning their sight words and help build their fluency when they are familiar with these words.

My last update is about our FIELD TRIP!  We're excited to be going to Evans Orchard on SEPTEMBER 14.  Parents are encouraged to join us if you would like.  Please let me know on students permission slip if you plan to attend so I can prepare accordingly.  This is a fun field trip for the students!  

Here are some more fun pictures of students enjoying the solar eclipse last week.  Enjoy the week!  

Jacob viewing the eclipse with his glasses.

Ben viewing the eclipse.

Daxton and his aunt viewing the eclipse.

Rylan viewing the eclipse.

Zach and his eclipse viewer!  

Thank you parents for a wonderful first 10 days of school.  I am loving getting to know your kiddos - we have a wonderful class!

Mrs. Long

Day 4 of school

Hello!  Here are our weekly sight words.  These are also on your students folder page in the front of their folder.  This will have weekly information for events or reminders for the week.  We will change this on the first day of the school week.

Here are our sight words:
I
like
do
to
you
he
can
go
a
has

This LINK has some fun ways to practice sight words at home.  There are also some ideas on THIS PAGE as well that are VERY FUN! :)

Tomorrow we will be having a show and share with our friends.  This activity is to practice our oral story telling.  Students should bring with them something small that would fit into a paper lunch bag. This will be something that is special to them that they can tell a story to a small group of their friends about. Students have a note in their folders about this.

Mia and Florencia using their viewers!

Cami and Julian made viewers to see the eclipse!

Julian working on his viewer!

I had some students to make the solar glass viewers at home! These were so much fun and students shared about their solar eclipse experiences today.  I am so excited to hear about the fun they had learning at home.  Thank you so much for the pictures!  I'll continue to add those to our blog.


Have a wonderful week!  Our Curriculum night is coming up next Tuesday August 31 from 6-7 pm. I hope to see as many parents as possible.

First 3 days

Our first three days are complete!

We have had two wonderful days learning procedures and getting to know each other.  In your students agenda book they wrote a message to you that says "Ask me about my meeting."  We have begun morning meeting in our classroom.  This is where students meet together and talk about our day and will work on being kind, caring and respectful to one another.

Students were shaking hands and talking about their week at school!

We have also begun learning about school and classroom procedures as well as expectations.

We were doing a listening activity for students to practice following directions the first time.

Today was Friday so our students get to enjoy dance to class in the morning.  Here are some pictures from today!


Reminders for the week:

Please send students blue folders and agenda books with them each night.  There will be important papers that often come home so be sure to check folders nightly.


Our curriculum night will be coming up on Tuesday, August 29 from 6-7 pm.  At this time, we'll talk about what we will be learning this year and information about first grade expectations.  We would love to have parents attend.

Enjoy the weekend with your families!  Don't forget NO SCHOOL Monday August 21.  I shared with our students a video about the solar eclipse.  I also shared a way they can make glasses at home using a cereal box.  This would be a FUN activity to do this weekend to prepare for the eclipse.  If you do make glasses with your student, please email me pictures!  It would be a great sharing opportunity for families!  Here is the video I showed the students:  SOLAR GLASSES

Monday night will be Wellington Spirit night at Puccinis.  Students have a flyer, please present as you are ordering for our PTA to receive some of the proceeds from your dinner!

If you haven't had a chance, please use this LINK to fill out our blog permission form. LINK link is for volunteering in our class if you would like to help out.  I will be in touch in the next week to talk about volunteer needs for our students.

Next Wednesday, August 23 we will be sharing something special to us in order to begin learning about Oral Story telling.  On Wednesday, please send something with your student that would fit in a lunch bag that your student could share and tell a story about with a friend.

Have a wonderful weekend!

Back to School!

Hi families!
I am so excited about a new school year with your wonderful kiddos!  I wanted to introduce myself and my family to you!  This is my husband, Doug. We have been married 3 years in September.  This is our 11 month old Reid.  You'll hear lots about Reid!  He is growing so much and is having a fun summer exploring everything!  We also have one dog named Trudy June, she is a ham!  But we love her so.


This is my fifth year teaching!  I have been grateful to be in first grade for all 5 years.  I love teaching this age, students are so excited about learning and I love being a part of their learning story!  I love to read myself and try to encourage our students to do that often! 


My parents were both in education which led me to where I am today.  I loved being a little teacher at an early age so this was the next step for me!

Here is little Reid exploring at our house!

Little break for some swimming.

My little Shark having fun during Shark week!

Swinging at Jacobson Park

At my mom's house with my niece Kaitlyn at her graduation from high school.  She's attending Transylvania this fall so I am sure your students will get to meet her as she loves to come to school to visit my students!

Cooking out with friends

We take reading very seriously in the Long household!  Starting early

haha

Now to our classroom!  I've been working for a few weeks to prepare for our year!  Our classroom is beginning to take shape. 

Our desk area is still in progress, but we are close!

I'm beginning to prepare for your students supplies at open house tomorrow! 

Here is our classroom rotation schedule

Mrs. Long’s Special’s rotation

Day 1            Art

Day 2            STEM

Day 3            Technology

Day 4            library

Day 5            Music

Day 6            PE

Our Daily schedule will look like this:

Language arts 8:00 - 11:00

Lunch 11:00 - 11:25

Specials 11:30 - 12:25

Math Whole Group 12:25 - 1:00

Recess 1:00-1:30

Math Small Group 1:30 - 2:30

Dismissal 2:35

Please take a moment to fill out the Classroom blog picture permission form so we can begin sharing pictures of our classroom on our blog!  Form is HERE

There is also a form for classroom volunteering.  If you would be available to help with anything in our classroom we would LOVE your help!  Form is Here


I would LOVE to meet all of our students tomorrow at Open house.  I'll be here 11-1 and again from 5-7 pm.