The end of the third quarter is quickly approaching! The last day of the third
quarter will be the week we return from Spring Break (Wednesday, April 3).

Parents, you are encouraged to check on your child's grades using your
student's user name and password that have been sent home. Most of the
grades from the third quarter have been posted.
 
Great online resources for your child to utilize are 1) Reading Eggs (www.readingeggs.com) and 2) Xtra Math (www.xtramath.org). The user names and passwords have already been sent home with your child.

 By this point in first grade, your child "ideally" 
should:

Be reading in at least a level G book.

Be able to read at least 37 words per minute.

Recall at least the first 205 sight words introduced in first grade thus far (through at least the "Blue" sight word list).

Be able to write at least 3 basic sentences, with a capital letter and ending mark, and be able to distinguish between a telling sentence and a question.

Be able to fluently recall addition and subtraction facts 0-5 and are working towards fluency in 0-10 addition and subtraction facts (in one minute).

Be able to utilize the reading strategies taught and practiced in class within their reading. 

Be able to use their sounds to read unknown words in stories

Be able to use their sounds when writing words within their sentences.

Please let Ms. Riplinger know if you need additional resources or have a question about a grade you see online.

We are all excited in Room 117 that Spring has finally arrived! We can't wait for the warm weather to arrive! Our highlights this week: we saw our reading buddies perform a play for us, we enjoyed Easter activities, and Spring Break has begun! First of all, we would love to congratulate our Reading Buddies from Ms. Weimer's class for doing a fantastic job performing! The first graders LOVED the show! Friday, we were able to enjoy fun and exciting Easter activities through the day. After we got back from our PE class, we searched around the room for Easter eggs! YAY! All of the eggs were filled with candy, such as: bubble gum eggs, cookies and cream chocolate eggs, War Heads sour gum eggs, or Tootsie Rolls. Some of the eggs even included an even bigger surprise: Disney Dollars! Wow! Throughout the day, we played fun review games, such as Sight Word Bingo, Addition Bingo, and Sparkle (a spelling review game). The winner received...Easter treats! At the end of the day, the students were able to take home their very own Easter basket!

Ms. Riplinger hopes that each and every student and family of Room 117 has a very enjoyable and safe Spring Break! If you are traveling somewhere, We can't wait to hear all about it when we return to school April 2! Enjoy your Spring Break "homework" of spending time with your family and friends!

Room 117 has been learning and enjoying all things related to Ireland these past few days. Last Thursday, the students enjoyed reading about Ireland in their March "Scholastic News". We learned that Ireland is covered in a lot of green, the people of Ireland enjoy a different type of dance, and we learned where Ireland is located on a map. We also enjoyed watching and learning about Irish Dancing online. The students were so intrigued and amazed at how good the performers were!

Room 117's first graders had a blast Friday- They were able to see their reading buddies once again! Ms. Riplinger's class and Ms. Weimer's class paired up to celebrate St. Patrick's Day Friday afternoon. The first and fourth graders were able to hunt for the tokens left around the room by the leprechaun, graph Lucky Charms, and enjoy leprechaun punch! Happy St. Patrick's Day to all Room 117 families!

Children learn best with "hands-on-learning", or through learning by participating. We are completing our unit on time, and the students of Room 117 were able to learn through a variety of different activities. We created a few different books, played a game called "Mathopoly", created a paper plate clock, played a matching game, or labeled the hours of the clock. The students had a ton of fun! See below for pictures from last week!

We learned in class that the -ar phonics sound makes us sound like pirates! We had a lot of fun learning about this sound in class this week! We made a pirate project, read a book about Mark the Pirate, and played -ar phonics games! We also watched some fun You Tube videos!

See below for some of the work that we did in class, as well as the link for -ar phonics songs.

Here is an interesting video that we watched in class. It is a biography all about the famous author, Dr. Seuss!

The students are extremely excited to be learning about time in Room 117! We have now learned about time to the hour using an open faced clock, and we have also learned the difference between an open faced clock and a digital clock! In the upcoming weeks, Room 117 will be doing many fun activities to practice this exciting math concept!

See below for some of the You Tube videos that we watched in class this week!

Last week, we read "Oh, The Places You'll Go" by Dr. Seuss. After, the students were able to share what their dream is and ways they think they'll be able to reach that dream.

See below for our finished products! They all turned out so cute!!

Dr. Seuss is the first grade author study in District 109. We have been learning reading skills, writing concepts, and lessons through out the year with the use of Dr. Seuss's popular children's books.

This past week, leading up to Dr. Seuss's birthday (March 2), we did many fun activities in class. First, we read the ever-so-popular book, "The Cat in the Hat" and discussed the characters, the problem in the book, the solution, and where the story happened (Setting). We also had the pleasure of watching Justin Bieber (Eek!) read "The Cat in the Hat" to the students through a You Tube video. To expand the lesson, the students responded to the writing prompt: "Would you want the Cat in the Hat to come to your house on a rainy day?". The ideas they came up with were so cute!

We also read the popular book, "Oh, the Places You'll Go" and talked about how the children can do anything they want to and can reach any dream, as long as they make good choices and always try their best. We did a writing prompt: "When I Grow Up" and each child was able to share what their dream/goal is when they grow up. After each child shared their dream, we talked about what good choices they can make to reach their dream! Attention all Room 117 students: Remember your first grade teacher when you are all famous! :) We will finish this fun project into the upcoming week.

On Friday, We created our own Cat in the Hats and used our literacy skills in the process! Each child was given a different "Word family" to create a list of rhyming words. Some students were given short vowel word families and some students were given long vowel families! They were each up to the challenge and did a great job! They then listed their rhyming words on their hats. See below for the finished projects!

Next week, we will have the chance to try "Green Eggs and Ham" and watch a short biography video on our famous author, Dr. Seuss.