Christmas Party, Polar Express, and Santa!

Winter Break Information

Gummy Bear Graphing

Creating a Tally Chart and Bar Graph with Gummy Bears

• Winter Reading Challenges went home Friday. Have your child choose at least 10 marshmallow activities and complete the task. Cut out the completed paper marshmallows and glue them to the mug on the front. Decorate the mug and return to school by January 3rd for your child to be entered in the challenge. Two random names will be chosen from each grade to have a coco and movie party with Mr. Ebert. 
• Yearbooks for 2017-2018 are for sale for $16 on the Lifetouch website: https://ybpay.lifetouch.com/Order/SelectJob    The code for Redwood is 11600718
• Marco's Pizza Night is Tuesday, December 19th. Order online and remember to choose Kozar so we earn money for our school and win a class pizza party!
• Wednesday, December 20th is Pajama and Polar Express Day! Your child can wear pajamas, slippers, and robes to school! They can bring a small blanket if they wish. We will have indoor recess to stay warm, but I still recommend packing slippers in book bags and wearing tennis shoes to and from school.

Happy Holidays!

Long Vowel Practice

• This week we are focusing on "long vowel a & i" words with silent e, such as plate, name, make, shape, snake, wipe, spike, smile, and shine. We have a special way to mark up these words by slashing the e and writing v-e under the word. Say the long vowel, silent e words out loud and see if your child can write them and mark up the words. 
• Our sight words last week were: away, some, now, today, way, why. This week's words are: green, grow, pretty, should, together, water.
• Our stories this week are Ready, Set, Grow! and Time to Plant! which are plays. Characters in the story read at different times and we will practice switching roles as we read these stories this week. 
• In math, we began Topic 6: Represent and Interpret Data. We will practice collecting data and create tally charts, picture graphs, and bar graphs. 
• This Wednesday, December 13th at 9:15 AM is our kindergarten & first grade singing concert. Be sure to arrive early to get a great seat! We will be on the far right side of the stage, so I would suggest sitting on the far left of the audience to see us sing. 
• Next Wednesday, December 20th is Pajama and Polar Express Day! Your child can wear pajamas, slippers, and robes to school! They can bring a small blanket if they wish. We will have indoor recess to stay warm, but I still recommend packing slippers in book bags and wearing tennis shoes to and from school. 

Important December Dates

• Snowflake Shop: Our class will be visiting the Snowflake Shop on December 6th @ 9:30 am. If your child is planning on buying gifts during this time, please send back the list of names, money, and filled out gift tags by December 6th. Click the link to volunteer: https://m.signupgenius.com/#!/showSignUp/10C0D4CAAA82EA0F58-redwood1
• Winter Singing Concerts- First grade is singing on December 13th from 9:15-9:45 am. We are located on the right side of the stage, as you look at the stage. Finding a spot to sit on the left side of the gym might be helpful.
• MAPS Testing- Our second MAPS test of the year will be on Monday December 4th and Monday December 11th, both afternoons. Please help your child get plenty of sleep both Sunday nights and encourage them to try their best!
• Mrs. Speier, our guidance counselor, will be coming into our room on Fridays to teach guidance lessons. Her first unit it called Skills for Learning and focuses on listening skills, focusing attention, following directions, and staying on task.
• Polar Express Day: Wednesday, December 20th is Polar Express day in first grade! Our entire day will include activities based on the Polar Express. Your child can wear pajamas, slippers, and robes to school this day. They can bring a small blanket if they choose. We will have indoor recess and end the day watching the movie The Polar Express. Warm pajamas are recommended, even though we are staying inside for recess. 
• This week in Reading our BIG question is: How Can You Find Your Way Around? We are learning all about the types of maps and how they can help us navigate around different places. The new spelling sound we learned was   -tch  as in "ch" (watch, latch, catch). We continue to focus on the suffix -es. We practiced finding the main idea and 3 supporting details of text. 
• New High Frequency Words: around, by, many, place, walk
• In math, we are working on our trickiest unit so far! See if your child can solve some of the equations below & make up equations of your own!
• Finding unknown numbers (4 + ___ = 13)
• Deciding if equations are true or false (5+8=12-3  true or false)
• hint- have them show you how to "connect, connect"
• Solve word problems with 3 addends (7+3+6=__ )

Happy Thanksgiving!

Wishing you and your family a Happy Thanksgiving!

Harptoons and Habitats

Steve Harpster taught us how to draw silly characters out of numbers!

http://www.harptoons.com/

• This week in math, we learned that a fact family is a set of 3 numbers that are added and subtracted to make 4 equations. We worked with dominoes to create fact families and we also made fact family turkeys that are hanging in the hallway.  We also met Even Steven and Odd Todd to help us explore odd and even numbers. Check out the game "Number Ninja" on ABCYa for more practice. 
• New High Frequency Word Lists came home this week. It has every word we will be learning this quarter. This week we covered the words: eat, no, of, under, who
• Our essential question is: Where do animals live together? We have explored the following habitats through the stories in class: forest, desert, pond, bayou, and next week we will finish with the ocean. 
• Keep practicing the suffixes: -s, -es, -ing, -ed. 
• We have partnered with BW-3 in Avon Lake to promote reading for elementary students. In your mailbox, you will find a Reading Reward Card (Please send these home). Students that read at least 20 minutes per night or read a book will be able to have their reading reward card initialed by a parent, teacher or staff member. If they read 5 books or over 100 minutes they receive a free kids meal. If they read ten books or over 200 minutes they will receive $10.00 dollars off of a food item. Once their card is filled, they can take it to the BW-3 in Avon Lake to redeem their prize. The program runs from now until January 31, 2018.

$1 Hat Day Friday & Muffins with Mom RSVP

• Last Call for PTA Directory! Don't miss out on being in the Redwood School PTA Directory for the 2017-2018 school year.  An electronic copy will go out later this month, but you must be a PTA member to be included and to receive the Redwood School PTA Directory. Register by 11/10 at https://my.cheddarup.com/c/redwood-pta-2017
•  Muffins with Mom (Click Link to RSVP) Please RSVP for our Muffins with Mom (or grandma, aunt, sister, etc.) event at Redwood Elementary school using the Google link below! One adult only please. November 15 & 16, 2017 at 8:00 am in the gym and cafeteria. Muffins, coffee and milk will be provided.
• The scholastic book fair will be open during Muffins with Mom. If you would like to volunteer to work the book fair, here's the link:
  https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeNGoQSyUEHMwxlhBdwWk0X_pkPiAN8Gx2WW6wSoPzO240YvA/viewform?usp=sf_link
• The PTA Reflections Program has kicked off! The theme this year is "Within Reach".  Kids can enter any original works of art in the categories of Dance Choreography, film production, literature, music composition, photography and visual arts.
  All entries are due to Mrs. Chernisky or your homeroom teacher by Nov 28. Entry forms: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1E6e7CXKw2ex-PumS-KAMUOiS8BFeIYD5/view?usp=sharing

Hat Day & Kisses From Heaven

• This week we began Unit 2 week 2 in Wonders. The essential questions are: What buildings do you know? What are they made of? 
• New high frequency words: could, live. one, then, three
• We have been reading many different versions of The Three Little Pigs and then identifying the characters, setting, and events that take place on each page of the story. We know these stories are fantasies because the animals are talking!
• We are working with 's contractions like: she's, he's, it's, and let's. 
• Check out this fun contractions rap that we sang to learn what exactly a contraction is. /https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ar58NnHb1rk
• Log onto wonders for additional games to practice contractions at home. Login information is on the back of your child's take home folder. 
• We practices adding the suffix s and -es to words like: boxes, foxes, branches, and buzzes. See if your child can chant our new rule to you: "When a word ends in x,z,s,ch, or sh add -es."
• In math, we completed Topic 3 and quizzed on Friday. We will begin Topic 4 Monday (Subtraction Facts to 20).
Events Coming Up:
• Next Friday November 10th is hat day. Bring $1 to wear a hat and raise money for the Jeremy Cares Foundation. 
•  Muffins with Mom is in 2 weeks! Moms, grandmas, aunts, or older sisters are invited to come to school at 8 am to enjoy a muffin with your child. We ask that only "one girl adult" attends muffins with mom per student. The dates are split as: Last names A-M on November 15 and last names N-Z on November 16.
• Kisses from Heaven is collecting items to send to the hospitals for parents with babies in the NICU. Please see the flyer for more information on how you can make a difference:

Happy Halloween!

Community Jobs & Halloween Info

Look, a job in our community!

How to Carve a Pumpkin Science & Writing

Scooping out the Seeds!

• This week our BIG question is: What jobs need to be done in our community? We read the story Millie Waits for the Mail about a silly cow that helps a mailman do his job... and ironically, a mail truck appeared! So we had to snap a quick picture! 
• We also read Good Job, Ben! to learn the short e sound. In the story, Ben meets workers in his community like a librarian, bus driver, crossing guard, and construction workers. We used this story to identify the characters, setting, and events on each page.  We say "the setting is where the story takes place." See if your child can identify these parts of a story when you read together at home. 
• Our new High Frequency words are again, help, new, there, use. We completed a noun sort (person, place, thing) and learned the suffix -ed. The suffix -ed can make 3 sounds:
• -d, as in spilled
• -t, as in camped
• -ed, as in blasted
• In math, we continue to learn different strategies to add and subtract within 20. We learned the following strategies: doubles, doubles +1, doubles +2, and make 10 to add. 
• In Science, we continue to explore living things- like pumpkins! We wrote a "How To" paragraph on carving a pumpkin. We went through the steps together and then used the transition words first, next, then, last in our writing. 
• On Halloween, the children can wear their costumes to school in the morning. Please no weapons as props. Pack masks in book bags and when the children get in the classroom, they can put them on. We will be parading around the school @ 9:00 am, so if the costume shoes are tricky to walk in, maybe just wear tennis shoes! Also, please send in a change of clothes in a plastic bag, in their  bookbag. We will be changing out of costumes before recess/ lunch. OR- wear a change of clothes under their costume.

Indoor Recess Creations

Witch's Brew Bingo

Monster Mash Math

Even Monsters Need Haircuts Listening Center

• The annual Redwood Pumpkin Festival is this Saturday, October 21st 11AM-2PM. Pre-Sale ticket forms are due back to Redwood no later than October 19th! Please consider volunteering or simply donating items for the Redwood Pumpkin Festival on October 21st. This is our Fall fundraiser and the success of the event is because of our PTA and volunteers. Please click on the link to see how you can help:Pumpkin Festival 2017
• WOW (Walk on Wednesday) theme next week is invite a friend - meet our class by Redwood's front doors at 9:00am to walk a few laps with your child. We are also collecting old shoes to be recycled and re-purposed through Planet Aid. Please bring old shoes to be collected until the end of the month! We have a container in our front lobby.
• Redwood is collecting broken crayons to donate back to schools, hospitals, and art programs in need. If you'd like to help, send in a bag of any crayons you're not using. Every crayon counts!
• We  have a guest illustrator, Steve Harper, coming to Redwood for an assembly! If you'd like to order autographed copies of his books, send in the order form to school by 11/3. Orders sent by 11/3 will take home the books that day, when Mr. Harper finishes the assembly. (Late orders will be accepted on 11/8 but books will be delivered at a later time.)
• Today, first grade went through the Fire House that AL Fire Department brought to Redwood. The children worked with the firefighters to identify safe and unsafe things in a home that could cause a fire. We also read Curious George and the Firefighters and Miss Mingo and the Fire Drill.
• In reading, we are reading stories about how our body moves. We worked on naming adjectives (action words like jump, skip, and swim) and we worked on possessives (words with 's like "Sam's book" or "Jim's house"). Remember, the Wonders Link under the "Fun Websites" tab is a way to re-read and play games that correlate with what we are learning in class. 
• In math this week, we reviewed using a number line to add numbers up to 20, creating and using an open number line, and using doubles +1 for quick mental math. 

Fantastic Fall Info

Hat Day

Avon Lake Spirit Day

• Halloween Drawing contests came home Monday. Have your child design a costume for Mrs. Schneider and fill out the student info at the bottom. Return to school by October 16th. 
• Redwood's Pumpkin Festival is  Saturday,  October 21st! Pre-Order your tickets with the form that came home Tuesday. Send the form back in by Tuesday Oct. 19th for early ordering. 
• We had an assembly today to learn how we can earn money for our school through Stoller Baked Goods. Check out the info that came home today for order forms and prizes! The Butter Braids are DELICIOUS! Please return the order form by Wednesday, October 25!
• Redwood's Holiday Singing Program is on Wednesday, December 13^th
• 9:15-9:45 AM Kindergarten/ All Day Kindergarten/ 1st Grade 
• 10:45-11:15 3rd Grade and Choir 
• 12:30-1:00 4th Grade and Choir 
• 1:45-2:15 2nd Grade and Choir
• It was great to meet with all of you for Fall conferences! The students are working so hard and I can see their progress! Keep logging into RazKids and Odyssey Compass Learning. Your child's username and password was given to you in the conference folder you took home. Please login at least once per week to access their individual learning path for extra help and enrichment! The link to Odyssey Compass Learning is on this blog, under the "Fun Websites" tab. 
• You will also find a link to Wonders (under the "Fun Websites" tab) where your child can reread our class stories and play games directly related to concepts & High Frequency Words we are learning each week in class. Every week, the Wonders  games, high frequency words, and stories change, so check back weekly for new content and HFWords your child should master! 

Apple Experiments & Homecoming Parade Info

Walk on Wednesday CLE Spirit Day!

• In reading this week, we have been reading stories about friendship, such as Toss, Kick, Hop. The story Friends All Around helped us learn about friends in different parts of the world and traditional games played together in other countries. 
• We learned the digraphs kn (as in knot) and  ph (as in phone).  We also reviewed wh, th, sh, ck, and ch from kindergarten. The kids practiced marking their digraphs with one underline, like chick  or  wish. We keep reading and writing words with blends, bonus letters, the suffix s, and digraphs. Sample words your child should be able to read and write are: shops, hall, chills, toss, ships, brush, chimp, stick, chest, crash, stack, etc. Ask your child if they can mark those words up!!
• For math this week, we continue to learn addition and subtraction strategies. We learned:
• Flip Flop Facts (turn around facts) 3+4=7 and 4+3=7
• Related Facts 4+2=6 so 6-2=4
• Using Number Lines to Subtract with story problems
• New words this week: fun, make, they, too
• In science we did apple experiments! We turned into little scientists and explored everything we could about apples! We made predictions if the apples would be sweet or sour and then tasted them. We graphed our favorite tasting apple and discovered the star of seeds when the apple was cut in half. We tested our hypothesis' to see if the apples changed colors in Mountain Dew, cranberry juice, blue Gatorade, or Pink Lemonade. Finally, we used a balance scale to determine how many pattern blocks, dice, coins, Popsicle sticks, and cubes our apple weighed!

• This weekend is Homecoming so it is time to have fun with the Redwood float! All students are invited to join us for the parade this Saturday, October 7th. Please meet us at Bleser Park along the basketball courts by 10:00. This year’s theme is Redwood Rocks! featuring decorations and music all centered around the 80s! If possible, please have your child wear 80s themed clothing to help show our school spirit! And it wouldn’t be a real parade without candy – please bring candy for your child to toss to the spectators. The parade begins at 10:30 and should be wrapped up by 11:30 for pickup back at Bleser Park. If you would like to help decorate the float, we will be gathering at Redwood afterschool Friday with lots of cutting and attaching to do! If possible, bring along a pair of scissors and even a staple gun to help us rock out the float! Kids are welcome to help too. Any questions, please contact Holly Kessler (hollykessler@centurylink.net)
• Next Week: Wed. Oct 11th- WOW theme is hat or crazy hat day

Spirit Week Next Week!

• SIGN UP to be a Center Helper or Guest Reader!! If you would like to help out in our classroom, check out the options on the sign up genius! Specific dates and times are given to work with our class calendar in October & November. Please choose one time, and then check back in a few days if you would like to select more dates. This gives all parents a chance to help! :) http://www.signupgenius.com/go/9040d49a5ae2da31-october1
• Conference sign ups are open! Conferences will be on October 12th from 8:00am-7:30pm. Please click the link to reserve your spot! https://www.ptcfast.com/schools/Redwood_Elementary
• This week in reading, we read stories to answer the question: What makes a good pet? The story Flip was a fantasy about a dinosaur that sneaks into school and makes a huge mess! We went on a word hunt to find words with blends and bonus letters. We continued to work with the words be, come, pull, good. 
• In math, we learned the following strategies: doubles, near doubles, and ten frames. Near doubles is a bit tricky but once understood, can help students add quickly. For example if  3+3=6, then the near double 3+4=7, or 3+3+1 more makes 7. We sang this neat song about doubles... see if your child can remember his or her doubles facts! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8jOzhiACB68
• In science, our bean plants are growing tall! We are being great observers and journaling how the beans are changing from seed to plant. Bean plants will come home soon so plant them in soil to be sure they survive with the soil's nutrients. 

Picture Day, W.O.W. Info, & Center Helper Sign Ups

• Picture Day is Wednesday, September 27th. Our class is taking a class picture at 8:45 AM... PLEASE come to school on-time so your child can join us! Remember to send in payment & selected options on the picture form or sign up online.
  
• W.O.W.- Walk on Wednesday is back this year! The children will not be receiving WOW t-shirts this year, however we have fun spirit days to celebrate. Parents/ grandparents/ etc are invited to walk with us on 10/25 @ 9 AM for "Invite a Friend" & Parents are encouraged to observe the whole school on 10/31 for the Halloween Parade
• Week 1 Oct. 4^th – Cleveland Pride, AL Pride, etc (this is Homecoming Week) 9AM
• Week 2 Oct 11^th – Wacky Hats, or just a hat – 9AM 
• Week 3 Oct 18^th – Bright Colors (wear your brightest colors)1:30PM
• Week 4 Oct 25^th – Invite a friend  (this is also 3^rd grade ELA test week)9AM
• Week 5 Oct 31 – Halloween Parade Walk (This is a Tuesday)9AM

• SIGN UP to be a Center Helper or Guest Reader!! If you would like to help out in our classroom, check out the options on the sign up genius! Specific dates and times are given to work with our class calendar in October & November. Please choose one time, and then check back in a few days if you would like to select more dates. This gives all parents a chance to help! :) http://www.signupgenius.com/go/9040d49a5ae2da31-october1

Busy Busy Week!

• In reading we continued to work with bonus letters l*,f*,s*,z*. We read Go Pip to learn about making inferences and how clues in the illustrations can help us understand the story better.  Then, we began Week 3's Topic: What makes a pet special? We read Cliff and Slim, a silly story about a cat who has a clumsy pet pig. New high frequency words to know: be, come, good, pull. 
• In phonics, I introduced blends: 2 consonants right next to each other that make 2 individual sounds when tapping out. Examples of blends are: bl (black), cr (crab), dr (drink), sw (swim), sc, fl, sn, and many more. We out the blends into a blender and created a poster together for the classroom. All of the stories we read this week will focus on blends. We mark blends by underlining the 2 consonants, like:
•    s w i m    or    p l a n.
• In math we started topic 2: Adding and Subtracting within 10. Today, we practiced using a number line to "hop" forward and back to find the answer. Friday, we will learn doubles (2+2, 3+3, 5+5)
• A Girl Scout flyer went home Thursday! There is an ice cream social at ALPL September 26th @ 5:30pm for girls that are interested in Girl Scouts .
• An Avon Lake Rec Calendar Came home Thursday too. Look inside for tons of child friendly activities!

Library Field Trip