Top o' the weekend to ya!

     In honor of St. Patrick's Day, I had to "go green" in this blog!  What's everyone doing for this festive day?  Remember, the kids get to wear green-dress on Monday (as long as they are wearing tennis shoes and following the general school dress code, and of course, wearing GREEN!) Don't worry, no one will be pinching anyone in First Grade!  It's all for fun! Let's hope that all of the green clothing will inspire these little Firsties to have green cards all day! 

    
     We will be distributing report cards on Monday, so please look in your child's red folders for their report card.  Firsties know that they are not allowed to look at their report card before their parents, so be sure to spend a few moments talking about their report cards with them.  This report card is critical in your child's First Grade "career".  You can see where your child needs to improve before moving on to the Second Grade.  If you see any check marks, please take them seriously and work with your child in improving those areas.  Praise your child for all of their hard work, especially if you see any areas that have improved since last report card.  Finally, don't underestimate the power of a great tutor!  First Grade forms the important foundation for your child's future in reading.  This is the best time to truly support that foundation- better now than two, three, or four years down the road, when your child has more responsibilities after school (i.e. homework, sports practices, etc). {Cue teacher stepping down from soapbox} = )


     On a fun note, your child had a great time this week with some new 6th Grade friends!  Mrs. Johnson invited our Firsties to participate in a Mathletics Session this past Thursday.  The Firsties were partnered up with a 6th grader, then we split up half of the kids into the 6th Grade, and the other half stayed in our classroom.  The laptops were brought into the rooms, and the Mathletics fun began!  They had such a great time, Mrs. Johnson and I agreed that we will need to do that more often! Here are some fun photos from the kids that stayed in our classroom... I'll try and get the other half next time:

    
    Speaking of computers, Mr. Colvin's lesson this week lined up perfectly with our new Math Chapter... shapes! The kiddos used Microsoft Word to insert shapes onto a page, change the color of the shape, and change the color and width of the shape's outline.  These kids are on their way to becoming computer wiz's! Here are just a couple snapshots of these future Microsoft employees:

    Finally, we had a nice visit this week from Mrs. Schulte.  We invited her into our room to play a little Whack-a-Mole (or, as the kids kindly corrected me, Mole-in-the-Hole, but I like my old-school term better!)  She had a great time, and the kids were cheering her on!  Here are a few photos from that little event:

     Just in case your Firsty has mentioned that they haven't had a chance to play Whack-a-Mole yet, rest assure, yours truly will make sure they get their chance to play! With 35 players, we only have time to allow a few kids at a time to play.  We pull popcicle sticks out of the famous popcicle stick cup to see who gets to play each time.  Patience is definitely a virtue I get to instill in a lot of these Firsties, and they are definitely working on it day-by-day!  

     Well, that's going to be it for me right now- I have 35 report cards to finish up!  As you may have noticed, our report cards are hand-written (minus the comments portion)... don't worry! One day in the near future (definition of near is unclear) our technology-savvy school will have report cards completed on computers! I never thought the day would come for a Catholic School!  I believe the upper grades get to play with that option first, and then it will trickle down to us primary teachers- like I said- patience is a virtue!  

Until then, fill out those field trip permission slips as soon as possible, and have a wonderful weekend!

Take care! 

~Ms. Hudson