This Week's Spelling...

I'm so sorry that I am late posting this again this week. I know I will hear it later from the kids, because they get anxious waiting to know how they did. I know many of them check our blog on the weekends. Anyways... this week we studied "Bossy R". It is a tough concept, but I think they are doing great! Besides the phonics aspect, these kids are doing awesome on their dictation sentences and I am seeing some beautiful handwriting! Good job!

This weeks 100% spellers:
* Beaudee
* Jeffery
* Lasha
* Quayd
* Aidan
* Mikayla
* Brinnley
* Rylan
* Drew
* Tate
* Reagan
* Miri
* Shade
* Monserrath

Seussville @ the Schoolville!

Fun week of Dr. Seuss! Two of our classmates won the costume contest for 1st grade! Shade (Horton) and Tate (Cat in the hat) won a cool Dr. Seuss stationary set. All the costumes were cute and all the students who dressed up in our school got to put on a parade...

Report cards for 2nd tri. were sent home on Friday. Please let me know if it did NOT get home!!! After today we have exactly 60 days until summer vacation!!! Keep reading at home! We are seeing LOTS of growth! :)

This week's 100% stellar spellers are: (long u words)
* Quayd
* Aidan
* Mikayla
* Brinnley
* Rylan
* Drew
* Tate
* Reagan
* Shade
* Monserrath
MUCH BETTER THIS WEEK!!

Happy Birthday Dr. Seuss!

It's that time of year when we celebrate our favorite author! Dr. Seuss was born on March 2, 1904. We will be celebrating Dr. Seuss all week by participating in fun activities and reading lots of his fun books.

Monday- Crazy sock day
Tuesday- Bring a stuffed animal to school
Wacky Wednesday- (self explained, read the book if you're not sure):)
Thursday- PJ Day!!! (my personal favorite)
Friday- Dress up as your favorite Dr. Seuss character (school parade)

The kids also have a list of Dr. Seuss books that they may mark off as they read them this week. At the end of the week they may turn them in for a chance at a cool prize.

Last week I was away at a conference in Phoenix. Mrs. Hacking says that the kids were terrific!

Last week's 100% spellers are: (words with ee and ea)
* Beaudee
* Zaida
* Quayd
* Mikayla
* Brinnley

(Not too many this week, probably because it was someone different giving the test... Keep practicing!!)

We are working hard and I will try much harder on keeping up with our class news on our blog. Thanks for allowing me to teach and love your children!

Salt Lake Tribune article recognizes our school!!!

Nearly Utah 60 schools recognized for success
By Lisa Schencker

The Salt Lake Tribune

Updated: 01/07/2009 11:23:49 AM MST


State education leaders are recognizing 59 high-poverty Utah schools for academic success.

The Utah State Office of Education honored 56 schools with Utah Title I High Performing School Awards on Tuesday and three schools with Utah Closing the Achievement Gap Title I School Awards.

Schools that earned the first award had to meet federal testing goals for at least two consecutive years; had to achieve at or above the state level on language arts and math tests; and had to be nominated by their superintendents or charter school leaders.

Darrin Johnson, principal at Hillcrest Elementary School in Orem, which was one of the schools to receive the first award, said his school achieved those goals partly by focusing on language arts and giving struggling students one-on-one tutoring with aides, many of whom are retired teachers.

"It's an honor to receive any type of recognition for the hard work the teachers do," Johnson said.

To earn the second award, a school had to meet federal testing goals two years in a row and also had to reduce, by at least half, the gaps in testing results between the school as a whole compared with groups of students within the school broken down by ethnicity, ability and income.

Mountain View Elementary School in Salt Lake City earned the award by spending three hours a day on reading instruction as part of the federal Reading First program and focusing on student data, said principal John Erlacher. Ninety-four percent of the school's students come from low-income families and 86 percent are learning English, he said.

"It's just amazing what these teachers are able to do, and we have a very involved parent population," Erlacher said.



Utah schools recognized for success


Utah Title I High Performing School Award winners:

Alpine School District

» Hillcrest Elementary

Beaver School District

» Belknap Elementary

» Minersville Elementary

» Milford Elementary

Cache School District

» Lewiston Elementary

» Millville Elementary

» Summit Elementary

Garfield School District

» Antimony Elementary

» Boulder Elementary

» Panguitch Elementary

» Bryce Valley Elementary

Grand School District

» Red Rock Elementary

Iron School District

» Cedar East Elementary

» Cedar North Elementary

» Escalante Valley Elementary

» Enoch Elementary

» Parowan Elementary

» Three Peaks Elementary

Juab School District

» Mona Elementary

» Red Cliff Elementary

Kane School District

» Big Water Elementary

» Valley Elementary

» Big Water High School

Millard School District

» Delta North Elementary

» Fillmore Elementary

Morgan School District

» Morgan Elementary

North Sanpete School District

» Fairview Elementary

» Spring City Elementary

» Fountain Green Elementary

» Mt. Pleasant Elementary

North Summit School District

» North Summit Middle School

» North Summit Elementary

Piute School District

» Oscarson Elementary

» Circleville Elementary

Rich School District

» North Rich Elementary

» South Rich Elementary

Salt Lake School District

» Newman Elementary

San Juan School District

» La Sal Elementary

» Monticello Elementary

Sevier School District

» Ashman Elementary

» Pahvant Elementary

» Salina Elementary

South Sanpete School District

» Manti Elementary

South Summit School District

» South Summit Elementary

Tintic School District

» Callao Elementary

» Eureka Elementary

» West Desert School -- Secondary

Uintah School District

» Ashley Elementary

Wasatch School District

» Midway Elementary

Wayne School District

» Loa Elementary

Charter Schools

» Academy of Math, Engineering and Science

» Da Vinci Academy

» Mountainville Academy

» North Davis Preparatory Academy

» Renaissance Academy

» Walden School of Liberal Arts


Utah Title I Closing the Achievement Gap School Awards:

Salt Lake School District

» Mountain View Elementary

San Juan School District

» Bluff Elementary

Wayne School District

» Hanksville Elementary

Holly Jolly Christmas!

Hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas. We had a crazy week of school before we got our winter break...

The kiddos did a fabulous job in there Christmas program... I just loved their cute little puppet show. We had a super fun Christmas party thanks to our wonderful mother helpers! Thank you Bobbi, Symone, Mandy, Julie and Jen for helping with that! You guys are great and you sure take some pressure off of me by helping with that fun stuff! We have a fun 16 days off... see you back in class and ready to move right along on January 5th! See ya next year! Have a wonderful and safe break with your families!

Super Spellers!

It's about time for an update... We are indeed working hard and learning lots of new "stuff"! This week on top of our regular spelling we added three dictation sentences. We have been working with writing sentences: complete thought, capital, spacing, punctuation. It has been a difficult change, but they are coming right along. I am very proud of how hard these kids have been working. Thanks for helping at home... it shows!

This weeks 100% spellers(digraph sh, th words):
* Beaudee
* Jeffery
* Quayd
* Aidan
* Brinnley
* Drew
* Tate
* Reagan

Awesome work!
Also, this week the PTA is sponsoring the "Secret Santa Shop". It will be located on the stage and will be open before and after school, I believe. We are also practicing for our Christmas program. We will be performing it on Dec. 17th at 10:00 for the school and 2:00 for families! Mark your calendars!

Corn Maze and Halloween Party!

We have had a crazy week at school! Family Harvest night turned out really great. It was fun to see some of the fun costumes. However, I didn't get any pictures! The Corn Maze on Wednesday was fun. The kid's got a little restless on the hour long bus ride, I thought for sure some might rest the way home but not a chance... I am glad we had the chance to go on this field trip. We had a wonderful mother get us a grant for bus costs for the entire first grade. Thank you Symone! The kid's got to pick out a gourd (the pumpkins had been frozen), learn about water (perfect... it's first grade core curriculum), walk through the maze, and play! We had many mother helpers and we love them so!

Our Halloween party was awesome! Thanks to Mandy, Jennifer, Bobby, and Tonya! The kids had a blast! Hope everyone had a safe and fun Halloween!