November 20th

      It was wonderful being able to see you all this week and share all of the hard work our students have been completing! I hope you enjoy a wonderful Thanksgiving with your families. 

     Please make sure as the weather begins to get colder to send your student with a jacket/winter clothes each day. Students will be going outside for recess each day even when the temperatures are cold. If there is snow, students are only allowed in the snow if they have water proof boots, snow pants, and gloves. 

Winter Party
      We are almost into December as crazy as it seems! We are looking for a few more parent volunteers for the winter party. If you are interested, you can sign up through this link https://ivyhallpto.membershiptoolkit.com/
The PTO will contact you with more information.

Literacy:

     In writing, students are back to writing narrative stories! We are working on making sure we have a beginning, middle, and end. We are also working on expanding their ideas. So if they wrote "I went to the park. We went down the slide. We went on the swings. We went home." We would like to see "One day we went to the park. First we went down the slide. It was super fast! Then we went on the swings. I tried to swing as high as the bar! Finally we went home. I had a great day at the park." As we work on our narrative stories we will also focus on CUPS (capitalization, verb usage, punctuation, and spelling). 

Reading: 

     Students are working on differentiating between fiction (literature) and non-fiction (informational text). They are also practicing asking questions before, during, and after reading. They continue to work on answering questions (including inferential- beyond the text questions).Students ARE encouraged to go back into the book to answer questions. We ask that students are able to provide evidence from the text to support their answers. 
    Great practice at home could include retelling a story that they have just read including the characters, setting, and important events. Another great way to practice at home is to ask your student if the book they read was a fiction or nonfiction book. Have them explain how they knew it was fiction or nonfiction.

Math

        We have just started unit 3! Within this unit we have been very focused on fact fluency. This means we would like facts within ten to be automatic as well as give them the strategies to add numbers to 20 quickly. We have also touched on number stories, place value, understanding what the equal sign means, and comparing numbers using greater than and less than. We will continue working toward fluency in our next unit. 

Social Studies
     The first graders are excited to begin learning about famous Americans.  Some of these Americans include George Washington and Abraham Lincoln.  We will be using different texts to learn facts about their lives as well as compare and contrast their lives and accomplishments. We will also be looking at what is a want and want is a need. We will introduce Holidays Around the World as part of our wants and needs goal. Students will focus on the traditions each holiday has and the similarities between these traditions. The biggest similarity is that many of these holidays focus on light, goodness, and peace or kindness to others. If you have any questions about this unit please let me know! 

Science
     We are beginning our unit on living things. This past week we began to talk about how animals of the same kind are similar but not exactly the same. For example tigers have stripes, two ears, and two eyes but some are orange and some are white. 

November/December Current Events

November 21st - 23rd - No School District Holiday

December 3rd - 12nd - MAP Testing Window

December 11th - Early Release 

December 21st - Winter Party

December 24th - Jan 4th - No School District Holiday (class resumes the 7th)

October 21st

     We are off to a great start! October is here and we have been working hard in first grade. Take a look at all of the wonderful things we have been working on. Please check our current events for upcoming important school events!

Halloween Information:

Halloween Parade 

Our Parade Route begins at 1:30pm outside of our southeast doors (near our gymnasium and the buffalo). The students will continue north on the sidewalk and then head west past the district office around the building, past the playground and end back at the southeast, Buffalo door.  Please keep your fingers crossed that we have great weather!  In case of inclement weather, we will have an indoor parade for teachers and students only.

Parties 

Parties will begin at approximately 2:00pm and end at 2:45pm

Only PTO approved parent party volunteers may attend classroom parties. No siblings are able to attend.

If you are a volunteer, it is recommended that you have your driver's license scanned into our security system prior to party day so that your badge can be ready for you upon arrival.  

All party treats must come from the Approved Snack List (see page 3) and brought in to be checked by the nurse. Only items on the approved list can be shared and must be in original packaging with ingredient labeling. No goodie bags allowed. Whole fruits only. Fruits can not be cut up unless individually packaged by distributor. These need to be at school by 9:00 am on October 31st. They can be brought in prior to that and will be kept safely in the office.

Halloween Costumes 

As October is here, please help us with the following costume procedures and guidelines....

Students will change into their costumes after the lunch period.
Costumes must be appropriate for school.
-Please no masks, blood, super scary stuff, general iciness, or weapons
-Please no cigars or cigarette items
-Please no bare tummies
-Please keep hair coloring and make-up simple
-Can students go home for lunch to get into costumes?

Home for Lunch to Change 
 

Students are able to be picked up to go home during their own grade level lunch period. See below for specific times and details. Students will meet their parent/grandparent/family member in the foyer of the school. Please write a note stating that students will be going home for lunch. Students will give their “going home for lunch” note to the staff members who are supervising pick-up. Students need to return to school by the end of their lunch/recess period.

Lunch/recess periods are as follows:

• 1st grade at 11:50am - 12:30pm
• 2nd grade at 10:50am - 11:30am
• 3rd grade at 11:30am - 12:10pm
• 4th grade at 11:10am - 11:50am
• 5th grade at 12:10pm - 12:50pm

Thank you for helping us to keep our Halloween activities fun and safe!

Birthdays!

I have had a few questions about birthdays and just wanted to explain our birthday celebrations at school! 
*If your student is celebrating a birthday you are more than welcome to bring treats or goody bags. Please stick to small little items like pencils, erasers, etc. 

*ANY food item must be off of the approved snack list. Please check carefully for the different flavors as well! For example Annies Fruit Roll Ups are ok but other variations may not be! Any items not on the approved snack list will be sent home. 

*We love to sing happy birthday to our friends and each student gets their own crown on their birthday. They also get a special birthday pencil and eraser with a cake on it that they get to use!

*If your student has a summer birthday we can always celebrate on their half birthday or at the end of the school year! Just send me an email and I will make sure we are ready to celebrate! :-) 

Weather! 
With fall comes chilly temperatures! Please make sure your student is dressed for the weather. Students will be going outside each day. As the temperatures get colder you may also want to bring hats, gloves, and other items to stay warm. 

Literacy

Writing:
 We have finished our first round of narrative writing and have been working on informational writing. Students have been introduced to the T-chart planner and how to use a T-chart to help them organize their thinking before they begin writing. Last week we read two scholastic news articles. One about spiders and the other about pumpkins. Students practiced finding facts to answer their writing prompt. We also have started to talk about what a topic and closing sentence is. Students have also been working on CUPS (capitalization, verb usage and agreement, punctuation, and spelling). 

Spelling: We have been working hard with our new Words Their Way program. Students are recognizing words and their patterns in books and poems, writing sentences with their new words and sorting them into their pattern categories. 

Reading: 

     During the next few weeks, students will continue to work on differentiating between fiction (literature) and non-fiction (informational text). They will also practice asking questions before, during, and after reading, as well as answer questions (including inferential- beyond the text questions). Students ARE encouraged to go back into the book to answer questions. We will continue to work toward describing characters, settings, and events within stories as well. We have started looking at what the main topic is in nonfiction text and which details tell more about the main topic. We will continue to work on these skills through out this unit. 
*Don't forget to read 15 minutes each night! This can begin with you simply reading to your student and slowly increasing the time they are reading to you. 

I did collect reading logs from September and put new reading logs in students folders for October. I will collect the October reading logs in a few weeks.

Math
     This week we have been working on mental math strategies like fact families and knowing which numbers belong together. For example 4,3, and 7. If I know that 4,3 and 7 will always be together solving addition or subtraction facts becomes much quicker. We will also be working on strategies like doubles +1 and making 10. Doubles +1 is when we have a fact like 7 + 6. I know 6+6 is 12 so 7+6 must be one more since 7 is one more than 6. The answer would be 13. Making 10 is when we see problems like 9+4. If I take one away from 4 it becomes 3 and I give that 1 to the 9 which becomes 10. So 10 + 3 is the same as 9+4. When I make ten, that can make it easier to add the numbers quickly. We will continue with mental math strategies this week and be moving into number stories.  

Social Studies
    We are coming to the end of our symbols study. Students have looked at many symbols that stand for strength, freedom, and liberty. We have also began to discuss who our current president is and what the presidents job includes. We will continue to discuss this in the next few weeks.

Science:
    We have been investigating sound and how vibration makes sound. Students have tested instruments and made their own garage band. We even played as a table for the whole class! We will continue to talk about sound in the next few weeks and how light and sound can work together to send messages. For example an ambulance has flashing lights and sirens that tell people they are coming through! 

    

October/November Current Events
** Please also check our School Calendar for other events that may not be listed below! Calendar

October 23 - Early Release Day  2:00 PM

October 31 - Halloween Parade and Party

November 6 - No School - Institute Day

November 9 - Half Day - 11:45 dismissal 

November 15 - Family Reading Night 
November 19 - Early Release, Parent-Teacher Conferences 5:00pm-7:00pm

November 20 - Parent-Teacher Conferences 2:00pm-7:00pm (No School)

November 21-23 - No School Thanksgiving Holiday

September 10th

     We have had a wonderful few weeks in first grade! Below I have updated information in some of the areas we have been working on. You may notice some areas will contain the same information as we continue to work on these targets. 
    Just as a reminder, our classroom does get pretty chilly during the day. Your student can bring a sweater to class or they can leave one here at school just in case.
    Please also remember to send your student with a nutritious and delicious snack each day. We have snack in the afternoon and they get pretty hungry after specials! They must be off of the approved snack list in order to eat them in class! Thank you!
   
From the PTO: 

Check the PTO Blog to see events and important information!

Please check out our Virtual Backpack for more information and forms you may be looking for!  

Literacy

Writing:

    We are becoming authors in first grade! We began our narrative writing talking about what a narrative is and how we brainstorm ideas. Students were introduced to using a TAK (topic, audience, and key words) to help analyze and understand a writing prompt. Our prompt this week came from the story Stellaluna. In this story Stellaluna makes friends with a group of birds that help care for her. Students wrote a story about a time they helped a friend. Students we also introduced to the flow map this week. A flow map is our graphic organizer/planner that we can use to help organize our thoughts for each narrative. This includes writing or drawing the characters, setting, problem, events, and conclusion of their stories. We started using these to plan our writing. 

Reading: 

     We have finished our first stories Stellaluna and "Dragons and Giants" from Frog and Toad Forever. Within these stories we have discussed how to describe characters and setting using text and picture evidence to support their answers. We have also looked at what the central message is in each story. Students have been working toward the goal of retelling a story. When retelling we want students to be able to give the most important events and details in order. They might even include conclusions they had about the story or emotions the characters were feeling at certain points in the story. 

     We have also been working on our reading stamina in class! I have noticed so many student logging those minutes at home! Please have your student put their name and date on the log. They can write how many minutes they read each day. I will collect these logs at the end of September when they will get a new one. If they run out of room we will staple a new one to their first.

    As students continue to build stamina in class, you may have to build stamina at home too. Start by having your students read 5 minutes on their own and maybe 10 with a parent or sibling. When you see that 5 minutes seems easy for them to maintain focus on reading, then increase their time to 7 minutes on their own. You can continue to build stamina by increasing their "on their own" time. "On their own time" could mean reading aloud to someone at home or reading to themselves. Another great way to begin is to shared reading with your child. Have them pick a story to read with you and take turns reading a page from the story (they read a page, then you read a page etc.). These strategies can help your student increase the amount of time they can focus on reading to themselves. 

Math
We have been working hard on our math fluency! We are working on using our rekenreks and tens frames to create two addends that make 10 (2+8, 6+4, 9+1). The idea behind this practice is to gain automaticity in creating 10. We want students to get to the point where you can say 6 and they within a few seconds would say 4. We have also been working on skip counting by 5's, 10's, and 2's. Students have been introduced to nickels and pennies. We know nickels are worth 5 and pennies are worth 1. Our goal is to be able to count the total worth of nickels and pennies together. 
During number corner we have been practicing recognizing patterns, seeing the pattern of 10 and some more (10+9, 10 +8, 10+7...), seeing the pattern 5 and some more (5+1, 5+2, 5+4 ...), and how to build numbers like 16 using these ideas. For example 16 can be: 5+5+5+1 or 10+5+1 or 10+6. 
We will continue to working on our fact fluency to ten as well as to any number within 10. We will also explore measurement with popsicle sticks and cubes.

Social Studies
    We began our social studies unit by discussing symbols. Students looked at symbols we see each day as well as important patriotic symbols such as the Bald Eagle and American Flag. In the next few weeks we will also be discussing the job of the president of the United States. We will talk about our current president and important jobs the president has. 

Science:
    We have begun our amazing journey in science focused on light. We have been experimenting with how light moves and what happens if something is put into the path of the beam of light. Students discovered that some objects will block light, while others will let light pass through. We have started talking about how mirrors can reflect light changing its direction completely. 
     

September/October Current Events

** Please also check our School Calendar for other events that may not be listed below! Calendar
September 10 - No School 

September 19th - No School  

September 25th - Early Release 

August 25th

I wanted to thank you for coming to curriculum night this week. It was so nice to see everyone! I have included information that was presented in this blog if you were unable to attend. Please let me know if you have any questions! 

Our first full week of school was a success! We have been so busy in first grade getting to know each other and our classroom expectations. Routines are so important and so these first few weeks we will be establishing our Daily 5 and guided math routines. We will be working on our beginning of the day and end of the day routines as well. 

** Our class participates in Scholastic Book Clubs. Reading is so important for your student each day. This is an easy way to order books for your home collection! Books ordered each month will be delivered to school and then sent home. Each order earns our class points to get new books for our class library as well! You can send in orders to me OR order all online. Our class code for ordering is JC73X. I will send home the first order form next week. 

The library is a fantastic place to get books for free! :-) Please check out your public library as they will have many of the titles your students love to read in class. We will also be visiting our school library once a week to pick one book each week to read. 

* September 5th is picture day! Picture day order forms went home Friday in your students home folders. Come with your best smile! 

Literacy

Reading:

This week in literacy, we began reading many different stories that link to the common theme of friendship. Stellaluna and "Frog and Toad" are two stories that we will spend some time with in the coming weeks.  After reading each story, students are asked different comprehension questions to get us thinking deeper about them. We will be focusing on retelling this including sequenced events, characters, and the setting. This could also include characters feelings or inferences they have made as they read the story. Inferences are conclusions we come to by using what we know in a text and what we know about the world around us in general and putting those ideas together. For example: "I shivered as the snowflakes fell to the ground." I know that it must take place in the winter or somewhere very cold because the character was shivering and there was snow. I know shivering and snow means it is cold and this means it could be winter. Therefore, the story takes place in winter or somewhere cold.  

Writing and Spelling:
This week we also took our base line spelling test for Words Their Way. This will be used as we talk about which sorts students will begin with. We also wrote our first narrative stories about a our favorite summer memories. This week we will begin our focus on narrative writing and the process that we use in order to create our stories. 


Math: In math this week, we began by taking our first pretest for Unit 1. Within this unit students will be asked to use flexible thinking to solve problems that have them skip counting and knowing pairs of numbers that make 5 and 10. We want students to not only be able to solve addition and subtraction problems but to be able to flexibly think about the numbers 5 and 10. We want them to be able to build and break down those numbers with ease. We will also begin our number corner routines which will be practicing skip counting by 2, 5, and 10, counting money, knowing the sequential order of numbers, place value and what 10 and some more means, as well as other math practice. 

Want more math practice at home? Dreambox is a fantastic App on the iPad or even on your computer. Through Dreambox each student has their own account. They took a pretest to determine where they would begin in the program. As they master skills the program continues to push them forward even into higher grade level skills. It is very important they solve the problems on their own! If parents or siblings are showing or solving for them, the program will increase the difficulty of the skill they are learning and they will be unable to complete the games on their own in class. Dreambox is meant to be an independent exploration. It is ok to teach the skill but not solve for them! Sign in directions went home at curriculum night or Friday if you could not attend.

*Log in usernames and passwords are in your students folder. We placed them in the back of their folder in the clear pocket for easy access. 

*If you missed curriculum night, please read the information below. 
Take home folders will be sent home each night and we ask they are returned to school each day. These are blue folders that have "Take Home Folder" on the front. Please also make sure to check your students folder for work and homework that will be sent home each night. 

Students will have a reading log and are asked to read 15-20 minutes each night. They will also be getting math homework which will begin in the next few weeks. 

Our class behavior plan is a clip chart system. Students begin on green each day and have the opportunity to move to purple or blue for expected behavior during the day. They also have the ability to move down for unexpected behavior. Students can earn stickers for landing on blue, purple, or green at the end of the day. If they earn 10 stickers they are able to pick a prize from our class treasure chest. 

What is Daily 5 and guided instruction? 

As we finish our assessments and look over current levels for students, we use this information to form our instructional groups. During our Daily 5 block I will meet with small groups of students to work on specific skills. While I am meeting with these small groups, students are independently working on assignments at different centers. These include word work, writing, reading to themselves, reading to someone, and listening to reading. At each center they will have a target they are working toward. For example, word work will include students working with word patterns or vocabulary building. Some students may be working on sorting words with short vowel sounds while others may be working toward long vowel sounds. Each activity is set with your students goals in mind. 

Guided math looks very similar. We have multiple centers for students to explore while the teacher is working with small groups or assessing skills with in their exploration. 

What will writing look like in first grade?

This year students will be introduced to three types of writing. We will look at the structure of narrative writing, opinion writing, and informational/explanatory writing. We will also do many writing responses throughout the year and be exposed to other forms of writing such as writing letters. Each form of writing has a specific organizer that we use to outline their thinking and each prompt is connected a text we will read in class. The process follows a similar pattern for each type. 

1. Read a specific text linked to our topic
2. Brainstorm ideas for our topic
3. Talk out our ideas with a friend
4. Plan our writing using an organizer
5. Talk out our stories again, add to our organizers
6. Write our stories
7. Read our writing to a small group or pairs and revise/edit our writing

What is Co-Teaching?

All four first grade classrooms will be co-taught this year. Mrs. Driscoll will be in our classroom during literacy time. Co-teaching will be used in order to support language development as well as literacy skills. 

September Current Events

** Please also check our School Calendar for other events that may not be listed below! Calendar

August 28th - Early Release 2:00 PM

September 3rd - No School - Labor Day

September 5th - Picture Day

September 10th - No School 

September 19th - No School 

September 25th - Early Release 2:00 PM

Welcome Back!

     

     Welcome to our classroom blog! I am so excited to get to know each family. Here is a little about myself!
     My name is Teaghan Hock. This is my sixth year teaching first grade at Ivy Hall and my eighth year teaching first grade. I worked for two years in Batavia and in 2013 was thrilled to join district 96. After student teaching in first grade, I knew that is where I belonged and have been there ever since!

     My husband and I live in Huntley with our rambunctious pup Shelby and our adorable son Caleb. We spent the summer doing as much as we could together from going to the zoo to listening to music at the BBQ rib fest in Huntley! When I wasn't spending time with my amazing family, I was finishing my masters degree in literacy and endorsement for teaching students who are learning another language. 
     I am looking forward to a fantastic year getting to know your students! 

    Throughout the year I will be posting updates on curriculum goals and important events happening in first grade. I know we are going to have an exciting year of learning! If at any time you have questions or concerns please do not hesitate to e-mail or give me a call. You can reach me at thock@kcsd96.org or 847-459-0022 X -1001. E-mail is usually the best way to reach me! 

*** If you choose to e-mail me during the day, I may not see it right away! Any important information such as dismissal changes or leaving early should be called into the office so I will be notified or sent in a handwritten note that day in your students folder. We prefer handwritten notes, but if for some reason a last minute change comes up, please notify the office.


Curriculum Night - Please join us August 23rd from 6:15-7:15 for curriculum night to hear all about first grade. From birthdays and homework to curriculum, we will discuss it all! I look forward to seeing you there! 
    
Just a few things to keep in mind:
    *We will be having snack each day. Please send your student with a nutritious, delicious snack each day! Please note that ALL snacks MUST be off of the approved snack list. Please click here to see the approved snack list.

     *Students will be going to P.E. (gym) each day. Please make sure they bring gym shoes with them each day or you may leave a pair in their lockers.

     *Birthday treats are allowed but must be off of the Approved Snack List. Please drop your treats off in the AM to the office so that the nurse can check it before we pass them out. If your student brings treats to the classroom instead of the office that is fine too. We will have them sent to the nurse to be checked before passing them out. Please note that if the treat is not from the safe snack list we will not be able to pass it out. 

    *Spare clothing in their lockers is not required but many parents do leave them just in case of any accidents! 


    *Headphones are on the students supply lists and they will need them each day. Please send in a set of headphones as soon as possible as we will need them for MAP testing. If for some reason your students headphones break I will send them home so they can be replaced. Please no earbuds! These are difficult for students to put on by themselves and many are too large for their ears! Thank you!

If you have any questions please do not hesitate to contact me!

Specials Schedule:

Monday

P/E - 9:30 - 10:00

Music - 10:00 - 10:30

Tuesday

P/E - 9:30 - 10:00

Art - 10:00 - 11:00

Wednesday

P/E - 9:30 - 10:00

Music - 10:00 - 10:30

Thursday

Learning Center - 9:30 - 10:00

P/E - 10:00 - 10:30

Friday 
Exploration Lab 9:30 - 10:00

PE - 10:00 - 10:30

Lunch/Recess- 11:50 - 12:30

August/September Current Events

** Please also check our School Calendar for other events that may not be listed below! Calendar

August 14th - New Family Meeting  - 8:00-8:30am 

August 14th - Meet the Teacher! 8:30-9:30am

August 15th - First Day of School! Early Release 2:00 PM


August 23rd - Curriculum Night 6:15-7:15

September 3rd - No School - Labor Day

September 10th - No School 

September 19th - No School

September 25th - Early Release 2:00 PM