Leaders are Readers

We are fortunate to have many volunteers come to our classroom to read to us each month. This past month we have had more than usual due to Dr. Seuss's birthday. Who doesn't love Dr. Seuss! Thank you to Brendan's mom and dad for coming to read as well as Amy's Mom. Each leader brought with them a significant book and worldly experience to share with our class. We learned a lot from these guest readers and hope they will return frequently to read to us again! 

Talent Show

This Friday Mills River Elementary will host it's second annual Talent Show featuring over 80 students and 20 teachers! It will be held at the West High School auditorium so everyone can have a seat! Come early to get a good spot and check out the raffle baskets. These baskets, provided by the PTA, can be yours! They are awesome! Just $1 buys you a ticket and a chance to win the basket of your choice! You can even enter your teacher's name to win! (hint hint;-) You won't want to miss the great performances including two students in our class and yours truly! See you there at 6:00pm Friday!

This week we are reviewing estimation of numbers up to 100. This is our last math topic before our assessment. Word problems are also a big part of this quarter’s test. Encourage your child to read their math homework themselves and work out the problems on their own. If they get stuck you can help them out.

In reading we are talking about the things good readers do while they read. We are learning that reading is not a passive process and we should always be thinking while reading. You can help at home by asking your child to make a connection to the book they are reading. You can also ask them what happened in the beginning, middle, and end of their book.

By this point in the year most students are able to read 90 to 100 of the first grade sight words. The goal is only 50 for the report card, but if you are reading 50 I feel you are falling behind. Sight words are easy to learn and the biggest help in reading fluency. There is no better way to get your child reading on grade level! If you need a set of words to study please let me know! 

Check out these pics of our students working in Math this quarter!

Xavier works in math groups.

Tyler works out addition stories.

Malachi thinking hard!

Winter Break

Winter Break is December 21st to January 2nd. Please encourage your child to read over the break. Record the books they have read and send them in in January. Our top five readers will earn a trip to the treasure box!!

When we return in January Mr. Edwards will be with us full time. He will begin by teaching calendar and a math group, then work his way up to teaching the whole day. Mrs. Barr and Mrs. Keith will still be around and helping out as he takes over!
We are so lucky to have 3 sets of hands in our room!

Donors Choose Project!

www.donorschoose.org/mrsbarr

Check out our classroom project here! If you donate before December 12th with your credit card and enter the code SPARK donorschoose will match your contribution dollar for dollar!! What a great deal! 

Parents,
Mills River is doing a food drive for the Salvation Army from now until November 17th. This is a great chance for our students to learn about giving to the less fortunate and to become aware of all they have to be thankful for. If you would like to contribute cans you can send in anything non-perishable. Cans are collected each morning and the class totals are called out on the announcements. Mrs. Barr is very competitve and loves to hear her class called on the announcements!!! Plus it's just a nice thing to do! Clean out your cabinets and and hit up those ingles sales!
Thank you!
Mrs. Barr

A Thankful Time of Year

As we jump into November I am reminded of all the things we have to be thankful for here at Mills River.

A big thanks for everyone that came out to our Mills River Fall Festival, the PTA was able to raise a teriffic amount of money for teachers to use for school supplies this year.

I am also thankful for having the chance to meet all of you during our first quarter conferences. It was nice to get to sit down with you and let you know about your child's progress. When our students see us working together, school is a sucess!

Coming up this month our students are working on a special turkey project at home, these are always so much fun. The students really love showing off their turkey and story!

In the classroom we have begun simple subtraction in math, writing circular stories in writing, and we are about to being a science unit on rocks and soil with Mr. Edwards from UNCA. The reading goal for second quarter will increase, so please keep your child reading at home!

Thank you for your continued support and now for what you all really want... pictures!

Our Spooky Story Campfire:

Fall Festival Fun!!!

It's officially fall and the weather and trees are beautiful! In class students are learning about patterns in math as well as adding one more, or two more to a number. Next week we will be starting doubles adding, such as 5+5 or 4+4. These simple adding strategies really help students with adding fluency and math facts in second grade.

We have been getting outside each day it isn't raining to collect leaves, plant flowers and observe the signs of fall. In writing we used four of our five senses to observe fall and then filled out a tree map to help us write complete sentences. I was SOO impressed by the awesome writing we had going on today! Remember to encourage your child to use capital letters at the start of each sentence and some kind of punctuation at the end!

Hopefully everyone has signed up for a parent/teacher conference. They will begin on the 18th. Everyone has to come for a conference before you can get your child's report card for the first quarter. When you come to the conference you will see the report card and we will sign it, then on the first week of November a copy of the report card will be sent home for you to keep.

Our Mills River Fall Festival will be October 27th at 4:30pm. It promises to be a lot of fun with a pie throwing booth, corn hole, lots of fall foods, bounce houses and pumpkins!! Tickets are a dollar and every booth will cost one ticket. If you pre-purchase, just like the fair, you get a discount! It is FREE to come to the fair, and some activities will be free. It will be a huge Mills River family event, don't miss out!

Keep checking back for updates!

Fall Updates!

Our First Grade Blog has taken on a new look! If you have a google account you can follow us and get updates in your inbox! This week students are working on making patterns in math, and reading words with the short o sound in reading. Students have been reading books about animals and the farm. Some of my favorite fall books are listed in the box to the right. Next week we will read Leaf Man and make our own leaf pictures!

You may have noticed some rocks coming home in student's pockets, sorry about that! We just started our unit on rocks and soil in science and they are excited to say the least! Another great thing coming up next week is our reading buddies! We are partnered with a 4th grade class and we will begin reading a reader's theater play with them. The story is called "The Little Old Lady That Was Not Afraid of Anything". The kids love it! I will hopefully post the video of them reading it by the end of the month. (if I can figure out how to do that!)

Mr. Edwards has been coming to work with us on Wednesday for about a month now. He is a student at UNCA and will be student teaching in our room in January. He has been working hard and is looking forward to coming on board soon!!

Mrs. Keith is reading Charlotte's Web to our class a few pages a day. They love hearing about Wilbur and should be able to tell you all about the story! They love hearing a good book read aloud each day and Mrs. Keith is a masterful story teller!!

It is a joy teaching this group of students, and I sleep well at night! Lol If you have questions or would like to come in to our class to volunteer please let me know! Fall Festival is coming soon and we will need help setting up for that!! Let's hope for a few more days of this beautiful weather!!

Curriculum Night!

We will have our first grade curriculum night tomorrow night at 6:15pm in the media center. All four first grade teachers will be there to speak to parents. Students are encouraged to stay home, if you need to bring your child they will need to sit quietly with you.

Teachers will cover homework, and the first grade requirements. The reading specialist will also be there to talk about our new reading assessments and reading recovery program. This is a great time to meet with all the people that impact your child everyday.

The meeting with last only an hour and then the teachers will be available to meet with you and answer questions you might have. We hope everyone can come out!!!