I'm Glad Your Here!

Welcome to room 1-B at Spann Elementary. I am excited to be your child's teacher this year and look forward to communicating with you. I hope you browse the website and check out our classroom and read about our class! 

Below is a form that I would like you to complete before the new school year begins. This will give me important information that I can use throughout the year. Thank you!

Fall is here!

School has begun and the school year is in full swing! Thank you to everyone who came to open house on September 20th. The past 7 weeks have been full of learning and I am excited to share with you what we have been up to.

Tattle Tongue

We started the year by learning about what it means to tattle. We did a quick activity where we came up with tattling rules. We also sorted out different situations by if they were tattles or emergencies.

Apple Sauce

To end our science unit on apples we made applesauce. The kids loved seeing the apples cook down. Their favorite part was watching me use the blender to turn the cooked apples into apple sauce!

Wack-A-Mole Spelling

To help us review our spelling words we have been playing a wack-a-mole spelling review game. The kids love using their mini mallets made out of pencils and pool noodles!

Open House

For open house we always make a magnet of some kind to hold our work. This year students painted popsicle sticks and we turned them into school buses! It was hard work and the hot glue gun had to be involved but they came out great!

Shadows and Light

Towards the middle of September we began a new unit on shadows and light. Kids got to experiment with flashlights. They used different objects and determined if they were opaque, translucent, or transparent.

That's what we have been up to! Check back in October for more news on what we are doing and for some cool new pictures!

Welcome back!

Welcome to room 1-B at Spann Elementary. I am excited to be your child's teacher this year and look forward to communicating with you. I hope you browse the website and check out our classroom and read about our class! 

Below is a form that I would like you to complete before the new school year begins. This will give me important information that I can use throughout the year. Thank you!

Fun Run!!!

Tomorrow is the Spann Elementary Fun Run! Thank you to all our families who have been working hard to raise funds for our school. Your support means so much. 

With only one day left in the program, tonight is the LAST NIGHT for pledging before the Spann Elementary Fun Run. Would you consider reaching out to one or two more sponsors tonight?

Make sure your child wears sneakers tomorrow and brings a sweater or jacket in case of weather changes. If you have any questions, please let me know. We hope to see you and your family tomorrow at the big event!

Have a wonderful day!

Also it’s not too late to register your child on funrun.com and earn a free prize. Use our school registration code: 836454

Boosterthon!!

Parents,

Our class is having a blast preparing for the Spann Elementary Fun Run coming up soon! Plus, we started learning how to “play with character” through the Fun Run’s character theme, Big World Recess. We’re traveling the world learning from REAL kid-athletes in other cultures.

Remember, as you connect to sponsors for the Fun Run, make sure all pledges are entered on funrun.com. The more pledges we get, the more incentives our class earns on our Pledge-O-Meter. Plus, for every $30 per lap our class pledges, a pair of shoes will be sent to a person in need in another country through the Great Shoe Takeoff giveback program. I know our students are excited to rise to the challenge!

As part of boosterthon we had to create a class team flag. Our team is called "Ms. Williamson's Minions" and are using a minion theme. Here is a picture of our class flag!

Thank you for your generosity and supporting our school. If you have any questions, please let me know.

October News

October has flown by with a lot of fun, rain and pumpkins. Even with all the rain days we had, students have been able to learn a lot. This month we had the cultural arts fair, pumpkin experiments, red ribbon week, and storybook character day.

Cultural Arts Fair

The cultural arts fair was October 16th. The kids were able to participate in many PTA sponsored activities. There was an obstacle course where students had to complete small continent related challenges. Students participated in 3 Spanish dances lead by Senora Daehler, the school's Spanish teacher. They were also able to create their own boomerangs with our art teacher Mrs. Florencio. 

                                           

On this day our class was fortunate to have Mrs. Sanford come into our class to teach us about Japan. She showed students maps of Japan, pointing out the mountains. She showed students pictures and taught them how to create an origami pumpkin! It was a lot of fun and learning packed into one school day.

Pumpkins

In October we learned about pumpkins in science. Students learned about the pumpkin life cycle, the parts of the pumpkin, and many important facts about pumpkins.

We started the unit off by writing down all that we knew about pumpkins (on the orange post-it notes) then at the end of the unit we wrote down all the new things we learned (on the yellow post-it notes).

After learning about pumpkins it was time to explore a pumpkin! We took all the pulp out of a pumpkin and then used magnifying glasses to examine the pulp and the seeds. 

To practice making predictions we completed a candy pumpkin experiment. Before the experiment students made predictions about what would happen when the candy pumpkin was placed in water. Next each student got one candy corn pumpkin. Then we put them in water and observed what happened. At first we did not notice any change, but after 5 minutes it started to get interesting! The pumpkins were shrinking, changing shape, loosing their color, or had a white coating form on the outside. The kids were very excited to see all the changes. After the experiment was over we reviewed our predictions and we recorded what we observed.

Fall Tree Painting

This month was also the start of clubs, our first club was art club. For art club this month students used pencil erasers to paint a fall tree! The kids loved using something other than brushes to paint!


This month was very exciting and full of activities that helped us learn many new things. After this month I cannot wait for November!!

Field Trip Update

I wanted to let everyone know that due to the storm and flooding from this past weekend our field trip for this Thursday had to be cancelled. Right now we are planning to reschedule it for a different time. At this point I am not sure when the trip will be rescheduled for. We are still trying to work everything out. I will let everyone know when I have more information. 

Quick Note

Happy Monday! I just have a couple announcements. On this website I have three links in the top menu that will be very helpful to you this school year. First is the newsletter page. This page contains a live Google document which will update every week to have our new classroom newsletter. You can download this newsletter or check it for information. A copy of this newsletter is also sent home with your child every Monday.

Another helpful page is the one titled Calendar. This page has a Google calendar for our class. On this calendar I will post important dates for our class such as field trips, class celebrations, passport club check-in, or assemblies. I will also put important school dates on this calendar such as Terrific Kid assemblies, school wide special days, and information about other school events.

The third helpful link is titled Spelling. This spelling page contains a live Google document that will update every week to include the spelling words for the week. You can print this list or use it for your child to study from. 

My last note is from the PTA. They are hosting a pizza party for the homeroom with the most parent/teacher participation at each PTA monthly meeting. Here is the flyer explaining this fun event! I will be there at this week's meeting on September 3rd!

Have a great Monday!

What's been going on?

Well the first week is finished and the second week of school is coming to a close.  Over the past two weeks the kids have been learning about rules and expectations. We have gone over Spann's MOVE rules during social studies.

M= Mutual Respect

O= One Task

V= Value Safety

E= Expect Excellence

Math

In math students have had opportunities to explore the manipulatives we will be using in math. Some students created patterns, created shape arrangements, or sorted the different materials.

Other students made repeating patterns or made towers. 

 They even tried making their own math equations!! During group time students practiced using math 'Talk Moves'. This means that they practiced how to work with a partner, how to speak to one another showing respect, and how to explain their thinking.

This week students learned about the different ways to represent numbers. We focused on showing quantity using a picture, putting counters on a tens frame, writing addition sentences, using tally marks, and writing number words. On Tuesday students learned how to play the math game bump. In this game students rolled two dice. They added the amount on each die together and then looked for that number on their game board. Once they found that number word they could put a counter on that space.

Writing

In writing this week students learned about the writing process. We spent one day on each step of the process. On Monday students created a plan for their story.

                                     

  On Tuesday and Wednesday students wrote a rough draft of their story in their writing journals

  

On Thursday students practiced revising their writing. This seemed to be the hardest part for most students! Then on Friday students edited their writing. 

Reading

In reading we started centers this week. Students are learning one center each week so that they can fully master each center on their on and can work independently. This week we began Read to Self. I was very proud of ALL students with this center! Each day this week students tried to increase their reading stamina. This means that we focused on increasing the amount of time each student can read silently and on their own. On Monday students only lasted 2 minutes, then Tuesday our reading stamina went down to 1 minute. BUT on Friday we got our reading stamina up to 6 minutes!!! This is very impressive for first graders! Our new reading stamina goal is 10 minutes!

Once finished their center students worked on a fun writing activity about themselves. They had to create a rainbow of their favorite things. Check it out!

Spanish

Lastly, in Spanish students have learned the Spanish words for the parts of their face, numbers up to 20, colors, and days of the week. 

Click this link to hear the song we have been singing for the days of the week!

That's whats happening in room 302! Have a great day and check back soon to see what we are up to!

Welcome to First Grade!

Welcome to room 1-H at Spann Elementary. I am excited to be your child's teacher this year and look forward to communicating with you. Below is a form that I would like you to complete before the new school year begins. This will give me important information that I can use throughout the year. Thank you!