Miss Hutchison's Class Blog

Notes for Parents:

• A note about our classroom holiday book exchange came home with your child last week. If you have any questions about this activity, please contact me! 
• Conferences are coming up this week! I can’t wait to talk with you about your child’s progress. Please let me know if you need to change your child’s conference time…I’m happy to accommodate your schedules!
• Please take a moment to give your child permission to participate in our school’s Art Prize 2020 entry! Follow this link to fill out the permission form.    

CELEBRATIONS

Top Frog – We had four “Top Frogs” (star students) in our classroom this week. Each student shared a “show and tell” item, sat in a beach chair all day, and was the line leader! Our next round of “Top Frog” activities will begin next week with the privilege of sitting at Miss Hutchison’s desk for the day!

Quote of the Week – Each week, our class learns about a new quote and spends the whole week trying to embody that quote. At the end of the week, Miss Hutchison awards a friend from our class who really shined with that quote’s energy from throughout the week. This week’s quote went to QUINN for being a great role model!

First Grade Family Time – Every Friday, all of the first graders at Georgetown get together for a little assembly! At the assembly, we celebrate our learning, give awards for the quote of the week, along with awards for lost teeth, shoe-tying, & birthdays from the week. Here are our “award-winning” first graders from Friday’s family time. 

Mystery Reader – Charlotte’s mom and little brother, Luke, surprised our class as the mystery readers on Wednesday! 

Pizza Lunch – We loved our Jet’s pizza lunch on Thursday!

OUR LEARNING:

Reading– We wrapped up our word detectives unit this week by hunting for special words in our books. We tried to find words in our books that matched the cases we’ve been solving in word study (contractions, compound words, etc.)

Writing – We began a new genre of writing this week: Nonfiction Teaching Books! Our first graders get to become the teachers as they teach others about different topics. Right now, we are researching and beginning to write a class book about “Frogs!”

Math – We have continued solving story problems this week. We look for key words in the problem to give us clues about how to solve it. For example, the words “more,” “in all,” and “altogether” usually mean we need to add. 

Word Study – We finished solving all of the cases from the Super Secret Detective agency. We learned how to look for compound words, contractions, words with blends, letter twins, and more! The detective agency is off to help train another class of first graders, but they were so thankful for our help! 🙂 

Upcoming Dates:

• Monday, November 18 – MUSIC, Parent teacher conferences
• Tuesday, November 19 – PE, no library this week
• Wednesday, November 20 – ART, Book Fair shopping day, Parent Teacher conferences
• Thursday, November 21 – STEAM
• Friday, November 22 – MUSIC

Time with our 4th grade buddies on Friday:

No need to pack a lunch for your first grader tomorrow (Thursday, Nov. 14) because we are having a PIZZA LUNCH! Our class won last month’s Jet’s Pizza celebration from our October fundraiser – so thank you to those of you who ordered Jet’s last month. We will be having pizza, a side, and a juice box drink.

Notes for Parents:

• Our annual P.E. Cares food drive is this week and next week. Please send in non-perishable food items if you’d like to donate! 
• Conferences are coming up next week! I can’t wait to talk with you about your child’s progress. Please let me know if you need to change your child’s conference time…I’m happy to accommodate your schedules!
• Please take a moment to give your child permission to participate in our school’s Art Prize 2020 entry! Follow this link to fill out the permission form.    

CELEBRATIONS

Top Frog – We had four “Top Frogs” (star students) in our classroom this week. Each student shared a “show and tell” item, sat in a beach chair all day, and was the line leader! 

Quote of the Week – Each week, our class learns about a new quote and spends the whole week trying to embody that quote. At the end of the week, Miss Hutchison awards a friend from our class who really shined with that quote’s energy from throughout the week. This week’s quote went to NATHAN for always helping others and being respectful!

First Grade Family Time – Every Friday, all of the first graders at Georgetown get together for a little assembly! At the assembly, we celebrate our learning, give awards for the quote of the week, along with awards for lost teeth, shoe-tying, & birthdays from the week. Here are our “award-winning” first graders from Friday’s family time. 

Mystery Reader – Emma’s mom surprised our class as a mystery reader on Friday! 

OUR LEARNING:

Reading– As word detectives, our next focus is to build our list of “Snap Words” (words we can read in a snap). We have been hunting for snap words in our book boxes and practicing turning words into snap words so we can become better word detectives and readers! 

Writing – Students have been writing their own how-to books all week long! Their creativity amazes me! 

Math – We started learning about story problems this week. We’ve learned how to look for numbers and key words in story problems to help us solve the problems. 

Word Study – The Super Secret Detective Agency sent us a huge envelope with FIVE cases in it! We are solving each case by exploring the “evidence bags” (word cards) and looking for word patterns. 

Upcoming Dates:

• Monday, November 11 – MUSIC
• Tuesday, November 12 – PE, Library
• Wednesday, November 13 – ART
• Thursday, November 14 – STEAM
• Friday, November 15 – P.E., Early Release with dismissal @ 12:15 pm

Notes for Parents:

• Thank you to all who volunteered or sent in items for our Fall Party! Here is a Google folder with tons of pictures from our fun day. 
• Please take a moment to give your child permission to participate in our school’s Art Prize 2020 entry! Follow this link to fill out the permission form.    

CELEBRATIONS

Top Frog – We had four “Top Frogs” (star students) in our classroom this week. Each student shared a “show and tell” item, sat in a beach chair all day, and was the line leader! Our next round of “Top Frog” activities will begin next week with show and tell!

Quote of the Week – Each week, our class learns about a new quote and spends the whole week trying to embody that quote. At the end of the week, Miss Hutchison awards a friend from our class who really shined with that quote’s energy from throughout the week. This week’s quote went to LOGAN for giving his all and never giving up!

First Grade Family Time – Every Friday, all of the first graders at Georgetown get together for a little assembly! At the assembly, we celebrate our learning, give awards for the quote of the week, along with awards for lost teeth, shoe-tying, & birthdays from the week. Here are our “award-winning” first graders from Friday’s family time. 

Mystery Reader: Quinn’s mom and sister surprised our class as the mystery readers on Wednesday! We wonder who will come next??

OUR LEARNING:

Reading– As word detectives, our next focus is to build our list of “Snap Words” (words we can read in a snap). We have been hunting for snap words in our book boxes and practicing turning words into snap words so we can become better word detectives and readers! 

Writing – We spent this week writing a detailed “How-To” book together before students got to try writing their own books! 

Math – We wrapped up Unit 2 this week and took our assessment. Hooray! We will begin Unit 3 next week, which focuses on story problems. 

Word Study – As part of our work with the Super Secret Detective Agency, we were sent a case: “The Case of the Silent e.” We are learning all about silent-e words and how to read/write them. We’ve even explored some “rule breaker” words that make the long vowel sounds but don’t have a silent e. 

Upcoming Dates:

• Monday, November 4 – STEAM
• Tuesday, November 5 – MUSIC, Library, Municipal election day
• Wednesday, November 6 – PE
• Thursday, November 7 – ART
• Friday, November 8 – STEAM

We had so much fun at our fall party this year! Thanks so much to parents who volunteered or sent in items for the party. Here is a Google folder full of LOTS of pictures from our afternoon celebration!

Notes for Parents:

• I sent an email to you today with your child’s conference time. Please fill out this form to let me know if this scheduled time works for your family. Thank you!
• Our fall party will be on Thursday, October 31 from 12:30-1:45 pm. Your child is welcome to wear their costume to school for the whole day or just for the party if they’d like. Costumes are totally optional! 
• Please take a moment to give your child permission to participate in our school’s Art Prize 2020 entry! Follow this link to fill out the permission form.    

CELEBRATIONS

Top Frog – We had five “Top Frogs” (star students) in our classroom this week. Each student shared a “show and tell” item, sat in a beach chair all day, and was the line leader! Our next round of “Top Frog” activities will begin next week with show and tell!

Quote of the Week – Each week, our class learns about a new quote and spends the whole week trying to embody that quote. At the end of the week, Miss Hutchison awards a friend from our class who really shined with that quote’s energy from throughout the week. This week’s quote went to WESLEY for giving his all and believing in himself!

First Grade Family Time – Every Friday, all of the first graders at Georgetown get together for a little assembly! At the assembly, we celebrate our learning, give awards for the quote of the week, along with awards for lost teeth, shoe-tying, & birthdays from the week. Here are our “award-winning” first graders from yesterday’s family time. 

OUR LEARNING:

Reading– After 5 challenging missions, our class finally passed our detective training! On Friday, we received our official “Word Detective” badges from the Super Secret Detective Agency. Now, we’re eager to see what cases they’ll have us solve next. 

Writing – We spent this week writing a detailed “How-To” book together before students got to try writing their own books! 

Math – This week, we learned about the relationship between addition and subtraction through fact families. For example, if 3+5=8, then we know that 8-5=3. We will wrap up Unit 2 next week. 

Word Study – As part of our work with the Super Secret Detective Agency, we were sent a case: “The Case of the Silent e.” We are learning all about silent-e words and how to read/write them. 

Upcoming Dates:

• Monday, October 28 – ART
• Tuesday, October 29 – STEAM, Library, Turkey Trot after school
• Wednesday, October 30 – MUSIC
• Thursday, October 31 – PE, Fall Party @ 12:30 pm
• Friday, November 1 – ART

We have had so much fun reading students’ books and checking out the AMAZING pumpkin characters they’ve made! THANK YOU, THANK YOU for taking the time to do this project with your child at home. The pumpkins truly were the highlight the day at school whenever someone brought one in to show the class!

Today, we had lots of visitors come check out our pumpkins….Mrs. Elders (our parapro), Mrs. Hoekstra & Mrs. Jeltema (our secretaries), Mrs. Reagan (our principal), and Mrs. Greenlund’s fourth grade class. Your child got to choose whether to bring their pumpkin home today or wait until next week. Thank you again for your INCREDIBLE creativity and effort with these pumpkins – it meant the world to our kids!

Read this post for answers to the questions you may have about our class’ fall party NEXT WEEK!

Q: When is our class party?

A: First grade parties will be on Thursday, October 31 from 12:30-1:45 pm. 

Q: Can my child wear his/her costume?

A: Yes, but it is totally optional! They can wear their costume all day, or can bring it and put it over their clothes just for the afternoon party. 

Q: Can I come visit my child at the party?

A: Unfortunately, if you are not already signed up to volunteer at our party, our building does not have enough parking capacity for you to attend the party. 

We’re looking forward to a GREAT fall party together!

We had a BLAST on Friday with our pumpkin-themed day! We started off with pumpkin donuts from Post Family Farm. Then, we did lots of pumpkin experiments and activities. Here’s a look at some of our fun:

Making bubbles in our “mini” pumpkins:

Building fences / gardens for our pumpkins:

Estimating pumpkin seeds and counting to check our estimations:

Pumpkin volcanoes:

This special “pumpkin fun day” was only possible because your children are AMAZING! This was my way of saying “thank you” to them for all of their hard work, positivity, and love for their classroom family that they show every day.❤️