Miss Hutchison's Class Blog

Our classroom is SO lucky to have two Hope College students join our first grade family! Lynnae Miedema and Sadie Vander Lee are both seniors at Hope College studying elementary education, and they will be spending a good chunk of time in our classroom this semester observing, working with students, and learning more about what first grade looks like here at Georgetown! We are so excited to welcome them into our classroom. They have both been phenomenal thus far, and I can’t wait to see the ways they continue to support our students throughout the semester. 

Check out these welcome letters to learn more about Miss Miedema and Miss Vander Lee:

Notes for Parents:

• Walkathon paperwork came home with your child on Monday. This is our ONLY fundraiser of the year, and it is HUGE for our PTC! Please return these fundraisers in your child’s blue folder before the Walkathon on September 27.  
• Interested in volunteering in our classroom this semester? We would love your help! Follow this link to see available slots and to sign-up. 
• If your child participates in a fall sport, please email me their schedule! I LOVE supporting our first graders outside of school, too. ❤️

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CELEBRATIONS

Top Frog – We had five “Top Frogs” (star students) in our classroom this week. Each student shared an “All About Me” page, 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 HADDIE for always being up for a challenge! 

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 today’s family time. 

10 Star Reward – We did it! Our amazing class of first graders earned 10 stars! We celebrated by voting on our reward, and the class chose to have an extra recess on the 4th and 5th grade playground! ❤️

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OUR LEARNING:

Reading– We are “building good reading habits” in first grade! This week, we learned the importance of setting goals, reading smoothly, and scooping up words. We each got our own reading mat to use during independent reading time, and we have special new “milk & cookie” reading buddies. 

Writing – We continued our small moment storytelling this week by writing our OWN stories! Students learned different strategies for spelling tricky words (say the sounds, look for popcorn words, etc.). 

 

Math – We are becoming experts at number partners! For example, the partners of 6 are 1+5, 2+4, 3+3, etc. We have been using our workbooks to practice writing these partner equations for 6, 7, and 8. Plus, we’ve started using computers for tech time. We use the MOBYMAX app to practice our addition and subtraction fluency every day! 

Social & Emotional – We continued learning about our emotions this week and had lots of good conversations about the importance of recognizing our emotions – good or bad. We also learned about facial expressions and how those can be clues as to how a person is feeling. 

 

STAR Assessments – WHEW! We did it! Our first graders are required to take an online reading and math assessment at the start of the school year. Our fourth grade buddies came down to our classroom to help us log onto the computers for the first time, and they helped us if we needed directions repeated during the assessments. We are ALL done and super grateful for our amazing fourth grade buddies! 

Word Study – We started our phonics workshop this week by studying the most important words in the world: NAMES! We met with our rug clubs to learn more about each others’ names. We searched for vowel sounds, blends, and other word patterns in our names. We also got special “Book Box Binders” that will store poems, songs, word walls, reading tools, and more. 

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Upcoming Dates:

• Monday, September 16 – ART
• Tuesday, September 17 – STEAM, Library
• Wednesday, September 18 – MUSIC, Micah’s birthday
• Thursday, September 19 – PE, Miss Hutchison will be gone in the morning for a training! 
• Friday, September 20 – ART, Early Release @ 12:15 pm

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If you’re going to the Hudsonville football game tonight, I’ll see you there! 

Three important notes about reading in first grade: 

1. First graders do not have any homework packets this year, BUT your child still has homework to do! We expect every first grader to read at home for 20 minutes each day. This is ESSENTIAL for your child’s reading growth this year! Check the back of your child’s blue folder to see some ideas of ways to fill that 20 minute reading time. 

2. Our class goes to the library on Tuesdays. Please be sure your first grader returns his or her library book to school every Tuesday so he or she can check out a new book! 

3. Next Friday, your child will begin to come home with a “take-home book” bag. Please have your child read this book and return it to school the next day so he/she can get another book. We will be switching out our take-home books daily! (Parents, I will be in contact later today with a volunteer sign-up 😀)

Notes for Parents:

• Scholastic Book Order forms came home with your child today! If you would prefer to place an online book order, visit clubs.scholastic.com. Our class code is R86B7. 
• Information about classroom birthdays came home in your child’s blue folder on Tuesday. This document is also linked here on our blog.
• Please practice shoe-tying with your first grader! This is a BIG BIG help for us as we have lots of little shoes to tie each day. 

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CELEBRATIONS

Top Frog – We had three “Top Frogs” (star students) in our classroom this week. Each student shared an “All About Me” page, 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 EMMA M for being a kind friend! 

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, and celebrate birthdays from the week. Here are our “Quote” & “Birthday” first graders from today’s family time. 

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OUR LEARNING:

Reading– We started reader’s workshop this week by learning about how we will spend our reading time each week. We also learned how to take a “sneak peek” at a book before we start reading. Plus, we practiced book shopping from our classroom library!

Writing – We began our “Small Moments” writing unit this week! To begin, we learned about the difference between a watermelon story & a seed story. Then, Miss Hutchison modeled how to THINK, PLAN, SKETCH, & WRITE a small moment story while first graders followed along on whiteboards. 

Math – This week’s math lessons focused on simple addition and subtraction from 0-10. We used our math workbooks for the first time, and we wrote lots of partner equations. We also spent time on Friday having “number talks,” which our class-wide discussions about math problems. 

Social & Emotional – We met Mr. Penguin, a stuffed penguin who will help us talk about our emotions throughout this school year! We brainstormed lots of different emotions and made our own chart to show different feelings. We ended the week by making a penguin craft!  

SOAR – All of Hudsonville Public Schools are focused on SOARing this year! Be Safe, Own It, Act Responsibly, & Be Respectful. We added some new SOAR posters to our classroom and talked about how we will SOAR in the classroom, on the bus, on the playground, and more. 

 

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Upcoming Dates:

• Monday, September 9 – PE
• Tuesday, September 10 – ART, Library
• Wednesday, September 11 – STEAM
• Thursday, September 12 – MUSIC
• Friday, September 13 – PE

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Extra Pictures

WOW! What an amazing first week! These first graders are ROCKSTARS and have worked so hard this week. Check out what we’ve learned so far:

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OUR LEARNING:

Morning Routine – We are practicing using our lockers, taking care of our blue folders, making our lunch choices, and starting our morning on the right foot. Here is a picture of your child’s morning routine here at school.  

Soft Start – No one likes to get right to the hardest jobs when we arrive to work in the morning! It’s helpful for our students to ease into the school day, too, by relaxing when they arrive. “Soft Start” is a time when students can chat with their friends, do a calm activity, and prepare for the day in a non-stressful way. We got to practice lots of soft start choices this week: coloring, play-doh, whiteboards, book boxes, blocks, putty, and more. 

Reading – We learned how to be a “book buddy” this week! Our classroom library is full of books, and we practiced treating these books appropriately. We have some stellar readers in our classroom! 

Bathroom Buddies – Since first grade classrooms do not have a bathroom inside the room, we are learning all about how to use the restroom quickly and appropriately. Here is the chart we made that helps us remember what we should/should not do in the bathroom. 

Classroom Rules – We have four important rules in our first grade classroom. This week, we have been practicing what each rule looks like and sounds like! Following these expectations helps our classroom be a safer and more loving place where everyone can learn. 

Scoreboard – Miss Hutchison loves playing games at school! Our class plays the scoreboard game every single day. Students want to earn “Speedy Wolf” points so they can race toward the finish line! But, we earn “Slow Turtle” points when we are not following classroom rules, because it slows down our classroom learning. At the end of the day, if our class earns more “Speedy Wolf” points, we get a STAR! 10 stars = a class reward. 

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Notes for Parents:

• Please send in two snacks for your child each day. It works wonderfully if these snacks are in a spot in their backpack and not in their lunchbox; this saves first graders any confusion about what they should be eating for snacks and lunches! 🙂 
• Information about classroom birthdays will be emailed to you this weekend & sent home with your child on Tuesday. This document is also linked here on our blog.
• Please practice shoe-tying with your first grader! This is a BIG BIG help for us as we have lots of little shoes to tie each day. 

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Upcoming Dates:

• Tuesday, September 3 – PE, Library
• Wednesday, September 4 – ART
• Thursday, September 5 – STEAM
• Friday, September 6 – MUSIC, Rocco’s Birthday!

We had an AWESOME first day together full of meeting friends, exploring our new lunchtime playground (down the 2/3 hallway), and learning a little about what we will do this year in first grade! Here are some pictures from our day:

Morning Recess & Coloring Time

Sharing our “ME” bags

First Day Jitters & Jitter Juice

Lunch Recess on the 2nd & 3rd Grade Playground

The Kissing Hand

First Grade Will “Rock Your Socks Off” (for a new hallway display)

Thanks again for all of your enthusiasm for this school year! Your first graders are SO special, and I can’t wait to spend 180 more days learning with them!

~Miss Hutchison

Even teachers get the first day jitters! Watch this quick video with your first grader so he or she knows what to do first thing tomorrow morning. Sending hugs to you and your first graders! It’s going to be a great year.❤️

Our first day of school is this Monday, August 26! We can’t wait! 

First, thank you so much for taking the time to come to open house and check out our classroom! I know you were given a lot of information in your child’s blue folder and the yellow envelope that came home with you.  The yellow envelope contains many school forms that need your attention.  Please read through these forms, complete them, and return them with your child THIS WEEK. Thank you to those who donated extra supply items, too. ❤️First grade is definitely a busy place, and it is amazing to have these supplies on hand to begin our year!!  

Here are a few reminders for things to bring on Monday: 

• Send your child’s “ME Bag” with 2 items in it to help us get to know a little something about them.  Be sure to write their name on the bag.
• Send a note for end of the day plans IF they are different than what you stated on your parent survey or in the confirmation page you checked at open house.  
• Gym shoes, an extra set of clothes, and a family photo (if you haven’t brought them in yet).
• A lunch from home OR make sure your child knows what hot lunch choice they will be having.  There are 2 hot lunch choices each day (blue or white). Here is the link to the August/September menu for lunch options.  If needed, check out the Hudsonville Food Service website for payment information and information about setting up a hot lunch account. 
• 2 healthy snacks for your first grader.  We will have a morning snack time and an afternoon snack time every day.  
• Any completed paperwork that you have from the Open House packets. Please put this in your child’s blue folder.  I will be sure to deliver the papers to the correct places! 

Upcoming Dates: 

• Monday, August 26 – ME Bags, PE, First Day of School! (Make sure your child has gym shoes at school by this day!)
• Tuesday, August 27 – ART
• Wednesday, August 28 – STEAM
• Thursday, August 29 – MUSIC
• Friday, August 30 – NO SCHOOL
• Monday, September 2 – NO SCHOOL
• Tuesday, September 3 – PE
• Wednesday, September 4 – ART
• Thursday, September 5 – STEAM.
• Friday, September 6 – MUSIC

As always, be sure to email me if you have ANY questions. Thanks again for sharing your amazing child with me this year!!

See you soon,

Miss Hutchison

I cannot wait to see you and your first graders TONIGHT from 6:30-7:30pm. 

If you’ve already purchased or collected the following items, please bring them with you to Open House! This will save us lots of time on the first day of school, and will make your first grader’s backpack much lighter. 🙂 

Things You Can Bring to Open House

• Gym Shoes
• School Supplies (refer to this school supplies blog post)
• Wish List Items
• Headphones 
• Change of Clothes in a Ziplock Bag (These will stay in our lockers just in case we need them.)
• 4×6 Family Picture for our “Families” wall (I can also take a picture of your family at Open House if you’d like!)

Additionally, please be sure to complete our parent survey at your earliest convenience. As always, if you have any questions, do not hesitate to contact me at ahutchi@hpseagles.net.

-Miss Hutchison

Open House is just one week away! I cannot wait to meet you and your children on Wednesday, August 21st from 6:30-7:30pm. 

If you’ve already purchased or collected the following items, please bring them with you to Open House! This will save us lots of time on the first day of school, and will make your first grader’s backpack much lighter. 🙂 

Things You Can Bring to Open House

• Gym Shoes
• School Supplies (refer to this school supplies blog post)
• Wish List Items
• Headphones 
• Change of Clothes in a Ziplock Bag (These will stay in our lockers just in case we need them.)
• 4×6 Family Picture for our “Families” wall (I can also take a picture of your family at Open House if you’d like!)

Additionally, please be sure to complete our parent survey at your earliest convenience. As always, if you have any questions, do not hesitate to contact me at ahutchi@hpseagles.net.

Counting down the days until I get to see your wonderful first grader!

-Miss Hutchison