Adrien, Anthony, Ben, and Aidan all read to Mrs. Pollock last week.  Here they are practicing their fluent, clear, reading out loud on February 19!

Hello parents!
We are still in need of two more volunteers.  Next Monday, March 4 the Hands-on House will come to Hambright  Our class needs volunteers to assist them.  If you are available, we would need you here no later than 11:30 on Monday.  It will run until 12:30.  Please let me know as soon as possible if you are available to help (unfortunately, we can only allow adults, no younger siblings may attend).

Thank you for considering and for helping us on this fun day!

The first grade “JUMP ROPE FOR HEART” has been changed.  Instead of jumping on Thursday morning, we will now jump on Friday morning.  Please note, this is a day 3.  We will also have art, as usual.  Your child WILL need comfortable clothes to jump in, sneakers, etc.  Thank you!

Please return the money for your spring pictures, or the pictures themselves.  If you would like a portion of the set, you may pay for the sheets that you want.  The information was on the envelopes that came home on Friday.

Thank you!

First graders enjoyed a fun writing celebration from our last unit.  Learning to revise, students made their stories even better than before!  They wrote with a good lead, added dialogue, “show, not tell,” revised by taking away, and then revised their endings.  Last week, first graders read their stories to eager kindergartners in a small writing “celebration.”  Thanks Mrs. Helwig and kids!

Instead of “hats off!” Hambright students are permitted to keep their hats ON during the school day!  Next Friday, FEBRUARY 22, the PTO is inviting students to wear hats.  During the All-School Opening, students will receive more information about the upcoming fundraiser “Race for Education.”  As a kick-off to this exciting time, we will say “Hats off!” to Race for Education.  Have fun picking out a neat hat for the day!  

(side note….reminder that this is an early-dismissal day at 1:30!)

Your child came home with a “basic facts test” this week.  This is a timed (90-second) test to assess each child’s knowledge of basic facts.  Please acknowledge your child’s work.  We will continue to assess their performance and we look for IMPROVEMENT with each timed test.  Please know that your child is only in competition with him or herself.  We will mix up the facts and use different strategies to improve their score.  (look for the “zero” problems first, doubles facts, adding or subtracting one, etc.).  Thank you for your continued support for your child’s education!! 

It’s hard to believe that we’ve been working in first grade for 100 days now!  Here are a few pictures.  First, the banner that greeted students in the hallway (sooo much fun to walk through!) and then group pictures of students and their projects.  We had a fun day (and will have a fun day 101 tomorrow, as we did not get to finish all of the activities we planned for today!)  Thank you to the parents for helping with some of your students’ creations.  They were just great!

When looking at today’s pictures, I realized that I neglected to post some great pictures from chapter 7, on telling time.  Students rotated around the room to stations in groups of three.  This helped us review telling time to the hour and half-hour.  What a great way to “Begin with the End in Mind” and help prepare for the chapter test!