THE BRAKE CLASS NEWS

The Brake Class News

Important Information

A.R. update– We will have a reward pizza party on Dec. 21st. Students will need to have passed 18 tests with an 80% or higher to participate in the party. Please encourage your child to take A.R. tests.

ALL LIBRARY BOOKS ARE DUE FRIDAY, DECEMBER 14TH.

Mrs. Evans made a letter about our holiday party. Please look for it in the folder.

 

Focus of Lessons this Week

Reading– Fact and opinion

Open Court and Make a Word- Letters sounds and word building

Writing– narrative writing

Math– money– identifying coins and exchanging coins for the same amount

S.S./Science/Health– Holidays around the world

Homework this Week

Math and Language arts packets. Student need to continue reading at least 15 minutes a night.

**It is helpful to practice addition and subtraction facts up to 18.

Reading Log Goals– Each time a student reads 60 minutes they earn a star. For every 5 stars, the student goes to the Treasure box.

December News!

 

Important Information

A.R. update– We will have a reward pizza party on Dec. 21st. Students will need to have passed 18 tests with an 80% or higher to participate in the party. Please encourage your child to take A.R. tests.

Holiday party– We will have a “Holiday Breakfast” party on Thursday, Dec. 20th from 9:00 to 10:20. Mrs. Evans, our room mother,  will send information home this week about how you can help with our party.

This is Miss Cappadona’s last week with us. We will complete her teaching experience Friday. Starting in January, she will participate in her student teaching experience in the country of Belize. We will miss her and we wish her the best. She promises to visit us when she is back in the U.S.

 

Focus of Lessons this Week

Reading– Fact and opinion

Open Court and Make a Word- Letters sounds and word building

Writing– narrative writing, abc order, compound words

Math– fractions and subtraction by counting up (Put the small number in your head and count up to the larger number) This helps when students are subtracting 2 digit numbers.

S.S./Science/Health– Holidays around the world

Homework this Week

Math and Language arts packets. Student need to continue reading at least 15 minutes a night.

**It is helpful to practice addition and subtraction facts up to 18.

I hope everyone had a restful and enjoyable holiday break. We have many exciting and challenging learning activities planned for our first grade classes. We will study holidays around the world and “travel” to other classrooms to learn about the traditions of many countries. Our class will also be focusing on subtraction facts, geometric shapes and making fair trades with money. We will continue to develop our writing of narrative stories by using correct sentence structure of capital letters, punctuation, nouns, verbs and adjectives. We will finish comparing and contrasting stories and begin looking for facts and opinion in stories. Lastly we will continue our word building skills by focusing on letter blends, word families, antonyms, synonyms, prefixes and suffixes.

Our sound unit begins this week. Miss Cappadona will lead our lessons. Please remember to send in your students homemade instrument by this Friday.

ARTS NIGHT– Tuesday, November 27th.

 

Focus of Lessons this Week

Reading– compare and contrast stories and characters in stories

Open Court and Make a Word- Letters sounds and word building

Writing– Using adjectives in writing/synonyms and antonyms

Math– 2d and 3d shapes

S.S./Science/Health– Sound

Homework this Week

Regular homework of math and Language arts packets will resume this week.  Student need to continue reading at least 15 minutes a night.

**It is helpful to practice addition and subtraction facts up to 18.

Reading Log Goals– Each time a student reads 60 minutes they earn a star. For every 5 stars, the student goes to the Treasure box.

Look for AR updates in the folder. Remember in order to get AR goal credit the student must score at least 80% on the test.

My email: cynthia.brake@cobbk12.org

The News of the Week

Important Information

Thank you– I BIG thank you to the helpers who came to tie-dye the pillow cases!

Field Trip to Indian Mounds-

Our Trip is Wednesday, Nov. 14th. Please remember to send a lunch if you sign-up to send one.

Wanted!- Please send in empty paper towel rolls and/or toilet paper rolls. We will be making rain sticks with these.

Computer Lab

Every 8 days we work in the computer lab. We have fabulous new computers. However, the headphones are not new. I am asking that each student have their own headphones. I will keep up with them and make sure your child uses their pair each time we visit the lab. Thank you so much for helping make our computer lab work valuable.

Thursday is VIP day for our class. Our lunch time will be 11:18.

 

Focus of Lessons this Week

Reading– compare and contrast stories and characters in stories

Open Court and Make a Word- Letters sounds and word building

Writing– writing a friendly letter and comic strips meant to inform

Math– rounding and subtraction

S.S./Science/Health– U.S. holidays and Traditions

Homework this Week

Math worksheet packet and Language arts packet. **All homework is due on Friday.

Reading each night is also a part of the homework. Students are to read at least 15 minutes every night and write the book read on the reading log. I will send home books if a child needs them. Otherwise they can read books from home or the library.

Reading Log Goals– Each time a student reads 60 minutes they earn a star. For every 5 stars, the student goes to the Treasure box.

My email: cynthia.brake@cobbk12.org

Blog address: http://dowell.typepad.com/brake

You can also access the blog from the Dowell home page by clicking on faculty and staff and then Cindy Brake.

Science Night– I was thrilled to see so many faces at Science Night. I hope you had as much fun as the teachers did!

The News of the Week

Important Information

Welcome– Miss Cappadona, our Kennesaw State student,  is now full time until December 7th. She will  teaching lessons with my guidance and also leading our Sound unit in Science.

Field Trip to Indian Mounds-

Our Trip is Wednesday, Nov. 14th. Please remember to send a lunch if you sign-up to send one. I am looking for volunteers. If you would like to help chaperon, please let me know.

Wanted!- Please send in empty paper towel rolls and/or toilet paper rolls. We will be making rain sticks with these.

A.R.—Students should have passed at least 6 tests with 80% or higher to be on track for making the A.R. goal. If your student has already made their 18 passed test goal, please encourage them to read chapter books to build even greater comprehension.

Computer Lab

Every 8 days we work in the computer lab. We have fabulous new computers. However, the headphones are not new. I am asking that each student have their own headphones. I will keep up with them and make sure your child uses their pair each time we visit the lab. Thank you so much for helping make our computer lab work valuable.

 

Focus of Lessons this Week

Reading– compare and contrast stories and characters in stories

Open Court and Make a Word- Letters sounds and word building

Writing– writing a friendly letter

Math– ordering numbers on a hundreds chart

S.S./Science/Health– Patriotic Symbols

Homework this Week

Math worksheet packet and Language arts packet. **All homework is due on Friday.

Reading each night is also a part of the homework. Students are to read at least 15 minutes every night and write the book read on the reading log. I will send home books if a child needs them. Otherwise they can read books from home or the library.

Reading Log Goals– Each time a student reads 60 minutes they earn a star. For every 5 stars, the student goes to the Treasure box.

My email: cynthia.brake@cobbk12.org

Blog address: http://dowell.typepad.com/brake

You can also access the blog from the Dowell home page by clicking on faculty and staff and then Cindy Brake.

November 5th and November 6th are student holidays! Students have a long weekend. See the students on Wednesday.

 

Important Information

Thank you!

The Jaguar reading group provided vegetables for vegetable soup for the  class. It was delicious. Many students had seconds!

Fall Festival– Our fall festival was a wonderful success. Thank you to the PTA, the volunteers and the people who came to the festival. It was fabulous!

Pumpkin Patch Field Trip– We will go one our trip this Friday. Many of you indicated you would be sending a lunch with your student. I will send home a reminder today or tomorrow. Students do not need to bring any money. However, everyone needs to watch the weather to see how to dress properly.

Geometry– We will be studying 3D shapes next week like spheres, cylinders, rectangular prism, pyramids etc. I am asking for candy donations that are these shapes. We will sort them and then the students will get to make a treat bag of the candy. I appreciate any donations.

A.R.– In the folder, you will find a record of the test your student took last week. Look at the column showing % correct and the book level. Each student trying to reach their goal should have passed 2 this week.

Focus of Lessons this Week

Reading– cause and effect

Open Court and Make a Word- Letters sounds and word building

Writing– verbs and writer’s workshop

Math– <,>, = and graphing

S.S./Science/Health– Maps and Globes

Homework this Week

Math worksheet packet and Language arts packet. **All homework is due on Friday.

Reading each night is also a part of the homework. Students are to read at least 15 minutes every night and write the book read on the reading log. I will send home books if a child needs them. Otherwise they can read books from home or the library.

Reading Log Goals– Each time a student reads 60 minutes they earn a star. For every 5 stars, the student goes to the Treasure box.

Correcting Work– Please look over papers in the Monday folder. It is important to have your student correct work that has the “Correct and return” note on it. Thank you for your help.

Important Information

Thank you!

I appreciate all the help and donations for our ice cream experiment on Friday. The students loved it!

Field Trip Money. I have all the field trip forms. Now, I need money from the ones who sent a partial payment. The total amount due is $22.00. Thanks for your prompt response. We have our Pumpkin Patch trip Oct. 26th.

Dowell Fall Festival– Oct. 19th 5p.m. to 8p.m.

Early Release- Wednesday, Oct. 17th.

Students are dismissed at 12:20. Please let me know if your student will be going home a different way then usual.

End of the 9 weeks

The first nine weeks of school officially ended today, Oct. 15th. The report card will come home Oct. 22nd. Cobb County School District changed conference week to January this year. However, I will make times for conference before and after school for those requesting a conference at this time. We will meet in January also, but I don’t want anyone to wait that late if they would like to meet now.

New A.R. Goals– See enclosed letter.

Library Books– Please check your home for overdue library books. Several books checked out in my name were taken home by students and not returned. They are: Clever Trevor, Princess for a Day and Teach Us, Amelia Bedelia.

Important Information

Field Trip Money.