Happy Fall!

Greetings & Happy Fall from Room 4! Just a few reminders of upcoming events:
1. Science night is tonight! Join us tonight at 6:00 for some fun science events at AHE! :)
2. Report cards will sent home Friday. Please watch for your child's card in their folder.
3. Parent/Teacher Conferences begin next week. If you have signed up, I sent reminders home last week. Please let me know if you need to cancel or change your time.
4. Literacy Workshop: I am so excited by the number of RSVPs I am getting for our parent literacy workshop next Thursday. Please let me know if you can make it.
5. Character Day: Friday, November 1st is Character Day for AHE 1st graders. I have received a few character forms. Please be sure that you have planned with your child their character so that we can begin working on our character reports.

A HUGE thank you to my amazing class and their amazing families for all the progress we have made this first grading quarter. I couldn't be more pleased with the growth I have seen and I am very excited to continue our progress. As we move forward with the second grading quarter you can expect to see:
1. Sight words: yes, I know, more sight words. :) Remember, Dr. Rasinski's work on fluency highly supports the practice of sight words. 75% of the first graders in Room 4 can read the first 150 fry sight words. We have been continuing to work on the other lists and could possibly grow to 1,000! :) Thank you for continuing to practice these words at home.
2. Story retelling: We will begin working on retelling stories including key details and understanding of the central message or lesson of a literary text.
3. Writing stories & Ending punctuation: As we begin to write more stories we will practice beginning each sentence with a capital letter and ending with a correct punctuation mark.
4. Subtraction: We have spent a lot of time working on addition, in the next week we will begin to practice subtraction.
5. Graphing: This quarter we are going to practice organizing data and creating various graphs.
6. Science: Much of the first quarter is spent on social studies and building our classroom community. I am so excited to get our first science unit, a study of the pumpkin up and running this week. We will spend time in November studying leaves, and wrap up the second quarter with a holiday 5 senses unit.

As always, please email or call with any questions.

Thank you! :)

Updates & Upcoming Events

Greetings from Room 4! I hope everyone had a great holiday weekend. :) I wanted to pass along a few updates & upcoming events.

* Specials Schedule:
Monday: Library & Art
Tuesday: PE & Music
Wednesday: Social Skills with Mrs. Autry
Thursday: PE & Music
Friday: Library & Art

* Open House: Next Monday, September 9th Arlington Heights will host Open House from 6-7:30. There will be an informative meeting in the gym at 6:00. We are working on a schedule for teachers to host three different informative meetings in their rooms so parents with students in multiple classes can get all the information they need.  I will also have my parent/teacher conference sign-up schedule available at Open House.

* Field Trip: we have a field trip coming up next Thursday, September 12th. We will be traveling to the Monroe County Public Library. Our plan is to leave school around 9:00 and return around 10:30. I am looking for parents who would be willing to meet us there and help supervise the tour. Please contact me if you are interested.

Thanks! :)

Finally, a Welcome Back post! :)

I am beyond excited to welcome a new batch of 1st graders to room 4! We have really hit the ground running in here too. I have been a busy bee getting to know the students and starting our benchmark assessments. Here are a few helpful tips to make this year a success for your 1st grader:
* Stay in the know. Please check your child's backpack each evening, especially their Take Home Folder for important information. I will send home curriculum guides about every three weeks to help parents stay current on curriculum goals. It is also help to follow my blog or Twitter account (@MrsQuimby1st) to stay up to date.
* Ask questions. Please feel free to email, twitter message, write a note or call if you have any questions. It's also fun to engage your child in conversations each night about what we did at school. Hopefully, you get more than me from my child who always responds, "recess!" :)

I am super excited to be your child's teacher & for another great year in Room 4!

Mrs. Quimby

Last Day of School Reminders :)

This is it! Tomorrow is our last day in Room 4! :) Just a couple of reminders:
* Our School Academic Celebration will begin at 9:30 tomorrow. This is scheduled to be done at 10:15.
* Room 4 Awards will begin at 2:30. After awards, I have a parent that has graciously offered to bring a treat for the students and I have juice boxes. My goal is for this event to last until 3:45 so that if you want to take your child home you can without having to sign them out. :)

I look forward to seeing you all and celebrating the accomplishments of this amazing 1st grade class!

Room 4 Class Awards

While the students are out enjoying fun & games with field day, I am going to take advantage of my prep-time to get organized for our last week in 1st grade. :)

Next Friday, May 24th is our last day of school. There will be an all-school awards ceremony in the morning with awards being given for academics, attendance, and citizenship. In addition to the ceremony in the morning, we will have our Room 4 Awards in the afternoon. Parents & special guests are invited to Room 4 at 2:30 for our class awards. All students will be receiving a special award from me. I anticipate this event will take about an hour.

Hope to see you there! :) 

Spirit Week, Field Day & Spring Carnival

Next week is a BUSY (&fun) week at AHE!

Spirit Week: To celebrate all the learning that has taken place this year, students are invited to take part in our school-wide spirit week next week. Each day will have a different theme for students to dress up.
Monday: Book Character Day, dress up like your favorite book character
Tuesday: Hat Day/Crazy Hair Day, students can either wear a hat or do their hair crazy
Wednesday: Wacky/Tacky Wednesday, wear your wacky, tacky, and mismatched clothes
Thursday: Sports Team Day, dress to support your favorite sports team
Friday: Green & White Spirit Day, wear your AHE colors to support your favorite elementary school

Field Day: Next Tuesday, May 14th is Field Day. Field Day is an all afternoon event hosted by the 6th grade students and Ms. Ortega. There will be various stations set up around the school yard including a water slide, shoe toss, blowing bubbles, and many more. We will rotate through the stations all afternoon. Early forecasts for Tuesday look great, little warm, but great. I encourage students to wear cool and comfortable clothes. I don't mind 1 piece bathing suits worn under clothes. I also encourage a  dry change of clothes for the bus ride home. Students can bring water bottles, sunglasses, sunscreen, or anything else you think necessary for an afternoon outside.

Spring Carnival: Next Friday, May 17th is our school carnival. This is a HUGE fundraiser for our school PTO. Our PTO uses the funds raised to support teachers and events through the year, including teacher stipends which are very much appreciated by the teachers. :) It is a great event for the family. There will be games, prizes, food, even a dunking booth with the opportunity to sink Ms. Carroll-Frey or Mr. Bodie! :)
I hope to see you there!

Olympics Success

Wanted to share our class pic! :) We had such a great time last week. Thanks to all who were able to attend. Also, special thanks to those who helped put this event together, Miss Adamson, Mr. Bodie, Mrs. Carroll-Frey, Mr. Meadows, Mr. Mullis, Mrs. Arnold, Mr. Turchyn, Ms. Bennett, Ms. Autry, Ms. Ortega & all those who donated treats or drinks! :)

Way to go Room 4 & Room 5!