Dear 1st grade families,
On Friday, Governor Pritzker announced that all Illinois schools will be closed due to COVID-19 and CPS will continue remote learning for the remainder of the school year. Our scheduled last day is June 18th. Though I understand the decision to protect our students and families, I can't help but feel incredibly saddened that our class won't be spending the rest of 1st grade together. This is difficult and I want to thank all of you parents, grandparents, siblings, aunties, uncles, family friends, etc. for being the support for our kiddos during this unprecedented time. As this is a recent update, CPS is currently in the process of creating a plan as to the details of what Quarter 4 will be like and what the expectations will be. I know we are all anxious to know what that will look like and as soon as I hear, I will keep you updated. As I have said before-- unfortunately, CPS teachers are notified at the same time as the public so please check CPS's official website and make sure that you are on Ms. Sim's weekly update emails. If you are not on Lenart's weekly update emails, please email Ms. Sims ([email protected]) so we can add you on our mailing list. Please check our 1st grade remote learning tab for our weekly work plans and please let me know via email if you are not receiving my update emails for details and important information.
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Important Updates:
Earlier this week, CPS told parents and staff that they will be implementing a new remote learning initiative. I will need to update our plans and assignments that were initially set for this week to reflect the new guidelines that CPS gave us and am moving what was originally assigned for this week until April 13th. I had to take out all of the Seesaw activities for week (March 31st to April 3rd) to make sure that it was also updated properly. Because of this change, I am asking for families who didn’t finish the initial 2 week packet that was assigned on March 17 to take this week and finish it now. If your child is done with those plans, HERE is a list of supplemental optional assignments that your little one can do. I want to acknowledge that this is very confusion and I thank you for your flexibility during this unprecedented time. Unfortunately, CPS teachers are learning information at the exact same time as parents are being informed. Things are constantly be updated and changed and I apologize for any confusion. If will be communicating heavily with families through email. If you have not been receiving my email updates, please email me at [email protected] so I can include you on our list. Wishing you all continued health and safety, Ms. Chin Hi families-
Mayor Lightfoot announced yesterday that all CPS closings due to COVID-19 will now be extended from March 30th to April 20th. We are now scheduled to return to school on April 21st. I will be updating our learning contingency plans with you all. For the days of March 17th to March 30th, you will find our learning plan packet HERE. I have been sending out update emails and will continue to do so during this time. If you have not received any of my emails, please let me know at [email protected]. I will be frequently checking my email during normal school hours of 7:45am-2:45pm. Please do not hesitate to reach out if you need anything. I thank you all for your flexibility and understanding as we navigate these new times together. Please share with your little one that I miss them so much and I am hopeful that we will see each other very soon. Ms. Chin Hi 1st grade families-
I just wanted to touch base quickly as I have been receiving questions from families. I am sure by now you have heard that all Illinois schools, including Chicago Public Schools will be closed starting Tuesday, March 17th through Monday, March 30th- with classes scheduled to resume on Tuesday, March 31st. I will still be available for contact via email. I have been working on a contingency plan for students to work on at home. This will require guidance from families at home. I am creating and finding resources to be accessible online. Students who come to school tomorrow will also receive a hard-copy packet of the work. I understand that some families will be choosing to keep their little one at home. If this is the case, please let me know. If you choose to keep your student at home, a digital copy of the packet will be sent home via email to everyone. Tomorrow will be dedicated to cleaning out desks, lockers, and book bins for these two weeks of no classes. Students will also have an opportunity to take home a baggie of books from our classroom library. If your child has the after school enrichment program with me on Mondays, please note that they will be cancelled for March 16th. All students in the Monday and Tuesday after school enrichment programs with me, will be cancelled until further notice-- even after we return. I will keep in contact with those families if the program is to resume. If your child attends the Something to Build Upon after school program, please make alternative arrangements for a 2:45pm pick up as the STBU program has been cancelled tomorrow. This has certainly been quite a unique school year and I thank you all for your flexibility and understanding during this time. Thank you, Ms. Chin Hi families-
Happy 102nd day of first grade! We had an amazingly fun time last week celebrating that we are now 100 days smarter. You will find some pictures below of our kiddos dressed up on Thursday! Upcoming Important Dates March 3rd - LPCG Meeting (5:30p) March 6th - Progress Reports March 7th - Peter Y's Birthday March 8th - Daylight Saving Time March 11th - LSC Meeting at 5:30 p.m. March 16th to 20th - Lenart Spirit Week March 25th - Julius I's Birthday March 26th - Family Literacy Night (5:30p - 7:00p) / Michaela P's Birthday March 27th - Lifetouch Spring Picture Day Thursday Folders Thank you for your patience as I catch up on grades for our Thursday folders. Please expect to receive them this Thursday! Illness in the Classroom There is some sort of bug that is making its way through the classroom. Several students have been out due to being ill or has been sent home early. We spent time today wiping down desks and chairs. If your child is complaining of not feeling well and also may have a fever, please keep them at home so that we can stop the spread of germs. Thank you! Emergency Clothes Please check with your child that they still have emergency clothes in their lockers. Some may need to be replenished due to already having been used. Some of the emergency clothes that have been brought in at the beginning of the school year may no longer fit your child-- if this may be the case, please let me know and we can swap out the new set of emergency clothes with the old. Peek into This Week For our spelling words this week, we are continuing our inflected endings for 1 syllable verbs with short vowels. Last week we worked on adding -ing to these verbs and this week we will be adding -ed. The same rule applies: if the last three letters follow a CVC pattern (consonant-vowel-consonant), then you must double the consonant before adding -ed. If the base verb does not end in a CVC pattern, then just add -ed. We began our research for our planets today. We will continue to read through nonfiction books about planets and the solar system. We are in the process of taking the note-taking practices that we've done and implementing it in our research process to write our books. In math, we will be subtracting using all the strategies that we've learned from two-digit by two-digit all the way up to the thousands place. Our next math unit will be on measuring length and adding/subtracting various lengths together. Are You a Chaperone? Are you a Level 1 chaperone? I am in the midst of planning a field trip and will only be able to proceed with an appropriate amount of Level 1 chaperones. In the primary grades, it is important for our field trips to have chaperones that are Level 1 for small groups. Please let me know if you are a Level 1 chaperone or would like to be one. LSC This year, CPS is holding district-wide Local School Council (LSC) elections, and we want to encourage you to run as a candidate for one of the parent or community member positions on our school’s LSC! There are six LSC positions for parent representatives and two positions for community representatives. If elected, candidates would serve for a two year term and have an important opportunity to influence school policy and academic direction. To apply, visit cps.edu/lsc to download the application forms. Bring your completed application and two forms of identification to one of the following locations by March 5, 2020: ● The CPS Office of Local School Council Relations, 2651 W. Washington Blvd, Chicago, IL 60612 ● The main office of the school where you intend to run as a candidate Local School Council elections will take place on the following dates: ● Wednesday, April 22, 2020: Elementary School LSC Elections If you have additional questions about running for an LSC, please do not hesitate to contact the Office of Local School Council Relations (773-553-1400 / [email protected]). Please also encourage anyone you know who may be interested in serving on an LSC to apply. We WON! First grade grade the Square1 Art competition. The class who sold the most out of the whole school would win a movie and snack day! First grade came out to be the winners with Asha P. as the individual winner of the whole school who sold the most. Asha will have the opportunity to be Principal for the day at a future date and our class will have our movie and snack day on Friday, March 27th. Hi families-
We are currently on day 90 of first grade! Spelling words The words that we have this week cover when the letter Y is used a vowel (Y as an E or Y as an I). Here is a quick fun video that we watched as the class to review the rule: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4pdmaKQauXc. The rule is: in a one syllable word, the "y" at the end will sound like a long "i." In a two syllable word, the "y" at the end will sound like long "e." Our spelling words for this week are: July, cry, fly, dry, silly, copy, easy, family, twenty, sorry Peek into this Week We are beginning our subtraction unit. Much like our addition unit, we will be practicing the various strategies like hundreds chart, open number line, break apart, and place value line up (the standard algorithm) to solve a subtraction problem. In reading we will be continuing our nonfiction reading unit where students are taking what they are reading and synthesizing what they have noticed, learned, and wondering. This further emphasizes that as reading, we are not just passively reading-- but actively thinking. We will take all the pieces that we've learned, noticed, and wondered into the overarching question of, "what is this book trying to teach me?" We are practicing this in various nonfiction texts so that when we begin our research projects in science on our various planets, we will be able to pull out and organize details about the main ideas of our planet (i.e. the weather/temperature/conditions) from multiple sources. This will tie together our science, reading, and writing! I am also hoping that as a cumulative activity for this nonfiction/planet unit, that we can take a field trip to the Adler Planetarium! If you are interested in chaperoning, please make sure that you are approved as a Level 1 volunteer! :) 100th Day Celebration The 100th day of school is tracked to be on Thursday, February 27th (pending no unexpected/snow days from now until then!) We will be doing different literacy and math activities that are related to the day. Students are welcomed to dress up in two ways: 1) Dressing up as if they are 100 years old - wigs, gray hair spray, eye glasses, etc. 2) Wearing a shirt/pants/hat that represents 100 things on it (i.e., 100 cotton balls glued onto a t-shirt, 100 stickers or buttons stuck on a hat) Here is a link for inspiration: HERE Valentine's Day Celebration Valentine's Day is coming up this Friday! We will be doing an arts and crafts project. Students will also have an opportunity to pass our little Valentine's Day treats if they wish. Students can bring in little trinkets such as erasers, cards, pencils, etc. Please no food!! We have food allergies in our class! Upcoming Important Dates14th – Picture Retake Day/LPCG Parent/Child Dance (5:30p-7:30p) 15th - Gavin M.’s birthday 16th – Aidan J.’s birthday 17th – No School (Presidents’ Day) 22nd – Joy F. and Kailey P.’s birthday 27th – 100th Day of School! Hello families!
Welcome to Quarter 3 of 1st grade. We are officially half way through with our school year! Spelling words I originally accidentally distributed the wrong spelling words list to the students yesterday. The wrong words were on the white sheet (words that ended with -ed). The corrected spelling words are on a purple sheet. Our spelling words this week are all plural endings (-s or -es). The spelling words are: hats, axes, watches, lakes, guesses, cones, foxes, porches, shells, books. Please disregard the words on the white sheet- they will be used for a future week and distributed again with the corrected work. Peek into this Week We are beginning our subtraction unit. Much like our addition unit, we will be practicing the various strategies like hundreds chart, open number line, break apart, and place value line up (the standard algorithm) to solve a subtraction problem. In reading we will be continuing our nonfiction reading unit where students are taking what they are reading and synthesizing what they have noticed, learned, and wondering. This further emphasizes that as reading, we are not just passively reading-- but actively thinking. We will take all the pieces that we've learned, noticed, and wondered into the overarching question of, "what is this book trying to teach me?" We will also be learning about the text features of a nonfiction text and how things like bolded words, italics, glossary can help us solve tricky words. In science, we will be focusing on doing a research project that ties together the solar system and reading and writing. Each student will be assigned a planet where they will conduct research in learning more about that planet. 100th Day Celebration The 100th day of school is tracked to be on Thursday, February 27th (pending no unexpected/snow days from now until then!) We will be doing different literacy and math activities that are related to the day. Students are welcomed to dress up in two ways: 1) Dressing up as if they are 100 years old - wigs, gray hair spray, eye glasses, etc. 2) Wearing a shirt/pants/hat that represents 100 things on it (i.e., 100 cotton balls glued onto a t-shirt, 100 stickers or buttons stuck on a hat) Here is a link for inspiration: HERE Upcoming Important Dates14th – Picture Retake Day/LPCG Parent/Child Dance (5:30p-7:30p) 15th - Gavin M.’s birthday 16th – Aidan J.’s birthday 17th – No School (Presidents’ Day) 22nd – Joy F. and Kailey P.’s birthday 27th – 100th Day of School! Hi families,
We are officially done with NWEA testing. I will be sending you an email with your child's NWEA results as well as their student profile sometime this week. It is a large document that I have to download, separate, and then save each child's pages so it does take me a little bit to put together. Thank you for your patience on this. Here are your important dates: January 30th - Talent Show @ 6pm-8pm January 31st - No School for Students (Teacher Institute Day)/Kailyn W.'s birthday February 14th - Parent/Child Dance @ 5:30pm-7:30pm February 15th - Gavin M.'s birthday February 16th - Aidan J.'s birthday February 17th - No School (Presidents' Day) February 22nd - Joy F.'s and Kailey P.'s birthday School Pictures We finally received our school pictures from LifeTouch. I know there were many questions in regards to when exactly the pictures came in-- thank you for your patience as the office was in contact with Lifetouch to locate them. Pictures were sent home today to students. If your child did not take their picture on the original picture day or needs to retake the picture, the day for retakes will be announced soon. I will update you of that day when I receive confirmation from the office. Due to the shortened week and end of the quarter, there will be no new spelling words for this week! Happy 2020, families!
I hope that you had a great Winter Break! Here are your updates for this week: Upcoming Important Dates 8th - Classroom Spelling Bee 10th - Lenart Spelling Bee @ 12:30 16th - STEM Night @ 5:30-7:30 20th - No School (Martin Luther King Jr. Day) 21st - NWEA Reading 22nd - NWEA Math 30th - Talent Show (more information TBA)/End of Q2 31st - No School (Teacher Professional Development) Spelling Bee Students in grades 1 through 8 qualify to participate in the school spelling bee. Two representatives from each grade will be chosen through the classroom spelling bee on Wednesday. The two classroom representatives will compete in the school-wide spelling bee. One winner from the school-wide spelling bee will go on to compete against the City Spelling Bee competition. Our classroom spelling bee will be on Wednesday, January 8th and the school-wide spelling bee will be on Friday, January 10th at 12:30. Parents of the 2 first grade representatives are invited to come and watch the competition in the auditorium. The spelling list was sent home, but are also attached to this email. 1st grade words start on page 10. NWEA 1st grade will be taking the NWEA test on Tuesday, January 21st (Reading) and Wednesday, January 22nd (Math). Students that miss these testing days will make up either on the following Thursday or Friday. Please make sure your child is well rested and has eaten a good breakfast that day. Results will be sent out in the following week. Peek into our Week In math, we will continue learning and practicing our strategies in adding numbers together. Today, students were taught how to line up the numbers by the place value and to regroup as needed-- aka the "old fashioned way." Some students were already familiar with this strategy, others picked it up quickly, and some are using the place value blocks for a physical We will continue this lesson tomorrow for more practice. Students are introduced and taught all the different strategies and then will get to choose one that they like/works best for the problem. In this week, students will practice applying the various strategies to word problems. In reading, we are beginning our nonfiction unit where we learn how to put together information to make sense of a bigger topic in a book by looking at captions, diagrams, graphs, etc. Our spelling words this week are all contractions. The words are: aren't, doesn't, haven't, didn't, how're, we'll, wouldn't, we've, they're, that'll. Test will be on Friday, January 10th. CPS Sexual Health Education Mr. McCracken will begin instruction using the CPS Sexual Health Education Curriculum. Students received a parent letter before winter break sharing the Scope and Sequence of lessons that will be taught and a form to opt out of any of the lessons. If you have any questions, please email Mr. McCracken at [email protected]. CPS Sexual Health Education Scope and Sequence Hi families,
It is the week before Winter Break. Here are your updates: Upcoming Important Dates December 17th - Winter Performance; 8th grade Rummage Sale
January 2nd - Return to School per updated CPS calendar*. *You may view the updated CPS calendar for this 2019-2020 school year HERE. Winter Performance Information The first graders will be doing two performances-- "It's a Hard Knock Life" and "Light the Candles." Because they will be performing in two different songs, there are two attires. For the "It's a Hard Knock Life," students are encouraged to wear regular clothing- i.e, jeans, overalls, tshirt, etc. Some students are opting to bring an apron to go with the song. For the "Light the Candle" performance, Mr. Coulter wants the students to wear BLACK pants/skirts and a WHITE dress-up top/turtle-neck. Students will have time in between to change from the Annie outfit to the “Light the Candles” outfit as they will be at opposite ends of the whole performance. Have your child dress up in their clothing first for the "It's a Hard Knock Life" performance and we will change as a class to the black and white outfit afterwards. Please note that they will be performing TOMORROW and WEDNESDAY! Please have them in their performance attire for both days! Homework for the Week/Over Winter Break Homework for this week and over winter break will be to complete the reading log and 2 readers responses over break. This week's and the weeks over winter break are covered in this week's reading packet and are all due on Thursday, January 2nd, 2020. Winter Themed Party We will have a winter themed party this Friday in 1st grade. The students are encouraged to wear their pajamas during school. We will be playing games, making crafts, and having our last celebration together before we head off to break. |