Hi Parents,

What wonderful children you have!!! They are very polite, patient,
helpful, sweet, and eager to learn and try new things. I love them!!
Our class welcomed 5 new children to Belmont Elementary and we are
so happy they are in our class! I hope they are feeling at home here.
It was wonderful seeing you at the open house. Remember that if you
have questions or any concerns, please contact me. See the contact infor-
mation down below, and go ahead and check out the blog for our classroom
also.
I cant believe that we have been in school for 2 weeks already. We
have eased into first grade slowly and things will pick up speed in a few
weeks. We are reviewing and learning new things daily. We have reviewed
the 20 word wall words from kindergarten and the kids are being assessed
on them. We are also introducing 5 new words each week. See the list in
the green box (next to this) to find out whats being introduced each
week. Also, your child is bringing home a small stapled booklet today
(Friday) which contain many phrases from the first 20 word wall words.
Your child needs to practice these phrases and needs to read them fluent-
ly before they get their 2nd set of 20 words and phrases. I call the chil-
dren up every week or two and have them read the list of words and
phrases to me. (They have the same phrases at school, but they are in a
book called the giraffe book. Your child knows what this is.)
Our day is very structured as we do our language activities in the
morning, including writing, reading, word work, and sometimes will incorpo-
rate science too. After lunch we have math, our special that day, some-
times we will do more science and social studies, and then lastly recess.
Our mornings are longer than the afternoon, but the kids are adjusting to
eating lunch at 12:20.
I use DAILY 5 and CAF in the morning to management and teach
reading strategies to the kids. You may hear them talk about the word:
stamina. We are working on building stamina as we try to read for longer
periods of time. We need to keep our eyes on our book, stay in one spot,
not talk to others, use a whisper voice, read the whole time and build
stamina. I have taught the kids that there are 3 Ways To Read a Book:
1. Read the pictures, 2. Read the words, 3. Retell the story. Daily 5 con-
sists of doing 5 things each day to build confident readers and stu-
dents: Read to self, Read to someone, Listen to Reading, Word Work,
and Writers Workshop. We will be doing all these in a couple weeks.
First G
rade is H
oppin!
September 14, 2012
Word Wall Words:
Sept. 10-14
at, *there, *is, we, go
The words with the * indicate that it is
a red word and so it does not follow a
rule for spelling.
The skill work this week will be to
learn the at family words. (It is under-
lined.)
Sept. 17-21
him, *some, be, am, little
Skill work: am family and short /i /
sound
Sept. 24-28
*have, with, then, as, so
Skill work: en word family, short /e/,
review short /a/, open syllable words
(so/be/me), and introduce /th/.
Contact information:

kdonze@rockfordschools.org
Classroom phone: 863-6363, ext.
4721
Office phone: 863-6362
Blog: kimdonzeclassroom.blogspot.com

HAVE A GREAT WEEKEND!
Page 2 of the news this week:

Most of our newsletters will not be this long,
but I feel I have so much to tell you being that
we just got started this year. See the green
box and read the Social Contract (Rules) your
children came up with your our classroom this
year.
I want to share some up-coming
events with you:

Sept. 17: Constitution Day
Sept. 21: Look for a special note going
home about Johnny Appleseed Day and
apple activities.
Sept. 24: Bring an apple to school
Sept. 25: Early Release Day: kids are dis-
missed at 1:30
Sept. 26: Johnny Appleseed Day and
Walk a-thon Day
Sept. 28: Popcorn Day, 25 cents a bag
Oct. 1: September Reading calendars due.
Please remember to be recording the
number of minutes you read each day.
The goal is 15 minutes 5 times a week. :)
Recording Minutes: you can read to your
kids, they can read to you, you can prac-
tice the Dolch phrase booklets that are
coming home, they can retell a book you
read to them, etc. Have fun with books!
1. Be Nice.
2. Be respectful
3. Work quietly
4. Stay quiet in the hall
5. Keep our space clean
6. Keep hands to self
7. Share
8. Listen when someone speaks
9. Tell the truth
10. No interrupting
11. Be patient
12. Be polite
13. Dont act wild inside school.
14. Treat others the way we
want to be treated

Be nice means:
No hitting, no pushing,
no pinching, no making mean
faces, no name calling, no
fighting, no teasing, no yell-
ing.
Social Contract
Parent Helpers:
Some of you signed up at open
house to help work with kids in
our classroom but at that time
I did not know the specific time
Id need you. I am going to
have parent helpers from 9:15
10:15, Tuesday thru Friday. I
will be sending home a separate
confirmation note including the
day and time, but wanted to
open it up to others who may
still be considering doing this. I
will need you to listen to the
kids read their take-home
books. I will not be using par-
ents until probably the 2nd
week in October, as we are still
working on learning procedures
in our class. The note will indi-
cate more information, including
a possible training time.
If you would like to help, but
did not sign up, please send a
note with your child and I will
add it to our list that I already
started. Thanks so much!
Special Schedule:

Monday: P.E.
Tuesday: ART
Wednesday: LIBRARY
Please note that all library books must come
back to school by Wed. morning in order for your
child to check out another book.
Thursday: P.E./ COMPUTER LAB
Friday: MUSIC
Belmonts Best
Mrs. Thelen will invite these kids to
eat their lunch with her during the
week of:
Sept. 17: Micah Frost
Sept. 24: Alise Genter
Oct. 1: Olivia Gossman
PTO has purchased a book for each
child again this year and they will re-
ceive it at lunch on their special day.
Heres what we are doing in math:
- We are learning to order numbers using the number
line, 100s chart, and random cards.
- We are learning to make tallies. (We use the diagonal line for
every 5th count. Its just like counting by 5s.)
- We are keeping track of the days weve been at
school and recording the temperature each day.
- We are practicing how to make our numbers neatly.
- We have our own math journals where we will practice
our math skills most days.
IMPORTANT: Look for our first home link to go
home next week Monday. The kids are so excited
for homework!
When they come home, please do it that night and re-
turn it in your childs folder the next day.
SCIENCE IS EXCITING!
- Monarch caterpillars are on their way to Belmont! We will
learn their life cycle and some amazing facts about these
beautiful butterflies.
- We are learning about the 4 seasons, weather (including tem-
perature, wind, cloud cover, and precipitation in each season),
and watching a maple tree in our school yard change each sea-
son. The Seasons will be a year long theme in our class.