Mrs.

Donzes
Newsletter
(2014-2015)
September 19, 2014
Classroom News
It was great meeting with you for the
Successful Starts conferences this week. I appreciate
all the information you shared with me and I am looking
forward to a great year with your children.
We were given news from Rockford that the Monarch
larva would not be coming this year. As this made us
sad, we started looking on the milkweed plants we have
here at school to see if we could find a caterpillar
ourselves. We didnt, but some of the children in our
class began to look at their homes. We were excited to
hear that a grandparent found one for our class and it
should be here soon! We will keep you posted on the
changes it makes.
We have spent a lot of time working on proper
handwriting. I introduced 14 of the 26 alphabet letters,
teaching 1 letter a day. The hard part for the students
is remembering what they were taught during the
handwriting lesson and applying it to other papers when
write. So that will be a focus in our room, to
consistently use the correct format for the letters and to
use the spaces on the lines correctly too. The more we
work at this and they practice, the easier it will become.
I want you to know how wonderful this class is! We
are all enjoying getting to know each other and making
new friends. Its going to be a great year!



Important Dates
Sept. 22: Bring an apple to
school today for graphing. The
theme for the week will be apples.
We will make applesauce this week.
Sept. 23: Late Start Day,
school begins at 10:40
Sept. 26: Johnny Appleseeds
Birthday
Oct. 1: Septembers Reading
calendar due. (I will accept it a
few days late.) I will send home
Octobers calendar to be filled out
too. Goal: read 15 minutes 5 times
a week.
Oct. 2 & 3: Vision Testing in
First Grade
Oct. 10: Walk-a-thon day
Special Schedule:
Monday: MUSIC
Tuesday: PE
Wednesday: COMPUTER LAB
& LIBRARY Try to have books all
returned by Tuesday so your child knows they
can check out another book on Wednesday.)
Thursday: ART
Friday: P.E.
Mrs. Kim Donze Email address: kdonze@rockfordschools.org
Blog: kimdonzeclassroom.blogspot.com I will be posting soon.
Office Phone #: 616-863-6362, Classroom phone #: 616-863-6363 ext. 4721
REMINDER: You need to fill out a volunteer consent form if you would like to be a helper
in our classroom. Thank you in advance for helping us this year.

What Were Learning
Reading: The next few weeks the boys and girls will be learning
the procedures for the 5 components of Daily 5. (Read to Self,
Read to Someone, Listen to Reading, Word Work, and Writers
Workshop) Starting in the next few weeks the kids will begin to
make good choices as far as the order they want to do the 5
activities. They will be doing the daily 5 activities in small groups.
You will see a record sheet coming home that will show how they
kept track of their choices.
The strategies I am teaching this month include: Schema, Mental Images,
and Fix-up reading strategies to help their accuracy in reading.
Math: We have spent most of our math time learning about the calendar
this week. The kids have received their math journals, and they are excited
about getting Home links next week for homework. . Please make sure
your child understands the directions. You may need to assist a little and
look it over to see that it was done correctly. Then have them pack it in their
folder to be returned the next day for credit. Please make sure your child
has his/her name on their papers for credit.
Writing: We look forward to begin writing Small Moments next week.
This will also be referred to as Narrative Writing.
Word Wall Words:
Any word with an * next to it, means it
does not follow a rule for sounding out.
Sept. 22-26
get, see, *were, *do, this
Skill work: et word family, and we will
begin teaching the students about
digraphs, using a story called The H
Brothers.
Sept. 29-Oct.3
will, *could, so, them, not
Skill work: ill word family; teach Oh You
(U) Lucky Dog to help the kids remember
could chunks in words
Oct. 6-10
when, *would, yes, my,
*what Skill work: en
family





Belmonts Best
Mrs. Thelen will invite
these kids to eat their
lunch with her during the
week of:
Sept. 29: Elle Fonnesbeck
Oct. 7: Cole Fonnesbeck
PTO has purchased a book
for each child again this
year and they will receive it
at lunch on their special
day.
Reminder: Please fill out
the Belmonts Best paper
and return it if you
havent done so yet.

Other Information Here
We talked about why our Country has a Constitution,
and the importance of it. It was explained that it is a set
of rules to live by. We compared it to the Social
Contract in our classroom. We have a new poem in our
poem folder called Our Countrys Constitution which we
love reading.
See the next page for some pictures of things weve
done in class.
We are looking forward to celebrating Johnny
Appleseeds birthday next week Friday, and doing all
the apple activities that lead up to this exciting day!
Please remember to send an apple on Monday.


Science: Our unit is called Weather
Watchers focuses on the following big Ideas.
Daily changes in weather related to
temperature, cloud cover, precipitation, and wind;
how weather is related to the four seasons in
terms of temp., cloud cover, precipitation, and
wind; Severe weather, and Taking precautions
for human safety during severe weather. I will
be clearing up a misconception that just because
the wind blows strong, doesnt mean its winter.
We will use some weather instruments to help us
observe the weather and keep track of the data
we collect.

Here is our Social Contract along with our
Clip Chart. You can also see an art project we
made of faces the children made of
themselves. I wanted you to see the rules we
came up with, and show you what a great day
it was. (Actually it got better and we had
many clip to outstanding!!)
Here we are working on an art project
showing what a tree looks like in summer. We
will do something special each season with to
reinforce that particular season.
These are some of the many things we have been doing in class!
The 2 pictures above show
students doing Read to
Someone. This is part of Daily
5. We introduced this a few
days ago and they love it!