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April 11, 2016

Dear Mariposa Room Families,


I hope you had a fabulous weekend with your family. I hope that you had fun at
Quincie Douglas Park if you were able to attend the Kindergarten/First Grade Play
Date Meet up.
Parent Surveys ~ Please fill out the parent survey and help your child fill out the
student survey and return both back to school.
P.E. Outdoor Event this Friday! All classrooms will participate in a special event
that will take place in the morning this Friday, April 15th! If you would like to stay
in the morning on Friday, you are welcome to join us for the fun! Students will
participate in fun, outdoor P.E. related games and activities such as relay races,
games that involve teamwork, the three legged race, etc. Your child may get wet
in one of these outdoor activities. Please have them bring a small towel or a
change of clothes if you think they will need it to prepare for this fun event!
Project Based Learning ~ Fabric
Driving Question ~ How has the making of fabric changed over time?
Thank you ~ Thank you to all of the families for donating money or donating
supplies for our sewing project!
Healthy Snack Food Donations for Snack Time: Thank you to all of the
families that have donated snacks! We are always in need of fresh fruit that is
ready to eat. If you bring fruit or veggies in we will always eat them right away so
that they dont go to waste.

P.B.L Sewing Project ~ Parent Volunteers Needed ~ A big thank you to


families (Izzys mom Selena, Bjorns mom Becca, and Bethanys mom Brittany) that
have stayed in the mornings or have taken patterns home to help cut for our
sewing project! We will be ready to start taking small groups of students to begin
sewing by Tuesday or Wednesday morning and would appreciate your help if you
are available during our DEAR Time in the mornings! We would love it if parents
could come in during that time and help a few students with their sewing. Parents
can help students to correctly stitch, tie on new pieces of embroidery thread, and
help them if their thread gets tangled or knotted while sewing. Students are very
excited about this project and very ready to sew after their practice making a
tooth pocket out of felt. If staying to help in the morning is something that you
would be interested in, please let us know! Thank you for all you do!
Student Self Evaluation Weekly Report ~ Please ask your child for his/her
weekly Student Self Evaluation. It will continue to be sent home on Fridays.
Please praise your child and discuss what your child needs to improve on.
Communication between home and school will encourage and motivate your child to
succeed and do their very best!
Important Reminder ~ Please remember school starts at 8:20a.m. We are still working to
decrease the amount of tardies. Your child is missing valuable learning time when he/she comes
to school late. They will also miss important school announcements during morning pledge time.
Parent Volunteer Sign in ~ Parents please sign in on the volunteer sign in sheet if you stay and
read with your child in the morning. The volunteer sign in sheet is located on the shelf on the
right hand side just as you walk into the classroom.
Library Time ~ We go to the library once a week on Tuesdays at 10:00am. Students will check
out Just Right Books for their book boxes and will switch their 3 Just Right Books out every
two weeks after they have time to practice reading and learning their book. Their Just Right
Books need to stay in their book boxes at school and their 1 book for home can go home each
week. Please help your child keep track of the book they get each week and help them to store
it in a safe place so that the book does not get lost.
Need to Know Time/Intervention time ~ Need to Know Time will continue weekly, this next
week. Students that need academic support continue to receive intervention from the classroom
teacher. The students who are not working with the classroom teacher will engage in activities
with resource teachers. We will continue to have Need to Know time on Monday, Tuesday, and
Thursday from 2:00-2:30pm and will continue to have reading buddies on Friday afternoons.

Kindergarten Math: This week we will work in math centers focusing on adding and subtracting
and finding combinations for the number 8.
Our math centers are the following:
1. Ten frame addition- Students will use the ten frame to solve addition math facts. Students
will show the sum by drawing dots on the ten frame.
2. Number line addition. Students will use the number line to solve addition math facts.
Students will show the sum by drawing the jumps on the number line.
3. Rekenrek- The students will use the Rekenrek to find all the combinations of 8. Students will
record the combinations in their math notebook.
4. Teddy Bear Picnic- Students will play this addition and subtraction game with a partner.
Students will add and subtract up to the number 5.
5. Tile arrangements for the number 8. Students will create a tile arrangement with 8 tiles.
Students will record their tile arrangement and write an equation for the number 8.
First Grade Math: This week during First Grade Math, students will review the How Many
Hands math problem that they worked on in their Math Centers last week. Students will review
the strategies and models they used to help them solve this type of problem. They will then
learn a new t-chart model and strategy that will help them to solve the problem.
Students will also focus reviewing 2 Dimensional shapes that we have focused on. Students will
focus on 3 Dimensional shapes such as the cube, sphere, rectangular prism, triangular prism,
pyramid, cone, etc. Student will focus on the attributes of these shapes, drawing them, and
discussing and writing about where in our environment at school and in our world do we see
these kinds of shapes.
Students will also review helpful models and strategies to solve subtraction story problems.
Students will work to review a problem with the teacher and will then solve subtraction
problems independently.
*Important News About the 5 Minute Math Addition Quiz*:
Congratulations to these students for earning their Addition Licenses: Bjorn, Wilde, Jacob,
Alex, Josiah, Sofia Dominguez, and Ariel!!!
Congratulations to these students for earning their Subtraction Licenses: Milo, Ariel, Sofia
Haro, Maiya, Harrison, and Noah!!
*Students that were here on Friday were able to make their licenses. They will be
laminated this week and will be presented in the classroom to the students. I will not hand
them out on the stage during pledge, as I am the only 1st Grade classroom that is still
giving out licenses. It is a special thing that is done for our class and for that reason, and
I can only hand them out on stage if other 1st Grade classes choose to participate. I am

so proud of these students and they are praised for learning their math facts and have
earned their license to add and subtract! *
We will continue to take the math facts quiz every Friday.
*This quiz has been adapted for the students in the class to take a quiz that has number
bonds in it for the number combinations that equal starting at totals of 5 and then when they
show they can complete the quiz accurately, they will move on to the total number of 10.
Students in my math group are very excited about the math quiz on Fridays.
Students that get the problems mostly filled in and accurate will keep taking the same quiz
since they have already mastered their combinations to 8 or to 10. It is a difficult quiz, though,
and I would like every student to have the opportunity to be able to receive their addition
license. I am giving students that specifically need to work on their Part/Part Whole, number
combinations through 10, the new Number Bond Quiz starting with the total of 5, in order
for them to be able to attain their goal of speed and accuracy with the weekly Friday quizzes.
Please continue to work on addition and subtraction math facts with your child. If you are
interested in seeing the number bond quiz sheets, you are welcome to come and see what
it looks like in the Mariposa Room classroom. Math addition and subtraction Flash cards with
totals that equal from 2 to 20 are still a great way to practice with your child at home and
the application Math Facts Master is still an awesome tool to use if you choose!
Literacy Activities/Writing/CAF Menu: Students will continue to focus on these parts of the
CAF (Comprehension, Accuracy, Fluency, Expand Vocabulary) Menu board. Students will
practice these strategies during Read to Someone Time, Shared Reading Time and during Story
Time. Strategies we will focus on are: Back up and Re-read, Reading Just Right Books, Using
Red Hot Words, Reading to the Punctuation, Making Predictions, Checking for Understanding,
looking for Chunks in words, making Predictions, Retelling, Talking about the elements of a
story, Recognizing Rhyming words, Reading the pictures, Using our Prior Knowledge, discussing
the Authors Purpose of creating the book, Skipping a Word and Then Coming Back to it, and
Reading Together As One Voice.
Writing/Best Outdoor Experience at Borton ~ We will continue this on Monday and Tuesday
in the Great Adventure Room. Students will review our topics and details from before spring
break about their best outdoor experiences at Borton. The focus of this activity is to help
students learn to revise and edit their writing. Writers that are able to, will work to revise and
edit their detail writing and do a re-write activity.
Students that need more assistance during Time to Write, will work in a small group with the
teacher to come up with one best outdoor experience at Borton and will do a Shared Writing
activity in order to write our ideas collectively in a paragraph. Students will help to stretch and
sound out the words as we write and the teacher will share the pen as students come up to take
turns to help write on a chart.

If we finish early, students will play a cvc word game with a partner.
Shared Writing: Students will continue to review an informational book that explains how
cotton is made into t-shirts. Students will write a paragraph about the steps using
sequencing words such as First, Then, Next, Last, Finally. Students will work to finish this
shared writing this week. We are almost finished with our paragraph with just an ending
sentence to write!
Shared Reading: This week, we will read the book A Farms Not a Farm by Brenda Parkes. We
will focus on identifying sight words from the book, rhyming words, the ed in words, the ight
and ought in words, quotation marks and who is speaking in the book, the authors purpose, and
the elements of the story.
Guided Reading/Literacy Time/Daily 5 ~ Students will be pulled during literacy time to read a
book at their just right level, focusing on CAFE strategies that good readers use while
reading the book together. Many students need practice sounding out CVC (consonant, vowel,
consonant) words. During mini-literacy lessons with students this week and the weeks to come,
students will practice tapping out the sounds in words to become faster and better with this
important phonemic awareness strategy. Students that are already proficient with sounding out
three and four letter words, will work with the teacher assistant to read timed passages and
work on their comprehension or re-telling skills after reading the passage.
Editing Writing and Sight Word Work ~ This week, students will work to practice editing a
piece of writing. Students have learned specific editing marks and will practice using them
to correct a sample piece of writing. Students have been excited to learn and use these
marks. Ask your child if they can show you the mark and what it means.
Students that need to learn more sight words will practice cutting them up and putting
them in a bag to practice reading during our DEAR, book box reading time.
Science ~ Fabric~ For our PBL Celebration of Learning, the Great Adventure and the
Mariposa Room Students will teach families all about fabric. Students will demonstrate how to
sew fabric, how to dye fabric, how to weave, how to wash fabric, and how to spin wool into yarn.
They will also research and write about how each one was done in the past and how science and
technology has changed the way we do these things now. Teachers will continue to pull small
groups to research their part of the project in the afternoons during our literacy time this
week.
Science ~ Fabric: Students will also work to create a Venn Diagram with a partner this week.
Students will choose a piece of fabric to compare to their partners fabric. Student partners
will work together to write and draw about how their fabric is the same and how it is different.
*** Homework and Take Home Tuesday Papers: *** Please continue to work on the
homework calendar for April! The new homework calendar is attached to the newsletter for
this week. Lots of students are excited about homework! Please continue to work on the
homework each day with your child. First graders should be working to sound out words as

they write and should need less assistance from you. Please make sure they are returning
it with their folder every Monday, so that I can check their homework and give their
folder with their homework back on Tuesday. It would be helpful if your child had a
special notebook with their name on it that they can keep all of their homework in so that
it is together in the same place. Please keep your homework calendar in a good place so
that you remember to do your homework such as: on the refrigerator or at a space that
you create at home that is special for homework time (a table or a desk). Thank you.

April Birthdays

Important Dates to Remember:


PTA Meeting
The next PTA meeting is April 12th at 6pm in the MPR
Dia de los Nios Celebration on May 6th ~ This fiesta takes place of the Cinco
de Mayo Celebration. It happens once a year at Borton and will be held on Friday,
May 6th.
The Great Adventure Room and the Mariposa Room Students are collecting items
for a Summer Fun Basket that will be auctioned off in order to raise money for
our School.
We would appreciate any donations of things that can fill our basket. Anything
such as: beach balls, water toys, summer games, beach towels, outdoor sport
activities, etc. Please help by donating one or more items for our basket for this
special event.

Friday Coffee Cart


The PTA will be selling hot apple cider, coffee (for adults only) and baked goods Friday
mornings. Please bring a mug, or send your child with a dollar to help support PTA projects.
Locally roasted coffee donated by Borton Parent Dana Fehr of Hermosa Coffee Roasters.
*Important Reminder to Borton Families:* Students will be marked tardy if they come to
school past 8:35am! If they are marked tardy, they will not be eligible for perfect attendance.
If perfect attendance is something that your family wishes to strive for, please keep that in
mind. If students are late, they miss valuable information at pledge time about important things
happening at school and important upcoming events. Students that come to school late will also
miss valuable learning time in the classroom!!! Please be on time for school.
If you have any questions about anything please feel free to call me, come in to see me, or
e-mail me at Stephanie.hawley@tusd1.org.
Smiles, Stephanie Hawley

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