eating and sleeping and having dirty diapers and eating and sleeping and having dirty diapers……what are you Bears doing?  I heard all about Zero the Hero and the 100th Day and the 101st Day too! Man! You have all been busy….I talk to Mrs. Plott every day and she fills me in on how all of you are doing. I am kind of like Santa Claus….I know when you’ve been “bad” or good so be good fo goodness sake!  🙂

We are still out of town and it may be next week before we can come back to Alabama. Mr. Brad is back in Tuscaloosa (to keep Grayson in his school routine) and my mother, Grayson and Annelise’s Gran, is here in Tennessee with me. It is cold here and was sunny for the first time today. It was actually snowing on Monday when we brought Annelise “home” (to the Hampton Inn) from the hospital.

I will have some school updates for you by the end of the week. Valentine candy sale, Scripts orders, Seuss Day, Cupid for a Day (very similar to Santa for a Day), Valentine Party (room mommies, plan away…..whatever you want to do is fine…..except clowns…..ick)…..

So check back. In the meantime, here’s a picture just for you………thought you’d get a kick out of it!

XOXOX, Mrs. Jenne’ & Annelise

Annelise Meredith-Brandon Jenne’

She’s here! January 23, 2010

6 lbs 7 oz   19 1/2 inches long

She does not have a name yet, but we are working on it. 

Mrs. Plott will be at school with you beginning  Monday. Be sweet. If you scare her and make her cry, she will run away and never come back.  🙂 I love you all and I will post again with more pictures when our little princess tells me what she wants her name to be.  xoxoxox   Mrs. Jenne’

I am still here! I leave the yellow table each afternoon as if I am not coming in the next day. I am going on a month and a half of sleeping with the phone on top of the alarm clock. I have a plethora of lists and post-it notes stuck to every flat surface in my home….and at school (cause y’all know I like to be in control just a little bit…..) and so far……nothing from “T”. Although, when I talked to her last week, she said the dr. had agreed to induce “sometime” next week (week of Jan. 25) if she had not gone into labor by then. So, until she does back to the dr. we still don’t know a thing….and I am still here…..

The plan is for me to be out for a bit (and Mrs. Plott, retired RQES 3rd grade teacher) to be here until I return. Now, the good news is that once things get settled and we are back from how-ever-many days we must legally remain in TN, then Mrs. Plott and I are going to do a bit of a “job sharing” thing. So insteadof me being out for 6+ weeks straight, like most people who take a maternity leave, I’ll be out for a bit, then for a few weeks, I’ll work on Mon/Tues and Mrs. Plott will work on Wed-Fri. And then, I am looking at being back full time right after Spring Break (give or take a day or so)……

Congratulations to our GEM AWARD winners for the first semester-

Jacob Wilder, Matthew Crotts, Mary Morgan Formby & Jeremiah Hall! These students have tried very hard, have worked well with others and have accomplished great things in the first semester.  I wonder who will be the GEMS for second semester?  Try hard every day, be a good friend, give it your very best effort and it just might be YOU!

We went to computer lab today and had so much fun! We had not really been since maybe the last week in November, so today was a big treat for us. I recently found out that we are one of the few first grade classes that are using kids college. It is a great tool to use and you can access it from any computer, anywhere, that has internet access. Let me know if you need our code again and I will get it to you.

Homework- I don’t give a lot but I expect it to be completed each day. Reading for 20-30 minutes and writing it down is HOMEWORK, even when there is nothing else in the folder. Books and flat stories need to be returned with the cards and clips attached the very next day. Someone else in another group will need to use those materials the day after you use them so please help us to get everything back quickly. Most of you are doing a great job…..I’d love to have 100% participation in this very minimal amount of homework. 🙂

We will let you know the final plans/cost for the April Aquarium trip as soon as possible. If you are adding a friend or parent and they want to ride the bus, please let me know tomorrow. We cannot calculate the final trip cost until everyone lets me know who is going. The more people who go and ride the bus, the less the trip will be.

Happy Monday everyone! Today was a great day in first grade! Alicia

In the interest of full disclosure: I completely stole this from Ford/Powell’s 3rd grade blog. I did. I just zapped it right off of there…..(thanks girls)…..and stuck it on the Bear Class blog…I stole it cause it says everything I was going to say about the yellow SCRIPS form. And since I am trying to work smarter, not harder…..I knew they (and you) would not mind that I five-finger discounted it from their blog…..all of that, and the fact that I am tired and saw the opportunity to take a short cut…..

That being said…..read on, people, read on……

Check backpacks tonight….we sent home another Scrips order. Now,  a word about Scrips…..IT IS REALLY EASY AND RAISES A LOT OF MONEY FOR OUR SCHOOL.  Here’s how it works…

1) Look over the yellow Scrips form and think about what stores you frequent often.

2)  Mark the stores and money amounts that you’re interested in.

3) Total the money amount from the ones you marked.

4)  Write a check for that amount….check the form for “payable to” information….I THINK it’s Rock Quarry PTA…..BUT CHECK IT!

5) In TWO days, someone will deliver an envelope with GIFT CARDS to those stores in the EXACT amount you paid.  Envelopes will come home in your child’s backpack unless you mark your form that you want to pick it up personally at school.

6)  SHOP!  Use your cards as you would any gift card….spends just like cash!

That’s it!  It doesn’t cost any extra money and isn’t a hassle to do!  I got several cards last time and was AMAZED at how easy it is! I wrote ONE check and walked away with numerous gift cards to lots of different places.  It’s even better than shopping at those gift card kiosks cause it’s delivered right to your child’s backpack! 

Please consider participating in this program.  It’s earning valuable funds that will go towards even more valuable technology tools that can truly enhance your child’s education!  Help us out and FILL OUT THE SCRIPS!

*edit* by Alicia: I also purchase cards to pay for gas through SCRIPS…..I mean, I have to buy gas every week….and this way, RQES gets the profit……just something to think about, I mean, you know, if you drive and all…….  🙂 Goodnight! Alicia

Lots of stuff coming home in the Bear Books today. No homework for the little people, but lots of homework for the parents!  🙂 (you are welcome!) Our new schedule for Bear of the Week (our version of Star of the Week), graded papers and the January calendar all came home today. On Friday, those of you who were here got the new snack schedule.

Today’s assignment: 1. Find a safe place for all of this new information.

2. Clean out the Bear Binder. You may want to leave the yearly spelling list and this week’s story, Frog and Toad, but the rest of the papers can be pulled out and filed away. We are all about out with the old and in with the new today.

Make sure you are reading the story that comes home each Monday with your child several times over the course of the week. Ask comprehension questions about the story. Review vocabulary and amazing words. We almost always have a test on the weekly story each Friday. This is an easy way to help your child’s reading grade. The more they read, the more they will remember on test day.

You should also use part of the time your child is reading for reading logs to hear your child read out loud. Ask yourself these questions:

1. Is my child reading the way he talks or is he reading word-by-word-by-word….like a robot?  We do not want robot readers. We want fluent readers who read fluidly….the way we talk.

2. Is my child using strategies to figure out unknown words?  Does it sound correct in the sentence?  Does it make sense?  Can I see a little word in the big word?  What is the root word?  What sound does the ending make?

Most of us have new seats and new tables in class. We went to Art with Ms. Jackie Mason for the first time today, also! Lots of newness going on here.

Happy Monday! Alicia

That was about the extent of our day on Friday. I have to say it was fun to see the munchkins, who genuinely seemed  glad to be back. We had 4 friends who were out, but Mrs. Prowell had only 5 friends present, that is until about 9:30 when the doors busted open and all of 2 more came rolling in! ha! 🙂 At lunch, I offered her the Sequoia in case she wanted to take herself and all 7 members of her class to McDonald’s!

To recap our day, we learned about a trip to Mexico and a new little chihuahua named Jica (and I do not even know if I spelled that right…..), a new baby sister (whose name I cannot spell), some zhu zhu pets, a little shorkie named Lexie (who was too stinkin’ cute, by the way…), a trip to Arizona, a hula hooping wild man, a ferret-ball (in colors disturbingly close to that “other team on the plains”), some furr-real kitties that about gave me a heart attack when the munchkins went to PE, some Star Wars figures, an American Girl doll, a Pinkalicious doll, a photo of an electric scooter and some moon shoes, and a  whole box of magic tricks….apparently it was a Christmas of pets….real ones and battery operated ones……and also a Christmas of babies, ’cause…

Right in the middle of the showing and the telling my dear friend Jennifer from St. Louis called to say she had delivered her twin girls (Sarah and Annabelle) at 6:35 and 6:36 (the children knew I was waiting on the call and when I gave them the thumbs up signal they all gave a big cheer and since Jennifer is a former kindergarten teacher it warmed her heart)…..All in all, I’d say it was a great day.

Then we had our New Year’s Party with 12 grapes (thanks Hall family) to make a wish for each month of the year and party blowers and indoor fireworks (bubble wrap). It was madness and silly and fun. Just how first grade is supposed to be…..

Then they all went home and I got the room ready for Monday. The showing and telling and partying  may be over, but in our room the fun never ends…..we’ve got great things to learn about this month!

As for our new little bit, “T” is still holding on and they have not changed her delivery date. We are still set for January 31st (but I have my bags packed anyway, just in case “T” calls and says, “This is it!”. And no, we do not have “the name” yet, much to the distress of my mother…..I think we will have to see her first…..

See you Monday, Bear Class people! Bring your smart brain, cause we’ve got stuff to learn! Alicia

Just got the word, Bear Class Friends……

No School Tomorrow! Check the news for word about Friday…..(if we are at school on Friday, we will still do show and tell with toys.)  If we do not go to school on Friday, we will probably delay show and tell until Friday, January 15th.

Happy Extended Vacation!  Alicia

Happy last few days of vacation, Bear Class people! I am at school, getting ready for you to come back. It’s lonely here without you…..

Here’s a few things you need to know:

1. Thursday, it might SNOW! If we are here (if we don’t have the GREAT SNOW-IN of 2010), we will catch some snowflakes with our black paper. I have it in the freezer already! We will also be doing a lot of “out with the old and in with the new”…be ready to work!

2. It’s school spirit day! So wear your favorite team shirt day on Thursday. I will be wearing my Alabama stuff! Feel free to join in….you auburn folks can wear whatever you’d like, but people wearing Texas stuff will have to sit in the hall all day(just kidding…..sort of……)

3. Friday will be “show and tell” day. Now those of you who know me know that I do not like show and tell (show and tell stuff related to units of study is not the same as toy show and tell)….. ’cause we never have enough time to do our school stuff and play with toys. That’s why we don’t bring them to school. However, on Friday, Ms. Nevin and I are hosting Show and Tell Day! On this one day, you may bring a toy to share with your friends (no guns or weapons of any kind, even play ones…..) So, bring your favorite toy from the holidays and we will provide a time when you can share and play with one another’s stuff. (Yes, Maggie, you can bring Lexie at the end of the day….)

I can’t wait to see you! Enjoy your time at home! Alicia