I feel like each time I sit down to blog that the first thing that comes to mind is WOW! 🙂 We really are busy on most weeks, but last week was especially busy for me in particular. It seemed that I had a meeting or a conference (or both) several times each day. I capped off the week with Grayson’s 10th birthday party on Friday night, and then almost had a come apart during the Alabama game on Saturday. It was Annelise’s first experience watching her “football-fanatic” mother pacing and yelling during the final 4 minutes of the game. Wheew! She laughed and laughed, but I could tell she was happy to be safely away from the craziness while she was snuggled in her daddy’s arms. Grayson’s actual birthday was on Sunday, so now I officially have a 10 year old and an 8 month old who is teething. I tease and say that I have one getting teeth and one ready for braces! ha! Here’s to hoping this week will be a bit calmer! (but don’t count on it……..)

The most important thing is that individual picture day is on Thursday! Not sure about the background, but since these are the ones for the yearbook, I am pretty sure it is a “portrait” style background. Group/class pictures will be made at a later date. Our pictures will be made at 9:30ish. For picture day, your child may change clothes/shoes if needed after the pictures are made. Just send a note in the Bear Binder and we will make time for them to change. Oh! and book orders are due on Friday!

Look through your child’s Bear Binder/backpack today and find the flat story “Animal Park”. It is the story we will have a test on on Friday. I am so sorry that I have not made this more clear before now. The story of the week will always come home on Monday along with a spelling worksheet with this week’s words. We copy the story on paper (making it a flat story) so your child does not have to carry the very very heavy and expensive (if it gets damaged) book from the reading series. Happy Reading!

We made homemade applesauce on Friday and it was soooo good! We used some cinnamon and a little sugar, a little water and the Bears chopped the apples and peeled them with plastic knives. Everyone stirred it, some of us seasoned it….and sugared it….and then we used the potato masher to mush it up, and we cooked it all day in the crockpot. Our room smelled yummy! Almost everyone loved it. They wanted the receipe, so there you have it. We used yellow apples, red apples, and a few green ones. Just use what you have and mush it all together. Thanks to Ms. Durham and “Food Fear Factor” everyone was willing to give it a try and a few folks that thought they would hate it (cause it was browner than they thought they’d like) loved it and asked for seconds!

Many of you have asked for the receipe for edible sparklers: blob of white icing, red/white/blue sprinkles, pretzel rod. Dip pretzel rod into icing, roll in sprinkles, wave around in the air (best if you are also listening to patriotic music) and gobble it up. Repeat as long as you have icing, sprinkles and pretzle rod. (Some Bears were seen licking their plates…..) 🙂

I am NOT a cook, but I know how to have fun (and also how to order take out…….)…………

Thanks to those of you who met me for conferences. It’s always fun to chat with you about your little people. I will call those of you who wanted phone conferences soon. If you want a conference but did not get a time, let me know. If you said you did not need a conference and I have not tracked you down, then I agree and we are OK.

The Johnny Appleseed Parade was a success as always. We had such fun going around barefoot (or bear-foot, as it were) 🙂 delivering apples to the teachers. I still have the song stuck in my head…… We have apples left over, so we’ll be eating those for snacks this week as well. Yum. I just love Fall!

If you made it this far, Kiss your brain! More later! Alicia

We have had a fantastic week in #221! So much learnin’ goin’ on……

CHOM was awesome! We had a great time learning about the human body, germs and our largest organ- the skin! Your Bear brought home a play-doh wadded thing that was their very own model of the 3 layers of skin, complete with veins, capillaries, sweat glands and hair….and also a Q-tip skeleton…..haven’t seen ’em yet?  Look in the backpack….Special thanks to Allison’s mom for meeting us there.

Today, Durham’s mom, came and played Food Fear Factor! It was super exciting! The children had so much fun tasting good, yummy and nutritious things like: Greek Yogurt, almonds, organic milk and peanut butter, kiwi fruit, hummus, cottage cheese, sherbet, and avocado. They were blind-folded and got to taste one item. They described it to the rest of us (who already knew what it was…) then we did the big reveal! 🙂 So funny! At the end, we did a big taste test and everyone got to try different stuff. Most of us were quite adventurous in our tasting today…so, next time you are at the store…..try purchasing some of these new flavors for your family. Thanks so much Ms. Davis! We loved Food Fear Factor!

Tomorrow is the first graded spelling test. Please study Unit 1, week 4. I know everyone will do just fine! Remind your Bear to use lowercase letters only!

Our books should be here any day! Tomorrow we are sending a new order form home. The deadline is Oct. 1. To order online, use the information below.

Online Ordering Information
Web address: scholastic.com/bookclubs
Class Activation Code: GRCDC

Happy Thursday! Alicia

This week in science we are studying the 3 states of matter. Today’s experiment involved evaporation. We painted with water on the sidewalk and traced around the shape with sidewalk chalk. Then we huffed and puffed and fanned and waved, until we could see the shapes shrinking! We looked in the sky to see if the clouds were getting any bigger, because we learned that water is a liquid and evaporation makes it turn into a gas, and that gas makes clouds, which get heavier and finally make rain (a liquid) and then it starts all over again. Whew! Not your Granny’s first grade……I’m tellin’ you!

This week is chock full ‘o fun:

We have computer tomorrow, CHOM on Wednesday (Bring a sack lunch). We will be back from CHOM in plenty of time to go to the cafeteria, but we are going to picnic outdoors at school for lunch. Why? ‘Cause we can and it is fun…. 🙂

Thursday, Durham’s mom is coming to do FOOD FEAR FACTOR! and then we have library.

Friday is ART class and Constitution Day! We will be wearing red, white and blue and making and eating edible sparklers…..(aren’t you curious?)

I will be scheduling conferences soon (before conference day in October) and we can go over anything that you’d like! If you don’t need a conference, that is fine and if you’d like to have a telephone conference, I can do that, too! ‘Cause I am flexy-bendy like that.

We (first grade) decided to add the 2 high frequency words to the Spelling List to give everyone a shot at studying for these extra words. You are getting a NEW and IMPROVED list in tomorrow’s Bear. It is YELLOW. Throw the white one away. And for your studying pleasure, and because those silly little bears lose things on a regular basis, I am adding a page to the blog so you can print another one anytime you need to. You will need to look on the side-bar under pages and click on SPELLING LISTS to see it. It will also be on a tab at the top, but you will not be able to see it because that search box is in the way. It is a permanent fixture there, believe me, I’ve tried to move it. And since I am still currently enamored with the misty trees on the header of the blog….I’m not changing it just to move the search box. Long story short- look on the side bar for spelling lists. I also added the First Grade Firsts packet…..you know,  just in case you need to freshen up on your First Grade Firsts skills……

and on that note: Please remember to SMOOCH and GO! All first graders should walk themselves to the classroom…..Stop at the office please! They can do it! I promise! 🙂

Happy Monday! Alicia

Edited to add: That the blog is apparently smarter than me and it just put that tab underneath and started a second row! My! It is smart! 🙂

I hope you had a wonderful Labor Day weekend. We went to the gulf and had a great time….except for the horrendously long trip back due to all.of.the.traffic……and a 7 month old who only does well in a car seat for about 2 hours straight…..and I am blaming most of what should have been a 4.5 hour car ride (that turned into one lasting 7 hours) on all of the Louisiana folks that were trying to get back to cajun country. Man! There were a lot of those folks on the road, all trying to get to the same place at once. But hey! Maybe they were paying it forward, you know?  Tons of us went to New Orleans after Katrina, so maybe they were skipping over to our sugar white sands to help the economy after all of the BP mess and recent unpleasantness. Anyhoooooo—–what was I saying? Oh yes! How I am behind and all…..and now I have lost a day since we were out on Monday….now Tuesday will hold all of Monday’s mess and how will I ever catch up?

So here’s the deal…. I am sending the Family Fun Times home this week for Big Blue Ox. You and your Bear may choose 2 pages. Do the front and back (for “4” pages total) and send it back by Friday. Hooray! You are done. I love making executive decisions like that…..and I can, cause I have tons of degrees and own lots of play-doh, so that makes me the executive Bear Class decision maker…..We will still have our last practice Spelling test on Friday (the ones after this week will be recorded in the grade book), and our reading test on Big Blue Ox on Friday. Read the flat story lots this week. Some of us are NOT getting the comprension part of the test…..(we work on this story all week in class as well).

I think Progress reports come home this week…….some more important stuff is going on as well. I am sure I will have it all together by sometime….next week! (getting out of my routine makes me a little bonkers).

Oh! and to those of you who were sick last week or who checked out early or whatever, and left your water cup at school…I took it home and washed it for you in the dishwasher. You are welcome! 🙂 I’ll see you all tomorrow. I have a ton of sandy laundry to start before I can go to sleep!  Alicia