Friday News and Information for Week of June 2-6

Hello everyone! I am anxious to hear how Friday went, as I was out of town. I hope the students had fun with Mr. Cusumano! My dad's surgery went well and he is slowly recovering. I was so glad for the Friday I got to spend at the hospital with him and my family. I will be home Sunday night and am excited to see my students on Monday morning!


This week:

Reading: Our strategy was asking questions during reading. Whenever I am reading a book or watching a movie, I am so engaged that I continually ask questions such as, “What is going to happen next?” “Why did he/she do that?” I am often times laughing aloud or saddened as the story goes along. This week, I challenged the students to ask lots of questions while they are reading.

Writing: Our strategy was ‘our writing should make sense’. It is important  check your writing to see if what you wrote makes sense to other people.

Math: We started Unit 10 which is a lot of review over the whole year. We reviewed clocks. We also did some work with double digit addition with a vending machine. The students started making their own vending machine to practice!

Bible: We finished the incredible story of Daniel, where he got thrown into the lion’s den because he continued to pray to God, even when the law of the land said to pray to the king. God closed the mouths of the lions and protected him. We also started the story of Esther, who saved all of her people, because of her courage. God was with Daniel and Esther and he is with us too!

Science: We continued learning about the human body with the digestive system. We learned that food goes in our mouths and down into our stomach, small intestine, large intestine and then out...  We learned that the digestive system gives us energy. We did an experiment to see what happens to our food when it goes into our stomach. 

Ewwwwww

Next Week:

June 2-6 Last full week of school!

Spelling Words: beehive, airplane, football, into, homework, birthday, bookmark, firefly, wildlife, rainbow

Bible Memory Verse: How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news. Romans 10:15

Some more science games

Brain Matching Game 

Chewed up Food Race

Friday May 30th

Hello everyone,

I hope you are having a fantastic week. I would like to let you know that tomorrow, May 30th, I will not be at school. Instead, I have placed the 1.2 students in the wonderful care of Mr. Cusumano, who is an OCSI teacher, but is willing to sub for the day. I will be traveling to Tokyo tonight, to be with my family as my father goes through surgery and stays in the hospital. I will be back on Sunday night.

I will always be in email connections, so if you have any questions or concerns, please continue to email me.

Less than 10 days of school left!

Friday News and Information for week of May 27-30

Happy Friday! Only 2 more Fridays left for the end of the school year! WOW!

This Week:

Reading: Our strategy for the week was Main Idea and Detail. Every story has a main idea - a sentence about the most important part or summary of the book. Then there are details that tell you more about the story but are not as important to the whole story. We read a few stories this week and then on Friday, we read At Home Around the World and saw if we could figure out the main idea and details for ourselves!

Writing: Our strategy for the week was Editing. We said that we need to check out writing to see if we put a space, if the sentence makes sense, if we have a capital letter, or ending punctuation. The students did a great job checking over their work and fixing what needs to be fixed!

Math: We finished Unit 9 with a test on Thursday. We tackled fractions trying to figure out the same name for different fractions. It is a little bit hard for 1st grade but I know they will learn it again in 2nd grade (and all the way until high school!). 

Science: We continued this week with the circulatory and respiratory system. We learned about how the heart and the lungs are connected with pumping blood and breathing air. Here's a fun game on labeling the respiratory system.  

http://www.missmaggie.org/scholastic/science_eng_launcher.html
And a video on the circulatory system: http://kidshealth.org/kid/htbw/_bfs_CSmoviesource.html

Bible: We started talking about the life of Daniel and his friends in the Babylonian captivity. Daniel chose not to eat the food offered to idols and instead, God blessed him and took care of him. Also, King Nebuckadnezzer had a dream and no one could figure it out, except Daniel with God’s help!

Here's a video I made in college to show a story from the book of Daniel:

Next Week:

NO SCHOOL - May 26th, Memorial Day

If you have not submitted the summer school application and you want your child to attend, please make sure you submit it soon. 

June 11th will be the last day of school. It is a 2pm dismissal! That day, there is no lunch served in the cafeteria. We will also have a class party, so please put it on your calendar to come!

Spelling: played, worked, needed, hopped, wagged, stepped, liked, hoped, rules, skates, their, than, there

Bible: "The Lord always keeps his promises; he is gracious in all he does." Psalm 145: 13b

Friday News and Information for May 19-23

This week:
Writing - We continued and finished our All About Animal writing! The students worked so hard! I’m sure their hands hurt from all the writing but they followed my directions and were able to write a very nice article on their animals. We even worked on editing each other’s papers a little bit to polish and make the article perfect!

Math - We practiced adding and subtracting by 10’s and 20’s by using a number grid and in our own head. We also started practicing more with fractions. We cut and glued to show the different ways to show a fraction. 

Bible - This week we focused on the incredible life of Elijah. We learned about his competition with the people of his land to see which god would be able to send fire from heaven to burn up some wood. The people of Baal’s god prayed and danced around but no fire came from him. Elijah even poured water on the wood and then prayed to God and sure enough, God sent fire down to burn up the wood! Wow! We also learned that sometimes God uses the weak things in the world to show himself, like through a whisper instead of wind or an earthquake.

Science - This week we started a unit on the human body! The students were so excited! We learned about the skeletal system and the muscular system. We learned that the body has 206 bones and 640 muscles. They all work together so that we can move, breathe, and eat! Incredible!

Important Information:
Today, your child’s Terra Nova scores are being sent home. The first page is the subject tests of reading, math, science, and social studies, and the second page is the Bible test. It is a little difficult to understand but the “Key” on the bottom will help a little bit. If you have any questions, please let me know.

I am also sending home an Annual Progress Report for reading. This is based off of the Star tests that we have been taking every month. I have highlighted the GE - Grade Equivalent, where your child was on the first test, and where they are now. The numbers such as 1.7 or 2.0 mean the year and the month - so 1.7 would mean 1st grade 7th month of school. 

May 26th NO SCHOOL - Memorial Day

If you have not submitted the summer school application and you want your child to attend, please make sure you submit it soon. 

June 11th will be the last day of school. It is a 2pm dismissal! That day, there is no lunch served in the cafeteria. We will also have a class party, so please put it on your calendar to come!

Next Week:
Bible Memory: "A friend loves at all times." Proverbs 17:17a

Spelling: hops, hopping, stops, stopping, hopes, hoping, makes, making, smiles, smiling, right, new, our

Educational and fun websites!

We have been using some fun yet educational websites to learn about different things recently!

Bones Game: http://www.sheppardsoftware.com/health/anatomy/skeleton/Skeleton_game_1.htm

Skeleton video: http://kidshealth.org/PageManager.jsp?lic=1&article_set=59294&cat_id=20607

Muscle video: http://kidshealth.org/PageManager.jsp?lic=1&article_set=59302&cat_id=20607

National Geographic for kids: http://kids.nationalgeographic.com

Scholastic Book Order

The Scholastic Book Order has recently opened a new website making it easier for parents and teachers to order.

NOW - you can pay in 2 ways:
1. Continue to send US$ Cash to school with your order
2. OR Order by Credit Card.

Here is the website: http://world-schools.scholastic.co.uk/okinawa-christian-school-intl
You can now browse books online as well.

I followed through a few of the steps to show you if you wanted to order online with a credit card.

1. Select what books you want and add them to your basket. When you are finished, press "Go to Checkout"
2. Type in your email address, press "next"
3. Schools - Make sure it says Okinawa Christian School, press "next"

4. Deliver Option. Make sure it says OCSI and my name, Sarah Turner and select "Dispatch Order to School."

 

5. Child Details - Enter your child's name and the class (ex. 1.2, 2.1)

6. Choose Payment Method - enter Credit Card information and select "Pay Using this Address" 

7. The last step should be confirm! You should get an email about your confirmation and Scholastic will also send me a confirmation email. 

THIS CURRENT MAY Order is due by May 23rd!

Friday News and Information for week of May 12-16

Happy Mother’s Day to all the wonderful mom’s of 1.2 students. Thank you for the amazing job you are doing at raising your child. May you be showered with love to show how important and loved you are!

 

THANK YOU to all the parents who came out to join us for our Field Trip last week!! It was SOOO much fun!! The weather was perfect, we saw a lot of animals, and played hard at the wonder museum. Here are some photos and a video that Mrs. Gosin made!

This Week

Writing/ Reading: Since we just went to the zoo last week for our field trip, this week we started a research writing project. Every student picked an animal that they would like to learn more about. I helped supply them books and information from the internet about their animal. We decided to look for 4 things: Description of the animal, it’s habitat, it’s diet (food), and some fun facts. The students are doing a great job finding the information and compiling it onto a paper. What great researchers these students are! I bet many of them will grow up to be scientists!

Math: We took our Unit 8 test yesterday and there are only 2 more units to go! We finished a lesson on sharing pennies using fractions and multiplication as the base. I’m so proud of my students if they use good vocabulary such as “one-half” and “one-fourth.”

Bible: This week we finished the story of Solomon, about how he was such a good king, but later in his life, he married foreign wives who brought their own idols and later Solomon himself worshipped those idols and God was unhappy with him. Now, the kingdom of Israel has split in 2. These must have been not very happy times in Israel, but that makes me think of how much He loves us even when we fall away from him. 

Next Week: 

Progress Report will be emailed out to you on Wednesday!

Spelling Words: hurt, verse, fern, dirt, burn, first, bird, turn, her, girl, great, again, who

Bible Memory: Psalm 8:1 "O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth!"

Friday News and Information for May 5-9

Friday News 

Today was our FIELD TRIP!!!! It was so much fun! We got to see so many different animals and had a blast in the Wonder Museum! The time went by so fast and before we knew it, it was time to say goodbye and head back to school/home. 

This week:

Reading - This week we learned all about the different kinds of animals. We learned about mammals, reptiles, amphibians, and birds. We wrote down some characteristics and watched some fun videos on animals. 

Math - This week we started learning about fractions! WOW! Fractions in 1st grade? But the students did great! We learned how to say 1/2 1/4 and 1/3 as well as look at the equal parts of a whole. Great job students!

Bible - After learning about the life of Jesus, we jumped back to continue the study in the Old Testament. We picked up with Solomon. We learned the story of how God was so pleased with Solomon that he asked King Solomon for whatever he wanted. Did Solomon ask for money, or to be famous? NO! He asked for a discerning heart to know right and wrong - he asked for wisdom! God was so pleased that he gave him wisdom AND riches AND fame! Wow! Even a Queen from a far away land came to visit him to see if all she had heard was really true.

Chapel - This week in Chapel, we got to hear from Mrs. Perete, one of the office ladies. She is Filipino and along with another lady, they showed us the Filipino folk dance called Tinikling. It is with 2 bamboo sticks and you jump and dance in the middle. Most of the teachers and some students got to try it as well! Here is a video of the teachers trying it.

Next Week:

MONDAY MAY 5th - NO SCHOOL! Children’s Day

Progress Reports send out - May 14th

Memorial Day - May 26 - No School!

Spelling Words: Lord, start, sort, horse, far, chore, more, hard, part, jar, an, were, his

Bible Memory: (Again) “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understandings; in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight.” Proverbs 3:5-6