Friday News for the Week of Jan 9-13

Happy Friday!

Wow, it’s gotten really cold out, but we are warm and learning a lot in our classroom of 1.1!

This Week:

Monday was Kite Day! Lots of wind for this day and lots of kites went up high!

Reading: We focused on “Tune into Interesting Words.” We read several books and “tuned” our ear to listen to see if a word is interesting; maybe it’s fun to say, maybe it looks fun, or maybe we don’t know the meaning. After we found interesting words, we wrote them on our Word Wall. I asked the students 2 questions: “Why are these words important? and What should we do with these words now that we have collected them?” The students had great answers like “We should use the words in our writing!” Yes! I hope these students will broaden their vocabulary and use all sorts of interesting words as they grow up!

Math: We finished up Chapter 4 with a Math test today. The students learned all different kinds of subtraction strategies. Some were very confusing, but overall the students did well staying focused and doing their best work. Chapter 5 is about Place Value!

Bible: In our story through the Old Testament, the Israelites had to wait 40 years before they could go into Canaan because they disobeyed God. Now the 40 years are over, Moses has died, and Joshua is the new leader. He gives a speech to the Israelites as they enter the Promised Land and tells them to “Do not be terrified, do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go.” Joshua 1:9. They would face many obstacles but they need to put their trust in God because He is with them! Their first obstacle was the Jordan River. Once again, the Israelites walked through on dry ground and God stopped the river flow. Next obstacle was the city of Jericho. The Lord told Joshua to march around the city for 7 days with trumpets. On the 7th day, they marched around 7 times and gave a big shout. Right then, the walls of the city started to fall

For Fun Friday, we watched the VeggieTales version called “Josh and the Big Wall.”

Social Studies: This week we learned the cardinal directions such as “North, South, East, and West.”

Next Week:

Monday, Jan 16th - No School!

Friday, Jan 20th - No School!

Jan 17-19 - OCSI School Spirit Week!!

Elementary students: Are you ready to dress up crazy for Spirit Week?

Here’s the themes for the week:

Tuesday, Jan 17 - Pajama Day! - Wear pajamas to school! (Make sure it’s still in dress code!)

Wednesday, Jan 18 - Crazy Hair and Hat Day - Wear your hair crazy or wear a crazy hat!

Thursday, Jan 19 -

Kindergarten-2nd grade - Character Day - dress up as a book character

Do you know which book character you are going to be yet? Make sure you have a book and a simple costume to go with it. Parents are welcome to come from 9:00-10:00 to watch us parade around the school.

January 19th - Character Day:

This is a regular day of school for the students. Students need to come to school dressed up as a book character. Costumes don't have to be over the top extravagant. Some ideas could be Clifford, Pete the Cat, Curious George etc. Please also make sure your child bring the book with them to school that day (If they need to, they can check it out from the library beforehand). At 9:15 the students will parade around the school. Parents are welcome to come from 9:00-10:00 to watch the students parade around the school and return to their classroom for some activities. Also, feel free to send a change of clothes with your child if their costume will get in the way with the rest of the school day.

No Spelling Words: Review the long a and long o words

Bible Memory Verse:”But as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.” Joshua 24:15

Upcoming Events:

• 1/16: Martin Luther King, Jr. Day - No School *
• 1/19: 2nd Quarter Ends
• 1/20: Teacher Work Day - No School for Students*  
• 1/23: 3rd Quarter Begins
• 1/26: 1st Semester Report Cards Issued
• 2/20: Presidents’ Day - No School *
• 2/21: Progress Reports
• 3/13: OCSI Holiday - No School *

Computer Lab Games

Game 1

Game 2

Game 3

Game 4

Game 5

Game 6

Game 7

Game 8

Game 9

Friday News for the Week of January 4-6th

Hello everyone and Happy New Year!

I hope your New Year was filled with wonderful times spent with family and friends. I’m looking forward to the full year of 2017!

I spent my Christmas Break in Florida with my family. It was the first time in 3 years that my whole family could spend some time together. Here’s a picture we took at the beach on our last night together!

The students returned back to school ready to learn! This week we reviewed some procedures, make some new year resolutions, and learned a really difficult math lesson!

Reading: While I was in the States, I bought some more Pete the Cat books! I read them to the students this week and we all enjoyed them.

Writing: We wrote about our Christmas Break as well as we made new year resolutions. The students wanted to work hard on things like, “Help my mom and dad at home” and “Get 100% on all my spelling tests.” I was proud of the students and their goals!

Math: We did a class graph to see how many students traveled during Christmas Break and how many students stayed up until midnight on New Year's Eve.

This week we did an extremely hard math lesson for 1st graders, but they stayed focus and worked REALLY hard! I was so proud of them! It’s a good strategy to know, and I know they will learn about it more and more as they get older.

Bible: After finishing the Christmas Story, we jumped back into the story of Moses. We reviewed up to the story of Moses and learned about the 12 spies that went into Canaan. Only 2 came back to say that they can go into the land, and the other 10 said that it would be too scary. The people listened to the 10 and so God did not let them go into Canaan, the Promised Land, because they didn’t trust him. Wow!

Pictures from Fun Friday today:

My best friend who lives in Hungary came to visit me in Okinawa! She stopped by the classroom today to help out. I enjoyed sharing 1st grade at OCSI with her!

Next Week:

January 9th - Kite Day:

This is a regular day of school for the students. From 10:00-10:45, the 1st and 2nd graders will go outside on the soccer field to fly kites. Parents are invited to come to help your child fly kites. Please bring or send a kite with you child on January 9th. I'm looking forward to seeing you there!

Bible Memory Verse: “Do not be terrified; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go.” Joshua 1:9

Spelling Words: go   no   so  boat  coat  rode  home  hope  old  told  give  said

Upcoming Events:

Jan 17-19 - OCSI School Spirit Week!!

Elementary students: Are you ready to dress up crazy for Spirit Week?

Here’s the themes for the week:

 Tuesday, Jan 17 - Pajama Day! - Wear pajamas to school! (Make sure it’s still in dress code!)

 Wednesday, Jan 18 - Crazy Hair and Hat Day - Wear your hair crazy or wear a crazy hat!

Thursday, Jan 19 -

Kindergarten-2nd grade - Character Day - dress up as a book character

January 19th - Character Day:

This is a regular day of school for the students. Students need to come to school dressed up as a book character. Costumes don't have to be over the top extravagant. Some ideas could be Clifford, Pete the Cat, Curious George etc. Please also make sure your child bring the book with them to school that day (If they need to, they can check it out from the library beforehand). At 9:15 the students will parade around the school. Parents are welcome to come from 9:00-10:00 to watch the students parade around the school and return to their classroom for some activities. Also, feel free to send a change of clothes with your child if their costume will get in the way with the rest of the school day.

• 1/16: Martin Luther King, Jr. Day - No School *
• 1/19: 2nd Quarter Ends
• 1/20: Teacher Work Day - No School for Students*  
• 1/23: 3rd Quarter Begins
• 1/26: 1st Semester Report Cards Issued
• 2/20: Presidents’ Day - No School *
• 2/21: Progress Reports
• 3/13: OCSI Holiday - No School *

Friday News and Beginning of Christmas Break!

Happy Beginning of Christmas Break!

We had a great last week of school together!

Reading: We read a lot of Christmas stories this week and reviewed our reading strategies such as beginning, middle and end, and making predictions.

Math: We continued through Chapter 4 and learned some more good subtraction strategies such as writing a subtraction number sentence and using doubles to help subtract.

Bible: We finished up the wonderful Christmas story of Christ’s birth this week. Our last picture we took out of the envelope was a cross because the whole reason Jesus was born to this earth was to die on the cross for us. Thank you Jesus!

Friday was our Christmas Party! Thank you to the parents, grandparents and friends who came out! The food was all delicious and it was great to talk with you all!

Everyone, please have a wonderful Christmas and New Years and we will see you on January 4th!

Friday News for Week of December 5-9

Happy Friday!

We had a great week of school knowing there’s only a week left before Christmas Break!!

Reading: We focused on asking questions while reading. It is so important to ask TONS of questions while reading. We practiced together with many books and the students asked so many questions! What’s going to happen? Why did the character do that? Where did that character go? When did that change? and so on! I hope they grow up to continue to ask good questions about the world around them!

Math: We took our Chapter 3 test a day early and jumped into Chapter 4. Chapter 4 is Subtraction strategies to 20. We already learned how to count back to help us subtract as well as subtracting on the number line.

Bible: This week we started the Christmas Story. I put up 10 envelopes on the wall, each with a picture to help tell the story. We have opened 5 envelopes so far and have 5 more to go! We learned about Zachariah and Elizabeth and the birth of John who would go before Jesus and tell everyone that Jesus is coming. We then learned about an angel coming to Mary to tell her she would have a baby - God’s own son! Joseph also had a visit from an angel. Because of a census, they had to go back to Bethlehem but there was no more room! Jesus was about to be born! When he was born, he was laid in a manger - where animals eat their food! But this baby Jesus was so special. He is the Son of the Most High God, he’s called Emmanuel which means “God with Us” and he would grow up to save everyone from their sins. Wow!

Friday: We had an ice cream party for being one of the top classes to raise money for Walkathon!

Next Week:

Spelling Words: ate   late   made   cake   came   name   rain   sail   day   more   may   out   more (13 spelling words!)

Bible Memory: “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men on whom his favor rests.” Luke 2:14

FRIDAY - 1.1 CHRISTMAS PARTY!!

Parents are welcome to come at 10:30am! We’ll play games, do a craft, and eat together! Parents if you are willing to send in some food so we can all eat together. Please reply to me and I will add your food item to the list.

School will be dismissed at 12:30pm. If you are unable to come to the party - your child needs to be picked up at 12:30 or will ride the bus and arrive at your bus stop after leaving OCSI at 12:40.

I told the students today, that if they want to bring a Christmas present to a friend in the class, they need to have something for everyone in the class. You do not have to have anything, but if you’d like, please make sure it is something small (like a little bag with some candies) for every student (We have 18 students. If you would like a class list, please let me know!)

Here’s what we have so far:

Food:
Chicken Nuggets - Yellope, Fujita
Hashed Potatoes - Seto
Onigiri - Maruyama
Sandwiches - Sagawa
Meatballs and juice boxes - Sneller
Shortbread - Kinjo
Fruits and Plates - Cooper
Rice Crackers - Shum

Cookies - Katsumi

Drinks and Cups - Qi
Drinks - Kosinski
Drinks and Forks - Ohori

Christmas Break is from December 17-January 3rd. School will start back on January 4th.

Have a nice weekend!

1.1 Christmas Party FOOD

Here's what's been confirmed as of 12/12 7:30am

Food:
Chicken Nuggets - Yellope, Fujita
Hashed Potatoes - Seto
Onigiri - Maruyama
Ham and Cheese Sandwiches - Sagawa
Meatballs and Juice boxes - Sneller

Shortbread - Kinjo
Fruits and Plates - Cooper
Rice Crackers - Shum
Snacks - Komatsu
Cookies - Katsumi
Petit Fours - Brandon

Drinks and Cups - Qi
Drinks - Kosinski
Drinks and Forks - Ohori

Friday News for Last Week

Hello everyone,

Did you enjoy the Christmas Program on Friday evening? I was so proud of all the students K-5 who sang and acted in the program. Thank you for coming out to watch the program.

Last week was a fun and crazy week! We practiced a lot for the Christmas Program but we also learned a lot!

Reading: Last week we focused on Mental Image. Sometimes books, especially as kids get older, don't have pictures! So it's important for kids to imagine the pictures in their head. We read several Shel Silverstein poems to get our minds imagining. I later read them part of a poem "My Neighbor's Dog is Purple" and had them draw me a picture. Then I finished reading the poem and had them draw a new picture because come to find out, the dog was a crocodile! The students did great!

Math: We are gearing up to finish Chapter 3 next week. This chapter we learned so many strategies for adding such as counting on, using a number line, using the doubles, using the numbers to make 10 and so on. I hope the students will use these strategies throughout their life!

Bible: We are following the Israelites through the desert after they left Egypt. This week we learned about the 10 Commandments that God gave to Moses and the Israelites. Those are important for us to follow even today! We also learned about the Tabernacle that God had Moses build while they were in the desert. We are going to take a break from Moses here and go into the Christmas story for the next two weeks!

On Friday, we all ate lunch outside! Picnic!

This Week:

Spelling Words: boy   boys  box   boxes  dog  dogs  tent  tents  about   how

Bible Memory: “Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord.” Luke 2:11

Progress Reports emailed to you today!