WORDS THEIR WAY – New Word Sort
January 8 - WORD CHECK
I will be scoring the official Words Their Way
Placement Test during our Winter Break. Group
placement for 2016 will be in place after our return.
Feel free to use the online sorting which is available
during break. PRACTICE ALL SIGHT WORDS!
News from Room 105
www.Colleen.Johnson@LZ95.org
www.lz95.org
December 11-18
Reading
We enjoy reading with our
READING BUDDIES every
Friday. They help us work on
our reading fluency,
comprehension, and give us
tips to read better.
Writing
We planted an AMARYLLIS bulb. We are
watching it grow. We measure it, water
WE
it, and wait for it to bloom!
We use crayons, markers, and pencils colors a lot at
school. I plan to send them home over our break so you
can evaluate and SHARPEN the pencil colors so we start
2016 well. If you purchase any new supplies PLEASE
MARK EACH ITEM! In the life of a first grade teacher, it
often saves the day!
Grrrrrr says our little finger
puppet dog if he notices
someone has forgotten their
capital letters and/or
punctuation. I am watching to
see that children are
remembering these two
important parts of their
sentences. There are no
excuses for forgetting them! 
We will continue to collect food items for families that need some support.
Thank you to many people who already sent items to school. We will use these
items for a math graphing activity next week.
Hats, scarves, gloves and mittens are also being collected to help families. The
tree in our front lobby is looking quite festive. Thank you for your generosity!
We have been giving presentations
on CLOCKS. The children all know
how to spell the word clock, too.
Did you know there are ANALOG
CLOCKS and a DIGITAL CLOCKS? All
first graders should know how to
tell time to the hour and half hour.
Ask your child questions about
their presentation. Throughout the
day, ask your child questions about
telling time.
Happy Holidays! There is NO HOMEWORK this week! WE will NOT HAVE A WORD
ANOTHER WORD CHECK UNTIL JANUARY 8. Please spend your time reading together,
playing math games, and perhaps shopping with some cash to help your child learn more
about the value of money!
If you are baking, teach your child about measurement. HAVE FUN! 
Please continue to use RAZ-KIDS! This is a perfect time of year for your child to
use this program as well as MyOn. Each program offers excellent reading
practice for your child. I hope you also use Pebble Go which is a program that
we use a lot in the spring when we study Animals and Habitats.
The login is in your child’s red folder!
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We enjoy technology and use it
wisely! We appreciate using it.
Remember to Check the Seth Paine Website for additional
information!
UPCOMING DATES
December 21 - January 4 (return on Monday)
January 15 – Institute Day
January 18 – No School – Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
ELA LIBRARY OPPORUNITIY
Cultural opportunity at the ELA LIBRARY - Viva! Mexico
Explore Mexican culture through music, dance, a story and a holiday art project. Presented by Color My
World Children's Art Studio.
For ages 4 and up. Children 6 and under must be accompanied by an adult.
Please register.
Monday, December 21 from 1-2:30pm
We are doing a lot of writing in WRITING WORKSHOP. WOW! It takes a lot of time to be a good
author and illustrator. We know a good story has a setting, characters, problem, and a solution.
We try to make our sentences interesting. When we start a story, we do our best to spell the
words correctly but we are more concerned about the story. It takes a lot of practice.
We painted our setting and added characters to it. We are working on our settings in the
pictures below.