Mrs. Bowles' Bees

“I Love CTES” Virtual Auction:

• The Virtual Auction will be live from 3/18-3/29; we hope you will browse the auction website and find something to bid on in order to help raise money for our wonderful school. The total right now if already over 3,000 and our class baskets has 4 bids so far! Our PTA is using this fundraiser to gather funds that will directly benefit our students! There are many fun items and experiences. Please scroll down and click on “View All Items.” There are 4 pages of class baskets, teacher experiences, gift cards and more! Once you click on an item to bid, it has instructions on how to pay and pick-up items. Our administration is having fun incentives for reaching our goals- pie in the face and getting slimed!

Auction End Time has Changed

We heard some concerns that our originally scheduled auction end time of March 29th at 11:45 pm was a little late for people to get in their final bids. We heard you! We have changed the end time. The auction will now end on March 29th at 9:00 pm.

Heritage Night:

• As you are all aware that we are planning our Heritage Night festival on Thursday, April 21st. Thank you to those families who have filled in the survey form to help us plan this event better. If you have not yet filled out this form, please do so by clicking on the link below.

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1CTniJZ59uyZE3xtHqHvFPzbhXVbVoP4i2Qv4fgt5CgA/edit?usp=sharing

Henrico County Survey:

• You received an email from HCPS (on 3/7) regarding the release of the 2021-2022 family survey.  This survey lets us know how we are doing and what we can do better.  It is essential that CTE families’ voices are heard.  Please take a few minutes to fill out this survey. Here is a link if you would like more information.  If CTE gets a strong percentage of participation from our families, we are going to have a school-wide dance party.

Special congratulations to Charlotte for earning a Cub Coin last week for being a detective and finding a lost piece of gold!  She sparked joy for the whole class!!!

We will learn about:

Language: r controlled vowels, vowel teams ee/ea, proper nouns in a sentence, using headings to help with comprehension, author’s purpose for writing a story

Math: Money, counting coins to $1 or 100 cents (money assessment this week)

Science:  Sun

Reminders:

3/23/22 Spirit Night at Panera 4 to 8pm

3/29/22 Spring Picture Day

3/31/22 Family Picnic/Math Night

4/21/22 Heritage Night

I hope everyone has enjoyed their long 3 day weekend.  The snow was quite a surprise after such a beautiful day on Friday!

We will have our 3rd Young Scientist lesson on Monday!  We will be learning about measurement!!!

Congratulations to Ishita, Chakshan, Harvey, Cameron and Sophia for being chosen as winners in the trivia challenges for Read Across America Week!

This week we will learn:

Language: continue with the long a sound spelled with ai/ay  in words, begin learning about r controlled vowels (cave/carve), opinion writing

Math: Time, begin a unit on money (we will learn to identify and count pennies, nickels, dimes and quarters to $1)

Science: Force and Motion

Social Studies:  Life in Virginia past and present

Special Message from our CTES PTA!!!!

One week until our Auction starts!!

We hope you are as excited as we are for our first ever ‘I Love CTES Virtual Auction’ starting next week!! The PTA Board has been busy procuring some amazing items from local businesses, our class room reps have put together some fabulous auction baskets that your kids can preview in the halls at school, and most importantly you will not want to miss out on the awesome teacher experiences!!

Be on the lookout for a flyer with more information on how to participate next week!!  

And follow us on Facebook & Instagram as we will start previewing items tomorrow!

This is going to be a 4 day school week.  School will be closed on Friday, March 11th.

Please turn in homework sheet on Thursday this week!

Thank you to all the families who assisted in helping your child find a toy that showed motion.  We had so many fun toys with a variety of motions.  See link below for our toys in motion!

https://photos.app.goo.gl/crAetdo5jWcCPtBGA

Great job to our friends who helped us to celebrate our culture, heritage or place we were born!

This week we will learn:

Language:  Plot and Theme of stories, adding -ed and -ing to words with both short and long vowels, writing stories with bold beginning, mighty middle and excellent endings and writing stories with theme.

Math:  Time to the hour and half hour, counting back from 30 to 1

Science:  Motion, force, vibration

Please have your child bring in a toy on Friday that shows motion.  It can be straight, circular, back and forth, vibration.  We will share them as part of our science lesson on Friday.

This week we will celebrate Read Across America Week.  Students will be given a fun trivia question each day! We will read fun books each day to help us celebrate the theme!   We will also have Spirit Days to help us celebrate.  See below:

Monday – Silly Socks Day!

Tuesday – Jersey Day!  Support your favorite sports team

Wednesday – Dr. Seuss’ Birthday – Dress up as your favorite book character!

Thursday – America’s A Melting Pot!  Wear something to represent your family’s heritage or hometown.

Friday – Wear your Favorite Color Day!

This week we will learn:

Language: Plot and Theme in stories, syllables, doubling consonants, practice writing stories with bold beginning, mighty middle and excellent endings.

Math: fractions of a whole and fractions of a set, time to the hour and half hour

Social Studies: Review and assess George Washington and Thomas Jefferson (study guide was sent home last week)

Science: Force and Motion – how things move

Monday is President’s Day.  Students will have a half day of school.  We we begin dismissal at 11:35.

Tuesday will be a Spirit Day to celebrate the date 2/22/22!  It will be Twins, Ties & Tutus!  Have fun planning!

Thursday, February 24th – 101st day of school.  Please check your child’s folder from last week about special events happening in first grade that day.  See the link below for a copy!

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1lL4fW5BaxgwJShBnViwbc6b4xITp7iyctlVxMGEY59Y/edit?usp=sharing

Special congratulations to Sahana for winning 1st place in the Primary Visual Arts portion of the Reflections Contest!  We are so proud of you Sahana!!!!

Last week we enjoyed a wonderful dental lesson by Dr. Carter.  She is an amazing pediatric dentist.  Your child brought home a bag with a toothbrush and other fun things!

This week we will learn:

Language: continue working on writing excellent endings to our stories, review blends, making predictions,

Math:  Continue our unit on Fractions (equal parts, fair share, 1/2 and 1/4 and fractions of a set)

Social Studies:  President’s Day, George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Thomas Jefferson.  (Look for another study guide in your child’s folder on Monday!)

Monday is Valentine’s Day!  Remember to bring your valentine cards to pass out to friends!

Last week was a fun filled week!  We  completed and presented our animal research projects! (See link below)

https://photos.app.goo.gl/zZdrv1eqUhQGDeHH9

We also celebrated the end of the second nine weeks with a pep rally on Friday!  So much fun!!

I want to announce our Spirit Winners for the second nine weeks:  Sahana Krthik and Tommaso  Ruggeri!  Thank you both for helping to spark joy in our room and for helping others.  Congratulations!  See link below for pictures of the pep rally and Spark Joy Award winners!

https://photos.app.goo.gl/WXmbbp76R6MQ5cpx6

This week we will learn about:

Language:  review blends, practice setting a purpose for reading, make predictions, review story order and text features.  We will also learn to write and add an excellent ending to our stories

Math: combinations to ten using addition and subtraction, equality using number sentence (3+4 = 5+2), equal parts and begin fractions unit

Social Studies: Famous Virginians focusing on Maggie Walker and Arthur Ashe – look for study guides to come home this week!

We have been researching animals!  Each student chose an animal and has learned to use a graphic organizer to research and collect facts about the animal’s habitat, body covering, appendages and food it eats along with interesting facts about the animal.   This week we will learn to put that information into a report form.  We will also begin to design and create a habitat for the animal we researched.  On Friday your child brought home a letter in their cub folder explaining the project and supplies we would like to have donated.  If you are able, please look over the list and donate any supplies you can!  Thanks

This week we will learn:

Language: As we read stories about individuals who have been advocates for change, we will learn to find information that is true in a narrative non-fiction text and identify story elements in a nonfiction text; syllables in words to help us read new and unfamiliar words; adding a excellent ending to our writing

Math: problem solving with word problems and creating our own word problems and number combinations to ten to help us add and subtract

Science: Complete animal projects and reports

Social Studies:  Black History Month – we will learn about African Americans who have helped to change our world

If your child missed the first picture day, Monday, January 31 is be the make-up day!  Wear your smile!

We will begin an animal research project this week.  A letter with more details will come home later.  The project will be done completely at school.  Please be sure to bring in a shoebox by Monday, February 7.  I have a few extras but would appreciate any that can be donated!

I will be reaching out if I feel it is necessary to meet for a parent teacher conference at this time.  Please contact me if you would like to schedule a conference.

This week we will learn about:

Language: long vowels with silent e, animal research, writing using transitional words, how to add a mighty middle to our stories

Math:  adding and subtracting 10 from a number, how to attack and solve word problems

Science: Animals (habitat, body coverings, appendages, wild/tame)

This week will be the end of the second nine week grading period.  Wednesday will be a half day instructional day.  Dismissal will begin at 11:35.

Remember to bring library books tomorrow!

Be sure to dress for the weather, we will go outside unless it is 32 degrees or raining!!!!

This week we will learn about:

Language:  Long u with silent e (cube, cute), writing using transitional word (first, next, then, last), writing about winter weather and activities people in Virginia do in winter

Math:  Place value, comparing numbers with greater than/less/than and equal, number order for numbers to 110

Science: Winter changes to people, plants, animals and weather

Social Studies:  Map skills and land forms

Important Dates:

Wednesday, January 26 – Half Day!

Monday, January 31 – Picture Retake Day!

I see snow, sleet and rain outside so far today!  Hope you are all staying safe and warm.  Monday is Martin Luther King Jr. Day.  We will be off from school on Monday to honor and celebrate MLK!

Reminder – the homework changed last week!

1.  There is a new homework letter to be completed and is due on Friday.

2.  Also, each student is to complete 5 or more lessons in Dreambox.  I check the accounts on Sunday to see who met the requirements for homework for the previous week.  If you are not sure how many lessons you child has completed, have them log onto Dreambox and go to their Avatar in the top corner.  It will show the lessons completed for the week.  It resets on Sunday.

I also sent home a sheet for students to make a map of their room.  Please work with them to be sure that they include all of the parts of a map:  title, compass rose, map legend with symbols.  Map of your room is due on Tuesday, January 18!

We will begin a unit on animals next week.  We are asking that each student bring in 1 shoe box to use for their project.  The project will be completed at school.

The week we will learn about:

Language: long o with magic e and long u with the magic e, continue research on Saber-toothed tiger, and using transitional words in our writing

Math:  place value, comparing numbers using greater than and less than, ordering numbers

Social Studies: Martin Luther King, Jr., map skills expanded to include locating the United States, Washington, D.C., Virginia, and Richmond on a map.  We will begin a unit on geography and landforms