First Grade at Kaechele — Go Global KES!

We are excited and ready for the 2019-2020 school year!  Come meet the First grade teachers from 1:30-3:00 p.m. on Thursday, August 29th.  The PTA will be in the cafeteria with information and selling KES Spirit wear.  We look forward to seeing everyone then!

Our Veterans Day Assembly will be held on Friday, November 9^th beginning at 9:00 a.m.  At our assembly we will honor, recognize and celebrate all those served and sacrificed for the cause of liberty.  On Friday, please have your child wear red, white, and blue.

Please help let our soldiers know we are thinking of them every day, and especially during the holiday season.  This can be a very lonely time for a soldier who has been deployed away from family and friends.  Please consider purchasing some of the items listed below which will be packaged in boxes.  These boxes of “goodies” will be shipped after Veterans Day to arrive in time for the holidays.  We are collecting these items through Friday, November 9^th.   Items needed are:

Personal Items (travel size)

Shampoo, conditioner

Hand/body lotion

Deodorant/Antiperspirant

Toothbrush/Toothpaste

Dental floss

“Wisps” (dental cleaners)

Gold Bond foot powder

Hand sanitizer

Q-tips

Snacks

Powdered drink mixes like Gatorade, coffee, Kool-Aid, and Crystal Light

Healthy individual snack packs – nuts, dried fruit, beef jerky, fruit snacks, trail mix

Power bars and granola bars

Instant oatmeal

Pop tarts, crackers, cookies

Tuna/chicken in foil package

Reading material

Crossword Puzzle books

We hope these photos will help you understand the many levels of spellers in first grade and how the sorts should look.  We know it can be confusing!  We promise everyone will get the hang of it!  Thanks for your patience!

Short vowel sort——sorted by word families—op, og, and ot.   Feel free to think of other words that also belong in these families!

Digraphs—–Digraphs are 2 letters that go together to make a totally new sound (th, sh, ch, ph).  This sort is comparing the c, h, and -ch sound.  Your child should know how to spell the words that are written on some some of the pictures.  However, the ones that do not have words on them, your child should only know what group they go in.  These words have some spelling features in them that your child is not ready for (such as ie in chief, the silent b in comb).

This sort focuses on beginning blends.  Your child should know what category each word should go in, but only focus on the actual spelling of the words written on the pictures.  The other words have features in them that your child is not ready for (skeleton, -ir in skirt).

This sort focuses on comparing long vowels that have a quiet e at the end (CVCe words).  Children should know how to spell these words.  Feel free to think of others that follow the same pattern.  (Note that in the long e area, the two words shown follow the double e rule.  This pattern is a more common way to make long e.  Not many words with a long e follow the CVCe pattern. )

This sort focuses on comparing short and long a.  Children should be able to spell all these words.  Feel free to think of others in these categories as well!  Note there is an oddball category in this sort.  The word is ‘what’.  Looking at it, you would think it would go in the short a category, but the a does not make the sound as in ‘cat’.  That is why it is in the ‘oddball’ category.  

We have been so busy in first grade! We have settled into our daily routines and been working hard each day!

We made an amazing symbol of peace and unity with all of KES!

We hope you will spread peace through our community and beyond by sharing your KES heart photo!  Drop it off at a favorite restaurant, library, store, or send it further with a family member!  How far can we have spread love and peace!  Graham sent his to OHIO with his grandmother to share at Macy’s!  Kailey dropped hers off at the Twin Hickory Library!  Where will your heart be sent?

We have been working on patterns—both repeating and growing patterns.  Growing patterns can be tricky!  We have done a lot of practice in class to help the children understand that growing patterns ‘grow’ by following a rule every single time.

We are ready for word study!  Children will be bringing their blue homework folder and notebook home Monday with their first word sort!  A menu of activities and directions will be in the blue folder.  CAUTION!  You might be confused at first!  It’s OK!  It will take a couple of weeks for this to go really smoothly.  We will post photos of the completed sorts to help you.  Please keep in mind that we want written homework to be kept to about 20 minutes.  Quality, not quantity!  Follow the handwriting guidelines and have each night help build strong habits.  Be sure to have your child read to you at least 15 minutes each night.  Feel free to also read TO your child to build a love of reading, vocabulary, and attention.

We look forward to October!

Hello Families!

We know your child is excited to bring home the KES Peace Day Heart photo!  Our challenge is to spread peace throughout our community!  Please see Mrs. Patterson’s post below—

On Friday, 9/21/18, our school celebrated International Peace Day by participating in a school wide assembly and recognized ways to be peaceful.  When we find our own sense of peace, then we can share it with others.  At KES we show our support for peace by being kind,  loving, compassionate, and empathetic with each other.  Each KES student will receive a copy of a picture of our entire school in the shape of a heart.  Students were challenged by Mrs. Patterson to support peace in our school and community by sharing this picture with an individual person, a group of people or perhaps in a local community organization.  Students can write a note on the heart, color a picture, or just post the picture somewhere.  The purpose of this activity is to encourage our students to think about ways to share peace within their community and to also advertise that KES students promote peace.    We look forward to hearing how KES hearts have made a difference in our community.

Our hope is that you personalize this challenge  to spread much needed peace throughout our community!

We would LOVE for you to bring your KES Peace Day Heart photo somewhere special to you and your family.  Tell them about your mission to spread love, peace, and acceptance.  Take a photo of your family donating your heart to someone in our community—whether that be a favorite store, restaurant, church, special neighbor, grandparent, family member, you name it!   Share it on our blog!  It would be amazing to see how far we can reach in our quest for peace!  Visiting a family member in the future?  Take the KES Peace Heart with you and share our message!    We would LOVE to see us work together to make a difference in our world through our blog!

Good luck in spreading world peace!

Twin Hickory Library!  Thanks, Kailey!

PEACE DAY Homework:  #KES Stands for Peace
On Friday, 9/21/18, our school celebrated International Peace Day by participating in a school wide assembly and recognized ways to be peaceful.  When we find our own sense of peace, then we can share it with others. At KES we show our support for peace by being kind, loving, compassionate, and empathetic with each other.  Each KES student will receive a copy of a picture of our entire school in the shape of a heart. Students were challenged by Mrs. Patterson to support peace in our school and community by sharing this picture with an individual person, a group of people or perhaps in a local community organization.  Students can write a note on the heart, color a picture, or just post the picture somewhere. The purpose of this activity is to encourage our students to think about ways to share peace within their community and to also advertise that KES students promote peace. We look forward to hearing how KES hearts have made a difference in our community!  

We are off to an amazing start in first grade!  We hope that your KES coyote has shared lots of fun memories with you from our first week of school!

This week, we will be diving into learning more about being a good citizen, learning about patterns, sharing ideas and solving problems with teammates, and expressing ourselves through our writing.  Our first official homework will be creating a “ME MUSEUM”.  We hope you received the directions via the Coyote communication folder!  Not only that, everyone should get in the habit of reading each and every night.  This is vital in growing strong readers!  This might look differently for different folks—-‘reading’ a book with someone, or reading it independently.  No matter what the level, each child should read every night.

Please take the time to join our AMAZING PTA!  Our PTA does so many things to support children and teachers!  Our goal is to exceed 100% membership!

We also hope you will help in our classrooms on so many levels.  Please be sure to fill out the volunteer application so that you will be able to support our children!

Lastly, we can’t wait to see you and talk about our classes on Back to School night!  We hope to see you this Thursday night at 6:30!

WELCOME TO FIRST GRADE!  We are so excited for an amazing year!

Coyote Courier May 25th

Summer Reading!

This is the link where you will find ALL of the Summer Reading information you need, including any required reading assignments (5^th grade ONLY*). Elementary students are not required to complete an assignment; they are simply challenged to READ WIDELY and join the Summer Reading Club with the public library.  HCPS has provided optional BINGO boards which can also be used to track reading. The links for these can be found on the Summer Reading Webpage, but we will not be sending paper copies home. As in past years, there is also an option for rising 3^rd-5^th grade students to get a jump start on their 2018-19 40 Book Challenge by submitting up to 5 books from different genres. If you are a rising 3^rd through 5^th grade teacher, I have shared the spreadsheet with you so you can check for submissions in September.

We want to thank all of our parents and PTA families for the love you have shown us for Teacher Appreciation week!   From the raffles, the FOOD, the massages, the little treats in our mailboxes, to the homemade cards and gifts—-it was an AMAZING WEEK!  Thank you from the bottom of our hearts for making us feel special and appreciated!  It is an honor to work at KES every day!