A visit from Officier Pugh!

On Friday, Mr. Pugh came by to talk with the kids about some holiday safety tips and about his job at the courthouse. It's so neat to learn more about community helpers and their jobs!

November Star Students!

Ashley and Chris were our November Star Students! Ashley is a sweet girl who loves school!

Chris always does his best in school and is very considerate of others.

Special thanks to Chris and Ashley's family for joining us and sending in yummy treats for the kids to enjoy!

Real Men Read!

Last week was real men read week and we had some special men come into class to read to us.

 Nigel's dad came in and read a book about Sea Turtles- Thanks again Mr. Smith!

We also had Sheriff Rutherford read to us- What an awesome treat!

Boosterthon Results!

WOW! Alimacani is looking at a pledged profit of over $23,000! That is going to put a huge dent in our playground fund. Thank you so much to everyone who pledged and to the kids for working so hard to earn those pledges! Pugh's Patriots came in 2nd place in 1st grade with $61 a lap and a profit of over $2,000!

Presley was our top earner with $855! WOWIE WOW WOW!

 If we can collect 100% by Wednesday, November 28th, 10% of our class profit comes directly back to our classroom for us to use!

Please help your student get in touch with their sponsors. Sponsors can pay three ways—Cash, Check or Credit Card. 

If an e-mail address was entered with the original pledge on www.funrun.com, your sponsor will receive a pledge link to pay directly by credit card if they so choose or they can enter their e-mail at www.funrun.com/payment.  If not, they can mail cash or check to you and you can send it all in at once with your child’s collection envelope. That envelope went home last Friday with a reminder letter highlighting what’s outstanding. You can also log on to www.funrun.com for all the information you may need.

Thanks again for your help and support of our class! Let’s work together to finish strong and reach our goal! 

Boosterthon Fun Run!

Yay for Pugh's Patriots! We are in 1st place in 1st grade for pledges and have made it to $55 per lap for the Fun Run tomorrow! The Boosterthon Fun Run program involves all students in a fun, team building, fitness event while helping our school raise much-needed funds. Please make sure your students wear their Boosterthon Shirts and dress for the cooler weather tomorrow.

Tonight is the LAST NIGHT to get pledges so here’s how you can help:
1) LOG-ON to your student’s website at https://www.funrun.com/ using your student’s Pledge Book and access code. Log on to watch the Highway USA music videos, and enter pledge information.

2) GET PLEDGES by connecting your student with sponsors. Be sure to capture and record the e-mail address of each sponsor, as they will have an easy opportunity to pay for your student’s pledge by credit card online.

3) COME TO THE BOOSTERTHON FUN RUN TOMORROW MORNING! Remember, students will be running 25-35 laps and we would love to have lots of support for our team! For tomorrow’s Fun Run times and a video message, go to http://boosterthoninfo.com/alimacani-elementary-school I’ll see you tomorrow at the Boosterthon Fun Run!

Boosterthon!

The kids have gotten many prizes from earning pledges to help improve our playground. Don't forget about the weekend challenge to earn $2 pledge per lap to earn the light up superball! Yay for Boosterthon!

October Star Students

Ashden and Mackenzie were our October Star Students! Ashden is a great friend and loves Math. Mackenzie is a great class helper and loves to read and write. Yay for our awesome Star Students!

MOSH field trip

We all had so much fun on our first field trip to the MOSH! Thank you so much to all of our awesome chaperones!

Boosterthon!

Boosterthon has come to Alimacani to help us raise money to improve our playground.  The students are all very excited about the Fun Run on November 19th! They have been learning about character development in class when the Boosterthon team comes to visit us each day. Please help us support this amazing fundraiser by logging onto https://www.funrun.com/ and make pledges to earn prizes and raise funds for our playground! You can also check out some awesome music videos that teach about character development.

Red Ribbon Week

We had such a great week celebrating being Drug Free during Red Ribbon Week. The kids had so much fun dressing up all week and today we had a very special presentation by Officer Silva from the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office K-9 drug unit. We got to hear all about what he does and got to meet his dog Armor. It was so awesome to learn all about how Armor uses her sense of smell to find illegal drugs.

Katie met Jan Brett!

Author Jan Brett was in town yesterday doing a book signing and Katie got to meet her! I am one happy teacher because even though I wasn't able to make it to the book signing, Katie and her mom brought us back a signed copy of her latest book "Mossy". Thank you so much to Katie and her Mom for the book! Jan Brett is such an amazing author and illustrator and we will be reading a lot more of her books in class when we do an Author Study on her in December. For now, check some of her books out at the library and  her website: Jan Brett website 

Fire Safety with Captain McAvoy!

On Wednesday, the kids learned all about fire safety with Captain McAvoy from Jacksonville Beach Fire Department (also known as my brother!) The kids learned how to stop, drop and roll, what to do if there's a fire, and all about his fire gear. Special thanks to Captain McAvoy for coming out to teach us all about fire safety! Be sure to do your fire safety homework this weekend if you haven't done it yet!

Caitlyn and her Mom on Action News!

Caitlyn and her Mom were on Action News this morning to raise Cancer awareness and promote the Curesearch Walk to celebrate and honor children from the Jacksonville area who have been affected by cancer. The walk is this Saturday at the Jacksonville Landing from 10am- 12pm and registration begins at 9am. You can also make a donation on the website:
CureSearch Walk

Check out the video to hear Caitlyn's amazing story

Math Investigations: Roll and Record!

We played such a fun Math game yesterday called "Roll and Record". Roll and Record is a partner game where each partner gets a turn to roll a number cube and a dot cube. The player has to add the two amounts to find the sum and then record the number on the record sheet. Students are practicing adding two numbers and writing numbers the proper way. So much fun!

Our common core standard that we are working on is: MACC.1.OA.3.6 Add and subtract within 20, demonstrating fluency for addition and subtraction within 10.

Order from Scholastic Books!

Tomorrow, I will be sending home fliers to order Scholastic books if you would like to purchase any for your child. I love Scholastic books because they have a great variety at very affordable prices. The best thing about Scholastic is that with every parent order, we receive points toward purchasing books for our classroom! You can go ahead and look around online to see if you would like to order any or you can send in a check to Scholastic after you browse the flier and I will place the order. Here is the link to order online: Scholastic books Our classroom code is GVWT8. Once books are ordered, they will be shipped to the school and I will send them home with your child when they come in. September & October orders are due by next Friday- Oct. 12th. :)

Teacher of the Year

We had some very special visitors come into class on Friday to inform me that I have been named Alimacani's Teacher of the Year 2012! The kids were so excited! I am so unbelievably honored. WOOHOO!

USTA Tennis Assembly!

Yesterday, the kids were able to participate in a tennis assembly, conducted by the U.S. Tennis Association (USTA). They had so much fun learning tennis skills! Alimacani will also be receiving a grant to purchase tennis equipment for the kids to practice with during P.E. What an awesome experience! Special thanks to the USTA, all of our volunteers & Coach Pabon for making this all possible!

Literacy Centers!

We began literacy centers this week during our Reader's Workshop work period. The kids are able to work with a partner at a center where they work on their words of the week, practice their fluency and work on many other reading skills while Mrs. Pugh is working with students in guided reading group. Literacy Centers include Listening Center, Big Books, Magnet Words, Stamping (they stamp out the words of the week), dry erase boards (where they write the words and practice them with a partner), Poetry, Library, & computer. Literacy Centers are so much fun!

September Star Students

Our September Star Students were Travis and Presley! Travis and Presley are both awesome school citizens and are good friends to everyone in class. Travis loves to surf and Presley was a child model- she was in a Toys-R-Us ad! Both students presented their All About Me poster to the class and received a special book from their classmates. Looking forward to our October Star Students!

Travis and his Mom

Presley and family

Science Workshop: Observing properties in Matter

We have been discussing properties of matter in Science and yesterday the kids were able to use their 5 senses to describe properties of different types of matter. Different types of matter included sandpaper, cotton balls, a bouncy ball, a rock, etc. Science is so much fun! Check out our pictures!

Check out the Common Core State Standards

As I mentioned at Open House, this year we have adopted the Common Core Standards that 44 states have adopted nationally. Please check out the Common Core State Standards website to learn more about what is expected of our students. Click on the Standards and look at English Language Arts Standards & Mathematics Standards to learn more about what your child will be learning this year in First Grade.

Click here:
Core Standards

Math Investigations!

For Math Investigations, we played the game "Collect 20" in class. Collect 20 is a game where partners roll a dot cube and collect that many counters with the focus being on one to one counting. Partners play until they "collect 20" counters or get slightly over! This is a game that you can also play at home with a dot cube and some pennies or anything that you have 20 of. Let me know if you play the game at home by writing me a note in the planner. :) Math is so fun!

Rainy Day Fitness

On rainy days like today, we like to do Adventure to Fitness in class to get in our 30 minutes of physical activity a day. The kids really enjoy going on educational and physical adventures with Mr. Mark! You can check out the Adventure to Fitness website at home.
Adventure to Fitness

Independent Reading!

We've got some great readers in class! Everyday during Reader's Workshop, we have time for either buddy reading or independent reading. We practiced independent reading this week and the kids got to choose a spot in the room to read and enjoy their books. Yay for reading!

First day 2012

What an awesome day we had today! Your children are all so precious and I adore them all! Here are just a few pictures from today...

Check out our Blog from last year

This is a link to our class blog from last year. Check it out to get a sense of what our class blog will be like this year.
http://mcavoyridout.blogspot.com

Welcome!

Welcome to our First Grade Class Blog! I am beyond excited to have your sweet one in my class and to begin "Running the Race for Excellence" this year. First grade is such a memorable, educational and fun year in school. You will be AMAZED at how much your child grows and learns this year.

As we kick off the 2012-2013 school year, here are a few reminders:

• Please sign up to "Follow by e-mail" by typing in your email address above. You will receive notifications when I post blogs about fun activities and reminders in our classroom.
• Remember that Friday, August 17th from 2PM- 3PM is our orientation- PLEASE bring your child's school supplies on this date, if possible (it's always easier to drop them off at this time rather than on the first day of school)
• Here is a list of supplies that each child will need for class:

  Looking forward to seeing all of you at our Meet and Greet on Friday, August 17th from 2PM-3PM. :)