Friday News for Week of March 3-7

This week in 1st grade at OCSI:

Reading - We focused this week on continuing to make connections between what we are reading and ourselves, other books, and the world. The students are fantastic at making connections! We read the book Green Eggs and Ham and tried to make a connection to something in our life, where, at first we didn’t want to try it, but after we did, we enjoyed it! We also talked about fact or fiction. It is important while reading and writing to ask yourself if something is really fact, or if it is made up and fiction. I hope the students will continue to grow up to be good discerners.

Math - We finally learned about... QUARTERS!!! The students were so excited! This is the last American coin we will learn that is worth 25cents. We practiced counting by 25, and practiced counting money with quarters. I think that Quarters are the hardest money to count, I struggled when I went to America for college because Japan does not have a money worth 25. I hope the students will grow up confident in counting with both dollars and yen.

Bible - We have started learning about the life of David. We learned the fun story of David and Goliath - how a little boy beat a huge giant! We even pretended to be like David by throwing cotton balls on to the Giant’s head. We also talked a lot about our Bible verse - that the outside of a person doesn’t really matter in God’s eyes. All God cares about it the heart. Here's a video of the story of David and Goliath

Social Studies - We have started preparing for Kid’s City that will take place in April. To start, we learned about the Post Office. We learned what happens at a post office, where the letters go, how to write your address on a letter, and sending a letter. We practiced writing our addresses today - Do you have it memorized?

Next Week:

Friday, March 7th - STUDENT LED CONFERENCE - Your child is working hard on their portfolio and practicing for this day! Each conference will be 20 minutes, and the student will be doing the talking and sharing with your about what they have learned this year. Please listen well and refrain from asking questions until the end of their presentation. I would like all the students to do it in English, but if you feel more comfortable for them to do it in Japanese, or another language, they may. 

Here is the schedule for the conferences:

Spelling Words: soon, good, look, took, food, book, zoo, foot, cool, noon, many, he

Bible Memory: “It is God who arms me with strength and makes my way perfect.” Psalm 18:32

Homework Checklist for week of Feb 24-28

Friday News for week of February 24-28

Hello everyone!

February is just zooming by! We've had a good busy week at OCSI.

This week:

Phonics: We are working on the long vowel o. We have read several poems and learned to distinguish between the long o and short o in our reading.

Reading: This week our strategy was "Making Connections." We read several stories and tried to make connections to other books (Text to Text) or to ourselves (Text to Self). The students did a great job making connections and I'm excited to see the love of books increase with the more connections they make.

Math: We learned about centimeter this week! We learned how to take a ruler with both inches and centimetres on it and measure small objects to the closest centimeter. We also continued working on our fact powers and fact families.

Bible: We have finished our unit on Samuel and Saul. We learned how the Israelites wanted to be like the other countries around them that they demanded a king for their own, instead of God as their king. So God allowed them to have Saul as king. Saul did not obey God in everything, so God took the kingdom away from him. Next week we will learn about the new king God picked, David.

Writing: We have started "Research Writing." We picked a topic such as ants, or elephants, and we wrote all we could think of. We are learning how to write true information instead of our own opinions.
We are learning how to draw a diagram. Students are excited to soon pick their own topic to write a "All about…." paper.

Japanese Cultural Event: On Monday, we had a Japanese Cultural Event, where we got to hear Japanese instruments and songs, see a Shishima dance, and watch Omochitsuki. We even got to taste some kinako mochi!

Next Week - January 24-28

February 26 - Picture Retake Day. If you did not like the pictures taken in the Fall, you may send them back, UNCUT, for a retake. This will also be for students who were absent on the Picture Day in the Fall.

Bazaar: Is coming up soon on March 15! We need all families to send in ¥1000 to help with our food booth of Okinawa Soba. We also need any donations of canned drinks. You can start to bring your donations on Monday, 2/24. Please bring your car to the back entrance of the gym to unload your donations.

March 7 - Student Led Conference. I will be sending a form home tonight letting you know of your time for Student-Led Conference. Please check if you are able to attend and send the form back. This time, instead of the teacher talking, it will be your child showing you how much they have improved in first grade.

Spelling Words: (Review) boys, boxes, tent, late, rain, may, came, boat, hope, told, coat, like, time, find, kind, seed, meet, weak, week, meat

Bible Memory: “People look at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.” 1 Samuel 16:7b

Friday News for Week of February 17-21

Happy Valentine's Day everyone!! The students were so sweet today as they made cards for each other and handed out gifts for everyone!

This last week:
Bible: We finished the story of Ruth and started the story of Samuel. It is neat to make a connection between a lot of the Bible stories. We learned that God does what every he says He is going to do!

Math - We started Unit 6 with addition facts from dice, as well as we learned all the different ways we can show a number including, a different language, tally, dice, domino, money, addition and subtraction problems, base 10 blocks, etc. We even learned about fact family this week. The students did a great job and everyone was able to understand how it works. 

Reading - This week, we were mainly working on our Student-Led Conference Portfolios which are coming up soon. We are busy writing reflections, thinking about what we are good at and what we need to work on in the different subject areas.

Report Card: Today, the 2nd Quarter Report Card's went home. You can have everything inside the envelope. Please sign the blue envelope and return ONLY the envelope back to school. Thank you!


Next Week:
2/17 - There will be a Japanese Culture Event at 2:00pm. Parents are not invited, but would like to inform you of the event. Students will participate in some Japanese cultural events such as pounding of rice 餅つきand other events. Should be lots of fun!

2/19 - X-Ray day. For those who had a note sent home, and those who would like your child tested at school. This will be the day.

2/26 - Picture Retake Day - For anyone who was not at school on Picture Day or for anyone who did not like the picture taken of your child, this is the day for the retake. For those who didn't like their child's picture, need to send back the originals ordered, UNCUT, in good condition. If you have already cut the pictures out, then you cannot do a retake. Please let me know if you are interested in a retake. 

3/7 - No School - Student Led Conference Day. Stay tuned for your time for Student-Led Conference. It is just like the Parent Teacher Conference in October, but this time, your child will be sharing with you about what they have learned so far in 1st grade.

Spelling Words:
be, me, we, see, seed, feel, meat, meet, weak, week, come, other

Bible Memory:
"Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength." Deuteronomy 6:5

Bazaar: Bazaar is coming up March 15th. We need to start preparing and would like to ask for your help! Here is a letter from the class mom's.

Dear Parents and Guardians of the Class 1.2

Hello! We are still in the cold weather, We hope you all are doing fine.
We’re sending this letter to you to ask you for your help in donating 1,000 yen per student for the bazaar 2014.
We also need the use of 1-2 coolers, if you are able to lend one of that day. Also, we need canned drinks, any kind.

As Ms. Turner informed you earlier, first grade picked the booth of Okinawa soba in the parent meeting held on Jan 31. The grade who opens this booth every year rents kitchen supplies and buys ingredients from a caterer. So following the tradition, We would like to use your donation to hire the caterer.

We’re sorry for the hassle, but could you please pass your donation to Ms. Turner by Feb. 28?
Thank you very much for your help.

Warm regards,
Room Parents Sewwandi Ganganath, Rika Miyairi, Yumiko Noda

1.2のご父兄の皆様、寒い日が続いていますがいかがお過ごしでしょうか。

2014年のバザーに関連して皆様へ各々1000円の寄付をお願いしたくメールいたしました。その他に大きいクーラーをその日に貸してくれる人。後、缶の飲み物なんでもいいですのドネーションが必要です。

先日Ms.Turnerからお知らせがありましたが、1月31日のミーティングの結果1年生は沖縄そばのブースを担当することになりました。例年沖縄そばのブースを担当する学年は業者に材料や調理器具一式を依頼しています。それにならって皆様から頂いた寄付を使って業者に依頼したいと考えています。

お手数をおかけして申し訳ありませんが2月29日迄にMs.Turnerに渡して頂けますでしょうか、宜しくお願いします。

ルーム・ペアレンツ
Sewwandi Ganganath, Rika Miyairi, Yumiko Noda


Thank you for the help with that!

Homework Checklist and mistake!

Hello everyone,

I've been slacking in my posting of the Homework Checklist. So sorry!

I also made a mistake when I printed out the homework. The ABC order 3x each is a repeat of Monday. It will be good practice for the spelling test tomorrow. Sorry about that!

Friday News for week of February 3-7

Happy February! This week 2nd quarter came to an end and 3rd quarter has started. I can't believe how fast the year is going by!!

This week was a weird week with a holiday in the middle of the week! We still did lots of fun things and learned a lot.

Today was also the 100th day of school!!! 

We are 100 days smarter in first grade. Today we did a variety of activities such as 100 athletic exercises, predicted how many of something we could do in 100 seconds, and realized that we have had 132 spelling words since the beginning of school. WOW! We also designed a picture hiding the number 100 inside. 

Reading - Our friends from the HS psychology class came back one more time to read to us a book they had made for their class project. It was called "Why Not Me?" talking about a story of a potato who was ugly and no one picked him at the store. Finally, a girl picks him and he was delicious. The story taught us not to judge others by their outward appearance, because it's really the heart of a person that's important.

Math - We took our Unit 5 Test this week and everyone did well! We are really close to finishing the Volume 1 of our Math workbook - only 2 pages left!! It's really sinking in that school is halfway over.

Science - We took sometime to learn the life cycle of a chick this week. We thought about the riddle, "Which came first, the chicken or the egg." We pulled out the Bible and discussed whether the first chicken that God made was a grown up chicken or an egg. It was a fun discussion. We also watched a video on an egg hatching. The students were so intrigued! We also had a resident chicken expert, Carol, who had many live chicks and chickens at home. 

Bible: We finished most of the main stories of the Judges and have now moved to the story of Ruth. The students could relate to her story of how she had to move to a new country, because most of my students have moved sometime in their lives as well. I'm excited to show them next week how God used Ruth, a foreigner, to be a part of the lineage of Jesus Christ!

The end of 2nd quarter came to close our weekly Computer Class that we had, and instead we started back up Music and Art. In Music, the teacher will start to teach them more music notation and percussion instruments so I'm excited to see how well they do. 

Next Week:

2/13 - Food Corner Meeting for Bazaar. For any mom's or dad's interested, there will be a meeting on how to prepare the food corner at Bazaar. You are welcome to attend if you are interested. 3:15 in the cafeteria on Thursday 2/13

2/14 - Valentine's Day! On this day, if you would like to, students are welcome to make or give gifts or cards to their classmates. If you would like to do this, please make sure to not leave anyone out. On this day, the Report Card will also be sent home. Please sign the blue envelope and return it back to school. You may keep the Report Card.

2/17 - There will be a Japanese Culture Event at 2:00pm. Parents are not invited, but would like to inform you of the event. Students will participate in some Japanese cultural events such as pounding of rice 餅つきand other events. Should be lots of fun!

2/19 - X-Ray day. For those who had a note sent home, and those who would like your child tested at school. This will be the day.

2/26 - Picture Retake Day - For anyone who was not at school on Picture Day or for anyone who did not like the picture taken of your child, this is the day for the retake. For those who didn't like their child's picture, need to send back the originals ordered, UNCUT, in good condition. If you have already cut the pictures out, then you cannot do a retake. Please let me know if you are interested in a retake. 

Bible Memory: "Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends." John 15:13

Spelling Words: by my ride bike like time nine dive find kind them would