Tuesday, November 29, 2016

Christmas Program Help

Hello parents!

Would any of you be interested in decorating and making the Yomitan Bunka Center beautiful for the Christmas Program on Friday?

If you'd like to help, some parents will be decorating on Thursday from 9:00-2:00pm and Friday from 9:00am-12:00pm.

If you'd like to come on Thursday, lunch will be provided by the school, so please email me to let me know you'd like to come.

If you can't help out, that's totally understandable too! I'm looking forward to seeing everyone on Friday night!

Tuesday, November 22, 2016

Harvest Fest and Thanksgiving Break

Hello everyone!

We had a VERY fun day today at Harvest Fest! The students played games with Mr. Fox, made a turkey puppet with Ms. Fox, thought about what they are thankful about with Ms. Guiles, and learned the thanksgiving story with me. At the end of the day, we ate PIE!!!

Since it was a busy day, I didn't get to take many pictures... sorry about that! Here's the few I did take. 





Thank you to all the parents who sent in pie! They were DELICIOUS!

Remember: No School Wednesday-Friday! Enjoy lots of family time together!

Next Week: 
Spelling Words: (Review) puff, well, miss, will, back, pick, sock, duck, hand, went, fast, jump, long, hang, wink, ring, talk, fall, tall, your

Bible Memory Verse: “The Lord is my strength and my song; he has become my salvation.” Exodus 15:2a

December 1st and December 2nd we will be going to the Yomitan Cultural Center for practice for the Christmas Program during the school day (8:45-10:45). I will send a permission slip on Monday to let you know students will be leaving campus for a few hours.

December 2nd - Please everyone bring a HOME LUNCH Because we will be practicing extra at the hall, everyone needs a HOME LUNCH. お弁当を持たせてください!
Also, dismissal is at 12:30, please plan accordingly if your child rides the bus.

Make sure to come back later a 6:30pm at the Yomitan Cultural Center for the OCSI Christmas Program which starts at 7:00pm! Invite your family and friends for a great night!!


Here’s a map of the center. Please email me if you have any questions!


Friday, November 18, 2016

Friday News for Week of November 14-18

Happy Friday!

This week:

Reading: This week we focused on Beginning, Middle, and End of the story. It’s so important for students to be able to recognize and explain the beginning, middle, and the end of the story. It’s like of like a roller coaster! We read several great books and thought about the beginning, middle, and end of the story.


Math: We are continuing to learn addition facts to 20. We learned how to count on, count on a number line, and use doubles. Do you know your doubles facts?

Bible: We started the great story of Moses! After Jacob’s family had been in Egypt for 400 years they were now slaves and cried out to God to rescue them. God sent Moses to free the Israelites from the Egyptians. It took 10 scary plagues before Pharaoh could see God’s power and let them go. The last plague was the worst, death of the first born sons. To the Israelites, God told them to put the blood of a lamb on the door frame and in the night, as the Lord passed through Egypt, he would pass over the houses that had the blood and the people inside were spared. God was preparing the people then, that eventually Jesus would be born, the “Lamb of God” who would die for the people and save them by his blood! WOW! So incredible!

Today Tobin's grandparents came and read us 2 stories! Thanks!


Next Week:
Same Bible verse and same Bible Memory Verse
Spelling test on Monday, November 21st

Harvest Fest - November 22nd
Parents, you are invited to come out on Tuesday. The students will be going to the other 1st and 2nd grade classrooms to do fun activities about Thanksgiving. At 2:15 we will be eating PIE together!

November 23-25 NO SCHOOL - Thanksgiving Break

December 1st and December 2nd we will be going to the Yomitan Cultural Center for practice for the Christmas Program during the school day (8:45-10:45). I will send a permission slip on Monday to let you know students will be leaving campus for a few hours.

December 2nd - Please everyone bring a HOME LUNCH Because we will be practicing extra at the hall, everyone needs a HOME LUNCH. お弁当を持たせてください!
Also, dismissal is at 12:30, please plan accordingly if your child rides the bus.

Make sure to come back later a 6:30pm at the Yomitan Cultural Center for the OCSI Christmas Program which starts at 7:00pm! Invite your family and friends for a great night!!


Here’s a map of the center. Please email me if you have any questions!


Friday, November 11, 2016

Friday News for Week of November 7-11

Happy Friday!

Tomorrow is Walkathon! T-shirts were delivered today. I hope you have your walking shoes and are ready for a great day! Please arrive at OCSI between 8 and 9am to register (come find me in the cafeteria!). The walk starts at 9am. After you get back to school, you can enjoy a snack and some games.

This Week:

Reading: We focused on Making Predictions. A prediction is a guess or something you think is going to happen in the story. You can do this before you even open the book by looking at the cover and then all while you read. Then at the end of the story you can check to see if your predictions were correct or not. We read one of my favorite stories of all time! The students did great prediction what would happen.

Math: We ended Chapter 2 of subtracting this week and took our math test. The students did pretty good! It’s exciting to see them get faster at their subtraction problems. Now we started Chapter 3 which is addition strategies to 20. Looking forward to stretching the students in their math abilities!

Bible: This week we concluded the incredible story of Joseph. It’s so amazing to see how God was with him through the whole time. He finally reveal who he was to his brothers and he even got to see his dad Jacob again. Joseph had his whole family move to Egypt. My favorite part of the Joseph story is this: Genesis 50:20 "You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives.” Bad stuff happened to Joseph, but God turned the bad stuff into good stuff! That’s a great lesson I need to remember for my life too!

Christmas Program Practice - We have started practicing in the gym with K-5 for the Christmas Program! I am getting so excited for it!

Science - We started learning about Ants! It was fun read books together about ants and learn together!

Today we celebrated Michael's birthday! Thanks for the yummy jello!!





Next Week:

NO SCHOOL - MONDAY, NOVEMBER 14th

Spelling Words: ball call fall hall mall tall talk  walk  your do     - Our spelling test will be Monday, November 21st

Bible Memory: “Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good. His love endures forever.” Psalm 118:1

November 22nd Harvest Fest for 1st and 2nd graders:

On this day, the students will go around to the 1st and 2nd grade classrooms to do crafts, games, and learn about Thanksgiving. Parents, if you’d like to stop by during this day, you are welcome to! Let me know if you’d like to come and you can go with the 1.1 class as they go around to the other classrooms. Here’s a schedule:
8:30-9:00 Classroom Time
9:05-9:30 Session 1
9:35-10:00 Session 2
10:00-10:15 Morning Recess
10:15-10:45 Classroom Time
10:45-11:45 Lunch and Lunch Recess
11:50-12:15 Session 3
12:20-12:45 Session 4
12:45-1:45 Classroom Time
1:45-2:15 Chapel
2:15-3:00        Pie Day! :)

This day is also Pie Day! I have asked 5 families if they can donate a pie for Pie Day. We will eat it together at the end of the day.

Upcoming Events: 

  • 11/19: PTF Holiday Market -
  • 11/23: Professional Development Day - no school for students
  • 11/24-25: Thanksgiving vacation
  • 11/30: Progress Reports
  • 12/2: OCSI Christmas Program (12:30 dismissal for students) Program starts at 7:00pm at the Yomitan Cultural Center 読谷文化センター
  • 12/16 - Last Day of School before Christmas Break  No lunch in the cafeteria - Classroom Christmas Party!

Thursday, November 3, 2016

Friday News for Week of Oct 31- Nov 4

Thank you SO much to all the parents who came out to Parent Teacher Conference on! I enjoyed every moment of sharing with and celebrating together the growth of your child in only 1 quarter! I’m excited to see what will happen in 2nd, 3rd, and 4th quarter!

This Week:
Reading: Our focus was on setting. Setting is the time and place of a story. It was fun for the students to figure out if a story happened during the day or at night, at a farm or at the beach. I hope the students will continue to figure out the setting as they read stories.


Here's a picture into our Independent Daily 5 time:
Listen to Reading - Kids A-Z

Read to Someone

Read to Self

Work on Writing




Book Shopping

Work Work




Writing: We continued learning about procedural writing. The students are creative with their “How to…”

Math: We continued through subtraction and are almost done with the chapter! Next week we will review and take a test on chapter 2. I hope the students are more confident with subtracting now!

Bible: The story of Joseph keeps getting exciting! Pharaoh the king of Egypt himself had a dream and guess who was the only one who could understand the dream? Joseph (with God’s help). The dream was about a famine coming to Egypt. Guess who was put in charge of the whole country to save up food?? Joseph! Now he’s the second most important person in Egypt! And guess who now needs food?? Joseph’s family back in Canaan. The exciting story continues how God is with Joseph!

Christmas Program Practice - we are busy practicing for the Christmas program! Look at the 1st and 2nd graders together!


Lining up in height order to get ready for Christmas Program Practice!

Next Week:
Spelling Words: long   king   ring   long   sung   sink   wink   bunk   on   but
Bible Memory: “It is God who arms me with strength and makes my way perfect.” Psalm 18:32

Upcoming Events:

  • 11/12: Walkathon - It’s still not too late to sign up! If you’d like to join us on a fun day of walking and raising money for the school, send in ¥7000 and the blue permission slip. Remember, 1st graders have to walk with an adult!
  • 11/14: School holiday
  • 11/19: PTF Holiday Market - Picture
  • 11/23: Professional Development Day - no school for students
  • 11/24-25: Thanksgiving vacation
  • 11/30: Progress Reports
  • 12/2: OCSI Christmas Program (12:30 dismissal for students) Program starts at 7:00pm at the Yomitan Cultural Center 読谷文化センター
  • 12/16 - Last Day of School before Christmas Break  No lunch in the cafeteria - Classroom Christmas Party!