Mrs.

Donzes
Newsletter
(2014-2015)
October 3, 2014
Classroom News
Thank you so much for sending apples last week.
We had a lot of fun making applesauce. It tasted
delicious with the variety of apples we used.

It has been a very exciting week for us this week.
Since the last newsletter, we had a monarch caterpillar
donated to our room. When we received it, it had just
formed a chrysalis which was exciting for the kids to see.
We spend a lot of time on science/monarch butterflies,
but it was a great theme. We read books, watching short
video clips of their life cycle, went on-line to search
answers for some of our questions and wonders, made
notes of new learning and new questions, recorded data,
and predicted it would emerge into a butterfly on Friday,
Oct. 3. However, when we came in to school on Tuesday
this week we noticed how dark the chrysalis was. This
sign was an indicator that things were progressing nicely
and soon a butterfly would emerge. We were thinking a
few days, but then, within a few hours our classmate
Cole said, Hey we have a butterfly. Sure enoughit
had emerged!! Needless to say, all of us were excited
and proud!! SHE was beautiful!! The children learned
that a male has a back dot on each lower wing, and the
female does not. There were no black dots, thus we had
a female monarch. Just like proud parents, we took lots
of pictures!! Check them out on the last page.


Important Dates
Oct. 10: Walk-a-thon day
Oct. 17: Picture Re-take
Day and Chuck E Cheese Night
3-9 Alpine Only
Week of Oct. 20-Students
will begin to bring home their take
home books. I will teach parent
readers what to do when you come
in the first day. Parent Readers:
Watch for a calendar going home
with your child if you signed up to
help. Remember, a volunteer
consent form must be turned in
before you can help.
Oct. 24: Popcorn Day
Oct. 31: Halloween parade
& party 2:45-3:30
Special Schedule:
Monday: MUSIC
Tuesday: PE
Wednesday: COMPUTER LAB
& LIBRARY Try to have books all
returned by Tuesday so your child knows they
can check out another book on Wednesday.)
Thursday: ART
Friday: P.E.
Mrs. Kim Donze Email address: kdonze@rockfordschools.org
Blog: kimdonzeclassroom.blogspot.com (Check out the site and the pictures.)
Office Phone #: 616-863-6362, Classroom phone #: 616-863-6363 ext. 4721
I will be sending a calendar home with parents who volunteered to help with reading in our classroom.
If you are still considering doing this, but havent notified me, the days and times are: Tues, Wed,
Thurs, and Fridays from 11:15-12:15. I am looking forward to getting this program started.

Our Focus Lessons:
One important objective in my first grade class is for the children to
be good thinkers! We are working on thinking/ focusing, giving
our brains time to process information instead of blurting out. I am
calling this wait time. My goal is to promote better thinking!

Reading: Thank you for returning the September reading
calendar. If you forgot, please do so next week. Remember, we are
building good habits by reading 5 times a week, and for turning it in.
It shows responsibility!
I will be teaching more reading strategies for accuracy this next
week. I will send a pic of these strategies once they have each
been introduced.
Math: We finished our first unit in math. The things we covered
in unit 1 were: establishing routines; introducing some mathematical
tools for drawing and counting; practiced writing numbers correctly;
compared numbers; recorded tally marks; used the calendar;
introduced routines for weather and temperature; and practiced
number stories. Please remind your child to put his/her name on
their Home Link right away so it is not forgotten.
Word Wall Words:
Any word with an * next to it, means it
does not follow a rule for sounding out.
Oct. 6-10
when, *would, yes, my,
*what
Skill work: en family and I will begin
teaching the students about digraphs,
using a story called The H Brothers.
Oct. 13-17
went, ask, *are, no, if
Skill work: ent family and
short /i /sound
Oct. 20-24
big, *your, *very, just, an
Skill work: ig word family,



Belmonts Best
Mrs. Thelen will invite these kids
to eat their lunch with her
during the week of:
Oct 6: Cole Fonnesbeck
Oct 13: Elle Nicolette
Oct 20: Makayley Reynolds
PTO has purchased a book for
each child again this year and
they will receive it at lunch on
their special day.

More Monarch Info:
We decided as a class to let the monarch butterfly go
on Wednesday afternoon. It was so cute. We lifted
her out on an apple slice and she sat there for a few
minutes. Then she took flight! The kids waved and
yelled good bye and then chased after her as she flew
in the air. On Thursday and Friday we used this
experience to write narrative stories about the butterfly.
Each child gave the butterfly a special name and wrote
their own story about her. They were also prompted to
include the setting, to use some sequential words, and
have an ending to their story. We will continue to base
some of our writing on this experience, as it was
something we can all relate to and will remember.

Writing: This week we began writing
Narrative stories. We are learning what they
are, and what important information to
include in them. We spent time this week
reading a story called, The Veggie Monster
by George McClements. We have used this
a few times as our mentor text-learning from
him how to make our stories better.
Science: We will focus on Weather
and the season of fall next month.

Here are the exciting pictures we want to share with you
of our Monarch Butterflys life with us:
(I appologize. I didnt take any of her in the chrysalis.)
Here she had just emerged and was drying and
stretching out her wings. Look how clear her
chrysalis was.

This is how she looked when she opened her
wings. We knew that she was preparing to take
flight! And no black dots! Its a female!





Here we were getting ready to release her! Some of the students were sad to
say good-bye.
She took flight
off an apple
slice. We
could tell she
was happy.
She flew over
the playground
and then was
off. Were
sure she is on her way to Mexico.