Monday morning during class I loved hearing about all the fun activities students did over the week off! We had classmates visit the Atlanta Zoo, State Fair, beach, surrounding states, and even one who left the country! Even with all these fun activities I could tell they were excited to see their friends again Monday morning 🙂 

Yesterday your child should have come home with the new spelling words written in their Agenda, a new October homework menu, and a new reading log glued into their notebook. You should have also received information on assigned conference times for the week of October 14-18. I appreciate everyone who has already returned these or who have let me know about scheduling a different time. The sooner I can get everyone set in stone the better. 

As for the rest of this week...

• Wednesday (tomorrow) is our annual Student Leadership Team assembly and school wide picture. We ask that everyone in the school dress in RED, WHITE, and/or BLUE to represent our great county. While in the cafeteria the entire school will participate in one really wide angled picture.

• Thursday is Picture Day! These will be individual students pictures for the school yearbook. If you would like personal school picture of your child, the envelope with that information came home before break.

• Friday is our first STEM Walk. This just means that those who are head of the Cobb County STEM Certification Committee will be visiting Addison to observe the entire school participate County STEM activities. This will be the first of several and we are asking that students either wear an Addition T-Shirt or preferably their Addison STEM Shirt from this year. This helps show the committee we are supported at home by parents in our STEM journey. 

If you haven't already please help support our amazing Foundation! Without them we could not do so many of the amazing things we do here at Addison! ❤

Dear Parents,

We have just under 2 weeks left of AESF's funding drive to support the Science Lab. Addison families have raised just over $22,000 so far but we are only at 20% participation. 

If you haven't donated yet, please consider making a donation. All the students benefit and no amount is too small. Help us be the class with the highest participation and reach the goal of $38,000 so you child can see Mrs. Hallmark and Mr. Cohen get Yucky!!! Also, if you donate $500 or more you are automatically entered in a drawing to win 6 Disney tickets, a reserved year around parking spot, and two reserved seats for Gator Gala and Awards Day.  

Thank you for your continued support!

Welcome to the 2019-2020 School Year!

Updates to follow....😊

Week of November 12th

Can you believe we are already almost at Thanksgiving Break? This year has absolutely flown by and I can't wait to finish up the week with some fun turkey activities and hopefully get to see many of you at our Thanksgiving Lunch. Our assigned Thanksgiving Lunch time will be this Thursday from 11:50 to about 12:30 or so (the ending time really depends on how fast everyone visits and eats). The cafeteria will be serving a special meal of turkey, gravy, mash potatoes, and other yummy holiday delights. If it is the same as last year, there will be a table set up in the front hall for you to purchase a lunch ticket; this keeps the food line moving quickly once inside the cafeteria. We will be coming from our class so as we pass through the main hall you all can join your child in their spot in our lunch line. If you are unable to make our lunch that is completely fine! I will be sitting with any students who don't have a parent, or parents who do come can always take on a few of their child's friends 😊 

As a reminder, this Thursday students will have their Benjamin Franklin project due (I will take them Friday but Thursday is preferred). Students can choose to either re-create one of his inventions (as listed on the homework packet) or create an invention of their own that would help us solve a problem that we have in our world today. If your child creates their own they will need to be able and explain what it is and how it would solve a problem. Don't overthink this project!!! The simplest re-creations are sometimes the best. When too many materials get involved the creation can get a bit hectic. I will still give students their spelling test Friday and check reading logs. 

Over the break...

- Get some rest! (hopefully)

- Eat lots of good food

- Spend time with your loved ones

- Think of the things you have to be thankful for (we will be doing this in class as well)

- Work on the Thanksgiving Break Reading Challenge! It will be coming home in students folders Thursday.

After the break...

- We will hunker down for four final weeks of learning and fun!

- All of 1st Grade will have their Holiday Performance (Thursday, November 29th at 6pm). Please contact Dr. Champion with any performance questions.

- Holiday Party! (December 21st ...time is still to be determined) 

October 15th - 19th

Conference Week!
School will dismiss two hours early all week. Announcements will officially start at 12:20 and students will dismiss immediately following. Our specials this week are on the normal rotation but our time will be from 9:45-10:15 and our lunch time will be from 11:15-11:45. This week I plan to pull at least one reading group a day and get into some new books  from our book room. In Math we will be taking a final Quarter 1 Math Assessment that is a combination of everything we learned in the first quarter and then begin our unit on graphing. If we can find some time to squeeze in Science I plan on taking the class outside to investigate magnetic objects around the school.

A few reminders about Conference Week
- Please write a note in your child's agenda or red folder for any dismissal changes. I can't accept any emailed changes and most likely won't be checking my email until after all of my conferences each day.
- If you forget when your conference time is the day of you can call the school and ask. The front office has a copy of all teachers conference schedules.
- Please bring your child with you to their conference! At Addison we hold "student led" conferences. Your child has prepared a Leadership Notebook with data and work samples that they will share with you.
- Students should still come to school with a healthy snack each day.
- Students will receive a new homework packet Monday like usual and will also receive a new spelling menu. You can toss out the one from quarter 1 and use the new one until quarter 3.

If you have any questions or concerns before we meet please let me know. Otherwise, I look forward to seeing everyone this week!

September 10 - September 14

What is your child learning this week?

In Math this week we will wrap up our unit on Place Value with a final assessment on Tuesday. Starting Wednesday we will begin our new unit on counting to 120 starting from any number. In Reading we will continue to work in our Daily 5 centers and students will begin participating in differentiated reading groups. These reading groups will each read leveled books with a focus on understanding the difference between fiction and nonfiction text. Our ELA time will be a review of handwriting, punctuation, and capitalization. During Social Studies we will finish our unit on "Me on the Map" and transition into focusing on learning about our 7 continents and 5 oceans.

It should be a great week!

September 4 - September 7

What is your child learning this week?

*All First Grade students will be participating in the Cogat Assessment Wednesday, September 5 - Friday, September 7. We will begin the test each day at  8:00 so please make sure your child is here on time and has had plenty of rest as well as a healthy breakfast. The Cogat Assessment is used to help identify students who qualify for ALP (Advanced Learning Program). If your child scores high enough they will be further assessed by an ALP teacher to determine official acceptance into the once a week program. Any students who are tested additionally will be notified and if accepted will begin participating in classes after the new year. If you have any additional questions please don't hesitate to ask*

In Math students will continue to work on their understanding of Place Value and the different ways to represent a number. In Social Studies we will continue our unit on "Me on the Map" and finish our location flip books. If time allows we will also continue to work in our Daily 5 centers.