Give to the Max Day

The donation site is open....  https://www.givemn.org/organization/cologne-academy 

Any donations made today (NOV 1) thru the big day 11/17 will count towards our 11/17 day.

In partnership with our November Core Virtue of Generosity, we are asking each student to bring in two or more addresses for people/places that would be willing to donate to Cologne Academy during Give to the Max Day on Thursday, November 17^th. 
Please send in your addresses to school by Friday, November 4^th. Post cards will then be addressed and sent out during school. If we raise $10,000 we get an out of uniform day, $15,000 all staff will wear goofy hats for a day, and $20,000 Mrs. Peterson will dress in a costume for the whole day and at the next OSA. The money we raise will go towards needs for the school. Thank you in advance for your donation and addresses that will help spread the word. Please also note that as the year comes to a close many businesses are looking to match donations, asking your company to match your donation is a great way to double your donation and help the school make our goal. 

First Grade Parents,

We hope you are enjoying the end of fall, and beginning of a new season. We had wonderful fall parties and a successful Pride Star OSA. Thank you for all who helped and made it possible.

Here is what your child will be doing academically this  10th week:

Math: This week is a partly a review week, and our first round of interim testing. On this test will be all we've learned so far this year. The students will be performing addition and subtraction problems, number bonds, and a couple real life word problems. If you have any questions please email your child's classroom teacher.

Phonics: Students will now be doing activities with all the blends we have been learning, including reading, sorting, and creating words.

Core Knowledge: This week we are beginning our Earl Civilizations Unit. We will be discussing the early civilizations of Mesopotamia. Students will discuss their way of life, compare and contrast that to our lives now, use their written language, religion, and culture. They will also be learning some geography about the area thousands of years ago, along with what they used on a daily basis, what they lived in, and more.

Writing: We are still continuing our unit on "How to..." writing. This week we will be focusing more on performing these writings more independently, instead of as a class. Students will begin by picking their own procedure to write about, brushing your teeth for example. Students will create a graphic organizer detailing the steps of how to perform the procedure with pictures. Students will then begin writing sentences detailing the procedure.

IRA: This week in IRA we will be discussing how to retell parts of a story. We want them to be able to retell a portion of the story (5 events) in sequential order. We will also be discussing what the problem and solution of the story is, and how events in the story support the problem to solution sequence. We want them to be able to pull out the important events and details in the story, and leave out events or details that just add extra flair to the story. These events and details should support or convey the message, or solution of the story.

November Core Virtue:  Thankfulness

Have a great week! As always, if you have any questions please email your child's classroom teacher.

First Grade Families,

Here is what your CA first grader will be learning about this 9th week:

Reading: We will be talking more about feelings and actions this week, specifically action words we hear in the text or see in an illustrations. We will also be talking about how character's feelings can change, and why that happens. We will be reading "Recess Queen" 

Phonics: We will begin to learn about blends this week. Blends are two (or sometimes three) consonants put together at the beginning or end of a word. This week we will be focusing on blends with r. For example, br in bring, cr in crab, dr, fr, gr, pr, tr, and wr. 

Writing: We are starting our "How To..." writing this week. We will be focusing on how to write a "How to..." story by going through a procedure as a class. We will be talking about some sentence starters like; First, Then, Next, After that, and Last. We will be using these sentence starters to write five sentences about how to perform that procedure.

Math: This week we will be talking about missing numbers in a math sentence. For example, given the problem 4+__=9, students will be able to determine that the missing number is 5, because 4+5=9. They will also be performing this task within subtraction problems.

IXL: If you would like to use IXL at home, we recommend these sections for practice this week:

• Counting and Number Patterns (Section A)
• Addition (Section B)
• Subtraction (Section D)
• Mixed Operations (Section F)

Core Knowledge: We are starting a week long study on maps and cardinal directions.

Core Virtue: Core Virtue this month is Honesty/Integrity and Friendship. We will be emphasizing these values within our classroom ans school for the month of October, and throughout the year. We want to focus on telling the truth always, what it means to be a good friend, to stand up for others, and have good character.

Have a great week!!

Hello First Grade Families

Here is what your CA first grader will be learning about this week:

Reading: We will be talking more about feelings and actions this week, specifically action words we hear in the text or see in an illustrations. We will also be talking about how character's feelings can change, and why that happens. We will be reading "How Do Dinosaurs Go To School", and "Petunia". 

Phonics: We will begin to learn about blends this week. Blends are two (or sometimes three) consonants put together at the beginning or end of a word. For example, in the word truck, tr is the beginning blend. In the word fold, ld would be the ending blend. Students will be practicing identifying blends in words, as well as reading and spelling them. 

Writing: We are starting our "How To..." writing this week. We will be focusing on how to write a "How to..." story by going through how to grow a pumpkin. We will be talking about some sentence starters like; First, Then, Next, After that, and Last. We will be using these sentence starters to write five sentences about how to grow a pumpkin.

Math: This week we will be talking about how equations can be true or false. For example is this equation true or false? 5+2=3+4. It is true because both sides equal seven. If one side had more or less it would be false. We will also talk about position words like first, third, behind, near, far, and related words. Finally, we will be talking about fact families. This is where we give them 3 numbers, and they need to make the math facts that go with those numbers. For example, given the numbers 3, 2, and 5, they can create these 4 math sentences; 3+2=5, 2+3=5, 5-2=3, and 5-3=2. 

IXL: If you would like to use IXL at home, we recommend these sections for practice this week:

• Counting and Number Patterns (Section A)
• Addition (Section B)
• Subtraction (Section D)
• Mixed Operations (Section F)

Core Knowledge: We are beginning our unit on matter this week. Students will learn that there are many physical properties of matter such as temperature, height, length, size, fullness, color, odor, and more. We will also be talking about how matter can change states. For example an ice cube would be a solid state, water a liquid state, and water vapor a gas state.

Core Virtue: Core Virtue this month is Honesty/Integrity and Friendship. We will be emphasizing these values within our classroom ans school for the month of October, and throughout the year. We want to focus on telling the truth always, what it means to be a good friend, to stand up for others, and have good character.

Just a reminder, if you have not signed up for conferences yet, please do. We would love to see you!