Cat's Colors

In class, we read the story of Cat's Colors.  It's a story about a cat who likes many different colors, but find out which color is it's favorite.  Children chose which color they liked and wanted to use as a background for their orange cat.  We used two colors of tempra paint to make the background and then also orange mixed with yellow to create our cats.

 

 

How Many Fingers?!

Today we practiced counting by 5's.  We decided that using our hands would be helpful in counting by 5's because we all have 5 fingers on each hand.  Students traced their hands, and we glued the hands onto a large sheet of butcher paper.  We added in the numerals as we counted.  Students began to notice certain patterns in the numerals.  For example, on the left column, all the numerals had a 5 in the ones column, while on the right side, there was always a 0 in the ones spot.  Students also realized that on the right side it showed the traditional way of counting by 10's, but if we went down the left side, we could count by 10's, just starting with the number 5.  For example: 5, 15, 25, 35 etc.  This was a fun and educational lesson for the students.

 

Math Stations

 

This afternoon on day #2 of school, I decided to give math stations a try in order to help get students familiar with stations and doing rotations.  This worked quite well!  Here are some photos of our stations.

 

Hundered Boards Puzzles

Exploring Math Apps

Getting familiar with geoshapes

Counting, sorting, and patterning with unifix cubes

ABCya! Math games





Back to School!

 

For our first day project, we created the back of a bus and added each students photo in the window.  These were fun to create, and easy to prepare.  I think they turned out cute!

iPads!!

Thank you to Title 1 and Dr. Clark for setting our class up with 5 iPads to use!  Being able to integrate these into my instruction will be a great asset!  My first graders will be little techies before I know it!

Meet & Greet!

In just an hour, I get to meet my new bunch of first graders!  I'm so excited for an amazing year!

 

First Grade Rocks!

 

Welcome to our class 2014-2015

     My name is Elvira Grill, and I am your child’s new teacher.  I wanted to write a short note to tell you a little about myself.

     I have been employed in the Meridian School District for nine years.  I completed my student teaching at Desert Sage Elementary School in the 1st and 5th grades.  In addition to student teaching, I worked for several years as a teacher’s assistant and in the Positive Behavior Intervention program at Hunter and Discovery Elementary Schools, working with students who are emotionally disturbed.  Through the years, I have spent a significant amount of time in a variety of classrooms working with students of all ages, although my course work was in Early Childhood Education.  I have taught both 5^th and 1^st grade here at Chief Joseph and am thrilled to be in my fifth year here in first grade!

     I am married and have three daughters.  They are in 5th grade, 8th grade and 11th grade.  We enjoy playing games, listening to music, swimming and just spending time together.

     A few quick notes: 

• I encourage students to bring a healthy snack each day to eat after morning recess, as well as a water bottle to keep at their desks.
• While I am very interested in classroom parent helpers (party planners, etc), I ask that parents give us the first few weeks to get into our routine before coming.  I will send out sign up forms for people who are interested or feel free to send me an email sooner.

     I look forward to working together with you to make this a successful year.   If you have any questions, comments or concerns, please feel free to email or call me.

    

      Thank you,

         Elvira Grill

grill.elvira@westada.org

 

 

From West Ada School Nutrition

2014-15 Lunch Price Increase

Dear West Ada School District Parents/Guardians:

The price of lunch for both secondary and elementary has been increased for the 2014-15 school year. The new prices are $2.25 for elementary and $3.00 for secondary.

The reason for this increase stems from the “Equity in School Lunch Pricing” or “Paid Lunch Equity” provision of the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010, which reauthorized child nutrition programs and requires changes in order to implement its provisions. Below is information from a USDA fact sheet dated March 2011.

We appreciate your support of our school lunch program and our ongoing efforts to provide healthy, nutritious meals to our students. Please contact West Ada School District School Nutrition Services (855-4575) with any questions.

 

What is the “Equity in School Lunch Pricing” Provision?

 

• Effective July 1, 2011, section 205 of the Health, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010 Requires school food authorities (SFAs) participating in the National School Lunch Program to provide the same level of support for lunches served to students who are not eligible for free or reduced price lunches (i.e., paid lunches) as they are for lunches served to students eligible for free lunches. The Act directs SFAs to:
   
  1. Compare the average price charged for lunches served to students not eligible for free or reduced price lunches (i.e., students receiving “paid lunches”) to the difference between the higher Federal reimbursement provided for free lunches and the lower Federal reimbursement provided for paid lunches.
      
  2. If the average paid lunch price is less than the difference, an SFA must either gradually adjust average prices or provide non-Federal funding to cover the difference.
      
     2.  Why is this provision important?
      
• Historically, there have been three main sources of funds provided to nonprofit school food service accounts: Federal reimbursements, paid meal revenues, and State and local funding. The Federal reimbursement for paid meals was designed to be minimal in relation to these other sources and has always been substantially less than the reimbursement for free and reduced price meals.
   
• Research indicates that average prices charged for paid lunches in some SFAs are less than the cost of producing those lunches.
   
• Pricing paid lunches below the cost of production effectively increases Federal subsidies for higher income children because Federal funds intended for free and reduced price lunches are being used to help fill in the gap between what a paid lunch costs and what the school received for it. Children across all income levels are negatively affected by limiting the funds available to provide nutritious meals.
   
• This provision will help ensure that schools have funding available to support serving nutritious meals to all students.

Getting Ready for a new year in first grade!

Learning Targets and phonogram cards

Our building was painted through the summer, so it's been fun to redecorate and get a fresh start.  Things are coming along nicely.  My room feels covered with purposeful things and to me, it looks minimalistic, which I like.  In just one more week I get to meet my new students for the 2014-2015 school year!