Scaredy Squirrel is scared of killer bees, tarantulas, green martians, sharks, poison ivy, and germs. He never leaves his nut tree until one day he has no choice. This leads Scaredy Squirrel to make a life-altering decision…you’ll have to read it to find out what it is! There are also other books in the Scaredy Squirrel series (but we haven’t read them yet!

Before there was Junie B. Jones there was a little girl named Ramona Geraldine Quimby who makes her Qs with cat ears, whiskers, and a tail. After we read Junie B. Jones, First Grader At Last, we began reading Ramona the Pest. We have found that Ramona and Junie B. have a lot in common- including tattletales in their class. Ramona the Brave is the next book in the series- and Ramona is in first grade in that book!

This story is about a little yellow leaf who is not ready to fall off the tree until he meets a friend. The illustrations are what makes this book a favorite for our class- each page is created out of paper scraps in a collage style. Beautiful!

Robert Munsch writes a lot of silly books for children (like Mmm, Cookies and Thomas’ Snowsuit) and this silly story is about a little girl who loves markers. Her mother keeps buying her more and more markers until Brigid, the little girl, breaks the rules by drawing on herself with permanent marker.

RECIPE INGREDIENTS:
	3 bananas
	6 ice-cream sticks
	Two 1-1/2 oz. chocolate bars
	1 tbsp. chopped nuts, crispy rice cereal, granola, sprinkles or shredded coconut (optional)

1. Peel the bananas and remove any stringy fibers. Cut the bananas in half, widthwise, and push an ice-cream stick through the cut end of each half. Cover them in plastic wrap and freeze for about three hours.

2. Place the chocolate bars in a microwave-proof bowl and cook on high for about 2 minutes, or until the chocolate melts. Check after one minute. Stir in the nuts, cereal, or coconut.

3. Using a butter knife, spread the chocolate mixture over the frozen bananas to coat them completely. Rest the pops on a plate covered with waxed paper and freeze until ready to serve. Makes 6 pops.

P.S. You don’t have to freeze the bananas first to make this recipe work- you can use room-temperature bananas, coat them with chocolate and then freeze them. You can also substitute white chocolate , butterscotch or peanut butter chips for chocolate.

Here is a fun activity that is quick and easy. Since the weather is going to be fabulous outside today, grab your sidewalk chalk and head out to the driveway. Draw a large square with 9 smaller squares inside (sort of like a giant tic-tac-toe board inside a big box). Write the numbers 1-9 in a random order in the box. Staring at 1, jump to each number in order. Then, try it backwards. Can you hop to the numbers in your phone number? Do some addition (like jump to 1, then 3, then 4 because 1+3=4). There is a grid like this on our playground so you will also learn more games to play at school!

Hold Your Place in Style Bookmark

Bead Reading

Novel Bookmarks

Magnetic Marker

I hope to see you tonight at Back to School Night from 4-6pm. Please bring your school supplies…I can’t wait to meet you!

Storyline Online is a very cool website. First and second graders love to hear stories being read by famous actors. They have added many new books since I have last visited but I really like “A Bad Case of Stripes.” Which one is your favorite?

I learned something new! There is also a phone number you can call to hear a story. Please ask a parent before you call. The Storyline phone number for Minnesota is (952) 352-1350.

***Reminder! Back to School Night is Wednesday, September 2 from 4-6pm. Come and meet me and bring your school supplies. I hope to see you there!

Here is a fun card game that 2-4 players can play. It’s called “Seventeen” and the object of the game is to add the numbers on your cards to equal 17. Here are the directions from Education.com:

Seventeen- A Math Builder Card Game by Julie Williams

Your child probably knows that two plus two equals four. But what does it take to get to seventeen? Try this card game to explore all the possibilities, build math fact skills, and have a great time while you’re at it.

What You Need:

• 1 deck of playing cards
• 1 sheet of plain paper for a scorecard
• Scrap paper and a pencil for each player/mathematician

What You Do:

1. Prepare your materials. Start with your deck of cards. You will need all aces (each counts as “1’), and all numbered cards between 2 and 8. Make sure you pull out all nines, tens, jacks, queens, and kings. You can save them for more advanced games later.
2. While this game can be played by up to four players, you’ll probably want to start with just two. Shuffle your number cards and put them face down on a table. Then have each player pull out five cards. Take turns putting cards down, one at a time, and counting the total made when you add the pile together.
3. “Winning” and “Losing”: The goal is to get as close to 17 as possible. Let’s say, for example, that Player 1 puts down a “7” card, and then Player 2 puts down a “5” card. If Player 1 can add another “5,” she wins the round and gets a score of 17! That’s the clean way to win a round. But she can also win if she goes slightly over—say, to 19—but she must subtract the extra “2” from her score, so she only gets 15 points. The goal of the game (aside from complete Math Facts Mastery, of course!), is to have the largest number of points when the game is done.

Special note: Counting up the final scores usually means adding several digits. This may be a good stretch for some kids, but lots of first graders will find it hard. It’s helpful to have either a calculator, or a parent helper, or both ready.

When sending secret messages, you should always write in code. Click here to learn a few new ways to write mysterious letters to your friends and family. Don’t forget to ask your parents if it is okay!

Here’s how to play:

Play this game anywhere (no materials necessary). It’s fast-moving fun that doesn’t feel like homework.

To start,  the first player says a word: ZEBRA, for example. The next player must come up with a word that begins with the last letter of that word: APPLE, for instance. This is a great game to play in the car or at the dinner table.

To make it more difficult, choose a category such as geography, famous people, inventions or animals. The first player says one item from the category: ZEBRA, for example. The next player must come up with an item in the same category that begins with the last letter of that word: ANTELOPE. The next player may say ELEPHANT; next, TAPIR, and so on. If a letter proves impossible (Y poses difficulties after you’ve used YAK, for example), use the letter right before the last one (a, in this case).

The first cool link is from a  Family Fun magazine article by Ed Emberley. He teaches you  how to draw some easy animals and cars. I have a lot of Ed Emberley’s drawing books at school that you could use during free time and we will read one of his books during the first week of school.

***Be sure to ask a parent if it is okay to visit any website and have them help you when you are on the computer.

Click here to see the drawing lessons. Make sure to click the arrows to see each page or ask a parent to print out the article for you.

There are a lot of fun things to do at Ed Emberley’s website, too! Check it out by clicking here.

I will share more tomorrow!