Welcome, First Graders!
Lucas, Jack, Conor, Aubrey, Elliott, Alexander, Emily, Henry, Georgia, Adorlee, Jaden, Pippa, Max, Olivia, Mollie, Parker
Lucas, Jack, Conor, Aubrey, Elliott, Alexander, Emily, Henry, Georgia, Adorlee, Jaden, Pippa, Max, Olivia, Mollie, Parker
*3.22.24*
What a busy week with our 120th day of school and our earned pillow, blanket, stuffie party today! The kids had a great 120th day completing the escape room puzzles in under 30 minutes! Here is a look at the rest of the week…
In reading this week, we focused on the essential question, “What insects do you know about? How are they alike and different?” We had some great discussions about insects using our new vocabulary words - flutter, different, imitate, protect, and resemble. We also spent some time later in the week analyzing some academic vocabulary words - beautiful and fancy. The kids love to be challenged in using these words when speaking and writing about stories for the week. Some of the texts we listened to/read this week included, “Insect Hide and Seek”- nonfiction text about how insects blend into their surroundings, “Creek Low, Fly High” - a fictional text about different insects and how caterpillars change, “Hi! Fly Guy” - a fictional text about a boy and his pet fly, and “Meet the Insects” - a nonfiction selection about what different insects can do. The phonics rule we focused on this week was different spellings of the long “i” sound – i, y, igh, and ie. We are continuing to build, sort, segment, blend, and manipulate longer words, focusing this week on the long “i” sound. We also spent some time looking at words that end with “y” (ex: cry, fly, spy, fry) and what happens when we change the tense to add -ed or -ing. For reading comprehension, we completed repeated readings of stories (whole group and in small groups) to determine the problem and solution of stories, to determine who is telling the story (narrator in or outside the story), and to answer specific questions about our guided reading stories. We also spent some time writing about spring.
This week we started our next science unit on nutrition. The kids did a true/false activity determining if statements about sugar were true or false. We then watched a video on how sugar is made and what foods are important to our bodies.
In math, we continued to work with penguins in solving bigger addition and subtraction problems. We learned a new make 9/make 10 Bingo game, looked at patterns in doubles facts, and looked at 10+ and make ten strategies.
Important Info/Coming Up…
We have a mystery reader on Friday, March 28th at 10:30.
We have our school wide buddy groups on Friday, March 28th at 2:15.
There is no school on Friday, March 29th - Friday, April 5th for spring break.
Have a great weekend!!
*3.13.24*
I hope everyone is enjoying this warm weather. The kids have loved running around outside without coats for recess! Here is a look at our week…
In reading, we focused on the essential question, “What do animals need to survive?” Following the next generation science standards, this unit is focusing on animals and their external parts to help them survive and grow. Some of the stories we have listened to this week include “Animals in Winter” - nonfiction passage about how different animals survive winter, “Go Wild!” - nonfiction passage about different animals and how they find food, and “Vulture View” - fictional passage telling a story about vultures with facts on how they scavenge for food. The vocabulary words that we learned and have used in our conversations are communicate, superior, wilderness, survive, provide, seek, and search. We have spent this unit (unit 4) looking at other long vowel patterns - this week focusing on different spellings of “o” - “o,” “oa,” “oe,” and “ow.” With some vowel patterns, there may not be a rule/strategy and we have to try spelling words in different ways to see which way looks right. We are continuing to build/manipulate words, build sentences, and read/spell these spelling patterns. Our snap words for the week were over, food, find, more, start, and warm. We are seeing these words in our shared readings, decodable texts, anthology stories, and leveled readers. For reading comprehension and writing, we focused on writing about the main idea/topic and important details to support the main idea. The kids have also done some St.Patrick’s Day free write/creative writing activities.
In math, we are continuing to work with penguins in groups of 5s and 10s to help us solve larger addition and subtraction problems. We are also working with equations and story problems with equations where the start and part are missing. The hardest type of story problem is the type where the start is missing and we are taking away a given amount to get a given total (ex: __-4=12.) This is challenging for kids because they want to subtract and write 8 as their answer; however, they need to add the two numbers to figure out the missing start. We will be practicing a lot of these types of problems.
This month for science units we will be focusing on nutrition and healthy eating and then move into learning about our sun, moon, space, and solar system.
Important Information/Coming Up…
Our St. Patrick’s Day party is scheduled for tomorrow afternoon, Thursday, March 14th. There are no volunteers needed for this party and we plan to do some games/crafts and have snacks.
Our 120th day of school celebration is on Wednesday, March 20th. We will be spending the entire day doing activities related to the number 120, including a 120th day escape room challenge! The kids are very excited about this. Thank you to everyone who has volunteered/already brought in items to donate for this special day!
On Friday, March 22nd we have our next teacher vs. student party! An email went out earlier in the week. The kids voted on a blanket/pillow, stuffie, and movie party. We will plan to have the party in the afternoon of the 22nd.
We have a mystery reader next Friday, March 22nd @ 1:45 right after our party.
New photos are posted. See "School Photos!"
Have a great rest of your week/weekend!!
*2.16.24*
We had a busy last week before break! The kids had fun celebrating the 100th day of school and Valentine's Day. Thank you to the parents who donated and volunteered their time to our celebration! Here is a look at other activities this week...
In reading we spent the week listening to and reading stories about Valentine's Day, the 100th day of school, President's Day, and penguins. The kids are just about finished with their informational writing penguin books. They are in the stages of adding photographs to their books. We will be finishing after February break.
In math this week, we continued to use number lines to help us add and subtract, but instead of intervals of 1 (4+5=9) we worked on intervals of 10 (40+50=90). The kids are seeing the connection between one-digit addition and two-digit addition. We also practiced finding missing numbers on a number line. After break we will look at adding and subtracting on number lines and finding missing numbers on a number line with both intervals of 5 and 10.
Important Info/Coming Up...
There is no school Monday, February 19th- Friday, February 23rd for our winter break.
Our March Scholastic book order flyer will be coming home after vacation.\
We have a mystery reader on Friday, March 1st at 1:45.
We have a half-day of school on Wednesday, March 13th (11:30 dismissal) for parent teacher conferences. These conferences are teacher requested. Forms will be coming home after break to inform you of who will and will not have conferences scheduled. Please be on the look-out for this form.
There is no school on Friday, March 15th for a Superintendent's Conference Day.
Have a great weekend!
*2.9.24*
Congratulations to Mollie! She had the closest guess to the number of jelly beans in the jar (560) with a guess of 587! Thank you to everyone for donating to our adoption! We were able to raise $30 and the PTA has been generous to donate the other half of the adoption. Hopefully we will have our plush African Black-footed penguin after February break.
In reading this week, our essential question was, “How do we get our food?” The kids read and listened to a variety of texts related to this essential question. Some of the nonfiction texts included, “Where Does My Food Come From?” “A Look at Breakfast,” “From Cows to You,” and “The Five Food Groups.” We also listened to and read a fictional folktale, “The Little Red Hen.” The vocabulary words we used in our discussions were delicious, nutritious, delighted, enormous, and responsibility. Each week the kids are getting better and better at applying the vocabulary words to everyday conversations. For phonics, we built and read words with the /u/ sound like good. We saw that the /u/ sound can be spelled with “oo” like “good” or “u” like “push.” When responding to stories this week, we focused on time-order - first, next, then, last. Thinking about where our food comes from, we looked at some processes of how foods are made - ex: bread, orange juice, milk, jelly. The kids worked on retelling the story using the words first, next, then, and last. When building words, the kids learned about -ed and -ing words whose last consonant is doubled before adding the -ed or -ing (ex: tag, tagged, tagging and stop, stopped, stopping). Finally for grammar, we built and read not contractions (could not - couldn’t, have not - haven’t, cannot, can’t, etc…). The kids noticed that most of the time, we are replacing the vowel “o” with the apostrophe (rule breaker with the contraction can’t).
During writing this week, we responded to reading by finding specific examples within the texts to answer questions about our stories. We are working on writing longer, detailed sentences. We are also continuing to work on our nonfiction penguin research writing which goes along with our next generation science standards - understanding the relationship between parents and their offspring. We are just about done as some kids are beginning to add photographs. When the books are done, they will go in the kids’ writing portfolios. For creative writing this week, the kids did a variety of Valentine’s Day writing activities - writing about what their heart is full of, a Valentine’s Day journal picture prompt, and writing about what love means to them.
For math this week, we used the interactive number line to practice counting with an interval of 10. The kids noticed that the intervals of 10 are like the intervals of 1, except we are now adding a 0 to the end of each number (1, 2, 3, 4….10,20,30,40). The biggest challenge for the kids was to see that when adding tens (20+30=) we have to count by 10s, not 1s, when we hop forward or backward. We will also be practicing filling in missing numbers on a number line when tick marks may be missing. 30—?—90? This was very challenging for most kids. Next week we will learn and play some new workplace games where the kids will be adding and subtracting tens on a number line.
Important Info/Coming Up…
The 100th day of school is this coming Tuesday, February 13th. We will do a couple of activities throughout the day; however our big celebration will be on the 120th day of school (Wednesday, March 20th) since first graders need to be able to read and write numbers to 120 by the end of the year.
Our Valentine’s Day party is on Wednesday, February 14th from 12:45-2:00. Please refer to the email from our room parents at the beginning of the month to see if you volunteered to come in with a project/donate food items.
We have Good Eats on Friday, February 16th at 10:30. The kids will be trying citrus fruits.
We have a mystery reader on Friday, February 16th at 1:45.
There is no school from Monday, February 19th - Friday, February 23rd for our winter break.
Have a great weekend!!
*2.2.24*
Happy Groundhog’s Day! The kids were very excited to watch the video of Punxsutawney Phil this morning to see if he saw his shadow! 12 friends in the class predicted he would not see his shadow and 6 predicted he would (including teachers). It’s an early spring! Here is a look at what we did this week…
For Wonders, we are almost done with unit 3! The essential question for the week was, “How is life different than it was long ago?” Some of the vocabulary words we used in our discussions included past, present, future, entertainment, and century. The kids learned that life is much easier today than it was long ago! We listened to nonfiction texts related to our essential question - “The Last Train,” “Life at Home,” “Let’s Look at Video Games,” “Long Ago and Now,” and “From Horses to Planes.” The kids saw that many things are different, but some things are still the same. The were very intrigued by how video games have changed from long ago to today. For phonics this week, we built and read words with u_e, o_e, and e_e. When the silent “e” is at the end of cvce words, the vowel makes the long vowel sound. We continued to blend, segment, isolate, and delete phonemes in words. This week we also learned that we can break apart bigger words (explode, pancake, unlike, milkshake, expose, etc…) by look at the ending cvce part of the word. If we can break apart the words and read the cvce endings, we can put the parts together to read bigger words. This week’s high-frequency words that we wrote and practiced reading within the texts were ago, boy, girl, how, old, and people.
When responding to stories for reading comprehension, we practiced rereading parts of the story (and looking back to specific parts of the story based on the questions that were being asked) to better understand. We also talked about the comprehension skill - compare and contrast- by comparing and contrasting what life was like long ago compared to today.
For writing this week, we are continuing to use PebbleGo to research - listen to and write facts in our informational books about our penguins. We continue to talk about writing complete sentences with an uppercase letter at the beginning and end punctuation at the end. The kids also did creative writing about Groundhog’s Day. We are building stamina and at this point in the year, working to write stories that have at least 4-5 sentences.
With today being Groundhog’s Day, we also used our content time to learn more about Groundhog’s Day as well as continuing to learn about penguins and their habitats.
This week in math we started a new unit - Leapfrogs on the Number Line. In this unit, we are learning about number lines as a math tool/resource. We are working on using number lines to count up to 120 - skip counting by 1s, 2s, 5s, and 10s. We also used number lines to help us solve addition and subtraction problems to 10 (4+5=9, 9-5=4). Next week, we will use number lines with intervals of 10 to solve two-digit addition and subtraction problems (20+40=60, 60-40=20).
Important Info/Coming Up…
Valentine’s Day party information came home this week. If your child is planning on making valentines for the party, please make sure they have a valentine for every child in the class. If you need another copy of the class list, please let me know.
The January Scholastic book order was submitted and will be here this week. The February order form will be coming home this week, as well.
I sent an email this afternoon about our penguin adoption. The information included in the email is below…
On Monday, we will be finishing the Ready Freddy book, The Penguin Problem. In the book, Freddy's class raises money to adopt a penguin by doing a penny drive. Our class wanted to adopt a penguin, too, so we went on the WWF (World Wildlife Fund) website and voted on which penguin we wanted to adopt. We will be adopting an African Black-Footed Penguin, which is $60 including the bag, fact card, certificate, and stuffed animal. We voted on doing a jelly bean guessing jar to raise the money. For 25 cents, the kids can make a guess of how many jellybeans are in the jar. The kids can make more than one guess, too! I will be bringing two jars of jellybeans to school on Monday (one for just our class to vote and one for the school to participate and help raise money). Whoever has the closest guess will get to keep the jar of jellybeans. Please let me know if you have any questions!
Have a great weekend!
*1.26.24*
I hope everyone had a good last couple of weeks. Thank you to Olivia's dad for coming in as our mystery reader and the kids had a great ending to the week celebrating Lucas and Olivia's birthdays. I apologize for not getting updates posted last Friday. Here is a look at this past week…
In Wonders this week, our essential question was, “What is a folktale?” Our genre also happened to go along with our essential question - folktales. The kids learned that folktales are stories that are passed down from generations, are fictional with main characters who are typically animals with human traits and have events that can not really happen, and have a lesson/moral learned. The kids practiced rereading folktales to find specific examples in the text that prove the moral of the story. Some of the stories we read and listened to included, “The Nice Mitten” (similar to Jan Brett’s “The Mitten”), “Interrupting Chicken,” “The Foolish, Timid Rabbit,” “The Gingerbread Man,” and “Drakestail.” All stories this week were fictional and at the end of the week we looked at descriptive words and phrases that appear in poetry. Our vocabulary words that we used in our discussions about folktales were here, eventually, foolish, timid, and tale. Our new high-frequency words that we have added to our snap word wall are any, once, from, so, happy, and upon. For phonics, we spent a lot of time learning and reading words that have the soft c sound /s/ like cent and city (the “c” makes a /s/ sound, mostly, if it is followed be an “e” or an “i” and the soft “g” sound /j/ spelled with -g- or -dge. The -dge spelling of /j/ is mostly used if it is following a short-vowel sound. We were able to practice these rules when building words and sentences and listening to/reading stories in independent, small-group, or whole-group readings. Finally for writing, we focused on writing complete sentences when responding to reading while answering questions about the moral of the story and making connections - text-to-self.
For content and informational writing time (combined) this week, we are continuing to learn about penguins. We are learning about different types of penguins, the life cycle of a penguin, and interesting facts. The kids explored PebbleGo and picked the penguin that they will now be doing a mini-research book on. We will spend a lot of time working on the books next week.
In math, we used unifix cubes to look at true and false equations by making cube trains of 6, 7, 8, and 9. The kids looked at a variety of equations to decide whether equations were true or false. For example - 7=7, 7=8, 4+3=7, 7=2+5, 8=4+3, 4+4=8, 8=7+1, and most challenging - 3+4=5+2. The kids participated by “thumbs-up” if the equations were true and “thumbs down” if the equations were false. Towards the end of the week, we worked with equations where the start or part is missing and using strategies to figure out the missing start or part.
Important Info/Coming Up…
Happy birthday to Olivia on this Tuesday, January 30th.
We have a mystery reader this Friday, February 2nd at 1:45.
New Photos are posted! See “School Photos.”
Have a great weekend!!
*1/12/23*
Congratulations to the kids for completing their turkey/Santa picture in beat the teacher! They had a lot of fun at their movie/ice cream party today! Here is a look at our week…
In reading, our essential question this week was, “How do we measure time?” The kids learned about small units like seconds to larger units like years by kicking off the week with the book, “A Second is a Hiccup.” Some of the other texts we read/listened to were “Nate the Snake is Late” - fiction, “Measuring Time” - nonfiction, “On My Way to School” - fiction, and “It’s About Time” - nonfiction. The kids used the weekly vocabulary words - immediately, schedule, calendar, occasion, and weekend - to have discussion about measuring time. This week was big in that we started building and writing words with long vowels (moving away from short vowel cvc words). This week’s focus was long “a” spelled with the pattern a_e. The main word families we used were -ame, -ake, and -ate. They are building bigger words and bigger sentences on their word mats. Our new high frequency snap words this week were away, today, now, way, some, and why. During our phonics instruction we worked on phoneme identity (determining the same sound across three words), phoneme addition (saying a word and then adding a new sound to the beginning to create a new word), phoneme substitution (saying a word and then substituting the first sound to a different sound to make a new word), phoneme blending (saying a group of sounds and putting them together to form a word), and phoneme segmenting (saying a word and then separating each sound). For reading comprehension, we focused on identifying important events in fictional stories and making predictions based on previous events in a text.
During writing, we are continuing to write about reading, adding specific details from the text (whole group) and writing about important events in a story. For free write, the kids did winter writing activities. I am encouraging them to use bigger vocabulary words, to write longer sentences, and to add at least 3 sentences to their topic.
In math this week, we looked at teen numbers (10+ a number) by building a teen number on our number racks and with unifix cubes and by writing the 10+ a number equation. We also used our number racks to solve subtraction problems (comparing two amounts). We will have much more practice with this!
Important Info/Coming Up…
There is no school on Monday, January 15th in observance of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day.
We have an in-school concert assembly @ 9:30 on Wednesday, January 17th.
We have Good Eats on Friday, January 19th @ 10:30.
We have a mystery reader on Friday, January 19th at 1:45.
MANY new photos are posted! See “School Photos.”
Have a nice, long weekend!!
*1/5/23*
Happy New Year! I hope everyone had a fun and relaxing holiday. Here is a look at our first week in 2024!
In reading, our essential question for the week was, “How can you find your way around?” We listened to and read many fiction and nonfiction texts about interpreting and using maps to help us get around. The books included, “Me on the Map” (realistic fiction), “Which Way on the Map” (nonfiction), “Map It!” (nonfiction), and “Fun with Maps” (nonfiction). We learned and used new vocabulary words - height, locate, model, route, separate- when talking about the stories. The comprehension skill we focused on this week was the main topic/idea and details. We discussed how the main topic is what the whole story is mostly about and the details are specific examples of the topic. For writing about reading, the kids are becoming better at looking back within the story to find specific answers to the comprehension questions. For our phonics activities, we continued to work on phoneme segmenting (breaking apart all the sounds in words), phoneme blending (putting together all the sounds in a word), and phoneme addition (adding an extra sound to a word to make a new word). We also focused on reading and writing words with “ch,” “tch,” “wh,” and “ph.” Our high-frequency/snap words for the week were around, by, many, place, and walk. I am encouraging the kids to use the high-frequency words in their writing and the vocabulary words in their conversations about reading. Next week we will begin unit 3!
During our writing time this week, the kids did a free write about their holiday break. I encouraged the kids to work independently and use strategies to see where they are independently with their writing. I reminded them about uppercase letters at the beginning of sentences and for the names of people, places, and things and punctuation at the ends of sentences. Strategies to encourage independent spelling are 1. every syllable has a vowel and 2. say it (say the word), slide it (say the word and slide your finger across the paper as you say it), hear it (hear the sounds in the word), write it (write the letters for the sounds in the word). We also did a journal picture prompt writing activity about wintertime. The kids are independently writing 3-4 sentences on a given topic!
During math this week, we worked on ways to make ten and looked for strategies on a number rack to solve problems. We learned a new workplace game - tower race - where the kids had to complete towers to make certain numbers. It encouraged kids to think about all the ways you can make a given number. During number corner, we are looking at equations with the start, part/change, or result missing and working to find the missing number. We are using the equation on the number corner calendar marker to complete the number tree, create a story problem, and determine the solution. Next week we will have our unit 3 assessment.
Important Info/Coming Up…
There is no school on Monday, January 15th for Martin Luther King Jr. day.
Have a great weekend!
*12/15/23*
We are almost done with unit 2 in Wonders! The essential question for this week was, “How do people help out in the community.” We listened to and read some nonfiction stories (“The Story of Martin Luther King Jr.” “Luis’ Library,” and “Kids Can Help!” and some fictional stories (“Thump Thump Helps Out” and “Nell’s Books) related to our essential question. The vocabulary words we learned about and included in our reading and writing were leadership, enjoy, connections, rely, and admire. I’m very impressed with how the kids using these words in a variety of settings. They are even remembering and pointing out past week’s vocabulary words! During phonics instruction, we worked with words that have consonant digraphs th, sh, and -ng. They saw that th and sh can be at the beginning and ending of words and -ng is at the end of words. They are beginning to read and write bigger words and sentences using these digraphs. For comprehension, we talked about rereading stories to respond to comprehension questions and rereading to look for story elements - characters, setting, and events. We will take a break from Wonders next week and finish unit 2 after the holiday break.
In math this week, we worked through story problems with the start, part, or result missing and used our number racks to help us solve the problems. We also learned about doubles facts - the answer to a doubles fact is always even and the answer to a doubles +/- one fact is always odd. Next week we will do holiday activities and games and move into the next module after the holiday break.
This week the kids had so much fun traveling to different parts of the world to learn about winter holidays! We took a plane ride and visited India, Israel, and the Middle East. The holidays we learned about were Hanukkah, Eid, and Diwali. We will spend a lot of time next week visiting many more countries and learning about many other holidays.
Important Info/Coming Up…
This coming Wednesday, December 20th from 12:45-2:00 is our parent helper winter projects day. The kids will get to rotate through four different stations doing holiday related activities.
Our school-wide holiday sing-along is on Thursday, December 21st at 2:15.
Our Welcome Winter party is on Friday, December 22nd from 12:45-2.
There is no school on Monday, December 25th - Monday, January 1st for the holiday vacation.
I’m hoping to post photos from the last couple of weeks very soon!
Have a great weekend!
*12/1/23*
Happy December! Here is a look at our busy week…
In reading, we talked about our essential question, “What buildings do you know and what are they made of.” Some of the stories the kids read and listened to were “The 3 Dassies”- African folktale about 3 dassies who build homes to keep an eagle away, “Cubs in a Hut”- a fictional story about 3 bears who build a hut that leaks, “The Three Little Pigs”- a fictional story about three pigs who build homes to keep a wolf away, “The Pigs, the Wolf, and the Mud”- a fictional story about three pigs who build a hut out of mud to keep a wolf who does not like mud away and “Homes Around the World”- a nonfiction text about two different types of homes (igloos and homes on water with stilts). When listening to these texts, the kids learned about different materials that were used and also learned some other new vocabulary words - shelter, collapsed, furious, and refused. Our comprehension skill was thinking about problems and solutions in fictional stories and identifying characters, settings, and events. I have noticed a big difference in stamina when writing about reading (working together to respond to stories with more detailed, complete sentences). During phonics work, we practiced making and read words with short u. We manipulated parts of a word (beginning, middle, or end) to create new words and continued to listen to how many sounds are in words. The text feature we studied this week was captions. The kids saw that captions are sentences about photographs (different from the labels being words or phrases to name photographs) and tell us a little more about the picture.
In writing workshop, the kids are just about finished with their personal narrative small moments stories. They learned that when they think they are done, they have just begun! This week we talked about tapping out the sounds for unknown words (say the word, hear the sounds, write the sounds) and rereading our writing from beginning to end to see if we can add more details.
During math this week, we finished unit 2. At the end of the unit, we used our turkey quilt to help skip count by 5s and look for patterns. We also counted pennies and nickels to see the comparison between skip counting by 5s and adding nickels. Next week we will begin unit 3 - Adding, Subtracting, Counting, and Comparing.
During our content time, we completed lessons 5 and 6 of Second Step. Lesson 6 started unit 2 where we will begin thinking about other people’s feelings and looking for clues to see how we think others are feeling. Next week we will start traveling to different countries around the world to learn about different holiday traditions. The kids will get a passport, make a luggage bag, receive plane tickets, and “take a plane ride” to each of the countries.
Coming Up/Important Information -
This coming week we will have half days for parent teacher conferences - Wednesday, December 6th and Friday, December 8th. Dismissal will be at 11:30. Please look over your child’s report card once they are released and bring any questions or concerns that you may have. Also, please let me know if you will need to have a virtual conference instead of in-person. I look forward to seeing everyone!
This week Gingerbread Fred has begun visiting homes! The kids are very excited about Fred and are anxious every morning to see whose home he will go to. The first page in the writing journal provides instructions for what to do when Fred comes to your home. The basic summary is that Fred can participate in any activities with your child the evening he is at your house and then write a couple sentences in the journal about what he did. It is optional to draw/print out pictures to put on the back of your writing. The next day, the kids will get to read their journal entry to the class. Please let me know if you have any questions!
We have a mystery reader next Friday morning, December 8th.
Have a great weekend!!
*11.17.23*
Happy Friday! Here’s a look at our week…
Our essential question for the week was, “What jobs need to be done in a community?” The important vocabulary words related to our essential question were community, occupation, astonishing, equipment, and fortunately. The kids are doing well using these vocabulary words in their daily conversations each week. Our genre focus for the week was realistic fiction. The kids are learning that realistic fiction texts are made up stories with events that could really happen. Most of the stories we read and listened to were realistic fiction and the paired texts to go with the topics were nonfiction. Some of the texts we read and listened to were “Millie Waits for the Mail” (fictional story about a cow who waits for the mail every day so that she can scare the mail carrier), “Good Job, Ben!” (a realistic fiction story about a boy who visits different jobs around his town), “Jobs Around Town” (a nonfiction story about different community jobs), “The Red Hat” (a realistic fiction story about a girl named Jen who works as a firefighter), and “Firefighters at Work” (a nonfiction story about real life firefighters). We are continuing to work on close reading of stories so that we can first, listen for enjoyment, and second, listen to respond to the text (orally with a partner or in writing). We discussed story elements - character, settings, and events and making predictions at the beginning and throughout our stories.
For phonics this week, we introduced short “e” spelled with “e” or “ea.” The kids did word sorts and even challenged themselves with words like “spread” and “dread.” We also spent a lot of time building words and sentences using short “e” and all the high-frequency words we’ve learned so far. We also spent part of this week learning about the different sounds of -ed - “id” “d” or “t.” The kids noticed that when -ed makes an “id” sound, another syllable is added onto the word (ex: dread/dreaded). For grammar, we focused on nouns - people, places and things. The kids had to identify nouns in a sentence and draw/write their own nouns. We also discussed how to use commas when listing more than two nouns.
For writing, the kids are moving along in their personal narrative stories. Most kids have their brilliant beginning and first part of their story written. We are encouraging the kids to use resources to help them spell snap words/spelling words and tap out the sounds for words they do not know.
For math this week, we took our unit 2 math test (addition fact fluency, story problems with a part missing, fact families, and counting dots on dominoes to make addition equations). We started our turkey quilt to help us skip count by 5s and will finish after Thanksgiving break.
Important Info/Coming Up…
Our Thankful party for Thanksgiving is on Tuesday, November 21st from 1-2:00. A sheet went home on Monday for fruit and trail mix items your child volunteered to donate for the party. We will be making trail mix and fruit salad as a part of our preparations for the feast. Please let me know if you did not get this note or have questions about what to bring in. Thank you for the helpers who volunteered to come in and help out!
There is no school Wednesday, November 22nd - Friday, November 24th for Thanksgiving break.
An email was sent on Thursday with information on signing up for your child’s parent teacher conference in December. The dates are Wednesday, December 6th, Friday, December 8th, and Wednesday, December 13th. I apologize for all the emails. Sign-ups are different this year and it wouldn’t let me send a link with all 3 dates included. There will be a half-day of school with an early dismissal at 11:30 on those days.
Have a wonderful weekend and Happy Thanksgiving!!
*11.9.23*
Happy Veteran’s Day! I hope everyone had a great week. Here’s a look at our week…
In reading, we finished our last week of unit 1 in Wonders. The essential question for the week was “How does your body move?” Some of the stories the kids read and listened to were “Move! (about words to describe how animals move), “Move and Grin!” (how animals and people can move and use their bodies the same way), “The Monkey’s Fiddle” (fable about a monkey using a fiddle to get animals to move), “Move It!” (about how we move and use our bodies in fun ways), and “My Family Hike” (a personal narrative about a boy going on a hike with his family). These texts included our high-frequency words for the week (jump, run, move, two) and many words that followed our phonics and spelling skill (s-blends and r-blends). The kids are beginning to build large words with beginning and ending blends and are starting to use them in their writing sentences, too. For phonics, we are beginning to manipulate parts of words to create new words, which is a difficult skill at first (Say "brag." Say "brag" without "b." What is the new word?). We will be doing this activity a lot over the next few weeks. We are continuing to spend a lot of time writing about reading and the kids learned about possessive ‘s. Next week we will begin unit 2.
In writing, we have been working on using complete sentences (a who/what and what that noun is doing) and our goal for journal writing is at least 2-3 descriptive sentences. I continue to remind the kids to begin their sentences with an uppercase letter and to end with a punctuation mark. This goal will get more challenging as the year goes on. We are also continuing to work on developing our personal narrative (small moments) stories.
In math, we spent this week playing addition and subtraction games that are teaching us to count on from the bigger number. We are also working to build our addition and subtraction fact fluency to 10. Reflex is a great resource to improve fact fluency! This week we started math centers (Reflex, bump games, activity sheet). I spent the week monitoring stations and next week will begin working with small math groups to meet individual needs.
For science this week, our theme was all about veterans! We talked about what it means to be a veteran, why we celebrate Veteran’s Day, and things we can do to say “thank you.” We made a Veteran’s Day book, Veteran’s Day banner, and listened to our Scholastic news article about veteran heroes.
Important Info/Coming Up….
We have a mystery reader on Friday, November 17th @ 1:45.
Our Thanksgiving party is on Tuesday, November 21st from 1:00 - 2:00. Thank you for the parents who volunteered to come into the classroom to help out. We will be making butter, popping popcorn with an air popper, making a fruit salad/trail mix (info coming home soon about this), and setting the desks for our “feast.” It’s hard work prepping for a feast, which the kids will learn!
To make our fruit salad and trail mix for our feast, we are asking each family to bring in one food item to contribute to the salad and mix. Your child will be picking which food item they would like to bring in and a note will be coming home this Monday so that you know what your child picked. Please have all food items in by the day of the party - Tuesday, November 21st. Thank you for your help with this!
Have a nice, long weekend!!
*11.3.23*
We finished, what is probably, the toughest week in first grade! Making it through Halloween week is tough, but the kids worked very hard. Thank you to all the parent helpers/volunteers who helped to make our Halloween party a success! We had a great time!
In reading this week, we spent extra time with literacy centers and making good choices during independent work. The kids listened to many Halloween stories and for their writing literacy center, the kids were able to do some free-write fantasy stories about Halloween. They had fun using their creativity! During reading groups, we spent time segmenting and blending sounds to make words and changing parts of words to build new words (word ladders). I am beginning to focus on written comprehension to questions about our stories. Towards the end of the week, we spent some time exploring our reading website for Wonders. The great thing about this website is that kids can access it at home, too! When using the website at home, the kids can read and play the same games that they are interacting with at school. We are also taking some time over these next couple of weeks to record ourselves reading some of our leveled readers. You can listen to these recordings at home, as well. See below for information on how to log-on at home.
During writing, we started a mini-unit on small moment narrative writing. To launch the unit, I modeled how to brainstorm small moments and how to use a graphic organizer to order our thoughts. Coincidentally, I had an incident that morning where I spilled my coffee everywhere, which turned into a great small moment story! The kids had to think of a small moment to write about and are currently in the process of mapping out their ideas. Next week we will spend time turning our ideas in our graphic organizer into complete sentences in our stories.
During our science and social studies time, we continued to learn more about bats, read a Scholastic News article about candy for Halloween week, and began to talk about Veteran’s Day. We will spend our content time all of next week learning more about and doing activities related to Veteran’s Day.
Coming Up/Important Info…
There is no school on Friday, November 10th in observance of Veteran’s Day.
I will be sending home a progress report for the first part of the year on Thursday, November 9th.
New photos from October are posted! See the “School Photos” tab.
Have a great, relaxing weekend!!
*10.27.23*
Happy Friday! Happy birthday to Pippa! Here is a look at our busy week...
For science this week, we continued to learn about bats and did some fiction and nonfiction writing about bats. The kids have learned many new facts and got to see a video about the biggest bat in the word - the flying fox! Our Scholastic News article was on nocturnal animals and the kids compared owls to bats.
For reading, we are continuing literacy centers and I am still impressed with how well the kids are working independently. I am able to work with small groups where we are doing a lot of phonemic awareness/phonics/word work activities, reading to improve our fluency (accuracy, expression, and pace), and comprehension response questions. For our Wonders activities, the essential question this week was “What do friends do together?” Looking at both fiction and non-fiction genres, we read books about games friends played long ago and activities friends do together. The titles of the books included “Friends,” “Toss! Kick! Hop!,” “Friends All Around,” “Games Long Ago,” and “There Are Days and There Are Days.” During phonics worked, we added short “o” words to our word bank. Using both blends and digraphs and double consonant word endings, the kids are making much bigger words and sentences! We also looked at rhyming words and talked about how it’s the same ending SOUNDS not the same ending letters. We read poems with rhyming words, too. We continue to do activities segmenting (breaking words apart by sounds) and blending (putting sounds together) when working with words. The final activity was making word ladders where we manipulate one part of the word (“Write the word plop. Change plop to slop. What part of the word are we changing? Etc…). We are also continuing to write about reading. Next week we will take a break from Wonders and work on some small moment personal narrative stories.
In math, we spent a majority of the week learning about fact families and used double flap cards to help us find all the facts in the fact family. We learned that doubles only have two facts in the fact family. I was very impressed with how quickly the kids picked up on figuring out all the fact families and I think Reflex has been very helpful with this! This week we also introduced math center games and the kids LOVED the bump game. Within the next couple of weeks, we will begin guided math groups where I will pull students to work on specific concepts and the kids will work independently on either Reflex, math workplace/bump games, or math worksheet activity games.
Coming Up…
On Tuesday, October 31st, we have our Halloween parade and celebration. The parade is at 9:45. Parents are welcome to come and stand outside for the parade. Our party will be at the end of the day from 12:45 - 2. The list of helpers in the classroom and food donations were sent out by our room parents a few weeks ago. Please let me know if you have any questions!
There is no school on Wednesday, November 1st for a Superintendent Conference Day.
On Friday, November 3rd, we will do a first grade fall craft “switcheroo” in the morning! The kids will get to rotate to each first grade classroom to do a different fall craft/activity.
Have a great weekend!
*10/20/23*
We had another fun and busy week in first grade!
Our essential question for the week was “What makes pets special?” We learned some important content vocabulary - care, train, groom, companion, and popular which we used when talking about our essential question throughout the week. The genres we focused on this week were fiction (“Cool Dog, School Dog,” “A Pig for Cliff,” and “Flip”) and nonfiction (“Our Pets” and “What Pets Need.”) The kids had good discussions on what makes fictional books fiction (ex: A cat can’t have a pet pig. A dinosaur can’t go to school. Dogs can’t read books.). We also shared what important facts we learned about pets in our nonfiction books finding evidence from the texts. During our comprehension discussions, we looked for important parts of the story - story elements included characters, setting, and events.
This week’s phonics words focused on l-blends (bl-, cl-, fl-, gl-, pl-, and sl-). The kids did a great job building words with l-blends and changed parts of words to make new words. They also used the vowels we previously learned “i” and “a” to make the l-blend words. This week the kids also learned about possessive nouns. We said that if a word means more than one, we have to add an “s”. Some of the words they made were cat/cats, pig/pigs, wig/wigs, flag/flags, etc… following our short “i” and short “a” spelling rule. The last part of our word work was distinguishing sentences with periods of questions. We looked at some examples and sorted sentences based on whether they were statements or questions.
For math this week, we continued to work with dominoes as a tool to help us solve math problems. We practiced making addition equations by looking at the number of dots on the dominoes and also compared the total number of dots on each domino by writing and saying inequality statements - ex: 7 is greater than 5 and 5 is less than 7. Next week we will continue to work with dominoes to solve math problems and begin looking at fact families.
Coming Up…
We have our October birthday party (Pippa!) on Friday, October 27th from 1:15-2.
On Tuesday, October 31st, we have our Halloween parade and celebration. The parade is at 9:45. Parents are welcome to come and stand outside for the parade. Our party will be at the end of the day from 12:45 - 2. The list of helpers in the classroom and food donations were sent out by our room parents a few weeks ago. Please let me know if you have any questions!
There is no school on Wednesday, November 1st.
New photos have been posted! See “School Photos!”
Have a wonderful weekend!
*10.13.23*
Wow, a visit from the Pumpkin Elf and a pumpkin investigation this week! We were busy!
In reading we focused on our essential question, "What is it like where you live?" We listened to a read aloud story, "Alicia's Happy Day," about a young girl who travels through the city doing different activities on her birthday. We continued to use the strategy of visualizing to imagine movies in our heads of what is happening in the story and used clues in sentences to help figure out unknown words. Our vocabulary words we saw throughout our stories and used in our conversations were city, country, bored, feast, and scurried. Our genre for the week was fantasy; the kids found specific examples in our texts ("Go, Pip!" and "Six Kids") to prove why our stories were fantasies. We also learned a new genre; personal narrative and saw that personal narratives use the words "my," "me," "we," and "I."
For phonics we worked with short "i" and also reviewed short "a" words. The kids worked together to build CVC words with short i, but also challenged themselves to add beginning and ending blends and digraphs (ex: split, stick, spin, etc...). This week we also worked with double consonant letters at the ends of words, building words with -ss, -ll, -tt, -zz. During grammar, we worked with word order and learned that words in a sentence need to be in an order that makes sense. Using Jamboard, we moved words around to make sentences that start with our noun and end with our verb. Our high-frequency words for the week were up, very, down, out. The kids had fun writing the words on a partner's back, using the words in their own sentences, and air writing the words.
During math this week we finished measuring objects with paperclips and unifex cubes and then compared the lengths of objects. It was challenging for the kids to answering questions like "How many more?" and "How many fewer?" We will continue to work on finding what is the same with two numbers (ex: 4 and 7 both have 4) and then counting the extra (7 has 3 extra). At the end of the week for our pumpkin investigation, we used the strategy of skip counting by 10s to figure out how many seeds were in our pumpkins. They had so much fun!
This week during our content time, we had a visit from the New Salem Fire Department and learned some important fire safety tips. The main points the kids learned were 1. Get out quickly if there is a fire. 2. Practice drills at home with a family meeting spot. and 3. Make sure you have working smoke detectors. We also read a Scholastic News article about firefighters as community helpers. Towards the end of the week, we continued learning about pumpkins with our investigation. The kids got to weigh, measure, determine sinking or floating, count lines for pumpkin age, and look at the inside of a pumpkin.
Important Info/Coming Up...
This Tuesday, October 17th we will be using the pumpkin seeds form our investigation to make pumpkin sensory bags.
On Wednesday, October 18th we have our field trip to Ellm's Farm. The weather looks to be around 50-55 degrees so please make sure to dress your child appropriately (hat, boots, jacket, etc...). Also, please make sure to send your child with a bagged lunch as we will be eating at the farm.
We have a mystery reader on Thursday, October 19th at 1:45.
We will be decorating the pumpkins we get from Ellm's Farm on Friday, October 20th. The kids will most likely bring the pumpkins home that following Monday so they have time to dry.
Have a great weekend!
10.6.23*
Happy October! We had another busy week!
During reading, we started unit 1 of Wonders. Our essential question was "What do you do at school?" We listened to a read aloud text "This School Year Will be the Best," and shared reading texts "Jack Can" and "Nat and Sam," which were all related to school. There were also nonfiction stories related to our essential question "Rules at School" and "School Around the World." Using our new vocabulary words (object, learn, subjects, common, and recognize) the kids responded to the stories and asked questions. The new genre for the week was realistic fiction and we reviewed last week's genre (nonfiction). For phonics we worked with short a, building, writing, and using words with short "a." We also talked about the "whiny a" sound in word families -am and -an. Our new high-frequency words this week were "school," "does," "not," and "what." We practiced writing the words in the air, on a partner's back, on our white boards, and also wrote and read sentences using our high-frequency words. Finally for grammar, we talked about what makes a sentence a sentence. The kids learned that sentences need a who/what (noun) and what the noun is doing (verb). We sorted sentences and wrote sentences remembering to include an uppercase letter at the beginning and an end punctuation mark. When responding to our stories about school, we also worked on writing complete sentences. Towards the end of the week, we did a journal free write about fall.
For math, we spent this week playing some new games using pennies and nickels to skip count by 1s and 10s, used our number racks to find missing numbers (part of an equation- 4+_=10) and began talking about how to measure objects using nonstandard units (paperclips). Next week we will be finishing unit one.
This week we started learning about pumpkins! We read a book a book called From Seed to Pumpkin and did a life cycle sort. Next week we will read/illustrate a book about pumpkins and we have our pumpkin investigation!
Important Info/Coming Up...
After receiving some training on our new reading program, Wonders, we decided as a first grade team to wait until November before we begin formalized spelling tests. For now, we are working with our first graders to build CVC, notice patterns, sort, etc... Once we have had some practice with these activities, we will begin formalized spelling tests. The kids will still take a pretest on Mondays as a means to guide instruction for the week's spelling activities. The kids will not be bringing home spelling words attached to their reading log until further notice. Please let me know if you have any questions.
There is no school on Monday, October 9th in observance of Indigenous People's Day.
We have school photos on Tuesday, October 10th at 9:40.
We have the New Salem Fire Department visiting our school on Wednesday, October 11th from 9-10:30.
We have Good Eats (a farm to school program where kids learn about and taste healthy foods) on Friday, October 13th at 10:30.
We have our Pumpkin Investigation on Friday, October 13th from 12:45-2:00. There are four parent volunteers for this activity and we are asking each helper to bring a medium-sized pumpkin (please see the October classroom helper information that our room parents emailed this week).
New photos are posted! See "School Photos."
Thank you!! Have a great, long weekend
What a busy week with our 120th day of school and our earned pillow, blanket, stuffie party today! The kids had a great 120th day completing the escape room puzzles in under 30 minutes! Here is a look at the rest of the week…
In reading this week, we focused on the essential question, “What insects do you know about? How are they alike and different?” We had some great discussions about insects using our new vocabulary words - flutter, different, imitate, protect, and resemble. We also spent some time later in the week analyzing some academic vocabulary words - beautiful and fancy. The kids love to be challenged in using these words when speaking and writing about stories for the week. Some of the texts we listened to/read this week included, “Insect Hide and Seek”- nonfiction text about how insects blend into their surroundings, “Creek Low, Fly High” - a fictional text about different insects and how caterpillars change, “Hi! Fly Guy” - a fictional text about a boy and his pet fly, and “Meet the Insects” - a nonfiction selection about what different insects can do. The phonics rule we focused on this week was different spellings of the long “i” sound – i, y, igh, and ie. We are continuing to build, sort, segment, blend, and manipulate longer words, focusing this week on the long “i” sound. We also spent some time looking at words that end with “y” (ex: cry, fly, spy, fry) and what happens when we change the tense to add -ed or -ing. For reading comprehension, we completed repeated readings of stories (whole group and in small groups) to determine the problem and solution of stories, to determine who is telling the story (narrator in or outside the story), and to answer specific questions about our guided reading stories. We also spent some time writing about spring.
This week we started our next science unit on nutrition. The kids did a true/false activity determining if statements about sugar were true or false. We then watched a video on how sugar is made and what foods are important to our bodies.
In math, we continued to work with penguins in solving bigger addition and subtraction problems. We learned a new make 9/make 10 Bingo game, looked at patterns in doubles facts, and looked at 10+ and make ten strategies.
Important Info/Coming Up…
We have a mystery reader on Friday, March 28th at 10:30.
We have our school wide buddy groups on Friday, March 28th at 2:15.
There is no school on Friday, March 29th - Friday, April 5th for spring break.
Have a great weekend!!
*3.13.24*
I hope everyone is enjoying this warm weather. The kids have loved running around outside without coats for recess! Here is a look at our week…
In reading, we focused on the essential question, “What do animals need to survive?” Following the next generation science standards, this unit is focusing on animals and their external parts to help them survive and grow. Some of the stories we have listened to this week include “Animals in Winter” - nonfiction passage about how different animals survive winter, “Go Wild!” - nonfiction passage about different animals and how they find food, and “Vulture View” - fictional passage telling a story about vultures with facts on how they scavenge for food. The vocabulary words that we learned and have used in our conversations are communicate, superior, wilderness, survive, provide, seek, and search. We have spent this unit (unit 4) looking at other long vowel patterns - this week focusing on different spellings of “o” - “o,” “oa,” “oe,” and “ow.” With some vowel patterns, there may not be a rule/strategy and we have to try spelling words in different ways to see which way looks right. We are continuing to build/manipulate words, build sentences, and read/spell these spelling patterns. Our snap words for the week were over, food, find, more, start, and warm. We are seeing these words in our shared readings, decodable texts, anthology stories, and leveled readers. For reading comprehension and writing, we focused on writing about the main idea/topic and important details to support the main idea. The kids have also done some St.Patrick’s Day free write/creative writing activities.
In math, we are continuing to work with penguins in groups of 5s and 10s to help us solve larger addition and subtraction problems. We are also working with equations and story problems with equations where the start and part are missing. The hardest type of story problem is the type where the start is missing and we are taking away a given amount to get a given total (ex: __-4=12.) This is challenging for kids because they want to subtract and write 8 as their answer; however, they need to add the two numbers to figure out the missing start. We will be practicing a lot of these types of problems.
This month for science units we will be focusing on nutrition and healthy eating and then move into learning about our sun, moon, space, and solar system.
Important Information/Coming Up…
Our St. Patrick’s Day party is scheduled for tomorrow afternoon, Thursday, March 14th. There are no volunteers needed for this party and we plan to do some games/crafts and have snacks.
Our 120th day of school celebration is on Wednesday, March 20th. We will be spending the entire day doing activities related to the number 120, including a 120th day escape room challenge! The kids are very excited about this. Thank you to everyone who has volunteered/already brought in items to donate for this special day!
On Friday, March 22nd we have our next teacher vs. student party! An email went out earlier in the week. The kids voted on a blanket/pillow, stuffie, and movie party. We will plan to have the party in the afternoon of the 22nd.
We have a mystery reader next Friday, March 22nd @ 1:45 right after our party.
New photos are posted. See "School Photos!"
Have a great rest of your week/weekend!!
*2.16.24*
We had a busy last week before break! The kids had fun celebrating the 100th day of school and Valentine's Day. Thank you to the parents who donated and volunteered their time to our celebration! Here is a look at other activities this week...
In reading we spent the week listening to and reading stories about Valentine's Day, the 100th day of school, President's Day, and penguins. The kids are just about finished with their informational writing penguin books. They are in the stages of adding photographs to their books. We will be finishing after February break.
In math this week, we continued to use number lines to help us add and subtract, but instead of intervals of 1 (4+5=9) we worked on intervals of 10 (40+50=90). The kids are seeing the connection between one-digit addition and two-digit addition. We also practiced finding missing numbers on a number line. After break we will look at adding and subtracting on number lines and finding missing numbers on a number line with both intervals of 5 and 10.
Important Info/Coming Up...
There is no school Monday, February 19th- Friday, February 23rd for our winter break.
Our March Scholastic book order flyer will be coming home after vacation.\
We have a mystery reader on Friday, March 1st at 1:45.
We have a half-day of school on Wednesday, March 13th (11:30 dismissal) for parent teacher conferences. These conferences are teacher requested. Forms will be coming home after break to inform you of who will and will not have conferences scheduled. Please be on the look-out for this form.
There is no school on Friday, March 15th for a Superintendent's Conference Day.
Have a great weekend!
*2.9.24*
Congratulations to Mollie! She had the closest guess to the number of jelly beans in the jar (560) with a guess of 587! Thank you to everyone for donating to our adoption! We were able to raise $30 and the PTA has been generous to donate the other half of the adoption. Hopefully we will have our plush African Black-footed penguin after February break.
In reading this week, our essential question was, “How do we get our food?” The kids read and listened to a variety of texts related to this essential question. Some of the nonfiction texts included, “Where Does My Food Come From?” “A Look at Breakfast,” “From Cows to You,” and “The Five Food Groups.” We also listened to and read a fictional folktale, “The Little Red Hen.” The vocabulary words we used in our discussions were delicious, nutritious, delighted, enormous, and responsibility. Each week the kids are getting better and better at applying the vocabulary words to everyday conversations. For phonics, we built and read words with the /u/ sound like good. We saw that the /u/ sound can be spelled with “oo” like “good” or “u” like “push.” When responding to stories this week, we focused on time-order - first, next, then, last. Thinking about where our food comes from, we looked at some processes of how foods are made - ex: bread, orange juice, milk, jelly. The kids worked on retelling the story using the words first, next, then, and last. When building words, the kids learned about -ed and -ing words whose last consonant is doubled before adding the -ed or -ing (ex: tag, tagged, tagging and stop, stopped, stopping). Finally for grammar, we built and read not contractions (could not - couldn’t, have not - haven’t, cannot, can’t, etc…). The kids noticed that most of the time, we are replacing the vowel “o” with the apostrophe (rule breaker with the contraction can’t).
During writing this week, we responded to reading by finding specific examples within the texts to answer questions about our stories. We are working on writing longer, detailed sentences. We are also continuing to work on our nonfiction penguin research writing which goes along with our next generation science standards - understanding the relationship between parents and their offspring. We are just about done as some kids are beginning to add photographs. When the books are done, they will go in the kids’ writing portfolios. For creative writing this week, the kids did a variety of Valentine’s Day writing activities - writing about what their heart is full of, a Valentine’s Day journal picture prompt, and writing about what love means to them.
For math this week, we used the interactive number line to practice counting with an interval of 10. The kids noticed that the intervals of 10 are like the intervals of 1, except we are now adding a 0 to the end of each number (1, 2, 3, 4….10,20,30,40). The biggest challenge for the kids was to see that when adding tens (20+30=) we have to count by 10s, not 1s, when we hop forward or backward. We will also be practicing filling in missing numbers on a number line when tick marks may be missing. 30—?—90? This was very challenging for most kids. Next week we will learn and play some new workplace games where the kids will be adding and subtracting tens on a number line.
Important Info/Coming Up…
The 100th day of school is this coming Tuesday, February 13th. We will do a couple of activities throughout the day; however our big celebration will be on the 120th day of school (Wednesday, March 20th) since first graders need to be able to read and write numbers to 120 by the end of the year.
Our Valentine’s Day party is on Wednesday, February 14th from 12:45-2:00. Please refer to the email from our room parents at the beginning of the month to see if you volunteered to come in with a project/donate food items.
We have Good Eats on Friday, February 16th at 10:30. The kids will be trying citrus fruits.
We have a mystery reader on Friday, February 16th at 1:45.
There is no school from Monday, February 19th - Friday, February 23rd for our winter break.
Have a great weekend!!
*2.2.24*
Happy Groundhog’s Day! The kids were very excited to watch the video of Punxsutawney Phil this morning to see if he saw his shadow! 12 friends in the class predicted he would not see his shadow and 6 predicted he would (including teachers). It’s an early spring! Here is a look at what we did this week…
For Wonders, we are almost done with unit 3! The essential question for the week was, “How is life different than it was long ago?” Some of the vocabulary words we used in our discussions included past, present, future, entertainment, and century. The kids learned that life is much easier today than it was long ago! We listened to nonfiction texts related to our essential question - “The Last Train,” “Life at Home,” “Let’s Look at Video Games,” “Long Ago and Now,” and “From Horses to Planes.” The kids saw that many things are different, but some things are still the same. The were very intrigued by how video games have changed from long ago to today. For phonics this week, we built and read words with u_e, o_e, and e_e. When the silent “e” is at the end of cvce words, the vowel makes the long vowel sound. We continued to blend, segment, isolate, and delete phonemes in words. This week we also learned that we can break apart bigger words (explode, pancake, unlike, milkshake, expose, etc…) by look at the ending cvce part of the word. If we can break apart the words and read the cvce endings, we can put the parts together to read bigger words. This week’s high-frequency words that we wrote and practiced reading within the texts were ago, boy, girl, how, old, and people.
When responding to stories for reading comprehension, we practiced rereading parts of the story (and looking back to specific parts of the story based on the questions that were being asked) to better understand. We also talked about the comprehension skill - compare and contrast- by comparing and contrasting what life was like long ago compared to today.
For writing this week, we are continuing to use PebbleGo to research - listen to and write facts in our informational books about our penguins. We continue to talk about writing complete sentences with an uppercase letter at the beginning and end punctuation at the end. The kids also did creative writing about Groundhog’s Day. We are building stamina and at this point in the year, working to write stories that have at least 4-5 sentences.
With today being Groundhog’s Day, we also used our content time to learn more about Groundhog’s Day as well as continuing to learn about penguins and their habitats.
This week in math we started a new unit - Leapfrogs on the Number Line. In this unit, we are learning about number lines as a math tool/resource. We are working on using number lines to count up to 120 - skip counting by 1s, 2s, 5s, and 10s. We also used number lines to help us solve addition and subtraction problems to 10 (4+5=9, 9-5=4). Next week, we will use number lines with intervals of 10 to solve two-digit addition and subtraction problems (20+40=60, 60-40=20).
Important Info/Coming Up…
Valentine’s Day party information came home this week. If your child is planning on making valentines for the party, please make sure they have a valentine for every child in the class. If you need another copy of the class list, please let me know.
The January Scholastic book order was submitted and will be here this week. The February order form will be coming home this week, as well.
I sent an email this afternoon about our penguin adoption. The information included in the email is below…
On Monday, we will be finishing the Ready Freddy book, The Penguin Problem. In the book, Freddy's class raises money to adopt a penguin by doing a penny drive. Our class wanted to adopt a penguin, too, so we went on the WWF (World Wildlife Fund) website and voted on which penguin we wanted to adopt. We will be adopting an African Black-Footed Penguin, which is $60 including the bag, fact card, certificate, and stuffed animal. We voted on doing a jelly bean guessing jar to raise the money. For 25 cents, the kids can make a guess of how many jellybeans are in the jar. The kids can make more than one guess, too! I will be bringing two jars of jellybeans to school on Monday (one for just our class to vote and one for the school to participate and help raise money). Whoever has the closest guess will get to keep the jar of jellybeans. Please let me know if you have any questions!
Have a great weekend!
*1.26.24*
I hope everyone had a good last couple of weeks. Thank you to Olivia's dad for coming in as our mystery reader and the kids had a great ending to the week celebrating Lucas and Olivia's birthdays. I apologize for not getting updates posted last Friday. Here is a look at this past week…
In Wonders this week, our essential question was, “What is a folktale?” Our genre also happened to go along with our essential question - folktales. The kids learned that folktales are stories that are passed down from generations, are fictional with main characters who are typically animals with human traits and have events that can not really happen, and have a lesson/moral learned. The kids practiced rereading folktales to find specific examples in the text that prove the moral of the story. Some of the stories we read and listened to included, “The Nice Mitten” (similar to Jan Brett’s “The Mitten”), “Interrupting Chicken,” “The Foolish, Timid Rabbit,” “The Gingerbread Man,” and “Drakestail.” All stories this week were fictional and at the end of the week we looked at descriptive words and phrases that appear in poetry. Our vocabulary words that we used in our discussions about folktales were here, eventually, foolish, timid, and tale. Our new high-frequency words that we have added to our snap word wall are any, once, from, so, happy, and upon. For phonics, we spent a lot of time learning and reading words that have the soft c sound /s/ like cent and city (the “c” makes a /s/ sound, mostly, if it is followed be an “e” or an “i” and the soft “g” sound /j/ spelled with -g- or -dge. The -dge spelling of /j/ is mostly used if it is following a short-vowel sound. We were able to practice these rules when building words and sentences and listening to/reading stories in independent, small-group, or whole-group readings. Finally for writing, we focused on writing complete sentences when responding to reading while answering questions about the moral of the story and making connections - text-to-self.
For content and informational writing time (combined) this week, we are continuing to learn about penguins. We are learning about different types of penguins, the life cycle of a penguin, and interesting facts. The kids explored PebbleGo and picked the penguin that they will now be doing a mini-research book on. We will spend a lot of time working on the books next week.
In math, we used unifix cubes to look at true and false equations by making cube trains of 6, 7, 8, and 9. The kids looked at a variety of equations to decide whether equations were true or false. For example - 7=7, 7=8, 4+3=7, 7=2+5, 8=4+3, 4+4=8, 8=7+1, and most challenging - 3+4=5+2. The kids participated by “thumbs-up” if the equations were true and “thumbs down” if the equations were false. Towards the end of the week, we worked with equations where the start or part is missing and using strategies to figure out the missing start or part.
Important Info/Coming Up…
Happy birthday to Olivia on this Tuesday, January 30th.
We have a mystery reader this Friday, February 2nd at 1:45.
New Photos are posted! See “School Photos.”
Have a great weekend!!
*1/12/23*
Congratulations to the kids for completing their turkey/Santa picture in beat the teacher! They had a lot of fun at their movie/ice cream party today! Here is a look at our week…
In reading, our essential question this week was, “How do we measure time?” The kids learned about small units like seconds to larger units like years by kicking off the week with the book, “A Second is a Hiccup.” Some of the other texts we read/listened to were “Nate the Snake is Late” - fiction, “Measuring Time” - nonfiction, “On My Way to School” - fiction, and “It’s About Time” - nonfiction. The kids used the weekly vocabulary words - immediately, schedule, calendar, occasion, and weekend - to have discussion about measuring time. This week was big in that we started building and writing words with long vowels (moving away from short vowel cvc words). This week’s focus was long “a” spelled with the pattern a_e. The main word families we used were -ame, -ake, and -ate. They are building bigger words and bigger sentences on their word mats. Our new high frequency snap words this week were away, today, now, way, some, and why. During our phonics instruction we worked on phoneme identity (determining the same sound across three words), phoneme addition (saying a word and then adding a new sound to the beginning to create a new word), phoneme substitution (saying a word and then substituting the first sound to a different sound to make a new word), phoneme blending (saying a group of sounds and putting them together to form a word), and phoneme segmenting (saying a word and then separating each sound). For reading comprehension, we focused on identifying important events in fictional stories and making predictions based on previous events in a text.
During writing, we are continuing to write about reading, adding specific details from the text (whole group) and writing about important events in a story. For free write, the kids did winter writing activities. I am encouraging them to use bigger vocabulary words, to write longer sentences, and to add at least 3 sentences to their topic.
In math this week, we looked at teen numbers (10+ a number) by building a teen number on our number racks and with unifix cubes and by writing the 10+ a number equation. We also used our number racks to solve subtraction problems (comparing two amounts). We will have much more practice with this!
Important Info/Coming Up…
There is no school on Monday, January 15th in observance of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day.
We have an in-school concert assembly @ 9:30 on Wednesday, January 17th.
We have Good Eats on Friday, January 19th @ 10:30.
We have a mystery reader on Friday, January 19th at 1:45.
MANY new photos are posted! See “School Photos.”
Have a nice, long weekend!!
*1/5/23*
Happy New Year! I hope everyone had a fun and relaxing holiday. Here is a look at our first week in 2024!
In reading, our essential question for the week was, “How can you find your way around?” We listened to and read many fiction and nonfiction texts about interpreting and using maps to help us get around. The books included, “Me on the Map” (realistic fiction), “Which Way on the Map” (nonfiction), “Map It!” (nonfiction), and “Fun with Maps” (nonfiction). We learned and used new vocabulary words - height, locate, model, route, separate- when talking about the stories. The comprehension skill we focused on this week was the main topic/idea and details. We discussed how the main topic is what the whole story is mostly about and the details are specific examples of the topic. For writing about reading, the kids are becoming better at looking back within the story to find specific answers to the comprehension questions. For our phonics activities, we continued to work on phoneme segmenting (breaking apart all the sounds in words), phoneme blending (putting together all the sounds in a word), and phoneme addition (adding an extra sound to a word to make a new word). We also focused on reading and writing words with “ch,” “tch,” “wh,” and “ph.” Our high-frequency/snap words for the week were around, by, many, place, and walk. I am encouraging the kids to use the high-frequency words in their writing and the vocabulary words in their conversations about reading. Next week we will begin unit 3!
During our writing time this week, the kids did a free write about their holiday break. I encouraged the kids to work independently and use strategies to see where they are independently with their writing. I reminded them about uppercase letters at the beginning of sentences and for the names of people, places, and things and punctuation at the ends of sentences. Strategies to encourage independent spelling are 1. every syllable has a vowel and 2. say it (say the word), slide it (say the word and slide your finger across the paper as you say it), hear it (hear the sounds in the word), write it (write the letters for the sounds in the word). We also did a journal picture prompt writing activity about wintertime. The kids are independently writing 3-4 sentences on a given topic!
During math this week, we worked on ways to make ten and looked for strategies on a number rack to solve problems. We learned a new workplace game - tower race - where the kids had to complete towers to make certain numbers. It encouraged kids to think about all the ways you can make a given number. During number corner, we are looking at equations with the start, part/change, or result missing and working to find the missing number. We are using the equation on the number corner calendar marker to complete the number tree, create a story problem, and determine the solution. Next week we will have our unit 3 assessment.
Important Info/Coming Up…
There is no school on Monday, January 15th for Martin Luther King Jr. day.
Have a great weekend!
*12/15/23*
We are almost done with unit 2 in Wonders! The essential question for this week was, “How do people help out in the community.” We listened to and read some nonfiction stories (“The Story of Martin Luther King Jr.” “Luis’ Library,” and “Kids Can Help!” and some fictional stories (“Thump Thump Helps Out” and “Nell’s Books) related to our essential question. The vocabulary words we learned about and included in our reading and writing were leadership, enjoy, connections, rely, and admire. I’m very impressed with how the kids using these words in a variety of settings. They are even remembering and pointing out past week’s vocabulary words! During phonics instruction, we worked with words that have consonant digraphs th, sh, and -ng. They saw that th and sh can be at the beginning and ending of words and -ng is at the end of words. They are beginning to read and write bigger words and sentences using these digraphs. For comprehension, we talked about rereading stories to respond to comprehension questions and rereading to look for story elements - characters, setting, and events. We will take a break from Wonders next week and finish unit 2 after the holiday break.
In math this week, we worked through story problems with the start, part, or result missing and used our number racks to help us solve the problems. We also learned about doubles facts - the answer to a doubles fact is always even and the answer to a doubles +/- one fact is always odd. Next week we will do holiday activities and games and move into the next module after the holiday break.
This week the kids had so much fun traveling to different parts of the world to learn about winter holidays! We took a plane ride and visited India, Israel, and the Middle East. The holidays we learned about were Hanukkah, Eid, and Diwali. We will spend a lot of time next week visiting many more countries and learning about many other holidays.
Important Info/Coming Up…
This coming Wednesday, December 20th from 12:45-2:00 is our parent helper winter projects day. The kids will get to rotate through four different stations doing holiday related activities.
Our school-wide holiday sing-along is on Thursday, December 21st at 2:15.
Our Welcome Winter party is on Friday, December 22nd from 12:45-2.
There is no school on Monday, December 25th - Monday, January 1st for the holiday vacation.
I’m hoping to post photos from the last couple of weeks very soon!
Have a great weekend!
*12/1/23*
Happy December! Here is a look at our busy week…
In reading, we talked about our essential question, “What buildings do you know and what are they made of.” Some of the stories the kids read and listened to were “The 3 Dassies”- African folktale about 3 dassies who build homes to keep an eagle away, “Cubs in a Hut”- a fictional story about 3 bears who build a hut that leaks, “The Three Little Pigs”- a fictional story about three pigs who build homes to keep a wolf away, “The Pigs, the Wolf, and the Mud”- a fictional story about three pigs who build a hut out of mud to keep a wolf who does not like mud away and “Homes Around the World”- a nonfiction text about two different types of homes (igloos and homes on water with stilts). When listening to these texts, the kids learned about different materials that were used and also learned some other new vocabulary words - shelter, collapsed, furious, and refused. Our comprehension skill was thinking about problems and solutions in fictional stories and identifying characters, settings, and events. I have noticed a big difference in stamina when writing about reading (working together to respond to stories with more detailed, complete sentences). During phonics work, we practiced making and read words with short u. We manipulated parts of a word (beginning, middle, or end) to create new words and continued to listen to how many sounds are in words. The text feature we studied this week was captions. The kids saw that captions are sentences about photographs (different from the labels being words or phrases to name photographs) and tell us a little more about the picture.
In writing workshop, the kids are just about finished with their personal narrative small moments stories. They learned that when they think they are done, they have just begun! This week we talked about tapping out the sounds for unknown words (say the word, hear the sounds, write the sounds) and rereading our writing from beginning to end to see if we can add more details.
During math this week, we finished unit 2. At the end of the unit, we used our turkey quilt to help skip count by 5s and look for patterns. We also counted pennies and nickels to see the comparison between skip counting by 5s and adding nickels. Next week we will begin unit 3 - Adding, Subtracting, Counting, and Comparing.
During our content time, we completed lessons 5 and 6 of Second Step. Lesson 6 started unit 2 where we will begin thinking about other people’s feelings and looking for clues to see how we think others are feeling. Next week we will start traveling to different countries around the world to learn about different holiday traditions. The kids will get a passport, make a luggage bag, receive plane tickets, and “take a plane ride” to each of the countries.
Coming Up/Important Information -
This coming week we will have half days for parent teacher conferences - Wednesday, December 6th and Friday, December 8th. Dismissal will be at 11:30. Please look over your child’s report card once they are released and bring any questions or concerns that you may have. Also, please let me know if you will need to have a virtual conference instead of in-person. I look forward to seeing everyone!
This week Gingerbread Fred has begun visiting homes! The kids are very excited about Fred and are anxious every morning to see whose home he will go to. The first page in the writing journal provides instructions for what to do when Fred comes to your home. The basic summary is that Fred can participate in any activities with your child the evening he is at your house and then write a couple sentences in the journal about what he did. It is optional to draw/print out pictures to put on the back of your writing. The next day, the kids will get to read their journal entry to the class. Please let me know if you have any questions!
We have a mystery reader next Friday morning, December 8th.
Have a great weekend!!
*11.17.23*
Happy Friday! Here’s a look at our week…
Our essential question for the week was, “What jobs need to be done in a community?” The important vocabulary words related to our essential question were community, occupation, astonishing, equipment, and fortunately. The kids are doing well using these vocabulary words in their daily conversations each week. Our genre focus for the week was realistic fiction. The kids are learning that realistic fiction texts are made up stories with events that could really happen. Most of the stories we read and listened to were realistic fiction and the paired texts to go with the topics were nonfiction. Some of the texts we read and listened to were “Millie Waits for the Mail” (fictional story about a cow who waits for the mail every day so that she can scare the mail carrier), “Good Job, Ben!” (a realistic fiction story about a boy who visits different jobs around his town), “Jobs Around Town” (a nonfiction story about different community jobs), “The Red Hat” (a realistic fiction story about a girl named Jen who works as a firefighter), and “Firefighters at Work” (a nonfiction story about real life firefighters). We are continuing to work on close reading of stories so that we can first, listen for enjoyment, and second, listen to respond to the text (orally with a partner or in writing). We discussed story elements - character, settings, and events and making predictions at the beginning and throughout our stories.
For phonics this week, we introduced short “e” spelled with “e” or “ea.” The kids did word sorts and even challenged themselves with words like “spread” and “dread.” We also spent a lot of time building words and sentences using short “e” and all the high-frequency words we’ve learned so far. We also spent part of this week learning about the different sounds of -ed - “id” “d” or “t.” The kids noticed that when -ed makes an “id” sound, another syllable is added onto the word (ex: dread/dreaded). For grammar, we focused on nouns - people, places and things. The kids had to identify nouns in a sentence and draw/write their own nouns. We also discussed how to use commas when listing more than two nouns.
For writing, the kids are moving along in their personal narrative stories. Most kids have their brilliant beginning and first part of their story written. We are encouraging the kids to use resources to help them spell snap words/spelling words and tap out the sounds for words they do not know.
For math this week, we took our unit 2 math test (addition fact fluency, story problems with a part missing, fact families, and counting dots on dominoes to make addition equations). We started our turkey quilt to help us skip count by 5s and will finish after Thanksgiving break.
Important Info/Coming Up…
Our Thankful party for Thanksgiving is on Tuesday, November 21st from 1-2:00. A sheet went home on Monday for fruit and trail mix items your child volunteered to donate for the party. We will be making trail mix and fruit salad as a part of our preparations for the feast. Please let me know if you did not get this note or have questions about what to bring in. Thank you for the helpers who volunteered to come in and help out!
There is no school Wednesday, November 22nd - Friday, November 24th for Thanksgiving break.
An email was sent on Thursday with information on signing up for your child’s parent teacher conference in December. The dates are Wednesday, December 6th, Friday, December 8th, and Wednesday, December 13th. I apologize for all the emails. Sign-ups are different this year and it wouldn’t let me send a link with all 3 dates included. There will be a half-day of school with an early dismissal at 11:30 on those days.
Have a wonderful weekend and Happy Thanksgiving!!
*11.9.23*
Happy Veteran’s Day! I hope everyone had a great week. Here’s a look at our week…
In reading, we finished our last week of unit 1 in Wonders. The essential question for the week was “How does your body move?” Some of the stories the kids read and listened to were “Move! (about words to describe how animals move), “Move and Grin!” (how animals and people can move and use their bodies the same way), “The Monkey’s Fiddle” (fable about a monkey using a fiddle to get animals to move), “Move It!” (about how we move and use our bodies in fun ways), and “My Family Hike” (a personal narrative about a boy going on a hike with his family). These texts included our high-frequency words for the week (jump, run, move, two) and many words that followed our phonics and spelling skill (s-blends and r-blends). The kids are beginning to build large words with beginning and ending blends and are starting to use them in their writing sentences, too. For phonics, we are beginning to manipulate parts of words to create new words, which is a difficult skill at first (Say "brag." Say "brag" without "b." What is the new word?). We will be doing this activity a lot over the next few weeks. We are continuing to spend a lot of time writing about reading and the kids learned about possessive ‘s. Next week we will begin unit 2.
In writing, we have been working on using complete sentences (a who/what and what that noun is doing) and our goal for journal writing is at least 2-3 descriptive sentences. I continue to remind the kids to begin their sentences with an uppercase letter and to end with a punctuation mark. This goal will get more challenging as the year goes on. We are also continuing to work on developing our personal narrative (small moments) stories.
In math, we spent this week playing addition and subtraction games that are teaching us to count on from the bigger number. We are also working to build our addition and subtraction fact fluency to 10. Reflex is a great resource to improve fact fluency! This week we started math centers (Reflex, bump games, activity sheet). I spent the week monitoring stations and next week will begin working with small math groups to meet individual needs.
For science this week, our theme was all about veterans! We talked about what it means to be a veteran, why we celebrate Veteran’s Day, and things we can do to say “thank you.” We made a Veteran’s Day book, Veteran’s Day banner, and listened to our Scholastic news article about veteran heroes.
Important Info/Coming Up….
We have a mystery reader on Friday, November 17th @ 1:45.
Our Thanksgiving party is on Tuesday, November 21st from 1:00 - 2:00. Thank you for the parents who volunteered to come into the classroom to help out. We will be making butter, popping popcorn with an air popper, making a fruit salad/trail mix (info coming home soon about this), and setting the desks for our “feast.” It’s hard work prepping for a feast, which the kids will learn!
To make our fruit salad and trail mix for our feast, we are asking each family to bring in one food item to contribute to the salad and mix. Your child will be picking which food item they would like to bring in and a note will be coming home this Monday so that you know what your child picked. Please have all food items in by the day of the party - Tuesday, November 21st. Thank you for your help with this!
Have a nice, long weekend!!
*11.3.23*
We finished, what is probably, the toughest week in first grade! Making it through Halloween week is tough, but the kids worked very hard. Thank you to all the parent helpers/volunteers who helped to make our Halloween party a success! We had a great time!
In reading this week, we spent extra time with literacy centers and making good choices during independent work. The kids listened to many Halloween stories and for their writing literacy center, the kids were able to do some free-write fantasy stories about Halloween. They had fun using their creativity! During reading groups, we spent time segmenting and blending sounds to make words and changing parts of words to build new words (word ladders). I am beginning to focus on written comprehension to questions about our stories. Towards the end of the week, we spent some time exploring our reading website for Wonders. The great thing about this website is that kids can access it at home, too! When using the website at home, the kids can read and play the same games that they are interacting with at school. We are also taking some time over these next couple of weeks to record ourselves reading some of our leveled readers. You can listen to these recordings at home, as well. See below for information on how to log-on at home.
- Log into your child’s gmail account (label that was recently attached to your child’s take home folder).
- Once you are in gmail, click the waffle in the upper right corner (the waffle is the grid with 9 dots).
- In the waffle, find the icon that says MC (McGraw Hill).
- Click Grade 1 Wonders 2023.
- Click 2023-2024: Grade 1 117.
- You are now logged in. Feel free to explore the website. To view your child’s leveled readers, go to the notepad paper icon with the green check mark. Stories and recordings will be available in this icon. Please let me know if you have ANY questions.
During writing, we started a mini-unit on small moment narrative writing. To launch the unit, I modeled how to brainstorm small moments and how to use a graphic organizer to order our thoughts. Coincidentally, I had an incident that morning where I spilled my coffee everywhere, which turned into a great small moment story! The kids had to think of a small moment to write about and are currently in the process of mapping out their ideas. Next week we will spend time turning our ideas in our graphic organizer into complete sentences in our stories.
During our science and social studies time, we continued to learn more about bats, read a Scholastic News article about candy for Halloween week, and began to talk about Veteran’s Day. We will spend our content time all of next week learning more about and doing activities related to Veteran’s Day.
Coming Up/Important Info…
There is no school on Friday, November 10th in observance of Veteran’s Day.
I will be sending home a progress report for the first part of the year on Thursday, November 9th.
New photos from October are posted! See the “School Photos” tab.
Have a great, relaxing weekend!!
*10.27.23*
Happy Friday! Happy birthday to Pippa! Here is a look at our busy week...
For science this week, we continued to learn about bats and did some fiction and nonfiction writing about bats. The kids have learned many new facts and got to see a video about the biggest bat in the word - the flying fox! Our Scholastic News article was on nocturnal animals and the kids compared owls to bats.
For reading, we are continuing literacy centers and I am still impressed with how well the kids are working independently. I am able to work with small groups where we are doing a lot of phonemic awareness/phonics/word work activities, reading to improve our fluency (accuracy, expression, and pace), and comprehension response questions. For our Wonders activities, the essential question this week was “What do friends do together?” Looking at both fiction and non-fiction genres, we read books about games friends played long ago and activities friends do together. The titles of the books included “Friends,” “Toss! Kick! Hop!,” “Friends All Around,” “Games Long Ago,” and “There Are Days and There Are Days.” During phonics worked, we added short “o” words to our word bank. Using both blends and digraphs and double consonant word endings, the kids are making much bigger words and sentences! We also looked at rhyming words and talked about how it’s the same ending SOUNDS not the same ending letters. We read poems with rhyming words, too. We continue to do activities segmenting (breaking words apart by sounds) and blending (putting sounds together) when working with words. The final activity was making word ladders where we manipulate one part of the word (“Write the word plop. Change plop to slop. What part of the word are we changing? Etc…). We are also continuing to write about reading. Next week we will take a break from Wonders and work on some small moment personal narrative stories.
In math, we spent a majority of the week learning about fact families and used double flap cards to help us find all the facts in the fact family. We learned that doubles only have two facts in the fact family. I was very impressed with how quickly the kids picked up on figuring out all the fact families and I think Reflex has been very helpful with this! This week we also introduced math center games and the kids LOVED the bump game. Within the next couple of weeks, we will begin guided math groups where I will pull students to work on specific concepts and the kids will work independently on either Reflex, math workplace/bump games, or math worksheet activity games.
Coming Up…
On Tuesday, October 31st, we have our Halloween parade and celebration. The parade is at 9:45. Parents are welcome to come and stand outside for the parade. Our party will be at the end of the day from 12:45 - 2. The list of helpers in the classroom and food donations were sent out by our room parents a few weeks ago. Please let me know if you have any questions!
There is no school on Wednesday, November 1st for a Superintendent Conference Day.
On Friday, November 3rd, we will do a first grade fall craft “switcheroo” in the morning! The kids will get to rotate to each first grade classroom to do a different fall craft/activity.
Have a great weekend!
*10/20/23*
We had another fun and busy week in first grade!
Our essential question for the week was “What makes pets special?” We learned some important content vocabulary - care, train, groom, companion, and popular which we used when talking about our essential question throughout the week. The genres we focused on this week were fiction (“Cool Dog, School Dog,” “A Pig for Cliff,” and “Flip”) and nonfiction (“Our Pets” and “What Pets Need.”) The kids had good discussions on what makes fictional books fiction (ex: A cat can’t have a pet pig. A dinosaur can’t go to school. Dogs can’t read books.). We also shared what important facts we learned about pets in our nonfiction books finding evidence from the texts. During our comprehension discussions, we looked for important parts of the story - story elements included characters, setting, and events.
This week’s phonics words focused on l-blends (bl-, cl-, fl-, gl-, pl-, and sl-). The kids did a great job building words with l-blends and changed parts of words to make new words. They also used the vowels we previously learned “i” and “a” to make the l-blend words. This week the kids also learned about possessive nouns. We said that if a word means more than one, we have to add an “s”. Some of the words they made were cat/cats, pig/pigs, wig/wigs, flag/flags, etc… following our short “i” and short “a” spelling rule. The last part of our word work was distinguishing sentences with periods of questions. We looked at some examples and sorted sentences based on whether they were statements or questions.
For math this week, we continued to work with dominoes as a tool to help us solve math problems. We practiced making addition equations by looking at the number of dots on the dominoes and also compared the total number of dots on each domino by writing and saying inequality statements - ex: 7 is greater than 5 and 5 is less than 7. Next week we will continue to work with dominoes to solve math problems and begin looking at fact families.
Coming Up…
We have our October birthday party (Pippa!) on Friday, October 27th from 1:15-2.
On Tuesday, October 31st, we have our Halloween parade and celebration. The parade is at 9:45. Parents are welcome to come and stand outside for the parade. Our party will be at the end of the day from 12:45 - 2. The list of helpers in the classroom and food donations were sent out by our room parents a few weeks ago. Please let me know if you have any questions!
There is no school on Wednesday, November 1st.
New photos have been posted! See “School Photos!”
Have a wonderful weekend!
*10.13.23*
Wow, a visit from the Pumpkin Elf and a pumpkin investigation this week! We were busy!
In reading we focused on our essential question, "What is it like where you live?" We listened to a read aloud story, "Alicia's Happy Day," about a young girl who travels through the city doing different activities on her birthday. We continued to use the strategy of visualizing to imagine movies in our heads of what is happening in the story and used clues in sentences to help figure out unknown words. Our vocabulary words we saw throughout our stories and used in our conversations were city, country, bored, feast, and scurried. Our genre for the week was fantasy; the kids found specific examples in our texts ("Go, Pip!" and "Six Kids") to prove why our stories were fantasies. We also learned a new genre; personal narrative and saw that personal narratives use the words "my," "me," "we," and "I."
For phonics we worked with short "i" and also reviewed short "a" words. The kids worked together to build CVC words with short i, but also challenged themselves to add beginning and ending blends and digraphs (ex: split, stick, spin, etc...). This week we also worked with double consonant letters at the ends of words, building words with -ss, -ll, -tt, -zz. During grammar, we worked with word order and learned that words in a sentence need to be in an order that makes sense. Using Jamboard, we moved words around to make sentences that start with our noun and end with our verb. Our high-frequency words for the week were up, very, down, out. The kids had fun writing the words on a partner's back, using the words in their own sentences, and air writing the words.
During math this week we finished measuring objects with paperclips and unifex cubes and then compared the lengths of objects. It was challenging for the kids to answering questions like "How many more?" and "How many fewer?" We will continue to work on finding what is the same with two numbers (ex: 4 and 7 both have 4) and then counting the extra (7 has 3 extra). At the end of the week for our pumpkin investigation, we used the strategy of skip counting by 10s to figure out how many seeds were in our pumpkins. They had so much fun!
This week during our content time, we had a visit from the New Salem Fire Department and learned some important fire safety tips. The main points the kids learned were 1. Get out quickly if there is a fire. 2. Practice drills at home with a family meeting spot. and 3. Make sure you have working smoke detectors. We also read a Scholastic News article about firefighters as community helpers. Towards the end of the week, we continued learning about pumpkins with our investigation. The kids got to weigh, measure, determine sinking or floating, count lines for pumpkin age, and look at the inside of a pumpkin.
Important Info/Coming Up...
This Tuesday, October 17th we will be using the pumpkin seeds form our investigation to make pumpkin sensory bags.
On Wednesday, October 18th we have our field trip to Ellm's Farm. The weather looks to be around 50-55 degrees so please make sure to dress your child appropriately (hat, boots, jacket, etc...). Also, please make sure to send your child with a bagged lunch as we will be eating at the farm.
We have a mystery reader on Thursday, October 19th at 1:45.
We will be decorating the pumpkins we get from Ellm's Farm on Friday, October 20th. The kids will most likely bring the pumpkins home that following Monday so they have time to dry.
Have a great weekend!
10.6.23*
Happy October! We had another busy week!
During reading, we started unit 1 of Wonders. Our essential question was "What do you do at school?" We listened to a read aloud text "This School Year Will be the Best," and shared reading texts "Jack Can" and "Nat and Sam," which were all related to school. There were also nonfiction stories related to our essential question "Rules at School" and "School Around the World." Using our new vocabulary words (object, learn, subjects, common, and recognize) the kids responded to the stories and asked questions. The new genre for the week was realistic fiction and we reviewed last week's genre (nonfiction). For phonics we worked with short a, building, writing, and using words with short "a." We also talked about the "whiny a" sound in word families -am and -an. Our new high-frequency words this week were "school," "does," "not," and "what." We practiced writing the words in the air, on a partner's back, on our white boards, and also wrote and read sentences using our high-frequency words. Finally for grammar, we talked about what makes a sentence a sentence. The kids learned that sentences need a who/what (noun) and what the noun is doing (verb). We sorted sentences and wrote sentences remembering to include an uppercase letter at the beginning and an end punctuation mark. When responding to our stories about school, we also worked on writing complete sentences. Towards the end of the week, we did a journal free write about fall.
For math, we spent this week playing some new games using pennies and nickels to skip count by 1s and 10s, used our number racks to find missing numbers (part of an equation- 4+_=10) and began talking about how to measure objects using nonstandard units (paperclips). Next week we will be finishing unit one.
This week we started learning about pumpkins! We read a book a book called From Seed to Pumpkin and did a life cycle sort. Next week we will read/illustrate a book about pumpkins and we have our pumpkin investigation!
Important Info/Coming Up...
After receiving some training on our new reading program, Wonders, we decided as a first grade team to wait until November before we begin formalized spelling tests. For now, we are working with our first graders to build CVC, notice patterns, sort, etc... Once we have had some practice with these activities, we will begin formalized spelling tests. The kids will still take a pretest on Mondays as a means to guide instruction for the week's spelling activities. The kids will not be bringing home spelling words attached to their reading log until further notice. Please let me know if you have any questions.
There is no school on Monday, October 9th in observance of Indigenous People's Day.
We have school photos on Tuesday, October 10th at 9:40.
We have the New Salem Fire Department visiting our school on Wednesday, October 11th from 9-10:30.
We have Good Eats (a farm to school program where kids learn about and taste healthy foods) on Friday, October 13th at 10:30.
We have our Pumpkin Investigation on Friday, October 13th from 12:45-2:00. There are four parent volunteers for this activity and we are asking each helper to bring a medium-sized pumpkin (please see the October classroom helper information that our room parents emailed this week).
New photos are posted! See "School Photos."
Thank you!! Have a great, long weekend
*9.30.23*
Happy last day of September!
This week was our last week of Smart Start for our Wonders reading program. Our essential question was, "What happens during my day?" Using their brains to pull from their memory, the kids shared what activities they do before and after school as well as the different types of transportation they use throughout the day. For phonics, we reviewed all the words we have learned from previous weeks and finished the remaining letters of the alphabet. We continued to use the Jamboard to build bigger words (beginning/ending blends or digraphs) and sentences (using the high-frequency words we have learned as well). The new high-frequency words this week were are, me, she, with, for, and, have, see, said, was. The kids read the words, spelled the words, wrote the words, and studied the words closely (shared what they noticed about the words - example: "said" looks like "sed" so we have to focus on the middle part of the word, etc...). When we begin unit one next week, we will only be learning 4-5 words a week. These words get added to a snap word wall in the classroom once they are introduced. For phonics we continued to listen to the onset (beginning sound) and rime (ending sounds) in words, and introduced Elkonin boxes as a strategy for determining the number of sounds in words. For each sound you hear, you slide a chip in a box. The kids learned that even though a word may have 4 sounds, it could be spelled with 6 letters! For our reading portion of the week, we focused on the genre nonfiction. We discussed what makes nonfiction, nonfiction. 1. real people/animals 2. real places 3. real things 4. real photographs 5. real facts/information. The two stories we read were Work, Play, and Learn Together and "How Do We Get Around." The kids learned the comprehension skill main idea and details (although we still need more practice). The umbrella idea is the main idea and the raindrops are the details. We also reviewed the comprehension strategy of visualizing parts of a text. At the end of the week, the kids compared the two nonfiction texts stating which was their favorite and why. These are skills that will be reinforced all year!
This week we also learned about apples and their life cycle. After learning about how apples grow, we did an experiment to see which liquids help keep apples from spoiling. They may come home and tell you to put lemon juice on their apples so they don't turn brown!
In math, we continued to use our number racks to build number and solve equations. We used a ten frame to figure out how many more to make ten (4+_=10) writing the equations to go along with the models. Towards the end of the week, we used our number racks and wrote equations to solve story problems. The kids were introduced to various story problems where the start may be unknown (_+3=10), the part may be unknown (7+_=10) or the result might be unknown (7+3=_). This is another concept we will reinforce all year! We continue to complete math quick checks at the end of every lesson (you may have seen them start coming home) and then the kids get to go on Reflex. They have been loving it!!
Important Info/Coming Up...
Our September Scholastic Book order was submitted and should be here this coming week!
This Thursday, October 5th there is an Early Release Drill. Kids will be dismissed (both buses and pick-up) 15 minutes early.
We have our first mystery reader visit on Friday, October 6th at 10:40.
This Friday, October 6th is a half-day of school for teacher professional development.
New photos will be coming soon....
Have a wonderful weekend!
*9.22.23*
Happy Friday! We had another busy week in first grade!
This week we had our second week of Smart Start for reading. The essential question for the week was "What can you imagine?" Throughout the week we talked about how we can imagine when we read/write, imagine when we play, and imagine when we read fairy tales (which was also our genre for the week). The kids did a great job turning and talking to a friend to share what they imagine. For phonics, we reviewed all the letters we practiced last week and added on the letters Cc (like camel), Ff, Oo, Dd, Hh, Ee, Bb, and Ll. Now that we have a large variety of letters, the kids are able to build some bigger words on the Jamboard. We also learned several new high-frequency words - this, is, my, look, little, here, where, play, the, we. All of these words will be displayed on our classroom word wall so the kids can access them when reading and writing. Similar to last week, the kids isolated phonemes by beginning and ending sounds, separated words by syllables, determined the onset (beginning) and rime (ending) sound(s) of words, and listened for the ending sounds to determine if words rhymed. For the final part of our mornings, we listening and compared two types of fairy tales, Jack and the Beanstalk and The Three Billy Goats Gruff. We discussed and reviewed daily what makes a fairy tale a fairy tale. The important elements are 1. happens a long time ago 2. in a land far away 3. has mythical creatures and 4. is make believe/pretend. The students used texted evidence to prove why each story was a fairy tale and at the end of the week, compared the two fairy tales. They also stated their opinion on which fairy tale was their favorite and why. Next week will be our last week of Smart Start before we begin unit one.
In reading this week, we also continued to learn about picking Good Fit books. The kids have bins full of great books and are learning how to sustain independent reading. With the ring of a bell, they are learning to quietly get their reading bin, quickly find a spot where they won't be distracted, and quietly read to themselves. We got two minutes in today of sustaining reading before we had to leave for recess and lunch (I think they could have gone longer). We have a stamina chart and our goal is to get to 20 minutes before the end of the year!
In math, the students started the week learning about and building their own number racks. We talked about number racks being tools to help us solve math problems. We did some quick flash games building numbers and looked for strategies to help us solve problems quickly. There is a link below for a virtual number rack so you can see how they work! We will continue to use these number racks throughout the year. The kids are also starting to independently navigate through Reflex. If you need more information about using Reflex at home, please let me know!
For social studies this week, we learned about being kind kids through our Scholastic News article. We talked about ways we can be kind and how it makes others (and ourselves) feel. Next week we will move into learning about apples and pumpkins.
Virtual Number Rack
Important Info/Coming Up...
There is no school on Monday, September 25th in observance of Yom Kippur.
The Google form link for classroom volunteering is posted under "Parent Helper Volunteers." Please sign up by Friday, September 29th.
Scholastic order forms were due today. I will be submitting the order this evening.
The slideshow from Open House is posted below.
Have a great, long weekend!!
Happy last day of September!
This week was our last week of Smart Start for our Wonders reading program. Our essential question was, "What happens during my day?" Using their brains to pull from their memory, the kids shared what activities they do before and after school as well as the different types of transportation they use throughout the day. For phonics, we reviewed all the words we have learned from previous weeks and finished the remaining letters of the alphabet. We continued to use the Jamboard to build bigger words (beginning/ending blends or digraphs) and sentences (using the high-frequency words we have learned as well). The new high-frequency words this week were are, me, she, with, for, and, have, see, said, was. The kids read the words, spelled the words, wrote the words, and studied the words closely (shared what they noticed about the words - example: "said" looks like "sed" so we have to focus on the middle part of the word, etc...). When we begin unit one next week, we will only be learning 4-5 words a week. These words get added to a snap word wall in the classroom once they are introduced. For phonics we continued to listen to the onset (beginning sound) and rime (ending sounds) in words, and introduced Elkonin boxes as a strategy for determining the number of sounds in words. For each sound you hear, you slide a chip in a box. The kids learned that even though a word may have 4 sounds, it could be spelled with 6 letters! For our reading portion of the week, we focused on the genre nonfiction. We discussed what makes nonfiction, nonfiction. 1. real people/animals 2. real places 3. real things 4. real photographs 5. real facts/information. The two stories we read were Work, Play, and Learn Together and "How Do We Get Around." The kids learned the comprehension skill main idea and details (although we still need more practice). The umbrella idea is the main idea and the raindrops are the details. We also reviewed the comprehension strategy of visualizing parts of a text. At the end of the week, the kids compared the two nonfiction texts stating which was their favorite and why. These are skills that will be reinforced all year!
This week we also learned about apples and their life cycle. After learning about how apples grow, we did an experiment to see which liquids help keep apples from spoiling. They may come home and tell you to put lemon juice on their apples so they don't turn brown!
In math, we continued to use our number racks to build number and solve equations. We used a ten frame to figure out how many more to make ten (4+_=10) writing the equations to go along with the models. Towards the end of the week, we used our number racks and wrote equations to solve story problems. The kids were introduced to various story problems where the start may be unknown (_+3=10), the part may be unknown (7+_=10) or the result might be unknown (7+3=_). This is another concept we will reinforce all year! We continue to complete math quick checks at the end of every lesson (you may have seen them start coming home) and then the kids get to go on Reflex. They have been loving it!!
Important Info/Coming Up...
Our September Scholastic Book order was submitted and should be here this coming week!
This Thursday, October 5th there is an Early Release Drill. Kids will be dismissed (both buses and pick-up) 15 minutes early.
We have our first mystery reader visit on Friday, October 6th at 10:40.
This Friday, October 6th is a half-day of school for teacher professional development.
New photos will be coming soon....
Have a wonderful weekend!
*9.22.23*
Happy Friday! We had another busy week in first grade!
This week we had our second week of Smart Start for reading. The essential question for the week was "What can you imagine?" Throughout the week we talked about how we can imagine when we read/write, imagine when we play, and imagine when we read fairy tales (which was also our genre for the week). The kids did a great job turning and talking to a friend to share what they imagine. For phonics, we reviewed all the letters we practiced last week and added on the letters Cc (like camel), Ff, Oo, Dd, Hh, Ee, Bb, and Ll. Now that we have a large variety of letters, the kids are able to build some bigger words on the Jamboard. We also learned several new high-frequency words - this, is, my, look, little, here, where, play, the, we. All of these words will be displayed on our classroom word wall so the kids can access them when reading and writing. Similar to last week, the kids isolated phonemes by beginning and ending sounds, separated words by syllables, determined the onset (beginning) and rime (ending) sound(s) of words, and listened for the ending sounds to determine if words rhymed. For the final part of our mornings, we listening and compared two types of fairy tales, Jack and the Beanstalk and The Three Billy Goats Gruff. We discussed and reviewed daily what makes a fairy tale a fairy tale. The important elements are 1. happens a long time ago 2. in a land far away 3. has mythical creatures and 4. is make believe/pretend. The students used texted evidence to prove why each story was a fairy tale and at the end of the week, compared the two fairy tales. They also stated their opinion on which fairy tale was their favorite and why. Next week will be our last week of Smart Start before we begin unit one.
In reading this week, we also continued to learn about picking Good Fit books. The kids have bins full of great books and are learning how to sustain independent reading. With the ring of a bell, they are learning to quietly get their reading bin, quickly find a spot where they won't be distracted, and quietly read to themselves. We got two minutes in today of sustaining reading before we had to leave for recess and lunch (I think they could have gone longer). We have a stamina chart and our goal is to get to 20 minutes before the end of the year!
In math, the students started the week learning about and building their own number racks. We talked about number racks being tools to help us solve math problems. We did some quick flash games building numbers and looked for strategies to help us solve problems quickly. There is a link below for a virtual number rack so you can see how they work! We will continue to use these number racks throughout the year. The kids are also starting to independently navigate through Reflex. If you need more information about using Reflex at home, please let me know!
For social studies this week, we learned about being kind kids through our Scholastic News article. We talked about ways we can be kind and how it makes others (and ourselves) feel. Next week we will move into learning about apples and pumpkins.
Virtual Number Rack
Important Info/Coming Up...
There is no school on Monday, September 25th in observance of Yom Kippur.
The Google form link for classroom volunteering is posted under "Parent Helper Volunteers." Please sign up by Friday, September 29th.
Scholastic order forms were due today. I will be submitting the order this evening.
The slideshow from Open House is posted below.
Have a great, long weekend!!
*9.15.23*
Wow! What a productive first week of school we had! Here's a look at what we did...
We started our first week (Smart Start, which lasts 3 weeks) of our new reading program, Wonders. The kids did a great job and are already learning the routines. I will explain the structure in more detail at Open House. Our essential question for the week was, "Who am I?" We discussed how we are all unique, what we like about ourselves, how we define ourselves, and how we all have our own opinions (and it's okay if it's different from others!). We shared these answers in a whole group and also with partners. We reviewed the letters m, s, a, p, t, r, n, and i; talking about the letters, their sounds, writing them, and then used the letters to build words. The high-frequency words we learned this week were you, do, I, like, can, he, has, go, a, to. We use the strategy say it, spell it, use it in a sentence, write it. For phonological and phonemic awareness, we identified onset (beginning sound) and rime (ending sounds) ex: c/at, listened for the beginning sound (onset) and medial sound (middle) of words ex: cat - initial "c," medial "a," identified which parts of words are the same, initial or ending (sad, say, six and can, run, win), listened for how many syllables are words (po-ta-to - 3 syllables), and determined if two words rhyme or not based on their ending sounds (cat, hat). For the final part of our mornings, we listening and compared two types of nursery rhymes - "1,2, Buckle My Shoe," and "Mary Had a Little Lamb." The kids learned that we can always ask and answer questions while reading. We also talked about nursery rhymes being short poems or songs that have rhyming or repeated words and the characters are usually animals and/or people. With multiple readings of the stories, the kids were able to respond to reading and compare the two texts. I was very impressed with their stamina!
In math, we started our first unit - Numbers All Around Us - Counting and Data with Popsicle sticks. We did some skip counting by 1s, 5s, and 10s. The kids are beginning to see that when we group in 5s and 10s (tally marks of 5 and bundles of 10), it makes it easier for us to count! We will continue to talk about this strategy throughout the year. During math, we also practiced logging into our new math program, Reflex. This is an on-line game-based program that helps students build their addition and subtraction math fact fluency. The kids have loved it so far and it's very engaging! I will have more information on this at Open House.
Important Information/Coming Up...
We have our kick-off to the Color Run Assembly on Monday, September 18th at 2:15.
Open House is this coming Monday, September 18th at 6:00. Our classroom presentation begins at 6:30.
First day of school photos are posted under "School Photos."
Have a great weekend!!
*9.4.23*
Welcome back to a new year of school in first grade! I can't wait to see all of you in a few days! Enjoy your last two days of summer vacation:)
*5.26.23*
What a busy week we had with our field trip to MiSci and a visit from the seniors! The kids had so much fun both days!
In reading, we continued talking about good readers making inferences or guesses about what they think about events/characters in the story providing reasons why. We are also talking and writing about inferences in our guided reading groups, some groups working together and others working independently. Next week we will review main idea and details in both fiction and nonfiction books.
In writing workshop, the kids have worked so hard on adding details to their writing reviews. This week we looked at telling a small story (our experience with the toy, store, restaurant, movie, book, etc…) and including helpful tips (“I think you should ___.” or “Make sure to _____.”) to convince our readers! We have a few more important things to add to our writing reviews before we finish the unit!
In math, we finished learning about 2D and 3D shapes! We will spend the remainder of the year completing mini assessments on all the skills we have learned this year. The assessments will be sent home at the end of the year so that you know what skills your child needs to work on before second grade. We will also spend a lot of time playing math review games and going on Reflex. Login information is below (which we now have until the end of the year!)...
https://apps.explorelearning.com/account/el/login/student
teacher username: mcountermine
class: Countermine Kiddos
*Your children have all memorized their login passwords and can log-in independently from there!*
In phonics, the kids learned that even though our snap word wall has approximately 90+ words, we really know WAY more words than that. The kids worked together to find two snap words they could put together to make even bigger words (anywhere, something, someone, everything, etc…). Towards the end of the week, we spent time looking through our snap words to see which words are still “bloopers” for us. Looking at our pile of blooper words, the kids learned some cool ways to practice reading and writing the words. The list of activities came home today so that they can continue working on reading and writing unknown snap words at home.
Important Info…
*This past week was our last week of spelling!! We will continue to review snap words until the end of the year. There will still be a reading log coming home on Mondays to make sure our first graders are still reading/listening to reading every night!
*There is no school on Monday, May 29th for Memorial Day. Enjoy your day off!
*We have a mystery reader on Friday, May 2nd at 12:40.
*There is a pre-k, kindergarten, and 1st grade Family Reading Night on Tuesday, June 6th from 6:15-7:15. Information went home a couple of weeks ago. Please make sure to sign-up by Friday, June 2nd.
*Field Day for first grade will be held on Wednesday, June 7th.
*Our end-of-the-year celebration (Parents' Tea) will be on Wednesday, June 14th @ 1:15. The celebration lasts about 20-30 minutes and will be held right in our classroom. For the celebration, the kids will be sharing some memories of their year and will present a short reader's theater/gift to you to say thank you to all you have done this year!
Have a great, long weekend!!
*5.19.23*
I can’t believe this week started our ABC countdown to the end of the year! The kids had fun learning with their stuffies, coloring blackbirds, and paying each other compliments this week. Here is a look at what else we did…
In phonics, we are continuing to learn about bloopers, reviewing r-controlled vowels, and learning about how we can learn tricky words. If we come across words we do not know, we want to pay attention to the part of the word that is tricky and “free our brain” of the part we already know. For example, the snap word from. The sound and the spelling of “f,” “r,” and “m” are the same, but the short sound of u doesn’t match with the spelling of the “o” so we want to focus on the “o,” the tricky part of the word. We learned that some snap words are spelling exactly as they sound (big, best, it, next, but, ask, is, etc…) but some have tricky parts (make - silent e, of- short “u” for the “o,” read - ea vowel team, etc…). If we can focus on the tricky parts and the rules we know for those tricky parts, we can begin to read bigger words!
In reading, we spent the week talking about making inferences (guesses) about characters and events in the story. We spent more time this week making inferences about character’s actions and what we know about the characters that helped us make that inference/guess. We also talked about this in guided reading groups and independent reading. The kids learned that there are good guesses based on what we have read so far in the story (Ex: Ready Freddy forgets his lines to the play. What might Max do? Based on what we know about Max, he is a bully. A good inference, or guess, would be that Max would make fun of Freddy.) Next week we will continue making inferences based on clues in story.
In math, we spent this week looking at 3D shapes. We watched some videos, played some games, and went on a 3D shape hunt. The kids learned that we describe 3D shapes based on their 2D faces. A cone has 1 circle face, a cylinder has two circle faces, a rectangular prism has 2 square faces and 4 rectangle faces, and a cube has 6 square faces. We continued to talk about attributes as ways to describe 3D shapes like we had discussed attributes of 2D shapes last week. We will end this unit building some 3D shapes using polydrons and learning about ½, ⅓, and ¼ fractions.
We started our writing reviews during writing workshop! The kids watched many videos of kid reviews and learned how reviews include some important information: a hook, an opinion, a sneak peak, a comparison, a little story, helpful tips, a recommendation, and a rating. The kids were able to read some reviews and we began a shared writing review together. So far the kids are doing great adding all these important things in their independent writing reviews. This will be our last writing piece of the school year!
Important Information/Coming Up…
Thank you to everyone who brought in snacks!! We have plenty of food now:)
If you have tried logging on Reflex this past week, our pilot ended and we are still waiting for the purchase order to come through for access for the remainder of the school year. I will let you know when it is back up and running! Sorry for the inconvenience. Below is the Reflex login information.
https://apps.explorelearning.com/account/el/login/student
teacher username: mcountermine
class: Countermine Kiddos
*Your children have all memorized their login passwords and can log-in independently from there!*
*Our field trip to MiSci is on Tuesday, May 23rd. A reminder note will be coming home on Monday. Please make sure to send your child with a bagged lunch that day. We will be eating lunch at the museum. Also, please make sure your child wears red to school that day! (this will be written on the reminder note, as well).
The BOGO book fair is coming next week! We hope you can stop by!
On Wednesday, May 24th, we will get to watch the 5th grade chorus and band dress rehearsal before their final concert.
Our senior walk-through and celebration will be on Thursday, May 25th. The kids will get to say “goodbye” and sing to the seniors as a farewell. We may even be lucky to have some seniors help out in our classroom the rest of the day!
We will be having Buddy Groups in the afternoon on Thursday, May 25th.
*Field Day for first grade will be held on Wednesday, June 7th.
*Our end-of-the-year celebration (Parents' Tea) will be on Wednesday, June 14th @ 1:15. The celebration lasts about 20-30 minutes and will be held right in our classroom. For the celebration, the kids will be sharing some memories of their year and will present a short reader's theater/gift to you to say thank you to all you have done this year!
Have a great weekend!!
*5.12.23*
Happy Friday! I hope everyone has a wonderful Mother’s Day weekend. Here is what we did this week!
In phonics, we are moving along in unit 5. We spent a day looking at words without the r-controlled vowels and then used our “r-sticks” to place the “r” after the vowel. We learned that the r is bossy because it takes over the word and makes it so that we cannot hear the vowel next to it. The kids had practice reading words over and over again with and without the bossy r. At the end of the week, we talked about the spelling of are/ear/air/ere all making the same sound. Just like ur/er/ir, we have to try spelling words with that sound all four ways to see which one looks right. The more we read and write, the more we will notice which spelling stands out as being the right way.
In reading, we finished talking about the author's purpose in texts. We looked at several more books and discussed why we think the author wrote his or her book. We spent more time this week talking about our reasons from the story. I think the author wrote this book to inform. I think that because _____. etc… We are also continuing to work on writing about reading by finding specific examples in the text to support our answers with detail. Some kids are ready and have tried doing it independently. Next week we will talk about inferences/making guesses about what we think will happen based on what has already happened in a text.
In math, we started unit 5 - Geometry. We spent a day talking about some familiar 2D shapes and how we describe those shapes. The kids learned about the vocabulary word, attributes, and how it is important to describe shapes using all of their attributes. We spent some time playing games with 2D shapes, as well. Good News!!! Our pilot of Reflex has been extended and it looks like we will have it until the end of the year! The kids are very excited! If your child would like to go on Reflex at home, please see the log-in info below.
https://apps.explorelearning.com/account/el/login/student
teacher username: mcountermine
class: Countermine Kiddos
*Your children have all memorized their login passwords and can log-in independently from there!*
In writing workshop, the kids have done an outstanding job working on their opinion writing pieces. We continue to discuss the importance of including an interesting beginning to pull in the reader (“Lego dragon, you are the winner!” or “Have you ever built an object with Legos?” etc…). After their opening, the kids have worked on stating their opinion, giving at least three reasons why with details, and then writing a closing statement (“That is why the Lego dragon is my favorite item in my collection.”or “Do you think you will go out now and build a Lego dragon?” etc…). This week we added onto our opinion writing pieces by adding the opinions of others. The kids went around the classroom looking at each other’s collections and wrote their opinions about their peers’ collections. I, then, showed the kids how to add other’s opinions in to their writing pieces. We will spend one more day writing about our collections and the kids will be bringing their collections home on Monday. The last part of this writing unit is writing reviews (opinions about their favorite restaurant, book, movie, toy, etc…).
Important Information/Coming Up…
*The Voorheesville Teacher’s Association is hosting a chicken BBQ dinner and Bake Sale on Tuesday, May 16th during the budget vote. Dinners will be served from 3:30-6:30.
*Our ABC countdown (the last 26 days of the school year!) starts on Wednesday, May 17th. The calendar of events will be coming home on Monday. Please check your child’s folder.
*We have a mystery reader on Wednesday, May 17th @ 1:00.
*We have another visit from Good Eats on Friday, May 19th @ 9:45.
*Our May birthdays party will be on Friday, May 19th from 12:45-1:25.
*Our field trip to MiSci is on Tuesday, May 23rd. Right now we have three parent chaperones and could use one more. If you are interested in coming, we would love to have you! Please let me know ASAP.
*Field Day for first grade will be held on Wednesday, June 7th.
*Our end-of-the-year celebration (Parents' Tea) will be on Wednesday, June 14th @ 1:15. The celebration lasts about 20-30 minutes and will be held right in our classroom. For the celebration, the kids will be sharing some memories of their year and will present a short reader's theater/gift to you to say thank you to all you have done this year!
*We are running low on classroom snacks. If you are willing to donate food for snack, please send items from the safe snack list.
Thank you very much!!!
*5.5.23*
In writing this week, we finished our Mo Willems stories; publishing and presenting them in small groups. We also started our final writing unit! We launched off the unit by talking about what it means to have an opinion and how there is no right or wrong opinion. We said that opinions are always supported with reasons why. The kids looked at various pictures of dogs and picked out which dog was their favorite and why. I shared my collection of items with the class and modeled how to state my opinion, give reasons why, and include a closing statement. The kids used their own collections to pick out one of their favorite items, listing three reasons why it is their favorite. There are still a few students who have not brought in a collection. Please send this in on Monday!!
In math we finished unit 6 using penguins to practice skip counting by 2s. This lead into a discussion about doubles, doubles+one, and even/odd numbers. Next week we are going to look back on unit 5 which focuses on geometry (2D and 3D shapes) and fractions.
During daily five and reading, we talked about author's purpose; some of the main reasons an author writes a story are to persuade, to entertain, and to inform. I read several examples of stories and the kids had a discussion about what they thought the author's purpose was. Some books had more than one purpose! The kids used their own books to try this skill independently and with a partner, but we still need some practice! We will continue to look at and discuss more books and author's purpose next week.
This week we also started our final unit of phonics - learning through wise mistakes. In the beginning of this unit, we looked at and talked about common bloopers. The kids learned that EVERYONE makes bloopers and the important thing about bloopers is that we laugh about it, learn our mistakes, and move on. We looked at some common first grade bloopers in reading and writing. Towards the end of the week we noticed that many first grade bloopers involve r-controlled vowels. The kids learned that "ar" says "ar" like "car," "or" says "or" like "fork," and er/ir/ur make the same sound as in "tiger," "hurt," and "shirt." Since er/ir/ur words make the same sound, as a writer we have to try it all three ways and see which one looks right. The kids did a great job with an activity today determining which of the ir/ur/er spellings were correct. We will continue to look closely at more r-controlled vowel words next week.
Important Info...
*Spring pictures are this coming Thursday, May 11th at 10:57.
*We have a mystery reader this coming Friday, May 12th at 12:40.
*The Saratoga Opera will be here on Tuesday, May 16th @ 1:45.
*We have a mystery reader on Wednesday, May 17th @ 1:00.
*We have another visit from Good Eats on Friday, May 19th @ 9:45.
*Our May birthdays party will be on Friday, May 19th from 12:45-1:25.
*Our field trip to MiSci is on Tuesday, May 23rd. Right now we have three parent chaperones and could use one more. If you are interested in coming, we would love to have you! Please let me know ASAP.
*We are running low on classroom snacks. If you are willing to donate food for snack, please send items from the safe snack list.
Thank you and have a great weekend!!
*4.28.23*
Today the kids really enjoyed listening to and learning about EID. Thank you to Mrs. Khan for coming in to teach us all about this wonderful holiday! Here is a look at the rest of the week…
In reading, the kids discussed how good readers listen for the setting in stories (time and place). After listening to several books and discussing the setting, the kids tried to determine the setting independently and with a partner during read-to-self and read-to-someone. During reading groups, the kids are working very hard to answer comprehension questions with complete sentences. I am challenging some to add more details to their answers, as well. We are also continuing to use decoding strategies we have learned in phonics to build fluency when reading.
In writing workshop, we spent the week publishing our Mo Willems author study books. The kids worked hard to make sure they had a creative ending to their stories and a detailed plot that stretched across pages. Some important craft moves they made sure to include were motion lines, pop-out words, speech bubbles, thinking bubbles, sequencing a page in boxes, and using a variety of punctuation (“ “, !, ?, ?!, etc…). Next week we will begin our final writing unit, opinion writing.
This week we did a unit in science on patterns in the sky. We talked about what a pattern is, what we see in the sky, and how what we see in the sky might be a pattern. We watched a video on how the sun, stars, and moon travel across the sky and then did some experiments with flashlights, the sun, and our shadows. We observed that when the sun moves across the sky, so does our shadow (At 10:00 in the morning our shadow was right behind us, but at 2:15 in the afternoon, it was off to the side). We also saw that the sun in the sky at 9:00 today will make the same shadow from our body as the sun in the sky at 9:00 tomorrow morning.
In math, we spent more time on Reflex building our fact fluency. Penny the bear coaches the kids on a fact family at the beginning of each log-in and then uses that fact family throughout the games. The kids are working really hard to solve their addition and subtraction facts quickly and earn a green light. We only have one more week of our free trial (ends on May 7th) and they can go on at home, too! Please let me know if you need your child’s log-in information (It was sent home in February). During math this week, the kids completed their unit 6 math assessment. Please look over your child’s test and go over any of the questions they may have had trouble understanding (story problems, determining if statements are true or false). At the end of the week, we learned about two new penguins, the Emperor penguin and the Little Blue penguin. We compared the heights of the two penguins and talked about the measuring strip as a number line. We will soon be starting our next math unit (going back to unit 5, which we skipped) on geometry.
Important Information -
*The class earned their next party for building their spring picture to Beat the Teacher! They voted on a stuffie, movie, pajamas/costume party! We will be having the party on Thursday, May 4th. Please do not forget to send your child to school with a stuffed animal and pajamas or a costume that day. If your child will be wearing a costume, please no accessories!
*Our next field trip will be on Tuesday, May 23rd at MiSci. A permission slip will be coming home on Monday with all the field trip information. If you were chosen as a chaperone, your payment will need to be included with the permission slip as well. If you would like to complete your payment/permission form online, please use the link below.
MiSci Field Trip Permission Slip/Payment
*A note will also be going home on Monday about a Food Fat Test we will be doing for our unit on nutrition. For this experiment, we are asking each student to bring in a small portion of a snack. We will be putting the snacks on a brown paper bag to see the fat/oil stain from the foods and determine which foods contain the most fat/oil.
*Our last writing unit for the year will be writing about our opinions. To launch the unit, the kids will be writing about some of their favorite things. A note went home last week for each child to bring in a bag/box of some of their favorite items from home (cards, jewelry, book, pictures, toys, stuffies, etc…). Using the items from the collection, the kids will be writing their opinions about their items and other classmates’ items, too. For the second half of the unit, the kids will get to write reviews on their favorite books, movies, stores, restaurants, etc… The box/bag of collections is due on Monday, May 1st.
Have a wonderful weekend!!!
*4.21.23*
Happy almost Earth Day! The kids had a fun Friday celebrating Earth Day and talking a walk in the beautiful weather to the food pantry! Here is what we did the rest of the week...
In phonics, we finished Vowel Town! The kids really enjoyed working as a team to add all their pieces to vowel town. Some of the places featured in our Vowel Town include a food stand, town hall, coastline, rainbow, clouds, ice cream store, trees, pool, etc... I will post a photo of our finished product next week. We will be taking a break from phonics and will start our last unit in May!
In reading, we spent one more week learning about how good readers learn important parts of a story through words and pictures. The kids listened to many stories and had a discussion about what they learned from the words and what they learned from the pictures. We realized that some important parts of the story would be missed if we didn't have illustrations! Next week we will focus on the setting of fictional stories (thinking about time and place).
During our math activities this week, we read penguin story problems and determined what piece of information was missing (start, part, result for addition AND start, change, result for subtraction). It was much more challenging to determine the missing part/change and start compared to a missing result. We will be practicing many more examples of these types of story problems. We also were able to play some workplace games and get three days of Reflex practice for addition and subtraction fact fluency.
During writing workshop, we finished Mo Willems' craft moves that are important to add to our independent writing stories. We looked closely at rereading our writing to edit for spelling using two important strategies: say it, slide it, hear it, write it, and remembering that every syllable has a vowel. The kids know these tools to help with spelling unknown words, but just need reminders to remember to use them! We also talked about important spelling resources (snap words wall, words around the room, our green dictionaries, etc...). Next week we will begin publishing our Mo Willems stories before we start our final writing unit in May - opinion writing. A note will be coming home on Wednesday, April 26th with information needed from home in order to launch our opinion writing unit.
There will be NO SPELLING once again next week. The only homework will be the weekly reading log. PLEASE DO NOT FORGET TO RETURN TO THE READING LOG ON FRIDAY!
*New Photos will be posted next week!* Have a great weekend!
*4.6.23*
Happy Spring Break! I hope everyone enjoys some days off and warmer weather:)
This week in phonics, the kids were so excited to finally see what Rasheed had planned for us. On his trip back from N.Y.C., Rasheed gave us some blueprints for a big project - Vowel Town. Using all the vowel teams that we have learned from this unit, the kids are building a town; all the objects in the town have words with vowel teams (cloud, rainbow, traffic light, house, pool, coastline, beach, etc...). They are having so much creating our vowel town. We'll be sure to post photos of our final product!
In math, we spent this week using our number rack as a tool to quickly solve some harder addition and subtraction facts to twenty. We talked about which strategies we would use for certain facts. Some examples - Doubles (6+6=, 4+4=), Doubles Plus or Minus One (7+6=, 5+4=), Add Tens (10+4= 10+8=), Add Nines (9+7= is the same as 10+6=), and Make Tens (7+3= 6+4=). These are important strategies you can review at home, too!
During reading workshop, we took a look at many fictional stories and discussed how good readers look closely at both the words and the pictures to recall important events. We saw that, if we did not also look at the illustrations, we may miss some other important events. The kids then worked independently in their own books to write down one event they learned from the pictures and one event they learned from the text (words) from one of their independent reading books. During reading groups, we are continuing to work on using decoding strategies, building words, and answering comprehension questions orally and in writing.
We accomplished SO much during writing workshop this week with our Mo Willems stories. Looking at some of his craft moves, the kids learned how to add motion lines, include pop-out words to express feelings, and how to divide our writing into sections like Mo Willems does in his pigeon books. The kids are working really hard to plan out their stories and add details. We continue to encourage them to use resources for spelling and to remember uppercase letters and punctuation. In about two more weeks, we will have published books and move into our last writing unit, opinion writing!
Important Info...
On Friday, April 21st, we will have our walking field trip to the food pantry at St. Matthew's Church. We will leave the school around 9:45 and return before recess at 11:00. A note went home this week with information about this trip. Our room parents have reached about about chaperones for this trip and I will be sending home some information to those individuals. For this field trip, please send your child with a non perishable food item to donate to our New Scotland food pantry. We will learn about how the food pantry helps our community, place our items we donated on the shelves, and complete a scavenger hunt tour. We're looking forward to it!
April Scholastic orders are due on Monday, April 17th.
The kid are very excited about our extended 45 day free trial of Reflex! We are looking to have this program next year. If your child would like to use Reflex over break, they certainly can! They are working hard to earn consecutive days of green lights so they can unlock new games. A student earns a green light when they have shown enough progress in their fact fluency since the last time they logged in. Below is some information for logging in. Once you have selected our class, your child will find their name and enter their password (all the kids have logged in on their own in school so they should have their passwords memorized!). Please let me know if you have any questions!
website - go-el.com
username - mcountermine
class - Countermine Kiddos
I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend!
*3.31.23*
I hope everyone had a great week! Here is a look at what we did...
In phonics, we are almost done with unit 4! This week we added a few more vowel teams to our chart - ew and ue (spelled "screw" and "glue" - They make the same sound so when we are writing, we have to try it both ways to see what looks right!) and aw and au (spelled "paw" and "faucet" - once again, they sound the same so we have to try it both ways!). The kids are really beginning to notice this vowel teams when writing ("I hear the ____ sound in this word!") and reading ("I see an "aw!"). I am very proud of them. We have one more vowel team to learn next week before we can look at Rasheed's blueprints. The kids are anxious to see what he has to share with us!
In reading, we had our second week of looking at nonfiction books to find some important text features. The kids are really beginning to do this independently (and I've noticed them applying it to their nonfiction guided reading books with me!). We are continuing to practice reading fluently during reading group work and responding to stories (orally and in writing) with specific, detailed answers. Next week we will look at fictional stories and how we can learn from both the pictures and the words in the book.
In writing workshop, we have made a lot of progress with our Mo Willems author study. We talked about the difference between speech bubbles and thinking bubbles and how to stretch our stories across pages. If we are writing a book about a princess (like pigeon) who wants a pet octopus (like pigeon wanting a hot dog), the character shouldn't solve the problem right away! The character should have to work hard across several pages to then finally get what they want. If we are writing an elephant and piggie type book about two characters who go on an adventure, it shouldn't be a quick adventure! They should encounter many things along the way. With the use of sticky notes to plan out our pages, the kids were able to stretch out their stories.
In math, we are continuing to use the penguins to help us solve addition and subtraction facts to twenty. Using penguin eggs as doubles facts, we played some games and practiced some doubles problems. We also used flap cards to help us write and solve fact family problems to twenty. Next week we will make more flap cards where we pick a number to 20, find two addends that make that number, write the facts in the fact family, and then create a story problem to go with it. (Ex: 15 - 7 and 8 - 8+7=15, 7+8=15, 15-7=8, 15-8=7 - I have 8 penguins on the ice and 7 penguins in the water. How many penguins do I have in all? OR I have 15 penguins. 7 are in the water. How many are on the ice?).
Coming Up/Important Info...
With only a few more kids left in the class to take home our penguin, we are looking to start our last class visit with pigeon coming home after April break. With pigeons trip home, the kids are expected to "babysit" pigeon and complete the activity sheet that comes home in the book. The kids are very excited to become pigeons babysitter.
On Wednesday, April 5th, we will be watching the third grade performance of "E,I,E,I Oops!"
There is no school on Friday, April 7th - Friday, April 14th for our spring break!
On Friday, April 21st, we will be walking to the food pantry at St. Matthew's church as we begin a science unit on healthy eating and nutrition. An email went out from our room parents this morning; however, we will need 3 chaperones for this trip. We will be leaving school at 9:45 to arrive at the pantry at 10 and leave to walk back to the school at 10:45 with an expected return time of 11:00. If you have any questions/concerns, please let me know!
We have a mystery reader on Friday, April 21st at 12:40.
Have a great weekend!!!
*3.24.23*
Happy Friday! We had a busy couple weeks...
In phonics, we are becoming great vowel team detectives! Rasheed returned from his trip to NYC and told us all he learned about the different buildings in the city. We loved looking at the pictures he took. We compared the different shapes and sizes of the buildings to the different types of vowel teams - buildings can have different shapes and sizes and vowel teams can make different sounds. The vowel teams we worked with this week were oo, ou, ow, oi, and oy; while these vowel teams look very similar, they can make many sounds. We also spent a lot of time sorted words with these vowel teams. Rasheed told us that before we can look closely at his discoveries in NYC, we have 5 more vowel teams to learn; we're almost there!
In reading, we spent the week looking closely at some new text features in nonfiction books; cutaways, photographs, captions, labels, and table of contents. I'm impressed with their ability to look closely at texts to find these important features. We are also working hard during guided reading groups to look back within text to answer written comprehension questions about a story.
In math this week, the penguins are helping us to solve addition and subtraction strategies to 20 with different parts missing (start, change/part, result). By listening to stories and using pictures of penguins on ledges and in the water, we can write equations to figure out missing numbers. Next week we will be using Reflex, once again, to build our addition and subtraction fact fluency.
In writing workshop, we finished listening to Pigeon stories by Mo Willems. The kids all created their pigeon character and decided what their character wants/needs. For our class shared writing, we started our pigeon story - The princess wants a pet octopus. They are having fun writing the story! Next week we will spend a lot of time beginning our independent stories while looking at Mo Willem's craft moves.
Coming Up...
On Thursday, March 30th, we will be traveling to the high school PAC to see the 5th grade musical, 101 Dalmatians!
We have a mystery reader on Friday, March 31st at 12:40.
Have a great weekend!!
*3.10.23*
Happy weekend! Here's a look at our week...
In phonics, we are moving along through unit 4! We spent the beginning of the unit talking about how word builders use tools to help them read and write words. Using a toolbox of consonants, vowels, blends, digraphs, word families, and word endings, the kids were able to build many words! After, we focused on vowel teams ea, ee, oa, ai, and ay. We are creating a vowel teams chart as a tool to also help us read and write words. For the remainder of the lessons in this unit, we will keep building on our chart, learning new vowel teams.
In reading, we focused on fictional stories and talked about characterization. Listening to a variety of fictional stories, the kids listened for important main characters and had to think about character traits to describe the important characters. Next week we will build on this skill and pull specific examples from the text that helped determine the character traits we chose. Independently, the kids had to identify the main characters in their own independent reading books and think of one word to describe each character.
In math, we are close to finish up unit 4! This week we "traveled to Antarctica" to learn about the rockhopper penguin and the king penguin. Using one-inch measuring strips, the kids compared their heights to the heights of the rockhopper and king penguins. We learned that both penguins are shorter than all of us and the king is twice the size as the rockhopper. When we turn our measuring strips sideways, we also had an ah-ha moment when we saw that the measuring strips are actually vertical number lines! We will finish up unit 4 and penguin measuring next week.
In writing workshop, we began our next writing unit - a Mo Willems author study. On Monday we watched a variety of videos/interviews on Mo Willems. He shared his inspirations for becoming a writer, how he began as a child, and his process of writing. The first series we focused on was elephant and piggie. The kids listened to over ten different elephant and piggie books and we discussed the common theme throughout all the books; two friends who are completely different from one another, but are the best of friends, go on adventures together. Some of the character traits we used to describe elephant included loud, wild, pessimistic, sad, and angry and some character traits we used to describe piggie included calm, optimistic, quiet, and happy. After reading and discussing the books, the kids began to sketch/color and write traits for their own made-up elephant and piggie characters. The next step was determining an adventure and problem their characters would go on/face and then how the problem will be solved. Next week we will listen to a variety of pigeon books (discussing character traits and overall theme) and complete our own pigeon character sketches. Once we are done with that, we can begin writing our books incorporating many of Mo Willems' story elements!
Important Info/Coming Up...
On Monday, March 13th, Mrs. Laura Jones will begin student teaching in our classroom! She stopped by today and visited/introduced herself to the class. The kids are very excited! She will be here with our class everyday until May! If you have any questions, please let me know.
This coming Wednesday, March 15th is a half-day (dismissal at 11:30) for parent teacher conferences. Forms went home on Monday to ALL students whether a conference was requested or not. If I have requested a conference with you for your child and you would like to meet virtually, PLEASE send me an email so I can send you a Google link. If you have any questions at all, do not hesitate to ask!
We will be celebrating our St. Patrick's Day party on Thursday, March 16th. If you volunteered to sign-up for donations, please send them in to school that day. Thank you for your help with our party!
There is no school on Friday, March 17th for a Superintendent's Conference Day.
Have a wonderful weekend! Don't forget to "spring ahead" on Sunday!
*3.3.23*
Happy Friday! It's been awhile since we've had an update. Here's a look at the last two weeks...
In phonics, we started unit 4 - using vowel teams to build big words. So far in this unit we have learned that the vowel teams ee, ea, oa, and ai all make the long vowel sound of the first vowel. We looked through many words and found this to be true, although we are sure there are some rule breakers in there! Rasheed went on a trip to investigate and left us with a task to find out more about vowel teams.
In reading workshop, we spent this week looking at nonfiction books. We learned that we can find out information about certain topics, not only from the words in the book, but also from nonfiction text features. The features we looked at this week and last week were photographs, captions, headings, table of contents, glossary, and index. The kids looked through many nonfiction books (as a class, with a partner, and independently) and kept a tally of how often they found these features.
In math, we're are almost through unit 4! Using our frog friends Tad and Polli, we have seen many videos, games, and practice activities skip counting by 1s, 5s, and 10s on a number line. We are also continuing to work on adding and subtracting 1s and 10s using a number line as our tool. Next week we will be completing our unit 4 assessment and then will use penguin heights to help us practice measuring in inches.
This week in writing workshop we finished our penguin research books! The kids had fun writing all the facts they knew and added real photographs to illustrate their books. The books went into their writing portfolios, which will come home at the end of the year. Next week we will begin our next writing unit - Mo Willems Author Study. We will begin watching some videos on how Mo Willems became an author and then immerse ourselves in some of his texts.
Coming Up/Important Info...
The information on the penguin we adopted (including the stuffed animal) is finally here! I am currently putting the "take-home book" together, but it looks like the kids will get to start taking home our Emperor penguin chick stuffed animal this coming week! Just like Gingerbread Fred, when it is your child's turn with the penguin chick, please write about your adventures at home and return the journal/bag the following day. As always, let me know if you have any questions!
Our spring conference day is on Wednesday, March 15th. There will be an early dismissal at 11:30 on that day. On Monday 3/6, I will be sending home a parent teacher conference form. Please note, not all students will have a conference on Wednesday, March 15th. I will indicate on the form whether I would like a conference with you or not. If I have requested a conference, the time will be written on the sheet. Please let me know if you have any questions!
Our St. Patrick's Day party is scheduled for Thursday, March 16th. There are no classroom volunteers needed for this party, but we do need volunteers to donate items (green beaded necklaces, green fruit, green juice, green veggies, plates, and napkins). All slots have been filled, so thank you! Please refer to the room parent email sent out on January 8th to see what you have signed up for.
There is no school on Friday, March 17th.
New Photos are posted! Please see "School Photos."
Have a wonderful weekend!
*2.10.23*
Happy weekend! We had a busy week...
In math, we continued to work with our life-size number line. We solved addition and subtraction problems using a number line as a tool. Some important vocabulary words we talked about were interval, tick marks, and number line. We spent a lot of time talking about hopping forward to adding and hopping back for subtracting. We also played some math games with number lines. The beginning of the week was spent skip counting on a number line with intervals of 1. Towards the end of the week, the kids were introduced to skip counting on a number line with intervals of 5 and 10. We will continue skip counting on a number line by 5s and 10s next week and learn some new games, too! It is important for the kids to understand the difference between hops (2 hops of 10) and total distance (20).
In phonics, we spent this week putting together what we have learned about word beginnings (blends/digraphs, word middles (phonograms -est, -ank, -unk, -ick, etc...) and word endings (-ed, -ly, -ing, etc...) to read and write words. We saw that we can take basic snap words (make, eat) and add to the beginning and end of these words to make bigger words. Next week we will play some phonics games to wrap up unit 3. We will begin unit 4 (vowel teams) after February break.
In writing, we are moving along with our penguin research! I was very impressed with how well the kids did transferring their notes (incomplete thoughts) into complete sentences. We discussed the fact that every sentence needs a noun and a verb (who/what and what they are doing). If they had written "lives off the coast of Southern Africa" we talked about how the complete sentences needs to say WHO lives off the coast of Southern Africa (ex: "The African penguins live off the coast of Southern Africa. OR They live off the coast of Southern Africa.). Next week we will be transferring our complete sentences into our final published books.
In reading, we worked on applying our retell strategy, SWBST (Somebody Wanted But So Then). Last week we worked together during shared readings to determine the important parts of fictional stories. This week I had the students working together to do it on their own and then apply it to their own independent reading books. Next week we will focus on nonfiction stories to discuss nonfiction text features (photographs, glossary, index, table of contents, caption, and heading).
Coming Up...
Our Valentine's Day party is on Tuesday, February 14th from 12:15-1:15. If your child is bringing in valentines, please make sure they have them for the party (and enough valentines for all the kids in the class). We will pass the valentines out during the party, eat some healthy snacks, and do a craft/activity.
There is no school Monday, February 20th - Friday, February 24th for our winter recess.
Next week is our final snap word review week. On Monday, a reading log will come home with the same first grade snap words attached. Once again, we will practice ALL the words during the week and pick 10 for the test on Friday, February 17th. We will begin new first grade snap words after February break.
Have a great weekend!!
*2.3.23*
Happy Friday! Here's a look at our week...
In phonics, the kids had an "a-ha" moment when we had a discussion how how every syllable in a word needs to have a vowel. While reading a story that Rasheed wrote, the kids were able to break words into syllables and add missing vowels that Rasheed left out. Towards the end of the week, we took another writing piece from Rasheed and talked about how to break off word endings to make bigger words smaller. After figuring out how to read the smaller part of the word, we can add the word endings back on to decode the whole word. The kids are beginning to see that they can read/write much larger words when they put a blend/digraph (sp-, sh-, ch-, tr-, br-, etc...), phonogram (-uck, -ank, -ock, -est, -unk, etc...), and word ending (-ed, -ly, -er, -ful) together. We'll continue to work on reading and writing all the way through words until February break.
In reading workshop, we spent this week (and will continue into next week) talking about the comprehension strategy Somebody (S), Wanted (W), But (B), So (S), Then (T) to help us remember the important parts of the story. The kids realized that when using this strategy after reading a story, they are able to recall all the important events/details in a text. We used the model I do, we do, you do to practice this strategy and then the kids did it on their own independently or with a partner during read-to-self and read-to-someone.
This week in math we started unit 4 and it began using a life-size number line. This unit focuses on skip counting by 1s, 5s, and 10s on a numberline. Starting with the numbers 1-20, each student got a number card and had to come up to our life-size number line if their number was needed. We skip counted by 1s, 2s, 5s, and 10s to determine missing numbers on the number line. Next week we will work up to 50 and 100 and also learn some new games using the number line.
In writing workshop, we finished our penguin research! I was so impressed with how well the kids did listening to facts about their penguins and turning the facts they listened to into notes on a graphic organizer. Each student had at least two facts per category! Next week we will talk about complete sentences and transfer our notes into complete sentences. The final step of this research process will be copying our completed sentences into our published book. The kids will also be able to add real photographs into their nonfiction books.
Important Information...
This week was our first snap word spelling review week. I was so impressed with how well the kids did on the test!! I did notice that the word "think" was on the spelling test but not on the word study sheet that came home so I do apologize about that. This coming week another review sheet will come home attached to the reading log (in case you have misplaced it) and we will pick ten new words for next Friday. We will continue the spelling word review until February break, starting new first grade snap words after the break. If you have any questions, please let me know!
A note went home last week about our Penguin adoption activity. The kids were really excited when they found out we could help some species of penguins that are endangered. This is not a mandatory activity. If you would like to donate $1-$2, that is completely optional. The money for the donation is due by Friday, February 10th. I will be adopting from the WWF (World Wildlife Fund) website. WWF <- click here
Our Valentine's Day party is on Tuesday, February 14th. A class list went home last week. Please make sure your child has a valentine for everyone in the class. We will be making bags in school so you do not need to make a box/bag at home for your child's valentines. Part of the party will be spent passing out our valentines. Please see the email sent out by Nicole O'Keefe and Christine Tellarini regarding donations still needed for the party.
Have a great weekend!!!
*1.20.23*
Happy Friday! Here's a look at the week...
In phonics, we continued to learn about different word endings. At the beginning of the week, we looked at the different sounds of "y." When "y" is at the end of a word, it can make many different sounds, most specifically long "i" and "e." The kids were able to do a word sort of long i and long e y as a vowel words. We also talked about "-ey" and "-ay" at the end of words. Towards the end of this week, we look at phonograms. To better understand phonograms, the kids learned that they are at the end of a word and include a vowel+a blend. Another phrase we use for phonograms is "word families." Looking at a variety of phonograms (-unk, -ink, -ank, -ing, -ash, ock, etc...), the kids made a list of all the words they know with each phonogram and then sorted words based on their phonogram. We will continue to look at more word endings next week.
In reading, we continued to talk about the comprehension strategy - Five Finger Retell. Using read alouds as a model, the kids worked to independently retell the important parts of a story using the five finger retell strategy. The kids have also begun listening to nonfiction texts about penguins as we begin our penguin research writing unit.
During writing workshop, the kids finished their nonfiction teaching books on topics they know a lot about. We will most likely publish their best piece before February break. The next part of our nonfiction writing unit has the kids writing nonfiction teaching books focused on a certain topic and organized into sections (with a table of contents). To do this, the kids will learn about a variety of penguins, pick their favorite penguin, research their penguin using the website Pebble Go, take notes while researching, and then complete a nonfiction paper bag book organized into sections (appearance, habitat, diet, enemies, interesting facts...). This will all be completed in school and will take several weeks to complete. The finished paper bag penguin research writing piece and their best nonfiction teaching book on the topic they know a lot about will both go into their writing portfolios.
In math this week, we are using unifix cubes as a tool to help us build numbers in different ways. We continued to play a game called Fifty or Bust using teen numbers to help us build up to 50 (without going over). Towards the end of the week, we focused on the numbers 6 and 7 and talked about ways to make the numbers. An important part of the lesson was discussing the importance of the equal sign. When reading the equal sign, we say "is the same as." For example, if an equation is 4+3=7 we would say "4+3 is the same as 7" so that when solving the following equation (3+2=4+1) it helps us understand that they are equal ("3+2 is the same as 4+1). We also looked at some equations that are unequal (not the same as) 4+3 is not the same as 5+3 (4+3=5+3? not equal). Next week we will be finishing up unit 3.
Important Information...
There is an early dismissal at 11:30 on Friday, January 27th.
In class we have been reading Ready Freddy Penguin Problem. In the book, Freddy's class raises money to adopt a penguin. The kids were very motivated by this and since we are beginning to learn about penguins, wanted to do the same thing! A note will be coming home soon about raising a dollar per student to collect enough money to adopt a penguin. Please let me know if you have any questions once the note comes home!
In the next couple of weeks, a letter will also be coming home about Valentine's Day. We will do a valentine exchange this year so the note coming home will include the names of all the students in the class. If you are beginning to buy valentines, please make sure you have one for every child.
Thank you and have a great weekend!!
*1.13.23*
Happy Friday! Thank you so much for all the classroom snacks that were brought in. It is much appreciated! Here is a peek at our week...
In writing workshop, we spent this week putting finishing touches on our nonfiction teaching books. We reviewed the importance of the say it, slide it, hear it, write it strategy to quickly help us spell unknown words. If we focus too much on the spelling, we forget the content we want to write. With this strategy, we quickly spell our unknown words, circle the word, and move on. We also spent this week talking about informational story endings; wrapping up our topic. Just like the beginning of our books, the ending can also be a question (ex: "What is your favorite part about ___ (topic)?" or "What did you learn about ___ (topic)?"). The students are working on being able to independently reread to add these important parts of our writing. Next week we will spend one more day finishing up our nonfiction teaching books before we continue nonfiction writing with a penguin research unit; more info to come!
In phonics, we spent this week looking closely at several common word endings. We began the week studying the different sounds of -ed ("id" - started, "d" - played, "t" - jumped). The kids practiced sorting words by their -ed endings and read through some nonfiction books to find and identify the -ed ending sounds. After -ed, we looked closely at words that end with "y" saying "i" or "e." y can be tricky as we also have words with "ay." We will spend a lot of time looking through books to see how we say "y" at the end. We ended the week looking closely at end blends. Some end blends can also be beginning blends (sp, sl, pl), but some end blends (which we focused on today) can only be end blends (-nk, -lt, -nd, -ld, etc...). I was impressed at all the words the kids were able to make with these end blends. Next week we will continue looking at a variety of word endings and practice reading/writing them.
In reading workshop, we reviewed the main idea in fiction and nonfiction stories and then spent a majority of the week talking about the five finger retell rule. When we use the 5 finger retell rule, we state one important idea from the book across our fingers (1-characters 2-setting 3-events 4-problem 5-solution). If we follow the 5 finger retell, we are doing a good summary of the book. We will continue practicing this strategy next week. The goal is to use these fun strategies as a way to help us remember what we read!
During math this week, we had some extra time to work with a partner doing a few math games - cat and mouse and fifty or bust. For cat and mouse, the kids had to roll dice to build a number and then compare the difference between the sum of both numbers. The kids are working on finding how much is the same and then determining how many more/less. If I got a sum of 7 and my partner got a sum of 5, we both have a sum of 5 but then I have 2 more. Please review this strategy at home. The fifty or bust game had us working with teen numbers (ten plus a number). Flipping ten and some more number cards, we had to build up to 50 without going over. The kids had a lot of fun with this strategic game. Next week we will continue learning more subtraction strategies.
Important Information...
There is no school on Monday, January 16th in observance of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day. Enjoy your day off!
I would like to welcome our new student, Clara! She will be starting with us on Tuesday, January 17th after the long weekend. The kids are so excited for her to come and wrote/drew her many notes/pictures.
Next week I will be introducing our penguin research project. This will all be completed in school! As part of our nonfiction writing unit, the kids will first choose a penguin and then do some research using PebbleGo to find important facts about where they live, what they look like, what they eat, etc... They will copy all of this information into a brown bag book. The finished product (which will take several weeks) will go in your child's writing portfolio. Please let me know if you have any questions!
If you have small toys/prizes at home that you would like to get rid of, we would love to use them in our classroom prize box!
Final note - We are starting a new classroom management system. The marble reward system is too distant for this group of kids and we are working for something more immediate and engaging. Your child may have mentioned this at home, but we are doing a teacher vs. students game. At the end of each subject (with some feedback from the class on their own self-reflection) I determine if the class gets the point (behavior, focus, hard work, listening, etc...) or if I get the point. Points are filled out on a ten frame. At the end of the day, if the class has the most points, one student will get to add a piece to our classroom snowman. I told the class I would pick a hard worker/role model from the day to add the piece of the snowman. When the snowman is built, we get a party! The kids are very excited for this! Please let me know if you have any questions!
I hope you have a warm, relaxing weekend!!
*1.6.23*
Happy New Year! Here is a look at this week.
In phonics, we started unit 3. This unit teaches the importance of reading all the way through words ("From Tip to Tail"). The kids learned about the importance of reading all the way through words from the a nonfiction book, Lions. In the book I showed the kids what happens when you do not read all the way through words (you learn the wrong information and share the wrong information). If we want to learn about something new, we need to read about it carefully so we are learning the correct facts. After learning about common word endings (-ed, -ing, -es, -s, -ly, -er, etc...) we will spend a day with each word ending to better understand how to use them.
In writing workshop, we are continuing to work on our nonfiction teaching books. With only a few more lessons to go, the kids are getting close to finishing up! This week we discussed the importance of using strategies to spell unknown words. They learned that we do not want to spend too much time stressing on how to spell a word - pick a strategy, do your best spelling, circle the word, and move on! We also spent some time looking at topic specific vocabulary words. If you are writing a story about football (my class modeling story), some pop-out words to include (and write in a glossary in the back of the book) might be fumble, tackle, touchdown, and endzone. The kids worked hard to include topic specific vocabulary words in their own books as well. As we move to bend II in this unit, we will be researching penguins and writing a book about the penguin we researched.
In math, we are moving along in unit 3. This week we used our number racks to determine missing numbers in equations up to twenty, focusing mostly on missing parts of ten. Using different models, the kids had to determine, if we had a total of ten and are given one part, what part is missing (ex: I have ten beads. There are five showing on the number rack. How many are hiding? There are ten hot air balloons in the sky. I see three floating in the air and the rest are behind the clouds. How many are behind the clouds? Etc...). This unit will have the kids practicing a variety problems (equations, story problems) that require finding a missing part. We will work more on this over the next couple of weeks.
During reading workshop, we talked about how good readers think about the main idea (what the book is mostly about). Using a variety of winter themed nonfiction books, the kids listened to read aloud stories and we discussed the main idea of the books. One of the books was titled Penguins (and was mostly about penguin babies). Instead of saying "The main idea is about penguins," we talked about how to describe the main idea with more detail ("The main idea is about how penguins take care of their babies." This is a hard skill for first graders! Next week we will talk about main idea with fictional stories and also learn about the five finger retell.
Important Info...
January Scholastic order forms came home this week and are due on January 11th. You can order online from other Scholastic flyers as well!
We have a mystery reader this Friday, January 13th.
There is no school on Monday, January 16th in observance of Martin Luther King Jr. Day.
Have a great weekend!!
*12.23.22*
Happy Friday and holiday break! Here is a look at the last couple weeks...
We have spent a couple of weeks working on our nonfiction teaching books during writer's workshop. The kids have brainstormed ideas and have made sure they have at least 5 facts about their topics in order to write a book about it. We are continuing to touch and tell our facts, draw pictures, and write words across the pages. We have also spent a lot of time talking about the importance of not only the words, but the pictures. Some ways to teach from the pictures are including labels, writing captions, separating illustrations into sections to show a series of facts, etc... We are also continuing to use spelling strategies to include more challenging vocabulary words related to our topics.
In reading, we spent the last couple of weeks listening to/reading about different holidays. For our trip around the world, the kids boarded an airplane to fly to various countries including Germany, India, the Middle East, Israel, Mexico, Canada, and the United States to name some. They got passports with stamps and learned many traditions across the world, most revolving around festivals of lights and feasts with families. During reading, we also talked about good readers asking and answering questions and good readers thinking about important events in the beginning, middle, and end of stories. We worked together as a whole class to discuss these reading strategies and the kids also worked to do it independently. After the holiday break, we will continue to work on comprehending events throughout stories.
In phonics, we finished unit 2! The kids took all they have learned about word rules and silent e to go on a word hunt. Looking at words around the room, the kids had to determine which phonics rule they would use to help them decode more challenging words. We realized that most words can be decoded using at least one of the rules we learned in unit 2. After break, we will start unit 3 which focuses on using strategies to read all the way through words.
In math, we have moved to unit 3 which focuses on adding, subtracting, counting, and comparing. During this math unit we will be looking at efficient math strategies to add and subtract within 10 and 20, build an understanding of place value with tens and ones, and solve addition/subtraction story problems with pictures, numbers, and words. We will continue to play games and do activities that help use build numbers in a variety of ways.
Coming Up/Important Info...
There is no school Monday, December 26th - Monday, January 2nd for our holiday break. I hope you enjoy the holidays with your family!
MANY new photos have been posted! See "School Photos."
Have a wonderful holiday break!!! See you in 2023!
*12.2.22*
We got a lot accomplished this week! Thank you SO much to everyone who came to see our small moments publishing party. The kids had a great time and were so excited to read all the positive comments about their work. Here is a look at the rest of the week...
In phonics, we are finishing up unit 2. We have one more case file left from the S.S.D.A. to solve. This week we solved the case of words in disguise (contractions), the case of the sticky letters (three letter blends at the beginning of words) and the case of the compound words. We looked at what snap words can help us with these kinds of words and study many new words in each category. The kids are becoming more aware of these words when reading and writing.
In reading, we spent the week listening closely to holiday books talking about how good readers ask questions before, during, and after reading. At the beginning of the week, I did all the question asking, towards the middle of the week, the kids helped me ask questions, and by the end of the week, the kids were doing it all on their own! While working with their independent reading books, the kids also had to write down questions about their books. The kids are doing very well independently rotating through stations while I work with reading groups. During reading groups, we talked about asking and answering questions, previewed books, worked on comprehension/discussion questions, and practiced some word work activities. Next week we are going to focus on talking about events in the beginning, middle, and end of stories.
In math, we used turkey and quilt patters to make a large class quilt. Towards the end of the week, we used the quilt to help us skip count by 5s looking for patterns. The kids had many great observations. We are almost done with unit 2 where we are talking about pennies/nickels and how skip counting by 1s and 5s helps us to count pennies and nickels.
Finally, in writing we began our nonfiction teaching books unit. As a launch to this unit, the kids had to think about topics they know a lot about (I picked football as it seems my life is all about football right now!). I modeled how to pick a topic, state five facts I know across my fingers, touch and tell each fact on a page in my book, sketch the pictures, and then write the words. At this point, the kids have thought of a topic, told 5 facts across their fingers, and touch/told their story. Next week they will begin sketching their pictures and writing their words. We also spent this week writing about our November memories.
Important Info/Coming Up...
Our parent teacher conference dates are coming up this week! There will an early dismissal at 11:30 on Wednesday, November 7th, Friday, November 9th, and Wednesday, November 14th for parent teacher conferences. Report cards will be posted on eSchool the day before conferences so you have a chance to look at them before we meet. I also sent home a form today that you can fill out and send in by Tuesday so that I can prepare materials for your child's conference. If you have any questions, please let me know!
On Wednesday, December 14th we have our winter projects party. We have parent helpers coming in to help organize crafts/games for the kids to rotate through.
This coming week we will start learning about winter holidays around the world. Today the kids made luggage bags which will hold their passports and airplane passes to visit each country/holiday. If you have a specific holiday you would like the class to learn (or if you would even like to come in to teach about it), please let me know!
We have many new photos. They will be posted soon!!
Have a wonderful weekend!
*11.18.22*
What an eventful week! Here's a look at what we did...
In phonics, we finished up our case on the silent e. To end our study, we had a snap word boot camp! The kids got to do exercises around the room practicing the words and went a word hunt looking for snap words in sentences. Towards the end of the week, we got another letter from the S.S.D.A. asking us if we would like to take on another case. To get us excited about it, the S.S.D.A. sent us five snap words that we will need to "know by heart" in order to solve the case. The words were: little, into, I'm, three, and now. We will find out after Thanksgiving how all of these words will help us!
In reading workshop, we listened to many Thanksgiving books and talked about which ones were our favorite and why. The kids continued to practice rotating independently through Daily Five stations. After Thanksgiving break, I will begin meeting with guided reading groups.
In math this week, we learned some new workplace games - Spin to Add and Spin to Subtract. The kids practiced either using strategies or mentally solving addition/subtraction facts during the games. Towards the end of the week, the kids took their unit 2 math assessment which will be coming home next week.
In writing this week we spent some time doing some Thanksgiving writing activities. At the beginning of the week we wrote about what would make the best Thanksgiving feast. The kids had to list foods the feast would include and steps they would take to make the dinner a success. Towards the end of the week, the kids completed a STEM activity. We began by listening to the book Balloons Over Broadway by Melissa Sweet. The book was about a puppeteer named Tony Sarg who invented the first balloon floats for the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade. After, the kids planned by writing/sketching their own balloon design. Given a balloon and a large variety of craft supplies, the kids built their balloon floats and were able to do a parade around the school today. They had so much fun with this activity! Pictures will be posted soon of our parade.
Coming Up/Important Information...
Our Thanksgiving party is on Tuesday, November 22nd from 12:15-1:15. Please check the Parent Helper Volunteers tab to check and see if you signed up to donate a food/party item. For this party, the kids will be volunteering at one station (making butter with heavy cream, popping popcorn, mixing fruit salad, and putting together a trail mix). Each child brought home a note for which individual food item they wanted to donate for the fruit salad and trail mix. If you did not see the note come home, please let me know and I can tell you which food item you are signed up for! After we are done preparing for the "feast," the kids will get to eat the popcorn with the butter, trail mix, and fruit salad. We will end the party with our craft.
Our November birthdays party is scheduled for Wednesday, November 30th at 12:45. If your child has a November birthday (an email went home), one parent is welcome to come in for the party. We are asking the parents of birthday friends to work together on a game(s) or craft(s) for the class. Food is optional (from the safe snack list!).
A letter went home this week regarding our first Publishing Party on Friday, December 2nd at 9:00. For this celebration, families are invited into our classroom to hear all the great small moments stories we've worked on since the beginning of the year. This celebration should take about 20-30 minutes.
Finally, I sent an email out earlier in the week for parent teacher conference sign-ups. If you did not get this email, please let me know. Conferences are on Wednesday, December 7th, Friday, December 9th, and Wednesday, December 14th in the afternoon. When you sign-up-, please request whether you would like your child's conference to be virtual or in-person. If you choose to be virtual, there is a Google Meet link in the sign-up. Please let me know if none of these dates work for you and we can schedule an alternate day/time.
Photos from the past couple of weeks will be posted soon!
Have a great weekend!!
*11.10.22*
Happy Veteran's Day! I hope everyone enjoys their day off tomorrow. Here's a look at what we did this week...
In math, we continued to look at dominoes and focus in on addition strategies using the dominoes. Some of the strategies we discussed included counting on from the larger number, doubles facts, doubles plus/minus one facts, and counting all the dots. When solving equations using the dominoes, the kids practiced sharing which strategy they used to help them solve the problem. After discussing all the strategies, we focused in on doubles and learned a new game using dominoes and doubles.
In writing, we took a look at our writing rubric (which was mailed home this week) and discussed strengths and areas we need to work on. Our goal is to work on those skills in our next writing unit (nonfiction writing) which we will begin after Thanksgiving break. Next week we will do some turkey/Thanksgiving writing and some fun holiday writing projects.
In phonics, the S.S.D.A. continued to give us some activities to look at for the Case of the Silent e. We learned that there are not many long e/silent e words and discussed other ways we might see long e in words (since there are many!). We noticed that many words follow the "ee" "ea" pattern. Some other words we found have "ey" and just "y." Next week the kids will take part in a snap word boot camp and then the S.S.D.A. will be sending some other case files for us to solve!
In reading we began our rotation of Daily Five stations. This week the class listened to some fall books and had to talk about which book they read/listened to this week was their favorite (and some challenged themselves to explain why). The kids worked independently switching through 5 different stations (read-to-self, read-to-someone, listen-to-reading, word work, and work on writing) which they have been training for since September! They have done a good job deciding when they are done with a center to move onto another. I will continue to guide/monitor the kids through centers for another week and will begin reading groups after that. We also spent a majority of this week listening to/reading books about Veteran's Day. We talked about what a veteran is and how we celebrate veterans. Next week we will listen closely to the book A Turkey for Thanksgiving by Eve Bunting.
Coming Up...
There is no school tomorrow November 11th in observance of Veteran's Day.
We have a mystery reader on Friday, November 18th @ 12:40. Please make sure to email your clues when your mystery reader date approaches!
Our Thanksgiving party is on Tuesday, November 22nd from 12:15-1:15. Please check the Parent Helper Volunteers tab to check and see if you signed up to donate a food/party item. We are still in need of cups/plates/napkins, cider, and a Thanksgiving activity. As of right now, we have 3 parent helpers. We can still use one more helper in the classroom if you would like to participate! For this party, the kids will be volunteering at one station (making butter with heavy cream, popping popcorn, mixing fruit salad, and putting together a trail mix). Each child brought home a note for which individual food item they wanted to donate for the fruit salad and trail mix. If you did not see the note come home, please let me know and I can tell you which food item you are signed up for! After we are done preparing for the "feast," the kids will get to eat the popcorn with the butter, trail mix, and fruit salad. We will end the party with our craft.
I hope everyone has a wonderful long weekend!
*11.4.22*
I hope everyone had a nice Halloween! The kids had a great time at our Halloween party! Here is a look at the week...
In reading, we went back to read-to-self and read-to-someone to review what it looks like and sounds like and to work on building our stamina even more! The kids were able to get to 20 minutes for each! We will begin rotating through stations next week and I will be monitoring to make sure the kids are able to independently choose a station, work the whole time, and clean up so that they can transition to another. This will get them ready for the following week when I begin working with reading groups.
In math, we watched some videos on adding and subtracting to see how facts can be related (part of a fact family). This is a concept that is still difficult for some of the kids to understand (If I know 4+3=7 then I know 3+4=7). We spent most of the week working with fact families using dominoes and flap cards. We also played some new workplace games to reinforce this concept.
During writing workshop, we finished publishing our small moments stories! The kids worked really hard coloring their pictures, making a front cover (with their title, name, and picture) and adding an "About Me" page. Before all of that, they reread their best piece to make sure they included all the important elements of narrative writing. If they finished early, they were able to do free writing (writing about any topic of their choice). A checklist of how your child did during this writing unit will be coming home next week.
In phonics, we reviewed all that we have learned from our Case of the Silent e file from the SSDA. We received another message this week telling us that silent e is on the run! We looked through our independent reading books and found out that silent is is also in words with e, i, o, and u. Not only does the e at the end make short a words long, but it also makes other vowels long, too. Towards the end of the week, we looked closely at long o CVCe words and long i CVCe words. Next week we will look closely at long vowel e and u CVCe words.
Coming Up...
There is no school on Friday, November 11th in observance of Veteran's Day.
Have a great weekend!!
*10.28.22*
The kids are so excited about Halloween on Monday! We spent a good amount of our day today getting ready for Halloween with some Halloween projects and activities. Here is a look at the rest of the week...
In phonics, we started unit 2! We received a phone call from the S.S.D.A. (Super Secret Detective Agency) asking if we would be willing to take on the case of the silent e. Of course the class said "YES!" We received our first case file and learned that CVC words with short vowel a (rat, man, can, etc...) can become CVCE words with a long vowel a (rate, mane, cane) when we add an e on the end. The rules we added to our chart are: 1. The e is at the end of the word 2. The e is silent 3. The e makes the short vowel a a long vowel a. 4.We have to watch out for rule breakers like "have" and 5. We can use what we know about long a to make many new words. Next week we will see what happens to other vowels when we add an e to the end of the CVC words.
In writing workshop, we began publishing our small moments stories. The kids worked hard to read through all their writing from this unit to pick out their best piece (not necessarily their favorite - which we talked about!). The writing pieces they decided not to publish, came home this week in a paperclipped pile. Once they found their best small moment piece, they reread their writing making sure they included all that we have talked about so far in this unit (sticking to a small moment, writing a beginning, middle, and end, adding details, including feelings, adding pop-out words, using " " for dialogue, using actions words, carefully using spelling strategies, etc... The final steps to publishing were coloring our pictures, adding a front cover, and including at "About Me" author page at the end. I will be sending out more information soon for when we will be sharing their stories with you all!
In math this week, we did some domino magic activities! The kids saw that if they add the dots vertically on two dominoes and then horizontally on the two dominoes, they get the same total! This helped the kids when we watched a video and did a lesson on fact families. Making double flap cards, the kids wrote down all the equations for the numbers they represented on their flap card (ex: 9 - 5+4=9, 4+5=9, 9-5=4, 9-4=5). Next week we will continue to practice building and working with fact families.
During reading workshop this week we listened to the text Stellaluna by Janell Cannon. The kids learned some important information about bats, compared bats to birds, and listened to/read a Scholastic News article about nocturnal animals. Next week we will spend a lot of time reading and listening to some Halloween stories. This week we also spent time building stamina when reading to ourselves and working on writing. My goal is to start guided reading groups (while the rest of the class is working on writing, reading to themselves, reading to others, listening to reading, or working with words) the first full week in November.
Coming Up/Important Info...
The Color Run is this coming Sunday, October 30th at 10:00am.
This coming Monday, October 31st is our Halloween parade at 10:00. Please have your child wear his or her Halloween costume to school (no weapons, accessories, etc...). If you are attending the parade, please park at St. Matthew's Church and walk over to find a spot to stand outside. Our classroom party will be in the afternoon from 12:15-1:30. If you are a volunteer, please do not forget to bring a game/craft for the class.
Our Veteran's Day breakfast is on Thursday, November 10th from 7:30-8:30 in the large gym.
There is no school on Friday, November 11th in observance of Veteran's Day.
A November Scholastic Book order form will be coming home next week.
Have a wonderful weekend!!!
*10.21.22*
The talk of the week was definitely our field trip to Ellm's Farm. We had such a great time and it was so nice to get back to the farm for a field trip. Thank you to everyone who helped out! Here is what we did this week...
In reading, we took a break from our close reading stories and focused on working-on-writing as a part of Daily Five. At this point, we have done read-to-self, read-to-someone, listen-to-reading, and work-on-writing. The last part of Daily Five will be word work. Once we have built stamina for all of these activities, I will begin pulling small reading groups. During that time, the kids will be working on one of the five Daily Five activities. They have been working very had following our "What does it look like/sound like" during Daily Five. Next week we will be learning about bats as we listen closely to the book Stellaluna by Janell Canon.
In writing workshop, we are continuing to look at George McClements' craft moves. So far we have talked about ellipses and action words. By using action words, the kids learned that we can create a movie in our heads when we are reading our writing. We have one more craft move to learn about before we begin to publish our best small moments story! In the near future, we will be having a publishing party to celebrate these great stories!
In math, we started unit 2 - developing strategies with dice and dominoes. Beginning with dominoes, the kids were able to explore the dominoes as a way to make equations. Two dots + two dots = 4 dots. This has helped the kids to see that there are many different dominoes that can make the same number (5 dots + 1 dot, 4 dots + 2 dots, 6 dots + 0 dots, etc...). We have also learned a few dominoes games to help us solve addition and subtraction equations. We will continue to spend next week learning different ways to use the dominoes to help with solving math problems.
In phonics, we graduated from unit 1! As a graduation, the kids each got a "diploma." Tying in everything we have learned from unit 1, the kids had to use what they have learned from the first unit to determine the word that was written on their diploma. They had to remember what we have discussed when studying words (Are there vowels? What sound do they make? Do we need short vowel power? Are there blends/digraphs? Are there snap words hiding? Etc...). The kids went around and read their word aloud to the class and did a great job! Next week we will be starting unit 2 - The Mystery of the Silent e.
Coming Up...
Our Halloween Party is on Monday, October 31st from 12:15-1:30. If you are signed up as a volunteer, please bring a game/craft to share with the class. The costume parade will be in the morning at 10:00. Please park at St. Matthew's Church if you plan on coming.
New pictures are posted from our pumpkin investigation, field trip, and pumpkin decorating. See "School Photos!"
Have a great weekend!!
*10.14.22*
Wow! We had a busy afternoon with our pumpkin investigation today! The kids had SO much fun. I'm sure you will hear all about it! Here is a look at the week...
In phonics, we are finishing up unit 1 as we study some new first grade snap words and look at some snap words as super power words. Some super power snap words we discovered are can, and, an, will, and it. A super power snap word is a word we can use to spell many other words. The kids learned that if they know can, they also know ran, fan, than, span, scan, etc... Next week we will be using more of our new snap words as we finish unit one.
In reading, we listened closely to the book From Seed to Pumpkin by Wendy Pfeffer. We also spent a lot of time learning about the life cycle of a pumpkin. We continued to listen to reading on Razkids using the Chromebooks. Today the kids were introduced to work on writing as a part of Daily Five. We talked about some important rules (take out your writing journal and tools, find a spot, work quietly, write the whole time, draw pictures, write words, and use your best spelling). Our first journal writing activity was a fall picture prompt. The kids were able to work independently drawing and writing for 13 minutes! Our goal for building stamina is 20 minutes so we are not too far away!
In math this week, we continued to use our number racks to build numbers and turn them into equations. We looked for different ways to make specific numbers. When building 8, we can slide 3 beads on top and 5 beads on the bottom to make the equation 3+5=8. We had a discussion that if we know 3+5=8, then we also know 5+3=8. We tried to see how many ways we could build and turn each number into equations. Towards the end of the week, we looked closely at one more and one less than any give number. We are almost done with unit 1!
Our first week of spelling went well! With one less day to practice the words in school, I was impressed with how well all the kids did! Please don't forget to send your child's reading log to school on Fridays.
Finally in writing workshop, we talked about the importance of using a variety of punctuation in our stories. Using the book Yo! Yes! we learned that reading punctuation different ways can change the meaning of a story. The kids had a goal of going back to reread their writing to see if they could add a variety of end punctuation marks. The kids are also continuing to use strategies to spell unknown words.
Coming Up...
Our 6-week Apple-a-Day program starts this week. We will be Tuesdays from 9:45-10:15 for the next six weeks. Please let me know if you have any questions about this program.
Our Field Trip is this coming Wednesday, October 19th. Please be sure to send your child to school with a water bottle, bagged lunch, and warm clothes/boots. Be sure to keep your eye on the weather for appropriate apparel. A reminder will be coming home on Tuesday. If you are a chaperone, please arrive to school no later than 8:45.
The kids will all be getting pumpkins on our field trip. We will be decorating the pumpkins in school on Thursday, October 20th. If you are signed up as a helper, please be here at 12:45.
I told students to send home their snack cups today (although I saw some were still in the hall). If your child snack cup comes home (we're trying to send them home every other Friday), please wash the cup and return it to school (they can get grimy!).
We are running low on snacks for October. If you have any extra snacks that are on the safe snack list, we'd love to use them!
New photos are posted! See "School Photos."
Have a great weekend!!
*10.7.22*
Happy October! We flew through the month of September and have really fun month of activities for October! Here's a look into our week...
In phonics, we spent the beginning of the week looking closely at our kindergarten snap words and talked about how we can use snap words we already know to help us read bigger words. Towards the end of the week, we were introduced to some new first grade snap words. We spent a good amount of time applying our spelling words. We talked about how it is great if we can read and write a word in isolation, but it's even more important if we can use them! We wrote a letter to Mr. Vivenzio and a class sledding story to help us apply snap words. The kids then looked at their own small moments stories and were surprised at how many snap words are in their own stories! We will be finishing up unit one in the next couple of weeks.
In writing workshop, we talked more about making our stories come to life. Following our lessons from last week (making the characters talk and move) we discussed how to bring the inside out (talking about our feelings during our small moments stories). After adding feelings to our shared class story, the kids were encouraged to go back to one of their small moments stories and add how they were feeling during that moment. We had a discussion about how our feelings can be used to end our small moments stories as well (ex: I was very happy at the fair and hope to go back again. OR After I went on the ride, I wasn't so scared anymore. etc...). We will continue to talk about strategies first graders can use to become more independent writers as we finish out our unit on small moment stories.
This week we got a brand new number corner for October! We are determining new patterns on our calendar cards and collecting 2D shapes. During math instruction, we spent the week learning new workplace games, talked about using non-standard units of measuring (using popsicle sticks), and continued to use our number racks to help us quickly see/build numbers. We played a game called "Quick! Look!" where the kids had to quickly look at my number rack, count the beads, and write the total number on their white boards. Kids are beginning to use strategies to help them determine numbers quickly (groups of 5, 10, and 15). Next week we will have more practice using our number racks to solve a variety of problems (__+5=8, 3+__=8, and 3+5=__) and continue learning about non-standard units of measure (unifix cubes).
In reading this week, we practiced logging into and using our RazKids account. The kids are building stamina listening to, reading, and answering questions about fiction and nonfiction stories. This website is a fun, interactive way to get kids excited about reading! The link for RazKids is below. The teacher username is mcountermine1.
RazKids
During reading, we also listened closely to the book Chrysanthemum by Kevin Henkes. We talked about the importance of being ourselves and not letting others make us feel badly about our differences. We also had some good discussions after reading/listening to the book several times. Next week we will start learning about pumpkins as we listen closely to the book From Seed to Pumpkin by Wendy Pfeffer.
Coming Up....
We will be starting reading homework (reading logs coming home on Monday) and spelling this coming week (Tuesday, October 11th). You will see a reading log, list of spelling words, and your child's pretest come home on Tuesday. We will be doing activities all week to practice your child's spelling words so you do not need to practice at home. There is a list of suggested spelling activities that went home if you do want your child to get extra practice. Our first spelling test will be on Friday, October 14th.
There is no school on Monday, October 10th in observance of Columbus Day.
Our October Scholastic book order flyer will come home this coming week and orders will be due on Monday, October 17th.
Parent Helper Volunteers through December have been posted on our website. Please see the "Parent Helper Volunteers" tab.
Our pumpkin investigation is this Friday, October 14th. There are four parent helpers who were chosen to come in and help out. The helpers are Rebecca Miller, Charlie Mohr, Nicole O'Keefe, and Christine Tellarini-Forchilli. Please make sure to bring a medium/large sized pumpkin for the investigation.
Have a great weekend!!
*9.30.22*
Another busy week in first grade! The kids have been working hard and earning a lot of marbles as a whole class! Here's a look at the week...
In writing workshop, we are continuing to add onto our small moment stories. We spent a lesson talking about looking at our writing as readers by rereading our writing closely. When we do this, we read slowly, word-by-word, pointing to each word as we read it. Using colored pencils as our editing tools, we can check our writing for errors and fix them. This week we also looked closely at how to bring our stories to life. The first day we talked about making our characters move. Instead of saying "I went to the rug" we want to show the characters moving by saying "I quietly walked over to the rug." The next day we talked about making our characters talk. To do this, the kids saw some examples of dialogue in some books and we talked about what we noticed (the author used " " and the author used the word "said.") We tried doing this in our shared writing story and then the kids tried it in their own writing! They did an excellent job with it! Next week we will learn more ways to bring our stories to life.
During math workshop, the kids spent most days this week working on some math workplaces games; working on reading ten frames to count numbers, using double ten frames to make a 10+ a number equation, and a game to determine how many more we need to make ten (ex: I have 7. How many more do I need to make 10?). We also began looking at various types of story problems; start unknown/change or part unknown/result unknown). For start unknown, the kids had to determine the missing number at the start (_+4=9). For change/part unknown, the kids had to determine the missing part or change in the problem (5+_=9). Finally, for missing result, the kids had to determine the result of a given problem (5+4=_). We will be continually reviewing these types of story problems all throughout the year! Next week we will continue to use our number racks and ten frames to help us solve equations and story problems.
During phonics instruction, we spent this week playing games and looking closely at kindergarten snap words. We looked for ways words are the same and ways words are different. Towards the end of the week, we started learning some new first grade snap words. When we learn new words, we have certain steps we follow. For example, one of our new first grade snap words is "his." First, we say the word "his." Next, we stomp/clap/snap the syllables (1 syllable). Next we spell the word h-i-s. Then, we look closely to study the word (has the little word "is" hiding, has one vowel that makes a short vowel sound, has the little word "hi" hiding, etc...). Next, we cover, write, and then check the spelling of the word and finally, we use the word in a sentence. After we do all these steps, we can then add the word to our snap word wall. Next week we will look at even more new first grade words!
In reading workshop, we listened closely to the book Matthew and Tilly by Beth Peck and Rebecca C. Jones. We talked about the theme, friendship, and discussed some important vocabulary words in the book. After, we talked about the lesson that Matthew and Tilly learned at the end of the book. We have also been building our stamina for read-to-someone. When reading to someone, we focused specifically on the checking for understanding step. After your partner reads, you need to say "I just heard you read____" and retell the important parts of their reading. I remind the students that this is to make sure we are understanding what we are reading. The kids were able to build up to 13 minutes! Like read-to-self, we have a goal of 15 minutes! Next week we will continue read-to-someone and will introduce listen-to-reading on the Chromebooks.
Coming Up...
There is no school on Wednesday, October 5th in observance of Yom Kippur.
On Thursday, October 6th we have our Early Release Drill. For this drill, we will dismiss kids to the buses at 2:55. If you are picking up your child, please be to school no later than 2:45.
On Friday, October 7th, there is an early dismissal at 11:30.
I am meeting with our room parents on Monday to put together our parent helper volunteer schedule for the year. As soon as we have a final schedule, I will send it out to you.
Our Book Fair will be this Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday after school (the 3rd, 4th, and 6th) from 3-7pm. We hope you can make it!
Have a great weekend!!!
*9.23.22*
What a great start to our Friday morning seeing the bike riders come into our school! As one of the first stops on their 100 mile ride, the kids did such a great job getting the bike riders pumped up! What a great experience!
This week in reading we listened closely to the book, Fire Trucks, by Judith Jango-Cohen. The kids learned about what makes a book a nonfiction book and we talked about some important vocabulary words (gear, tanks, outriggers, etc...) and facts about fire trucks. The kids then worked as a whole class to use evidence from the book to explain why the gear/tools on a fire truck are important. By the end of first grade, the kids will be able to do this on their own! Next week we will move back to fiction to look closely at the book Matthew and Tilly by Beth Peck and Rebecca C. Jones. For Daily Five, we made it to 14 minutes of independently reading to ourselves! I was so impressed with how hard they are working. I'm still reminding the kids to make sure they are reading Good Fit books (Please talk to your child about this at home, too. Some of the kids are skimming through books that are too hard for them.) Yesterday we began talking about read-to-someone. This is very similar to read-to-self (find a spot, stay in that spot, read quietly, read the whole time, enjoy), but now the kids are sitting EEKK (elbow, elbow, knee, knee) and checking for understanding ("I just heard you read___" after each partner's turn). We will spend next week working on this.
In phonics, we are continuing to look closely at all the names in our class. This week we made vowel shields and are deciding if we need short vowel power when looking closely at some of the names. Towards the end of the week, we looked closer at blends and digraphs. Rasheed left us some funny riddles to solve that had some blends and digraphs. The kids are getting much better at recognizing when words have blends or digraphs. Next week we will finish studying the names in our class and will begin reviewing all the kindergarten snap words. After learning new snap words (which then get added to our snap word wall), kids are expected to be able to read and wrote the words.
During writing workshop, we had a lesson this week about watermelon vs. tiny seed stories. We looked back at Night of the Veggie Monster and talked about how the book could be written about their whole time out to dinner or focus on one small part of the meal (which is our goal with small moment stories). We used the example of going on vacation. We could write about a whole trip over the course of a week, or focus on one small part of that trip (going for ice cream, going to the beach, going mini golfing, etc...). Kids are beginning to see the difference between a regular narrative and a small moment narrative. This week we also began using writing partners. We learned that our writing partner is an extra set of eyes to help make our stories even better. By listening to our partner and asking him or her questions about the story, we are getting more ideas on what we could add to strengthen our stories. The final lesson we looked at this week is a strategy for writing unknown words. Instead of asking how to spell a words, we are encouraging the kids to become more independent using a strategy called Say It, Slide It, Hear It, Write It. The kids say the word they want to write, slide their finger across the paper saying the word they want to write, say the word again while enunciating each sound, and then finally write the letters for each sound they hear. Even though this may not always get perfect spelling, it does make our writing easier to read.
In math this week, we built number racks and then spent the rest of the week using them! Below is a link for a virtual number rack so you can see how they work! We talked about how the number racks are tools to help us with our math, not toys. Using this tool, the kids will begin to see patterns when building numbers and solving problems. With quick flash games, we can quickly build the number 7 by sliding all 5 red beads and 2 more white beads instead of individually counting all 7 beads out. The same can be said for building 13 (sliding 10 beads over on the top row and 3 more on the bottom). We can also learn different ways to build a given numbers (5 - 2 beads on top and 3 beads on bottom, 3 beads on top and 2 beads on bottom, 4 beads on top and 1 bead on bottom, etc...). Eventually the kids won't need their number racks to quickly solve these problems.
number rack
Important Information
The deadline to sign-up for classroom volunteering is the end of the day tonight (Friday, September 23rd). If you are interested and haven't signed up yet, please see the link below. I have updated and also changed some of the dates for events. Please see the parent Helper Volunteer page for date changes.
Classroom Helper Volunteer Sign-ups
There is no school on Monday, September 26th in observance of Rosh Hashanah.
Our September birthdays party is on Friday, September 30th.
There is no school on Wednesday, October 5th in observance of Yom Kippur.
Thursday, October 6th is an early release day. Kids will be released from school 15 minutes early.
Friday, October 7th is a half-day of school. Dismissal is at 11:30.
Below is a copy of the slideshow from Open House.
We are looking to start spelling and reading log homework the week of Monday, October 17th (our next full week of school!)
We got the date for our fall field trip! We will be going to Ellms Family Farm on Wednesday, October 19th. Because we decorate the pumpkins from the field trip the day after, we moved our pumpkin investigation to Friday, October 14th (instead of October 20th which is now pumpkin decorating day!)
Have a great weekend!
Wow! What a productive first week of school we had! Here's a look at what we did...
We started our first week (Smart Start, which lasts 3 weeks) of our new reading program, Wonders. The kids did a great job and are already learning the routines. I will explain the structure in more detail at Open House. Our essential question for the week was, "Who am I?" We discussed how we are all unique, what we like about ourselves, how we define ourselves, and how we all have our own opinions (and it's okay if it's different from others!). We shared these answers in a whole group and also with partners. We reviewed the letters m, s, a, p, t, r, n, and i; talking about the letters, their sounds, writing them, and then used the letters to build words. The high-frequency words we learned this week were you, do, I, like, can, he, has, go, a, to. We use the strategy say it, spell it, use it in a sentence, write it. For phonological and phonemic awareness, we identified onset (beginning sound) and rime (ending sounds) ex: c/at, listened for the beginning sound (onset) and medial sound (middle) of words ex: cat - initial "c," medial "a," identified which parts of words are the same, initial or ending (sad, say, six and can, run, win), listened for how many syllables are words (po-ta-to - 3 syllables), and determined if two words rhyme or not based on their ending sounds (cat, hat). For the final part of our mornings, we listening and compared two types of nursery rhymes - "1,2, Buckle My Shoe," and "Mary Had a Little Lamb." The kids learned that we can always ask and answer questions while reading. We also talked about nursery rhymes being short poems or songs that have rhyming or repeated words and the characters are usually animals and/or people. With multiple readings of the stories, the kids were able to respond to reading and compare the two texts. I was very impressed with their stamina!
In math, we started our first unit - Numbers All Around Us - Counting and Data with Popsicle sticks. We did some skip counting by 1s, 5s, and 10s. The kids are beginning to see that when we group in 5s and 10s (tally marks of 5 and bundles of 10), it makes it easier for us to count! We will continue to talk about this strategy throughout the year. During math, we also practiced logging into our new math program, Reflex. This is an on-line game-based program that helps students build their addition and subtraction math fact fluency. The kids have loved it so far and it's very engaging! I will have more information on this at Open House.
Important Information/Coming Up...
We have our kick-off to the Color Run Assembly on Monday, September 18th at 2:15.
Open House is this coming Monday, September 18th at 6:00. Our classroom presentation begins at 6:30.
First day of school photos are posted under "School Photos."
Have a great weekend!!
*9.4.23*
Welcome back to a new year of school in first grade! I can't wait to see all of you in a few days! Enjoy your last two days of summer vacation:)
*5.26.23*
What a busy week we had with our field trip to MiSci and a visit from the seniors! The kids had so much fun both days!
In reading, we continued talking about good readers making inferences or guesses about what they think about events/characters in the story providing reasons why. We are also talking and writing about inferences in our guided reading groups, some groups working together and others working independently. Next week we will review main idea and details in both fiction and nonfiction books.
In writing workshop, the kids have worked so hard on adding details to their writing reviews. This week we looked at telling a small story (our experience with the toy, store, restaurant, movie, book, etc…) and including helpful tips (“I think you should ___.” or “Make sure to _____.”) to convince our readers! We have a few more important things to add to our writing reviews before we finish the unit!
In math, we finished learning about 2D and 3D shapes! We will spend the remainder of the year completing mini assessments on all the skills we have learned this year. The assessments will be sent home at the end of the year so that you know what skills your child needs to work on before second grade. We will also spend a lot of time playing math review games and going on Reflex. Login information is below (which we now have until the end of the year!)...
https://apps.explorelearning.com/account/el/login/student
teacher username: mcountermine
class: Countermine Kiddos
*Your children have all memorized their login passwords and can log-in independently from there!*
In phonics, the kids learned that even though our snap word wall has approximately 90+ words, we really know WAY more words than that. The kids worked together to find two snap words they could put together to make even bigger words (anywhere, something, someone, everything, etc…). Towards the end of the week, we spent time looking through our snap words to see which words are still “bloopers” for us. Looking at our pile of blooper words, the kids learned some cool ways to practice reading and writing the words. The list of activities came home today so that they can continue working on reading and writing unknown snap words at home.
Important Info…
*This past week was our last week of spelling!! We will continue to review snap words until the end of the year. There will still be a reading log coming home on Mondays to make sure our first graders are still reading/listening to reading every night!
*There is no school on Monday, May 29th for Memorial Day. Enjoy your day off!
*We have a mystery reader on Friday, May 2nd at 12:40.
*There is a pre-k, kindergarten, and 1st grade Family Reading Night on Tuesday, June 6th from 6:15-7:15. Information went home a couple of weeks ago. Please make sure to sign-up by Friday, June 2nd.
*Field Day for first grade will be held on Wednesday, June 7th.
*Our end-of-the-year celebration (Parents' Tea) will be on Wednesday, June 14th @ 1:15. The celebration lasts about 20-30 minutes and will be held right in our classroom. For the celebration, the kids will be sharing some memories of their year and will present a short reader's theater/gift to you to say thank you to all you have done this year!
Have a great, long weekend!!
*5.19.23*
I can’t believe this week started our ABC countdown to the end of the year! The kids had fun learning with their stuffies, coloring blackbirds, and paying each other compliments this week. Here is a look at what else we did…
In phonics, we are continuing to learn about bloopers, reviewing r-controlled vowels, and learning about how we can learn tricky words. If we come across words we do not know, we want to pay attention to the part of the word that is tricky and “free our brain” of the part we already know. For example, the snap word from. The sound and the spelling of “f,” “r,” and “m” are the same, but the short sound of u doesn’t match with the spelling of the “o” so we want to focus on the “o,” the tricky part of the word. We learned that some snap words are spelling exactly as they sound (big, best, it, next, but, ask, is, etc…) but some have tricky parts (make - silent e, of- short “u” for the “o,” read - ea vowel team, etc…). If we can focus on the tricky parts and the rules we know for those tricky parts, we can begin to read bigger words!
In reading, we spent the week talking about making inferences (guesses) about characters and events in the story. We spent more time this week making inferences about character’s actions and what we know about the characters that helped us make that inference/guess. We also talked about this in guided reading groups and independent reading. The kids learned that there are good guesses based on what we have read so far in the story (Ex: Ready Freddy forgets his lines to the play. What might Max do? Based on what we know about Max, he is a bully. A good inference, or guess, would be that Max would make fun of Freddy.) Next week we will continue making inferences based on clues in story.
In math, we spent this week looking at 3D shapes. We watched some videos, played some games, and went on a 3D shape hunt. The kids learned that we describe 3D shapes based on their 2D faces. A cone has 1 circle face, a cylinder has two circle faces, a rectangular prism has 2 square faces and 4 rectangle faces, and a cube has 6 square faces. We continued to talk about attributes as ways to describe 3D shapes like we had discussed attributes of 2D shapes last week. We will end this unit building some 3D shapes using polydrons and learning about ½, ⅓, and ¼ fractions.
We started our writing reviews during writing workshop! The kids watched many videos of kid reviews and learned how reviews include some important information: a hook, an opinion, a sneak peak, a comparison, a little story, helpful tips, a recommendation, and a rating. The kids were able to read some reviews and we began a shared writing review together. So far the kids are doing great adding all these important things in their independent writing reviews. This will be our last writing piece of the school year!
Important Information/Coming Up…
Thank you to everyone who brought in snacks!! We have plenty of food now:)
If you have tried logging on Reflex this past week, our pilot ended and we are still waiting for the purchase order to come through for access for the remainder of the school year. I will let you know when it is back up and running! Sorry for the inconvenience. Below is the Reflex login information.
https://apps.explorelearning.com/account/el/login/student
teacher username: mcountermine
class: Countermine Kiddos
*Your children have all memorized their login passwords and can log-in independently from there!*
*Our field trip to MiSci is on Tuesday, May 23rd. A reminder note will be coming home on Monday. Please make sure to send your child with a bagged lunch that day. We will be eating lunch at the museum. Also, please make sure your child wears red to school that day! (this will be written on the reminder note, as well).
The BOGO book fair is coming next week! We hope you can stop by!
On Wednesday, May 24th, we will get to watch the 5th grade chorus and band dress rehearsal before their final concert.
Our senior walk-through and celebration will be on Thursday, May 25th. The kids will get to say “goodbye” and sing to the seniors as a farewell. We may even be lucky to have some seniors help out in our classroom the rest of the day!
We will be having Buddy Groups in the afternoon on Thursday, May 25th.
*Field Day for first grade will be held on Wednesday, June 7th.
*Our end-of-the-year celebration (Parents' Tea) will be on Wednesday, June 14th @ 1:15. The celebration lasts about 20-30 minutes and will be held right in our classroom. For the celebration, the kids will be sharing some memories of their year and will present a short reader's theater/gift to you to say thank you to all you have done this year!
Have a great weekend!!
*5.12.23*
Happy Friday! I hope everyone has a wonderful Mother’s Day weekend. Here is what we did this week!
In phonics, we are moving along in unit 5. We spent a day looking at words without the r-controlled vowels and then used our “r-sticks” to place the “r” after the vowel. We learned that the r is bossy because it takes over the word and makes it so that we cannot hear the vowel next to it. The kids had practice reading words over and over again with and without the bossy r. At the end of the week, we talked about the spelling of are/ear/air/ere all making the same sound. Just like ur/er/ir, we have to try spelling words with that sound all four ways to see which one looks right. The more we read and write, the more we will notice which spelling stands out as being the right way.
In reading, we finished talking about the author's purpose in texts. We looked at several more books and discussed why we think the author wrote his or her book. We spent more time this week talking about our reasons from the story. I think the author wrote this book to inform. I think that because _____. etc… We are also continuing to work on writing about reading by finding specific examples in the text to support our answers with detail. Some kids are ready and have tried doing it independently. Next week we will talk about inferences/making guesses about what we think will happen based on what has already happened in a text.
In math, we started unit 5 - Geometry. We spent a day talking about some familiar 2D shapes and how we describe those shapes. The kids learned about the vocabulary word, attributes, and how it is important to describe shapes using all of their attributes. We spent some time playing games with 2D shapes, as well. Good News!!! Our pilot of Reflex has been extended and it looks like we will have it until the end of the year! The kids are very excited! If your child would like to go on Reflex at home, please see the log-in info below.
https://apps.explorelearning.com/account/el/login/student
teacher username: mcountermine
class: Countermine Kiddos
*Your children have all memorized their login passwords and can log-in independently from there!*
In writing workshop, the kids have done an outstanding job working on their opinion writing pieces. We continue to discuss the importance of including an interesting beginning to pull in the reader (“Lego dragon, you are the winner!” or “Have you ever built an object with Legos?” etc…). After their opening, the kids have worked on stating their opinion, giving at least three reasons why with details, and then writing a closing statement (“That is why the Lego dragon is my favorite item in my collection.”or “Do you think you will go out now and build a Lego dragon?” etc…). This week we added onto our opinion writing pieces by adding the opinions of others. The kids went around the classroom looking at each other’s collections and wrote their opinions about their peers’ collections. I, then, showed the kids how to add other’s opinions in to their writing pieces. We will spend one more day writing about our collections and the kids will be bringing their collections home on Monday. The last part of this writing unit is writing reviews (opinions about their favorite restaurant, book, movie, toy, etc…).
Important Information/Coming Up…
*The Voorheesville Teacher’s Association is hosting a chicken BBQ dinner and Bake Sale on Tuesday, May 16th during the budget vote. Dinners will be served from 3:30-6:30.
*Our ABC countdown (the last 26 days of the school year!) starts on Wednesday, May 17th. The calendar of events will be coming home on Monday. Please check your child’s folder.
*We have a mystery reader on Wednesday, May 17th @ 1:00.
*We have another visit from Good Eats on Friday, May 19th @ 9:45.
*Our May birthdays party will be on Friday, May 19th from 12:45-1:25.
*Our field trip to MiSci is on Tuesday, May 23rd. Right now we have three parent chaperones and could use one more. If you are interested in coming, we would love to have you! Please let me know ASAP.
*Field Day for first grade will be held on Wednesday, June 7th.
*Our end-of-the-year celebration (Parents' Tea) will be on Wednesday, June 14th @ 1:15. The celebration lasts about 20-30 minutes and will be held right in our classroom. For the celebration, the kids will be sharing some memories of their year and will present a short reader's theater/gift to you to say thank you to all you have done this year!
*We are running low on classroom snacks. If you are willing to donate food for snack, please send items from the safe snack list.
Thank you very much!!!
*5.5.23*
In writing this week, we finished our Mo Willems stories; publishing and presenting them in small groups. We also started our final writing unit! We launched off the unit by talking about what it means to have an opinion and how there is no right or wrong opinion. We said that opinions are always supported with reasons why. The kids looked at various pictures of dogs and picked out which dog was their favorite and why. I shared my collection of items with the class and modeled how to state my opinion, give reasons why, and include a closing statement. The kids used their own collections to pick out one of their favorite items, listing three reasons why it is their favorite. There are still a few students who have not brought in a collection. Please send this in on Monday!!
In math we finished unit 6 using penguins to practice skip counting by 2s. This lead into a discussion about doubles, doubles+one, and even/odd numbers. Next week we are going to look back on unit 5 which focuses on geometry (2D and 3D shapes) and fractions.
During daily five and reading, we talked about author's purpose; some of the main reasons an author writes a story are to persuade, to entertain, and to inform. I read several examples of stories and the kids had a discussion about what they thought the author's purpose was. Some books had more than one purpose! The kids used their own books to try this skill independently and with a partner, but we still need some practice! We will continue to look at and discuss more books and author's purpose next week.
This week we also started our final unit of phonics - learning through wise mistakes. In the beginning of this unit, we looked at and talked about common bloopers. The kids learned that EVERYONE makes bloopers and the important thing about bloopers is that we laugh about it, learn our mistakes, and move on. We looked at some common first grade bloopers in reading and writing. Towards the end of the week we noticed that many first grade bloopers involve r-controlled vowels. The kids learned that "ar" says "ar" like "car," "or" says "or" like "fork," and er/ir/ur make the same sound as in "tiger," "hurt," and "shirt." Since er/ir/ur words make the same sound, as a writer we have to try it all three ways and see which one looks right. The kids did a great job with an activity today determining which of the ir/ur/er spellings were correct. We will continue to look closely at more r-controlled vowel words next week.
Important Info...
*Spring pictures are this coming Thursday, May 11th at 10:57.
*We have a mystery reader this coming Friday, May 12th at 12:40.
*The Saratoga Opera will be here on Tuesday, May 16th @ 1:45.
*We have a mystery reader on Wednesday, May 17th @ 1:00.
*We have another visit from Good Eats on Friday, May 19th @ 9:45.
*Our May birthdays party will be on Friday, May 19th from 12:45-1:25.
*Our field trip to MiSci is on Tuesday, May 23rd. Right now we have three parent chaperones and could use one more. If you are interested in coming, we would love to have you! Please let me know ASAP.
*We are running low on classroom snacks. If you are willing to donate food for snack, please send items from the safe snack list.
Thank you and have a great weekend!!
*4.28.23*
Today the kids really enjoyed listening to and learning about EID. Thank you to Mrs. Khan for coming in to teach us all about this wonderful holiday! Here is a look at the rest of the week…
In reading, the kids discussed how good readers listen for the setting in stories (time and place). After listening to several books and discussing the setting, the kids tried to determine the setting independently and with a partner during read-to-self and read-to-someone. During reading groups, the kids are working very hard to answer comprehension questions with complete sentences. I am challenging some to add more details to their answers, as well. We are also continuing to use decoding strategies we have learned in phonics to build fluency when reading.
In writing workshop, we spent the week publishing our Mo Willems author study books. The kids worked hard to make sure they had a creative ending to their stories and a detailed plot that stretched across pages. Some important craft moves they made sure to include were motion lines, pop-out words, speech bubbles, thinking bubbles, sequencing a page in boxes, and using a variety of punctuation (“ “, !, ?, ?!, etc…). Next week we will begin our final writing unit, opinion writing.
This week we did a unit in science on patterns in the sky. We talked about what a pattern is, what we see in the sky, and how what we see in the sky might be a pattern. We watched a video on how the sun, stars, and moon travel across the sky and then did some experiments with flashlights, the sun, and our shadows. We observed that when the sun moves across the sky, so does our shadow (At 10:00 in the morning our shadow was right behind us, but at 2:15 in the afternoon, it was off to the side). We also saw that the sun in the sky at 9:00 today will make the same shadow from our body as the sun in the sky at 9:00 tomorrow morning.
In math, we spent more time on Reflex building our fact fluency. Penny the bear coaches the kids on a fact family at the beginning of each log-in and then uses that fact family throughout the games. The kids are working really hard to solve their addition and subtraction facts quickly and earn a green light. We only have one more week of our free trial (ends on May 7th) and they can go on at home, too! Please let me know if you need your child’s log-in information (It was sent home in February). During math this week, the kids completed their unit 6 math assessment. Please look over your child’s test and go over any of the questions they may have had trouble understanding (story problems, determining if statements are true or false). At the end of the week, we learned about two new penguins, the Emperor penguin and the Little Blue penguin. We compared the heights of the two penguins and talked about the measuring strip as a number line. We will soon be starting our next math unit (going back to unit 5, which we skipped) on geometry.
Important Information -
*The class earned their next party for building their spring picture to Beat the Teacher! They voted on a stuffie, movie, pajamas/costume party! We will be having the party on Thursday, May 4th. Please do not forget to send your child to school with a stuffed animal and pajamas or a costume that day. If your child will be wearing a costume, please no accessories!
*Our next field trip will be on Tuesday, May 23rd at MiSci. A permission slip will be coming home on Monday with all the field trip information. If you were chosen as a chaperone, your payment will need to be included with the permission slip as well. If you would like to complete your payment/permission form online, please use the link below.
MiSci Field Trip Permission Slip/Payment
*A note will also be going home on Monday about a Food Fat Test we will be doing for our unit on nutrition. For this experiment, we are asking each student to bring in a small portion of a snack. We will be putting the snacks on a brown paper bag to see the fat/oil stain from the foods and determine which foods contain the most fat/oil.
*Our last writing unit for the year will be writing about our opinions. To launch the unit, the kids will be writing about some of their favorite things. A note went home last week for each child to bring in a bag/box of some of their favorite items from home (cards, jewelry, book, pictures, toys, stuffies, etc…). Using the items from the collection, the kids will be writing their opinions about their items and other classmates’ items, too. For the second half of the unit, the kids will get to write reviews on their favorite books, movies, stores, restaurants, etc… The box/bag of collections is due on Monday, May 1st.
Have a wonderful weekend!!!
*4.21.23*
Happy almost Earth Day! The kids had a fun Friday celebrating Earth Day and talking a walk in the beautiful weather to the food pantry! Here is what we did the rest of the week...
In phonics, we finished Vowel Town! The kids really enjoyed working as a team to add all their pieces to vowel town. Some of the places featured in our Vowel Town include a food stand, town hall, coastline, rainbow, clouds, ice cream store, trees, pool, etc... I will post a photo of our finished product next week. We will be taking a break from phonics and will start our last unit in May!
In reading, we spent one more week learning about how good readers learn important parts of a story through words and pictures. The kids listened to many stories and had a discussion about what they learned from the words and what they learned from the pictures. We realized that some important parts of the story would be missed if we didn't have illustrations! Next week we will focus on the setting of fictional stories (thinking about time and place).
During our math activities this week, we read penguin story problems and determined what piece of information was missing (start, part, result for addition AND start, change, result for subtraction). It was much more challenging to determine the missing part/change and start compared to a missing result. We will be practicing many more examples of these types of story problems. We also were able to play some workplace games and get three days of Reflex practice for addition and subtraction fact fluency.
During writing workshop, we finished Mo Willems' craft moves that are important to add to our independent writing stories. We looked closely at rereading our writing to edit for spelling using two important strategies: say it, slide it, hear it, write it, and remembering that every syllable has a vowel. The kids know these tools to help with spelling unknown words, but just need reminders to remember to use them! We also talked about important spelling resources (snap words wall, words around the room, our green dictionaries, etc...). Next week we will begin publishing our Mo Willems stories before we start our final writing unit in May - opinion writing. A note will be coming home on Wednesday, April 26th with information needed from home in order to launch our opinion writing unit.
There will be NO SPELLING once again next week. The only homework will be the weekly reading log. PLEASE DO NOT FORGET TO RETURN TO THE READING LOG ON FRIDAY!
*New Photos will be posted next week!* Have a great weekend!
*4.6.23*
Happy Spring Break! I hope everyone enjoys some days off and warmer weather:)
This week in phonics, the kids were so excited to finally see what Rasheed had planned for us. On his trip back from N.Y.C., Rasheed gave us some blueprints for a big project - Vowel Town. Using all the vowel teams that we have learned from this unit, the kids are building a town; all the objects in the town have words with vowel teams (cloud, rainbow, traffic light, house, pool, coastline, beach, etc...). They are having so much creating our vowel town. We'll be sure to post photos of our final product!
In math, we spent this week using our number rack as a tool to quickly solve some harder addition and subtraction facts to twenty. We talked about which strategies we would use for certain facts. Some examples - Doubles (6+6=, 4+4=), Doubles Plus or Minus One (7+6=, 5+4=), Add Tens (10+4= 10+8=), Add Nines (9+7= is the same as 10+6=), and Make Tens (7+3= 6+4=). These are important strategies you can review at home, too!
During reading workshop, we took a look at many fictional stories and discussed how good readers look closely at both the words and the pictures to recall important events. We saw that, if we did not also look at the illustrations, we may miss some other important events. The kids then worked independently in their own books to write down one event they learned from the pictures and one event they learned from the text (words) from one of their independent reading books. During reading groups, we are continuing to work on using decoding strategies, building words, and answering comprehension questions orally and in writing.
We accomplished SO much during writing workshop this week with our Mo Willems stories. Looking at some of his craft moves, the kids learned how to add motion lines, include pop-out words to express feelings, and how to divide our writing into sections like Mo Willems does in his pigeon books. The kids are working really hard to plan out their stories and add details. We continue to encourage them to use resources for spelling and to remember uppercase letters and punctuation. In about two more weeks, we will have published books and move into our last writing unit, opinion writing!
Important Info...
On Friday, April 21st, we will have our walking field trip to the food pantry at St. Matthew's Church. We will leave the school around 9:45 and return before recess at 11:00. A note went home this week with information about this trip. Our room parents have reached about about chaperones for this trip and I will be sending home some information to those individuals. For this field trip, please send your child with a non perishable food item to donate to our New Scotland food pantry. We will learn about how the food pantry helps our community, place our items we donated on the shelves, and complete a scavenger hunt tour. We're looking forward to it!
April Scholastic orders are due on Monday, April 17th.
The kid are very excited about our extended 45 day free trial of Reflex! We are looking to have this program next year. If your child would like to use Reflex over break, they certainly can! They are working hard to earn consecutive days of green lights so they can unlock new games. A student earns a green light when they have shown enough progress in their fact fluency since the last time they logged in. Below is some information for logging in. Once you have selected our class, your child will find their name and enter their password (all the kids have logged in on their own in school so they should have their passwords memorized!). Please let me know if you have any questions!
website - go-el.com
username - mcountermine
class - Countermine Kiddos
I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend!
*3.31.23*
I hope everyone had a great week! Here is a look at what we did...
In phonics, we are almost done with unit 4! This week we added a few more vowel teams to our chart - ew and ue (spelled "screw" and "glue" - They make the same sound so when we are writing, we have to try it both ways to see what looks right!) and aw and au (spelled "paw" and "faucet" - once again, they sound the same so we have to try it both ways!). The kids are really beginning to notice this vowel teams when writing ("I hear the ____ sound in this word!") and reading ("I see an "aw!"). I am very proud of them. We have one more vowel team to learn next week before we can look at Rasheed's blueprints. The kids are anxious to see what he has to share with us!
In reading, we had our second week of looking at nonfiction books to find some important text features. The kids are really beginning to do this independently (and I've noticed them applying it to their nonfiction guided reading books with me!). We are continuing to practice reading fluently during reading group work and responding to stories (orally and in writing) with specific, detailed answers. Next week we will look at fictional stories and how we can learn from both the pictures and the words in the book.
In writing workshop, we have made a lot of progress with our Mo Willems author study. We talked about the difference between speech bubbles and thinking bubbles and how to stretch our stories across pages. If we are writing a book about a princess (like pigeon) who wants a pet octopus (like pigeon wanting a hot dog), the character shouldn't solve the problem right away! The character should have to work hard across several pages to then finally get what they want. If we are writing an elephant and piggie type book about two characters who go on an adventure, it shouldn't be a quick adventure! They should encounter many things along the way. With the use of sticky notes to plan out our pages, the kids were able to stretch out their stories.
In math, we are continuing to use the penguins to help us solve addition and subtraction facts to twenty. Using penguin eggs as doubles facts, we played some games and practiced some doubles problems. We also used flap cards to help us write and solve fact family problems to twenty. Next week we will make more flap cards where we pick a number to 20, find two addends that make that number, write the facts in the fact family, and then create a story problem to go with it. (Ex: 15 - 7 and 8 - 8+7=15, 7+8=15, 15-7=8, 15-8=7 - I have 8 penguins on the ice and 7 penguins in the water. How many penguins do I have in all? OR I have 15 penguins. 7 are in the water. How many are on the ice?).
Coming Up/Important Info...
With only a few more kids left in the class to take home our penguin, we are looking to start our last class visit with pigeon coming home after April break. With pigeons trip home, the kids are expected to "babysit" pigeon and complete the activity sheet that comes home in the book. The kids are very excited to become pigeons babysitter.
On Wednesday, April 5th, we will be watching the third grade performance of "E,I,E,I Oops!"
There is no school on Friday, April 7th - Friday, April 14th for our spring break!
On Friday, April 21st, we will be walking to the food pantry at St. Matthew's church as we begin a science unit on healthy eating and nutrition. An email went out from our room parents this morning; however, we will need 3 chaperones for this trip. We will be leaving school at 9:45 to arrive at the pantry at 10 and leave to walk back to the school at 10:45 with an expected return time of 11:00. If you have any questions/concerns, please let me know!
We have a mystery reader on Friday, April 21st at 12:40.
Have a great weekend!!!
*3.24.23*
Happy Friday! We had a busy couple weeks...
In phonics, we are becoming great vowel team detectives! Rasheed returned from his trip to NYC and told us all he learned about the different buildings in the city. We loved looking at the pictures he took. We compared the different shapes and sizes of the buildings to the different types of vowel teams - buildings can have different shapes and sizes and vowel teams can make different sounds. The vowel teams we worked with this week were oo, ou, ow, oi, and oy; while these vowel teams look very similar, they can make many sounds. We also spent a lot of time sorted words with these vowel teams. Rasheed told us that before we can look closely at his discoveries in NYC, we have 5 more vowel teams to learn; we're almost there!
In reading, we spent the week looking closely at some new text features in nonfiction books; cutaways, photographs, captions, labels, and table of contents. I'm impressed with their ability to look closely at texts to find these important features. We are also working hard during guided reading groups to look back within text to answer written comprehension questions about a story.
In math this week, the penguins are helping us to solve addition and subtraction strategies to 20 with different parts missing (start, change/part, result). By listening to stories and using pictures of penguins on ledges and in the water, we can write equations to figure out missing numbers. Next week we will be using Reflex, once again, to build our addition and subtraction fact fluency.
In writing workshop, we finished listening to Pigeon stories by Mo Willems. The kids all created their pigeon character and decided what their character wants/needs. For our class shared writing, we started our pigeon story - The princess wants a pet octopus. They are having fun writing the story! Next week we will spend a lot of time beginning our independent stories while looking at Mo Willem's craft moves.
Coming Up...
On Thursday, March 30th, we will be traveling to the high school PAC to see the 5th grade musical, 101 Dalmatians!
We have a mystery reader on Friday, March 31st at 12:40.
Have a great weekend!!
*3.10.23*
Happy weekend! Here's a look at our week...
In phonics, we are moving along through unit 4! We spent the beginning of the unit talking about how word builders use tools to help them read and write words. Using a toolbox of consonants, vowels, blends, digraphs, word families, and word endings, the kids were able to build many words! After, we focused on vowel teams ea, ee, oa, ai, and ay. We are creating a vowel teams chart as a tool to also help us read and write words. For the remainder of the lessons in this unit, we will keep building on our chart, learning new vowel teams.
In reading, we focused on fictional stories and talked about characterization. Listening to a variety of fictional stories, the kids listened for important main characters and had to think about character traits to describe the important characters. Next week we will build on this skill and pull specific examples from the text that helped determine the character traits we chose. Independently, the kids had to identify the main characters in their own independent reading books and think of one word to describe each character.
In math, we are close to finish up unit 4! This week we "traveled to Antarctica" to learn about the rockhopper penguin and the king penguin. Using one-inch measuring strips, the kids compared their heights to the heights of the rockhopper and king penguins. We learned that both penguins are shorter than all of us and the king is twice the size as the rockhopper. When we turn our measuring strips sideways, we also had an ah-ha moment when we saw that the measuring strips are actually vertical number lines! We will finish up unit 4 and penguin measuring next week.
In writing workshop, we began our next writing unit - a Mo Willems author study. On Monday we watched a variety of videos/interviews on Mo Willems. He shared his inspirations for becoming a writer, how he began as a child, and his process of writing. The first series we focused on was elephant and piggie. The kids listened to over ten different elephant and piggie books and we discussed the common theme throughout all the books; two friends who are completely different from one another, but are the best of friends, go on adventures together. Some of the character traits we used to describe elephant included loud, wild, pessimistic, sad, and angry and some character traits we used to describe piggie included calm, optimistic, quiet, and happy. After reading and discussing the books, the kids began to sketch/color and write traits for their own made-up elephant and piggie characters. The next step was determining an adventure and problem their characters would go on/face and then how the problem will be solved. Next week we will listen to a variety of pigeon books (discussing character traits and overall theme) and complete our own pigeon character sketches. Once we are done with that, we can begin writing our books incorporating many of Mo Willems' story elements!
Important Info/Coming Up...
On Monday, March 13th, Mrs. Laura Jones will begin student teaching in our classroom! She stopped by today and visited/introduced herself to the class. The kids are very excited! She will be here with our class everyday until May! If you have any questions, please let me know.
This coming Wednesday, March 15th is a half-day (dismissal at 11:30) for parent teacher conferences. Forms went home on Monday to ALL students whether a conference was requested or not. If I have requested a conference with you for your child and you would like to meet virtually, PLEASE send me an email so I can send you a Google link. If you have any questions at all, do not hesitate to ask!
We will be celebrating our St. Patrick's Day party on Thursday, March 16th. If you volunteered to sign-up for donations, please send them in to school that day. Thank you for your help with our party!
There is no school on Friday, March 17th for a Superintendent's Conference Day.
Have a wonderful weekend! Don't forget to "spring ahead" on Sunday!
*3.3.23*
Happy Friday! It's been awhile since we've had an update. Here's a look at the last two weeks...
In phonics, we started unit 4 - using vowel teams to build big words. So far in this unit we have learned that the vowel teams ee, ea, oa, and ai all make the long vowel sound of the first vowel. We looked through many words and found this to be true, although we are sure there are some rule breakers in there! Rasheed went on a trip to investigate and left us with a task to find out more about vowel teams.
In reading workshop, we spent this week looking at nonfiction books. We learned that we can find out information about certain topics, not only from the words in the book, but also from nonfiction text features. The features we looked at this week and last week were photographs, captions, headings, table of contents, glossary, and index. The kids looked through many nonfiction books (as a class, with a partner, and independently) and kept a tally of how often they found these features.
In math, we're are almost through unit 4! Using our frog friends Tad and Polli, we have seen many videos, games, and practice activities skip counting by 1s, 5s, and 10s on a number line. We are also continuing to work on adding and subtracting 1s and 10s using a number line as our tool. Next week we will be completing our unit 4 assessment and then will use penguin heights to help us practice measuring in inches.
This week in writing workshop we finished our penguin research books! The kids had fun writing all the facts they knew and added real photographs to illustrate their books. The books went into their writing portfolios, which will come home at the end of the year. Next week we will begin our next writing unit - Mo Willems Author Study. We will begin watching some videos on how Mo Willems became an author and then immerse ourselves in some of his texts.
Coming Up/Important Info...
The information on the penguin we adopted (including the stuffed animal) is finally here! I am currently putting the "take-home book" together, but it looks like the kids will get to start taking home our Emperor penguin chick stuffed animal this coming week! Just like Gingerbread Fred, when it is your child's turn with the penguin chick, please write about your adventures at home and return the journal/bag the following day. As always, let me know if you have any questions!
Our spring conference day is on Wednesday, March 15th. There will be an early dismissal at 11:30 on that day. On Monday 3/6, I will be sending home a parent teacher conference form. Please note, not all students will have a conference on Wednesday, March 15th. I will indicate on the form whether I would like a conference with you or not. If I have requested a conference, the time will be written on the sheet. Please let me know if you have any questions!
Our St. Patrick's Day party is scheduled for Thursday, March 16th. There are no classroom volunteers needed for this party, but we do need volunteers to donate items (green beaded necklaces, green fruit, green juice, green veggies, plates, and napkins). All slots have been filled, so thank you! Please refer to the room parent email sent out on January 8th to see what you have signed up for.
There is no school on Friday, March 17th.
New Photos are posted! Please see "School Photos."
Have a wonderful weekend!
*2.10.23*
Happy weekend! We had a busy week...
In math, we continued to work with our life-size number line. We solved addition and subtraction problems using a number line as a tool. Some important vocabulary words we talked about were interval, tick marks, and number line. We spent a lot of time talking about hopping forward to adding and hopping back for subtracting. We also played some math games with number lines. The beginning of the week was spent skip counting on a number line with intervals of 1. Towards the end of the week, the kids were introduced to skip counting on a number line with intervals of 5 and 10. We will continue skip counting on a number line by 5s and 10s next week and learn some new games, too! It is important for the kids to understand the difference between hops (2 hops of 10) and total distance (20).
In phonics, we spent this week putting together what we have learned about word beginnings (blends/digraphs, word middles (phonograms -est, -ank, -unk, -ick, etc...) and word endings (-ed, -ly, -ing, etc...) to read and write words. We saw that we can take basic snap words (make, eat) and add to the beginning and end of these words to make bigger words. Next week we will play some phonics games to wrap up unit 3. We will begin unit 4 (vowel teams) after February break.
In writing, we are moving along with our penguin research! I was very impressed with how well the kids did transferring their notes (incomplete thoughts) into complete sentences. We discussed the fact that every sentence needs a noun and a verb (who/what and what they are doing). If they had written "lives off the coast of Southern Africa" we talked about how the complete sentences needs to say WHO lives off the coast of Southern Africa (ex: "The African penguins live off the coast of Southern Africa. OR They live off the coast of Southern Africa.). Next week we will be transferring our complete sentences into our final published books.
In reading, we worked on applying our retell strategy, SWBST (Somebody Wanted But So Then). Last week we worked together during shared readings to determine the important parts of fictional stories. This week I had the students working together to do it on their own and then apply it to their own independent reading books. Next week we will focus on nonfiction stories to discuss nonfiction text features (photographs, glossary, index, table of contents, caption, and heading).
Coming Up...
Our Valentine's Day party is on Tuesday, February 14th from 12:15-1:15. If your child is bringing in valentines, please make sure they have them for the party (and enough valentines for all the kids in the class). We will pass the valentines out during the party, eat some healthy snacks, and do a craft/activity.
There is no school Monday, February 20th - Friday, February 24th for our winter recess.
Next week is our final snap word review week. On Monday, a reading log will come home with the same first grade snap words attached. Once again, we will practice ALL the words during the week and pick 10 for the test on Friday, February 17th. We will begin new first grade snap words after February break.
Have a great weekend!!
*2.3.23*
Happy Friday! Here's a look at our week...
In phonics, the kids had an "a-ha" moment when we had a discussion how how every syllable in a word needs to have a vowel. While reading a story that Rasheed wrote, the kids were able to break words into syllables and add missing vowels that Rasheed left out. Towards the end of the week, we took another writing piece from Rasheed and talked about how to break off word endings to make bigger words smaller. After figuring out how to read the smaller part of the word, we can add the word endings back on to decode the whole word. The kids are beginning to see that they can read/write much larger words when they put a blend/digraph (sp-, sh-, ch-, tr-, br-, etc...), phonogram (-uck, -ank, -ock, -est, -unk, etc...), and word ending (-ed, -ly, -er, -ful) together. We'll continue to work on reading and writing all the way through words until February break.
In reading workshop, we spent this week (and will continue into next week) talking about the comprehension strategy Somebody (S), Wanted (W), But (B), So (S), Then (T) to help us remember the important parts of the story. The kids realized that when using this strategy after reading a story, they are able to recall all the important events/details in a text. We used the model I do, we do, you do to practice this strategy and then the kids did it on their own independently or with a partner during read-to-self and read-to-someone.
This week in math we started unit 4 and it began using a life-size number line. This unit focuses on skip counting by 1s, 5s, and 10s on a numberline. Starting with the numbers 1-20, each student got a number card and had to come up to our life-size number line if their number was needed. We skip counted by 1s, 2s, 5s, and 10s to determine missing numbers on the number line. Next week we will work up to 50 and 100 and also learn some new games using the number line.
In writing workshop, we finished our penguin research! I was so impressed with how well the kids did listening to facts about their penguins and turning the facts they listened to into notes on a graphic organizer. Each student had at least two facts per category! Next week we will talk about complete sentences and transfer our notes into complete sentences. The final step of this research process will be copying our completed sentences into our published book. The kids will also be able to add real photographs into their nonfiction books.
Important Information...
This week was our first snap word spelling review week. I was so impressed with how well the kids did on the test!! I did notice that the word "think" was on the spelling test but not on the word study sheet that came home so I do apologize about that. This coming week another review sheet will come home attached to the reading log (in case you have misplaced it) and we will pick ten new words for next Friday. We will continue the spelling word review until February break, starting new first grade snap words after the break. If you have any questions, please let me know!
A note went home last week about our Penguin adoption activity. The kids were really excited when they found out we could help some species of penguins that are endangered. This is not a mandatory activity. If you would like to donate $1-$2, that is completely optional. The money for the donation is due by Friday, February 10th. I will be adopting from the WWF (World Wildlife Fund) website. WWF <- click here
Our Valentine's Day party is on Tuesday, February 14th. A class list went home last week. Please make sure your child has a valentine for everyone in the class. We will be making bags in school so you do not need to make a box/bag at home for your child's valentines. Part of the party will be spent passing out our valentines. Please see the email sent out by Nicole O'Keefe and Christine Tellarini regarding donations still needed for the party.
Have a great weekend!!!
*1.20.23*
Happy Friday! Here's a look at the week...
In phonics, we continued to learn about different word endings. At the beginning of the week, we looked at the different sounds of "y." When "y" is at the end of a word, it can make many different sounds, most specifically long "i" and "e." The kids were able to do a word sort of long i and long e y as a vowel words. We also talked about "-ey" and "-ay" at the end of words. Towards the end of this week, we look at phonograms. To better understand phonograms, the kids learned that they are at the end of a word and include a vowel+a blend. Another phrase we use for phonograms is "word families." Looking at a variety of phonograms (-unk, -ink, -ank, -ing, -ash, ock, etc...), the kids made a list of all the words they know with each phonogram and then sorted words based on their phonogram. We will continue to look at more word endings next week.
In reading, we continued to talk about the comprehension strategy - Five Finger Retell. Using read alouds as a model, the kids worked to independently retell the important parts of a story using the five finger retell strategy. The kids have also begun listening to nonfiction texts about penguins as we begin our penguin research writing unit.
During writing workshop, the kids finished their nonfiction teaching books on topics they know a lot about. We will most likely publish their best piece before February break. The next part of our nonfiction writing unit has the kids writing nonfiction teaching books focused on a certain topic and organized into sections (with a table of contents). To do this, the kids will learn about a variety of penguins, pick their favorite penguin, research their penguin using the website Pebble Go, take notes while researching, and then complete a nonfiction paper bag book organized into sections (appearance, habitat, diet, enemies, interesting facts...). This will all be completed in school and will take several weeks to complete. The finished paper bag penguin research writing piece and their best nonfiction teaching book on the topic they know a lot about will both go into their writing portfolios.
In math this week, we are using unifix cubes as a tool to help us build numbers in different ways. We continued to play a game called Fifty or Bust using teen numbers to help us build up to 50 (without going over). Towards the end of the week, we focused on the numbers 6 and 7 and talked about ways to make the numbers. An important part of the lesson was discussing the importance of the equal sign. When reading the equal sign, we say "is the same as." For example, if an equation is 4+3=7 we would say "4+3 is the same as 7" so that when solving the following equation (3+2=4+1) it helps us understand that they are equal ("3+2 is the same as 4+1). We also looked at some equations that are unequal (not the same as) 4+3 is not the same as 5+3 (4+3=5+3? not equal). Next week we will be finishing up unit 3.
Important Information...
There is an early dismissal at 11:30 on Friday, January 27th.
In class we have been reading Ready Freddy Penguin Problem. In the book, Freddy's class raises money to adopt a penguin. The kids were very motivated by this and since we are beginning to learn about penguins, wanted to do the same thing! A note will be coming home soon about raising a dollar per student to collect enough money to adopt a penguin. Please let me know if you have any questions once the note comes home!
In the next couple of weeks, a letter will also be coming home about Valentine's Day. We will do a valentine exchange this year so the note coming home will include the names of all the students in the class. If you are beginning to buy valentines, please make sure you have one for every child.
Thank you and have a great weekend!!
*1.13.23*
Happy Friday! Thank you so much for all the classroom snacks that were brought in. It is much appreciated! Here is a peek at our week...
In writing workshop, we spent this week putting finishing touches on our nonfiction teaching books. We reviewed the importance of the say it, slide it, hear it, write it strategy to quickly help us spell unknown words. If we focus too much on the spelling, we forget the content we want to write. With this strategy, we quickly spell our unknown words, circle the word, and move on. We also spent this week talking about informational story endings; wrapping up our topic. Just like the beginning of our books, the ending can also be a question (ex: "What is your favorite part about ___ (topic)?" or "What did you learn about ___ (topic)?"). The students are working on being able to independently reread to add these important parts of our writing. Next week we will spend one more day finishing up our nonfiction teaching books before we continue nonfiction writing with a penguin research unit; more info to come!
In phonics, we spent this week looking closely at several common word endings. We began the week studying the different sounds of -ed ("id" - started, "d" - played, "t" - jumped). The kids practiced sorting words by their -ed endings and read through some nonfiction books to find and identify the -ed ending sounds. After -ed, we looked closely at words that end with "y" saying "i" or "e." y can be tricky as we also have words with "ay." We will spend a lot of time looking through books to see how we say "y" at the end. We ended the week looking closely at end blends. Some end blends can also be beginning blends (sp, sl, pl), but some end blends (which we focused on today) can only be end blends (-nk, -lt, -nd, -ld, etc...). I was impressed at all the words the kids were able to make with these end blends. Next week we will continue looking at a variety of word endings and practice reading/writing them.
In reading workshop, we reviewed the main idea in fiction and nonfiction stories and then spent a majority of the week talking about the five finger retell rule. When we use the 5 finger retell rule, we state one important idea from the book across our fingers (1-characters 2-setting 3-events 4-problem 5-solution). If we follow the 5 finger retell, we are doing a good summary of the book. We will continue practicing this strategy next week. The goal is to use these fun strategies as a way to help us remember what we read!
During math this week, we had some extra time to work with a partner doing a few math games - cat and mouse and fifty or bust. For cat and mouse, the kids had to roll dice to build a number and then compare the difference between the sum of both numbers. The kids are working on finding how much is the same and then determining how many more/less. If I got a sum of 7 and my partner got a sum of 5, we both have a sum of 5 but then I have 2 more. Please review this strategy at home. The fifty or bust game had us working with teen numbers (ten plus a number). Flipping ten and some more number cards, we had to build up to 50 without going over. The kids had a lot of fun with this strategic game. Next week we will continue learning more subtraction strategies.
Important Information...
There is no school on Monday, January 16th in observance of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day. Enjoy your day off!
I would like to welcome our new student, Clara! She will be starting with us on Tuesday, January 17th after the long weekend. The kids are so excited for her to come and wrote/drew her many notes/pictures.
Next week I will be introducing our penguin research project. This will all be completed in school! As part of our nonfiction writing unit, the kids will first choose a penguin and then do some research using PebbleGo to find important facts about where they live, what they look like, what they eat, etc... They will copy all of this information into a brown bag book. The finished product (which will take several weeks) will go in your child's writing portfolio. Please let me know if you have any questions!
If you have small toys/prizes at home that you would like to get rid of, we would love to use them in our classroom prize box!
Final note - We are starting a new classroom management system. The marble reward system is too distant for this group of kids and we are working for something more immediate and engaging. Your child may have mentioned this at home, but we are doing a teacher vs. students game. At the end of each subject (with some feedback from the class on their own self-reflection) I determine if the class gets the point (behavior, focus, hard work, listening, etc...) or if I get the point. Points are filled out on a ten frame. At the end of the day, if the class has the most points, one student will get to add a piece to our classroom snowman. I told the class I would pick a hard worker/role model from the day to add the piece of the snowman. When the snowman is built, we get a party! The kids are very excited for this! Please let me know if you have any questions!
I hope you have a warm, relaxing weekend!!
*1.6.23*
Happy New Year! Here is a look at this week.
In phonics, we started unit 3. This unit teaches the importance of reading all the way through words ("From Tip to Tail"). The kids learned about the importance of reading all the way through words from the a nonfiction book, Lions. In the book I showed the kids what happens when you do not read all the way through words (you learn the wrong information and share the wrong information). If we want to learn about something new, we need to read about it carefully so we are learning the correct facts. After learning about common word endings (-ed, -ing, -es, -s, -ly, -er, etc...) we will spend a day with each word ending to better understand how to use them.
In writing workshop, we are continuing to work on our nonfiction teaching books. With only a few more lessons to go, the kids are getting close to finishing up! This week we discussed the importance of using strategies to spell unknown words. They learned that we do not want to spend too much time stressing on how to spell a word - pick a strategy, do your best spelling, circle the word, and move on! We also spent some time looking at topic specific vocabulary words. If you are writing a story about football (my class modeling story), some pop-out words to include (and write in a glossary in the back of the book) might be fumble, tackle, touchdown, and endzone. The kids worked hard to include topic specific vocabulary words in their own books as well. As we move to bend II in this unit, we will be researching penguins and writing a book about the penguin we researched.
In math, we are moving along in unit 3. This week we used our number racks to determine missing numbers in equations up to twenty, focusing mostly on missing parts of ten. Using different models, the kids had to determine, if we had a total of ten and are given one part, what part is missing (ex: I have ten beads. There are five showing on the number rack. How many are hiding? There are ten hot air balloons in the sky. I see three floating in the air and the rest are behind the clouds. How many are behind the clouds? Etc...). This unit will have the kids practicing a variety problems (equations, story problems) that require finding a missing part. We will work more on this over the next couple of weeks.
During reading workshop, we talked about how good readers think about the main idea (what the book is mostly about). Using a variety of winter themed nonfiction books, the kids listened to read aloud stories and we discussed the main idea of the books. One of the books was titled Penguins (and was mostly about penguin babies). Instead of saying "The main idea is about penguins," we talked about how to describe the main idea with more detail ("The main idea is about how penguins take care of their babies." This is a hard skill for first graders! Next week we will talk about main idea with fictional stories and also learn about the five finger retell.
Important Info...
January Scholastic order forms came home this week and are due on January 11th. You can order online from other Scholastic flyers as well!
We have a mystery reader this Friday, January 13th.
There is no school on Monday, January 16th in observance of Martin Luther King Jr. Day.
Have a great weekend!!
*12.23.22*
Happy Friday and holiday break! Here is a look at the last couple weeks...
We have spent a couple of weeks working on our nonfiction teaching books during writer's workshop. The kids have brainstormed ideas and have made sure they have at least 5 facts about their topics in order to write a book about it. We are continuing to touch and tell our facts, draw pictures, and write words across the pages. We have also spent a lot of time talking about the importance of not only the words, but the pictures. Some ways to teach from the pictures are including labels, writing captions, separating illustrations into sections to show a series of facts, etc... We are also continuing to use spelling strategies to include more challenging vocabulary words related to our topics.
In reading, we spent the last couple of weeks listening to/reading about different holidays. For our trip around the world, the kids boarded an airplane to fly to various countries including Germany, India, the Middle East, Israel, Mexico, Canada, and the United States to name some. They got passports with stamps and learned many traditions across the world, most revolving around festivals of lights and feasts with families. During reading, we also talked about good readers asking and answering questions and good readers thinking about important events in the beginning, middle, and end of stories. We worked together as a whole class to discuss these reading strategies and the kids also worked to do it independently. After the holiday break, we will continue to work on comprehending events throughout stories.
In phonics, we finished unit 2! The kids took all they have learned about word rules and silent e to go on a word hunt. Looking at words around the room, the kids had to determine which phonics rule they would use to help them decode more challenging words. We realized that most words can be decoded using at least one of the rules we learned in unit 2. After break, we will start unit 3 which focuses on using strategies to read all the way through words.
In math, we have moved to unit 3 which focuses on adding, subtracting, counting, and comparing. During this math unit we will be looking at efficient math strategies to add and subtract within 10 and 20, build an understanding of place value with tens and ones, and solve addition/subtraction story problems with pictures, numbers, and words. We will continue to play games and do activities that help use build numbers in a variety of ways.
Coming Up/Important Info...
There is no school Monday, December 26th - Monday, January 2nd for our holiday break. I hope you enjoy the holidays with your family!
MANY new photos have been posted! See "School Photos."
Have a wonderful holiday break!!! See you in 2023!
*12.2.22*
We got a lot accomplished this week! Thank you SO much to everyone who came to see our small moments publishing party. The kids had a great time and were so excited to read all the positive comments about their work. Here is a look at the rest of the week...
In phonics, we are finishing up unit 2. We have one more case file left from the S.S.D.A. to solve. This week we solved the case of words in disguise (contractions), the case of the sticky letters (three letter blends at the beginning of words) and the case of the compound words. We looked at what snap words can help us with these kinds of words and study many new words in each category. The kids are becoming more aware of these words when reading and writing.
In reading, we spent the week listening closely to holiday books talking about how good readers ask questions before, during, and after reading. At the beginning of the week, I did all the question asking, towards the middle of the week, the kids helped me ask questions, and by the end of the week, the kids were doing it all on their own! While working with their independent reading books, the kids also had to write down questions about their books. The kids are doing very well independently rotating through stations while I work with reading groups. During reading groups, we talked about asking and answering questions, previewed books, worked on comprehension/discussion questions, and practiced some word work activities. Next week we are going to focus on talking about events in the beginning, middle, and end of stories.
In math, we used turkey and quilt patters to make a large class quilt. Towards the end of the week, we used the quilt to help us skip count by 5s looking for patterns. The kids had many great observations. We are almost done with unit 2 where we are talking about pennies/nickels and how skip counting by 1s and 5s helps us to count pennies and nickels.
Finally, in writing we began our nonfiction teaching books unit. As a launch to this unit, the kids had to think about topics they know a lot about (I picked football as it seems my life is all about football right now!). I modeled how to pick a topic, state five facts I know across my fingers, touch and tell each fact on a page in my book, sketch the pictures, and then write the words. At this point, the kids have thought of a topic, told 5 facts across their fingers, and touch/told their story. Next week they will begin sketching their pictures and writing their words. We also spent this week writing about our November memories.
Important Info/Coming Up...
Our parent teacher conference dates are coming up this week! There will an early dismissal at 11:30 on Wednesday, November 7th, Friday, November 9th, and Wednesday, November 14th for parent teacher conferences. Report cards will be posted on eSchool the day before conferences so you have a chance to look at them before we meet. I also sent home a form today that you can fill out and send in by Tuesday so that I can prepare materials for your child's conference. If you have any questions, please let me know!
On Wednesday, December 14th we have our winter projects party. We have parent helpers coming in to help organize crafts/games for the kids to rotate through.
This coming week we will start learning about winter holidays around the world. Today the kids made luggage bags which will hold their passports and airplane passes to visit each country/holiday. If you have a specific holiday you would like the class to learn (or if you would even like to come in to teach about it), please let me know!
We have many new photos. They will be posted soon!!
Have a wonderful weekend!
*11.18.22*
What an eventful week! Here's a look at what we did...
In phonics, we finished up our case on the silent e. To end our study, we had a snap word boot camp! The kids got to do exercises around the room practicing the words and went a word hunt looking for snap words in sentences. Towards the end of the week, we got another letter from the S.S.D.A. asking us if we would like to take on another case. To get us excited about it, the S.S.D.A. sent us five snap words that we will need to "know by heart" in order to solve the case. The words were: little, into, I'm, three, and now. We will find out after Thanksgiving how all of these words will help us!
In reading workshop, we listened to many Thanksgiving books and talked about which ones were our favorite and why. The kids continued to practice rotating independently through Daily Five stations. After Thanksgiving break, I will begin meeting with guided reading groups.
In math this week, we learned some new workplace games - Spin to Add and Spin to Subtract. The kids practiced either using strategies or mentally solving addition/subtraction facts during the games. Towards the end of the week, the kids took their unit 2 math assessment which will be coming home next week.
In writing this week we spent some time doing some Thanksgiving writing activities. At the beginning of the week we wrote about what would make the best Thanksgiving feast. The kids had to list foods the feast would include and steps they would take to make the dinner a success. Towards the end of the week, the kids completed a STEM activity. We began by listening to the book Balloons Over Broadway by Melissa Sweet. The book was about a puppeteer named Tony Sarg who invented the first balloon floats for the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade. After, the kids planned by writing/sketching their own balloon design. Given a balloon and a large variety of craft supplies, the kids built their balloon floats and were able to do a parade around the school today. They had so much fun with this activity! Pictures will be posted soon of our parade.
Coming Up/Important Information...
Our Thanksgiving party is on Tuesday, November 22nd from 12:15-1:15. Please check the Parent Helper Volunteers tab to check and see if you signed up to donate a food/party item. For this party, the kids will be volunteering at one station (making butter with heavy cream, popping popcorn, mixing fruit salad, and putting together a trail mix). Each child brought home a note for which individual food item they wanted to donate for the fruit salad and trail mix. If you did not see the note come home, please let me know and I can tell you which food item you are signed up for! After we are done preparing for the "feast," the kids will get to eat the popcorn with the butter, trail mix, and fruit salad. We will end the party with our craft.
Our November birthdays party is scheduled for Wednesday, November 30th at 12:45. If your child has a November birthday (an email went home), one parent is welcome to come in for the party. We are asking the parents of birthday friends to work together on a game(s) or craft(s) for the class. Food is optional (from the safe snack list!).
A letter went home this week regarding our first Publishing Party on Friday, December 2nd at 9:00. For this celebration, families are invited into our classroom to hear all the great small moments stories we've worked on since the beginning of the year. This celebration should take about 20-30 minutes.
Finally, I sent an email out earlier in the week for parent teacher conference sign-ups. If you did not get this email, please let me know. Conferences are on Wednesday, December 7th, Friday, December 9th, and Wednesday, December 14th in the afternoon. When you sign-up-, please request whether you would like your child's conference to be virtual or in-person. If you choose to be virtual, there is a Google Meet link in the sign-up. Please let me know if none of these dates work for you and we can schedule an alternate day/time.
Photos from the past couple of weeks will be posted soon!
Have a great weekend!!
*11.10.22*
Happy Veteran's Day! I hope everyone enjoys their day off tomorrow. Here's a look at what we did this week...
In math, we continued to look at dominoes and focus in on addition strategies using the dominoes. Some of the strategies we discussed included counting on from the larger number, doubles facts, doubles plus/minus one facts, and counting all the dots. When solving equations using the dominoes, the kids practiced sharing which strategy they used to help them solve the problem. After discussing all the strategies, we focused in on doubles and learned a new game using dominoes and doubles.
In writing, we took a look at our writing rubric (which was mailed home this week) and discussed strengths and areas we need to work on. Our goal is to work on those skills in our next writing unit (nonfiction writing) which we will begin after Thanksgiving break. Next week we will do some turkey/Thanksgiving writing and some fun holiday writing projects.
In phonics, the S.S.D.A. continued to give us some activities to look at for the Case of the Silent e. We learned that there are not many long e/silent e words and discussed other ways we might see long e in words (since there are many!). We noticed that many words follow the "ee" "ea" pattern. Some other words we found have "ey" and just "y." Next week the kids will take part in a snap word boot camp and then the S.S.D.A. will be sending some other case files for us to solve!
In reading we began our rotation of Daily Five stations. This week the class listened to some fall books and had to talk about which book they read/listened to this week was their favorite (and some challenged themselves to explain why). The kids worked independently switching through 5 different stations (read-to-self, read-to-someone, listen-to-reading, word work, and work on writing) which they have been training for since September! They have done a good job deciding when they are done with a center to move onto another. I will continue to guide/monitor the kids through centers for another week and will begin reading groups after that. We also spent a majority of this week listening to/reading books about Veteran's Day. We talked about what a veteran is and how we celebrate veterans. Next week we will listen closely to the book A Turkey for Thanksgiving by Eve Bunting.
Coming Up...
There is no school tomorrow November 11th in observance of Veteran's Day.
We have a mystery reader on Friday, November 18th @ 12:40. Please make sure to email your clues when your mystery reader date approaches!
Our Thanksgiving party is on Tuesday, November 22nd from 12:15-1:15. Please check the Parent Helper Volunteers tab to check and see if you signed up to donate a food/party item. We are still in need of cups/plates/napkins, cider, and a Thanksgiving activity. As of right now, we have 3 parent helpers. We can still use one more helper in the classroom if you would like to participate! For this party, the kids will be volunteering at one station (making butter with heavy cream, popping popcorn, mixing fruit salad, and putting together a trail mix). Each child brought home a note for which individual food item they wanted to donate for the fruit salad and trail mix. If you did not see the note come home, please let me know and I can tell you which food item you are signed up for! After we are done preparing for the "feast," the kids will get to eat the popcorn with the butter, trail mix, and fruit salad. We will end the party with our craft.
I hope everyone has a wonderful long weekend!
*11.4.22*
I hope everyone had a nice Halloween! The kids had a great time at our Halloween party! Here is a look at the week...
In reading, we went back to read-to-self and read-to-someone to review what it looks like and sounds like and to work on building our stamina even more! The kids were able to get to 20 minutes for each! We will begin rotating through stations next week and I will be monitoring to make sure the kids are able to independently choose a station, work the whole time, and clean up so that they can transition to another. This will get them ready for the following week when I begin working with reading groups.
In math, we watched some videos on adding and subtracting to see how facts can be related (part of a fact family). This is a concept that is still difficult for some of the kids to understand (If I know 4+3=7 then I know 3+4=7). We spent most of the week working with fact families using dominoes and flap cards. We also played some new workplace games to reinforce this concept.
During writing workshop, we finished publishing our small moments stories! The kids worked really hard coloring their pictures, making a front cover (with their title, name, and picture) and adding an "About Me" page. Before all of that, they reread their best piece to make sure they included all the important elements of narrative writing. If they finished early, they were able to do free writing (writing about any topic of their choice). A checklist of how your child did during this writing unit will be coming home next week.
In phonics, we reviewed all that we have learned from our Case of the Silent e file from the SSDA. We received another message this week telling us that silent e is on the run! We looked through our independent reading books and found out that silent is is also in words with e, i, o, and u. Not only does the e at the end make short a words long, but it also makes other vowels long, too. Towards the end of the week, we looked closely at long o CVCe words and long i CVCe words. Next week we will look closely at long vowel e and u CVCe words.
Coming Up...
There is no school on Friday, November 11th in observance of Veteran's Day.
Have a great weekend!!
*10.28.22*
The kids are so excited about Halloween on Monday! We spent a good amount of our day today getting ready for Halloween with some Halloween projects and activities. Here is a look at the rest of the week...
In phonics, we started unit 2! We received a phone call from the S.S.D.A. (Super Secret Detective Agency) asking if we would be willing to take on the case of the silent e. Of course the class said "YES!" We received our first case file and learned that CVC words with short vowel a (rat, man, can, etc...) can become CVCE words with a long vowel a (rate, mane, cane) when we add an e on the end. The rules we added to our chart are: 1. The e is at the end of the word 2. The e is silent 3. The e makes the short vowel a a long vowel a. 4.We have to watch out for rule breakers like "have" and 5. We can use what we know about long a to make many new words. Next week we will see what happens to other vowels when we add an e to the end of the CVC words.
In writing workshop, we began publishing our small moments stories. The kids worked hard to read through all their writing from this unit to pick out their best piece (not necessarily their favorite - which we talked about!). The writing pieces they decided not to publish, came home this week in a paperclipped pile. Once they found their best small moment piece, they reread their writing making sure they included all that we have talked about so far in this unit (sticking to a small moment, writing a beginning, middle, and end, adding details, including feelings, adding pop-out words, using " " for dialogue, using actions words, carefully using spelling strategies, etc... The final steps to publishing were coloring our pictures, adding a front cover, and including at "About Me" author page at the end. I will be sending out more information soon for when we will be sharing their stories with you all!
In math this week, we did some domino magic activities! The kids saw that if they add the dots vertically on two dominoes and then horizontally on the two dominoes, they get the same total! This helped the kids when we watched a video and did a lesson on fact families. Making double flap cards, the kids wrote down all the equations for the numbers they represented on their flap card (ex: 9 - 5+4=9, 4+5=9, 9-5=4, 9-4=5). Next week we will continue to practice building and working with fact families.
During reading workshop this week we listened to the text Stellaluna by Janell Cannon. The kids learned some important information about bats, compared bats to birds, and listened to/read a Scholastic News article about nocturnal animals. Next week we will spend a lot of time reading and listening to some Halloween stories. This week we also spent time building stamina when reading to ourselves and working on writing. My goal is to start guided reading groups (while the rest of the class is working on writing, reading to themselves, reading to others, listening to reading, or working with words) the first full week in November.
Coming Up/Important Info...
The Color Run is this coming Sunday, October 30th at 10:00am.
This coming Monday, October 31st is our Halloween parade at 10:00. Please have your child wear his or her Halloween costume to school (no weapons, accessories, etc...). If you are attending the parade, please park at St. Matthew's Church and walk over to find a spot to stand outside. Our classroom party will be in the afternoon from 12:15-1:30. If you are a volunteer, please do not forget to bring a game/craft for the class.
Our Veteran's Day breakfast is on Thursday, November 10th from 7:30-8:30 in the large gym.
There is no school on Friday, November 11th in observance of Veteran's Day.
A November Scholastic Book order form will be coming home next week.
Have a wonderful weekend!!!
*10.21.22*
The talk of the week was definitely our field trip to Ellm's Farm. We had such a great time and it was so nice to get back to the farm for a field trip. Thank you to everyone who helped out! Here is what we did this week...
In reading, we took a break from our close reading stories and focused on working-on-writing as a part of Daily Five. At this point, we have done read-to-self, read-to-someone, listen-to-reading, and work-on-writing. The last part of Daily Five will be word work. Once we have built stamina for all of these activities, I will begin pulling small reading groups. During that time, the kids will be working on one of the five Daily Five activities. They have been working very had following our "What does it look like/sound like" during Daily Five. Next week we will be learning about bats as we listen closely to the book Stellaluna by Janell Canon.
In writing workshop, we are continuing to look at George McClements' craft moves. So far we have talked about ellipses and action words. By using action words, the kids learned that we can create a movie in our heads when we are reading our writing. We have one more craft move to learn about before we begin to publish our best small moments story! In the near future, we will be having a publishing party to celebrate these great stories!
In math, we started unit 2 - developing strategies with dice and dominoes. Beginning with dominoes, the kids were able to explore the dominoes as a way to make equations. Two dots + two dots = 4 dots. This has helped the kids to see that there are many different dominoes that can make the same number (5 dots + 1 dot, 4 dots + 2 dots, 6 dots + 0 dots, etc...). We have also learned a few dominoes games to help us solve addition and subtraction equations. We will continue to spend next week learning different ways to use the dominoes to help with solving math problems.
In phonics, we graduated from unit 1! As a graduation, the kids each got a "diploma." Tying in everything we have learned from unit 1, the kids had to use what they have learned from the first unit to determine the word that was written on their diploma. They had to remember what we have discussed when studying words (Are there vowels? What sound do they make? Do we need short vowel power? Are there blends/digraphs? Are there snap words hiding? Etc...). The kids went around and read their word aloud to the class and did a great job! Next week we will be starting unit 2 - The Mystery of the Silent e.
Coming Up...
Our Halloween Party is on Monday, October 31st from 12:15-1:30. If you are signed up as a volunteer, please bring a game/craft to share with the class. The costume parade will be in the morning at 10:00. Please park at St. Matthew's Church if you plan on coming.
New pictures are posted from our pumpkin investigation, field trip, and pumpkin decorating. See "School Photos!"
Have a great weekend!!
*10.14.22*
Wow! We had a busy afternoon with our pumpkin investigation today! The kids had SO much fun. I'm sure you will hear all about it! Here is a look at the week...
In phonics, we are finishing up unit 1 as we study some new first grade snap words and look at some snap words as super power words. Some super power snap words we discovered are can, and, an, will, and it. A super power snap word is a word we can use to spell many other words. The kids learned that if they know can, they also know ran, fan, than, span, scan, etc... Next week we will be using more of our new snap words as we finish unit one.
In reading, we listened closely to the book From Seed to Pumpkin by Wendy Pfeffer. We also spent a lot of time learning about the life cycle of a pumpkin. We continued to listen to reading on Razkids using the Chromebooks. Today the kids were introduced to work on writing as a part of Daily Five. We talked about some important rules (take out your writing journal and tools, find a spot, work quietly, write the whole time, draw pictures, write words, and use your best spelling). Our first journal writing activity was a fall picture prompt. The kids were able to work independently drawing and writing for 13 minutes! Our goal for building stamina is 20 minutes so we are not too far away!
In math this week, we continued to use our number racks to build numbers and turn them into equations. We looked for different ways to make specific numbers. When building 8, we can slide 3 beads on top and 5 beads on the bottom to make the equation 3+5=8. We had a discussion that if we know 3+5=8, then we also know 5+3=8. We tried to see how many ways we could build and turn each number into equations. Towards the end of the week, we looked closely at one more and one less than any give number. We are almost done with unit 1!
Our first week of spelling went well! With one less day to practice the words in school, I was impressed with how well all the kids did! Please don't forget to send your child's reading log to school on Fridays.
Finally in writing workshop, we talked about the importance of using a variety of punctuation in our stories. Using the book Yo! Yes! we learned that reading punctuation different ways can change the meaning of a story. The kids had a goal of going back to reread their writing to see if they could add a variety of end punctuation marks. The kids are also continuing to use strategies to spell unknown words.
Coming Up...
Our 6-week Apple-a-Day program starts this week. We will be Tuesdays from 9:45-10:15 for the next six weeks. Please let me know if you have any questions about this program.
Our Field Trip is this coming Wednesday, October 19th. Please be sure to send your child to school with a water bottle, bagged lunch, and warm clothes/boots. Be sure to keep your eye on the weather for appropriate apparel. A reminder will be coming home on Tuesday. If you are a chaperone, please arrive to school no later than 8:45.
The kids will all be getting pumpkins on our field trip. We will be decorating the pumpkins in school on Thursday, October 20th. If you are signed up as a helper, please be here at 12:45.
I told students to send home their snack cups today (although I saw some were still in the hall). If your child snack cup comes home (we're trying to send them home every other Friday), please wash the cup and return it to school (they can get grimy!).
We are running low on snacks for October. If you have any extra snacks that are on the safe snack list, we'd love to use them!
New photos are posted! See "School Photos."
Have a great weekend!!
*10.7.22*
Happy October! We flew through the month of September and have really fun month of activities for October! Here's a look into our week...
In phonics, we spent the beginning of the week looking closely at our kindergarten snap words and talked about how we can use snap words we already know to help us read bigger words. Towards the end of the week, we were introduced to some new first grade snap words. We spent a good amount of time applying our spelling words. We talked about how it is great if we can read and write a word in isolation, but it's even more important if we can use them! We wrote a letter to Mr. Vivenzio and a class sledding story to help us apply snap words. The kids then looked at their own small moments stories and were surprised at how many snap words are in their own stories! We will be finishing up unit one in the next couple of weeks.
In writing workshop, we talked more about making our stories come to life. Following our lessons from last week (making the characters talk and move) we discussed how to bring the inside out (talking about our feelings during our small moments stories). After adding feelings to our shared class story, the kids were encouraged to go back to one of their small moments stories and add how they were feeling during that moment. We had a discussion about how our feelings can be used to end our small moments stories as well (ex: I was very happy at the fair and hope to go back again. OR After I went on the ride, I wasn't so scared anymore. etc...). We will continue to talk about strategies first graders can use to become more independent writers as we finish out our unit on small moment stories.
This week we got a brand new number corner for October! We are determining new patterns on our calendar cards and collecting 2D shapes. During math instruction, we spent the week learning new workplace games, talked about using non-standard units of measuring (using popsicle sticks), and continued to use our number racks to help us quickly see/build numbers. We played a game called "Quick! Look!" where the kids had to quickly look at my number rack, count the beads, and write the total number on their white boards. Kids are beginning to use strategies to help them determine numbers quickly (groups of 5, 10, and 15). Next week we will have more practice using our number racks to solve a variety of problems (__+5=8, 3+__=8, and 3+5=__) and continue learning about non-standard units of measure (unifix cubes).
In reading this week, we practiced logging into and using our RazKids account. The kids are building stamina listening to, reading, and answering questions about fiction and nonfiction stories. This website is a fun, interactive way to get kids excited about reading! The link for RazKids is below. The teacher username is mcountermine1.
RazKids
During reading, we also listened closely to the book Chrysanthemum by Kevin Henkes. We talked about the importance of being ourselves and not letting others make us feel badly about our differences. We also had some good discussions after reading/listening to the book several times. Next week we will start learning about pumpkins as we listen closely to the book From Seed to Pumpkin by Wendy Pfeffer.
Coming Up....
We will be starting reading homework (reading logs coming home on Monday) and spelling this coming week (Tuesday, October 11th). You will see a reading log, list of spelling words, and your child's pretest come home on Tuesday. We will be doing activities all week to practice your child's spelling words so you do not need to practice at home. There is a list of suggested spelling activities that went home if you do want your child to get extra practice. Our first spelling test will be on Friday, October 14th.
There is no school on Monday, October 10th in observance of Columbus Day.
Our October Scholastic book order flyer will come home this coming week and orders will be due on Monday, October 17th.
Parent Helper Volunteers through December have been posted on our website. Please see the "Parent Helper Volunteers" tab.
Our pumpkin investigation is this Friday, October 14th. There are four parent helpers who were chosen to come in and help out. The helpers are Rebecca Miller, Charlie Mohr, Nicole O'Keefe, and Christine Tellarini-Forchilli. Please make sure to bring a medium/large sized pumpkin for the investigation.
Have a great weekend!!
*9.30.22*
Another busy week in first grade! The kids have been working hard and earning a lot of marbles as a whole class! Here's a look at the week...
In writing workshop, we are continuing to add onto our small moment stories. We spent a lesson talking about looking at our writing as readers by rereading our writing closely. When we do this, we read slowly, word-by-word, pointing to each word as we read it. Using colored pencils as our editing tools, we can check our writing for errors and fix them. This week we also looked closely at how to bring our stories to life. The first day we talked about making our characters move. Instead of saying "I went to the rug" we want to show the characters moving by saying "I quietly walked over to the rug." The next day we talked about making our characters talk. To do this, the kids saw some examples of dialogue in some books and we talked about what we noticed (the author used " " and the author used the word "said.") We tried doing this in our shared writing story and then the kids tried it in their own writing! They did an excellent job with it! Next week we will learn more ways to bring our stories to life.
During math workshop, the kids spent most days this week working on some math workplaces games; working on reading ten frames to count numbers, using double ten frames to make a 10+ a number equation, and a game to determine how many more we need to make ten (ex: I have 7. How many more do I need to make 10?). We also began looking at various types of story problems; start unknown/change or part unknown/result unknown). For start unknown, the kids had to determine the missing number at the start (_+4=9). For change/part unknown, the kids had to determine the missing part or change in the problem (5+_=9). Finally, for missing result, the kids had to determine the result of a given problem (5+4=_). We will be continually reviewing these types of story problems all throughout the year! Next week we will continue to use our number racks and ten frames to help us solve equations and story problems.
During phonics instruction, we spent this week playing games and looking closely at kindergarten snap words. We looked for ways words are the same and ways words are different. Towards the end of the week, we started learning some new first grade snap words. When we learn new words, we have certain steps we follow. For example, one of our new first grade snap words is "his." First, we say the word "his." Next, we stomp/clap/snap the syllables (1 syllable). Next we spell the word h-i-s. Then, we look closely to study the word (has the little word "is" hiding, has one vowel that makes a short vowel sound, has the little word "hi" hiding, etc...). Next, we cover, write, and then check the spelling of the word and finally, we use the word in a sentence. After we do all these steps, we can then add the word to our snap word wall. Next week we will look at even more new first grade words!
In reading workshop, we listened closely to the book Matthew and Tilly by Beth Peck and Rebecca C. Jones. We talked about the theme, friendship, and discussed some important vocabulary words in the book. After, we talked about the lesson that Matthew and Tilly learned at the end of the book. We have also been building our stamina for read-to-someone. When reading to someone, we focused specifically on the checking for understanding step. After your partner reads, you need to say "I just heard you read____" and retell the important parts of their reading. I remind the students that this is to make sure we are understanding what we are reading. The kids were able to build up to 13 minutes! Like read-to-self, we have a goal of 15 minutes! Next week we will continue read-to-someone and will introduce listen-to-reading on the Chromebooks.
Coming Up...
There is no school on Wednesday, October 5th in observance of Yom Kippur.
On Thursday, October 6th we have our Early Release Drill. For this drill, we will dismiss kids to the buses at 2:55. If you are picking up your child, please be to school no later than 2:45.
On Friday, October 7th, there is an early dismissal at 11:30.
I am meeting with our room parents on Monday to put together our parent helper volunteer schedule for the year. As soon as we have a final schedule, I will send it out to you.
Our Book Fair will be this Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday after school (the 3rd, 4th, and 6th) from 3-7pm. We hope you can make it!
Have a great weekend!!!
*9.23.22*
What a great start to our Friday morning seeing the bike riders come into our school! As one of the first stops on their 100 mile ride, the kids did such a great job getting the bike riders pumped up! What a great experience!
This week in reading we listened closely to the book, Fire Trucks, by Judith Jango-Cohen. The kids learned about what makes a book a nonfiction book and we talked about some important vocabulary words (gear, tanks, outriggers, etc...) and facts about fire trucks. The kids then worked as a whole class to use evidence from the book to explain why the gear/tools on a fire truck are important. By the end of first grade, the kids will be able to do this on their own! Next week we will move back to fiction to look closely at the book Matthew and Tilly by Beth Peck and Rebecca C. Jones. For Daily Five, we made it to 14 minutes of independently reading to ourselves! I was so impressed with how hard they are working. I'm still reminding the kids to make sure they are reading Good Fit books (Please talk to your child about this at home, too. Some of the kids are skimming through books that are too hard for them.) Yesterday we began talking about read-to-someone. This is very similar to read-to-self (find a spot, stay in that spot, read quietly, read the whole time, enjoy), but now the kids are sitting EEKK (elbow, elbow, knee, knee) and checking for understanding ("I just heard you read___" after each partner's turn). We will spend next week working on this.
In phonics, we are continuing to look closely at all the names in our class. This week we made vowel shields and are deciding if we need short vowel power when looking closely at some of the names. Towards the end of the week, we looked closer at blends and digraphs. Rasheed left us some funny riddles to solve that had some blends and digraphs. The kids are getting much better at recognizing when words have blends or digraphs. Next week we will finish studying the names in our class and will begin reviewing all the kindergarten snap words. After learning new snap words (which then get added to our snap word wall), kids are expected to be able to read and wrote the words.
During writing workshop, we had a lesson this week about watermelon vs. tiny seed stories. We looked back at Night of the Veggie Monster and talked about how the book could be written about their whole time out to dinner or focus on one small part of the meal (which is our goal with small moment stories). We used the example of going on vacation. We could write about a whole trip over the course of a week, or focus on one small part of that trip (going for ice cream, going to the beach, going mini golfing, etc...). Kids are beginning to see the difference between a regular narrative and a small moment narrative. This week we also began using writing partners. We learned that our writing partner is an extra set of eyes to help make our stories even better. By listening to our partner and asking him or her questions about the story, we are getting more ideas on what we could add to strengthen our stories. The final lesson we looked at this week is a strategy for writing unknown words. Instead of asking how to spell a words, we are encouraging the kids to become more independent using a strategy called Say It, Slide It, Hear It, Write It. The kids say the word they want to write, slide their finger across the paper saying the word they want to write, say the word again while enunciating each sound, and then finally write the letters for each sound they hear. Even though this may not always get perfect spelling, it does make our writing easier to read.
In math this week, we built number racks and then spent the rest of the week using them! Below is a link for a virtual number rack so you can see how they work! We talked about how the number racks are tools to help us with our math, not toys. Using this tool, the kids will begin to see patterns when building numbers and solving problems. With quick flash games, we can quickly build the number 7 by sliding all 5 red beads and 2 more white beads instead of individually counting all 7 beads out. The same can be said for building 13 (sliding 10 beads over on the top row and 3 more on the bottom). We can also learn different ways to build a given numbers (5 - 2 beads on top and 3 beads on bottom, 3 beads on top and 2 beads on bottom, 4 beads on top and 1 bead on bottom, etc...). Eventually the kids won't need their number racks to quickly solve these problems.
number rack
Important Information
The deadline to sign-up for classroom volunteering is the end of the day tonight (Friday, September 23rd). If you are interested and haven't signed up yet, please see the link below. I have updated and also changed some of the dates for events. Please see the parent Helper Volunteer page for date changes.
Classroom Helper Volunteer Sign-ups
There is no school on Monday, September 26th in observance of Rosh Hashanah.
Our September birthdays party is on Friday, September 30th.
There is no school on Wednesday, October 5th in observance of Yom Kippur.
Thursday, October 6th is an early release day. Kids will be released from school 15 minutes early.
Friday, October 7th is a half-day of school. Dismissal is at 11:30.
Below is a copy of the slideshow from Open House.
We are looking to start spelling and reading log homework the week of Monday, October 17th (our next full week of school!)
We got the date for our fall field trip! We will be going to Ellms Family Farm on Wednesday, October 19th. Because we decorate the pumpkins from the field trip the day after, we moved our pumpkin investigation to Friday, October 14th (instead of October 20th which is now pumpkin decorating day!)
Have a great weekend!
*9.16.22*
Welcome back!! I hope everyone had a relaxing summer! It's crazy to believe we are back in school! Here's a look at how hard we've been working these last two weeks!
This week we started our phonics instruction. The kids got to meet our new friend, Rasheed the lion. He will be helping us with phonics this year and he is friends with Mabel the elephant from kindergarten. For this unit in phonics, the kids are learning how to look closely at names. Instead of just seeing a name, like "Jack", we are looking closely to say "It begins with an uppercase J, it has one vowel, it ends with a blend -ck, the "a" has a short "a" sound like "apple," some words that start like "Jack" are "jump," and "jog," and "jump rope." By looking closely at names, we can become better readers and writers. Throughout the next couple of weeks we will be looking closely at and adding to the word wall the names of all the kids in our class.
For spelling, we spent this week practicing some games/activities that the kids will be doing throughout the year. By the time we start spelling and get new words to study, the kids will be pros at the games/activities. The kids particularly loved magic spelling! We will not begin spelling until the end of September after it is discussed at Open House.
In writing, we started our first unit - writing true stories (small moment narrative stories). We used the book Night of the Veggie Monster by George McClements as a mentor text. We learned that the two seconds the little boy took to put a pea in his mouth was turned into an entire story! So far the kids have spent time thinking of an idea (a true story of something that happened to them), touched and told the story across their writing pages (beginning, middle, and end), sketched pictures with their pencil, and began writing words. The kids learned that if they think they're done, they've just begun! We will continue to work on stretching out our stories next week.
During our math time, the kids have been working on skip counting by 1s, 2s, and 5s. We watched some videos/songs and listened to some books to help us understand patterns while skip counting. We then learned some games to play to help us practice these skills (making twin pops, tallying on our whiteboards). One game they liked was called Flash. A number was flashed on the board (shown in tally marks to 20) and the kids had to quickly write down what number they saw (starting to realize that they can skip count by 5s instead of counting every tally). We will continue to work on finding strategies to help us count as we build our own number racks next week.
Finally, we have reading instruction! We have gotten a lot done this week! We spent this week listening closely to the book Chester's Way by Kevin Henkes and listened closely for vocabulary words and to answer specific questions about the text. The children learned that it is important to be kind to others and treat each other with respect. Next week we will switch over to nonfiction and listen closely to the text Fire Trucks by Judith Jango-Cohen. For Daily Five, we spent the week learning how to pick good fit books. The kids have been going through a checklist (I'll explain this more in depth at Open House) called IPICK. I pick a book. I decide my purpose for reading (fiction or nonfiction). I decide if the book is interesting. I check for comprehension to make sure I understand what is happening in the story. Finally, do I know most of the words. If the students have a thumbs up for all of these, they have found a good fit book! After finding some good fit books to put in our book bins, the kids have started training themselves to build STAMINA for independent reading (which we call Read to Self). When reading to ourselves, we choose a book from our bin, find a spot to read, stay in our spot to read, read quietly, read the whole time, and enjoy! We have a stamina chart to see if we can get to our goal of 15 minutes. Right now we have made it to 10 minutes of following our Read to Self rules!! Once we have reached our goal, we will move on to Read to Someone (partner reading).
Important Information...
Open House is on Monday, September 19th @ 6:00. Please meet in the large gym for an introduction by Mr. Vivenzio. Around 6:20, you will head down to our classroom (room 117 on the first floor). I will have a quick PowerPoint presentation to share with you (which I will then post on this website).
Our Scholastic Book Order form went home last week. The orders are due on Wednesday, September 21st. If you would like to place an order, please submit your order by the end of the day on Wednesday. You can order books right online and even have them shipped to your house! The website is - Scholastic Book Clubs
It's looking like our first field trip will be in the beginning/middle of October. We are in the process of organizing a trip to Ellms Family Farm. The price for the field trip is $10 for adult chaperones and $7 for children. A permission form will be sent home as soon as we have all the information.
We have the Bike Ride for Missing Children on Friday, September 23rd (first thing in the morning)! The kids will get to see the bikers drive past our school (the first stop on their 100 mile trip!) and visit for a few minutes. It's very exciting!
There is no school on Monday, September 26th in observance of Rosh Hashanah.
Finally, I emailed our parent helper Google Form on Monday. In this form, please submit your name for any activities/events/donations you would be interested in throughout the year. I will work with our room parents to create a calendar of events for the year. We will make sure to fairly assign names to events. A copy of the Google sign-up form is below (and I will go over this in more detail at Open House). The deadline to sign-up for events on the Google form is Friday, September 23rd. If you have any questions, please let me know!
Parent Volunteer Sign-Ups
Finally, new photos are posted from Moving Up Day in June and our first day of school. See "School Photos!"
Have a wonderful weekend!!
*6.3.22*
Happy June! It's hard to believe we are in the last month of school! Here is a look at the week...
In phonics, we are wrapping up our final unit. We have spent this week talking about the different places we see uppercase/capital letters. In first grade, we learned that capital letters are used 1. at the beginning of a sentence, 2. at the start of a name of a person/place, 3. for the word "I," 4. at the start and end of a letter, and 5. at the start of dates. We looked for examples of uppercase/capital letters in the books we read (figuring out where we mostly see them) and looked back at our own writing to make sure we were using uppercase/capital letters. With only a few lessons in phonics left, we will be reviewing everything we have learned so far this year!
In reading, we listened closely a nonfiction text, "The Kite," which is in the book Frog and Toad Forever. We talked about character traits and how to find specific examples to prove those character traits, listened closely for vocabulary words, and listened to respond to important story elements (characters, setting, problem, solution). I will spend the majority of our reading time until the end of the year working closely with small reading groups.
In math, we are working through our final unit! The focus of this unit has been looking closely at two-digit numbers, patterns, and place value. The kids are working to skip count forward and backward by 1s, 5s, and 10s. We have used the story Goldilocks and the Three Bears and its use of a trail of breadcrumbs/pebbles to determine missing numbers on a path. Towards the end of the unit, the kids will get to make their own paths with missing numbers.
In writing workshop, we finished publishing our writing reviews! The kids will be sharing their reviews in small groups next week and we will spend the remainder of the school year writing about first grade memories and creating fictional stories with characters and a plot.
Important Info/Coming Up...
Our Field Day is scheduled for Wednesday, June 8th with a rain date of Tuesday, June 14th. As of right now, the weather is not looking too great for Wednesday. We will let you know ASAP if it is canceled.
On Friday, June 10th we will be having a virtual field trip. The kids will be watching the play "Chicken Dance". We will spend the week reading the book, watching an author interview, and learning the chicken dance song and dance. This will get us ready to see the performance on Friday the 10th!
Our June/Summer Birthdays party will be on Thursday, June 16th from 2:00 - 2:45.
Our end-of-the-year Goldilocks presentation will be on Tuesday, June 21st @ 2:00. All parents are welcome!!
New photos are posted!! See "School Photos!"
Have a great weekend!!
*5.20.22*
What a busy week!! With two short weeks coming out, we got a lot done this week!
In phonics, we wrapped up our bend on r-controlled vowels and the remainder of the unit will be spent looking at expert writers and figuring out what we can learn from them. Today we looked at capital letters and where we find them in writing. The kids looked through their own Good Fit books and we talked about when we see capital letters. This will be the focus for the remainder of the phonics unit.
In reading, we listened closely to two nonfiction texts about the life cycle of butterflies and the life cycle of frogs. The kids learned that there are many similarities between the two life cycles and also many differences. We listened closely for important vocabulary words, to find a specific main idea and important details, and to organize a life cycle flow chart for both butterflies and frogs. Next week we will spend the few days we have looking closely at texts about Memorial Day.
In writing workshop we are finishing up our bend on writing reviews for our opinion writing unit. We looked at a checklist for what a first grader should include in an opinion writing piece and did a self-evaluation to see what we can do better! The kids continue to work on looking back within their own writing to make necessary changes before saying "I'm done!" Some important pieces in a first grade opinion writing unit include stating an opinion with at least one reason why, writing a beginning to get the reader's attention, using labels and words to give details, writing an ending, and spelling snap words/applying phonics rules. We will be finishing up our opinion writing unit after the Memorial Day break.
In math, we started out final unit, One Hundred and Beyond. The kids began by building groups of tens (and eventually hundreds) with popsicle sticks and talked about the importance of place value. We have been building two-digit numbers with popsicle sticks and have been practicing adding two, two-digit numbers together by first adding the ones and then adding the tens. We have several workplace games in this unit to practice this concept. Of course, we are also continuing to build fluency with our addition and subtraction facts to ten and use strategies to solve problems to twenty.
Coming Up/Important Information...
There is no school from Thursday, May 26th - Monday, May 30th in observance of Memorial Day.
Today (5/20) a sheet with kindergarten and first grade snap words went home. Any highlighted words on the sheet are words your child still needs practice writing. We will be doing spelling activities for the remainder of the year to review these words; however, it wouldn't hurt to practice them at home as well!
Our first grade Field Day is scheduled for Wednesday, June 8th. Parents are invited to join for the outdoor field day activities in the morning. A time for our Goldilocks and the Three Bears presentation for that day will be coming soon!
We are running low on pencils and glue for the classroom. If you are interested in donating, we would greatly appreciate it!!
Have a great weekend!!
*5.13.22*
In phonics this week, we continued to learn more about common bloopers kids make and listened to some reading videos of students making errors. The kids worked together to figure out the r-controlled vowel errors that kid readers made and fixed them. In the middle of the week, we looked at some commonly misspelled words and talked about why kids often make bloopers with those words. The kids worked together to think of ways to remember the words (saw - See A W, Where? There Who? Their) and so on. Towards the end of the week, we looked closely at snap words and sorted them into two categories - Words that are spelled how they sound and tricky words. Most of our snap words fell into the category of "tricky." The kids learned that when we have tricky words, we look for the part that is tricky and think of a rule to remember it - most of the time the rules were already created for us! (ex: digraphs, blends, vowel teams, silent e, r-controlled vowels, word endings, etc...).
In reading, we listened closely to the text Whistle for Willie. The kids listened to enjoy, listened closely for vocabulary words, and listened closely to make inferences/write a book review. The kids are beginning to complete written responses independently with beginning sentence prompts. Next week we will move to nonfiction where we learn about frog and butterfly life cycles.
In math, we spent the end of unit 6 looking at the heights of the Emperor and Little Blue penguins and compared the heights. We talked about how measuring strips are really just vertical number lines and we can find missing numbers on a measuring strip and comparing heights on a measuring strip the same way we find missing numbers on a number line and compare distances on a number line. At the end of the unit, we made our own penguins in groups of two to help us count and make observations when skip counting by 2s.
In writing workshop, the kids are continuing to work on their writing reviews. Each day I model another piece the students can include in their reviews (state their opinion, sneak peak, comparison, make a recommendation, give it a rating, tell a small story, etc...) and then the kids work to add it to their own writing. At the end of this writing unit, the kids will have a published opinion writing review and a published opinion on their favorite object in their collection.
The kids are continuing to be tested on all 108 first grade snap words. We got through half of the words this week and will finish the rest of the words this coming week. At the end of the testing, a sheet will come home that highlights the first grade words your child still needs to work on.
Coming Up/Important Info...
We have a mystery reader on Thursday, May 19th at 2:15.
We have our May birthdays party for Matthew, Seline, and Jaxson on Friday, May 20th at 2:00.
There is no school from Thursday, May 26th - Monday, May 30th.
Have a great weekend!!!
*5.6.22*
We've been busy the last couple weeks! Here's a look at what we've done...
In phonics, we began our final unit which focuses on r-controlled vowels (ar, or, and the many sounds of "er" (er, ur, ir). Many words with r-controlled vowels are spelled as bloopers. The kids learned that everyone makes bloopers when reading and writing and it's important to learn from the bloopers so that we do not make the mistakes again. In this unit we have learned that it's important to use our ears to listen to the sounds in words, but also important to use our eyes to see what looks right. Today, we looked at the different ways to hear the "air" sound. "-ere" "-ear" "-ai" and "-are."
In reading the last couple of weeks, we looked at nonfictions books about the moon and space. The kids learned so many interesting facts about the moons, planets, and our solar system. We complete a couple of moon and planet projects and listened closely to some important vocabulary words. The kids are also continuing to work independently while I meet with small reading groups. Next week we will look closely at a nonfiction book, Whistle for Willie.
In math, we are continuing to use penguins to help us solve larger addition and subtraction story problems/equations to 20. The kids learned how to read story problems carefully to determine if the start is missing (__+6=10 pr __-6=10), change/part is missing (4+__=10 or 16-__=10) or result is missing (4+6=__ or 16-6=__). Determining the missing result is the easiest type of problems for students to solve. We have needed extra practice with determining the missing start or change/part. Next week we will be wrapping up unit six before we start our final math unit.
In writing workshop, the kids started writing reviews about some of their favorite things (favorite restaurant, favorite, movie, favorite book, favorite toy, etc...). Similar to writing their opinion about their favorite object in their collection, the kids are working on stating their opinion and adding many reasons why. They are having fun trying to persuade the reader why they should go to their favorite restaurant, buy their favorite toy, or read their favorite book. We are starting our reviews out with questions (Have you ever tried ice cream from Stewart's?), comparing their favorite to other places (Stewart's ice cream is better than any other ice cream place because they have many flavors to choose from!) and rating the reviews at the end (I give Stewart's 5 stars!). We will continue to work more on our reviews next week.
Coming Up/Important Info...
This was our LAST week of spelling! Over the next few weeks, we will be completing first grade spelling snap word tests to see what words the kids need to work on individually. After, the kids will get a list of all their words and spend the remainder of the year completing spelling activities to review those words!
We have a mystery reader on Thursday, May 12th at 2:15.
We have our marble party on Friday, May 13th! Please do not forget to bring in a stuffed animal on that day! We will also watch a movie!
Our ABC countdown until the end of the year is right around the corner! A calendar with all of our end-of-the-year countdown events went home today.
New photos are posted! See "School Photos!"
Have a great weekend!!
*4.14.22*
We had a lot of fun this week learning about Earth Day and doing spring activities! The kids will be bringing home eggs that they decorated today!
In reading, we listened closely to the text Clarabelle by Chris Peterson. It was a long book, but the kids learned so many interesting facts about dairy cows! At the end of the week, they made a brochure all about dairy cows, writing the most interesting facts they learned from the book. We will continue to enjoy some nonfiction books after break with a unit all about space.
In phonics, we finished unit 4 and completed our Vowel Town! The kids worked and were amazed at how many words there are in our town with vowel teams. I will take a picture and post it to our website! After break, we will be starting our final phonics unit.
In math, we are continuing to use penguins to help solve addition and subtraction equations to 20. We spent a couple of days making flap cards where the students had to build a number from 10-20 using stickers and then use the flap cards to make all the equations in the fact family (learning that doubles only have two facts in their fact family). Next week we will look more at story problems and figuring out patterns to help us solve more challenging addition and subtraction equations.
In writing, we are continuing to write about our collection of favorite items. Some students are beginning to write about other objects in their collection, other than their favorite object. We are learning how to expand on our writing but not only including our opinion, but how to add other peoples' opinions who agree with ours. The kids got to walk around the room and write their opinions about other students' collections. We are also using an opinion writing checklist to make sure we are including all the important parts of opinion writing pieces.
Important Info/Coming Up...
There is no school tomorrow April 15th - Friday, April 22nd.
A Sign-up Genius was created to donate items for our moon dough project on Friday, April 29th. If you signed up, the link is below. Thank you to those helping out!!
Moon Dough Sign-ups
Our April Birthdays party is on Friday, April 29th from 2-2:45.
Have a great weekend/Easter/Vacation!
*4.8.22*
The kids were so excited to learn our last vowel team this week so that we could look at Rasheed's blueprints! We learned the final vowel team, "igh" with our key word being "light." We discovered that Rasheed's blueprints were designs for the class to build a vowel town. After observing the pictures and words (rainbow, train, boat, lighthouse, sheep, clouds, etc...) the kids learned that all the pictures they will be building on our vowel town have a vowel team. The vowel town looks great! I will post a photo as soon as it's done. We will finish our vowel town next week and start our final phonics unit after April break.
In reading, we listened closely to the chapter "The Tree" from Poppleton Forever. The kids found the book funny when Poppleton tried to give the tree a bone and a piece of cheese to make it look better. In the end, the kids learned that all the tree needed to grow its leaves was love. We finished the book out today writing about the important story elements. Next week we will move to nonfiction where we listen to a book about dairy cows!
In math we are moving along in chapter 6. The kids are continuing to practice addition and subtraction strategies to 20 with the help of penguins. We worked on doubles with penguin eggs (1 penguin lays 2 eggs, 2 lay 4, 3 lay 6, etc...) and using the strategy of make 10 to turn a 9+ fact into a 10+ fact (ex: 9+6= turns into 10+5). We will learn many more strategies the children can use to help quickly solve facts to 20.
In writing workshop, we started our opinion writing unit! The kids are having a lot of fun writing about their favorite objects in their collections. We talked about the importance of giving reasons why when stating your opinion using words and phrases such as ("for example," "because," "Also," and "Another reason is..." We will continue to build on our writing about our collections.
Important Info/Coming Up...
We will have two mystery reader visit next week!
April Scholastic book orders are due by Thursday, April 14th.
There is no school from Friday, April 15th - Friday, April 22nd.
On Friday, April 29th, we will be doing a moon dough project as we begin to learn about space. There are several items we will need to complete this project. Please see the Sign-up Genius below. The items are due by Wednesday, April 27th.
Moon Dough Craft
Have a great weekend!!
*4.1.22*
Happy April Fool's Day! The kids are enjoying our read aloud, April Fool's Surprise by Abby Klein. They are full of jokes today! Here is a look at the week...
In reading, we listened closely to the book Tops and Bottoms by Janet Stevens. The kids listened for important vocabulary words (hare, harvest, clever, risky, and scowl. We then listened closely to discuss the story. We thought about the lesson bear learns at the end of the story and worked on finding specific examples within the text to support our answers. Next week we will listen closely to the chapter "The Tree" in Poppleton Forever.
In phonics, Rasheed told us that he has some important blueprints to share with us, but we first have to finish learning all of our vowel teams. This week we added the vowel teams "ue," "ew" "aw" and "au" to our vowel team chart. The kids are catching on that there are vowel teams that make the same sounds and some vowel teams that make different sounds. We have one more vowel team to learn next week before we can take a look at Rasheed's blueprints!
In math, we finished our geometry unit! We ended the unit playing Guess My Shape and completing fraction sorts. We reviewed the different attributes to describe 2D shapes and sorted shapes based on their attributes. Next week we will start Unit 6- using penguins to help us solve a variety of equations and story problems.
In writing workshop, we finished publishing and celebrated our final Mo Willems' stories! The kids added color and a front cover to their books and then shared the stories in small groups. The kids added the stories to their writing portfolios (which will go home at the end of the year!) Our next writing unit will begin on Monday - opinion writing.
Important Info...
A note went home on Monday about our final writing unit, which begins next week. Please send your child to school with a bag/shoebox/container of some of their favorite items (sports cards, dolls, stickers, pictures, toys, etc...) on Monday, April 4th. The kids will be choosing their favorite items from their collection to write about. They will not be able to participate in the writing activities without these collections.
We have a mystery reader on Thursday, April 7th at 2:15.
New photos are posted! See "School Photos."
Have a great weekend!!
*3.25.22*
Another week has gone by quickly! We are getting close to finishing up another phonics, math, and writing workshop unit.
In reading, we listened closely to the text Stand Tall, Molly Lou Melon by Patty Lovell. The kids learned about what it means to stand tall for who you are and what you believe in. They learned some important vocabulary words like foolish, fumble, glee, revealed, and proudly. We spent a couple of days talking about the book; finding examples of how Molly Lou stood tall and finding specific examples to support character traits. Next week we will listen closely to the book Tops and Bottoms by Janet Stevens.
In phonics, Rasheed came back!! He brought some pictures with him of buildings he visited in NYC. Today he told us that he had blueprints of a construction project we will work on, but told us we have to finish learning the rest of our vowel teams before we can look at the blueprints! The kids are excited to see them. We learned a few more vowel teams, which we added to our vowel teams chart - oo can make two sounds (like m"oo"n and b"oo"k) and we can hear the same sound with the vowel teams "oy" and "oi." We have 5 more vowel teams to learn before the end of the unit!
In writing workshop, we learned out last writing technique from Mo Willems, adding emotions in our illustrations. After working hard to add this element into their writing, the students then picked their best Mo Willems writing piece and began publishing. We are looking to finish publishing our books by the end of next week and then, we will begin our final writing unit of the year - opinion writing!
In math, we spent the beginning of the week learning about fractions (halves, thirds, and fourths) by playing a BINGO game. Towards the end of the week, we reviewed the attributes of all the 2D and 3D shapes we have learned before starting our Unit 5 assessment. We will move into unit 6 at the end of next week.
Coming Up/Important Info...
We have a mystery reader on Monday, March 28th AND Friday, April 1st!
We will be publishing our Mo Willems story in front of small groups on Friday, April 1st.
We are running low on baby wipes (the kids mostly use them to wipe their hands after special). If you have any extra at home, we would love to use them in the classroom!
Just a reminder that we cannot have gluten, peanut/tree nut and dairy snacks in the classroom. Some of the kids are finishing up their lunch during snack time and I have had to tell some of the kids to put those food items away. If you could separate lunch foods from snack foods, that will make it easier for kids to eat a safe snack list snack.
New photos have been posted under "School Photos!"
Thank you and have a great weekend!!
*3.18.22*
Happy Friday! The kids had a lot of energy towards the end of the week with our visit from the leprechaun, our March birthdays party, and the warm weather:) Here's a look at the week...
In reading, we listened closely to the book The Big Trip by Valeri Gorbachev. The kids learned that the characters (goat and pig) were very similar to elephant and piggie; one looked at the glass half empty and one looked at the glass half full. We listened to important vocabulary words and talked about the theme (friendship); two people can be good friends even if they are very different. Next week we will be listening closely to the book Stand Tall, Molly Lou Melon.
In phonics, we are still missing Rasheed! We got another letter from him today showing us some of the adventures he's been on in NYC. We learned that just like a screwdriver has more than one job (one of the tools Rasheed found at his construction site) some vowel teams (ex: "ow") make more than one sound. We compared words like fl"ow"er with words like rainb"ow." The kids are really beginning to understand how to use vowel teams when reading and writing. Rasheed told us he would be back soon and we can't wait to learn even more vowel teams!
In writing, we continued to work on our Mo Willems writing stories. The kids continued to add elements modeling Mo Willems and we focused on POP OUT words which use all uppercase letters and adding different kinds of punctuation (? , . ! ... ; etc). The kids then tried to add it to their own stories. We will spend next week finishing up adding more Mo Willems elements. It looks like we will be publishing and ready to share our stories by the first week of April!
Finally in math, we continued to work more with 3D shapes. We played more games of Guess My Shape? and worked with using polydrons. The kids built cubes and square pyramids with polydrons and were able to break the shapes apart to see the different 2D faces that make up the 3D shapes. Towards the end of the week, we made 3x3 grid patterns and then turned them into quilts by rotating the shapes. We learned that rotational symmetry means the pattern looks the same when rotated and no rotational symmetry means the pattern looks different when rotated; a big concept for first graders! We will be finishing our geometry unit within the next couple of weeks.
Below are pictures of all items in our lost and found. Please let me know if any of the stuff is yours!
New photos will be posted soon!
Have a wonderful weekend!!
Welcome back!! I hope everyone had a relaxing summer! It's crazy to believe we are back in school! Here's a look at how hard we've been working these last two weeks!
This week we started our phonics instruction. The kids got to meet our new friend, Rasheed the lion. He will be helping us with phonics this year and he is friends with Mabel the elephant from kindergarten. For this unit in phonics, the kids are learning how to look closely at names. Instead of just seeing a name, like "Jack", we are looking closely to say "It begins with an uppercase J, it has one vowel, it ends with a blend -ck, the "a" has a short "a" sound like "apple," some words that start like "Jack" are "jump," and "jog," and "jump rope." By looking closely at names, we can become better readers and writers. Throughout the next couple of weeks we will be looking closely at and adding to the word wall the names of all the kids in our class.
For spelling, we spent this week practicing some games/activities that the kids will be doing throughout the year. By the time we start spelling and get new words to study, the kids will be pros at the games/activities. The kids particularly loved magic spelling! We will not begin spelling until the end of September after it is discussed at Open House.
In writing, we started our first unit - writing true stories (small moment narrative stories). We used the book Night of the Veggie Monster by George McClements as a mentor text. We learned that the two seconds the little boy took to put a pea in his mouth was turned into an entire story! So far the kids have spent time thinking of an idea (a true story of something that happened to them), touched and told the story across their writing pages (beginning, middle, and end), sketched pictures with their pencil, and began writing words. The kids learned that if they think they're done, they've just begun! We will continue to work on stretching out our stories next week.
During our math time, the kids have been working on skip counting by 1s, 2s, and 5s. We watched some videos/songs and listened to some books to help us understand patterns while skip counting. We then learned some games to play to help us practice these skills (making twin pops, tallying on our whiteboards). One game they liked was called Flash. A number was flashed on the board (shown in tally marks to 20) and the kids had to quickly write down what number they saw (starting to realize that they can skip count by 5s instead of counting every tally). We will continue to work on finding strategies to help us count as we build our own number racks next week.
Finally, we have reading instruction! We have gotten a lot done this week! We spent this week listening closely to the book Chester's Way by Kevin Henkes and listened closely for vocabulary words and to answer specific questions about the text. The children learned that it is important to be kind to others and treat each other with respect. Next week we will switch over to nonfiction and listen closely to the text Fire Trucks by Judith Jango-Cohen. For Daily Five, we spent the week learning how to pick good fit books. The kids have been going through a checklist (I'll explain this more in depth at Open House) called IPICK. I pick a book. I decide my purpose for reading (fiction or nonfiction). I decide if the book is interesting. I check for comprehension to make sure I understand what is happening in the story. Finally, do I know most of the words. If the students have a thumbs up for all of these, they have found a good fit book! After finding some good fit books to put in our book bins, the kids have started training themselves to build STAMINA for independent reading (which we call Read to Self). When reading to ourselves, we choose a book from our bin, find a spot to read, stay in our spot to read, read quietly, read the whole time, and enjoy! We have a stamina chart to see if we can get to our goal of 15 minutes. Right now we have made it to 10 minutes of following our Read to Self rules!! Once we have reached our goal, we will move on to Read to Someone (partner reading).
Important Information...
Open House is on Monday, September 19th @ 6:00. Please meet in the large gym for an introduction by Mr. Vivenzio. Around 6:20, you will head down to our classroom (room 117 on the first floor). I will have a quick PowerPoint presentation to share with you (which I will then post on this website).
Our Scholastic Book Order form went home last week. The orders are due on Wednesday, September 21st. If you would like to place an order, please submit your order by the end of the day on Wednesday. You can order books right online and even have them shipped to your house! The website is - Scholastic Book Clubs
It's looking like our first field trip will be in the beginning/middle of October. We are in the process of organizing a trip to Ellms Family Farm. The price for the field trip is $10 for adult chaperones and $7 for children. A permission form will be sent home as soon as we have all the information.
We have the Bike Ride for Missing Children on Friday, September 23rd (first thing in the morning)! The kids will get to see the bikers drive past our school (the first stop on their 100 mile trip!) and visit for a few minutes. It's very exciting!
There is no school on Monday, September 26th in observance of Rosh Hashanah.
Finally, I emailed our parent helper Google Form on Monday. In this form, please submit your name for any activities/events/donations you would be interested in throughout the year. I will work with our room parents to create a calendar of events for the year. We will make sure to fairly assign names to events. A copy of the Google sign-up form is below (and I will go over this in more detail at Open House). The deadline to sign-up for events on the Google form is Friday, September 23rd. If you have any questions, please let me know!
Parent Volunteer Sign-Ups
Finally, new photos are posted from Moving Up Day in June and our first day of school. See "School Photos!"
Have a wonderful weekend!!
*6.3.22*
Happy June! It's hard to believe we are in the last month of school! Here is a look at the week...
In phonics, we are wrapping up our final unit. We have spent this week talking about the different places we see uppercase/capital letters. In first grade, we learned that capital letters are used 1. at the beginning of a sentence, 2. at the start of a name of a person/place, 3. for the word "I," 4. at the start and end of a letter, and 5. at the start of dates. We looked for examples of uppercase/capital letters in the books we read (figuring out where we mostly see them) and looked back at our own writing to make sure we were using uppercase/capital letters. With only a few lessons in phonics left, we will be reviewing everything we have learned so far this year!
In reading, we listened closely a nonfiction text, "The Kite," which is in the book Frog and Toad Forever. We talked about character traits and how to find specific examples to prove those character traits, listened closely for vocabulary words, and listened to respond to important story elements (characters, setting, problem, solution). I will spend the majority of our reading time until the end of the year working closely with small reading groups.
In math, we are working through our final unit! The focus of this unit has been looking closely at two-digit numbers, patterns, and place value. The kids are working to skip count forward and backward by 1s, 5s, and 10s. We have used the story Goldilocks and the Three Bears and its use of a trail of breadcrumbs/pebbles to determine missing numbers on a path. Towards the end of the unit, the kids will get to make their own paths with missing numbers.
In writing workshop, we finished publishing our writing reviews! The kids will be sharing their reviews in small groups next week and we will spend the remainder of the school year writing about first grade memories and creating fictional stories with characters and a plot.
Important Info/Coming Up...
Our Field Day is scheduled for Wednesday, June 8th with a rain date of Tuesday, June 14th. As of right now, the weather is not looking too great for Wednesday. We will let you know ASAP if it is canceled.
On Friday, June 10th we will be having a virtual field trip. The kids will be watching the play "Chicken Dance". We will spend the week reading the book, watching an author interview, and learning the chicken dance song and dance. This will get us ready to see the performance on Friday the 10th!
Our June/Summer Birthdays party will be on Thursday, June 16th from 2:00 - 2:45.
Our end-of-the-year Goldilocks presentation will be on Tuesday, June 21st @ 2:00. All parents are welcome!!
New photos are posted!! See "School Photos!"
Have a great weekend!!
*5.20.22*
What a busy week!! With two short weeks coming out, we got a lot done this week!
In phonics, we wrapped up our bend on r-controlled vowels and the remainder of the unit will be spent looking at expert writers and figuring out what we can learn from them. Today we looked at capital letters and where we find them in writing. The kids looked through their own Good Fit books and we talked about when we see capital letters. This will be the focus for the remainder of the phonics unit.
In reading, we listened closely to two nonfiction texts about the life cycle of butterflies and the life cycle of frogs. The kids learned that there are many similarities between the two life cycles and also many differences. We listened closely for important vocabulary words, to find a specific main idea and important details, and to organize a life cycle flow chart for both butterflies and frogs. Next week we will spend the few days we have looking closely at texts about Memorial Day.
In writing workshop we are finishing up our bend on writing reviews for our opinion writing unit. We looked at a checklist for what a first grader should include in an opinion writing piece and did a self-evaluation to see what we can do better! The kids continue to work on looking back within their own writing to make necessary changes before saying "I'm done!" Some important pieces in a first grade opinion writing unit include stating an opinion with at least one reason why, writing a beginning to get the reader's attention, using labels and words to give details, writing an ending, and spelling snap words/applying phonics rules. We will be finishing up our opinion writing unit after the Memorial Day break.
In math, we started out final unit, One Hundred and Beyond. The kids began by building groups of tens (and eventually hundreds) with popsicle sticks and talked about the importance of place value. We have been building two-digit numbers with popsicle sticks and have been practicing adding two, two-digit numbers together by first adding the ones and then adding the tens. We have several workplace games in this unit to practice this concept. Of course, we are also continuing to build fluency with our addition and subtraction facts to ten and use strategies to solve problems to twenty.
Coming Up/Important Information...
There is no school from Thursday, May 26th - Monday, May 30th in observance of Memorial Day.
Today (5/20) a sheet with kindergarten and first grade snap words went home. Any highlighted words on the sheet are words your child still needs practice writing. We will be doing spelling activities for the remainder of the year to review these words; however, it wouldn't hurt to practice them at home as well!
Our first grade Field Day is scheduled for Wednesday, June 8th. Parents are invited to join for the outdoor field day activities in the morning. A time for our Goldilocks and the Three Bears presentation for that day will be coming soon!
We are running low on pencils and glue for the classroom. If you are interested in donating, we would greatly appreciate it!!
Have a great weekend!!
*5.13.22*
In phonics this week, we continued to learn more about common bloopers kids make and listened to some reading videos of students making errors. The kids worked together to figure out the r-controlled vowel errors that kid readers made and fixed them. In the middle of the week, we looked at some commonly misspelled words and talked about why kids often make bloopers with those words. The kids worked together to think of ways to remember the words (saw - See A W, Where? There Who? Their) and so on. Towards the end of the week, we looked closely at snap words and sorted them into two categories - Words that are spelled how they sound and tricky words. Most of our snap words fell into the category of "tricky." The kids learned that when we have tricky words, we look for the part that is tricky and think of a rule to remember it - most of the time the rules were already created for us! (ex: digraphs, blends, vowel teams, silent e, r-controlled vowels, word endings, etc...).
In reading, we listened closely to the text Whistle for Willie. The kids listened to enjoy, listened closely for vocabulary words, and listened closely to make inferences/write a book review. The kids are beginning to complete written responses independently with beginning sentence prompts. Next week we will move to nonfiction where we learn about frog and butterfly life cycles.
In math, we spent the end of unit 6 looking at the heights of the Emperor and Little Blue penguins and compared the heights. We talked about how measuring strips are really just vertical number lines and we can find missing numbers on a measuring strip and comparing heights on a measuring strip the same way we find missing numbers on a number line and compare distances on a number line. At the end of the unit, we made our own penguins in groups of two to help us count and make observations when skip counting by 2s.
In writing workshop, the kids are continuing to work on their writing reviews. Each day I model another piece the students can include in their reviews (state their opinion, sneak peak, comparison, make a recommendation, give it a rating, tell a small story, etc...) and then the kids work to add it to their own writing. At the end of this writing unit, the kids will have a published opinion writing review and a published opinion on their favorite object in their collection.
The kids are continuing to be tested on all 108 first grade snap words. We got through half of the words this week and will finish the rest of the words this coming week. At the end of the testing, a sheet will come home that highlights the first grade words your child still needs to work on.
Coming Up/Important Info...
We have a mystery reader on Thursday, May 19th at 2:15.
We have our May birthdays party for Matthew, Seline, and Jaxson on Friday, May 20th at 2:00.
There is no school from Thursday, May 26th - Monday, May 30th.
Have a great weekend!!!
*5.6.22*
We've been busy the last couple weeks! Here's a look at what we've done...
In phonics, we began our final unit which focuses on r-controlled vowels (ar, or, and the many sounds of "er" (er, ur, ir). Many words with r-controlled vowels are spelled as bloopers. The kids learned that everyone makes bloopers when reading and writing and it's important to learn from the bloopers so that we do not make the mistakes again. In this unit we have learned that it's important to use our ears to listen to the sounds in words, but also important to use our eyes to see what looks right. Today, we looked at the different ways to hear the "air" sound. "-ere" "-ear" "-ai" and "-are."
In reading the last couple of weeks, we looked at nonfictions books about the moon and space. The kids learned so many interesting facts about the moons, planets, and our solar system. We complete a couple of moon and planet projects and listened closely to some important vocabulary words. The kids are also continuing to work independently while I meet with small reading groups. Next week we will look closely at a nonfiction book, Whistle for Willie.
In math, we are continuing to use penguins to help us solve larger addition and subtraction story problems/equations to 20. The kids learned how to read story problems carefully to determine if the start is missing (__+6=10 pr __-6=10), change/part is missing (4+__=10 or 16-__=10) or result is missing (4+6=__ or 16-6=__). Determining the missing result is the easiest type of problems for students to solve. We have needed extra practice with determining the missing start or change/part. Next week we will be wrapping up unit six before we start our final math unit.
In writing workshop, the kids started writing reviews about some of their favorite things (favorite restaurant, favorite, movie, favorite book, favorite toy, etc...). Similar to writing their opinion about their favorite object in their collection, the kids are working on stating their opinion and adding many reasons why. They are having fun trying to persuade the reader why they should go to their favorite restaurant, buy their favorite toy, or read their favorite book. We are starting our reviews out with questions (Have you ever tried ice cream from Stewart's?), comparing their favorite to other places (Stewart's ice cream is better than any other ice cream place because they have many flavors to choose from!) and rating the reviews at the end (I give Stewart's 5 stars!). We will continue to work more on our reviews next week.
Coming Up/Important Info...
This was our LAST week of spelling! Over the next few weeks, we will be completing first grade spelling snap word tests to see what words the kids need to work on individually. After, the kids will get a list of all their words and spend the remainder of the year completing spelling activities to review those words!
We have a mystery reader on Thursday, May 12th at 2:15.
We have our marble party on Friday, May 13th! Please do not forget to bring in a stuffed animal on that day! We will also watch a movie!
Our ABC countdown until the end of the year is right around the corner! A calendar with all of our end-of-the-year countdown events went home today.
New photos are posted! See "School Photos!"
Have a great weekend!!
*4.14.22*
We had a lot of fun this week learning about Earth Day and doing spring activities! The kids will be bringing home eggs that they decorated today!
In reading, we listened closely to the text Clarabelle by Chris Peterson. It was a long book, but the kids learned so many interesting facts about dairy cows! At the end of the week, they made a brochure all about dairy cows, writing the most interesting facts they learned from the book. We will continue to enjoy some nonfiction books after break with a unit all about space.
In phonics, we finished unit 4 and completed our Vowel Town! The kids worked and were amazed at how many words there are in our town with vowel teams. I will take a picture and post it to our website! After break, we will be starting our final phonics unit.
In math, we are continuing to use penguins to help solve addition and subtraction equations to 20. We spent a couple of days making flap cards where the students had to build a number from 10-20 using stickers and then use the flap cards to make all the equations in the fact family (learning that doubles only have two facts in their fact family). Next week we will look more at story problems and figuring out patterns to help us solve more challenging addition and subtraction equations.
In writing, we are continuing to write about our collection of favorite items. Some students are beginning to write about other objects in their collection, other than their favorite object. We are learning how to expand on our writing but not only including our opinion, but how to add other peoples' opinions who agree with ours. The kids got to walk around the room and write their opinions about other students' collections. We are also using an opinion writing checklist to make sure we are including all the important parts of opinion writing pieces.
Important Info/Coming Up...
There is no school tomorrow April 15th - Friday, April 22nd.
A Sign-up Genius was created to donate items for our moon dough project on Friday, April 29th. If you signed up, the link is below. Thank you to those helping out!!
Moon Dough Sign-ups
Our April Birthdays party is on Friday, April 29th from 2-2:45.
Have a great weekend/Easter/Vacation!
*4.8.22*
The kids were so excited to learn our last vowel team this week so that we could look at Rasheed's blueprints! We learned the final vowel team, "igh" with our key word being "light." We discovered that Rasheed's blueprints were designs for the class to build a vowel town. After observing the pictures and words (rainbow, train, boat, lighthouse, sheep, clouds, etc...) the kids learned that all the pictures they will be building on our vowel town have a vowel team. The vowel town looks great! I will post a photo as soon as it's done. We will finish our vowel town next week and start our final phonics unit after April break.
In reading, we listened closely to the chapter "The Tree" from Poppleton Forever. The kids found the book funny when Poppleton tried to give the tree a bone and a piece of cheese to make it look better. In the end, the kids learned that all the tree needed to grow its leaves was love. We finished the book out today writing about the important story elements. Next week we will move to nonfiction where we listen to a book about dairy cows!
In math we are moving along in chapter 6. The kids are continuing to practice addition and subtraction strategies to 20 with the help of penguins. We worked on doubles with penguin eggs (1 penguin lays 2 eggs, 2 lay 4, 3 lay 6, etc...) and using the strategy of make 10 to turn a 9+ fact into a 10+ fact (ex: 9+6= turns into 10+5). We will learn many more strategies the children can use to help quickly solve facts to 20.
In writing workshop, we started our opinion writing unit! The kids are having a lot of fun writing about their favorite objects in their collections. We talked about the importance of giving reasons why when stating your opinion using words and phrases such as ("for example," "because," "Also," and "Another reason is..." We will continue to build on our writing about our collections.
Important Info/Coming Up...
We will have two mystery reader visit next week!
April Scholastic book orders are due by Thursday, April 14th.
There is no school from Friday, April 15th - Friday, April 22nd.
On Friday, April 29th, we will be doing a moon dough project as we begin to learn about space. There are several items we will need to complete this project. Please see the Sign-up Genius below. The items are due by Wednesday, April 27th.
Moon Dough Craft
Have a great weekend!!
*4.1.22*
Happy April Fool's Day! The kids are enjoying our read aloud, April Fool's Surprise by Abby Klein. They are full of jokes today! Here is a look at the week...
In reading, we listened closely to the book Tops and Bottoms by Janet Stevens. The kids listened for important vocabulary words (hare, harvest, clever, risky, and scowl. We then listened closely to discuss the story. We thought about the lesson bear learns at the end of the story and worked on finding specific examples within the text to support our answers. Next week we will listen closely to the chapter "The Tree" in Poppleton Forever.
In phonics, Rasheed told us that he has some important blueprints to share with us, but we first have to finish learning all of our vowel teams. This week we added the vowel teams "ue," "ew" "aw" and "au" to our vowel team chart. The kids are catching on that there are vowel teams that make the same sounds and some vowel teams that make different sounds. We have one more vowel team to learn next week before we can take a look at Rasheed's blueprints!
In math, we finished our geometry unit! We ended the unit playing Guess My Shape and completing fraction sorts. We reviewed the different attributes to describe 2D shapes and sorted shapes based on their attributes. Next week we will start Unit 6- using penguins to help us solve a variety of equations and story problems.
In writing workshop, we finished publishing and celebrated our final Mo Willems' stories! The kids added color and a front cover to their books and then shared the stories in small groups. The kids added the stories to their writing portfolios (which will go home at the end of the year!) Our next writing unit will begin on Monday - opinion writing.
Important Info...
A note went home on Monday about our final writing unit, which begins next week. Please send your child to school with a bag/shoebox/container of some of their favorite items (sports cards, dolls, stickers, pictures, toys, etc...) on Monday, April 4th. The kids will be choosing their favorite items from their collection to write about. They will not be able to participate in the writing activities without these collections.
We have a mystery reader on Thursday, April 7th at 2:15.
New photos are posted! See "School Photos."
Have a great weekend!!
*3.25.22*
Another week has gone by quickly! We are getting close to finishing up another phonics, math, and writing workshop unit.
In reading, we listened closely to the text Stand Tall, Molly Lou Melon by Patty Lovell. The kids learned about what it means to stand tall for who you are and what you believe in. They learned some important vocabulary words like foolish, fumble, glee, revealed, and proudly. We spent a couple of days talking about the book; finding examples of how Molly Lou stood tall and finding specific examples to support character traits. Next week we will listen closely to the book Tops and Bottoms by Janet Stevens.
In phonics, Rasheed came back!! He brought some pictures with him of buildings he visited in NYC. Today he told us that he had blueprints of a construction project we will work on, but told us we have to finish learning the rest of our vowel teams before we can look at the blueprints! The kids are excited to see them. We learned a few more vowel teams, which we added to our vowel teams chart - oo can make two sounds (like m"oo"n and b"oo"k) and we can hear the same sound with the vowel teams "oy" and "oi." We have 5 more vowel teams to learn before the end of the unit!
In writing workshop, we learned out last writing technique from Mo Willems, adding emotions in our illustrations. After working hard to add this element into their writing, the students then picked their best Mo Willems writing piece and began publishing. We are looking to finish publishing our books by the end of next week and then, we will begin our final writing unit of the year - opinion writing!
In math, we spent the beginning of the week learning about fractions (halves, thirds, and fourths) by playing a BINGO game. Towards the end of the week, we reviewed the attributes of all the 2D and 3D shapes we have learned before starting our Unit 5 assessment. We will move into unit 6 at the end of next week.
Coming Up/Important Info...
We have a mystery reader on Monday, March 28th AND Friday, April 1st!
We will be publishing our Mo Willems story in front of small groups on Friday, April 1st.
We are running low on baby wipes (the kids mostly use them to wipe their hands after special). If you have any extra at home, we would love to use them in the classroom!
Just a reminder that we cannot have gluten, peanut/tree nut and dairy snacks in the classroom. Some of the kids are finishing up their lunch during snack time and I have had to tell some of the kids to put those food items away. If you could separate lunch foods from snack foods, that will make it easier for kids to eat a safe snack list snack.
New photos have been posted under "School Photos!"
Thank you and have a great weekend!!
*3.18.22*
Happy Friday! The kids had a lot of energy towards the end of the week with our visit from the leprechaun, our March birthdays party, and the warm weather:) Here's a look at the week...
In reading, we listened closely to the book The Big Trip by Valeri Gorbachev. The kids learned that the characters (goat and pig) were very similar to elephant and piggie; one looked at the glass half empty and one looked at the glass half full. We listened to important vocabulary words and talked about the theme (friendship); two people can be good friends even if they are very different. Next week we will be listening closely to the book Stand Tall, Molly Lou Melon.
In phonics, we are still missing Rasheed! We got another letter from him today showing us some of the adventures he's been on in NYC. We learned that just like a screwdriver has more than one job (one of the tools Rasheed found at his construction site) some vowel teams (ex: "ow") make more than one sound. We compared words like fl"ow"er with words like rainb"ow." The kids are really beginning to understand how to use vowel teams when reading and writing. Rasheed told us he would be back soon and we can't wait to learn even more vowel teams!
In writing, we continued to work on our Mo Willems writing stories. The kids continued to add elements modeling Mo Willems and we focused on POP OUT words which use all uppercase letters and adding different kinds of punctuation (? , . ! ... ; etc). The kids then tried to add it to their own stories. We will spend next week finishing up adding more Mo Willems elements. It looks like we will be publishing and ready to share our stories by the first week of April!
Finally in math, we continued to work more with 3D shapes. We played more games of Guess My Shape? and worked with using polydrons. The kids built cubes and square pyramids with polydrons and were able to break the shapes apart to see the different 2D faces that make up the 3D shapes. Towards the end of the week, we made 3x3 grid patterns and then turned them into quilts by rotating the shapes. We learned that rotational symmetry means the pattern looks the same when rotated and no rotational symmetry means the pattern looks different when rotated; a big concept for first graders! We will be finishing our geometry unit within the next couple of weeks.
Below are pictures of all items in our lost and found. Please let me know if any of the stuff is yours!
New photos will be posted soon!
Have a wonderful weekend!!
*3.11.22*
This week in math we started learning about 3D shapes. The kids learned attributes to describe 3D shapes, sorted 3D shapes, and went on a 3D shape hunt. Some important vocabulary words to discuss with your child at home are vertices, faces, attributes, and edges.
In phonics, we learned that Rasheed has taken a trip to NYC! He was missing for awhile and the kids were all worried! He is spending time in NYC to learn more about words. This week we continued to learn about vowel teams, reviewing ee, ea, oa, ai, and ay. We created a vowel teams linking chart as a resource to help us when reading and writing words with vowel teams. We still have many more vowel teams to learn!
In reading, we looked at a nonfiction book titled Volcanoes by Anne Schreiber. The kids were fascinated with all the interesting facts about volcanoes. Some important vocabulary words we listened for were magma, lava, eruption, caldera, and surface. The kids listened to enjoy the story and listened to provide evidence from the text explaining why volcanoes are dangerous. Next week we will listening closely to a fictional story.
In writing, the kids continue to be actively engaged in our Mo Willems author study unit! We used Mo Willems' pigeon books this week to look at how he organizes his writing, how he uses motion lines, and how he uses all uppercase letters. The kids are doing great modeling his style of writing. Ask your child about our whole class pigeon book about "Floppy Wants a New Nose" and our whole class elephant and piggie book about Trolly and Rolly wanting to go on a trip, but Rolly not being able to fit in any vehicle!
Important Information...
Monday, March 14th is College Day. Wear your favorite college gear to school and take part in trivia activities!!
There is a half day of school on Wednesday, March 16th with an early dismissal at 11:30.
Our St. Patrick's Day party is on Thursday, March 17th. Please see the Sign-up Genius link below.
St. Patrick's Day Party
We will celebrate our birthday friends, Colton, Fynlee, and Leo on Friday, March 18th for our March birthdays party!
The Scholastic Book Fair is coming this week! Our class will be shopping during their scheduled library special on Thursday, March 17th. If your child is planning to buy books, please send money to school in a sealed/labeled envelope on that day.
During whole group reading, I often use Epic! as a resource for books. Kids can also create individual accounts to read/listen to reading at home and I highly recommend this website! It has great leveled, engaging books for kids and I believe is is free to create an account! See the link below.
Epic!
We have been doing spelling based on when the students have been introduced to new snap words in our phonics unit; however, it is been inconsistent. To keep some consistency until the end of the year, we will finish out our spelling units with weekly words/tests until we have gone through all the new first grade snap words (whether or not they have been introduced in phonics or not). This will give us some time to spend the last month or two of the school year just focusing on the words the kids still have not mastered (reading and writing).
We are running low on shared snacks and sharpened pencils! If you are willing to donate these to our class, we would greatly appreciate it!!
Have a great weekend!!
*2.11.22*
Happy Friday! We have had a productive week!
We are continuing to take a break with new spelling words/tests until after February break.We are spending these next couple of weeks reviewing kindergarten and first grade snap words that students are expected to know how to read/write up until this point in first grade (you have probably seen the tests coming home). This is nothing they have to study for; however, once we are done with all the word tests, I will send home highlighted words the kids still need to practice. Please be on the lookout for this within the next couple of weeks. After the break, we will begin unit 4 of phonics where we will learn new snap words and have new spelling lists.
In reading, we have continue to listen closely to Mo Willems' books, focusing on Elephant and Piggie. The kids listened to several of Mo Willems' Elephant and Piggie books and discussed what they noticed across the books. The kids learned that the books are mostly about two characters who are very different from one another (one is happy/positive and the other is sad/negative) but still the best of friends. In most of the books, Elephant and Piggie also have some sort of adventure where a problem occurs. Last week we focused on Mo Willems' pigeon books. In these books, the kids listened closely to learn that Pigeon is an angry character who always wants something (which he either doesn't get or has to work hard to get) or has to do something he does not want to do. Pigeon is usually angry and thinks a lot about himself. This has led into our newest writing workshop unit using Mo Willems' as a mentor author.
In writing workshop, the kids have begun to create their elephant and piggie and pigeon type characters. Similar to Mo Willems' Pigeon and Elephant and Piggie, the kids sketched, colored, and named a characters of their own. The kids also decided on the theme to their stories (what their Pigeon character wants/doesn't want to do and the adventure their Elephant and Piggie character will go on). Towards the end of the week, the kids began to write their stories using speech bubbles and thinking bubbles to write what their characters were thinking and saying. The kids are having so much fun with this unit and look forward to it every day!
In math, we went to the southern hemisphere where we learned about the King and Rockhopper penguins. By first measuring our height in inches, the kids then learned how tall the King and Rockhopper penguins are and compared the heights. We saw that measuring height in inches on a measuring strip is like using a number line. We can compare the height of penguins like we compare different numbers on a number line. We will continue this activity next week completing unit 4 in math! Unit 5 will begin after February break.
Important Information...
If you have not yet sent spare clothing with your child this year (back from the beginning of the year), please do not forget to send in some clothing. We had a few accidents this week (toilet, snow, etc...) and if the kids do not have clothes to change into, we have to call home and have some brought to school. At this time, there are no cloths available in the nurse's office.
We are using the Chromebooks a couple times a week and some of the kids have brought in their own headphones from home. If you would like your child to use their own personal headphones when using the Chromebooks, please send them to school in a labeled plastic bag.
Please do not forget to send your child to school with a water bottle. Also, please make sure they only have a water bottle filled with water (no juice, soda, etc...). If they have a separate bottle of juice for lunch, they can keep it in their backpack.
Our Valentine's Day party will be in the afternoon on Monday, February 14th. The kids will receive their valentines, have a healthy snack, and do a Valentine's Day craft.
We will celebrate our 100th Day of school (which is actually on Monday!) on Tuesday, February 15th. We have fun activities planned throughout the day!
We will celebrate our February birthday friends (Ava and Grayson) on Friday, February 18th.
There is no school Monday, February 21st - Friday, February 25th for our winter holiday break.
Have a wonderful weekend!!
*1.28.22*
I hope everyone had a good week. Here's a look at what we did!
In phonics we finished unit 3! The kids ended the unit playing phonics games that reviewed all the strategies we learned throughout the unit - looking all the way through words. We looked closely at word shortcuts with contractions and played "Go Fish" and "Memory" with phonogram ending rhymes. We were able to review beginning and end blends, common word endings, and phonograms. We will take a break before we start unit 4 so that we can apply these new strategies to our reading and writing.
In writing, we also finished up our nonfiction teaching unit! The kids spent this week publishing their best nonfiction teaching piece (talking about what makes it the best piece - 1. Does it have a good introduction/conclusion? 2.Did it teach us facts and not opinions? 3. Did you spell snap words correctly and apply spelling strategies? 4. Did you have spaces between words and use your neatest handwriting? 5. Did you have an uppercase letter at the beginning of sentences and punctuation at the end? We will be sharing our finished pieces in small groups on Monday and will add them to our writing portfolios (which go home at the end of the year). You may see nonfiction writing pieces come home that the students decided not to publish. Next week we start our author study unit on Mo Willems. We will begin by watching some videos about Mo Willems and his writing and immerse ourselves in MANY Mo Willems books.
This week in math the kids had a checkpoint (quiz) on what we have been learning so far with numbers lines. So far in this unit, the kids need to be able to fill in missing numbers on a number line (determining what the pattern is before filling in the missing numbers - skip counting by 1s, 5s, or 10s) and add/subtract by 1s and 10s using a number line. We will continue to practice this in school by also learning some new math games.
During reading, we listened closely to the books Duck!Rabbit! by Amy Krouse Rosenthal and Daft Bat by Jeanne Willis. The theme for both books was point-of-view. We listened closely to enjoy the books, listened closely for important vocabulary words, and listened closely to talk about the books. The kids learned that people see things differently and it's okay to a have a different point-of-view than someone else. We were also able to compare the two books for how they are similar and how they are different. We will spend next week reading Mo Willems' pigeon books.
The kids have been doing an excellent job during choice time; picking activities to work on independently or with a partner. Activities the kids can choose from include writing activities, phonics activities, reading activities, and math activities. During their independent/partner choice time, I am able to meet with small groups of students for differentiated reading groups. I'm very proud of how far the kids have come since the beginning of the year!
Important Information:
An email went home last week about our Valentine's Day party. A Sign-up Genius link for the party is below. We are still in need of a Valentine's Day craft. Valentines are due next Friday, February 4th. We will be making Valentine's Day bags on Monday so that the kids can pass out their valentines as they bring them in. Attached to the email was our class list. If you need any of this information, please let me know!
Valentine's Day party Sign-up
Our new supplemental starts the week of January 31st. We will now have an extra music class every day 4.
We have a mystery reader on Friday, February 4th at 2:15.
There will be no spelling next week, the week of January 31st. In place of spelling for the next couple of weeks, I will be testing the kids on their spelling and reading of kindergarten snap words.
Have a wonderful weekend!!
*1.21.22*
I can't believe it's almost the end of January! In the next couple of weeks, we will be finishing up a couple of our units! Here's a look at the week...
In phonics we learned how many of our snap words are super power words, meaning, we can use that super power snap word to help us make so many new words! On their own, the kids worked to see if they could find super power words that could be used to make other words. Many of them are! Towards the end of the week we went back to learning about contractions and talked about how contractions are just shortcuts to reading and writing. The kids worked in small groups to learn the contraction shortcuts for many common contractions and also looked closely at contractions to see what small words make up the shortcuts. We will be finishing unit 3 for phonics next week!
In reading, we looked closely at the book The Invisible Boy by Trudy Ludwig. The theme of the week was kindness. The kids learn how one of the characters displayed kindness by making another student feel not so invisible. We listened closely for some important vocabulary words and also worked together to find specific examples form the book to support our claims. Next week we will listen closely to the book Duck!Rabbit!
During math this week, we learned a new workplace game - Frog Jump. In this game, the kids practiced adding and subtracting on a number line. The kids were able to play the game with a partner as well. Towards the end of the week, we went back to using our interactive number line to work with numbers up to 120. The students learned that it is important to see what numbers are already on the number line and the pattern in order to determine missing numbers. We will continue to use the interactive number line next week and also learn some new workplace games.
This week during writing workshop was our last week to add to our nonfiction teaching books. The kids continued to work on strengthening their introductions and conclusions and also reviewed the importance of writing all the way through unknown words using two strategies - "Say it, slide it, hear it, write it" and remembering to include a vowel in every syllable of a word (breaking words apart into syllables and writing one syllable at a time). Next week we will pick our best nonfiction writing piece and begin publishing.
Important Information:
There will be spelling this coming week, the week of January 24th.
Our January birthday party celebrating Benjamin B. and Lizzy will be on Friday, January 28th.
An important email went out today about our Valentine's Day party. It will be held on Monday, February 14th. The link to sign-up for items is below. Please have items in by the day of the party. The email also provided information about classroom valentines. Please have your child make a valentine for every student in the class (there is a copy of the class list in the email that went out) and return them to school by Friday, February 4th. This will give the valentines time to remain untouched before the party. We will be making valentine bags in school so there is no need to do anything at home for this. If you have any questions, please reach out to me!
Valentine's Day Party Sign-ups
Have a wonderful weekend!
*1.14.22*
Happy Friday and a nice, long weekend! It was a week full of a lot of nonfiction, learning about Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
In reading we listened closely to an article on "Dr. Martin Luther King Jr." The kids learned the meaning of some important expert words (peaceful protests, segregation, races, and equally). The article lead to some great discussions. Please ask your child to share what they learned! After reading the article a few times, the kids had to think about the main idea and several examples to support the main idea. We are also practicing looking back within the text (in this case, article) to find specific examples to support our thoughts.
In writing workshop, we spent this week learning about good introductions and conclusions to our nonfiction teaching books. Looking at some mentor texts, we noticed that many authors begin with a sound word (ex: BEEP! BEEP! Do you hear that? That is a sound of a fire engine coming to the rescue!) or a question (Ex: Have you ever wondered about ___?). We noticed that endings usually end with an excited feeling sentence that wraps up our main idea (Ex: Now you can do you best to stay green!) We have one more week working on our nonfiction teaching books before we begin publishing and sharing out stories.
In math we started a new unit - Leap Frogs on the Number Line. Using an interactive number line, the kids worked to fill in missing numbers from 0-120. We talked about number patterns and then practiced using a number line to answer simple addition and subtraction equations. This will help the students use a number line for bigger numbers (and equations) later on in the unit.
Finally, in phonics, we learned the importance of first scanning a book we are going to read to see if there are snap words we already know. This strategy helps build confidence so that we can tell ourselves, "I know most of these words, so I can read!" The kids practice looking for snap words in their own good fit books and were surprised at how many they found. If we can read those words in a snap and only break apart the bigger words, we are becoming more fluent readers. We spent the end of the week learning new snap words to add to our snap word wall. We are almost done with unit 3!
Important Info/Coming Up...
Our January Scholastic order has been submitted! Hopefully the books will be here sooner than later!
There is no school on Monday, January 17th in observance of Martin Luther King Jr. Day. Enjoy your day off!
We have a mystery reader on Friday, January 21st.
Our January birthday party for Lizzy and Benjamin B. will be on Friday, January 28th.
Many new photos have been posted! See "School Photos!"
Have a great, long weekend!!
*1.7.22*
Happy New Year!! I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday break and time to relax. I want to thank everyone for the wonderful gifts, as well, especially the recipes!! It was by far my favorite gift:) Here's a look at this week...
In reading, we spent the week listening closely to A Bad Case of Stripes by David Shannon. The kids listened to enjoy the story, listened for important vocabulary words, and listened to talk about the story. Independently, the students had to think about the lesson Camilla learned and write about her lesson. This was more challenging to do on their own instead of as a whole class, but they did a great job! Next week we will listen closely to some nonfiction texts on Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
In phonics, we spent more time look closely all the way through words for reading and writing. The kids worked on taking blends/digraphs (bl, ch, fr, gr, etc...), phonograms (-unk, -ank, -old, -elt, etc...), and word endings (-ly, -ed, -ing, etc...) to put together and make bigger words (ex: bl/ink/ing - blinking). Towards the end of the week, the kids learned that every syllable needs a vowel and read a story where they to find words with missing vowels and add them in. I am encouraging the students to do the same when they are writing their own stories - If a word has two syllables, it should have at least two vowels.
During writing workshop, we continued to add to our nonfiction teaching books, using a tip sheet for guidance, the kids had to pick one tip (introducing the topic, ending with a thought/idea, writing a sentence or two, using expert words, or drawing pictures with labels) to add to their writing. We talked about how the tips make our writing even better! They are doing a great job writing a table of contents, choosing the appropriate paper, and adding more to their teaching books. This unit will be wrapped up near the end of January.
In math, we spent the week comparing numbers using cube trains. The kids learned that they can compare two numbers by writing a subtraction equation (9-4=__) or an addition equation (4+__=9). When adding, you count up from the smaller number to the bigger number and when subtracting, you subtract the smaller train from the bigger train.There is no right or wrong way to solve comparing problems. The kids can choose which is best for them!
Coming Up...
There is no school on Monday, January, 17th in observance of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day.
A January Scholastic order form went home yesterday. Please send orders by Thursday, January 13th.
There is no spelling this coming week (the week of January 10th) as we are caught up with the newest snap words we have added to our snap word wall. We will resume the following week with new snap words and more challenging challenge words!
Reminders and Extra Info...
We are running low on the following items in the classroom: snacks, markers, crayons, colored pencils. If you wouldn't mind donating any of these items, we would greatly appreciate it! I have a shared supply of markers, colored pencils, and crayons for students who are missing colors, but it seems many of us are without. Many students are also saying they do not have an individual snack each day and I have run out of shared snacks. Please do not forget to send a daily snack to school.Thank you!
There are still some openings for mystery readers! Please let our room parents know if you are still interested in coming in! We can even do remote readings if you are not comfortable coming into the school.
New photos coming soon!
Thank you so much again for the wonderful holiday gifts!!! Have a great weekend!
*12.17.21*
Thank you to everyone who took time from their busy lives this time of year to meet with me. It was so wonderful to "meet" all of you and talk about your children! We have some fun activities to bring us to the end of the year!
In reading, we continued to learn about holidays around the world. This week we watched videos and learned some fun facts about Las Posadas, Chinese New Year, Diwali, and St. Lucia. The kids learned so much about these holidays that I am sure they would love to share with you!
In phonics this week, we continued to learn more about word endings. We began the week learning about the letter "y" at the end of the word replacing a vowel. The kids saw that the letter "y" can make an "e" or an "i" sound. The did a good job sorting words with the "i" or "e" ending sound and also practiced reading some words with "y" endings in a story. At the end of the week, we learned about blends/digraphs at the ends of words. We learned that it is important to read all the way through the end of the word making sure to also read end blends. We transferred this to reading and writing when we read a poem called Making a Smoothie and had to find end blends, read some nonfiction writing stories adding important end blends, and tried writing our own story about the beach using end blends that we know. We will continue to look at various word endings as we move to the second half of this unit.
During writing workshop, we spent this week thinking of a new topic we know a lot about, writing a table of contents with at last 3 chapter titles, and then choosing the correct writing paper to fit what we want to write about (How to..., Different Kinds of..., or telling facts). We are learning how to organize our writing while also teaching our readers important facts about our topic. We will continue to build on our table of contents next week and after the holiday break.
In math, we spent this week learning about ten and some more which helped us play a new math game, 50 or bust. The kids learned how to build ten and a number, write ten and a number, and use double ten frame workmats. We also began using our number racks to compare groups of numbers to see how many more and how many fewer. We will spend a lot more time using subtraction strategies to solve subtraction equations and story problems.
Important Info...
Next week is our holiday spirit week. Please see the note that went home on what to do/wear each day to school!
Our winter project day is in the afternoon on Monday, December 20th. Thank you to the parents who volunteered to come in and organize/run a project for our class!
We will have a holiday sing-along assembly on Thursday, December 23rd. Unfortunately this is only for the students. I will be sure to take pictures!
Next Thursday, December 23rd is our Welcome Winter party. The kids will be making popcorn and watching a holiday movie. Kids are allowed to wear pajamas to school that day (also as part of our holiday spirit week).
There will be no spelling pretest/test this coming week (week of December 20th). The only homework will be to read/fill out the daily reading log (due Thursday, December 23rd!)
There is no school from Friday, December 24th - Friday, December 31st. School will resume on Monday, January 3rd.
Gingerbread Fred journals are due after the holiday break. You do not need to send Gingerbread Fred back to school, only the journal and any photos/pictures. Please return the journals to school by Tuesday, January 4th. The kids will share one entry from their journal with the class.
New photos are posted! See "School Photos."
A new Scholastic book order form will be coming home in January!
I hope you have a wonderful holiday break!!! See you in 2022!
*12.10.21*
Happy Friday! It's hard to believe we are almost halfway through December. It has been a pleasure meeting with you at conferences and spending time talking about your child:) Here is what we did this week...
This week we started unit 3 in phonics. This unit focuses on word endings that are commonly seen and used in words (-ed, -ing, -er, -s, es). The students practiced taking snap words (play, jump, etc...) and adding different endings to see if they could make new words. They learned that from one word, play, they could make many new words (playing, played, plays, player, players, playful). At the end of the week, we learned about the different sounds of -ed. The kids learned that -ed can make three different sounds "id," "d," and "t." Next week we will look at y as a vowel at the end of a word and end of the word blends.
For reading this week we started learning about different winter holidays around the world. The kids watched educational videos on Christmas, Hannukkah, and Kwanzaa and then had a discussion about interesting facts and things they might see during that holiday. Next week we will learn about four more winter holidays around the world as well as listen to some holiday read alouds.
In math, the kids learned and played some more math games that had them use strategies and think about the different ways to make numbers. It was a challenge, but they did a great job with it! We are continuing to use our number racks to look for patterns and will be using the number racks to help us answer story problems. Next week we will begin looking at strategies to help us add and subtract all the way up to 20!
During writing workshop this week we used the first grade informational checklist to help see how we are doing with our teaching books. Using a student example, the kids went through the checklist to see what the student did well and what they could work on. The kids then used the same checklist on their own books. The kids used the "not yet" on their checklists as goals to improve their writing. Although this may seem difficult for kids to do, with guidance they were able to add to add more to their stories. Next week we will start bend 2 in the unit in which the kids will create a table of contents and chapters to their nonfiction teaching books.
Coming Up...
We have a mystery reader next Friday, December 17th.
On Monday, December 20th we have our winter craft project afternoon. For this, we need your help! We are looking for parent volunteers (we need one more) to bring in a winter project/craft (enough for 23 students) to run a center in the classroom. The kids look forward to it every year and we appreciate the help! The sign-up link is below.
Winter holiday project sign-up
Our Welcome Winter party will be on Thursday, December 23rd. There are a few items needed for this party. The kids will watch a winter movie and have popcorn/juice boxes. The sign-up is below.
Welcome Winter Party
Have a great weekend!!
*12.3.21*
Happy December! It's hard to believe we are done with our first trimester of the school year! Here's a look at the week...
We took a break from phonics this week to dive into reading groups. They kids have been doing an excellent job working independently or with a partner while I meet with small groups. Some activities they completed were reading to someone, reading to themselves, journal writing, snap words spelling/reading, and math workplaces. In reading groups, we talked about important story elements in our fictional text. I have been meeting individually with students in small groups as well to work on building fluency and comprehension. Next week we will start unit 3 of phonics and the plan is to alternate between phonics and guided reading groups.
In writing, we wrote about our favorite memories from November and for our nonfiction teaching books, the kids practiced rereading their stories to omit opinions. Using examples, they learned about facts vs. opinions and how our books should be teaching the reader about our topic, not telling what we think about it. The kids are also learning how to tell more, elaborating on just one fact per page. We will continue to work on adding more details to our teaching books and how to write creative openings and endings.
In math, we spent most of the time this week learning new games to help improve learning different ways to make the numbers 5-10. In one game, Spill the Beans, the kids "spilled the beans" on the table and made an equation counting the red beans + white beans. In the game Make the Sum, the kids flipped ten frame cards and collected pairs or groups of numbers that added to equal a given target number. All of these games have a goal of building addition fact fluency.
In reading this week, the kids listened to two different nonfiction texts about whales and dolphins. They had to listen closely to the text to have a discussion about what they learned and at the end of the week, compare the two animals based on information learned from the books. Next week we will begin a nonfiction unit on holidays around the world which will go until the holiday break.
Important Information...
THERE WILL BE NO SPELLING THE WEEK OF DECEMBER 6TH. We have caught up with unit 2 snap words and will take a week off to review snap words and phonics rules from units 1 and 2 until we have added new snap words from unit 3 to our snap word wall.
Wednesday, December 8th and Friday, December 10th are half-days with an early dismissal at 11:30 (11:10 for pick-up friends). PLEASE SEE THE EMAIL SENT A COUPLE WEEKS AGO TO SIGN-UP FOR A CONFERENCE TIME IF YOU HAVE NOT YET DONE SO. Report cards will be available next week.
We are still in need of two parent helpers for our holiday craft afternoon on Monday, December 20th from 1:45-2:45. Please see the Sign-up Genius below if you are interested in volunteering (bringing a craft/supplies for the whole class and running a craft group in the classroom).
Holiday Craft Day Sign-up
We are running low on baby wipes, pencil tip erasers, and extra classroom snacks for friends who may forget snack. If you do not mind contributing, we would love the donations!! Thank you!!
New photos will be posted soon! Have a great weekend!!
*11.22.21*
Happy Thanksgiving week! I hope everyone had a great weekend! I was unable to update our website on Friday, but here is a look at what we did last week...
In phonics we completed unit 2! The kids got their final letter from the SSDA telling us that they were off to help another group of first graders to solve cases. To end our unit, the kids did a walk around the room finding words and decided which case file they could use to help them figure out the word. They did a great job! We will begin unit 3 after Thanksgiving break. We will be taking a break to dive into reading groups (which we also started last week).
In reading, we listened to the story Turkey for Thanksgiving by Eve Bunting. After listening to enjoy the story and listening for vocabulary, the kids worked independently to draw inferences based on character actions. They had a lot of prompting, but worked very hard using clues from the book. We will be moving towards completing reading comprehension activities independently as the year goes on. This week the kids will be listening to a variety of Thanksgiving stories and making their own Thanksgiving Rules book based on the book Thanksgiving Rules by Laurie Friedman.
In math, we finished up unit 2. The kids practiced skip counting and counting pennies, nickels, and dimes by playing Race to 40 and Race to 100 games where they collected and added coins. We will begin unit 3 after Thanksgiving Break. Unit 3 will focus on adding and subtracting bigger numbers, counting, and comparing.
In writing workshop, we continued to work on our nonfiction teaching books. The kids have been learning ways to add more information to their stories. They can look at the illustrations to help them tell more. They can also use the strategy say it, slide it, hear it, write it, for writing unknown words. We talked about the importance of using vocabulary words related to your main topic (for example: In my story about baking, I told the kids it is important to use words like dissolve, knead, temperature, etc...). We are focusing on Thanksgiving writing activities this week and will continue our nonfiction teaching books after the break.
Coming Up...
We have our Thanksgiving celebration tomorrow afternoon, Tuesday, November 23rd.The kids will be making butter/popcorn and taking part in some Thanksgiving activities/crafts.
There is no school from Wednesday, November 24th - Friday, November 26th for the Thanksgiving holiday.
Parent teacher conferences are coming up! We have half days on Wednesday, December 8th, Friday, December 10th, and Tuesday, December 14th for conferences. If you did not yet sign up for a slot, please do so as soon as possible. Report cards will be going home before the conferences. Please see the link below to sign-up.
Conference Sign-up
New pictures are posted!! See "School Photos."
I hope everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving!!
*11.12.21*
Happy Friday! I hope everyone enjoyed their Veteran's Day holiday. I wanted to thank everyone for the birthday gift you got me! What a thoughtful and generous gesture. Thank you so much!! Here is a look at what we did this week...
In phonics we are almost done with unit 2! These weeks are flying by. The kids have been so excited with this second part of the unit. The S.S.D.A. has been sending us clues for case files we need to complete. Case file No.1 was the case of the twin letters. The kids learned that words with double consonants in the middle of the word (little) can be split up to help us better decode the word. Case file No.2 was the case of the sticky letters. The kids learned that words with three consonants at the beginning of the word (three) can be blended together to help us decode the word. Case file No. 3 was the case of the words in disguise. The kids learned that with contractions, there are two words hidden in disguise. Finally today we looked at Case file No. 4 which was the case of the compound word puzzle. The kids learned that some words have two little words hiding that make one bigger word. They have been doing a great job noticing these words in books now, too! We will finish unit 2 next week and then spend some time applying these strategies in a smaller group setting.
In reading this week we read an article about Veteran's Day. The kids learned some important vocabulary words (veteran, tribute, nation, defend, and ceremony) and discussed what they learned about the holiday. Next week we will focus on a fictional story called Turkey for Thanksgiving.
In math this week, we spent more time playing addition and subtraction games using a number line. The kids learned about counting forward and counting backward and looked at different equations that make a given number. We ended the week learning about sea stars, which helped us skip count by 5. We will wrap up unit 2 before Thanksgiving.
During writing workshop, we continued to sketch our facts about things we know a lot about across pages. Some of the kids were even able to start writing their words. The kids also used their writing partner's questions to help add more to their stories. Next week we will spend more time learning strategies that can help us add more details to our nonfiction teaching books.
Coming Up...
Our November birthdays party will be on Friday, November 19th celebrating Brooks, Samantha, and
Our Thanksgiving party will be on Tuesday, November 23rd in the afternoon. We will be using heavy cream to make butter, do a Thanksgiving craft, and pop popcorn. I have created a Sign-up Genius for items we will need. The link is below. Thank you for volunteering!
Thanksgiving Party Sign-ups
Picture retakes will be on Tuesday, November 23rd.
There is no school from Wednesday, November 24th - Friday, November 26th for the Thanksgiving holiday.
Our December conference dates are Wednesday, December 8th, Friday, December 10th, and Tuesday, December 14th. There will be a half day of school on those days with dismissal at 11:30. I sent an email to sign-up for a Google Meet conference time. The link is also below....
Remote Conference Sign-ups
Have a great weekend!
*11.5.21*
I hope everyone had a great Halloween weekend! We accomplished A LOT over the past two weeks!
In reading we spent the week of Halloween reading many Halloween stories, wrote our own version of the 12 days of Halloween, and continued to train reading-to-someone. We made it to 20 minutes of sustained reading with a partner! Hooray! This week in reading, we listened to many versions of Little Red Riding Hood. We compared and contrasted the different versions and also discussed characters, setting, problem, and solution. Next week we will work on writing to build stamina and look closely at a nonfiction article on Veteran's Day.
In phonics, we continue to learn more and more about our silent e case study. To add onto what we have learned from the previous weeks, we saw that when there is a long vowel "e" with a silent e, there are not many words! We learned that most of the time when we hear the long e sound, it is spelled with "ea" or "ee." The kids found many of those examples in their good fit books! We ended the week with a snap word boot camp and the kids loved it! The SSDA sent us a letter in the mail yesterday and told us that we need to be prepared for our next mission. They gave us 5 snap words (little, I'm, into, three, now) that will be helping us with our next mission.
In writing workshop, we started our new nonfiction unit writing what we know a lot about. With a lot of modeling, the kids were able to think of many topics they know a lot about (and then focused in on one of those), state 5 facts about that topic across their fingers, and then draw sketches for each fact. The final step which we will do next week is to begin writing the words to match our sketches. This is always a favorite writing unit! An important part of our facts is that the first page should always tell the reader what their topic is.
In math, we are moving along in unit 2 and spent this week learning a few more math games (one with dominoes which had us practicing our doubles facts to 20!) and continued to use dominoes as a tool to write/add addition equations. On Tuesday we will complete our unit 2 math assessment and spend the remainder of the unit working on activities that review counting by 5s and 10s.
Important Reminders -
The form that was sent to me with our September Scholastic book order has been lost and there were a few books missing from the order. If your child is missing books that you ordered, please let me know ASAP so I can contact Scholastic. Sorry for the inconvenience!
There will be NO SPELLING THE WEEK OF 11/8! A reading log will still be coming home on Monday to complete and return on Friday. We will spend the week applying phonics strategies to CVC, CVCE, CCVC, and CCVCE words (c=consonant, v=vowel, e=e).
Our room parents, Katie and Amber, sent out a sign-up Genius for mystery readers. Thank you so much for doing this! If none of the available dates work for you, please let them know and we will find days/times that work. We want to give everyone interested an opportunity to come into the classroom! The sign-up form is below...
Mystery Reader Sign-ups
Our new end of the day supplemental starts on Tuesday, November 9th. We will now have extra art on day 3 at the end of the day!
There is no school on Thursday, November 11th in observance of Veteran's Day. Thank you to all our veterans!!
New photos were posted last week! See "School Photos."
Information about our Thanksgiving party will be coming out soon!
Don't forget to change the clocks on Sunday! Have a great weekend!!
*10.22.21*
What a fun day and busy week we have had! Here's a look at what we did...
We were fortunate to have a guest reader visit us this week. Seline's dad, Willie, came in to visit the kids and read his book, Love, to the class. They were very focused on the book and asked many questions. The kids shared some great examples of how they show love. Thank you for visiting our classroom!
In phonics, we started unit 2, The Case of the Silent e. We started the week receiving a message from the SSDA (Super Secret Detective Agency) telling us that we are not yet done being word detectives and we have to use what we know to study and look closely at some new words. We have learned so far that 1. The "e" is located at the end of the word. 2. The "e" is silent. 3. The "a" makes a long vowel sound. 4. We need to look out for words like "have." We will continue to learn more about silent e words next week!
In reading, we were able to begin training reading-to-someone. We talked about quietly finding a partner, quickly finding a spot, getting started right away, listening while our partner is reading, and taking turns reading. The kids were able to go 5 minutes following what listen-to-reading looks like and sounds like. For close reading this week, the kids listened to enjoy Stellaluna, listened for important vocabulary words, and listened to talk about the story. We discussed character traits that describe Stellaluna and also learned some facts about bats. Next week we will spend reading listening to and reading Halloween stories!
When working in writing this week, the kids began publishing their best small moments story. The kids reread through their stories and picked the piece they thought included all the important pieces to the unit (uppercase letters at the beginning of our sentences, punctuation, a beginning/middle/end, dialogue, feelings, ellipses, and POP out words. When publishing, the kids are adding color to their pictures and including a front cover. We will finish publishing next week and share our final stories with one another at the end of the week.
In math, we continued to use dominoes to help us solve addition problems. We talked about some important strategies we may use when adding numbers (looking for smaller facts we know, looking for doubles, counting on from the bigger number, etc...). Next week we will use/make flap cards to help us learn about fact families.
Important Info...
Beginning next week, the students will have a "Look, Say, Copy, Cover, Write, Check" packet attached to their reading log to help in practicing spelling words at home. The students spent this past week completing this activity in school so that they could be independent at home. They are to write all of their spelling words in the first column. In the second column, they say each word and then write each word. For the third column, they have to fold the paper on the dotted line and try to write each word without looking. In the final column, they check their spelling from the third column. If they spelled the word wrong, they write it correctly in the last column. If they spelled it right, they put a check mark in the last column. THIS DOES NOT NEED TO BE RETURNED TO SCHOOL. It is an activity to help the kids practice spelling at home. Please let me know if you have any questions!
On Wednesday, October 27th, the kids will be visiting the Book Fair during their library time from 12:45-1:30. They will be able to purchase books during this time. If you would like for your child to purchase books, please send money in a labeled envelope and I will make sure it gets to the Book Fair safely.
On Wednesday, October 27th we will be having a pumpkin investigation! The kids will get to weigh a pumpkin, decide if it sinks or floats, measure the pumpkin, count the seeds, and more activities. We will make sure the kids have their smock on for this activity. If your child does not have a smock in school, please do not forget to send one in!
Friday, October 29th is our Halloween party! We will spend the day doing fun Halloween activities! Please send your child to school with his or her costume on. Our Halloween parade will be held at 10:00 in the morning. Parents/Spectators are invited to stand outside as we parade around the school. We will be having our Halloween party in the afternoon from 1:30-2:45.
We are still waiting for the September book order to arrive at school. October's book order will most likely be delayed, as well. Thank you for being patient!
I hope everyone has a great weekend!!
*10.15.21*
Happy Friday! Today we said "goodbye" to the Pumpkin Elf and made some pumpkin elf bookmarks. The kids decided whether they wanted to leave them in school or use them at home. We will be starting a new Ready Freddy book next week - Talent Show Scaredy Pants.
In phonics we have just about wrapped up unit one. The kids looked at names and words and realized that they see so much more now than just letters. They are noticing vowels, vowel sounds, blends, digraphs, little words hiding, and much more! We will graduate from unit one on Monday - The kids will receive diplomas with a word they will try to read and study using everything they have learned from unit one. In unit two, the kids will get to become word detectives.
In math, we finished up unit one where they completed an assessment on using number racks and ten frames. The kids are quickly learning ways to make five and ten to help them efficiently solve problems. In unit two, we will be using dice and dominoes to develop more strategies to solving addition and subtraction problems.
In writing, we are finishing up the final mini lessons that will make our small moment stories that much better! We looked closely at our mentor text, Night of the Veggie Monster, and tried to incorporate some of George McClements techniques into our own writing. Two of the techniques we studied this week were ellipses (...) which we use to build suspense and making sure to write every action so that the reader can create a movie in their head (ex: My fingers become all wiggly. My eyes begin to water. My toes twist and curl up in my shoes.). Next week will we learn about pop out words and put the finishing touches on our stories.
In reading this week we listened closely to the book From Seed to Pumpkin by Wendy Pfeffer. We listened for some important vocabulary words (vines, sprawl, sprout, ripe, cling) and listened to answer questions/understand the life cycle. We will continue to learn more about pumpkins throughout the next few weeks as part of our science curriculum. Outside of our close reading book, we also learned what it looks like and sounds like during read-to-someone. The kids learned to sit EEKK (elbow-elbow-knee-knee), how to quietly find a partner and pick a spot in the room, and how to decide to read (take turns reading, I read-you read) etc... We finally talked about the importance of listening quietly while our partner is reading. Next week the kids will get to try this out, working to build stamina.
Coming Up...
Our October birthdays party celebrating Jasper and Alaina will be on Friday, October 22nd in place of free choice Friday.
We will be starting our weekly spelling next week. Attached to the reading log that goes home on Monday you will see your child's pretest and list of words to study. If your child gets all of the words right on their pretest, a challenge list will be attached instead. We will be practicing the words everyday in school, but you are more than welcome to provide your child with extra practice at home. A list of suggested activities is located on our classroom website under "Homework." Our spelling tests will be every Friday. Please let me know if you have any questions!
Our Halloween party will be on Friday, October 29th at 1:30 in the afternoon. Please see the sign-up sheet that was sent out through email and have food/projects in by the 29th. The kids will be allowed to wear costumes to school that day. Please do not send in any extra accessories, such as weapons. A note will be coming home with more information.
The September Scholastic book order is still waiting to be shipped out. I'm sorry for the delay. I will be submitting the October book order on Monday with hopes this will be shipped quicker than the last!
Our "Boo" project pictures will be posted soon!
Hallowen Party Sign-up
Pumpkin Investigation Sign-up
Have a great weekend!
*10.8.21*
Happy Friday, everyone! What a fun week! The Pumpkin Elf made a visit to our classroom and the kids were super excited! Here is what we did this week...
We are almost done with our first phonics unit. This week we learned some new first grade snap words (but, his, let, run, said, saw, say, then, they, us, yes) by studying them closely, cover/writing/checking them, and using them in sentences. Towards the end of the week, we learned about Super Power Words. Super Power Words are snap words that can be used to make MANY new words. For example - "all" is a super power word because if we know "all," we know ball, call, fall, small, hall, mall, tall, etc... We are beginning to look at all our snap words to see which ones are Super Power Words.
In math, we spent some time this week measuring using our footsteps and popsicle sticks. We learned how to make good estimates based on the actual length of certain objects. We ended the week playing number rack detectives. The kids had to make 10 by sliding beads on the top and bottom rows of their number rack. Working with a partner, they told them the top number of beads and their partner had to guess how many must be on the bottom. We then turned this into an equation. I have ten beads. If 4 are on the top, how many are on the bottom? 10=4+_. We will be finishing up unit one next week.
In writing, we are continuing to work on our small moment stories. The kids learned about the importance of reading with expression (not reading like a robot) by adding ! and ? to their small moments. Connecting with our phonics lesson, the kids learned that if they are struggling with spelling a word, they can look at the snap word wall to see if there is a snap word that can help them spell the word they are struggling with. I built a sand castle. The word "and"from the snap word wall can help the student write sand. We will be finishing up our small moment stories in the next couple of weeks.
During reading, the kids continued to build stamina reading to themselves. I continued to remind them of the importance of choosing Good Fit books that they are able to read. Pretty soon we will be starting reading groups, focusing on individual student needs. For our close reading text this week, the kids listened to Chrysanthemum by Kevin Henkes. The kids learned about the importance of being ourselves. Next week we will listen to From Seed to Plant while learning about pumpkins.
Important Info...
Scholastic Book orders are delayed by weeks this year. They said it could take a month from the time of placing your order to the time of delivery. I will be sure to send home the September order as soon as the books come in! The October order form will be coming home on Tuesday.
There is no school on Monday, October 11th in observance of Columbus Day.
Our October birthday party celebrating Jasper and Alaina will be on Friday, October 22nd.
A Sign-up Genius went out this week to volunteer items/food/crafts for our Halloween party on Friday, October 29th. There are a couple slots still available. Please see the link below. As the date of the party gets closer, we will send home information about costumes.
https://www.signupgenius.com/go/20F0B49ADAE2EA5FB6-halloween2
Have a wonderful, long weekend!!
*10.1.21*
Happy October! We started off the month making a fun fall hedgehog craft. The kids loved it! We will spend every Friday in the fall doing a fall/holiday themed craft!
In phonics this week, we continued to study our friends' names in the class. We added our kindergarten snap words we've been studying to our snap word wall and have looked closely at all of the words (blends, digraphs, little words hiding, vowels, etc...). I am so proud of how much they are noticing when they really look closely at words. Today we introduced 6 new first grade snap words (his, said, saw, say, then, they). They noticed little words "is" and "the" hiding in some of the words. They noticed that "ay" and "ey" make the long "a" sound. They noticed the "th" digraph and they noticed the "ai" vowel team. Very impressive! We will continue to study some new first grade snap words next week and finish studying the student names.
In writing workshop, we took a couple of days off from our small moment stories to write about our memories from September and to write a letter to our custodians for National Custodian Day tomorrow. The students brainstorm some great ideas for both and wrote their own memories page and card using the class ideas. During writing workshop, we talked about how to unfreeze our characters by bringing our stories to life. The kids each tried this on their own by either adding sound words or dialogue to their stories. They learned that by adding just one small suggestion from our mentor author, George McClements, their writing becomes that much better! They also learned how important it is to tell every small step so that the reader feels like they were living the small moment with them. We will continue to work on adding details to our small moments stories next week.
For reading this week, the kids continued to build stamina reading to themselves. We reviewed what read-to-self looks like and sounds like and continued finding good fit books from our classroom library. We are now at 11 minutes of sustained independent reading! For our close reading text this week, we listened to Matthew and Tilly and our theme was friendship. They kids talked about how Matthew and Tilly learned a lesson - It's okay for friends to have disagreements, as long as you talk it out and apologize when something goes wrong. They learned some important vocabulary words (customer, crabbiest, picky, rescued, and squiggly) and listened closely to the book to answer specific questions. Next week we will listen to another fictional story, Chrysanthemum.
In math, we continued to use our number racks to solve equations with the start missing (_+3=7), the change missing (4+_=7), or the result missing (4+3=_). The kids are getting better are realizing they can make 5 or 10 on the number rack so that they are more efficient in solving problems. The kids also got to play several math games including Show me the Numbers and Which Coin Will Win?. The kids learned how to make ten during the first game (filling a ten frame and writing an equation) and learned about probability while counting coins during the second game. We are almost to the end of unit one! Next week we will use the number racks some more to build numbers, solve equations, and play games (Quick! Look!).
Coming Up...
Happy Birthday to Jasper on Sunday, October 3rd!
School Pictures are on Friday, October 8th.
Our Go Home Early Drill is on Friday, October 8th.
Scholastic Book orders should be in this coming week.
Have a wonderful weekend!
*9.24.21*
We made it through our first full week of school!! The kids are doing amazing! I am very proud of them.
In phonics this week, we are continuing to look closely and study names. We are almost done studying the names of all the kids in the class. This week we focused specifically on names that have blends and digraphs. The kids learned that without those blends and digraphs, some names wouldn't make sense! Rasheed also made some riddles for us and we used our eyes and ears to find and say the digraphs in the poem. The answers to the riddles even had digraphs! For those that do not know, the digraphs we studied are ph, sh, ch, th, and wh. Some of the blends we studied include sm, fr, gl, tr, sw, sk, br, and bl. We will finish studying the rest of the names in the class next week and will start studying the kindergarten snap words more closely.
In reading, we listened closely to the text Firetrucks by Judith Jango Cohen. The kids learned some important vocabulary words related to fire trucks (outriggers, tanks, pike poles, levers) and why it is important to have gear. The kids also now where these important parts are located on a fire truck. Next week we will move back to fiction and listen to the text Matthew and Tilly. When the kids weren't listening to Firetrucks or doing activities related to the book, they were training themselves to find Good Fit books. At this point, all the kids in the class have been able to find Good Fit books and are now in the process of sustaining independent reading for longer periods of time. We talked about what it looks like and sounds like when reading to your self and then practiced it. We are up to 3 1/2 minutes of silent independent reading where all of the kids in the class are following are rules for what it looks like and sounds like. We will continue building time until we can get to 15 minutes.
In writing workshop, we are working hard on our small moment personal narratives. This week we met with our writing partners, who helped us by asking questions about our stories, which gave us more ideas to write about. We also talked about the difference between a watermelon story (a whole vacation) vs. a tiny seed story (a small part of that vacation). I reminded students that they should be writing tiny seed stories. Towards the end of the week, the students learned that when they are writing, they are also being readers. The kids learned that they should also be rereading their writing by saying each word aloud and pointing to each word. When doing so, they are able to make sure what is written is exactly what they want it say. Many of the students were able to fix errors while doing this, making their writing even better! We will continue to work more on our small moment stories, learning more ways to add to our writing by adding details.
In math, we spent this week building and using number racks. The kids started by just building specific numbers to 20 and learned strategies to become more efficient. We spent time figuring out different ways to make 5 and 10, both building the different ways and writing the equations. We are also starting to introduce new math games which will become part of our workplaces. There is a link below if you are interested in accessing our virtual number rack.
Virtual Number Rack
Coming Up...
We will start guidance lessons with Mrs. Huntsman every day 1 at 12:00. Our first lesson will be on Monday, September 27th.
We will have our first whole school assembly outside on Monday, September 27th.
We will have our first Good Eats lesson in the garden on Tuesday, September 28th. The kids will be learning about and tasting different varieties of apples.
New photos are posted! See "School Photos" :)
Have a wonderful weekend!!
*9.17.21*
I hope everyone is getting into a routine being back at school! It was nice to have a break in the middle of the week! We sure kept busy every other day!
We started our first unit of phonics looking at labels around the classroom and studying the words. We talked about reading the word, snapping/stomping/clapping the syllables, naming the letters, studying the word, and using the word. The kids are learning this process to learn new words and hopefully put them into their memory. After studying words around the room, we began studying our names. We have done a few friends in the class so far, but by the end of the unit, we will have studied everyone's name and added it to our word wall. The kids are also learning the correct letter formation for writing their names. A copy of the kindergarten snap words that students are expected to read and write is below.
In reading, we listened closely to the book Chester's Way by Kevin Henkes. The theme for the week was respect. The kids were able to listen to the story for the first time to enjoy, the second time listening for important vocabulary words we discussed, and the third time listening for comprehension (they had to listen closely to the story so that they were able to answer some questions about the text). We ended the week talking about picking good fit books. The process we used is I-PICK (I choose a book, Purpose - Why do I want to read? Interest - Does the book interest me? Comprehend - Do I understand the book? Know - Do I know most of the words?) Using this process, the kids are able to pick and read a book that is just right for them. We will continue more of this process next week and listen closely to a nonfiction text about fire trucks.
In math, we started our first unit on counting and collecting data with popsicle sticks. We began skip counting by 1s, 2s, and 5s, and talked about how to correctly use tallies to make groups of five. The kids learned that this makes counting more efficient. Next week we will be building and using number racks to help make numbers and solve basic addition facts. The goal is for kids to see groups of numbers instead of having to count each and every tally mark, popsicle stick, bead, etc...
Finally, in writing workshop, we started our first unit - Personal Narratives. For this unit, the kids are writing about a small moment - something that happened to them. To begin our writing, the kids first had to think of a small moment idea. Once they thought of the moment, they had to touch and tell the story across pages - a beginning, middle, and end. Once they were done touching and telling, they sketched the pictures for their beginning, middle, and end. The last step was going back to add the words. We worked together on a classroom story so the kids had a model to guide them. Today we discussed "When you think you're done, you've just begun" and went back to add more details to our beginning, middle, and end of our classroom story. The kids then started to add more to their own stories as well. We will be spending a little over a month working on our small moment stories.
Important Info...
Open House is on Monday, September 20th at 6:00. The Google link for this virtual Open House was sent out on Wednesday. Please let me know if you did not get it.
Our first Scholastic order is due on Tuesday, September 21st. You can either send a check to school or order books online. Please see the Scholastic Reading Club link above.
Our September birthday party (celebrating James!) is in the afternoon on Friday, September 24th.
Please do not forget to send your child with a snack each day.
More information will be coming at Open House, but every Friday will be a free choice Friday afternoon. If the kids complete all of their classroom work and following our classroom rules all week (they can lose time away from free choice Friday if not), they can have free play at the end of the day. For free choice Friday, the kids can bring toys, games, crafts, etc... from home. Please let me know if you have any questions!
Have a great weekend!!!
This week in math we started learning about 3D shapes. The kids learned attributes to describe 3D shapes, sorted 3D shapes, and went on a 3D shape hunt. Some important vocabulary words to discuss with your child at home are vertices, faces, attributes, and edges.
In phonics, we learned that Rasheed has taken a trip to NYC! He was missing for awhile and the kids were all worried! He is spending time in NYC to learn more about words. This week we continued to learn about vowel teams, reviewing ee, ea, oa, ai, and ay. We created a vowel teams linking chart as a resource to help us when reading and writing words with vowel teams. We still have many more vowel teams to learn!
In reading, we looked at a nonfiction book titled Volcanoes by Anne Schreiber. The kids were fascinated with all the interesting facts about volcanoes. Some important vocabulary words we listened for were magma, lava, eruption, caldera, and surface. The kids listened to enjoy the story and listened to provide evidence from the text explaining why volcanoes are dangerous. Next week we will listening closely to a fictional story.
In writing, the kids continue to be actively engaged in our Mo Willems author study unit! We used Mo Willems' pigeon books this week to look at how he organizes his writing, how he uses motion lines, and how he uses all uppercase letters. The kids are doing great modeling his style of writing. Ask your child about our whole class pigeon book about "Floppy Wants a New Nose" and our whole class elephant and piggie book about Trolly and Rolly wanting to go on a trip, but Rolly not being able to fit in any vehicle!
Important Information...
Monday, March 14th is College Day. Wear your favorite college gear to school and take part in trivia activities!!
There is a half day of school on Wednesday, March 16th with an early dismissal at 11:30.
Our St. Patrick's Day party is on Thursday, March 17th. Please see the Sign-up Genius link below.
St. Patrick's Day Party
We will celebrate our birthday friends, Colton, Fynlee, and Leo on Friday, March 18th for our March birthdays party!
The Scholastic Book Fair is coming this week! Our class will be shopping during their scheduled library special on Thursday, March 17th. If your child is planning to buy books, please send money to school in a sealed/labeled envelope on that day.
During whole group reading, I often use Epic! as a resource for books. Kids can also create individual accounts to read/listen to reading at home and I highly recommend this website! It has great leveled, engaging books for kids and I believe is is free to create an account! See the link below.
Epic!
We have been doing spelling based on when the students have been introduced to new snap words in our phonics unit; however, it is been inconsistent. To keep some consistency until the end of the year, we will finish out our spelling units with weekly words/tests until we have gone through all the new first grade snap words (whether or not they have been introduced in phonics or not). This will give us some time to spend the last month or two of the school year just focusing on the words the kids still have not mastered (reading and writing).
We are running low on shared snacks and sharpened pencils! If you are willing to donate these to our class, we would greatly appreciate it!!
Have a great weekend!!
*2.11.22*
Happy Friday! We have had a productive week!
We are continuing to take a break with new spelling words/tests until after February break.We are spending these next couple of weeks reviewing kindergarten and first grade snap words that students are expected to know how to read/write up until this point in first grade (you have probably seen the tests coming home). This is nothing they have to study for; however, once we are done with all the word tests, I will send home highlighted words the kids still need to practice. Please be on the lookout for this within the next couple of weeks. After the break, we will begin unit 4 of phonics where we will learn new snap words and have new spelling lists.
In reading, we have continue to listen closely to Mo Willems' books, focusing on Elephant and Piggie. The kids listened to several of Mo Willems' Elephant and Piggie books and discussed what they noticed across the books. The kids learned that the books are mostly about two characters who are very different from one another (one is happy/positive and the other is sad/negative) but still the best of friends. In most of the books, Elephant and Piggie also have some sort of adventure where a problem occurs. Last week we focused on Mo Willems' pigeon books. In these books, the kids listened closely to learn that Pigeon is an angry character who always wants something (which he either doesn't get or has to work hard to get) or has to do something he does not want to do. Pigeon is usually angry and thinks a lot about himself. This has led into our newest writing workshop unit using Mo Willems' as a mentor author.
In writing workshop, the kids have begun to create their elephant and piggie and pigeon type characters. Similar to Mo Willems' Pigeon and Elephant and Piggie, the kids sketched, colored, and named a characters of their own. The kids also decided on the theme to their stories (what their Pigeon character wants/doesn't want to do and the adventure their Elephant and Piggie character will go on). Towards the end of the week, the kids began to write their stories using speech bubbles and thinking bubbles to write what their characters were thinking and saying. The kids are having so much fun with this unit and look forward to it every day!
In math, we went to the southern hemisphere where we learned about the King and Rockhopper penguins. By first measuring our height in inches, the kids then learned how tall the King and Rockhopper penguins are and compared the heights. We saw that measuring height in inches on a measuring strip is like using a number line. We can compare the height of penguins like we compare different numbers on a number line. We will continue this activity next week completing unit 4 in math! Unit 5 will begin after February break.
Important Information...
If you have not yet sent spare clothing with your child this year (back from the beginning of the year), please do not forget to send in some clothing. We had a few accidents this week (toilet, snow, etc...) and if the kids do not have clothes to change into, we have to call home and have some brought to school. At this time, there are no cloths available in the nurse's office.
We are using the Chromebooks a couple times a week and some of the kids have brought in their own headphones from home. If you would like your child to use their own personal headphones when using the Chromebooks, please send them to school in a labeled plastic bag.
Please do not forget to send your child to school with a water bottle. Also, please make sure they only have a water bottle filled with water (no juice, soda, etc...). If they have a separate bottle of juice for lunch, they can keep it in their backpack.
Our Valentine's Day party will be in the afternoon on Monday, February 14th. The kids will receive their valentines, have a healthy snack, and do a Valentine's Day craft.
We will celebrate our 100th Day of school (which is actually on Monday!) on Tuesday, February 15th. We have fun activities planned throughout the day!
We will celebrate our February birthday friends (Ava and Grayson) on Friday, February 18th.
There is no school Monday, February 21st - Friday, February 25th for our winter holiday break.
Have a wonderful weekend!!
*1.28.22*
I hope everyone had a good week. Here's a look at what we did!
In phonics we finished unit 3! The kids ended the unit playing phonics games that reviewed all the strategies we learned throughout the unit - looking all the way through words. We looked closely at word shortcuts with contractions and played "Go Fish" and "Memory" with phonogram ending rhymes. We were able to review beginning and end blends, common word endings, and phonograms. We will take a break before we start unit 4 so that we can apply these new strategies to our reading and writing.
In writing, we also finished up our nonfiction teaching unit! The kids spent this week publishing their best nonfiction teaching piece (talking about what makes it the best piece - 1. Does it have a good introduction/conclusion? 2.Did it teach us facts and not opinions? 3. Did you spell snap words correctly and apply spelling strategies? 4. Did you have spaces between words and use your neatest handwriting? 5. Did you have an uppercase letter at the beginning of sentences and punctuation at the end? We will be sharing our finished pieces in small groups on Monday and will add them to our writing portfolios (which go home at the end of the year). You may see nonfiction writing pieces come home that the students decided not to publish. Next week we start our author study unit on Mo Willems. We will begin by watching some videos about Mo Willems and his writing and immerse ourselves in MANY Mo Willems books.
This week in math the kids had a checkpoint (quiz) on what we have been learning so far with numbers lines. So far in this unit, the kids need to be able to fill in missing numbers on a number line (determining what the pattern is before filling in the missing numbers - skip counting by 1s, 5s, or 10s) and add/subtract by 1s and 10s using a number line. We will continue to practice this in school by also learning some new math games.
During reading, we listened closely to the books Duck!Rabbit! by Amy Krouse Rosenthal and Daft Bat by Jeanne Willis. The theme for both books was point-of-view. We listened closely to enjoy the books, listened closely for important vocabulary words, and listened closely to talk about the books. The kids learned that people see things differently and it's okay to a have a different point-of-view than someone else. We were also able to compare the two books for how they are similar and how they are different. We will spend next week reading Mo Willems' pigeon books.
The kids have been doing an excellent job during choice time; picking activities to work on independently or with a partner. Activities the kids can choose from include writing activities, phonics activities, reading activities, and math activities. During their independent/partner choice time, I am able to meet with small groups of students for differentiated reading groups. I'm very proud of how far the kids have come since the beginning of the year!
Important Information:
An email went home last week about our Valentine's Day party. A Sign-up Genius link for the party is below. We are still in need of a Valentine's Day craft. Valentines are due next Friday, February 4th. We will be making Valentine's Day bags on Monday so that the kids can pass out their valentines as they bring them in. Attached to the email was our class list. If you need any of this information, please let me know!
Valentine's Day party Sign-up
Our new supplemental starts the week of January 31st. We will now have an extra music class every day 4.
We have a mystery reader on Friday, February 4th at 2:15.
There will be no spelling next week, the week of January 31st. In place of spelling for the next couple of weeks, I will be testing the kids on their spelling and reading of kindergarten snap words.
Have a wonderful weekend!!
*1.21.22*
I can't believe it's almost the end of January! In the next couple of weeks, we will be finishing up a couple of our units! Here's a look at the week...
In phonics we learned how many of our snap words are super power words, meaning, we can use that super power snap word to help us make so many new words! On their own, the kids worked to see if they could find super power words that could be used to make other words. Many of them are! Towards the end of the week we went back to learning about contractions and talked about how contractions are just shortcuts to reading and writing. The kids worked in small groups to learn the contraction shortcuts for many common contractions and also looked closely at contractions to see what small words make up the shortcuts. We will be finishing unit 3 for phonics next week!
In reading, we looked closely at the book The Invisible Boy by Trudy Ludwig. The theme of the week was kindness. The kids learn how one of the characters displayed kindness by making another student feel not so invisible. We listened closely for some important vocabulary words and also worked together to find specific examples form the book to support our claims. Next week we will listen closely to the book Duck!Rabbit!
During math this week, we learned a new workplace game - Frog Jump. In this game, the kids practiced adding and subtracting on a number line. The kids were able to play the game with a partner as well. Towards the end of the week, we went back to using our interactive number line to work with numbers up to 120. The students learned that it is important to see what numbers are already on the number line and the pattern in order to determine missing numbers. We will continue to use the interactive number line next week and also learn some new workplace games.
This week during writing workshop was our last week to add to our nonfiction teaching books. The kids continued to work on strengthening their introductions and conclusions and also reviewed the importance of writing all the way through unknown words using two strategies - "Say it, slide it, hear it, write it" and remembering to include a vowel in every syllable of a word (breaking words apart into syllables and writing one syllable at a time). Next week we will pick our best nonfiction writing piece and begin publishing.
Important Information:
There will be spelling this coming week, the week of January 24th.
Our January birthday party celebrating Benjamin B. and Lizzy will be on Friday, January 28th.
An important email went out today about our Valentine's Day party. It will be held on Monday, February 14th. The link to sign-up for items is below. Please have items in by the day of the party. The email also provided information about classroom valentines. Please have your child make a valentine for every student in the class (there is a copy of the class list in the email that went out) and return them to school by Friday, February 4th. This will give the valentines time to remain untouched before the party. We will be making valentine bags in school so there is no need to do anything at home for this. If you have any questions, please reach out to me!
Valentine's Day Party Sign-ups
Have a wonderful weekend!
*1.14.22*
Happy Friday and a nice, long weekend! It was a week full of a lot of nonfiction, learning about Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
In reading we listened closely to an article on "Dr. Martin Luther King Jr." The kids learned the meaning of some important expert words (peaceful protests, segregation, races, and equally). The article lead to some great discussions. Please ask your child to share what they learned! After reading the article a few times, the kids had to think about the main idea and several examples to support the main idea. We are also practicing looking back within the text (in this case, article) to find specific examples to support our thoughts.
In writing workshop, we spent this week learning about good introductions and conclusions to our nonfiction teaching books. Looking at some mentor texts, we noticed that many authors begin with a sound word (ex: BEEP! BEEP! Do you hear that? That is a sound of a fire engine coming to the rescue!) or a question (Ex: Have you ever wondered about ___?). We noticed that endings usually end with an excited feeling sentence that wraps up our main idea (Ex: Now you can do you best to stay green!) We have one more week working on our nonfiction teaching books before we begin publishing and sharing out stories.
In math we started a new unit - Leap Frogs on the Number Line. Using an interactive number line, the kids worked to fill in missing numbers from 0-120. We talked about number patterns and then practiced using a number line to answer simple addition and subtraction equations. This will help the students use a number line for bigger numbers (and equations) later on in the unit.
Finally, in phonics, we learned the importance of first scanning a book we are going to read to see if there are snap words we already know. This strategy helps build confidence so that we can tell ourselves, "I know most of these words, so I can read!" The kids practice looking for snap words in their own good fit books and were surprised at how many they found. If we can read those words in a snap and only break apart the bigger words, we are becoming more fluent readers. We spent the end of the week learning new snap words to add to our snap word wall. We are almost done with unit 3!
Important Info/Coming Up...
Our January Scholastic order has been submitted! Hopefully the books will be here sooner than later!
There is no school on Monday, January 17th in observance of Martin Luther King Jr. Day. Enjoy your day off!
We have a mystery reader on Friday, January 21st.
Our January birthday party for Lizzy and Benjamin B. will be on Friday, January 28th.
Many new photos have been posted! See "School Photos!"
Have a great, long weekend!!
*1.7.22*
Happy New Year!! I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday break and time to relax. I want to thank everyone for the wonderful gifts, as well, especially the recipes!! It was by far my favorite gift:) Here's a look at this week...
In reading, we spent the week listening closely to A Bad Case of Stripes by David Shannon. The kids listened to enjoy the story, listened for important vocabulary words, and listened to talk about the story. Independently, the students had to think about the lesson Camilla learned and write about her lesson. This was more challenging to do on their own instead of as a whole class, but they did a great job! Next week we will listen closely to some nonfiction texts on Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
In phonics, we spent more time look closely all the way through words for reading and writing. The kids worked on taking blends/digraphs (bl, ch, fr, gr, etc...), phonograms (-unk, -ank, -old, -elt, etc...), and word endings (-ly, -ed, -ing, etc...) to put together and make bigger words (ex: bl/ink/ing - blinking). Towards the end of the week, the kids learned that every syllable needs a vowel and read a story where they to find words with missing vowels and add them in. I am encouraging the students to do the same when they are writing their own stories - If a word has two syllables, it should have at least two vowels.
During writing workshop, we continued to add to our nonfiction teaching books, using a tip sheet for guidance, the kids had to pick one tip (introducing the topic, ending with a thought/idea, writing a sentence or two, using expert words, or drawing pictures with labels) to add to their writing. We talked about how the tips make our writing even better! They are doing a great job writing a table of contents, choosing the appropriate paper, and adding more to their teaching books. This unit will be wrapped up near the end of January.
In math, we spent the week comparing numbers using cube trains. The kids learned that they can compare two numbers by writing a subtraction equation (9-4=__) or an addition equation (4+__=9). When adding, you count up from the smaller number to the bigger number and when subtracting, you subtract the smaller train from the bigger train.There is no right or wrong way to solve comparing problems. The kids can choose which is best for them!
Coming Up...
There is no school on Monday, January, 17th in observance of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day.
A January Scholastic order form went home yesterday. Please send orders by Thursday, January 13th.
There is no spelling this coming week (the week of January 10th) as we are caught up with the newest snap words we have added to our snap word wall. We will resume the following week with new snap words and more challenging challenge words!
Reminders and Extra Info...
We are running low on the following items in the classroom: snacks, markers, crayons, colored pencils. If you wouldn't mind donating any of these items, we would greatly appreciate it! I have a shared supply of markers, colored pencils, and crayons for students who are missing colors, but it seems many of us are without. Many students are also saying they do not have an individual snack each day and I have run out of shared snacks. Please do not forget to send a daily snack to school.Thank you!
There are still some openings for mystery readers! Please let our room parents know if you are still interested in coming in! We can even do remote readings if you are not comfortable coming into the school.
New photos coming soon!
Thank you so much again for the wonderful holiday gifts!!! Have a great weekend!
*12.17.21*
Thank you to everyone who took time from their busy lives this time of year to meet with me. It was so wonderful to "meet" all of you and talk about your children! We have some fun activities to bring us to the end of the year!
In reading, we continued to learn about holidays around the world. This week we watched videos and learned some fun facts about Las Posadas, Chinese New Year, Diwali, and St. Lucia. The kids learned so much about these holidays that I am sure they would love to share with you!
In phonics this week, we continued to learn more about word endings. We began the week learning about the letter "y" at the end of the word replacing a vowel. The kids saw that the letter "y" can make an "e" or an "i" sound. The did a good job sorting words with the "i" or "e" ending sound and also practiced reading some words with "y" endings in a story. At the end of the week, we learned about blends/digraphs at the ends of words. We learned that it is important to read all the way through the end of the word making sure to also read end blends. We transferred this to reading and writing when we read a poem called Making a Smoothie and had to find end blends, read some nonfiction writing stories adding important end blends, and tried writing our own story about the beach using end blends that we know. We will continue to look at various word endings as we move to the second half of this unit.
During writing workshop, we spent this week thinking of a new topic we know a lot about, writing a table of contents with at last 3 chapter titles, and then choosing the correct writing paper to fit what we want to write about (How to..., Different Kinds of..., or telling facts). We are learning how to organize our writing while also teaching our readers important facts about our topic. We will continue to build on our table of contents next week and after the holiday break.
In math, we spent this week learning about ten and some more which helped us play a new math game, 50 or bust. The kids learned how to build ten and a number, write ten and a number, and use double ten frame workmats. We also began using our number racks to compare groups of numbers to see how many more and how many fewer. We will spend a lot more time using subtraction strategies to solve subtraction equations and story problems.
Important Info...
Next week is our holiday spirit week. Please see the note that went home on what to do/wear each day to school!
Our winter project day is in the afternoon on Monday, December 20th. Thank you to the parents who volunteered to come in and organize/run a project for our class!
We will have a holiday sing-along assembly on Thursday, December 23rd. Unfortunately this is only for the students. I will be sure to take pictures!
Next Thursday, December 23rd is our Welcome Winter party. The kids will be making popcorn and watching a holiday movie. Kids are allowed to wear pajamas to school that day (also as part of our holiday spirit week).
There will be no spelling pretest/test this coming week (week of December 20th). The only homework will be to read/fill out the daily reading log (due Thursday, December 23rd!)
There is no school from Friday, December 24th - Friday, December 31st. School will resume on Monday, January 3rd.
Gingerbread Fred journals are due after the holiday break. You do not need to send Gingerbread Fred back to school, only the journal and any photos/pictures. Please return the journals to school by Tuesday, January 4th. The kids will share one entry from their journal with the class.
New photos are posted! See "School Photos."
A new Scholastic book order form will be coming home in January!
I hope you have a wonderful holiday break!!! See you in 2022!
*12.10.21*
Happy Friday! It's hard to believe we are almost halfway through December. It has been a pleasure meeting with you at conferences and spending time talking about your child:) Here is what we did this week...
This week we started unit 3 in phonics. This unit focuses on word endings that are commonly seen and used in words (-ed, -ing, -er, -s, es). The students practiced taking snap words (play, jump, etc...) and adding different endings to see if they could make new words. They learned that from one word, play, they could make many new words (playing, played, plays, player, players, playful). At the end of the week, we learned about the different sounds of -ed. The kids learned that -ed can make three different sounds "id," "d," and "t." Next week we will look at y as a vowel at the end of a word and end of the word blends.
For reading this week we started learning about different winter holidays around the world. The kids watched educational videos on Christmas, Hannukkah, and Kwanzaa and then had a discussion about interesting facts and things they might see during that holiday. Next week we will learn about four more winter holidays around the world as well as listen to some holiday read alouds.
In math, the kids learned and played some more math games that had them use strategies and think about the different ways to make numbers. It was a challenge, but they did a great job with it! We are continuing to use our number racks to look for patterns and will be using the number racks to help us answer story problems. Next week we will begin looking at strategies to help us add and subtract all the way up to 20!
During writing workshop this week we used the first grade informational checklist to help see how we are doing with our teaching books. Using a student example, the kids went through the checklist to see what the student did well and what they could work on. The kids then used the same checklist on their own books. The kids used the "not yet" on their checklists as goals to improve their writing. Although this may seem difficult for kids to do, with guidance they were able to add to add more to their stories. Next week we will start bend 2 in the unit in which the kids will create a table of contents and chapters to their nonfiction teaching books.
Coming Up...
We have a mystery reader next Friday, December 17th.
On Monday, December 20th we have our winter craft project afternoon. For this, we need your help! We are looking for parent volunteers (we need one more) to bring in a winter project/craft (enough for 23 students) to run a center in the classroom. The kids look forward to it every year and we appreciate the help! The sign-up link is below.
Winter holiday project sign-up
Our Welcome Winter party will be on Thursday, December 23rd. There are a few items needed for this party. The kids will watch a winter movie and have popcorn/juice boxes. The sign-up is below.
Welcome Winter Party
Have a great weekend!!
*12.3.21*
Happy December! It's hard to believe we are done with our first trimester of the school year! Here's a look at the week...
We took a break from phonics this week to dive into reading groups. They kids have been doing an excellent job working independently or with a partner while I meet with small groups. Some activities they completed were reading to someone, reading to themselves, journal writing, snap words spelling/reading, and math workplaces. In reading groups, we talked about important story elements in our fictional text. I have been meeting individually with students in small groups as well to work on building fluency and comprehension. Next week we will start unit 3 of phonics and the plan is to alternate between phonics and guided reading groups.
In writing, we wrote about our favorite memories from November and for our nonfiction teaching books, the kids practiced rereading their stories to omit opinions. Using examples, they learned about facts vs. opinions and how our books should be teaching the reader about our topic, not telling what we think about it. The kids are also learning how to tell more, elaborating on just one fact per page. We will continue to work on adding more details to our teaching books and how to write creative openings and endings.
In math, we spent most of the time this week learning new games to help improve learning different ways to make the numbers 5-10. In one game, Spill the Beans, the kids "spilled the beans" on the table and made an equation counting the red beans + white beans. In the game Make the Sum, the kids flipped ten frame cards and collected pairs or groups of numbers that added to equal a given target number. All of these games have a goal of building addition fact fluency.
In reading this week, the kids listened to two different nonfiction texts about whales and dolphins. They had to listen closely to the text to have a discussion about what they learned and at the end of the week, compare the two animals based on information learned from the books. Next week we will begin a nonfiction unit on holidays around the world which will go until the holiday break.
Important Information...
THERE WILL BE NO SPELLING THE WEEK OF DECEMBER 6TH. We have caught up with unit 2 snap words and will take a week off to review snap words and phonics rules from units 1 and 2 until we have added new snap words from unit 3 to our snap word wall.
Wednesday, December 8th and Friday, December 10th are half-days with an early dismissal at 11:30 (11:10 for pick-up friends). PLEASE SEE THE EMAIL SENT A COUPLE WEEKS AGO TO SIGN-UP FOR A CONFERENCE TIME IF YOU HAVE NOT YET DONE SO. Report cards will be available next week.
We are still in need of two parent helpers for our holiday craft afternoon on Monday, December 20th from 1:45-2:45. Please see the Sign-up Genius below if you are interested in volunteering (bringing a craft/supplies for the whole class and running a craft group in the classroom).
Holiday Craft Day Sign-up
We are running low on baby wipes, pencil tip erasers, and extra classroom snacks for friends who may forget snack. If you do not mind contributing, we would love the donations!! Thank you!!
New photos will be posted soon! Have a great weekend!!
*11.22.21*
Happy Thanksgiving week! I hope everyone had a great weekend! I was unable to update our website on Friday, but here is a look at what we did last week...
In phonics we completed unit 2! The kids got their final letter from the SSDA telling us that they were off to help another group of first graders to solve cases. To end our unit, the kids did a walk around the room finding words and decided which case file they could use to help them figure out the word. They did a great job! We will begin unit 3 after Thanksgiving break. We will be taking a break to dive into reading groups (which we also started last week).
In reading, we listened to the story Turkey for Thanksgiving by Eve Bunting. After listening to enjoy the story and listening for vocabulary, the kids worked independently to draw inferences based on character actions. They had a lot of prompting, but worked very hard using clues from the book. We will be moving towards completing reading comprehension activities independently as the year goes on. This week the kids will be listening to a variety of Thanksgiving stories and making their own Thanksgiving Rules book based on the book Thanksgiving Rules by Laurie Friedman.
In math, we finished up unit 2. The kids practiced skip counting and counting pennies, nickels, and dimes by playing Race to 40 and Race to 100 games where they collected and added coins. We will begin unit 3 after Thanksgiving Break. Unit 3 will focus on adding and subtracting bigger numbers, counting, and comparing.
In writing workshop, we continued to work on our nonfiction teaching books. The kids have been learning ways to add more information to their stories. They can look at the illustrations to help them tell more. They can also use the strategy say it, slide it, hear it, write it, for writing unknown words. We talked about the importance of using vocabulary words related to your main topic (for example: In my story about baking, I told the kids it is important to use words like dissolve, knead, temperature, etc...). We are focusing on Thanksgiving writing activities this week and will continue our nonfiction teaching books after the break.
Coming Up...
We have our Thanksgiving celebration tomorrow afternoon, Tuesday, November 23rd.The kids will be making butter/popcorn and taking part in some Thanksgiving activities/crafts.
There is no school from Wednesday, November 24th - Friday, November 26th for the Thanksgiving holiday.
Parent teacher conferences are coming up! We have half days on Wednesday, December 8th, Friday, December 10th, and Tuesday, December 14th for conferences. If you did not yet sign up for a slot, please do so as soon as possible. Report cards will be going home before the conferences. Please see the link below to sign-up.
Conference Sign-up
New pictures are posted!! See "School Photos."
I hope everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving!!
*11.12.21*
Happy Friday! I hope everyone enjoyed their Veteran's Day holiday. I wanted to thank everyone for the birthday gift you got me! What a thoughtful and generous gesture. Thank you so much!! Here is a look at what we did this week...
In phonics we are almost done with unit 2! These weeks are flying by. The kids have been so excited with this second part of the unit. The S.S.D.A. has been sending us clues for case files we need to complete. Case file No.1 was the case of the twin letters. The kids learned that words with double consonants in the middle of the word (little) can be split up to help us better decode the word. Case file No.2 was the case of the sticky letters. The kids learned that words with three consonants at the beginning of the word (three) can be blended together to help us decode the word. Case file No. 3 was the case of the words in disguise. The kids learned that with contractions, there are two words hidden in disguise. Finally today we looked at Case file No. 4 which was the case of the compound word puzzle. The kids learned that some words have two little words hiding that make one bigger word. They have been doing a great job noticing these words in books now, too! We will finish unit 2 next week and then spend some time applying these strategies in a smaller group setting.
In reading this week we read an article about Veteran's Day. The kids learned some important vocabulary words (veteran, tribute, nation, defend, and ceremony) and discussed what they learned about the holiday. Next week we will focus on a fictional story called Turkey for Thanksgiving.
In math this week, we spent more time playing addition and subtraction games using a number line. The kids learned about counting forward and counting backward and looked at different equations that make a given number. We ended the week learning about sea stars, which helped us skip count by 5. We will wrap up unit 2 before Thanksgiving.
During writing workshop, we continued to sketch our facts about things we know a lot about across pages. Some of the kids were even able to start writing their words. The kids also used their writing partner's questions to help add more to their stories. Next week we will spend more time learning strategies that can help us add more details to our nonfiction teaching books.
Coming Up...
Our November birthdays party will be on Friday, November 19th celebrating Brooks, Samantha, and
Our Thanksgiving party will be on Tuesday, November 23rd in the afternoon. We will be using heavy cream to make butter, do a Thanksgiving craft, and pop popcorn. I have created a Sign-up Genius for items we will need. The link is below. Thank you for volunteering!
Thanksgiving Party Sign-ups
Picture retakes will be on Tuesday, November 23rd.
There is no school from Wednesday, November 24th - Friday, November 26th for the Thanksgiving holiday.
Our December conference dates are Wednesday, December 8th, Friday, December 10th, and Tuesday, December 14th. There will be a half day of school on those days with dismissal at 11:30. I sent an email to sign-up for a Google Meet conference time. The link is also below....
Remote Conference Sign-ups
Have a great weekend!
*11.5.21*
I hope everyone had a great Halloween weekend! We accomplished A LOT over the past two weeks!
In reading we spent the week of Halloween reading many Halloween stories, wrote our own version of the 12 days of Halloween, and continued to train reading-to-someone. We made it to 20 minutes of sustained reading with a partner! Hooray! This week in reading, we listened to many versions of Little Red Riding Hood. We compared and contrasted the different versions and also discussed characters, setting, problem, and solution. Next week we will work on writing to build stamina and look closely at a nonfiction article on Veteran's Day.
In phonics, we continue to learn more and more about our silent e case study. To add onto what we have learned from the previous weeks, we saw that when there is a long vowel "e" with a silent e, there are not many words! We learned that most of the time when we hear the long e sound, it is spelled with "ea" or "ee." The kids found many of those examples in their good fit books! We ended the week with a snap word boot camp and the kids loved it! The SSDA sent us a letter in the mail yesterday and told us that we need to be prepared for our next mission. They gave us 5 snap words (little, I'm, into, three, now) that will be helping us with our next mission.
In writing workshop, we started our new nonfiction unit writing what we know a lot about. With a lot of modeling, the kids were able to think of many topics they know a lot about (and then focused in on one of those), state 5 facts about that topic across their fingers, and then draw sketches for each fact. The final step which we will do next week is to begin writing the words to match our sketches. This is always a favorite writing unit! An important part of our facts is that the first page should always tell the reader what their topic is.
In math, we are moving along in unit 2 and spent this week learning a few more math games (one with dominoes which had us practicing our doubles facts to 20!) and continued to use dominoes as a tool to write/add addition equations. On Tuesday we will complete our unit 2 math assessment and spend the remainder of the unit working on activities that review counting by 5s and 10s.
Important Reminders -
The form that was sent to me with our September Scholastic book order has been lost and there were a few books missing from the order. If your child is missing books that you ordered, please let me know ASAP so I can contact Scholastic. Sorry for the inconvenience!
There will be NO SPELLING THE WEEK OF 11/8! A reading log will still be coming home on Monday to complete and return on Friday. We will spend the week applying phonics strategies to CVC, CVCE, CCVC, and CCVCE words (c=consonant, v=vowel, e=e).
Our room parents, Katie and Amber, sent out a sign-up Genius for mystery readers. Thank you so much for doing this! If none of the available dates work for you, please let them know and we will find days/times that work. We want to give everyone interested an opportunity to come into the classroom! The sign-up form is below...
Mystery Reader Sign-ups
Our new end of the day supplemental starts on Tuesday, November 9th. We will now have extra art on day 3 at the end of the day!
There is no school on Thursday, November 11th in observance of Veteran's Day. Thank you to all our veterans!!
New photos were posted last week! See "School Photos."
Information about our Thanksgiving party will be coming out soon!
Don't forget to change the clocks on Sunday! Have a great weekend!!
*10.22.21*
What a fun day and busy week we have had! Here's a look at what we did...
We were fortunate to have a guest reader visit us this week. Seline's dad, Willie, came in to visit the kids and read his book, Love, to the class. They were very focused on the book and asked many questions. The kids shared some great examples of how they show love. Thank you for visiting our classroom!
In phonics, we started unit 2, The Case of the Silent e. We started the week receiving a message from the SSDA (Super Secret Detective Agency) telling us that we are not yet done being word detectives and we have to use what we know to study and look closely at some new words. We have learned so far that 1. The "e" is located at the end of the word. 2. The "e" is silent. 3. The "a" makes a long vowel sound. 4. We need to look out for words like "have." We will continue to learn more about silent e words next week!
In reading, we were able to begin training reading-to-someone. We talked about quietly finding a partner, quickly finding a spot, getting started right away, listening while our partner is reading, and taking turns reading. The kids were able to go 5 minutes following what listen-to-reading looks like and sounds like. For close reading this week, the kids listened to enjoy Stellaluna, listened for important vocabulary words, and listened to talk about the story. We discussed character traits that describe Stellaluna and also learned some facts about bats. Next week we will spend reading listening to and reading Halloween stories!
When working in writing this week, the kids began publishing their best small moments story. The kids reread through their stories and picked the piece they thought included all the important pieces to the unit (uppercase letters at the beginning of our sentences, punctuation, a beginning/middle/end, dialogue, feelings, ellipses, and POP out words. When publishing, the kids are adding color to their pictures and including a front cover. We will finish publishing next week and share our final stories with one another at the end of the week.
In math, we continued to use dominoes to help us solve addition problems. We talked about some important strategies we may use when adding numbers (looking for smaller facts we know, looking for doubles, counting on from the bigger number, etc...). Next week we will use/make flap cards to help us learn about fact families.
Important Info...
Beginning next week, the students will have a "Look, Say, Copy, Cover, Write, Check" packet attached to their reading log to help in practicing spelling words at home. The students spent this past week completing this activity in school so that they could be independent at home. They are to write all of their spelling words in the first column. In the second column, they say each word and then write each word. For the third column, they have to fold the paper on the dotted line and try to write each word without looking. In the final column, they check their spelling from the third column. If they spelled the word wrong, they write it correctly in the last column. If they spelled it right, they put a check mark in the last column. THIS DOES NOT NEED TO BE RETURNED TO SCHOOL. It is an activity to help the kids practice spelling at home. Please let me know if you have any questions!
On Wednesday, October 27th, the kids will be visiting the Book Fair during their library time from 12:45-1:30. They will be able to purchase books during this time. If you would like for your child to purchase books, please send money in a labeled envelope and I will make sure it gets to the Book Fair safely.
On Wednesday, October 27th we will be having a pumpkin investigation! The kids will get to weigh a pumpkin, decide if it sinks or floats, measure the pumpkin, count the seeds, and more activities. We will make sure the kids have their smock on for this activity. If your child does not have a smock in school, please do not forget to send one in!
Friday, October 29th is our Halloween party! We will spend the day doing fun Halloween activities! Please send your child to school with his or her costume on. Our Halloween parade will be held at 10:00 in the morning. Parents/Spectators are invited to stand outside as we parade around the school. We will be having our Halloween party in the afternoon from 1:30-2:45.
We are still waiting for the September book order to arrive at school. October's book order will most likely be delayed, as well. Thank you for being patient!
I hope everyone has a great weekend!!
*10.15.21*
Happy Friday! Today we said "goodbye" to the Pumpkin Elf and made some pumpkin elf bookmarks. The kids decided whether they wanted to leave them in school or use them at home. We will be starting a new Ready Freddy book next week - Talent Show Scaredy Pants.
In phonics we have just about wrapped up unit one. The kids looked at names and words and realized that they see so much more now than just letters. They are noticing vowels, vowel sounds, blends, digraphs, little words hiding, and much more! We will graduate from unit one on Monday - The kids will receive diplomas with a word they will try to read and study using everything they have learned from unit one. In unit two, the kids will get to become word detectives.
In math, we finished up unit one where they completed an assessment on using number racks and ten frames. The kids are quickly learning ways to make five and ten to help them efficiently solve problems. In unit two, we will be using dice and dominoes to develop more strategies to solving addition and subtraction problems.
In writing, we are finishing up the final mini lessons that will make our small moment stories that much better! We looked closely at our mentor text, Night of the Veggie Monster, and tried to incorporate some of George McClements techniques into our own writing. Two of the techniques we studied this week were ellipses (...) which we use to build suspense and making sure to write every action so that the reader can create a movie in their head (ex: My fingers become all wiggly. My eyes begin to water. My toes twist and curl up in my shoes.). Next week will we learn about pop out words and put the finishing touches on our stories.
In reading this week we listened closely to the book From Seed to Pumpkin by Wendy Pfeffer. We listened for some important vocabulary words (vines, sprawl, sprout, ripe, cling) and listened to answer questions/understand the life cycle. We will continue to learn more about pumpkins throughout the next few weeks as part of our science curriculum. Outside of our close reading book, we also learned what it looks like and sounds like during read-to-someone. The kids learned to sit EEKK (elbow-elbow-knee-knee), how to quietly find a partner and pick a spot in the room, and how to decide to read (take turns reading, I read-you read) etc... We finally talked about the importance of listening quietly while our partner is reading. Next week the kids will get to try this out, working to build stamina.
Coming Up...
Our October birthdays party celebrating Jasper and Alaina will be on Friday, October 22nd in place of free choice Friday.
We will be starting our weekly spelling next week. Attached to the reading log that goes home on Monday you will see your child's pretest and list of words to study. If your child gets all of the words right on their pretest, a challenge list will be attached instead. We will be practicing the words everyday in school, but you are more than welcome to provide your child with extra practice at home. A list of suggested activities is located on our classroom website under "Homework." Our spelling tests will be every Friday. Please let me know if you have any questions!
Our Halloween party will be on Friday, October 29th at 1:30 in the afternoon. Please see the sign-up sheet that was sent out through email and have food/projects in by the 29th. The kids will be allowed to wear costumes to school that day. Please do not send in any extra accessories, such as weapons. A note will be coming home with more information.
The September Scholastic book order is still waiting to be shipped out. I'm sorry for the delay. I will be submitting the October book order on Monday with hopes this will be shipped quicker than the last!
Our "Boo" project pictures will be posted soon!
Hallowen Party Sign-up
Pumpkin Investigation Sign-up
Have a great weekend!
*10.8.21*
Happy Friday, everyone! What a fun week! The Pumpkin Elf made a visit to our classroom and the kids were super excited! Here is what we did this week...
We are almost done with our first phonics unit. This week we learned some new first grade snap words (but, his, let, run, said, saw, say, then, they, us, yes) by studying them closely, cover/writing/checking them, and using them in sentences. Towards the end of the week, we learned about Super Power Words. Super Power Words are snap words that can be used to make MANY new words. For example - "all" is a super power word because if we know "all," we know ball, call, fall, small, hall, mall, tall, etc... We are beginning to look at all our snap words to see which ones are Super Power Words.
In math, we spent some time this week measuring using our footsteps and popsicle sticks. We learned how to make good estimates based on the actual length of certain objects. We ended the week playing number rack detectives. The kids had to make 10 by sliding beads on the top and bottom rows of their number rack. Working with a partner, they told them the top number of beads and their partner had to guess how many must be on the bottom. We then turned this into an equation. I have ten beads. If 4 are on the top, how many are on the bottom? 10=4+_. We will be finishing up unit one next week.
In writing, we are continuing to work on our small moment stories. The kids learned about the importance of reading with expression (not reading like a robot) by adding ! and ? to their small moments. Connecting with our phonics lesson, the kids learned that if they are struggling with spelling a word, they can look at the snap word wall to see if there is a snap word that can help them spell the word they are struggling with. I built a sand castle. The word "and"from the snap word wall can help the student write sand. We will be finishing up our small moment stories in the next couple of weeks.
During reading, the kids continued to build stamina reading to themselves. I continued to remind them of the importance of choosing Good Fit books that they are able to read. Pretty soon we will be starting reading groups, focusing on individual student needs. For our close reading text this week, the kids listened to Chrysanthemum by Kevin Henkes. The kids learned about the importance of being ourselves. Next week we will listen to From Seed to Plant while learning about pumpkins.
Important Info...
Scholastic Book orders are delayed by weeks this year. They said it could take a month from the time of placing your order to the time of delivery. I will be sure to send home the September order as soon as the books come in! The October order form will be coming home on Tuesday.
There is no school on Monday, October 11th in observance of Columbus Day.
Our October birthday party celebrating Jasper and Alaina will be on Friday, October 22nd.
A Sign-up Genius went out this week to volunteer items/food/crafts for our Halloween party on Friday, October 29th. There are a couple slots still available. Please see the link below. As the date of the party gets closer, we will send home information about costumes.
https://www.signupgenius.com/go/20F0B49ADAE2EA5FB6-halloween2
Have a wonderful, long weekend!!
*10.1.21*
Happy October! We started off the month making a fun fall hedgehog craft. The kids loved it! We will spend every Friday in the fall doing a fall/holiday themed craft!
In phonics this week, we continued to study our friends' names in the class. We added our kindergarten snap words we've been studying to our snap word wall and have looked closely at all of the words (blends, digraphs, little words hiding, vowels, etc...). I am so proud of how much they are noticing when they really look closely at words. Today we introduced 6 new first grade snap words (his, said, saw, say, then, they). They noticed little words "is" and "the" hiding in some of the words. They noticed that "ay" and "ey" make the long "a" sound. They noticed the "th" digraph and they noticed the "ai" vowel team. Very impressive! We will continue to study some new first grade snap words next week and finish studying the student names.
In writing workshop, we took a couple of days off from our small moment stories to write about our memories from September and to write a letter to our custodians for National Custodian Day tomorrow. The students brainstorm some great ideas for both and wrote their own memories page and card using the class ideas. During writing workshop, we talked about how to unfreeze our characters by bringing our stories to life. The kids each tried this on their own by either adding sound words or dialogue to their stories. They learned that by adding just one small suggestion from our mentor author, George McClements, their writing becomes that much better! They also learned how important it is to tell every small step so that the reader feels like they were living the small moment with them. We will continue to work on adding details to our small moments stories next week.
For reading this week, the kids continued to build stamina reading to themselves. We reviewed what read-to-self looks like and sounds like and continued finding good fit books from our classroom library. We are now at 11 minutes of sustained independent reading! For our close reading text this week, we listened to Matthew and Tilly and our theme was friendship. They kids talked about how Matthew and Tilly learned a lesson - It's okay for friends to have disagreements, as long as you talk it out and apologize when something goes wrong. They learned some important vocabulary words (customer, crabbiest, picky, rescued, and squiggly) and listened closely to the book to answer specific questions. Next week we will listen to another fictional story, Chrysanthemum.
In math, we continued to use our number racks to solve equations with the start missing (_+3=7), the change missing (4+_=7), or the result missing (4+3=_). The kids are getting better are realizing they can make 5 or 10 on the number rack so that they are more efficient in solving problems. The kids also got to play several math games including Show me the Numbers and Which Coin Will Win?. The kids learned how to make ten during the first game (filling a ten frame and writing an equation) and learned about probability while counting coins during the second game. We are almost to the end of unit one! Next week we will use the number racks some more to build numbers, solve equations, and play games (Quick! Look!).
Coming Up...
Happy Birthday to Jasper on Sunday, October 3rd!
School Pictures are on Friday, October 8th.
Our Go Home Early Drill is on Friday, October 8th.
Scholastic Book orders should be in this coming week.
Have a wonderful weekend!
*9.24.21*
We made it through our first full week of school!! The kids are doing amazing! I am very proud of them.
In phonics this week, we are continuing to look closely and study names. We are almost done studying the names of all the kids in the class. This week we focused specifically on names that have blends and digraphs. The kids learned that without those blends and digraphs, some names wouldn't make sense! Rasheed also made some riddles for us and we used our eyes and ears to find and say the digraphs in the poem. The answers to the riddles even had digraphs! For those that do not know, the digraphs we studied are ph, sh, ch, th, and wh. Some of the blends we studied include sm, fr, gl, tr, sw, sk, br, and bl. We will finish studying the rest of the names in the class next week and will start studying the kindergarten snap words more closely.
In reading, we listened closely to the text Firetrucks by Judith Jango Cohen. The kids learned some important vocabulary words related to fire trucks (outriggers, tanks, pike poles, levers) and why it is important to have gear. The kids also now where these important parts are located on a fire truck. Next week we will move back to fiction and listen to the text Matthew and Tilly. When the kids weren't listening to Firetrucks or doing activities related to the book, they were training themselves to find Good Fit books. At this point, all the kids in the class have been able to find Good Fit books and are now in the process of sustaining independent reading for longer periods of time. We talked about what it looks like and sounds like when reading to your self and then practiced it. We are up to 3 1/2 minutes of silent independent reading where all of the kids in the class are following are rules for what it looks like and sounds like. We will continue building time until we can get to 15 minutes.
In writing workshop, we are working hard on our small moment personal narratives. This week we met with our writing partners, who helped us by asking questions about our stories, which gave us more ideas to write about. We also talked about the difference between a watermelon story (a whole vacation) vs. a tiny seed story (a small part of that vacation). I reminded students that they should be writing tiny seed stories. Towards the end of the week, the students learned that when they are writing, they are also being readers. The kids learned that they should also be rereading their writing by saying each word aloud and pointing to each word. When doing so, they are able to make sure what is written is exactly what they want it say. Many of the students were able to fix errors while doing this, making their writing even better! We will continue to work more on our small moment stories, learning more ways to add to our writing by adding details.
In math, we spent this week building and using number racks. The kids started by just building specific numbers to 20 and learned strategies to become more efficient. We spent time figuring out different ways to make 5 and 10, both building the different ways and writing the equations. We are also starting to introduce new math games which will become part of our workplaces. There is a link below if you are interested in accessing our virtual number rack.
Virtual Number Rack
Coming Up...
We will start guidance lessons with Mrs. Huntsman every day 1 at 12:00. Our first lesson will be on Monday, September 27th.
We will have our first whole school assembly outside on Monday, September 27th.
We will have our first Good Eats lesson in the garden on Tuesday, September 28th. The kids will be learning about and tasting different varieties of apples.
New photos are posted! See "School Photos" :)
Have a wonderful weekend!!
*9.17.21*
I hope everyone is getting into a routine being back at school! It was nice to have a break in the middle of the week! We sure kept busy every other day!
We started our first unit of phonics looking at labels around the classroom and studying the words. We talked about reading the word, snapping/stomping/clapping the syllables, naming the letters, studying the word, and using the word. The kids are learning this process to learn new words and hopefully put them into their memory. After studying words around the room, we began studying our names. We have done a few friends in the class so far, but by the end of the unit, we will have studied everyone's name and added it to our word wall. The kids are also learning the correct letter formation for writing their names. A copy of the kindergarten snap words that students are expected to read and write is below.
In reading, we listened closely to the book Chester's Way by Kevin Henkes. The theme for the week was respect. The kids were able to listen to the story for the first time to enjoy, the second time listening for important vocabulary words we discussed, and the third time listening for comprehension (they had to listen closely to the story so that they were able to answer some questions about the text). We ended the week talking about picking good fit books. The process we used is I-PICK (I choose a book, Purpose - Why do I want to read? Interest - Does the book interest me? Comprehend - Do I understand the book? Know - Do I know most of the words?) Using this process, the kids are able to pick and read a book that is just right for them. We will continue more of this process next week and listen closely to a nonfiction text about fire trucks.
In math, we started our first unit on counting and collecting data with popsicle sticks. We began skip counting by 1s, 2s, and 5s, and talked about how to correctly use tallies to make groups of five. The kids learned that this makes counting more efficient. Next week we will be building and using number racks to help make numbers and solve basic addition facts. The goal is for kids to see groups of numbers instead of having to count each and every tally mark, popsicle stick, bead, etc...
Finally, in writing workshop, we started our first unit - Personal Narratives. For this unit, the kids are writing about a small moment - something that happened to them. To begin our writing, the kids first had to think of a small moment idea. Once they thought of the moment, they had to touch and tell the story across pages - a beginning, middle, and end. Once they were done touching and telling, they sketched the pictures for their beginning, middle, and end. The last step was going back to add the words. We worked together on a classroom story so the kids had a model to guide them. Today we discussed "When you think you're done, you've just begun" and went back to add more details to our beginning, middle, and end of our classroom story. The kids then started to add more to their own stories as well. We will be spending a little over a month working on our small moment stories.
Important Info...
Open House is on Monday, September 20th at 6:00. The Google link for this virtual Open House was sent out on Wednesday. Please let me know if you did not get it.
Our first Scholastic order is due on Tuesday, September 21st. You can either send a check to school or order books online. Please see the Scholastic Reading Club link above.
Our September birthday party (celebrating James!) is in the afternoon on Friday, September 24th.
Please do not forget to send your child with a snack each day.
More information will be coming at Open House, but every Friday will be a free choice Friday afternoon. If the kids complete all of their classroom work and following our classroom rules all week (they can lose time away from free choice Friday if not), they can have free play at the end of the day. For free choice Friday, the kids can bring toys, games, crafts, etc... from home. Please let me know if you have any questions!
Have a great weekend!!!
*9.10.21*
Welcome back to school! Thank you for being patient as I update out classroom website:) We had a wonderful first week back!
I just complimented the kids today telling them that it seems like we have been back in school for weeks now with how well they have adjusted to a new year (schedule, routines, etc...). I am very proud of them!
This week we spent a lot of time playing games getting to know more about one another. We did some projects about ourselves and our family and even started reading books! In writing, we illustrated and wrote about our favorite summer memory and also did a free write as the first piece to our writing portfolio. I was very impressed with how well all the kids worked. We talked about a few important writing rules such as spacing, upper vs. lowercase, writing the sounds we hear for words we don't know, etc... In handwriting, we introduced the first important strokes for writing letters and numbers - vertical and horizontal lines. Next week in school we will be starting our first writing workshop unit - Small Moments, our first math unit - Numbers All Around Us, and our first phonics unit - Talking and Thinking About Letters. I also plan to meet with all the students next week to get an idea on what kind of reader they are. The book we will be focusing on for whole group close reading will be Chester's Way.
Important Upcoming Info
Pictures/Stickers/Decorations for writing portfolios are due on Monday, September 13th. We will be spending writing workshop on that day decorating our portfolios.
We have our bus drills scheduled for Tuesday, September 14th at 10:05.
There is no school on Thursday, September 16th in observance of Yom Kippur.
Our Open House will be on Monday, September 20th at 6:00. This is a virtual open house and I will be sending the Google meet link as the date gets closer.
I will be sending home our first Scholastic Order next week and they will be due on Tuesday, September 21st.
Have a great weekend!
*6.9.21*
What a great Field Day!! Although a little hot, the kids had a great time! I will be posting pictures from our Field Day, soon:)
In phonics, we continued to talk about "bossy r" and all the different spellings of /er/ (-er, -ir, -ur). I continue to remind the students that it's not only important to hear the sounds in words, but use our eyes, too. If we hear a sound and there are different ways to spell the sound, we have to try a few ways to see which one looks right. We learned that the /air/ sound can be spelled -are, ear, ere, or -air. This makes it tricky when choosing which one is right! We have one more week of phonics after this week where we will continue to work with r-controlled vowels.
In reading, we have been working on poems and readers theaters to share with you for our Parents' Tea. The kids are working really hard and are excited to share with you! I will spend the rest of the year picking some favorite read alouds to share with the kids:)
In math, we are finishing up unit 7 next week. The kids took their unit 7 math test this week which focused on determining missing numbers on a number line (having to count forward and backward), adding and subtracting tens from a given number, and using strategies to 10, 5, 2, and 1. Please keep an eye out for these tests to see what your child still needs to work on. For the remainder of the year, we will have some fun activities (ice cream math) and games to close out the year.
In writing workshop, we will be finishing up our opinion reviews next week. The kids are continuing to work on adding important details that "convince the reader" (tell a story, write a recommendation, add helpful tips, use sparkly words, write a sneak peek, include comparisons, and end with a rating) that their topic is the best (best movie, book, TV show, restaurant, store, toy, etc...). The kids will be sharing their reviews during the last week of school and add these as the last writing piece to their writing portfolios. The writing portfolios with all your child's published pieces will be coming home the last week of school (after the kids get to look through all their writing for the year). It's amazing to see how their writing has improved since the beginning of the year!
Important Info...
Our June/Summer birthdays party will be in the afternoon on Tuesday, June 22nd.
Below are the dates for our Virtual Parents' Tea celebration. The kids also sent home an invitation last week with this information. A Google link will be sent out as the dates get closer...
Pod A (Valentina, Dani, Nick, Mia, Kayleigh, Fitz, Cooper, Lucas, Bradley, Michael, and Atlas) - Wednesday, June 23rd at 10:00AM
Pod B (Allie, Alani, Mala, Cruz, Ian, Jack, Gabby, Charlie, James, Maeve, Emersyn, and Harper) - Thursday, June 24th at 10:00AM
Wednesday, June 23rd - Friday, June 25th (our last day of school) are half-days. Bus dismissal will be at 12:30PM.
I hope everyone has a great rest of your week/weekend!!
*5.28.21*
We are having a great time with the end of the year ABC countdown! We have so much planned in the last month of school. Here is a look at what we did this week...
In reading, we listened to a nonfiction text, Caterpillar to Butterfly. We learned some important vocabulary words related to butterflies and talked about how butterflies grow and change throughout their life cycle. Next week we will begin working on our reader's theater for our Parents' Tea.
In phonics, we started unit 5 - Marvelous Bloopers. The kids have learned that it is okay to make writing and reading bloopers and it is important that we learn from them. As an introduction to the unit, they got to watch some funny kids blooper videos and really enjoyed them! We figured out that many writing bloopers are words with r-controlled (bossy r) vowels. Many students often leave out the vowel because you cannot hear it's sound. This unit is focusing on learning about r-controlled vowels and how to know when to use each one (ur, ir, ar, er, or).
In math we are continuing to use the story of Hansel and Gretel to help us understand how to skip count by 1s, 5s, and 10s to determine missing numbers on a path. The kids are learning that, when determining a missing number, they do not always have to count every single step - They can look for 5s and 10s they know to help them become more efficient at solving problems. We will continue working with numbers along the path as well as more place value next week.
With writing, we started our reviews (opinions) on our favorite restaurants, stores, games, books, movies, etc... They kids are doing an excellent job convincing their readers with some of the strategies we talked about in class (give a sneak peek on the review, write your opinion, give reasons why, add details, add a little story, make comparisons, add helpful tips, include a recommendation, and end with a rating). We are writing a whole-class shared writing review on Duck Donuts in Pod B and Dunkin Donuts in Pod A. They are really enjoying it!
Important Info...
There is no school on Monday, May 31st for Memorial Day.
We have a school-wide assembly on Wednesday, June 2nd with the author of our Wishtree book - Katherine Applegate.
We have our annual Field Day on Tuesday, June 8th. This will be an all day event. Please do not forget to send a water bottle to school on this day!
Parents' Tea Info - We picked the dates for the Parents' Tea! Pod A will be having their Parent's Tea in the morning on June 23rd and Pod B will be having their Parents' Tea in the morning on June 24th. A letter will be coming home shortly!
New pictures are finally posted under "School Photos!"
Enjoy your long, Memorial Day weekend!
*5.21.21*
What a beautiful week! We have spent each day outside this week and the kids have LOVED it. We were even able to do our math lesson outside yesterday, which was a nice change of pace. I hope everyone had a great week! We kept busy!
In phonics, we finished up our Vowel Town. The kids did such a great job! I am so impressed with how well they worked as a team and took their time to add pieces to the town. They even worked hard to read and write all the vowel teams. Some of the places they made in the vowel town include a beach, highway, street lights, coastline, pool, train, sheep, boat, and cowboy. Next week we will be starting our last phonics unit - Marvelous Bloopers (learning through wise mistakes).
In reading, we listened to a fictional text - Whistle for Willie. The theme for the week was perseverance and we learned how Peter never gave up until he learned how to whistle. We ended the week writing a book review on the story. Next week we will move to nonfiction and talk about frog and butterfly life cycles.
In writing workshop. we finished our opinion writing on our collections. We looked through revising and editing checklists to make sure we stated our opinion, gave reasons why with details, wrote an ending, correctly spelled snap words, used strategies for unknown words, and remembered uppercase letters and punctuation. The collections went home yesterday and their opinion piece on their favorite object in their collection will go in their writing portfolio. We will continue to write opinion writing pieces next week - focusing on writing reviews for restaurants, books, stores, movies, etc...
In math, we are continuing to learn and understand hundreds, tens, and ones for place value and learned a few more games that will help us add and subtract tens. We even had a brief introduction to regrouping! We ended the week listening to Hansel and Gretel and did an activity outside where the kids made their own path of "pebbles," which were then connected and helped use to find specific numbers on the path. This will be the focus for our math lessons the next couple of weeks (identifying missing numbers - whether skip counting by 1s, 5s, or 10s - on a path).
Important Info...
There is no school on Monday, May 31st for Memorial Day.
Our last book order for the school year went home on Monday. The book orders are due on Friday, May 28th.
We are running low on shared classroom snacks (for those who may forget a snack for the day). If you are willing to donate a shared item, we'd greatly appreciate it!
With the weather getting warmer, please do not forget to send your child with a water bottle to school. We are unable to use the classroom water fountains.
We will be having our annual Field Day on Tuesday, June 8th! I'm so excited that we will still get to enjoy this fun day!
We will send out more information as the date gets closer.
It's looking like we will be having a virtual Parents' Tea one morning during the last week of school. For this celebration, parents will be able to live stream (via a Google Meet) into the classroom to watch our celebration. We will be spending the next few weeks preparing for this celebration and are looking forward to sharing it with you! We will send out the date/time within the next couple of weeks.
I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend!!
*5.14.21*
I can't believe another Friday is here. These weeks have been so busy that they seem to be flying by! Here is a look at this week...
This week's nonfiction book in reading, Clarabelle, taught the kids all about dairy cows. We listened to enjoy the story and then also listened to some new and interesting facts. Using these new facts, the kids made a brochure on dairy cows (we had to talk about what a brochure is, first!). Next week we will be switching to a fictional book - Whistle for Willie.
We finished up unit 4 in phonics this week (vowel teams). We have finally finished filling our vowel teams chart and the kids are very excited to be able to help Rasheed with his blueprints today. They don't know it yet, but they are going to be using what they know about reading and writing words with vowel teams to make a vowel town poster. We will spend all of next week finishing up the poster and will start our last phonics unit the week after.
In math, we started our final unit this week. In unit 7, we will be working with place value and understanding hundreds, tens, and ones. Using popsicle sticks, the kids spent the first few days of this unit estimating how many popsicle sticks I had (both groups had over 1,000) and worked together to sort them into tens and hundreds to make them easier to count. We will be using popsicle sticks (among other tools) to help us better understand place value throughout this unit.
We are moving along in our opinion writing unit. We started off the week using an opinion writing checklist to help improve our writing. Using the checklist, the kids had to look through their first writing piece to make sure they included all the important pieces of an opinion writing piece. The kids were very honest about giving themselves a "no" if they had yet to include it in their writing. At the end of the week, the kids learned how to "talk back" in their writing. To do this, the kids set out all their objects on their desk with their favorite object out in front. Silently walking around the room with their clipboard, paper, and pencil, the kids made comments "I agree because___" and "I disagree because___" letting someone know if they agreed with their first choice. These comments will then be added to their opinion writing to help prove their point/add details to their piece. (For example "____ agreed that the baseball is the best object in my collection because____").
Photos - I apologize that I haven't been keeping up with posting photos from the year. I can't seem to keep up with it! I promise I will get all the photos up soon...
Coming Up...
Spring pictures are on Tuesday, May 18th.
There is no school on Monday, May 31st for Memorial Day.
I hope everyone enjoys the beautiful weather this weekend!
*5.7.21*
Happy Friday!! Here is what went on in first grade this week...
In phonics, we continued to learn new vowel teams that make new sounds. Rasheed came back from his trip and needed some help with the blueprints he had, but we were not able to help him quite yet. He said we still need to learn a few more vowel teams. This week we learned ue (glue) and ew (screw). Rasheed wrote us a poem with some ue and ew words and we worked together to read the poem. We will be finishing up our unit on vowel teams in the next couple of weeks and then move into our last phonics unit!
In reading, we spent another week learning about planets, comparing two books Starry, Starry Night by Wade Cooper and Planets by Elizabeth Carney. Even though we have learned so much about space already, we continue to learn new interesting facts with each book we read. Next week's book will be focusing on dairy cows, ending with a fun brochure of facts.
In math, we are finishing up unit 6 - using penguins to solve addition and subtraction equations and story problems. We completed the unit 6 math test this week (They went home yesterday). Please take the time to look over the test with your child to see what they may continue to need help with. We have one more math unit this year which will focus on place value, building 100s, 10s, and 1s.
In writing workshop, we started our opinion/persuasive writing unit. Using the objects they brought from home, the kids picked out their favorite object and talked about why it was their favorite. For the remainder of the week, the kids have been writing an opinion piece about their favorite object give reasons why. Yesterday we had a debate on who had the hardest job - Santa Claus or the Tooth Fairy. From this debate, the kids learned the importance of explaining reasons why to support their opinion. We will be continuing to add to these writing pieces and write about more objects in our collection next week.
Coming Up...
There is no school on Monday, May 31st for Memorial Day. We used all of our snow days this year so there are no contingency days leftover.
I hope everyone has a great weekend!!
*4.30.21*
Happy last day of April! It's crazy to think there are only two more months of school left!
In writing workshop this week, the kids worked REALLY hard finishing their Mo Willems stories. We also finished our whole class shared writing books titled "Don't Let Starry Ride the Horse" and " Trooper and Buggo Plan a Vacation." The kids had such a fun time with this writing unit. We will be finishing up the stories this morning and sharing them in small groups this afternoon. On Monday we will be starting out final writing unit of the year - Opinion Writing. A note went home this week about bringing a box/bag of your child's favorite items from home to school by Monday, May 3rd. We will be using these items in the first part of this writing unit to write opinions on why the items in our box/bag are our favorite.
In math this week, we continued to have the penguins help us solve addition and subtraction problems with either the start, change/part, or result unknown. After reading story problems, the students are becoming more comfortable writing equations with a box for the missing number. We spent the week using strategies to help figure out the missing number in an equation. Equations with the start or part/change missing (__+6=15 and 9+__=15) as opposed to the result missing (6+9=__) have been more challenging for the kids. We have a couple more weeks in unit 6, using strategies to solve addition and subtraction facts to 20, before we head into our last math unit of the year.
The kids are becoming real experts of vowel teams in phonics! Although Rasheed has been away on his trip (He came back today!) we have been working hard studying vowel teams so that we are ready to teach him everything we know. Our vowel team linking charts have expanded to include ee, ea, oa, ai, ou, ow, and oo. We are about halfway through our study of vowel teams and are learning new things about them everyday. Of course the kids LOVE when we find rule breaker words:)
We spent this week in reading learning more about the moon. As we usually do, the students listened to enjoy an article about the moon (and were intrigued when watching a video of Neil Armstrong landing on the moon), listened for important vocabulary words, and today they will get to explore with moon dough (just flour and baby oil!). Next week we will spend another week with nonfiction learning more about the planets in our solar system.
Today is our April birthdays party for Harper, Cruz, and Gabby!! We have some great activities planned:)
Coming Up...
*4.22.21*
Happy Earth Day! We have some fun activities planned throughout the day today. Hopefully if we cannot get outside today, we will be able to go for a nature walk tomorrow!
In phonics, the kids have really taken off with vowel teams. So far we have studied the vowel teams, ee, ea, ai, ay, oa, and ou. Our class lion, Rasheed, has taken a trip to NYC and told us we need to learn more about vowel teams so we can teach him when he comes back. The kids learned, that for the most part, vowel teams make the long vowel sound of the first vowel. We practiced vowel flexing this week - When we see a word we don't know and there is a vowel team, we try the long vowel sound of the first vowel. If the word does not make sense, we move to the short vowel sound of the first vowel. If the word still does not make sense, we move to the long vowel sound of the second vowel and so on. With "ou," we learned that we have an entirely new sound. We are making vowel linking charts to help us when we come across vowel teams in reading and writing. Next week we will continue to learn about more vowel teams.
In reading, we spent this week listening to the story "The Tree" from Poppleton Forever by Cynthia Rylant. In this book, Poppleton gets worried there is something wrong with the Dogwood tree he planted and his friends try to help him solve the problem. We listened to some vocabulary words and spent a lot of time talking about the story. Next week we will be moving to some nonfiction articles/books on space (specifically the moon).
In math, we are continuing to use penguins to help us solve some more challenging addition and subtraction problems. We used the double flap cards to build bigger numbers (10-20) and had to practice writing fact families. This is something we need to practice a little bit more. We ended the week using the penguins to help us understand doubles and doubles+one facts. We used our number racks to help us see if certain numbers make equal groups (16 makes 8 and 8) and if not, think of it as a doubles+one fact (13 = 6+6+1). Next week we will use the penguins to help us with some more challenging addition and subtraction story problems.
In writing, we continue to work on our Mo Willems stories. The kids are truly enjoying this unit! Today we will be finishing our whole class shared writing (the kids have been using this to help them write their own stories) and the goal is to fix and fancy-up these stories by next week or the week after. We talked about editing for spelling and punctuation this week and I reminded the students to try and include POP out words in their speech bubbles. Our next and final writing unit for the year will be persuasive opinion writing.
Coming Up...
Some sad news, Ms. Hammes will be leaving us on Tuesday, April 27th to return to her job in learning lab. Mrs. Jones will be taking her place as our new supplemental pod teacher. We are going to miss Ms. Hammes so much!!!! We will be having a party tomorrow, Friday, April 23rd to celebrate her last days.
Next Friday, April 30th, will be our April birthdays party celebrating Harper, Cruz, and Gabby!
I will be submitting the Scholastic book orders at the beginning of next week, so please don't forget to send your order in soon if you are interested in purchasing books. We will have one more book order for May/June.
I hope everyone has a wonderful rest of your week/weekend!!
*4.1.21*
Happy April and April Fool's Day! We had a busy week before break!
We started unit 4 in phonics on Monday. The kids will spend this unit becoming word builders. Much focus in this unit will be on the middle of words, most specifically vowel teams. On Monday the kids used letter cards (blends, digraphs, word families, consonants, word endings) to build words and write them on their white boards. Yesterday we introduced the vowel teams "ee" and "ea." Using what we know about beginning and endings, the kids practiced reading and writing bigger words with "ee" and "ea." After vacation we will spend more time with vowel teams and building/reading words.
In reading this week the kids listened to the story Stand Tall, Molly Lou Melon. The learned the importance of standing up for yourself and always being yourself. We listened to enjoy the story, listened for vocabulary words, and found specific examples in the book to support character traits (They even used one of the vocabulary words, foolish, as a character trait for Ronald Durkin). After vacation we will be listening to the story Tops and Bottoms.
In math, we finished up unit 5 on geometry. The kids spent this week sorting 2D shapes based on their attributes and played several games of Guess My Shape? They were given clues and had to figure out which shape I was thinking of. When we come back from spring break, we will begin unit 6 - Figure the Facts with Penguins. This unit focuses on efficiently using math strategies for adding and subtracting to 20, use place value strategies to add and subtract up to 100, write equations to match problems, and tell, write, and solve a variety of addition and subtraction story problems.
In writing workshop, the kids started drafting their Mo Willems' books and had so much fun! I modeled how to use speech bubbles and thinking bubbles to write like Mo Willem's Piggie and Elephant and Pigeon books. Most kids were able to create the first few pages of their book including detailed illustrations and speech bubbles that lead to the problem of their story (Piggie and Gerald type characters going on some sort of an adventure and Pigeon type character wanting something but never getting it). These stories will continue after April break.
Important Info...
April Scholastic book order forms will be coming home after April break.
I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend and Easter break!!
*3.26.21*
I hope everyone had a great week! Here is an update on what we worked on in school this week...
In reading, we listened closely to Knuffle Bunny, Knuffle Bunny Too, and Knuffle Bunny Free. We talked about how Trixie changed throughout the stories and described her character using specific examples from the books. Next week we will be looking at the book Stand Tall, Molly Lou Melon.
The kids are LOVING the Mo Willems author study in writing. We finished creating our pigeon and elephant and piggie characters. We talked about the contrasting personalities of elephant and piggie and how that helps to create the stories. We also talked about pigeon's personality - always wanting something but never getting it. On Thursday, the kids figured out the problem and solution for their first story and we will begin writing next week! I will be modeling examples using speech and thinking bubbles before the kids try it on their own.
In math, we finished up our unit on geometry and fractions. We did a fractions bingo game and practiced dividing squares and circles into halves and quarters, talking about how we name the parts of the shapes (1/4 and 1/2). You will be seeing a few math assessments (number corner and unit 5) coming home this week. Please look over the tests to see what your child still needs practice on.
Next week we will be starting unit 4 in phonics! This unit is focusing on the kids becoming word builders, creating their own words to read and write.
Coming Up...
On Monday, March 29th we have our whole school Virtual Game Show! We have two students from our class, Jack and Kayleigh, who will be competing on teams. The whole school will get to watch the game show via Google Meet. We are very excited for it!
There is no school on Friday, April 2nd in observance of Good Friday. School is also closed the week of April 5th - 9th for spring break. Enjoy the warm weather if you are going away!
I have finally saved photos from my drive and will slowly begin adding all photos I have taken from the holiday break until now. I apologize for the delay!
Have a wonderful weekend!
*3.19.21*
Happy spring weekend! We are looking forward to the warmer weather right around the corner! Here is what we did this week...
In reading, we listened to Elephant and Piggie stories by Mo Willems. We discussed character traits of both Piggie and Gerald and how the two friends are always having adventures together. With our new writing unit, we watched some videos on how Mo Willems' became a writer, which the students found very interesting! They saw how simple his characters can be created and began creating their own characters. Next week we will start writing our elephant and piggie/pigeon books talking about problem and solution. There are many Mo Willems lunch doodles on Youtube if your child is interested in drawing at home!
Mo Willems Interview
In math, we used polydrons to build cubes and square pyramids. We continued to talk about faces, edges, and vertices on 3D shapes. Next week we will play some games sorting and graphing 2D shapes.
The students had a great time with John Gray's virtual author visit. They listened to his newest book Sweet Polly Petals. It had an important message about spreading kindness.
I apologize I have been behind with posting new photos. I will try to get them all up this coming week!
Have a great weekend!
*3.12.21*
What a great week it has been being able to get outside (other than recess!). It was a very productive week!
In reading, we looked closely at Mo Willems' Pigeon books. We spent a lot of time talking about the characters, character traits, Mo Willems' writing style, and more. Next week we will be looking closely at Mo Willems' elephant and piggie books. We will also learn more about Mo Willems and how he creates his characters as a start to our author study writing unit.
In writing we finished up our nonfiction teaching books! The kids worked on coloring their illustrations, fixing up their writing, and making a front cover to their books. We will be sharing the stories on Monday as we begin our next unit studying Mo Willems' writing style.
In math we spent the week looking closely at 3D shapes. With the warm weather, we were able to get outside for a 3D shape hunt and used polydrons to build cubes. We will finish up 2D and 3D shapes next week and learn about 1/2 and 1/4 fractions.
Coming Up...
If you were interested in ordering books through Scholastic's March order, orders are due on Monday, March 15th.
We have our St. Patrick's Day party and a half-day of school on Wednesday, March 17th. A Sign-up Genius went out last week to volunteer for items/crafts/goodies for the party. If you are picking up your child, student pick-up is at 11:05 and buses are dismissed at 11:25.
Our author visit (John Gray) is in the afternoon on Friday, March 19th.
Reminders...
We do not have any extra snacks left in the event that students forget to bring a snack to school. If you would not mind donating snacks to the classroom, we would greatly appreciate it! Thank you to the parents who have already contributed!!
I hope everyone has a relaxing weekend!!
*3.5.21*
I hope everyone had a great week! I'm looking forward to some warmer weather! Here's what we did this week...
In phonics, we finished up unit 3 - From Tip to Tail. We ended the unit with a challenge game where the kids had to make a list of as many words as they could think of (keeping in mind word beginning, middle, and ends that we have learned throughout the unit) from a variety of given letters. They were really engaged and had fun doing it! We will be taking a break from phonics (before we begin unit 4) to apply all the strategies we have learned to reading and writing.
In reading, we listened closely to the texts A Big Trip and That's What Friends are For by Valeri Gorbachev. We focused on friendship and how the main characters, pig and goat, had contrasting personalities. We ended the week looking closely at the major events in the beginning, middle, and end of the stories. Ms. Hammes and I have been spending a lot of time working with small reading groups. Some groups are focusing on phonics/word work and applying strategies to decoding and understanding texts. We are also challenging some students to complete written responses to books, finding specific examples within the text to support their answers. We will be spending a lot of time doing this during the month of March.
We are just about finished with our Nonfiction writing unit. The kids picked their best writing piece (some only had one that they were working on) and are "fixing and fancying" them up. It is taking a bit longer than we thought so we will be finishing and sharing them next week. I will be completing an informational writing rubric that will come home next week so that you can see what your child still needs to work on.
In math, we are moving along in unit 5! The kids have learned many attributes to describe hexagons, rectangles, trapezoids, triangles, and rhombuses. We have played some fun games (Shape in My Pocket, Tell Me About A...) and played some new workplaces (Last Shape in Wins and Pattern Block Puzzles). We will continue 2D shapes next week and then move into 3D shapes.
Important Info...
Forms went home before vacation regarding our March conference day (Wednesday, March 17th). If you would like a conference but one was not requested from Ms. Hammes and myself, please let me know!
Our St. Patrick's Day party is on Wednesday, March 17th. Sign-up Genius forms went out in your email for food/craft volunteering. Thank you to everyone who has volunteered already!
On Friday, March 19th, we have a virtual author visit with John Gray. He visited our school last March and it was a wonderful experience!
March Scholastic book order forms will be coming home next week!
At this point in the school year, we are making the kids more accountable for their work. If you see school work come home (with a cover that says Homework), it is incomplete work that your child did not complete because they were either distracted or did not complete it to the best of their ability. Please let me know if you have any questions.
New photos coming soon! Next week's spelling words will be posted on Monday.
Have a wonderful weekend:)
*3.1.21*
Here are this week's spelling words:
First Grade List Challenge Words
school smoothed
cool swoops
mood spools
bloom cooler
chew booming
new rooster
grew chewy
flew threw
*2.26.21*
I hope everyone had a good first week back from break. Here is what we worked on this week...
In reading, we listened to the book Henry's Freedom Box. It was a very powerful book with many lessons learned. Through this book, the kids briefly learned about slavery and what it was like for Henry (the book is based on a true story). It is a great book to listen to at home with your kids! Next week we will look closely at the book The Big Trip by Valeri Gorbachev.
In math, we finished unit 4! We ended the unit learning about King and Rockhopper penguins. The students each got a measuring strip cut to their own height and then compared their height to the height of a Rockhopper (18 inches) and King (36 inches) penguin. The kids learned that two Rockhopper penguins equal the height of one King penguin. They had a lot of fun! Next week we will begin unit 5 - Geometry (both 2D and 3D shapes).
In writing, we are just about finished with our nonfiction teaching books. The kids looked at our mentor text Sharks and learned that many nonfiction books begin with a question to pull the reader in. We ended the week learning that we can also include pop out words and speech bubbles in nonfiction books (just like we did in our small moment stories). The kids did an excellent job taking the lessons and incorporating them into their own books. Next week the kids will be choosing their best nonfiction book to "fix and fancy-up" so that we can share them with our friends towards the end of the week during a publishing party. Our next writing unit will be an author study on Mo Willems - one of my favorite units!
This has been a week of finishing up units! In phonics, we have a couple more lessons before we wrap-up unit 3 - studying word endings. This week we looked more closely at contractions (specifically the "not" contractions) and the kids learned that grown-ups use contractions as a shortcut. We "smush" two words together to make one word. The kids learned that with "not" contractions, we get rid of the "o" in "not" and add an apostrophe, pushing the two words together. We also added the word "don't" to our snap word wall. We will take a couple weeks break from phonics to spend time applying these strategies in reading groups and will begin unit 4 in the middle of March.
Today we celebrated our 100th day of school with 100th day activities all day! We also celebrated Mala and Emmi's birthdays!
February book orders finally came in today and will be coming home! Please be on the look out if you ordered books.
Coming Up...
Forms went home explaining the process of March conferences. If you received the form saying your child does not need a conference but still feel the need to meet, please let me know as soon as possible. Our March conference day is on Wednesday, March 17th and report cards will be coming home the day before - Tuesday, March 16th. Please let me know if you have any questions!
I will post next week's spelling words on Monday (another week of long u).
I hope everyone has a relaxing weekend!!
*2.8.21*
A couple quick updates...
Here are the spelling words for this week. I apologize, I've been meaning to post these on our website and I keep forgetting! The rule for this week is long i
First Grade Words Challenge Words
my flying
cry tried
why tied
pie cried
tie alive
five mine
tire dries
fire buy
I have not been able to find an easy way to create virtual valentines, but I thought it might be a nice idea to create a slideshow where each of us can make a valentine page. I am going to send out the google slideshow link later today, creating my own page to start so that students can get an idea. This is not mandatory, but would be fun for the kids to see!
Mrs. Countermine's Class Valentine's Day Slideshow
I also thought it would be a nice idea to send virtual Valentine's Day cards to children at St. Jude's Hospital. The link for the cards is below.
St. Jude's Hospital virtual valentines
Have a great week!
*2.5.21*
Happy Friday! I hope everyone enjoyed their snow day this week:)
We are continuing to use a number line in math to skip count by 1s, 5s, and 10s as well as adding and subtracting by 1s and 10s. The kids practiced solving story problems with TAD and Polli hopping on the number line and did well with the challenge problems! We will continue using the number line into and after February break.
In reading, we listened to the stories Duck!Rabbit! and Daft Bat. The theme was point of view and the kids learned that when we see things from a different point of view, we can understand others and even change our own minds. It was also important for them to learn that There was a great lesson learned in both books (and they enjoyed debating whether or not you could see duck or rabbit!)
In writing the students saw examples of how-to nonfiction pages and "different kinds of___" nonfiction pages. I modeled examples from my Baking nonfiction book and then the kids were able to try their own. I was very impressed with how everyone did creating their how-to pages (Ex: "How to walk a dog," "How to play Pokemon," etc... ) and different kind of pages (ex: "Different Kinds of Dogs," "Different kinds of Weather," "Different Kinds of Pokemon," etc...). We have a few more weeks left of our nonfiction writing books.
In phonics this week, the kids took what they have learned about word beginnings, middles, and endings to decode more challenging words in Rasheed's book about school. The students used strategies to decode the beginning and middle of words such as blends, digraphs, word families (a vowel + a blend), snap words hiding, etc... and strategies to decode word endings (-er, -ing, -ed, -es, blends/digraphs, etc...). After, they put the parts together to read the bigger words. We are already more than halfway through unit 3 of phonics! We will continue to study words from "tip to tail" in the next couple of weeks.
Coming up...
Next Friday, February 12th is our Valentine's Day party! A sign-up genius was sent out for snacks and crafts. We are also planning on doing our movie/popcorn/hot chocolate on that day. It will be very busy! I am still looking into creating virtual valentines (no such luck, yet!). The kids are also allowed to bring a small stuffed animal from home to keep at their seats.
As of right now, our 100th day of school is on Friday, February 25th. We will spend the day doing various 100th day activities. There will be a project coming home soon (to be completed at home and sent back to school by the 25th). To look ahead, we are asking the kids to send in 100 of an object (100 Legos, 100 buttons, 100 pieces of pasta, etc...). There will be a brown bag for the kids to put their objects in with a cover sheet asking them to write down 5 adjectives to describe their object. On the 100th day, one of our activities will be for the kids to read their adjective clues to see if anyone can guess what is in their brown bag! Please be on the lookout for the directions/brown bag.
A Scholastic Books order form is coming home today. It will be due next Thursday, February 11th. You can also order books online. Please let me know if you have any questions.
Our new specials begin next week - Library and Art!
I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend!!
*1.22.21*
I hope everyone had another good week. We were busy in school!
In phonics, we spent this week learning more about word endings, most specifically phonograms. We learned that words can end with a vowel+a blend (-uck, -ack, -ang, -ock, etc...) or a vowel+a digraph (-ash, -ush, -etc...). We played a fun game where we turned "junk" into "gold" by changing one letter at a time to create new words. The kids learned that learning these phonograms will help us with both reading and writing.
In reading, we focused on a fictional story, A Bad Case of Stripes. The theme we learned from the story is being yourself. Camilla learned that by trying to be like everyone else (and not eat lima beans, which she loves), she developed a bad case of stripes. We listened for vocabulary words and also to answer specific questions about the story (looking back within the text to find specific examples to support our answers). Next week we will continue with fictional stories and listen to The Invisible Boy.
In math, we began unit 4 - Leap frogs on the number line. We used an interactive number line where the kids were given numbers and had to come up and add them on the number line, when needed. We practiced skip counting by 1s, 2s, 5s, and 10s and also played a game called What's in the Box? We were able to see two numbers on our interactive number line and had to fill in the missing number somewhere in between. The kids had a lot of fun playing this game! We also used a number line to answer basic addition and subtraction equations. We will continue to use number lines to solve more challenging equations as well as story problems.
During writing workshop, we looked at the table of contents in various nonfiction books (Lions, Sharks, etc...) and learned that the table of contents tells us the chapter titles/headings and what page to find the information. The kids then helped me to create a table of contents for my book on Baking, using that as a model to create a table of contents for their own nonfiction teaching book. We will continue to add more details to each of our chapters. I am continuing to remind students to use our strategy "Say it, Slide it, Hear it, Write it" when spelling more challenging words. We want to make sure we are writing down the letter for every sound we hear.
Coming Up...
Next Friday, January 29th we will have our January birthdays party for Dani and Allie!
Important Info...
Our February Scholastic Book order form will be coming home soon!
Our Valentine's Day party is right around the corner! Because of the circumstances this year, we are unable to create and hand-out physical valentines. I am looking into the possibility of creating virtual valentines that the kids would be able to email each other. If you know information on this (if it's possible and/or how to do it), please let me know! We will still plan to have our hot chocolate, popcorn, and movie that we were unable to have before the holiday break on Friday, February 12th.. As stated in the note that went home this week, the kids are also able to bring in a stuffed animal (which will stay at their seats). If you are uncomfortable with the stuffed animals, please let me know!
We are running low on dry-erase markers, highlighters, and wipes. If you have any of these items that you would be willing to donate to our classroom, we would greatly appreciate it! Some students are also running low on crayons and glue. Please ask your child if they need any of these supplies.
New pictures will be posted soon - our January birthday friends!
I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend! Stay warm!
*1.15.21*
I hope everyone had a great week! Here is an update on what we did this week...
In phonics, we continued to talk about the importance of reading all the way across words and pay close attention to word endings. We learned about the different sound we hear with -ed ("d," "t," and "id"). We also learned that y at the end of a word can make a long e or long i sound. An exception we learned was that when we see the "ay" word family (with y at the end of the word), we hear the long a sound. Today we focused more on writing all the sound we hear, all the way to the end of the word. The students read different writing pieces with endings missing and had to use what they know about common word endings to add the correct endings. They were then able to look at their own writing to make sure all of their words had the necessary endings.
In math, we finished unit 3! We spent this week comparing cube trains and learning how to write comparisons as a subtraction problem and also did more practice with our number racks. The kids had fun this week making cube trains of 6, 7, 8, and 9 and had to share equations to represent their cube trains. Next week we will begin unit 4 - Leapfrogs on the Number Line.
In writing, we continued to work on a our teaching books. I was able to meet with most students this week and their stories are coming along wonderfully! I love reading about the things they love. The common goal I notice among most students is adding details to tell me more about each fact on each page. We looked at the informational writing checklist so the kids could see what they need to make sure they include in their nonfiction teaching books.
Finally in reading, we listened to various texts about Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. The kids were very inquisitive and curious about Dr. King! We talked about listening for important details about his life and also listened for important vocabulary words (equally, Civil Rights, peaceful protests). Today we are listening to the article for the main idea and key details and are listening to a read aloud, Martin's Big Words. Next week we will move back to fictional stories and focus on the book, A Bad Case of Stripes.
Important Info -
We are starting to run low on dry-erase markers, crayons, and highlighters. If you are able to donate any of these supplies to the classroom, we would greatly appreciate it!!!
Coming Up...
There is no school this coming Monday, January 18th in observance of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day.
Have a great, long weekend!!
*1.8.21*
Happy New Year! I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday break. We've had a busy start to the school year!
This week in phonics we started unit 3, From Tip to Tail - Reading Across Words. This unit focuses on word endings. We learned some common word endings - ed, er, es, s, ing. We also learned that if we want to read and learn something new, it's important to read all the way across words so that we do not learn wrong information - I accidentally read "Big Cats" as "Bit Cookies" and the kids learned that reading words endings correctly is important! We will focus each day on a different word ending.
In reading, we also listened to and read nonfiction. The kids listened to a book about whales and dolphins and compared the two mammals. They were surprised to see that there were many more similarities than differences. Today the kids listened for understanding and practiced looking back within the text to find specific examples for whales do when they cannot find food to eat. Next week we will be learning about Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
In math, we are finishing up unit 3. We spent this week learning a new game - 50 or Bust. The kids used double ten frame cards to make 10 + a number equations and try to get as close to 50 without going over (and busting). They had fun! This will now become a new workplace. Today the kids took their unit 3 math test and next week we will finish up the unit by reviewing addition and subtraction strategies. Our next math unit will focus on number lines and using them to add, subtract, skip count, and understand place value.
Lastly in writing workshop, the kids continued to work on their nonfiction teaching books. This week continued to focus on the importance of making detailed illustrations (so our readers can learn from both the words and the illustrations) and how to apply content vocabulary to our books. I shared the example of baking. I love to bake and explained to the students that I needed to add the words beating, dissolve, dough, and knead into my story, but those are challenging words for first graders to spell. The students learned that they use the strategy say it, slide it, hear it, write it and do their best spelling. They then circle the word and move on. It is important for students to not spend all of their time worrying about how to spell a word and by circling it, it is telling me they tried their best and kept going. We will continue to work on our nonfiction teaching books until winter break in February.
Coming Up...
Next week (week of January 11th) we will begin sharing our Gingerbread Fred journals. I wanted to use this week as time for students to bring the journals in. If your child has not yet sent in their journal, please have it by Monday, January 11th. We will have a couple students share a day and just pick one entry from their book. If they have pictures to go with them, that would be great!
I have not received a paper flyer from the school for a January Scholastic book order form. If you would like to order books for the month of January, please submit the order online and I will submit the full order by next Friday, January 15th.
There is no school on Monday, January 18th in observance of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day.
Important Reminders -
If the weather is above 20 degrees, the students will be going outside for recess. If there is snow on the ground, they are able to play in the snow. The kids do have to take snow gear home every day in case we happen to go remote at the last minute. We also are keeping windows slightly open for circulation so the classroom can be chilly. Please make sure your child comes to school with the necessary clothing.
New photos are posted under birthdays and our Pod B pajama party in "School Photos."
Have a wonderful weekend!!
*12.14.20*
One more full week until holiday break! I hope everyone had a wonderful weekend!
Last week in writing workshop we continued to plan out our nonfiction teaching books. The students learned to think about all the questions the readers might ask about their topic to help them add more details. The kids are continuing to sketch detailed pictures (after learning that we can not only learn from the words, but the pictures, too!) and begin writing their facts across pages. We will continue to work on adding detailed facts this week and after vacation.
In math, we are using our number racks to solve story problems and look for strategies to build numbers between 10 and 20. The students not only have to find the missing whole (4+5=_), but also a missing addend (4+_=9/_+5=9). With subtraction, the kids are using strategies to find the missing change (9-_=5), result (9-4=_), and start (_-5=4). We will continue to review strategies into and after the holiday break.
In phonics, we will be spending this week and next reviewing snap words from our first two units. As stated above, we will begin unit 3, Reading Across Words, after the holiday break.
In reading, we began learning about holidays around the world. We began last week with Christmas and Hannukah. We watched some fun videos teaching us facts about the holidays. This week we will be learning about Kwanzaa, Diwali, and Chinese New Year!
Important Info -
This week for spelling we will be testing the students on all the first grade snap words from Unit 1 and Unit 2 of our phonics program. After the holiday break we will be starting Unit 3 and there will be many new snap words to study. Please review the snap words that you currently have at home.
A parent made a wonderful suggestion! I will be posting the spelling words on our website every Monday morning!
I apologize for the delay in posting pictures. It's been a hectic few weeks! I will try to get them up as soon as possible!
Coming Up...
Our Welcome Winter Party is schedule for Wednesday, December 23rd. We will be having popcorn and hot chocolate while watching a holiday movie. A Sign-up Genius for supplies went out last week.
Spirt Week begins this Thursday! Thank you to our VES Student Council! Please see the schedule below for some fun activities planned!
Thursday, December 17th - Gingerbread Day - Listen to a read aloud and color your own gingerbread person!
Friday, December 18th - Sweater Day - Wear your favorite holiday sweater!
Monday, December 21st - Holiday Color Explosion - Wear red/green/white/blue/yellow!
Tuesday, December 22nd - Candy Cane Day - Dress in stripes!
Wednesday, December 23rd - Pajama and Movie Day!
Our December birthday parties celebrating Lucas and Jack will be on Friday, December 18th.
I hope everyone has a great week!
*12.4.20*
I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving! It's hard to believe we are only a few weeks away from the holiday break!
In math this week, we started unit 3 - Adding, Subtracting, Counting, and Comparing. The kids were able to play some new workplace games (Drop the Beans and Make the Sum). The goal of these games was for kids to learn all the ways to make a number (5-10). We want students to quickly see all the equations that make 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, and 10. Towards the end of the week, we worked with even and odd numbers and learned that doubles facts result in even numbers and we can use doubles to help us solve near double equations (4+4= can help us solve 5+4= and so on). Next week we will spend some time working with story problems and continue learning all the ways to make different numbers to ten.
In reading, we listened to two different versions of Little Red Riding Hood -Little Red Riding Hood and Petite Rouge. We listened for vocabulary and then compared the two stories. We are beginning to learn about character traits and finding examples in the story to share what we know about characters.
The kids were very excited to start our new writing unit this week - Nonfiction! We began the unit talking about the difference between teaching books and telling a story - Their small moment narratives told a story. This unit the students get to pick a topic they know a lot about (dancing, Pokemon, baseball, Minecraft, horses, Christmas, etc...) and write what they know about the topic. We began by thinking of a topic, listing five facts we know about the topic across our fingers, and sketching. Next week we will finish our sketching and begin writing the words.
In phonics we are finishing up unit 2! The SSDA sent us five new case files since silent e- 1. The case of the twin letters (little) 2. The case of the sticky letters (spring). 3. The case of the words in disguise (I'm - hiding I am) 4. The Compound Word puzzle (into) and 5. Tracking Down the Look-Alike Word parts. We will be finishing up unit 2 next week and moving in to our third unit of phonics after the holiday break.
Coming Up...
Next Wednesday, December 9th and Friday, December 11th are early dismissal days for parent teacher conferences. Please let me know if your child will have a different pick-up/drop-off schedule for those early dismissal days. Report cards will be going home on Tuesday. Please keep in mind that we had a unique spring and the independence of skills (score of "3" on the report card) may take some more time to achieve. Do not be alarmed if your child receives a "1" in some areas. I will be sure to explain this in more detail at conferences.
We are looking ahead at a winter holiday celebration the week before break (Wednesday, December 23rd). The plan is to watch a holiday movie with popcorn and hot chocolate. A sign-up genius will be going out soon to sign-up for some of these items.
A new Scholastic book order form will be coming home next week!
New photos are posted under "School Photos" - Halloween, birthdays, and our small moments publishing party!
Have a great weekend!
*11.20.20*
Happy Friday and almost Thanksgiving! Here is what we have been up to this week...
In reading, we listened closely to the text Turkey for Thanksgiving. The students were surprised at the end of the story when they realized that turkey was invited as a guest and not to be eaten! We listened for vocabulary words (nuzzled, perch, bellowed, peering, insist, bare) and then listened to understand the story (How do you know that turkey was relieved to be at the table and not on the table?).
In phonics, the SSDA sent us two new case files this week! The first case file was the case of the twin letters (I was so impressed with the kids made the connection that two of our reading vocabulary words had twin letters!) We learned that the twin letters need to be consonants in the middle of the a word. If you see a twin letter, you separate the word in between the twin letters and read both parts of the words separately before putting them together. The kids were able to read some challenging words using this strategy! The second case file we did today - The case of the sticky letters. Sticky letters are words that have three consonants stuck together before a vowel (str, thr, scr, spr, etc...). We found a lot of words with sticky letters and broke the words apart to learn some more challenging words. After Thanksgiving we will have three more case files coming our way!
In writing, we are almost finished publishing our small moment story! The kids fixed and fancied their writing by rereading to edit and revise. Towards the end of the week, they worked on a cover and About Me page. Next week the kids will be sharing their story with friends.
In math, the kids each made their own sea star and used the sea stars to help them skip count by 5s. We noticed patterns on the hundred grid when we skip count by 5s (the numbers end with a "5" or "0.") After Thanksgiving we will begin unit 3 - Adding, Subtracting, Counting, and Comparing.
Important Info...
Please note that we are trying to get the kids outside as often as we can. It is important that, as these days get colder, your child has a warm coat, hat, and gloves to wear outside.
Yesterday a Thankful Tree project went home that is due the Monday after Thanksgiving break (November 30th). For the thankful tree, the students are to write down one thing they are thankful for on each piece of flower/circle/heart/etc... and glue the pieces on the tree. We will be hanging these up in the hall!
Next week a sheet will be coming home with all the kindergarten snap words your child still needs to practice reading and writing. The first grade snap words side will be empty as we have not assessed students on those at this time.
We have been running low on quart/snack size bags. If you have any extras at home that you are willing to donate, we would love to use them!
Please do not forget to sign up for a virtual December conference. Please see below for the link to Canyon Creek.
Conference Sign-up
Coming Up...
This coming Tuesday, November 24th is our Thanksgiving party. If you signed up to bring in an item(s) for the party, please make sure to send them to school by Tuesday.
Have a wonderful weekend!!
*11.13.20*
This week we want to say thank you to all of our veterans!! We hope everyone enjoyed their day off!
In spelling this week we took a break from our short vowel units to test the kids on all the kindergarten snap words (38 words). Each day the kids were assessed on ten words (eight today) and a sheet went home with how they did. If a word is misspelled, please pull those word cards aside to have your child practice writing the words. We have removed the kindergarten snap words from our word wall in school and will now be focusing on the first grade words. Please remember the students should be able to read and write the words.
In reading, the students were able to listen to a fiction and nonfiction article/book on Veteran's Day. We talked about what a veteran is and how we celebrate veteran's on Veteran's Day. Today we will be comparing the fiction and nonfiction texts. We will spend next week looking closely at a fictional text, Turkey for Thanksgiving.
In phonics, the kids finished the first bend of unit 2 - the case of the silent e. We learned that vowels a, i, o, and u have many silent e words that make the vowel long; however, we could only come up with 3 words for long vowel e with silent e! We discovered that we hear the long e sound in other ways - "ee" and "ea." The SSDA had us go through a snap word boot camp (wow!) and next week they are sending us some new cases to investigate. The kids said they are willing to take the challenge!
In writing, the students picked their best small moment piece this week and we began publishing the story. We talked about "fixing and fancying up." Next week we will reread our stories to check for snap word spelling, punctuation, uppercase letters at the beginning of sentences, spacing, neat handwriting, and a beginning/middle/end. The plan is to share our final writing stories the week of Thanksgiving.
We are almost finished with unit 2 in math! The kids took an assessment this week on using dominoes to solve addition equations and fact families. We are also looking for students to be fluent in addition facts up to ten. Please continue to review math facts at home. Unit 3 will be adding, subtracting, counting, and comparing.
If you are interested in donating items to our classroom, we have run low on highlighters and would appreciate anyone who would be willing to donate those to our room!
We are beginning to use the Chromebooks a lot more in school to practice logging into RazKids, IXL, and Google classroom. If you have a pair of headphones at home that you would like your child to use (we do clean the ones here) or have extra pairs you are willing to donate to the classroom, we would love to use them!
Coming up...
Next Friday, November 20th is our November birthdays party!
Information will be coming home shortly about a small Thanksgiving party on Tuesday, November 24th.
Have a wonderful weekend!!
*11.6.20*
We have made it through two months in school! :)
In phonics, I am so proud of how the students are picking up the silent e pattern. We have continued to receive letters/emails/texts from the SSDA and this week they asked us to update them on what we have found so far. Some new clues in our case file are 1.We can use patterns (-ake, -ole, -ike, etc...) to create new words with silent e and 2. Silent e has been discovered at the ends of other vowel words, not just a. This week we looked at many words that have long o with a silent e and long i with a silent e. We also discovered some more WATCH OUT words other than have (some, come, live). They are really enjoying this unit!
In reading, we took a close look at the text Stellaluna. The vocabulary words the students listened for were clutched, swooped, escape, clambered, and curious. They did a great job finding them! Today we were able to write about reading - what did the author teach us about birds at night. Next week we will listening closely to a fiction and nonfiction book about Veteran's Day.
In writing, we continued to work on our small moment stories. The kids closed their eyes and visualized a story I read out loud and we talked about how the author did a good job telling all the character actions so that we could create a movie in our heads. The kids tried to do that with their own writing! We have a couple weeks left of our small moments writing unit.
In math, the kids used dominoes to make facts families and work with doubles facts. They did a checkpoint assessment on using dominoes to solve addition facts and compare numbers (<,>,=). They all did a great job! If your child is still struggling with mentally solving doubles equations (1+1=, 2+2=, 3+3=, 4+4=, 5+5=, or 6+6=, please continue to review these at home.
New photos coming soon!
Important Info...
If your child is reading a book at their level at home (chapter book or otherwise), please feel free to send it to school. We have many opportunities for independent reading and I'm sure they would love to continue reading the book here!
This coming week (week of November 9th) we will be taking a break from our spelling short vowel practice to review kindergarten snap words. There are 38 words from kindergarten that students need to be able to read and write. We will practice ten words each day Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday and eight words on Friday. When the sheets come home each day, please make note of the kindergarten words your child still needs to practice writing. If you have any questions, please let me know!
Coming Up...
On Wednesday, November 11th there will be no school in observance of Veteran's Day.
A Scholastic book order form will be coming home on Monday, November 9th. The orders will be due on Friday, November 13th. Please remember you can also order online!
Have a wonderful weekend!
*10.30.20*
Happy Halloween!
In reading this week, we took a break from our close reading units to read and enjoy some Halloween stories! The kids listened to Sammy Spooktacular Halloween and Fright Club. They loved the books (and they are some of my favorite!). I was also able to meet individually with students for reading conferences. Next week we will reading Stellaluna - listening to enjoy, listening for vocabulary, and listening to understand.
In writing workshop, the students were able to see the connection between phonics and writing. The students learned that they can use snap words (in, went, and) to write bigger words they may use in their writing - begin, silent, and sand. Many of the students were able to go back to their writing and look for bigger words they wrote to see if there was a snap word hidden. Yesterday, we used George McClements craft moves to improve our writing, as well. We reread the story The Night of the Veggie Monster and noticed his use of ellipses (...) and pop-out words VEGGIE MONSTER. Once again, the kids were able to go back edit their writing - adding their own pop-out words and ellipses. We have a couple more weeks left of our small moments writing unit before we begin to publish our best piece!
In phonics, we started our new unit - silent e. The students have loved it! The unit began with a call from the SSDA (Super Secret Detective Agency) asking us if we wanted to take the case of the silent e. We spent the week studying words and adding to our case file. So far we have: The e is at the end of the word. The e doesn't make a sound. It changes the a to a long sound: tap - tape. Watch out for words like "have." Yesterday we used what we know about letters and snap words to write a letter (as a class) to the SSDA, letting them know all we have learned so far from our case.
Finally in math, we are continuing to use dominoes and flap cards as a tool to solve addition and subtraction problems. We spent most of this week making flap cards (you may have seen some of these come home with the stickers). The flap cards have helped us learn the four (or two if it's a doubles fact) facts in the fact family. Ex: If they have a total of 8 on the back of the flap card and under one flap there are 3 stickers, there must be 5 stickers under the other flap. The students then had to try and write the equations in the fact family 3+5=8, 5+3=8, 8-3=5, 8-5=3. Those who wanted a challenge tried to take one of the equations and write their own story problem. We will continue to work more on this next week and learn new workplace games using dominoes.
The kids had a great time this week doing some pumpkin and Halloween projects! Ms. Hammes did a pumpkin investigation where the kids were able to measure the height of a pumpkin with cubes, weigh the pumpkin, test if it sinks or floats, see if the force of a blow dryer would make the pumpkin move, take out the seeds and count them, etc... They loved it! They will also be doing some more fun Halloween projects this afternoon.
New pictures are posted! See "School Photos!"
Coming Up...
This Tuesday, November 3rd is a half-day with dismissal at 12:30. If you are planning on picking up your child, parent pick-up will be at 12:10, so please plan to get here before then. The kids riding the bus will be dismissed at 12:25. If your child is getting a lunch that day, they will be sent to the classroom before dismissal for the students to bring home with them. THEY WILL NOT BE EATING LUNCH IN SCHOOL. Because we are not eating lunch in school, PLEASE MAKE SURE TO SEND YOUR CHILD WITH A SNACK. It will be a long morning and we want to make sure they eat something before they go home. Please let me know if you have any questions!
If you are looking for items to donate to our classroom, we could always use small toys for the kids to play with during free play time. We could also use individually bagged snacks for students who may come to school one day without a snack.
Thank you so much and have a wonderful weekend!
*10.23.20*
Happy Friday!!
In phonics this week, we wrapped up our first unit, Talking and Thinking about Letters. I have noticed a big difference with everyone's ability to recognize snap words, blends, and digraphs. Towards the end of this week, we even practiced changing the beginning letter/blend (onset) to make new words and then the ending word family (rime) to make new words. The students are beginning to see that even though we have 50 snap words on our sight word wall, we really know hundreds of words because of them! Next week we will begin unit 2 - The Mystery of the Silent e.
In reading, the students listened to the text From Seed to Pumpkin. We learned about how pumpkins change and grow and listened to vocabulary in the text (vines, cling, sprawl, ripe, sprout). Today we will be reading for comprehension, thinking about what plants need to grow and change as well as looking back in the text to answer questions about the book. Next week we will spend reading listening to Halloween stories and reading independently.
In math, we started unit 2 - Developing Strategies with Dice and Dominoes. We listened to a book about dominoes and learned how we can use dominoes to create math equations by adding the dots on the top half of the domino to the dots on the bottom half of the domino. We were even able to play a couple domino games "the Covid way" as the kids put it! We will continue to work with dominoes next week and use them to create fact families.
Finally in writing workshop, we continued to talk about ways to bring our stories to life. We reviewed the strategy of unfreezing people (making them move and making them talk) and learned two new strategies - telling small steps and bringing out the inside (make people feel and think). I was so impressed when the students went back to their small moment stories and added feelings or made their characters talk. They are really beginning to add more details to stretch out the beginning, middle, and end. We will continue to work on these small moment stories next week and also write some fun, spooky Halloween stories!
Important Info...
*An IMPORTANT packet of information is coming home today. First, there is a progress report focusing on reading and writing skills we've seen in the classroom up until this point this year. We will soon send updates on math, as well. Also included in the packet are all the snap words we have studied this far and some activities you could do at home to practice the words. Although it is not written on the snap word packet, it is important that students not only know how to read the words, but write them as well. Please let me know if you have any questions about the packets.
Next Week...
*Our Halloween party will be on Friday, October 30th.
*10.13.20*
I hope everyone enjoyed a nice, long weekend! The past week and a half have been very busy!!
In reading, we are continuing to alternate between fiction and nonfiction for close reading. This week the students are listening to Chrysanthemum. We began our close reading by listening to enjoy the text. The students visualized one of the settings in the book. We will also review some important vocabulary words and reread the book listening for those words. At the end of the week, the students will respond to comprehension questions about the text and prove it using examples from the story. Next week we will switch to nonfiction as we begin learning about pumpkins.
In writing workshop, the kids are working hard on their small moment stories. We compared our stories to watermelons and how a small moment story should be a a tiny seed of a watermelon, not a whole watermelon. For example, a watermelon story would be a story about our whole vacation where a tiny seed story would be writing about something we did on vacation. The goal is to be writing tiny seed stories! The students are doing an excellent job applying snap words to their writing and if they are not sure how to spell a word, use the strategy of "say it, slide it, hear it, write it." After writing a sentence in the beginning, middle, and end of our stories, the students learned that when they think they are done, they've "just begun!" We are rereading to add more. We will be continuing our small moments writing unit over the next few weeks into November.
For phonics, we will soon be finishing up our unit studying words closely looking for blends, digraphs, vowels and their sounds, etc... We reviewed 44 kindergarten snap words and have been introduced to 11 new first grade snap words (his, said, saw, say, then, they, but, let, run, us, and yes! The students have learned that we use these words ALL THE TIME! We use them when we talk, read, and write. Today the students practiced writing some snap words when writing a letter to Mr. Vivenzio. Next week we will finish our first phonics unit.
Finally in math, the students continue to use their number rack as a resource for building numbers and solving equations. While using the number rack, we have learned that there are many ways to make just one number. For example, we can build 7 with 7 on the top rack and 0 on the bottom rack or 3 on the top rack and 4 on the bottom rack, etc... We even challenged ourselves to make equations for bigger numbers (7 on top plus 6 on the bottom makes 13). Today, we played a game called Number Detective. We spun a number to 20 (ex: 12) and then the students had to build the number using the top and bottom row of their number rack. With a partner, they hid either the top or bottom number and then their partner had to guess the missing number. We learned that this created an equation with the start or part missing (for example - __+8=12 or 4+__=12). They thought it was neat that they could figure out the hidden number!
Important Reminders -
Please make sure you are sending a snack for your child every day. It is a long afternoon and we want to make sure they have enough energy to last through the day! A copy of the safe snack list is located as a tab on our classroom website.
We will be celebrating birthdays at the end of every month. For your child's party date, please see the tab "Parent Helper Volunteers." There is a section for birthday party dates. Our October birthday party is planned for next Friday, October 23rd. If you would like to send in a snack on your child's birthday, it must be a snack that has individually wrapped packages.
As long as it is not too cold or rainy, the kids will be going outside. I would suggest sending a sweatshirt or sweater in your child's backpack everyday so that they have something they can wear when it is chilly. Also, please make sure your child has an extra pair of clothes to keep at school. If the extra clothes come home dirty, please send your child back with a clean pair of clothes.
If your child misses a day of school with cold symptoms that are also on the list of COVID symptoms, we were advised that you need to contact our school nurse before your child returns to school. If you have any questions about the process, please contact Mrs. Brackett ([email protected]).
Just a reminder that reading logs will be going home at the beginning of every week. The only homework at this time is for students to be reading (or read to) every night. On the log, please write down (or have your child write down) the books they read and how long they read for. The reading logs are always due on Fridays. Again, please let me know if you have any questions about this.
A Sign-up Genius will be emailed and posted on our website soon regarding our Halloween party. The plan for the day is to have two crafts for each pod to enjoy (a parent to sign-up and send each craft) and a shared snack/juice (individually packaged for parents to sign up for as well). Please be on the look out for this. The party will be in the afternoon on Friday, October 30th.
Coming Up...
On Friday, October 16th we have R.E.D. (Remember Everyone Deployed) Day. In honor of all those deployed and their loved ones at home, please wear red, white, and blue to honor those families.
On Friday, October 23rd we have our October birthdays party in the afternoon.
Enjoy the rest of your week!!
*9.24.20*
This week we started reading, writing, math, and phonics instruction. The kids are doing a great job transitioning!
For reading, the students listened to the books Chester's Way and Lily's Purple Plastic Purse. They listened to enjoy the book, listened for important vocabulary words, answered questions about the texts, and compared the two books to one another. Next week we will be doing a close reading of a nonfiction book - Firetrucks. For supplemental work, the students practiced logging into RazKids and read their independent reading books.
In writing, we launched our Small Moments writing unit. The students listened to The Veggie Monster and learned that a small moment can be something that happens in a short amount of time (like the boy eating a pea in The Veggie Monster), but then turn that small moment into a longer story. We wrote a shared small moment story (of when I tripped and fell with a marker bin and the markers went flying!) together and then the students spent some time thinking of their own ideas, touching and telling the story across pages, and then sketching the pictures. Next week our goal is for the kids to begin writing the words to their story.
In math, we started our first unit - Numbers All Around us. We reviewed skip counting by 2s and 5s, make twin pops and talked about how one pop has two sticks, counting them by 2s, and began counting on a number line. Using white boards, the kids learned that it is easier to count with tallies by making groups of five. Next week we will be making number racks and using them as a tool to help us count, add, and subtract numbers.
In phonics, we began our first unit looking closely at words around the room and spent the rest of the week studying names of students. The students learned to say the name, stomp/clap/slap the syllables in the name, name the letters, and study them closely looking for patterns (vowels, blends, digraphs, vowel teams, etc...). Next week we will continue to study the remaining names of students, focusing on vowels.
Important Info
There is no school on Monday, September 28th in observance of Yom Kippur.
VIRTUAL OPEN HOUSE - WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 30th
On Wednesday, September 30th we will have a virtual Open House from 5:30-6:30. Below is our slideshow of first grade information. Please generate a list of questions to share at our virtual Open House. I will do my best to answer everyone's questions.
VIRTUAL DAY FRIDAY, OCTOBER 2nd
On Friday, October 2nd we have a virtual day of learning. The students will be staying home for remote, online learning. The schedule for the day is posted below. If you need a Chromebook for your child, please let me know as soon as possible. I plan to spend a good amount of time at our virtual Open House guiding you through Google classroom. The basic format of the day will be a whole group morning meeting for number corner, one whole group ELA and one whole group math lesson for approximately 20 minutes each, and a few small group (1/2 class) activities - one group working with me and one group working independently on an activity. There will be 45 minutes for lunch and several breaks throughout the day, as well.
I hope everyone has a wonderful, relaxing weekend!!!
Welcome back to school! Thank you for being patient as I update out classroom website:) We had a wonderful first week back!
I just complimented the kids today telling them that it seems like we have been back in school for weeks now with how well they have adjusted to a new year (schedule, routines, etc...). I am very proud of them!
This week we spent a lot of time playing games getting to know more about one another. We did some projects about ourselves and our family and even started reading books! In writing, we illustrated and wrote about our favorite summer memory and also did a free write as the first piece to our writing portfolio. I was very impressed with how well all the kids worked. We talked about a few important writing rules such as spacing, upper vs. lowercase, writing the sounds we hear for words we don't know, etc... In handwriting, we introduced the first important strokes for writing letters and numbers - vertical and horizontal lines. Next week in school we will be starting our first writing workshop unit - Small Moments, our first math unit - Numbers All Around Us, and our first phonics unit - Talking and Thinking About Letters. I also plan to meet with all the students next week to get an idea on what kind of reader they are. The book we will be focusing on for whole group close reading will be Chester's Way.
Important Upcoming Info
Pictures/Stickers/Decorations for writing portfolios are due on Monday, September 13th. We will be spending writing workshop on that day decorating our portfolios.
We have our bus drills scheduled for Tuesday, September 14th at 10:05.
There is no school on Thursday, September 16th in observance of Yom Kippur.
Our Open House will be on Monday, September 20th at 6:00. This is a virtual open house and I will be sending the Google meet link as the date gets closer.
I will be sending home our first Scholastic Order next week and they will be due on Tuesday, September 21st.
Have a great weekend!
*6.9.21*
What a great Field Day!! Although a little hot, the kids had a great time! I will be posting pictures from our Field Day, soon:)
In phonics, we continued to talk about "bossy r" and all the different spellings of /er/ (-er, -ir, -ur). I continue to remind the students that it's not only important to hear the sounds in words, but use our eyes, too. If we hear a sound and there are different ways to spell the sound, we have to try a few ways to see which one looks right. We learned that the /air/ sound can be spelled -are, ear, ere, or -air. This makes it tricky when choosing which one is right! We have one more week of phonics after this week where we will continue to work with r-controlled vowels.
In reading, we have been working on poems and readers theaters to share with you for our Parents' Tea. The kids are working really hard and are excited to share with you! I will spend the rest of the year picking some favorite read alouds to share with the kids:)
In math, we are finishing up unit 7 next week. The kids took their unit 7 math test this week which focused on determining missing numbers on a number line (having to count forward and backward), adding and subtracting tens from a given number, and using strategies to 10, 5, 2, and 1. Please keep an eye out for these tests to see what your child still needs to work on. For the remainder of the year, we will have some fun activities (ice cream math) and games to close out the year.
In writing workshop, we will be finishing up our opinion reviews next week. The kids are continuing to work on adding important details that "convince the reader" (tell a story, write a recommendation, add helpful tips, use sparkly words, write a sneak peek, include comparisons, and end with a rating) that their topic is the best (best movie, book, TV show, restaurant, store, toy, etc...). The kids will be sharing their reviews during the last week of school and add these as the last writing piece to their writing portfolios. The writing portfolios with all your child's published pieces will be coming home the last week of school (after the kids get to look through all their writing for the year). It's amazing to see how their writing has improved since the beginning of the year!
Important Info...
Our June/Summer birthdays party will be in the afternoon on Tuesday, June 22nd.
Below are the dates for our Virtual Parents' Tea celebration. The kids also sent home an invitation last week with this information. A Google link will be sent out as the dates get closer...
Pod A (Valentina, Dani, Nick, Mia, Kayleigh, Fitz, Cooper, Lucas, Bradley, Michael, and Atlas) - Wednesday, June 23rd at 10:00AM
Pod B (Allie, Alani, Mala, Cruz, Ian, Jack, Gabby, Charlie, James, Maeve, Emersyn, and Harper) - Thursday, June 24th at 10:00AM
Wednesday, June 23rd - Friday, June 25th (our last day of school) are half-days. Bus dismissal will be at 12:30PM.
I hope everyone has a great rest of your week/weekend!!
*5.28.21*
We are having a great time with the end of the year ABC countdown! We have so much planned in the last month of school. Here is a look at what we did this week...
In reading, we listened to a nonfiction text, Caterpillar to Butterfly. We learned some important vocabulary words related to butterflies and talked about how butterflies grow and change throughout their life cycle. Next week we will begin working on our reader's theater for our Parents' Tea.
In phonics, we started unit 5 - Marvelous Bloopers. The kids have learned that it is okay to make writing and reading bloopers and it is important that we learn from them. As an introduction to the unit, they got to watch some funny kids blooper videos and really enjoyed them! We figured out that many writing bloopers are words with r-controlled (bossy r) vowels. Many students often leave out the vowel because you cannot hear it's sound. This unit is focusing on learning about r-controlled vowels and how to know when to use each one (ur, ir, ar, er, or).
In math we are continuing to use the story of Hansel and Gretel to help us understand how to skip count by 1s, 5s, and 10s to determine missing numbers on a path. The kids are learning that, when determining a missing number, they do not always have to count every single step - They can look for 5s and 10s they know to help them become more efficient at solving problems. We will continue working with numbers along the path as well as more place value next week.
With writing, we started our reviews (opinions) on our favorite restaurants, stores, games, books, movies, etc... They kids are doing an excellent job convincing their readers with some of the strategies we talked about in class (give a sneak peek on the review, write your opinion, give reasons why, add details, add a little story, make comparisons, add helpful tips, include a recommendation, and end with a rating). We are writing a whole-class shared writing review on Duck Donuts in Pod B and Dunkin Donuts in Pod A. They are really enjoying it!
Important Info...
There is no school on Monday, May 31st for Memorial Day.
We have a school-wide assembly on Wednesday, June 2nd with the author of our Wishtree book - Katherine Applegate.
We have our annual Field Day on Tuesday, June 8th. This will be an all day event. Please do not forget to send a water bottle to school on this day!
Parents' Tea Info - We picked the dates for the Parents' Tea! Pod A will be having their Parent's Tea in the morning on June 23rd and Pod B will be having their Parents' Tea in the morning on June 24th. A letter will be coming home shortly!
New pictures are finally posted under "School Photos!"
Enjoy your long, Memorial Day weekend!
*5.21.21*
What a beautiful week! We have spent each day outside this week and the kids have LOVED it. We were even able to do our math lesson outside yesterday, which was a nice change of pace. I hope everyone had a great week! We kept busy!
In phonics, we finished up our Vowel Town. The kids did such a great job! I am so impressed with how well they worked as a team and took their time to add pieces to the town. They even worked hard to read and write all the vowel teams. Some of the places they made in the vowel town include a beach, highway, street lights, coastline, pool, train, sheep, boat, and cowboy. Next week we will be starting our last phonics unit - Marvelous Bloopers (learning through wise mistakes).
In reading, we listened to a fictional text - Whistle for Willie. The theme for the week was perseverance and we learned how Peter never gave up until he learned how to whistle. We ended the week writing a book review on the story. Next week we will move to nonfiction and talk about frog and butterfly life cycles.
In writing workshop. we finished our opinion writing on our collections. We looked through revising and editing checklists to make sure we stated our opinion, gave reasons why with details, wrote an ending, correctly spelled snap words, used strategies for unknown words, and remembered uppercase letters and punctuation. The collections went home yesterday and their opinion piece on their favorite object in their collection will go in their writing portfolio. We will continue to write opinion writing pieces next week - focusing on writing reviews for restaurants, books, stores, movies, etc...
In math, we are continuing to learn and understand hundreds, tens, and ones for place value and learned a few more games that will help us add and subtract tens. We even had a brief introduction to regrouping! We ended the week listening to Hansel and Gretel and did an activity outside where the kids made their own path of "pebbles," which were then connected and helped use to find specific numbers on the path. This will be the focus for our math lessons the next couple of weeks (identifying missing numbers - whether skip counting by 1s, 5s, or 10s - on a path).
Important Info...
There is no school on Monday, May 31st for Memorial Day.
Our last book order for the school year went home on Monday. The book orders are due on Friday, May 28th.
We are running low on shared classroom snacks (for those who may forget a snack for the day). If you are willing to donate a shared item, we'd greatly appreciate it!
With the weather getting warmer, please do not forget to send your child with a water bottle to school. We are unable to use the classroom water fountains.
We will be having our annual Field Day on Tuesday, June 8th! I'm so excited that we will still get to enjoy this fun day!
We will send out more information as the date gets closer.
It's looking like we will be having a virtual Parents' Tea one morning during the last week of school. For this celebration, parents will be able to live stream (via a Google Meet) into the classroom to watch our celebration. We will be spending the next few weeks preparing for this celebration and are looking forward to sharing it with you! We will send out the date/time within the next couple of weeks.
I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend!!
*5.14.21*
I can't believe another Friday is here. These weeks have been so busy that they seem to be flying by! Here is a look at this week...
This week's nonfiction book in reading, Clarabelle, taught the kids all about dairy cows. We listened to enjoy the story and then also listened to some new and interesting facts. Using these new facts, the kids made a brochure on dairy cows (we had to talk about what a brochure is, first!). Next week we will be switching to a fictional book - Whistle for Willie.
We finished up unit 4 in phonics this week (vowel teams). We have finally finished filling our vowel teams chart and the kids are very excited to be able to help Rasheed with his blueprints today. They don't know it yet, but they are going to be using what they know about reading and writing words with vowel teams to make a vowel town poster. We will spend all of next week finishing up the poster and will start our last phonics unit the week after.
In math, we started our final unit this week. In unit 7, we will be working with place value and understanding hundreds, tens, and ones. Using popsicle sticks, the kids spent the first few days of this unit estimating how many popsicle sticks I had (both groups had over 1,000) and worked together to sort them into tens and hundreds to make them easier to count. We will be using popsicle sticks (among other tools) to help us better understand place value throughout this unit.
We are moving along in our opinion writing unit. We started off the week using an opinion writing checklist to help improve our writing. Using the checklist, the kids had to look through their first writing piece to make sure they included all the important pieces of an opinion writing piece. The kids were very honest about giving themselves a "no" if they had yet to include it in their writing. At the end of the week, the kids learned how to "talk back" in their writing. To do this, the kids set out all their objects on their desk with their favorite object out in front. Silently walking around the room with their clipboard, paper, and pencil, the kids made comments "I agree because___" and "I disagree because___" letting someone know if they agreed with their first choice. These comments will then be added to their opinion writing to help prove their point/add details to their piece. (For example "____ agreed that the baseball is the best object in my collection because____").
Photos - I apologize that I haven't been keeping up with posting photos from the year. I can't seem to keep up with it! I promise I will get all the photos up soon...
Coming Up...
Spring pictures are on Tuesday, May 18th.
There is no school on Monday, May 31st for Memorial Day.
I hope everyone enjoys the beautiful weather this weekend!
*5.7.21*
Happy Friday!! Here is what went on in first grade this week...
In phonics, we continued to learn new vowel teams that make new sounds. Rasheed came back from his trip and needed some help with the blueprints he had, but we were not able to help him quite yet. He said we still need to learn a few more vowel teams. This week we learned ue (glue) and ew (screw). Rasheed wrote us a poem with some ue and ew words and we worked together to read the poem. We will be finishing up our unit on vowel teams in the next couple of weeks and then move into our last phonics unit!
In reading, we spent another week learning about planets, comparing two books Starry, Starry Night by Wade Cooper and Planets by Elizabeth Carney. Even though we have learned so much about space already, we continue to learn new interesting facts with each book we read. Next week's book will be focusing on dairy cows, ending with a fun brochure of facts.
In math, we are finishing up unit 6 - using penguins to solve addition and subtraction equations and story problems. We completed the unit 6 math test this week (They went home yesterday). Please take the time to look over the test with your child to see what they may continue to need help with. We have one more math unit this year which will focus on place value, building 100s, 10s, and 1s.
In writing workshop, we started our opinion/persuasive writing unit. Using the objects they brought from home, the kids picked out their favorite object and talked about why it was their favorite. For the remainder of the week, the kids have been writing an opinion piece about their favorite object give reasons why. Yesterday we had a debate on who had the hardest job - Santa Claus or the Tooth Fairy. From this debate, the kids learned the importance of explaining reasons why to support their opinion. We will be continuing to add to these writing pieces and write about more objects in our collection next week.
Coming Up...
There is no school on Monday, May 31st for Memorial Day. We used all of our snow days this year so there are no contingency days leftover.
I hope everyone has a great weekend!!
*4.30.21*
Happy last day of April! It's crazy to think there are only two more months of school left!
In writing workshop this week, the kids worked REALLY hard finishing their Mo Willems stories. We also finished our whole class shared writing books titled "Don't Let Starry Ride the Horse" and " Trooper and Buggo Plan a Vacation." The kids had such a fun time with this writing unit. We will be finishing up the stories this morning and sharing them in small groups this afternoon. On Monday we will be starting out final writing unit of the year - Opinion Writing. A note went home this week about bringing a box/bag of your child's favorite items from home to school by Monday, May 3rd. We will be using these items in the first part of this writing unit to write opinions on why the items in our box/bag are our favorite.
In math this week, we continued to have the penguins help us solve addition and subtraction problems with either the start, change/part, or result unknown. After reading story problems, the students are becoming more comfortable writing equations with a box for the missing number. We spent the week using strategies to help figure out the missing number in an equation. Equations with the start or part/change missing (__+6=15 and 9+__=15) as opposed to the result missing (6+9=__) have been more challenging for the kids. We have a couple more weeks in unit 6, using strategies to solve addition and subtraction facts to 20, before we head into our last math unit of the year.
The kids are becoming real experts of vowel teams in phonics! Although Rasheed has been away on his trip (He came back today!) we have been working hard studying vowel teams so that we are ready to teach him everything we know. Our vowel team linking charts have expanded to include ee, ea, oa, ai, ou, ow, and oo. We are about halfway through our study of vowel teams and are learning new things about them everyday. Of course the kids LOVE when we find rule breaker words:)
We spent this week in reading learning more about the moon. As we usually do, the students listened to enjoy an article about the moon (and were intrigued when watching a video of Neil Armstrong landing on the moon), listened for important vocabulary words, and today they will get to explore with moon dough (just flour and baby oil!). Next week we will spend another week with nonfiction learning more about the planets in our solar system.
Today is our April birthdays party for Harper, Cruz, and Gabby!! We have some great activities planned:)
Coming Up...
*4.22.21*
Happy Earth Day! We have some fun activities planned throughout the day today. Hopefully if we cannot get outside today, we will be able to go for a nature walk tomorrow!
In phonics, the kids have really taken off with vowel teams. So far we have studied the vowel teams, ee, ea, ai, ay, oa, and ou. Our class lion, Rasheed, has taken a trip to NYC and told us we need to learn more about vowel teams so we can teach him when he comes back. The kids learned, that for the most part, vowel teams make the long vowel sound of the first vowel. We practiced vowel flexing this week - When we see a word we don't know and there is a vowel team, we try the long vowel sound of the first vowel. If the word does not make sense, we move to the short vowel sound of the first vowel. If the word still does not make sense, we move to the long vowel sound of the second vowel and so on. With "ou," we learned that we have an entirely new sound. We are making vowel linking charts to help us when we come across vowel teams in reading and writing. Next week we will continue to learn about more vowel teams.
In reading, we spent this week listening to the story "The Tree" from Poppleton Forever by Cynthia Rylant. In this book, Poppleton gets worried there is something wrong with the Dogwood tree he planted and his friends try to help him solve the problem. We listened to some vocabulary words and spent a lot of time talking about the story. Next week we will be moving to some nonfiction articles/books on space (specifically the moon).
In math, we are continuing to use penguins to help us solve some more challenging addition and subtraction problems. We used the double flap cards to build bigger numbers (10-20) and had to practice writing fact families. This is something we need to practice a little bit more. We ended the week using the penguins to help us understand doubles and doubles+one facts. We used our number racks to help us see if certain numbers make equal groups (16 makes 8 and 8) and if not, think of it as a doubles+one fact (13 = 6+6+1). Next week we will use the penguins to help us with some more challenging addition and subtraction story problems.
In writing, we continue to work on our Mo Willems stories. The kids are truly enjoying this unit! Today we will be finishing our whole class shared writing (the kids have been using this to help them write their own stories) and the goal is to fix and fancy-up these stories by next week or the week after. We talked about editing for spelling and punctuation this week and I reminded the students to try and include POP out words in their speech bubbles. Our next and final writing unit for the year will be persuasive opinion writing.
Coming Up...
Some sad news, Ms. Hammes will be leaving us on Tuesday, April 27th to return to her job in learning lab. Mrs. Jones will be taking her place as our new supplemental pod teacher. We are going to miss Ms. Hammes so much!!!! We will be having a party tomorrow, Friday, April 23rd to celebrate her last days.
Next Friday, April 30th, will be our April birthdays party celebrating Harper, Cruz, and Gabby!
I will be submitting the Scholastic book orders at the beginning of next week, so please don't forget to send your order in soon if you are interested in purchasing books. We will have one more book order for May/June.
I hope everyone has a wonderful rest of your week/weekend!!
*4.1.21*
Happy April and April Fool's Day! We had a busy week before break!
We started unit 4 in phonics on Monday. The kids will spend this unit becoming word builders. Much focus in this unit will be on the middle of words, most specifically vowel teams. On Monday the kids used letter cards (blends, digraphs, word families, consonants, word endings) to build words and write them on their white boards. Yesterday we introduced the vowel teams "ee" and "ea." Using what we know about beginning and endings, the kids practiced reading and writing bigger words with "ee" and "ea." After vacation we will spend more time with vowel teams and building/reading words.
In reading this week the kids listened to the story Stand Tall, Molly Lou Melon. The learned the importance of standing up for yourself and always being yourself. We listened to enjoy the story, listened for vocabulary words, and found specific examples in the book to support character traits (They even used one of the vocabulary words, foolish, as a character trait for Ronald Durkin). After vacation we will be listening to the story Tops and Bottoms.
In math, we finished up unit 5 on geometry. The kids spent this week sorting 2D shapes based on their attributes and played several games of Guess My Shape? They were given clues and had to figure out which shape I was thinking of. When we come back from spring break, we will begin unit 6 - Figure the Facts with Penguins. This unit focuses on efficiently using math strategies for adding and subtracting to 20, use place value strategies to add and subtract up to 100, write equations to match problems, and tell, write, and solve a variety of addition and subtraction story problems.
In writing workshop, the kids started drafting their Mo Willems' books and had so much fun! I modeled how to use speech bubbles and thinking bubbles to write like Mo Willem's Piggie and Elephant and Pigeon books. Most kids were able to create the first few pages of their book including detailed illustrations and speech bubbles that lead to the problem of their story (Piggie and Gerald type characters going on some sort of an adventure and Pigeon type character wanting something but never getting it). These stories will continue after April break.
Important Info...
April Scholastic book order forms will be coming home after April break.
I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend and Easter break!!
*3.26.21*
I hope everyone had a great week! Here is an update on what we worked on in school this week...
In reading, we listened closely to Knuffle Bunny, Knuffle Bunny Too, and Knuffle Bunny Free. We talked about how Trixie changed throughout the stories and described her character using specific examples from the books. Next week we will be looking at the book Stand Tall, Molly Lou Melon.
The kids are LOVING the Mo Willems author study in writing. We finished creating our pigeon and elephant and piggie characters. We talked about the contrasting personalities of elephant and piggie and how that helps to create the stories. We also talked about pigeon's personality - always wanting something but never getting it. On Thursday, the kids figured out the problem and solution for their first story and we will begin writing next week! I will be modeling examples using speech and thinking bubbles before the kids try it on their own.
In math, we finished up our unit on geometry and fractions. We did a fractions bingo game and practiced dividing squares and circles into halves and quarters, talking about how we name the parts of the shapes (1/4 and 1/2). You will be seeing a few math assessments (number corner and unit 5) coming home this week. Please look over the tests to see what your child still needs practice on.
Next week we will be starting unit 4 in phonics! This unit is focusing on the kids becoming word builders, creating their own words to read and write.
Coming Up...
On Monday, March 29th we have our whole school Virtual Game Show! We have two students from our class, Jack and Kayleigh, who will be competing on teams. The whole school will get to watch the game show via Google Meet. We are very excited for it!
There is no school on Friday, April 2nd in observance of Good Friday. School is also closed the week of April 5th - 9th for spring break. Enjoy the warm weather if you are going away!
I have finally saved photos from my drive and will slowly begin adding all photos I have taken from the holiday break until now. I apologize for the delay!
Have a wonderful weekend!
*3.19.21*
Happy spring weekend! We are looking forward to the warmer weather right around the corner! Here is what we did this week...
In reading, we listened to Elephant and Piggie stories by Mo Willems. We discussed character traits of both Piggie and Gerald and how the two friends are always having adventures together. With our new writing unit, we watched some videos on how Mo Willems' became a writer, which the students found very interesting! They saw how simple his characters can be created and began creating their own characters. Next week we will start writing our elephant and piggie/pigeon books talking about problem and solution. There are many Mo Willems lunch doodles on Youtube if your child is interested in drawing at home!
Mo Willems Interview
In math, we used polydrons to build cubes and square pyramids. We continued to talk about faces, edges, and vertices on 3D shapes. Next week we will play some games sorting and graphing 2D shapes.
The students had a great time with John Gray's virtual author visit. They listened to his newest book Sweet Polly Petals. It had an important message about spreading kindness.
I apologize I have been behind with posting new photos. I will try to get them all up this coming week!
Have a great weekend!
*3.12.21*
What a great week it has been being able to get outside (other than recess!). It was a very productive week!
In reading, we looked closely at Mo Willems' Pigeon books. We spent a lot of time talking about the characters, character traits, Mo Willems' writing style, and more. Next week we will be looking closely at Mo Willems' elephant and piggie books. We will also learn more about Mo Willems and how he creates his characters as a start to our author study writing unit.
In writing we finished up our nonfiction teaching books! The kids worked on coloring their illustrations, fixing up their writing, and making a front cover to their books. We will be sharing the stories on Monday as we begin our next unit studying Mo Willems' writing style.
In math we spent the week looking closely at 3D shapes. With the warm weather, we were able to get outside for a 3D shape hunt and used polydrons to build cubes. We will finish up 2D and 3D shapes next week and learn about 1/2 and 1/4 fractions.
Coming Up...
If you were interested in ordering books through Scholastic's March order, orders are due on Monday, March 15th.
We have our St. Patrick's Day party and a half-day of school on Wednesday, March 17th. A Sign-up Genius went out last week to volunteer for items/crafts/goodies for the party. If you are picking up your child, student pick-up is at 11:05 and buses are dismissed at 11:25.
Our author visit (John Gray) is in the afternoon on Friday, March 19th.
Reminders...
We do not have any extra snacks left in the event that students forget to bring a snack to school. If you would not mind donating snacks to the classroom, we would greatly appreciate it! Thank you to the parents who have already contributed!!
I hope everyone has a relaxing weekend!!
*3.5.21*
I hope everyone had a great week! I'm looking forward to some warmer weather! Here's what we did this week...
In phonics, we finished up unit 3 - From Tip to Tail. We ended the unit with a challenge game where the kids had to make a list of as many words as they could think of (keeping in mind word beginning, middle, and ends that we have learned throughout the unit) from a variety of given letters. They were really engaged and had fun doing it! We will be taking a break from phonics (before we begin unit 4) to apply all the strategies we have learned to reading and writing.
In reading, we listened closely to the texts A Big Trip and That's What Friends are For by Valeri Gorbachev. We focused on friendship and how the main characters, pig and goat, had contrasting personalities. We ended the week looking closely at the major events in the beginning, middle, and end of the stories. Ms. Hammes and I have been spending a lot of time working with small reading groups. Some groups are focusing on phonics/word work and applying strategies to decoding and understanding texts. We are also challenging some students to complete written responses to books, finding specific examples within the text to support their answers. We will be spending a lot of time doing this during the month of March.
We are just about finished with our Nonfiction writing unit. The kids picked their best writing piece (some only had one that they were working on) and are "fixing and fancying" them up. It is taking a bit longer than we thought so we will be finishing and sharing them next week. I will be completing an informational writing rubric that will come home next week so that you can see what your child still needs to work on.
In math, we are moving along in unit 5! The kids have learned many attributes to describe hexagons, rectangles, trapezoids, triangles, and rhombuses. We have played some fun games (Shape in My Pocket, Tell Me About A...) and played some new workplaces (Last Shape in Wins and Pattern Block Puzzles). We will continue 2D shapes next week and then move into 3D shapes.
Important Info...
Forms went home before vacation regarding our March conference day (Wednesday, March 17th). If you would like a conference but one was not requested from Ms. Hammes and myself, please let me know!
Our St. Patrick's Day party is on Wednesday, March 17th. Sign-up Genius forms went out in your email for food/craft volunteering. Thank you to everyone who has volunteered already!
On Friday, March 19th, we have a virtual author visit with John Gray. He visited our school last March and it was a wonderful experience!
March Scholastic book order forms will be coming home next week!
At this point in the school year, we are making the kids more accountable for their work. If you see school work come home (with a cover that says Homework), it is incomplete work that your child did not complete because they were either distracted or did not complete it to the best of their ability. Please let me know if you have any questions.
New photos coming soon! Next week's spelling words will be posted on Monday.
Have a wonderful weekend:)
*3.1.21*
Here are this week's spelling words:
First Grade List Challenge Words
school smoothed
cool swoops
mood spools
bloom cooler
chew booming
new rooster
grew chewy
flew threw
*2.26.21*
I hope everyone had a good first week back from break. Here is what we worked on this week...
In reading, we listened to the book Henry's Freedom Box. It was a very powerful book with many lessons learned. Through this book, the kids briefly learned about slavery and what it was like for Henry (the book is based on a true story). It is a great book to listen to at home with your kids! Next week we will look closely at the book The Big Trip by Valeri Gorbachev.
In math, we finished unit 4! We ended the unit learning about King and Rockhopper penguins. The students each got a measuring strip cut to their own height and then compared their height to the height of a Rockhopper (18 inches) and King (36 inches) penguin. The kids learned that two Rockhopper penguins equal the height of one King penguin. They had a lot of fun! Next week we will begin unit 5 - Geometry (both 2D and 3D shapes).
In writing, we are just about finished with our nonfiction teaching books. The kids looked at our mentor text Sharks and learned that many nonfiction books begin with a question to pull the reader in. We ended the week learning that we can also include pop out words and speech bubbles in nonfiction books (just like we did in our small moment stories). The kids did an excellent job taking the lessons and incorporating them into their own books. Next week the kids will be choosing their best nonfiction book to "fix and fancy-up" so that we can share them with our friends towards the end of the week during a publishing party. Our next writing unit will be an author study on Mo Willems - one of my favorite units!
This has been a week of finishing up units! In phonics, we have a couple more lessons before we wrap-up unit 3 - studying word endings. This week we looked more closely at contractions (specifically the "not" contractions) and the kids learned that grown-ups use contractions as a shortcut. We "smush" two words together to make one word. The kids learned that with "not" contractions, we get rid of the "o" in "not" and add an apostrophe, pushing the two words together. We also added the word "don't" to our snap word wall. We will take a couple weeks break from phonics to spend time applying these strategies in reading groups and will begin unit 4 in the middle of March.
Today we celebrated our 100th day of school with 100th day activities all day! We also celebrated Mala and Emmi's birthdays!
February book orders finally came in today and will be coming home! Please be on the look out if you ordered books.
Coming Up...
Forms went home explaining the process of March conferences. If you received the form saying your child does not need a conference but still feel the need to meet, please let me know as soon as possible. Our March conference day is on Wednesday, March 17th and report cards will be coming home the day before - Tuesday, March 16th. Please let me know if you have any questions!
I will post next week's spelling words on Monday (another week of long u).
I hope everyone has a relaxing weekend!!
*2.8.21*
A couple quick updates...
Here are the spelling words for this week. I apologize, I've been meaning to post these on our website and I keep forgetting! The rule for this week is long i
First Grade Words Challenge Words
my flying
cry tried
why tied
pie cried
tie alive
five mine
tire dries
fire buy
I have not been able to find an easy way to create virtual valentines, but I thought it might be a nice idea to create a slideshow where each of us can make a valentine page. I am going to send out the google slideshow link later today, creating my own page to start so that students can get an idea. This is not mandatory, but would be fun for the kids to see!
Mrs. Countermine's Class Valentine's Day Slideshow
I also thought it would be a nice idea to send virtual Valentine's Day cards to children at St. Jude's Hospital. The link for the cards is below.
St. Jude's Hospital virtual valentines
Have a great week!
*2.5.21*
Happy Friday! I hope everyone enjoyed their snow day this week:)
We are continuing to use a number line in math to skip count by 1s, 5s, and 10s as well as adding and subtracting by 1s and 10s. The kids practiced solving story problems with TAD and Polli hopping on the number line and did well with the challenge problems! We will continue using the number line into and after February break.
In reading, we listened to the stories Duck!Rabbit! and Daft Bat. The theme was point of view and the kids learned that when we see things from a different point of view, we can understand others and even change our own minds. It was also important for them to learn that There was a great lesson learned in both books (and they enjoyed debating whether or not you could see duck or rabbit!)
In writing the students saw examples of how-to nonfiction pages and "different kinds of___" nonfiction pages. I modeled examples from my Baking nonfiction book and then the kids were able to try their own. I was very impressed with how everyone did creating their how-to pages (Ex: "How to walk a dog," "How to play Pokemon," etc... ) and different kind of pages (ex: "Different Kinds of Dogs," "Different kinds of Weather," "Different Kinds of Pokemon," etc...). We have a few more weeks left of our nonfiction writing books.
In phonics this week, the kids took what they have learned about word beginnings, middles, and endings to decode more challenging words in Rasheed's book about school. The students used strategies to decode the beginning and middle of words such as blends, digraphs, word families (a vowel + a blend), snap words hiding, etc... and strategies to decode word endings (-er, -ing, -ed, -es, blends/digraphs, etc...). After, they put the parts together to read the bigger words. We are already more than halfway through unit 3 of phonics! We will continue to study words from "tip to tail" in the next couple of weeks.
Coming up...
Next Friday, February 12th is our Valentine's Day party! A sign-up genius was sent out for snacks and crafts. We are also planning on doing our movie/popcorn/hot chocolate on that day. It will be very busy! I am still looking into creating virtual valentines (no such luck, yet!). The kids are also allowed to bring a small stuffed animal from home to keep at their seats.
As of right now, our 100th day of school is on Friday, February 25th. We will spend the day doing various 100th day activities. There will be a project coming home soon (to be completed at home and sent back to school by the 25th). To look ahead, we are asking the kids to send in 100 of an object (100 Legos, 100 buttons, 100 pieces of pasta, etc...). There will be a brown bag for the kids to put their objects in with a cover sheet asking them to write down 5 adjectives to describe their object. On the 100th day, one of our activities will be for the kids to read their adjective clues to see if anyone can guess what is in their brown bag! Please be on the lookout for the directions/brown bag.
A Scholastic Books order form is coming home today. It will be due next Thursday, February 11th. You can also order books online. Please let me know if you have any questions.
Our new specials begin next week - Library and Art!
I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend!!
*1.22.21*
I hope everyone had another good week. We were busy in school!
In phonics, we spent this week learning more about word endings, most specifically phonograms. We learned that words can end with a vowel+a blend (-uck, -ack, -ang, -ock, etc...) or a vowel+a digraph (-ash, -ush, -etc...). We played a fun game where we turned "junk" into "gold" by changing one letter at a time to create new words. The kids learned that learning these phonograms will help us with both reading and writing.
In reading, we focused on a fictional story, A Bad Case of Stripes. The theme we learned from the story is being yourself. Camilla learned that by trying to be like everyone else (and not eat lima beans, which she loves), she developed a bad case of stripes. We listened for vocabulary words and also to answer specific questions about the story (looking back within the text to find specific examples to support our answers). Next week we will continue with fictional stories and listen to The Invisible Boy.
In math, we began unit 4 - Leap frogs on the number line. We used an interactive number line where the kids were given numbers and had to come up and add them on the number line, when needed. We practiced skip counting by 1s, 2s, 5s, and 10s and also played a game called What's in the Box? We were able to see two numbers on our interactive number line and had to fill in the missing number somewhere in between. The kids had a lot of fun playing this game! We also used a number line to answer basic addition and subtraction equations. We will continue to use number lines to solve more challenging equations as well as story problems.
During writing workshop, we looked at the table of contents in various nonfiction books (Lions, Sharks, etc...) and learned that the table of contents tells us the chapter titles/headings and what page to find the information. The kids then helped me to create a table of contents for my book on Baking, using that as a model to create a table of contents for their own nonfiction teaching book. We will continue to add more details to each of our chapters. I am continuing to remind students to use our strategy "Say it, Slide it, Hear it, Write it" when spelling more challenging words. We want to make sure we are writing down the letter for every sound we hear.
Coming Up...
Next Friday, January 29th we will have our January birthdays party for Dani and Allie!
Important Info...
Our February Scholastic Book order form will be coming home soon!
Our Valentine's Day party is right around the corner! Because of the circumstances this year, we are unable to create and hand-out physical valentines. I am looking into the possibility of creating virtual valentines that the kids would be able to email each other. If you know information on this (if it's possible and/or how to do it), please let me know! We will still plan to have our hot chocolate, popcorn, and movie that we were unable to have before the holiday break on Friday, February 12th.. As stated in the note that went home this week, the kids are also able to bring in a stuffed animal (which will stay at their seats). If you are uncomfortable with the stuffed animals, please let me know!
We are running low on dry-erase markers, highlighters, and wipes. If you have any of these items that you would be willing to donate to our classroom, we would greatly appreciate it! Some students are also running low on crayons and glue. Please ask your child if they need any of these supplies.
New pictures will be posted soon - our January birthday friends!
I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend! Stay warm!
*1.15.21*
I hope everyone had a great week! Here is an update on what we did this week...
In phonics, we continued to talk about the importance of reading all the way across words and pay close attention to word endings. We learned about the different sound we hear with -ed ("d," "t," and "id"). We also learned that y at the end of a word can make a long e or long i sound. An exception we learned was that when we see the "ay" word family (with y at the end of the word), we hear the long a sound. Today we focused more on writing all the sound we hear, all the way to the end of the word. The students read different writing pieces with endings missing and had to use what they know about common word endings to add the correct endings. They were then able to look at their own writing to make sure all of their words had the necessary endings.
In math, we finished unit 3! We spent this week comparing cube trains and learning how to write comparisons as a subtraction problem and also did more practice with our number racks. The kids had fun this week making cube trains of 6, 7, 8, and 9 and had to share equations to represent their cube trains. Next week we will begin unit 4 - Leapfrogs on the Number Line.
In writing, we continued to work on a our teaching books. I was able to meet with most students this week and their stories are coming along wonderfully! I love reading about the things they love. The common goal I notice among most students is adding details to tell me more about each fact on each page. We looked at the informational writing checklist so the kids could see what they need to make sure they include in their nonfiction teaching books.
Finally in reading, we listened to various texts about Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. The kids were very inquisitive and curious about Dr. King! We talked about listening for important details about his life and also listened for important vocabulary words (equally, Civil Rights, peaceful protests). Today we are listening to the article for the main idea and key details and are listening to a read aloud, Martin's Big Words. Next week we will move back to fictional stories and focus on the book, A Bad Case of Stripes.
Important Info -
We are starting to run low on dry-erase markers, crayons, and highlighters. If you are able to donate any of these supplies to the classroom, we would greatly appreciate it!!!
Coming Up...
There is no school this coming Monday, January 18th in observance of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day.
Have a great, long weekend!!
*1.8.21*
Happy New Year! I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday break. We've had a busy start to the school year!
This week in phonics we started unit 3, From Tip to Tail - Reading Across Words. This unit focuses on word endings. We learned some common word endings - ed, er, es, s, ing. We also learned that if we want to read and learn something new, it's important to read all the way across words so that we do not learn wrong information - I accidentally read "Big Cats" as "Bit Cookies" and the kids learned that reading words endings correctly is important! We will focus each day on a different word ending.
In reading, we also listened to and read nonfiction. The kids listened to a book about whales and dolphins and compared the two mammals. They were surprised to see that there were many more similarities than differences. Today the kids listened for understanding and practiced looking back within the text to find specific examples for whales do when they cannot find food to eat. Next week we will be learning about Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
In math, we are finishing up unit 3. We spent this week learning a new game - 50 or Bust. The kids used double ten frame cards to make 10 + a number equations and try to get as close to 50 without going over (and busting). They had fun! This will now become a new workplace. Today the kids took their unit 3 math test and next week we will finish up the unit by reviewing addition and subtraction strategies. Our next math unit will focus on number lines and using them to add, subtract, skip count, and understand place value.
Lastly in writing workshop, the kids continued to work on their nonfiction teaching books. This week continued to focus on the importance of making detailed illustrations (so our readers can learn from both the words and the illustrations) and how to apply content vocabulary to our books. I shared the example of baking. I love to bake and explained to the students that I needed to add the words beating, dissolve, dough, and knead into my story, but those are challenging words for first graders to spell. The students learned that they use the strategy say it, slide it, hear it, write it and do their best spelling. They then circle the word and move on. It is important for students to not spend all of their time worrying about how to spell a word and by circling it, it is telling me they tried their best and kept going. We will continue to work on our nonfiction teaching books until winter break in February.
Coming Up...
Next week (week of January 11th) we will begin sharing our Gingerbread Fred journals. I wanted to use this week as time for students to bring the journals in. If your child has not yet sent in their journal, please have it by Monday, January 11th. We will have a couple students share a day and just pick one entry from their book. If they have pictures to go with them, that would be great!
I have not received a paper flyer from the school for a January Scholastic book order form. If you would like to order books for the month of January, please submit the order online and I will submit the full order by next Friday, January 15th.
There is no school on Monday, January 18th in observance of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day.
Important Reminders -
If the weather is above 20 degrees, the students will be going outside for recess. If there is snow on the ground, they are able to play in the snow. The kids do have to take snow gear home every day in case we happen to go remote at the last minute. We also are keeping windows slightly open for circulation so the classroom can be chilly. Please make sure your child comes to school with the necessary clothing.
New photos are posted under birthdays and our Pod B pajama party in "School Photos."
Have a wonderful weekend!!
*12.14.20*
One more full week until holiday break! I hope everyone had a wonderful weekend!
Last week in writing workshop we continued to plan out our nonfiction teaching books. The students learned to think about all the questions the readers might ask about their topic to help them add more details. The kids are continuing to sketch detailed pictures (after learning that we can not only learn from the words, but the pictures, too!) and begin writing their facts across pages. We will continue to work on adding detailed facts this week and after vacation.
In math, we are using our number racks to solve story problems and look for strategies to build numbers between 10 and 20. The students not only have to find the missing whole (4+5=_), but also a missing addend (4+_=9/_+5=9). With subtraction, the kids are using strategies to find the missing change (9-_=5), result (9-4=_), and start (_-5=4). We will continue to review strategies into and after the holiday break.
In phonics, we will be spending this week and next reviewing snap words from our first two units. As stated above, we will begin unit 3, Reading Across Words, after the holiday break.
In reading, we began learning about holidays around the world. We began last week with Christmas and Hannukah. We watched some fun videos teaching us facts about the holidays. This week we will be learning about Kwanzaa, Diwali, and Chinese New Year!
Important Info -
This week for spelling we will be testing the students on all the first grade snap words from Unit 1 and Unit 2 of our phonics program. After the holiday break we will be starting Unit 3 and there will be many new snap words to study. Please review the snap words that you currently have at home.
A parent made a wonderful suggestion! I will be posting the spelling words on our website every Monday morning!
I apologize for the delay in posting pictures. It's been a hectic few weeks! I will try to get them up as soon as possible!
Coming Up...
Our Welcome Winter Party is schedule for Wednesday, December 23rd. We will be having popcorn and hot chocolate while watching a holiday movie. A Sign-up Genius for supplies went out last week.
Spirt Week begins this Thursday! Thank you to our VES Student Council! Please see the schedule below for some fun activities planned!
Thursday, December 17th - Gingerbread Day - Listen to a read aloud and color your own gingerbread person!
Friday, December 18th - Sweater Day - Wear your favorite holiday sweater!
Monday, December 21st - Holiday Color Explosion - Wear red/green/white/blue/yellow!
Tuesday, December 22nd - Candy Cane Day - Dress in stripes!
Wednesday, December 23rd - Pajama and Movie Day!
Our December birthday parties celebrating Lucas and Jack will be on Friday, December 18th.
I hope everyone has a great week!
*12.4.20*
I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving! It's hard to believe we are only a few weeks away from the holiday break!
In math this week, we started unit 3 - Adding, Subtracting, Counting, and Comparing. The kids were able to play some new workplace games (Drop the Beans and Make the Sum). The goal of these games was for kids to learn all the ways to make a number (5-10). We want students to quickly see all the equations that make 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, and 10. Towards the end of the week, we worked with even and odd numbers and learned that doubles facts result in even numbers and we can use doubles to help us solve near double equations (4+4= can help us solve 5+4= and so on). Next week we will spend some time working with story problems and continue learning all the ways to make different numbers to ten.
In reading, we listened to two different versions of Little Red Riding Hood -Little Red Riding Hood and Petite Rouge. We listened for vocabulary and then compared the two stories. We are beginning to learn about character traits and finding examples in the story to share what we know about characters.
The kids were very excited to start our new writing unit this week - Nonfiction! We began the unit talking about the difference between teaching books and telling a story - Their small moment narratives told a story. This unit the students get to pick a topic they know a lot about (dancing, Pokemon, baseball, Minecraft, horses, Christmas, etc...) and write what they know about the topic. We began by thinking of a topic, listing five facts we know about the topic across our fingers, and sketching. Next week we will finish our sketching and begin writing the words.
In phonics we are finishing up unit 2! The SSDA sent us five new case files since silent e- 1. The case of the twin letters (little) 2. The case of the sticky letters (spring). 3. The case of the words in disguise (I'm - hiding I am) 4. The Compound Word puzzle (into) and 5. Tracking Down the Look-Alike Word parts. We will be finishing up unit 2 next week and moving in to our third unit of phonics after the holiday break.
Coming Up...
Next Wednesday, December 9th and Friday, December 11th are early dismissal days for parent teacher conferences. Please let me know if your child will have a different pick-up/drop-off schedule for those early dismissal days. Report cards will be going home on Tuesday. Please keep in mind that we had a unique spring and the independence of skills (score of "3" on the report card) may take some more time to achieve. Do not be alarmed if your child receives a "1" in some areas. I will be sure to explain this in more detail at conferences.
We are looking ahead at a winter holiday celebration the week before break (Wednesday, December 23rd). The plan is to watch a holiday movie with popcorn and hot chocolate. A sign-up genius will be going out soon to sign-up for some of these items.
A new Scholastic book order form will be coming home next week!
New photos are posted under "School Photos" - Halloween, birthdays, and our small moments publishing party!
Have a great weekend!
*11.20.20*
Happy Friday and almost Thanksgiving! Here is what we have been up to this week...
In reading, we listened closely to the text Turkey for Thanksgiving. The students were surprised at the end of the story when they realized that turkey was invited as a guest and not to be eaten! We listened for vocabulary words (nuzzled, perch, bellowed, peering, insist, bare) and then listened to understand the story (How do you know that turkey was relieved to be at the table and not on the table?).
In phonics, the SSDA sent us two new case files this week! The first case file was the case of the twin letters (I was so impressed with the kids made the connection that two of our reading vocabulary words had twin letters!) We learned that the twin letters need to be consonants in the middle of the a word. If you see a twin letter, you separate the word in between the twin letters and read both parts of the words separately before putting them together. The kids were able to read some challenging words using this strategy! The second case file we did today - The case of the sticky letters. Sticky letters are words that have three consonants stuck together before a vowel (str, thr, scr, spr, etc...). We found a lot of words with sticky letters and broke the words apart to learn some more challenging words. After Thanksgiving we will have three more case files coming our way!
In writing, we are almost finished publishing our small moment story! The kids fixed and fancied their writing by rereading to edit and revise. Towards the end of the week, they worked on a cover and About Me page. Next week the kids will be sharing their story with friends.
In math, the kids each made their own sea star and used the sea stars to help them skip count by 5s. We noticed patterns on the hundred grid when we skip count by 5s (the numbers end with a "5" or "0.") After Thanksgiving we will begin unit 3 - Adding, Subtracting, Counting, and Comparing.
Important Info...
Please note that we are trying to get the kids outside as often as we can. It is important that, as these days get colder, your child has a warm coat, hat, and gloves to wear outside.
Yesterday a Thankful Tree project went home that is due the Monday after Thanksgiving break (November 30th). For the thankful tree, the students are to write down one thing they are thankful for on each piece of flower/circle/heart/etc... and glue the pieces on the tree. We will be hanging these up in the hall!
Next week a sheet will be coming home with all the kindergarten snap words your child still needs to practice reading and writing. The first grade snap words side will be empty as we have not assessed students on those at this time.
We have been running low on quart/snack size bags. If you have any extras at home that you are willing to donate, we would love to use them!
Please do not forget to sign up for a virtual December conference. Please see below for the link to Canyon Creek.
Conference Sign-up
Coming Up...
This coming Tuesday, November 24th is our Thanksgiving party. If you signed up to bring in an item(s) for the party, please make sure to send them to school by Tuesday.
Have a wonderful weekend!!
*11.13.20*
This week we want to say thank you to all of our veterans!! We hope everyone enjoyed their day off!
In spelling this week we took a break from our short vowel units to test the kids on all the kindergarten snap words (38 words). Each day the kids were assessed on ten words (eight today) and a sheet went home with how they did. If a word is misspelled, please pull those word cards aside to have your child practice writing the words. We have removed the kindergarten snap words from our word wall in school and will now be focusing on the first grade words. Please remember the students should be able to read and write the words.
In reading, the students were able to listen to a fiction and nonfiction article/book on Veteran's Day. We talked about what a veteran is and how we celebrate veteran's on Veteran's Day. Today we will be comparing the fiction and nonfiction texts. We will spend next week looking closely at a fictional text, Turkey for Thanksgiving.
In phonics, the kids finished the first bend of unit 2 - the case of the silent e. We learned that vowels a, i, o, and u have many silent e words that make the vowel long; however, we could only come up with 3 words for long vowel e with silent e! We discovered that we hear the long e sound in other ways - "ee" and "ea." The SSDA had us go through a snap word boot camp (wow!) and next week they are sending us some new cases to investigate. The kids said they are willing to take the challenge!
In writing, the students picked their best small moment piece this week and we began publishing the story. We talked about "fixing and fancying up." Next week we will reread our stories to check for snap word spelling, punctuation, uppercase letters at the beginning of sentences, spacing, neat handwriting, and a beginning/middle/end. The plan is to share our final writing stories the week of Thanksgiving.
We are almost finished with unit 2 in math! The kids took an assessment this week on using dominoes to solve addition equations and fact families. We are also looking for students to be fluent in addition facts up to ten. Please continue to review math facts at home. Unit 3 will be adding, subtracting, counting, and comparing.
If you are interested in donating items to our classroom, we have run low on highlighters and would appreciate anyone who would be willing to donate those to our room!
We are beginning to use the Chromebooks a lot more in school to practice logging into RazKids, IXL, and Google classroom. If you have a pair of headphones at home that you would like your child to use (we do clean the ones here) or have extra pairs you are willing to donate to the classroom, we would love to use them!
Coming up...
Next Friday, November 20th is our November birthdays party!
Information will be coming home shortly about a small Thanksgiving party on Tuesday, November 24th.
Have a wonderful weekend!!
*11.6.20*
We have made it through two months in school! :)
In phonics, I am so proud of how the students are picking up the silent e pattern. We have continued to receive letters/emails/texts from the SSDA and this week they asked us to update them on what we have found so far. Some new clues in our case file are 1.We can use patterns (-ake, -ole, -ike, etc...) to create new words with silent e and 2. Silent e has been discovered at the ends of other vowel words, not just a. This week we looked at many words that have long o with a silent e and long i with a silent e. We also discovered some more WATCH OUT words other than have (some, come, live). They are really enjoying this unit!
In reading, we took a close look at the text Stellaluna. The vocabulary words the students listened for were clutched, swooped, escape, clambered, and curious. They did a great job finding them! Today we were able to write about reading - what did the author teach us about birds at night. Next week we will listening closely to a fiction and nonfiction book about Veteran's Day.
In writing, we continued to work on our small moment stories. The kids closed their eyes and visualized a story I read out loud and we talked about how the author did a good job telling all the character actions so that we could create a movie in our heads. The kids tried to do that with their own writing! We have a couple weeks left of our small moments writing unit.
In math, the kids used dominoes to make facts families and work with doubles facts. They did a checkpoint assessment on using dominoes to solve addition facts and compare numbers (<,>,=). They all did a great job! If your child is still struggling with mentally solving doubles equations (1+1=, 2+2=, 3+3=, 4+4=, 5+5=, or 6+6=, please continue to review these at home.
New photos coming soon!
Important Info...
If your child is reading a book at their level at home (chapter book or otherwise), please feel free to send it to school. We have many opportunities for independent reading and I'm sure they would love to continue reading the book here!
This coming week (week of November 9th) we will be taking a break from our spelling short vowel practice to review kindergarten snap words. There are 38 words from kindergarten that students need to be able to read and write. We will practice ten words each day Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday and eight words on Friday. When the sheets come home each day, please make note of the kindergarten words your child still needs to practice writing. If you have any questions, please let me know!
Coming Up...
On Wednesday, November 11th there will be no school in observance of Veteran's Day.
A Scholastic book order form will be coming home on Monday, November 9th. The orders will be due on Friday, November 13th. Please remember you can also order online!
Have a wonderful weekend!
*10.30.20*
Happy Halloween!
In reading this week, we took a break from our close reading units to read and enjoy some Halloween stories! The kids listened to Sammy Spooktacular Halloween and Fright Club. They loved the books (and they are some of my favorite!). I was also able to meet individually with students for reading conferences. Next week we will reading Stellaluna - listening to enjoy, listening for vocabulary, and listening to understand.
In writing workshop, the students were able to see the connection between phonics and writing. The students learned that they can use snap words (in, went, and) to write bigger words they may use in their writing - begin, silent, and sand. Many of the students were able to go back to their writing and look for bigger words they wrote to see if there was a snap word hidden. Yesterday, we used George McClements craft moves to improve our writing, as well. We reread the story The Night of the Veggie Monster and noticed his use of ellipses (...) and pop-out words VEGGIE MONSTER. Once again, the kids were able to go back edit their writing - adding their own pop-out words and ellipses. We have a couple more weeks left of our small moments writing unit before we begin to publish our best piece!
In phonics, we started our new unit - silent e. The students have loved it! The unit began with a call from the SSDA (Super Secret Detective Agency) asking us if we wanted to take the case of the silent e. We spent the week studying words and adding to our case file. So far we have: The e is at the end of the word. The e doesn't make a sound. It changes the a to a long sound: tap - tape. Watch out for words like "have." Yesterday we used what we know about letters and snap words to write a letter (as a class) to the SSDA, letting them know all we have learned so far from our case.
Finally in math, we are continuing to use dominoes and flap cards as a tool to solve addition and subtraction problems. We spent most of this week making flap cards (you may have seen some of these come home with the stickers). The flap cards have helped us learn the four (or two if it's a doubles fact) facts in the fact family. Ex: If they have a total of 8 on the back of the flap card and under one flap there are 3 stickers, there must be 5 stickers under the other flap. The students then had to try and write the equations in the fact family 3+5=8, 5+3=8, 8-3=5, 8-5=3. Those who wanted a challenge tried to take one of the equations and write their own story problem. We will continue to work more on this next week and learn new workplace games using dominoes.
The kids had a great time this week doing some pumpkin and Halloween projects! Ms. Hammes did a pumpkin investigation where the kids were able to measure the height of a pumpkin with cubes, weigh the pumpkin, test if it sinks or floats, see if the force of a blow dryer would make the pumpkin move, take out the seeds and count them, etc... They loved it! They will also be doing some more fun Halloween projects this afternoon.
New pictures are posted! See "School Photos!"
Coming Up...
This Tuesday, November 3rd is a half-day with dismissal at 12:30. If you are planning on picking up your child, parent pick-up will be at 12:10, so please plan to get here before then. The kids riding the bus will be dismissed at 12:25. If your child is getting a lunch that day, they will be sent to the classroom before dismissal for the students to bring home with them. THEY WILL NOT BE EATING LUNCH IN SCHOOL. Because we are not eating lunch in school, PLEASE MAKE SURE TO SEND YOUR CHILD WITH A SNACK. It will be a long morning and we want to make sure they eat something before they go home. Please let me know if you have any questions!
If you are looking for items to donate to our classroom, we could always use small toys for the kids to play with during free play time. We could also use individually bagged snacks for students who may come to school one day without a snack.
Thank you so much and have a wonderful weekend!
*10.23.20*
Happy Friday!!
In phonics this week, we wrapped up our first unit, Talking and Thinking about Letters. I have noticed a big difference with everyone's ability to recognize snap words, blends, and digraphs. Towards the end of this week, we even practiced changing the beginning letter/blend (onset) to make new words and then the ending word family (rime) to make new words. The students are beginning to see that even though we have 50 snap words on our sight word wall, we really know hundreds of words because of them! Next week we will begin unit 2 - The Mystery of the Silent e.
In reading, the students listened to the text From Seed to Pumpkin. We learned about how pumpkins change and grow and listened to vocabulary in the text (vines, cling, sprawl, ripe, sprout). Today we will be reading for comprehension, thinking about what plants need to grow and change as well as looking back in the text to answer questions about the book. Next week we will spend reading listening to Halloween stories and reading independently.
In math, we started unit 2 - Developing Strategies with Dice and Dominoes. We listened to a book about dominoes and learned how we can use dominoes to create math equations by adding the dots on the top half of the domino to the dots on the bottom half of the domino. We were even able to play a couple domino games "the Covid way" as the kids put it! We will continue to work with dominoes next week and use them to create fact families.
Finally in writing workshop, we continued to talk about ways to bring our stories to life. We reviewed the strategy of unfreezing people (making them move and making them talk) and learned two new strategies - telling small steps and bringing out the inside (make people feel and think). I was so impressed when the students went back to their small moment stories and added feelings or made their characters talk. They are really beginning to add more details to stretch out the beginning, middle, and end. We will continue to work on these small moment stories next week and also write some fun, spooky Halloween stories!
Important Info...
*An IMPORTANT packet of information is coming home today. First, there is a progress report focusing on reading and writing skills we've seen in the classroom up until this point this year. We will soon send updates on math, as well. Also included in the packet are all the snap words we have studied this far and some activities you could do at home to practice the words. Although it is not written on the snap word packet, it is important that students not only know how to read the words, but write them as well. Please let me know if you have any questions about the packets.
Next Week...
*Our Halloween party will be on Friday, October 30th.
*10.13.20*
I hope everyone enjoyed a nice, long weekend! The past week and a half have been very busy!!
In reading, we are continuing to alternate between fiction and nonfiction for close reading. This week the students are listening to Chrysanthemum. We began our close reading by listening to enjoy the text. The students visualized one of the settings in the book. We will also review some important vocabulary words and reread the book listening for those words. At the end of the week, the students will respond to comprehension questions about the text and prove it using examples from the story. Next week we will switch to nonfiction as we begin learning about pumpkins.
In writing workshop, the kids are working hard on their small moment stories. We compared our stories to watermelons and how a small moment story should be a a tiny seed of a watermelon, not a whole watermelon. For example, a watermelon story would be a story about our whole vacation where a tiny seed story would be writing about something we did on vacation. The goal is to be writing tiny seed stories! The students are doing an excellent job applying snap words to their writing and if they are not sure how to spell a word, use the strategy of "say it, slide it, hear it, write it." After writing a sentence in the beginning, middle, and end of our stories, the students learned that when they think they are done, they've "just begun!" We are rereading to add more. We will be continuing our small moments writing unit over the next few weeks into November.
For phonics, we will soon be finishing up our unit studying words closely looking for blends, digraphs, vowels and their sounds, etc... We reviewed 44 kindergarten snap words and have been introduced to 11 new first grade snap words (his, said, saw, say, then, they, but, let, run, us, and yes! The students have learned that we use these words ALL THE TIME! We use them when we talk, read, and write. Today the students practiced writing some snap words when writing a letter to Mr. Vivenzio. Next week we will finish our first phonics unit.
Finally in math, the students continue to use their number rack as a resource for building numbers and solving equations. While using the number rack, we have learned that there are many ways to make just one number. For example, we can build 7 with 7 on the top rack and 0 on the bottom rack or 3 on the top rack and 4 on the bottom rack, etc... We even challenged ourselves to make equations for bigger numbers (7 on top plus 6 on the bottom makes 13). Today, we played a game called Number Detective. We spun a number to 20 (ex: 12) and then the students had to build the number using the top and bottom row of their number rack. With a partner, they hid either the top or bottom number and then their partner had to guess the missing number. We learned that this created an equation with the start or part missing (for example - __+8=12 or 4+__=12). They thought it was neat that they could figure out the hidden number!
Important Reminders -
Please make sure you are sending a snack for your child every day. It is a long afternoon and we want to make sure they have enough energy to last through the day! A copy of the safe snack list is located as a tab on our classroom website.
We will be celebrating birthdays at the end of every month. For your child's party date, please see the tab "Parent Helper Volunteers." There is a section for birthday party dates. Our October birthday party is planned for next Friday, October 23rd. If you would like to send in a snack on your child's birthday, it must be a snack that has individually wrapped packages.
As long as it is not too cold or rainy, the kids will be going outside. I would suggest sending a sweatshirt or sweater in your child's backpack everyday so that they have something they can wear when it is chilly. Also, please make sure your child has an extra pair of clothes to keep at school. If the extra clothes come home dirty, please send your child back with a clean pair of clothes.
If your child misses a day of school with cold symptoms that are also on the list of COVID symptoms, we were advised that you need to contact our school nurse before your child returns to school. If you have any questions about the process, please contact Mrs. Brackett ([email protected]).
Just a reminder that reading logs will be going home at the beginning of every week. The only homework at this time is for students to be reading (or read to) every night. On the log, please write down (or have your child write down) the books they read and how long they read for. The reading logs are always due on Fridays. Again, please let me know if you have any questions about this.
A Sign-up Genius will be emailed and posted on our website soon regarding our Halloween party. The plan for the day is to have two crafts for each pod to enjoy (a parent to sign-up and send each craft) and a shared snack/juice (individually packaged for parents to sign up for as well). Please be on the look out for this. The party will be in the afternoon on Friday, October 30th.
Coming Up...
On Friday, October 16th we have R.E.D. (Remember Everyone Deployed) Day. In honor of all those deployed and their loved ones at home, please wear red, white, and blue to honor those families.
On Friday, October 23rd we have our October birthdays party in the afternoon.
Enjoy the rest of your week!!
*9.24.20*
This week we started reading, writing, math, and phonics instruction. The kids are doing a great job transitioning!
For reading, the students listened to the books Chester's Way and Lily's Purple Plastic Purse. They listened to enjoy the book, listened for important vocabulary words, answered questions about the texts, and compared the two books to one another. Next week we will be doing a close reading of a nonfiction book - Firetrucks. For supplemental work, the students practiced logging into RazKids and read their independent reading books.
In writing, we launched our Small Moments writing unit. The students listened to The Veggie Monster and learned that a small moment can be something that happens in a short amount of time (like the boy eating a pea in The Veggie Monster), but then turn that small moment into a longer story. We wrote a shared small moment story (of when I tripped and fell with a marker bin and the markers went flying!) together and then the students spent some time thinking of their own ideas, touching and telling the story across pages, and then sketching the pictures. Next week our goal is for the kids to begin writing the words to their story.
In math, we started our first unit - Numbers All Around us. We reviewed skip counting by 2s and 5s, make twin pops and talked about how one pop has two sticks, counting them by 2s, and began counting on a number line. Using white boards, the kids learned that it is easier to count with tallies by making groups of five. Next week we will be making number racks and using them as a tool to help us count, add, and subtract numbers.
In phonics, we began our first unit looking closely at words around the room and spent the rest of the week studying names of students. The students learned to say the name, stomp/clap/slap the syllables in the name, name the letters, and study them closely looking for patterns (vowels, blends, digraphs, vowel teams, etc...). Next week we will continue to study the remaining names of students, focusing on vowels.
Important Info
There is no school on Monday, September 28th in observance of Yom Kippur.
VIRTUAL OPEN HOUSE - WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 30th
On Wednesday, September 30th we will have a virtual Open House from 5:30-6:30. Below is our slideshow of first grade information. Please generate a list of questions to share at our virtual Open House. I will do my best to answer everyone's questions.
VIRTUAL DAY FRIDAY, OCTOBER 2nd
On Friday, October 2nd we have a virtual day of learning. The students will be staying home for remote, online learning. The schedule for the day is posted below. If you need a Chromebook for your child, please let me know as soon as possible. I plan to spend a good amount of time at our virtual Open House guiding you through Google classroom. The basic format of the day will be a whole group morning meeting for number corner, one whole group ELA and one whole group math lesson for approximately 20 minutes each, and a few small group (1/2 class) activities - one group working with me and one group working independently on an activity. There will be 45 minutes for lunch and several breaks throughout the day, as well.
I hope everyone has a wonderful, relaxing weekend!!!
*9.16.20*
We have had a busy first week of school! We have spent the last five days learning our classroom rules, learning how to wear our masks properly, learning about staying clean and safe, learning about each other, and having fun! We will begin our instructional activities (writing workshop, reading workshop, phonics, spelling, and math) next week. I was able to meet with each student this week to do some reading so that their book bins have good fit books for independent reading and reading instruction.
Just a reminder to please send a snack for your child for the afternoon. Please make sure to check out the safe snack list for snack options.
At some point before next week, please log into your child's gmail account. On October 2nd, we have a virtual day of school and the students will be doing work through Google Classroom. All students have been sent invites to join our Google classroom. Your child's email is the first four letters of their first name followed by the first four letters of their last name @ voorheesville.org. For example: John Smith would be [email protected]. The password for all first graders is 1stgrade. When you log into your child's gmail account, please reply to the email to join our google classroom. Once your child joins, I can then send a request for parents to join as well. This needs to be done before October 2nd. Please let me know if you have any questions!
New Photos are posed! See "School Photos."
Coming Up...
On Friday, September 25th we have our September birthdays party for Michael and Alani!
Have a great rest of your week!
*8.30.20*
Welcome back to school, first graders!! I'm so excited to be back in school with all of you. We are going to have a fun year! Below is some information regarding the start of the school year.
The first day of school is Thursday, September 10th for the following kids:
Valentina
Gage
Alani
Danika
Nicholas
Malini
Cruz
Mia
Ian
The first day of school is Friday, September 11th for the following kids:
Kayleigh
Alice
Jack
Gabriella
Cooper
Lucas
Bradley
Michael
Charlie
Atlas
Emersyn
Harper
ALL STUDENTS WILL BE IN BEGINNING MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 14TH!
Our school day begins at 9:30 and ends at 3:00. Please be aware - this is one hour later than the previous school year. Please make sure to send your child with his or her supplies on the first day. Students will also need to bring a snack from the safe snack list (see the Safe Snack List tab for snack options) for an afternoon snack every day. There will be no snack sharing. We will spend the first couple weeks of school getting the children adjusted to new routines, hand washing, mask wearing, practicing social distancing, etc... We plan to spend a lot of time making this an easy adjustment for the kids. I want them to feel comfortable! If you have any questions/concerns, please do not hesitate to reach out to me!
Here are the groups for the school year. Purple group will be in room 117 (my classroom) and Gold group will be in room 114 (Mrs. Nowik's classroom). I will rotate between the Purple Group and Gold Group (alternating between morning and afternoon). On some days I will be with Purple group in the morning and Gold group in the afternoon and on others, Gold group in the morning and Purple group in the afternoon. We will be eating lunch in the classroom and plan to get outside as much as we can!
I will be updating the tabs on our website with new information, so please keep checking back.
As always, please let me know if you have any questions!!! Have a great rest of your summer:)
*3.16.20*
Hello, everyone! By the end of the day today, an SNN and an update on our district website will provide parents with online resources through Google classroom. I will also post the link on our homepage, here. First grade will have their own page for parents/kids to go on to find activities for each day during our time off. There will also be packets available for parents to pick-up outside the school. These packets are extra resources for students during our time off. Please be sure to continually check our classroom website as I will frequently be posting updates. Please let me know if you have any questions!!
*3.13.20*
An email went out this evening regarding our school closure from Monday, March 16th - Friday, March 20th. An SNN will be coming out shortly providing information for parents on how to access online resources for reading, writing, and math during this time. A reading log was also sent home today to make sure students continue reading during this time. As always, please let me know if you have any questions.
For math this week, the students continued to work with 2D and 3D shapes and began independently sorting shapes based on attributes. Our next unit will be focusing on creating equations from story problems with either the start, change/part, or result unknown.
In writing workshop, the students spent this week creating their Mo Willems' Pigeon and Elephant/ Piggie characters. They learned that although Elephant and Piggie are great friends, their personalities are very different - Gerald the elephant sees the glass as half empty and is always negative/worries where Piggie is always happy and positive. The students had to create their own characters with very different personalities, as well. They also created a character similar to the Pigeon - a character who always wants something but never gets it. Some students had a chance to go beyond character develop and started thinking about the problem and solution of their story - Elephant and Piggie go on some sort of an adventure together and Pigeon is always asking or wanting something, but rarely gets it. They are loving this unit!
In reading workshop, the students learned about comparing and contrasting. They practiced this by comparing and contrasting the events/characters from one book to another as well as different characters in just one text. This is a challenging skill for students to be able to do independently. We will be spending more time working on this in the weeks to come.
Unfortunately, I was unable to load photos from this week. I will be sure to post photos from our mystery reader visit - Mason's mom, Opera Saratoga, and our Pete the Cat book fair visit as soon as possible.
Coming Up...
School is closed from Monday, March 13th - Friday, March 20th. A link with online resources will be sent out soon via SNN. I will be sure to post updates and send emails as information changes. I hope everyone is staying healthy and safe! <3
*3.6.20*
Happy almost spring! This was a busy week! Happy birthday to Madigan (3/5) and Mason (3/6)! We will celebrate their birthdays at the end of the month. We were also lucky to have Mason's mom come in and read as our mystery reader on his birthday! Thank you for sharing the birthday book with us!
On Monday, we had a visit from John Gray, who read aloud his new text Keller's Heart. It was one of the best author visits I have seen! The students were completely engaged and just loved the book (I even cried!) If you haven't read the book yet, I definitely recommend it!
We also had a performance of Jack and the Beanstalk, today, by Opera Saratoga. Once again, the students were engaged and really enjoyed it.
In math, we continued working with 3D shapes and also had a few lessons on fractions. The students learned how to divide shapes into halves and fourths and also learned how to name the fractions (two-thirds or two out of three, one-half or one out of two, one quarter or one out of four, and so on). We also played fraction Bingo where the kids had to either write the name of the fraction or fill in the parts of a shape to match a fraction name. Next week we will do more with classifying shapes based on attributes.
In writing workshop, the students finished their non-fiction teaching books! I am so proud of the books the kids published. We had a small party where they shared their books in small groups. The teaching books went into the kids' portfolios, which will go home at the end of the year. Towards the end of this week, I introduced our next writing unit, a Mo Willems author study. They watched some videos on how Mo Willems became a writer and how to draw his characters and then were immersed in a lot of Elephant and Piggie and Pigeon books! Next week the kids will develop their characters and choose which series of Mo Willems they want to model their story after.
In reading workshop, we spent a lot of time talking about inferences, which is a hard skill! The students learn that we use clues in the story to help us make guesses about characters or events. These clues help us to make good inferences. We used fictional texts as models where we worked together to think of inferences and then the students applied the skill to their own good fit books. This was a skill that needed a lot of guidance. Next week we will use venn diagrams to compare/contrast.
Pictures are posted from Good Eats, John Gray's author visit, and our publishing party. See "School Photos."
Coming Up...
Next week we have an early dismissal on Thursday, March 12th for parent teacher conferences.
Have a great weekend! Don't forget to change your clocks!
*2.28.20*
I hope everyone had a nice winter break!
This week in math we continued to learn about 3D shapes and their attributes. The students loved playing guess my shape and going on a shape hunt around the school. Towards the end of the week, we started using the polydrons to build cubes and square pyramids. The students learned that the polydrons were actually the faces of the 3D shapes they built! We will work more with 3D shapes and move into fractions next week.
In reading workshop, we reviewed main idea and how we can learn the main idea from both the text (words) and pictures in a book. We used both fiction and nonfiction texts to practice this skill. It took some practice for students to understand the difference between a main idea vs. a detail. We will work on this some more within the next couple of weeks.
The students spent this week publishing their nonfiction teaching books during writing workshop. They did a great job writing about a topic, in detail. We will need a day or two more to finish publishing and then the students will share their stories in small groups. Please congratulate your child on a job well done! Our next writing unit will be a Mo Willems author study.
Important Info
This week a note went home about scheduling a spring conference in March. Please note that these conferences are not mandatory. If you have questions/comments/concerns about your child's progress, please do not hesitate to schedule a conference. Let me know if you have any questions!
We just scheduled our visit to the Pine Hollow Arboretum in May! Our class will be going on Tuesday, May 19th. We will contact you soon if you are a chaperone for this trip.
New Photos are posted from our Valentine's Day party and the 100th day of school! See "School Photos."
Coming Up...
On Monday, March 2nd, we have a guest, John Gray, coming to meet with the kids to talk about his book, Keller's Heart.
Next Friday, March 6th we have a mystery reader. We also have Opera Saratoga coming for a performance of Jack and the Beanstalk!
Have a great weekend!
*2.14.20*
Happy Valentine's Day! I hope everyone is staying warm!
This week for math, we started a new unit on 2D and 3D shapes. The students classified 2D shapes based on their attributes (color, shape, sides, vertices, etc...) and went on a shape hunt for 3D shapes. Over the next couple of weeks, we will continue to work with 2D and 3D shapes, learning all about their attributes.
In writing workshop, I finished the mini-lessons this week on the non-fiction teaching books. The students learned some ideas on how to incorporate a variety of punctuation (.,!?) and went through the nonfiction writing checklist to see which skills they can improve on in their writing. After vacation, we will spend a week "fixing and fancying" up our writing to have a published piece for our portfolios. The next writing unit is one of my favorites, a Mo Willems author study!
For reading, the students learned about author's purpose and determining whether the author of their texts wrote the book to teach us something new, to enjoy the book for pleasure, or to persuade us to think a certain way. The students were able to listen to examples of each of them to help them with their own good fit books. This week I also did an engagement inventory while the whole class did read-to-self. The goal is for the students to be actively engaged in their texts to build stamina, up to 20 minutes. I will do this a few more times throughout the remainder of the year.
Reminders:
This week a brown bag went home for our 100th day project. Today I am sending home the direction sheet. The students are to fill the bag with 100 items (all the same item - ex: all stickers, all LEGos, all pasta, all beads, etc...) and on the lines on the front of the bag, write clues about their object (color, shape, size, texture, etc...). The bags are due for our 100th day celebration on Wednesday, February 26th! Going along with that, we will spend the day on the 26th celebrating the 100th day with several activities.
After vacation, a note will be coming home about signing up for spring conferences on Canyon Creek. Please be aware that spring conferences are not mandatory. Please take the time to think about your child's progress so far this year, and, if you have any concerns/questions, do not hesitate to sign-up.
Coming Up...
There is no school next week - Monday, February 17th - Friday, February 21st.
100th day brown bag projects are due after vacation on Wednesday, February 26th.
Have a wonderful weekend!
*2.7.20*
Happy February! Only one more week until February break!
This week in math we finished up working with number lines for unit 4 - skip counting by 1s, 5s, and 10s, determining missing numbers on a number line, and solving equations using "hops" on the number line. We started our next unit which is 2D and 3D shapes. We reviewed the term attributes and we are describing and sorting 2D shapes based on their attributes. This unit will take us into March.
In writing this week, we took a break from Writer's Workshop to work on our penguin research books. Using their research notes, the students completed a paper bag book on their penguin. They are coming out great! The goal is to finish them up today. Next week we will move back into our nonfiction teaching book unit. We will be finishing up our lessons next week and hopefully publishing our stories when we come back from February vacation.
In reading this week, we focused on the skill of setting, specifically time and place. After listening to several books, the students were asked to think and share the time and place for the setting of the book. The students, then, had to independently (or with a partner during read-to-someone) determine the theme in their fictional good fit books.
Coming Up....
Next Friday, February 14th is our Valentine's Day party. Our parent volunteers are Mollie Dambrocia, Mattia Sidoti, Melissa Garufi, and Jennifer Planz. We will be having fruit, veggies, and popsicles and handing out valentines. Please make sure your child sends in their valentines for the class by Friday!
School is closed Monday, February 17th - Friday, February 21st for our winter break.
Have a great weekend!
*1.31.20*
Happy last day in January! This week the students finished researching their penguins and are ready to begin their nonfiction penguin books next week!
In math, the students continued using a number line to skip count and solve problems. The most challenging problem for students was skip counting by 10s from a number other than 0, 10, 20, etc... (for example: 4, 14, 24, 34. 44, etc...). This is a new workplace activity and we will continue to practice this during our whole group math lessons. Towards the end of the week, we began using penguins to help us learn more about measurement.
In reading workshop, the students learned that good readers learn from both the text (words) and the pictures in nonfiction books. Working as whole group, and then independently, the students had to identify a fact they learned from the words and the pictures in the books they read/listened to. This has also helped the students see the connection with their nonfiction teaching books for writing workshop - They can also teach their readers about the topic through pictures!
In writing workshop, as mentioned above, we are continuing to work hard on our nonfiction teaching books. The books are really coming along and the table of contents has been very helpful in organizing our subtopics into chapters. This week the students worked on writing creative introductions to their books and practiced rereading to check for spelling, capitalization, and punctuation. I wanted to note that we do not expect students to spell all of the words in their writing correctly. We expect they will apply spelling strategies (word families) to unknown words and use the sight word wall as a resource to spell words correctly.
New pictures are posted from our mystery readers. See "School Photos!"
Coming Up...
This coming Wednesday, February 5th is our K-2 Family math night from 6:30-7:30. Forms were due yesterday.
We have a mystery reader on Friday, February 7th at 2:30.
Have a great weekend!
*1.24.20*
This week the students began researching their penguins and I was so impressed with how independent they were listening to the facts and writing them in their own words. We plan to take one or two more lab times to complete the research. The next step will be putting our notes into our All About penguin books. Great job!
In math, we continued using a number line to skip count forward and backward by 1s, 5s, and 10s. The students are doing a great job with 1s and 10s, but skip counting by 5s (especially backwards) was a challenge. I told the kids, if they are ever on a car ride and are bored, that would be a good time to practice skip counting by 5s. The students have also been practicing using a number line to solve addition and subtraction equations adding single digit numbers (4+7=) and also adding and subtracting 10s (40+30=70 and 70-30=40). Next week we will finish up using the number line for this unit and take a break with a module on measurement.
In reading workshop, we reviewed characterization and ways the author of a story teaches us about a character (appearance, actions, thoughts/feelings, dialogue). Although it was a short work, the students did get some practice independently thinking of words to describe the characters in their good fit books. I have challenged them to think of examples from the story that helped them think of the words.
In writing workshop, we are continuing our teaching nonfiction books. I am almost finished meeting with each student to help them organize their table of contents. This has helped the students focus their teaching books on chapter topics. They also learned about adding details by comparing their topic to something else that makes it easier for the reader to understand (for example, comparing a shark's skin to sandpaper). This unit will take us until February break.
New photos are posted from Gingerbread Fred and our mystery reader visit. See "School Photos."
Reminders -
Our K-2 Family math night is on Wednesday, February 5th. We haven't gotten anyone in our class to sign-up yet! I will be in charge of the first grade number corner station and would love to see anyone that can make it! A sign-up form went home last week. The forms are due on Thursday, January 30th. Please let me know if you have any questions.
Coming Up
Next week we will finish up our penguin research on PebbleGo in the computer lab.
Next Friday, January 31st is Good Eats (12:20) our January birthday party (2:15) to celebrate Leo and Joey! It is also Dr. Fiero's last day. We will miss him!
Have a great weekend!
*1.17.20*
I can't believe January is half over! This week the students picked their penguins to begin their research next week!
This week in math we continued to work with number lines, skip counting by 1s, 5s, and 10s. We also began a discussion about open number lines and how to determine where to place numbers. If a number line starts at 0 and ends at 100, students are expected that an empty box in the middle would be the number 50. We also looked at other examples of empty boxes on open number lines. Towards the end of the week, the students got two new math workplaces. The students had to use a number line (0-10) or (0-100, counting by 10s) to solve addition or subtraction equations. We emphasized the fact that if you are solving 70-30, you are not jumping back 30; you need to realize that each jump is 10 so subtracting 30 would equal 3 jumps. We will continue using a number line for equations and skip counting next week.
In reading workshop, we went back to looking at nonfiction text features. Some new features included maps, labels, captions, tables, and cut-aways. The students found it fascinating learning about cut-aways, as it was a new feature to them. They are difficult to find and they were excited when they spotted one! Next week we will go back to characterization, reviewing the ways an author teaches us about characters from last week.
In writing workshop, the students continued to work on making a table of contents for their nonfiction teaching book. This has helped the students organize their thoughts into chapters. We also looked at some important features to include in a chapter (introducing the topic (typically with a question), ending with a thought or idea, writing several sentences, writing expert pop-out words, and including pictures with labels). I am encouraging the students to try a few of them in each of their chapters.
Reminders - A flyer went home yesterday about our K-2 Family Math Night on Wednesday, February 5th. This is going to be a fun event and a great opportunity to learn all about math tools, number corner, and workplaces, a majority of our math curriculum. Please make sure to send back your R.S.V.P. slip if you want to come!!
Coming Up...
There is no school on Monday, January 20th in observance of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day.
We have a mystery reader on Friday, January 24th.
We will begin our penguin research this coming week, using PebbleGo as a resource in the computer lab to learn about our penguins and take notes.
New pics posted from Gingerbread Fred. See "School Photos."
Have a great weekend!
*1.10.20*
Happy New Year! Here is what we did this week:
In reading workshop, the students learned about characterization. We talked about how we see the word character hidden in the word and that is how an author teaches us about the characters in the story. We can learn about characters based on appearance, actions, thoughts/feelings, and dialogue. The students listened to a handful of stories and had to pick a character from the story, give a word that describes then, and for a challenge, explain which of the four features they used to help them think of the word. They have been doing a great job! We will review this, again, in the upcoming weeks.
In writing workshop, we spent a few days continuing out teaching stories. This week we looked at a writing checklist and planned goals to make our writing better and also practiced using a colored pencil as an editing tool to reread for spelling, capitalization, and punctuation. This will take a lot more practice. The students also began writing a table of contents which helped them organize their teaching book into chapters. I will be meeting with every student to help them plan their chapters.
Finally, in math, we started a new unit, leap frogs on the number line. Our unit 4 overview sheet went home last week. We started the unit using an interactive number line to practice skip counting by 1s. We also spent some time using frogs to make hops forward and backward to help us solve addition and subtraction equations (while looking at related facts - 3+5=8, 8-5=3). The challenge was thinking of story problems to match the equations (ex: Little frog was sitting at the 0. He saw a fly 3 hops ahead. When he got there, he noticed the fly moved 5 more hops. Where is he now?) We will continue this unit next week and the week's ahead.
Reminder - Our January Scholastic book order is due on Monday, January 13th by the end of the day.
Coming Up...
The K-2 teachers met this week and we are planning a family math night for Wednesday, February 5th. A flyer will be coming home soon. This is an opportunity for parents to learn more about our Bridges math program and students to come play some of the fun math workplaces.
Next week we will begin looking at National Geographic kids magazines and practice writing sentences in our own words to prepare us for our big penguin research projects. The students will get to choose from one of five different penguins (Adelie, Emperor, African, Gentoo, King), research and take notes on their penguin, and then put the notes into a book about their penguin. The students learn a lot about penguins during this unit!
Next Wednesday, January 15th, we have our 5th grade in-school concert assembly in the afternoon.
During the next two weeks, the students will take their mid-year reading and math STAR assessments in computer lab. Today they completed the math portion and next week we will do reading.
New Photos are posted from Leo's birthday, our mystery reader visit, and Gingerbread Fred! See "School Photos."
*12.20.19*
Wow! What a crazy week before vacation! The kids were certainly excited! We had some fun events this week from our first grade classroom switcheroo (the kids made holiday crafts in each of the first grade classrooms) to the holiday sing-along.
THANK YOU SO VERY MUCH for the gift cards, body cream, soap scrub, candle, and more! I am so very grateful for everything and lucky to have such a generous class. I hope everyone had a WONDERFUL holiday!!
In math, we looked at making six, seven, nine, and ten with unifix cubes. The students had to build each number using two or three different colored cubes. We came up with equations for each of the numbers (2+3+2=, 5+3+2, 4+3, etc...). We read the equations as 2+3+2 is the same as 7, instead of = to. We practiced this with many of the equations. We then compared equations to each other to see if they were true or untrue (2+3+2 is the same as 4+3 and 5+3+2 is not the same as 4+5 and so on). We will continue to work with addition and subtraction equations after break.
In writing workshop, we continued to discuss the importance of adding details to our teaching stories. The students also learned about the importance of rereading to fix up our writing (omitting sentences that don't make sense, moving sentences around so they are in order, adding important sentences, etc...). The students also learned a new strategy to apply spelling to their writing (breaking the word into syllables and understanding that each syllable must have a vowel). We will continue to work on our teaching books after vacation and begin our penguin research project.
School resumes on Thursday, January 2nd. I hope everyone has a wonderful holiday and happy new year!
*12.13.19*
Thank you to the parents who came in to end the week with a fun winter project morning! The students had fun making snowmen, penguins, and gingerbread men/women.
We had a new student, Habiba, join us this week. The class was so excited to meet her and she has adjusted so well! I am so proud of how welcoming the students have been.
In math this week, we continued to work with ten and some more by playing a game called Fifty or Bust (which is now a workplace). The students had to build a "ten and some more number" and keep adding numbers without busting (going over 50). They had so much fun playing! Next week we will explore equations making seven, eight, nine, and ten in various ways while also using our number racks.
In writing workshop, the students continued to make their illustrations powerful by adding details to teach the readers about their main topic. We ended the week with a discussion about content specific vocabulary. The kids had to think of important vocabulary words related to their topic and try to incorporate it into their teaching book. The goal was to try and get one vocabulary word added! We will continue to learn more strategies to teach about our topics next week.
In reading, the students did a great job identifying nonfiction text features (photographs, table of contents, glossary, index, captions, and headings). They listened to a variety of nonfiction texts and we discussed those features in the texts. Independently, the students also had to apply this to their good fit books. Next week we will learn about holiday traditions and move into characterization after the holiday break.
New pictures will soon be posted from our winter craft project morning. See "School Photos."
Coming Up...
On Thursday, December 19th, the students will be rotating to all four first grade classrooms (including ours) to make a holiday craft.
On Friday, December 20th, we have our welcome winter party. A few parent helpers are signed up to bring in unpopped popcorn, cider, and bowls so the students can enjoy popcorn and cider while watching a holiday movie. No parent helpers are needed for this party.
Lastly, on Friday, December 20th, we have our K-5 sing-along. The students will all meet in the large gym to listen to some of the kindergarten holiday songs and sing some songs as a whole school.
Our holiday break will be from Monday, December 23rd- Wednesday, January 1st. School resumes on Thursday, January 2nd.
I hope everyone has a wonderful holiday and happy new year!
*12.6.19*
What a wonderful small moments publishing party we had today! Thank you so much to all the parents and grandparents who came and made it a special morning! The students had smiles on their faces reading all the little glows you left them:) If you were unable to make it, I will have your child's small moment story available at your child's conference.
This week for math, the students worked with teens numbers and noticing them as ten and some more (for example, 14 is ten and 4 more and 19 is ten and 9 more). This is another strategy we are using to help students see and solve math problems more efficiently. We will continue to work on this strategy next week, as well.
For reading, the students listened to some fun holidays stories and learned more about retelling the important parts of a story. We reviewed the five finger retell from last week and learned a new strategy - Somebody Wanted But So Then. Using this strategy, the students can recall the character (Somebody), what they wanted (Wanted), the problem that happened (But), what they did (So), and the ending (Then). This is one of my favorite comprehension strategies! The kids were able to apply this strategy with a partner during read-to-someone when checking for understanding and independently when they were listening to reading or reading to themselves.
For writing workshop, we are continuing to work on our nonfiction teaching stories. The kids continue to be actively engaged as they love writing about something they know a lot about. Using their topic, the students are sketching their illustrations. A goal is to make sure their illustrations will match the facts on each page. Some students have been ready to add their words. This week we discussed the importance of illustrations and how we not only learn facts from the words, but the pictures as well. The students took the time to make sure all their pictures were teaching their readers, as well. Next week we will continue to learn new ways to teach our readers about our topic.
I apologize, I have been behind with posting photos! I will be sure to update the website this week with our Thanksgiving photos, birthday photos, and publishing party photos! They will be under "School Photos."
December's Scholastic flyer will be coming home this coming Monday, December 9th.
Coming Up...
Next week we have half-days on Wednesday, December 11th and Friday, December 13th for parent teacher conferences.
On Friday, December 13th we have our parent winter project morning from 10-11. If you are scheduled as a volunteer, an email went out this week. Please organize a 10-15 minute holiday/winter craft for students to rotate through stations. It's a fun morning!
Have a great weekend!!
*11.22.19*
Happy Friday! In math this week, the students continued to use number racks to help them quickly find numbers. The students used groups of 5, 10, 15, or even 20 to quickly identify numbers. We also talked about doubles, and doubles plus one as addition strategies. The kids also practiced building numbers with the fewest pushes on their number rack. For example, instead of sliding each bead at a time to make 8, we are looking for the students to see a group of five in one slide and one more push of 3 or to make 15, slide a group of 10 and then a group of 5. We will continue to use the number rack as a math tool.
In writing workshop, the students have done an AMAZING job jumping into our next unit - nonfiction writing. To begin, we looked at the difference between narratives (telling a story) and all about books (teaching facts). After understanding the difference, the students brainstormed topics they know a lot about (just like the first step in small moments, thinking of a small moment). Once they thought of a topic they knew a lot about, they had to use their hand to think of 5 facts about the topic (telling the facts across their fingers like they told the events of their small moment story across the pages). Once they were able to think of five facts, they chose their writing paper to sketch each fact. The final step will be writing the words. We will be learning tricks to help us think of facts and learned the first one this week - Pretending we are a reader that wants to know about the topic and asking questions. The students each had a partner who asked them questions about their topic. This helped most students think of more facts! I can tell this is going to be a great unit! The kids are really excited to write about a topic they are interested in!
In reading workshop, we talked about the importance of retelling stories. One way students can retell is by using the five finger retell. Using each finger, the students worked with me (and independently) to 1. retell the characters 2. retell the setting 3. retell important events 4. retell the problem and 5. retell the solution. This strategy will help the kids remember the important parts of a story. You can try this at home when you are reading with your child!
Coming Up/Important Reminders
The first day of conferences is the Friday after Thanksgiving break (December 6th). If you have not yet signed up for a time slot, please do so soon. Conference dates are Friday, December 6th, Tuesday, December 11th, and Friday, December 13th.
A note went home last Friday about fruit for your family to donate to our friendship salad for the Thanksgiving party. The students will be making the salad in school so there is no need to cut-up anything (just wash, if needed). If you cannot bring in the fruit your child volunteered to bring in, please let me know as soon as possible. This is due on Tuesday, November 26th.
This coming Monday, November 25th, Gingerbread Fred will be making a visit. Each night, a bag with Fred and a journal will be sent home with a different child. Please complete the journal with your child, writing what you did with Gingerbread Fred that night. It is important to return the bag, Fred, and the journal the next morning so that each student will get a chance to take Fred home. You are welcome to add pictures, illustrations to the journal as well! Have fun!
Finally, a note went home over a week ago about about our Small Moments publishing party on Friday, December 6th (half-day for conferences). The children will be sharing the story they worked very hard on! After the party, the story will go in their published portfolio which will go home at the end of the year. Any family members are welcome to join:)
New photos will soon be posted from Lucy and Dom's birthdays, Good Eats, and our November birthday party!
Have a great weekend!
*11.15.19*
The students have been working very hard this week to publish their small moment stories. We have discussed the importance of rereading to edit/revise looking for correct spelling of sight words, punctuation at the ends of sentences, uppercase letters at the beginnings of sentences, story endings, and details to stretch out our stories. To finish their pieces, the students colored their illustrations and made a front cover. A note went home this week about our small moment publishing party. This will be held on Friday, December 6th at 10:00 (this is also a half-day for conferences). Family members are welcome to attend. We hope you can come! Our next writing unit will be nonfiction.
In math this week, we finished up unit 2 and started unit 3. A note went home highlighting the important concepts and skills that students will be learning in this unit. Please let me know if you need another copy of this overview. In this unit, the students will be using number racks as a tool to add, subtract, count, and compare. The students are working hard to learn all the different ways to make a given number. This helps when determining the missing part (addend) in an equation. If they know that 5+4=9, they can solve 5+ __=9. Please review this at home.
In reading, the kids learned about the importance of retelling the main idea (the most important part of a book/chapter) of texts. They listened to both fictional and informational texts and worked together to figure out what the book was mostly about. On the back of their Daily Five cards, the students had to do this skill independently whether they were reading to themselves, listening to reading, or reading with someone. This skill will come up a lot more throughout the year. Next week we will using the strategy Somebody, Wanted, But, So, Then to help retell the beginning, middle, and end in fictional books.
Coming Up/Important Info
A week ago, the Thankful Tree home project went home. For this project, the students have to write one thing they are thankful for on all ten wallpaper circle cut-outs. Please glue the circles on the thankful tree and if you have time, decorate the tree with crayons, markers, pictures, etc... We are beginning to hang the trees in the hallway for Thanksgiving. This project is due on Monday, November 15th.
The Canyon Creek conference scheduler has been open for a little over a week now. The dates are quickly approaching and I am beginning to prepare for conferences. If you have not yet signed up for a time, please follow the link below. A form also went home with this information. Please let me know if you have any questions or cannot make any of the times available. Please note that during the conference times, I will not be sending home progress reports as the information is repetitive.
www.canyoncreeksoftware.com/scheduler/ny/voorheesville/index.cfm
Today, a note went home about preparing a fruit salad for our Thanksgiving party. Each student chose a fruit option to bring in to contribute to the salad. This will be listed on the note that comes home. Please let me know if you are unable to bring in the fruit option on your child's form so that we can plan accordingly.
Next Friday, November 22nd, we have our November birthdays party for Dom and Lucy at 2:15.
Next Friday, November 22nd, we also have Good Eats. The students will be learning about and tasting mushrooms.
Have a great weekend!!
*11.8.19*
Yesterday, the students went to an assembly where they were able to listen to the music of Jared Campbell. He sang songs about character education, making good choices, being a team player, and being a super hero, to name some. The songs are available to purchase on his website - jaredcampbellmusic.com. It was a very motivating assembly and the students loved it!!!
The students are continuing to do an excellent job working independently during reading workshop. This week the students learned what an event is in a story. They listened to many fall stories and shared events from the texts. Independently, the kids had to think of one event from one of the stories they read or listened to and write it on the back of their Daily Five card. Next week we will discuss finding the main idea in informational texts.
In math this week, the students made a quilt of starfish and shape patterns. Using the starfish, the students counted by 5s and shared strategies they noticed. Some students noticed that counting by 5s numbers end in a 0 or 5, the number in the tens place goes up one in each row, etc... Next week we will practice more with money and work with single digit sums.
This week in writing workshop, the students picked their best small moment piece to edit and revise. We used an editing checklist to make sure our stories are the best they can be and made front covers/illustrations. We will finish publishing our small moment stories next week before we begin our second unit on nonfiction writing. Please note- There will be a Publishing Party of our small moment stories on Friday, December 6th from 10:15-10:45. All parents are welcome to come!
New photos will soon be posted from our assembly with Jared Campbell. See "School Photos."
Coming Up....
There is no school on Monday, November 11th in honor of Veteran's Day.
Next Friday, November 15th we have a mystery reader visiting.
Our Thanksgiving party is coming up very quickly! For the party, we will have four parent volunteers to come in and help out. We are looking for one volunteer to supply unpopped popcorn, one volunteer to organize a craft, one volunteer to donate apple cider, and one volunteer to bring in a large container of heavy cream. Each student will be asked to bring in one fruit to donate to our class fruit salad. A note will be coming home soon letting you know which fruit we are hoping you could send in to help out. Please keep an eye out!!
Finally, a project will be coming home today that will be due on Monday, November 18th. All first grade classes are doing a thankful tree project at home that we would like to display before Thanksgiving. We are asking for students to think of ten things they are thankful for. A bag with 10 circle shapes and the thankful tree will be coming home for the students to write on the circles and glue onto the tree. Please have your child fill out all the circles, glue them on the tree, and write their name on the paper. Again, please have this to school by Monday, November 18th.
Have a great weekend!!
*11/1/19*
I hope everyone had a great Halloween night! The kids sure were excited yesterday (probably the craziest day of the year!).
For math, the students completed a checkpoint to review filling in missing numbers on a number line, writing and solving math equations using dominoes, and solving story problems. The story problems (with the part/change unknown) was the most difficult for students (ex: There were 9 leaves on the tree. 3 were red and the rest were orange. How many were orange 9=3+_ ). Writing an equation using a symbol for the missing part or drawing an illustration is important in helping students successfully solve this type of story problem. If your child says they want to do math at home (Ha!), this would be a good thing to practice! We'll continue practicing story problems and using dominoes to make and solve equations next week.
Reading workshop is going great! This week the students learned how good readers ask and answer questions before, during, and after reading. During their independent/partner reading they had to think of a question about any of their books to write on their Daily Five card. We will be sharing the questions today! We are also practicing this skill in guided reading groups. Next week we will talk about events in fictional stories. When reading with your child, please encourage them to use strategies when decoding unfamiliar words (thinking about the short vowel word families we have practiced thus far -at, ab, ad, it, ig, ip, op, od, ong, etc..., looking for little words hiding - shouted, sand, etc..., identifying blends/digraphs-black, spring, fish, brown, etc..., and recognizing endings - ed, ing, es, ly, etc....Please let me know if you ever have any questions about reading at home!
In writing, the students continued to use George McClements' craft moves (ellipses, pop-out words, and writing exact actions) to add more details to their small moment stories. We only have a couple more weeks left of this unit before the students pick their final piece to publish. We will have a publishing party for parents sometime in December. I will post the date as soon as their stories are wrapping up!
We had a great Halloween party! Pictures will soon be posted. See "School Photos."
Coming Up...
The students will be changing their flexible seats today. Almost everyone got their first choice for the month of November!
There is no school on Tuesday, November 5th (Election Day).
We have an assembly on Thursday, November 7th with singer/songwriter Jared Campbell.
Have a great weekend!
*10.25.19*
Happy Friday! The kids are getting excited that Halloween is only a week away!
This week we spent more time working on our tiny seed stories for writing workshop. We reread The Night of the Veggie Monsters and talked about craft moves (things George McClements does to make his writing come to life). The students practiced either adding ellipses (...) to create excitement, writing characters' exact actions to create an image in the readers' minds, and using pop-out words (all uppercase words or bold words) to tell the reader to read with a strong voice. I am impressed at how well the students jumped right into the craft moves to bring their stories to life!
In math, we continued to work with dominoes and introduced flap cards as a tool to create fact families. The students learned that fact families use the same three (or two if it's a double) numbers. They used the flap cards to find the missing start number, change/addend, and result. The kids also used the dominoes to, not only find the total number of dots, but then write inequality statements (<,>,=) to compare one domino to the next. We discussed strategies used to find the total number of dots (counting the dots, starting at the smaller quantity and counting on, starting at the larger quantity and counting on, looking for a familiar fact to help solve, or just knowing the answer). Next week we will continue to use dominoes and flap cards as tools.
For reading, the students did a great job for their first week independently choosing and rotating through Daily Five stations. It took some practice getting started right away and making sure to highlight under the correct day, but we will continue to have more practice! The students had the choice to choose read-to-self (where they read Good Fit books), read-to-someone (where they shared their Good Fit books with others), listen-to-reading (used the Chromebooks to read books at their level on Raz Kids), word work (stamping sight words and practicing spelling words in Play-Doh), and work on writing (ghost journal prompt and free choice writing).
In science lab, the students learned how pumpkins help the plant protect it's seeds. After, they built a protection for a tomato and got to throw it out the window to see if it worked (and the tomato didn't squish). They had a great time!
Today was Good Eats. The students learned about and got to try raw celery.
Coming Up...
Next Thursday, October 31st, is our Halloween party. The party will be from 1:30-2:30 and then we will head outside (weather permitting) for our school parade. The students will change into their costumes when they get back from special at 1:30, before the party. Volunteers for the party are Ulkem Crisafulli, Colin Donnaruma, Jen Planz, and Sarah Platek. Please make sure to bring in a small craft/game/activity for the students to rotate through stations. Also, please coordiate who will bring fruit, veggies, juice, plates, cups, and napkins. Thank you!!
New pictures will soon be posted from our October birthday party (Mia!) and our guidance lesson with Mrs. Huntsman. See "School Photos."
*10.18.19*
This was the busiest week yet this year! With a holiday Monday, our field trip Wednesday, our pumpkin investigation yesterday, and our pumpkin decorating today, this week flew by!
The students had a great time on our field trip to Stanton's. They got to slide down a hay slide, pick two pumpkins, go on a hay ride around the farm, and go through a hay maze. I had never been there and really enjoyed it! New pictures will be posted this weekend from our field trip.
Yesterday the students did a pumpkin investigation. They learned whether pumpkins sink or float, weighed pumpkins, measured the height in cubes, tested to see if the force of a hair dryer would make them roll, and counted pumpkin seeds. It was fun investigation!
Today the students will be decorating one of the pumpkins they got on their field trip. If they are dry by the end of the day, we will send them home. If not, please look for them to come home on Monday.
In math, we continued to use dominoes as a learning tool. The students discussed different strategies for finding the total number of dots on a domino and then talked about the advantages and disadvantages of each strategy. Students continue to look for more efficient strategies other than just counting the dots. We will continue to explore more with dominoes and move into using and making flap cards to create fact families of addition and subtraction equations.
In writing workshop, the students learned how important punctuation is in a story. They learned that if they want a story read a certain way, they have to write it a certain way (by using exclamation points for excitement, bold words to stand out, important words all uppercase, etc...). Next week we will continue with small moments and do some Halloween writing.
For our last week in Daily Five training, the students learned what word work looks like and sounds like. Next week we will begin reading rotations. The students will get to choose which station they would like to go to (read-to-self, read-to-someone, listen-to-reading, work-on-writing, and word work). Students must complete each station once before they can repeat a station.
Lastly, please have your child practicing logging into IXL by putting in their username and password instead of saving it and automatically logging in. When we use IXL in computer lab, the students have a difficult time doing this independently and it will help for them to practice at home. Thank you!
New Pics will soon be posted from our field trip to Stanton's, our pumpkin investigation, pumpkin decorating, and our mystery reader. See "School Photos!"
Coming Up...
Next week is our Arctic Adventure book fair. The students will get to preview the book fair on Monday morning to see if there are any books they would like.
Next Friday, October 25th is Good Eats - studying celery.
Next Friday, October 25th is our October birthday party for Mia!
Have a great weekend!!
*10.11.19*
I hope everyone had a great week! IXL is now back up and working. If for some reason you still cannot log-in, please let me know! When logging into IXL, you have to be connected through our Voorheesville account or your log-in will not work. If you log in through Voorheesville Elementary School's page or the link on our website (under "Wonderful Websites") it will take you to the Voorheesville log-in page.
This week in math we continued to use the number racks and ten frames to build numbers and generate addition and subtraction equations. Towards the end of the week the students were introduced to Dominoes as tools. Over the next week, we will be using the Dominoes to also help build numbers and generate addition and subtraction equations. A unit 1 and unit 2 sheet was sent home this week with an overview on what we have been doing in math, as well. A unit lasts, typically, a month and we just started unit 2. If you ever have any questions on how to help out with math at home, please don't hesitate to ask!
In reading, the students worked on building stamina for working on writing as a part of Daily Five. This was not new for them as they have been building stamina during Writing Workshop, anyway! Two different types of writing they may do during Daily Five include journal writing (I will put a picture prompt on the board and vocabulary words related to the picture. The students will have to generate sentences related to the picture. We first started with one complete sentence. As the year goes on, I will be looking for the students to write 5-8 sentences related to one topic.) and free choice writing. With free choice writing, I will have seasonal writing activities available for them to choose from, or, they can pick any writing paper from our writing center and write about whatever they want to write about! I told them it doesn't matter to me what they are writing about, as long as they are writing!
In writing, we are continuing to work on our small moment, tiny seed stories. I was able to meet with every student in the class to provide feedback on how to make their writing better! We are trying to make sure students are focusing on one tiny seed story (as opposed to a watermelon story) and adding details to that story. This week we continued to talk about making our stories come to life and independently applying strategies for spelling unknown words. So far we have discussed "Say it, Slide it, Hear it, Write it" and looking at the sight word wall to see if part of the unknown word we are trying to write is on there. We will continue these strategies throughout the year and also learn more!
October Scholastic book order forms are due by the end of the day today! A new one will be coming home in November.
New Photos will soon be posted from our New Salem Fire Department visit. See "School Photos."
We have finished short "a" and short "i" spelling units. Please make sure to continue reviewing short "a" and short "i" word families as this will aide in decoding more challenging words when reading.
Coming Up...
There is no school on Monday, October 14th in honor of Columbus Day.
Our field trip to Stanton's Feura Bush Farm is on Wednesday, October 16th. Please make sure your child is dressed appropriately. We will be going through a maze, picking pumpkins, etc... The bus will be leaving school promptly at 9:00. Chaperones are Melissa Garufi, Mollie Dambrocia, Joanne Murphy, Colin Donnaruma, and Kevin Hotaling.
Our pumpkin investigation is on Thursday, October 17th at 2:00. Helpers are Jen Planz, Mattia Sidoti, Colin Donnaruma, and Jim Pfleiderer. Please make sure to each bring a large pumpkin for us to investigate.
Finally, our pumpkin decorating (using our pumpkins from the field trip) is on Friday, October 18th at 10:00. Helpers are Mattia Sidoti, Kim Pfleiderer, Jen Planz, and Matt Delgado. Please bring in one class supply of decorations (string, googly eyes, paint, stickers, etc...) for the class to use to decorate.
On Friday, October 18th, we have a mystery reader at 2:30.
Have a great weekend!
*10.7.19*
IXL is now available!!
*10.4.19*
Happy Friday! I wanted to quickly write a note to say that IXL is temporarily not working. We are waiting to hear back for when the subscription will be renewed. In the meantime, you can practice math fact fluency (facts to 5 or 10) and I will be sure to let you know when the website is up and working again!
In spelling this week, we started short i word families. It is important to review these word family endings (ill, ip, it, ick, in, ig, etc...) so that students can use that as a tool to aide in decoding challenging words for reading.
In reading, we focused on listen-to-reading for Daily Five. Each student had a chance to log into their RAZ Kids account (a link for the website is under "Wonderful Websites" - a few students asked if they could do it at home!) and practice listening to reading. After each text, they checked for understanding by answering some questions about the story. Along with listen-to-reading, I have been checking-in with students during read-to-self to make sure they are continuing to choose Good Fit books. Next week we will jump into working on writing as a part of Daily Five.
In writing, we are continuing to build on our small moment (tiny seed) stories. Every day I have been meeting with students to help them make their writing better! Some focus areas I noticed are making sure to focus on a tiny seed story (and not write about your whole day), remembering to apply spelling of sight words (they have a copy in their writing folder), remembering punctuation at the end of a sentence (which is hard to do at this age!), and adding every little detail to stretch out their stories. During mini-lessons we continued to talk about making our stories come to life by telling small steps, and bringing out the inside (writing about feelings). We will continue to work on small moment narratives for the next few weeks.
In math, we continued to use the number racks to help build numbers (using the top and bottom rows of the number rack) and then generate equations to match the numbers. (Ex: Build 9 - 5 on top and 4 on bottom - 5+4=9...Build 10 -8 on top and 2 on bottom - 8+2=10, etc...). We also talked about measuring using Popsicle sticks, unifex cubes, and our feet. The students learned that if they are using a smaller object to measure (unifex cubes) they will need more of the object when measuring (It took 6 unifex cubes to equal 1 Popsicle stick when measuring objects). We talked about making estimates before measuring and readjusting our estimates halfway through, if needed.
Coming Up...
Field Trip money for Stanton's Farm is due on Tuesday, October 8th. If you need another permission slip, please let me know before then!
There is no school on Wednesday, October 9th in observance of Yom Kippur.
On Friday, October 11th, the New Salem Fire Department will be visiting our school. The students will learn more about safety and, if the weather is nice, get to take a view on a fire truck.
On Friday, October 11th, we also have our Go Home Early drill. Dismissal will be at 2:55. Please plan accordingly.
Lastly, on Monday, October 14th, there is no school in observance of Columbus Day.
Have a great weekend!
*9.27.19*
I can't believe we finished the last week in September! We have a busy month coming up in October with our field trip to Stanton's, our pumpkin decorating, a visit from the New Scotland Fire Department, our pumpkin investigation, and our Halloween party! I'm looking forward to it!
This week in Daily Five, the students practiced read-to-someone. We talked about sitting EEKK (elbow elbow knee knee), ways to read (I read, you read, choral reading, read different books), checking for understanding ("I just heard you read___", and how to choose a partner (silent hand, make eye contact, "Will you be my partner?" "Sure!"). The students did a great job and got up to 20 minutes today! Next week we will work on listen-to-reading.
In writing workshop, the students are making a lot of progress on their small moment stories. We continued to talk about writing tiny seed stories and not watermelon stories. The students looked through past examples of first grade writing and learned how to make them better! Hopefully they will continue to apply that lesson to their own writing:) Towards the end of the week we worked on storytelling with partners and talked about how to make our stories come to life (unfreezing our characters by telling exactly what they did and said in the moment). Today we took a break from writer's workshop to write about our September memories.
In math, we continued to use our number racks to make numbers and solve addition problems. Please remind your child to look for groups of ten and five to help them quickly see numbers and solve addition facts using number racks (instead of counting all 7 beads, or 12, or 18, etc...We want them to see 5 and 2 more for 7, 10 and 2 more for 12, and 10 plus 5 plus 3 more for 18, as examples. Next week we will continue with number racks and measurement.
Coming Soon - Pictures from Daily Five, Good Eats, and our September birthdays party! See "School Photos."
Coming Up/Important Info...
Next Friday, October 4th we have fall picture day. Forms went home today. Please let me know if you did not get one!
The field trip permission slip for Stanton's Feura Bush Farm went home this week. They are due this coming week. Please either pay on-line (information is on the slip) or send in your permission slip with $7. Please let me know if you have any questions!
Have a great weekend!
*9.20.19*
We had a great Friday starting with our Bike Ride for Missing Children coming through. We were the first stop and the kids were so pumped to show the riders the posters they made. Hopefully your children will tell you all about it! :)
This week we worked on read-to-self for Daily Five. Using the Good Fit books they found last week, the students were able to build stamina and read for 16 minutes straight! We talked about what read-to-self looks like and sounds like (quiet whisper voice, stay in one spot, sit next to someone who won't make you talk, read Good Fit books, eyes on your book, etc...). We also talked about the three ways to read a book (1. Read the pictures. 2. Read the words. 3. Retell the story.). Next week we will train for read-to-someone.
In writing workshop, we spent a lot of time working on our small moment stories. We reviewed the writing process (1. Think of an idea. 2. Touch and tell the story across pages. 3. Sketch 4.Write. 5. Revise (add details - "When you think you're done, you've just begun!"). The students learned a new strategy for spelling unknown words (Say it, Slide it, Hear it, Write it) and talked about thinking of tiny seed stories as a small moment, not watermelon stories. Next week we will continue to build on our small moment stories!
In math, the kids built their own number racks and used them to answer math problems. We built numbers and talked about how there are many different ways to build the same number. A number rack is a board with beads (5 red on top 5 white on top, 5 red on top 5 white on top). The starting position is all the beads slid over to the right and then the students can build numbers sliding the beads to the left. For example, building five - 5 beads on top 0 beads on bottom, 4 beads on top 1 bead on bottom, etc... They are a great tool for learning!
New pictures will soon be posted of our birthday friends and the Bike Ride for Missing Children.
Coming Up Next Week...
On Friday, September 27th, we have our September birthdays party. If your child celebrated a birthday in September, please contact one another to organize a game/craft/etc... for that afternoon (2:15-3). A form with information went home in your Open House folder.
Chrissy Hotaling and Joanne Murphy are in the process of putting together parent helper volunteers for the year. If you did not get a chance to sign-up in our Google Doc, please let them know as soon as possible. We will let you know (and I will post on our website) as soon as all the slots are assigned.
I submitted our first Scholastic order yesterday. Our next one will come home in October.
Have a great weekend!
*9.13.19*
Happy Friday! It has been a great week getting to know each and every one of your children. We have done many activities getting to know one another and have established routines. Thank you, again, to all the parents who came to Open House. I have included the slideshow from last night below. Please don't hesitate to reach out if you have any questions. As mentioned last night, sign-ups for the year (classroom volunteering and supply donations) are posted in a Google Doc under "Parent Helper Volunteers." Please fill-out the form and submit it by this Monday, September 16th. As of this morning, we found out the Pumpkin Patch is no longer doing field trips. We are looking into another place and will get the information to you as soon as possible.
This week we jumped right into Daily Five and talking about Good Fit books. The students spent each doing going through the I-PICK chart (I-I choose a book P-Purpose Why do I want to read today? I-Interest Does it interest me? C-Comprehend Do I understand it? K-Know Do I know most words?). If ever they have a thumbs down to any of those questions, we talked about how it is not a Good Fit book and they can find a new one. If your child finds a book that is really interesting to them, but they cannot understand the book, there is a book bag they can bring home so that someone at home can read the book to them. Please make sure to return the book bag back to school when you are done with the book.
In writing, the students spent this week free writing on a topic of their choice and decorating their writing portfolios. Today we began our small moment writing workshop unit. We talked about writing true stories, the writing process, listening for details in Night of the Veggie Monster, and steps on how to write a story. Over the weekend, please encourage your child to think of small moments in their lives that they could write about.
In math, we have spent the week tallying and thinking of groups (5's and 10's) to help us organize numbers so they are easier to count. This strategy will be important next week when we build number racks and look for groups of 5's and 10's when adding and subtracting numbers.
Coming Up...
Please make sure to sign-up for classroom volunteer activities in our Google Doc under "Parent Helper Volunteers" by this Monday, September 16th.
If you are interested in being a guest reader, please look at the dates under "Parent Helper Volunteers" and contact our room parents (information in the slideshow below) to let them know which dates work for you. Our first guest reader is next Friday, September 20th!
On Monday, September 16th we have our Missing Children Bike Ride Assembly and on Friday, September 20th, the bike ride will be passing through our school! This is going to be an exciting experience!
Our first Scholastic book order is due on Wednesday, September 18th. Please have your orders in that evening and I will submit the order Thursday morning.
Finally a reminder - I will be out on Wednesday and Thursday completing reading assessments.
Have a great weekend!
We have had a busy first week of school! We have spent the last five days learning our classroom rules, learning how to wear our masks properly, learning about staying clean and safe, learning about each other, and having fun! We will begin our instructional activities (writing workshop, reading workshop, phonics, spelling, and math) next week. I was able to meet with each student this week to do some reading so that their book bins have good fit books for independent reading and reading instruction.
Just a reminder to please send a snack for your child for the afternoon. Please make sure to check out the safe snack list for snack options.
At some point before next week, please log into your child's gmail account. On October 2nd, we have a virtual day of school and the students will be doing work through Google Classroom. All students have been sent invites to join our Google classroom. Your child's email is the first four letters of their first name followed by the first four letters of their last name @ voorheesville.org. For example: John Smith would be [email protected]. The password for all first graders is 1stgrade. When you log into your child's gmail account, please reply to the email to join our google classroom. Once your child joins, I can then send a request for parents to join as well. This needs to be done before October 2nd. Please let me know if you have any questions!
New Photos are posed! See "School Photos."
Coming Up...
On Friday, September 25th we have our September birthdays party for Michael and Alani!
Have a great rest of your week!
*8.30.20*
Welcome back to school, first graders!! I'm so excited to be back in school with all of you. We are going to have a fun year! Below is some information regarding the start of the school year.
The first day of school is Thursday, September 10th for the following kids:
Valentina
Gage
Alani
Danika
Nicholas
Malini
Cruz
Mia
Ian
The first day of school is Friday, September 11th for the following kids:
Kayleigh
Alice
Jack
Gabriella
Cooper
Lucas
Bradley
Michael
Charlie
Atlas
Emersyn
Harper
ALL STUDENTS WILL BE IN BEGINNING MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 14TH!
Our school day begins at 9:30 and ends at 3:00. Please be aware - this is one hour later than the previous school year. Please make sure to send your child with his or her supplies on the first day. Students will also need to bring a snack from the safe snack list (see the Safe Snack List tab for snack options) for an afternoon snack every day. There will be no snack sharing. We will spend the first couple weeks of school getting the children adjusted to new routines, hand washing, mask wearing, practicing social distancing, etc... We plan to spend a lot of time making this an easy adjustment for the kids. I want them to feel comfortable! If you have any questions/concerns, please do not hesitate to reach out to me!
Here are the groups for the school year. Purple group will be in room 117 (my classroom) and Gold group will be in room 114 (Mrs. Nowik's classroom). I will rotate between the Purple Group and Gold Group (alternating between morning and afternoon). On some days I will be with Purple group in the morning and Gold group in the afternoon and on others, Gold group in the morning and Purple group in the afternoon. We will be eating lunch in the classroom and plan to get outside as much as we can!
I will be updating the tabs on our website with new information, so please keep checking back.
As always, please let me know if you have any questions!!! Have a great rest of your summer:)
*3.16.20*
Hello, everyone! By the end of the day today, an SNN and an update on our district website will provide parents with online resources through Google classroom. I will also post the link on our homepage, here. First grade will have their own page for parents/kids to go on to find activities for each day during our time off. There will also be packets available for parents to pick-up outside the school. These packets are extra resources for students during our time off. Please be sure to continually check our classroom website as I will frequently be posting updates. Please let me know if you have any questions!!
*3.13.20*
An email went out this evening regarding our school closure from Monday, March 16th - Friday, March 20th. An SNN will be coming out shortly providing information for parents on how to access online resources for reading, writing, and math during this time. A reading log was also sent home today to make sure students continue reading during this time. As always, please let me know if you have any questions.
For math this week, the students continued to work with 2D and 3D shapes and began independently sorting shapes based on attributes. Our next unit will be focusing on creating equations from story problems with either the start, change/part, or result unknown.
In writing workshop, the students spent this week creating their Mo Willems' Pigeon and Elephant/ Piggie characters. They learned that although Elephant and Piggie are great friends, their personalities are very different - Gerald the elephant sees the glass as half empty and is always negative/worries where Piggie is always happy and positive. The students had to create their own characters with very different personalities, as well. They also created a character similar to the Pigeon - a character who always wants something but never gets it. Some students had a chance to go beyond character develop and started thinking about the problem and solution of their story - Elephant and Piggie go on some sort of an adventure together and Pigeon is always asking or wanting something, but rarely gets it. They are loving this unit!
In reading workshop, the students learned about comparing and contrasting. They practiced this by comparing and contrasting the events/characters from one book to another as well as different characters in just one text. This is a challenging skill for students to be able to do independently. We will be spending more time working on this in the weeks to come.
Unfortunately, I was unable to load photos from this week. I will be sure to post photos from our mystery reader visit - Mason's mom, Opera Saratoga, and our Pete the Cat book fair visit as soon as possible.
Coming Up...
School is closed from Monday, March 13th - Friday, March 20th. A link with online resources will be sent out soon via SNN. I will be sure to post updates and send emails as information changes. I hope everyone is staying healthy and safe! <3
*3.6.20*
Happy almost spring! This was a busy week! Happy birthday to Madigan (3/5) and Mason (3/6)! We will celebrate their birthdays at the end of the month. We were also lucky to have Mason's mom come in and read as our mystery reader on his birthday! Thank you for sharing the birthday book with us!
On Monday, we had a visit from John Gray, who read aloud his new text Keller's Heart. It was one of the best author visits I have seen! The students were completely engaged and just loved the book (I even cried!) If you haven't read the book yet, I definitely recommend it!
We also had a performance of Jack and the Beanstalk, today, by Opera Saratoga. Once again, the students were engaged and really enjoyed it.
In math, we continued working with 3D shapes and also had a few lessons on fractions. The students learned how to divide shapes into halves and fourths and also learned how to name the fractions (two-thirds or two out of three, one-half or one out of two, one quarter or one out of four, and so on). We also played fraction Bingo where the kids had to either write the name of the fraction or fill in the parts of a shape to match a fraction name. Next week we will do more with classifying shapes based on attributes.
In writing workshop, the students finished their non-fiction teaching books! I am so proud of the books the kids published. We had a small party where they shared their books in small groups. The teaching books went into the kids' portfolios, which will go home at the end of the year. Towards the end of this week, I introduced our next writing unit, a Mo Willems author study. They watched some videos on how Mo Willems became a writer and how to draw his characters and then were immersed in a lot of Elephant and Piggie and Pigeon books! Next week the kids will develop their characters and choose which series of Mo Willems they want to model their story after.
In reading workshop, we spent a lot of time talking about inferences, which is a hard skill! The students learn that we use clues in the story to help us make guesses about characters or events. These clues help us to make good inferences. We used fictional texts as models where we worked together to think of inferences and then the students applied the skill to their own good fit books. This was a skill that needed a lot of guidance. Next week we will use venn diagrams to compare/contrast.
Pictures are posted from Good Eats, John Gray's author visit, and our publishing party. See "School Photos."
Coming Up...
Next week we have an early dismissal on Thursday, March 12th for parent teacher conferences.
Have a great weekend! Don't forget to change your clocks!
*2.28.20*
I hope everyone had a nice winter break!
This week in math we continued to learn about 3D shapes and their attributes. The students loved playing guess my shape and going on a shape hunt around the school. Towards the end of the week, we started using the polydrons to build cubes and square pyramids. The students learned that the polydrons were actually the faces of the 3D shapes they built! We will work more with 3D shapes and move into fractions next week.
In reading workshop, we reviewed main idea and how we can learn the main idea from both the text (words) and pictures in a book. We used both fiction and nonfiction texts to practice this skill. It took some practice for students to understand the difference between a main idea vs. a detail. We will work on this some more within the next couple of weeks.
The students spent this week publishing their nonfiction teaching books during writing workshop. They did a great job writing about a topic, in detail. We will need a day or two more to finish publishing and then the students will share their stories in small groups. Please congratulate your child on a job well done! Our next writing unit will be a Mo Willems author study.
Important Info
This week a note went home about scheduling a spring conference in March. Please note that these conferences are not mandatory. If you have questions/comments/concerns about your child's progress, please do not hesitate to schedule a conference. Let me know if you have any questions!
We just scheduled our visit to the Pine Hollow Arboretum in May! Our class will be going on Tuesday, May 19th. We will contact you soon if you are a chaperone for this trip.
New Photos are posted from our Valentine's Day party and the 100th day of school! See "School Photos."
Coming Up...
On Monday, March 2nd, we have a guest, John Gray, coming to meet with the kids to talk about his book, Keller's Heart.
Next Friday, March 6th we have a mystery reader. We also have Opera Saratoga coming for a performance of Jack and the Beanstalk!
Have a great weekend!
*2.14.20*
Happy Valentine's Day! I hope everyone is staying warm!
This week for math, we started a new unit on 2D and 3D shapes. The students classified 2D shapes based on their attributes (color, shape, sides, vertices, etc...) and went on a shape hunt for 3D shapes. Over the next couple of weeks, we will continue to work with 2D and 3D shapes, learning all about their attributes.
In writing workshop, I finished the mini-lessons this week on the non-fiction teaching books. The students learned some ideas on how to incorporate a variety of punctuation (.,!?) and went through the nonfiction writing checklist to see which skills they can improve on in their writing. After vacation, we will spend a week "fixing and fancying" up our writing to have a published piece for our portfolios. The next writing unit is one of my favorites, a Mo Willems author study!
For reading, the students learned about author's purpose and determining whether the author of their texts wrote the book to teach us something new, to enjoy the book for pleasure, or to persuade us to think a certain way. The students were able to listen to examples of each of them to help them with their own good fit books. This week I also did an engagement inventory while the whole class did read-to-self. The goal is for the students to be actively engaged in their texts to build stamina, up to 20 minutes. I will do this a few more times throughout the remainder of the year.
Reminders:
This week a brown bag went home for our 100th day project. Today I am sending home the direction sheet. The students are to fill the bag with 100 items (all the same item - ex: all stickers, all LEGos, all pasta, all beads, etc...) and on the lines on the front of the bag, write clues about their object (color, shape, size, texture, etc...). The bags are due for our 100th day celebration on Wednesday, February 26th! Going along with that, we will spend the day on the 26th celebrating the 100th day with several activities.
After vacation, a note will be coming home about signing up for spring conferences on Canyon Creek. Please be aware that spring conferences are not mandatory. Please take the time to think about your child's progress so far this year, and, if you have any concerns/questions, do not hesitate to sign-up.
Coming Up...
There is no school next week - Monday, February 17th - Friday, February 21st.
100th day brown bag projects are due after vacation on Wednesday, February 26th.
Have a wonderful weekend!
*2.7.20*
Happy February! Only one more week until February break!
This week in math we finished up working with number lines for unit 4 - skip counting by 1s, 5s, and 10s, determining missing numbers on a number line, and solving equations using "hops" on the number line. We started our next unit which is 2D and 3D shapes. We reviewed the term attributes and we are describing and sorting 2D shapes based on their attributes. This unit will take us into March.
In writing this week, we took a break from Writer's Workshop to work on our penguin research books. Using their research notes, the students completed a paper bag book on their penguin. They are coming out great! The goal is to finish them up today. Next week we will move back into our nonfiction teaching book unit. We will be finishing up our lessons next week and hopefully publishing our stories when we come back from February vacation.
In reading this week, we focused on the skill of setting, specifically time and place. After listening to several books, the students were asked to think and share the time and place for the setting of the book. The students, then, had to independently (or with a partner during read-to-someone) determine the theme in their fictional good fit books.
Coming Up....
Next Friday, February 14th is our Valentine's Day party. Our parent volunteers are Mollie Dambrocia, Mattia Sidoti, Melissa Garufi, and Jennifer Planz. We will be having fruit, veggies, and popsicles and handing out valentines. Please make sure your child sends in their valentines for the class by Friday!
School is closed Monday, February 17th - Friday, February 21st for our winter break.
Have a great weekend!
*1.31.20*
Happy last day in January! This week the students finished researching their penguins and are ready to begin their nonfiction penguin books next week!
In math, the students continued using a number line to skip count and solve problems. The most challenging problem for students was skip counting by 10s from a number other than 0, 10, 20, etc... (for example: 4, 14, 24, 34. 44, etc...). This is a new workplace activity and we will continue to practice this during our whole group math lessons. Towards the end of the week, we began using penguins to help us learn more about measurement.
In reading workshop, the students learned that good readers learn from both the text (words) and the pictures in nonfiction books. Working as whole group, and then independently, the students had to identify a fact they learned from the words and the pictures in the books they read/listened to. This has also helped the students see the connection with their nonfiction teaching books for writing workshop - They can also teach their readers about the topic through pictures!
In writing workshop, as mentioned above, we are continuing to work hard on our nonfiction teaching books. The books are really coming along and the table of contents has been very helpful in organizing our subtopics into chapters. This week the students worked on writing creative introductions to their books and practiced rereading to check for spelling, capitalization, and punctuation. I wanted to note that we do not expect students to spell all of the words in their writing correctly. We expect they will apply spelling strategies (word families) to unknown words and use the sight word wall as a resource to spell words correctly.
New pictures are posted from our mystery readers. See "School Photos!"
Coming Up...
This coming Wednesday, February 5th is our K-2 Family math night from 6:30-7:30. Forms were due yesterday.
We have a mystery reader on Friday, February 7th at 2:30.
Have a great weekend!
*1.24.20*
This week the students began researching their penguins and I was so impressed with how independent they were listening to the facts and writing them in their own words. We plan to take one or two more lab times to complete the research. The next step will be putting our notes into our All About penguin books. Great job!
In math, we continued using a number line to skip count forward and backward by 1s, 5s, and 10s. The students are doing a great job with 1s and 10s, but skip counting by 5s (especially backwards) was a challenge. I told the kids, if they are ever on a car ride and are bored, that would be a good time to practice skip counting by 5s. The students have also been practicing using a number line to solve addition and subtraction equations adding single digit numbers (4+7=) and also adding and subtracting 10s (40+30=70 and 70-30=40). Next week we will finish up using the number line for this unit and take a break with a module on measurement.
In reading workshop, we reviewed characterization and ways the author of a story teaches us about a character (appearance, actions, thoughts/feelings, dialogue). Although it was a short work, the students did get some practice independently thinking of words to describe the characters in their good fit books. I have challenged them to think of examples from the story that helped them think of the words.
In writing workshop, we are continuing our teaching nonfiction books. I am almost finished meeting with each student to help them organize their table of contents. This has helped the students focus their teaching books on chapter topics. They also learned about adding details by comparing their topic to something else that makes it easier for the reader to understand (for example, comparing a shark's skin to sandpaper). This unit will take us until February break.
New photos are posted from Gingerbread Fred and our mystery reader visit. See "School Photos."
Reminders -
Our K-2 Family math night is on Wednesday, February 5th. We haven't gotten anyone in our class to sign-up yet! I will be in charge of the first grade number corner station and would love to see anyone that can make it! A sign-up form went home last week. The forms are due on Thursday, January 30th. Please let me know if you have any questions.
Coming Up
Next week we will finish up our penguin research on PebbleGo in the computer lab.
Next Friday, January 31st is Good Eats (12:20) our January birthday party (2:15) to celebrate Leo and Joey! It is also Dr. Fiero's last day. We will miss him!
Have a great weekend!
*1.17.20*
I can't believe January is half over! This week the students picked their penguins to begin their research next week!
This week in math we continued to work with number lines, skip counting by 1s, 5s, and 10s. We also began a discussion about open number lines and how to determine where to place numbers. If a number line starts at 0 and ends at 100, students are expected that an empty box in the middle would be the number 50. We also looked at other examples of empty boxes on open number lines. Towards the end of the week, the students got two new math workplaces. The students had to use a number line (0-10) or (0-100, counting by 10s) to solve addition or subtraction equations. We emphasized the fact that if you are solving 70-30, you are not jumping back 30; you need to realize that each jump is 10 so subtracting 30 would equal 3 jumps. We will continue using a number line for equations and skip counting next week.
In reading workshop, we went back to looking at nonfiction text features. Some new features included maps, labels, captions, tables, and cut-aways. The students found it fascinating learning about cut-aways, as it was a new feature to them. They are difficult to find and they were excited when they spotted one! Next week we will go back to characterization, reviewing the ways an author teaches us about characters from last week.
In writing workshop, the students continued to work on making a table of contents for their nonfiction teaching book. This has helped the students organize their thoughts into chapters. We also looked at some important features to include in a chapter (introducing the topic (typically with a question), ending with a thought or idea, writing several sentences, writing expert pop-out words, and including pictures with labels). I am encouraging the students to try a few of them in each of their chapters.
Reminders - A flyer went home yesterday about our K-2 Family Math Night on Wednesday, February 5th. This is going to be a fun event and a great opportunity to learn all about math tools, number corner, and workplaces, a majority of our math curriculum. Please make sure to send back your R.S.V.P. slip if you want to come!!
Coming Up...
There is no school on Monday, January 20th in observance of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day.
We have a mystery reader on Friday, January 24th.
We will begin our penguin research this coming week, using PebbleGo as a resource in the computer lab to learn about our penguins and take notes.
New pics posted from Gingerbread Fred. See "School Photos."
Have a great weekend!
*1.10.20*
Happy New Year! Here is what we did this week:
In reading workshop, the students learned about characterization. We talked about how we see the word character hidden in the word and that is how an author teaches us about the characters in the story. We can learn about characters based on appearance, actions, thoughts/feelings, and dialogue. The students listened to a handful of stories and had to pick a character from the story, give a word that describes then, and for a challenge, explain which of the four features they used to help them think of the word. They have been doing a great job! We will review this, again, in the upcoming weeks.
In writing workshop, we spent a few days continuing out teaching stories. This week we looked at a writing checklist and planned goals to make our writing better and also practiced using a colored pencil as an editing tool to reread for spelling, capitalization, and punctuation. This will take a lot more practice. The students also began writing a table of contents which helped them organize their teaching book into chapters. I will be meeting with every student to help them plan their chapters.
Finally, in math, we started a new unit, leap frogs on the number line. Our unit 4 overview sheet went home last week. We started the unit using an interactive number line to practice skip counting by 1s. We also spent some time using frogs to make hops forward and backward to help us solve addition and subtraction equations (while looking at related facts - 3+5=8, 8-5=3). The challenge was thinking of story problems to match the equations (ex: Little frog was sitting at the 0. He saw a fly 3 hops ahead. When he got there, he noticed the fly moved 5 more hops. Where is he now?) We will continue this unit next week and the week's ahead.
Reminder - Our January Scholastic book order is due on Monday, January 13th by the end of the day.
Coming Up...
The K-2 teachers met this week and we are planning a family math night for Wednesday, February 5th. A flyer will be coming home soon. This is an opportunity for parents to learn more about our Bridges math program and students to come play some of the fun math workplaces.
Next week we will begin looking at National Geographic kids magazines and practice writing sentences in our own words to prepare us for our big penguin research projects. The students will get to choose from one of five different penguins (Adelie, Emperor, African, Gentoo, King), research and take notes on their penguin, and then put the notes into a book about their penguin. The students learn a lot about penguins during this unit!
Next Wednesday, January 15th, we have our 5th grade in-school concert assembly in the afternoon.
During the next two weeks, the students will take their mid-year reading and math STAR assessments in computer lab. Today they completed the math portion and next week we will do reading.
New Photos are posted from Leo's birthday, our mystery reader visit, and Gingerbread Fred! See "School Photos."
*12.20.19*
Wow! What a crazy week before vacation! The kids were certainly excited! We had some fun events this week from our first grade classroom switcheroo (the kids made holiday crafts in each of the first grade classrooms) to the holiday sing-along.
THANK YOU SO VERY MUCH for the gift cards, body cream, soap scrub, candle, and more! I am so very grateful for everything and lucky to have such a generous class. I hope everyone had a WONDERFUL holiday!!
In math, we looked at making six, seven, nine, and ten with unifix cubes. The students had to build each number using two or three different colored cubes. We came up with equations for each of the numbers (2+3+2=, 5+3+2, 4+3, etc...). We read the equations as 2+3+2 is the same as 7, instead of = to. We practiced this with many of the equations. We then compared equations to each other to see if they were true or untrue (2+3+2 is the same as 4+3 and 5+3+2 is not the same as 4+5 and so on). We will continue to work with addition and subtraction equations after break.
In writing workshop, we continued to discuss the importance of adding details to our teaching stories. The students also learned about the importance of rereading to fix up our writing (omitting sentences that don't make sense, moving sentences around so they are in order, adding important sentences, etc...). The students also learned a new strategy to apply spelling to their writing (breaking the word into syllables and understanding that each syllable must have a vowel). We will continue to work on our teaching books after vacation and begin our penguin research project.
School resumes on Thursday, January 2nd. I hope everyone has a wonderful holiday and happy new year!
*12.13.19*
Thank you to the parents who came in to end the week with a fun winter project morning! The students had fun making snowmen, penguins, and gingerbread men/women.
We had a new student, Habiba, join us this week. The class was so excited to meet her and she has adjusted so well! I am so proud of how welcoming the students have been.
In math this week, we continued to work with ten and some more by playing a game called Fifty or Bust (which is now a workplace). The students had to build a "ten and some more number" and keep adding numbers without busting (going over 50). They had so much fun playing! Next week we will explore equations making seven, eight, nine, and ten in various ways while also using our number racks.
In writing workshop, the students continued to make their illustrations powerful by adding details to teach the readers about their main topic. We ended the week with a discussion about content specific vocabulary. The kids had to think of important vocabulary words related to their topic and try to incorporate it into their teaching book. The goal was to try and get one vocabulary word added! We will continue to learn more strategies to teach about our topics next week.
In reading, the students did a great job identifying nonfiction text features (photographs, table of contents, glossary, index, captions, and headings). They listened to a variety of nonfiction texts and we discussed those features in the texts. Independently, the students also had to apply this to their good fit books. Next week we will learn about holiday traditions and move into characterization after the holiday break.
New pictures will soon be posted from our winter craft project morning. See "School Photos."
Coming Up...
On Thursday, December 19th, the students will be rotating to all four first grade classrooms (including ours) to make a holiday craft.
On Friday, December 20th, we have our welcome winter party. A few parent helpers are signed up to bring in unpopped popcorn, cider, and bowls so the students can enjoy popcorn and cider while watching a holiday movie. No parent helpers are needed for this party.
Lastly, on Friday, December 20th, we have our K-5 sing-along. The students will all meet in the large gym to listen to some of the kindergarten holiday songs and sing some songs as a whole school.
Our holiday break will be from Monday, December 23rd- Wednesday, January 1st. School resumes on Thursday, January 2nd.
I hope everyone has a wonderful holiday and happy new year!
*12.6.19*
What a wonderful small moments publishing party we had today! Thank you so much to all the parents and grandparents who came and made it a special morning! The students had smiles on their faces reading all the little glows you left them:) If you were unable to make it, I will have your child's small moment story available at your child's conference.
This week for math, the students worked with teens numbers and noticing them as ten and some more (for example, 14 is ten and 4 more and 19 is ten and 9 more). This is another strategy we are using to help students see and solve math problems more efficiently. We will continue to work on this strategy next week, as well.
For reading, the students listened to some fun holidays stories and learned more about retelling the important parts of a story. We reviewed the five finger retell from last week and learned a new strategy - Somebody Wanted But So Then. Using this strategy, the students can recall the character (Somebody), what they wanted (Wanted), the problem that happened (But), what they did (So), and the ending (Then). This is one of my favorite comprehension strategies! The kids were able to apply this strategy with a partner during read-to-someone when checking for understanding and independently when they were listening to reading or reading to themselves.
For writing workshop, we are continuing to work on our nonfiction teaching stories. The kids continue to be actively engaged as they love writing about something they know a lot about. Using their topic, the students are sketching their illustrations. A goal is to make sure their illustrations will match the facts on each page. Some students have been ready to add their words. This week we discussed the importance of illustrations and how we not only learn facts from the words, but the pictures as well. The students took the time to make sure all their pictures were teaching their readers, as well. Next week we will continue to learn new ways to teach our readers about our topic.
I apologize, I have been behind with posting photos! I will be sure to update the website this week with our Thanksgiving photos, birthday photos, and publishing party photos! They will be under "School Photos."
December's Scholastic flyer will be coming home this coming Monday, December 9th.
Coming Up...
Next week we have half-days on Wednesday, December 11th and Friday, December 13th for parent teacher conferences.
On Friday, December 13th we have our parent winter project morning from 10-11. If you are scheduled as a volunteer, an email went out this week. Please organize a 10-15 minute holiday/winter craft for students to rotate through stations. It's a fun morning!
Have a great weekend!!
*11.22.19*
Happy Friday! In math this week, the students continued to use number racks to help them quickly find numbers. The students used groups of 5, 10, 15, or even 20 to quickly identify numbers. We also talked about doubles, and doubles plus one as addition strategies. The kids also practiced building numbers with the fewest pushes on their number rack. For example, instead of sliding each bead at a time to make 8, we are looking for the students to see a group of five in one slide and one more push of 3 or to make 15, slide a group of 10 and then a group of 5. We will continue to use the number rack as a math tool.
In writing workshop, the students have done an AMAZING job jumping into our next unit - nonfiction writing. To begin, we looked at the difference between narratives (telling a story) and all about books (teaching facts). After understanding the difference, the students brainstormed topics they know a lot about (just like the first step in small moments, thinking of a small moment). Once they thought of a topic they knew a lot about, they had to use their hand to think of 5 facts about the topic (telling the facts across their fingers like they told the events of their small moment story across the pages). Once they were able to think of five facts, they chose their writing paper to sketch each fact. The final step will be writing the words. We will be learning tricks to help us think of facts and learned the first one this week - Pretending we are a reader that wants to know about the topic and asking questions. The students each had a partner who asked them questions about their topic. This helped most students think of more facts! I can tell this is going to be a great unit! The kids are really excited to write about a topic they are interested in!
In reading workshop, we talked about the importance of retelling stories. One way students can retell is by using the five finger retell. Using each finger, the students worked with me (and independently) to 1. retell the characters 2. retell the setting 3. retell important events 4. retell the problem and 5. retell the solution. This strategy will help the kids remember the important parts of a story. You can try this at home when you are reading with your child!
Coming Up/Important Reminders
The first day of conferences is the Friday after Thanksgiving break (December 6th). If you have not yet signed up for a time slot, please do so soon. Conference dates are Friday, December 6th, Tuesday, December 11th, and Friday, December 13th.
A note went home last Friday about fruit for your family to donate to our friendship salad for the Thanksgiving party. The students will be making the salad in school so there is no need to cut-up anything (just wash, if needed). If you cannot bring in the fruit your child volunteered to bring in, please let me know as soon as possible. This is due on Tuesday, November 26th.
This coming Monday, November 25th, Gingerbread Fred will be making a visit. Each night, a bag with Fred and a journal will be sent home with a different child. Please complete the journal with your child, writing what you did with Gingerbread Fred that night. It is important to return the bag, Fred, and the journal the next morning so that each student will get a chance to take Fred home. You are welcome to add pictures, illustrations to the journal as well! Have fun!
Finally, a note went home over a week ago about about our Small Moments publishing party on Friday, December 6th (half-day for conferences). The children will be sharing the story they worked very hard on! After the party, the story will go in their published portfolio which will go home at the end of the year. Any family members are welcome to join:)
New photos will soon be posted from Lucy and Dom's birthdays, Good Eats, and our November birthday party!
Have a great weekend!
*11.15.19*
The students have been working very hard this week to publish their small moment stories. We have discussed the importance of rereading to edit/revise looking for correct spelling of sight words, punctuation at the ends of sentences, uppercase letters at the beginnings of sentences, story endings, and details to stretch out our stories. To finish their pieces, the students colored their illustrations and made a front cover. A note went home this week about our small moment publishing party. This will be held on Friday, December 6th at 10:00 (this is also a half-day for conferences). Family members are welcome to attend. We hope you can come! Our next writing unit will be nonfiction.
In math this week, we finished up unit 2 and started unit 3. A note went home highlighting the important concepts and skills that students will be learning in this unit. Please let me know if you need another copy of this overview. In this unit, the students will be using number racks as a tool to add, subtract, count, and compare. The students are working hard to learn all the different ways to make a given number. This helps when determining the missing part (addend) in an equation. If they know that 5+4=9, they can solve 5+ __=9. Please review this at home.
In reading, the kids learned about the importance of retelling the main idea (the most important part of a book/chapter) of texts. They listened to both fictional and informational texts and worked together to figure out what the book was mostly about. On the back of their Daily Five cards, the students had to do this skill independently whether they were reading to themselves, listening to reading, or reading with someone. This skill will come up a lot more throughout the year. Next week we will using the strategy Somebody, Wanted, But, So, Then to help retell the beginning, middle, and end in fictional books.
Coming Up/Important Info
A week ago, the Thankful Tree home project went home. For this project, the students have to write one thing they are thankful for on all ten wallpaper circle cut-outs. Please glue the circles on the thankful tree and if you have time, decorate the tree with crayons, markers, pictures, etc... We are beginning to hang the trees in the hallway for Thanksgiving. This project is due on Monday, November 15th.
The Canyon Creek conference scheduler has been open for a little over a week now. The dates are quickly approaching and I am beginning to prepare for conferences. If you have not yet signed up for a time, please follow the link below. A form also went home with this information. Please let me know if you have any questions or cannot make any of the times available. Please note that during the conference times, I will not be sending home progress reports as the information is repetitive.
www.canyoncreeksoftware.com/scheduler/ny/voorheesville/index.cfm
Today, a note went home about preparing a fruit salad for our Thanksgiving party. Each student chose a fruit option to bring in to contribute to the salad. This will be listed on the note that comes home. Please let me know if you are unable to bring in the fruit option on your child's form so that we can plan accordingly.
Next Friday, November 22nd, we have our November birthdays party for Dom and Lucy at 2:15.
Next Friday, November 22nd, we also have Good Eats. The students will be learning about and tasting mushrooms.
Have a great weekend!!
*11.8.19*
Yesterday, the students went to an assembly where they were able to listen to the music of Jared Campbell. He sang songs about character education, making good choices, being a team player, and being a super hero, to name some. The songs are available to purchase on his website - jaredcampbellmusic.com. It was a very motivating assembly and the students loved it!!!
The students are continuing to do an excellent job working independently during reading workshop. This week the students learned what an event is in a story. They listened to many fall stories and shared events from the texts. Independently, the kids had to think of one event from one of the stories they read or listened to and write it on the back of their Daily Five card. Next week we will discuss finding the main idea in informational texts.
In math this week, the students made a quilt of starfish and shape patterns. Using the starfish, the students counted by 5s and shared strategies they noticed. Some students noticed that counting by 5s numbers end in a 0 or 5, the number in the tens place goes up one in each row, etc... Next week we will practice more with money and work with single digit sums.
This week in writing workshop, the students picked their best small moment piece to edit and revise. We used an editing checklist to make sure our stories are the best they can be and made front covers/illustrations. We will finish publishing our small moment stories next week before we begin our second unit on nonfiction writing. Please note- There will be a Publishing Party of our small moment stories on Friday, December 6th from 10:15-10:45. All parents are welcome to come!
New photos will soon be posted from our assembly with Jared Campbell. See "School Photos."
Coming Up....
There is no school on Monday, November 11th in honor of Veteran's Day.
Next Friday, November 15th we have a mystery reader visiting.
Our Thanksgiving party is coming up very quickly! For the party, we will have four parent volunteers to come in and help out. We are looking for one volunteer to supply unpopped popcorn, one volunteer to organize a craft, one volunteer to donate apple cider, and one volunteer to bring in a large container of heavy cream. Each student will be asked to bring in one fruit to donate to our class fruit salad. A note will be coming home soon letting you know which fruit we are hoping you could send in to help out. Please keep an eye out!!
Finally, a project will be coming home today that will be due on Monday, November 18th. All first grade classes are doing a thankful tree project at home that we would like to display before Thanksgiving. We are asking for students to think of ten things they are thankful for. A bag with 10 circle shapes and the thankful tree will be coming home for the students to write on the circles and glue onto the tree. Please have your child fill out all the circles, glue them on the tree, and write their name on the paper. Again, please have this to school by Monday, November 18th.
Have a great weekend!!
*11/1/19*
I hope everyone had a great Halloween night! The kids sure were excited yesterday (probably the craziest day of the year!).
For math, the students completed a checkpoint to review filling in missing numbers on a number line, writing and solving math equations using dominoes, and solving story problems. The story problems (with the part/change unknown) was the most difficult for students (ex: There were 9 leaves on the tree. 3 were red and the rest were orange. How many were orange 9=3+_ ). Writing an equation using a symbol for the missing part or drawing an illustration is important in helping students successfully solve this type of story problem. If your child says they want to do math at home (Ha!), this would be a good thing to practice! We'll continue practicing story problems and using dominoes to make and solve equations next week.
Reading workshop is going great! This week the students learned how good readers ask and answer questions before, during, and after reading. During their independent/partner reading they had to think of a question about any of their books to write on their Daily Five card. We will be sharing the questions today! We are also practicing this skill in guided reading groups. Next week we will talk about events in fictional stories. When reading with your child, please encourage them to use strategies when decoding unfamiliar words (thinking about the short vowel word families we have practiced thus far -at, ab, ad, it, ig, ip, op, od, ong, etc..., looking for little words hiding - shouted, sand, etc..., identifying blends/digraphs-black, spring, fish, brown, etc..., and recognizing endings - ed, ing, es, ly, etc....Please let me know if you ever have any questions about reading at home!
In writing, the students continued to use George McClements' craft moves (ellipses, pop-out words, and writing exact actions) to add more details to their small moment stories. We only have a couple more weeks left of this unit before the students pick their final piece to publish. We will have a publishing party for parents sometime in December. I will post the date as soon as their stories are wrapping up!
We had a great Halloween party! Pictures will soon be posted. See "School Photos."
Coming Up...
The students will be changing their flexible seats today. Almost everyone got their first choice for the month of November!
There is no school on Tuesday, November 5th (Election Day).
We have an assembly on Thursday, November 7th with singer/songwriter Jared Campbell.
Have a great weekend!
*10.25.19*
Happy Friday! The kids are getting excited that Halloween is only a week away!
This week we spent more time working on our tiny seed stories for writing workshop. We reread The Night of the Veggie Monsters and talked about craft moves (things George McClements does to make his writing come to life). The students practiced either adding ellipses (...) to create excitement, writing characters' exact actions to create an image in the readers' minds, and using pop-out words (all uppercase words or bold words) to tell the reader to read with a strong voice. I am impressed at how well the students jumped right into the craft moves to bring their stories to life!
In math, we continued to work with dominoes and introduced flap cards as a tool to create fact families. The students learned that fact families use the same three (or two if it's a double) numbers. They used the flap cards to find the missing start number, change/addend, and result. The kids also used the dominoes to, not only find the total number of dots, but then write inequality statements (<,>,=) to compare one domino to the next. We discussed strategies used to find the total number of dots (counting the dots, starting at the smaller quantity and counting on, starting at the larger quantity and counting on, looking for a familiar fact to help solve, or just knowing the answer). Next week we will continue to use dominoes and flap cards as tools.
For reading, the students did a great job for their first week independently choosing and rotating through Daily Five stations. It took some practice getting started right away and making sure to highlight under the correct day, but we will continue to have more practice! The students had the choice to choose read-to-self (where they read Good Fit books), read-to-someone (where they shared their Good Fit books with others), listen-to-reading (used the Chromebooks to read books at their level on Raz Kids), word work (stamping sight words and practicing spelling words in Play-Doh), and work on writing (ghost journal prompt and free choice writing).
In science lab, the students learned how pumpkins help the plant protect it's seeds. After, they built a protection for a tomato and got to throw it out the window to see if it worked (and the tomato didn't squish). They had a great time!
Today was Good Eats. The students learned about and got to try raw celery.
Coming Up...
Next Thursday, October 31st, is our Halloween party. The party will be from 1:30-2:30 and then we will head outside (weather permitting) for our school parade. The students will change into their costumes when they get back from special at 1:30, before the party. Volunteers for the party are Ulkem Crisafulli, Colin Donnaruma, Jen Planz, and Sarah Platek. Please make sure to bring in a small craft/game/activity for the students to rotate through stations. Also, please coordiate who will bring fruit, veggies, juice, plates, cups, and napkins. Thank you!!
New pictures will soon be posted from our October birthday party (Mia!) and our guidance lesson with Mrs. Huntsman. See "School Photos."
*10.18.19*
This was the busiest week yet this year! With a holiday Monday, our field trip Wednesday, our pumpkin investigation yesterday, and our pumpkin decorating today, this week flew by!
The students had a great time on our field trip to Stanton's. They got to slide down a hay slide, pick two pumpkins, go on a hay ride around the farm, and go through a hay maze. I had never been there and really enjoyed it! New pictures will be posted this weekend from our field trip.
Yesterday the students did a pumpkin investigation. They learned whether pumpkins sink or float, weighed pumpkins, measured the height in cubes, tested to see if the force of a hair dryer would make them roll, and counted pumpkin seeds. It was fun investigation!
Today the students will be decorating one of the pumpkins they got on their field trip. If they are dry by the end of the day, we will send them home. If not, please look for them to come home on Monday.
In math, we continued to use dominoes as a learning tool. The students discussed different strategies for finding the total number of dots on a domino and then talked about the advantages and disadvantages of each strategy. Students continue to look for more efficient strategies other than just counting the dots. We will continue to explore more with dominoes and move into using and making flap cards to create fact families of addition and subtraction equations.
In writing workshop, the students learned how important punctuation is in a story. They learned that if they want a story read a certain way, they have to write it a certain way (by using exclamation points for excitement, bold words to stand out, important words all uppercase, etc...). Next week we will continue with small moments and do some Halloween writing.
For our last week in Daily Five training, the students learned what word work looks like and sounds like. Next week we will begin reading rotations. The students will get to choose which station they would like to go to (read-to-self, read-to-someone, listen-to-reading, work-on-writing, and word work). Students must complete each station once before they can repeat a station.
Lastly, please have your child practicing logging into IXL by putting in their username and password instead of saving it and automatically logging in. When we use IXL in computer lab, the students have a difficult time doing this independently and it will help for them to practice at home. Thank you!
New Pics will soon be posted from our field trip to Stanton's, our pumpkin investigation, pumpkin decorating, and our mystery reader. See "School Photos!"
Coming Up...
Next week is our Arctic Adventure book fair. The students will get to preview the book fair on Monday morning to see if there are any books they would like.
Next Friday, October 25th is Good Eats - studying celery.
Next Friday, October 25th is our October birthday party for Mia!
Have a great weekend!!
*10.11.19*
I hope everyone had a great week! IXL is now back up and working. If for some reason you still cannot log-in, please let me know! When logging into IXL, you have to be connected through our Voorheesville account or your log-in will not work. If you log in through Voorheesville Elementary School's page or the link on our website (under "Wonderful Websites") it will take you to the Voorheesville log-in page.
This week in math we continued to use the number racks and ten frames to build numbers and generate addition and subtraction equations. Towards the end of the week the students were introduced to Dominoes as tools. Over the next week, we will be using the Dominoes to also help build numbers and generate addition and subtraction equations. A unit 1 and unit 2 sheet was sent home this week with an overview on what we have been doing in math, as well. A unit lasts, typically, a month and we just started unit 2. If you ever have any questions on how to help out with math at home, please don't hesitate to ask!
In reading, the students worked on building stamina for working on writing as a part of Daily Five. This was not new for them as they have been building stamina during Writing Workshop, anyway! Two different types of writing they may do during Daily Five include journal writing (I will put a picture prompt on the board and vocabulary words related to the picture. The students will have to generate sentences related to the picture. We first started with one complete sentence. As the year goes on, I will be looking for the students to write 5-8 sentences related to one topic.) and free choice writing. With free choice writing, I will have seasonal writing activities available for them to choose from, or, they can pick any writing paper from our writing center and write about whatever they want to write about! I told them it doesn't matter to me what they are writing about, as long as they are writing!
In writing, we are continuing to work on our small moment, tiny seed stories. I was able to meet with every student in the class to provide feedback on how to make their writing better! We are trying to make sure students are focusing on one tiny seed story (as opposed to a watermelon story) and adding details to that story. This week we continued to talk about making our stories come to life and independently applying strategies for spelling unknown words. So far we have discussed "Say it, Slide it, Hear it, Write it" and looking at the sight word wall to see if part of the unknown word we are trying to write is on there. We will continue these strategies throughout the year and also learn more!
October Scholastic book order forms are due by the end of the day today! A new one will be coming home in November.
New Photos will soon be posted from our New Salem Fire Department visit. See "School Photos."
We have finished short "a" and short "i" spelling units. Please make sure to continue reviewing short "a" and short "i" word families as this will aide in decoding more challenging words when reading.
Coming Up...
There is no school on Monday, October 14th in honor of Columbus Day.
Our field trip to Stanton's Feura Bush Farm is on Wednesday, October 16th. Please make sure your child is dressed appropriately. We will be going through a maze, picking pumpkins, etc... The bus will be leaving school promptly at 9:00. Chaperones are Melissa Garufi, Mollie Dambrocia, Joanne Murphy, Colin Donnaruma, and Kevin Hotaling.
Our pumpkin investigation is on Thursday, October 17th at 2:00. Helpers are Jen Planz, Mattia Sidoti, Colin Donnaruma, and Jim Pfleiderer. Please make sure to each bring a large pumpkin for us to investigate.
Finally, our pumpkin decorating (using our pumpkins from the field trip) is on Friday, October 18th at 10:00. Helpers are Mattia Sidoti, Kim Pfleiderer, Jen Planz, and Matt Delgado. Please bring in one class supply of decorations (string, googly eyes, paint, stickers, etc...) for the class to use to decorate.
On Friday, October 18th, we have a mystery reader at 2:30.
Have a great weekend!
*10.7.19*
IXL is now available!!
*10.4.19*
Happy Friday! I wanted to quickly write a note to say that IXL is temporarily not working. We are waiting to hear back for when the subscription will be renewed. In the meantime, you can practice math fact fluency (facts to 5 or 10) and I will be sure to let you know when the website is up and working again!
In spelling this week, we started short i word families. It is important to review these word family endings (ill, ip, it, ick, in, ig, etc...) so that students can use that as a tool to aide in decoding challenging words for reading.
In reading, we focused on listen-to-reading for Daily Five. Each student had a chance to log into their RAZ Kids account (a link for the website is under "Wonderful Websites" - a few students asked if they could do it at home!) and practice listening to reading. After each text, they checked for understanding by answering some questions about the story. Along with listen-to-reading, I have been checking-in with students during read-to-self to make sure they are continuing to choose Good Fit books. Next week we will jump into working on writing as a part of Daily Five.
In writing, we are continuing to build on our small moment (tiny seed) stories. Every day I have been meeting with students to help them make their writing better! Some focus areas I noticed are making sure to focus on a tiny seed story (and not write about your whole day), remembering to apply spelling of sight words (they have a copy in their writing folder), remembering punctuation at the end of a sentence (which is hard to do at this age!), and adding every little detail to stretch out their stories. During mini-lessons we continued to talk about making our stories come to life by telling small steps, and bringing out the inside (writing about feelings). We will continue to work on small moment narratives for the next few weeks.
In math, we continued to use the number racks to help build numbers (using the top and bottom rows of the number rack) and then generate equations to match the numbers. (Ex: Build 9 - 5 on top and 4 on bottom - 5+4=9...Build 10 -8 on top and 2 on bottom - 8+2=10, etc...). We also talked about measuring using Popsicle sticks, unifex cubes, and our feet. The students learned that if they are using a smaller object to measure (unifex cubes) they will need more of the object when measuring (It took 6 unifex cubes to equal 1 Popsicle stick when measuring objects). We talked about making estimates before measuring and readjusting our estimates halfway through, if needed.
Coming Up...
Field Trip money for Stanton's Farm is due on Tuesday, October 8th. If you need another permission slip, please let me know before then!
There is no school on Wednesday, October 9th in observance of Yom Kippur.
On Friday, October 11th, the New Salem Fire Department will be visiting our school. The students will learn more about safety and, if the weather is nice, get to take a view on a fire truck.
On Friday, October 11th, we also have our Go Home Early drill. Dismissal will be at 2:55. Please plan accordingly.
Lastly, on Monday, October 14th, there is no school in observance of Columbus Day.
Have a great weekend!
*9.27.19*
I can't believe we finished the last week in September! We have a busy month coming up in October with our field trip to Stanton's, our pumpkin decorating, a visit from the New Scotland Fire Department, our pumpkin investigation, and our Halloween party! I'm looking forward to it!
This week in Daily Five, the students practiced read-to-someone. We talked about sitting EEKK (elbow elbow knee knee), ways to read (I read, you read, choral reading, read different books), checking for understanding ("I just heard you read___", and how to choose a partner (silent hand, make eye contact, "Will you be my partner?" "Sure!"). The students did a great job and got up to 20 minutes today! Next week we will work on listen-to-reading.
In writing workshop, the students are making a lot of progress on their small moment stories. We continued to talk about writing tiny seed stories and not watermelon stories. The students looked through past examples of first grade writing and learned how to make them better! Hopefully they will continue to apply that lesson to their own writing:) Towards the end of the week we worked on storytelling with partners and talked about how to make our stories come to life (unfreezing our characters by telling exactly what they did and said in the moment). Today we took a break from writer's workshop to write about our September memories.
In math, we continued to use our number racks to make numbers and solve addition problems. Please remind your child to look for groups of ten and five to help them quickly see numbers and solve addition facts using number racks (instead of counting all 7 beads, or 12, or 18, etc...We want them to see 5 and 2 more for 7, 10 and 2 more for 12, and 10 plus 5 plus 3 more for 18, as examples. Next week we will continue with number racks and measurement.
Coming Soon - Pictures from Daily Five, Good Eats, and our September birthdays party! See "School Photos."
Coming Up/Important Info...
Next Friday, October 4th we have fall picture day. Forms went home today. Please let me know if you did not get one!
The field trip permission slip for Stanton's Feura Bush Farm went home this week. They are due this coming week. Please either pay on-line (information is on the slip) or send in your permission slip with $7. Please let me know if you have any questions!
Have a great weekend!
*9.20.19*
We had a great Friday starting with our Bike Ride for Missing Children coming through. We were the first stop and the kids were so pumped to show the riders the posters they made. Hopefully your children will tell you all about it! :)
This week we worked on read-to-self for Daily Five. Using the Good Fit books they found last week, the students were able to build stamina and read for 16 minutes straight! We talked about what read-to-self looks like and sounds like (quiet whisper voice, stay in one spot, sit next to someone who won't make you talk, read Good Fit books, eyes on your book, etc...). We also talked about the three ways to read a book (1. Read the pictures. 2. Read the words. 3. Retell the story.). Next week we will train for read-to-someone.
In writing workshop, we spent a lot of time working on our small moment stories. We reviewed the writing process (1. Think of an idea. 2. Touch and tell the story across pages. 3. Sketch 4.Write. 5. Revise (add details - "When you think you're done, you've just begun!"). The students learned a new strategy for spelling unknown words (Say it, Slide it, Hear it, Write it) and talked about thinking of tiny seed stories as a small moment, not watermelon stories. Next week we will continue to build on our small moment stories!
In math, the kids built their own number racks and used them to answer math problems. We built numbers and talked about how there are many different ways to build the same number. A number rack is a board with beads (5 red on top 5 white on top, 5 red on top 5 white on top). The starting position is all the beads slid over to the right and then the students can build numbers sliding the beads to the left. For example, building five - 5 beads on top 0 beads on bottom, 4 beads on top 1 bead on bottom, etc... They are a great tool for learning!
New pictures will soon be posted of our birthday friends and the Bike Ride for Missing Children.
Coming Up Next Week...
On Friday, September 27th, we have our September birthdays party. If your child celebrated a birthday in September, please contact one another to organize a game/craft/etc... for that afternoon (2:15-3). A form with information went home in your Open House folder.
Chrissy Hotaling and Joanne Murphy are in the process of putting together parent helper volunteers for the year. If you did not get a chance to sign-up in our Google Doc, please let them know as soon as possible. We will let you know (and I will post on our website) as soon as all the slots are assigned.
I submitted our first Scholastic order yesterday. Our next one will come home in October.
Have a great weekend!
*9.13.19*
Happy Friday! It has been a great week getting to know each and every one of your children. We have done many activities getting to know one another and have established routines. Thank you, again, to all the parents who came to Open House. I have included the slideshow from last night below. Please don't hesitate to reach out if you have any questions. As mentioned last night, sign-ups for the year (classroom volunteering and supply donations) are posted in a Google Doc under "Parent Helper Volunteers." Please fill-out the form and submit it by this Monday, September 16th. As of this morning, we found out the Pumpkin Patch is no longer doing field trips. We are looking into another place and will get the information to you as soon as possible.
This week we jumped right into Daily Five and talking about Good Fit books. The students spent each doing going through the I-PICK chart (I-I choose a book P-Purpose Why do I want to read today? I-Interest Does it interest me? C-Comprehend Do I understand it? K-Know Do I know most words?). If ever they have a thumbs down to any of those questions, we talked about how it is not a Good Fit book and they can find a new one. If your child finds a book that is really interesting to them, but they cannot understand the book, there is a book bag they can bring home so that someone at home can read the book to them. Please make sure to return the book bag back to school when you are done with the book.
In writing, the students spent this week free writing on a topic of their choice and decorating their writing portfolios. Today we began our small moment writing workshop unit. We talked about writing true stories, the writing process, listening for details in Night of the Veggie Monster, and steps on how to write a story. Over the weekend, please encourage your child to think of small moments in their lives that they could write about.
In math, we have spent the week tallying and thinking of groups (5's and 10's) to help us organize numbers so they are easier to count. This strategy will be important next week when we build number racks and look for groups of 5's and 10's when adding and subtracting numbers.
Coming Up...
Please make sure to sign-up for classroom volunteer activities in our Google Doc under "Parent Helper Volunteers" by this Monday, September 16th.
If you are interested in being a guest reader, please look at the dates under "Parent Helper Volunteers" and contact our room parents (information in the slideshow below) to let them know which dates work for you. Our first guest reader is next Friday, September 20th!
On Monday, September 16th we have our Missing Children Bike Ride Assembly and on Friday, September 20th, the bike ride will be passing through our school! This is going to be an exciting experience!
Our first Scholastic book order is due on Wednesday, September 18th. Please have your orders in that evening and I will submit the order Thursday morning.
Finally a reminder - I will be out on Wednesday and Thursday completing reading assessments.
Have a great weekend!
*9.6.19*
What a great first two days! It's very exciting getting back into the school year and seeing new faces:) This week was spent organizing supplies, getting to know each other, and practicing routines. So far we have practiced coming into the classroom with our take-home folders, getting started with morning work, number corner routines, singing songs to learn names, getting a brain break with GoNoodle (which they love!), washing hands after recess/lunch, listening to stories, free choice writing (they loved the calming music to help them stay focused), shared snack (don't forget your child's snack cup!), math games, and earned free choice. Wow, we got a lot done!
New photos are from the first day of school and Emma's birthday. See "School Photos."
Coming Up...
This coming Monday, September 9th, the students will be using the pictures/stickers/glitter/etc... from home to decorate their writing portfolios. A letter went home with all the information. Please make sure your child has what they would like to school on Monday. If anyone forgets, they can just color their portfolio.
This coming Thursday, September 12th is Open House at 6:00. We will have a brief slideshow of information and display some student work for you to see. I hope you can make it!
Finally, we will be having classroom volunteer sign-ups on a Google Sign-up form. The sign-up link is posted under "Parent Helper Volunteers." It is now open and will remain open for a few days following Open House. Once the form is closed, our room parents will get a document with everyone who wishes to volunteer and randomly select helpers for all the activities. If you have any questions or cannot sign-up on the form, please let me know!
I am looking forward to a great year!!
*8.28.19*
Welcome to first grade! I have recently updated the parent helper volunteers page with dates for the upcoming school year. All important upcoming dates for September and October have also been added. Once school is underway, I will post a Google sign-up for events throughout the year. Parents are able to sign-up for any events they are interested in. Our room parents will randomly select helpers/volunteers once the sign-ups have closed.
Pictures have been posted from Moving Up Day. Please see "School Photos."
I look forward to meeting everyone at Open House!
*6.25.19*
Wow, what a great end to the year! I can't thank you enough for all the wonderful gifts everyone got me. I am so grateful. It has truly been an honor to be a part of such a wonderful class for the second half of the year. I hope everyone has a wonderful summer and PLEASE come back and visit next year! New photos from the end of the year will be posted soon!
*6.14.19*
This week the students spent a lot of time getting ready for the Parents' Tea! We're looking forward to our celebration next Friday!
We enjoyed listening to four student guest readers this week - Hailey, Alex, Emmett R., and Salma. The students have shown how much they have grown since September! Great job reading! *Photos coming soon!*
In writing, the students finished up their opinion pieces in the first bend of writing workshop - writing about items in their collection. The students worked to make sure they stated their opinion, gave three reasons to support their opinion (including supporting details from other students), and writing a concluding sentence. These writing pieces will come home this week as we begin our final review writing - writing about movies, books, and restaurants.
In math, we spent this week taking our end-of-the-year assessment. It was a long test, but the students did such a great job doing their best! For the remainder of the year, we will do work places and review.
Gail Brown from the Voorheesville Public Library visited our class. She told us all about the summer reading program. A flyer went home this week. Be sure to check it out as there are some great things happening!
Coming Up...
Thursday, June 20th is our summer birthdays party!
Friday, June 21st is our Parents' Tea. The students have been working very hard on their presentations for everyone coming! We hope you can make it!
*6.8.19*
What a fun week we had! This week the students finished designing and building their rocket ships to end our space unit and we had some nice weather to launch them. We learned what worked and didn't work after we saw the rockets go. Most rockets were too heavy, but it was a fun activity! We also got to take part in the senior walk-through. The students sang for our graduating class of 2019 and enjoyed seeing some familiar faces!
In writing, the students are continuing to write reviews about their collection of favorite things as well as forming opinions about their classmates collections. The students used others' agreeing opinions to add details to their writing. This coming week we will finish up writing opinions about our collections and move into the last bend where they will write reviews about books, movies, and restaurants.
In math, we finished up our unit work with numbers to 120. The students used strategies of adding 1, 5, and 10 to help determine missing numbers on a number line. This coming week we will be taking our end of the year assessment. It will last across a few days.
We had a great field trip to the Pine Hollow Arboretum! The weather was perfect and the students were able to enjoy the hike around the hollow. We learned about the history of the arboretum and saw some beautiful trees, ponds, and animals.
Thank you to our guest readers Lily O., Mateo, and Veronica. We heard a great variety of stories and, as always, everyone sat quietly and enjoyed listening!
If you wouldn't mind donating, we could really use more shared snacks in the classroom! We only have enough snacks to last about 2 more days. Any help would be appreciated!
Pictures from this week coming soon!
Coming Up...
Gail Brown, from the Voorheesville Public Library, will be visiting our classroom on Tuesday, June 11th to talk about the summer reading program.
On Wednesday, June 12th we will be celebrating our June birthdays!
We have Field Day on Thursday, 6/13. A note went home on Friday about what to bring to school. The cafeteria will be closed so students will need to bring a lunch. We will have a picnic, so please send your child with a beach towel, as well!
Enjoy your weekend!!
*Updated 5.31.19*
The students had a great time this week designing and beginning to build their rocket ships. As a wrap-up to our unit on space, the students are working to design and build a rocket that can launch at least 5 feet in the air. We will continue to build and launch next week!
In reading, we spent this week looking through our good fit book bins, independently reading, and starting to practice for our Parents' Tea. Please join us on Friday, June 21st for a celebration all about YOU!
The students continued to use their collections from home to write opinion pieces. This week they worked on adding reasons why objects in their collection were their favorite and wrote opinions about other student's collections. They really have been enjoying this unit! The students will need their collection boxes for one more week before we movie into writing reviews/opinions about movies, books, and restaurants!
In math, the kids continued to use the story of Hansel and Gretel to count forward and backward on a path by 10s, 5s, and 1s. We will continue to review strategies to help us count forward and backward next week, as well.
Today we had Good Eats! The students learned about and got to taste honey. Please see photos under "School Photos."
Thank you to our student guest readers, Ben, Matthew, and Logan O.! Photos are posted under "School Photos."
Coming Up...
Next week we our our field trip to Pine Hollow on Thursday the 6th. Please keep an eye on the weather and make sure to send your child with appropriate clothing/foot wear. We will be doing a lot of walking and it may be muddy!
Reminder - There is an early dismissal on Friday, June 7th.
Thank you and have a great weekend!!
*Updated 5.23.19*
Thank you for all the shared snacks that were brought in this week! It was very helpful! If you would like to donate for the remainder of the year, the link is below.
In reading, the children learned about strategies good readers use to help them understand a story (think about words, ask questions, make predictions, and summarize). Once again we practiced these strategies as a whole group and then independently with their good fit books. Being a short week next week, we will take a break from daily five to do some reading passage and comprehension question activities. I will also be starting the end of the year Fountas and Pinnell reading testing.
In writing, we started our opinion writing unit. The students had a great time debating who they think has a harder job, the Tooth Fairy or Santa Claus. It was a great kick-off to opinion writing. Yesterday and today, the students awarded blue ribbons to their favorite items in their collections and started writing why they chose those certain items (discussed using the importance of BECAUSE to explain why). The opinion writing will continue until the end of the year!
For math, we are continuing with place value. This week, specifically, the students used the story of Hansel and Gretel to mark spots along a path with pebbles and pine cones. Using the pine cones and pebbles, the students practiced skip counting by 5's and 10's. We will be taking a number corner assessment today and Wednesday (29th).
Once again, we continued to have great student guest readers! I am so proud at their preparation and how hard they are working to share their stories in front of the class. I know it can be intimidating! This week we listened to J.P., Ashlynn, Emmet K., and Azara!
Photos of our student guest readers and crazy hair day are posted under "School Photos!"
Coming Up...
Please take note that our field trip to Pine Hollow is on Thursday, June 6th.
I hope everyone has a great Memorial Day weekend!
*Updated 5.17.19*
This week in reading we focused on comprehension strategies for non-fiction texts. The students reviewed some important strategies to help them understand non-fiction stories (figuring out the main idea, remembering key details, recalling text features, and asking questions). The students also practiced these strategies with good fit books.
In math, we are continuing to work on place value to the hundreds place. The students reviewed bundles of ten, counting by tens, and also adding ten to any given number. We will continue to review these skills over the next few weeks.
For writing, the students finished their Mo Willems stories this week! Today we had our writing celebration and the students got to share their stories in small groups. I am so proud of all their hard work. Their published pieces should be coming home today! On Monday we will be starting our final unit, writing reviews. The students will need to bring in a collection box (shoe box) or bag of some of their favorite items from home. Next week they will be writing opinion pieces about their favorite items in their collection, with supporting details.
We continue to have excellent guest readers! Thank you to Everly, Alma, and Castiel for sharing their favorite stories with us! Our readers next week are J.P., Ashlynn, Emmet, and Azara.
Today we started our ABC countdown to the last 26 days of school! I can't believe how quickly these days are going by. A copy of the countdown went home on Wednesday, but I also posted the file below.
We are still in need of shared snacks! We do not have enough to make it through next week. Please see the link below to sign-up. Thank you so much!!
www.signupgenius.com/go/70a0e4cadac22a7f94-snacks
New photos are posted from our field trip to CMOST, our student guest readers, and our Mo Willems writing workshop publishing party! See "School Photos."
Coming Up...
As mentioned above, next week we will be starting our final writing unit. A note went home this week, but please remember to send your child with a collection shoe box or gallon size bag of their favorite items from home by this Monday, May 20th. They will be needing this collection to complete opinion writing pieces. I will be bringing in my own collection, as well:) Please let me know if you have any questions!
There is no school this coming Friday, May 24th, Monday the 27th, and Tuesday the 28th.
Have a great weekend!!
What a great first two days! It's very exciting getting back into the school year and seeing new faces:) This week was spent organizing supplies, getting to know each other, and practicing routines. So far we have practiced coming into the classroom with our take-home folders, getting started with morning work, number corner routines, singing songs to learn names, getting a brain break with GoNoodle (which they love!), washing hands after recess/lunch, listening to stories, free choice writing (they loved the calming music to help them stay focused), shared snack (don't forget your child's snack cup!), math games, and earned free choice. Wow, we got a lot done!
New photos are from the first day of school and Emma's birthday. See "School Photos."
Coming Up...
This coming Monday, September 9th, the students will be using the pictures/stickers/glitter/etc... from home to decorate their writing portfolios. A letter went home with all the information. Please make sure your child has what they would like to school on Monday. If anyone forgets, they can just color their portfolio.
This coming Thursday, September 12th is Open House at 6:00. We will have a brief slideshow of information and display some student work for you to see. I hope you can make it!
Finally, we will be having classroom volunteer sign-ups on a Google Sign-up form. The sign-up link is posted under "Parent Helper Volunteers." It is now open and will remain open for a few days following Open House. Once the form is closed, our room parents will get a document with everyone who wishes to volunteer and randomly select helpers for all the activities. If you have any questions or cannot sign-up on the form, please let me know!
I am looking forward to a great year!!
*8.28.19*
Welcome to first grade! I have recently updated the parent helper volunteers page with dates for the upcoming school year. All important upcoming dates for September and October have also been added. Once school is underway, I will post a Google sign-up for events throughout the year. Parents are able to sign-up for any events they are interested in. Our room parents will randomly select helpers/volunteers once the sign-ups have closed.
Pictures have been posted from Moving Up Day. Please see "School Photos."
I look forward to meeting everyone at Open House!
*6.25.19*
Wow, what a great end to the year! I can't thank you enough for all the wonderful gifts everyone got me. I am so grateful. It has truly been an honor to be a part of such a wonderful class for the second half of the year. I hope everyone has a wonderful summer and PLEASE come back and visit next year! New photos from the end of the year will be posted soon!
*6.14.19*
This week the students spent a lot of time getting ready for the Parents' Tea! We're looking forward to our celebration next Friday!
We enjoyed listening to four student guest readers this week - Hailey, Alex, Emmett R., and Salma. The students have shown how much they have grown since September! Great job reading! *Photos coming soon!*
In writing, the students finished up their opinion pieces in the first bend of writing workshop - writing about items in their collection. The students worked to make sure they stated their opinion, gave three reasons to support their opinion (including supporting details from other students), and writing a concluding sentence. These writing pieces will come home this week as we begin our final review writing - writing about movies, books, and restaurants.
In math, we spent this week taking our end-of-the-year assessment. It was a long test, but the students did such a great job doing their best! For the remainder of the year, we will do work places and review.
Gail Brown from the Voorheesville Public Library visited our class. She told us all about the summer reading program. A flyer went home this week. Be sure to check it out as there are some great things happening!
Coming Up...
Thursday, June 20th is our summer birthdays party!
Friday, June 21st is our Parents' Tea. The students have been working very hard on their presentations for everyone coming! We hope you can make it!
*6.8.19*
What a fun week we had! This week the students finished designing and building their rocket ships to end our space unit and we had some nice weather to launch them. We learned what worked and didn't work after we saw the rockets go. Most rockets were too heavy, but it was a fun activity! We also got to take part in the senior walk-through. The students sang for our graduating class of 2019 and enjoyed seeing some familiar faces!
In writing, the students are continuing to write reviews about their collection of favorite things as well as forming opinions about their classmates collections. The students used others' agreeing opinions to add details to their writing. This coming week we will finish up writing opinions about our collections and move into the last bend where they will write reviews about books, movies, and restaurants.
In math, we finished up our unit work with numbers to 120. The students used strategies of adding 1, 5, and 10 to help determine missing numbers on a number line. This coming week we will be taking our end of the year assessment. It will last across a few days.
We had a great field trip to the Pine Hollow Arboretum! The weather was perfect and the students were able to enjoy the hike around the hollow. We learned about the history of the arboretum and saw some beautiful trees, ponds, and animals.
Thank you to our guest readers Lily O., Mateo, and Veronica. We heard a great variety of stories and, as always, everyone sat quietly and enjoyed listening!
If you wouldn't mind donating, we could really use more shared snacks in the classroom! We only have enough snacks to last about 2 more days. Any help would be appreciated!
Pictures from this week coming soon!
Coming Up...
Gail Brown, from the Voorheesville Public Library, will be visiting our classroom on Tuesday, June 11th to talk about the summer reading program.
On Wednesday, June 12th we will be celebrating our June birthdays!
We have Field Day on Thursday, 6/13. A note went home on Friday about what to bring to school. The cafeteria will be closed so students will need to bring a lunch. We will have a picnic, so please send your child with a beach towel, as well!
Enjoy your weekend!!
*Updated 5.31.19*
The students had a great time this week designing and beginning to build their rocket ships. As a wrap-up to our unit on space, the students are working to design and build a rocket that can launch at least 5 feet in the air. We will continue to build and launch next week!
In reading, we spent this week looking through our good fit book bins, independently reading, and starting to practice for our Parents' Tea. Please join us on Friday, June 21st for a celebration all about YOU!
The students continued to use their collections from home to write opinion pieces. This week they worked on adding reasons why objects in their collection were their favorite and wrote opinions about other student's collections. They really have been enjoying this unit! The students will need their collection boxes for one more week before we movie into writing reviews/opinions about movies, books, and restaurants!
In math, the kids continued to use the story of Hansel and Gretel to count forward and backward on a path by 10s, 5s, and 1s. We will continue to review strategies to help us count forward and backward next week, as well.
Today we had Good Eats! The students learned about and got to taste honey. Please see photos under "School Photos."
Thank you to our student guest readers, Ben, Matthew, and Logan O.! Photos are posted under "School Photos."
Coming Up...
Next week we our our field trip to Pine Hollow on Thursday the 6th. Please keep an eye on the weather and make sure to send your child with appropriate clothing/foot wear. We will be doing a lot of walking and it may be muddy!
Reminder - There is an early dismissal on Friday, June 7th.
Thank you and have a great weekend!!
*Updated 5.23.19*
Thank you for all the shared snacks that were brought in this week! It was very helpful! If you would like to donate for the remainder of the year, the link is below.
In reading, the children learned about strategies good readers use to help them understand a story (think about words, ask questions, make predictions, and summarize). Once again we practiced these strategies as a whole group and then independently with their good fit books. Being a short week next week, we will take a break from daily five to do some reading passage and comprehension question activities. I will also be starting the end of the year Fountas and Pinnell reading testing.
In writing, we started our opinion writing unit. The students had a great time debating who they think has a harder job, the Tooth Fairy or Santa Claus. It was a great kick-off to opinion writing. Yesterday and today, the students awarded blue ribbons to their favorite items in their collections and started writing why they chose those certain items (discussed using the importance of BECAUSE to explain why). The opinion writing will continue until the end of the year!
For math, we are continuing with place value. This week, specifically, the students used the story of Hansel and Gretel to mark spots along a path with pebbles and pine cones. Using the pine cones and pebbles, the students practiced skip counting by 5's and 10's. We will be taking a number corner assessment today and Wednesday (29th).
Once again, we continued to have great student guest readers! I am so proud at their preparation and how hard they are working to share their stories in front of the class. I know it can be intimidating! This week we listened to J.P., Ashlynn, Emmet K., and Azara!
Photos of our student guest readers and crazy hair day are posted under "School Photos!"
Coming Up...
Please take note that our field trip to Pine Hollow is on Thursday, June 6th.
I hope everyone has a great Memorial Day weekend!
*Updated 5.17.19*
This week in reading we focused on comprehension strategies for non-fiction texts. The students reviewed some important strategies to help them understand non-fiction stories (figuring out the main idea, remembering key details, recalling text features, and asking questions). The students also practiced these strategies with good fit books.
In math, we are continuing to work on place value to the hundreds place. The students reviewed bundles of ten, counting by tens, and also adding ten to any given number. We will continue to review these skills over the next few weeks.
For writing, the students finished their Mo Willems stories this week! Today we had our writing celebration and the students got to share their stories in small groups. I am so proud of all their hard work. Their published pieces should be coming home today! On Monday we will be starting our final unit, writing reviews. The students will need to bring in a collection box (shoe box) or bag of some of their favorite items from home. Next week they will be writing opinion pieces about their favorite items in their collection, with supporting details.
We continue to have excellent guest readers! Thank you to Everly, Alma, and Castiel for sharing their favorite stories with us! Our readers next week are J.P., Ashlynn, Emmet, and Azara.
Today we started our ABC countdown to the last 26 days of school! I can't believe how quickly these days are going by. A copy of the countdown went home on Wednesday, but I also posted the file below.
We are still in need of shared snacks! We do not have enough to make it through next week. Please see the link below to sign-up. Thank you so much!!
www.signupgenius.com/go/70a0e4cadac22a7f94-snacks
New photos are posted from our field trip to CMOST, our student guest readers, and our Mo Willems writing workshop publishing party! See "School Photos."
Coming Up...
As mentioned above, next week we will be starting our final writing unit. A note went home this week, but please remember to send your child with a collection shoe box or gallon size bag of their favorite items from home by this Monday, May 20th. They will be needing this collection to complete opinion writing pieces. I will be bringing in my own collection, as well:) Please let me know if you have any questions!
There is no school this coming Friday, May 24th, Monday the 27th, and Tuesday the 28th.
Have a great weekend!!
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*Updated 5.10.19*
This week we started our student guest readers and they are doing an AWESOME job! Andor and Olivia started us off with some great books. Pictures are posted under "School Photos!"
In reading, the students put together all the comprehension strategies they have been learning this week. Using their good fit books (and our read aloud stories), the students had to think about the main idea, ask questions, retell the story (somebody wanted but so then OR five finger retell), and describe characters. We focused on fictional stories this week and next week we will continue with comprehension strategies and nonfiction texts.
For writing, the students are finishing up their Mo Willems stories. They have been practicing rereading their stories each day before they begin writing. If they completed a story, they are brainstorming new characters and creating new stories. Students are making sure to incorporate Mo Willems' craft moves - motion lines, speech bubbles, bold words, a variety of writing styles, thinking bubbles, stretching the problem across pages. We will finish up Mo Willems next week with a publishing party Friday. Our final writing unit will be opinion writing. Students will need to bring in a small collection box of some of their favorite things at home for this unit. A note will be coming home next week!
For math, we finished up addition and subtraction strategies and story problems. Our next unit is place value - reviewing hundreds, tens, and ones.
New photos are posted from our student guest readers and science lab! See "School Photos."
A copy of the student guest reader calendar is posted below. Please let me know if you have any questions. Our readers next week are Everly, Alma, and Castiel.
Scholastic book orders were due today. I will be submitting the order later today. If you would still like to buy books, please do so by the end of the day. I will be sending home one more order at the beginning of June.
We are running low and could use more shared snacks for next week! Please follow the link below to sign-up.
www.signupgenius.com/go/70a0e4cadac22a7f94-snacks
Coming Up...
Next Wednesday (5/15) is our field trip to CMOST. Please make sure to send a packed lunch for school that day as we will be eating at the museum.
Next Thursday we will be dismissing from the PAC as students will be going to see the 5th grade play.
*Updated 5.3.19*
I hope everyone had a nice spring break! This week a note went home about student guest readers. To summarize, each student in the class has an assigned day to bring in a favorite book from home to read to the class (15 minutes or less). A copy of the schedule is below. Please let me know as soon as possible if your child may be out on their assigned day so that I can make changes.
On Monday we had our walking field trip to the food pantry at St. Matthew's. The students learned all about volunteering and how the process works. Unfortunately, we were so busy I forgot to take pictures!
In reading, we reviewed characterization (how an author teaches us about characters) and character traits. The students had to independently pick a character from one of their good fit books, think of a trait to describe them, and provide an example from the text to support why they picked the trait (the character's appearance, something the character said, something the character did, or something the character thought/felt). Next week we will be reviewing comprehension skills (retell, ask questions, think of the main idea, describe characters).
In writing, we are continuing to work on Mo Willems. This week we focused on rereading our stories to edit and revise. Some students are finishing one book and beginning another. We will continue to work on Mo Willems for two more weeks before we move into our last unit of study - opinion writing.
For math, the students continued to solve equations and story problems with either the start unknown, change/part unknown, or result unknown. I have reminded them that by using their number rack or drawing a picture, the problems become easier to solve. The students are also using addition and subtraction strategies (doubles, doubles+1, count on, think ten, think nine, count back, etc...) to help them fluently solve addition and subtraction equations. Please continue to review these at home. Next week we will continue to work on addition and subtraction while also reviewing measurement.
Yesterday a Nutrition is My Mission checklist went home with students. They were excited to complete the 10-day challenge to earn a prize. I told them that they can complete one activity a day so the earliest they could hand the form in would be Monday, May 13th.
We could use more shared snacks for our class. Please make sure to bring in items from the safe snack list. The sign-up link is below. Thanks for your donations!
www.signupgenius.com/go/70a0e4cadac22a7f94-snacks
New Photos are posted from Emmett's birthday and our Pine Hollow classroom visit with Mrs. Sanchez!
Coming Up...
Next week is a pretty slow week as far as extra things going on! The May Scholastic book order will be due on Friday, May 10th.
Our first day of guest readers is on Thursday, May 9th.
Please Note: We picked our day for our first grade Parents' Tea. It will be in our classroom on Friday, June 21st from 9:45-10:45. For the celebration, students will be preparing a presentation/gift to thank you for all you have done to help your child in first grade. You won't want to miss it!
Have a great weekend!
This week we started our student guest readers and they are doing an AWESOME job! Andor and Olivia started us off with some great books. Pictures are posted under "School Photos!"
In reading, the students put together all the comprehension strategies they have been learning this week. Using their good fit books (and our read aloud stories), the students had to think about the main idea, ask questions, retell the story (somebody wanted but so then OR five finger retell), and describe characters. We focused on fictional stories this week and next week we will continue with comprehension strategies and nonfiction texts.
For writing, the students are finishing up their Mo Willems stories. They have been practicing rereading their stories each day before they begin writing. If they completed a story, they are brainstorming new characters and creating new stories. Students are making sure to incorporate Mo Willems' craft moves - motion lines, speech bubbles, bold words, a variety of writing styles, thinking bubbles, stretching the problem across pages. We will finish up Mo Willems next week with a publishing party Friday. Our final writing unit will be opinion writing. Students will need to bring in a small collection box of some of their favorite things at home for this unit. A note will be coming home next week!
For math, we finished up addition and subtraction strategies and story problems. Our next unit is place value - reviewing hundreds, tens, and ones.
New photos are posted from our student guest readers and science lab! See "School Photos."
A copy of the student guest reader calendar is posted below. Please let me know if you have any questions. Our readers next week are Everly, Alma, and Castiel.
Scholastic book orders were due today. I will be submitting the order later today. If you would still like to buy books, please do so by the end of the day. I will be sending home one more order at the beginning of June.
We are running low and could use more shared snacks for next week! Please follow the link below to sign-up.
www.signupgenius.com/go/70a0e4cadac22a7f94-snacks
Coming Up...
Next Wednesday (5/15) is our field trip to CMOST. Please make sure to send a packed lunch for school that day as we will be eating at the museum.
Next Thursday we will be dismissing from the PAC as students will be going to see the 5th grade play.
*Updated 5.3.19*
I hope everyone had a nice spring break! This week a note went home about student guest readers. To summarize, each student in the class has an assigned day to bring in a favorite book from home to read to the class (15 minutes or less). A copy of the schedule is below. Please let me know as soon as possible if your child may be out on their assigned day so that I can make changes.
On Monday we had our walking field trip to the food pantry at St. Matthew's. The students learned all about volunteering and how the process works. Unfortunately, we were so busy I forgot to take pictures!
In reading, we reviewed characterization (how an author teaches us about characters) and character traits. The students had to independently pick a character from one of their good fit books, think of a trait to describe them, and provide an example from the text to support why they picked the trait (the character's appearance, something the character said, something the character did, or something the character thought/felt). Next week we will be reviewing comprehension skills (retell, ask questions, think of the main idea, describe characters).
In writing, we are continuing to work on Mo Willems. This week we focused on rereading our stories to edit and revise. Some students are finishing one book and beginning another. We will continue to work on Mo Willems for two more weeks before we move into our last unit of study - opinion writing.
For math, the students continued to solve equations and story problems with either the start unknown, change/part unknown, or result unknown. I have reminded them that by using their number rack or drawing a picture, the problems become easier to solve. The students are also using addition and subtraction strategies (doubles, doubles+1, count on, think ten, think nine, count back, etc...) to help them fluently solve addition and subtraction equations. Please continue to review these at home. Next week we will continue to work on addition and subtraction while also reviewing measurement.
Yesterday a Nutrition is My Mission checklist went home with students. They were excited to complete the 10-day challenge to earn a prize. I told them that they can complete one activity a day so the earliest they could hand the form in would be Monday, May 13th.
We could use more shared snacks for our class. Please make sure to bring in items from the safe snack list. The sign-up link is below. Thanks for your donations!
www.signupgenius.com/go/70a0e4cadac22a7f94-snacks
New Photos are posted from Emmett's birthday and our Pine Hollow classroom visit with Mrs. Sanchez!
Coming Up...
Next week is a pretty slow week as far as extra things going on! The May Scholastic book order will be due on Friday, May 10th.
Our first day of guest readers is on Thursday, May 9th.
Please Note: We picked our day for our first grade Parents' Tea. It will be in our classroom on Friday, June 21st from 9:45-10:45. For the celebration, students will be preparing a presentation/gift to thank you for all you have done to help your child in first grade. You won't want to miss it!
Have a great weekend!
*Updated 4/19/19*
We celebrated three birthdays this week! We started the week with free choice for Emmet's birthday (we were unable to use the small gym to play sports), a dance party for Ben's birthday, and free choice for Mateo's birthday!
The students are continuing to do a great job with the Mo Willems writing unit. This week they learned about adding elements like speech bubbles, thinking bubbles, motion lines, and uppercase letters. I am impressed with the creativity in all of their stories!
For reading, the students learned about author's purpose. They listened to stories and read their own good fit books to determine why the author write the story. The students then challenged themselves to provide examples to support their reason.
We started working with more challenging addition and subtraction problems in math. Working up to twenty, the students used their number racks to help them solve a variety of story problems. For addition, the students worked with start unknown, part unknown, and result unknown. We also practiced using pictures, equations, or words to solve subtraction problems with start unknown, change unknown, and result unknown. We will continue to use these strategies over the next couple weeks.
Coming Up...
The Monday we get back from vacation (April 29th) is our field trip to the food pantry at St. Matthew's church. Please do not forget to bring a nonperishable item to donate to the food pantry. We will be walking to the church so please make sure your child dresses appropriately.
On Friday, May 3rd we have our second visit from Mrs. Sanchez from the Pine Hollow Preserve. The students will learn more about the arboretum before our field trip in June.
If you are interested in bringing in safe, shared snacks, please see the sign-up below.
www.signupgenius.com/go/70a0e4cadac22a7f94-snacks
New pictures are posted from science lab and of our birthday friends. See "School Photos."
I hope everyone has a great spring break!
*Updated 4/12/19*
The students are having so much fun with the Mo Willems author study unit in writing workshop! This week the students finished brainstorming their problem and solution (after picking a theme at the end of last week). Using the characters they developed, they are beginning to write either an elephant and piggie story, a pigeon story, or a Knuffle Bunny story. Most students are a few pages in and have included craft moves like speech bubbles, thinking bubbles, and motion lines. I cannot wait to see their final stories in the weeks to come!
During Daily Five this week, the students worked on thinking about what they learned from both the text (words) in a story and the pictures. We did a few examples of fiction and nonfiction stories together and the students worked independently finding examples of what they learned from the text and pictures in their good fit books. Next week we will talk about author's purpose.
In math, we continued to work with addition and subtraction strategies up to 20. The students had fun making their own flap cards! Some strategies to think about when fluently solving facts include: think ten, think nine, doubles, and doubles+one. When subtracting, the students used their number racks to count up, take away, and think of an addition fact they already know. We will continue to work on addition strategies, subtraction strategies, and story problems for the next couple of weeks.
New photos are posted from our Shaundra Bartlett's author visit and Good Eats. See "School Photos."
Coming Up...
This coming week we have THREE birthday parties! We will celebrate Emmet K.'s birthday on Monday (games in the gym), Ben's birthday on Tuesday (dance party), and Mateo's birthday on Thursday (extra free choice time). Notes will be coming home for each party.
Wednesday, April 17th is the 3rd grade TAD performance.
Spring vacation begins Friday, April 19th until the following Friday, April 26th.
Our visit to the food pantry at St. Matthew's is the Monday after April vacation (Monday, April 29th). We will be walking there so please make sure to dress your child appropriately.
We only have enough snack for about one more day! I will try to get some snacks this weekend for Monday, but we could use some extra snacks if you do not mind donating!! Please see the link below.
www.signupgenius.com/go/70a0e4cadac22a7f94-snacks
Have a great weekend!
*Updated 4/5/19*
This week the students shared their final nonfiction stories in small groups. Although some stories were not completed, the students made great progress throughout the unit! Please congratulate your child on a job well done! We have jumped right into our Mo Willems author study unit. So far the students have created their own characters and listed traits to describe their characters. We talked about how elephant and piggie are incompatible and the students worked to create two incompatible characters of their own, like elephant and piggie. Today the students decided which theme they wanted to work with (losing something and ultimately finding it - Knuffle Bunny, two friends who love being together and going on adventures - elephant and piggie, someone who wants something but never gets it- Pigeon). They brainstormed the problem and solution they will be writing about in their own stories. Next week the students will start writing their stories!
In reading, we talked about characterization, which fit nicely with our Mo Willems unit. The students learned that we can learn about a character through their appearance, thoughts/feelings, actions, and what they say. The students had to list traits to describe characters in their Good Fit books and today I challenged them during share to give reasons why they picked the traits. We will continue to work more on this next week and in reading groups.
In math, we finished up our unit on 2D shapes, 3D shapes, and fractions. We started reviewing addition strategies - ways to make ten, think ten, ten and some more, and doubles. We will spend a few more weeks reviewing addition and subtraction strategies and working with story problems with start unknown and parts unknown. Please continue to practice addition and subtraction facts at home.
Pictures are posted from our nonfiction writing publishing party. See "School Photos!"
Coming Up...
April's Scholastic book order money is due this Monday, April 8th. I will submit the order Tuesday morning so, if you are interested, please make sure to get orders in by Monday night.
This Tuesday, April 9th we have our author visit, Shaundra Bartlett, from 9-10. The students are very excited!
Spring pictures are on Wednesday, April 10th at 10:20.
Good Eats is on Friday, April 12th. The students will be studying legumes.
On Friday, April 12th we also have Hailey's birthday party. She requested extra free time for her special day!
Reminders..
If a CMOST field trip permission slip came home this week, that means we still have not gotten your permission or money for your child to attend the trip. Please make sure to send it in as soon as possible.
We are still low on shared classroom snacks. Please see the link below if you would not mind donating safe snacks.
www.signupgenius.com/go/70a0e4cadac22a7f94-snacks
Thank you and have a great weekend!!
*Updated 3/29/19*
In reading this week, we continued to focus on nonfiction/informational texts. The students practiced finding the main idea (and challenged themselves to think of a complete sentence for the main idea and not just a word) and at least two details related to the main idea. They were able to do it as a whole group and then worked independently to find the main idea and details in their good fit books (which they filled out on the back of their Daily Five cards). Next week we will switch to characterization in fictional texts.
This week we finished our nonfiction books for writing workshop. Although some of the books are not completely finished, they students showed so much growth throughout this unit! We talked about the importance of creating goals, editing for spelling/capitalization/punctuation, writing a table of contents, opening chapters with a question to "pull-in" the reader, adding at least two facts per chapter, creating detailed pictures, and much more! I am so proud of their accomplishments. On Monday the students will be sharing their final products in small groups. I will be collecting the writing to complete a rubric and will then send the final pieces home, shortly after. Next week we will move into an author study unit on Mo Willems. We've already started reading a handful of Mo Willems stories and the students are pumped!
In math, the students worked hard completing their number corner assessment and unit 5 assessment. They all did an excellent job with this unit on 2D shapes, 3D shapes, and fractions. I made sure to review the questions from the tests that I noticed students struggled with. We have a few more lessons on shapes before we move into a unit focusing on story problems and addition/subtraction strategies.
Some reminders...
We are still missing CMOST field trip permission slips and money. If another form was sent home with your child, please do not forget to return it to school as soon as possible.
We are getting low on shared snacks. If you would not mind volunteering to bring in shared snacks for the afternoon, please sign-up in the link below.
www.signupgenius.com/go/70a0e4cadac22a7f94-snacks
Coming up...
This Monday (4/1) we have our Color-Run Kick-off assembly. The students are very excited!
Have a great weekend!
*Updated 3/21/19*
What a quick week! The students did such a great job on their spelling tests this week. They really are starting to understanding the word family patterns!
In reading, we switched to nonfiction/informational texts this week as we talked about nonfiction text features (pictures/photographs, table of contents, glossary, captions, headings, and index). The students learned that not only do they learn from the main text of the book, but the features help us learn as well. During Daily Five, the kids had to look for nonfiction text features in their own good fit books, as well.
In math, we continued talking about attributes for 3D shapes and worked a bit with fractions. The students learned how to name fractions with two equal parts (halves, 1/2) and fractions with 4 equal parts (quarters, fourths, 1/4). They did a great job!
In writing the students learned that their nonfiction stories can have a variety of writing. Some students added how-to and lists pages to their chapter books. We will be finishing up our nonfiction books within the next couple of weeks.
We are starting to get low on snacks, again. If you wouldn't mind signing up to donate safe snacks to our class (beginning next week) we would greatly appreciate it! The link is below.
New photos are posted from J.P.'s ninja dance birthday party! See "School Photos."
Coming up...
On Monday, March 25th, Pine Hollow will be coming to our classroom to do a lesson with the students. We will have one more in-class activity with Pine Hollow before we visit the Arboretum in June.
Have a great weekend!
*Updated 3/15/19*
I try to update our website every Friday, but I was out sick with the flu and I couldn't make it on here to update last Friday!
Here are some things we've done the last couple of weeks!
In reading, we continue to talk about strategies to help retell stories. So far we have talked about beginning/middle/end, the five finger retell, and the students' favorite - SWBST (Somebody Wanted But So Then). Using these strategies to help them, the students have done well retelling fictional stories. We will continue to incorporate these strategies into reading groups/independent reading and also learn more about nonfiction text features next week.
In writing, the kids continue to work hard creating their nonfiction pieces. We have started writing informational chapter books and the goal was for students to come up with a nonfiction topic, five chapter ideas, and begin each chapter with a creative opening question. Other goals were applying spelling using strategies (say it, slide it, hear it, write it AND listening for syllables knowing that each syllable has a vowel), writing at least a sentence or two to each chapter, pictures with labels/details, and ending each chapter with a creative thought/idea. We will continue to work on nonfiction stories for a few more weeks.
In math, we have spent a lot of time working with 2D and 3D shapes. The students complete a checkpoint on 2D and 3D shapes this week and did an excellent job. They are learning to be able to describe shapes based on their attributes. We will continue to work with shapes, as well as building math fluency with the think ten strategy and time to the half hour.
New photos will be posted this evening (under "School Photos") of our science fair participants (Great job, everyone!!) and Good Eats.
Recently many students have been bringing in toys/stuffed animals during the week and, unfortunately, it's starting to become a distraction. If you would not mind, please have your child save their toys/stuffed animals for free choice Fridays, only. Thanks!
Upcoming...
This coming Monday (3/18) is College Day. Please have your child wear any college gear to school. I'll be representing Syracuse!
There is no school this coming Friday, March 22nd. It is a Superintendent's Conference Day.
Reminder - Please do not forget to have your child read and complete their log to hand in every Friday. The activities on the back are important in building reading comprehension/understanding.
Have a great weekend!
*Updated 3/1/19*
I can't believe it's already March! We had a PARTY week! On Monday we celebrated Ashlynn's birthday with a stuffed animal pajama party. We also celebrated Alex's birthday on Wednesday with a reading beach party. Photos are posted under "School Photos." The students enjoyed both parties!
I loved all the creative 100th day object ideas. The kids did a great job sharing adjectives to describe their objects. Photos are posted of all the students with their one hundredth day bags.
During reading, the students listened to a handful of fictional stories and we discussed the importance of retelling the beginning, middle, and end. Important parts to include in your retell include the characters, setting, events, problem, and solution. The students had to apply this skill independently during Daily Five. Next week we will continue fictional retelling with the five finger strategy.
In writing, we are continuing to work on our nonfiction pieces. Today we learned that we can write chapter books! The students are choosing topics they know a lot about and "chopped" the topic into smaller parts to create chapters. The stories are coming along great!
In math we worked on 2D shapes. The students learned a lot about shape attributes as they tried to guide me to draw different 2D shapes (triangle, trapezoid, rhombus, hexagon). Ask your child to share an attribute of all these shapes!
Upcoming Events:
A new Scholastic book order will be coming home on Monday, March 4th. The order forms will be due the following Monday, March 11th.
We have our book fair preview on Monday, March 4th. The students will get a chance to make a list of books they are interested in.
We will be changing our flexible seats on Monday, so, if your child has mentioned a type of seating they would prefer (or there is one you do not want them to choose, please let me know).
Our conference days are on Thursday, March 14th and Tuesday, March 19th. There are only 18 available slots and 24 students in our class, so please make sure you are only signing up if you have questions or concerns. This is a parent-run conference so please be prepared to bring any questions or discussion topics that you would like to discuss.
Monday, March 18th is College Day! The kids can wear college gear or their favorite college colors to school that day!
Have a great weekend:)
*Updated 2/15/19*
We kept busy this week! During reading and Daily Five we talked about how good readers are constantly asking and answering questions about a text. The students were able to do this independently during Daily Five and also during reading groups.
In writing, the students continued to work on their nonfiction stories. They were able to use each other as mentors to generate more details and ideas to add to their topic. After vacation we will start working on chapter books where the students will think of a topic/main idea and subtopics related to their main idea to create chapters.
In math, we finished up comparing lengths related to penguins. We talked about thinking about the measuring strips as a number line and this helped the students compare their length to Rockhopper and King penguins and the penguins to each other. After vacation we will be doing a unit on 2D shapes.
There are a handful of students who are not completing their reading logs and handing them in every Friday. As this is the only homework we have in first grade, it is important to complete the activities so the students keep up with the comprehension activities related to the reading. We will be using a lot of the comprehension reading strategies in class, as well.
Many pictures were taken this week! Please see "School Photos," for pictures of the 100th day, Valentine's Day, our visit from Lysekno Dental, and Good Eats.
Coming up...
On Tuesday, February 26th, we will be having our 100th day celebration. A note went home today (with a brown bag) about our collecting 100 project. Please make sure the object fits in the brown bag as the students will be doing a mystery game trying to have the class guess their mystery object based on the adjective clues on the front of the bag. If you have any questions, please let me know!
Have a great vacation!
*Updated 2/8/19*
This week the students started independently choosing their Daily Five stations and I was very impressed with how well they did! We had a few hiccups, but by the end of the week, they figured out the routine. On Monday I will finish reading testing and plan to have reading groups back up and running. This coming week we will be focusing on the strategy asking and answering questions for fictional and informational texts.
In math, we continued to work on adding and subtracting on a number line with one-digit and two-digit numbers. The students took their unit 4 test and we reviewed some the questions they had trouble with. The test went home in their folders today. Our next unit will be 2D shapes after a quick chapter on measurement.
In writing we are continuing to work on non-fiction stories. The students learned strategies to help them apply "fancy" words to their writing and we reviewed finger spacing, uppercase letters, and punctuation. We will soon begin writing nonfiction chapter books!
This coming week is our Valentine's Day party on Thursday (and our 100th day - unless we have a snow day!). Although we will be celebrating the 100th day after February vacation, we will have a couple activities planned for Thursday. It will be a busy day! We also have Good Eats on Friday (rice cakes).
On Tuesday, February 26th, there will be a 100 object mystery bag project due (information coming home this week). Please have your child start thinking about 100 things they could fit in a brown bag (100 stones, 100 stickers, 100 paper clips, etc...).
Thank you to everyone who donated shoe boxes and egg cartons to the science lab. We are all set for our cricket labs! Also, thank you to everyone who brought in more shared snacks.
New photos posted from the week. Please see "School Photos." Have a great weekend!
*Updated 2/1/19*
What a busy week we had. It was great getting to know the students! I have posted some reminders and information about our week below.
This week I jumped right into Number Corner for math with the kids and I was very impressed with the challenging equations (multiplication included) and story problems (start and parts unknown) they came up with! We will continue to work on using a number line to count forward and backward by 1s and 10s in math.
This coming week we will jump back into Daily Five. The students are going to be able to choose their own stations for the day, but will have to complete each station once before they repeat any. I will begin reading testing this week and I'm anxious to spend some time reading individually with each student!
For writing, the students are continuing to work on non-fiction stories. They have generated lists of topics they know a lot about and are writing true writing pieces about their topics. We talked about the importance of illustrations and remembering to include spaces between words, capital letters at the beginning of sentences, and punctuation at the end of sentences. This week I will begin meeting with students individually and in small groups to work on their non-fiction pieces.
Our penguin research is almost complete! The kids went to the computer lab and used PebbleGo to record facts about their penguin on a bubble map. They are in the process of highlighting more facts about their penguin and will then transfer those notes to bubble maps, as well. Within the next week or so, the students will turn those notes into penguin mini-books.
Your child may have mentioned blue tickets. Throughout the day I have been rewarding positive behavior with blue tickets, which your child writes his or her name on and places in a bucket. On Fridays I will be picking 5 tickets for students to choose a prize from our prize box!
A note went home about our Valentine's Day party, which will celebrated in the afternoon on 2/14. Please make sure your child has a valentine for all the students in the class. We will be decorating bags this week!
Our 100th day of school is coming up soon! We are planning on celebrating after our February vacation on Tuesday, February 26th. There will be a 100 object mystery bag project due on that day. I will send more information about the celebration as it gets closer.
The February Scholastic book order went home this week. Please make sure you have your order in by this coming Wednesday, February 6th. I've included our class code (different from what you have been using) on the back of the paper order form. Let me know if you have any questions!
We are running low on classroom snacks. As of now we have a couple bags of cheddar popcorn and a couple bags of Cheetos. If you have not signed up for a snack and would be willing to donate for the next few weeks, it would be greatly appreciated! The link is below.
www.signupgenius.com/go/70a0e4cadac22a7f94-snacks
We are in need of shoe boxes for an upcoming science lab investigation. If you have any you are willing to part with, we would be happy to use them! Photos from our penguin feathers science lab are posted under "School Photos."
As always, if you have any questions, please do not hesitate to let me know!!
*Updated 1/25/19*
The first half of the year is officially over! I'm very anxious to get back into the classroom on Monday. I will be sending a letter home with some important information. Please look for a Hopes and Dreams sheet to fill out and return to school so that I can get to know your child better. I have included our safe snack sign-up list below and have also included it on the Safe Snack List tab on our website. I look forward to seeing everyone soon!
www.signupgenius.com/go/70a0e4cadac22a7f94-snacks
*Updated 12/29/18*
I can't believe my first day back is in less than one month! I went through and updated all of the pages on our classroom website. Please note, the Safe Snack List has been updated as of 12/18/18. My first day back will be on Monday, January 28th. If you have any questions before I return, please feel free to email me at [email protected]. Have a Happy New Year!
*Updated 8/11/18*
Please note our website is a work in progress! New posts are located under the safe snack list and district school calendar.
*Updated 10/6/17*
New photos are posted from our most recent birthdays, science lab, and Daily Five. See School Photos!
October's Scholastic Book order will be due this coming Tuesday, October 10th.
My last day here will be this Thursday, October 12th. Mrs. Adalian started today and will continue to shadow until her first day on Friday, October 13th. It's been going great! Please let us know if you have any questions.
This coming Friday, October 13th we have the New Salem Fire Department visiting. The students will get to see firefighter gear, learn about fire safety, and get a tour of a fire truck. It should be a great day! We also have a mystery reader in the afternoon.
As reminded below...Please do not forget to send in a shared snack for October. Also, please do not forget that reading logs are due at the end of every week. A few students have been forgetting to complete the reading comprehension and IXL work on the back of the log. These activities are beneficial to understanding the math and ELA concepts taught in the classroom. A note will be sent home if they are not completed or handed in.
Finally, please let us know if you are interested in signing up for any openings still available on the parent helper volunteer schedule.
*Updated 9/29/2017*
New photos are posted from our potato/carrot harvest, Good Eats, and our September birthday party. See School photos!
Reminders for this week - Please do not forget to send in a shared snack for October. Also, please do not forget that reading logs are due at the end of every week. A few students have been forgetting to complete the reading comprehension and IXL work on the back of the log. These activities are beneficial to understanding the math and ELA concepts taught in the classroom.
Friday, October 6th is picture day. Our pictures will be in the morning at 9:50. On Friday we also will be dismissed early for our yearly go home early drill.
October's Scholastic book order will be coming home this week. It will be due on Tuesday, October 10th.
As mentioned below, the list of parent helper volunteers is now posted! There are a handful of slots still available. If you would like to volunteer for a spot that is still open, please let me know as soon as possible. Thank you!!
*Updated 9/26/2017*
Please note: Since there is no school on Friday, the reading log will be due tomorrow and the spelling test will be tomorrow morning. Please let me know if you have any questions!
The list of parent helper volunteers is now posted! There are a handful of slots still available. If you would like to volunteer for a spot that is still open, please let me know as soon as possible. Thank you!!
*Updated 9/22/2017*
We had another busy week in first grade! The students continued to impress me with their independent reading during Daily Five and made it to 20 minutes! This week we also started training for read-to-someone. We discussed the different ways to read to someone (I read, you read...choral reading...reading different books) and how to check for understanding.
In writing, the students brainstormed brilliant beginnings for their self-selected writing stories and began the first several sentences to their stories. They are coming along nicely! This coming week I will begin conferencing individually with students, giving them suggestions to improve their writing.
With math, we have been working a lot with number bonds and number sentences. The students worked with their peanut butter and jelly partners to find all the different ways to make 6 and 7. We will continue with ways to make 8, 9, and 10 next week.
We had our first spelling test today and the students did great! Please reinforce to your child (as I have) that letters should be lowercase. We will continue to work on this in school.
Our first reading log was due today. We almost had 100%! Along with the reading log of what your child has read each night, please do not forget the reading comprehension and math IXL work on the back of the log.
Looking ahead...
This coming Tuesday the 26th, the students will be going to the garden to harvest the potatoes they planted in kindergarten. Please make sure they dress appropriately, as they may get dirty (I suggest sneakers).
On Thursday the 28th we have our September birthday party for Kira and Kathryn. We're looking forward to a great time!
Lastly, there is no school on Friday, September 29th.
*Updated 9/15/2017*
We had a very productive first week of school! The students are doing such an excellent job and I am so proud of them!
During writing workshop the students learned how to generate their own story ideas and brainstormed brilliant beginnings for their stories. With Daily Five, the students have learned how to pick Good Fit books following the I-PICK checklist (I choose a book, Purpose - Does it fit what I want to read? Interest - Does it look like I will enjoy the book? Comprehend - Do I understand what I am reading? Know - Do I know most words?) I was very impressed with how well the students took their time to make sure they were choosing Good Fit books. They impressed me even more when we started read-to-self today and went 10+ minutes reading silently to themselves without a break. Excellent work!
In math we have started talking about patterns in numbers and the students have worked with adding 1 and 2 to a given number. We will continue to work more on this next week.
Looking ahead...
The parent volunteer sign-ups will be closed on Sunday evening (17th). If you would like to volunteer/donate items for events throughout the year, please see the link for "Parent Helper Volunteers" and complete the Google doc.
September's Scholastic book orders are due by this Wednesday evening (20th). I will submit the order Thursday morning before school.
There is no school on Thursday, September 21st and our first mystery reader visit will be on Friday, September 22nd at 2:30.
Homework will be starting this coming week. On Monday the students will take their first spelling pretest (short a words). A list of activities was included in the Parents' Night folder with fun, engaging ways for students to practice their words throughout the week. Attached to the pretest will be a reading log (due on Friday morning). On the back, please have your child complete the comprehension activity. A math activity will also be included (IXL practice). In addition to the reading log, if students do not complete an activity in class that they are expected to complete, a note will be attached to the assignment for it to be completed, signed, and returned the following day. As always, please let me know if you have any questions!
The slideshow from Parents' Night is posted below. Have a great weekend!
We celebrated three birthdays this week! We started the week with free choice for Emmet's birthday (we were unable to use the small gym to play sports), a dance party for Ben's birthday, and free choice for Mateo's birthday!
The students are continuing to do a great job with the Mo Willems writing unit. This week they learned about adding elements like speech bubbles, thinking bubbles, motion lines, and uppercase letters. I am impressed with the creativity in all of their stories!
For reading, the students learned about author's purpose. They listened to stories and read their own good fit books to determine why the author write the story. The students then challenged themselves to provide examples to support their reason.
We started working with more challenging addition and subtraction problems in math. Working up to twenty, the students used their number racks to help them solve a variety of story problems. For addition, the students worked with start unknown, part unknown, and result unknown. We also practiced using pictures, equations, or words to solve subtraction problems with start unknown, change unknown, and result unknown. We will continue to use these strategies over the next couple weeks.
Coming Up...
The Monday we get back from vacation (April 29th) is our field trip to the food pantry at St. Matthew's church. Please do not forget to bring a nonperishable item to donate to the food pantry. We will be walking to the church so please make sure your child dresses appropriately.
On Friday, May 3rd we have our second visit from Mrs. Sanchez from the Pine Hollow Preserve. The students will learn more about the arboretum before our field trip in June.
If you are interested in bringing in safe, shared snacks, please see the sign-up below.
www.signupgenius.com/go/70a0e4cadac22a7f94-snacks
New pictures are posted from science lab and of our birthday friends. See "School Photos."
I hope everyone has a great spring break!
*Updated 4/12/19*
The students are having so much fun with the Mo Willems author study unit in writing workshop! This week the students finished brainstorming their problem and solution (after picking a theme at the end of last week). Using the characters they developed, they are beginning to write either an elephant and piggie story, a pigeon story, or a Knuffle Bunny story. Most students are a few pages in and have included craft moves like speech bubbles, thinking bubbles, and motion lines. I cannot wait to see their final stories in the weeks to come!
During Daily Five this week, the students worked on thinking about what they learned from both the text (words) in a story and the pictures. We did a few examples of fiction and nonfiction stories together and the students worked independently finding examples of what they learned from the text and pictures in their good fit books. Next week we will talk about author's purpose.
In math, we continued to work with addition and subtraction strategies up to 20. The students had fun making their own flap cards! Some strategies to think about when fluently solving facts include: think ten, think nine, doubles, and doubles+one. When subtracting, the students used their number racks to count up, take away, and think of an addition fact they already know. We will continue to work on addition strategies, subtraction strategies, and story problems for the next couple of weeks.
New photos are posted from our Shaundra Bartlett's author visit and Good Eats. See "School Photos."
Coming Up...
This coming week we have THREE birthday parties! We will celebrate Emmet K.'s birthday on Monday (games in the gym), Ben's birthday on Tuesday (dance party), and Mateo's birthday on Thursday (extra free choice time). Notes will be coming home for each party.
Wednesday, April 17th is the 3rd grade TAD performance.
Spring vacation begins Friday, April 19th until the following Friday, April 26th.
Our visit to the food pantry at St. Matthew's is the Monday after April vacation (Monday, April 29th). We will be walking there so please make sure to dress your child appropriately.
We only have enough snack for about one more day! I will try to get some snacks this weekend for Monday, but we could use some extra snacks if you do not mind donating!! Please see the link below.
www.signupgenius.com/go/70a0e4cadac22a7f94-snacks
Have a great weekend!
*Updated 4/5/19*
This week the students shared their final nonfiction stories in small groups. Although some stories were not completed, the students made great progress throughout the unit! Please congratulate your child on a job well done! We have jumped right into our Mo Willems author study unit. So far the students have created their own characters and listed traits to describe their characters. We talked about how elephant and piggie are incompatible and the students worked to create two incompatible characters of their own, like elephant and piggie. Today the students decided which theme they wanted to work with (losing something and ultimately finding it - Knuffle Bunny, two friends who love being together and going on adventures - elephant and piggie, someone who wants something but never gets it- Pigeon). They brainstormed the problem and solution they will be writing about in their own stories. Next week the students will start writing their stories!
In reading, we talked about characterization, which fit nicely with our Mo Willems unit. The students learned that we can learn about a character through their appearance, thoughts/feelings, actions, and what they say. The students had to list traits to describe characters in their Good Fit books and today I challenged them during share to give reasons why they picked the traits. We will continue to work more on this next week and in reading groups.
In math, we finished up our unit on 2D shapes, 3D shapes, and fractions. We started reviewing addition strategies - ways to make ten, think ten, ten and some more, and doubles. We will spend a few more weeks reviewing addition and subtraction strategies and working with story problems with start unknown and parts unknown. Please continue to practice addition and subtraction facts at home.
Pictures are posted from our nonfiction writing publishing party. See "School Photos!"
Coming Up...
April's Scholastic book order money is due this Monday, April 8th. I will submit the order Tuesday morning so, if you are interested, please make sure to get orders in by Monday night.
This Tuesday, April 9th we have our author visit, Shaundra Bartlett, from 9-10. The students are very excited!
Spring pictures are on Wednesday, April 10th at 10:20.
Good Eats is on Friday, April 12th. The students will be studying legumes.
On Friday, April 12th we also have Hailey's birthday party. She requested extra free time for her special day!
Reminders..
If a CMOST field trip permission slip came home this week, that means we still have not gotten your permission or money for your child to attend the trip. Please make sure to send it in as soon as possible.
We are still low on shared classroom snacks. Please see the link below if you would not mind donating safe snacks.
www.signupgenius.com/go/70a0e4cadac22a7f94-snacks
Thank you and have a great weekend!!
*Updated 3/29/19*
In reading this week, we continued to focus on nonfiction/informational texts. The students practiced finding the main idea (and challenged themselves to think of a complete sentence for the main idea and not just a word) and at least two details related to the main idea. They were able to do it as a whole group and then worked independently to find the main idea and details in their good fit books (which they filled out on the back of their Daily Five cards). Next week we will switch to characterization in fictional texts.
This week we finished our nonfiction books for writing workshop. Although some of the books are not completely finished, they students showed so much growth throughout this unit! We talked about the importance of creating goals, editing for spelling/capitalization/punctuation, writing a table of contents, opening chapters with a question to "pull-in" the reader, adding at least two facts per chapter, creating detailed pictures, and much more! I am so proud of their accomplishments. On Monday the students will be sharing their final products in small groups. I will be collecting the writing to complete a rubric and will then send the final pieces home, shortly after. Next week we will move into an author study unit on Mo Willems. We've already started reading a handful of Mo Willems stories and the students are pumped!
In math, the students worked hard completing their number corner assessment and unit 5 assessment. They all did an excellent job with this unit on 2D shapes, 3D shapes, and fractions. I made sure to review the questions from the tests that I noticed students struggled with. We have a few more lessons on shapes before we move into a unit focusing on story problems and addition/subtraction strategies.
Some reminders...
We are still missing CMOST field trip permission slips and money. If another form was sent home with your child, please do not forget to return it to school as soon as possible.
We are getting low on shared snacks. If you would not mind volunteering to bring in shared snacks for the afternoon, please sign-up in the link below.
www.signupgenius.com/go/70a0e4cadac22a7f94-snacks
Coming up...
This Monday (4/1) we have our Color-Run Kick-off assembly. The students are very excited!
Have a great weekend!
*Updated 3/21/19*
What a quick week! The students did such a great job on their spelling tests this week. They really are starting to understanding the word family patterns!
In reading, we switched to nonfiction/informational texts this week as we talked about nonfiction text features (pictures/photographs, table of contents, glossary, captions, headings, and index). The students learned that not only do they learn from the main text of the book, but the features help us learn as well. During Daily Five, the kids had to look for nonfiction text features in their own good fit books, as well.
In math, we continued talking about attributes for 3D shapes and worked a bit with fractions. The students learned how to name fractions with two equal parts (halves, 1/2) and fractions with 4 equal parts (quarters, fourths, 1/4). They did a great job!
In writing the students learned that their nonfiction stories can have a variety of writing. Some students added how-to and lists pages to their chapter books. We will be finishing up our nonfiction books within the next couple of weeks.
We are starting to get low on snacks, again. If you wouldn't mind signing up to donate safe snacks to our class (beginning next week) we would greatly appreciate it! The link is below.
New photos are posted from J.P.'s ninja dance birthday party! See "School Photos."
Coming up...
On Monday, March 25th, Pine Hollow will be coming to our classroom to do a lesson with the students. We will have one more in-class activity with Pine Hollow before we visit the Arboretum in June.
Have a great weekend!
*Updated 3/15/19*
I try to update our website every Friday, but I was out sick with the flu and I couldn't make it on here to update last Friday!
Here are some things we've done the last couple of weeks!
In reading, we continue to talk about strategies to help retell stories. So far we have talked about beginning/middle/end, the five finger retell, and the students' favorite - SWBST (Somebody Wanted But So Then). Using these strategies to help them, the students have done well retelling fictional stories. We will continue to incorporate these strategies into reading groups/independent reading and also learn more about nonfiction text features next week.
In writing, the kids continue to work hard creating their nonfiction pieces. We have started writing informational chapter books and the goal was for students to come up with a nonfiction topic, five chapter ideas, and begin each chapter with a creative opening question. Other goals were applying spelling using strategies (say it, slide it, hear it, write it AND listening for syllables knowing that each syllable has a vowel), writing at least a sentence or two to each chapter, pictures with labels/details, and ending each chapter with a creative thought/idea. We will continue to work on nonfiction stories for a few more weeks.
In math, we have spent a lot of time working with 2D and 3D shapes. The students complete a checkpoint on 2D and 3D shapes this week and did an excellent job. They are learning to be able to describe shapes based on their attributes. We will continue to work with shapes, as well as building math fluency with the think ten strategy and time to the half hour.
New photos will be posted this evening (under "School Photos") of our science fair participants (Great job, everyone!!) and Good Eats.
Recently many students have been bringing in toys/stuffed animals during the week and, unfortunately, it's starting to become a distraction. If you would not mind, please have your child save their toys/stuffed animals for free choice Fridays, only. Thanks!
Upcoming...
This coming Monday (3/18) is College Day. Please have your child wear any college gear to school. I'll be representing Syracuse!
There is no school this coming Friday, March 22nd. It is a Superintendent's Conference Day.
Reminder - Please do not forget to have your child read and complete their log to hand in every Friday. The activities on the back are important in building reading comprehension/understanding.
Have a great weekend!
*Updated 3/1/19*
I can't believe it's already March! We had a PARTY week! On Monday we celebrated Ashlynn's birthday with a stuffed animal pajama party. We also celebrated Alex's birthday on Wednesday with a reading beach party. Photos are posted under "School Photos." The students enjoyed both parties!
I loved all the creative 100th day object ideas. The kids did a great job sharing adjectives to describe their objects. Photos are posted of all the students with their one hundredth day bags.
During reading, the students listened to a handful of fictional stories and we discussed the importance of retelling the beginning, middle, and end. Important parts to include in your retell include the characters, setting, events, problem, and solution. The students had to apply this skill independently during Daily Five. Next week we will continue fictional retelling with the five finger strategy.
In writing, we are continuing to work on our nonfiction pieces. Today we learned that we can write chapter books! The students are choosing topics they know a lot about and "chopped" the topic into smaller parts to create chapters. The stories are coming along great!
In math we worked on 2D shapes. The students learned a lot about shape attributes as they tried to guide me to draw different 2D shapes (triangle, trapezoid, rhombus, hexagon). Ask your child to share an attribute of all these shapes!
Upcoming Events:
A new Scholastic book order will be coming home on Monday, March 4th. The order forms will be due the following Monday, March 11th.
We have our book fair preview on Monday, March 4th. The students will get a chance to make a list of books they are interested in.
We will be changing our flexible seats on Monday, so, if your child has mentioned a type of seating they would prefer (or there is one you do not want them to choose, please let me know).
Our conference days are on Thursday, March 14th and Tuesday, March 19th. There are only 18 available slots and 24 students in our class, so please make sure you are only signing up if you have questions or concerns. This is a parent-run conference so please be prepared to bring any questions or discussion topics that you would like to discuss.
Monday, March 18th is College Day! The kids can wear college gear or their favorite college colors to school that day!
Have a great weekend:)
*Updated 2/15/19*
We kept busy this week! During reading and Daily Five we talked about how good readers are constantly asking and answering questions about a text. The students were able to do this independently during Daily Five and also during reading groups.
In writing, the students continued to work on their nonfiction stories. They were able to use each other as mentors to generate more details and ideas to add to their topic. After vacation we will start working on chapter books where the students will think of a topic/main idea and subtopics related to their main idea to create chapters.
In math, we finished up comparing lengths related to penguins. We talked about thinking about the measuring strips as a number line and this helped the students compare their length to Rockhopper and King penguins and the penguins to each other. After vacation we will be doing a unit on 2D shapes.
There are a handful of students who are not completing their reading logs and handing them in every Friday. As this is the only homework we have in first grade, it is important to complete the activities so the students keep up with the comprehension activities related to the reading. We will be using a lot of the comprehension reading strategies in class, as well.
Many pictures were taken this week! Please see "School Photos," for pictures of the 100th day, Valentine's Day, our visit from Lysekno Dental, and Good Eats.
Coming up...
On Tuesday, February 26th, we will be having our 100th day celebration. A note went home today (with a brown bag) about our collecting 100 project. Please make sure the object fits in the brown bag as the students will be doing a mystery game trying to have the class guess their mystery object based on the adjective clues on the front of the bag. If you have any questions, please let me know!
Have a great vacation!
*Updated 2/8/19*
This week the students started independently choosing their Daily Five stations and I was very impressed with how well they did! We had a few hiccups, but by the end of the week, they figured out the routine. On Monday I will finish reading testing and plan to have reading groups back up and running. This coming week we will be focusing on the strategy asking and answering questions for fictional and informational texts.
In math, we continued to work on adding and subtracting on a number line with one-digit and two-digit numbers. The students took their unit 4 test and we reviewed some the questions they had trouble with. The test went home in their folders today. Our next unit will be 2D shapes after a quick chapter on measurement.
In writing we are continuing to work on non-fiction stories. The students learned strategies to help them apply "fancy" words to their writing and we reviewed finger spacing, uppercase letters, and punctuation. We will soon begin writing nonfiction chapter books!
This coming week is our Valentine's Day party on Thursday (and our 100th day - unless we have a snow day!). Although we will be celebrating the 100th day after February vacation, we will have a couple activities planned for Thursday. It will be a busy day! We also have Good Eats on Friday (rice cakes).
On Tuesday, February 26th, there will be a 100 object mystery bag project due (information coming home this week). Please have your child start thinking about 100 things they could fit in a brown bag (100 stones, 100 stickers, 100 paper clips, etc...).
Thank you to everyone who donated shoe boxes and egg cartons to the science lab. We are all set for our cricket labs! Also, thank you to everyone who brought in more shared snacks.
New photos posted from the week. Please see "School Photos." Have a great weekend!
*Updated 2/1/19*
What a busy week we had. It was great getting to know the students! I have posted some reminders and information about our week below.
This week I jumped right into Number Corner for math with the kids and I was very impressed with the challenging equations (multiplication included) and story problems (start and parts unknown) they came up with! We will continue to work on using a number line to count forward and backward by 1s and 10s in math.
This coming week we will jump back into Daily Five. The students are going to be able to choose their own stations for the day, but will have to complete each station once before they repeat any. I will begin reading testing this week and I'm anxious to spend some time reading individually with each student!
For writing, the students are continuing to work on non-fiction stories. They have generated lists of topics they know a lot about and are writing true writing pieces about their topics. We talked about the importance of illustrations and remembering to include spaces between words, capital letters at the beginning of sentences, and punctuation at the end of sentences. This week I will begin meeting with students individually and in small groups to work on their non-fiction pieces.
Our penguin research is almost complete! The kids went to the computer lab and used PebbleGo to record facts about their penguin on a bubble map. They are in the process of highlighting more facts about their penguin and will then transfer those notes to bubble maps, as well. Within the next week or so, the students will turn those notes into penguin mini-books.
Your child may have mentioned blue tickets. Throughout the day I have been rewarding positive behavior with blue tickets, which your child writes his or her name on and places in a bucket. On Fridays I will be picking 5 tickets for students to choose a prize from our prize box!
A note went home about our Valentine's Day party, which will celebrated in the afternoon on 2/14. Please make sure your child has a valentine for all the students in the class. We will be decorating bags this week!
Our 100th day of school is coming up soon! We are planning on celebrating after our February vacation on Tuesday, February 26th. There will be a 100 object mystery bag project due on that day. I will send more information about the celebration as it gets closer.
The February Scholastic book order went home this week. Please make sure you have your order in by this coming Wednesday, February 6th. I've included our class code (different from what you have been using) on the back of the paper order form. Let me know if you have any questions!
We are running low on classroom snacks. As of now we have a couple bags of cheddar popcorn and a couple bags of Cheetos. If you have not signed up for a snack and would be willing to donate for the next few weeks, it would be greatly appreciated! The link is below.
www.signupgenius.com/go/70a0e4cadac22a7f94-snacks
We are in need of shoe boxes for an upcoming science lab investigation. If you have any you are willing to part with, we would be happy to use them! Photos from our penguin feathers science lab are posted under "School Photos."
As always, if you have any questions, please do not hesitate to let me know!!
*Updated 1/25/19*
The first half of the year is officially over! I'm very anxious to get back into the classroom on Monday. I will be sending a letter home with some important information. Please look for a Hopes and Dreams sheet to fill out and return to school so that I can get to know your child better. I have included our safe snack sign-up list below and have also included it on the Safe Snack List tab on our website. I look forward to seeing everyone soon!
www.signupgenius.com/go/70a0e4cadac22a7f94-snacks
*Updated 12/29/18*
I can't believe my first day back is in less than one month! I went through and updated all of the pages on our classroom website. Please note, the Safe Snack List has been updated as of 12/18/18. My first day back will be on Monday, January 28th. If you have any questions before I return, please feel free to email me at [email protected]. Have a Happy New Year!
*Updated 8/11/18*
Please note our website is a work in progress! New posts are located under the safe snack list and district school calendar.
*Updated 10/6/17*
New photos are posted from our most recent birthdays, science lab, and Daily Five. See School Photos!
October's Scholastic Book order will be due this coming Tuesday, October 10th.
My last day here will be this Thursday, October 12th. Mrs. Adalian started today and will continue to shadow until her first day on Friday, October 13th. It's been going great! Please let us know if you have any questions.
This coming Friday, October 13th we have the New Salem Fire Department visiting. The students will get to see firefighter gear, learn about fire safety, and get a tour of a fire truck. It should be a great day! We also have a mystery reader in the afternoon.
As reminded below...Please do not forget to send in a shared snack for October. Also, please do not forget that reading logs are due at the end of every week. A few students have been forgetting to complete the reading comprehension and IXL work on the back of the log. These activities are beneficial to understanding the math and ELA concepts taught in the classroom. A note will be sent home if they are not completed or handed in.
Finally, please let us know if you are interested in signing up for any openings still available on the parent helper volunteer schedule.
*Updated 9/29/2017*
New photos are posted from our potato/carrot harvest, Good Eats, and our September birthday party. See School photos!
Reminders for this week - Please do not forget to send in a shared snack for October. Also, please do not forget that reading logs are due at the end of every week. A few students have been forgetting to complete the reading comprehension and IXL work on the back of the log. These activities are beneficial to understanding the math and ELA concepts taught in the classroom.
Friday, October 6th is picture day. Our pictures will be in the morning at 9:50. On Friday we also will be dismissed early for our yearly go home early drill.
October's Scholastic book order will be coming home this week. It will be due on Tuesday, October 10th.
As mentioned below, the list of parent helper volunteers is now posted! There are a handful of slots still available. If you would like to volunteer for a spot that is still open, please let me know as soon as possible. Thank you!!
*Updated 9/26/2017*
Please note: Since there is no school on Friday, the reading log will be due tomorrow and the spelling test will be tomorrow morning. Please let me know if you have any questions!
The list of parent helper volunteers is now posted! There are a handful of slots still available. If you would like to volunteer for a spot that is still open, please let me know as soon as possible. Thank you!!
*Updated 9/22/2017*
We had another busy week in first grade! The students continued to impress me with their independent reading during Daily Five and made it to 20 minutes! This week we also started training for read-to-someone. We discussed the different ways to read to someone (I read, you read...choral reading...reading different books) and how to check for understanding.
In writing, the students brainstormed brilliant beginnings for their self-selected writing stories and began the first several sentences to their stories. They are coming along nicely! This coming week I will begin conferencing individually with students, giving them suggestions to improve their writing.
With math, we have been working a lot with number bonds and number sentences. The students worked with their peanut butter and jelly partners to find all the different ways to make 6 and 7. We will continue with ways to make 8, 9, and 10 next week.
We had our first spelling test today and the students did great! Please reinforce to your child (as I have) that letters should be lowercase. We will continue to work on this in school.
Our first reading log was due today. We almost had 100%! Along with the reading log of what your child has read each night, please do not forget the reading comprehension and math IXL work on the back of the log.
Looking ahead...
This coming Tuesday the 26th, the students will be going to the garden to harvest the potatoes they planted in kindergarten. Please make sure they dress appropriately, as they may get dirty (I suggest sneakers).
On Thursday the 28th we have our September birthday party for Kira and Kathryn. We're looking forward to a great time!
Lastly, there is no school on Friday, September 29th.
*Updated 9/15/2017*
We had a very productive first week of school! The students are doing such an excellent job and I am so proud of them!
During writing workshop the students learned how to generate their own story ideas and brainstormed brilliant beginnings for their stories. With Daily Five, the students have learned how to pick Good Fit books following the I-PICK checklist (I choose a book, Purpose - Does it fit what I want to read? Interest - Does it look like I will enjoy the book? Comprehend - Do I understand what I am reading? Know - Do I know most words?) I was very impressed with how well the students took their time to make sure they were choosing Good Fit books. They impressed me even more when we started read-to-self today and went 10+ minutes reading silently to themselves without a break. Excellent work!
In math we have started talking about patterns in numbers and the students have worked with adding 1 and 2 to a given number. We will continue to work more on this next week.
Looking ahead...
The parent volunteer sign-ups will be closed on Sunday evening (17th). If you would like to volunteer/donate items for events throughout the year, please see the link for "Parent Helper Volunteers" and complete the Google doc.
September's Scholastic book orders are due by this Wednesday evening (20th). I will submit the order Thursday morning before school.
There is no school on Thursday, September 21st and our first mystery reader visit will be on Friday, September 22nd at 2:30.
Homework will be starting this coming week. On Monday the students will take their first spelling pretest (short a words). A list of activities was included in the Parents' Night folder with fun, engaging ways for students to practice their words throughout the week. Attached to the pretest will be a reading log (due on Friday morning). On the back, please have your child complete the comprehension activity. A math activity will also be included (IXL practice). In addition to the reading log, if students do not complete an activity in class that they are expected to complete, a note will be attached to the assignment for it to be completed, signed, and returned the following day. As always, please let me know if you have any questions!
The slideshow from Parents' Night is posted below. Have a great weekend!
*Updated 9/8/2017*
It has been a great first week! New photos are posted from our first week of school. See "School Photos."
A note went home on the first day of school asking students to bring in a photo from their summer vacation (we will be doing a writing activity with the photo) as well as photographs, magazine clippings, pictures, drawings, stickers, etc... to decorate their writing notebooks. Please make sure your child has all of these things into school by Monday, September 11th. We will be using them that afternoon. If you have any questions, please let me know!
Thank you to those of you who already sent in a shared snack! Every afternoon we have a shared snack from our safe snack list (we have an egg and gluten allergy so our snack list is limited). If you haven't already done so, please take a look at the link to our safe snack list. At the beginning of every month, we would like parents to bring in one item from the snack list to share with the class. Every day I give the students two options to choose from. We have a few items to last the next few days, but could use a few more. I will talk more about snack at Open House.
A Hopes and Dreams sheet also went home on the first day of school. If you haven't done so, please take the time to fill out the sheet letting me know anything about your child you feel is necessary as well as your hopes and dreams. I will try my best to make sure I can meet your expectations for the year!
As mentioned below...The parent volunteer sign-ups are now posted under "Parent Helper Volunteers." It is a survey of questions (sign up with your name for anything that you are interested in.) The survey will be open until Sunday, September 17th. Once the survey closes, I will get a list of everyone that signed up for each event throughout the year. Our room parents will randomly select helpers and I will post everything on the Parent Helper Volunteers page. If you have any questions, please let me know!!
This coming Thursday, September 14th is Parents' Night. Please plan to arrive at 6:30. I look forward to meeting everyone!
*Updated 9/7/2017*
We had a great first day back yesterday! The students worked very hard and I was impressed with how quickly they got back into the swing of things. I'm looking forward to another great day!
The parent volunteer sign-ups are now posted under "Parent Helper Volunteers." It is a survey of questions (sign up with your name for anything that you are interested in.) The survey will be open until Sunday, September 17th. Once the survey closes, I will get a list of everyone that signed up for each event throughout the year. Our room parents will randomly select helpers and I will post everything on the Parent Helper Volunteers page. If you have any questions, please let me know!!
*Updated 7/20/17*
New updates for the 2017-2018 school year have been posted! It is still a work in progress. I hope everyone is having a great summer and I look forward to seeing you in September!!
*Updated 6/13/17*
Thank you, everyone, for the generous gift cards, chocolate, and fingerprint tree picture. I am very grateful and cannot thank you all enough. It has been a wonderful year and I am going to miss everyone! I hope you all have an amazing summer! Good luck in second grade!!
Final photos posted from our summer birthdays party. See "School Photos."
*Updated 6/16/17*
I can't believe there is only one week left of the school year. Thank you, everyone, for such a wonderful school year. I have enjoyed every minute of it and will miss the kids very much. I hope everyone has a great summer. Good luck in second grade!
On Monday the 19th we have our June and summer birthdays party from 2:15-3.
This coming Friday the 23rd is our last day of school with an early dismissal at 11:30.
New photos posted from our Parents' Tea and Field Day. See "School Photos."
*Updated 6/9/17*
We had some beautiful weather for our field trip to the Pine Hollow Arboretum. New photos are posted (as well as photos from our garden planting).
This coming Tuesday the 13th is our Parents' Tea from 9:45-10:15 (although it may last until 10:30 with food/mingling). The students have been working very hard all week on their show for you. You don't want to miss it! All family is welcome:)
On Tuesday afternoon (13th) the band FLAME will be here performing many of their songs. This is one of my favorite assemblies and one the students always enjoy!
Thursday is FIELD DAY! T-shirts should be in at the beginning of this week. If you didn't order a t-shirt, our grade level is wearing blue. We will spend the morning outside watching the mile race, participating in tug-of-war, and taking part in many field activities. Please check the weather and dress your child/prepare accordingly (sneakers, sunscreen, water bottle, etc...). In the afternoon, a magician will be performing in an assembly for K-2. It's going to be a great day!
We are low on June snacks (we did not have enough to give to the students today). If you did not yet send in a snack for June, we could definitely use it!
Looking Ahead... Our summer birthdays party is on Monday, June 19th from 2:15-3. All June/July/August birthday parents are invited in for the party. Parents are to organize a game/craft/activity for the students that afternoon. Please let me know if you have any questions!
*Updated 6/2/17*
This week we finished our student guest readers! Thank you to everyone for sharing great stories and doing a wonderful job reading fluently! New photos from our final week of readers and our mystery reader are posted under "School Photos."
On Monday, June 5th, the students will be taking their end-of-the-year final math exam in computer lab. The students will also be going out to the garden for planting.
This coming Wednesday, June 7th is our field trip to the Pine Hollow Arboretum. We will be leaving school at 9:30 and returning around 12:30. Please look ahead at the weather and make sure your child dresses appropriately. We will be outside for most of the trip. We will be switching lunch and recess times with 4th grade and will be having recess from 12:40-1:02 and lunch from 1:02-1:22. A snack will be provided on our field trip since we will be eating a late lunch that day.
On Thursday, June 8th, we have our final Good Eats in the garden! The students will get to try edamame.
Reminder: Next Friday, June 9th, is a half-day of school. Also, please make sure to send in a final shared snack for June. We are getting low once again!
Looking ahead...Tuesday, June 13th is our Parents' Tea from 9:45-10:15 (although with mingling and food, it may last until special time at 10:30)! The students made invitations that went home last week. At the Parents' Tea, the children will be sharing PowerPoint presentations of first grade memories, performing a play, and sharing a surprise with parents. This is a celebration you will not want to miss! All family members are invited to attend!
*Updated 5/26/17*
This week we had many new, great guest readers and a fun May birthday party! New photos are posted under "School Photos."
Looking ahead - Tuesday, June 13th is our Parents' Tea from 9:45-10:15. The students made invitations that came home today. At the Parents' Tea, the children will be sharing PowerPoint presentations of first grade memories, performing a play, and sharing a surprise with parents. This is a celebration you will not want to miss!
*Updated 5/19/17*
Thank you, everyone, who brought in a shared snack this week. We now have enough snacks to last us through May.
This coming Thursday we have our May birthday party at 2:15 celebrating Alex and Bella. We are all looking forward to a fun time!
Our final book order will be coming home within the next couple of weeks. This is a good time to get some new books for the summer!
There is a little over a week left for our May pencil challenge. The students are working very hard to keep their pencil throughout the month of May!
New photos are posted from our third week of guest readers, field trip to the Children's Museum, Mo Willems publishing party, Good Eats, and our mystery reader visit. Please see "School Photos."
Looking ahead - Tuesday, June 13th is our Parents' Tea from 9:45-10:15. At the Parents' Tea, the children will be sharing PowerPoint presentations of first grade memories, performing a play, and sharing a surprise with parents. This is a celebration you will not want to miss! More information will be coming home soon.
*Updated 5/12/17*
I can't believe there are only 6 more weeks of school left! We have some important dates coming up quickly.
We had another successful week of student guest readers. The students are doing a wonderful job reading their stories fluently (good expression, rate, and accuracy)! This coming week will be Harry, Logan, and Judah. Please see the schedule below for other scheduled dates.
This coming Wednesday (5/17) is our field trip to the Children's Museum of Science and Technology (CMOST). We will be leaving school at 9:00 and returning around 1:30. We will be eating lunch outside at the museum so please make sure to send your child with a lunch from home.
A few parents have asked about the Mo Willems publishing party this Wednesday. This celebration will be just for the students. Your child will be sharing his or her story to a group of three or four other children in the class. The stories have come out great! A portfolio of all your child's published pieces will be coming home in June.
Looking ahead - Tuesday, June 13th is our Parents' Tea from 9:45-10:15. At the Parents' Tea, the children will be sharing PowerPoint presentations of first grade memories, performing a play, and sharing a surprise with parents. This is a celebration you will not want to miss! More information will be coming home soon.
We have only had a couple parents send in a shared snack for May and do not have enough snacks to make it through the rest of this week. If you haven't sent in a May snack, please try to send something from the safe snack this week.
New photos are posted from our week of guest readers. Please see "School Photos."
*Updated 5/5/17*
It was a great first week of student guest readers! Ben, Eva, Blayke, and Savannah started the week off with some great stories and did such a fabulous job reading! We are looking forward to another week of great readers and stories. Please see the schedule below if you are not sure when your child is scheduled to share.
This coming Thursday we will be taking a trip to the PAC at the Voorheesville High School to see the 5th grade performance of Willy Wonka. Students will be dismissed onto their buses from the high school. If you are picking up your child that day, please make sure to be at the high school by 3:00 for names to be called. More information went home today. Please let me know if you have any questions.
We are running low on snacks and glue sticks. If you have not yet sent in a May snack, please do not forget to do so.
New photos are posted from our first week of guest readers and Alex's birthday. See "School Photos."
*Updated 4/28/17*
It was a very busy week back from vacation! Please see "school photos" for more information about our food pantry visit, Good Eats, mystery reader, and April birthday party!
This coming week begins our student guest readers. Below is the calendar for which students are reading on what days. The students are to choose a book that they can read fluently in 15 minutes or less to the class. If you have any questions on how to prepare your child for this great experience, please let me know!
For the month of May, we are going to do a pencil challenge. There appears to be a sink hole for pencils in our classroom and Mrs. Capra and I decided to make a challenge out of it. We are asking students to bring in a brand new sharpened pencil starting Monday, May 1st. We will write the students' names on the pencils and whoever can keep the same pencil for the month of May will get a special treat!
Finally, please do not forget to bring in a shared snack for the month of May. Please check to make sure the snacks are free from eggs or MSG (monosodium glutamate).
It has been a great first week! New photos are posted from our first week of school. See "School Photos."
A note went home on the first day of school asking students to bring in a photo from their summer vacation (we will be doing a writing activity with the photo) as well as photographs, magazine clippings, pictures, drawings, stickers, etc... to decorate their writing notebooks. Please make sure your child has all of these things into school by Monday, September 11th. We will be using them that afternoon. If you have any questions, please let me know!
Thank you to those of you who already sent in a shared snack! Every afternoon we have a shared snack from our safe snack list (we have an egg and gluten allergy so our snack list is limited). If you haven't already done so, please take a look at the link to our safe snack list. At the beginning of every month, we would like parents to bring in one item from the snack list to share with the class. Every day I give the students two options to choose from. We have a few items to last the next few days, but could use a few more. I will talk more about snack at Open House.
A Hopes and Dreams sheet also went home on the first day of school. If you haven't done so, please take the time to fill out the sheet letting me know anything about your child you feel is necessary as well as your hopes and dreams. I will try my best to make sure I can meet your expectations for the year!
As mentioned below...The parent volunteer sign-ups are now posted under "Parent Helper Volunteers." It is a survey of questions (sign up with your name for anything that you are interested in.) The survey will be open until Sunday, September 17th. Once the survey closes, I will get a list of everyone that signed up for each event throughout the year. Our room parents will randomly select helpers and I will post everything on the Parent Helper Volunteers page. If you have any questions, please let me know!!
This coming Thursday, September 14th is Parents' Night. Please plan to arrive at 6:30. I look forward to meeting everyone!
*Updated 9/7/2017*
We had a great first day back yesterday! The students worked very hard and I was impressed with how quickly they got back into the swing of things. I'm looking forward to another great day!
The parent volunteer sign-ups are now posted under "Parent Helper Volunteers." It is a survey of questions (sign up with your name for anything that you are interested in.) The survey will be open until Sunday, September 17th. Once the survey closes, I will get a list of everyone that signed up for each event throughout the year. Our room parents will randomly select helpers and I will post everything on the Parent Helper Volunteers page. If you have any questions, please let me know!!
*Updated 7/20/17*
New updates for the 2017-2018 school year have been posted! It is still a work in progress. I hope everyone is having a great summer and I look forward to seeing you in September!!
*Updated 6/13/17*
Thank you, everyone, for the generous gift cards, chocolate, and fingerprint tree picture. I am very grateful and cannot thank you all enough. It has been a wonderful year and I am going to miss everyone! I hope you all have an amazing summer! Good luck in second grade!!
Final photos posted from our summer birthdays party. See "School Photos."
*Updated 6/16/17*
I can't believe there is only one week left of the school year. Thank you, everyone, for such a wonderful school year. I have enjoyed every minute of it and will miss the kids very much. I hope everyone has a great summer. Good luck in second grade!
On Monday the 19th we have our June and summer birthdays party from 2:15-3.
This coming Friday the 23rd is our last day of school with an early dismissal at 11:30.
New photos posted from our Parents' Tea and Field Day. See "School Photos."
*Updated 6/9/17*
We had some beautiful weather for our field trip to the Pine Hollow Arboretum. New photos are posted (as well as photos from our garden planting).
This coming Tuesday the 13th is our Parents' Tea from 9:45-10:15 (although it may last until 10:30 with food/mingling). The students have been working very hard all week on their show for you. You don't want to miss it! All family is welcome:)
On Tuesday afternoon (13th) the band FLAME will be here performing many of their songs. This is one of my favorite assemblies and one the students always enjoy!
Thursday is FIELD DAY! T-shirts should be in at the beginning of this week. If you didn't order a t-shirt, our grade level is wearing blue. We will spend the morning outside watching the mile race, participating in tug-of-war, and taking part in many field activities. Please check the weather and dress your child/prepare accordingly (sneakers, sunscreen, water bottle, etc...). In the afternoon, a magician will be performing in an assembly for K-2. It's going to be a great day!
We are low on June snacks (we did not have enough to give to the students today). If you did not yet send in a snack for June, we could definitely use it!
Looking Ahead... Our summer birthdays party is on Monday, June 19th from 2:15-3. All June/July/August birthday parents are invited in for the party. Parents are to organize a game/craft/activity for the students that afternoon. Please let me know if you have any questions!
*Updated 6/2/17*
This week we finished our student guest readers! Thank you to everyone for sharing great stories and doing a wonderful job reading fluently! New photos from our final week of readers and our mystery reader are posted under "School Photos."
On Monday, June 5th, the students will be taking their end-of-the-year final math exam in computer lab. The students will also be going out to the garden for planting.
This coming Wednesday, June 7th is our field trip to the Pine Hollow Arboretum. We will be leaving school at 9:30 and returning around 12:30. Please look ahead at the weather and make sure your child dresses appropriately. We will be outside for most of the trip. We will be switching lunch and recess times with 4th grade and will be having recess from 12:40-1:02 and lunch from 1:02-1:22. A snack will be provided on our field trip since we will be eating a late lunch that day.
On Thursday, June 8th, we have our final Good Eats in the garden! The students will get to try edamame.
Reminder: Next Friday, June 9th, is a half-day of school. Also, please make sure to send in a final shared snack for June. We are getting low once again!
Looking ahead...Tuesday, June 13th is our Parents' Tea from 9:45-10:15 (although with mingling and food, it may last until special time at 10:30)! The students made invitations that went home last week. At the Parents' Tea, the children will be sharing PowerPoint presentations of first grade memories, performing a play, and sharing a surprise with parents. This is a celebration you will not want to miss! All family members are invited to attend!
*Updated 5/26/17*
This week we had many new, great guest readers and a fun May birthday party! New photos are posted under "School Photos."
Looking ahead - Tuesday, June 13th is our Parents' Tea from 9:45-10:15. The students made invitations that came home today. At the Parents' Tea, the children will be sharing PowerPoint presentations of first grade memories, performing a play, and sharing a surprise with parents. This is a celebration you will not want to miss!
*Updated 5/19/17*
Thank you, everyone, who brought in a shared snack this week. We now have enough snacks to last us through May.
This coming Thursday we have our May birthday party at 2:15 celebrating Alex and Bella. We are all looking forward to a fun time!
Our final book order will be coming home within the next couple of weeks. This is a good time to get some new books for the summer!
There is a little over a week left for our May pencil challenge. The students are working very hard to keep their pencil throughout the month of May!
New photos are posted from our third week of guest readers, field trip to the Children's Museum, Mo Willems publishing party, Good Eats, and our mystery reader visit. Please see "School Photos."
Looking ahead - Tuesday, June 13th is our Parents' Tea from 9:45-10:15. At the Parents' Tea, the children will be sharing PowerPoint presentations of first grade memories, performing a play, and sharing a surprise with parents. This is a celebration you will not want to miss! More information will be coming home soon.
*Updated 5/12/17*
I can't believe there are only 6 more weeks of school left! We have some important dates coming up quickly.
We had another successful week of student guest readers. The students are doing a wonderful job reading their stories fluently (good expression, rate, and accuracy)! This coming week will be Harry, Logan, and Judah. Please see the schedule below for other scheduled dates.
This coming Wednesday (5/17) is our field trip to the Children's Museum of Science and Technology (CMOST). We will be leaving school at 9:00 and returning around 1:30. We will be eating lunch outside at the museum so please make sure to send your child with a lunch from home.
A few parents have asked about the Mo Willems publishing party this Wednesday. This celebration will be just for the students. Your child will be sharing his or her story to a group of three or four other children in the class. The stories have come out great! A portfolio of all your child's published pieces will be coming home in June.
Looking ahead - Tuesday, June 13th is our Parents' Tea from 9:45-10:15. At the Parents' Tea, the children will be sharing PowerPoint presentations of first grade memories, performing a play, and sharing a surprise with parents. This is a celebration you will not want to miss! More information will be coming home soon.
We have only had a couple parents send in a shared snack for May and do not have enough snacks to make it through the rest of this week. If you haven't sent in a May snack, please try to send something from the safe snack this week.
New photos are posted from our week of guest readers. Please see "School Photos."
*Updated 5/5/17*
It was a great first week of student guest readers! Ben, Eva, Blayke, and Savannah started the week off with some great stories and did such a fabulous job reading! We are looking forward to another week of great readers and stories. Please see the schedule below if you are not sure when your child is scheduled to share.
This coming Thursday we will be taking a trip to the PAC at the Voorheesville High School to see the 5th grade performance of Willy Wonka. Students will be dismissed onto their buses from the high school. If you are picking up your child that day, please make sure to be at the high school by 3:00 for names to be called. More information went home today. Please let me know if you have any questions.
We are running low on snacks and glue sticks. If you have not yet sent in a May snack, please do not forget to do so.
New photos are posted from our first week of guest readers and Alex's birthday. See "School Photos."
*Updated 4/28/17*
It was a very busy week back from vacation! Please see "school photos" for more information about our food pantry visit, Good Eats, mystery reader, and April birthday party!
This coming week begins our student guest readers. Below is the calendar for which students are reading on what days. The students are to choose a book that they can read fluently in 15 minutes or less to the class. If you have any questions on how to prepare your child for this great experience, please let me know!
For the month of May, we are going to do a pencil challenge. There appears to be a sink hole for pencils in our classroom and Mrs. Capra and I decided to make a challenge out of it. We are asking students to bring in a brand new sharpened pencil starting Monday, May 1st. We will write the students' names on the pencils and whoever can keep the same pencil for the month of May will get a special treat!
Finally, please do not forget to bring in a shared snack for the month of May. Please check to make sure the snacks are free from eggs or MSG (monosodium glutamate).
*Updated 4/8/17*
Our Mo Willems author study has gotten off to a great start! We started the week developing characters and character traits (as we learned from Mo Willems, he spends a great deal of time creating characters before writing his stories)! At the end of the week we started reading the Elephant and Piggie series. We will read several books in the series and discuss the story elements we notice across the texts. The students will then get the opportunity to make their own Elephant and Piggie book with the characters they created! We will also study the Pigeon series and Knuffle Bunny series.
This coming week a note will be coming home about our May guest readers. Each day for the month of May and beginning of June, a student in our class will get the chance to be a guest reader. They will have to bring in a book that they can read fluently to the class in under 15 minutes. Please help your child pick and practice reading a book that he or she would like to share. As always, please let me know if you have any questions!
After April vacation, on Wednesday the 26th, we will be taking a walking field trip to the food pantry at St. Matthews Church. Each child has volunteered to donate an item from different food groups to bring to the pantry. Please make sure to have the food item on that day and to check the weather so that your child can dress appropriately. Jeanne and Megan will contact those parents who were selected to chaperone the trip.
We have a mystery reader on Thursday, April 27th at 2:30 and our April birthday party on Friday, April 28th at 2:15.
New pictures are posted from our mystery reader visit on Friday and Camryn, Eva, and Ben's birthdays!
*Updated 3/31/17*
After a pretty busy couple of weeks, we have a couple calm weeks ahead of us. Within the next couple of weeks we will be wrapping up our science unit on nutrition, developing our Mo Willems writing stories (we spent a day listening and watching videos about how he became a writer and develops his characters), and talking about Earth Day. Spring break is right around the corner!
New photos are posted from our second Pine Hollow visit and our mystery reader! See "School Photos."
*Updated 3/24/17*
This coming Monday morning is our spring pictures. We also have our Color-a-Thon Kick-off Assembly at 2:30. The students will learn about the 5k run and how to participate. Packets of information will be going home that evening.
On Friday, the students will be presenting their published All About book to our class and other first grade classes. These presentations are just for the students. We will be dividing our classes up into four groups so the students will get to see published pieces from all the first grade classes. We're looking forward to it! Our next writing unit will be a Mo Willems Author Study where the students will model Mo Willems' style/writing elements in their own writing pieces.
New photos are posted from our Pine Hollow Arboretum visit and Good Eats. See "School Photos!"
*Updated 3/17/17*
Happy St. Patrick's Day! The day started out with a surprising visit from the leprechaun! The students noticed right away that all of our St. Patrick's Day books were out (and looked like they were read!), green markers, crayons, paper, and unifex cubes were all over the room, and the students even found green footprints (we had a laugh when we noticed they led into the bathroom where we found green water in the toilet!). We had a great afternoon listening to St. Patrick's Day stories, making a rainbow/shamrock/pot of gold craft, and eating some delicious snacks. Thank you to all the parents who made that possible!
We have a busy week coming up! On Tuesday we have our last day of spring conferences. These are parent-driven conferences, so please come prepared with questions or concerns that you have. On Wednesday we have a special performance from the Saratoga Opera. On Thursday we have a visit from the Pine Hollow Arboretum in Slingerlands. We will have two in-classroom visits before we go to the preserve for a field trip in the spring! Finally, on Thursday, we have another Good Eats visit where we will be studying turnips.
New photos are posted from our St. Patrick's Day party. See "School Photos."
*Updated 3/10/17*
The March Scholastic book order is due today. Please make sure to get your order in by this evening.
This Monday is College Day! Feel free to wear any college clothing to school. The students will get to take part in trivia games and activities about college and college readiness. It's going to be a fun day!
March conferences are scheduled for Thursday, March 16th and Tuesday, March 21st. These are half-days with an early dismissal at 11:30. The March conferences are not mandatory. Please be aware that these conferences are parent driven, so please come with questions you have about your child's report card. The report cards are planned to go home on Wednesday, March 15th. If you feel you do not have any questions at this time, there is no need to schedule a conference.
On Friday, March 17th, we have our St. Patrick's Day party in the afternoon. There are no parent volunteers needed for this party, but we do have some volunteers to bring in food, goodies, paper products. Please check with Jeanne or Megan if you are unsure if you volunteered to donate.
Please do not forget to send in a March snack from the safe snack list.
*Updated 3/3/17*
With report cards and conferences around the corner, I will be taking a break from the progress reports. The Canyon Creek conference scheduler is now open (see link below). If you currently have concerns regarding your child’s progress, please reserve a time slot so that we may meet. Conferences will be parent-driven; please come prepared with your concern(s). If you do not have concerns at this time, we will not need to meet. You may want to wait until report cards are distributed. If you are unsure about a need to confer, please let me know!
Conference Scheduler
Next Friday, March 10th, is a half-day. Students will be dismissed at 11:30
New photos from our 100th day celebration and our mystery reader visit!
*Updated 2/17/17*
Thank you to all the parents who came to our penguin book presentations today! The students really enjoyed sharing their hard work with others and had a great time. Sometime in the next few weeks, I will email the penguin book videos for everyone to keep their own copy. Our next writing unit will be All About nonfiction writing. The students will interview a partner (and vice versa) asking them questions about themselves, which they will then turn into an All About book.
Another thank you to everyone who brought in change for our penguin adoption drive! Mrs. Molloy's class and our class raised enough money to each adopt our own Emperor penguin chick. We will receive a photo of the Emperor penguin chick, a penguin stuffed animal, an adoption certificate, and a fact sheet. Just like Gingerbread Fred, students will get to take turns bringing home the penguin stuffed animal and writing about what they did in a journal. Be on the lookout for the penguin visit mid-late March!
On Tuesday, February 27th, we have our 100th day of school celebration. We will be doing many 100th day activities, one of which is sharing our 100 items project. Please make sure your child includes 100 objects in the bag that was sent home with adjectives on the cover sheet to describe their object. On the 27th, we will be sharing our clues for the rest of the class to guess. It will be a fun day!
New photos are posted from our Valentine's Day party, Good Eats, Lucas and Logan's birthday party, and our penguin book publishing party. See "School Photos."
I hope everyone has a wonderful winter break!!
Our Mo Willems author study has gotten off to a great start! We started the week developing characters and character traits (as we learned from Mo Willems, he spends a great deal of time creating characters before writing his stories)! At the end of the week we started reading the Elephant and Piggie series. We will read several books in the series and discuss the story elements we notice across the texts. The students will then get the opportunity to make their own Elephant and Piggie book with the characters they created! We will also study the Pigeon series and Knuffle Bunny series.
This coming week a note will be coming home about our May guest readers. Each day for the month of May and beginning of June, a student in our class will get the chance to be a guest reader. They will have to bring in a book that they can read fluently to the class in under 15 minutes. Please help your child pick and practice reading a book that he or she would like to share. As always, please let me know if you have any questions!
After April vacation, on Wednesday the 26th, we will be taking a walking field trip to the food pantry at St. Matthews Church. Each child has volunteered to donate an item from different food groups to bring to the pantry. Please make sure to have the food item on that day and to check the weather so that your child can dress appropriately. Jeanne and Megan will contact those parents who were selected to chaperone the trip.
We have a mystery reader on Thursday, April 27th at 2:30 and our April birthday party on Friday, April 28th at 2:15.
New pictures are posted from our mystery reader visit on Friday and Camryn, Eva, and Ben's birthdays!
*Updated 3/31/17*
After a pretty busy couple of weeks, we have a couple calm weeks ahead of us. Within the next couple of weeks we will be wrapping up our science unit on nutrition, developing our Mo Willems writing stories (we spent a day listening and watching videos about how he became a writer and develops his characters), and talking about Earth Day. Spring break is right around the corner!
New photos are posted from our second Pine Hollow visit and our mystery reader! See "School Photos."
*Updated 3/24/17*
This coming Monday morning is our spring pictures. We also have our Color-a-Thon Kick-off Assembly at 2:30. The students will learn about the 5k run and how to participate. Packets of information will be going home that evening.
On Friday, the students will be presenting their published All About book to our class and other first grade classes. These presentations are just for the students. We will be dividing our classes up into four groups so the students will get to see published pieces from all the first grade classes. We're looking forward to it! Our next writing unit will be a Mo Willems Author Study where the students will model Mo Willems' style/writing elements in their own writing pieces.
New photos are posted from our Pine Hollow Arboretum visit and Good Eats. See "School Photos!"
*Updated 3/17/17*
Happy St. Patrick's Day! The day started out with a surprising visit from the leprechaun! The students noticed right away that all of our St. Patrick's Day books were out (and looked like they were read!), green markers, crayons, paper, and unifex cubes were all over the room, and the students even found green footprints (we had a laugh when we noticed they led into the bathroom where we found green water in the toilet!). We had a great afternoon listening to St. Patrick's Day stories, making a rainbow/shamrock/pot of gold craft, and eating some delicious snacks. Thank you to all the parents who made that possible!
We have a busy week coming up! On Tuesday we have our last day of spring conferences. These are parent-driven conferences, so please come prepared with questions or concerns that you have. On Wednesday we have a special performance from the Saratoga Opera. On Thursday we have a visit from the Pine Hollow Arboretum in Slingerlands. We will have two in-classroom visits before we go to the preserve for a field trip in the spring! Finally, on Thursday, we have another Good Eats visit where we will be studying turnips.
New photos are posted from our St. Patrick's Day party. See "School Photos."
*Updated 3/10/17*
The March Scholastic book order is due today. Please make sure to get your order in by this evening.
This Monday is College Day! Feel free to wear any college clothing to school. The students will get to take part in trivia games and activities about college and college readiness. It's going to be a fun day!
March conferences are scheduled for Thursday, March 16th and Tuesday, March 21st. These are half-days with an early dismissal at 11:30. The March conferences are not mandatory. Please be aware that these conferences are parent driven, so please come with questions you have about your child's report card. The report cards are planned to go home on Wednesday, March 15th. If you feel you do not have any questions at this time, there is no need to schedule a conference.
On Friday, March 17th, we have our St. Patrick's Day party in the afternoon. There are no parent volunteers needed for this party, but we do have some volunteers to bring in food, goodies, paper products. Please check with Jeanne or Megan if you are unsure if you volunteered to donate.
Please do not forget to send in a March snack from the safe snack list.
*Updated 3/3/17*
With report cards and conferences around the corner, I will be taking a break from the progress reports. The Canyon Creek conference scheduler is now open (see link below). If you currently have concerns regarding your child’s progress, please reserve a time slot so that we may meet. Conferences will be parent-driven; please come prepared with your concern(s). If you do not have concerns at this time, we will not need to meet. You may want to wait until report cards are distributed. If you are unsure about a need to confer, please let me know!
Conference Scheduler
Next Friday, March 10th, is a half-day. Students will be dismissed at 11:30
New photos from our 100th day celebration and our mystery reader visit!
*Updated 2/17/17*
Thank you to all the parents who came to our penguin book presentations today! The students really enjoyed sharing their hard work with others and had a great time. Sometime in the next few weeks, I will email the penguin book videos for everyone to keep their own copy. Our next writing unit will be All About nonfiction writing. The students will interview a partner (and vice versa) asking them questions about themselves, which they will then turn into an All About book.
Another thank you to everyone who brought in change for our penguin adoption drive! Mrs. Molloy's class and our class raised enough money to each adopt our own Emperor penguin chick. We will receive a photo of the Emperor penguin chick, a penguin stuffed animal, an adoption certificate, and a fact sheet. Just like Gingerbread Fred, students will get to take turns bringing home the penguin stuffed animal and writing about what they did in a journal. Be on the lookout for the penguin visit mid-late March!
On Tuesday, February 27th, we have our 100th day of school celebration. We will be doing many 100th day activities, one of which is sharing our 100 items project. Please make sure your child includes 100 objects in the bag that was sent home with adjectives on the cover sheet to describe their object. On the 27th, we will be sharing our clues for the rest of the class to guess. It will be a fun day!
New photos are posted from our Valentine's Day party, Good Eats, Lucas and Logan's birthday party, and our penguin book publishing party. See "School Photos."
I hope everyone has a wonderful winter break!!
*Updated 2/14/17*
Just a reminder that the change for our penguin adoption is due this Friday, February 17th. We are hoping to have the Emperor penguin chick adopted this weekend!
*Updated 2/10/17*
We have a busy week coming up! Today the students decorated their Valentine's Day bags with stickers, markers, and crayons. On Tuesday, February 14th, we will be having our Valentine's Day party where the students will be passing out their valentines (please make sure you have one for each student in the class), reading their valentines, eating some yummy snacks, and playing games. We're looking forward to it!
The day after our Valentine's Day party, Wednesday the 15th, is our official 100th day of school! We will be celebrating the 100th day of school after our winter vacation on Tuesday, February 28th. On that day we will have many 100th day activities, one of which will need to be completed at home and returned on the 28th. On Monday, a note will be coming home with directions for the project. The students will get a paper bag and cover sheet. In the paper bag, please count out 100 of the same object (stickers, string, buttons, beans, pasta, baseball cards, etc...). To make it easier, you can count out groups of ten before placing the objects in the bag. On the cover sheet, please write down five clues (adjectives) about your object. On the 28th, the students will read their clues and we will have fun guessing!
On Thursday, February 16th, we have Good Eats and our February birthday party celebrating Logan and Lucas!
Finally, on Friday, February 17th, we have our penguin storybook presentations from 9:45-10:15. We are just about finished with our storybooks on the iPads and the students are very excited to share them with you. Any family members or friends are welcome to attend. We hope to see you then!
The Six Flags Read to Succeed forms are due on Friday, February 17th. I know everyone is reading every night, so why not write it down and earn a free pass to Six Flags!
New photos are posted from our mystery reader visit!
*Updated 2/3/17*
On Tuesday, February 14th, we will be having our Valentine's Day party at 1:30. A note went home with all of our classmates' names. Please make sure you have a valentine for each student in the class.
On Friday, February 17th, we will have our publishing party for our penguin storybooks from 9:45-10:15. Any family members are welcome to attend. We started our storybooks this week and the students have done an excellent job quickly learning how to add all the features to their books. Thank you to all our parent volunteers who have helped with the process!
Over February vacation there will be a 100th day of school project. A sheet with be coming home that says, "Paper Bag Challenge." The students have to find 100 items (of the same thing - pasta, buttons, beads, stickers, etc...) and place them all in a brown bag. On the sheet, the students have to write five adjectives describing their 100 objects in the bag. We will be playing a guessing game to see if we can guess what each student brought!
Six Flags Read to Succeed Forms must be handed in no later than Friday, February 17th.
*Updated 1/27/17*
We have a handful of exciting activities coming up!
This coming Friday, February 3rd, the students will have their first marble party! They voted on a stuffed animal/movie/pajama party. A note went home with a list of movies the students are interested in. Please look the list over and send it back to school, making note of what movies you would not like your child to watch. We made sure they are all G or PG. Please have the note back to school before Friday.
Looking ahead to next month, we will be having our Publishing Party for our penguin storybooks on Friday, February 17th from 9:45-10:15. Any family members are welcome to attend. We are just about wrapped up with our research and will be starting our storybooks this coming week. The students are working very hard. Thank you to all our parent volunteers who have helped with the process. There are still many more openings if you would like to come in and help out! The link is below.
Parent Project Helper
Last week the students took an on-line math assessment (called Star Math) to test their achievement in first grade math skills. In the comments section of the progress reports this week, I made sure to write down specific skills that your child needs to work on as a result of the test. If you would like more information, or a copy of your child's report, please let me know!
Our 100th day of school is coming up soon! We are planning on celebrating after our February vacation, which will be after the 100th day. I will send more information about the celebration as it gets closer.
We are getting very low on snack. If you would not mind sending in your February snack early, we could definitely use it!
New photos are posted from our penguin research and our mystery reader! See "School Photos."
*Updated 1/20/17*
We have some future researchers on our hands! Technology hiccups aside, our penguin research has gotten off to great start! The students were very patient while we got the iPads ready to go and got right to work restating facts they found about their penguins. We will be spending another week researching our penguins before we start putting our slides together. There are still many slots open if you would like to come in and help out. The link is below.
Parent Research Helpers
If you have not sent in a shared snack for January, please try to send in a snack soon, as our supply is running low.
New photos are posted from another comparing lengths math lesson and our Good Eats barley visit. See "School Photos."
*Updated 1/15/17*
New photos are posted from our comparing lengths math lesson!
*Updated 1/9/17*
Happy New Year! What a busy week back to school! Here is what we have coming up:
Next week we are beginning to learn about Antarctica and penguins. We will be doing a penguin research project where the students will be researching one of four penguins (Adelie Penguin, African Penguin, King Penguin, Emperor Penguin) on PebbleGo. We are learning to restate facts in our own words and the students will be recording their facts onto note cards, which they will then sort into categories to make slides. The last stage is turning the slides into a book on the Book Creator app using the iPads. We will need approximately two parent helpers each day (researching, organizing note cards into slides, creating our book on the iPads). Below is a link that Jeanne and Megan created for sign-ups if you are interested! At the end of the project, we will have a Publishing Party for all family members to come in a preview the books. Please let me know if you have any questions!
Parent Research Helpers
An informatonal form went home today about our new reading fundraiser "Read to Succeed." Since the students read every night, anyway, why not make it count towards a free season pass to Six Flags Great Escape! The forms are due no later than February 17, 2017. All details are outlined in the packet, but please let me know if you have any other questions!
Please do not forget to bring in a shared snack for the month of January!
New photos are posted from our mystery reader visit on Friday!
*Updated 12/23/16*
Thank you to everyone for coming in for our Publishing Party today. It was such a wonderful celebration! I also wanted to thank all the students and parents for the thoughtful holiday gifts. The gift cards, soap, and lotion will be put to great use! I hope everyone has a wonderful, relaxing, holiday break. See you in 2017!
New photos are posted from our winter projects, mystery reader, and publishing party. See "School Photos!"
*Updated 12/19/16*
This week is a word wall review week for spelling. There was no pretest today. The students are to practice the list of word wall words that are attached to the reading log. On Friday, I will choose ten words from the list (no two or three-letter words) for the spelling test.
We have a busy week! This coming Wednesday is our winter projects morning from 9-10:00. If you are a parent helper, please don't forget to organize a 10-15 minute game/craft. The students will work in small groups and rotate to each parent activity. They are looking forward to it!
On Friday, we have our Winter Celebration. Parents and family members are invited in from 9:45-10:15 to listen to the students share their small moment stories they have worked hard on this past writing unit. I have enjoyed meeting with students during this writing unit!
On Friday afternoon, we have our Welcome Winter Party. It looks like we will be watching The Polar Express while enjoying popcorn and apple cider. Pajamas are welcome! Please no robes or slippers. It will be a nice beginning to a long holiday break!
New photos are posted from our December birthday party. See "School Photos!"
I hope everyone has a wonderful holiday break!!
*Updated 12/15/16*
We have another great resource for your children to practice math, ELA, word study, and fluency skills! The website is Front Row and I created an account for each student in our class under our class name "Countermine Kids." If you click on the link below, it will bring you to the log-in page where you will need to put in your child's first name, last name, and our class code (counta). We will be using this site in computer lab. Please let me know if you have any questions!
Front Row
*Updated 12/9/16*
Some important upcoming events...
Gingerbread Fred continues to make his nightly trips to our homes! Don't forget to journal your fun so that your child can share his or her adventures with the class!
Next week we have two days of parent teacher conferences. Please do not forget that Wednesday (14th) and Friday (16th) are half days with an early dismissal at 11:30. Our final half-day for conferences will be on Tuesday, December 20th. I look forward to meeting with all of you!
On Friday, December 16th, we have our December birthday party for Devin and Judah at 9:45!
On Wednesday, December 21st, we have our winter projects from 9-10. If you are a parent helper, please do not forget to organize a game/craft for students to complete during this time. The students will be rotating through the stations, each lasting about 15 minutes. Please let me know if you need any help!
A note went home about our Writing Celebration on Friday, December 23rd at 9:45. The students will be presenting their small moment story to any family/friends who would like to join. We hope to see you there!
On Friday, December 23rd, we also have our Welcome Winter Party. A note went home with a list of movies the students picked as possiblilties for our party. They will be eating popcorn, drinking cider, and watching one of the movies on the list. Be sure to let me know if you do not want your child watching any of the movies on the list. The slips are due on Friday, December 16th.
As another reminder, please do not forget to have your child read/complete their reading log each night. We continue to have students forget to hand in their logs every Friday. Thank you!
*Updated 12/2/16*
There were many students who did not turn in their reading log today. Please don't forget to send that to school on Fridays. I will be attaching a note to the incomplete reading logs on Friday to remind students/parents to finish and return the log by Monday. The comprehension activity on the back of the log is beneficial to the students' reading comprehension so please make sure that is filled out as well (by the student). Please let me know if you have any questions!
On Friday, December 23rd, we will be having a writing celebration from 9:45-10:15. The students will be presenting their published small moments story and all parents/family are invited to the celebration. A note will be coming home this week with more information.
There are still a couple of parents who have not signed up for a parent/teacher conference. There are a few dates still open so please let me know if you would like to meet.
New photos are from posted from our mystery reader visit!
*Updated 11/25/16*
I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving! I am so grateful to have such a wonderful class! We had a busy two-day week with our baking and feast. Please see updated school photos for all the fun!
The conference portal has closed. If you did not sign up for a December conference and would like one, please let me know.
School make-up photos are this coming Monday, November 28th.
Gingerbread Fred has started making his trips to all our homes. Please keep an eye out to see if your child has him for the night.
Enjoy the rest of your holiday weekend!
*Updated 11/21/16*
Gingerbread Fred has come to visit! Tonight, Gingerbread Fred will be going home with a student in our class! Each night a student will get to bring home Gingerbread Fred to join their night/morning activities! Each child will have to write what they did with Gingerbread Fred in the journal that comes home. Please feel free to add pictures, trinkets, etc... to the tin when you return the bag with the journal and Gingerbread Fred the next morning (all items will be returned). Please let me know if you have any questions!
*Updated 11/18/16*
We are running low on shared snacks. If you have not brought in a shared snack for November, we hope you can help out!
This week is our Thanksgiving baking and feast. On Monday, November 21st, we will be making banana bread, pumpkin bread, apple bread, and corn bread. The breads will be baked and brought back in for our feast the following day. *These recipes are egg free!* For our feast, the students will each have a job either making butter to go with the breads, popping popcorn, making fruit salad, making trail mix, or setting the tables. A sheet went home with one item to donate towards our feast on Tuesday. Please let me know as soon as possible if you cannot bring in the item your child volunteered for so I can make sure we get it before the feast. Please let me know if you have any questions!
Please do not forget to sign-up for a December conference through Canyon Creek.
New photos are posted from our November birthday party and Good Eats!
I hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving!!!
*Updated 11/11/16*
This week we spent our content time learning a lot about Election Day and Veteran's Day. We hope everyone had a nice Veteran's Day off!
Please make sure you send in a shared snack for November if you have not yet done so. Please check the safe snack list.
This Friday I will be sending home another progress report. It will be the last one until after December conferences since the information presented on the report cards would be repetitive. If you have any questions between this next progress report and conferences, please let me know!
Conferences are now being scheduled through Canyon Creek. Please make sure you log in to sign up for your child's conference in December.
Next week is our Thanksgiving baking and feast. On Monday, November 21st, we will be making banana bread, pumpkin bread, apple bread, and corn bread. The breads will be baked and brought back in for our feast the following day. For our feast, the students will each have a job either making butter to go with the breads, popping popcorn, making fruit salad, making trail mix, or setting the tables. A sheet went home this past Friday with one item to donate towards our feast on Tuesday. Please let me know as soon as possible if you cannot bring in the item your child volunteered for so I can make sure we get it before the feast. Please let me know if you have any questions!
New photos are posted from our Trooper Davis visit.
*Updated 11/4/16*
It's hard to believe that another month of school is already over! This was another busy week (probably why this month flew by so quickly)! We had a great time at our Halloween party and ended it with another great mystery reader! There are some reminders below:
Today was Delia's last day at Voorheesville:( We will miss her! We had a little party for her today to wish her well. Good luck at your new school, Delia!!
Please don't forget to send in a shared snack for November; our supply is getting low. Please make sure to check the safe snack list.
This coming Thursday morning (11/10) is our Veteran's Day breakfast. If you are attending, please make sure your permission slip is handed in.
There is no school on Friday for Veteran's day (11/11). Please make sure homework reading logs are handed in by Thursday. We are still missing a handful of students' logs each week. Also, please remember to complete the comprehension activity on the back of the log. It is a review of different reading skills we are practicing in school.
New photos are posted from our Halloween party/parade and our mystery reader visit. See "School Photos!"
*Updated 10/28/16*
This Monday is our Halloween party. If you are a parent helper, please don't forget to bring in a game/craft/activity for students to rotate through stations. The students will be changing into their costumes before the party and we will also have a few snacks. At 2:30 we have our school-wide parade. All parents are welcome to attend. There will be a sign-out sheet in the classroom if you are planning on taking your child home after the parade.
Please don't forget to send in a shared snack for November!
New photos are posted from our Pumpkin Patch field trip and our pumpkin decorating. See "School Photos!"
*Updated 10/27/16*
A few parents have asked how they can help their child at home with reading. Under "Curriculum" I posted a file that includes the decoding strategies we have been working on in school. It includes a description of what each one means. If students are reading and are struggling on decoding a word, they can follow those steps to help them figure out the words. "Lips the Fish" has students get their mouth ready to say the first sound. "Eagle Eye" has students look at picture clues to help them determine a word. "Stretchy Snake" means to slowly stretch each letter sound to say a word. Eventually students should be able to recognize chunks in words, using "Chunky Monkey" to help them decode words. The last two strategies have students using context to help decode. With "Skippy Frog" they skip the word and finish reading the sentence and with "Tryin' Lion" they keep rereading the sentence, omitting the word, until they are able to figure it out. We have been working a great deal on these strategies in school so the students should be familar with them! Please let me know if you have any questions!
*Updated 10/22/16*
This Thursday is our trip to the Pumpkin Patch. The weather looks like it could be cold and rainy so please make sure to send your child to school with the appropriate clothing. We will also be eating lunch at the Pumpkin Patch so please send your child with a bagged lunch. If you have any questions, please let me know!
On Friday we will be decorating the pumpkins we get at the Pumpkin Patch. If you are a classroom volunteer, please bring in some supplies that the students could use to decorate their pumpkins (feathers, paint, stickers, etc...). Once again, please let me know if you have any questions!
New Photos are posted from our mystery reader, Good Eats, and our October birthday party. See "School Photos."
*Updated 10/15/16*
Last week in computer lab the students practiced logging into IXL with their username (first four letters of their first name first four letters of their last name) and password (same as username). Information on IXL was also sent home in the Parents' Night folders. IXL is a great website to practice math skills we've done in school in a fun way! The students work to master skills and earn stickers based on how much they practice. Although it is not assigned for homework, I recommend checking it out at home as a way to reinforce math skills. Please let me know if you have any questions!
Just a reminder, work that is sent home incomplete but does not have the unfinished work cover sheet attached does NOT need to be completed. I told the students that if they do complete extra work at home that is not required and send it in, they can earn a sticker and clip-up on the behavior chart.
Please don't forget to send in a shared snack for October.
New pictures posted from our New Salem Fire Department visit and our pumpkin investigation. See "School Photos"!
*Updated 10/10/16*
Since this is a short week, there will be no spelling pretest/test. The students will still be responsible for reading each night and handing in their log on Friday (There are still a few students who haven't handed in their reading log each week. Since this is the only homework, it is very important that it is done and handed in). Please let me know if you have any questions about the homework!
This Thursday we will be doing a pumpkin investigation! Thank you to the parents who signed up to volunteer/bring in pumpkins. The students will be digging into pumpkins so I plan on having them wear their smocks. If your child does not have a smock yet, please make sure you send him or her with one.
New pictures posted from science lab. See "School Photos!"
*Updated 9/30/16*
I can't believe the month of September is over! Just a few reminders below...
There are still a few students forgetting to hand in their reading log on Fridays. Please remember to fill out the title, minutes read, and initial the front of the reading log. On the back, there is an activity to complete for one of the books read during the week. Reading logs are always due back on Fridays. I told the students that Free Time Fridays is an earned free time, which means homework has to be completed to earn it! Please let me know if you have any questions.
Please don't forget to send in a new shared snack for the month of October.
As a final reminder, picture day is this coming Friday, October 7th. Please don't forget to fill-out and send in the picture form (going home today). Also, our first progress reports will be coming home on Friday, October 7th, as well.
New photos are posted from our first mystery reader visit, Good Eats, and the September birthday party!
Have a great weekend!!
*Updated 9/23/16*
Happy birthday to Adriana!
What a busy week! I am hoping to start sending home bi-weekly progress reports either next week or the first week in October. Be on the look-out!
I would like students to bring water bottles from home to keep at their desks beginning on Monday (9/26). We've had many disruptions to our lessons/activities this week with students needing to leave to get water. It will be much easier and less of a distraction if students have water bottles right at their seats and do not have to leave the room. Thank you for your help and, as always, please let me know if you have any questions!
Lastly, if you are interested, there are still may slots available to sign-up for Good Eats. There is a link below to the Google sign-up sheet. Please let me know if you have any questions about the program!
Good Eats Sign-up
Just a reminder that the change for our penguin adoption is due this Friday, February 17th. We are hoping to have the Emperor penguin chick adopted this weekend!
*Updated 2/10/17*
We have a busy week coming up! Today the students decorated their Valentine's Day bags with stickers, markers, and crayons. On Tuesday, February 14th, we will be having our Valentine's Day party where the students will be passing out their valentines (please make sure you have one for each student in the class), reading their valentines, eating some yummy snacks, and playing games. We're looking forward to it!
The day after our Valentine's Day party, Wednesday the 15th, is our official 100th day of school! We will be celebrating the 100th day of school after our winter vacation on Tuesday, February 28th. On that day we will have many 100th day activities, one of which will need to be completed at home and returned on the 28th. On Monday, a note will be coming home with directions for the project. The students will get a paper bag and cover sheet. In the paper bag, please count out 100 of the same object (stickers, string, buttons, beans, pasta, baseball cards, etc...). To make it easier, you can count out groups of ten before placing the objects in the bag. On the cover sheet, please write down five clues (adjectives) about your object. On the 28th, the students will read their clues and we will have fun guessing!
On Thursday, February 16th, we have Good Eats and our February birthday party celebrating Logan and Lucas!
Finally, on Friday, February 17th, we have our penguin storybook presentations from 9:45-10:15. We are just about finished with our storybooks on the iPads and the students are very excited to share them with you. Any family members or friends are welcome to attend. We hope to see you then!
The Six Flags Read to Succeed forms are due on Friday, February 17th. I know everyone is reading every night, so why not write it down and earn a free pass to Six Flags!
New photos are posted from our mystery reader visit!
*Updated 2/3/17*
On Tuesday, February 14th, we will be having our Valentine's Day party at 1:30. A note went home with all of our classmates' names. Please make sure you have a valentine for each student in the class.
On Friday, February 17th, we will have our publishing party for our penguin storybooks from 9:45-10:15. Any family members are welcome to attend. We started our storybooks this week and the students have done an excellent job quickly learning how to add all the features to their books. Thank you to all our parent volunteers who have helped with the process!
Over February vacation there will be a 100th day of school project. A sheet with be coming home that says, "Paper Bag Challenge." The students have to find 100 items (of the same thing - pasta, buttons, beads, stickers, etc...) and place them all in a brown bag. On the sheet, the students have to write five adjectives describing their 100 objects in the bag. We will be playing a guessing game to see if we can guess what each student brought!
Six Flags Read to Succeed Forms must be handed in no later than Friday, February 17th.
*Updated 1/27/17*
We have a handful of exciting activities coming up!
This coming Friday, February 3rd, the students will have their first marble party! They voted on a stuffed animal/movie/pajama party. A note went home with a list of movies the students are interested in. Please look the list over and send it back to school, making note of what movies you would not like your child to watch. We made sure they are all G or PG. Please have the note back to school before Friday.
Looking ahead to next month, we will be having our Publishing Party for our penguin storybooks on Friday, February 17th from 9:45-10:15. Any family members are welcome to attend. We are just about wrapped up with our research and will be starting our storybooks this coming week. The students are working very hard. Thank you to all our parent volunteers who have helped with the process. There are still many more openings if you would like to come in and help out! The link is below.
Parent Project Helper
Last week the students took an on-line math assessment (called Star Math) to test their achievement in first grade math skills. In the comments section of the progress reports this week, I made sure to write down specific skills that your child needs to work on as a result of the test. If you would like more information, or a copy of your child's report, please let me know!
Our 100th day of school is coming up soon! We are planning on celebrating after our February vacation, which will be after the 100th day. I will send more information about the celebration as it gets closer.
We are getting very low on snack. If you would not mind sending in your February snack early, we could definitely use it!
New photos are posted from our penguin research and our mystery reader! See "School Photos."
*Updated 1/20/17*
We have some future researchers on our hands! Technology hiccups aside, our penguin research has gotten off to great start! The students were very patient while we got the iPads ready to go and got right to work restating facts they found about their penguins. We will be spending another week researching our penguins before we start putting our slides together. There are still many slots open if you would like to come in and help out. The link is below.
Parent Research Helpers
If you have not sent in a shared snack for January, please try to send in a snack soon, as our supply is running low.
New photos are posted from another comparing lengths math lesson and our Good Eats barley visit. See "School Photos."
*Updated 1/15/17*
New photos are posted from our comparing lengths math lesson!
*Updated 1/9/17*
Happy New Year! What a busy week back to school! Here is what we have coming up:
Next week we are beginning to learn about Antarctica and penguins. We will be doing a penguin research project where the students will be researching one of four penguins (Adelie Penguin, African Penguin, King Penguin, Emperor Penguin) on PebbleGo. We are learning to restate facts in our own words and the students will be recording their facts onto note cards, which they will then sort into categories to make slides. The last stage is turning the slides into a book on the Book Creator app using the iPads. We will need approximately two parent helpers each day (researching, organizing note cards into slides, creating our book on the iPads). Below is a link that Jeanne and Megan created for sign-ups if you are interested! At the end of the project, we will have a Publishing Party for all family members to come in a preview the books. Please let me know if you have any questions!
Parent Research Helpers
An informatonal form went home today about our new reading fundraiser "Read to Succeed." Since the students read every night, anyway, why not make it count towards a free season pass to Six Flags Great Escape! The forms are due no later than February 17, 2017. All details are outlined in the packet, but please let me know if you have any other questions!
Please do not forget to bring in a shared snack for the month of January!
New photos are posted from our mystery reader visit on Friday!
*Updated 12/23/16*
Thank you to everyone for coming in for our Publishing Party today. It was such a wonderful celebration! I also wanted to thank all the students and parents for the thoughtful holiday gifts. The gift cards, soap, and lotion will be put to great use! I hope everyone has a wonderful, relaxing, holiday break. See you in 2017!
New photos are posted from our winter projects, mystery reader, and publishing party. See "School Photos!"
*Updated 12/19/16*
This week is a word wall review week for spelling. There was no pretest today. The students are to practice the list of word wall words that are attached to the reading log. On Friday, I will choose ten words from the list (no two or three-letter words) for the spelling test.
We have a busy week! This coming Wednesday is our winter projects morning from 9-10:00. If you are a parent helper, please don't forget to organize a 10-15 minute game/craft. The students will work in small groups and rotate to each parent activity. They are looking forward to it!
On Friday, we have our Winter Celebration. Parents and family members are invited in from 9:45-10:15 to listen to the students share their small moment stories they have worked hard on this past writing unit. I have enjoyed meeting with students during this writing unit!
On Friday afternoon, we have our Welcome Winter Party. It looks like we will be watching The Polar Express while enjoying popcorn and apple cider. Pajamas are welcome! Please no robes or slippers. It will be a nice beginning to a long holiday break!
New photos are posted from our December birthday party. See "School Photos!"
I hope everyone has a wonderful holiday break!!
*Updated 12/15/16*
We have another great resource for your children to practice math, ELA, word study, and fluency skills! The website is Front Row and I created an account for each student in our class under our class name "Countermine Kids." If you click on the link below, it will bring you to the log-in page where you will need to put in your child's first name, last name, and our class code (counta). We will be using this site in computer lab. Please let me know if you have any questions!
Front Row
*Updated 12/9/16*
Some important upcoming events...
Gingerbread Fred continues to make his nightly trips to our homes! Don't forget to journal your fun so that your child can share his or her adventures with the class!
Next week we have two days of parent teacher conferences. Please do not forget that Wednesday (14th) and Friday (16th) are half days with an early dismissal at 11:30. Our final half-day for conferences will be on Tuesday, December 20th. I look forward to meeting with all of you!
On Friday, December 16th, we have our December birthday party for Devin and Judah at 9:45!
On Wednesday, December 21st, we have our winter projects from 9-10. If you are a parent helper, please do not forget to organize a game/craft for students to complete during this time. The students will be rotating through the stations, each lasting about 15 minutes. Please let me know if you need any help!
A note went home about our Writing Celebration on Friday, December 23rd at 9:45. The students will be presenting their small moment story to any family/friends who would like to join. We hope to see you there!
On Friday, December 23rd, we also have our Welcome Winter Party. A note went home with a list of movies the students picked as possiblilties for our party. They will be eating popcorn, drinking cider, and watching one of the movies on the list. Be sure to let me know if you do not want your child watching any of the movies on the list. The slips are due on Friday, December 16th.
As another reminder, please do not forget to have your child read/complete their reading log each night. We continue to have students forget to hand in their logs every Friday. Thank you!
*Updated 12/2/16*
There were many students who did not turn in their reading log today. Please don't forget to send that to school on Fridays. I will be attaching a note to the incomplete reading logs on Friday to remind students/parents to finish and return the log by Monday. The comprehension activity on the back of the log is beneficial to the students' reading comprehension so please make sure that is filled out as well (by the student). Please let me know if you have any questions!
On Friday, December 23rd, we will be having a writing celebration from 9:45-10:15. The students will be presenting their published small moments story and all parents/family are invited to the celebration. A note will be coming home this week with more information.
There are still a couple of parents who have not signed up for a parent/teacher conference. There are a few dates still open so please let me know if you would like to meet.
New photos are from posted from our mystery reader visit!
*Updated 11/25/16*
I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving! I am so grateful to have such a wonderful class! We had a busy two-day week with our baking and feast. Please see updated school photos for all the fun!
The conference portal has closed. If you did not sign up for a December conference and would like one, please let me know.
School make-up photos are this coming Monday, November 28th.
Gingerbread Fred has started making his trips to all our homes. Please keep an eye out to see if your child has him for the night.
Enjoy the rest of your holiday weekend!
*Updated 11/21/16*
Gingerbread Fred has come to visit! Tonight, Gingerbread Fred will be going home with a student in our class! Each night a student will get to bring home Gingerbread Fred to join their night/morning activities! Each child will have to write what they did with Gingerbread Fred in the journal that comes home. Please feel free to add pictures, trinkets, etc... to the tin when you return the bag with the journal and Gingerbread Fred the next morning (all items will be returned). Please let me know if you have any questions!
*Updated 11/18/16*
We are running low on shared snacks. If you have not brought in a shared snack for November, we hope you can help out!
This week is our Thanksgiving baking and feast. On Monday, November 21st, we will be making banana bread, pumpkin bread, apple bread, and corn bread. The breads will be baked and brought back in for our feast the following day. *These recipes are egg free!* For our feast, the students will each have a job either making butter to go with the breads, popping popcorn, making fruit salad, making trail mix, or setting the tables. A sheet went home with one item to donate towards our feast on Tuesday. Please let me know as soon as possible if you cannot bring in the item your child volunteered for so I can make sure we get it before the feast. Please let me know if you have any questions!
Please do not forget to sign-up for a December conference through Canyon Creek.
New photos are posted from our November birthday party and Good Eats!
I hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving!!!
*Updated 11/11/16*
This week we spent our content time learning a lot about Election Day and Veteran's Day. We hope everyone had a nice Veteran's Day off!
Please make sure you send in a shared snack for November if you have not yet done so. Please check the safe snack list.
This Friday I will be sending home another progress report. It will be the last one until after December conferences since the information presented on the report cards would be repetitive. If you have any questions between this next progress report and conferences, please let me know!
Conferences are now being scheduled through Canyon Creek. Please make sure you log in to sign up for your child's conference in December.
Next week is our Thanksgiving baking and feast. On Monday, November 21st, we will be making banana bread, pumpkin bread, apple bread, and corn bread. The breads will be baked and brought back in for our feast the following day. For our feast, the students will each have a job either making butter to go with the breads, popping popcorn, making fruit salad, making trail mix, or setting the tables. A sheet went home this past Friday with one item to donate towards our feast on Tuesday. Please let me know as soon as possible if you cannot bring in the item your child volunteered for so I can make sure we get it before the feast. Please let me know if you have any questions!
New photos are posted from our Trooper Davis visit.
*Updated 11/4/16*
It's hard to believe that another month of school is already over! This was another busy week (probably why this month flew by so quickly)! We had a great time at our Halloween party and ended it with another great mystery reader! There are some reminders below:
Today was Delia's last day at Voorheesville:( We will miss her! We had a little party for her today to wish her well. Good luck at your new school, Delia!!
Please don't forget to send in a shared snack for November; our supply is getting low. Please make sure to check the safe snack list.
This coming Thursday morning (11/10) is our Veteran's Day breakfast. If you are attending, please make sure your permission slip is handed in.
There is no school on Friday for Veteran's day (11/11). Please make sure homework reading logs are handed in by Thursday. We are still missing a handful of students' logs each week. Also, please remember to complete the comprehension activity on the back of the log. It is a review of different reading skills we are practicing in school.
New photos are posted from our Halloween party/parade and our mystery reader visit. See "School Photos!"
*Updated 10/28/16*
This Monday is our Halloween party. If you are a parent helper, please don't forget to bring in a game/craft/activity for students to rotate through stations. The students will be changing into their costumes before the party and we will also have a few snacks. At 2:30 we have our school-wide parade. All parents are welcome to attend. There will be a sign-out sheet in the classroom if you are planning on taking your child home after the parade.
Please don't forget to send in a shared snack for November!
New photos are posted from our Pumpkin Patch field trip and our pumpkin decorating. See "School Photos!"
*Updated 10/27/16*
A few parents have asked how they can help their child at home with reading. Under "Curriculum" I posted a file that includes the decoding strategies we have been working on in school. It includes a description of what each one means. If students are reading and are struggling on decoding a word, they can follow those steps to help them figure out the words. "Lips the Fish" has students get their mouth ready to say the first sound. "Eagle Eye" has students look at picture clues to help them determine a word. "Stretchy Snake" means to slowly stretch each letter sound to say a word. Eventually students should be able to recognize chunks in words, using "Chunky Monkey" to help them decode words. The last two strategies have students using context to help decode. With "Skippy Frog" they skip the word and finish reading the sentence and with "Tryin' Lion" they keep rereading the sentence, omitting the word, until they are able to figure it out. We have been working a great deal on these strategies in school so the students should be familar with them! Please let me know if you have any questions!
*Updated 10/22/16*
This Thursday is our trip to the Pumpkin Patch. The weather looks like it could be cold and rainy so please make sure to send your child to school with the appropriate clothing. We will also be eating lunch at the Pumpkin Patch so please send your child with a bagged lunch. If you have any questions, please let me know!
On Friday we will be decorating the pumpkins we get at the Pumpkin Patch. If you are a classroom volunteer, please bring in some supplies that the students could use to decorate their pumpkins (feathers, paint, stickers, etc...). Once again, please let me know if you have any questions!
New Photos are posted from our mystery reader, Good Eats, and our October birthday party. See "School Photos."
*Updated 10/15/16*
Last week in computer lab the students practiced logging into IXL with their username (first four letters of their first name first four letters of their last name) and password (same as username). Information on IXL was also sent home in the Parents' Night folders. IXL is a great website to practice math skills we've done in school in a fun way! The students work to master skills and earn stickers based on how much they practice. Although it is not assigned for homework, I recommend checking it out at home as a way to reinforce math skills. Please let me know if you have any questions!
Just a reminder, work that is sent home incomplete but does not have the unfinished work cover sheet attached does NOT need to be completed. I told the students that if they do complete extra work at home that is not required and send it in, they can earn a sticker and clip-up on the behavior chart.
Please don't forget to send in a shared snack for October.
New pictures posted from our New Salem Fire Department visit and our pumpkin investigation. See "School Photos"!
*Updated 10/10/16*
Since this is a short week, there will be no spelling pretest/test. The students will still be responsible for reading each night and handing in their log on Friday (There are still a few students who haven't handed in their reading log each week. Since this is the only homework, it is very important that it is done and handed in). Please let me know if you have any questions about the homework!
This Thursday we will be doing a pumpkin investigation! Thank you to the parents who signed up to volunteer/bring in pumpkins. The students will be digging into pumpkins so I plan on having them wear their smocks. If your child does not have a smock yet, please make sure you send him or her with one.
New pictures posted from science lab. See "School Photos!"
*Updated 9/30/16*
I can't believe the month of September is over! Just a few reminders below...
There are still a few students forgetting to hand in their reading log on Fridays. Please remember to fill out the title, minutes read, and initial the front of the reading log. On the back, there is an activity to complete for one of the books read during the week. Reading logs are always due back on Fridays. I told the students that Free Time Fridays is an earned free time, which means homework has to be completed to earn it! Please let me know if you have any questions.
Please don't forget to send in a new shared snack for the month of October.
As a final reminder, picture day is this coming Friday, October 7th. Please don't forget to fill-out and send in the picture form (going home today). Also, our first progress reports will be coming home on Friday, October 7th, as well.
New photos are posted from our first mystery reader visit, Good Eats, and the September birthday party!
Have a great weekend!!
*Updated 9/23/16*
Happy birthday to Adriana!
What a busy week! I am hoping to start sending home bi-weekly progress reports either next week or the first week in October. Be on the look-out!
I would like students to bring water bottles from home to keep at their desks beginning on Monday (9/26). We've had many disruptions to our lessons/activities this week with students needing to leave to get water. It will be much easier and less of a distraction if students have water bottles right at their seats and do not have to leave the room. Thank you for your help and, as always, please let me know if you have any questions!
Lastly, if you are interested, there are still may slots available to sign-up for Good Eats. There is a link below to the Google sign-up sheet. Please let me know if you have any questions about the program!
Good Eats Sign-up
*Updated 9/19/16*
Just a reminder to sign-up on the Google Doc for classroom volunteering. The sign-up form will be available until tomorrow evening. Please let me know if you have any questions!
If you are still interested, the September Scholastic order is also due this evening. If you're unsure how to create a Scholastic account, let me know!
New photos from the first two weeks of school! See "School Photos."
*Updated 9/14/16*
I'm looking forward to meeting parents tomorrow at our Open House! Below I have attached the slideshow of all the information I will be presenting. I will keep the slideshow on our Home Page so that you can refer to it throughout the year. Also, please don't forget to sign-up for classroom activities in our Google Doc. See "Parent Helper Volunteers." Please let me know if you have any questions. Thank you!
Just a reminder to sign-up on the Google Doc for classroom volunteering. The sign-up form will be available until tomorrow evening. Please let me know if you have any questions!
If you are still interested, the September Scholastic order is also due this evening. If you're unsure how to create a Scholastic account, let me know!
New photos from the first two weeks of school! See "School Photos."
*Updated 9/14/16*
I'm looking forward to meeting parents tomorrow at our Open House! Below I have attached the slideshow of all the information I will be presenting. I will keep the slideshow on our Home Page so that you can refer to it throughout the year. Also, please don't forget to sign-up for classroom activities in our Google Doc. See "Parent Helper Volunteers." Please let me know if you have any questions. Thank you!
*Updated 9/9/16*
The Google Doc for parent helper sign-ups is now posted! It will stay open until Monday, September 19th. See "Parent Helper Volunteers." Let me know if you have any questions!
*Updated 9/7/16*
New photos posted from the first day of school! See "School Photos."
*Updated 8/21/16*
Hello everyone! The first day of school is almost here. Just a reminder not to forget to bring in your summer postcard (attached inside your moving up day folder) sometime during the first week of school. We will be sharing all the fun things we did over the summer!
In case you would like to plan ahead, a note will be going home asking for students to bring in pictures, stickers, magazine clippings, etc... to decorate their writing portfolios and writing journals as well as a picture of your child from over summer vacation. These supplies will be needed on Monday, September 12th.
Dates and information for this year's 2016-2017 parent helpers are posted. Please see the link for "Parent Helper Volunteers" and let me know if you have any questions!
Parents' Night is scheduled for Thursday, September 15th at 5:30. Please note the change in time from previous years.
Finally, we will be having a shared snack every morning around 10:20 (before special) and will need your help. If you could kindly send one shared snack for the whole class at the beginning of each month, we should have enough snacks to last us through the year. Please see the link for "Safe Snack List" so that we can make sure all snacks are safe for the students in our class. The plastic cup on your child's supply list will be used to hold your child's snack each day. Please let me know if you have any questions. Thank you and see you soon!!
*Updated 7/5/16*
New photos from Moving Up Day! See School Photos!
*Updated* 6/12/16
New photos from our Parents' Tea. See School Photos!
On Friday, the students voted on their last marble party - a stuffed animal, pajama, movie party! The movies that I have for students to watch are: Despicable Me, Finding Nemo, or Bambi. If you would not like your child watching one of these movies, please let me know by this Friday, June 17th. Thank you!
*Updated* 6/7/16
Here is a schedule of our Parents' Tea on Friday. We hope to see you there!
The Google Doc for parent helper sign-ups is now posted! It will stay open until Monday, September 19th. See "Parent Helper Volunteers." Let me know if you have any questions!
*Updated 9/7/16*
New photos posted from the first day of school! See "School Photos."
*Updated 8/21/16*
Hello everyone! The first day of school is almost here. Just a reminder not to forget to bring in your summer postcard (attached inside your moving up day folder) sometime during the first week of school. We will be sharing all the fun things we did over the summer!
In case you would like to plan ahead, a note will be going home asking for students to bring in pictures, stickers, magazine clippings, etc... to decorate their writing portfolios and writing journals as well as a picture of your child from over summer vacation. These supplies will be needed on Monday, September 12th.
Dates and information for this year's 2016-2017 parent helpers are posted. Please see the link for "Parent Helper Volunteers" and let me know if you have any questions!
Parents' Night is scheduled for Thursday, September 15th at 5:30. Please note the change in time from previous years.
Finally, we will be having a shared snack every morning around 10:20 (before special) and will need your help. If you could kindly send one shared snack for the whole class at the beginning of each month, we should have enough snacks to last us through the year. Please see the link for "Safe Snack List" so that we can make sure all snacks are safe for the students in our class. The plastic cup on your child's supply list will be used to hold your child's snack each day. Please let me know if you have any questions. Thank you and see you soon!!
*Updated 7/5/16*
New photos from Moving Up Day! See School Photos!
*Updated* 6/12/16
New photos from our Parents' Tea. See School Photos!
On Friday, the students voted on their last marble party - a stuffed animal, pajama, movie party! The movies that I have for students to watch are: Despicable Me, Finding Nemo, or Bambi. If you would not like your child watching one of these movies, please let me know by this Friday, June 17th. Thank you!
*Updated* 6/7/16
Here is a schedule of our Parents' Tea on Friday. We hope to see you there!
*Updated* 6/4/16
New photos from our last week of student guest readers!
A paper flyer for June's Scholastic Book order will not be going home. If you would like to order books this month, please do so on-line by Thursday, June 9th.
*Updated* 5/25/16
New photos from our student guest readers, author visit, and ice cold treat day!
Reminder - If reading logs are handed in on Wednesday (6/1) with each day filled out, students can "clip-up" and get a sticker!
Students' invitations to our Parents' Tea went home today. The students are looking forward to sharing their hard work on Friday, June 10th. Please arrive by 9:30 so we can start on time!
With end of the year report cards going home soon, I will not be sending home any more progress reports. If you have any questions/concerns about how your child is doing, please let me know!
*Updated* 5/21/16
New photos posted from our student guest readers, our first Junior Achievement lesson, ABC countdown, and more! See "School Photos"!
*Updated* 5/13/16
New photos posted from our student guest readers and our Mo Willems Publishing Party!
*Updated* 5/12/16
New photos posted from our planting in the garden and our field trip to the Children's Museum of Science and Technology!
*Updated* 5/8/16
New photos posted from our Mother's Day project, visits with Mr. Thompson and Trooper Davis, and our first week of student guest readers!
This Thursday (5/12) is our field trip to the Children's Museum of Science and Technology. Our parent chaperones are Mr. Smith, Mr. Nowik, Mr. Hotaling, Mrs. Scoons, and Ms. Schmitz. Please arrive to school by 8:45 so that we are all ready to leave on the buses by 9AM. We will arrive back at school around 1:00. We will be eating lunch at the museum, so please send your child with a lunch that day. Please let me know if you have any questions!
This Friday (5/13) starts our ABC countdown (with stuffed animal day - bring your favorite stuffed animal to school) to the end of the school year. A note will be coming home with a list of our fun end-of-the-year activities!
*Updated* 5/2/16
Don't forget, our student readers have started! Please don't forget to take a look at the schedule to see when your child will be our guest reader:)
This coming Wednesday we will be doing an experiment testing the fat in our favorite snack foods. Please don't forget to send your child with his or her favorite snack food on Wednesday for our experiment!
*Updated* 4/22/16
New Photos - Good Eats, field trip to the Food Pantry, and Reading for Ronald McDonald
*Updated* 4/16/16
New Photos - Mystery Readers (below), Mr. Vivenzio duct taped to the wall, and our April birthday party (see School Photos)!
Earth Day is next Friday. If you are taking part in the Earth Day challenge, sheets need to be in school by next Friday in order to be on the "Green Team!" Have fun!!
Next Friday is also our field trip to the food pantry. If you volunteered to come with us, please make sure you arrive at school ready to leave at 9:00. We will be walking to the food pantry at St. Matthew's Church so please dress appropriately! Thank you for your help!
This week, a note will be coming home about our student guest readers! Each student will get to be a guest reader, each day, for the month of May. The calendar for when students' volunteered is below. They will have to pick a book they can easily read to the class in 15 minutes or less. If you have any questions on how to prepare your child for this great experience, please let me know!!
New photos from our last week of student guest readers!
A paper flyer for June's Scholastic Book order will not be going home. If you would like to order books this month, please do so on-line by Thursday, June 9th.
*Updated* 5/25/16
New photos from our student guest readers, author visit, and ice cold treat day!
Reminder - If reading logs are handed in on Wednesday (6/1) with each day filled out, students can "clip-up" and get a sticker!
Students' invitations to our Parents' Tea went home today. The students are looking forward to sharing their hard work on Friday, June 10th. Please arrive by 9:30 so we can start on time!
With end of the year report cards going home soon, I will not be sending home any more progress reports. If you have any questions/concerns about how your child is doing, please let me know!
*Updated* 5/21/16
New photos posted from our student guest readers, our first Junior Achievement lesson, ABC countdown, and more! See "School Photos"!
*Updated* 5/13/16
New photos posted from our student guest readers and our Mo Willems Publishing Party!
*Updated* 5/12/16
New photos posted from our planting in the garden and our field trip to the Children's Museum of Science and Technology!
*Updated* 5/8/16
New photos posted from our Mother's Day project, visits with Mr. Thompson and Trooper Davis, and our first week of student guest readers!
This Thursday (5/12) is our field trip to the Children's Museum of Science and Technology. Our parent chaperones are Mr. Smith, Mr. Nowik, Mr. Hotaling, Mrs. Scoons, and Ms. Schmitz. Please arrive to school by 8:45 so that we are all ready to leave on the buses by 9AM. We will arrive back at school around 1:00. We will be eating lunch at the museum, so please send your child with a lunch that day. Please let me know if you have any questions!
This Friday (5/13) starts our ABC countdown (with stuffed animal day - bring your favorite stuffed animal to school) to the end of the school year. A note will be coming home with a list of our fun end-of-the-year activities!
*Updated* 5/2/16
Don't forget, our student readers have started! Please don't forget to take a look at the schedule to see when your child will be our guest reader:)
This coming Wednesday we will be doing an experiment testing the fat in our favorite snack foods. Please don't forget to send your child with his or her favorite snack food on Wednesday for our experiment!
*Updated* 4/22/16
New Photos - Good Eats, field trip to the Food Pantry, and Reading for Ronald McDonald
*Updated* 4/16/16
New Photos - Mystery Readers (below), Mr. Vivenzio duct taped to the wall, and our April birthday party (see School Photos)!
Earth Day is next Friday. If you are taking part in the Earth Day challenge, sheets need to be in school by next Friday in order to be on the "Green Team!" Have fun!!
Next Friday is also our field trip to the food pantry. If you volunteered to come with us, please make sure you arrive at school ready to leave at 9:00. We will be walking to the food pantry at St. Matthew's Church so please dress appropriately! Thank you for your help!
This week, a note will be coming home about our student guest readers! Each student will get to be a guest reader, each day, for the month of May. The calendar for when students' volunteered is below. They will have to pick a book they can easily read to the class in 15 minutes or less. If you have any questions on how to prepare your child for this great experience, please let me know!!
*Updated* 4/6/16
There are many students in the class in need of glue sticks and pencils. Please ask your child if they are out and need a refill. We are also in need of glue sticks for the whole class, if you would prefer and wouldn't mind donating to our class. Thank you!!
*Updated* 3/31/16
If you are looking for interventions that you can use at home for math and reading, I have created some forms (links to click on and also images to print below). Math and reading racetracks can be used to build fluency with math facts, sight words, spelling words, and many other skills! I have included blank forms below that you can print out to personalize yourself. I also have a link for some examples so that you can see what it should look like (or even use if you would like!) First, choose five facts/words/etc... and repeat them around the board. When you are ready to use it, have your child start at number one and state aloud the answer. They have two minutes to answer as many boxes as they can. Keep track of how many words/facts your child answers. If they get to 28, they keep going around the board until two minutes is up. The goal is to have your child keep practicing to improve his or her answers. Racetracks can be filled with almost anything (shapes, math facts, sight words, word families, spelling words, place value problems, etc...)! We will also be using the racetracks in school. Please let me know if you have any more questions on how to use them!
Blank Racetrack Boards
Racetrack Boards - Examples
*Updated* 3/24/16
New Photos Posted! See "School Photos"
I have created a classroom page on SpellingCity. It is located under "Wonderful Websites." I will add our spelling words and challenge words on the page each week.
Spelling City
Thank you!
Mrs. Countermine
There are many students in the class in need of glue sticks and pencils. Please ask your child if they are out and need a refill. We are also in need of glue sticks for the whole class, if you would prefer and wouldn't mind donating to our class. Thank you!!
*Updated* 3/31/16
If you are looking for interventions that you can use at home for math and reading, I have created some forms (links to click on and also images to print below). Math and reading racetracks can be used to build fluency with math facts, sight words, spelling words, and many other skills! I have included blank forms below that you can print out to personalize yourself. I also have a link for some examples so that you can see what it should look like (or even use if you would like!) First, choose five facts/words/etc... and repeat them around the board. When you are ready to use it, have your child start at number one and state aloud the answer. They have two minutes to answer as many boxes as they can. Keep track of how many words/facts your child answers. If they get to 28, they keep going around the board until two minutes is up. The goal is to have your child keep practicing to improve his or her answers. Racetracks can be filled with almost anything (shapes, math facts, sight words, word families, spelling words, place value problems, etc...)! We will also be using the racetracks in school. Please let me know if you have any more questions on how to use them!
Blank Racetrack Boards
Racetrack Boards - Examples
*Updated* 3/24/16
New Photos Posted! See "School Photos"
I have created a classroom page on SpellingCity. It is located under "Wonderful Websites." I will add our spelling words and challenge words on the page each week.
Spelling City
Thank you!
Mrs. Countermine