Welcome Back!

March 10th

We had a very nice and busy first week back from break this week, even though the weather was too cold to go out for recess everyday except for today.    We ended the week with an all-school celebration entitled "Mix-and-Match day."  


Literacy~
We finished up our non-fiction unit by sharing our new learning from one of our favorite non-fiction books, to Ms. Bushy's Kindergarten class.  They did such a great job!

Math~
We finished up our math unit, measurement, and started a new math unit, place value.  We are looking at how mathematicians break apart two-digit numbers.  This week,we focused mainly on teen numbers.  We used tens frames and cubes to come to the generalization that teen numbers are "10 plus a number."

Science~
We have had fun learning about sound!  We have watched videos that showed vibration, we've made kazoos's and finally finished our unit with creating our own instruments.  The children were grouped into bands and each band performed by playing their instruments and singing a song.  They all did a great job.

Important Dates~
March 13th- Early dismissal, 12:15
March 15th- Fun Fair, 4:30-6:30

January 13, 2019

Literacy-

We have just started a new unit of study around non-fiction.  We kicked off this unit by sorting non-fiction and fiction test.  We asked the question; Why are they different?

Math-

We finished up our math test.  The children did a great job.  We celebrated all their hard work with games on the IPAD.  They had a blast!  Next week will be starting a new unit on Measurement.

 

Natalie Kinsey-Warnock

This week we have started a six week session with author Natalie Kinsey-Warnock. She was an amazing speaker! The kids and I have been so engaged listening to her this week. So far, we have learned about the importance of family stories and the history of photography.

She shared stories about her grandma, great grandma, and other relatives. She has 10 dogs and 17 cats! She then showed us how she used these family stories to write some of her famous books.

Ask your children if they remember what the name of the camera Natalie is holding.

We earned another celebration! Hot Chocolate and "Wild Kratts!"

NO SCHOOL- Monday, January 21st

Have a great weekend and stay warm!

Welcome Back!

We have had a nice week back after vacation!  It was nice to see all the children.  Everyone was happy to see each other.

Literacy:

We have been reading a ton this week in first grade!  We worked on  "smoothing out our voices," so we don't sound like a robot, when we read.  We also worked on partner reading.  We learned how to help our partners when they are stuck.  Keep up the good work!

In writers workshop we continue to work on our small moment pieces.  We have started working on adding more detail to each page with words and pictures.

Math:
This week in math we really worked on noticing patterns when working on combination problems.  We learned how to organize numbers and turn-around facts.




We were so excited about getting more snow this week!  Perfect for snowballs and snowman. Its important to send your child to school with appropriate  clothing.  We go outside everyday, unless the temperature is less than 10 degrees.  Please send your child with a jacket, snow pants, mitten or gloves, a hat, snow boots.

We have had another great week in first grade.  We read some Halloween books, made some fun projects and even made a yummy spider snack on Halloween.

 Literacy:
We have started reading groups this week.  In reading groups and when I conference with children I  will teach children strategies that they can use when reading.  We continue to work on what it looks like and sounds like during this time.  We learned two new reading habits this week, Taking a sneak peek before you start read and that Readers do something at the end of their book (reread the whole story, reread your favorite part, retell your story).

Math:

In math we are starting to wrap up our first unit.  We have been practicing all skills mixed together: representing numbers in an organized way, comparing two sums, solving story problems (addition, subtraction, and combination and adding numbers in the number line.  We even had time to learn a new game!

                   

     

We read the book, The Rainbow Fish, a book about the value of being an individual, a couple of weeks ago and finally got our shiny new scales on our fish!

Dates to Remember:

• No School, Friday, 11/19
• 12:15 dismissal, Wednesday 11/14
• Parent/Teacher Conferences, Monday 11/19 (More info to come)
• Thanksgiving Break-NO School Monday 11/19(conferences) - Friday 11/23

 The children did a really good job with their guest teachers both days that  I was out.  I am really proud of them!

Reading:
Together we read books around individuality and kindness, "Be Who You Are," and "Try a little kindness." We made poster and did some writing around both books.

We continue to work on finding "just-right" books  and partner reading.  All the children are working really hard on this!

We also began a social studies unit on growth mindset.  Having a growth mindset means you take on challenges, try your best, and learn from mistakes.  We started by watching a few short videos about how the brain helps and learn and grow.  Make sure to ask you children about it!

://youtu.be/g7FdMi03Cz

This week the JFK heart monitor was full.  We celebrated on Thursday by wearing comfy clothes and watching the movie "Rio" in the Performing Arts Center!  We had a blast!

Dates to Remember
*Early Release Wednesday 10/17 at 12:15
* NO SCHOOL Friday 10/19
*Picture Re-Take Day 10/26

Have a great weekend!

What a great week we had! We filled our heart jar again. This time we celebrated by watching"Wild Kratts" and eating popcorn.

Thank you to the parents that were able to join us for Morning Meeting. The children were so excited to share with you what our mornings typically look like and sound like.

Literacy:

We read two books this week. "I am Human "and "Only one you." These two books were about individuality and what makes us unique. We talked about how we make a difference everyday. We made our own rocks that illustrated the style in "Only one you."

We also did some writing with a fun project, Me, Myselfie and I.

During readers workshop we have been working on independent reading for a longer period of time. We were able to sustain 12 minutes! We've also been working on partner reading.

Math:
In math we continued to work on story problems and focused on telling the difference between "put together" and "take apart' language.

Welcome Back!

Hello Families,

Throughout the first six weeks of school, we focus on community building, classroom and school wide routines, and develop our class room and individual goals. We've had a great start getting to know each other, beginning some fun projects, and learning more and more about one another.

We have filled our HEART jar again!  The children voted on dress up day!  We had a blast!

Reading:
        *We read Mouse Paint.
         *We read Pete the Cat: Rocking in My School Shoes. In this book Pete does different                things in different parts of the school.  We took a tour of our school and talked about                  what we do in those places.  We made a big book, The Charron Team Rocking in Our              JFK Shoes!

                                            
         *We read Two Eyes, A Nose, and a Mouth and noticed how we are all unique and                    make our classroom a beautiful place to be.  Stop by the classroom to see the self-                  portraits the children made.
          *We read one of my favorite books this week!  One by Kathryn Otoshi.  This book is                    about realizing that everyone counts and how to deal with a bully.  We watched a                      video, acted it out (a lot), and completed a project.
         




Math Focus:
We have been working on counting strategies.

How do mathematicians organize collections in order to quickly count?
How do mathematicians write equations and represent their thinking? 

This is a HUGE concept.  We have been counting collections, or large groups of objects.  The mathematicians need to figure out a way to organize the objects in order to count them accurately and efficiently.  We have figures out the we can group the objects by 5's and 10's to make it easier to count.

We have just started working on,  How to read and solve a story problem

We special visit from Nurse Liz this week.  She taught us to be germ busters with proper hand washing.  She sprayed "germs" on our hands and we had to wash out hands completely(Sing ABCs) in order to get all the germs off.  The students got to check their hand washing skills with a special glow light.

• Dates to Remember
• Early Release Wednesday 10/17 at 12:15
• No School Friday 10/19
• Picture Re-take Day 10/26