ECO Science Outing is Thursday!

We will have ECO on Thursday.

Please make sure that your child is prepared with:

       -walking/hiking shoes or boots
       -sweatshirt or fleece layer
       -coat or hooded jacket (if needed, weather dependent)
       -water bottle (if your child doesn’t have one at school)

       -back pack

       -raincoat & rainpants ( the forest is very damp- even in afternoons)
       -hat/sunglasses (personal preference)
       -extra socks

Please check the weather and use your discretion on what best to outfit your child with! 

If you plan to join us for this ECO day, please email me at your earliest convenience!

ECHO Field Trip - FRIDAY

ECHO Lake Aquarium Field Trip Reminder - Chaperones

We will be travelling to the ECHO science center in Burlington on Friday, October 2nd. Please have your child arrive to school ON TIME. If you have not pre-ordered a lunch, please plan on sending a lunch from home to school. We will arrive at school at the regular time, have a quick snack and load busses by 8:45 a.m.

Chaperones will drive separately. We encourage you to carpool. Please meet us at ECHO at 9:30 A.M. Chaperones are expected to be with their student groups for the whole visit. Students will have their lunches in their backpacks. Please eat lunch with your student group. There is a designated spot to eat in the museum. We will board busses at 1:15 P.M. and plan on being back at the school by 2:30 P.M. Please make sure your group of students has used the bathroom and has their belongings before we board busses. If you will be driving your child home from ECHO (instead of your child taking the bus), please let us know.

We are looking forward to an exciting day of exploring and learning. For more information please visit the ECHO science center web site: http://www.echovermont.org/index.html

Click Beetles

In response to Eric Carle's book, we made our own click beetles last Friday. I hope you had fun learning about this interesting insect - can your child tell you about the "fake eye" they drew on their beetle.  Is it real? What does the beetle use this mysterious marking for? 

Calendar "Number Corner"

Place value, groupings, and counting nickels and pennies have been the focus of this month's number corner.  Students learn about the days in the week, while practicing a variety of math concepts.  As you can see in our calendar markers, we have a variety of patterns, helping us to explore tally marks, groupings of ten, color patterns, and so much more.  INQUIRE with you child what they have noticed about the calendar markers this month.  We are also learning about the penny and nickel - can they sing you our penny/nickel poems?  We have been learning how to add these coins together each day.  Perhaps you can 'quiz' your child at home! Furthermore, place value is an important component of first grade math - understanding groups of 10's in larger numbers and ones.  INQUIRE with your child how many days we've been in school.  What does the 2 mean in 24? How about the 4?  Help your child at home strengthen their place value skills - this will help them as we look at adding double digit numbers in a few months! 

Breathing Exercises

Yoga is Back!

Chrissy from Grateful Yoga is working with us this year to help us integrate yoga into our day.  Twice a month, Chrissy will be joining us on Tuesday mornings to teach us a variety of positions, help us learn about our breathing, and to help further help us to create a community of learners. We are so GRATEFUL to have her join us for this first part of the year.  We are using some budget money to get this going this year - more info to come about potential help for funding to continue this throughout the school year.  

Story Makers

Story Makers is a fun activity that can be found on ABCya off of kid links.  Students can write stories, and practice typing skills, which are now being introduced earlier than when we were taught. All students will get to practice writing text connected with a picture this week during computer lab.  

There are many educational computer games/activities that strengthen children's growing literacy and math skills found through kid links.  Get your child to MPS- Union site, and they can take it from there.  Each week in computer lab, we are practicing navigating through a variety of educational sites, that connect with the learning they are doing in the classroom. 

Community Building

We read a variety of No, David books by: David Shannon over the last few weeks.  In connection with those stories, we have been focusing on what it means to be a peacemaker, as well as what it means to be a team.  All these beginning of the year social exercises strengthen our community of learners.  INQUIRE with your child what it looks like and sounds like to be a peacemaker at school, and how they work together as a team! 

Missing Part

Solving for the unknown has been the math focus this week.  Students have been working on a thorough understanding on math story problems, solving for both the total amount, and missing part.  Students are working on taking a number sentence and turning it into a story and vise versa.  

We have also been introducing counting by 2's, and by 10's off the decade.  

Every day, we warm up with different fluency tasks, to strengthen our counting, and addition.  This week, the focus is on partners to 10.  

During calendar, students are beginning to understand the value of the penny and nickel, and are starting to work on adding these coins together to come up with the total amount.  

Whole Body Listening

Whole body listening was the focus of our social learning last week.  Students reviewed what they learned in Kindergarten, and wrote their own, "Whole Body Listening" Book.  Students have been so proud to earn so many hoots over the last few weeks.  They worked hard with the guest teacher and have already earned another special celebration. Tomorrow, we plan to make crafts for stuffies - or friends.  A little extra creativity time earned for working so hard! INQUIRE with your child how they show whole body listening during the day. Is there one part they are working to get better at? 

Good/Bad Habits

Dropping bad reading habits ("the freeze", "the tell me", "the mumble", and "the blooper") and picking up good habits has been the focus of our reading lessons this week.  Students developed both a variety of good and bad habits while reading in Kindergarten, and it takes hard work to start solving hard words in a variety of ways.  We are practicing these skills with a variety of texts, at a variety of levels.  INQUIRE with your child what bad habits they are working to drop! 

Open House

This year, the open house is scheduled for Thursday, September 24.  The time:  6:15 to 7:15 (sharp). Bring your child and take a look at some beginning of the year learning.

Ant Traps

To help us observe some ants close up this week, your child became an engineer and crafted up a creative "ant trap."  Don't worry, after putting them outside for the day to collect ants, we placed them in the garbage.  But don't be surprised if you find ant traps around your home - I know many kids had big plants for some extermination tonight at home! 

Stuffy

Believe it or not, our stuffies helped all children be great listeners throughout the day.  Your child helped them learn all about being a first grader, listened to amazing stories, sang songs, completed math problems, and even helped with our greeting.  Thanks too all the stuffies for showing CARES throughout the day! 

The Ants Go Marching....

A fun marching song to coincide with our ant study this week!

Bees

Labeling bee parts, learning about how they all help the bee to survive! 

200 Hoots!

Our class has reached 200 hoots!  It’s time for a special celebration!  Our class will have “stuffy” day tomorrow (Wednesday).  (NO PAJAMAS)  Please help your child bring in a small stuffy from home to help them continue to follow CARES on Wednesday!

Picture Day Smiles