Making time for sillies!

Birthday Breakfast

We will be hosting our first birthday breakfast, this Friday, October 30th. We will be celebrating students who had a birthday in October. We will meet for morning meeting, sing happy birthday, and enjoy a light birthday snack. It will all happen before 9:00 so we can continue on with our learning plans for the day.  Arrival will be at the same time your child comes to the classroom.  Please email me if you plan to attend - all immediate family members are invited - whether you have a birthday child or not! You are welcome to bring younger siblings to these monthly birthday breakfasts (during other parts of our day, we ask that you leave younger siblings at home).  If you've signed up for October to help with food donations, I've sent you an email - please respond with what you plan to bring.  Drop me an email if you think that you'll make it for all or part of the breakfast/morning meeting! Each month we will have one, so don't feel obligated to attend all - do what works for your family.  These breakfasts/morning meeting are informal and a chance to stop by!

Me and My Community

Through an integrated social studies/literacy focus on Me and My Community in first grade, students will be taking community walking field trips throughout the school year. Our new social studies unit began at the end of last week and the class began talking about what community is. Throughout this yearlong unit, students will be exploring who lives and works in their community, how people take care of themselves, and what people need to meet their needs in a community.

Each month, students will visit a different community place. October is Fire Safety month, so our first visit was to the fire station this past week. Mrs. Wrigley's class joined us for this walk to learn about how the firefighters/EMT's help our community. Students enjoyed sitting inside the ambulance, exploring the fire truck, and seeing the firefighter slide down the pole! Next month, we will travel to the police station to meet our own school officer, Cpl. Matt Knisley.

Choice Time

Whether it's building a structure, a train track, playing a game of checkers, or designing a treasure hunt with friends, students use their "choice time" a few days a week to practice cooperation, rule following, empathy, creativity, and so much more. INQUIRE with your child what they enjoy most during this time at the end of the day.  

Goodbye :(

We have such a thoughtful group of children in our class.  This week, we shared memories and made cards for a friend who will be moving to a new school.  Your children showed the utmost kindness and love for their classmate.  What a great class we have! 

Heart Words

Each week, students look closely and work on learning to spell and read these words by heart. This year, these "word bird words" are being called heart words.  Four new words are added to our word wall each week. While many are easy to read, our class is also working and focusing on the spelling of these, during direct practice, as well as including them in our writing, which often is the trickiest! If you'd like to support your child with these words, feel free to play a game of sparkle with your family! All your children LOVE this game! 

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Glued Sounds

Our focus the last 2 weeks in spelling has been on building our knowledge of glued sounds. A glued sound is one in which the letters carry their own sounds but are difficult to separate - hence they're 'stuck together.' When students tap these words that include a glued sound, they keep either 2 or 3 fingers together and say the sound with 1 tap. For example to tap the word, hang, students tap /h/ (1 tap) then /ang/ (1 tap - 3 fingers). INQUIRE with your child how to do this with the word -thing. Last week, our focus was on -ing, -ang, -ung, -ong, sounds, while this next week we will be looking at -ink, -ank, -unk, -onk glued sounds. Previously, the students were introduced to the -am and -an sounds as well as -all.

Publishing Week

This past week we finished another bend and published our second small moment. In this last mini unit, students focused on making these small moments come to life. Students learned that when they make their characters both move and talk in their pictures and writing, the stories begin to get more exciting. Partnerships during the last few weeks helped students be thorough in describing their moment as they asked one another questions using the words, who, what, where, when, and why. Students even read their stories, acting out and making a video in their heads to determine if they included every step. Many students even tried out using quotations in their own writing and all students enjoyed finding talking marks in their own books they read. More than a week was spent studying other authors, where children looked closely at their writing trying to determine what makes these stories so good! Students discovered and experimented with putting bold words in their text, adding ellipses, and telling their story step by step. As one student shared with others last week, "I think this small moment can be published at Bear Pond Books!" That's how GOOD these stories are! Students spent this past week revising and EDITING their small moments. Students are being detectives in their own work to determine whether their writing makes sense, includes appropriate capital letters, and has punctuation in the write places. I was thoroughly impressed with the ability of this group of kids to spend an entire week on revising and editing. They were determined to make their stories even better, adding more details and elaborating every day on this one piece. INQUIRE with your child what their small moment was about that they "published." (All writing that came home last week did not go through the revision stage - just one, that you'll get to read at conferences!) 

Throughout the year the writing focus will shift. We will now be moving into non-fiction writing, and later in the year, we will be learning to write persuasive opinion pieces.

Math Facts

How many ways can we practice math facts? How about a guess what's on my head? Students give hints by sharing the number that goes with that amount of dots to make 10.  A quick game that can be used to practice addition facts of a variety of numbers.  We ONLY have fun while learning in First Grade! 

Learning DOES happen all day

How do you remember your shoes each day as the weather changes and boots are needed? Why not write yourself a reminder?  A little extra tape will help reinforce that hand-made note until morning, right?  ALL throughout the day, students are working on writing, handwriting, and being more responsible!  Learning sure does happen each minute of our school day! 

Fall Conference/Check-in

I would like to schedule a time to meet with you and your child to discuss social and academic progress in First Grade. These conferences will follow the UES model of student-led. For this first conference that will be led by your child, we will provide a lot of support. Your child will prepare for the conference in several ways during the next two weeks. At school, we will be reflecting together about individual strengths and weaknesses. The conference will be a time to celebrate successes, and make collaborative plans for self-improvement.

You can schedule your conference online for either the afternoon of November 5th or during the day on November 6th. I've sent each of you an email with a link to the sign-up form.  I am doing these conferences on google spreadsheets, and therefore can't give you direct assess via the blog.  If you did not receive this link via your email, please let me know immediately, and I'll be sure to get you access to the sign-up. 

I will send you a confirmation, and a “Hints for Parents to Use at Student-Led Conferences” article. At this time, we will not be scheduling separate teacher-parent conferences. If you’d like specific information that is not answered at the student-led conferences, please call me and we can discuss your areas of concern over the phone. If you have any questions, feel free to ask!

***THERE WILL BE NO SCHOOL FOR STUDENTS ON NOVEMBER 5th and 6th. ****

News from Student Services

Chris Parker, our school social worker, came to our classroom this week to introduce herself, and get to know our class. The message below will inform you of a social lunch bunch that will be starting this week.  


Beginning the week of October 19th, all 1st graders will have the opportunity to participate in a "Lunch Bunch" with our school social worker, Chris Parker. She will be having lunch with small groups of students (up to 6 children) each Wednesday in the Student Services classroom. The purpose of these Lunch Bunches is for the students to meet other 1st graders, to have the opportunity to check-in about their day, and to get to know Chris as another resource and trusted adult in the building. Chris will be meeting the children on the playground, helping them get their lunches and walking upstairs together for the group, which will last approximately 30 minutes. The kids will return to their classrooms at the regular time, after the lunch period. If you have any questions, feel free to call Chris at 225-8232.

Also, her and Suzanne Francke, our school guidance councelor are reaching out to families this year and will be hosting a parent coffee hour. See the message below for more info! 

UES Parent Coffee Hour

Come have coffee in our new Student Services room (Room  #202) with School Counselor, Suzanne Francke, and School Social Worker, Chris Parker. 

Tuesday, October 20th, 2015

8:15 am to 9:15 am 

3:30 pm to 4:30 pm

Please attend the session that is most convenient for your schedule.

Our hope is that this will be the first Coffee Hour in a series throughout the school year. We have ideas about possible topics, but we are also looking for feedback on topics of interest. Call us to share your ideas if you are not able to make it on 10/20. 

Suzanne: 225-8247

Chris: 225-8232

Questioning, Exploration, Creativity

A continuation of insects, and the introduction to fall was our ECO focus this afternoon.  These ECO days are filled with observation, exploration, creativity, and questioning.  Much of what we do is directly connected to learning that happens in the classroom. While outdoors, we encourage children to think, look, notice, and question the world around them.  First graders took some time to do this in their "sit spots" and journal their observations about leaves and trees.  Fall comes quick, and leaves just as fast, so we were all thankful to have a beautiful day outside at Harrison.  Check out some of the creativity and teamwork demonstrated in these leaf mandalas below! 

Optional Home Connection

WOW!  Thanks for all your support to help your child extend their learning at home. I hope you enjoyed working with your child on their insect project.  Each month, we will send home these OPTIONAL projects for you to do with your child and connect the learning here at school to that at home.  Next month, we'll be focusing on maps so start keeping your eyes peeled for maps you may use to navigate a hike, around town, a ski mountain, a trip, etc.  More info to come in next few weeks...

Thanks for the donations - such CREATIVITY!

Sing-A-Long

All first graders joined together, dressed in their insect costumes for a whole grade sing-a-long.  Students chatted with other students about their body parts and function, and sang together, "Head, thorax, abdomen."  We changed the last part of the song each time we sang from wings, to mandibles, to probiscus.  INQUIRE with your child what they used to make their costume...how do these parts help the insect to survive?  Do they have body parts similar that help them?

Reading at Home

I hope you have continued to watch your child grow as a reader over the summer. Each day, your child is making growth - whether it be in accuracy, fluency, or understanding more about how to think about books.  I’d like to offer the opportunity again to have your child bring home books for school, if you would like.

If you choose, a few times a week, or depending on how often the book is returned your child will select a book at their independent reading level and bring it home in their reading plastic bag.  You will listen to your child read the book to you several times that evening, giving them encouragement and praise.  Please use the reading strategies found on the blog to help your child.  Multiple readings build skills, comprehension, and fluency.  

Before reading the book, look at the pictures and discuss what the book is about.  While reading, use the strategy prompts found below to help your child solve unknown words.  Always praise their attempts at figuring out unknown words.  Children should be encouraged to use other clues for figuring out words, such as pictures or the meaning of the sentence.  Your main job is to encourage your reader and give them the confidence that they can and do read, at whatever level is appropriate.  This has to be a positive experience for the child.  If your child is not ready to read at home daily, we’ll stop and try again at another time when they are more ready.  If you have books at home, or are not interested in doing this reading program, that is fine too. Just let me know.  

You know your own schedule best as well as your child’s energy level.  You will not want to pick a time when your child is feeling tired and or you’re feeling rushed.  If you find that you don’t have time to read on the day the book is sent home, please keep it at home until it is read.  We want you to enjoy this time with your child and the shared experience of reading together. Return the book at your own pace.  Your child, however, will only get new books once the other books are returned.  

Please help your child take very good care of these books.  Many of the books we will be using belong to me personally, and have been purchased with my own money.  Many children will use these books, and they are not easy to replace.  If the book is damaged or lost, I will ask for a replacement fee of $5.00 per book.  Your child will not bring any more books home until the fee is paid.  

You and your child should discuss this plan.  If you both agree that you can take care of our school books, let me know and I’ll send books home. If you’d prefer to read books from the library, your own shelves, and elsewhere, that is great.  The most important thing is that your child is reading daily.  Always engage them in conversation about the books they are reading - as this is the most important part of first grade reading!

Read Alouds

In addition to talking about books with a partner, students have been growing their ideas as a whole class when reading new books. Often, a book in first grade is read multiple times, and a deeper meaning is taken after each read.  "Learning Partners" work together and respond to a variety of prompts I give, and then ideas are shared out.  Students are learning to respond to their partners idea, or another student, add on to their thinking, and disagree in a respectful way.  In addition, we have been learning to ask questions and wonder about the text.  As we get deeper into the stories read aloud, students reflect on lessons learned, and their thoughts about why the author/illustrator did something specific.  In first grade, comprehension, not just accuracy, is a focus of our learning.  Learning to understand author's messages, and think deeply about characters and their actions, is just as important.  

Partner Reading

Working together as partners is a valuable component of our reader's workshop.  Check out all the "habits" our readers have developed already in first grade.  Students are learning how to work together, talk together, and get more out of books.  First graders are learning to not only read to a partner, but are encouraged to give book introductions, help their peer when stuck, and grow their ideas about the story being read together.  Although not completely independent yet, we are growing as a community as we practice these skills together.  INQUIRE with your child what they can do when they read with a partner!

Equality

We have been looking closely at the equal sign in our math number sentences this week and have been focusing on what this means.  Equality is a big component of first grade math and we will be working on it throughout the year.  This week, students are looking at different "expressions" that are equal and not equal to each other. For example, students are seeing that 5+5=2+8 but 5+5 is not equal to 3+8.  We are working on making these false number sentences (5+5=3+8) turn into true number sentences.  As we continue understanding this concept, students have spent more time on the commutative property (changing the order of the numbers involved without changing the result) and seeing how this does not effect the sentence.  Have your child try a few out at home - can they tell you if these number sentences are true or false? If false, have them figure out a way to make it true! 

(examples 2+3=1+4, 4+2=3+3, 7+1=4+4, 5+4=1+8)