Book Reviews

This week, our opinion writing has shifted to a different type of review. Students have been using what they know about opinion writing to write book reviews on books they've already read. Following the same format for reviews of places and things, students are writing their opinion about the book, backing up their opinion with convincing reasons. Students are learning to elaborate and provide enough arguments to convince their reader to read the book. Today, we discussed what makes a good "snap shot" when providing information about what the book is about. Students learned that not enough information will not be convincing enough and too much description of the book may give away the whole story. We worked hard at finding that 'just right' sneak peak when telling our readers about the book.

Bird

 Last week we attempted to look for signs of Spring at Harrison Preserve but were saddened to see snow. We made the best of it and instead found ways to protect and help the birds.  Students thought that perhaps they too would be confused by the not so spring like weather we've been having so they set up on helping gather materials that could be useful to them when making nests. Some children even created a huge nest that a visiting bird could snuggle up in! Later last week, we began looking closely at birds, and learning how to draw them. We were inspired by a photograph inside the book, "Tea with Lady Sapphire" to recreate.  

So long, farewell, we'll see you SO SOON!  We spent some time Friday saying goodbye and making cards with warm wishes and advise on starting a new school.  Next week, we'll make cards to send to her and hopefully do a little back and forth correspondence! 

Community Visit for March

We will travel to the post office this month for our routine community visit to learn about how they help our city of Montpelier.  We will be heading there on Thursday, March 31st in the morning.

We have tentatively scheduled our spring musical in celebration of our community for Thursday, May 19th.  Pencil that date in the evening on your calendars!

Birthday Breakfast

This Friday we will have Birthday Breakfast in our classroom. We only have one family signed up to contribute a healthy snack, so if you'd like to help out, please let me know.  Although we don't have any child birthdays, we will still celebrate all families (I think it's Keith's birthday today - right?).  This time is such a fun celebration and chance for families to visit our classroom and enjoy the community, I don't want to cancel. Let me know if you plan to join OR are able to help out and contribute something.

ECO Science Outing! This THURSDAY AM!

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 dependant)
• water bottle (if your child doesn’t have one at school)
• backpack
• rainpants/snowpants( the forest can be very damp)
• hat, mittens, etc
• extra socks

Please check the weather and use your discretion on what best to outfit your child with! It helps to have rainpants or snowpants to travel with in the forest to help save your child's pants from mud and holes!

Number Corner

This month's calendar has been focusing on time and money. Students are learning to tell time by both the hour and half hour. Encourage your child to tell you what time it is when you are doing certain things - help them see the difference between am and pm.  For example, distiguish between getting ready for school and 6:30am and eating dinner at 6:30 pm. This concept is often difficult for the children to learn - an entire day - 24 hours is a lot more than you think!

Students are also learning how to add coins - by adding groups of 10's, 5's, and 1's.  Next time you have change jingling around your pockets, take it out and challenge your child to add it up! 

We continue to look at place value when adding days in school and are well beyond 100!  Looks like we're somewhere around Day 127 (we may have skipped some). Getting so close to 2nd grade....

Real Life Review Writing

Students are finishing up the second of three bends in our Opinion Writing unit.  They have worked hard to write reviews and share their opinions of different things.  Next time you go out to eat, buy a new toy, watch a movie, etc. help your child to express their ideas out loud. Can they share their opinion? We often do this all the time - now encourage your child to work with you to write a review online. Enjoy this experience of engaging in real world writing with your child! Next week, we'll begin the last bend and learn more about writing book reviews - a great skill to get kids to think more deeply about the characters in their books!

Comprehension

As we continue to learn more and more ways to solve hard words - words with multisyllabic syllabes, variety of vowel teams, etc. students are also beginning to learn a variety of tricks to understand what they are reading.  As text gets more difficult, our energy is often focused on the decoding and fluency, and sometimes, the understanding and comprehension gets left behind. We all know this is the basis of reading - the reason we read - and in first grade, students are learning ways to make sure this happens.  Predicting, visualizing, making connections, inferencing, etc are just a few ways readers work hard to understand what they are reading.  Our focus over the next few weeks in our whole group lessons will be to dig deeper into the text!

Light Waves

As we continue our study of sound waves, students are experimenting also with light waves and learning how light travels.  INQUIRE with your child how light travels and what kinds of materials allow light to travel through. Use the words - transparent, translucent, and opaque to discuss this with them.  Which material does NOT allow light to travel through? 

Towards the end of the week, students are going to be making telephones with plastic cups and string to experiment with how sound waves travel.  

Respect

R-E-S-P-E-C-T is this month's school wide initiative. INQUIRE with your child how they can be respectful and polite to their teachers and friends during the day. Our whole school is working on earning special links that will be combined together from all the classrooms. Students can earn links when they are showing respect.

Editing and Revising

How do first graders edit and revise their writing?  Well, a lot can be done with the help of a peer.  Peers often meet when a piece is completed to talk about how they can make their writing better, what needs to be added, deleted, fixed, etc.  While editing reviews about retaurants, toys, movies, places, etc. students check to see if their writing had enough convincing reasons.  Students also help each other create introductions and conclusions. This is a first grade expectation, and I'm impressed with their creativeness when writing these difficult parts.  All throughout first grade we are learning to edit and revise and hope that all kids can do this independently by the end of the year.  

Sneak Peek

I found a sneak peek at next years calendar that was approved at the school board meeting last week. I think this is the final version... Thought you may be interested in case you were making plans. Remember, the last 3 days are only used if we have snow days. 

This year, we only had 1 snow day (so far), so please take this into account when looking at the last day of school.  

Double Digit Addition

We continue to use a variety of IPAD apps to help us strengthen our number sense. As we solve double digit addition, students use manipulatives and ten frames on an IPAD to make friendly tens and share their thinking with peers.  Working together in math helps us all grow and build on each other's great ideas and ways at solving problems.  Students continue to learn a variety of ways to solve problems.  INQUIRE with your child how to use the "tape diagram."  How is this like a number bond? 

Hellos and Goodbyes

A little time for silliness in between our serious photo shoot. We welcomed a new friend last week and have been enjoying getting to know her. This week, we begin to say goodbye to a dear friend who we will truly miss!  

Spring Conferences

Please see your email for a link for student-led conferences - happening next week! I've offered a few alternative evening times that may work better for your family if Friday doesn't work. Just a reminder, the kids do not have school next Friday, April 1st. If you did not get the link, or can't access please email me ASAP and I can help you find a time that would work best.  I look forward to meeting with you!

Bird's Eye View

Our ECO outing today brought us up cliff street to get a bird's eye view of our city of Montpelier. Students have been exploring city maps this week to get an idea of how to navigate from one place to another. Students mapped out their way and made predictions prior to the walk of different landmarks they thought they would see from the top. INQUIRE with your child what places they spotted from this amazing view. We then took a new route to Harrison for a little outdoor exploration. 

Hoot Celebration (chosen by students)

Slipper (or socks) and Stuffy Day

3/4/16 - Friday