Announcement from Snack Program

In talking with the kitchen staff, we have decided not to offer snack on November 16th. November 16th will be the annual Thanksgiving lunch and in the past it has been very stressful for the kitchen staff and the snack helpers to get everything in order before the lunch started.

Materials Needed for Friday

As a culminating insect activity, students are going to create costumes to wear in a 'bug parade' around the school on Friday (tomorrow).  These creations will be student inspired, however we are looking for materials for students to use for their costumes. If you have ANYTHING that would help - cloth, pipecleaners, straws, paper plates, recycled materials, etc to donate for FRIDAY, please send it in with your child.

On another note, WE WILL NOT BE ALLOWED TO WEAR COSTUMES FROM HOME on Friday or Monday.  PLEASE do not send in any CANDY with your child.  We have a healthy foods policy at UES.  

Peer Revision

This past week we are finishing another bend and are publishing 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. Students are spending this 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 right places. Our class is 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 is about that they are publishing. (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 as well as realistic fiction.

ECHO

Thank you to all our parent chaperones for joining us in Burlington last Friday. Students spent the day exploring the museum, asking questions, and learning about the plants and animals that are home to Lake Champlain.  INQUIRE with your child what their favorite part of the day was! 

Leaf Art

As the seasons change, we have begun to look closely and gather leaves around the community.  After looking closely at the edges, textures, veins, shapes, etc students are making some great observations.  We have also had fun doing a variety of art activities with the leaves we find.  Tomorrow we will continue to explore leaves and seasonal change at Harrison Field.  

How much does it weigh?

A grandfather of a student here at UES came to visit with a pumpkin he grew.  Many of his pumpkins have made records for the largest pumpkin in the state of Vermont.  Students enjoyed making estimates about how big the pumpkin actually was and asking questions regarding the process of growing a pumpkin so big.  INQUIRE with your child how much they think the pumpkin weighed!

Pumpkin Day

Pumpkin Day!

Dear Families,

On Monday, October 31st we will celebrate Pumpkin Day. We have been learning about  life cycles and harvest this week and will investigate pumpkins too.

We will not be having a “Halloween” party or be changing into costumes. Please do not send your child to school with costumes or masks, etc.  Halloween can be a controversial holiday and some of our school families do not choose to participate in its festivities.

We will be doing many fun math, science, and art activities with our pumpkins. We will be weighing, measuring, rolling and floating our pumpkins. We will also be doing  art projects and other fun activities!

You can help make our learning engaging and hands on by donating a miniature (ornamental), small, or medium-sized pumpkin for your child to use. If you would like to donate a pumpkin to our class as an extra, it would be appreciated. Please make sure pumpkins are no larger than your child’s head!!

Please send to school by Friday , October 28th (if Monday works better, that’s fine- just let me know by Friday so I know if I need to get more over the weekend).  

Thank you,

Seed dispersal

Thank you to Jan and Melissa for joining us for our 4 Winds lesson this morning.  Students learned about the life cycle of seeds, parts of a seed, types of seeds, and the various ways in which seeds travel. Students watched a puppet show, dissected and identified various seed parts, and ate a variety of seeds. INQUIRE with your child how seeds are dispersed (hint: hitchikers, wind, eaten but not digested, etc).

Feelings

How are you feeling today? 

That is a typical question we ask ourselves and each other throughout our school day. We may be deep into reading, writing, math, and science, but each day, we find time to discuss our personal feelings and how what we do and say is helpful to our community of peers.    We strive each day to help each other take care of oneself, others, and the community.  We are developing mindful habits to use in our interactions with friends.  INQUIRE what your child does when they are feeling annoyed.  sad? frustrated? ENgage your child at home with conversations about feelings and what they do when in a variety of situations.  Last week, we made picture cards to illustrate many of our day to day feelings - and will use these cards in future lessons to help us understand our zones of regulation.

Reminder

A  reminder!

Trading cards are very distracting for first graders during school hours. Please remind your child to leave trading cards at home. This includes Pokemon, Yu-gi-oh and Ninjago and Magic Cards.

Trading cards will NOT be allowed at recess or during choice time. We will collect (and keep) the cards if students continue to bring them to school.

Thank you for your help!

CORRECTION

Families- 

Please note CORRECTED date for Picture Retake Day: 

WEDNESDAY OCTOBER 19

REMINDER

I sent a link for an online conference sign up last week through email. If you have not received it, please let me know and I will re-send it. Conferences are student-led and will be held the afternoons of 11/2 and 11/3 and all day on 11/4.  Students DO NOT have school on Thursday (3rd) or Friday (4th).  I look forward to meeting with you and sharing info on your child's progress.

ECO last week

Our first ECO this year directly connected our classroom study of insects to the outdoors. Students enjoyed a cooperative game of "Insect Relay." Moving like a variety of insects, students raced across the field, pretending to be bees, grasshoppers, butterflies, etc. Showing empathy, students cheered for their friends, all while showing self-control. Later on in the afternoon, students looked for insects in the forest, and created their own insect art, using materials found on the forest floor. INQUIRE with your child what materials they used, and why.

We Love to Move!

Reading with buddies

First graders continue to meet with buddies twice a month. This past week, first graders chose a book to practice reading aloud to their big buddies.  They also heard a book read aloud that they chose.  Buddies are learning to listen to each other, converse by taking turns in conversations, and having fun.  INQUIRE with your child what books they read with their buddy this week! 

Fire Station

Last week, we visited with Firefighters at the Montpelier Fire Department. We learned about fire safety and how the firefighters/EMT's go about helping our community and making it a safe place to live. Students explored both the ambulance and firetrucks and asked many important questions regarding their positions. INQUIRE with your child what would happen if there were a fire at the fire station? Thanks to all the firefighters for their time and willingness to teach our younger community members about one of many essential community jobs. AND, thank you for sharing your fire hats with all of us!  We will continue to learn about how the community of Montpelier works together. Each month, we will walk to different community places.

Kindness

What does it mean to be kind? First graders have been exploring this concept through art, books, conversation, and through daily interactions with each other.  INQUIRE with your child each day one way that they showed kindness at school.  Can they tell you different examples? 

ECHO Field Trip - Friday, October 21st

 

On Friday, October 21st, all first grade classes will visit ECHO Aquarium and Science Center in Burlington, Vermont. The science center provides many hands on exhibits for students to explore, and also integrates with our studies of plants and animals this year. For more information about the science center, see this link: http://www.echovermont.org/index.html

On the day of the field trip, students will arrive at school at the regular time and will board buses for departure by 8:45. Students and chaperones should bring their own lunches and plan to picnic on the trip. We will return to school for regular dismissal time.

The cost for buses and admission fees for students are covered by the first grade field trip budget. Parent volunteers are needed to chaperone children in small groups. Parents will need to purchase their own admission which is $8.50 per adult (please let us know if you need help with this fee).We need this payment ( in cash) returned with the permission slip. Parent chaperones will need to drive and meet us at ECHO at 9:45 A.M. Carpooling is encouraged!

Please return the confirmation and permission slip that was sent home, and let us know if you would like to chaperone. Please include your chaperone fee (cash only, please) as well.

We would also like your help in planning for lunches. Please make sure to let us know if your child would like bag lunches from the school. We need to order these in advance.

Thank you for your help. Please return by Friday, October 14th.

October 31st update from Mr. Hennessey

Halloween is coming up in a few weeks, and it's time to be thinking about how we'll approach this special day as a school community. As much fun as it would be to celebrate with costumes and parties, we believe that such revelry would be simply too disruptive to the learning environment for an entire day. We ask that students keep the costumes and candy at home so they can be ready for the fun that Monday night. Please help us maintain a healthy learning environment the following days as well; we ask that all candy remain at home when the children return to school on Tuesday. If you have any questions or concerns, please call me or stop by.

Picture Make-Up Day

Weren't satisfied with Take 1? No worries, Picture Re-Take day is coming next week.  Please let me know if you'd like your child's picture taken again next Thursday, October 20th!

New Tools for the Toolbox

Most days, first grade readers are adding additional tools to their toolbox.  Besides checking the picture, looking at all the parts and crashing them together, getting a running start, and doing a double check, they also have been practicing "try it 2 ways." Use this chart above to have your child teach you about how you would use this strategy.  As emergent readers, first graders are having to try, try, and try again and tackle tricky words in more than one way. Having a range of strategies to use when word solving is helpful - and sounding out words, remember, is just 1 tool.  INQUIRE with your child what tools they have tried when getting stuck in their reading.  

Hunting and Math Games

Meet our class hunter - he inspects peers papers for "backwards bugs."  All kids are learning the correct number formation and are expected to ALWAYS fix their backwards numbers if they have any.  Please help your child fix these ANY time they write letters or numbers.  

Bingo has been a hot game this week in math.  Players make their boards and also play.  Rules are different each time.  They are NOT just writing numbers.  For example, one day this week, we rolled a die and added 3 each time. As they make the board AND play, the die is rolled and they add 3.  Another day, we found partners to 6.  The die was rolled, and whatever went to that number to make 6 was written down.  These games provide more exposure and practice for kids as they develop skills to become automatic in their addition and subtraction facts.  

It's not too late....to do the buggy project!

If you are still interested, don't forget about this optional project.  What a great activity for a 4 day weekend. I look forward to seeing some of these next week.

Buggy About Insects

Optional Independent Project

In science, we are studying insects. Our learning focus on how the structure and function of insects help it to survive, i.e. the beetle’s “hard shell” is actually a set of wings called elytra that protect its soft flying wings hidden underneath.  Students are so excited about this topic and are enjoying studying different insects each week at school.  Now is their opportunity to explore an insect that interests them the most.  

This project is optional and can be done as a family or individual at home and brought into school to share.  

Here is what we would like to have included in the final project.  Your child can present it any way they would like, but we would like to see students demonstrate these components:

1.) Choose an insect.

2.) Make a model of the insect (clay, playdough, legos, construction paper, etc.).

3.) Label the model (bug name and body parts).

4.) Have at least one real photograph of the insect (magazine, internet, own photograph).

5.) Where does it live?

6.) What does it eat?

7.) How does it protect itself from predators?

8.) Include some interesting facts about your insect.  

9.) Use your imagination and have fun!

If you have any questions about this project, please send us an email!