Harvest Time

Students kicked off the week in Crocker Farm's community garden. Joined with Farmer Leila and Jenn Reese, who organizes science curriculum for the district, we harvested green beans and Nasturtiums, which are an edible orange spicy flower. Students did a great job despite the heat. Other grades were assigned to other veggies and all the vegetables from the garden will be combined for a meal and all students will be able to enjoy the veggies as part of a school lunch.

Room 4 first graders are very strong math students and have a good sense of their numbers within 10. As we focused on 10 friends and decomposing numbers within 10, I am so impressed with how much knowledge and how fluent they already are with these facts. Students worked on an apples problem and we able to find all partners of 10 ( 10+0=10, 9+1=10, 8+2=10, 7+3=10... 0+10=10) and look for a pattern and way to arrange their combinations in a logical way to ensure that they had found all of them, including reversals. I am looking forward to the bowling field trip on Monday which will directly tie into this work. We also played tricky teen number bingo, which looks at number reversals like 16 vs. 61. I have started pulling students to assess them on their individual understanding of number words/numerals, forward and backward number sequencing and structuring. This is part of the AVMR (add-vantage math  recovery) training and work that the K and 1 teachers did last year with Mary Lambert, our math coach. It has been very helpful and has really helped us to rethink our math curriculum and increase student understanding of basic number sense and skills needed for a higher order thinking math.


Students did an excellent job, wrapping up the review portion of Superkids (Welcome Back). We reviewed letters and their sounds, sounding out cvc words, vowels and consonants, manipulation of initial, medial and final sounds, blends and memory words. Next week we will start "The Adventures of Superkids" and start by reviewing digraphs: sh, ch and tch, and focus on new memory words. Please keep reading at home and when any Superkids reading packets come home in folders, it would be great if you could have your child read the story to you. These are decodable so great for most students. 

Handwriting has been moved to first thing in the morning to ensure students get their full 2 recesses. Practicing handwriting at home by writing letters or notes to family or friends is a great way to practice. Students are doing a great job as we work on using upper and lower case, finger spaces and being able to work independently. Some students are needing teacher assistance to remain focused during handwriting. We typically do 2 half pages per day (or 1 letter). In writing students are starting their 2nd small moments stories, which are personalized and individualized for each student. We will be working on these over the next 2+ weeks and then students will have the opportunity to share these out as authors. 

Just as a reminder, please make sure your child wears socks to school on Monday for bowling. We would love to have the following supplies donated to our classroom:  extra snack, table wipes, plastic gallon ziplock bags and chlorox wipes if you are able to donate. A huge thank you to families who have donated. I really appreciate it. You have been so generous!

** Please fill out the conference form and return it asap. I am signing families up for slots as they as returned. Thanks!