2nd Grade, here we come!

Thank you all so much for a fantastic year and all of your support! Both your child and your families have made this a fantastic year! The students in room 4 are ready for 2nd grade and for summer! I will miss them but look forward to seeing them next year and hearing about their summers and their great accomplishments next year! I hope to see many of you tomorrow and the First Grade end of the year celebration. It should be a lot of fun! Enjoy your summer!

Quick Update

Our focus is on the chicks right now and students are having a lot of fun getting to know them. Today we took them out and held them! In reading we are learning about soft g and soft c. Students are wrapping up measurement this week and the rest of the year will be math review. Students will be finishing up their science research papers today. We will then have some time to go back and wrap the year up with some poetry. 

Wish List: glue sticks, pencils and extra class snack!

Meet the Chicks

Chipmunk


Rosie


Black Panther


Rain Cloud


Sunshine

Fabulous 5!

Names TBD...

They have arrived!

Last night or early this morning we had 4 chicks hatch! Two yellow and brown, one black and one yellow. I looks like there is one more on the way today! They will hang out in the incubator for 24 hours, before moving to the brooder box. Hooray!

Happy Hatching Day!

It's day 21 of the development of our chicks (embryos)! Three out of the eight have pipped but not too much action yet! Make sure to ask your child about it this week! Tomorrow could be very exciting!

Hatching: The Countdown...

It's hard to believe it's almost summer and that we are really done with the bulk of our school work. Students have been working hard and keeping up with a fast pace. I'm impressed! Here's a quick look at next week and where we're headed with the last of the new curriculum before we start to review:

ELA-Students will look at words that follow the /oo/ pattern. We will work on new memory words and I may also introduce memory words from units 7 and 10 even though we are not teaching them in first grade. Students will be doing more reading and shorter, lighter responses during the independent work blocks for reading, in their differentiated, leveled groups. I want them to be enjoying their books and the stories these last few weeks of school.

Math-Students will do a short unit o measurement. We will review how to measure objects with non-standardized units of measurement like cubes and paperclips and how to accurately measure. We will also compare and arrange objects by length. I hope to get students outside to do some measuring as well.

Writing- Students will be wrapping up their research papers on our Embryology unit. I have told students that this is their first time doing a research paper and we are giving it our best effort. I told them every year they will get stronger at it and have more practice. I am very impressed with the job they are doing thus far. I will be sending writing portfolios from the year, home in the next week or two. Keep you eyes peeled for these.

Science-HATCHING! Chicks hatch around day 21 development, give or take a day or two. This is, perhaps, the most exciting time of the year for first grade students. Chicks will hatch and we will do some journal writing about them. The class will name them and get to know their individual personalities. Students will also have time to sit and watch how they eat, drink and interact. Students will have an opportunity to hold the chicks if they would like.

Reminder: If you haven't returned the Mill River permission slip, please do, so your child can attend.

Wish List: Clorox wipes, ziplock bags-gallon and sandwich size, extra school snack.

Egg Drop: Last call for materials!

Hello Families! Thank you for the donations we have had thus far. We will be designing our contraptions on Tuesday this week and building on Thursday. We have so many boxes, but if anyone has any of the following they could donate, it would be very helpful:

1. string or yarn
2. tape-all kinds
3. anything soft students can use for padding

Thanks for your support! 

Egg Drop Recycled Materials

Hi Room 4 Families! Next week we will be building contraptions for an egg drop. If you have any materials (other than bubble wrap) that we can use-especially materials for padding, please send them in.It would be great to start thinking about ideas with your child at home. Students will be in groups of three for this. Thanks!

Eggcellent Experiments

This past week in science students participated in some fun egg experiments and did some great learning about embryos, mother hens and incubators, and the shell of an egg. We learned that the shell is both porous and very strong. To learn about the strength of the shell, we did an egg squeeze and piled books on top of 4 eggs to see how much weight they could hold (18 books and no mess!). We also tried a student and it held her! If your child hasn't already shared the experiment with you, make sure you ask him/her. 

Our new writing unit actually ties into our embryology unit. Students will work in pairs to write a research paper about an embryo, chick, or chicken. Students have reviewed texts features and practiced using them thus far. This week, we will be choosing our topics and start to gather information.

In math we will start a unit on coins this week. Students will review the penny and dime and learn about the nickle and quarter. Students will practice adding and subtracting coins and have the experience or ordering things on a menu and at a store.

In ELA students are working on /the pattern: /ou/ and /ow/. Our memory words are: warm, walk, give, once, done. Our literacy coach has told us to skip unit 7 of Superkids, and finish the year with 8 and 9, so if you see incomplete workbooks come home, this is why. We are already ahead of where we were last year and are working on skills students will review in 2nd grade. When the workbooks come home, feel free to work on the sections we skipped, but do not feel like you need to. The end of the year will be spent reviewing. Students are in a great place!

Reminders:

Please return permission slips ASAP. We need the Art museum permission slip back no later than Wednesday, May 16th.

Wish List: Extra class snack

Embryology

Our Embryology science and writing unit start this week. We pick up our eggs from the farm on Thursday morning! Here's a video the students will watch quite a bit throughout the unit:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PedajVADLGw

Spring is (finally) here!

Spring weather is here! Students are feeling it and the energy has picked up. It is getting a little harder to focus in the classroom. Please encourage your child to finish out the year strong.

Looking ahead here are some things on our calendar: 

5/9-1:20 release
5/14 and 9/29-garden with Farmer Leila
5/23-Visualizing Teaching Strategy field trip with Mattone's 2nd grade class, led by our shared ELL teacher, Molly Watkins @ Smith College gallery.
5/28-Memorial Day (no school)
6/15-Mill River, End of Year Celebration (tentative)

Here's a look at our learning this week and into next:

ELA-R controlled vowels and oi/oy.

Math-Story problems: solving for the missing part, writing the question in (what are we looking for?), 3 addends.

Writing-poetry: animal poems, color poems, acrostic poems.

*Embryology will start next week and eggs will arrive on the 10th.

New Friends in Room 4

Hello and happy Spring! Your child may have mentioned to you that we have had a number of new friends recently join our class. Four in the last month. We are thrilled to have so many diverse new learners that bring new languages to our class and share their cultures with us. I have been so impressed with the empathy I have seen from our students and how helpful they have been in acclimating them to our classroom and school. 

Assessment season has begun and my hope is to get through them before the weather becomes sunny. We will all want some more outside time at that point. Until then, each assessment will be given one-on-one due to the assessments we use in first grade, so it will require some patience and take some time with 22 students. We will do BAS for reading, letter name/ID for some, math-2 parts(structuring and place value AVMR). 

In reading, students are doing "R controlled vowels" or "Bossy R". Words with ar, or, ir, er, and ur. Students' new memory words are: cold, know, does, laugh, both, again. We are working on paraphrasing and summarizing through our comprehension toolkit work. In writing students continue to learn about poetry. We are starting to write poetry about animals and encourage students to have fun and write in a playful creative way as a poet. 

In math we have been working on creating graphs and reading graphs. Students have done a fantastic job! It has been a lot of fun gathering data on things like how many pockets we have, favorite food, ice cream and color. Today we start working on story problems.

Looking ahead, we will be getting the eggs on May 10th to start our embryology unit. This is many students favorite part of first grade. Students learn a lot and are very engaged during the unit and excitement builds as we get closer to the expected date of the chicks hatching. 

Wish List: Chlorox wipes for the table, class snack, glue sticks, large white construction paper.

What's Next?

Today students will have earned a fun day, after a spelling and math assessment yesterday and a Superkids assessment this morning! Students also filled their pom-pom jar for great behavior and showing CARE. So they have earned some extra recess and a video that connects to our poetry unit. I will read them a poem and then watch the video. We have just finished up a math and Superkids unit and are in the middle of poetry. Here's a quick look at where we are headed with Superkids and math after vacation:

In reading students will start the /oy/ and /oi/ word patterns. They will learn to read and write words like boy, toy, soil and boil. Students will practice the memory words: cold, know, does, laugh, both, again. We will be working on comprehension with some non-fiction text as well and follow up on paraphrasing from a previous comprehension lesson. Please keep up all the great reading you are doing over vacation. I am so impressed with the reading I am seeing at school!

In math we have wrapped up our place value unit, but will review some of this content at the end of the year. After break we will start data collection, graphing and stories problems, where students are asked to solve for different parts of an equation.

Have a fantastic Spring Break!

Week Before Break...

Hello families! It's hard to believe it is almost spring break. We are flying through first grade and students are learning so much! They have certainly earned a break! Here is a look at this week's learning:

Reading:

We are working on aw and all endings and looking at the following memory words: they, come, coming, put and our. Students are also working on main idea and paraphrasing information or retelling in their own words.

Writing: 

We are kicking off poetry this week. Students will be writing about objects and nature this week. Students will learn to write as poets. We have been reading a lot of poetry in class and students will be reading and illustrating some Shel Silvertein poems as another part of our unit. This will be a 3-week unit.

Math:

Students are wrapping up unit 9 of math, which covers conceptual place value. We are covering the jump, split and jump-split strategy to solve equations. Students will complete an assessment this week and when they return from their vacation time, we will start graphing and story problems.

Wish List:  

• Classroom snack
• Large white construction paper
• table wipes
• gluesticks
• dry erase markers

Have a great week and relaxing Spring Break!

Snack donations

Hello families! We have had so many generous families donate snack this year. At least half of the students in our clas do not come with snack each day. With that being said, we are flying through snack and almost out. If you would be willing to donate, or have not yet donated and are able, we would really appreciate it! Thanks for your support!

Poetry Kick-Off!

This week we are starting to read some poetry, before the students start to create their own next week. We are reading both shorter rhymes and have started with some Shel Silverstein poems, which the students are having a lot of fun with. I encourage you to read some poems at home. Students will be recording their original poems in their poetry notebooks and illustrating some poems written by other authors. 

Number Line Strategies...

It has been a crazy 2 weeks, with three new students! Students have been so welcoming and helpful in greeting our new students and teaching them all about CF and room 4. They have also been patient with me as some extra attention gets put on the new students. I have such awesome students!

Here is a quick look at our learning:

In reading students have been looking at y as a vowel. They have learned it can make an /i/ or /e/ sound and a long /a/ sound when -ay/. Students have worked with superlatives, adding -er and -est or changing the y to i before adding an ending. We are also working on contractions with not, will, is, am, and are. 

In math students are digging deeper with place value. Students are comparing numbers into the 100's and thousands and really breaking apart numbers. We will start learning how to use open/empty number lines as a way to add and subtract numbers, such as jump strategy, split, jump/split and overcompensation. I sent a paper home yesterday that explains some of these strategies.

In writing students are working on their 2nd realistic fiction story. This story has the same character but different problem as the first story your child wrote, as it is the 2nd in their series. We have read some Henry and Mudge book to illustrate the concept of a series, but many of your children already understand the idea of a series with Magic Tree House books and Harry Potter books. Following writing each day students have been exploring sound, sound waves, vibrations, volume, and pitch. Ask your child about the "Bee-Hummer" they made in class! 

Have a great 3-day weekend! And if anyone is able to donate snack, we could use some!  

Fun with Farmer Leila!

Superkids Day 2018!

Students had a blast today on SUPERKIDS DAY! Centers included: dramatic play with superkids figures, acting out scenes from Superkids Stories, Sal's soccer game with memory words, a superkids matching game, pattern word board games, Ettabetta's  puzzles, Doc's building, etc.

SUPERKIDS DAY:3/23!

Just a reminder that this Friday is SUPERKIDS DAY! If your child should want to dress up as one of the Superkids, please send him/her to school in costume! We will have a fun day filled with creative Superkid-themed centers, which include: learning activities, art projects and games. I am thrilled to celebrate all the hard work and commitment your child had given to his/her reading this year! Thank you for all your support at home. If you have any questions about this day, please feel free to email me!

Almost Spring!

Hello Families! Can you believe it is almost Spring?! Let's hope the weather cooperates, although it may be that we have to get through tomorrow's storm before we switch gears! Students are doing some great learning in the classroom and have really been enjoying some of Farmer Leila's garden lessons. We are growing potato roots and germinating beans! Here's a peek at our learning for this week:

Reading:

We will start looking at y and the two sounds y makes at the end of a word (long /e/, long /i/ and the /ay/ ending. Our new memory words are: down, too, work, many, first. Students are going to be getting some extra practice with memory words and pattern word spelling in the classroom. There are many words we are learning and patterns, so feel free to practice writing them at home or review as their Superkids workbooks come home.

Writing:

Students are starting their realistic fiction writing this week. They spent last week planning their characters, setting, problem and solution and story events. Students will work on their leads, sketch across pages and then start to write. 

Math:

We will be wrapping up unit 8 of math this week. Students are working on learning time to the hour and half hour and 1/4ths. We will be doing some review of 2-D and 3-D shapes as well before our assessment. In our next unit students will be going back to place value and looking at it in a more conceptual way.

Reminders:

-The Irish Step Dancers have been rescheduled to March 15th. It should be a fun assesmbly!

-Superkids Day is March 23rd! Send your child dressed as his/her favorite Superkid!

Dancing Beans

This week students will be involved in some really fun activities! We will have Farmer Leila visit on Wednesday morning to teach us more about plants. Students are germinating beans in the classroom and watering them daily. On Thursday morning we will have a fun assembly, where students will watching Irish step dancers from the McDuffy school of dance. This is one of my favorite assemblies every year! Just as a reminder, Friday is no school for students. Here is a look at the rest of our week:

Reading:

We have wrapped up the last unit of Adventures of Superkids and students will be taking an end of unit assessment this week. It is long so we will be breaking it up over the course of the week in blocks. Students learned about suffixes: -ed, -er, -es, -ing, and -est and the pattern word rules when adding them to the end of a word. Students also practiced identifying the base word. We have been looking at contractions and compound words as well. Next unit, students will look at /y/ and /ay/ endings.

Math:

In math this week we will be working on 3-D shapes and halves. Students will begin to look at parts of a shape and equal haves. Students have been experimenting with making both 2-D and 3-D shapes with other 2- and 3-D shapes. Next week we will start to look at 1/4th's and time.

Writing:

Students continue to work on their realistic fiction stories. Students developed their characters last week and their setting. This week we will be writing the problem, solution and sketching across the pages to show the parts of our story: First, next, then, last.

Reminders:

Superkids Day: March 23rd! Dress your child as his/her favorite Superkid!

Wish List:

-table wipes
-extra snack
-dry erase markers

March 23rd: Superkids Day

Keep your eyes peeled for info coming home with your child about SUPERKIDS DAY. It will be Friday, March 23rd!

"Shaping" Up: Geometry

Welcome back! I hope you had a chance to spend some time with your child over the last week. The students seemed to come  back well rested and refocused. I think the slow shift in warmer weather should help! Here's a look at this week's learning:

Reading:

This unit students are learning about compound words including the ones that follow the rules: are+not=aren't, do+not=don't..., and "trickers": will+not=won't, can+not=can't...   Students will also be working on compound words such as: rain+bow=rainbow, butter+fly=butterfly, mail+box=mailbox. Some reading groups have been shifted slightly but most students remain in their same reading groups. Keep up all the great reading at home!

Writing:

Students have started their realistic fiction writing. We are working on interior and exterior character traits, setting, problem/solution and story events. There is a focus on story elements and then the students will be putting the pieces together to write their story. They are doing a great job developing some very interesting characters right now!

Math:

Students have started geometry. We are looking at 2-D and 3-D shapes and their attributes. Students are learning vocabulary like: side, vertex/vertices (for 2-D shapes), and corner, edge, face (for 3-D shapes). Students will start to learn about halves and equal parts toward the end of the week and into the following week.

YELP Reviews!

Student yelp reviews will be posted by end of day today. I can only do one entry per restaurant so  have averaged the star rating and entered your child's reasons to go or not to go there with his/her initials. Be sure to check them out!

yelp.com

Pajama Day

Pajama Day Tomorrow! Friday, February 16th will be a Pajama Day for all First Grade students. This is optional. Should your child wish to join in the fun, please send your child to school in his/her PJ's! In the afternoon we will be celebrating all of the hard work the first grade has done with their opinion writing. Have a great break!

Happy February Break!

Hello Families,

I hope you are all looking forward to a nice February break. I know the students need the mental break because they have been working so hard and have shown so much progress since the start of the year!

Here is a look at this week, filled with both learning and celebrations:

Reading: 

We will finish unit 9 of Adventures of Superkids. Our memory words for this unit are: would, could, one, new, some, were. Feel free to practice these at home with your child. The word pattern we are working on for this unit is the vowel team. As mentioned in a previous post, students have been introduced to the saying, "two vowels go walking, the first one does the talking." When two vowels are together in a word we hear the long vowel sound of the first vowel and the second vowel is silent. Some examples are: read, keep, goat, glue, reach, pie. Students will work on inferring throughout the week as a comprehension skill. We will use Pixar clips to help with this.

Math:

We will be wrapping up the first portion of our place value learning. Students learned the ones, tens and hundreds place and some worked on thousands. We identified numbers with base-ten blocks and built numbers, showing each place and groups. Students wrote numbers in expanded form and learned how to add and subtract 10 from a number using their knowledge of place value. I introduced students to how we can take 2 digit numbers and write them in expanded form and then add our 10's and 1's and put them back together, when adding two 2-digit numbers. We are also looking at pennies and dimes as it relates to our 10's and 1's. You can practice counting money at home over the vacation. We will learn more about coins after the vacation.

Writing:

Students will wrap up their YELP reviews and have a chance to share them with Ms. D.'s class later in the week. I will be posting these online over the vacation, so be sure to check them out! After vacation students will be start a unit on realistic fiction. 

Celebrations:

Wednesday is our "Friendship Party". If your child would like to bring cards to hand out, feel free to send them. I have sent two copies of class lists homes over the last two weeks. Let me know if you need another copy. I am providing a snack and juice but if your child would like to bring treats too, that is great. On Friday we will be celebrating with Ms. D.'s class all their hard work with a mellow activity in the afternoon. 

Wish List:

Table wipes
glue sticks
pencils


HAVE A WONDERFUL VACATION!

100 days!

Place Value

Hi Families! I want to thank the families who have been donating to the classroom off of the wishlist. We now have Friendship bags for students to decorate on the 14th and some snack. I have also had dry erase markers and wipes donated. Thank you so much!

The field trip was a lot of fun last week and we are going to have some very positive reviews on restaurants with one student writing a not so positive review. I admire that this student isn't afraid to be honest and speak her mind. We will finish the YELPS by next week and I will be typing them up and posting them over February break. Today we will continue with our anti-bullying curriculum and tomorrow we will have both mindfulness and a visualization activity with Ms. Watkins, our ELL teacher, who has done some training and work with picture books and images through and writing program for kids. The students should enjoy it and it should be helpful in building their skills.

Here's a look at our reading and math for the week:

Reading:

We will continued with our differentiated reading groups with leveled readers, written response packets, journals, games and activities. We will begin our next unit of Superkids on Tuesday, where students will look at vowel teams and learn, "When two vowels go walking, the first one does the talking". When two vowels and together in a word, they make the long sound of the first vowel. For example in the word lead , "lead", we hear the long vowel /e/ sound. Students will be expected to read and write words with the vowel teams. Look for a strip of paper coming home in each unit with these pattern and spelling words. If students want to practice at home that is great, but it is optional. We will also look at inferring as a comprehension strategy and over the next two weeks first grade will use Pixar shorts to practice this skill. In past years, students have enjoyed this!



Math:

In math students are working on place value. We will go back to this later in the year but we are introducing students to writing numbers up to the 100's or 1000's place value. Students will look at groups in the 1's, 10's, 100's and 1000's places and the order of where the number falls. Students will also write numbers in expanded form: 538=500+30+8 or 600+20+5=625. Students will also be introduced to dimes and pennies as they relate to 10's and 1's. This unit will be short and we will wrap it up before vacation, and as I mentioned go back to place value later in the year. 

Reminders:

Please send your child with his or her folder daily. If your child has lost his/her folder or it is ruined, you may buy him/her a new one. Just write your child's nice on the front. Keep reading each night with your child at home and I would highly recommend encouraging your child to do some creative writing or card-making to work on letter formation and handwriting. We work on it daily, but for some students this may be helpful.

Crazy Heart Friendship Party

Room 4 Crazy Heart Party

February 14^th

Every year on Valentine’s Day, in order to make sure we are respecting the beliefs of all people, instead of a Valentine’s Day party, I do a “Crazy Heart Party”, where students celebrate friendship and their first grade friends in our classroom community. Students are allowed to bring in a treat to share with the class if they want and/or students can bring in cards to hand out to their friends. Should your child choose to participate (it is optional), please send your child with a card for everyone in the class so no one feels left out. I will be sending a paper home by end of week with a class list.

Prior to this date, I hope to decorate brown or white paper shopping bags, so if you have any (especially plain ones), if you would be willing to donate them, we would really appreciate it. Students will use these to collect their cards. If you have any questions or concerns, please email me.

       

Field Trip and Reading Sites

I'm sure I'll have more to share after our field trip, but here's a quick look at what your child will be doing on his/her field trip to downtown Amherst on Wednesday:

Field Trip week has finally arrived as anticipation and excitement has been building for some time! On Wednesday, students will be split into 7 groups of first graders (both classes) and with a teacher/and or parents, each group will walk to one of the following cafes/bakeries/restaurants: Glazed, The Works, Antonio's, Starbucks, Subway, Insomnia Cookies, and Black Sheep. These places were selected based on time they were open, location and the more "kid-friendly" environments. Each child will have up to $8 to spend at the restaurant and  will work on a sheet gathering information about the location, hours of operation, menu, and also reviewing the food they try. When we return to school Wednesday, we will look at some YELP reviews and how they are written before starting to compose our own! In the mean time, feel free to look at some with your child online!

If you are a chaperone. Please meet us in town on the common around 10:20. We will leave CF promptly at 10:10. If you would prefer to ride the bus from school, please arrive at 10:00. Chaperones will be given a bag with a student list, directions, worksheets, money and envelopes for change and receipts. 

I also wanted to mention a few great reading sites that have leveled books and that can be read in different languages. Please keep up all the great reading that is going on at home. Reading with your child is best, but these are great in addition or if you think your child may need to change it up. The websites are:

http://www.uniteforliteracy.com/

https://www.raz-kids.com/main/RazQuizRoom

epicbooks.com


Wish List for 100th day:

-goldfish
-marshmallows
-chocolate chips-cheeze
-teddy grams
-pretzles
-kicks
-fruity-o's cereal
-dried cranberries or rasins
-any other ideas for 100th day trail mix?

-small dixie cups for stacking/building projects (100th day) 
-peony beads (any color) and string (100th day)

Weather and Recess Update

I just wanted to let parents know what has been going on for recess and why we have been inside for so many consecutive days. Our school encourages students to get outside whenever possible and knows students need fresh air. Unless it is too icy, raining or too cold/too cold with wind chill we can go outside. Yesterday everything had frozen over from the rain the previous day and was a sheet of ice and today with windchill, the office announced indoor recess since it is only 9 degrees. Students seem content with recess inside and today I am giving them an extended one, however, we will be going outside as soon as given the okay (hopefully tomorrow). My apologies but on days like this when we are told it's not safe, my hands are tied. Safety first. I hope we have an early spring!

Opinion Writing Launch

Hope your first grader is enjoying his/her 3-day weekend! Students have been working really hard and I am especially impressed with their mastery of number families and relational thinking in math. They have it down! Access assessments are done so my hope is outside recess every day unless the wind chill is unsafe. The last two weeks with temperatures and 8 students taking the required ELL assessment, getting pulled half way through our recess, made it a challenge. Glad it's wrapped up! Here's a look where we are headed this upcoming 4-day week:

Reading:

Students learned the cvce pattern over the last two weeks. For some remembering this when reading and writing is tricky. In our next unit (Adventures, Unit 8), Students will be adding endings to cvce words (ed/ing) similar to how they learned endings with cvc words. Now they will be challenged with remembering both rules. With a cvc word, they need 2 consonants before the ending and for a cvce students drop the e and add the -ing or -ed without doubling the consonants. For example: bike becomes biked or biking. A lot to remember, so we will be doing a lot of practice! We continue with our differentiated reading groups and I will start mixing in some non-fiction magazines and readers as a way to challenge students. I hope to incorporate more creative writing and open responses during the 2nd reading block and enhancement as well.

Math:

As I mentioned, students are doing a great job and have their fact families down. We will practice finding missing part in a fact triangle, which was introduced on Friday, and students will also learned greater than and less than. Students will learn to solve for a function machine-both following the rule and finding the rule. The function machine involves skip counting both forward and backward. At the end of the unit we will do some mixed review of our new skills. This unit is packed!

Writing:
We are done with our air, weather, water and clouds unit and now we are moving on to opinion writing, which will tie into our YELP writing. Students will learn to distinguish fact from opinion and write their opinions, with supporting reasons and details. Students will learn how to share their opinion and respect others even if different from their own. I plan on connecting this to our work with Ms. Tara on anti-bullying, which we will continue on Wednesday morning. We hope to complete and guided opinion piece before our Amherst Eatery field trip on the 31st, which will be used to write our YELP reviews. 

Mindfulness:

We continue our weekly mindfulness with Ms. Baver and incorporate in in pockets throughout the day when we need to calm our bodies to prepare to do our best learning. This usually happens after lunch toward the end of our day.

Reminders: 

Please send your child with his/her folder daily and if your child has lost it or ripped it, feel free to replace with another with your child's name written on the front. 

Wish List:

• Chlorox wipes for tables
• black dry erase markers
• extra class snack

Thank you to all of the families who have donated! I really do appreciate it so much as do the students!

Fact Families

I hope you had a great 3-day weekend and a great MLK day! Students had a great Friday at CF, with the MLK breakfast, the assembly and reading some books that taught us about MLK and other races that have fought for equality. I hope to continue to read some of these books through the end of the month. Here's a look ahead at this week's learning:

This week students will have time to take a breath in reading and review some of our learning. We are focused on cvc and cvce short and long vowel word patterns. We are also reviewing memory words that we have covered thus far this year. Students are getting extra practice reading and reviewing word endings: -s/-es (plural), 's (possessive), -ed and -ing, knowing that we need 2 consonants before the ending: hop becomes hopping (double the p) and jump becomes jumping (mp-already has 2 consonants). We have learned a lot and having a week to review is really nice. Here is a look at some of our new learning in math and writing/science:


In math students are working on fact families. We are reviewing the part/part total model and how addition and subtraction are related. If you have a part/part/total model as follows: p=3, p=2, t=5, the family facts would look like the following: 2+3=5, 3+2=5, 5-2=3, 5-3=2. For some students this concept can be confusing but we will be doing a lot of practice, including: whole group, independent work, small group with the teacher and through games. We will be spending the next 2+ weeks on this.

In science this week students will be wrapping up their air, wind, weather unit and their science notebooks. We will be doing some reading about clouds, continue to record the weather and also explore the water cycle. I hope to end the week with a fun film related to their exploration of weather. I have been so impressed with student engagement and their effort throughout this unit.   

We are running low on snack and would love any snack donations! Thanks for your support!

Anti-Bullying

Hello Room 4 Families! Today we started the week with much warmer temperatures and a strange schedule as we had Ms.Tara come in to start working with us on an Anti-Bullying curriculum. Students worked on the 3 R's: Recognize, Report and Refuse. They did a great job! We will be having our 2nd lesson on Wednesday. Look for lesson follow up's to come home in folders! Please remember to send folders in daily with your child. If your child's is in poor shape, you can replace it, but just make sure your child's name is labeled on the exterior. Here's a quick look at the other learning we have going on this week:

ELA:

I will be working this week and next to do the BAS assessment with each student. I have done almost half the class thus far. YOur child may come home with a new leveled book to read. let me know if you have any questions. We continue to work on memory words: oh, any, day, good, very and want and on cvc vs, cvce words. Next week, will be a review week where we will dive back into the -ing and -ed endings and knowing when to doubles and when to not double the consonant before adding the ending.

Math:

Students work on balancing equations (both subtraction and addition) and solving for 1-2 missing numbers. For example: 10-5=7-___ or 18+3=___+11 or 21=17+____ , or ____- 14= 12+ ____. Student work is differentiated depending on their level and I will also be starting the AVMR assessments this week and next, when I can find time. Next week we will start fact families and look at the relationship between numbers and addition and subtraction.

Writing and Unit Study:

Today we learned about temperature and looked at a thermometer. Tomorrow we will look at clouds and learn about 4 cloud types:Cumulus, Cumulonimbus, Status and Cirrus. Students continue to record in their science journals, working on recording facts and observations. We also continue to record the weather. 

Reminders:

Please return permission slips asap.
Please continue to read each night with your child and continue to send in folders daily.

Wish List:

Dry erase markers
Extra snack
Table wipes
Kleenex

2018: New Year, New Learning

Happy 2018! I hope you had a fantastic winter break and had the opportunity to spend some time with your first grader and family and friends! Here's a look at what the start of the new year looks like in room 4, this week:

Reading:

This is the part of the year when the pace picks up a good deal and students start to learn trickier word patterns. We are working on Super E and the cvce word pattern (consonant-vowel-consonant-e), which makes the vowel long and say its own name. Students will use this rule when they are reading and writing. By adding an e to the end of a word, it completely changes the word and the way it sounds (examples: rat vs. rate, hop vs. hope). Students continue to work in their small differentiated reading groups as well. Later this month we will be using the BAS assessment to check on their current reading level. Some students have already or are very close to reaching the cap for first grade. Everyone is working hard and making great progress! Keep up all that great reading you are doing at home!

Math:

In math students have started a unit that is more challenging than the material we have covered up to this point. We first explored the equal sign in depth and balancing equations. Students will begin to understand how addition and subtraction are related and fact families or fact triangles, where will will use the familiar part-part-total model but with addition and subtract. How are these three numbers related?

Writing & Science:

We continue our air, weather and wind unit which is tied into our writing unit. Students learn to write as scientists through their observations in their science journals. This week students discussed weather and started to look at wind. We will be using wind flags to measure the wind. Students will be looking at clouds next. Toward the end of this month, we will start learning about opinion writing, which will tie into our field trip to downtown Amherst to write some YELP reviews of restaurants. Please return your permission slip asap!

Reminders & Wish List:

• Please return your permission slip for our field trip to downtown Amherst asap. We are looking for chaperones if you're interested. The cost has already been covered from your last permission slip (Nutcracker), which was cancelled my the ballet.
• Report cards come out at the end of the month.
• We would love more snack, dry erase markers (black) for student use, and tissues.

2018!