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!