Week of September 10, 2012

Yay! A full week at last! Although we had a "soggy" start to our week today, things should dry out as the week continues. 

I hope you feel that you are "learning the ropes" of first grade along with your child. This blog is my way of letting you know what is going on in our classroom. Please be sure to check it out each week. 

Reading Workshop: We have spent the better part of the first few weeks of school learning the rules, routines, and procedures for our time in Reading Workshop. There is explicit teaching during our daily mini-lessons in Reading Workshop that the children then spend time practicing as they read independently and with partners. We also spend time each day with teacher read-alouds. The main purposes for these read-alouds are to teach the children to think and talk about books and to build excitement for reading. For example, I model making predictions – “Let’s look at the cover and ask ourselves, What do we think this book is going to be about?” I also model thinking aloud while reading by asking myself questions such as: “Who are the characters in this story?” “Where is this story taking place?” “What happened first, then next, then next?” I love seeing the children practice the concepts that are modeled during the read-alouds during their independent reading time! This week our mini-lessons will focus on the jobs that partners have, strategies such as picture clues to help them when reading books they have never seen nor heard before, and practicing making our voices sound like characters would sound like by noticing how characters are feeling in the pictures and in the words. Practice these strategies when you read with your child at home. I have also spent a great deal of time assessing the children's reading skills so that each child will have "just right books" for reading. 

Handwriting: We are working on the lowercase letters a, c, d, and g which are all made by beginning with magic c. Ask your child what this means. We will be playing a magic c mystery letter game to help us remember to "start the letters at the top" when writing. We will also be learning some physical motions with our hands to help us size and place our letters correctly. Please send in a clean sock for your child to use as an eraser when working with their chalkboard. So far, Natalie is the only one to bring in her sock!

 

Writing Workshop: We have had a successful launching of our writing workshop and are getting ready to publish our first piece of writing! Tomorrow the children will spend time going through all of their writing done so far and choose a piece that they love and think others will enjoy hearing or reading. We will spend the rest of the week "fixing it up" for publishing, which at this point means rereading, adding to the drawing, adding to the words, coloring the sketches, and making a cover. Then we will share them together in class as our first celebration.

Ryan, Carson, Natalie and Phoebe enjoy  Geoboards

Keith and Ben explore with pattern blocks

Avery's dad played Top-it with us during Math Explorations!

Math: Last week, we had our first day of math explorations. A big thank you to Avery's dad for coming to play a math game with us! Today as we worked on number stories, the children came to realize that we had actually been working on number stories each day during our Morning Message! We will take our first written assessment tomorrow on Unit 1. Look for these to come home on Wednesday. The children are learning how to take tests and "why" we take tests. I tell the children that the main reason we take tests is to let Mrs. Owen (and you) know what they need help with. We will begin Unit 2 on Wednesday. Look for the Math Family Letter for Unit 2 to come home in your child's take-home folder this week. Please read it and keep it in a safe place so that you may refer to it if needed. It will give you lots of useful information on what we will cover in this unit, vocabulary used, several "Do-Anytime Activities" that are helpful, and directions for games that you can play at home with your child to help them with the skills we are working on in the unit. Also this week we will practice counting up and back on the number grid as well as working with complements of 10. 

Social Studies: We will continue our character education unit through our author study of Kevin Henkes' books. Character education will be an ongoing theme throughout the year.  

Science: We will begin our study of the Human Body next week. The children will love this unit! I am looking for doctors, nurses, EMTs, or others that work in the health care field that would like to volunteer to come in to share during this unit. If you are interested, please let me know!

Things to remember:

Our Homework Calendar began last week. Look for it in your child’s folder each Monday. As we discussed at BTSN, please have your child turn in only the homework that is due each day. All homework should be done in pencil only, no ink. Reading each night for at least 15 minutes is part of the daily homework. Please help your child complete the reading log each night and return it on Mondays. Please be sure to always note the reminders on the right-hand side!

Cyrus enjoyed having his mom as our first Parent Reader!

Word cards (sight words on ring) need to be worked on each day and returned on Thursday. Please help your child to practice reading, spelling, and using each word correctly in a sentence. 

Picture Day for the Lower Division is tomorrow! If you want to order pictures and have not returned your envelope, please send it in with your child tomorrow. 

International Peace Day will be Friday, September 21. Children may wear "peace" shirts to school that day. 

We will have a special Town Meeting 

that morning and you are welcome to join us!

Volunteers this week:

• Wednesday - Library Check-out - Amber Ferrol and Chris Dubroff (2:10)
• Thursday - Math Game - Kim Gross (10:30)
• Friday - Art - Lorraine Thorpe (9:15)
• Friday - Parent Reader - Twila Davis (2:20)

Have a great week!

Susan

Week of September 5, 2012

Dear Parents:

It was so good to see all of you at Back-to-School-Night! I know some of you needed to be in the classrooms of your older children but I so appreciate that you all came in for as much time as you could. If you have any questions, please email me and I will do my best to answer them!

This morning we had our first Town Meeting of the year with the lower school. It was so good to see our community all together for the first time this year. We greeted each class to let everyone know that they are special and matter!The children were so well behaved and participated beautifully in the greeting and opening routines. 

Today we also made our first visit to the computer lab. The children were reintroduced to the iPad, helped to come up with "Our iPad Rules", and had a great time working on them. They had two apps that they were allowed to use today. Ask your child about them!

In class we continue to work on short vowel /a/ words, particularly those in the _am, _ad, _ap, and _at word families. Words in these families will be included on Friday's spelling test. The children enjoyed the "practice" test last Friday. This Friday will be the real deal! The word rings came home again today with a note to explain them. These words will again be included in the test on Friday. Beginning next Monday, there will be new words added to the word ring each week.

In Math today, we played a game called "Dice-Roll and Tally" to investigate equally likely outcomes. As the week continues we will work with weather and temperature routines, explore with pattern blocks, base-10 blocks, and geoboards, and practice doing some graphing together. Ask your child how to play the game "Top-it". Don't forget that the Math Family Letters that come home will also provide directions for many of the math games that we play so that you can play them at home.

In handwriting, we have completed capital letters and are beginning to work with the lowercase letters. Please send in a small, clean sock for your child to use as an eraser when working with the chalkboard for handwriting practice. 

The first homework calendar that we went over at Back-to-School Night came home today. I explained it to the children. The reading log should be completed each evening and then turned in on Monday. All homework should be done in pencil - no ink please. Please remember to note the reminders on the right-hand side of the calendar.  If you have any questions, please let me know.

Our first library check-out day is tomorrow! Sharon Cannella and Kim Gross will be coming to escort the children to the library and assist them in checking out books. Please remember to return library books each week so that your child can check out more the next week.

Volunteer schedules begin this week! Thank you to all of you for volunteering! I will list the volunteers signed up at the bottom of each weeks blog.

I have also set up our class Shutterfly site and have posted pictures to it. I will send each of you an email invitation so that you can sign up to access it. Please feel free to post pictures that you take of our class when you are at school.

Things to Remember: 

Next Tuesday, September 11, is picture day.

If you have not signed up for a conference with me, please contact me as soon as possible. I will not be here on conference day so I have alternative dates/times available. 

Word card rings are to be returned on Thursday!

Calling for Summer Vacation photos! The yearbook staff is collecting photos of student summer vacation experiences both in and out of the country. If you have a photo that you would like to share for the yearbook, please send or e-mail your photos to Tony Napodano at nap@shorecrest.org.

Volunteers this week: 

Wednesday - Library check-out (2:10):  Sharon Cannella and Kim Gross

Thursday - Math game (10:30): David Richardson

Friday - Art helper (9:15): Mary Hind

Friday - Parent Reader (2:20): Charlene Hosseini

Have a great week!

Susan

 

Welcome to First Grade!

What a wonderful start we have had to first grade! I am really enjoying getting to know your children. I can tell it is going to be a great year! I look forward to seeing you Thursday night at Back to School Night and to share all about the wonderful world of first grade!

I hope you will subscribe to our classroom blog so that you will receive notification of updates via email. Please visit the blog weekly to see what is happening in our classroom. I will update it each week to share curriculum with you as well as all the news of the week. There will also be pictures so that you will feel as though you were in class with us! I will soon have our class Shutterfly site up and running! By the end of the year, you will have access to tons of pictures of your child's year in first grade. Last year, many parents made a photo book of their child's year in first grade as a lasting memory.

The children are already "thinking" and "acting" like first graders. I am so proud of them! I'm sure they have told you how busy we are in first grade! We begin each day with a morning meeting. During this time we participate in a variety of activities that emphasize social, emotional, and academic growth to help build a strong classroom and school community. Building this sense of community helps the children to feel safe, connected, comfortable, and empowered.

New this year, is our daily Spanish class with Senor Zamoff. We are so fortunate to be able to have this opportunity! We have also launched both our Writing and Reading Workshops and are working on establishing the rules and routines. We have also started a study of one of my favorite authors, Kevin Henkes, and many of his books are being used during these times.

In our word work, we have begun focusing on short vowel /a/ words and writing complete sentences. The children took a practice" spelling test last Friday to help me assess where they are in their knowledge of words. Next Friday will be for real! I will explain more about this at Back to School Night. During the next couple of weeks, I will be working on individual reading assessments with the children so that each child will have "just right" books to read during their workshop time.

We have also begun our handwriting program, Handwriting Without Tears. Ask your child to show you what "writing position" looks like. We have been working on forming capital letters correctly, focusing on "Frog Jump Capitals", "Starting Corner Capitals", and "Center Starting Capitals".

We began Unit 1 in Math which also focuses on establishing routines such as calendar and small group work. We've been playing math games such as "Penny Dice" and "Bunny Hop". You will be receiving Math Family Letters at the beginning of each unit that will provide directions for many of the math games that we play so you can play them at home with your child. The children have received their math tool kit bags and began working with their first math tool, the pattern block template.

Things to remember:

Back to school night - We will all meet in the Janet Root Theater at 7:00 before heading to our classroom. I will talk about curriculum and the other particulars for our class. Don't forget to bring your calendar to record important dates and to help you when signing up for parties and other class activities.

Every Friday is Spirit Day. Students may wear any shirt with a Shorecrest logo,
Shorecrest Spirit Wear or uniform shirts. They may wear Spirit Wear, uniform, or denim
bottoms.

Picture Day is September 11th in the Student Center.

Please remember that the children bring their own snack in first grade. If they are buying a school lunch, they still need to bring a snack to eat. They get hungry!

Please also be sure that containers they bring for lunch can be easily opened by your child. Please do not send glass containers.

Word rings will come home each Monday, should be practiced each day (reading and spelling the words), and need to be returned on Thursday.

I am looking forward to a great year! See you all on Thursday night!

Susan Owen

Final Blog of the Year!

Where has the time gone? I can't believe there are only 6 1/2 days left of school. The children have grown so much this year. We have worked hard but had a blast at the same time! I will so miss these precious smiling faces and loving hearts!

I will post more pictures on our class Shutterfly site over the next two weeks. Don't forget to check it out! There are SO MANY terrific pictures of your beautiful children. You can make a wonderful photo book of their year in first grade! In fact, I think they are offering 50% off right now.

Last week was another fun-filled week! Besides learning about crabs and penguins, using our research to work on our All About books, working on fractions, measurement, symmetry, and math facts, shopping for and reading more "Just Right" books, and taking some final reading assessments, we had a number of special activities as well. On Monday afternoon, three eighth grade students, Jessica, Caroline, and Scott M. (one of my former first graders) visited to share information about the sea star and sea urchin. On Tuesday afternoon, we had one final compliment party! A BIG thank you to Kimberly Burke for hosting a luau for the children, complete with leis, tattoos, and huge cookie sandwiches! On Wednesday afternoon, two more eighth grade students, Jacob N. and Santa B. (both former first graders of mine) brought a number of very cool and interesting specimens from the ocean to share with us. The coolest was definitely the baleen from a humpback whale! The children asked wonderful questions and shared their knowledge as well. Jacob shared with the children that his interest in the ocean began in first grade! On Thursday morning, we dissected blue crabs! A big thank you to Mai Nguyen, Debbie Boensch, and Julia Wenniger for helping us with this exciting hands-on learning opportunity! On Friday, the kids had so much fun at Friday Fun Day that I don't think they really missed Splash Day after all! Check out the pictures on E-bytes! We also celebrated two birthdays - Grace and Alexis! Also on Friday, after the birthday celebration for Alexis, her dad entertained us as our parent reader.

This week, we have our last dissection - the one the children have waited for all year! This morning we dissected... SHARKS! Another big thank you to Mai, Julia, Eva D'Agostino, and Natalie Ames for helping us with this fishy task! The children will also be finishing their All About books on their sea creature this week and working on the visual portion of their projects. We'll take our final math assessment and spend time reviewing many of the skills we've learned this year. On Friday, we'll also have our last visit to the computer lab this year.

We'll also be doing a lot of partying this week! We'll be celebrating the last three birthdays in our class. First, on Monday afternoon we'll celebrate Kayla's birthday. Then on Tuesday afternoon, we'll celebrate Jack's birthday. Finally, on Wednesday we'll celebrate Sam's 1/2 birthday! But the partying doesn't stop there! On Thursday afternoon, we will have our end-of-the-year party. Students should wear their "Commotion in the Ocean" t-shirts with jean shorts, etc. We will rotate through the four first grade classrooms with different activities in each room.

The last day of school will be next Wednesday, May 30th. Dismissal will be at noon.

Please be sure that your child brings the take-home folder and green bag to school each day this week and next! We will be cleaning out cubbies, desks, and clearing walls. There will be a lot to send home so we will send a little home each day.

I want to thank each of you for sharing your precious child with me. Each and every child has brought something special to our class. I have watched them grow in every way and they have continued to amaze me. They have brought smiles, laughter, and love. They remind me all the time of why I do this! I will miss each and every one.

Finally, I want to thank each of you for all the support you have given me each and every day. You have volunteered in countless ways. We could not have done everything that we did this year without you! I hope that each of you will stop in to say hello from time to time next year and let me know how you and your child are doing!

Have a wonderful summer!
Susan

Final Volunteer Schedule:

• Tuesday - Art - 12:05 - Natalie Ames
• Wednesday - Math Game - 1:15 - Susannah or Brian Malison
• Friday - Parent Reader - 2:15 - Eva D'Agostino
• Tuesday - 5/29 - Art - 12:05 - Mai Nguyen

Friday Fun Day Replacing Splash Day!!!!

The PE staff is so excited for this Friday May 18, 2012. Our regularly scheduled "Splash Day,” will have to be modified in order to comply with recent water restrictions. The PE staff has arranged for a large inflatable maze to be delivered in place of the water slide. We will also provide multiple play areas and other (dry) activities that are sure to put a smile on your child's face. Spirit wear will take the place of swim wear for our "Friday Fun Day.” We are certain our students will enjoy what we have in store for them and we appreciate everyone's flexibility in this matter. We can't wait!

Week of May 14, 2012

Bravo! Bravo! Bravo!
 

I can't begin to tell you how very proud I am! Your children were absolutely amazing in Commotion in the Ocean on both Thursday and Friday! They brought tears to my eyes and kept me smiling all day Friday! I could not even begin to count the numerous compliments we received from parents, faculty, and students! All of the hard work certainly paid off and they had so much fun! You would think they would have had enough, but at recess Friday afternoon, they wanted to take my CD player and sing and dance on the playground! So cute! We have lots of pictures on our class shutterfly site, thanks to
Susannah Malison! If anyone else has pictures to
share, please do! I will also soon be giving you a link to the
pictures that Mr. Schiaparelli  took.

Don't forget that each day this week that your child brings in a donation for the children of Burkina Faso, he/she may wear a spirit shirt to school that day (with uniform bottoms). A flyer went home last week regarding this. Thank you to those of you who have already contributed! Following is the information again.

Flops and Tops for Burkina
Lower Division Service Project
Benefiting Hope for Burkina, May 8th – May 17th

Help make a child in Burkina Faso smile.
Donate a baseball cap, a pair of flip-flops, Crocs, or sneakers and
wear a spirit shirt and/or hat (with uniform bottoms) to school!

• Donations may be used or new.
• Donate as many shoes/hats as you can spare. 
• Wear your spirit shirt every day you donate!
• Collection bins will be located in each LD hallway.

Burkina Faso

• A West African country located south of the Sahara Desert and north of Ghana.  
• A land-locked country about the size of Colorado (105,900 sq. mi)
• Climate is tropical.
• Burkina has 16.3 million people that make up 60 ethnic groups and 4 primary religions.
• The Burkinabe people speak 6 languages.
• Burkina is one of the poorest countries in the world.

The People of Burkina Faso

• Over half live on less than $1/day.
• Only 41% of school age children are in school and most don’t finish.
• 3 out of 10 children die before they turn 10 years old.
• Malnutrition and water borne illnesses are the nation’s biggest threats. Less than 50% of Burkinabes have access to clean drinkable water.

source: http://hopeforburkina.org

The show may be over, but we still have lots  going on in our class!

Language Arts/Reading Workshop: We will be reviewing the vast sight word vocabulary that we have learned this year (our word wall) and using those words in different activities. We will be using the many reading strategies we've learned as we read. We'll be reading lots of nonfiction as we read to learn! There will be different centers and activities to choose from to continue practice with the many concepts and skills covered this year. Some include contractions, compound words, homophones, verbs, nouns, alphabetical order, etc.



Science: This week we will be learning about some of the other creatures of the sea such as the crab, seahorse, and penguin. In addition, we will spend some time researching the sea creatures for our project. Please continue to help your child gather information at home this week and keep it in the folder they created for their research. That folder should stay in their take home folder so that it is available when researching whether at home or in the classroom this week. All of the research is due no later than Friday. You may use the resources listed in the letter that came home last week to help them.  The graphic organizer is self-explanatory. We have talked in class about what makes a "good fact" - numbers, names, good descriptions, etc.  For instance, "my animal is 25 feet long" rather than "my animal is big" or "my animal lives in the Indian and Pacific Oceans" rather than "my animal lives in the ocean". In addition to the All About book they will be writing during Writing Workshop on the creature, they will be creating some type of graphical or physical project that also presents their research - a poster, diorama, shadow box, sculpture, etc. We have basic supplies like paints and construction paper, but any additional supplies (poster board, boxes, photos, etc.) will need to be brought from home. Construction of this project will be done in class the week of the 21st. Please feel free to print any pictures, maps, webpages that they find useful or can use in their final project. 



Writing Workshop: We continue with our non-fiction writing unit. Our main focus is on informational writing... writing books that teach! Our big focus for the next couple of weeks will be on writing "All About" books on the sea creature each child chose to research. In writing their All About books, the children will be incorporating many features that they have learned about nonfiction writing, such as titles, table of contents, headings, and labeled diagrams. They may also reflect and add their own thoughts about what they are writing about!

Math: We will continue working with fractions this week and two digit adding and subtracting.  We will be taking our Unit 9 assessment early next week.

Volunteers this week:

* Tuesday - Art - Debbie Boensch (12:05)
* Wednesday - Math Game - Kelli Cross or Susannah Malison (1:15)
* Friday - Parent Reader - Marshall or Natalie Ames - 2:15)

Other Important Reminders/Dates/Information:

This will be the last week of the formal homework calendar.








Splash Day this Friday, May 18th.  Please send a towel to school with your child and be sure that he/she either brings an appropriate swimsuit to school to change into or wears the swimsuit to school under the uniform. They will need water shoes to wear as well. The children will change into their regular school uniform after PE. So, if they wear the swimsuit under the uniform that morning, don't forget to please send in underwear to change into as well! And don''t forget socks and tennis shoes to change into! Please also apply sunscreen to your child before coming to school. That will save us time! You may also send a hat with your child if they don't have one at school already.

End-of-the-Year Party - Thursday, May 24th - Students should
wear their "Commotion in the Ocean" t-shirts with jean shorts, etc.


Last Day of School - Wednesday, May 30th -noon dismissal

Have a great week!
Susan

Week of May 7, 2012

"Commotion in the Ocean" is finally here! The kids are so excited! We begin rehearsing in the theater this week for our big show on Friday! I hope that you will be able to be there! We will have a dress rehearsal on Thursday morning for the lower school students and teachers. Please have your child wear jean shorts, pants, skirts, or skorts on both Thursday and Friday this week. I will have the t-shirts they made waiting to put on them Thursday morning. They will only wear them for the dress rehearsal so they will stay clean for Friday. Please send in a full uniform to change into after the rehearsal. We will send the t-shirts and jean bottoms home on Thursday afternoon. The children should come to school dressed in them Friday. Please don't forget!

I want to thank you for practicing the speaking parts with your children. Please continue to practice with them all this week on volume and expression!

As you may have heard, your children were asked to choose a specific animal they want to research for their final project of the year.  After they have chosen the animal, they will research to find information about the animal's habitat, diet, anatomy, and other interesting facts. They will use this research to then write an All About nonfiction book about their animal and create a visual project to present. We will start the research in the classroom and in the computer lab, but will ask you to help your child gather the remainder of the information needed at home with your guidance. A paper with helpful websites will be coming home today. If your child has not chosen an animal, please help them decide so they can tell me the animal's name on Tuesday.

SHARK WEEK! As if the children aren't excited enough about rehearsing in the theater this week, they are doubly excited that it is shark week in our class! In science, we will be reading and researching about these fierce predators, writing about them, observing them in video, exploring their attributes, and comparing them to the mammals of the sea that we have been learning about.

In reading and writing workshops, the children are becoming more and more adept at using the features of non-fiction to help them read, research, write, and learn.

In math, we will review fraction concepts, compare fractions, and introduce the idea that fractional parts of a whole have many names (equivalent fractions).

Volunteers this week: 

•  Tuesday - Art -  12:05 - Jill Emerson
• Wednesday - Math Game - 1:15 - Kimberly Burke
• Friday - Parent Reader - 2:15 - Mary Harris

Other Important Reminders/Dates/Information:

Library check-out has ended. All library books are due back no later than Thursday of this week!

Our program is Friday at 8:30 a.m. in the Janet Root Theater. Don't miss it! It will be a regular day of school after the program.

Splash Day is May 18th.  A flyer came home last week with information.

End-of-the-Year party is Thursday, May 24th after lunch. 

Last day of school is Wednesday, May 30th, noon dismissal.

See you Friday!
Susan