Monday, January 31, 2011
Our trip to the Flynn Theater
We had a great time going to the Flynn Theater last week to see "Seussical: The Musical". Please look for our upcoming publication of this trip and our throughts about the show.
New pictures from our reading buddies
Here are some new pictures from our last meeting with our reading buddies. Enjoy!
Wednesday, January 26, 2011
Weekly Update
Dear Families,
Another short week is coming to an end. I hope you all stayed warm on Monday. It certainly is nice to have warmer weather again so we can all go outside without freezing!
On Tuesday, we went to see the show “Seussical: The Musical”. I hope your child told you about how this amazing theater company brought together different characters in one exciting and musical play. The costumes were great and the singing and dancing added to the overall experience of this great show. Look forward to some writing pieces on this show as well as podcasts.
We had another meeting with our Reading Buddies. We continue to enjoy reading together. The Kindergartners have recently started instruction on reading strategies, so our 1st and 2nd grade reading experts taught them all about the different strategies we use inside our classroom. It was great to see them teach other students! They did an amazing job. Next week, we are going to show them all of our reading and podcasting sites, so they too can enjoy books and poetry as audio files.
In math, 1st graders continue to learn about measuring weight and height through the investigations of different penguins. We are learning about the Little Blue Penguin this week. Ask your child to compare and contrast the Little Blue to the King Penguin and the Rockhopper Penguin. They do a great job comparing and contrasting the different features!
Next week, we have another “4 Winds” class. If you are interested in volunteering and helping out, please contact Lori at pledak@comcast.net. She would love to hear from you.
Lastly, the PE teachers and I would like to encourage all parents to send their children to school with sneakers as inside shoes on our PE days as it takes a long time to change shoes and tie the laces. I am concerned that time can be lost as the students change into their sneakers. Thank you for supporting your child’s learning!
Have a great rest of the week.
Regards,
Maria McCormack
Another short week is coming to an end. I hope you all stayed warm on Monday. It certainly is nice to have warmer weather again so we can all go outside without freezing!
On Tuesday, we went to see the show “Seussical: The Musical”. I hope your child told you about how this amazing theater company brought together different characters in one exciting and musical play. The costumes were great and the singing and dancing added to the overall experience of this great show. Look forward to some writing pieces on this show as well as podcasts.
We had another meeting with our Reading Buddies. We continue to enjoy reading together. The Kindergartners have recently started instruction on reading strategies, so our 1st and 2nd grade reading experts taught them all about the different strategies we use inside our classroom. It was great to see them teach other students! They did an amazing job. Next week, we are going to show them all of our reading and podcasting sites, so they too can enjoy books and poetry as audio files.
In math, 1st graders continue to learn about measuring weight and height through the investigations of different penguins. We are learning about the Little Blue Penguin this week. Ask your child to compare and contrast the Little Blue to the King Penguin and the Rockhopper Penguin. They do a great job comparing and contrasting the different features!
Next week, we have another “4 Winds” class. If you are interested in volunteering and helping out, please contact Lori at pledak@comcast.net. She would love to hear from you.
Lastly, the PE teachers and I would like to encourage all parents to send their children to school with sneakers as inside shoes on our PE days as it takes a long time to change shoes and tie the laces. I am concerned that time can be lost as the students change into their sneakers. Thank you for supporting your child’s learning!
Have a great rest of the week.
Regards,
Maria McCormack
Sunday, January 23, 2011
More examples from our Moon Journal Entries
Here are more examples of our Moon Journal entries. I hope this helps and might spark some ideas for your child. Thank you.
Friday, January 21, 2011
Video with amazing pictures from space
Here is an amazing youtube video with amazing pictures from space. The music is composed and conducted by Karl Jenkins. Enjoy and let your imagination soar!
Wednesday, January 19, 2011
Meeting our Reading Buddies again
We really enjoy meeting our reading buddies. Today, we shared picture books and "just right" books and took turns reading together.
Examples of Moon Journal Entries
Here are some examples of Moon Journal Entries with words, drawings and ponderings. Keep up the good work!
Weekly Update
Dear Families,
This has been a short, but very productive week in our busy 1st and 2nd grade classroom. I hope your child is sharing what we are up to every day.
In reader’s workshop, both 1st and 2nd graders continued their reading groups and responses. As we meet in reading groups or Book Clubs as we call them, the students discuss the texts with each other and me. The students look at syntax and word structure, but they also analyze deeper comprehension questions beyond the immediate text. This week, the students have analyzed, and responded to, many books on the moon and the solar system as well as a whole class reading activity. John Terko even visited our classroom! The students are responding to the books on the moon and the sky in two ways; first, they respond in a traditional written response through various writing prompts. Secondly, they respond using web 2.0 digital tools, such as Voicethread, google docs and podcasting. Please look for many new published book responses on our digital portfolio in the near future.
We are very excited about sharing our digital learning as well and this week two students from our classroom had the opportunity to share this learning with teachers from another school district. They did an amazing job talking about how we use technology to not only enhance the learning for everyone but also communicate and share our learning with the home, our community and the world. Thank you once again for supporting your child’s learning!
In math, 1st graders continued learning about measuring height and weight as they explored King Penguins. Ask your child to tell you about their unique features and how they are different from the Rockhopper Penguins. 2nd graders continued work in geometry, number sense and number sentences.
This week’s Thursday folder contains information on a program entitled “Reading is Investment”. Participation is voluntary but many students wish to participate as they read every night anyways. Please read the attached information and follow the directions. The chart is not returned to the classroom, rather it is sent directly to the address on the form. Good luck, and let me know if you have any questions.
Thank you all who sent in the Moon Journals this week. It is wonderful to share the excitement of the students’ learning as we explore their drawings and ponderings together. I have posted some pictures illustrating what these moon entries can look like. Thank you. Remember to send these Moon Journals in every day.
Reminders:
• Field-trip to the Flynn, Tuesday 1/25/11. The bus will leave in the late afternoon.
Have a great rest of the week!
Regards, Maria McCormack
This has been a short, but very productive week in our busy 1st and 2nd grade classroom. I hope your child is sharing what we are up to every day.
In reader’s workshop, both 1st and 2nd graders continued their reading groups and responses. As we meet in reading groups or Book Clubs as we call them, the students discuss the texts with each other and me. The students look at syntax and word structure, but they also analyze deeper comprehension questions beyond the immediate text. This week, the students have analyzed, and responded to, many books on the moon and the solar system as well as a whole class reading activity. John Terko even visited our classroom! The students are responding to the books on the moon and the sky in two ways; first, they respond in a traditional written response through various writing prompts. Secondly, they respond using web 2.0 digital tools, such as Voicethread, google docs and podcasting. Please look for many new published book responses on our digital portfolio in the near future.
We are very excited about sharing our digital learning as well and this week two students from our classroom had the opportunity to share this learning with teachers from another school district. They did an amazing job talking about how we use technology to not only enhance the learning for everyone but also communicate and share our learning with the home, our community and the world. Thank you once again for supporting your child’s learning!
In math, 1st graders continued learning about measuring height and weight as they explored King Penguins. Ask your child to tell you about their unique features and how they are different from the Rockhopper Penguins. 2nd graders continued work in geometry, number sense and number sentences.
This week’s Thursday folder contains information on a program entitled “Reading is Investment”. Participation is voluntary but many students wish to participate as they read every night anyways. Please read the attached information and follow the directions. The chart is not returned to the classroom, rather it is sent directly to the address on the form. Good luck, and let me know if you have any questions.
Thank you all who sent in the Moon Journals this week. It is wonderful to share the excitement of the students’ learning as we explore their drawings and ponderings together. I have posted some pictures illustrating what these moon entries can look like. Thank you. Remember to send these Moon Journals in every day.
Reminders:
• Field-trip to the Flynn, Tuesday 1/25/11. The bus will leave in the late afternoon.
Have a great rest of the week!
Regards, Maria McCormack
Monday, January 17, 2011
Celebrating Martin Luther King Jr. Day
On Team Harmony, we celebrated Martin Luther King Jr. Day together by watching parts of his famous "I have a Dream" speech.
Wednesday, January 12, 2011
Reading Buddies
We met with our Kindergarten Reading Buddies again this week. Here are some pictures for you. Enjoy!
Weekly Newsletter
Dear Families,
We have almost completed another busy week in our 1st and 2nd grade classroom. Lots of new learning is taking place right now and we are eager to share it all with you. I hope you take the time to look through your child’s folders when they come home and together check our blog, podcasting sites and digital portfolios for almost daily updates!
In Reader’s Workshop, 1st and 2nd grade students have continued guided reading groups this week. Please make sure that your child’s brightly colored book bag returns to school every Friday. We fill the book bags on Mondays when they come home again. Please note that most of the books inside these book bags are shared among all teachers, and all teams. Hence, it is important to return the books promptly as other children (and teachers) wish to use them. I miss many guided reading books in my classroom. I have asked the students to please locate their book bags at home and the missing books. Please assist them if necessary. Thank you for supporting literacy for all students!
We had our second reading celebration with our reading buddies this week. It is so great to see our friends share books and stories together. Please ask your child to explain how we choose appropriate books for this special time.
In Writer’s Workshop, the students began writing constructed responses this week. A constructed response is a writing piece that follows and aligns to a specific topic, usually given to the students by their teacher. In constructed responses the students learn to structure their thinking through their writing and justify their arguments in more ways than one. For example, the students wrote about their favorite winter activity this week. Together as a class we brainstormed reasons why a particular activity, such as sledding might be somebody’s favorite winter activity. Ask your child to tell you all the different reasons we came up with. After the students have brainstormed their ideas, they write these into a coherent paragraph, complete with an introduction, supporting paragraphs and a conclusion. We are very excited about the writing we have accomplished so far and hope to share these through our podcasting in the weeks to come.
In math, 1st and 2nd graders are doing a fantastic job working together in their partnerships, or dyads. Please ask your child to explain how we practice our dyads every day in Number Corner and what it looks like and sounds like in our classrooms.
We continued exploring scientific observation skills this week as well. Please encourage your child to think about, and verbalize, words that describe what objects look like and feel like. How are two objects the same and how are they different? How can we use our words in specific ways to “paint” a picture for somebody who was not there but would like to know? We also experimented with snow melting inside our classroom, using differently sized cups and spots to make predictions which cup’s snow would melt the fastest (and slowest).
Our unit on the Moon and the Sky started this week. We read several books on the moon and space, and the students participated in many writing responses. They also began gathering information on the moon and space on our classroom chart, which we will add to as this unit progresses. We will read both non-fiction and fictional stories about the moon and space. Ask your child what real information we learned from “The Moon Book” by Gail Gibbons, and what real and pretend information we learned from “If you ever went into space” by McNulty.
Important reminders and Updates:
• Our Moon and Night Sky Journal comes home next Tuesday, January 18th. Students are expected to observe the moon in the night sky every night. They are expected to write about what they observe and draw a picture, showing what they see. The Moon Journal comes back to school the next day so the teachers can check the daily entries and we can share their wonderful work on our document camera. The Moon Journal comes back home again. In other words, this Moon Journal will travel between the classroom and the home every day. Please help your child make entries every night. If it is cloudy outside, or there are other circumstances preventing you from observing the real moon, please know that I have linked a Moon Widget to our classroom blog so you and your child can see its phase every day. I have also created a new folder on the class wiki so you can all explore the space and the moon at home. NASA has some spectacular sites for young children. It is well worth the time to explore! Thank you for those families who have sent in books and pictures of space for us to use in the classroom. It is much appreciated. (Click here to access the Moon and Space folder on the team wiki).
• Our trip to the Flynn is scheduled for Tuesday, January 25th. More information will follow. Unfortunately, we cannot invite parents to this trip as we do not have any additional tickets.
• Martin Luther King Day will be observed on Monday, January 17th so there will be no school.
Have a great rest of the week!
Regards,
Maria McCormack
We have almost completed another busy week in our 1st and 2nd grade classroom. Lots of new learning is taking place right now and we are eager to share it all with you. I hope you take the time to look through your child’s folders when they come home and together check our blog, podcasting sites and digital portfolios for almost daily updates!
In Reader’s Workshop, 1st and 2nd grade students have continued guided reading groups this week. Please make sure that your child’s brightly colored book bag returns to school every Friday. We fill the book bags on Mondays when they come home again. Please note that most of the books inside these book bags are shared among all teachers, and all teams. Hence, it is important to return the books promptly as other children (and teachers) wish to use them. I miss many guided reading books in my classroom. I have asked the students to please locate their book bags at home and the missing books. Please assist them if necessary. Thank you for supporting literacy for all students!
We had our second reading celebration with our reading buddies this week. It is so great to see our friends share books and stories together. Please ask your child to explain how we choose appropriate books for this special time.
In Writer’s Workshop, the students began writing constructed responses this week. A constructed response is a writing piece that follows and aligns to a specific topic, usually given to the students by their teacher. In constructed responses the students learn to structure their thinking through their writing and justify their arguments in more ways than one. For example, the students wrote about their favorite winter activity this week. Together as a class we brainstormed reasons why a particular activity, such as sledding might be somebody’s favorite winter activity. Ask your child to tell you all the different reasons we came up with. After the students have brainstormed their ideas, they write these into a coherent paragraph, complete with an introduction, supporting paragraphs and a conclusion. We are very excited about the writing we have accomplished so far and hope to share these through our podcasting in the weeks to come.
In math, 1st and 2nd graders are doing a fantastic job working together in their partnerships, or dyads. Please ask your child to explain how we practice our dyads every day in Number Corner and what it looks like and sounds like in our classrooms.
We continued exploring scientific observation skills this week as well. Please encourage your child to think about, and verbalize, words that describe what objects look like and feel like. How are two objects the same and how are they different? How can we use our words in specific ways to “paint” a picture for somebody who was not there but would like to know? We also experimented with snow melting inside our classroom, using differently sized cups and spots to make predictions which cup’s snow would melt the fastest (and slowest).
Our unit on the Moon and the Sky started this week. We read several books on the moon and space, and the students participated in many writing responses. They also began gathering information on the moon and space on our classroom chart, which we will add to as this unit progresses. We will read both non-fiction and fictional stories about the moon and space. Ask your child what real information we learned from “The Moon Book” by Gail Gibbons, and what real and pretend information we learned from “If you ever went into space” by McNulty.
Important reminders and Updates:
• Our Moon and Night Sky Journal comes home next Tuesday, January 18th. Students are expected to observe the moon in the night sky every night. They are expected to write about what they observe and draw a picture, showing what they see. The Moon Journal comes back to school the next day so the teachers can check the daily entries and we can share their wonderful work on our document camera. The Moon Journal comes back home again. In other words, this Moon Journal will travel between the classroom and the home every day. Please help your child make entries every night. If it is cloudy outside, or there are other circumstances preventing you from observing the real moon, please know that I have linked a Moon Widget to our classroom blog so you and your child can see its phase every day. I have also created a new folder on the class wiki so you can all explore the space and the moon at home. NASA has some spectacular sites for young children. It is well worth the time to explore! Thank you for those families who have sent in books and pictures of space for us to use in the classroom. It is much appreciated. (Click here to access the Moon and Space folder on the team wiki).
• Our trip to the Flynn is scheduled for Tuesday, January 25th. More information will follow. Unfortunately, we cannot invite parents to this trip as we do not have any additional tickets.
• Martin Luther King Day will be observed on Monday, January 17th so there will be no school.
Have a great rest of the week!
Regards,
Maria McCormack
Tuesday, January 11, 2011
Update
The students and I just wanted to remind you to check out our updated podcasting sites. This week many students shared that they are podcasting at home! Some students have their own MP3 players at home and others are using Audacity (a program that comes on most regular PCs. Let me know if you need help using it). We are so excited to hear that you are using this digital audio learning at home. Please know that MP3 files can be posted on the students' own KidBlogs. We are currently publishing our Small Moment writing pieces under the link "Writing as Audio Files"
Here is a direct link to our podcasting library.
Here is a direct link for our podcasting site for RSS feeds.
Here is a direct link to our podcasting library.
Here is a direct link for our podcasting site for RSS feeds.
Monday, January 10, 2011
Guest Reader visits our Classroom
We had another Guest Reader read to our class. Today our school librarian Ms. Wentz joined us. She read a "Minnie and Moo" book. Thank you for reading to us!
Thursday, January 6, 2011
Our New Reading Buddies
We have joined up with Ms. Spanguolo's Kindergarten class for Reading Buddies. We will meet once a week and read and talk about books together. We had our first get-together this week and below are some pictures for you to share.
Ms. Davison's Class joins us for Read Aloud
Ms. Davison's Kindergarten class joined us for a special read aloud today. We read the book "Frog and Toad All Year" written by Arnold Lobel. We will collaborate with Ms. Davison's class using digital learning. We publish a Voicethread on this book shortly, so please make sure you return often to this blog (It will also be published on the digital classroom portfolio).
Wednesday, January 5, 2011
Weekly Update
Dear Families,
Happy New Year and Welcome back to school! I hope you all had a great vacation and enjoyed spending time together. I also hope you had the opportunity to enjoy the outdoors together. Winter in Vermont can be long and cold, but it can also be absolutely lovely when there is time for outdoor activities!
School is back in full swing already. Reading and writing assessments will be administered in the next few weeks into February. I am looking forward to sharing this information with you, but I hope you are all seeing the tremendous growth these fantastic 1st and 2nd grade students already show on a daily basis.
In Reader’s Workshop, the students will continue to solidify their understanding of character traits and character change in the stories we read. We are beginning to connect reading and writing more and I encourage the students to once gain read as a writer and write as a reader. By that I mean, that when we read, we want to pay attention to the sentence structure, the words chosen, and the layout and format of the text as well as the content of the story. We can learn a lot by closely monitoring the change in sentence lengths, for example, as different ideas or stories are told. When we write as readers, we carefully re-read what we already wrote before we feel completely satisfied that we did our very best. We take the time to think about our audience and pay attention to how we organized our thoughts and ideas so they are clear to others as well. We also make sure that be “backed up”, or justified our thinking and writing. In a couple of weeks, we will shift gears a bit, as our unit on “The Moon and the Night Sky” begins and the students will explore non-fiction books. In the month of January we will also continue our author study of Dr. Seuss, which culminates with a trip to the Flynn for “Seussical: The Musical” on January 25th.
In Writer’s Workshop, the students started podcasting their small moment stories before vacation. We will continue these podcasts, so please visit our podcasting site if you have yet to listen to your child’s story. The students will complete their stories with a beginning, middle, and end, and after that unit, they will learn about structured literature response writing.
In math, 1st graders are “traveling” to Antarctica to learn all about measuring through the study of penguins. We are very excited about this very hands-on unit and look forward to sharing our knowledge with you. We “started” our trip today, officially. Our passports were created yesterday and today we played a game called “Traveling to Antarctica” with our partners. We had only $100 to spend and the plane ride cost $15! Oh, how we wish that was true…..As the students learn more about money, time, measuring (inches and pounds); please encourage them to make reasonable estimates and connections between ideas and real-life situations. For example, today, we discussed if a plane ticket to Antarctica could cost only $100 in real life. What familiar items cost about $100? A car? A loaf of bread? A bike? These types of discussions make meaningful connections between math on paper and the math we experience all around us every day. Please know that 1st grade mathematicians will not take any math homework games home until the end of this unit, which is at the end of the month.
Both 1st and 2nd grade mathematicians are continuing their work on dyads, or partnerships in math, and the importance of metacognition. They are learning powerful strategies on how to think about their own thinking, how to recognize mistakes and ways to correct them. Way to go!
If you are interested in volunteering for our next 4Winds class, which is scheduled for January 27th, please contact Lori Ledak at pledak@comcast.net Thank you!
Lastly, we started our science inquiry tasks this week. The students received their science journals and on a weekly basis in the classroom, they will experiment in science on different topics. We have started fine-tuning our observational skills. We sorted various objects this week and we described them as scientists. Please ask your child to explain. Our team wiki has many science-related games and challenges for you and your child to do at home. Click here for a direct link.
Our next unit in science will be a team-wide immersion in “The Moon and the Night Sky”. Starting the week of February 18th, the students will begin their Moon Journals at home. The students will be asked to observe the moon at night and draw a picture of it and write about its different phases. I have already added a moon widget to the blog so you can check its current phase (in case you want to get a head start, or it is a cloudy night). I have also created a new folder on the team wiki entitled Moon and Sky so students can play games, check out NASA’s daily space picture and learn about the Moon Landing (which, by the way has a close connection to Sweden). Go to the wiki at www.inspirefirstgrade.pbworks.com and look on the right sidebar, in navigation window. There you will see various yellow folders for different topics. Follow the links; eventually the folder will open into a new window for you to access all the games and sites. The last click is a regular "blue link". Happy science! Click here for a direct link.
Have a great rest of the week! It is wonderful to be back with the students again.
Regards,
Maria McCormack
Happy New Year and Welcome back to school! I hope you all had a great vacation and enjoyed spending time together. I also hope you had the opportunity to enjoy the outdoors together. Winter in Vermont can be long and cold, but it can also be absolutely lovely when there is time for outdoor activities!
School is back in full swing already. Reading and writing assessments will be administered in the next few weeks into February. I am looking forward to sharing this information with you, but I hope you are all seeing the tremendous growth these fantastic 1st and 2nd grade students already show on a daily basis.
In Reader’s Workshop, the students will continue to solidify their understanding of character traits and character change in the stories we read. We are beginning to connect reading and writing more and I encourage the students to once gain read as a writer and write as a reader. By that I mean, that when we read, we want to pay attention to the sentence structure, the words chosen, and the layout and format of the text as well as the content of the story. We can learn a lot by closely monitoring the change in sentence lengths, for example, as different ideas or stories are told. When we write as readers, we carefully re-read what we already wrote before we feel completely satisfied that we did our very best. We take the time to think about our audience and pay attention to how we organized our thoughts and ideas so they are clear to others as well. We also make sure that be “backed up”, or justified our thinking and writing. In a couple of weeks, we will shift gears a bit, as our unit on “The Moon and the Night Sky” begins and the students will explore non-fiction books. In the month of January we will also continue our author study of Dr. Seuss, which culminates with a trip to the Flynn for “Seussical: The Musical” on January 25th.
In Writer’s Workshop, the students started podcasting their small moment stories before vacation. We will continue these podcasts, so please visit our podcasting site if you have yet to listen to your child’s story. The students will complete their stories with a beginning, middle, and end, and after that unit, they will learn about structured literature response writing.
In math, 1st graders are “traveling” to Antarctica to learn all about measuring through the study of penguins. We are very excited about this very hands-on unit and look forward to sharing our knowledge with you. We “started” our trip today, officially. Our passports were created yesterday and today we played a game called “Traveling to Antarctica” with our partners. We had only $100 to spend and the plane ride cost $15! Oh, how we wish that was true…..As the students learn more about money, time, measuring (inches and pounds); please encourage them to make reasonable estimates and connections between ideas and real-life situations. For example, today, we discussed if a plane ticket to Antarctica could cost only $100 in real life. What familiar items cost about $100? A car? A loaf of bread? A bike? These types of discussions make meaningful connections between math on paper and the math we experience all around us every day. Please know that 1st grade mathematicians will not take any math homework games home until the end of this unit, which is at the end of the month.
Both 1st and 2nd grade mathematicians are continuing their work on dyads, or partnerships in math, and the importance of metacognition. They are learning powerful strategies on how to think about their own thinking, how to recognize mistakes and ways to correct them. Way to go!
If you are interested in volunteering for our next 4Winds class, which is scheduled for January 27th, please contact Lori Ledak at pledak@comcast.net Thank you!
Lastly, we started our science inquiry tasks this week. The students received their science journals and on a weekly basis in the classroom, they will experiment in science on different topics. We have started fine-tuning our observational skills. We sorted various objects this week and we described them as scientists. Please ask your child to explain. Our team wiki has many science-related games and challenges for you and your child to do at home. Click here for a direct link.
Our next unit in science will be a team-wide immersion in “The Moon and the Night Sky”. Starting the week of February 18th, the students will begin their Moon Journals at home. The students will be asked to observe the moon at night and draw a picture of it and write about its different phases. I have already added a moon widget to the blog so you can check its current phase (in case you want to get a head start, or it is a cloudy night). I have also created a new folder on the team wiki entitled Moon and Sky so students can play games, check out NASA’s daily space picture and learn about the Moon Landing (which, by the way has a close connection to Sweden). Go to the wiki at www.inspirefirstgrade.pbworks.com and look on the right sidebar, in navigation window. There you will see various yellow folders for different topics. Follow the links; eventually the folder will open into a new window for you to access all the games and sites. The last click is a regular "blue link". Happy science! Click here for a direct link.
Have a great rest of the week! It is wonderful to be back with the students again.
Regards,
Maria McCormack
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