Monday, January 30, 2012
Weekly Update
Dear Families,
First of all I just wanted to let you know that I encountered some technical difficulties last week when I was attempting to post our weekly update. My apologies, but sometimes online resources work in mysterious ways and do not cooperate. Hopefully, this will work better this week.
We had such a terrific week together last week. On Monday, Team Harmony went to the Flynn Theater to see the musical "Imagineocean". It was amazing. I hope your child told you all about the story, the music and the incredible puppetry on stage. The story was about three fish friends who went on an adventure together to find a treasure, and in their quest together, they discover the true meaning of friendship.
On Wednesday, we had the opportunity to visit Williston Central School and listen to the 3-4 Chorus. It was also terrific. The singing was great. Lauren blogged about this already, so if you missed her post, please do not forget to scroll down to read about her experience. We hope to have a student in our classroom blog here once a week and reflect on the week and our learning together. Please visit us back often as we post throughout the week. Thank you!
This week in Reader's Workshop, the students continued reading non-fictional stories. Currently, we are learning strategies to become better and more efficient readers when we read non-fiction texts. Among other things, we have learned to carefully consider the title as the author sometimes gives us "clues" as to what it really important or what the important facts are. In other words, a book entitled "How penguins care for their babies" will mostly deal with how the penguins take care of their babies and not necessarily about where they live and what they eat. The students continued to "stop and think" after reading pages, or sections, of our non-fiction texts to make sure they fully understood what was just read. They are encouraged to revoice in their own words as well.
This week in Writer's Workshop, we finished our creative narratives about Tacky. We had a celebration with our Blogging Buddies. See pictures from this special even and visit this link to listen to our Voicethread. Thank you!
Have a great week,
Maria
First of all I just wanted to let you know that I encountered some technical difficulties last week when I was attempting to post our weekly update. My apologies, but sometimes online resources work in mysterious ways and do not cooperate. Hopefully, this will work better this week.
We had such a terrific week together last week. On Monday, Team Harmony went to the Flynn Theater to see the musical "Imagineocean". It was amazing. I hope your child told you all about the story, the music and the incredible puppetry on stage. The story was about three fish friends who went on an adventure together to find a treasure, and in their quest together, they discover the true meaning of friendship.
On Wednesday, we had the opportunity to visit Williston Central School and listen to the 3-4 Chorus. It was also terrific. The singing was great. Lauren blogged about this already, so if you missed her post, please do not forget to scroll down to read about her experience. We hope to have a student in our classroom blog here once a week and reflect on the week and our learning together. Please visit us back often as we post throughout the week. Thank you!
This week in Reader's Workshop, the students continued reading non-fictional stories. Currently, we are learning strategies to become better and more efficient readers when we read non-fiction texts. Among other things, we have learned to carefully consider the title as the author sometimes gives us "clues" as to what it really important or what the important facts are. In other words, a book entitled "How penguins care for their babies" will mostly deal with how the penguins take care of their babies and not necessarily about where they live and what they eat. The students continued to "stop and think" after reading pages, or sections, of our non-fiction texts to make sure they fully understood what was just read. They are encouraged to revoice in their own words as well.
This week in Writer's Workshop, we finished our creative narratives about Tacky. We had a celebration with our Blogging Buddies. See pictures from this special even and visit this link to listen to our Voicethread. Thank you!
Have a great week,
Maria
Friday, January 27, 2012
What we did this week
The following post was written by Lauren:
This week we went to WCS to see the chorus sing. It was amazing.
Mrs.T.H was the conductor .I saw people from last year.
Someone played the guitar and someone played piano and someone played the drums.
I thought the show was awesome. I loved it. The show was in the big auditorium.
There were 142 people singing. I went with my whole team.
We sat in seats with all of the teams in the school.
This week we went to WCS to see the chorus sing. It was amazing.
Mrs.T.H was the conductor .I saw people from last year.
Someone played the guitar and someone played piano and someone played the drums.
I thought the show was awesome. I loved it. The show was in the big auditorium.
There were 142 people singing. I went with my whole team.
We sat in seats with all of the teams in the school.
Thursday, January 19, 2012
Weekly Update
Dear Families,
We hope you had a chance to see our previous posts on this blog, particularly the most recent one showing our own Tacky the Penguin puppets. We are very proud of our creations. The students even wrote their own creative stories about Tacky. We will share those at a later date, but as a little preview, we can share that we have stories about Tacky coming to our school as a substitute in our class and in PE. There is a rumor that instead of Morning Meeting, Tacky had a morning pillow-fight! Other stories tell tales of Tacky joining families on vacations, cruise-ships and car rides! Ask your child to tell you a little about his/her creative story.
Team Harmony is going to the Flynn Theater on Monday to see a show about the oceans. We will leave the school around 11:30, so we will eat lunch in the classroom together. Please pack a peanut-free lunch for your child that day. We will return to the school for our regular dismissal. Thank you all for sending in the permission slips.
I started formal reading assessments earlier this week and will continue next week as well. The students did an amazing job reading and talking about their texts. It is so rewarding to see their progress. I hope you celebrate the learning at home as well. Talk to your child about his/her books. Share your questions or wonderings. Ask your child to justify his/her thinking about books. Encourage your child to make connections between texts, authors and your own lives. Literacy is truly a collaborative and social pursuit. Talk, talk, talk about books, and then talk some more!
In writing, as mentioned above, the students have worked on their creative narrative stories about Tacky. They have also continued some constructed writing responses and practiced a more formalized way of writing with introductions, evidence and conclusions. In addition, the students have learned ways to "hook" the reader, ie get the reader interested in the writing piece so he/she wants to read more. There are many ways to do this. The students have learned to use questions as effective "hooks." They use them in introductions to catch the reader's attention and sometimes even place them throughout the writing piece as a way to remind the reader to connect with the text. It is very effective. Ask your child to explain and even show you at home. Moreover, the students have learned to create pictures that "stretch" their stories a little more, to mix words, charts, speech bubbles and thinking bubbles into an interesting reading experience. Lastly, they have learned to advertise and share their writing pieces in book recommendations and book talks in our class. We use a fishing hook as a visual reminder in our classroom so we remember to include these tools as we try to read as writers, and write as readers.
Have a great weekend.
Regards,
Maria
We hope you had a chance to see our previous posts on this blog, particularly the most recent one showing our own Tacky the Penguin puppets. We are very proud of our creations. The students even wrote their own creative stories about Tacky. We will share those at a later date, but as a little preview, we can share that we have stories about Tacky coming to our school as a substitute in our class and in PE. There is a rumor that instead of Morning Meeting, Tacky had a morning pillow-fight! Other stories tell tales of Tacky joining families on vacations, cruise-ships and car rides! Ask your child to tell you a little about his/her creative story.
Team Harmony is going to the Flynn Theater on Monday to see a show about the oceans. We will leave the school around 11:30, so we will eat lunch in the classroom together. Please pack a peanut-free lunch for your child that day. We will return to the school for our regular dismissal. Thank you all for sending in the permission slips.
I started formal reading assessments earlier this week and will continue next week as well. The students did an amazing job reading and talking about their texts. It is so rewarding to see their progress. I hope you celebrate the learning at home as well. Talk to your child about his/her books. Share your questions or wonderings. Ask your child to justify his/her thinking about books. Encourage your child to make connections between texts, authors and your own lives. Literacy is truly a collaborative and social pursuit. Talk, talk, talk about books, and then talk some more!
In writing, as mentioned above, the students have worked on their creative narrative stories about Tacky. They have also continued some constructed writing responses and practiced a more formalized way of writing with introductions, evidence and conclusions. In addition, the students have learned ways to "hook" the reader, ie get the reader interested in the writing piece so he/she wants to read more. There are many ways to do this. The students have learned to use questions as effective "hooks." They use them in introductions to catch the reader's attention and sometimes even place them throughout the writing piece as a way to remind the reader to connect with the text. It is very effective. Ask your child to explain and even show you at home. Moreover, the students have learned to create pictures that "stretch" their stories a little more, to mix words, charts, speech bubbles and thinking bubbles into an interesting reading experience. Lastly, they have learned to advertise and share their writing pieces in book recommendations and book talks in our class. We use a fishing hook as a visual reminder in our classroom so we remember to include these tools as we try to read as writers, and write as readers.
Have a great weekend.
Regards,
Maria
Wednesday, January 18, 2012
Look at our own "Tacky the Penguins"!!
We have almost finished our character study of Tacky the Penguin, created by the author Helen Lester. Today, the students finished their own puppets and we wanted to share them with you. These puppets will be used in our creative stories, which we will share with you at a later date. We just could not wait for you to see our adorable penguins (all with special shirts....just like the "real" Tacky!)
Friday, January 13, 2012
Guest Reader
We had another Guest Reader visiting us today. Walter Nardelli, our District Principal, join our and Ms. Crowley's class for a read aloud. The books was very funny and entitled "11 Experiments that Failed". Perhaps you will get a chance to check it out from a library soon and read it together with your child. In the meantime, ask your child to explain how we learned about science through very silly experiments.
Using Technology
The students have worked very hard to create a poster showing how we can be Safe, Kind, and Responsible using technology. As we integrate more technology into our classroom and our lives, it is important to remember that there are ways to stay safe online. There are great opportunities for making good choices every time, and we wanted to sho-case these discussions and conversations by creating this visual display for our school. It is currently hanging in our Compuer Lab. We are very proud of it and invite other classrooms to contribute to it.
Celebrating Hanukkah
Dear Families and Friends,
Here are some pictures from our celebration of Hanukkah on December 20th 2011 when Julia's mother visited our classroom to teach us about Hanukkah, how to play Dreidel and sing some traditional Jewish songs. My apologies for the late post, but I had some technical challenges with this particular photo card. Enjoy the pictures. Ask your child to tell you what the delicious potato latkes she had baked us reminded us of and how we played Dreidel. Perhaps your child can also sing you the "Dreidel song"?
Here are some pictures from our celebration of Hanukkah on December 20th 2011 when Julia's mother visited our classroom to teach us about Hanukkah, how to play Dreidel and sing some traditional Jewish songs. My apologies for the late post, but I had some technical challenges with this particular photo card. Enjoy the pictures. Ask your child to tell you what the delicious potato latkes she had baked us reminded us of and how we played Dreidel. Perhaps your child can also sing you the "Dreidel song"?
Thursday, January 12, 2012
Penguins, Penguins!
Our unit on penguins have just started in our first grade classroom! We are currently busy creating our suitcases, passports and learning about penguins as we will "travel" on a "plane" next week to Antarctica! In this unit, the students will learn to measure temperatures, heights, weights, compare numbers and read graphs/charts by exploring penguins in Antarctica. I have created a separate wiki-page for inter-disciplinary connections. We started exploring some of the sites and videos today, and hope you and your child will spend time learning about penguins at hhttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifome as well. Click here to access this site directly. Thank you and have fun learning about penguins!
Weekly Update
Dear families,
Thank you so much for sending your emails to your child. If you did not, there is still time! We are not going to the computer lab until tomorrow morning. We hope to read and reply to your letters and tell you about our day and learning. Thank you. I also wanted to take this opportunity to thank you for continuing the discussions at home about the importance of internet safety and making good choices. It is evident that these young learners understand how important it is to have an on-going conversation about emails, web-sites and online games. Thank you for your support! As part of our classroom discussions, we have just completed a poster illustrating how our young learners here at ABS can use technology and be safe, kind and responsible. I delivered it to the computer lab this afternoon, where it will be on display. We encourage other classrooms to contribute as well, as they also engage in these conversations. I do not have a picture yet, as this will be a surprise tomorrow when we arrive for our weekly tech time! Please come back to see it online, or visit our computer lab. Thank you!
The students have studied "Tacky, the Penguin", created by the author Helen Lester for a few weeks. We are almost done with our character study/author study (although we will continue reading many of Helen Lester's other fascinating characters in the weeks to come). I have linked Helen Lester's web-sites on the wiki for the students to explore at home. Click here to access directly. Thank you.
The students also started reading non-fiction books this week in their reading groups. We are learning about non-fiction story elements, such as table of contents, glossaries, labels and diagrams. It is great to compare and contrast Tacky to books about real penguins. Ask your child to explain some of the things we have learned.
Our unit on the ocean will start soon. On January 23rd, Team Harmony will visit the Flynn Theater to see a show about the oceans. Thank you for filling in the medical/permission forms so quickly. If you did not, please let me know if you need another copy and I will gladly send one home. Thank you.
Have a great weekend,
Maria
Thank you so much for sending your emails to your child. If you did not, there is still time! We are not going to the computer lab until tomorrow morning. We hope to read and reply to your letters and tell you about our day and learning. Thank you. I also wanted to take this opportunity to thank you for continuing the discussions at home about the importance of internet safety and making good choices. It is evident that these young learners understand how important it is to have an on-going conversation about emails, web-sites and online games. Thank you for your support! As part of our classroom discussions, we have just completed a poster illustrating how our young learners here at ABS can use technology and be safe, kind and responsible. I delivered it to the computer lab this afternoon, where it will be on display. We encourage other classrooms to contribute as well, as they also engage in these conversations. I do not have a picture yet, as this will be a surprise tomorrow when we arrive for our weekly tech time! Please come back to see it online, or visit our computer lab. Thank you!
The students have studied "Tacky, the Penguin", created by the author Helen Lester for a few weeks. We are almost done with our character study/author study (although we will continue reading many of Helen Lester's other fascinating characters in the weeks to come). I have linked Helen Lester's web-sites on the wiki for the students to explore at home. Click here to access directly. Thank you.
The students also started reading non-fiction books this week in their reading groups. We are learning about non-fiction story elements, such as table of contents, glossaries, labels and diagrams. It is great to compare and contrast Tacky to books about real penguins. Ask your child to explain some of the things we have learned.
Our unit on the ocean will start soon. On January 23rd, Team Harmony will visit the Flynn Theater to see a show about the oceans. Thank you for filling in the medical/permission forms so quickly. If you did not, please let me know if you need another copy and I will gladly send one home. Thank you.
Have a great weekend,
Maria
Thursday, January 5, 2012
Weekly Newsletter
Dear Families,
Welcome back to school and Happy New Year!
We have had a great start to the new year and it is wonderful to be back with the kids again. I think they were also eager to come back and to our classroom routines. They have done an amazing job, working, reading and writing together. What a terrific class!
I have some very exciting news regarding e-mail to share with you all. As most of you already know, we are very fortunate at our school to have access to e-mail for our young learners. Each student has his/her own account at our school, which is accessed through a student domain under gmail. This e-mail account has been created so your child can further his/her academic learning through various digital means. It is strictly for academic learning. As your child might wish to send e-mails to friends or family members with funny jokes, videos and forwarded messages, we ask that you reinforce the message we have at our school, which is to use this e-mail for academic subjects only. We encourage our students to share learning and thinking about books, academic subjects and things that go on in our classroom and at our school. Please do not forward jokes, videos and spam mail to your child. Thank you. Private accounts outside school are great options if this is something you and your child wishes to communicate about. We also ask that you speak with extended family members, grandmas and grandpas about these expectations.
Bonnie Birdsall, our wonderful Technology Integration Specialist, visited our classroom this week and spoke to the children about e-mail, internet safety and making good choices online. We had a very productive discussion. Creating a safe and meaningful digital culture takes time as we approach learning in many new and exciting ways. I will continue to work with the students daily as we define, re-define and learn what it means to be a safe and productive member of our new digital world. Stay tuned for more updates as we will frequently post about this very important topic. For now, the students will only e-mail me and their blogging buddies in Ms. Davison's class as we embark on a new unit together , studying Jan Brett. Stay tuned for more updates.
We were hoping that all the students would receive an e-mail from a parent by Friday next week. Please send an e-mail to your child with your preferred e-mail, asking about his/her day. Ask about what new learning is taking place, or what happened in Number Corner in math. The more specific ideas you present about the academic focus of the day, the easier it will be for your child to reply. Thank you.
Your child's email is as follows:
firstnamelastname@cssu.us
So, for example, if your child's name was Sara Smith, her email would be sarasmith@cssu.us
Please note the .us domain (mine, as all the other teachers' cssu.org)
I will email you regarding your child's password information. Thank you. Pictures from our first week will also follow.
Maria
Welcome back to school and Happy New Year!
We have had a great start to the new year and it is wonderful to be back with the kids again. I think they were also eager to come back and to our classroom routines. They have done an amazing job, working, reading and writing together. What a terrific class!
I have some very exciting news regarding e-mail to share with you all. As most of you already know, we are very fortunate at our school to have access to e-mail for our young learners. Each student has his/her own account at our school, which is accessed through a student domain under gmail. This e-mail account has been created so your child can further his/her academic learning through various digital means. It is strictly for academic learning. As your child might wish to send e-mails to friends or family members with funny jokes, videos and forwarded messages, we ask that you reinforce the message we have at our school, which is to use this e-mail for academic subjects only. We encourage our students to share learning and thinking about books, academic subjects and things that go on in our classroom and at our school. Please do not forward jokes, videos and spam mail to your child. Thank you. Private accounts outside school are great options if this is something you and your child wishes to communicate about. We also ask that you speak with extended family members, grandmas and grandpas about these expectations.
Bonnie Birdsall, our wonderful Technology Integration Specialist, visited our classroom this week and spoke to the children about e-mail, internet safety and making good choices online. We had a very productive discussion. Creating a safe and meaningful digital culture takes time as we approach learning in many new and exciting ways. I will continue to work with the students daily as we define, re-define and learn what it means to be a safe and productive member of our new digital world. Stay tuned for more updates as we will frequently post about this very important topic. For now, the students will only e-mail me and their blogging buddies in Ms. Davison's class as we embark on a new unit together , studying Jan Brett. Stay tuned for more updates.
We were hoping that all the students would receive an e-mail from a parent by Friday next week. Please send an e-mail to your child with your preferred e-mail, asking about his/her day. Ask about what new learning is taking place, or what happened in Number Corner in math. The more specific ideas you present about the academic focus of the day, the easier it will be for your child to reply. Thank you.
Your child's email is as follows:
firstnamelastname@cssu.us
So, for example, if your child's name was Sara Smith, her email would be sarasmith@cssu.us
Please note the .us domain (mine, as all the other teachers' cssu.org)
I will email you regarding your child's password information. Thank you. Pictures from our first week will also follow.
Maria
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