Weekly Update

Dear Families,
This has been another terrific week in our classroom with many new changes in our units of study.
As you know, we ended our unit on the author Helen Lester a couple of weeks ago. We started reading the books written by Jan Brett, an author study that we are doing together with our Blogging Buddies in Ms. Davison's Kindergarten class. While we are reading Jan Brett's books, we are also seeing the connections between reading and writing as we continue to read as writers. In writer's workshop, for example, we are now writing our own "trouble stories" with characters and settings. "Trouble stories" are stories with problems, or challenges, that the characters have to overcome. We are currently writing a story together as a class. It is called "Sara's Backpack." In this story, the main character Sara loses her backpack when she is playing in the snow and three different woodland animals find it. Ask your child to explain more to you. We will certainly share this story with you as soon as it is published.
In math, first graders continued to explore measuring and number sense. Our current unit on penguins allow students to fully see the connections between reading, writing, science and math as we make connections every day together. So far, we have learned about the Rockhopper penguins, the King Penguins, the Little Blue Penguins and the Gentoo penguins. Please visit our math blog for pictures and videos, or click here for our new penguin wiki. Thank you.
Team Harmony started a new science unit this week as well (we will begin our ocean unit later this school year). For the next 4-5 weeks, the students will learn about solids, liquids and gases. Every Thursday afternoon, the students will rotate through the four classrooms on our team to learn about the different characteristics of solids, liquids and gases. For example, in Mrs. Thyng's class, the students learned through experimentation with obleck and in Ms. Crowley's class, the students learned about how solids, such as ice, can turn into a liquid. Ms. Munt and Ms. Benoit's class explored gases through the uses of rice and soda. In my workshop, the students learned about how liquids flow, require a container and how all liquids take the shape of the container they are in. We used jello, among other things, to learn about these properties. Ask your child to explain.









We also had a school-wide Swarm Party today, celebrating our safe, kids and responsible choices. The entire school met in the gym and danced the "Hokey Pokey". He are some pictures and a video from you-tube if you wish to try it at home as well. Click here for the link.




Have a great weekend,

Regards,
Maria