Weekly Update

Dear Families,
I wanted to share with you a story I tell the students over and over again.  It pertains to reading.  Many years ago, a second grade student said to me, "You know what, Mrs. McCormack?  Reading is like going to the beach."  I was surprised by the sudden announcement and asked, "What do you mean?"  The student said, "Well, some people take a plane, some people take a car and some people walk, but in the end, we all get there."  Such wisdom!  I share this story with you because at this point in the school year, we need to remember to encourage all of our students to "get to the beach".  It does not matter what your reading ability is, we all set personal goals, and we all need encouragement to make ourselves improve.  Thank you all for supporting your children at home.

Our Learning:
Reading: We continued working on finding character traits in our books this week.  The students learned how to "flag" their pages using post-it notes to easily find the pages that shows character traits.  We worked together as a class, using the Piggie and Elephant books written by Mo Willems.  Thank you Ms. Davison for letting us borrow them for a couple of weeks.

Writing: Our small moment stories are in full swing.  We discussed "good beginnings" and what makes "good beginnings".  The students also explored the use of dialogue in writing, speech bubbles and thinking bubbles.

Math: First grade mathematicians continued working on various addition strategies.  They also learned about graphing.  Please scroll down for more information and pictures.

Upcoming Events and Reminders:
We will start our science unit on "Creepy Crawlies" next week.  The students will participate in a series of workshops, visiting all the classrooms on Harmony, while learning about bats, snakes, spiders and the Venue Fly-trap.

We are going to the Book Fair at WCS on November 10th.  This is a change, as we were initially schedules for another date.  Please be advised that we are dismissing from WCS on Tuesday November 10th.  If your child will be picked up, please do that at the front office at WCS.  If your child attends "imagine After School at ABS", your child will ride a bus back to ABS.  All other children will board their normal buses.  Thank you!

Have a great weekend,
Maria