"Traveling around the world"

We love to learn more about the world and different cultures in our class!  Now, we also have a brand new rug to help us understand world geography better.  Check it out:

Opinion Writing

We are in the midst of writing opinions.  In the first few weeks, the students learned about the features of such writing, while exploring letter-writing.  They learned about the importance of clearly stating your opinion and backing it up with reasons and examples.  Here is a visual we keep in the classroom to help us be better writers.

Family Newsletter

Dear Families,

I hope all is well with everyone in this crazy winter weather.  It is hard on the kids when we don't have consistent winter outside for recess fun.  Thank you for sending in appropriate clothes for this every-changing weather!

Reading:
Reading assessments finished last week.  Thank you Ms. Alyssa for helping us out and subbing when I was out for those assessments.  The students did very well and I am so proud of their hard work.
We started reading "The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane" by Kate DiCamillo last week as our new class read aloud.  The students love it so far.  The book offers a terrific plot, but also many opportunities for us to stop and discuss the rich vocabulary and sentence structure.

Writing:
We finished the letter-writing portion of our new opinion writing unit last week.  We will spend the next few weeks perfecting the different elements of opinion writing in other ways.  Since the unit is not fully completed yet, it will not be reflected on the report card.

Math:
First grade mathematicians finished all assessments last week as well.  They did an amazing job.  I am so proud of these hard-working and kind first graders.  We will continue work on off-decade counting and using the number line as a mathematical tool in the next few weeks while we explore addition and subtraction.  Please look for completed math work from class to come home in your child's Friday folders.

Technology:
We started KidBlog last week and we will continue blogging this week as well.  KidBlog enables us to collaborate and share our thinking in a safe online community as we log into it.  We will invite parents soon, but this information will be sent via email as I will share passwords and log-in information.  Stay tuned.

Upcoming Events and Reminders:

• Your child should have brought home a permission slip for our upcoming field-trip to the Flynn Theater (February 3rd).  We will see a show called "Lights, Camera, Math".  Please return this permission slip as soon as possible.  Thank you.
• The WCS Chorus is scheduled for February 1st.  ABS students will attend.  It is an afternoon performance with dismissal from WCS.  Stay tuned for more information as we approach this date.
• Rotating Related Art on Tuesdays switch this upcoming Tuesday.  We will no longer have an extra PE class.  We will have Library class.  We will still exchange books on Wednesdays.
• Team Harmony has planned a school-wide celebration for Wednesday, January 25th between 8:15-8:45am.  We will meet in the gym to do jazzercise to celebrate filling our buzzy jar again as a school!
• Report Cards go home on Friday, January 27th.

Best,
Maria

Family Newsletter

Dear Families,

It is great to be back at school again!  I think everyone was ready to resume school activities and familiar routines and structures.  It sounded like everyone had a wonderful time off from school and enjoyed the holidays together with family and friends.

Reading:
We continued differentiated guided reading groups this week.  The students were excited to get new reading comprehension tasks and new books for their book boxes.  We also started using our stuffed animals to be our reading buddies. Ask your child to explain.  Additionally, the students sometimes read in the kiva, a special treat they all enjoy.  Next week, I will start assessing the kids formally for the upcoming report cards.  Ms. Alyssa will be my sub next week for a few days when I assess.  We are very excited that she can help us out.

Writing:
I mentioned before the holiday break that we would start our writing unit on "All About" books when we returned to school, but in an effort to share the books more efficiently on our team, our class will do a small mini-unit on Opinion Writing before starting non-fiction writing.  This week, the students learned more about common features of opinion writing and how to create effective persuasive arguments.  We will start this unit by writing letters to different people asking for something special or desirable.  Some students chose to write a letter to mom or dad, while others chose to ask me or Mr. Terko for something.  This unit is always one of the students favorite units in writing! Last year, several students convinced me to give them what they asked for!  Their arguments were very persuasive and their requests reasonable.  Stay tuned for more information and updates.

Math:
First grade mathematicians continued to work in small groups this week.  We continued working on different number sense activities in our Number Corner section, looking at the days in school and our calendar pieces.  We also explored telling time to the half hour and started graphing activities.  Next week,  I will use a day to assess all students formally for the upcoming report cards.  We will  assess content based up our math curriculum Bridges, but also get data on number sense/fluency as reflected by the PNOA assessment.

Friday Folders:
This week's Friday Folders contained a book-mark for home use.  We use the book-mark at school in an effort to widen the range of books we read.  If your child feels "stuck" in one type of genre/author, simply roll a die and try a book that corresponds outcome of the roll.  The idea is that your child only rolls once, then tries what the results were.  If you do not have a die at home, let me know.  I am happy to send on home for you.
I have noticed that many children do not bring in their Friday Folders to school on Fridays.  It makes it very tricky to pack all the paper-work that needs to go home and I worry that important information can get lost inside the backpacks.  If you lost/misplaced your child's Friday Folder, please let me know.  I am happy to make another one.  Thank you!

Upcoming Events & Reminders:

• There has been a school-wide change for report cards.  They will go home on Friday, January 27th.
• Our Rotating Related Arts change on Tuesday, January 24th to Library.  This extra Library class does not allow the children to take out additional books.  We still exchange books on Wednesdays.  Our new Tuesday class will expose the students to aspects of how books are organized and how we can use different technology tools to access books.
• Ms. Caitlin, our wonderful para on Harmony, is currently doing her student-teacher internship in a 3rd grade classroom at a school in South Burlington.  We miss her and wish her the best of luck.  She will return in Late April.  In the meantime, we have hired Ms. Jess and Ms. Danielle to help us out.  Welcome to our team!  We are thrilled to get to know you and hope you will enjoy working with us!

Best,
Maria