We had a wonderful week together in our class. It went by so fast. It is hard to believe, but the school year is almost over. The last day of school is June 16th. It is a half day with dismissal at 11:35am. Students who wish to have a hot lunch that day, will get a bagged lunch. Usually, there is a choice for the sandwich. I will let you know as soon as I hear from the kitchen staff.
We started to pack up special projects and writing this week. Please look for your child's scrapbook, reading restaurant projects and solar system crafts in this week's book bags and Friday folders. Your child also had the opportunity to share his/her stories with other friends in class. Some of these are coming home as well. We hope that your child will continue to read these at home and celebrate student writing. Your child will also start to bring home poetry that we have worked on in class. Please take the time to read these. They are wonderful!
Reading:
Formal end-of-the-year reading assessments will continue next week. We use the Fountas & Pinnell reading assessments at ABS and will, once again, look at fluency, reading accuracy and comprehension. If you wish to meet with me, or chat about a specific reading plan over the summer, please do not hesitate to contact me. I would be happy to assist. Traditionally, I send home an interactive reading board-game over the summer to encourage students to continue to read over the summer and to prevent regression. Participation is encouraged, but voluntary. I will provide more information as we approach the last week of school.
Writing:
Our poetry unit is in full swing. The children love this type of writing and it is a nice break from the more formal, research writing they did during our animal research unit. This week, we practiced "I am" poems and we also started to explore shape poems. We learned that not all poetry has to rhyme. We also learned that poetry can be very creative and "look" different from other writing. For example, the words can go around in a circle, or from top to bottom. We also learned that sounds words, repetition and alliteration are powerful tricks for making our poems more individualistic and interesting.
Math:
First grade mathematicians completed the first set of assessments for the end of the year and they did an amazing job! I am so proud of their hard work this year and their kindness to each other. We also continued working on strategies for solving subtraction problems and how we can find efficient ways of solving these. The children practiced their relational thinking by finding tens, or finding the difference between numbers by thinking about addition or fact families.
Science:
We had our last 4 Winds class yesterday. Thank you all parent volunteers who have made this wonderful program possible for us. The students learned about habitats and life forms of streams.
News and Reminders:
- There is no school on Monday, May 29th (Memorial Day)
- 2nd grade STEP-Up Day is scheduled for May 31st. Current 2nd graders will visit WCS in the morning to meet their new teachers and classmates for a brief activity. They will take the bus back to ABS after this visit. Ms Crowley and Mrs. Benoit will go with all of our 2nd graders and Ms Stein and I will remain at ABS with our current 1st graders. Letters indicating your child's teachers for 3rd grade will be going out today, Friday.
- ABS will attend the WCS Chorus Concert on May 7th. This is a late afternoon performance so dismissal will be from WCS. If you pick up your child from school, please meet your child in the front lobby/office at WCS. All other children will board their regular buses and Imagine kids will board a bus back to ABS.
- Kindergarten STEP-Up Day is scheduled for Friday, June 9th. Current first graders will meet their new, incoming Kindergarten friends for a little while.
- Fun Day is June 12th between 9-11am. Please send your child to school in sneakers and with a water bottle for outdoor fun. More information will follow soon.
Have a great weekend!
Best,
Maria
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