Family Newsletter

Dear Families,
We had another busy week at school with school pictures and Curriculum Night.  If you were unable to attend our Curriculum Night please do not worry.  I will share all the information in our upcoming newsletters.  If you have specific questions regarding the curriculum and the scope and sequence of specific academic areas, please let me know and we can find a way to address those concerns or questions you may have.  In short, I try to integrate as much of the scope and sequence of our curriculum every week as I share our learning with you.

Reading:
I finished most of our reading assessments this week.  The students had a substitute teacher for two days and they did an amazing job working together as a group showing safe, kind and responsible choices.  I will share the assessment data for your child when we meet for our October conferences.  I will send out a sign-up doc soon.

Your child brought home his/her first reading log today.  It is inside the Friday folder.  Your child is encouraged to read at least 5 nights every week.  It is great to read more, but it is not required.  Please encourage your child to write down the title/titles of the books read by himself/herself.  It is good to have daily practice with writing.  The reading log will stay home until next Friday when it is returned inside the Friday folder.  We will check it here at school and your child will earn a buzzy for our class jar.

If your child loses his/her reading log, you can print another one on the wiki, under printables, reading logs.

Your child also packed books to read at home for the week.  This year, students can not take home guided reading books and instructional books from our small groups in class.  Instead, they are encouraged to choose books in our classroom library on their own.  Please have a conversation with your child at home if you notice that your child does not take home "just right" books, books he/she can read on his/her own.  Also talk to your child if you feel that your child is bringing home books that are too easy, or too hard.  We hope to encourage more independence and accountability for our learning this way.  All books and book bags are due on Fridays.  If your child forgets to bring back the books, he/she will wait to choose new books until they are returned.  This mirrors the routines from our school library and we hope it makes sense for everyone.

As always, let me know if you need help with this at home.  Reading homework should not be a struggle.  Reading should be an enjoyable activity and a time for you to connect with good literature.  Please let me know if it is not.  Thank you.

Science:
We started science in our classroom a couple of weeks ago already.  We love science!  The students are currently learning how to act like scientists, using their observational skills.  I brought in some "mystery vegetables" from my garden and the children used their senses through a variety of exploratory activities in an attempt to figure out what they are.  They have yet to solve the mystery!  The students decided that they wanted to compare the mystery vegetables with "real" ones, so we compared them to other vegetables.  Next week, we will dissect the mystery vegetables and the "real" ones and see if we have enough evidence to decide what they are!

Mo Willems:
We started our new author study this week.  We will study the books written and illustrated by Mo Willems in the next few weeks.  We started reading the Pigeon books.  Ms. Kendal, our UVM intern even read a book to us!  Thanks Ms Kendal!
We will start our author study with exploring the different story elements; character, setting, problem and solution.

I hope you all will have a great weekend.

Best,
Maria

Family Newsletter

Dear Families,
We just finished our first full week of school.  WOW, the children did great, but they are probably very tired.  I hope you get plenty of rest and outdoor time this weekend.  The weather is supposed to be beautiful.  We took advantage of this sunny weather today, when the entire Harmony House decided to get some extra recess time during our Friday workshop time.

Reading:
This week, the students started to participate in small groups for reading.  I will not send home reading homework until next Friday.  The books packed in next week's Friday book bag will be student choices.  We are slowly learning how to select "just right" books.  If you notice that your child brings home books that are too difficult, or too easy, ask them to reflect on their choices.  Why did they choose those books?  Are they interested in the topic?  Do they like the author? Or do they want to finish the book quickly to do something else.  As the school year progresses, your child will start to make better choices.  It is, however, important that your child learns to pick out his/her own books so decisions can be made independently.  You help support this learning process by having conversations with your child about his/her library book choices.  The students at ABS are encouraged to select one "just right" book and one choice book, but ultimately, the child decides.  I am so proud of their choices so far and their willingness to try new genres and authors.

In reading this week, the students also practiced what reader's workshop looks like and what it sounds like.  They learned that good readers read to understand.  If you cannot understand the story/plot, you have to choose from a variety of strategies to help yourself make sense of it.  We will continue working on these strategies for the next few weeks.  Lastly, the students also practiced reading quietly and in one spot.  They are off to a great start and they love reading books!

Writing:
Our spelling program, Fundations, is is full swing already.  Four times a week, the students mix together on Harmony House to work on spelling together.  We do not send home spelling lists as homework on Harmony, but you will start to see more spelling words inside your child's Friday folder soon.
We finished personalizing our writing folders this week.  The students and I also finished our class contract.

Dot Day and other celebrations:
This week, the students filled the classroom buzzy jar again for being safe, kind and responsible.  We celebrated by drawing outside in the grass.  The students just learned how to draw scientifically, so we tried to incorporate some of those features.  Ask your child to explain! (Hint, we learned about clear drawings, labels and colors to represent something real)

September 15th is considered "Dot Day" in elementary school.  It is a tradition at ABS to celebrate students' creativity and interests by reading the book "The Dot" by Peter Reynolds and then participate in a special project to show how we can all make a difference in the world and how this difference starts with something as little as a dot.  As a class, we decided to paint water-color pictures representing our planet earth, one of the largest dots we could think of.  Next week, we are going to write about hos we can all do little things to help keep our earth healthy and clean.  Stay tuned for more information on this special project.

Friday Kiva Share:
On Friday afternoons, Harmony House meets in our kiva for special shares before we transition to workshops.  Traditionally, two students from each class shares something from his/her learning at school that week.  It is very special to us.  Here are some pictures from our brave friends so far!

Math:
First grade mathematicians are doing well getting used to the routines of our busy classroom.  They come into class and immediately start with work-stations.  Throughout the class, they rotate between groups, learning more about the math at hand.  This week, we learned to write numbers in many different ways.  We also learned how to show our math understanding by using equations and representations.
Here is a picture of our number corner calendar so far.  Every day, we look at the date and how many days we have been in school.  Then, we work together as a class to show that in many different ways.

Upcoming Events & Reminders:

• ABS Picture Day is Tuesday, September 19th.  Please bring in your child's photo form if you wish to have his/her pictures taken.  Thank you.
• Parent-teacher conferences will be offered the week of October 16th and all day October 20th.  I will send out a google doc in the next couple of weeks for you to sign up.  I am looking forward to chatting with you about your child's progress.

Have a great weekend.

Best,

Maria

Our first school-wide celebration

The students at ABS filled the bee-hive!  We celebrated with a dance party in the court-yard.  It was a perfect party, with sunshine and smiles!

Family Newsletter

Dear Families,
It is hard to believe, but we have finished another week at school!  I hope your children are coming home happy and excited about all the learning we're doing at school.  They are probably still very tired because it takes a while to get back to the structure of school again.  Get plenty of rest over the weekend.

Reading:
This week in reading, the students practiced what it means to be a good reading partner.  We learned that good reading partners take turns reading books and they listen to each other read.  We also learned that good reading partners share the book so both people can see the words and the pictures.  We practiced these skills in our own classroom, but also with our new Kindergarten reading buddies from Ms. Davison's class.  I hope you saw the pictures posted earlier in the week from our meeting with them.  If not, you can scroll down on this blog page to see them.
Next week, I hope to start formal reading assessments in the class so we can start guided reading instruction in the classroom.  I plan to assess on Wednesday and Friday and will have a sub for those two days.  We use the Fountas and Pinnell reading assessment system at ABS and assess reading accuracy, reading fluency as well as comprehension.  I will share my results with you at our conferences later in October.

Writing:
This week, the students received their writing folders and started to decorate them.  We also did a series of writing projects based upon the book "Have you filled your bucket today?" by McCloud.  We will share these writing projects with you at the October conferences as well.  Ask your child to explain what we can do to fill someone's bucket and how that relates to our school rules.  We also did a collaborative writing task, creating our classroom contract, stating our specific goals for being safe, kind and responsible.  We will hang this contract in our classroom next week and everybody's self-portraits will surround it.  The students are so excited.  We will share a picture when it is done, but you can always come by to see it as well.

Math:
First grade mathematicians participated in a beginning of the year math assessment, covering aspects of problem solving, counting and groupings.  We hope to start some small groups next week and continue on our targeted goals.  The students are currently learning that numbers are organized into groups called decades or families.  These groupings help us be more efficient mathematicians.  The students are also learning that "the teens" numbers are composed of ten and some more.

Traveling Around the World and Swedish Name Day:
This year, the students and I will "travel" around the world through stories, books and online projects. We have a special place in our classroom with the world map, a globe, atlases and many books by authors from other countries.  We "track" our travels on the map.  We put thumb tacks on the countries that we visit.   We are so fortunate to have many students with international connections and they have so much to share about their cultures.  I am also from another country.  I grew up in Sweden and did not come to North America until college.  We started our "trip" around the world by celebrating a popular children's holiday, Name Day.  Your child should have brought home a card and a sheet explaining the tradition in his/her Friday folder.  Next week, we will travel somewhere else in the world....stay tuned.  If you and your child wishes to share something extra about your international connections/travels, please let me know.  Let's talk about how we can best integrate it into our first and second grade curriculum.

UVM Intern:
I am happy to announce that we will have some additional help twice a week from Ms. Kendal, a UVM Education student who will visit our classroom on Tuesday and Thursday mornings.  Thank you Ms Kendal for helping us!

Upcoming Events & Reminders:

• The ABS Ice Cream Social is scheduled for Tuesday, September 12 between 6-7pm  Please come by for some dessert and say hi to the teachers!
• The ABS Curriculum Night has been rescheduled for Wednesday, September 19th at 6:30pm.  This is primarily geared towards parents as we share the curriculum and instructional goals for the year but child care is provided.  Let the front office know if you are interested. 
• 4 Winds is our parent-led science program.  It provides wonderful opportunities for the students to explore science hands-on once a month.  They are looking for volunteers from my classroom, so if you are interested, please contact our parent coordinator Julia Nesbit at jnesbit938@gmail.com  We really appreciate your help and support in furthering science learning in elementary school!
• ABS Picture Day is on Septemeber 19th.  If you want your child to have his/her special photos taken, please fill out the form sent home last Friday and return to the classroom as soon as possible.  Thank you!

Have a great weekend,
Maria

Classroom Celebration

The students filled our classroom buzzy jar again.  We celebrated with Musical Chairs.  It was fun!

As a school, we are getting very close to filling the bee-hive in the office.  When the students fill it all the way up, we will celebrate with a dance party in the court-yard.

Releasing butterflies

Look what we did today!
Parker brought in two butterflies from his home to share and we had the wonderful opportunity to release them in our class!  We carefully placed the net outside and took turns going outside to watch the two butterflies as they readied themselves for flight.  Eventually, they took off.  We saw one fly away up close and it was amazing.  Thank you Parker for sharing this with us!

Reading Buddies

We had our first reading buddies class with the students in Ms. Davison's Kindergarten class this afternoon.  We visited their class and found good reading spots with our new friends.  We can't wait to see them again next week!  Here are some pictures:

Library Time

Today, we had another library class.  The students had the opportunity to choose two more books to take home.  The students are encouraged to choose a book that interests them and one book that is "just right" for them.  A "just right" book is a book that the students can read independently.  We will continue to explore this idea in our classroom in the weeks ahead.  Here are some pictures from today's library class and of the posters in our library that help us choose "just right" books.  Happy reading at home!

First Grade Math

We had another terrific math class today in our busy first grade math classroom.  The students continued to familiarize themselves with our routines and materials, rotating through a series of stations.  We also learned more about our Number Corner, a part of our math class that focuses upon establishing solid strategies and understandings in basic number sense.  We learned how to write the date and how to show the number of days in school through equations, tally marks and using ten frames.