Family Newsletter

Dear Families,
Thank you so much for supporting our children for our annual Harvest Soup this past week!  All kids who wanted soup came prepared with a mug and a spoon.  Thank you!  We had a great time together.  It was particularly special to us because we were able to eat together as a team; all first and second graders together at the same time.
Thank you parents for packing your child's utensils inside a ziplock bag as well.  I hope you were able to find the dishes inside your child's backpack without a big mess.

4 Winds:
We had another 4 Winds class as well.  We started with a puppet show in our kiva and then acted like scientists while examining beans and seeds. The children had the opportunity to closely observe a bean, then take it apart, looking for its roots and flower buds.  The students also drew scientific drawings with labels and details.  I am very proud of them.  Again, thank you parents for providing these opportunities for our young learners.

Reading:
We finished our Mo Willems author study on Friday with a special celebration.  We had multiple stations for the children to try different learning activities based upon the characters in the books we read togather.  Next week, we will start a new reading unit on different authors who write books in a series.  We will continue our work on story elements, while learning more about specific reading strategies in small groups.  During this unit, the students will also learn to make book recommendations to each other.

Writing:
The students published their personal narratives last week.  They carefully chose one piece that they wanted to publish.  Then, they used our special publishing pencils to revise their stories if needed.  They did a great job.  We will share these stories with our reading buddies from Ms. Davison's class on Wednesday in a special celebration.
We will start our new writing unit this week on small moment stories.  Stay tuned for more information.

Math:
First grade mathematicians continued working on different addition strategies this week.  They also completed a series of measuring activities, while anchoring to tens and fives.  Next week, we will explore more addition strategies while working with dominoes.

Special Visitor:
We had a special visit from Ms. Jess on Friday.  Ms Jess is our intern from St Michael's College and she will be with our class full-time in the Spring.  She is learning to become a teacher.  She is hoping she can come in a few times before January so she gets to know the students before then.  Thank you Ms. Jess for finding the time to join our classroom.  We are lucky to have you!

Regards,
Maria