We had a very short week with our snow day on Friday but it was great to see everyone again. It was wonderful to hear about all the fun activities the children had done over vacation and it sounded like most of us spent a lot of time inside! It has been so cold....we look forward to warmer weather so we can enjoy the snow outside. Next week looks better so please make sure your child comes to school with snow-pants and boots because we hope to enjoy outdoor recess every day:)
Ms. Jess, our intern from St. Michael's College, started with us on Wednesday. She will be with us every day until mid-April. As part of her training to become a teacher, she will slowly increase her responsibilities in our classroom. Eventually, she will complete a "solo-week" when she practices planning the lessons and all the instruction. I will be supporting her and the students during this time. Ms. Jess's solo week will not happen until late March, or early April. More information will follow. We are so excited to have her with us. Please stop by and say hello if you did not get a chance to meet her last week, or during our Holiday Family Breakfast in late November.
Reading:
Reading groups will resume next week. We are slowly shifting our reading instruction to non-fiction books both during our whole class literacy blocks and our small group guided reading times. The students will learn more about the literary elements of non-fiction books and how to find evidence to back up our thinking and understanding of various topics. Hopefully, your child will pack some non-fiction books to take home for reading homework so he/she can share some of our learning at school. Stay tuned for more information.
Writing:
The students will also shift focus in writing. The students will learn how to write reports, complete with true facts and backed up by research from various books, magazines and online resources. For example, we will use pebblego as a resource. I was thrilled to hear how many students used pebblego over vacation! Thank you parents for supporting our literacy development at home!
Every year, the students on Harmony show their understanding of non-fiction features and writing through an animal writing assignment. This year, we are studying Vermont animals. More information will follow.
Science:
We are wrapping up our science unit on Light and Sound this week. This past week, the students explored shadows and we made different puppets to learn how we can make shadows bigger and smaller using flashlights.
Math:
First grade mathematicians continued working on strategies for solving addition and subtraction equations. They also continued working on telling time to the hour. Next week, we will learn about telling time to the half hour, both on an analog clock and on a digital clock. We will also work on graphing and story-problems.
To learn how to tell time to the hour, the students learned a dance and a new song. Here is the link and some pictures (I also linked it on our math wiki)
School Celebration:
The students at ABS filled the Bee Hive again. We will celebrate with a Mis-Match Day on Wednesday, January 10th. Please come to school with mis-matched patterns, socks, clothes!!
Best,
Maria
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