Family Newsletter

Dear Families,

Last week, we had a new student join our classroom.  His name is Isaiah and he is in second grade.  He joined our class on Wednesday and the kids were so excited to have a new friend.  Welcome Isaiah!  We are so lucky to have you in our class.

Reading:
We have shifted some reading groups around so the students have the opportunity to read with new friends and receive the best possible instruction they need.  We are very excited.  We also shifted our focus in reading.  We started reading non-fiction books.  The students learned about non-fiction text elements, such as table of contents, glossaries, headings and labels.  We will continue our work for the next few weeks.  The students are encouraged to add some non-fiction books to their weekly readings and their book boxes at school.

Our class read aloud is about the Magic Tree House and the Moon.  This book allows us to discuss the differences between fictional and non-fictional stories as it balances both.

Writing:
The students completed the district-wide opinion writing assessment last week.  We will start our non-fiction writing unit on ocean animals this upcoming week.  The students will choose an ocean animal to research.  They will access different sources, such as web-sites, magazines and books to find relevant information for their writing pieces.  Each writing piece will have the following chapters: a description of the animal, the animal's habitat, food and how it takes care of its young.  The students will gather their information and their final product will reflect the non-fiction text features we're learning about in reading.  We will start our research this week by visiting pebblego to choose an animal.

Science:
If your child did not bring in his/her Moon Journal on Friday, please hand it in on Monday.  We will celebrate our moon studies with oreo cookies (to show the phases) and we will also use watercolors to paint the moon.

Our study of the solar system continues.  We listened to the astronaut Scott Kelly read the book Mousetronaut from the International Space Station.  Here is a link. I also linked this to our online books on the wiki under literacy, again linked here.

I also added several new links about space to our solar system wiki. Hopefully, the children can explore more about space at home. The kids really enjoyed the videos from Chris Hadfield about doing everyday chores/tasks in space without gravity.  Have fun! Here is that link.

Math:
First grade mathematicians started learning about congruent and non-congruent shapes last week.  We explored these ideas in our Number Corner activities as well as in work stations using geoboards. 

100th Day of School:
We celebrated the 100th day of school on Friday with many exciting activities.  We also had a special visit from Ms. Filion, our principal, dressed like a 100 year old!!

WCS Chorus and Songs on the Wiki:
On Wednesday, we visited the Williston Central School for the 3rd and 4th grade chorus.  It was great to listen to some beautiful music and see old friends.

I have added many new songs to our classroom wiki over the weekend.  In the next few weeks, we will explore them at school, but if your child wants to have a sneak peak, I have made it all public already.  Here is the link to our songs.
The songs are listed alphabetically.  Some of the new songs are from the musical Annie, some are by the musical group They might be Giants.  I also added many songs by one of my favorite artists John Lithgow and the children's group Rosenschantz.
Have fun singing!  Let me know know if you have any favorites you would like to to add.

Kindness and Valentine's Day:
We will celebrate Valetine's Day at school on the 14th.  Students are encouraged to bring in cards/treats to their friends.  We will hand these out to each other in the morning.  I emailed the class-list to all of you.  Please let me know if you did not get it.

We will not celebrate with cookies and sugars at school.  Rather, our focus is on kindness and what it means to be a caring and thoughtful friend. A few weeks ago, we started a mini-unit on kindness.  We have read many books on this topic out loud and discussed the meaning of friendship. Here are a couple of examples of these books:

The students also have "Kindness Cards" with specific sentence starters for how we can be kind using our words.  For example, we practice asking each other for help, or if somebody would like to have a turn first in a game, etc.  We try to find friends doing these acts of kindness.  In other words, we are Kindness Detectives!  This week, we will create our Kindness Mural in our classroom.  We can't wait to share it with all of you.

Have a great day!

Best,
Maria