Family Newsletter

Dear Families,
The school week went by fast with lots of special events and beautiful weather!

Shelburne Farms:
We had a wonderful day at Shelburne Farms, learning about how different foods grow and eventually make it into our kitchens.  The students participated in different workshops and learned about berries, vegetables and herbs while making a pizza together.  Thank you parent chaperones for coming along.  Here are some pictures:

Technology:
For the past two weeks, the students have learned about what it means to be safe, kind and responsible online.  As you might recall, we had our wonderful Digital Learning Leader Ms. Wilson join our classroom to  discuss these ideas.  At Curriculum Night, some parents asked if we could please share this contract for home use.  Ms. Wilson happily shared her contract so it was placed inside your child's Friday Folder.  This contract is yours to use, or not.  It does not have to come back to school as we already have one signed and safely stored inside our scrapbooks.  We understand it is a challenge to balance technology with other demands at home so perhaps this contract can help eliminate some of those struggles.

Science:
We started our inquiry-based science last week.  We invited Ms. Fisher's class to join us for a mystery science investigation into the largest apple in the world.  We followed up by tasting three different kinds of apples and graphing our results.

Math:
Our first grade mathematicians worked hard all week and earned a math celebration for filling our class jar.  On Friday, we introduced ipads as a rotating station.  At this station, the students practiced their subitizing skills.  Subitizing is the skill to quickly recognize a set of numbers and patterns in a group without counting.  For example, understanding dice patters help us group numbers quickly and efficiently for accurate calculations.

Reading:
We started guided reading groups.  The students participate in daily small groups and receive targeted  instruction in reading.  We call these groups "Book Clubs" as we also share our understanding and wonderings as we read.  My intern, Ms. Cece, conducted her first lesson.  The students learned about different story elements.  They learned about characters, setting, problem and solutions.  We will continue these discussions in the weeks to come.  The students are encouraged to identify these story elements in the stories they read; both in book clubs, but also in books they read independently.  Perhaps you can also engage in these types of conversations at home with your child?

Forest Friday:
We ended the week by going outside for another Forest Friday workshop.  The weather was sunny and cool; perfect for outdoor explorations and creative play.

Have a great day. 
Best,
Maria