Dear Families,
Here is our week in review:
Social-Emotional Learning:
We continued getting to know each other this week. We finalized our Class Contract and we also played “Guess Who?” together, both in the classroom and online. We learned that we have so many things in common! We also learned that each person in our class is unique and has their own personal preferences and ideas.
We continued working on being mindful and how to use our whole body listening skills.
Reading:
We continued working on improving our reading stamina during independent reading times. The students received individual daily goals for reader’s workshop. These goals help our young learners create a manageable objective for the time we have. They are learning to navigate between books, online reading and writing/drawing about the books read.
We started reading books about Mercy Watson. These books are written by Kate DiCamillo and the students already love the characters in these books! Ms. Shelby or I read them on the document camera, which means the students can follow along in the text as we read because the pages are projected for everyone to see. Isn’t technology great? We will improve our understanding of character traits next week when we study Mercy Watson more deeply. We will learn about how we can describe Mercy on the outside (ie, what she looks like) and on the inside (ie., what she says, feels, and how she acts)
Writing:
This class is full of authors! They worked so incredibly hard this week writing their personal narratives. We are so proud of them all. Writing can be hard, particularly when you have to sound our words, come up with ideas, spell and write full sentences. WOW! They all showed a growth mindset and persevered. We started by using a graphic organizer, planning out the beginning, middle and end with words. Then, the students chose their writing booklets and began writing the first part. Next week, we will learn about transition words and how to stretch out the middle, where all the action and suspense is.
First Grade Math:
We continued developing a better understanding of 10. We focused on developing automaticity recognizing parts to ten and number facts. We used a variety of strategies, such as 10-frames, rekenreks and unifix cubes.
We also continued our work on subitizing. The students are getting very confident and fast when it comes to finding efficient ways to group parts of dot patterns to figure out the total rather than counting by ones.
We also practiced taking turns in math when we share our thinking and listening respectfully and actively to our friends when they share.
Science:
We learned about spiders through a series of investigations and activities culminating in our Friday Workshop with Mrs. Benoit’s second graders. We had several stations the students rotated through. They did spider crawls, tried to get through a spider web challenge and they did a spider paper craft. Ask your child to tell you more!
News and Reminders:
There is no school on Tuesday, November 3rd, but Wednesday, November 4th is a regular remote learning day.
We have noticed that several students do not charge their chromebooks at home. We understand you are juggling many roles, but please try to remember to charge your child’s chromebook at home so we can use it at school if needed. Chargers stay at home.
As the weather changes and gets colder, we want to remind families that the Physical Education staff is planning to be outside with PE classes as a first priority. PLEASE DRESS APPROPRIATELY FOR THE TEMPERATURE AND CONDITIONS... (jackets, hats, gloves, etc). We recommend bringing in or keeping a few extra pairs of socks, gloves, or mittens in a cubby or backpack. Additional layers (snow pants or boots) would be acceptable for PE if needed. If younger students need snow pants for recess, they should wear snow pants to PE. Fresh air and movement is good for us all; let's be safe and prepared for the weather!
This is a great time to start practicing some of those fine motor skills all children need during this time of the year. Their backpacks are getting full with added clothing. Please encourage your child to pack, and unpack, his/her own backpack at home. Learning how to position objects inside a limited space can be challenging for some and quite frustrating too. Having skills and patience when completing these daily tasks help them be successful here at school. I also strongly encourage families to encourage their children to put away their lunch/snack boxes, zip them, take containers out, etc. All of these skills are important as we manage lots of little containers here at school. Thank you!
Here is a link to the School Bell.
Have a great weekend,
Maria
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