Friday Workshops: Learning about polar bears using art and books:
Dear Families,
Here is our week in review:
Social-Emotional Learning:
We continued our work around empathy and kindness. We revisited ideas around being assertive but kind. We practiced saying “stop” and “no” using a kind voice and polite words.
The students put kindness into action when they made paper snowflakes for a senior center in need. These paper snowflakes will be delivered to the residents so they can decorate their spaces and connect with us at school.
Reading:
We finished our mid-year reading assessments this week and last. The students did a great job reading with me and sharing their thinking about the books read. The students participated in online reading assessments using iReady; a program that checks on phonological awareness, fluency, word study and comprehension. They also participated in the traditional Fountas & PInnell reading assessment, which checks on fluency, decoding and comprehension.
Next week, the students will start using iReady as a personalized reading tool. As a result of the assessments, each child will have access to a personalized learning plan for reading on this site. On Monday, we will access this new platform together at school so please make sure your child’s computer is fully charged. Thank you. Your child will use this iReady tool from home as well. It will be added to our remote learning schedule for reading at home. I will send passwords and username information on Sunday with the link to the remote learning schedule so please look for that.
We finished our read aloud “Wonderous Rex” already! The students love to listen to books and share their thinking with each other. Our next read aloud book is about Helen Keller. We are learning how Helen Keller showed tremendous courage and perseverance in her life. We will explore some other inspiring people in history in the weeks ahead and see what they did to show a growth mindset every day.
We listened to the book “I love my hair” by the author Natasha Tarpley on Friday, when we celebrated our differences. We used the school buzzy celebration on Friday to learn more about our unique qualities and celebrate our differences and similarities.
Writing:
We continued learning more about how to effectively write an opinion piece. This week, the students started writing with fewer scaffolds and supports. In other words, they were encouraged to use all the things we have already learned about this type of writing and apply it more independently. They did great. This is a group of authors! They showed individuality, creativity and risk-taking in their writing pieces. We will continue learning from each other and sharing our progress together in class. This week, the students practiced how to start the writing piece clearly. We reviewed different opening statements and learned that we can add questions to hook the reader, or use a comparison to create interest. We also explored how to use bold print to highlight our opinion. We also explored transition words. We call them Traffic Light Words and here is a visual we use to help us remember:
First Grade Math:
First grade mathematicians deepened their understanding of subtraction this week. We played many different subtraction games and practiced using visual representations and math tools to help us solve our problems.
First grade mathematicians also participated in another story-problem with a missing addend. They are doing great showing their reasoning using visual representations and equations.
We began counting forward from unfamiliar numbers. Together as a class, we explored the larger 100 rekenrek to see what it looks like when we start from a number other than a tens number (decuples). We practiced counting forward starting from 3, for example 3, 13, 23, etc) Next week, the students will get to use these 100 rekenreks on their own. We are so excited!
We did some work on our numeral scrolls as well. These numeral scrolls will come home on Tuesday inside your child’s Tuesday folder. Please remove them from the folder and keep them in a safe place for home use (we will also need them for google meets sometimes). Your child will also take home blank decade strips to finish at home. Please keep these in a safe place with the numeral scroll as well. Your child is encouraged to play games with these. I will include counting suggestions to go along with these numeral scrolls in your child’s Home Folder so please look for those.
Your child will also take home an optional math packet filled with math games to play at home during our remote days, or anytime you wish to. This packet will also be inside your child’s Home Folder as well.
New information regarding our Wednesday remote learning days:
We have a new google meet link for our morning meetings online. This is to ensure consistency across the two Williston codes and make sure children are not online without a teacher present. Our new google meet code is absmccormack
I have already linked this directly into our remote learning schedules, but if you access the meeting on another device, or want to get there directly, simply click on the google meet icon in your gmail and type in the nickname code absmccormack
Let me know if you have any questions.
We are adding iReady to our remote learning days. It is linked directly on the remote learning schedule but your child can also access it from our school website portal. The students also bookmarked this direct link on their chromebooks for easy access. Your child is encouraged to use the personalized learning lessons provided on iReady on our home days (or any other days). It is highly engaging and the students earn points to advance to a higher level as they master new skills. All reading skills are based upon their performance outcomes and “just right” for them. I will add iReady to our homework check-list as well. This means your child will have a choice each week between raz kids or iReady. Please check off which one your child completed on the homework list. (Your child can complete both raz kids and iReady if he/she wants to, of course!)
News and Reminders:
We have outdoor recess most days of the week, so please make sure your child has hats, mittens, winter jackets, snow pants and boots every day.
Many children feel the need to change their masks throughout the day. Please make sure your child has 2-3 extra, clean masks inside his/her backpack for a potential change during the day. Please check your child’s backpack daily and remove any dirty ones. Thank you.
Report cards went home today. They are inside your child’s backpack. Let me know if you have any questions or concerns about the report cards.
Please help your child make school-appropriate videos and posts on SeeSaw related to our learning. We cannot approve dances, walk-throughs in various rooms and introductions to pets or family members. Thank you for your continued support in ensuring the safe digital learning of your child.
Here's a link to this week's School Bell.
Don’t forget to visit the class blog for pictures from our week together at school!
Have a great weekend,
Maria
Dear Families,
Here is our week in review:
Social-Emotional Learning:
We participated in conversations around kindness, empathy and safe bodies this week. We reviewed our social distancing norms (due to Covid) but we also talked about the importance of solving problems appropriately; with safe bodies and calm voices. We also reviewed our calming tools and strategies. We have learned so many new ways to manage big feelings this school year, for example, yoga, desk rests, mindfulness breathing and tracing, and visualizing something that makes us happy and relaxed. Hopefully, your child can also utilize these skills and strategies at home and outside of the classroom.
Literacy:
The students did an amazing job during our district-wide reading assessment on the computers. Thank you for charging their chromebooks ahead of time. It made a big difference.
During other literacy times this week, the students continued to develop skills and strategies for decoding unfamiliar words. They are doing great navigating between guided reading groups, word work and comprehension tasks. The students are also encouraged to think about the plot and what makes sense in the story. In other words, thinking about the story, the characters and what is happening can sometimes also help us figure our challenging or unfamiliar words.
We started our new classroom read aloud book. It is called “Wonderous Rex”. It is written by Patricia MacLaughlin. The story is exciting and this book contains many interesting words so we can be “word detectives” together as we listen to the book.
First Grade Math:
This week, first grade mathematicians continued their work on writing and understanding equations with missing addends and subtrahends. We matched these equations to story problems and showed our thinking in pictures.
We also completed a mid-year math assessment.
First grade mathematicians also worked on the number sequence, counting forwards and backwards. We added another decade to our numeral scrolls. The students are currently working on counting forwards and backwards by ones and tens, starting from different numbers. They are also working on finding the number before and after any given number. They are doing a great job.
Lastly, first grade mathematicians began work on place value. They are encouraged to find groups of 10 and some more in the numbers we are working on. We use unifix cubes, rekenreks and popsicle sticks for this work. Stay tuned for more information as we dig deeper into these concepts of place value.
Science:
This week, we deepened our understanding of how shadows move and how the amount of light we have relates to seasons. The students used flashlights and paper gnomes for this activity.
News and Reminders:
Report cards will go out on Friday, January 29th. They will be packed inside your child’s backpack. This year, our report cards will look a little different due to the challenges we have all had due to the Covid lockdowns in the Spring, the hybrid model in the fall and social distancing restrictions. Our school will include a parent letter describing the report card and its components. As always, please reach out to me directly if you need help/clarification after you have received your child’s report card next Friday.
Please send in your child’s Moon Journal by Friday, January 29th. Thank you.
Please see the linked letter from Nicole Pfende regarding our Bus Rules. This is a great review for all children riding the bus. Thank you.
Here's a link to this week's School Bell.
Have a great weekend,
Maria
Dear Families,
Here is our week in review:
Social-Emotional Learning:
We learned about productive self-talk this week with the help of our puppet Puppy. We learned that we can “whisper talk” to ourselves to keep small problems small and to help us focus and concentrate. Simply by re-voicing directions or expectations, we can help ourselves be better listeners. In other words, we learned that listening is more than just using your ears and eyes. We need to use our brains to concentrate on the task and carefully focus our attention. Self-talk helps us stay on track. Try it at home! Ask your child to repeat or re-voice a direction before you repeat the direction again.
Reading:
This week, the students continued building their independent reading skills. They were encouraged to practice their trick words and high frequency words during our independent reading times by reading them and writing them down on our brand new whiteboards. The students are doing a great job integrating this new reading/writing activity to our learning times. Guided reading groups also continued this week. Each group receives targeted reading instruction based upon their specific needs and are encouraged to practice these skills when they read independently.
Next week, we will participate in our school-wide mid-year reading assessments. Please make sure your child brings his/her chromebook to school fully charged on Tuesday. We will need the computers for these online reading assessments. We will also administer the traditional Fountas and Pinnell reading assessment in the next couple of weeks. I will administer these assessments on Thursday and Friday next week. Ms. Shelby will be our guest teacher. The students are so excited to see her again!
Writing:
We started our new opinion writing pieces this week. Throughout this unit, the students will learn how to write a clear argument for, or against, something they feel strongly about. This week, we started practicing the overall writing style and the topics were already provided. This week, the students wrote about their favorite season and if they would rather read a book or do math.
In writing, the students also practiced CAPS every day. CAPS stands for capitalization, appearance (ie finger-spacing and penmanship), punctuation and spelling. They made individualized badges that we taped to their desks as a visual reminder of their roles as a word detectives. Every morning, the students correct one sentence that has been written incorrectly. They are doing a fantastic job! Please encourage your child to think about CAPS when he/she writes the weekly book review. Thank you!
First Grade Math:
First grade mathematicians practiced subtraction this week. We used story problems to help us make sense of what it means to “take something away” and find the difference between numbers.
We continued finding missing addends and subtrahends as well. The students were encouraged to expand their mathematical drawings to show how they know what the missing number was. The students shared their work with the rest of the class through classroom discussions and also using our document camera.
We looked more deeply at groups of 10 and some more. We explored the differences between the numbers 12 and 21 using rekenreks and unifix cubes. The students were encouraged to visualize the difference between one group of 10 and 2 more and two groups of 10 and two more. We will continue this work next week.
Science:
The students did an amazing job sharing their Moon Journals during our morning meeting this week. We learned so much from each other and even got some ideas for how to draw the different phases of the moon. The Moon Journals are due on January 29th. Thank you.
News and Reminders:
All first graders will need their fully charged chromebooks on Tuesday for our district-wide reading assessments. Please help your child charge it at home in advance and pack it on Tuesday morning. We do not have the capabilities to charge your child’s chromebook at school. Thank you. If your child has his/her own head-phones, please pack those as well as they will need them for these assessments.
Our EA rotation has changed. For the next few weeks, we will have Art class on Mondays and Tuesdays and Music class on Thursdays and Fridays.
Mrs. Clopton will share the 10 nominated Red Clover books starting next week during our read aloud time with her. Here is the link to the books this year. Voting will occur at ABS.
There is no school on Monday, January 18th (Martin Luther King Jr. Day)
Report cards will come home with your child on Friday, January 29th.
Here's a link to this week's Bell.
Have a great weekend,
Maria
Dear Families,
Here is our week in review:
Social-Emotional Learning:
We learned more about being assertive while also being polite and kind this week. We learned that there are many different things we can do to turn bad situations into more positive ones and many different strategies we can use to keep small problems small. We reviewed what it could look like and sound like to ask a teacher/adult for help, ask a friend for help or clarification about something we’re unsure of and what we can do to try on our own. Our puppet Snail joined the class. Snail was illustrating silly situations when small problems led to big reactions. The students participated in small skits with Snail to act these scenarios out. Ask your child to explain more.
We hope that you will utilize the visual weekly chart at home to help your child be responsible at home while getting ready for school each day. Increasing responsibilities slowly and in accordance with appropriate expectations build self-reliance, self-esteem and confidence. It also builds independence. The students are working hard on doing that at school every day when they unpack and manage their belongings every day. Thank you for supporting these efforts at home too.
Reading:
In reader’s workshop, the students had new opportunities to read many new books. We received a tremendous donation of new books to the classroom. Thank you! Every day, the students were introduced to new genres and types of books to read. They were encouraged to reflect on their own individual reading preferences and skills as they browsed these new books. We practiced having a growth mindset and a willingness to try something new and unknown.
The students also participated in guided reading groups and received direct explicit instruction on reading skills and strategies. The students are encouraged to read at home every day. If your child has not read the assigned books on raz kids, those books will easily compliment the library books, classroom books and the books from home. Have fun reading!
ABS will participate in the Reading is an Investment program again this year. This is a reading challenge for all children in the state of Vermont. Fliers and more information will be sent home next week, but here's a link to more information if you want a head start and look into it:
https://sites.google.com/cvsdvt.org/abs-library/reading-is-an-investment
Writing:
We started writer’s workshop this week with revisiting expectations. We practiced building our writing stamina and being independent authors. The students reflected on their holiday break from school and shared what they did on vacation using words and pictures.
We also started our new opinion writing unit. In this unit, the students will learn to formulate clear arguments and reasons in favor of a particular topic or subject. They will learn to create an interesting opening statement to “hook” the reader and justify their opinion with reasons and evidence. More to follow!
The students also started to more systematically practice specific grammar rules in writing. One of the many first grade expectations for writing in first grade is for the students to learn that all sentences should start with capital letters and end with an appropriate ending punctuation. Another expectation is to adhere to proper penmanship and spacing between words.
First Grade Math:
First grade math will focus on sense-making and subtraction in the month of January. In our January Number Corner calendar, the students will encounter a new equation every day to solve. Rather than simply finding the answer or missing addend/subtrahend
the students are encouraged to reason and justify their thinking. They are also encouraged to use their words to create stories for the equations presented. For example, the equation 9-?=5 could be told as “Mrs. McC went to the store and bought 9 apples. She gave some apples to Ms. Ally. Mrs. McC has only 5 apples left now. How many did she give to Ms. Ally?
First grade mathematicians also continued working on comparing quantities in terms of the concepts “greater than, less than and equal to” using the respective mathematical symbols.
All first grade mathematicians in our school district will participate in a mid-year math assessment in mid-January. This assessment will cover the concepts already covered this year in class.
Science:
We continued learning about space and our solar system this week. We read many books together and discussed the sun, the earth and our moon. The students participated in two workshops on Friday, deepening their understanding of the moon, its phases and shadows.
The Moon Journals are due back at the end of the month. Please send them in to the classroom by the end of the month. The students will bring their Moon Journals to our online morning meeting next Wednesday. They will have the opportunity to share their work and learn from each other. I will send home the journals that were already handed in for this purpose. Please send them back in again.. Thank you!
News and Reminders:
Our EA rotation will switch next week. For the next few weeks, we will have Art class on Mondays and Tuesdays and Music class on Thursdays and Fridays.
Mrs. Clopton will share the 10 nominated Red Clover books starting next week during our read aloud time with her. Here is the link to the books this year. Voting will occur at ABS.
The students’ desks switched to new spots in our classroom over vacation. They came back to new seating arrangements and desk neighbors! We will keep this configuration for a while. Thank you for reinforcing the importance of social distancing and calm bodies while at school in your conversations at home. We are so fortunate to be able to do in-person learning in Vermont still. Thank you.
There is no school on Monday, January 18th (Martin Luther King Jr. Day)
Report cards will come home with your child on Friday, January 29th.
Here's a link to this week's School Bell
Have a great weekend,
Maria
