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
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