Dear Families,
Here is our week in review:
Social-Emotional Learning:
The students filled the classroom buzzy jar again for being safe, kind and responsible. This time we celebrated together with extra recess. We had a great time playing together outside in the warm, sunny weather.
We are participating in a school-wide project on kindness and how we can make the world better by showing kindness every day, in many different ways. We are creating a “Kindness Tree”. Instead of leaves, this “Kindness Tree” will display paper hearts as its leaves. Each leaf will show different acts of kindness in words or pictures. We will share pictures of this when it is done. We are very excited to be part of this school project.
In our remote google meet on Wednesday, we brainstormed ideas for different activities we can do during our April Break from school next week. Here are some of the ideas the students suggested:
Road hockey, soccer, basketball or any other sport
Read every day
Play board games with family members
Go outside to play or go for a hike
Garden together
Bake or cook together
Draw a picture
Sleep in and watch a TV show together
Reading:
The students had no new reading logs this week. We will start again after April Break.
After April Break, the students will receive new Home Folders too. Please keep the old ones at home if you didn’t send them in this week..
The students continued practicing reading strategies in our guided reading groups this week. Thank you Mr. Alex for reading with us this week. Many of the students received multiple new books for their book boxes. They are encouraged to re-read familiar books as well to practice fluency and comprehension.
The students also continued working with different books and texts for developing a greater understanding of intonation and phrasing. This week, we used the books by Mo Willems, among others, to help us read with expression. His books allow us to read with expression since the plot is straight-forward and driven by dialogue.
We read the book “A New Green Day” by Antoinette Portis and learned about signs of Spring through poetry, beautiful pictures and a guessing game. The students used watercolors and markers to make their own pictures of Spring, which we will later place into our brand new Scrapbooks.
Writing:
This week, the students completed their nonfiction text features booklets. They chose one (or more) of the features from this collection to integrate into their animal reports. Some students added headings, while others chose to add glossaries and labels. They did a great job and they were all motivated by having choices. We look forward to sharing these books with you. Stay tuned for more information about how we will do that.
First Grade Math:
First grade mathematicians are continuing to deepen their understanding of place value with numbers to 120. This week, we worked with unifix cubes and rekenreks to add/subtract 10 to any given number. We also wrote the corresponding numbers on our whiteboards. Mathematicians also added/subtracted 1 to any given number as a way to also practice place value.
First grade mathematicians practiced using “bridging to 10, finding the next decuple” as a strategy this week. Rather than using your fingers or counting on to solve equations and math problems, first graders were encouraged to find the next 10 first. In other words, to solve the following equation 8+4=12, the students were encouraged to see that 4 is composed of 2+2 which can be used to bridge to 10 first (ie 8+2=10) and then add 2 to get to 12. This is a powerful strategy for getting ready for second grade when math equations will represent larger, less friendly numbers. This week, we practiced this too with equations like 49+8 and 53+9.
News and Reminders:
There is no school next week due to our April Break. School resumes again on Monday, April 26th.
Your child will receive brand new Home Folders after vacation. Please keep the old ones at home.
As the weather gets warmer, many children come to school wearing open-toe shoes/sandals/flip flops (even though it is snowing today!). These shoes are allowed but they sometimes make it difficult for your child to navigate the outdoor playground and fields, especially in the early morning hours when the grass is damp or after a rain-storm. Sneakers are best! Please send in some extra socks and pants after vacation too in case of accidents and slips outside. Thank you.
We still need cardboard boxes or shoe boxes for our science project. If you have any extra shoe-boxes/cardboard boxes at home, please consider sending them in with your child. The size of the box should be about the size of a shoe box. The students will create the Arctic habitat with these boxes when we return from vacation. Thank you.
It was Mr. Alex’s last day with us on Thursday this week. We celebrated with a special project. We started to put together our scrapbooks, containing projects and writing from the entire year. We will miss Mr. Alex very much and feel so fortunate to have had him in our classroom. We wish him all the best in his future endeavours. Thank you Mr. Alex!
Here is a note from our school librarian Cara Clopton:
Peeps Diorama Contest at Dorothy Alling Library!!
Drop by the Library's vestibule starting on Friday, April 16 to receive a kit to enter our Peeps literary-themed diorama contest, while supplies last. Open to kids and teens. Contest entries must be submitted by Sunday, April 25 at 11:59pm to programs@damlvt.org. Guest judges are Cara Clopton, Allen Brook School Librarian and Ellen Arapakos, Williston Central School Librarian. Each kit contains one package of 10 Peeps in a random color/flavor and instructions for submission. Participants are responsible for providing all other supplies. One prize awarded in each age category: Ages 0-7, Ages 8-11 and Ages 12-17. Winners receive a $25 Phoenix Books gift card.
Here's a link to this week's Bell.
Have a great weekend and week off,
Maria
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