Dear Families,
Here is our week in review:
Social-Emotional Learning:
We continued to build a positive learning community filled with trust, friendship and belonging this week. We played games together in our classroom to get to know each other better and we also partnered up to share our thinking and ideas about a variety of topics and tasks, such as creating flags for our table groups, sharing books and math thinking.
We also participated in multiple team-building games with our buddies in Mrs. Benoit’s second grade class. For example, we learned about flags and why countries have flags as part of our unit on the world and the Olympics. The students worked with their second grade buddy to make a collaborative flag, reflecting themselves as part of our community-building and efforts to get to know each other better.
We also continued practicing daily mindfulness in our class. The students are learning the importance of calming themselves down to be ready to learn and take academic risks. Throughout the school year, we will explore various strategies together. As of now, the students are practicing mindfulness by listening to calming music, resting by their desks, drawing or using playdough. They have also learned the belly breathing technique. We had the opportunity to go outside to practice some yoga as well. We did the tree pose and something called eagle arms! The kids love animals and nature. We also took many deep breaths and simply listened attentively to the sounds of nature. I am sure your child would be happy to teach you some of these new strategies at home too!
Reading:
First grade readers practiced independent reading this week. We learned what the reader's workshop “looks like” and “sounds like” when the students read independently by their desks. The students participate in many different aspects of our balanced literacy program daily. Independent reading is one of those components. The students practiced improving their own reading stamina every day. They did an amazing job! The students also learned that readers set goals before they start to read. We used post-it notes to select individualized reading goals. At the end of the reader's workshop, we reflected on these goals and shared noticings. As a class, the students discovered that having a calm and quiet classroom helps them read for longer periods of time.
Next week, I will start the beginning of the year reading assessments and we will start our small guided reading groups, a time when the students receive explicit and individualized reading instruction. (More information will follow as these groups form in the next few weeks)
Writing:
This week, we finished writing our classroom contract. Our classroom contract reflects the school motto “Be Safe, Be Kind and Be Responsible”. We agreed on a series of norms and rules for our classroom and then we all signed it. The students feel very proud of the norms we agreed upon and they wanted to add glitter to it. We will do that next week and then share a picture of it.
We met with our buddies in second grade and did a collaborative science writing project outside. The students were encouraged to “think like scientists” and use some of their senses to write/draw about different objects from nature.
We also finished a special “Hopes & Dreams” project with Ms. Fisher’s class this week. The students created bees out of papers and shared their own hopes and dreams for this school year. We will hang these special bees in our locker area for them to see as they arrive at school in the morning, reminding them that we all “bee-long” together!
First Grade Math:
First grade mathematicians learned about perseverance and having a growth mindset this week. We learned that we can work together as a learning community to support each other when the learning feels challenging. We learned about “the most powerful addition”. “The most powerful addition is adding the word “yet” to a negative statement, such as “I can’t do it”. If we add “yet'' to it, the statement becomes “I can’t do it yet”. We have a large mural in our classroom that we refer to as we learn together. Here it is:
First grade mathematicians also practiced showing the days in school using visual representations, math tools (the rekenrek) and their math hands. They are learning that numbers are composed of smaller parts, which we can show in many different ways. On the fifth day of school, we all went outside to collect objects from nature in groups of five. They did an outstanding job, working with their math partner, collaborating and collecting leaves, rocks, flowers and sticks in groups of five. As the days in school increase, perhaps your child wants to show this counting and grouping at home as well?
First grade mathematicians also started learning about how to care for their math materials and folders in class. They also started their number writing practice. By the end of first grade, we hope all mathematicians can write their numbers without reversals. This week, they also learned that all number writing starts from the top!
Classroom Celebrations:
The students are demonstrating safe, kind and responsible choices every day. For those not familiar with our system at ABS, the students earn buzzies (small pompoms in black and yellow) for our classroom buzzy jar for being safe, kind and responsible. When we fill the classroom jar, we have a classroom celebration. We also empty our classroom jar in the school-wide jar (The BeeHive). When the BeeHive is filled,the entire school has a celebration. I think this class is heading towards a new school record--they filled our buzzy jar twice already!
A note from the administration:
As we conclude our second week of school we are seeing a few things that we need to fix up for our arrival and dismissal procedures to make them run safely and efficiently.
Please stay in your vehicle and avoid extended chats with the adults as we are trying to efficiently move people through the pick up line. Please do not leave your car unattended in the lane at any time. We also prefer you NOT park your vehicle to come and retrieve your child. Our way of ensuring your child gets to you safely is that exchange at your vehicle for the adult to see.
Please pull all the way up to the curb for pick up as others are waiting to move up behind you.
Avoid "double-parking"/parking diagonally
We appreciate all you can do to follow these guidelines to ensure a safe and smooth transition in and out of school!
News and Reminders:
There is no school on Monday, September 6th (Labor Day)
Thank you all for your incredibly generous donations to our school supplies on Harmony! We appreciate your generosity and thoughtful donations.
Please check your child’s Home Folder today for school picture day and photo order forms. Picture Day is scheduled for September 22nd at ABS.
Our “Me Bags” were due today. Thank you for sending them in on time. If you and your family didn’t get a chance yet, please send your child’s bag in on Tuesday. We will start sharing the contents next week and learn more about each other. Thank you.
Click here for information about our fabulous FAP organization and how you can support and help out this school year. Thank you for considering.
Here is the link to this week’s School Bell.
Have a great weekend,
Maria
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