Dear Families,
Happy Snow Day! I hope you are all enjoying this winter weather with some special outdoor winter activities. Since we have no school today, we will celebrate the 100th day of school on Monday, February 7th instead. Please have your child bring in his/her 100 small items on Monday. Students are invited to bring in a collection of 100 to share at our Math Museum that day. Counting collections gives mathematicians opportunities to practice counting forward and backward fluently, and to organize large quantities into efficient groups. Collections should fit in a large Ziploc bag (examples: cheerios, raw pasta/beans, beads, paperclips, etc.). Students are welcome to organize a collection with items from the classroom if they choose not to bring something from home!
Here is our week in review:
Social-Emotional Learning:
We learned about different ways to solve conflicts and play fairly with all friends this week. Second Step, our school curriculum which centers around the social-emotional learning goals of our young learners, provides some explicit problem-solving techniques and strategies. We listened to the song Fair Ways to Play and talked about how we can take turns using the toys/materials in our classroom, how we can trade and how we can include everyone in our play. We even did some role play to show different situations that can arise. The students did a great job performing to each other!
We participated in “Global Play Day” on Wednesday. We played a special partner game in science (see below for more details about the science content) and we had several stations set up, through which the students rotated. They played a new game called “Helicopter” (I think this might be a new favorite!). They also played a lego game with sight words and several word/rhyming games. The students were encouraged to take turns, share and keep small problems small. They did a great job working together
Reading:
We have new reading groups in our classroom. We periodically change our reading groups to reflect assessment data, individual student needs, or content focus. The students are so excited to read with new friends!
The students also continued rotating through independent reading activities such as reading “just right” books/choice books, working on trick words or practicing rhyming/word endings.
We encourage families to encourage daily reading at home. Thank you for supporting us at home! Raz kids provides students and families with a solid platform and addresses accuracy, fluency and comprehension skills. We also encourage families to read the library books together as well. Let me know if you need additional resources or help with selecting “just right” books for your child. Thank you for supporting reading at home.
This week, the students listened to several read alouds related to our opinion writing unit. They are learning about the importance of connecting reading and writing. Sometimes it is helpful to read books as writers and pay close attention to the words and the structure of the writing rather than the overall plot. Reading books as a writer can teach us specific skills to use when we write our own stories. We read “I wanna iguana” and “I wanna new room” by Karen Kaufman Orloff, which showed us some new and interesting ways to share our opinions and how to justify those opinions with evidence and reasons.
Writing:
This week, the students had a chance to share their opinion writing pieces with the class and give each other compliments as authors. It was wonderful to see them highlight accomplishments and cheer each other on. They complimented each other on the pictures, the penmanship, the ideas and the punctuation. What a kind group of kids we have!
First Grade Math:
First grade mathematicians started a new Number Corner calendar with a new focus. This month, we will primarily explore the concepts of equality in math. Equality in first grade means that we are comparing two quantities in terms of the number of objects (value) rather than what they look like (color, type of object, etc). It is comparing two expressions that are equal (or not equal). For example, we will explore equations such as 5+2=6+1 or 5+2=8-1. First grade mathematicians are learning how to show their thinking about these expressions using pictures or models.
First grade mathematicians also continued working on developing skills for adding 10 more to any number and finding the number “just before a decuple”. Ask your child to explain how we played a game called “Ski Race” and how we use 100 rekenreks to show our thinking.
Science:
We learned more about light this week. The students learned how light and colors can be used to communicate with others far away. They created their own color/light codes to send messages to each other using flashlights. So much fun!
News and Reminders:
Our school changed the dismissal protocols this week. Our school now asks that parents pick up their children by 2:50. We understand that traffic can sometimes back up and parents arrive late for a variety of different reasons. If that is the case, your child will wait inside the building for your arrival. Buses and Part 2 students will have the same dismissal procedures and nothing will change for them.
Here is a reminder for birthday celebrations: On Harmony, we do not celebrate your child’s birthday with food/candy due to covid and dietary restrictions. Instead, we do our best to make your child’s birthday special by singing to him/her, provide a birthday balloon and a special birthday covering on your child’s chair. The birthday child also gets to choose a small birthday surprise from the classroom Treasure Box and go down to see Ms. Filion for a special birthday surprise. If your child wants to bring in a special book for a read aloud, or show/share something special on that day, he/she can do that too. Thank you for understanding.
We will celebrate Valentine’s Day on Harmony on 2/14. If your child wishes to share Valentine’s Day cards with his/her friends, please make sure all children in our class is included. No food or candy, please. Please bring in these cards on Monday. The students will hand them out to each other on Monday. They will also create a special Valentine’s Day envelope/bag for all of these cards for storage. Your child has a class-list inside his/her Home Folder today. Thank you.
Don’t forget to visit the class blog for pictures from our week together at school!
Have a great weekend,
Maria
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