Dear Families,
Here is our week in review:
We had a fantastic visit to the Williston Central School on Monday when we had the opportunity to meet the author and illustrator Jason Chin. Mr. Chin read his book “Watercress” and showed us how he creates his illustrations from the beginning stages to the story-boards and the final product, which gets published in his books. He also drew a large poster-sized picture for the students of ABS, which is hanging in our library now. The students learned so much and were inspired by his charcoal drawings. When we returned to ABS, they had the chance to try drawing with shading, just like Jason Chin!
Social-Emotional Learning:
The students learned about the importance of perseverance this week. They learned how using self-control and mindful strategies to self-regulate can help us stay on track and complete tasks even when things feel challenging. We practiced having a growth mindset and persevering in different classes, such as writing, reading and math.
We continued our work around Kindness this week. The students celebrated Valentine’s Day and shared their thoughtful and kind gifts with each other. The students also decorated special Valentine’s Day bags for these gifts. We hope you had the chance to see them all at home. Thank you for supporting your child’s contributions at home.
The students filled the classroom buzzy jar again too for being safe, kind, and responsible. This time we celebrated with pajama day.
We had restorative circles this week too. In our “inside-outside circle” configurations, the students shared kind words with each other, giving each other compliments. As you may recall, “inside-outside” circles allow for all students to share their ideas with partners, which rotate in a predictable manner. We also had a restorative circle with Ms. Nicole. This week, we started some work around personal accountability and responsible decision-making during class work times. We have noticed that when students are engaged in disruptive, unexpected choices, all students’ learning is negatively affected. When students are blurting out, running in the classroom or engaging in other disruptive behaviors it is hard for everyone to learn and our classroom does not feel safe. The students did a great job sharing how they can show self-control and make responsible choices during academic learning times.
You Can:
You can encourage your child to use mindful, self-regulatory strategies at home too when your child feels that a specific task becomes too difficult or challenging. In class, we practice various types of breathing techniques. This week, the students did the bunny breathing and the heart-shape breathing, for example. Ask your child to explain or try any of the other strategies shared with you in earlier communications.
For the month of February, the students have been encouraged to be “Kindness Detectives” and find kindness in the world around them. They have also practiced acts of kindness themselves. Consider doing this at home too. Giving each other compliments, sharing a smile or some kind words go a long way to make others feel special, happy and calm.
Reading:
This week, first grade readers worked on decoding skills to improve their independence and stamina during reading times.
This week, first grade readers also practiced their reading fluency. They learned about different ways to read out loud and they learned about the importance of repeated readings in an effort to improve accuracy, automaticity and reading pace. They also learned that expressive reading is important for overall comprehension. They read a readers’ theater script together multiple times, each time reflecting more phrasing, expression and deeper comprehension of the text. They also tried echo reading, which is a fun and engaging way to read while taking turns. After several practices, the students performed the script! They did an outstanding job. Ask your child to perform the text “ABC Animals” to you at home too. (The script is inside your child’s Home Folders this week)
Writing:
This week, first grade authors participated in a writing assessment to reflect their understanding of how first grade authors can write a sequential personal narrative with a clear beginning, middle and end. They wrote about our visit to WCS when we met Jason Chin. Our first grade students love to write stories and draw pictures to match!
First grade writers also continued to build a deeper understanding of phonological/phonics skills for more accurate encoding. While they are all working on different skills, all students are encouraged to carefully listen to the sounds they hear in the spoken words to ensure that these sounds are represented in their spelling. First grade spellers also added more trick words/heart words to their spelling words practice. This week, we practiced the following words: from, have, do, does to name a few.
You Can:
Writing can be challenging and feel overwhelming for first grade authors. At school, students are not only learning skills for spelling and the content of various writing genres. They are also learning social-emotional skills to persevere and improve their writing stamina in a productive way. When your child writes at home (maybe your child is in charge of helping you with the weekly shopping list, the to-do-list for the weekend, or maybe your child writes in a daily diary/journal), consider all of these aspects of writing. It is important that young writers learn that doing your best means that mistakes will happen and the spelling will not be perfect. Doing your best means that your child tries spelling and writing while using the strategies he/she has practiced at school.
Math:
This week, first grade mathematicians continued to rotate through multiple math stations. They learned more about the relative magnitude of numbers and how to find, and show, the difference between numbers and quantities. They had opportunities to develop more independence and a deeper understanding of the symbols >, <, and =.
First grade mathematicians also continued to work on various number ordering sequences, counting forwards and backwards. They also practiced number writing skills and penmanship.
News and Reminders:
Harmony will be spending the afternoon at Catamount on Tuesday, February 20th from 11:30am – 1:45pm. Your child will need to be dressed appropriately for outdoor activities for that day. Please make sure your child comes to school with winter boots, snow pants, warm jacket and hats and gloves. We are excited that we finally got some snow so we can snowshoe and learn about animal tracking with the fabulous staff at Catamount. We will return to ABS for regular dismissal. Thank you volunteers for joining us!
The students of ABS will visit WCS on Monday, 2/19, for the play “Aladdin”, performed by the students in Summit House. Buses will leave ABS at 1pm. We will return to ABS for regular dismissal.
There will be no school 2/26-3/1 due to our Winter Break. When we return, Ms. Addie will be our guest teacher for the first two days back due to my trip to Las Vegas and the Grand Canyon. I will return on Wednesday 3/6.
Have a great weekend,
Maria
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