Family Newsletter

Dear Families,

Here is our week in review:

Social-Emotional Learning:

• In mindfulness this week, the students learned about various breathing techniques.  They learned how deep breathing can help calm us down, feel happy and relaxed, while also helping us get back on track.  They learned that we can use visual images to help us stay focused on deep breathing.  The students have previously learned about “the square breathing” and “the flower breathing”.  This week, they learned about “the bee breathing” and “the hot chocolate breathing.”  Ask your child to show you at home.  You might want to try some of these breathing methods as well?

• The students filled the classroom buzzy jar again for being safe, kind, and responsible.  This time, we celebrated with a disco party, complete with disco balls and glitter clothes!  We had so much fun dancing together!

You Can: 

• You can support your child’s new mindfulness/breathing strategies at home too.  Learning to self-regulate and choosing a strategy that works best is empowering for young learners and builds resilience, confidence and independence.  

Reading:

• This week in reading, the students rotated through several different reading stations.  They practiced reading skills reflecting their own individual needs and they were encouraged to reread the texts and books independently after meeting with the teacher.

• The students also practiced their sight words this week.  Sight words are words that cannot be “sounded out” in English and, thus, need to be memorized. (Sight words are also words that reflect spelling rules not yet instructed). This week, our first grade readers and writers practiced finding these words in texts, using highlighters as a scaffold.  They also practiced spelling these words with our magic gel boards, whiteboards and magnetic boards. 

You can:

• You can support your child’s reading at home by practicing daily reading together.  In addition to reading to your child, please consider reading the weekly texts/decodable stories/word lists that your child is bringing home.  Also consider reading the high frequency words that we shared with you at conference times.  

Writing:

• First grade authors learned to identify subjects and predicates in their sentences this week.  We read the book “Soccer Game” as a mentor text and created complete and grammatically correct sentences based upon the plot of the book.  The students were then challenged to write shorter sentences using a rubric as a guiding tool.  Please see your child’s Home Folder to get an idea of what your child learned this week.

You Can:

• You can support your child’s enthusiasm and joy of writing at home by checking out the Fundations unit letters I include periodically in your child’s Home Folder. These newsletters include many valuable resources, games and activities for families to have at home.  We spent a few weeks learning about glued sounds and will start digraphs next week.  

Math:

• This week, first grade mathematicians continued to explore groups of numbers using our Number Bond models.  This week, the students were encouraged to create multiple groups of the same quantity while exploring our counting objects.  They worked with plastic animals, buttons and counting sticks. The students played games with math partners and explored our other workplace options too.

• This week, first grade mathematicians also practiced how to work collaboratively and get their work done efficiently.  Every math class starts with a math goal as well as an emotions/executive functioning goal.  For a few weeks now, first grade mathematicians have learned how to show a growth mindset and responsible decision-making in our math class.  They are doing a terrific job!

You can:

• You can encourage your child to develop a positive mindset about math by engaging in conversations about numbers and math around us.  Ask your child “keep thinking” questions rather than “stop thinking/find the answer” questions.  In other words, emphasize the process and the strategy your child used to solve a particular problem.  Ask your child to explain his/her thinking another way, or tell you why something is true or not true.  Have fun talking about numbers and math!

News and Reminders:

• ABS will provide a community garden soup for the students and the staff on October 30th.  The meal will be served at regular lunch times with milk, and apples.  If your child would like to, please consider bringing one cup of washed, peeled, chopped vegetables/legumes or gluten free grains to the school to be part of this soup.  These items can be brought to the main office each morning from Wednesday October 23rd-Tuesday October 29th.

• ABS Photo Retakes are scheduled for November 15th.  Please inform the front office if your child will need to retake the school pictures.  Thank you.

• Here is the link to the November Lunch Menu at ABS.  Please preview the options with your child to reduce confusions among the choices.  Thank you.

Have a great weekend,

Maria

Weekly Newsletter

Dear Families,

It was great seeing you at our conferences last week.  Thank you for taking the time to meet up and chat about your child’s learning and life at school. 

Here is our week in review:

Social-Emotional Learning:

• This week, the students continued to apply the listening skills we have learned in the last few weeks.  They practiced whole body listening and eyes on the speaker in all classes when adults and peers were sharing.  They are making such amazing progress and learning so much from each other when they are “brain in”, have eyes on the speaker and showing calm, quiet bodies.

• Last  week, the students created calming pictures for our restorative circles.  They used markers, crayons and/or water colors.  They are such amazing artists!   This week, we used them as part of our center pieces for the circle times.  We use these beautiful pictures in our restorative circles so the students can look at them as a way to help them focus.

• This week, the students filled our classroom jar again for being safe, kind, and responsible. This time, we celebrated with choice time in math.  It was great to see the students make independent choices and explore math concepts with friends.

You Can: 

• Your child has another HomeLink from our SEL Curriculum Second Step in the Home Folder today.  As always, it is optional to do this at home but we encourage families to engage in these conversations at home too.  Not only can you connect with our learning goals and social language, you can also implement strategies for home too! This week’s HomeLink reflects our work around focusing attention, something that the students have worked on for quite some time now.  They are experts and I am sure they will teach you all about these strategies at home!

Reading:

• This week, the students had the opportunity to rotate through different stations during our reading block.  Sometimes the students will meet with the teacher/adult and receive targeted, differentiated reading instruction to meet the reading needs of the members of the group. Sometimes, the students will engage in independent reading; a time when they are encouraged to read “just right”/decodable books (books assigned by the teacher/adults to reinforce phonological skills taught). The students will also engage in choice books during these times. We recently received some generous donations of “Dog Man” and “Piggie and Gerald” books to add to our classroom library so the students have had some new and exciting books to read as well.  

You can:

• You can support your child’s emerging reading skills at home too by encouraging your child to read every day.  If you read together with your child this week, think about how you can encourage your child to pay close attention to the sounds the letters make.  How about playing an alphabet scavenger hunt?  Ask your child to find a particular letter on the page.  Make it more challenging by asking your child to say the sound a particular letter says.

• Thank you for accessing Lexia at home.  Lexia is a fabulous online reading program that promotes student learning in phonics, phonological awareness, fluency and comprehension.  Thank you for reading daily with your child at home too.  Listening to fluent readers read authentic, interesting texts helps emerging readers develop a deeper understanding of literacy and a love of reading!

Writing:

• The students are learning about how to create proper sentences with first grade benchmarks.  In our writing curriculum (Bookworms), they are learning that complete sentences must have a subject (who and what) as well as a predicate (verb/action words).  We underline these parts in our sentences using different colored crayons and count out how many words we use in each sentence.  The students are also learning to ask themselves “Does this make sense?” before they write their sentence down.  They are doing an outstanding job creating proper sentences with complete and interesting ideas.

• This week, first grade authors also learned that subjects can be “many” (such as Sarah and Pete) and substituted with pronouns such as “they, he, she, it”.  First grade authors also practiced finger-spacing between words, proper lower (and upper) case letter writing and tapping out the sounds they hear in CVC words.  CVC words are short vowel words, with a beginning consonant, followed by a vowel and another consonant.  Some of the words we practiced this week were: nap, bin, fin, cat, dog, nut, tub, red and bat.  

• First grade writers also learned how to differentiate between when to use the letter c for spelling words starting with the /k/ sound, and when to use the letter k.  To help young learners know the difference, we call it “The Cat/Kite Rule”. Here is a song that helps them remember the spelling options.  Enjoy!

You Can:

• You can support your child’s emerging phonological awareness and skills at home too.  Ask your child to explain how we tap out the sounds at school.  Ask your child to isolate the sounds too.  For example, if you say the word nap, what is the middle/vowel sound?  What is the beginning sound?  Ending sound?  Notice how you ask for the sound, not the letter.  What happens if you replace the /n/ sound in nap with the /m/ sound?  What is the new word?  The students love these games!

Math:

• This week, first grade mathematicians continued to rotate through our math learning stations.  They are truly amazing mathematicians and so focused and engaged.  We continued to build a conceptual understanding of decomposing and composing numbers to 10 (and 20).  The students practiced using gems to build an understanding of the differences between 2 groups and groups of 2, 3 groups and groups of 3, etc.  Ask your child to explain.  Ask your child to explain how grouping objects together can help them organize their thinking so they can solve math problems more efficiently and not rely on counting by ones.

• First grade mathematicians also practiced finding the number “just before” and the number “just after” another number (in the range 1-20)

You can:

• You can support your child’s flexibility with numbers by emphasizing the strategies used to solve a particular math problem.  For example, if your child is solving 9+6 at home, rather than asking for “the answer” (which we call the sum), ask your child to explain how the problem was solved.  If your child shares that he/she used his/her fingers to count, encourage your child to find another way to solve the same problem.  We have discovered multiple pathways together as a class already in our daily number conversations and warm ups..  The students have discovered many different addition strategies already.   “Counting on” is a class favorite.  Counting on promotes number efficiency as the students are encouraged to start with the greater number and “count on” from that number to find the sum.  Another favorite strategy in class is finding “double facts” first and then adding (or subtracting) the remainder.   Some students also anchor  to 10 first as a strategy.  I tell the students that the number 10 is my BFF so I try to find 10 anywhere I can!

News and Reminders:

• We have no school on Friday 11/1 due to Diwali.

Have a great weekend,

Maria

Family Newsletter

Dear Families,

Your child’s Home Folder contains lots of information today.  First of all, your child is bringing home decodable and familiar texts and word lists for you to keep and read at home.  Second, your child is also bringing home information about how to access some extra math learning at home.  As always, these are resources and optional. Have fun!

Here is our week in review:

Social-Emotional Learning:

• The students of Allen Brook filled the hive this week! We celebrated with a schoolwide dance party.  It was so fun to see all the students dance together.The adults were participating too.

• This week, the students spent some time with Puppy and Snail, our two classroom puppets.  Puppy and Snail are part of our Second Step curriculum and they help the students learn about emotional self-regulation and empathy.  Puppy and Snail joined our classroom to play a special game.  We had fun learning and playing with Puppy and Snail! The students helped with the puppets too and did a great job!

• This week, the students had the opportunity to build an understanding of how their actions impact the people around them.  It can be hard for young children to gain an understanding of this, but with continued conversations, practice and reflective, restorative practices, they will learn to master this skill as well.  This week, for example, we talked about how “following your own plan” instead of following the expected “group plan” disrupts other people’s learning and focus.  For example, when we need to clean up after playing with different materials, all students must help and contribute in a timely fashion.  When we sit on the rug for a read aloud or a mini-lesson, it is important that everyone shows their whole body listening skills so we can continue to learn and grow together.  At ABS, we respect safe bodies and everyone’s right to access learning.

You Can: 

• You can support your child’s emerging understanding of how their actions impact others by engaging in those conversations at home too.  Point out positive behaviors that contribute to your “family plan” at home.  For example, when it is time to get ready for school in the morning, praise your child for getting ready and completing his/her morning chores on time.  When all members work collaboratively towards the common goal, the process is not only smoother and faster, it makes all members feel calmer and more relaxed too. If it is challenging for your child to follow the “family plan” at home, start by making sure that your child understands what is expected in that particular situation.  Tell your child that you rely on your child’s cooperation and support.  Young children love purposeful tasks and thrive on being asked to help the adults in their lives.  Build independence in areas that you feel are appropriate for your child and release responsibility as appropriate.

Reading:

• This week, the students also participated in several read alouds to learn to “read as writers”.  When you “read as a writer”, you pay close attention to the words the author chose, the way the text/font appears and how the author uses his/her craft to convey messages.  You also start to pay attention to words, spelling and letter combinations, which are all components of our science of reading approach to literacy.  The students learned that authors sometimes repeat words over and over again to convey emotions and/or suspense.  The students also learned that authors sometimes use different font sizes to reflect character dialogue.  They also learned to pay close attention to word endings that reflect rhyming. We read many books together and we finished the book “Hooray for Snail”.  Ask your child to tell you about the plot.

• The students participated in reading  with me in small groups, in partnerships with each other and they also practiced independent reading.  They are building their reading stamina every day.

• Here is a special message from our wonderful school librarian about a fantastic opportunity to connect reading at school to reading and learning at home:

Hi Readers! 

In October during library lesson times, we are reading picture books written by award winning author, Minh Le. Minh is the featured Global Read Aloud 2024 author, and I was a lucky duck who chatted with him in person during a Red Clover book conference several years ago. He’s a kind, fun dad who loves sharing stories about his heritage and inspiring kids to dream big!

Our library website:

https://sites.google.com/cvsdvt.org/abs-library/global-read-aloud?authuser=0

About Minh Le

https://minhlebooks.com/aboutminh

Global Read Aloud 

https://theglobalreadaloud.com/blog/

You can:

• You can support your child’s independent reading at home by encouraging your child to engage with literature for longer periods of time.  In first grade, daily reading at home is important. Consider creating a special cozy place for your child to read.  Perhaps your child feels comfortable reading on the bed, in the kitchen or on a pillow on the floor?  Having a consistent place to read encourages young children to read since the routine becomes predictable and the norm.  Consider reading yourself.  It is very important that young children see the adults in their lives model the same expectations as we put on them.  Perhaps you want to try a common reading time at home for 10 minutes?  During this time, mom/dad/siblings will read too.  

• Please consider helping your child access our fabulous online reading program Lexia at home too.  Consider creating a schedule that works for you and your family.  Some families only use Lexia a few days a week, while others let their children access it every day for 10 minutes.  Let me know if I can help create a working schedule for you.

Writing:

• The students continued work in their Fundations/spelling groups this week.  They worked on building an understanding of how the sounds they hear when they speak and write correspond to letters and letter combinations.  They practiced isolating sounds in the beginning, the middle and the end of simple, shorter words.  They also had opportunities to connect these sounds to the letters we use in the English language to spell words.

• The students practiced hand-writing this week.  In first grade, the students are learning to use lower case letters and saving the upper case letters for the beginning of sentences, names and places.  The students practiced proper pencil grips to help in writing and they were encouraged to practice finger-spacing between words. 

You Can:

• Your child might have brought home some hand-writing pages this week inside the Home Folder.  (If not, your child will bring these pages home next week)  You can celebrate your child’s hard work and writing by praising your child’s efforts at school and point out that you notice the various features they are learning about in first grade.

• You can support your child’s emerging understanding in phonological awareness by engaging in various rhyming activities at home and by reading books that reflect and include rhyming words and phrases.  Young children love to “play” with words!  In school, we also practice “sounding out” nonsense words (words that are not real English language words) but the students are exposed to them as a way to build a stronger phonological awareness and understanding.

Math:

• First grade mathematicians started working in weekly small group rotations this week.  They will rotate through several stations every week.  Sometimes, they will meet with a teacher/adult, and sometimes they will work independently, or engage in hands-on games.  They did an outstanding job navigating these new structures and routines this week.

• First grade mathematicians also continued to practice partners to 10, composing and decomposing numbers.  This week, they used number bonds and developed cognitive flexibility with numbers and groups.

• Your child has an informational sheet about how you can access technology tools from home using a home computer.  Your child’s passwords are listed as well.  Please keep this in a safe place for future use or consider accessing Happy Numbers, our online math program.  

You can:

• You can support your child’s emerging mathematical flexibility by talking to your child about numbers and math.  Math is all around us and math is a social activity. Ask “keep thinking” questions to encourage your child to explain/justify his/her thinking.  Ask “Can you explain that another way?”, “How do you know….?” or “Does this make sense?” when you talk about math at home!

• Celebrate your child’s math learning every week by checking your child’s Home Folder.  A simple way to stay connected with our learning is to see if there are any finished math games/worksheets inside.  If so, ask your child to explain the math they are learning.  Please note that your child will not bring home sheets every week as we mostly do hands-on, conceptual math learning activities/games that do not always require traditional “worksheets/paper writing”.

News and Reminders:

• There is no school for students on Thursday 10/10 and Friday 10/11.  I will host parent-teacher conferences on Thursday 10/10.  If you did not get a chance to sign up, please consider doing that.  Here is the link to our upcoming parent-teacher conferences

Have a great weekend,

Maria

Family Newsletter

Dear Families,

Here is our week in review:

Social-Emotional Learning:

• This week, the students continued to learn about how we can use clues from other peoples’ facial expressions, tone of voice and body language to better understand how they are feeling.  The students had the opportunity to show their own understanding of what those facial expressions might look like through art and while we discovered many similarities in our drawings, we also discovered that we also show our emotions in many different ways.

• This week, the students celebrated each others’ growth mindset, resilience and perseverance in our math classes by honoring their peers and giving them buzzies for being safe, kind and responsible.  For example, we end every math class with a closing circle when the students  celebrate each other's positive contributions to our class and learning.  The students love this!

• The students are learning that our brains grow when we think, engage with learning and make mistakes.  They are learning that mistakes lead to new learning and powerful connections in the brain.  The students are encouraged to see mistakes as learning opportunities and ways to grow their brains.

• The students also learned more about our listening skills and how we can build our brains by paying close attention to what other speakers are saying.  Among other things, we played a game called “My turn, your turn” and the students learned how they can focus their attention by using their “attent-o-scopes” (cupping their hands around their eyes to help zoom into the learning).  We can also focus our attention by giving the speaker eye contact, listen attentively to what the speaker is saying and having a quiet body and voice.

• We practice Mindfulness every day in our classroom.  Mindfulness is a time when the students are encouraged to “be in the moment” and learn to relax and do something calming and quiet.  They love this time when we listen to calming music, draw or read our books.

You Can: 

• You can support your child’s emerging growth mindset at home too by encouraging your child to persevere during challenging times.  Celebrate situations when your child showed resilience and discuss solutions for situations when your child feels frustrated.  You might want to use the same language we use here at school?  For example, I ask the students to show each other that they are “brain in”, which means that they chose a good learning spot for them so they are ready to grow their brains.  I encourage the students to try on their own first because they should grow their own brains, not mine!

• You might want to create some mindful moments at home too?  It is particularly important in today’s busy world that we all have opportunities to relax and engage in some calming activities.  Consider finding some time when you and your child do some deep breathing together or listen to some calming music?  How about carving out five or ten minutes of quiet reading time or a time to draw a picture together?  

Reading:

• I started formal reading assessments with the students this week.  It is always wonderful to have the opportunity to read together.  We had two different  guest teachers and we are so grateful to have extra help so I can read one-on-one with the students.  At ABS, we assess phonological awareness, phonics and sight words.  When all the assessments are done, we will start differentiated reading groups, a time when students will receive individualized and explicit reading instruction for future reading progress. I will share my findings with you when we get together for our parent-teacher conferences (more information on these conferences will be coming soon).

You can:

• You can support your child’s reading progress at home by reading to (and with) your child every day.  As I have mentioned in my other newsletters, it is okay for you to read to your child.  At this point, it is important that your child makes a positive connection with literature for future reading success.  The students love our classroom read alouds.  Expose your child to a variety of genres too.  Some students connect deeply with nonfiction books, while others prefer graphic novels or fictional narratives. Keep trying.  Give your child opportunities to listen to a variety of books and texts.  

Writing:

• This week, we started our English Language Arts (ELA) focus.  ELA provides a time for the students to learn how to create age-appropriate and grammatically proper sentences, both through verbal sharing and sentence writing.  We started reading the book “Hooray for Snail”  and learned how to share our understanding of the characters and the plot together.

• A large component of first grade spelling/writing is learning how to isolate the sounds and “tap out” sounds.  Don’t be surprised if your child raises his/her elbows to tap out the sounds heard before attempting to spell a word at home too!  Another aspect of our spelling curriculum is for students to learn about “trick words/sight words”.  These words do not follow the phonological rules and thus cannot be “sounded out”.  They are therefore “tricky” and must be memorized “by heart.”  Don’t be surprised if your child confuses these different types of words as they make sense of new spelling rules.  

You Can:

• You can support your child’s emerging understanding of these different types of words by asking your child if the word they are trying to spell can be “sounded out” or if it is a trick word.  As we introduce new “trick words/sight words” to our first graders, we hope these new words will be mastered and recognized.  Your child will have their own special “trick word” flashcards to practice at school.  They will also bring these home for optional practice in the upcoming weeks.

Math:

• First grade mathematicians continued to work on developing their growth mindsets in math this week.  We are establishing a math thinking classroom, a place where all students are actively engaged and have a voice.  We try to create tasks that have an entry point for all learners with open-ended solutions, allowing multiple pathways, creativity and sense-making.  The students sometimes work in groups and sometimes with a partner or independently.  They are learning how to share materials and math tools while also listening respectfully to other perspectives and strategies.

• This week, first grade mathematicians also worked on decomposing and composing numbers to 10.  We played a game called “Quick Look””, for example, which encourages young students to build an understanding of number partners up to 10 using ten frames and rekenreks. 

You can:

• You can support your child’s emerging number sense and understanding of numbers up to 10 by encouraging your child to decompose any number to 10 and then say what number of objects are in each group.  Let’s say your child has a collection of 7 pinecones.  Ask your child to split that into two groups.  Can your child find another way?  Another?  How many are in each group?  What happens if you move one pinecone from one group to the other? Asking “Keep thinking” questions promotes a growth mindset as your child is encouraged to continue thinking rather than giving up after one “solution” is found.

News and Reminders:

• Here is the link to October’s school menu. Please preview the choices with your child every day so your child can make a good selection at school.

• The students used their chromebooks for Lexia this week.  Lexia is an online reading program that provides targeted, explicit practice in the areas of phonics, word study and comprehension.  It is a wonderful online platform and the students are usually very motivated to use the program and “earn” stars as they progress through the different levels.  Your child will access this program at school too.  Please consider using Lexia at home too as part of your child’s reading at home too.  Let me know if you have any questions or problems accessing Lexia from home. We sent home information regarding passwords/usernames last week.

• Open House at ABS will be on 10/1 between 6-7pm.  Please consider joining us for an evening of fun and participate in a school-wide scavenger hunt.  See you then!

Have a great weekend,

Maria