Hello

Hi all,
I hope you are having a fun and restful vacation from school with your family. It is cold outside, but I hope you get a chance to go outside anyways for some winter fun.
I also hope you remember to read.

See the full PicLit at PicLits.com

Winter Solstice and Lunar Eclipse tonight

Tonight, or very early tomorrow morning, we will be able to see total lunar eclipse. This lunar eclipse happens to coincide with our Winter Solstice, the shortest day of the year. Please view the video below for a lunar eclipse.

Our Small Moments as MP3 files

The students' Small Moment writing pieces are being recorded this week and some have already been uploaded to our podcasting site (podbean) and to our podcasting library. Here is the direct link to the library.

Our favorite books by Kevin Henkes

4 Winds videos

We had another educational and informative 4 Winds class last week. We learned all about predators and how animals protect themselves and their young in nature. Here are some videos of the students acting out some of these scenarios.

Video Thank You for David Martin

We received a poster story from David Martin and it is very special to us. We will frame it and hang it inside our classroom. As a thank you, the students decided to record a video, which we sent to him. Here it is. They practiced very hard and did an amazing job.

Parent Resources

Dear families,
I just wanted to infor you that i have updated the team wiki for your convenience. many additional links have been added into our "Link Library", where we keep printables for you all.
For math, I have added information regarding Bridges, our new math program regarding expectations for 1st and 2nd grade. This document will be familiar to you as we shared it with you at conference times in November. Click here to access directly.
For Literacy, I have updated our "Word Study" link, with printables sight word ("trick word") lists for 1st and 2nd grade. Dolch and Frye lists are added for you convenience. Click here to access directly.

Please remember that weekly newsletters contain valuable information on units of study in literacy, mathematics and the sciences. Links are provided so you can "peek" into our learning in the classroom every week as I link to podcasts, videos and digital pictures. If you forget to read or fall behind, please know you can always access our digital portfolio to see what is going on in our classroom. The direct link is www.digitalportfolio2010.pbworks.com. please click here to access directly.

Weekly Update

Dear Families,

I cannot believe that we are almost ready for our winter break, but this week is quickly coming to an end. Next week, we only have school until Wednesday, December 22nd. The students return to school again on Monday, January 3rd. The weather is getting colder again, so please make sure your child comes prepared for outdoor recess every day. Warm jackets, snow-pants, boots, hats and gloves will keep our students warm outside. Thank you.

We received a very special package today in our classroom. It was a present from David Martin, the author/illustrator we have been skyping with. He sent us a beautifully illustrated story as a poster. It was signed with a message from him as well. The students decided that we should frame this very special gift, so I will look for a suitable frame so we can display this inside our classroom. The story Mr. Martin sent us is also special to us because he read it aloud to us once. Please visit our classroom to see this special gift. We are busy creating a holiday present for Mr. Martin as well and we hope to finish it tomorrow so I can mail it this week. Ask your child to explain what we are working on.

Next week, Team Harmony will have a Winter/Solstice party before vacation and we have asked parents to bring in treats for each classroom. Thank you, Keri, for organizing this party and thank you all volunteers who so generously donate food, drinks and supplies for our parties.

Reminders and Updates:
• Team Harmony’s field-trip to the Flynn Theater is scheduled for January 25th. We will see “Seussical: The Musical”. We are still missing permission slips for some students so if you find a permission slip inside your child’s Thursday folder this week, please sign it and return it as soon as possible. The students must return these forms before they can go on a field-trip. Thank you for your help.
• Please check the blog, the wikis and the podcasting sites over vacation next week as I hope to communicate with students during vacation. It would be great if your child could post some pictures and share about his/her vacation fun.
• The Blue and Gold newspaper, the school’s newspaper was published a little while ago and features work completed by over 100 students at our two Williston schools. It is linked on the school web-site, but can also be accessed by clicking here. Thank you.

Have a great rest of the week.
Regards,

Marias McCormack

Our New Harmony Sign

 

Our new Harmony sign is up in our team space. Thank you Ms. Beeken for working with our students to finish this great sign. We love it.

Skyping with David Martin again

 

 

We had the wonderful opportunity to skype with the author/illustrator David Martin again. This time, we shared some songs. We sand "Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes" in both English and Swedish to Mr. Martin and he played us a song on his guitar. He also read some books to us and even showed us illustrations from a book that has not bveen published yet.. It was fantastic. We had our first read aloud on skype too!

VSO Assembly

Our new math movie in 1st Grade

Here is a link for our new math movie. Click here to see the wonderful work created by our 1st grade mathematicians.

More podcasting

We have added many new songs and poems to our podcasting library this week (Click here to access). Every week, we have a job in our classroom to be the podcaster. This person can choose a partner or two to podcast different things to the world. This week our podcaster has chosen to record poems and songs. Please note that published poems cannot be published on our podbean account before permission from the publisher has been granted due to copyright laws. Hence, many times these audio files will only be share inside our classroom or on our kidblog. Please encourage your child to check every day! Most podcasts are also available for RSS feeds on my podbean page at www.mmccormack.podbean.com Click here to access directly. Happy Listening!

Weekly Update

Dear Families,

Another great week is almost over. Time flies when you are having fun learning in our 1st and 2nd grade classroom. Learning is taking place in all areas. I hope you see progress in reading, writing and math at home as well as our students become more efficient critical thinkers.

In Reader’s Workshop, the students started their partnerships. In partnership reading, we are very careful to use quiet whisper voices when we share our reading with our partners. We also start by reading quietly to ourselves and use Private Think Time to think about the text before we are ready to share our reading. The students also learned to “Stop and Jot” down their ideas this week. I introduced the concept of a “Reading Pencil” a few weeks ago as the students practiced their reading stamina. A Reading Pencil is simply a regular pencil, but it is easily accessible during the reading process and part of the experience. It allows the students to read and jot down ideas and questions they have throughout their reading. Many times jotting down questions or observations on post-it notes and index cards help us with our comprehension. Please ask your child to explain how jotting down ideas and observations help us understand better.

In Writer’s Workshop, the students continued to explore small moment stories with clear beginning, middle and endings. They used pictures to go along with their writing pieces, clearly connecting the various elements of their stories.

In math, 1st graders recorded their sea star and crab number stories. We used the video camera used for skyping and unfortunately I have not been able to publish it yet as I am trying to compress it. I will share the movie as soon as it is in the right format. The students did a great job sharing their number stories.

The students are busy reading and listening to books written and illustrated by Steven Kellogg. Please note that I have added many new sites to our Team-based Author Web-site lists. Steven Kellogg and David Martin are both there for easy access. We will skype with the author David Martin again this Friday. We will sing the song “Heads, Shoulders, Knees and Toes” to him in both English and Swedish. He will also share why one of his books was inspired by a song. We are very excited to have this wonderful opportunity again.

Lastly, as the weather gets colder, please make sure that your child has warm clothing every day as the students have outdoor recess every day. Warm winter jackets, snow pants, gloves and hats are necessary every day so the students can stay warm and healthy. If you wish, your child can keep an extra set of gloves and socks in his/her locker in case they get lost.

Have a happy and great rest of the week!
Regards, Maria

Special Weekly Shares

Saying Good-Bye to Megan

 

 

It was Megan's last day on Friday and our team said good-bye to her in the Kiva. We will miss her very much and wish her the best of luck in the future. Please visit us again, Megan!

Skyping with David Martin

 

 

We had the opportunity to skype with the author/illustrator David Martin last week and here are some pictures for you to enjoy.
We learned so many things from this wonderful person. We learned that he lives in Vermont and has written many books for children. He grew up in New York City and wished to be a dairy farmer when he was young. It takes a long time to write a book, even if it is a short book. Sometimes it can takes months, or even years. He showed us what it looks like when you start writing a book-it looks just like when we write! It starts on paper with a pencil. As the story grows, more pages are added. They can even be taped together.
The students asked questions and even shared some of our books!
We will skype with David Martin again next week. We are going to sing songs together because one of his books was inspired by a song. Please visit our blog again next week for another update . Thank you!

Weekly Update

Dear families,
Can you believe this weather we had yesterday? It was so windy it was very difficult to make it to the buses at dismissal. I also heard from many that getting home was quite challenging, and some even experienced substantial damage to their houses and properties. Our thoughts are with you all and we hope you get a chance to clean up quickly. Being without electricity is quite challenging as well. Challenge your child to think of all the things we rely upon in our daily lives that requires electricity. Also challenge your child to think about all the things we can do without it.

Today, we skyped with the author and illustrator David Martin. He is the author of the "Lucy and Bob" and "Piggy and dad" stories. He has also written countless other books, including "All for Pie and Pie for all" and "Piggy and dad go fishing". The students created their own questions and chatted with David Martin for almost 40 minutes! We had such a great conversation that we decided to do it again next week. Please ask your child what we learned about being an author. Please also ask your child to tell you what David Martin wanted to be as a child (dairy farmer). We also discovered that David Martin lives in the same town as one of our students' uncle! It turns out they do not know each other, but since the town is small, they might run into each other one day!

In math, 1st graders continued working on money and time concepts. They also finished another math story problem book. This book is published and on display inside our classroom. We will video-tape the book shortly so please return for an update and link at a later time.

Our Kevin Henkes author study ended this week. The students ended the unit by voting for their favorite book and writing a small piece on why they picked that book. Our results will be published as a Voicethread shortly, and the link will be provided on this blog. I have also linked many new authors to our team web-site for your convenience. Please click here to access this page where you can link into Mary Pope Osborne (Magic Tree House), Eric Carle and many others.
Our next unit will be on Steven Kellogg, illustrator of hundreds of books for young readers. Steven Kellogg is known for creating very detailed pictures as he "tells stories on paper." The students will use various forms of graphic programs on the computer to tell their own stories. We hope to present some of these to him as I have the opportunity to meet him next week.

Have a great rest of the week!
Regards,

Maria McCormack

Our latest publication: All About Us

Please click here to read our latest publication entitled "All About Us", a book completed by the students in our class. Thanks and happy reading.

Our new classroom

Here are some pictures of our new classroom layout to accommodate our document camera, projector and mimio. I am so excited and cannot wait to start our new digital learning next week.
Please go to our Kidblog and comment on this layout. Do you like it, and if so, what do you like about it? Do you have any questions? Go to Kidblog and share. Thank you.

 

 

 

Our Leaf Collage

Look at the animals the students created using leaves! Perhaps you can discover which animals are represented in these pictures too? They did an amazing job. Thank you.

 

Check out our Math work

First graders have worked hard on showing their understanding and thinking in many different ways. Please click here to see our updated Digital Portfolio for our work in this areas.

We use many different methods of learning in our classroom and are so excited to use our digital camera. Please click here to see how we use a variety of methods in our classroom.

We earned 100 Respect Stickers!!

The students earned their 100th Respect Sticker this week! Wow...We are so excited. We will celebrate this milestone by having a special party on Monday. We are going to watch the movie "Willie Wonka and the Chocaolate Factory" on Monday as a treat.
The students decided they want to continue earning stickers so we are now trying to reach 200. I wonder how many we can earn in an entire school year?

 

Sharing

We had a special share this week. One of our friends brought in her very own Bee Pillow, very similar to the one we have inside our classroom. Thanks for making a great connection. We should always "Be Safe, Be Kind, and Be Responsible" in school and outside of school!

 

Weekly Update

Dear Families,

It is great to have the opportunity to sit down and talk to you during our conferences and share your child’s progress in learning. It is also nice to look at writing pieces together and books we have published. I look forward to seeing those parents I have not met with yet tomorrow and Monday. Thank you for you involvement in your child’s learning and support of our classroom community.

Earlier this week, Team Harmony had a visit from two exchange students from France and Germany. Their names were Lauren and Pauline and they shared many different aspects of their cultures with the students. We got to see pictures from their native countries, listen to short stories in their languages and we even learned some new phrases and words. The students learned to say “Thank you” in French (merci) and “Happy Birthday” in German (Alles Gut). We even got to taste some yummy treats from these two European countries.






The students continued their character studies this week and we are currently working on making personal connections between our book characters and ourselves. Through conversations, discussions and writing, the students are encouraged to explore when they are acting, saying or thinking what the characters in our books are doing, saying or thinking. They even wrote some postcards to different authors, which we mailed in our classroom mailbox. Please ask your child to explain this mailbox and how we use different writing prompts to make literary connections.

In Writer’s Workshop the students continued to stretch out their small moment stories. They are now learning to write interesting stories with a clear beginning, middle and an end. We use different colored paper to help us through this process. Please look for these stories in the near future.

In math, the students continued to explore number sense, picture problem solving scenarios and strategies in both 1st and 2nd grade. First graders read our published Storyjumper math book and they also worked on it in class using our laptops. We will create other books soon as we explore counting by 5s and 10s using sea stars and crabs as our characters!

I will not send out a newsletter next week and our week is very brief. Please encourage your child to communicate with me and the rest of the class on our KidBlog. I hope that all students will share about their Thanksgiving holiday traditions and customs, perhaps even post some pictures. Thank you for helping your child stay connected digitally.

Have a great rest of the week and a wonderful Thanksgiving break.
Regards,

Maria McCormack

Blogging Thank you!

Thank you for doing such a great job in the computer lab today! I posted an assignment on our KidBlog and the students responded beautifully. They were asked to listen to music, written and composed by a friend of mine who lives in Sweden. The songs are all linked on her web-site (Click here to access her songs; the blue links are songs. The web-site is in Swedish, but in international technology language, links are always blue!).
If you wish to learn more about my native country Sweden, please access the wiki in our section entitled "Traveling Around the World), or click here. I made a photostory about Sweden as well. We will learn many more things as the year progresses. Thank you (or should I say "Tack"?)

Traveling Around the World

This week, the students "traveled" to Sweden and Europe using Google Earth, atlases and other reference materials.
Here are some things we learned:
1. Sweden is in Europe
2. Sweden's capital is Stockholm and it has many, many small islands
3. In Sweden they speak Swedish. That is another language. We learned that "God Morgon" means "Good Morning" and "Hej da" means "Good bye"
4. The flag of Sweden has two colors. It is blue and yellow.

Our trip to the Book Fair

We had our trip to the WCS Book Fair today with lunch on the classroom, followed by a bus ride over to the WCS. We had a great time together. After the Book Fair we wanted to podcasts some of our learning and book purchases. Please click here for the audio file. Thanks.

Weekly Update

Dear Families,

Report cards are right around the corner and our parent-teacher meetings are scheduled for next week. Thank you all for signing up online. Your support and embrace of technology is exemplary! I am very fortunate to have your support. Report cards go home this Friday. Please read the carefully and think about questions and concerns you might have about your child’s learning. I would like for our brief time together next time to be as efficient and productive as possible. Thank you.

The students started “Traveling Around the World” this week. We visited Sweden, my native country, using Google Earth, atlases and various additional materials and objects I brought in to the classroom from Sweden. Ask your child what I brought in and please ask your child how we wrote three postcards together. They are on display in our classroom now so please visit! The students did an amazing job using google earth and locating Sweden and Europe on the map. We will continue to learn about Sweden and Scandinavia this week. Please ask your child what facts he/she learned about Sweden. Next week, we have students visiting from France and Germany is a Team-wide international celebrations!Vi ser fram emot det! (We’re looking forward to that!)

The students continue to podcasts every week. We have added some public podcasts to our podcasting site. Please visit the site at www.podcastingharmony.weebly.com, or www.mccormack.podbean.com to listen to our most recent posts! Please note that I also post our public audio files on the wiki, linked at the podcasting site for Team Harmony. That way, you can always access the information. We are on iTunes now, so you can search for us there as well!! The students learned to use our recording devices to record their own readings this week. They record their most fluent reading and then listen to it. They reflect on their reading and decide what they need to work on before their next turn. They also reflect on what they did well. Please ask your child why it is so important that our reading sounds like “: spoken language” (hint, it helps with our comprehension and critical thinking about the text as we chunk the text).

Reader’s Workshop continued this week with guided reading groups. 2nd graders are currently working on character traits and how we can use inferencing to figure out those traits as many times they are inferred from the text and not explicitly stated. Although we know that characters are defined by their actions, statements and thoughts; sometimes as an attentive reader we must think in broader terms and infer meaning. This can be challenging but repeated practice will help us all be more critical thinkers. The students are using post-it notes and index cards to help them find specific passages in the text that “proves” the character trait! They are doing a great job! First graders are also discussing character traits and reading strategies. Decoding and fluency are two important components now.

We had another Guest Reader this week. As before, the students received clues for a couple of days. They were unable to figure out our visitor until the last moment.

It was Ms. Birdsall who visited our classroom! She read the book “When Charlie McButton lost power” by Suzanne Collins.

This tale is about a boy who loves computer games. The power goes out and as he s desperately searching for batteries, he gets in trouble and makes some poor choices. The lesson of the book is that there are other important things in life too, not just computers and computer games. As much as we, as a community, love computers and technology, we must remember that technology only makes sense if it enhances our lives, and our learning in school. In schools, technology should only be used to promote learning for all students. It should be used to encourage collaboration, problem solving skills, creativity and communication. It should be used in meaningful, contextual ways so it makes sense to the students. It is also important to foster a Digital Culture around its uses. For example, students must know what the expectations surrounding technology are. These expectations are the same as the expectations we have in school. It is about “Being Safe, Kind and Responsible”. Please know that as the students and I explore various digital platforms we also discuss the implications and the expectations surrounding these new tools. I am very proud of these 1st and 2nd grade students! Once again, thank you for your support. If you have any questions or concerns, please contact me. I am happy to assist anytime.

I look forward to seeing you all next week. Have a great rest of the week!
Regards,

Maria McCormack

Weekly Update

Dear Families,

We have had another productive week in our 1st and 2nd grade classroom.

Reading groups are in full swing and we are meeting several times each week for targeted reading instruction. Your child should bring home his/her colorful book bag with “Just Right” books every Monday. These books should stay home and re-read many times throughout the week. Book bags return to the classroom every Friday, so they can be emptied and filled with the books for next week. I have noticed that many students have forgotten to return their books bags and books. Please make sure your child brings them back as we borrow these books from the school library and other classrooms. It is important other students can use them too! Thank you for your attention in this matter.

In Writer’s Workshop, we have continued writing our small moment stories. The students are developing into confident authors, stretching their small moment personal narratives over several pages. The details are getting more interesting and the word choice more elaborate and complex. I am very proud of the progress they are making in writing. Did you hear that we had our first published book? A real hard-cover book on reading strategies? Well, if you did not, please ask your child to explain. (I had our StoryJumper book on reading strategies published into a hard-cover book). The students were so happy and proud to show the librarians and other classrooms this book. We cannot wait to show you at conference time!

The students are continuing their work in math and our district-wide focus upon mathematical habits of mind and interaction continues as well. First and second grade mathematicians spend extra time on justifications this week. Please visit our classroom digital portfolio (Best Practices in math) to access their incredible work. Please take the time to read their comments and thinking. I think you will be amazed. Click here to access our work on "Justifications".
Please click here to access our Best Practices page in math.

The students will participate in another 4Winds class this week. As I am attending a technology conference, I hope the students will respond to my post on the blog asking them to tell me at least one thing they learned during their class. Thank you.

We have two new members in our classroom. We have a teddy bear that the students can read to during free choice and reader’s workshop. We also have a bee pillow to provide some extra comfort and support. Please see picture above for our new friends.

The weather is getting colder. Please do not forget to bring in hats, mittens and jackets. The students have outdoor recess every day (weather permitting).

Thank you so much for supporting your child in posting on the blog. I am amazed with the writing and the pictures you have shared so far. Keep up the good work. I will email you all additional notes on how to get around the blog, post pictures and make comments.

I hope you will have a great rest of the week.

Regards,

Maria McCormack

Blogging in our classroom

 

 

 

 

Our Harvest Party

Thank you all for bringing in wonderful treats for our Harvest Party! Here are some pictures for you. Please check the kidblog too for a "Harvest Party Math Question." If your child wants, he/she can comment on the post I made to answer the math question I posed.