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