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