Be a Nature Detective

We have a new voluntary challenge on our KidBlog. Students are encouraged to be "Nature Detectives" and look for signs of Spring outside. They are asked to post and comment on my entry about "Signs of Spring" using different types of technology, such as digital photos, audio files or flip videos. This is voluntary and we will do it in school as well. We are hoping, however, to get some information and pictures from outside school.
Thank you-and don't forget-be a creative Nature Detective!

Meeting with our Reading Buddies

We met with our Reading Buddies again this week. Here are some pictures. Enjoy!

 

 

 

 

Weekly Update

Dear Families,

It is great to meet with you for conferences and share all the amazing progress our 1st and 2nd grade friends are making in school. Thank you for supporting your child’s learning at home. Consistency in reading homework, for example, is helpful to overall learning. Thank you for listening to your child’s reading at home and for supporting conversation around literacy and writing. Our weekly reading logs are important. Thank you for encouraging your child to write about his/her reading every week. Conversations around math are important as well. Thank you for making valuable connections between number sense and counting to everyday activities and events.

Our Iditarod reading race is almost over. It will officially end Thursday, March 31st on our team, but your child can continue writing the Book Summaries if desired. The students are so excited about this project. We have already celebrated rewards along the way and it is great to see the students interact with each other around literacy. Our class will be represented by some students in our school-wide newspaper, The Blue & Gold, in the upcoming issue. Please look for our article on this amazing Iditarod reading project, with pictures to go along with it.

In reading and writing this week, the students have immersed themselves in non-fiction books and writing elements. We have started many new and exciting hands-on projects to explore these types of writing. Please ask your child to explain our non-fiction booklets. Please ask your child to explain the purpose of a label, a caption and a glossary. Please ask your child to explain how we showed how photographs are used in non-fiction books and how “National Geographic” helped us!

In math, 1st graders ended our Penguin unit with a celebration with Mrs. Thyng's class. We visited each other's classrooms and shared our penguin problem solving. Here are some pictures:







Our school-wide Enrichment Blog has been updated. Please check it out. It is linked on the school’s web-site, but can also be reached here.

We had another Guest Reader this week. Ms. Tatlock read another Red Clover book. We will vote on Tuesday for our favorite book. Thank you Ms. Tatlock for reading to us again.


Have a great rest of the week!
Regards,
Maria McCormack

Weekly Update

As many of you know, I have been home sick this entire week with pneumonia. I know that the students did well and their learning was not interrupted this week thanks to the incredible help we have had from Ms. Nat and Ms. Ronco. Thank you both for making this another great week of learning and sharing! We also had tremendous support from our team members. Thank you Ms. Thyng, Ms. Munt and Ms. Crowley. Thank you Ms. Kristen, Ms. Gail, and Ms. Justine. We are truly fortunate to know such incredible people.
I hope to be back tomorrow and look forward to seeing everyone again. I missed you.
Parent-teacher conferences start this Friday. Don't forget that dismissal is at 11:35am.
More posts will follow as I return to the classroom. I look forward to seeing you all at the conferences.
Regards,
Maria McCormack

Weekly Update

Dear Families,

We have had another productive and exciting week in our classroom. The students are finishing up their writing pieces and publishing them. The students have revised their own writing, added details to their pictures and created beautiful covers. We are very eager to share these books with you at conferences in the weeks to come.

Our scheduled parent-teacher conferences are right around the corner. Most of you have already signed up, but if you have not yet reserved a slot, please do so. I look forward to speaking with you again and celebrate your child’s learning. If the time slots available do not work for you and your family, please let me know so we can find a better time. Thank you. The wiki sign-up has been added to the classroom blog sidebar. It can also be reached at the following url http://mccormackparentconferences.pbworks.com Click here to access.

This week, the students participated in many specials. First, we kicked off PACK- Pack Assorted Colors for Kids on Monday. It has been very rewarding to see and discuss different healthy snacks with the students. To sort them by color makes it more fun and engaging as we share our snacks every day. Please continue this conversation at home and ask your child to explain what makes a snack healthy or unhealthy. We have learned all about vitamins, calcium and proteins. Second, the students also had the opportunity to see Sterling House’s production of Pinocchio at the Williston Central School. Together with many other classes at Allen Brook, we traveled by bus and enjoyed this wonderful school production. Please ask your child to describe the colorful costumes and detailed props. Also ask your child to explain how many students played Pinocchio himself!

We hope you have had a chance to see our new web-site for daily flip videos. It is linked on the classroom blog for easy access, but the direct url is www.thedailyflipshare.blogspot.com Click here to access directly.
We are very excited to share our learning. The students plan their own recordings and work collaboratively as these mini-films are made. I am so proud of them!

We have also continued to interview our Reading Buddies, and these audio files have been added to our podcasting sites. Please check them out and make sure the volume is on. For RSS feeds go to www.mmccormack.podbean.com and for podcasting library, please go to www.podcastinglibrary.pbworks.com

I am looking forward to seeing you all for conferences. Have a great rest of the week!
Regards,
Maria McCormack

Our new web-site

We have a new web-site in our classroom. It is called "The Daily Flip Share." We are very excited to share daily video-clips using our flip camera with you at home.

We hope this daily peek into our classroom will encourage conversation at home as you share in our learning every day.


The students will take turns recording each other. They will also practice the presentation and edit together.


For now, we are posting writing pieces, daily shares and learning in our classroom. We hope to expand to other classes, such as Music, Art, PE and Guidance as well. Stay tuned for more!


I have linked the Daily Flip Share on the sidebar below the sign-up for our upcoming parent-teacher conferences. The web-site can also be accessed through the direct url


www.thedailyflipshare.blogspot.com

Weekly Update

Dear Families,

What a crazy, snowy week we have had! I hope you all had a chance to not only dig yourselves out of the snow, but also go outside and enjoy the snow as well. I heard from many students that they went sledding and played with friends outside.

Due to the weather and our school cancellations, our schedule has been a little different this week. While reading groups have continued in our classroom, not all students brought their Book Bags home this week. If your child still has his/her Book Bag home from last week, please make sure it is returned as we need to switch our books for next week. Thank you.

We started a new Reading Log and reading unit this week as well. Team Harmony is following the Iditarod Sled Race in Alaska and the students have been assigned a musher. Each student has written a reading goal for the Iditarod Race and will read and write about books which allows them to move from one check-point to another-just like the mushers. You will see many informational letters explaining this unit in this week’s Thursday folder. I have also linked all letters and new Reading Logs to our wiki, in case you wish to print them at home or re-read again. Please note that all students are required to record their reading at home on the Iditarod Reading Log. This new reading log has been added to your child’s Homework folder, which comes home on Monday. If your child wishes to start writing prior to Monday, you can print them on our classroom wiki, under Reading Logs in our Link Library. Click here to access these printables. Thank you and Happy Reading and Writing! We are very excited about this.

Our team is excited to be participating in a national healthy-eating initiative called PACK- Pack Assorted Colors for Kids. We will start on Monday with a kick-off presentation in our Kiva. Students are encouraged to pack and eat healthy snacks and each day next week is assigned a different color. Please see the statched letter in your child’s Thursday folder. We hope that your child will arrive to school with a healthy snack/lunch showing the colors of the day-purple and blue. Thank you.

Click here to access their web-site. Click here to access.

Thank you all for already signing up for parent-teacher conferences on our wiki. I appreciate your prompt responses and computer skills. Doesn’t technology make it so easy to collaborate? Thank you. Please let me know if you need help, or if you need to change your times/dates.

Have a great rest of the week.

Regards,

Maria McCormack

4 Winds

We had another 4 Winds class last week. We learned about birds and their different types of beaks and feet. We learned about flight feathers, contour feathers and down feathers. We also learned how differently shaped beaks indicate what type of food the birds eat.

Meeting with our Reading Buddies

We met with our Kindergarten Reading Buddies again this week. We showed them how to access our team wiki and listen to books online. We were so excited to learn that they went back to the computer lab to explore our site further.

Weekly Update

Dear Families,

Welcome back to school! It is so great to see everybody again and be back in school. It is great to hear about all the fun and exciting things our friends did over vacation as well. Thanks for sharing.

Unfortunately, it appears as if we will experience some cold weather for a little while longer so please remember to dress your child warmly. We have outdoor recess every day and mittens, hats and snow-pants are still needed. Thank you.

Parent conferences are fast approaching. The school provides two half-days for this and those are scheduled for March 25th and April 1st. I will also provide conference slots on other days as I hope to accommodate everyone’s work schedules. Please look for more information in the days and weeks to come. The sign-up sheets will be on the wiki again and I will e-mail everyone a direct link. I will also link it on our classroom blog. Thank you.

In Reader’s Workshop, the students have completed all of our reading assessments and regular guided reading groups have resumed. The students will read their Scholastic newspapers in the beginning of the week so they can practice these texts throughout the week. The Scholastic newspaper will come home in the book bag the following week. Please encourage your child to read and discuss these at home as these texts should be familiar. This slight change is part of our new reading/writing unit on non-fiction literature. In the weeks to come, the students will explore the elements of non-fiction literature in a more systematic manner as they prepare for their next unit of writing, which is a report writing piece. More information will follow. Regular books will still come home in the weekly book bags. The Scholastic newspaper will be added and can remain at home. All other books are returned. Thank you.

In math, 1st graders have continued their work measuring the heights and weights of various penguins. It is wonderful to see their mathematical thinking expand as they compare and contrast the different penguins. We have a beautiful display showing life-sized penguins on display in our Team Harmony corridor. Please visit.
Here is a picture of these penguins:


Have a great rest of the week!
Regards,
Maria McCormack