Insects don't bug us!

Our science unit on insects and bugs continued this week. Among other things, the students used their imagination and created bugs in different art forms, such as play dough, pipe cleaners and construction paper. The results were amazing. We have a little "Bug House" in our classroom and that is where our "own" bugs live. While the students used their imagination, they were also encouraged to represent certain features of bugs realisically, such as the three body parts, wings and antennaes. Here are some pictures.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Weekly Update

Dear Friends,
We arrived in our classroom this morning to discover that our chrysalis had turned into a beautiful monarch butterfly!! We were so excited. We watched the butterfly for a few hours, as the wings had not fully opened and dried up yet. The students made careful observationa in their Science Notebooks, books that we use to draw diagrams and write about the different scientific discoveries we make. The students observed the last stage of the Butterfly's Life Cycle and labeled their drawings. The students also used words to describe what the butterfly looked like. We placed the butterfly and its container outside around 10am, because the butterfly had fully opened its wings by then. It stayed in the container until dismissal time, when it decided to leave with us!!!! It was amazing.
We have many new chrysalises forming for our other caterpillars. We have about 5-7 "Painted Lady" butterflies in our classroom now and hope they will all develop as beautifully as our Monarch Butterfly.

 

 

 

This week, the students started their "Book Clubs", or guided reading groups with me. Each week, the students will receive instruction on their lelev in reading. Each leveled book will be read in a small group, and the students will learn about reading strategies, reading comprehension and some word work. Please look for these books next week. As the students' reading improves, he/she might not take home a guided reading book each week, as they might last over several weeks in our groups. Chapter books and longer, more complex stories, require longer instructional sessions and classes. If your child does not take home a new guided reading book every week, he/she should bring home another just right book. Please let me know if you have any questions.
In writer's workshop, we started writing our "Small Moment" stories. These stories are personal narratives that zoom in on a specific event or place. The students learn to stretch their stories out over several pages, and they plan their stories over three fingers, with clear beginnings, middles and ends. We look forward to sharing these with you.
If your child brought home the Personal Readers last week, please return those to the classroom by Friday. We try to add new poems and songs each Monday. Thank you. We hope your child reads these songs and poems many times and practice his/her fluency.
Have a great rest of the week,
Maria

Using iPads

The students had the opportunity to use our iPads last week. The students chose to use them as we had filled our "Warm Buzzy Jar" again. We explored many interactive games, such as "Doodle Pal", "Toontastic", Google Earth and many educational phonics program. Perhaps you have some of these wonderful games at home?
We will continue to use our iPads this week, primarily using Safari to access our very own KidBlogs. Our "Blogging Buddies" project with Ms. Davison's Kindergarten class start the first week of October! We can't wait for this exciting opportunity to learn more about each other and literacy with her students.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The ABS Garden Club

Our school Garden Club has started. Once a week, the students get an opportunity to join other children from our school community and help out in our school garden. They learn about plants and animals and how to take care of the earth. Here are some pictures.

 

 

Weekly Update

Dear Families,
Thank you for coming to our Curriculum Night last night! We had a great groups of parents here and it was wonderful to chat with all of you. I hope I answered all of your questions regarding our curriculum here at ABS. If not, please do not hesitate to contact me. I would be happy to help. For those of you who did not attend, I placed all the hand-outs inside your child's Thursday folder. Please note that most materials are already linked online for your convenience. All sites are linked on our Team Harmony Web-site, and also within my classroom blog in the sidebar.
If you wish to retrieve additional supports and information about the programs we use here at ABS, please follow the link to our Family Resource Page, with links to Fundations and Bridges, to name just a couple. Click here to access directly. This site also gives you access to our educational games wiki.
If you are the parent of a 1st grader, or you wish to get support materials, printables, and games from 1st grade math, please visit our new math blog. We are very excited to share this with parents and hope you will check it out periodically. Click here to access.

We wanted to share with you that our project on our "Hopes and Dreams" have been completed. The students did an amazing job showing their hopes for the year. We created puppets, wrote words and glued on our digital photographs. They are hanging in our classroom but ehre is a picture for you to see.

 

In Writer's Workshop, we discussed how we can come up with new ideas for stories we write. The students learned about the difference between "Heatr" and "Head" stories as a way to generate lists of ideas. "Heart" stories are stories about things we love, such as a pet, our families and special events in our own lives. "Head" stories are stories about things we know, such as soccer, if you are a soccer player, or farming, if you live on a farm. We look forward to sharing many new stories with you.

Lastly, I wanted to clarify our classroom sharing schedule. Sharing is something we do inside our own classroom. We encourage the students to share something about their learning that day or week. Perhaps the student wants to do a special read aloud about a book that was read during the week, or perhaps the student wishes to share a special writing piece. The objective is to build a community of learners and to get to know each other better. Please do not worry about the sharing schedule at home as we keep track of it in our classroom. I tell the children, in case they forget, so we can figure something out together. I do not want this to be stressful, rather, it is a simple conversation in our classroom. In other words, it is more like a regularly scheduled opportunity to talk and answer questions. It is incredible to see their confidence grow throughout the year. Please let me know if you still have any questions. Thank you for your support.

Have a great rest of the week and weekend,
Maria

Look at the change in our caterpillar

 

Our caterpillar has changed into a chrysalis. We are so excited! We carefully observe the chrysalis every day. Hopefully, we will have a butterfly soon.

New Math Blog

Dear Families,
I just wanted to inform you all that I have created a new math blog for 1st grade. The math blog will be used to share unit letters, support materials and information on our exciting math learning. I have added it as a link in the sidebar of this blog so you can easily access it. I have also linked it here. Please check it out. Thank you.

Our own class-room video celebrating Dot Day

International Dot Day is very special as it celebrates all of our talents and needs. Please look at this movie and listen to our school song to celebrate all the wonderful contributions your child has made these first few weeks of school. Enjoy!

Weekly Update

Dear Families,
Another week is almost over. I cannot believe how fast time flies.
This week, we started reading assessments and our formal guided reading groups will start shortly. The students have worked very hard on establishing good norms inside our classroom for Reader's Workshop and we wanted to share some of these with you. For starters, the students have learned that reading takes place all the time. It is the same as thinking and it must make sense all the time. We think about what we are reading, and we look at the pictures and the words. We have also learned that it is important to find a good, quiet spot to read. Furthermore, the students have learned that we choose books for many different reasons. Some books are "Just Right" for us and when we read those, we feel like we are riding a bicycle on a straight road, with not too much trouble. Some books, on the other hand, are too hard. Then we feel like we are riding our bike up a very steep hill. If the book is too easy, we read it too fast and it does not feel right. Please see our visual displays to help us remember these important rules, and please visit our classroom to see them.




This week, we also celebrated our first school-wide "Swarm Party". All the students at our school have worked diligently on showing safe, kind and responsible behavior and this week we had filled up our school Bee Hive!! The entire school met in the gym for a very special celebration, singing our new school song. We also decorated special celebration hats, which will remain in our classroom until the end of the school year. We hope to wear these hats many times.




This week, we also got a new classroom pet; a little caterpillar who lives in our classroom window. We started our unit on butterflies and insects this week and will carefully observe the changes in our caterpillar's body over the next few days and weeks. Here is a picture of it. We still need to find a name for it. Any suggestions?


Thank you all for sending in the Homework Folders today. The reading logs were fantastic, with so much writing inside on each day. Please remember to read with your child every night and write something about the book on Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesday nights. The Book Bags stay home all week, Monday through Thursday and are returned to the classroom on Fridays. New books will come home next week. Thank you!

Have a great weekend and keep visiting as many new videos and slide-shows will be posted in the days to come.
Maria

Celebrating International Dot Day

Today we celebrated INternational Dot Day. INternational Dot Day is based upon Peter Reynold's book, The Dot, which tells the story of a young child who discovers that even the tiniest little dot can make a huge mark on the world and her surroundings. The students created dots in our classroom as part of our new unit on the life cycle of the butterfly, with each dot representing a different body part of a caterpillar. Later in the day we had a dot scavenger hunt. The students took turns using our digital camera, taking pictures of dots around our school. In reader's workshop, we searched for and high-lighted dots (also known as periods!) in our poems and songs, while we practiced fluency and intonation. Enjoy our collage of dots around us!

 

Guest Reader

We had another special Guest Reader this week. Can you guess who it was?

 

Dance Party Celebration

Our school is a PBIS school. PBIS stands for Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports. It is a school-wide initiative and approach to behaviors and emphasizes positive reinforcements. The students "earn" Warm Buzzies (little pom-pom balls) for folloiwing and showing the school expectations Be Sfae, Be Kind and Be Responsible". When our jar in the classroom has been filled up, we have a little celebration. This week, the students voted for a dance party. Here are some pictures.
We also listed to the song "ABC" by the Jackson Five. I got it from a great online music site, called playlist. You can access it at www.playlist.com. I also have it linked on our music site on the team wiki, linked here. Have fun and happy listening!

Our Classroom Contract

Our classroom contract has been published and it is hanging on our classroom wall. We wrote it together as a class and the students had great ideas and contributions. We made our contract to match our school expectations, "Be Safe, Be Kind, and Be Responsible". Please ask you child to explain some of the things we agreed upon and please visit the classroom to see it.

Guest Reader

Periodically, we have a guest reader visit our classroom and read a story to the class. We get clues before our visitor arrives and try to figure out who it is.
Today, our new para, Mrs. D., visited our classroom and read the book "Chicka, chicka, boom, boom" by Bill Martin. After the book, we went on an alphabet walk around our classroom, trying to find objects that start with each letter of the alphabet. Please ask your child to explain. It was tricky to find some letters!

Weekly Update

Dear Families,
We have had another fantastic week together in our 1st and 2nd grade classroom. I hope you and your child have had many opportunities to chat about all the things we do and explore every day together. Thursday folders went home today. I hope you all received the note from Ms. Beeken, our amazing art teacher. Thursday folders also contained a booklet about the stages of the monarch butterfly that 1st grade mathematicians did together in math class. If your child did not bring his/hers home, it will remain in the classroom a little longer. Some children wanted to add more details and share them with friends. Please check your child's Thursday folders every week and send them back to the classroom on Fridays empty. You get to keep everything inside.
We will start homework next week, our first full week. Homework folders and Book Bags will come home on Monday. Your child is expected to read for approximately 20 minutes each night and write something about his/her reading in our Reading Log, which is located inside our Homework folders. Your child only needs to complete one sheet per week and write about the books on Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays. The Homework Reading Log gets signed by the parent at the bottom of the sheet and returned to the classroom on Thursdays. Thank you. I am looking forward to reading your child's entries next week. If you wish to print out additional reading logs or provide other opportunities at home for your child, you can access our printable section on our wiki. Click to here access directly. Our regular reading log is linked there as well.
In Reader's Workshop, the students have begun to explore our classroom library, discuss how we choose books and learn what readers do when they read books. We have learned that readers read quietly in one spot and look at both the pictures and the words. Reading must make sense, so in many ways reading is thinking. We will continue our discussions and practices next week as we develop strategies for helping ourselves develop reading stamina and self-sufficiency as we decode, chunk, sound out and read texts together and in small groups. Formal reading groups have not started yet, so your child will have some free choice in the next couple of weeks for selecting books for the Book Bags. Please discuss the book choices with your child, as we have learned that there are many different reasons why we choose the books we do. Some people choose books because they wish to read a particular author, or learn more about a character, others choose particular books because they are interested in the topic or genre. Reading assessments start next week, and I have requested a sub for our classroom. I know the sub quite well, and she is familiar with the 2nd graders and our classroom so the students are in great hands.
Here are some pictures from Reader's Workshop this week:





In math, first and second graders started their first unit on bugs. In this unit they will learn about number sense and the differences between repeating and growing patterns. Since I share math students with other classrooms in my first grade classroom, I will create a separate math wiki, where specific math-related information will be shared and communicated. More information will follow.
I hope you all had a great week. Have a restful weekend.
Regards,
Maria

Listen to our "Hello Song"

Click here to listen to our "Hello Song", a greeting song that we sing together in our classroom. Enjoy.

All podcasts are also posted on our podcasting site, listed here, so you and your family can subscribe to RSS Feeds and get direct uploads. (We are on iTunes!!).

Exploring in class together

Today in the morning, 1st and 2nd graders were exploring pattern blocks, unifx cubes, base-10 blocks and other math manipulatives while composing numbers up to ten, and learning about patterns. The students also created numbers and patterns with our bugs! Look at these incredible creations!