Pictures from Pajama Day and our Holiday Celebration

Dear Families,
Here are some pictures from our the last day of school before our holiday break.  Enjoy.
Happy New Year!  See you all very soon.

Family Newsletter

Dear Families,
Time flies....we have only two more days before our Holiday break from school.  Remember, Thursday is our last day (no school on Friday this week).  We resume school again on Tuesday, January 3rd 2017.

Reading:
We will finish our last Kate DiCamillo book this week.  We are currently reading a book about the character Baby Lincoln.  In January, we will start exploring non-fiction books and the features commonly found in such books.

Writing:
All the students finished their small moment stories.  This week, we worked more on creating titles and covers for our books.  In January, we will start writing "All About" books.  These books contain many non-fiction elements but they do not require any research.  The children will choose a topic that they know a lot about and write about that over many pages.  We will also explore content-specific vocabulary.  If a child chooses to write about soccer, for example, some of those words might be cleats, shin-guards and goalie.  The children will create their own glossaries and begin their books with a table of contents section.  Stay tuned for more details.  This is always one of their favorite writing units.

Math:
First grade mathematicians started some December problem-solving this week and they did an amazing job.  We are currently tackling "some more" problems in math.  These types of math problems are problems such as "Sara had 5 marbles.  Lisa gave her some more.  Now Sara has 14 marbles.  How many marbles did Lisa give to Sara?"  I hope you also received the math unit letter to parents, which was sent home in last Friday's folder.  Thanks for supporting your child's math learning at home.

Social Studies:
We have our last Africa workshops tomorrow.  All of the Harmony students rotated through 4 workshops.  They learned about Africa's geography, weather, daily life and cultural celebrations and traditions.

Technology:
I added a gadget to the blog so you can sign up with your email if want to get an email reminder that I posted something new on the blog.  Periodically, I send out reminders, especially if it is important that you all receive the same information quickly, such as when we have school-wide celebrations, etc, but if you enter your email to this gadget, which is located on the top right corner, right next to this letter, you will receive in your email updates that I posted something.  Thanks Adam Deyo for telling me about this and for teaching me how to get it onto my blog!!!  I hope this will be helpful to all.

Upcoming Events & Reminders:

• Our last day of school is PJ Day (no slippers and stuffed animals please).  Harmony students will watch the movie "The Polar Express" and eat popcorn.  Please bring in a ziplock bag with already popped popcorn if your child wishes to eat popcorn with the movie.
• We will start our Holiday celebration in the classroom around 1:45.  Thank you to those who are donating sweets and treats for the children.  If you wish to join us for some goodies, please stop by.  

Best,
Maria

Learning more about Africa

Today we had the opportunity to learn more about Africa.  Mrs. Maxwell visited our classroom and shared about her travels in Kenya and South Africa.  We learned about animals, landforms and the cultures there.  We also had the opportunity to view some special artifacts from Africa, such as bracelets and money.  Thank you Mrs. Maxwell for taking the time to share your experiences with us!

Lunch in the classroom

My daughter Emilie had a snow day on Monday and spent the day with me and the kids.  We had so much fun together.  Ms. Alyssa also stopped by to visit and we all had lunch in the classroom together.

Horizon Craft Show

Dear Families,
I wanted to let you know that Horizon House will be hosting a Craft Show on Friday this week, selling small crafts that the children created in an effort to raise money to the VT Children's Hospital.  Each item costs 50 cents.  Please consider sending in money for your child this Friday to support this worthy cause.  Thank you.

Family Newsletter

Dear Families,

I hope you had a nice weekend.  It sure is getting cold out there!  Please make sure your child comes to school in warm clothing every day with appropriate gear for outdoor winter fun.  Thank you.

It is quite challenging to keep our winter clothing organized and neat by the lockers now since all the children come in with a multitude of clothing items so the students decided that, just like last year, we will try to earn "locker awards" for taking good care of our clothing by the lockers. The challenging is on.....The students will earn stickers on a chart by our classroom for hanging up their snow-pants and making sure their jackets, mittens and gloves are kept safe inside the lockers.  We hope that by taking care of our clothing at school, we might also learn how to take care of them at home too! We also hope we will lose fewer items of clothing!

Technology:
This was an important week for our technology learning.  We participated in the nation-wide coding challenge.  We learned these skills through minecraft and watched a message from President Obama on the importance of coding.  The kids loved it.  If you wish to use it at home as well, there are many, many coding puzzles your child can solve on their web-site code.org

Reading:
We continued guided reading and partner reading last week.  The students received new partners and learned new skills for sharing their thinking about their books.  This week, we will start using specific "chat packs" with guided questions on the books read.  Stay tuned for more information.
The students also took home some older versions of Scholastic magazines in their Friday folders last week.  I will periodically send them home in their folders or book bags as supplemental reading materials.  We have so many of them and sometimes our schedules do not allow us to complete them at school.  These magazines are terrific so instead of wasting them, I will send them home.  If your child wishes to use this magazine for homework/reading logs that is fine.  These magazines are not "just right" levels for all readers so if a parent reads to the child that is fine too.  The content is terrific!  Thank you for supporting our reading and encouraging your child to read from many different genres.

Writing:
Our small moment stories are almost done. Last week, we continued working on our covers and titles.  We are so excited to finish up.  After break, we will start our "All About" non-fiction writing pieces.  Last week, your child also added another monthly piece to his/her scrapbook.  We had many stories about Thanksgiving and the upcoming holidays.

Math:
First grade mathematicians are currently working on telling time to the hour/half hour, and parts to 10 and 20.  We I will send home a family letter about our new unit in this week's Friday folders.

Upcoming Events and Reminders:

• Our last day of school before winter break is Thursday December 22.  On Harmony, we traditionally celebrate with PJ Day and watch the movie Polar Express.  If your child comes to school in his/her PJs, please make sure that your child can still wear boots/sneakers for recess.  PJs with built-in socks/feet are sometimes difficult and uncomfortable to wear for a whole day. Slippers and teddy bears are not allowed and should stay home.  The students like to eat popcorn during the movie.  Please send in a ziplock bag with already popped popcorn for your child.  Thank you.
• School resumes again on Tuesday, January 3rd.
• Report Cards go home on January 20th.
• We switch from PE on Tuesdays to Library on January 24th.  This will not be an extra library choosing time.  Rather, the children will learn how the library works and aspects of texts and literary genres.

Best,
Maria

Africa Workshops

We started our Africa workshops last week.  For the next few weeks, the students on Harmony will rotate between the different classrooms on Harmony and learn about Africa.  With me, the students will learn about maps, cardinal directions and the different land-forms in Africa.  The students will go on a scavenger hunt using maps, globes and google earth.  In the other workshops, the students will learn to make African masks, compare the life of a child in Vermont to that of the life of a child in Africa, as well as compare holidays and celebrations.

Crazy Hair Day and Ms. Alyssa's last day

Friday was Ms. Alyssa's last day.  We celebrated with goodies, read alouds and boardgames.  We also had lunch together in the classroom.  We decided to eat lunch like a picnic, so we sat in a circle on the rug.  It was nice.  Thank you to those who donated special treats for our good-bye party.  Ms. Alyssa will visit us again and she will sub for me when I need to be out for upcoming assessments.  

Friday was also crazy hair day!  We had lots of fun.

First Grade Math Celebration

First grade mathematicians worked hard last week, filling our class buzzy jar for being safe, kind and responsible.  We celebrated with some favorite math games and free choice in math.  Enjoy the pictures.

Student Book Recommendations

This week, the students started to share their thinking about the books they read in the form of more formal book recommendations.  We are collaborating with Mrs. Wentz, our school librarian, and show our recommendations on a large mural in the school library.  We also keep a copy in our classroom.  We "give" awards to the books we want to recommend to others and we explain why somebody else might want to read the book.  We make sure the title and the author's name are clearly stated so others can find it if they want to read it.  Please visit the library if you want to see it.

Exploring Character Traits

We have explored character traits throughout our unit on Mercy Watson.  We learned that readers can describe characters on "the outside" (what they look like) and "on the inside" (what they act like, what they do and think).  Here is a picture of our anchor chart hanging in our classroom.  Please encourage your child to think about character traits when he/she is reading at home too.

Mercy Watson "Hot-buttered Toast Party"

Dear Families,

Thank you all for coming to our Harmony Breakfast this morning.  What a turn-out!  Thank you also for so generously bringing in treats, juice and other special goodies for this Harmony celebration.  In a way, we felt like we were eating all day long as we celebrated Mercy Watson and the author Kate DiCamillo later in the afternoon with "Hot-buttered toast", just the way Mercy Watson likes it.

Please check your child's Friday folder.  It is filled with information from school and projects your child wanted to bring home.  There should be a special Thanksgiving Day project for you as well.

As mentioned earlier, I sent home reading logs and books for the upcoming week.  I hope your child will get the opportunity to read every day, even though there is no school.  When we return to school, I will no longer send home our guided reading books, or the Book Club books the children and I read together in instructional groups as we have noticed on Harmony that they are not always coming back.  Please take some time and look at home if there are any school books/guided reading books that might belong here on house.  We greatly appreciate it.  Instead, I will send home other "just right" books and your child will have the opportunity to choose more freely himself/herself.  

I hope you will have a wonderful Thanksgiving break together with your family and friends.  Thank you again for supporting our learning!

Best,

Maria

Family Newsletter

Dear Families,

It is hard to believe that this is the last week before our week-long break for Thanksgiving next week.  I will send home book bags and reading logs on Friday for reading at home over vacation.  I hope your child will find time to read every day, even if there is no school.  If you want some other school-related activities over vacation, don't forget to check out some of the printable math games and spelling words you can print off the wiki.

Reading:
We finished our unit on Mercy Watson and will celebrate with a class party on Friday.  Mercy Watson is the main character in the series by the same name, written by Kate DiCamillo. Throughout this unit, the students have explored vocabulary, figurative language and character traits while reading and listening to these books.  I have several pictures showing some of the work surrounding these projects, but I have encountered some pretty significant technical problems trying to upload my pictures from my phone to blogger, the digital platform for these newsletters.  I hope to resolve the issue shortly and will post the pictures at that time.
The students and I will celebrate the end of this unit on Friday.  Since Mercy Watson loves buttered toast, we will also celebrate by eating buttered toast while sharing our thinking about these books.  Please let me know if there are any dietary restrictions/allergies relating to white bread and butter.  Thank you. 

Writing:
We continued adding to our small moment stories last week.  Today, for example, the students learned how to add dialogue to add additional information and more interest.  We will continue this work tomorrow.

Technology:
Last week, the students had the opportunity to use Lexia and Raz-kids in our computer lab.  Thank you for utilizing these online reading resources at home.  Please remember, however, that online reading should not replace an actual book!  This week, we finished our "assignments" on google classroom.  The students shared which Mercy Watson book is their favorite and then we all entered into the same google doc to share our ideas and wonderings about the books.  It was pretty amazing to see them react to each others' comments in google doc as they could see "real time" what their friends were writing.  Ask your child to show you our google classroom from home.  It is in our cssu gmail domain.
After Thanksgiving break, we will start Typing Club again.

First Grade Math:
First grade mathematicians are working hard in our classroom.  We are practicing stamina and perseverance in math class.  We continued working on partners to 10, 10 and more, using a variety of addition strategies.  We started subtraction today and will continue developing strategies for solving those problems in the next few weeks.

Upcoming Events and Reminders:

•  Harmony's Family Breakfast is on Friday, November 18th between 7:30-8:15 am.  Thank you for bringing in treats for our gathering.  We are excited to see you.
• There is no school next week, November 21-25.  School starts again on November 28th.
• The annual Book Fair is scheduled for November 30th.  We are going over to WCS between 1:45-2:15.  More information will follow, but suffice to say now is that it is okay for children to bring a small amount of money to purchase books.  We usually recommend $5-10.  We are only buying books when we visit with our class.  If your child wishes to purchase pencils, games, or trinkets, we ask that you will visit the Book Fair at another time.  I believe they usually publish the extended hours in the SchoolBell.  Thank you.
• When we return from Thanksgiving break, Harmony House will start its social studies on Africa.  The students will rotate through a series of workshops between the different classrooms.  More information will follow when we return from break.

Best,
Maria 
     

More science

We use KLEWS charts to help us chart our science investigations. We have our anchor chart on the wall so we can all see our wanderings and experiments. K stands for "what we want to know" and L stands for "what we are learning. E is the evidence and W is our wanderings or questions about the topic. S stands for the scientific principles. Here are some pictures from our classroom.

Pumpkin science

Last week, the students practiced their prediction skills in science while we were studying the seeds inside two different pumpkins; one big and one small. We also practiced grouping the seeds so that our calculations would be accurate.

Family Newsletter

Dear Families,

It is getting cold out there!  Thank you for sending your child to school with warm jackets and clothes.  Time certainly flies....I can't believe we are in November already.  Next week is Ms. Alyssa's solo week and in early December, her time with us is up.  She is going back for another semester at St. Michael's College to finish up her double major.  When Ms. Alyssa is conducting her solo week next week, I am still at ABS and helping out, but I am not the main teacher.  This next week is a week for her to practice what it is like to plan and teach all classes.  She will do a fantastic job and the students are very excited.

Reading:
We love the Mercy Watson books!  Ask your child about the silly things that happened today in the book "Mercy Watson think like a pig."  We were laughing out loud!  As a class, we are practicing identifying character traits as we read these stories.  We learned that characters can be described "on the outside" (ie what they look like) and "on the inside" (ie how they act and think).  We discussed as a class and decided that Mercy Watson is a very selfish character.  She is also obsessed with hot-buttered toast and will do almost anything to get it.  It is unusual for us to read books with characters that exhibit these characteristics so we had many conversations about the complexities of all of us.

Writing:
We continued our writing in small moment personal narratives.  This week, the students learned how to add adjectives to describe the setting and how to create interesting beginnings.  We practiced using "starter words" or "starter phrases" to get us going as authors.  We also read the beginning paragraphs of several mentor books to get ideas how "real/professional" authors use the language to create interesting beginnings.  (We will read the whole books at a later time.)  I encouraged the students to read as writers sometimes.  When you read as a writer, you are less focused on the re-telling/comprehension aspect of literature.  Instead, you pay close attention to the word choice and the sentence structure.  Even first and second graders can do this.  You can support your child at home by asking the following questions "why do you think the author chose (this word)?" Why do you think the author changed the font here?"  "What words did the author use to describe the feelings/the setting or the problem in the story?"

Upcoming Events and Reminders:

• Ms. Alyssa will do her solo week next week.  I will help out and be at ABS
• We have our Harmony Team Breakfast on 11/18 at 7:30-8:15.  Please join us for a morning fun time!

Best,
Maria

Family Newsletter

Dear Families,

We had another fun and learning filled week at school.  Read on to learn more about our exciting week together at ABS!

Harvest Soup:
Our annual Harvest Soup was a success again this year.  Thank you to all who contributed with vegetables for the soup and the parents who volunteered to help out.  Due to the cold temperatures, it was decided to keep it indoors.  Here is a video that Ms. Birdsall made for our school.  Enjoy.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B364_8NhelMVX2duZlQ3SGw5MlE/view

Writing:
We started our small moment stories this week.  Please scroll down for more information and pictures regarding our teaching approach.  You can help at home by talking to your child about the everyday experiences that occurs.  There are hidden gems in everything-we just have to slow down to discover them!  I hope the students learned that writing stories and finding appropriate topics is not about trips to foreign countries or adventures at amusement parks.  It is about finding the stories in the everyday moments.  It is about identifying the experiences that at first glance seem mundane or even boring or average, but on closer prove to be fantastic explorations of growth, lessons learned or cooperation.
A particular skill the students worked on this week was how to go back and add more to what was already written.  They also practiced re-reading their own writing before adding more to their stories.

Technology:
We are almost done with the process of sharing our google docs entitled "All About Me".  Only a few students have yet to do it.  We will continue next week.  Many children have asked if they can add to their docs from home.  Of course they can!  I encourage your child to do that.  Additional practice using online resources and typing is beneficial to all.  We will start Typing Club again next week, so please stay tuned for that.  2nd graders probably remember from last year and since the link is still on KidBlog, many have already accessed it.  Thank you again for supporting our digital learning from home too!

First grade math:
First grade mathematician continued their work on number facts and relations to 10 and 10 and some more this week.  They also explored story-problem solving using mathematical representations and equations to show their thinking and justify their answers.  All first grade students took home their math work place planners this week.  Please look through their work at home and praise them for all they accomplished at school.  Sometimes, you will see unfinished pages.  Your child is encouraged to finish these pages at home, but it is voluntary and your child does not have to bring them in again for me to see (unless he/she wants to).  There are many different reasons why pages or parts of a page is left unfinished.  Sometimes, I might have asked a child to stop a game/task for a particular reason, sometimes another teacher comes to work with a child and sometimes the concepts are mastered so we can move on to other games/tasks.  Please don't hesitate to contact me if you have any concerns or questions.  Thank you.

Have a great weekend,
Maria

Small moment writing

We read "old" students' small moment writing pieces this week and worked together with partners to find features of such stories. We discovered that small moment stories have many common characteristics. They are all personal narratives and about things that has already happened. They are stretched out over several pages with clear beginning, middle and ends. They also contain many different kinds of describing words and dialogue.
We use the watermelon as a visual aid to help us find good topics. The watermelon is a large fruit and some story topics are too big and too long because they only allow us to tell the story as a sequence of events rather than "digging" deeper into the feelings, the settings, or what something looked like. We use the seed inside the watermelon as an example of the story we want to write.

Measuring in first grade math

First grade mathematicians were busy measuring with non-standard measurement s this week. We used popsicle sticks and unifix cubes. The students learned to make reasonable estimates before measuring and use a sample to help calculate accurate measurements. We will explore traditional rules as well.

Family Newsletter

Dear Families,
It was great to meet with all of you last week for our conferences.  It is always fun to share our writing folders, scapbooks and other things we do in class together.  I hope you feel proud of your child's progress so far.  After all, we have only been in school for 37 days!  Isn't that amazing!?

Reading:
The students continued their reading work in our Book Clubs, or guided reading groups.  You should see some of these books come home in your child's book bag on Fridays for reading at home.  We continued reading our Mercy Watson books in read aloud.  The kids are so excited to try new series and they are really improving their abilities to make connections between the characters and the different authors.  In our reading groups, we also continued our work on specific reading strategies for decoding and understanding specific words or vocabulary.

Writing:
We started our unit on small moment writing.  Ms. Alyssa read the book Knufflebunny to the class and the students worked together to find evidence from the book to explain it as a small moment story.  Then, the students worked together to list ideas for how we can turn "big" stories into "smaller" ones.  Small moment stories are personal narratives, they are about something that has already happened and instead of writing about a trip to Florida or to an amusement park, the students are encouraged to "zoom in" and stretch the story our over several pages.  For example, a "big story" such as a trip to Florida might be the small moment story "When I saw a clown-fish at the aquarium."  

First Grade Math:
If you are a first grade math parent, you should have already received a couple of emails outlining what we are doing in our classroom for math. The students work so well together, sharing the materials and math thinking time.  In addition to the number sense learning activities we have been working on in class, the students started comparing numbers using the language "greater than, less than, or equal to."  We have a few games in our classroom, which allows the students to visually see the numbers in many different ways before comparing them, and they love this game.  Ask your child about it.  Another favorite math activity is ordering.  In ordering, the students take a bag of number cards (consecutive sequence for now, non-consecutive later) and order them.  They read the numbers out loud forward and backwards to a friend.  We also play games such as "guess my number", and ask our friends to identify numbers before and after on our number lines.

Upcoming Events and Reminders:

•  ABS School Picture Re-takes are scheduled for 10/26 between 8-9am
• Our traditional ABS Harvest Soup is on Thursday, 10/27 at lunch time.  Please bring in a mug and spoon for your child on Thursday if he/she wishes to eat this soup as well.  Please note that the Harvest Soup is the hot lunch option on Thursday.  If you child does not eat soup, please pack a lunch for that day.  Thank you.  We will also eat outside, so please make sure your child has warm clothing for the outdoors that day.  Thank you.

Best,
Maria    

First Grade Math Unit 1

Dear Math Families,

We are off to a terrific start in our math class.  The children spent the first 36 days of school getting to know each other and learn how we use our math tools and manipulatives in a safe and responsible manner so we can be accountable for our math learning and explorations.

This year, your child’s math knowledge will improve rapidly.  As you probably know, we use the program Bridges at Allen Brook.  Your child will take home his/her first unit work next week.  I hope you will look at the different math concepts explored during the first 36 days of school.  We certainly covered a lot and your child worked hard!

In our first unit of math, the students explored number sense and fluency up to 10.  They worked on their automaticity to understand numbers to 10.  We explored this concept through a variety of games and number sentences.  The children learned that 2+8=10 but so does 6+4 and 7+3.  We explored “turn around facts” for 10, such as 2+8 and 8+2.  We call the “BOGO Math”.  It means “buy one, get one free” because if you know one addition fact, you automatically know the turn around fact!  Students also explored expressing their understanding of relationships in different ways.  For example, we learned that we can write our equations horizontally and vertically, but we can also write them 10=9+1 or with mathematical representations, such as tallies, or story problem diagrams and graphs.

Moreover, the students learned that mathematicians “chunk, or group” numbers into larger units to help them organize and calculate problems correctly.  We learned to chunk our numbers by 5 and 10 and used these skills in many different games.  

Lastly, the students explored graphing and geometry.  They learned about different shapes and that pennies and nickels represent 1s and 5s.  Throughout our math class, we used rekenreks, unifix cubes and our number scrolls to help us solve and justify our thinking.  

In the next few weeks, we will continue working on addition strategies, chunking and parts to 10 and ten and more.  We will also explore measuring and how mathematicians estimate reasonably.  Stay tuned.

Best,

Maria

If you are interested in the year-long math expectations from Bridges, please click on this link:

http://bridges1.mathlearningcenter.org/media/Bridges_GrK-2_ComExp.pdf

First Grade Math Information

Dear Math Families,

I wanted to take this opportunity and introduce myself to all math families since we just completed our parent-teacher conferences and the teachers typically  do not meet with the parents of children in other home rooms.  My name is Maria McCormack and I am your child’s math teacher.  I am one of the 1st and 2nd grade teachers on Team Harmony.  I live in Underhill with my husband, 4 children (ranging in age from 17 to 3) and our dog Link.  

Our curricular math program at Allen Brook is called Bridges.  We feel very fortunate to provide this very interactive and constructivist program to your child. Throughout the year, your child will bring home a variety of  examples of the math work happening in our class.  This is the first year that we do not send home math homework so examples of the work from school will come home less often than before.  Your child will explore math concepts through a series of units.  Each unit has two components to it; a Number Corner component, and a Work Place component.  Your child will transition between different math games and learning activities by using a Work Place Planner.  This Work Place Planner stays with your child and in his/her math mailbox until the end of the unit when it comes home.  Your child will bring home his/her first WorkPlace Planner and math work sheets next week.  Please look for them in your child’s Friday Folder.

In an effort to stay connected more frequently, I wanted to let all families know that I periodically post about first grade math on my classroom blog, which can be reached at our Harmony Web-site or directly at http://harmonyblog2010-2011.blogspot.com/  As a result of no homework coming home, I will also start sending home newletters to families informing you of our current units of study and upcoming concepts.  Please do not hesitate to reach out to me if you have specific concerns or a desire to meet to discuss your child’s progress or daily math instruction. Thank you.

I have also created a Wiki page with many educational and fun math games.  Please check it out with your child.  Hopefully, you will find some games that will not only reinforce important math skills, but also spark an interest in mathematics! This wiki site can be reached on our Harmony web-site but also directly at http://inspirefirstgrade.pbworks.com/w/page/19992542/Math

If you wish to print specific math games for home use, please go to my printables at http://inspirefirstgrade.pbworks.com/w/page/19992541/Math%20Printables

I am looking forward to being your child’s math teacher this year!  Please do not hesitate to contact me with any questions or concerns.  We are off to a fantastic year already!

Maria McCormack, mmccormack@cssu.org

4 Winds

We had another 4 Winds class today. We learned about soil, the components of soil and how we can observe different layers and parts of the soil by carefully digging in it and collecting samples.