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.