Friday Workshops: Exploring Magic

On Friday, Ms. Saylor and I offered a Magic Workshop for our school-wide celebration.  We taught the children different magic tricks.  We had so much fun together.  Hopefully, the children brought home some special tricks to perform at home.  Here are some pictures.
I hope I will be able to post pictures from other workshops as well as soon as other teachers share their pictures.  Ask your child about his/her workshop.

Reading Buddies

Our reading buddies from Ms. Davison's class visited us again.  We love reading books together with our Kindergarten friends.

Book Sort

Earlier this week, the children worked in small groups to sort fiction and non-fiction books.  They used a Venn Diagram to help them keep track of their observations and understandings.  Here are some pictures.

Family Newsletter

Dear Families,
We had another busy week last week.  Here are some highlights.

Writing:
We finished our opinion writing unit.  All students should have brought home a persuasive letter addressed to either a family member, or a member at our school.  This was part of this writing unit and we wanted to share them with you.  We hope you read them at home.  Perhaps you were even convinced by your child's argument and reasons?
We started our animal writing unit as well, using books, articles and online resources for finding information.  The students are doing a great job finding relevant information and writing it down in their own words.

Reading:
We continued reading and learning about non-fiction in our classroom and guided reading groups.  Among other things, the students collaborated in small groups to do a book sort.  They had several fiction and nonfiction books which had to be sorted into two groups.  Then, they worked together to show their understanding of the different literary elements using a Venn Diagram.  Pictures will soon follow.

Math:
First grade mathematicians will start a new unit this week.  Informational letters will be sent out in this week's Friday folders.  In this unit, we will primarily focus upon the concept of equality.  The students will explore how we can express number relationships in different ways to show how different parts are equal, or "same as" something else.  For example, they will learn expressions such as 3+2=4+1 in many different ways through games and work place activities. First grade mathematicians will also take home several games to play at home.  These games are voluntary, but yours to keep at home.  Please look for them in your child's Friday folder.  Thank you.

Technology:
Many students have asked how they can get some of the apps we have on the school ipads at home.  Here is a link to the document in case you are interested in getting some of these at home.
https://sites.google.com/a/cssu.org/wsd-ipads/apps-on-abs-ipads 

News and Reminders:

•  Lyn Porter, our PE Teacher at ABS, is still providing early morning gym sessions.  Please arrive early.  They end at 7:50am, when students are dismissed to their classrooms.
• We have no school next week.  Our Winter Break is from 2/27-3/3.  School starts again on 3/6.
• We will start the Iditarod Reading Race when we return from the winter break.  More information will follow.
• We will also start our new science unit on the Solar System when we return from break.  More information will follow.

Best,
Maria  

Science

We had a Scientist Meeting today to follow up from yesterday's 4 Winds class on heat and heat transfer.  Below is a picture of the data we collected yesterday and the information we used to start off our scientific observations and wonderings.  The students did a great job sharing their noticings and asking questions like "why did the wool lose more heat than the fleece? why did the un-insulated container stay warmer than the insulated container with the wet socks?"

First Grade Math

First grade mathematicians explored congruent and non-congruent shapes today on our ipads.  They also created their own and drew examples of some inside their number corner booklets. Here are some pictures.  Enjoy.

4 Winds

We had another 4 Winds class today.  The students learned about heat transfer and how different animals, humans included, insulate themselves in an effort to protect themselves from the cold.  The students measured the temperature of water in a small container, which was placed inside various insulating materials.  The water was then placed outside in the snow for a few minutes.  When the containers were taken back inside the water temperature was measured again.  We will look closely at our data tomorrow in a scientist meeting and follow up with some additional scientific inquiries.

Family Newsletter

Dear Families,
I hope you are all enjoying our snow day today with plenty of outside winter fun! Tomorrow is Valentine's day and we will celebrate it in the afternoon.  If your child wishes to bring in treats for the class, please make sure there is enough for all children.  I sent a class list electronically last week and included the paper version in your child's Friday folder.  Thank you!  Let me know if you need another copy.

Writing:
We started our animal research last week. The children chose which African animal they wish to learn more about and they started writing their introductions.  This writing unit nicely bridges the gap between reading and writing as the children will read books and articles to learn more about the animal they are writing about.  The students will learn about the importance of finding relevant information in the books they are reading and how to effectively write it down using their own words.
It is difficult to find non-fiction books about our topic on all students' reading levels so we will rely on online resources as well.  Last week, the students started using pebblego and kidinfobits ,
sites that enable the students to listen to the texts read aloud to them.  If your child wants to use these sites at home, he/she can access them through our school website and the Library resources page.  I also have linked multiple search engines on the wiki (under the heading search engines).  Some students used kiddle last week, a terrific site that offers multiple resources for searches made.  I will forward passwords to pebblego and kidsinfobits via email shortly, no passwords are required for the search engines on the wiki.
In an effort to assist the students further in their research, I am also looking for additional parent volunteers to come in and read aloud from our animal books in small groups or one-on-one.  If you are interested and have time available, we would greatly appreciate the time you can offer our students.Thank you so much for considering this.

Reading:
We are almost finished with our class read aloud The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane and will shortly move over to non-fiction reading.  The students started reading non-fiction books in reading groups last week and will continue working on various reading skills and strategies, while learning about non-fiction elements, such as glossaries, table of content, and headings, just to name a few.

Math:
First grade mathematicians are working hard on developing number sense through the uses of number lines.  They have also spent a few weeks seeing the connections between numbers and place value while connecting their understandings to the number sequence 0,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8, and 9.  Ask you child to explain how we can use number lines, or our number scrolls to figure out math equations, and finding the number before and after.  February's number corner exposes the children to geoboards and 2-dimensional shapes.  They are learning about congruent and non-congruent shapes.  We used the ipads on Friday to further explore these shapes.  Additionally, first grade mathematicians will be learning more about comparing numbers and quantities through a series of learning activities, exploring the concepts of "greater than", "less than" and "equal to."  Stay tuned for more math news!

Reminders and Upcoming Events:

• Tuesday, February 14th is Valentine's Day.  We will celebrate in our classroom.  If you wish to bring in a small treat, such as fruits, cookies, or juice, please make sure all snacks are Tree Nut Free.
• We are scheduled for another 4 Winds class on February 16th.  Please make sure your child has boots, jackets and hats for possible outside explorations.  Thank you.
• We have our Winter Break from school between 2/27-3/3.
• I hope you read the information regarding the Lucky U and Basket Raffles sent out in separate emails.  We hope you will support the fund-raising events at our school.  Thank you.
• Parent-teacher conferences will be available in late March.  I will send out more information as we approach this date.

Best,
Maria

When it is too cold to go outside....

...we bring the snow inside!

100th day of School

Today we celebrated the 100th Day of School!  We did a team-wide 100th day scavenger hunt and in math, we explored 100 in many different ways.  Ask your child to explain.  Here are some pictures.

Classroom Plant

Look at our classroom plant!  In just a few days, our Amaryllis is starting to bloom.  We are so excited.

Martin Luther Kind Day Project

For Martin Luther King Day, the students learned about the historical significance of Martin Luther King.  They also made personal connections and wrote about their own specific dreams.  Here is a picture of our completed project.  Please visit our classroom to see what each child wrote and wished for.

Classroom Plant

Our classroom plant is starting to bloom.  We have a "Gardener" in our classroom now and it is the responsibility of this person to check the soil to see if our plant needs water.  Our plant is an Amaryllis.
Stay tuned for more updates.

WCS Chorus

The Chorus Concert at WCS was amazing.  The music and singing was great and it was wonderful to see some "old" friends from last year.

Kiva Share

Every week, the students on Harmony share something special they learned that week.  Last week, we had some friends share a book they are reading together and the accompanying reader's theater script that goes along with it.  We are so excited to learn more about the play and look forward to seeing our friends perform to us!

Weekly Newsletter

Dear Families,

The Flynn Show "Lights, Camera, Math" was a huge success!!  The children loved it, and I can honestly say that this is the BEST show I have ever seen at the Flynn!  The actors provided audience participation and puzzling math problems to be solved, all within the frameworks of magic and suspense.  Your child should have brought home a small pamphlet detailing the show.  I know, I want to learn more magic after this show....perhaps your child wants to as well?

I wanted to let you know that we have two special upcoming events at school  The first one is the 100th day of school.  It is next Thursday, and this year, we will not ask parents for special snacks to be sent in.  Instead, we will provide different experiences for children in all of the classes to celebrate this special day.  The 100th day of school also means that we are more than halfway done with the school year.  My goal is to continue building independence and self-reliance.  I ask that you do not walk your child down to his/her locker, but rather encourage your child to do so himself/herself.  It is vital that your child learns to manage his/her time and belongings in a reasonable manner and time-frame and the 100th day of school gives us yet another perfect opportunity to trust our children's abilities to problem-solve on their own.  Thank you.  The second special event at school is Valentine's Day, and the 14th.  In accordance with Harmony Traditions, we will have an end-of-the-day party with goodies and treats and we ask parents to send in treats such as muffins, cookies, juice and cups.  Thank you.  Please make sure all sweets are Tree Nut Free. Thank you.  If your child wishes to bring in cards to his/her friends, please make sure there is one for every student.  We have 18 students in class and I will send a separate email with all the students' names.  Thank you.

Lastly, thank you for supporting reading and writing at home.  This last week was fantastic with reading logs!!  WOW.  More kids read and more kids read more books!!!Thank you.

Have a great weekend.
Warm Regards,

Maria