Family Newsletter

Dear Families,
Thank you so much for supporting our children for our annual Harvest Soup this past week!  All kids who wanted soup came prepared with a mug and a spoon.  Thank you!  We had a great time together.  It was particularly special to us because we were able to eat together as a team; all first and second graders together at the same time.
Thank you parents for packing your child's utensils inside a ziplock bag as well.  I hope you were able to find the dishes inside your child's backpack without a big mess.

4 Winds:
We had another 4 Winds class as well.  We started with a puppet show in our kiva and then acted like scientists while examining beans and seeds. The children had the opportunity to closely observe a bean, then take it apart, looking for its roots and flower buds.  The students also drew scientific drawings with labels and details.  I am very proud of them.  Again, thank you parents for providing these opportunities for our young learners.

Reading:
We finished our Mo Willems author study on Friday with a special celebration.  We had multiple stations for the children to try different learning activities based upon the characters in the books we read togather.  Next week, we will start a new reading unit on different authors who write books in a series.  We will continue our work on story elements, while learning more about specific reading strategies in small groups.  During this unit, the students will also learn to make book recommendations to each other.

Writing:
The students published their personal narratives last week.  They carefully chose one piece that they wanted to publish.  Then, they used our special publishing pencils to revise their stories if needed.  They did a great job.  We will share these stories with our reading buddies from Ms. Davison's class on Wednesday in a special celebration.
We will start our new writing unit this week on small moment stories.  Stay tuned for more information.

Math:
First grade mathematicians continued working on different addition strategies this week.  They also completed a series of measuring activities, while anchoring to tens and fives.  Next week, we will explore more addition strategies while working with dominoes.

Special Visitor:
We had a special visit from Ms. Jess on Friday.  Ms Jess is our intern from St Michael's College and she will be with our class full-time in the Spring.  She is learning to become a teacher.  She is hoping she can come in a few times before January so she gets to know the students before then.  Thank you Ms. Jess for finding the time to join our classroom.  We are lucky to have you!

Regards,
Maria

Family Newsletter

Dear Families,
Thank you for coming to our parent teacher conferences last week.  It was great to sit down and share your child's progress at school.  I am so proud of all of these children's hard work.  I hope you are too! Since we discussed most aspects of learning, I will be very brief this week and only share some of the new online reading opportunities we have for you children.

First of all, Allen Brook's library resource page has extensive reading opportunities.  To get to it, you will need to access the new school web-site, which is www.cvsdvt.org

Click on PreK-8 Schools and choose Williston

On the top bar, you will choose Services and choose Library Resources, Allen Brook Library Resources.  I also linked it here directly.

If you choose Library Catalog and type in ebooks in the search bar, you will have access to multiple books that your child can read online.  The books can be read aloud and the text is highlighted as the computer reads them to your child.  Some books even have embedded videos and slideshows inside them with quizzes and activities at the end.  Of course, your child can also get the books to match the online version in our library too.  Please encourage your child to do that next time we have library book choosing tim (Wednesdays).

The second choice on the Allen Brook Library Resource page is pebblego.  Pebblego is an amazing site, which offers non-fiction books on a variety of topics.  You will need a username and a password to get in and I will email that to you.  This site also allows the children to read themeslves, or have the computer read the books aloud with the text highlighted.

The third choice is KidsInfoBits and I will share information about this site at another time.

Lastly, I have linked multiple web-sites on my own wiki for students to read online.  Here is the direct link again.

Online reading is great, but it should not replace traditional books, poetry and magazines for homework.

Have fun reading!

Our Hopes & Dreams

I forgot to send a picture of our Hopes & Dreams bulletin board in the Harmony Hallway, completed earlier this month!  It brightens the long walk down towards Harmony.  I hope you will stop by to see what these wonderful children hope to accomplish this school year.....like we said; the sky's the limit for what we can accomplish!

Family Newsletter

Dear Families,
Thank you for taking the time to sign up for our parent teacher conferences starting next week.  I am very excited to see you again and share your child's progress at school.  Please be respectful of the limited time we have together.  If we need additional time to discuss your child's time at school, I am delighted to set up another time, outside of these conference time slots.  Thank you!

Reading:
The students continued to participate in guided reading groups in class to receive direct instruction on specific reading strategies that address the needs of each student.  I hope you see some of these reading skills used at home as your child continues with his/her homework. Thank you for supporting your child's reading at home and helping your child complete the weekly reading logs.

As a class, our Mo Willems author study continued with a focus on the importance of the setting.  The students participated in a series of lessons and discussions on how the setting helps us understand the story and how it also adds interesting details to the plot.  Then, the students carefully crafted their own settings for the characters in the books we're currently reading because many times the setting is absent altogether in the books by mo Willems.  We look forward to sharing these creations with you.  Some students decided to place the character Pigeon in space, while others wanted Pigeon to visit ABS and our classroom!  Ask your child to tell you what he/she decided!

We also had the opportunity to see a Reader's Theater performance by some of our friends this week.  In a Reader's Theater, the students focus upon fluency and deliver a script so it sounds like spoken language.  They did great!

Writing:
The students continued their personal narratives this week.  We continued work on developing good writing habits. The students are currently learning to decide if they need to add more to their pictures, more to their words or start a new piece. We will share these stories at our conferences next week as well.  In the next few weeks, the students will choose one story from their writing folders and publish it.  Then, they will meet with a writing partner, check on grammar and punctuation as well as create a cover for it.  We will celebrate our publications and keep you posted on how we will do that.

Science:
The students acted like scientists this week in our mini-unit on magnetism.  They practiced making reasonable predictions about a variety of objects that might be magnetic, and then they tested their thinking by using real magnets to check and record the actual outcomes.  We met in a Scientist's Meeting, a time when we share our scientific observations and wonderings, to share our results.  They did a great job.  For example, they discovered that different magnets have different strengths (or magnetic fields) and they also noticed that an object can be magnetic on one side, but not the other depending upon what it is made of!

Our love of science continues with amazing shares.  Thank you families for supporting our love of nature and learning.  Here is just one example of a child who brought in a butterfly as a share.  With the help of technology, we could zoom in and really observe it closely!

Technology:
We continued our work on digital citizenship this week as well.  We shared what it means to be safe, kind and responsible online in a flipgrid (online video).  We also used google classroom to share our understanding of the Pigeon books.

The Power of Yet:
In our class, we discuss the importance of not giving up and trusting yourself when we learn something new.  Learning can sometimes be frustrating and hard, but by having a good attitude and trusting ourselves, and our own abilities, we can start seeing that the frustration that we sometimes feel, is a natural part of this process.  We use words like optimism, perseverance, and growth mindset.  Here is a picture of our bulletin board.

We also listen to this song sometimes, to remind ourselves of this powerful message.  Perhaps you will listen to it with your child as well?


Have a great weekend,
Maria

Family Newsletter

Dear Families,
I just emailed everyone a link to our upcoming October conferences.  Please let me know if you did not receive this email, or if you have difficulty signing up.  I am very excited to meet with all of you and talk about your child's progress at school.

Reading:
The students continued guided reading groups this week.  Each student is part of a small group and we read books together in what we call "Book Clubs".  We work on targeted reading strategies that address the specific reading needs of each learner.  We also practice word work or different types of reading comprehension strategies.
As a class, we also continued our work on the books by Mo Willems and our discussions on story elements.  While reading the books about Pigeon, the students are participating in learning activities emphasizing character traits, setting, problems and solutions.  We also practiced finding character traits in another character (Duckling) and in ourselves.  Next week, we will deepen our understanding of setting; where the story takes place and how that affects the plot.

Writing:
Our writer's workshop is up and running and the students started writing their first personal narratives last week.  We discussed how we find stories all around us and how we can help each other develop our stories by "making a plan" and "talking it through" before writing it down.  We are excited to share these with you at our conferences.
The students have also participated in many science writing classes.  We will share those as well.

Math:
First grade mathematicians continued to work on concepts related to decades and the importance of understanding our number sequence 0,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9.  The students continued working on their numeral rolls and learned new games addressing addition strategies and finding 5s and 10s. All first grade math families should have received a unit letter from Bridges inside your child's Friday folder.

Science:
We finally figured out what our mystery vegetables were.  They were cucumbers!  The students compared the insides of different types of vegetables with that of the mystery vegetables and through reasoning and careful observation, they decided that they must be cucumbers.

Next week, we will start a mini-unit exploring magnetism.  Throughout this unit,we will continue to practice scientific inquiry skills, prediction and data collection.

We also had our first 4 Winds class last week.  This monthly science class is led by parents and it allows students to explore different scientific concepts in a hands-on way, many times outside as well.  This time, the students learned about insects.  We also went outside and carefully collect a few which we could observe with magnifying glasses.

Traveling Around the World:
Last week, our English as a Second Language Teacher, Patti Tursi, joined our class to read a very special books about flags from around the world that our students had made.  I even got to participate with the Swedish flag!  We have this book in our classroom now.  Thank you Ms. Tursi for giving it to us. Please stop by to read it.

Chromebooks:
We used chromebooks again.  This time the students joined our google classroom and took a brief survey about our classroom and favorites at school.  They did a great job!  You can help your child's technology learning here at school by teaching your child how to spell his/her first and last name.  In order to log onto our chromebooks, the students must type their first and last names. It can be challenging for those students who do not know how to spell their names, especially if they are used to a nickname. Our school policy is to use the children's proper first names.  Thank you.

Volunteers:
If you are interested in volunteering in our classroom, please let me know.  In the past, parents have helped out with reading and writing in the afternoon.  Some parents have also helped out in math and during special events or with projects.  Please let me know what you are interested in doing and thank you so much for supporting our learning.

Upcoming Events and Reminders:

• I will have parent teacher conferences the week of October 16th.  I emailed the link to our sign up doc to you.  Let me know if you did not get it.
• Our next 4 Winds class is scheduled for October 26th.  Please make sure your child wears sneakers and weather appropriate clothing on that day because we will be going outside.
• Harmony House will host a special Family Breakfast on November 17th between 7:30am-8:15am.  Please consider joining us for some early morning breakfast treats.  More information will follow.

Best,
Maria