Family Newsletter

Dear Families,
We have only one more week before our holiday break and we are very busy wrapping up units of study and creating holiday crafts!  This is such a fun time of the year.

Friday, December 21st, will be PAJAMA DAY on Harmony.  Traditionally, we watch the movie "Polar Express" and spend the entire day in our PJs.  Please make sure that your child does not bring any stuffed animals, pillow or slippers to school on Friday.  The students will have a regular day, with PE and recess, so they must be able to still wear their sneakers.  Thank you.  We will also have special holiday crafts for the children on Harmony that day.

Technology:
Some students continue to code in the morning.  As they progress with their skills, the tasks get more challenging, but they are so determined to continue. It is great to see their increased confidence and growth mindset.  Ms. Wilson and Mrs. Pius joined our class for a special reflection activity using flipgrid. The students recorded their voices and shared their thoughts about coding.  I posted a link to this compilation on seesaw, if you would like to see it.  We are so proud of these amazing first nad second graders.

Mystery Science:
Last week, we also had a chance to learn more about how money is made on mystery science.  I have collected money from around the world, so we also had the opportunity to look at money from Sweden, England, Canada, Turkey and Zimbabwe, just to name a few.  We learned that different countries have different colors and pictures on their money.  We also learned that most paper money is shaped like a rectangle, but coins can have all different kinds of shapes and sizes.  In science, we're always learning to stay curious.  We practiced this by submitting several questions for future possible investigations.  The students asked very thoughtful questions.  We hope they will pick one of ours.

Math:
First grade mathematicians continued exploring 3D shapes last week.  Among other things, they used play-dough to create these shapes.  Here are some of the shapes we're discussing now:
cubes
rectangular prisms
spheres
triangular prisms
cones
cylinders
pyramids

Perhaps your child can create these at home as well.  They all got a small clump of play-dough to take home.  Our next explorations will be to start comparing the attributes of these different shapes.  What attributes are similar between them? What attributes are different?  How can we describe each shape?

News and Reminders:

• Pajama Day all day on Harmony, Friday 12/21
• Winter Break-No School, 12/24-1/2/19.  Students return to school on Wednesday, January 3rd 2019.
• Report Cards go out on January 18th.

Have a great rest of the weekend,
Maria

Family Newsletter

Dear Families,

I hope you had a chance to enjoy the beautiful winter weather yesterday.  What a treat to see the sun again!

Reading:
The students continued their guided reading groups last week.  As a class, we also continued our work on "Mercy Watson".  The students added adjectives to our class anchor chart to describe Mercy as a character.  Please visit our class to see it!

Writing:
The students are in the final stages of publishing their small moment stories.  They are creating titles and covers for their stories.  Their narratives are terrific. Some students will publish more than one story.  They will all stay at school until our end-of-the-year writing celebration called "Reading Restaurant", which traditionally  occurs in May.  Our next unit will be a short  mini-unit on opinion writing.  We will start next week.  In this unit, the students will learn to make persuasive arguments for something they feel very strongly about.  In the past, students have argued for longer recess, longer snack-time, more PE and shorter bus rides!  Some students choose to address their parents and try to convince them to get a pet, let them stay up longer at night or have juice for breakfast! Who knows what this year's class will write about?  We will find out soon enough.....

Math:
First grade mathematicians are currently working on subtraction and subtraction facts.  Last week, we played a game called "Shark subtraction".  To help the students conceptualize subtraction, we used shark sock puppets, which would "eat" the number of objects we were taking away from our starting total.  On Friday, all first grade mathematicians in my class made their own, which they packed in their Friday folders.  If you did not see them yet, please ask your child to show you and explain how to use them at home to practice subtraction facts.  For example, your child would first choose some objects to use for this game.  It can be gold-fish, uncooked macaroni, skittles or raisins.  It can be anything that you as a parent deem appropriate for math and playing (and healthy enough for your child).  It also has to be small enough to fit in your child's hand.  Second, your child would choose a number to play with.  In class, we used numbers between 6-20.  Your child will need to count out as many objects as he/she chose.  Lastly, your child will use the shark sock puppet to grab any given number and then say, or write, the corresponding equation.  For example, if your child chose 10 raisins, and chose to grab 4, the corresponding equation would be 10-4=6.  You can see how this is fun if your child gets to eat what is taken away!!  Have fun!

Technology:
We participated in "Hour of Code" last week as well.  For the rest of the month, the students will be able to continue this work during our morning explore times.  The web-site used is https://hourofcode.com/us

Ms. Kendal's last day:
It was Ms. Kendal's last day with us on Friday and we celebrated by making slime again!  We had so much fun.  We also presented her with her own school bag, filled with picture books for her new classroom.  We will miss her so much, but she told us that she hopes to come back to visit us in April.  Good luck with your new job in Ohio, Ms. Kendal!  We will miss you.

Family Newsletter

Dear Families,
It is hard to believe that it is December already (but it certainly looks like it outside with all of this snow!).
Next week is Ms. Kendal's last week with us.  She will do two more solo days of teaching on Monday and Tuesday; then, I will be back in the classroom again as the main teacher, with Ms. Kendal in a more supportive role.  She has accepted a job as a first grade teacher in her hometown in Ohio and will start there in January.  We are very excited for her and know she will do an amazing job.  Those kids are lucky to have her as their teacher!

Reading:
The students continued reading books in different series last week.  Ms. Kendal also continued reading Kate DiCamillo's books about Mercy Watson to the class.  The students deepened their comprehension skills.  They continued work on finding character traits and how to effectively compare the same character in many different books.  They also explored character's perspectives and how one's understanding of the world and knowledge influence how one reacts to it.

In partner reading, the students received their own "Personal Readers", a collection of short stories and poems for children.  The students are encouraged to read these passages multiple times, paying close attention to their own (and their reading partner's) phrasing and expression.  They are doing great.  These "Personal Readers" will eventually come home.  Each booklet contains many reading activities for you to do at home. This is voluntary, of course, but I hope these reading activities will not only improve reading skills, but also encourage families to spend time together.

Lastly, the students started using our "Reading Buddies" in class.  Our reading buddies are small stuffed animals that we use to help us focus on reading.  They are friends we can whisper read our stories to and friends who are always there when we need them.  Perhaps your child has tried to read to a stuffed animal at home to?  They are great listeners!

Math:
First grade mathematicians continued to work hard in our number corner and work place activities last week.  We continued our work around fractions.  The students explored wholes, halves and quarters while playing games and turning and talking to each other, sharing their understanding.

First grade mathematicians also continued problem solving and finding different strategies for solving subtraction problems.  They played a game called "Bears on the Bed" and "Spin and Subtract".  Ask your child to explain.

Be Safe, Kind and Responsible at ABS:

The students filled our classroom jar again for being safe, kind and responsible.  They celebrated with extra recess and went sledding outside!

Next week, we will have a school-wide celebration because the students at ABS filled the Bee Hive again.  On Friday, 12/7, we will celebrate with  HAT DAY!  Please encouraged your hat to bring a special hat to school.  It can be a baseball cap, sun hat or anything else you can think of.  Be creative!

Technology:
The students will learn about computer coding starting next week.  On Monday, Ms. Wilson, our school district technology coordinator, will join our class to kick-start this event called "Hour of Code".  This is a nation-wide approach and students love the challenges it provides, with online computer coding puzzles and incremental stepping stones.  I will share the links next week so your child can access this at home as well if he/she wants to.

Last week, we also video-conferenced with a first grade class in Kentucky.  With the help of Anne Pius, our fabulous ABS Technology Specialist, we were able to connect with a first grade class in KY a couple of weeks ago.  Leading up to our online chat, we learned about KY.  We explored maps, looked on google earth for KY and read books about KY.  The students brain-stormed questions they had for the students from KY and we decided to organize the questions into two groups; questions about their school, and questions about their state.  The class in KY did the same thing for us and Vermont, which meant we had to also learn more about VT-so we could answer their questions correctly!!
Here are some pictures from our first video chat.  We will connect  again with them online, both through video-conferencing, but also through seesaw.  Stay tuned!

Upcoming Events & Reminders:

• We have 4 Winds on Thursday 12/6 between 1;15-2:15.  Please make sure your child comes to school with appropriate outdoor gear as we hope to go outside.  Thank you.
• Ms. Kendal's last day with us is on Friday, 12/7.
• Our next school-wide buzzy celebration is scheduled for Friday, 12/7.  Bring a HAT to school.
• Team Harmony has re-scheduled the Family Breakfast that we missed due to the snow day, right before Thanksgiving break.  It will now be on January 18th between 7:45-8:30am.  More information will follow at a later date.

Team Harmony will go to the Flynn Theater to see "The Magic School Bus" on January 10th.  The bus will leave ABS at 8:45am and return around 11:30am.

Have a great weekend and enjoy all this beautiful snow!

Maria

Family Newsletter

Dear Families,
It seems like winter wants to come early this year!  We certainly didn't expect a snow day yesterday.  I hope everyone stayed warm and safe and did not have to travel too far.  I am sad we missed our harmony Breakfast yesterday morning, but I am sure we will try to re-schedule sometime after our Thanksgiving break.  I will let you know.

Reading:
The students are in the midst of our new reading study.  Ms. Kendal launched "Reading books in a Series".  She pulled multiple books from different series from our library and the students are exploring these in our classroom.  Ms. Kendal is reading the books about  "Mercy Watson" to the class.  Throughout this unit, the students will deepen their understanding of character traits and story elements, while also learning skills how to compare characters between books.

Don't forget about reading this vacation!

I hope your child will read many books, but also visit some of our online reading sites.  Don't forget about pebblego.com and storyline online

Writing:

The students continued writing their small moment stories last week.  They learned how to create interesting middle parts, with transition words, dialogue, and sound words.  When we return from our Thanksgiving break, the students will learn how "The 5 Ws" will help guide us as well.  "The 5 Ws" refer to who, what, when, why and where.  Stay tuned.

Math:

First grade mathematicians continued their work on composing and decomposing numbers to 10 and 20.  They also started a new mini-unit on fractions.  In first grade, students are expected to master wholes, halves and quarters.  We used paper shapes that the students folded into these equal parts.  

If your child wants to practice some math over vacation, don't forget about bedtimemath.com

I also have multiple games on the class wiki.

I wish everyone a safe and relaxing Thanksgiving break!  I will see you all when we return on November 26th!

Warm regards,

Maria

4 Winds

We had another 4 Winds class last week.  We learned about erosion.  The students were challenged to create a protective barrier using materials found in nature to prevent erosion from water.

Family Newsletter

Dear Families,
It is getting chilly outside!  Thanks for sending in fleece jackets or sweatshirts for your child to wear when we go outside for recess or other special events!  Last week went by quickly with lots of new learning in our classroom.  I know November will go by quickly as well with our upcoming Thanksgiving break, starting on Monday November 19th.  The students have no school until the week after, coming back on Monday November 26th.  Ms. Kendal, our fabulous intern from UVM, will do her first solo week the week before Thanksgiving break.  She will do her second solo week the week after Thanksgiving break.  I will be supporting her and the students in various capacities during this time.  Small group instruction will continue and I will still be in the classroom, but in a more supportive role.  Ms. Kendal will have the opportunity to lead all transitions and classes.  We look forward to having her teach!

Reading:
Last week, the students continued their guided reading groups and practiced repeated reading with a partner.  They also used ipads to access reading online.  Your child will start using these digital tools on a weekly basis in the classroom to deepen their understanding of phonics, vocabulary or reading strategies.  I will send out individual emails to parents in regards to the specific programs used so your child can use these at home as well.  The usernames and passwords, however, are student specific; hence, the upcoming emails.  If your child is using Lexia, you already received this information.  The other programs we will use at school are raz-kids and pebblego. Don't forget to check out seesaw as well.  Many children used it last week to share their reading and writing!

Math:
First grade mathematicians are continuing to develop skills in basic number sense and understanding partners to 10 and twenty.  In November, we will also start exploring fractions.  First grade students will learn the differences between a whole, a half and a quarter.  Students will also start exploring subtraction, which has been introduced alongside our addition work in the months prior.  We call them fact families in class.  Your child will also explore concepts such as "how many more..." to a specific number as we're approaching 50 days of school.
Next week, some students will take home a number writing booklet.  Please find the time at home to practice these numbers.  Strengthening number writing skills leads to automaticity in number writing and improved confidence.  It also boosts fine motor skills!

Science:
We continued our scientific explorations in properties of matter last week.  We learned many new words:

• insulating
• weather-proof
• absorbent
• soft
• opaque

The students used this knowledge to construct hats that would soak up their sweat in the hot sun.

Upcoming Events and Reminders:

• Harmony Family Breakfast is scheduled for Friday 11/18 at 7:45-8:30am.  An email was sent out for families to sign up for snacks/foods to bring.  Thank you.
• Ms. Kendal will do her solo weeks the week before Thanksgiving break and the week after.
• Thanksgiving break is 11/19-11?25.  Students return to school on Monday, 11/26.