Family Newsletter

Dear Families,

Report cards went home in your child's backpack on Friday.  Please take the time to read these together with your child and celebrate their hard work at school.  It would be great if you could return the yellow envelope to school as soon as possible.  We will use them again.  The report cards stay at home, of course!  Thank you.

Reading:
Ms. Z and I started introducing the students to non-fiction book in our guided reading groups.  As the students learn new content and information about different topics, they will also learn about various non-fiction text features.  So far, we have discussed table of contents, diagrams/labels, glossaries and bolded fonts.  As the students learn to identify these text features, they are also encouraged to think about why authors of non-fiction books use them.  In other words, what is the purpose of these features and how do they help the reader understand the text better?

While we immerse ourselves in non-fiction books at school, the students are still exposed to, and encouraged to read fictional stories.  They have many different fictional stories in the book boxes for independent reading and I am noticing on their reading logs that they read these types of books at home.  To help support improvements in our understanding of texts, Ms. Cara, our Reading Recovery Teacher here at ABS, shared a wonderfully helpful sheet with various reading response questions.  I will send this home with your child on Friday.  Please look for this in your child's Friday folder and keep at home for reference.  I hope this sheet will spark conversations at home about literature!  Thank you for supporting your child's love of reading at home.

Reading as an Investment:
Some parents asked about the "Reading as an Investment" reading log that was sent home the week before last.  This is a reading initiative run by the Department of Education, I believe.  To support the children, I read the three required books about money in class to ensure that all children qualify for this lottery.  If your child wants to participate, you can cross off the three required omney books and continue with the other free read choices to fulfill the requirements.  Good luck!

Writing:
We celebrated Martin Luther King Day last week at school.  We read books and watched a short video about him and his work for peace.  The students had the opportunity to write about their own dreams for the future and what they can do to make the world a better place.  They also wrote about what they would say or do if they could meet him.  They did an amazing job!  These writing pieces will be shared at our conferences in March and at Reading Restaurant as they will be placed inside the students' scrapbooks,

Science:
Last week, we explored some science with our Reading Buddies from Ms. Davison's class.  Next week, we will start our next science unit about processes that shape the earth.  We will learn about erosion, floods, earthquakes and volcanoes.  This is always a great unit and the students usually love it!

Math:
First grade mathematicians continued their work on number sense.  We have also spent a lot of time on problem-solving.  The students have improved their skills in representing their understanding and how to efficiently show what they are thinking to solve a particular problem.  They are encouraged to rely on known facts, or anchoring their solutions to 10s or 5s.  Next week, Ms. Z will conduct small groups to deepen this understanding.  The students will also focus on adding 10 to any number.  They will use rekenreks and popsicle sticks to show how the starting number grows by 10 each time.  For example, they will learn to count, and show, 2, 12, 22, 32,  42 etc.  We will practice with starting at any number but 0.

Valentine's Day:
Valentine's day is right around the corner.  I will email you a list of all the students' names.  If your child wishes to create a Valentine for his/her friends, please make sure your child includes everyone in class.  No candy, please.  We will hand out the Valentine's in the morning of the 14th.  Thank you.

Family Newsletter

Dear Families,

It is cold outside!  Please make sure your child comes to school with a winter jacket, boots, snow-pants, gloves/mittens and hats.  We have recess every day unless the weather gets too cold.  Last week, it was so cold and windy, we had to have indoor recess.  For Friday workshops, we brought the snow inside instead!  We had so much fun playing in the snow and making slush!

4 Winds:
We learned about Snowflake Bentley and snowflakes in our 4 Winds class.  We learned that snowflakes have six sides and have different shapes.  We also learned that Snowflake Bentley came from Jericho, Vermont!  He is a local hero.  If you wish to learn more about his amazing discoveries about snowflakes, please contact the Jericho Town Clerk's Office.  They would be happy to direct you.
We went outside and collected snowflakes.  Just like Snowflake Bently, we looked at the flakes through magnifying glasses.

I hope you had a chance to see our follow-up activity using SeeSaw.  They students did an amazing job manipulating geometric shapes online while creating a snowflake and then recording their new learning from 4 Winds!  If you did not get a chance to go online, please do so.  The students love the comments from you all!  Thank you.

Math:
First grade mathematicians have been busy learning how to add three addend and how to find efficient strategies for doing so.  They are encouraged to find groups of 5 or 10, or rely on familiar, already known facts.  Among other things, we have used unifix cubes to show our thinking.  Here is an example how to show 3+4+8
Notice how the two solutions both anchor to 10, but in different ways.  Ask your child to explain!

Reading and Writing:
We continued our investigations into non-fiction writing and reading.  The students are learning how to read non-fiction books efficiently while also focusing on comprehension.  In writing, we focused on adding labels to our scientific drawings in our all about books.  Next week, we will add glossaries and different kinds of text!

Upcoming Events and Reminders:

• Report cards go home with students on Friday, 1/24/20.  They will be inside your child's backpack.
• ABS will attend the WCS Chorus performance on Wednesday, 2/5/20.  Dismissal will be from WCS.  More information will follow.
• The 100th day of school is on Monday, 2/10/20.  We will celebrate in school.  Stay tuned for more information.
• Our intern, Ms. Z, will slowly increase her responsibilities in our classroom.  She will teach a mini-unit on non-fiction animal report writing, starting mid-February.
• Don't forget to hand in your reading logs on Fridays.  Students are encouraged to read just right books at home every day!
• Don't forget to bring a snack every day.  Don't forget to pack a spoon for your child if he/she eats something that requires that.  We are running very low on Harmony!  Thank you!

Family Newsletter

Dear Families,
Happy New Year and welcome back to school!
Our two days together last week went by fast.  I am sure your children came home tired, but I also hope they came home happy to be back at school again.  I know my own children were exhausted:)

I would like to welcome Ms. Z to our classroom.  Ms Z. is a student at St. Michael's College and she will do her teacher internship with us until April vacation.  She will be with us every day and she will take on more responsibilities as time progresses.  Eventually, she will conduct her solo week, a time when she plans and leads all the lessons in our classroom.  More information will follow.  Ms. Z will also sub for me when I have meetings, or when I need to do assessments.  I will start next week, when I will do the reading assessments for accuracy, comprehension and fluency.  Report cards are scheduled to go home with the students on Friday, January 24th.

Literacy:
We started a new unit in reading and writing.  We will learn about non-fiction books and non-fiction writing in the next few weeks.  Throughout this unit, the students are encouraged to make connections between reading and writing.  In other words, they are encouraged to read non-fiction books for new information and content knowledge acquisition.  They are also encouraged to read non-fiction books as a way to understand the different text features of these types of books.  For example, they will search for headings, captions, glossaries and labels.  They will learn to identify table of contents, photographs and indexes.  The ultimate goal is then to apply these features to their own writing, which will be in the form of an "All About" book first, and later animal research, which this year will focus upon rainforest animals.  More information will follow.

Last week, we started with a scavenger hunt using the books written by the author Gail Gibbons. The students were partnered up and searched through many books together.  We started to collect non-fiction features on our class anchor chart.  They did an amazing job!

Mindfulness:
Last week, the students also brought home a small jar of playdough.  We use playdough in our peace corner, our take a break space, in the classroom.  I hope that your child might want to create a mindfulness corner/space at home too.  Periodically, I will send home calming tools we use in our classroom for students to try at home.  Ask your child to explain to you what the purpose is of these mindfulness tools and how they help us learn at school.

Engineering and Creativity:
Ms Rogers joined Harmony House on Friday to share some of the amazing arcade games her groups had created using recyclable materials.  Thank you for sharing these projects! Here are some pictures:

New Year's Resolutions and Friday Workshops:
We used SeeSaw to create New Year's Resolutions for school and home.  I hope you will have a chance to see them and comment on their goals for the new year.

We created indoor snow for our Friday workshop since we could not go outside in the slush and ice.  The recipe simply calls for 3 cups of baking soda and 1/2 cup of conditioner, if you would like to create it at home.

Have a great weekend!
Best,
Maria