Weekly Update

Dear Families,
Welcome back to school! It is wonderful to be back again with all of the students. I hope you had a great vacation with plenty of opportunities to rest and spend some time together. The students had so many great stories to tell about their exciting adventures and trips.
We are back in the full swing of things already. Homework folders and reading bags went home on Tuesday. If your child did not get an opportunity to write three times this week, please do not worry about that since we had no school on Monday. Reading selections this week were primarily just right books with students' own interests and desires as we have not had a full week of guided reading groups yet. Brand new book will be coming home next week. Every week, the students also have a free choice (or two) and some students might re-select some books. Re-reading books offer unique opportunities to practice fluency and word recognition which help in overall comprehension and automaticity. Re-reading books also offer students an opportunity to write about the book in new ways as the story is already familiar. Some ideas for writing entries are listed below but always check the weekly updates on the blog so you can integrate themes discussed in class.

Ideas for writing entries in the reading log:
My favorite part and why
My favorite character and why
Compare yourself to a character
How the character changed in the story
How the character is the same (or different) between different books (or chapters)
How a story reminds you of something
Write about the ending...did it surprise you, and if so, why?
Make a prediction before you read the book (then read the book and check. Was your prediction correct? Why/Why not?)

The above topics are only suggestions and completely voluntary. Your child can of course, retell the story and come up with his/her own ideas as well. The weekly entries are open-ended. Be creative. I look forward to seeing more wonderful writing. I will send a lists of possible topics in an email attachment so you can print it at home if you wish to see it. I also have many other reading logs listed online on the wiki. Please visit the wiki under "printables" if you wish to access them. Thank you to all of you whose children already started using some of these. Amazing.

Math homework comes home in the Homework folders as well. First grade mathematicians do not always have weekly homework, but 2nd graders usually do. Please make sure the math homework gets returned upon completion so I can check it off. I will send it back again so these games can be played over and over again. Math homework is homework. We usually do not have time to finish any un-finished math work in our classroom unless you specifically request that we do. Please let me know if you need assistance.

The weather is quickly becoming colder every day. Please remember to send your child to school with weather-appropriate clothing. We have outdoor recess every day. We also have snack every day. Please make sure to pack a healthy snack for your child every day. Thank you.

This week the students started writing "Buzz Mail" to each other and the teachers at our school. I think some students also wrote some "Buzz Mail" letters to their parents as well. "Buzz Mail" celebrates and highlights the wonderful choices the students make every day, showing that they are safe, kind and responsible. We wish to share that with you and our school community so we write letters acknowledging each other and sharing our accomplishments. This week, for example, a student wrote a "Buzz Mail" letter to Mr. Terko and invited him to our classroom celebration next week. Guess what? He accepted and even delivered a letter back to the student in our classroom!!! Wow, we were so amazed. We looked at the letter on our document camera. We decided that we would like to have a special snack/celebration when he comes next week. I will provide more information when I know the date and time, but we would like to ask parents to contribute small treats and snacks for this very special day. Thank you.

Lastly, Team Harmony learned about many exotic creatures today when three students' dad visited our team with animals from all over the world. Here is a video of this terrific event. Thank you, Mr. Anderson!

Thank you!

Dear Ben,
We are so happy that you got us a camera. We have already used the camera today! We used it with our blogging buddies in Ms. Davison's class. We used it during our class share this morning. We also used it in math! We like it and we hope to use it often.

If you want to see the pictures from today, please come back to the blog later this afternoon.
Love,
Mrs. McCormack's Class

Weekly Update

Dear Families,
It has been so great to meet with all of you this week and share the exciting learning happening in our classroom. Thank you for your continued interest and involvement in your child's education. During our conversations, some areas emerged and were discussed that I wish to areas that I wish to clarify to all parents. First, your child is only responsible for the weekly reading log and math homework. We do not send home additional homework (in the traditional sense that needs to come back to the classroom and be checked by the teacher), but provide many additional resources on the school web-site for parents to access. All of these sites are hyper-linked in our classroom blog sidebar. Thank you. Second, your child might have brought home additional thinking queries and comprehension tasks specifically related to our author studies or reading response tasks. These are voluntary. Some children love the added challenge of these tasks. They do not need to return to the classroom. Thank you. Lastly, I am delighted to hear that the students love to write in their reading logs. I have definately noticed an amazing amount of writing! I am so happy to hear that your child loves this assignment every week. In an effort to provide additional resources and choices for parents and students, I have created additional reading logs on the wiki. You and your child can choose from a variety of reading logs. You do not have to use the one inside the reading log if you do not want to. Browse the choices on the wiki (Click here to access directly), or create your own. Some children like the challenge of simply writing on any lined paper. Other children prefer to write on other days. I understand that you and your child have commitments outside of school. If Mondays, Tuesday, and Wednesdays do not work for you, encourage your child to connect his/her writing and reading on 3 other nights. The wiki will have these logs as well, if your child wishes to see it in writing. Thank you all again for being so incredibly supportive and encouraging. Next week, I will also send home a list of suggested writing topics for your child. I wish to have this discussion in class and have the students themselves generate these choices. They are such terrific thinkers!
This week, the students accessed a program called wordle online. The url is www.wordle.net The kids love this site. If you have any time at home, please encourage your child to access this incredibly creative program at home. Your child will show you how it works! Amazing.
Being on Team Harmony means so many things....but one of the most rewarding aspects of our incredible team is our unity and process of team-building. Every day, your child has the opportunity to play, interact and learn with children from all of our classrooms. Many times, the children play in our Kiva together. They explore math, draw, write and read together. Sometimes they spell and share writing pieces together. Sometimes they use our blocks and build structures together. Here is a wonderful exxample of this. This structure is wonderful in so many ways. What do you see? What do you think it is? Do you think mathematically and look for shapes and patterns, or do you think creatively and see farms or gardens? Please respons, if you'd like.

Once again, thank you for all of your incredible support. I am very fortunate to have your child in my class.
Regards,
Maria

 

Weekly Update

Dear Families,
It feels like this week went by very fast. Perhaps it has something to do with the changing of the clocks? As the days are getting shorter and darker, we also have to remember that the weather will get colder as well. As we have outdoor recess every day, it is important that your child comes to school with appropriate outdoor gear. Warmer jackets or coats are preferred. Some students also use mittens and hats already and that is great as it can sometimes be a little windy outside. Thank you for making sure your child is dressed according to the weather every day.
In Reader's Workshop this week, the students continued working in their guided reading groups on new books and peoms. You should have seen Reader's Theater scripts come home for practice this week. I hope your child read the script to you with fluency and phrasing. Perhaps, you even had the chance to participate as well, assuming one of the roles. The students also learned about what a narrator is and we discussed the meaning of main characters. This week, we will continue working on fluency, but the students will also resume reading books, which primarily deal with aspects of characters, setting, problems and solutions.
In Writer's Workshop, the students learned how to write letters. They learned about the letter writing format (addressing a person properly, date and appropriate endings) as well as the importance of the purpose of letters. When we write letters we think about the person we are writing to and why we are writing the letter. We have to decide what we are going to share and also perhaps ask a question to encourage a response. All students wrote letters to each other and to you. I hope you all received a letter from your child this week. We will write you emails soon so please look for those.
In math, the students continued working on counting by 2s, 5s, and 10s in math, showing their understanding in many artistic ways. Please visit our math blog for math-related projects. Click here for a direct link.
Today's visit to the Williston Central School for the show "Alice" was terrific. The show was amazing and so were the props and the acting. We had a great time.

 

 

Have a great rest of the week and weekend,
Maria

ABS Swarm Party

We had another Swarm Party at Allen Brook last week, celebrating our filled Buzzy Jar. The students, once again, did an amazing job working together and showing kindness, respect and responsibility towards each other. Mr. Terko visited all the classrooms, dressed as a bee and handing out "smarties" because the students are so smart following the school expectations every day!

 

Every Little PEACE Counts

Here is a picture of our mural, which hangs in our Kiva space. The students and I work on a year-long project on what we can do as individuals to show kindness to each other. We talk about how every little action matters when it comes to making others feel good and welcome. In other words, every little act of kindness (or peaceful action) matters. Small acts make a difference and many small acts work together to make an even bigger difference. Ask your child to share some of these ideas and how we can all help someone in need.

 

Pictures from our Harvest Party

Here are some pictures from our Harvest Party. Thank you so much for sending in healthy treats and goodies for us to enjoy. We could not have had this wonderful celebration without your generosity.