Penguins, Penguins!

Our unit on penguins have just started in our first grade classroom! We are currently busy creating our suitcases, passports and learning about penguins as we will "travel" on a "plane" next week to Antarctica! In this unit, the students will learn to measure temperatures, heights, weights, compare numbers and read graphs/charts by exploring penguins in Antarctica. I have created a separate wiki-page for inter-disciplinary connections. We started exploring some of the sites and videos today, and hope you and your child will spend time learning about penguins at hhttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifome as well. Click here to access this site directly. Thank you and have fun learning about penguins!

Weekly Update

Dear families,
Thank you so much for sending your emails to your child. If you did not, there is still time! We are not going to the computer lab until tomorrow morning. We hope to read and reply to your letters and tell you about our day and learning. Thank you. I also wanted to take this opportunity to thank you for continuing the discussions at home about the importance of internet safety and making good choices. It is evident that these young learners understand how important it is to have an on-going conversation about emails, web-sites and online games. Thank you for your support! As part of our classroom discussions, we have just completed a poster illustrating how our young learners here at ABS can use technology and be safe, kind and responsible. I delivered it to the computer lab this afternoon, where it will be on display. We encourage other classrooms to contribute as well, as they also engage in these conversations. I do not have a picture yet, as this will be a surprise tomorrow when we arrive for our weekly tech time! Please come back to see it online, or visit our computer lab. Thank you!
The students have studied "Tacky, the Penguin", created by the author Helen Lester for a few weeks. We are almost done with our character study/author study (although we will continue reading many of Helen Lester's other fascinating characters in the weeks to come). I have linked Helen Lester's web-sites on the wiki for the students to explore at home. Click here to access directly. Thank you.
The students also started reading non-fiction books this week in their reading groups. We are learning about non-fiction story elements, such as table of contents, glossaries, labels and diagrams. It is great to compare and contrast Tacky to books about real penguins. Ask your child to explain some of the things we have learned.
Our unit on the ocean will start soon. On January 23rd, Team Harmony will visit the Flynn Theater to see a show about the oceans. Thank you for filling in the medical/permission forms so quickly. If you did not, please let me know if you need another copy and I will gladly send one home. Thank you.


Have a great weekend,
Maria

Weekly Newsletter

Dear Families,
Welcome back to school and Happy New Year!
We have had a great start to the new year and it is wonderful to be back with the kids again. I think they were also eager to come back and to our classroom routines. They have done an amazing job, working, reading and writing together. What a terrific class!
I have some very exciting news regarding e-mail to share with you all. As most of you already know, we are very fortunate at our school to have access to e-mail for our young learners. Each student has his/her own account at our school, which is accessed through a student domain under gmail. This e-mail account has been created so your child can further his/her academic learning through various digital means. It is strictly for academic learning. As your child might wish to send e-mails to friends or family members with funny jokes, videos and forwarded messages, we ask that you reinforce the message we have at our school, which is to use this e-mail for academic subjects only. We encourage our students to share learning and thinking about books, academic subjects and things that go on in our classroom and at our school. Please do not forward jokes, videos and spam mail to your child. Thank you. Private accounts outside school are great options if this is something you and your child wishes to communicate about. We also ask that you speak with extended family members, grandmas and grandpas about these expectations.
Bonnie Birdsall, our wonderful Technology Integration Specialist, visited our classroom this week and spoke to the children about e-mail, internet safety and making good choices online. We had a very productive discussion. Creating a safe and meaningful digital culture takes time as we approach learning in many new and exciting ways. I will continue to work with the students daily as we define, re-define and learn what it means to be a safe and productive member of our new digital world. Stay tuned for more updates as we will frequently post about this very important topic. For now, the students will only e-mail me and their blogging buddies in Ms. Davison's class as we embark on a new unit together , studying Jan Brett. Stay tuned for more updates.
We were hoping that all the students would receive an e-mail from a parent by Friday next week. Please send an e-mail to your child with your preferred e-mail, asking about his/her day. Ask about what new learning is taking place, or what happened in Number Corner in math. The more specific ideas you present about the academic focus of the day, the easier it will be for your child to reply. Thank you.
Your child's email is as follows:
firstnamelastname@cssu.us

So, for example, if your child's name was Sara Smith, her email would be sarasmith@cssu.us

Please note the .us domain (mine, as all the other teachers' cssu.org)

I will email you regarding your child's password information. Thank you. Pictures from our first week will also follow.
Maria

Happy Holidays!

The students created another storyjumper book this week. We hope you like their incredible pictures, wishing us all a happy and safe holiday vacation!
Click here to view.http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif

Weekly Update

Dear Families,
We have had another great week with lots of learning and special activities to celebrate the holidays around the world.
The students finished their special holiday presents for their families this week. These presents are wrapped and will come home today, along with many additional things from their cubbies and desks as we are trying to clean up before the end of the year! I will also remind the students to bring home snow-boots and pants today. Hopefully, we will get some snow so we can all enjoy some winter fun over the vacation. Lastly, the students will bring home a Vacation Journal in their Thursday folders today. This journal is for the students to write and draw in to share their holiday experiences with their friends. It is a voluntary project, so please do not feel that your child has to finish this book. Some students might even want to blog over vacation to share pictures and stories with us. I have created a "Guest" log-in account, in case you wish to post comments as well, or if your child wishes to comment on his/her Blogging Buddy from Ms. Davison's class. I will send out a separate email about password information. I look forward to reading about all the winter fun you will have.

Please do not forget that we have a school-wide celebration tomorrow. We will celebrate our warm buzzies all day, and tomorrow is a PJ Day! Please make sure your child wears warm pajamas because we will still have outdoor recess. Please do not send in any slippers or stuffed animals. We will also watch the movie "Polar Express" on our team and in the afternoon, the entire school will gather in the gym for a special sing-along. We are very excited. Thank you to all who have so generously offered to bring in foods and drinks for our celebration party tomorrow.

I hope you will have a wonderful holiday break from school with your family. I hope you will find time to rest and relax, read good books and share your expereinces via blogging or writing in our Vacation Journals.

Have a restful break,
Maria

We have published a new book!

We have published a new book online. Please click here to access StoryJumper to read it online. Please note that you and your family can choose to order this book in a hardcover format as well. They are very nice.
The book is about insects. The students created all the art-work based upon Eric Carle's art.http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif

Weekly Update

Dear Families,
I have a very short update for you this week as we are getting ready for the last week of school before our holiday vacation. Our last day of school is next Thursday, December 22nd. (School starts again on Wednesday, January 4th).
I will send home many extra just right books with your child next week. Hopefully, you will find the time to continue reading at home every day. We will not send home our weekly Homework folders, but I will send home a "Vacation Journal" that encourages your child to write and draw about his/her vacation activities. This Vacation Journal is optional, but many students love to chronicle what they do and share when they come back to school. If your child benefits from the reading/writing activities provided in the homework folder, please feel free to print your own reading logs online. I am delighted that many students are trying new ones and I would be happy to check them when we return to school. Don't forget about our KidBlog during vacation. The blog provides a terrific opportunity for your child to stay connected with friends. Thank you!
Next week, on Thursday December 22nd, the whole school will celebrate our warm buzzies again and have another Swarm Party. This time we will have a Pajama Party!! Please send your child to school in his/her pajamas, but make sure they are warm and snug enough for outdoor recess as the children will go outside for their regularly scheduled recess time. Children must wear regular shoes-slippers are not permitted. Please also refrain from sending in stuffed animals and blankets. We already have stuffed animals and pillow in our classroom. Thank you! In additiona to our PJ Day, we will also celebrate by watching the movie "Polar Express" written by Chris Van Allsburg. We will read the book and do various reading activities and on Thursday, we will "board" the train together, wearing our pajamas-just like the characters in the book. At the end of the day, all faculty, staff and students will meet in the gym for a special holiday sing-along.
Lastly, the students and I would also like to have a little celebration in our classroom, so if you can please send in some special treats/snacks for us, we would greatly appreciate that. Please send me an email to let me know if you and your family can donate some muffins, crackers, cookies, juice, and other snacks for our holiday celebration. Thank you.
I wanted to share some special pictures with you this week. There is picture of a a letter from Ms. Beeken to the class. She sent a letter to the students because they cleaned up her classroom after art-class. They did an amazing job and she was so grateful. Ask your child to explain. The other pictures are of our latest reading response activity. As the students read their books and think about these books, they start to recognize the various story elements that make them great. This week, we started creating our own awards for them. The students carefully choose a book that he/she likes and decides on what award should be awarded. The students create their own award by naming it themselves. So far, we have awarded "Best Chapter Book", "Best Detailed Story", and "Best detailed story" awards. Since the students also justify their award and write about why a particualr book deserves anaward, they are finding new ways to connect reading and writing. They are learning to once again read as writers and write as readers. Please visit our classroom for our display of these awards.
Regards,
Maria