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Tuesday, November 21, 2017

Happy Thanksgiving!

Hello Everyone! 
Here are some highlights from our last few weeks! I hope you enjoy learning about what we’ve been up to!

Progress Reports & Conferences
The children have worked so hard over the last trimester. I am so proud of the growth they are making. Thank you for your continued support and help at home! It was so wonderful to see all of you at conferences. Thank you for coming in and meeting with me!  

Literacy
During reader’s workshop lessons the children have been working on the following skills:
-Identifying the elements of fiction: Characters, Setting, Problem, and Solution
-Identifying Character Traits
-Comparing Fantasy and Realistic Fiction stories
-Making connections
-Identifying the lesson of the story



 


 











Working on building our reading Stamina!

 

 











Writing
In writing, the children wrote a piece about what they are thankful for this Thanksgiving. Each child wrote about three things they are thankful for and why. They glued their writing to a turkey that they created using construction paper. I hope you enjoyed viewing their writing out in the hallway during conferences. 

The children also wrote a story titled, How To Catch A Turkey. They came up with lots of creative ways to catch a turkey. In their story they had to use the transition words, first, next, and last. Their stories are hanging up in the classroom. Along with the tie-dye turkeys they created. I hope you got a chance to glance at them at conferences.



Math
In math, the children have been working with plane and solid shapes. 
They have:
-identified plane shapes using attribute blocks
-identified solid shapes (spheres, rectangular prisms, cubes, cylinders, cones, and pyramids)
-counted the number of sides and corners on plane and solid shapes
-identified which shapes can roll, slide, or stack (or any combination of the 3)
-they also hunted for plane and solid shapes in and around our classroom


 

 











Social Studies
Over the last few weeks the children have been researching Pilgrims and Wampanoag Indians. They recorded all of their information on graphic organizers. At the end of last week, the children used all of their graphic organizers to create a book titled, The Wampanoags, Pilgrims, and Me. Each child wrote down the facts they learned over the last couple weeks about the Pilgrims and Wampanoag. After, they illustrated their book to give the reader additional information. They are very excited to share their book with you over Thanksgiving break!

 



First Grade Musical
The children did a great job on their first grade musical. I am so proud of how hard they worked! They were so excited to share it with all of you last Wednesday night. Thank you for attending the performance and watching your stars shine! Enjoy the photos below.

 

 










Art Appreciation
Last Friday, Mrs. Teich came in and the children had their 2nd Art Appreciation presentation. They learned about two pieces of art by Pierre Auguste Renoir: Two Sisters and A Girl with a Watering Can. The children learned about Renoir’s life and his painting techniques. They discussed the two paintings in detail, noting color combinations and texture. Then the children used paint and different materials to create a painting of their own. They worked with creating different textures using the varying materials. The children enjoyed painting. Thank you, Mrs Teich!

 

 


 











Star Students
Thank you to our past two star students, Jacob and Daniella. We enjoyed learning more about each of you!













Royal Reader
A special thank you to Jacob’s Mom and Daniella’s Mom who joined us the last two week as our Royal Readers. The children loved listening to the stories that you read. 

 











Happy Birthday
A very happy birthday to Liliana! We hope you enjoyed your special day!



Notes:
-Holiday Book Order! If you would like to place an order for books from the Scholastic book order, they will be due Friday, Dec. 1st by 3:30pm! It is a great time to order some wonderful books for the holidays! I will send home some scholastic magazines and a letter on Monday, November 27th. Feel free to shop ahead of time by clicking on the scholastic link on the right side of this blog post! Please email me if your order includes any gifts. I will email you when the order arrives and set up a time for you to pick up your order secretly!

-There is no school Wednesday, November 22 - Friday, November 24. School will resume on Monday, November 27.

Happy Thanksgiving! 

I hope you have a wonderful time with your family and friends! I am thankful that I get to work with your children each and every day!

Saturday, November 4, 2017

Cosmic Capers, Super Sentence Heroes, and Nov. Reminders

Hi Everyone! Enjoy some fun photos and a few reminders!

Cosmic Capers
On Thursday morning, Scientist Victoria joined us from High Touch High Tech. She taught the class all about our Solar System. The children learned about the location of the planets, the sun, moon phases, and rotations & revolutions. They also engaged in an activity to see how far they could jump if they were on the moon. But that’s not all, each child got a turn to feel what it’s like to be on the moon through the use of a “zero gravity” simulation. To conclude the field trip, the children went outside and watched a rocket blast off. They were so excited! 



Super Sentence Heroes
On Friday, the children turned into super sentence heroes! Each child created their own super sentence hero mask. Using their graphic organizers from earlier in the week, they chose one telling, asking, and exciting sentence to glue onto their mask. The children had a lot of fun with this activity and enjoyed sharing their sentences with one another. 




Star Students
Thank you to our past two star students, Zoe and Mackinzie. We enjoyed learning more about each of you!




Royal Readers
A special thank you to Zoe’s Mom and Mackinzie’s Grammy who joined us the last two weeks as our Royal Readers. The children loved listening to the stories that you all read. 




Happy Birthday
A very Happy Birthday to Miranda, Zoe, and Cameron! We hope that you each enjoyed celebrating your special day!






A Few Reminders:
-As the weather continues to get colder, please be sure your child comes to school with appropriate outdoor gear. We do go outside for recess every day, unless it is raining or the wind chill is too cold. Please be sure that jackets, gloves, and hats are labeled with your child’s name. You would not believe how many black pairs of gloves there are! Labeling their gear allows me to match lost items with the correct children!
-The first grade musical is quickly approaching! It will be held on Wednesday, November 15th, with two performances, one at 2:45pm and an evening one at 7pm. Please be on the lookout for an email from Mr. Deptula with additional information.
-Progress Reports will come home on Friday, November 17.

-Conferences are coming up, Monday Nov. 20 and Tuesday Nov. 21 (Please note there is no school the entire week of Nov. 20). Please be sure you have gotten your scheduled date and time for conferences. The form came home in your child’s red take home folder about a week ago. If that paper has "disappeared" please be sure to email me and I will let you know your scheduled date and time! 

Wednesday, November 1, 2017

Halloween Fun!



The children had a wonderful fun filled Halloween afternoon on Tuesday! The children kicked off the Halloween festivities with a parade around the Dryden neighborhood. Thank you to everyone for coming out! After the parade and a short recess, we headed back to our classroom for our Halloween party. The children enjoyed rotating through 4 stations: Making Torn Paper Creatures (Ghosts, Bats, Cats, Candy Corns, and Pumpkins), Spider Ring Toss, Roll a Monster, and Bowling for Ghosts. Thank you to everyone who sent in supplies for our party: crafts, goodie bags, decorations, and games. A very big thank you to our four party volunteers, Mrs. Affatati, Mrs. Maupin, Mrs. Carroll, and Mr. Brunet. A special thank you to Mrs. Barbieri for your incredible job planning and coordinating everything for our party. The children had a great time! We hope you enjoy all the photos in the link below!