The Firefly Team had a wonderful day filled with special snacks, beverages and a movie (Babe in the City). A huge thank you to Colleen Wemple, Christie Allen, Cecilia Halliburton, Erica Terriciano, and Melissa Whitaker for all the wonderful treats they sent in to make it a special day for us today.
A huge thank you to all my families for all the thoughtful gifts. I am overwhelmed by your generosity.
I hope everyone has a happy, healthy holiday vacation. See you in 2012!
Thursday, December 22, 2011
Friday, December 16, 2011
Week of December 12th
This week in math we worked on solving several lobster problems trying to figure out how many were left, how many legs there were on a certain amount of lobsters, and trying to figure out how many lobsters with a given amount of legs. Then we made our own problem about lobsters. This was our third problem of the year that we have made in math and you could see the confidence growing in your children about doing these. On Wednesday they made the backgrounds and then on Thursday they planned out their problem on a white board and then conferred with me before drawing it out on their backgrounds. They were all able to come up with great problems on their own with little help from me. It was great to see. Next week the class will solve some of these problems.
In Science and Social Studies this week they continue to learn about Animals and Long Ago. In my classroom they learned about Colonial homes and about schools from long ago. They made Keeping room dioramas and then horn books. Next week we will look at Colonial time jobs. In Deb's room they talked about adaptations of animals.
In writing we are continuing with our Small Moment stories. We will be wrapping these up next week and then when we come back from our Holiday break we will look at Non-Fiction writing. We also learned about letter writing and each wrote a thank-you note to Tao for coming into our classroom last week.
On Tuesday we had a Special Visitor come to our classroom. Her name is Heather Baron and she is working with our school on Differentiated Instruction. She came to our team this week to teach the children one of the 16 Habits of Mind. We looked at the importance of questioning when learning. We talked about our visit from Tao last week and brainstormed questions that we might want to ask her using question starters such as I wonder why...., I wonder if...., I wonder how..... They came up with these in groups of 4 & 5 and then picked one burning question to share with the group. They came up with some very thought provoking questions about what Tao had shared. We will follow-up with this by asking Tao to answer some of these questions. Check out the pictures below.
Please remember that there is no school next Friday. Also there will be no homework next week since it is a short week.
Have a wonderful weekend,
Nancy
In Science and Social Studies this week they continue to learn about Animals and Long Ago. In my classroom they learned about Colonial homes and about schools from long ago. They made Keeping room dioramas and then horn books. Next week we will look at Colonial time jobs. In Deb's room they talked about adaptations of animals.
In writing we are continuing with our Small Moment stories. We will be wrapping these up next week and then when we come back from our Holiday break we will look at Non-Fiction writing. We also learned about letter writing and each wrote a thank-you note to Tao for coming into our classroom last week.
On Tuesday we had a Special Visitor come to our classroom. Her name is Heather Baron and she is working with our school on Differentiated Instruction. She came to our team this week to teach the children one of the 16 Habits of Mind. We looked at the importance of questioning when learning. We talked about our visit from Tao last week and brainstormed questions that we might want to ask her using question starters such as I wonder why...., I wonder if...., I wonder how..... They came up with these in groups of 4 & 5 and then picked one burning question to share with the group. They came up with some very thought provoking questions about what Tao had shared. We will follow-up with this by asking Tao to answer some of these questions. Check out the pictures below.
Please remember that there is no school next Friday. Also there will be no homework next week since it is a short week.
Have a wonderful weekend,
Nancy
Monday, December 12, 2011
PTO FOOD BASKET COLLECTION
Every year the PTO sponsors a special collection of lunch, breakfast, snack and holiday meal foods for local families to enjoy during the holiday vacation break. We are always amazed by the generosity of our school community for this event, and we appreciate it very much. In the past we have asked every student to donate one of the assigned items and we have had plenty to go around. Due to the increase in need, please send in an extra item if you’re able to. In addition, if you are willing to donate laundry detergent, that can be dropped off at the main office. Thank you and enjoy the holiday season. Contact Jan Thabault at jthabault@cssu.org with any questions.
Our Team will be donating Boxed Snack Food (Granola Bars, Rice Krispie Treats etc.)
Our Team will be donating Boxed Snack Food (Granola Bars, Rice Krispie Treats etc.)
Friday, December 9, 2011
Making Dumplings
On Thursday night Mrs. KillKelley, Tao Ye and I made dumplings at Mrs. KillKelley's house. It was actually a lot of fun. We wish we had had enough time with Tao in the classroom so that we could have included the children in the process. If anyone is interested in how they are made please let me know. It's a lot of chopping of vegetables and then wrapping them in dumpling wraps, boiling and then frying. Today the children got to taste our creation. Then today Tao had a question and answer time with the whole team. They really enjoyed their time with her.
Have a Great weekend,
Nancy
Frying The Dumplings
Have a Great weekend,
Nancy
Frying The Dumplings
Learning with Tao
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| Free picture slideshow personalized with Smilebox |
Tao Ye, a visiting 27 year old Chinese teacher from Lijiang, China spent 3 days with our class this week. She taught the class how to say chinese numbers from 1-10 and also taught them how to write numbers up to 1,000. She also spoke to us about her hometown in China. Lijiang is located in the southeast part of China. It has an Old Town and a New Town. She talked about the Old Town which has 800 years of history. Some of the things she shared with us:
-people are protective of the Old Town
-there are 2 wheel wells at the entrance of the town (these are pictured in the slide show)
-there are lots of small rivers located throughout the Old Town
-Si Fang square is the center of the Old Town and at night visitors come and dance with the locals who dress up in costumes
-You can ski in the mountains but to access them you have to ride a Gondola and it's so high that some people need oxygen when they go to the top
-There are no cars allowed in the Old Town
-There are 3 wells located in the town and the 1st one is for drinking water, the second is to wash vegetables, and the third is to wash laundry (this is pictured in the slide show)
-January 23rd is the Chinese New Year and this year it is the Year of the Dragon
We enjoyed our time with Tao. She taught us a lot.
Wednesday, November 30, 2011
Vermont International Festival
The Vermont International Festival will be held at the Champlain Valley Exposition, Route 15/Pearl Street, Essex Junction, Vermont. The Champlain Valley Expo has unlimited free parking, is on the CCTA bus line and is handicapped-accessible.
Friday to Sunday, December 2-4, 2011
Festival Hours
Friday, December 2 5 pm to 8 pm
Saturday, December 3 10 am to 6 pm
Sunday, December 4 10 am to 5 pm
Meet over 40 vendors offering reasonably-priced and unique handcrafts from around the world
-Sample delicious and affordable ethnic cuisine
-Enjoy multi-cultural music and dance
-Discover the world at exhibits by the Japan-America Society of Vermont,UVM
Asian Studies Outreach Program and many others
-Meet new neighbors who have joined our community at the "New Americans, New
Neighbors" Pavilion, a special feature presented by the Vermont Performing Arts
League.
Friday to Sunday, December 2-4, 2011
Festival Hours
Friday, December 2 5 pm to 8 pm
Saturday, December 3 10 am to 6 pm
Sunday, December 4 10 am to 5 pm
Meet over 40 vendors offering reasonably-priced and unique handcrafts from around the world
-Sample delicious and affordable ethnic cuisine
-Enjoy multi-cultural music and dance
-Discover the world at exhibits by the Japan-America Society of Vermont,UVM
Asian Studies Outreach Program and many others
-Meet new neighbors who have joined our community at the "New Americans, New
Neighbors" Pavilion, a special feature presented by the Vermont Performing Arts
League.
Wednesday, November 23, 2011
Animals in Winter
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| A free slideshow design by Smilebox |
On the Tuesday before Thanksgiving break we had some visitors from Shelburne Farms. They taught us about Animals in Winter and how to look for signs of them. We got to draw animals and what there habitats are. Then we got to go outside to look for signs after Linda had gone over what they could be looking for such as animal skat, foot prints, chewed sticks, etc. We also got to play a game called camouflage where they tried to blend into the think of the field. They had a lot of fun doing this. Check out our pictures above. It is so nice to have Shelburne Farms so close and great teachers to work with our students.
Friday, November 18, 2011
Holiday Fair
The SCS Holiday Fair will take place on Saturday, December 3rd this year. We are taking a more "low key" approach to this event this year and are planning to make snow globes, sell helium balloons and bring back our photo booth. We realize this is a busy time of year for families and are trying to keep it as simple as possible. Please let us know if you have some dress up clothes you could loan us for the photo booth. We will let you know if we need any other help preparing the snow globes as we get closer to the event. We have put up a sign-up sheet on our web-site or you can click on the link below to sign-up to help.
Holiday Fair Sign-up
Holiday Fair Sign-up
Week of November 14th
This week in Writing we started a new unit on Small Moments. Students are zooming into a small moment of their lives and then stretching it across several pages. They are adding descriptive details as well as feeling words. They are writing some wonderful stories.
Today we went to the computer lab and most of the children were introduced to Fastt Math for the first time. Fastt Math is a computer program that helps children become more fluent with their math facts. It focuses on the facts they need to become more fluent with. After they complete a lesson, there is a game that they can play that is fun and still works on math facts. This is a program that can be accessed at home. There is a link on our Team page and their user name is first and last name without a space and their password is student. Let me know if you have any questions.
Beginning in January our class will have a Student Teacher from UVM. Her name is Alison Greenberg. She came in to the classroom today to introduce herself to the class. She will try to come in again sometime in December before she is here daily starting January 9th. Everyone is excited to have her with us after the Holidays.
Next week on Tuesday we will have two visitors from Shelburne Farms visit our classroom. They will be teaching us about how animals adapt and survive in the winter. This is a supplement to the unit that Mrs. KillKelley is teaching during our Science and Social Studies rotation about Animals. In my classroom we have begun to discuss Long Ago and Today. During this unit we will compare and contrast homes, school, families, food, and jobs of Today and those during Colonial American times.
I am not sure if I will post next week or not so just in case, I want to say Happy Thanksgiving and I hope everyone has a restful long break.
Have a wonderful weekend,
Nancy
Today we went to the computer lab and most of the children were introduced to Fastt Math for the first time. Fastt Math is a computer program that helps children become more fluent with their math facts. It focuses on the facts they need to become more fluent with. After they complete a lesson, there is a game that they can play that is fun and still works on math facts. This is a program that can be accessed at home. There is a link on our Team page and their user name is first and last name without a space and their password is student. Let me know if you have any questions.
Beginning in January our class will have a Student Teacher from UVM. Her name is Alison Greenberg. She came in to the classroom today to introduce herself to the class. She will try to come in again sometime in December before she is here daily starting January 9th. Everyone is excited to have her with us after the Holidays.
Next week on Tuesday we will have two visitors from Shelburne Farms visit our classroom. They will be teaching us about how animals adapt and survive in the winter. This is a supplement to the unit that Mrs. KillKelley is teaching during our Science and Social Studies rotation about Animals. In my classroom we have begun to discuss Long Ago and Today. During this unit we will compare and contrast homes, school, families, food, and jobs of Today and those during Colonial American times.
I am not sure if I will post next week or not so just in case, I want to say Happy Thanksgiving and I hope everyone has a restful long break.
Have a wonderful weekend,
Nancy
Monday, November 14, 2011
Week of November 7th
It was great to have an opportunity to meet with all of you during conferences this week to share your child's progress and celebrate his/her learning! If you have any follow up questions, please feel free to contact me.
This was the last week for our current Science/Social Studies rotation. We will begin two new units next week. I will be teaching a unit about "Long Ago and Today". Mrs. KillKelley will be teaching a unit about "Animals".
We enjoyed an excellent Hands On Nature lesson about seeds this week. We watched a puppet show about seeds, dissected seeds and searched the playground for different kinds of seeds that are dispersed in different ways. Our whole lesson was done outside on a beautiful sunny day. A huge thank you to our Hands On Nature parents for this wonderful experience!
In Writer's workshop we continue to look at books as authors and trying different strategies in our own writing. Our classroom is full of amazing authors. Next week we will begin looking at Narrative writing.
This week we in math we worked on adding numbers to 10s. We learned a game called "50 or Bust" and "Race you to 100". Our work places continue to focus on addition and subtraction and patterns. We will finish up Unit 2 this week. Our next unit is on Computation and Place Value where we will continue to develop solid understanding of basic operations and place value in the context of problem solving.
This was the last week for our current Science/Social Studies rotation. We will begin two new units next week. I will be teaching a unit about "Long Ago and Today". Mrs. KillKelley will be teaching a unit about "Animals".
We enjoyed an excellent Hands On Nature lesson about seeds this week. We watched a puppet show about seeds, dissected seeds and searched the playground for different kinds of seeds that are dispersed in different ways. Our whole lesson was done outside on a beautiful sunny day. A huge thank you to our Hands On Nature parents for this wonderful experience!
In Writer's workshop we continue to look at books as authors and trying different strategies in our own writing. Our classroom is full of amazing authors. Next week we will begin looking at Narrative writing.
This week we in math we worked on adding numbers to 10s. We learned a game called "50 or Bust" and "Race you to 100". Our work places continue to focus on addition and subtraction and patterns. We will finish up Unit 2 this week. Our next unit is on Computation and Place Value where we will continue to develop solid understanding of basic operations and place value in the context of problem solving.
Friday, October 28, 2011
Doreen Cronin Visits!
What an exciting morning we had. We were very lucky to have a visit by Doreen Cronin thanks to "The Flying Pig Bookstore" and Vasanthi Meyette. What a wonderful and entertaining speaker she was. Doreen talked about her life as a writer and the process of creating a book. She shared with us a book that she has written about Moms. Her explanation was very creative. Please ask your child what she had to say about Moms. (Think sleep, hydration, exercise, etc.) The book is called "M.O.M. (Mom Operating Manual) and I plan to pick it up this weekend and share the whole book with the class next week. The children had a great time and at the end she signed the purchased books and those that children brought in from home. It was a fun event!!!
Tuesday, October 25, 2011
Writing
Boy do your children love to write!!! They are writing fantastic stories and learning about lots of features Authors use in their writing. We have been reading a lot of Mentor texts to learn about features such as lots of details in their writing, italic words, detailed illustrations, more than 1 illustration on a page, bold words, big bold words and lots more. They are incorporating these features into their own writing and then a couple of kids get to share their writing each day. I can't wait to share some of their writing with you during conferences. Below are some students sharing their writing with the class:
Math
For the past 2 weeks we have been very busy in math learning about sea creatures, counting by 10s and 5s, and working on addition and subtraction stories. We made a crab chart which you can see below that shows counting by 10s using the crab legs. We also learned interesting facts about crabs. The biggest surprise was that there are over 4500 different kinds of crabs. We also made a quilt with sea stars and quilt blocks. We learned lots of fun facts about sea stars as well such as they spit up their stomachs and their legs grow back if they lose one. Below are pictures of some of our work:
French Monday
This week on Monday (Oct. 24th) our class had a visit from a 6th grade French class. The sixth graders had written French stories about homes. Each sixth grader was grouped with 2-3 First graders and they read their stories and then had a second copy for our class to color and take home. Unfortunately there weren't enough copies of a book for all of the students but every group worked out on their own as to who would take it home. The children loved hearing the sixth graders read their stories in French. It was a great experience for all of them. I'd like to thank Madeleine for approaching Madame Delaurier and asking her to have her class share their stories with us. Below are some pictures of the Shares:
Friday, October 14, 2011
Friday, October 14th
Hello Everyone,
I'm sorry I missed posting last week. I was not feeling well and just didn't find the time to do it.
This week I was able to finish up most of the assessment and am happy to say that I will be starting Guided Reading Groups next week. Your children are doing a great job of reading from their book boxes for Independent Reading time. They are reading their "Just Right" books and using their reading strategies to figure out unknown words. I am very proud of the work they are doing.
We have also been working on "Buddy/Partner Reading" this week. Each child has a partner that they will be reading with during this time and they either read the same book together or each read their own book. After they finish reading they talk about the book that they read. They can talk about characters in the book, things that were important about the story, their favorite parts, connections they have to the story and other things related to the book. It's great to listen to the discussions that they have with each other. Below are some pictures of students reading together.
I'm sorry I missed posting last week. I was not feeling well and just didn't find the time to do it.
This week I was able to finish up most of the assessment and am happy to say that I will be starting Guided Reading Groups next week. Your children are doing a great job of reading from their book boxes for Independent Reading time. They are reading their "Just Right" books and using their reading strategies to figure out unknown words. I am very proud of the work they are doing.
We have also been working on "Buddy/Partner Reading" this week. Each child has a partner that they will be reading with during this time and they either read the same book together or each read their own book. After they finish reading they talk about the book that they read. They can talk about characters in the book, things that were important about the story, their favorite parts, connections they have to the story and other things related to the book. It's great to listen to the discussions that they have with each other. Below are some pictures of students reading together.
Hands On Nature
We had Hands on Nature this week. We learned about Trees this month. Some of the activities that we did were:
-A Puppet Show
-Learned about the exterior parts of the tree (Mrs. Nakhleh was dressed up as a tree)
-Checked out tree cookies (interior parts of tree)
-Built a tree using ourselves as the parts of the tree
-Tree Life Cycle Shuffle to find different stages in nature
Created a big circle which was the size of the largest tree (Sequoia)
Some things the students learned from this lesson was:
"Trees have different kinds of fruits."
"Tree rings show how old the tree is."
"Trees need seeds to grow."
"There's heartwood in trees."
"Roots can split boulders." (This was popular among student's learning.)
"There is different stuff inside trees."
"Trees have different layers of wood."
"Each part of the tree has a job: I'm big and strong (heartwood), water going up, sap going down, we make new wood and bark, and grr... food going down."
I'd like to thank Cecelia, Colleen, Lynn, and Caitlin for coming in and teaching all of the children about trees!
Monday, October 3, 2011
Friday, September 30, 2011
Friday, September 30th
It's hard to believe that today is the last day of the month. We had a fun filled week. We spent our last day at the imagination playground on Wednesday. We finished reading almost all of the Red Clover books. We have one left. We had Fire Safety Day on Wednesday. Lastly we had a wonderful field trip today at Shelburne Farms.
We have one last Red Clover book to read on Monday and we will vote on our favorite. This week we read "Bink & Gollie" by Kate DiCamillo and Alison McGhee which was about two friends that do things together but sometimes have conflicts. We each began writing our own story of something we've done with a friend or family member. Then we read "Art & Max" by David Wiesner which was about a friend, Max who wants to paint like Arthur but makes him disappear and has to repaint him back. We went to the Computer lab and signed on to David Wiesner's site and saw the process for making one of the illustrations in his book. Then we got to color some of the illustrations on the computer. The site is http://www.hmhbooks.com/wiesner/, if you would like to go on and check it out. On Thursday we read "Wonder Horse" by Emily Arnold McCully which is a true story about the World's Smartest Horse. We then drew pictures of our special pets(if we have one) or a pet we would like to have and what special thing it would do. On Monday we will read "Nabeel's New Pants" by Fawzia Gilani-Williams and then vote on our favorite Red Clover book.
On Wednesday was Fire Prevention Day. We had Firemen come to the school to talk to the children in the Kiva about Fire Safety and they demonstrated all of the gear that Firemen wear. Then they went out to the Breezeway and got to practice "Stop, Drop and Roll", crawled through a smokehouse and got to sit in the new Town Firetruck. Hopefully they shared this fun experience with you.
Today we went to Shelburne Farms. The weather turned out to be beautiful. We went on a scavenger hunt looking for life under logs. There were 15 items we were looking for in all. We found most of them. We saw lots of Red Backed Salamanders and leopard slugs. Some of the other forms of life we saw were worms, harvestmen (Daddy Long Legs), centipedes, sow bugs, carpenter ants, turkey tail, and even an American toad. I think we could have spent hours looking on the trails. We finished up going back to the Farm barn and visiting with the animals. Check out our pictures.
Have a wonderful weekend,
Nancy
We have one last Red Clover book to read on Monday and we will vote on our favorite. This week we read "Bink & Gollie" by Kate DiCamillo and Alison McGhee which was about two friends that do things together but sometimes have conflicts. We each began writing our own story of something we've done with a friend or family member. Then we read "Art & Max" by David Wiesner which was about a friend, Max who wants to paint like Arthur but makes him disappear and has to repaint him back. We went to the Computer lab and signed on to David Wiesner's site and saw the process for making one of the illustrations in his book. Then we got to color some of the illustrations on the computer. The site is http://www.hmhbooks.com/wiesner/, if you would like to go on and check it out. On Thursday we read "Wonder Horse" by Emily Arnold McCully which is a true story about the World's Smartest Horse. We then drew pictures of our special pets(if we have one) or a pet we would like to have and what special thing it would do. On Monday we will read "Nabeel's New Pants" by Fawzia Gilani-Williams and then vote on our favorite Red Clover book.
On Wednesday was Fire Prevention Day. We had Firemen come to the school to talk to the children in the Kiva about Fire Safety and they demonstrated all of the gear that Firemen wear. Then they went out to the Breezeway and got to practice "Stop, Drop and Roll", crawled through a smokehouse and got to sit in the new Town Firetruck. Hopefully they shared this fun experience with you.
Today we went to Shelburne Farms. The weather turned out to be beautiful. We went on a scavenger hunt looking for life under logs. There were 15 items we were looking for in all. We found most of them. We saw lots of Red Backed Salamanders and leopard slugs. Some of the other forms of life we saw were worms, harvestmen (Daddy Long Legs), centipedes, sow bugs, carpenter ants, turkey tail, and even an American toad. I think we could have spent hours looking on the trails. We finished up going back to the Farm barn and visiting with the animals. Check out our pictures.
Have a wonderful weekend,
Nancy
Friday, September 23, 2011
Imagination Playground
This week we went to the Imagination Playground twice. We were very imaginative and worked well together. Today we worked together to build a house with a pool. It was a lot of fun!!! Check out the photos of our house....
Monday, September 19, 2011
Picture Day
Just a reminder that Picture Day is on Wednesday. If you would like to buy pictures, please send in payment with your child on or before Wednesday.
Week of Sept. 12th
We had another Great week. We have now read 4 of the Red Clover books. We have read "Stand Straight, Ella Kate", "Who Stole the Mona Lisa", "I Know Here", and "A Pig Parade is a Terrible Idea". After reading the stories we have created songs, dances, books, and illustrations. We will continue to read the other 6 books throughout the rest of the month.
In math we have worked on solving some bug problems this week and took what we learned and have now created our own Ladybug problems. Next week we will solve each others problems. A lot of the problems are trying to find out how many ladybugs are hiding, some are looking for the number of antennae on all of the ladybugs, and others are finding out how many ladybugs have flown away. Your children made wonderful problems. I can't wait to see them solve their classmates problems.
During Number Corner we continue to look at patterns in our calendar, figuring out number sentences to represent our days this month, writing the date in short form (9-12-11), working on coin patterns, and matching number sentences to visual models. I love watching their math minds work.
On Wednesday we went to the Imagination Playground which is located in one of the modular classrooms. It was wonderful to watch your children work together, create and use there imagination. There are big blue foam pieces that they can connect together to make a place to roll a ball through, build structures to play in or just to walk around with a few pieces and roll play. We will be going again next week for 2 days on Tuesday and Friday. Ask your child all about it.
On Friday we were fortunate to have some parent volunteers come in to our classroom and help us make salsa. We cut up tomatoes, onions, peppers, cilantro, and basil. Everyone helped. We then put our cut-up vegetables into the food processor to mix and added cider vinegar to make our salsa. They all turned out delicious. Everyone was trying each others masterpiece. Thank-you to everyone for sending in the vegetables and chips. Also I'd like to thank Amy C. and Sheryl T. for coming in and helping out. It was a fun experience!!! Here's the recipe we used courtesy of Stony Loam Farm for those of you who would like to make it at home:
4 large ripe tomatoes, diced
4 garlic cloves, finely chopped
4 peppers or 1 hot pepper seeded and diced
1/2 cup onion, diced
4 tablespoons chopped cilantro/ and or chopped parsley
salt to taste
juice of 1-2 limes or 3-4 teaspoons apple cider vinegar
Combine the tomatoes with their juice, garlic, peppers, onion, cilantro/parsley and 1/2 teaspoon salt in a bowl. Add the lime juice or apple cider vinegar and taste for salt.
Here is a picture of our salsa all mixed together.....
In math we have worked on solving some bug problems this week and took what we learned and have now created our own Ladybug problems. Next week we will solve each others problems. A lot of the problems are trying to find out how many ladybugs are hiding, some are looking for the number of antennae on all of the ladybugs, and others are finding out how many ladybugs have flown away. Your children made wonderful problems. I can't wait to see them solve their classmates problems.
During Number Corner we continue to look at patterns in our calendar, figuring out number sentences to represent our days this month, writing the date in short form (9-12-11), working on coin patterns, and matching number sentences to visual models. I love watching their math minds work.
On Wednesday we went to the Imagination Playground which is located in one of the modular classrooms. It was wonderful to watch your children work together, create and use there imagination. There are big blue foam pieces that they can connect together to make a place to roll a ball through, build structures to play in or just to walk around with a few pieces and roll play. We will be going again next week for 2 days on Tuesday and Friday. Ask your child all about it.
On Friday we were fortunate to have some parent volunteers come in to our classroom and help us make salsa. We cut up tomatoes, onions, peppers, cilantro, and basil. Everyone helped. We then put our cut-up vegetables into the food processor to mix and added cider vinegar to make our salsa. They all turned out delicious. Everyone was trying each others masterpiece. Thank-you to everyone for sending in the vegetables and chips. Also I'd like to thank Amy C. and Sheryl T. for coming in and helping out. It was a fun experience!!! Here's the recipe we used courtesy of Stony Loam Farm for those of you who would like to make it at home:
4 large ripe tomatoes, diced
4 garlic cloves, finely chopped
4 peppers or 1 hot pepper seeded and diced
1/2 cup onion, diced
4 tablespoons chopped cilantro/ and or chopped parsley
salt to taste
juice of 1-2 limes or 3-4 teaspoons apple cider vinegar
Combine the tomatoes with their juice, garlic, peppers, onion, cilantro/parsley and 1/2 teaspoon salt in a bowl. Add the lime juice or apple cider vinegar and taste for salt.
Here is a picture of our salsa all mixed together.....
Friday, September 9, 2011
Second Week
I wanted to start off by saying thanks to those who were able to come to the Curriculum night last night. For those who were unable to come, your packets went home in Friday folders today. If you have any questions about anything, feel free to give me a call or send an e-mail.
This week was a great week. You're children settled into there routine really well. We started math, fundations, and writing this week. We began talking about what reading is and what readers do. We read 2 of the 10 Red Clover books. The first one we read was "Stand Tall, Ella Kate" which is a true story of a woman who was considered a real life Giant. She made money standing at museums, fairs, and at the circus. The end pages of the book showed a true size outline of one of her gloves which the students thought was really cool! On Thursday we created a dance to represent the story in which Ella Kate grew from a baby to 8' 4" and went from being happy to sad and back to being happy again. It was a lot of fun! Today we read "Who Stole the Mona Lisa". The class was so enthralled with this story and had super questions throughout. This story is told from the perspective of the " Mona Lisa" painting and is about it being stolen 100 years ago and how it was found. Next week we will try some acting to go along with this story.
In math this week we made clocks, looked at patterns using our calendar, explored manipulatives in work places, and talked about ways to make numbers using number sentences (equations). We also sung some songs to learn about life cycles of the butterfly, beetle, and praying mantis. In writing we began stories about our summer vacation. Some stories are real things they did and some children chose to use their imagination to come up with things they would like to do.
Information was sent home today about an imagination playground that our school has access to for the next 3 weeks. The consent forms need to be returned on Monday in order for your child to participate.
Also please remember to return the Emergency forms back to the school. We have a Field trip to Shelburne Farms on the 30th and need the permission for field trips signed.
This week was a great week. You're children settled into there routine really well. We started math, fundations, and writing this week. We began talking about what reading is and what readers do. We read 2 of the 10 Red Clover books. The first one we read was "Stand Tall, Ella Kate" which is a true story of a woman who was considered a real life Giant. She made money standing at museums, fairs, and at the circus. The end pages of the book showed a true size outline of one of her gloves which the students thought was really cool! On Thursday we created a dance to represent the story in which Ella Kate grew from a baby to 8' 4" and went from being happy to sad and back to being happy again. It was a lot of fun! Today we read "Who Stole the Mona Lisa". The class was so enthralled with this story and had super questions throughout. This story is told from the perspective of the " Mona Lisa" painting and is about it being stolen 100 years ago and how it was found. Next week we will try some acting to go along with this story.
In math this week we made clocks, looked at patterns using our calendar, explored manipulatives in work places, and talked about ways to make numbers using number sentences (equations). We also sung some songs to learn about life cycles of the butterfly, beetle, and praying mantis. In writing we began stories about our summer vacation. Some stories are real things they did and some children chose to use their imagination to come up with things they would like to do.
Information was sent home today about an imagination playground that our school has access to for the next 3 weeks. The consent forms need to be returned on Monday in order for your child to participate.
Also please remember to return the Emergency forms back to the school. We have a Field trip to Shelburne Farms on the 30th and need the permission for field trips signed.
Friday, September 2, 2011
First Week
We had a wonderful first week of school! I am enjoying getting to know your children. They are a great group.
As well as our Hopes and Dreams we did self portraits this week. We had team time with the 2nd graders everyday outside to work on getting to know each other so they feel more comfortable being mixed during choice time and science/social studies. We created class rules and learned where various objects were in the room. We also began Number Corner this week which is in addition to math and works on number sense skills as well at time, temperature and money. Next week we will continue to get to know each other but will begin our regular schedule of math, fundations, literacy and science/social studies.
I want to remind you that our Curriculum Night is next Thursday, September 8th at 5 pm in the team space. I hope to see you there.
Have a wonderful long weekend,
Nancy
As well as our Hopes and Dreams we did self portraits this week. We had team time with the 2nd graders everyday outside to work on getting to know each other so they feel more comfortable being mixed during choice time and science/social studies. We created class rules and learned where various objects were in the room. We also began Number Corner this week which is in addition to math and works on number sense skills as well at time, temperature and money. Next week we will continue to get to know each other but will begin our regular schedule of math, fundations, literacy and science/social studies.
I want to remind you that our Curriculum Night is next Thursday, September 8th at 5 pm in the team space. I hope to see you there.
Have a wonderful long weekend,
Nancy
Wednesday, August 31, 2011
First Day
We had a wonderful first day of school!! The children are wonderful I am looking forward to a great year with them.
Today we did some activities to start to get to know each other. They were introduced to some of the activities for "Choice Time". We drew pictures of our "Hopes and Dreams" for the year and added some words. These will eventually hang in our classroom. They also got to go to Art. Tomorrow they will have P.E.
They all did a fantastic job today.
Today we did some activities to start to get to know each other. They were introduced to some of the activities for "Choice Time". We drew pictures of our "Hopes and Dreams" for the year and added some words. These will eventually hang in our classroom. They also got to go to Art. Tomorrow they will have P.E.
They all did a fantastic job today.
Monday, August 8, 2011
Firefly 1st Grade
Dear Firefly Families,
I am so excited to meet everyone at summer conferences in a couple of weeks. I have been busy this summer preparing my and your new classroom. It's going to be fun starting out as a brand new team. I am very happy to be looping so that I have two years to really get to know everyone.
I hope you will be able to attend our Open House on Monday, August 29th at 4:15. I will have some activities set up to help you get acquainted with the new classroom. A team picnic will follow at Shelburne Beach so you have the opportunity to get to know other families on the team, both first grade and second grade. Our Curriculum Night will be held on Thursday, September 8th at 5 pm.
Enjoy the rest of the summer and I'll see you all soon,
Mrs. Nakhleh
I am so excited to meet everyone at summer conferences in a couple of weeks. I have been busy this summer preparing my and your new classroom. It's going to be fun starting out as a brand new team. I am very happy to be looping so that I have two years to really get to know everyone.
I hope you will be able to attend our Open House on Monday, August 29th at 4:15. I will have some activities set up to help you get acquainted with the new classroom. A team picnic will follow at Shelburne Beach so you have the opportunity to get to know other families on the team, both first grade and second grade. Our Curriculum Night will be held on Thursday, September 8th at 5 pm.
Enjoy the rest of the summer and I'll see you all soon,
Mrs. Nakhleh
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