Week of September 24th

It was a nice short week. This was our first week of only regular activities. In math we have been talking a lot about growing patterns and sorting. We have been extending these growing patterns and then analyzing our sorting with venn diagrams. In Reader's Workshop I have met with each child to discuss his/her book box and making sure they have "just right" books. We also have partners for Reader's Workshop that we get together with after independent reading to share what we learned, talk about a favorite of the book, discuss unknown words or to read together. The students are also using post-it notes to mark spots in their books to help with these partner discussions. I have been very impressed with their writing so far this year. We have been talking about how writers write about what they know. I shared the book, "Long Shot" by Chris Paul which is his true story about his determination to become a basketball player. We talked about how he wrote about something that he knew well. I also shared the story "The Best Story" by Eileen Spinelli which was about a little girl who wants to write the best story in order to win a contest. She eventually learns in the story that the best stories come from the heart and are things that she already knows about. Through the next couple of weeks we will continue with these stories about things that we already know about. This week we will be finishing up our Social Studies Unit on Community and Citizenship. Have a great weekend, Nancy

Math Fun and Fire Safety

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Week of September 17th

This week we finished up reading the Red Clover books. We worked on some projects to go along with the books and became watercolor artists, writers/illustrators and wrote Dear Me letters about what we are passionate about and want to do. We then voted for our favorite Red Clover Book. The classroom and team winner was "Me...Jane" by Patrick McDonnell. The story tells about the life of Jane Goodall. If you or your child is interested in learning more about Jane Goodall you could check out the following link: http://www.janegoodall.org/media/news/animal-planet-accompanies-dr-jane-goodall-global-excursion-during-roar-campaign. On Wednesday it was Fire Prevention Day. We had some guest Firefighters come and talk to the team about what to do in case of a fire. They also talked about tools vs. toys and the importance of not playing with tools. Some examples of the tools they shared were matches, candles, lighters, etc. Then we went out to the Breezeway and practice how to stop, drop and roll and walked through a smoke house with fake smoke (only those children who wanted to). We also got to take a look at the outside of a Fire truck. In the afternoon we practiced our first school-wide fire drill. Our class was in Art so they got to experience what they would do when they were outside of the classroom. It was a fun day! Today I sent home a letter about Fastt Math. My hope is that children will do this from 3-5 times a week to help with their math fact fluency. It's important that students become fluent with their math facts as this a foundational piece to being successful in mathematics. I was happy to hear from a lot of the class that they have already been working on this at home. I have access to reports to show how students are doing with this program. If you have any questions about it, please let me know. In Social Studies we are talking about being a citizen in a community and what our role is in that community. We brainstormed together the different communities that we are a part of: school, classroom, neighborhood, family, town, state, world, and sport teams/clubs. Next week we will talk about on our different roles in each of those communities and come up with an idea of what we can do to make a community better. Have a great weekend, Nancy P.S. Just a reminder that their is no school next Wednesday.

Shelburne Farms/Hands on Nature Photos

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Week of September 10th

Well we made it through our first full week of school. You will probably see some tired children tonight at home. The heat is tough. At least it looks like it should be cooler all next week. This week we continued to read some Red Clover books. We read, "Swirl by Swirl", "Blackout" and "Grandpa Green". Ask your child about these books. We will finish our last 3 books next week and will vote for our favorite. I will let you know what our classroom favorite was next week. We had our 1st Hands on Nature lesson this week. We learned all about spiders and their body parts. We learned how they are different from insects. We got to see real live spiders to look at their body parts. Ask your child what they learned about spiders! We also had our first Field trip of the year. We went to Shelburne Farms as a Team. We broke up into first and second grade groups and went on a Scavenger Hunt. We looked for living things under logs in the forest and for different types of seeds. We then got to see the Chicken Parade and play with the animals at the Farm Barn. Some students even found some eggs. Hopefully your child shared this experience with you. It was a wonderful Day!! Have a nice weekend, Nancy

Week of September 4th

This week we began our first unit in math along with our first batch of work places. The first work places are all exploration. Students have been able to explore geoboards, geoblocks, unifix cubes, math buckets (shells, buttons, glass blobs, frogs, and bugs), pattern blocks and square tiles. They love being able to do this. It gives us a chance to revisit the routine for work places for the rest of the year. In Literacy this week we began our Unit on Red Clover books. We read 3 of them this week along with the 1st Grade Classroom. We read "The Princess and the Pig", "Three By the Sea" and "Balloons Over Broadway: The True Story of the Puppeteer of Macy". For "The Princess and the Pig", 2nd Graders paired up with a 1st grader and compared & contrasted this story along with two other Fairy Tales ("Puss and Boots" and "The Sleeping Beauty"). I was very impressed with their notices of what was the same and what was different in the stories. For "Three By the Sea" the 1st & 2nd graders were broken up into small groups and acted out scenes in the story. This was a lot of fun to watch and see how creative they were with the scenes. I want to thank the families who were able to attend our Curriculum Night last night. We appreciate you taking time out of your busy schedules to attend. For those families who were unable to attend, I sent home the Curriculum Night packet in your child's Friday folder. Please let me know if you have any questions. Also in the Friday folder this week was their first homework assignment. They have a Fundations packet and a reading log. I explained it all to them this afternoon but if you have any questions about it, please let me know. Have a wonderful weekend, Nancy Below is our 1st Share of the year: