January 31, 2014

Classroom News:
 Can you believe tomorrow is February? How did that happen! 
Info about Jump Rope for Heart went home this week. We will be jumping on February 12th.
  

Literacy Focus/Social Studies:  
Our study of heroes continues with Rosa Parks! We read  Let’s Read About…Rosa Parks by Courtney Baker. 

As readers, we are learning how to read and think about nonfiction texts. Our hero unit has brought us a variety of biographies. We are reading them, looking for main ideas and details.

Alexis shared a Martin Luther King book that she took out of the library! I'm so glad that the students are searching out more information outside of school!



Math  Focus: We have started measurement! There are some big ideas in this unit. Our focus right now is how do mathematicians measure objects. This week, we used a variety of different tools (cubes, titles, paper clips) to measure objects. We then compared our results. We knew that we all had the same objects so our results should be the same. This led to a discussion about the importance of accuracy.

Science:
We worked on designing our crabitat. 


Social Thinking:
Lots of excitement this week! Soryu from our Modern Mindfulness software, came and visited JFK on Wednesday.  Four students were chosen by Soryu to speak in front of the whole school. Our own Dior was one of them! Dior did a great job! Later in the day, Soryu visited our class and led us in some mindfulness. We were all so excited to meet him!

January 24, 2014

Classroom News:
 

Literacy Focus/Social Studies:  This week we are learning about Ruby Bridges. We read Ruby Bridges Goes to School:  My True Story, by Ruby Bridges. The students are always amazed that a first grader helped to change the world.

Two fourth graders came in and read The Story of Ruby Bridges by Robert Coles. They did a great job!

We also finished up writing a painted essay about Martin Luther King Jr. A painted essay is a piece of writing that has an introduction, body, and conclusion. The writers worked very hard to give examples of how Martin Luther King, Jr. changed the world. After finishing our writing, we used highlighters to show the three different sections of the essay.


More info about Ruby Bridges:  http://www.rubybridges.com/index.html\
Another good book to check out:
Through My Eyes, by Ruby Bridges


 Math  Focus: This week we took our tests to finish up the data unit. We spent some time exploring the question, "How many more" while interpreting data. This was a stuck point for the class but we persevered and got it! This picture shows the class working together to represent the data and show which group had more.

We ended the week by conducting  our own survey: would you rather be a lion or an eagle? The students had to go around and collect the data then represent the data in a graph.






Next week we start our measurement unit! 

Science:
What's a crabitat? Check with your child to find out. We've learned what a hermit crab needs in a tank environment. We are going to get hermit crabs if we reach our next green thought goal!

Social Thinking:  
Let others you know you are thinking about them. When you sit down, are you blocking their view? If a friend is down, ask them what's wrong.

January 17, 2014

 Classroom News:
 
Remember... no school on Monday in honor of Martin Luther King Day.

Literacy Focus/Social Studies:  We continued reading A Picture Book of Martin Luther King, Jr., by David A Adler.. While reading, we learning how to read nonfiction texts. We look for supporting information in pictures, summarize information, and find details to support the main idea.

During writing, we started to write about Martin Luther King and why he is considered a hero and writing evidence to support this. The class has done a great job on this!


Here is one author's work: 

Martin Luther King Jr,. is a hero. For example, he wanted everybody to be equal. 

 We have even watched part of Martin Luther King's I Have a Dream speech. We've had a big discussion on what "content of your character" means. 



  Math  Focus: Busy week in math. We are still working on data and survey. As a school, we took a school wide test that looks at addition and subtraction. The kids worked so hard and took this very seriously. Miss Kirsten (the ELL teacher that works in the room during math time) and I decided that we needed some math movement time at the end of the test. So we did some counting, singing, and movement. 

Whatcha Gonna Do 
Let's Get Fit Counting to 100

Science:
We have started learning about hermit crabs and what they need to survive.

Social Thinking:  

Space Respecter is our Thinkable of the week. Space Respecter helps us to keep a bubble around our bodies so we don't get into other people's spaces.

January 10, 2014

 Classroom News:
Please remember to send a snack everyday to school. We work hard all day long and the students are hungry at snack time. 

Literacy Focus: 

We also started our focus on Heroes, people who helped to change the world and make it a better place. We started this unit by reading A Picture Book of Martin Luther King, Jr., by David A Adler.
We are also learning about how to read nonfiction books.

Bar graph showing shoes with and without laces.

Our writing about our learning goals for 2014 took longer than expected because the authors in the room have worked really hard on them! We'll be hanging them up in the hall soon. Make sure you stop in and see them!

  Math  Focus:
Survey says! The class has been conducting surveys and then representing the data in one of the types of graphs we've been studying (picture graph, bar graph, line plot, or tallies).

Science:
What do we need to survive?We've had some good discussion about what we actually need to survive. We need food but do we need ice cream? What about a car? We need air to breathe but do we need sunshine? What about video games? The class worked on individual sorts this week and then we had a grand conversation to determine what was actually needed for survival.

Social Thinking:
Our class has added a new classroom job: buddy partner. I had seen a clip on the Today Show about a second grader who came up with a buddy bench. After showing it to the class, Buddy Partner is what we decided to do in our room.. The Buddy Partner will use social thinking skills at recess to help make sure everyone has someone to play with.

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

 

Welcome from our Student Teacher - Miss Borowski

Hello! My name is Jenn Borowski and I am a senior majoring in Elementary Education at the University of Vermont. I am from Annandale, New Jersey and love to snowboard, go camping, and play guitar.


In the back of my mind, I think I always knew that I would become a teacher. My aunt has taught in third, fourth, and fifth grade and my mom is a paraprofessional who works one-on-one with children with special needs. While in high school, I frequently volunteered in my mom’s classroom and saw how she taught her students valuable skills and made a large impact in their lives. I think this was the major factor that directed me towards wanting to become a teacher myself.


Growing up, I had a great deal of experience working with children. In high school, I volunteered to be a coach with Special Olympics. I spent over two months working with an athlete to help them achieve their goal of participating in the main event. I participated in the program all four of my years in high school. This experience taught me patience, understanding, and dedication; all of which I believe are qualities that a successful teacher should possess. During high school, I was also a member of my local rescue squad and volunteered on Saturday nights. As an EMT, I was able to interact with children and their families and provide help as needed. This experience was extremely rewarding.


As for my experience in the classroom, I have had the opportunity to be placed in four different grade levels at three different schools. In the fall of 2012, I was placed in a second grade classroom at Rick Marcotte Central School in South Burlington, VT. During this placement, I learned how to construct and teach group lessons and worked with students one-on-one. In the spring of 2013, I was in a third grade classroom at John F. Kennedy Elementary School in Winooski, VT. Over this past fall semester, I was part of a fifth grade classroom at Hinesburg Community School in Hinesburg, VT. I was glad to have a chance to work with upper level students and teach lessons on creative writing and various fifth grade math topics like the traditional algorithm. However, I am so excited to have the opportunity to be back at JFK and be in a first grade class with all of your students. I can’t wait to help them learn and discover new things over the next four months! I look forward to working with your students and meeting all of you.


Sincerely,

Jennifer Borowski

Welcome Back!

Welcome back! I hope everyone had a restful vacation. I enjoyed time with my family and read some great books!

Literacy Focus: Last week we started writing about our personal learning goals or resolutions for the new year. I am so impressed with the goals the children are choosing! 

Next, we will be starting a focus on nonfiction texts in our read alouds. We will be learning about Martin Luther King, Jr., Rosa Parks, and Ruby Bridges. We will be discussing how one person can make a difference. 

Math  Focus:
 The class continues to work hard on learning math facts! We work 15 minutes everyday to try to increase our speed and additive reasoning. Our class works so hard and takes the concept of perseverance very seriously. They push themselves very hard to reach and then surpass these goals. Make sure to check in with your child and  have them tell you what level they are on. By the end of this month they should be on level E. 
 
We are also continuing our unit on data and analysis. Throughout the unit we are conducting surveys, creating graphs that represent the data, and then analyzing the data.

Science:
This week we are starting a unit that looks at what organisms need to survive. We have some exciting stuff coming up in this unit! Stay tuned!

Social Thinking:
Some of you have asked about the mindfulness we do in the classroom. This is the website we use. http://www.modmind.org/.

 Classroom News
On Monday our student teacher from UVM will be starting. Jenn Borowski is from UVM and will be in our room through April. 

Next week I'll share some pictures of the data work we are doing in math. I think you will be impressed!