October 31, 2015

Important Dates and Reminders:
Tuesday: Library
November 11: No school

•  It is getting cold. Make sure you send warm clothes for recess. We go outside everyday unless it is raining.

• Thanks to everyone who has sent in family photos. Our family wall is getting big! Please feel free  to send one in if you haven't yet. I would love to have a photo from every student on the wall. 

Literacy:
It was so much fun seeing Jarrett Krosoczka on Monday! We worked hard the week before creating balloons that went along with his new book, It's Tough to Lose Your Balloon. Laura Abbene hung them up in the library for Jarrett to see. Then, we surprised Jarrett by arriving in the Performing Arts Center wearing bagheads, just like the main character in his book Baghead.
 






Math:

 Incredible mathematical thinking this week! We are starting to build the concept of friendly numbers. In order to do this, we needed to discover that adding a number to 10 is easy! We worked with tens frames to subitize, or instantly see how many is being shown, teen numbers. Then, we played a game where the students had to add a number to 10 each time. This week, we will work on building friendly numbers. More to come on that!

Halloween:
For Halloween, we made our own healthy snacks. We created creepy spiders and a creepy Halloween tree. I learned that we have some  students in this class that could live on humus! I don't know what was more fun, building our snacks or eating them.

October 25, 2015

October 25, 2015

Important Dates and Reminders:
Tuesday: Library
October 26:  Author Jarrett J. Krosoczka  is coming to visit!
October 30: School Spirit Day - Mismatched clothing!
November 11: No school

•  It is getting cold. Make sure you send warm clothes for recess. We go outside everyday unless it is raining.

• Thanks to everyone who has sent in family photos. Our family wall is getting big! Please feel free  to send one in if you haven't yet. I would love to have a photo from every student on the wall. 

Literacy:
Another week of great read alouds! We read some of Jarrett Krosoczka's books to get ready for his visit on Monday. Books we read:  Peanut Butter and Jellyfish, Baghead, It's Tough to Lose Your Balloon, and Punk Farm Band on Tour.

You can check out Jarrett Krosoczka's TED talks, NPR videos, and more.

Here is the book trailer for his newest book, It's Tough to Lose Your Balloon:


Math:

We worked hard on refining our mathematical thinking. As mathematicians, we look for patterns to help us solve story problems. The students worked with a partner to discover the pattern in solving for 10. We then worked on applying this learning for solving for other sums. 

We are also working hard on learning our math facts. We call this time of day Fact Power.  More information about Fact Power next week!

October 18, 2015

Important Dates and Reminders:
Tuesday: Library
October 21: Late start. School starts at 8:40 on this day. Students are still welcome to come at 7:30 for breakfast.
October 26:  Author Jarrett J. Krosoczka  is coming to visit!
November 11: No school

•  It is getting cold. Make sure you send warm clothes for recess. We go outside everyday unless it is raining.

• Thanks to everyone who has sent in family photos. Our family wall is getting big! Please feel free  to send one in if you haven't yet. I would love to have a photo from every student on the wall. 

Exciting Classroom News:
Last week, Grammy DeDe started in our room. She will be here for a 2 week period to see if working in our first grade class is a good match for her and for us. The students have been very welcoming to her and Grammy DeDe has been a huge help. Thanks Grammy DeDe!

Literacy:
Our read alouds this week were books by Mo Willams. It doesn't get much better than that! We read The Pigeon Wants a Puppy, Don't Let the Pigeon Stay up Late, and The Duckling Wants a Cookie. As a class, we talked about how the pages connect together and connect to the title. There is always something to find that adds to the story. We loved how the characters in his books are talking directly to us, the reader.
  
Math: It was a big review this week of all the math concepts we have been working on this year. On Friday, we took our first math assessment. The students worked so hard! I'll share the assessment with you during parent/teacher conferences in November.


Wellness: Jaycie Puttlitz, our school's wellness coordinator, let me borrow a copy of books from her. We read the interactive book Star Pose by Tove Ohlander and Susan Cline Lucey. As a class, we did the yoga poses described in the book. After reading, I had the students go back to their seats and think about the part of the book they liked the best and then draw a picture of how they felt during that part of the story.

October 12, 2015

 Important Dates and Reminders:
Tuesday: Library
October 21: Late start. School starts at 8:40 on this day. Students are still welcome to come at 7:30 for breakfast.
October 26:  Author Jarrett J. Krosoczka  is coming to visit!

• Thanks to everyone who has sent in family photos. Our family wall is getting big! Please feel free  to send one in if you haven't yet. I would love to have a photo from every student on the wall. 

 Literacy:
The students are increasing their independent reading. This week, we focused on character in our read aloud, mini-lesson, and then in our independent reading. We read two books by Kevin Henkes because he has such fun characters: Lilly's Purple Plastic Purse and Chester's Way. During our class discussion, Bway made a great connection between Chester's Way and The Rainbow Fish, a book we read a few weeks ago. Great thinking Bway!



Math: We learned about another type of story problem. This story problem has multiple combinations of answers. In these story problems, we are given the sum and the students have to figure out the addends. Super work mathematicians!


Social Thinking: We continued work on learning about our engines by finishing up our word wall and writing our own books about our engines.

October 4, 2015

 Important Dates and Reminders:
Tuesday: Library
October 5-9: Book Fair
Thursday, October 8: Coffee with Sara Rabbe in the library. Stop by from 7:45-8:15 and introduce yourself. Sara would love to make connections with our wonderful community!
October 12: No school
October 21: Late start. School starts at 8:40 on this day. Students are still welcome to come at 7:30 for breakfast.
October 26:  Author Jarrett J. Krosoczka  is coming to visit!

• Thanks to everyone who has sent in family photos. Our family wall is getting big! Please feel free  to send one in if you haven't yet. I would love to have a photo from every student on the wall. 

Students working on their projects.

 Literacy:
We read one of my favorite books this week! One, by Kathryn Otoshi is about acceptance and
courage. Everyone counts is the repeated phrase in the book. We spent several days reading the book and digging deep into the theme. We watched a video of children acting it out and we acted it out ourselves! Finally, we worked on a project to show how we were accepting to others. I'll get these projects hung up in the classroom this week. Taliah came up with a great quote about acceptance: That's the power of friendship!




There is a book fair this week at school! The dates are October 5-9. Feel free to send in money with your child in a labeled envelope. I will send your child down with an adult  to shop for books.


Math: Wow! We started working with number lines this week. I can't believe how well the students are doing with the tricky concept. We talked about the importance of showing your thinking in more than one way. We call this multiple pathways. The class has been solving story problems by making a representation using circles. But now, they have a second way to represent their thinking by using a number line.


Social Thinking: All of us have an engine. Are engines can be high, low or just right. Becoming aware of our engine, helps us become better learners. We can use our mindfulness techniques to calm an engine that is too high. We can take a movement break to wake up an engine that is too low. As a class, we have worked on engine sorts and now we are developing vocabulary to help describe how we feel when our engine is high, low, or just right.

Wellness: We had Officer Dave come in and talk about safety. He talked about the importance of knowing the names of your parents, phone number, and street address. I was impressed with how many students could answer all those questions! Thanks for coming in Officer Dave!