Enjoy the week off!

Important Dates:

Wednesdays: library
November 29 - Morning Meeting
December 14 - early dismissal
December 15 -  Winter concert

I enjoyed meeting with everyone at parent/teacher conferences! Please let me know if you have any other questions or concerns. 

Morning Meeting:
Don't forget you are invited to our morning meeting on Tuesday, November 29. During this time, you will participate in all 4 parts of our morning meeting: greeting, share, activity, and message. Morning meeting is from 8:20-8:45. You are welcome to come in at 8 and  if you would like. Hope to see you there!

Go Noodle:

Go Noodle is a website we use in the classroom for our movement breaks. I sent home info about kids creating their own Go Noodle Champs at home and then we can connect those champs with our school account! In case you missed it, here is what to do:

Go to gonoodle.com/class-code and enter this code: GZDMNF 

Literacy:
Wow! These readers are doing an amazing job! We are working on applying all of our good habits to our reading and helping our reading partners use these habits. I am impressed with what I'm seeing and hearing in the class! Students are helping each other puzzle out words, not just give the answer. They are encourage each other and giving solid feedback. Super work readers!

Math:
The week after vacation  we will be finishing up another math unit. This unit builds on all the concepts of our first unit, which I shared with you at parent/teacher conferences. The mathematicians have been able to make some choices during our learning time to pick activities that help them practice the concepts they feel they need the most work in. The students love all the different games we have been learning! These games provide practice in combinations of 10, teen numbers, addition and subtraction, and finding the bigger quantity.

Thanksgiving:
After reading a book about talking animals, we decided to make our own talking turkeys! Each student designed their own turkey and then made a "talking bubble" to show what the turkey is saying. The students had a lot of fun and worked hard helping each other out.

Spelling and a New Addition Strategy

Important Dates:

November 21 - Parent/Teacher Conferences
November 21-25 No School
December 14 - early dismissal
December 15 -  Winter concert

Go Noodle:

Go Noodle is a website we use in the classroom for our movement breaks. I sent home info about kids creating their own Go Noodle Champs at home and then we can connect those champs with our school account! In case you missed it, here is what to do:

Go to gonoodle.com/class-code and enter this code: GZDMNF 

Literacy:

We are building our tool box of good habits we can use when we are stuck on a word. This we worked on looking at the picture, thinking about the sounds in the word, and checking to see if it makes sense. The readers are doing such a great job  with this!

We also love our word study time. Fundations is the curriculum we are using and the class is doing great with it! We have learned to tap out the sounds of a word and then write each sound that we hear. During word study time, we get to use magnetic letter tiles which makes spelling fun! 



Math:
At parent/teacher conferences I will be showing you all the math we are doing. You will be amazed! This week we worked on the find 10 strategy. This means if you have and equation such as 8+7=N you look for a way to make ten because it is so much easier to add a number to 10.

In this equation, you would start with the 8 and add 2 to it (to make 10). That leaves 5 from the 7. (8+2+5). 10 + 5 is easy! It's 15! The purpose of learning this is to give the mathematicians another strategy to use and help them become more flexible and fluid with numbers.

Authors, Spider Snacks, and Grease!

Important Dates:

Wednesday - Library

November 9 - Early Release Day

November 11 - Parent/Teacher Conference appointment times sent home

November 21 - Parent/Teacher Conferences 

Go Noodle:

Go Noodle is a website we use in the classroom for our movement breaks. I sent home info about kids creating their own Go Noodle Champs at home and then we can connect those champs with our school account! In case you missed it, here is what to do:

Go to gonoodle.com/class-code and enter this code: GZDMNF 

Classroom Fun:

For Halloween we made healthy Halloween spider treats! We used crackers, peanut butter, craisins,  and crunchy noodles. It was a hit but the kids had a good suggestion for next year. Instead of craisins for the eyes, I should used chocolate chips. Yum!

We got to see the high school production of Grease, put on by Lisa Goetz. Wow. It was fantastic! After seeing the show, a trio of first graders built the set out of legos during recess!

Literacy:

We started our author study of Leo Lionni. This week we read Swimmy and the students made a picture to show how the school of fish had to work together to scare of the big fish. We are stronger together! 

The students are working so hard with their independent reading! They continue to build onto the Good Habits of Reading. They love reading with their reading partners. During reading time, students are spread out all over the room enjoying their books. I love it!

We enjoyed hearing Ammi-Joan Paquette speak. It was interesting to hear about the writing process and to hear about all her books. 

Mindfulness:

I love this picture I took of a couple of students during mindfulness. Sometimes the best way to be mindful is to just quietly watch the rain with a friend.