Just a quick update about a few things before vacation!
Hygiene
We have been giving out lots of reminders about proper hygiene in class. Topics have included handwashing after using the bathroom, using tissues instead of fingers and keeping hands out of pants. Please reinforce proper hygiene at home- we appreciate it!
Dismissal
Please have dismissal plans finalized in the morning before your child comes to school. Of course, there are emergencies and plans need to be changed. However, we are getting numerous phone calls a day which is disruptive to Mrs. Guy and our classroom. Many children are becoming anxious and distracted when their plans are changed. Thanks for your cooperation!
Kind Words & Tone of Voice
We continue to work with the children regarding using kind words and a kind tone of voice when there is a disagreement or when they are frustrated with each other. We have been addressing topics such as name calling, hurtful insults and problem solving. This is an area where all of the children are needing support at this time.
Upcoming Dates:
February 14- Valentine's Day! We will be exchanging Valentines in the afternoon. I am sending home an updated class list. There was a mistake on the first copy so please look for the new list!
February 17-21 School Vacation
I will post pictures and an update on academics soon!
Tuesday, February 11, 2014
Monday, January 20, 2014
American Hero Unit
We just began a new unit in Social Studies: American Heroes! We will be studying a new famous American each week for the next 12 weeks. The kids will learn about important people such as: Rosa Parks, Amelia Earhart, George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Alexander Graham Bell and more! The kids love learning about the past and I know they will enjoy learning about these important people, their character traits and their contributions to our country. We will be making a timeline on the back wall of our classroom to support our learning.
This week, we learned about our first American Hero: Martin Luther King Jr.! We sang, read poems and songs, watched short movies, wrote and made a craft as we learned all about this Civil Rights leader and his message of peace and equality. The kids were very engaged.....hopefully they have been sharing some of what they have learned at home. Here is a photo of the hallway display we made:
Science
We also finished up our science unit on weather by learning about the water cycle. We learned a great song to help us remember the 3 major parts of the water cycle: evaporation, condensation and precipitation. We watch some information on BrainPop Jr. and the kids each 'took notes' on the parts of the water cycle book after labeling a diagram. They were very patient and focused when we made Water Cycle Bracelets with string and pony beads. Don't they look so proud?
We talked a little bit more about clouds after reading Tomie dePaola's Cloud Book and made stratus, cumulus and cirrus clouds out of cotton balls. Our next unit will be focused on learning about solids and liquids. This is very hands on and is my favorite science unit. I know the kids will love it!
This week, we learned about our first American Hero: Martin Luther King Jr.! We sang, read poems and songs, watched short movies, wrote and made a craft as we learned all about this Civil Rights leader and his message of peace and equality. The kids were very engaged.....hopefully they have been sharing some of what they have learned at home. Here is a photo of the hallway display we made:
Science
We also finished up our science unit on weather by learning about the water cycle. We learned a great song to help us remember the 3 major parts of the water cycle: evaporation, condensation and precipitation. We watch some information on BrainPop Jr. and the kids each 'took notes' on the parts of the water cycle book after labeling a diagram. They were very patient and focused when we made Water Cycle Bracelets with string and pony beads. Don't they look so proud?
Tuesday, January 7, 2014
Happy New Year!
I hope you all had a restful and fun vacation with your families! I hope that you are enjoying your family calendar that your child made. This was a project that took the whole month of December to do and was quite labor intensive. The kids were very proud of their end product and enjoyed wrapping them with me and picking out the perfect bow.
My family had a fantastic vacation together- we went to the Aquarium, saw lots of family & friends, celebrated my grandmother's 95th birthday, my cousin announced she is having a baby and I attended beautiful wedding in New Hampshire. I also got engaged on Christmas Day!!! There was lots of happiness and excitement this holiday season!
Hopes and Dreams/Goals
At our Parent/Teacher conference in December, I shared your child's self assessment with you and gave you a copy to take home and discuss with your child. At the bottom, your child identified something they would like to work on in first grade. This has become your child's new goal for the second trimester. Your child drew a picture of themselves achieving their goal and have hung it in the classroom. We will be holding them accountable here in our classroom! Does your child remember what their goal is?
Animal Reports
As a final project for our literacy unit on animals, students worked in pairs to write an animal report. They needed to read a book to gather their information, take notes and then write a report that included a table of contents, headings, illustrations and a cover. This was a big undertaking for a mid year project but they all worked very hard on this and they came out wonderfully! I will be hanging them up in the hallway soon.
My family had a fantastic vacation together- we went to the Aquarium, saw lots of family & friends, celebrated my grandmother's 95th birthday, my cousin announced she is having a baby and I attended beautiful wedding in New Hampshire. I also got engaged on Christmas Day!!! There was lots of happiness and excitement this holiday season!
Hopes and Dreams/Goals
At our Parent/Teacher conference in December, I shared your child's self assessment with you and gave you a copy to take home and discuss with your child. At the bottom, your child identified something they would like to work on in first grade. This has become your child's new goal for the second trimester. Your child drew a picture of themselves achieving their goal and have hung it in the classroom. We will be holding them accountable here in our classroom! Does your child remember what their goal is?
Animal Reports
As a final project for our literacy unit on animals, students worked in pairs to write an animal report. They needed to read a book to gather their information, take notes and then write a report that included a table of contents, headings, illustrations and a cover. This was a big undertaking for a mid year project but they all worked very hard on this and they came out wonderfully! I will be hanging them up in the hallway soon.
Julia and Ashley taking notes on pandas
Timothy, Hunter and Mary working on their illustrations
Saul, Ashley and Sophia's final report (sorry about the upside down picture...technical difficulties!)
Tuesday, December 10, 2013
Christmas is coming...
Only 15 more days left till Christmas! The first graders are looking forward to the upcoming holiday, the first day of winter and vacation. The snowfall last week and today was very exciting and they are anxious for a good amount to fall so they can get out and play!
No pictures this week?
Nope! We are hard at work with a top secret project and I can't give you a preview! You will be surprised on December 20th when your child brings their project home. If your child will not be in school on the 20th, please let me know so your child can bring their project home early.
New skills
Students have been introduced to two big math concepts this week: telling time to the half hour and counting/trading dimes. They have worked hard and have picked these concepts up fairly quickly. First graders are doing a fantastic job solving a variety of types of number stories and showing their work with pictures, a number model and a number line.
In reading, we have been learning about main idea and details for the past two weeks- this can be challenging for the kids. They are able to orally share and write about a main idea and details (some need a little more support than others) and we are working on identifying these elements in our reading. We will be doing lots of practice with this skill!
In phonics, we have moved on from 'glued' sounds (-am, -am, -all) and are learning about adding the suffix -s to basewords. This week, we have focused on nouns as the baseword and how it changes the meaning. Next week, we will focus on verbs.
Parent Conferences
Parent conferences will be held this Thursday and Friday. I have sent a notice confirming your time in your child's folder. Conferences are 15 minutes long and we will be talking about your child's academic and social progress. If we need a longer amount of time, we can schedule an additional meeting. Please be on time and be mindful of the 15 minute block of time as many conferences are scheduled back to back. I am looking forward to meeting with all of you!
No pictures this week?
Nope! We are hard at work with a top secret project and I can't give you a preview! You will be surprised on December 20th when your child brings their project home. If your child will not be in school on the 20th, please let me know so your child can bring their project home early.
New skills
Students have been introduced to two big math concepts this week: telling time to the half hour and counting/trading dimes. They have worked hard and have picked these concepts up fairly quickly. First graders are doing a fantastic job solving a variety of types of number stories and showing their work with pictures, a number model and a number line.
In reading, we have been learning about main idea and details for the past two weeks- this can be challenging for the kids. They are able to orally share and write about a main idea and details (some need a little more support than others) and we are working on identifying these elements in our reading. We will be doing lots of practice with this skill!
In phonics, we have moved on from 'glued' sounds (-am, -am, -all) and are learning about adding the suffix -s to basewords. This week, we have focused on nouns as the baseword and how it changes the meaning. Next week, we will focus on verbs.
Parent Conferences
Parent conferences will be held this Thursday and Friday. I have sent a notice confirming your time in your child's folder. Conferences are 15 minutes long and we will be talking about your child's academic and social progress. If we need a longer amount of time, we can schedule an additional meeting. Please be on time and be mindful of the 15 minute block of time as many conferences are scheduled back to back. I am looking forward to meeting with all of you!
Friday, November 29, 2013
Happy Thanksgiving!
I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday! We spent a lot of time in first grade talking about Thanksgiving. We read books and poetry, sang songs, watched a movie, took surveys and made a glyph. Check out what we've been up to.
We read a great book called Turkey Trouble by Wendi Silvano. Turkey dresses up as other animals on the farm to try to disguise himself so he is not eaten for Thanksgiving dinner. The kids then made Wanted posters and used their creativity to disguise their turkey and offer a reward. These are hanging on our bulletin board in the hallway. Here are some highlights:
We also surveyed our whole class as we had an introductory lesson on pie charts. We found out that only 3 out of 18 students don't like turkey and 15 out of 18 do. Students then had to survey nine classmates, tally their data and then create their own pie charts and key to show their data. They did a great job doing this independently!
We also made turkey glyphs to show data about ourselves and to practice our cutting and listening/following directions skills. These were a lot of work but they came out wonderfully- plus they turned out to be a great decoration! The kids were excited to write things they were thankful for on each feather. After the turkeys were completed, we looked at them to gather data about age, favorite color and where the child would be spending Thanksgiving. We made tally charts and bar graphs to show this information. Ask your child to explain what their turkey glyph tells about them.
We spent a lot of time talking about the Mayflower voyage, the Pilgrims first year in Massachusetts and the first Thanksgiving. We looked at Plimoth Plantation online and the kids were very interested in the topic and were very excited to learn that Plimoth Plantation is not too far from Beverly. Haven't been? Great day trip once the weather warms up! We focused on 3 questions: Who sailed? Why did they sail? and What was it like? They learned lots of interesting facts about the voyage!
We read a great book called Turkey Trouble by Wendi Silvano. Turkey dresses up as other animals on the farm to try to disguise himself so he is not eaten for Thanksgiving dinner. The kids then made Wanted posters and used their creativity to disguise their turkey and offer a reward. These are hanging on our bulletin board in the hallway. Here are some highlights:
We also made turkey glyphs to show data about ourselves and to practice our cutting and listening/following directions skills. These were a lot of work but they came out wonderfully- plus they turned out to be a great decoration! The kids were excited to write things they were thankful for on each feather. After the turkeys were completed, we looked at them to gather data about age, favorite color and where the child would be spending Thanksgiving. We made tally charts and bar graphs to show this information. Ask your child to explain what their turkey glyph tells about them.
We spent a lot of time talking about the Mayflower voyage, the Pilgrims first year in Massachusetts and the first Thanksgiving. We looked at Plimoth Plantation online and the kids were very interested in the topic and were very excited to learn that Plimoth Plantation is not too far from Beverly. Haven't been? Great day trip once the weather warms up! We focused on 3 questions: Who sailed? Why did they sail? and What was it like? They learned lots of interesting facts about the voyage!
Sunday, November 17, 2013
Veterans Day Projects
We finished our Veterans Day projects this week! Each first grader wrote a thank you note that was delivered to Ssgt. Gary Bent. Ssgt. Bent served our country in the Army and is currently serving in the Air Force Reserves. He will be deployed again sometime this coming year. Ssgt. Bent is part of our extended Cove family as well. His wife and dog, Mrs. Bent and Serenity, work with us here at Cove. We were happy we could honor Ssgt. Bent for his service to our country and to help him celebrate his favorite holiday!
We also made our own veterans to hang on the bulletin board outside our classroom. We brainstormed some adjectives to describe veterans as well. They worked really hard on all of our Veterans Day projects and were very proud (so are Mrs. Clarke and I) of their work!
Conferences:
A purple notice was sent home this week listing available conference times. Please return ASAP and indicate your 1st, 2nd and 3rd preferred times. I will notify you of our scheduled time. If you have another child at Cove, please indicate this on the notice (include your other child's name and teacher) and I will do my best to coordinate with the other teacher so that your conferences can be scheduled back to back to make the most of your time. If you need another copy of the notice, please let me know!
Important Dates:
* Wednesday November 27- Early Release at noon. NO LUNCH SERVED!
* Thursday November 28 and Friday November 29- No School. Thanksgiving Break
*Monday December 2- Trimester 1 Report Cards go home
*Thursday December 12- Early Release at noon. Lunch is served. Parent Teacher conferences held.
*Friday December 13- No School. Parent Teacher Conferences held.
We also made our own veterans to hang on the bulletin board outside our classroom. We brainstormed some adjectives to describe veterans as well. They worked really hard on all of our Veterans Day projects and were very proud (so are Mrs. Clarke and I) of their work!
Conferences:
A purple notice was sent home this week listing available conference times. Please return ASAP and indicate your 1st, 2nd and 3rd preferred times. I will notify you of our scheduled time. If you have another child at Cove, please indicate this on the notice (include your other child's name and teacher) and I will do my best to coordinate with the other teacher so that your conferences can be scheduled back to back to make the most of your time. If you need another copy of the notice, please let me know!
Important Dates:
* Wednesday November 27- Early Release at noon. NO LUNCH SERVED!
* Thursday November 28 and Friday November 29- No School. Thanksgiving Break
*Monday December 2- Trimester 1 Report Cards go home
*Thursday December 12- Early Release at noon. Lunch is served. Parent Teacher conferences held.
*Friday December 13- No School. Parent Teacher Conferences held.
Monday, November 11, 2013
Happy Veteran's Day!
I hope you have all enjoyed the long weekend with your families. We had a much needed, relaxing weekend in my house. Both my boys finished up flag football (4 games on Sunday!!) and are looking forward to basketball season.
Social Studies
We began learning about Veteran's Day last week and the kids were very interested in this topic. The children were able to tell what a veteran is, when Veteran's Day is observed, list 5 branches of the military and list adjectives to describe veterans. To honor local veterans, we will be making a craft and writing a thank you note to a veteran. I will be delivering these this week.
Literacy
We continue to study our Big Question: How are people and animals important to one another? This past week, we have learned how animals, both tame and wild, can help people. We have also been focusing on Realistic Fiction vs. Animal Fantasy and have been studying literary elements such as character, setting and plot.
In Fundations, we have learned about 'Bonus Letters' (-ff, -ll, -ss and sometimes -zz) and continue to practice consonant digraphs (wh, ch, sh, th, ck)
Kudos to all of you for your continued work on sight words! The kids are very motivated and are moving along nicely in learning their words. We had several kids master the last (6th) list and were very proud when they were recognized for their hard work!
Math
Last week, we wrapped up our second unit in math. Homework was not sent home as many assessments were being given in school. Don't worry.....homework starts up again tomorrow! The kids have done an excellent job mastering skills such as: time to the hour, counting pennies and nickels and basic data collection and analysis. We have begun to review simple addition and related subtraction facts. As we move on, we will begin studying visual patterns, number patterns and counting. Time to the half hour, dimes and 'Frames and Arrows' will be introduced in the coming weeks.
Social Studies
We began learning about Veteran's Day last week and the kids were very interested in this topic. The children were able to tell what a veteran is, when Veteran's Day is observed, list 5 branches of the military and list adjectives to describe veterans. To honor local veterans, we will be making a craft and writing a thank you note to a veteran. I will be delivering these this week.
Literacy
We continue to study our Big Question: How are people and animals important to one another? This past week, we have learned how animals, both tame and wild, can help people. We have also been focusing on Realistic Fiction vs. Animal Fantasy and have been studying literary elements such as character, setting and plot.
In Fundations, we have learned about 'Bonus Letters' (-ff, -ll, -ss and sometimes -zz) and continue to practice consonant digraphs (wh, ch, sh, th, ck)
Kudos to all of you for your continued work on sight words! The kids are very motivated and are moving along nicely in learning their words. We had several kids master the last (6th) list and were very proud when they were recognized for their hard work!
Math
Last week, we wrapped up our second unit in math. Homework was not sent home as many assessments were being given in school. Don't worry.....homework starts up again tomorrow! The kids have done an excellent job mastering skills such as: time to the hour, counting pennies and nickels and basic data collection and analysis. We have begun to review simple addition and related subtraction facts. As we move on, we will begin studying visual patterns, number patterns and counting. Time to the half hour, dimes and 'Frames and Arrows' will be introduced in the coming weeks.
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