Field Trip Fun!

We had such a wonderful field trip! Enjoy these photos! 

Volunteer Appreciation (and More)

This week we give thanks to the many volunteers that have dedicated their time to our classroom and our school this year. This is my 17th year of teaching, and I have never had a year with even close to this many volunteers. I truly believe students would not be progressing at the rate they are without the time this group sacrifices to be here. Many thanks to all of you!

I would like to recognize this group of regular volunteers throughout the year:

Math Workshop: 

Kristen DePirro

Katelyn DeMarra

Missy McCarty

Katelyn Gates

Fluency Practice: 

Sue Behler

Anne Behler

Jami Troutman

Computer Lab:

Neil Sly

Copy Queen:

Kim Schreur

Data Binder Filer and Head Room Mom:

Katie Terpstra

ComingUp:

• Friday, May 12: Early Release Day
• Thursday, May 25: Field Trip (Students wear gray Bauer shirts)
• Monday, May 29: No School
• Friday, June 9: Last Day of School/Early Release Day
• Wednesday, June 14: 9:30-10:30am - Summer Reading Club

We have been very busy in our classroom! We have combined our current reading unit, math unit, and science unit on Life Cycles to write some amazing All About books. Your child hopefully has shared what topics they have written about. We all chose an animal first, now they may choose any topic they'd like. They have been researching their topic, taking notes, and writing a book with multiple sections/chapters. I am truly impressed by the work they are doing! It is just so exciting to see 1st graders engaged in research and writing!

We have been learning first hand about life cycles by observing caterpillars over the last week. Hopefully your child shared the excitement that happened yesterday. If not, please ask them to tell you. We have been observing and recording our observations. We should see butterflies soon!

In math we are working our way through our measurement and geometry unit. Continue to encourage practice with telling time to the hour and half hour at home. This week we learned about halves and fourths, as well as making new shapes by combining two or more shapes. We also touched on 3D shapes. Next week we will be measuring using nonstandard units of measure. 

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend!

1st Grade Update

I hope you all had a chance to enjoy this beautiful weekend! We have been spoiled lately with gorgeous weekends. We have entered the last full week of April, as hard as that is to believe.
Below are a few notes and important reminders.

Coming Up: 

• Friday, April 28: Field Trip and Summer Reading Club Notes Due
• Friday, May 7: Neon Day
• Friday, May 12: Early Release Day
• Thursday, May 25: 1st grade field trip - Tsuesink's Pony Farm and Tunnel Park
• June 9: Last day of school

A Few Notes:

• Water Bottle Reminders: With warmer days ahead, I would like to give some reminders regarding water bottles. Staying hydrated is essential for learning, however we try to make water bottles as manageable as possible.
• No screw on tops. First graders struggle to get these back on correctly. Sport or straw tops that are spill proof only. 
• Only water. No gatorade, chocolate milk, etc. Water is what keeps our brains ready to learn! And if a spill does occur, it does not leave things sticky.
• Label water bottle with child's name. We will be storing water bottle on drying mats on the counter starting next week. This will help with condensation getting on papers. It will be important to have your child's water bottle labeled with his/her name.

• Shorts and Shoes: Though spring is here, our classroom is still quite cool. Layers are a great idea this time of year. Several students really want to wear shorts and short sleeves daily, however they end up pulling their t-shirt over their legs to stay warm. Layers allow options. A reminder to check your child's behavior calendar if you need a reminder of what days are PE days to be sure your child has the proper shoes. 

• Field Trip and Summer Reading Club Notes: Your child should have brought home two yellow notes in his/her folder on Friday. The first was regarding our field trip on May 25. The second was regarding the Summer Reading Club program Mrs. Farrell and I will be offering this summer. If you do not receive either note, please let me know. Both forms are due by Friday, April 28. Thank you!

• Reading and Writing: We have begun our animal research project. Students are busy reading about their animal, taking notes, and writing a nonfiction book with chapters. I am truly amazed by what writers they have become! It is so fun to watch them with this new genre. It is truly exciting!

• Math: We took our test on Friday, and are moving onto a new unit this week. Our new unit will first focus on telling time, then will move onto measurement, geometry and equal shares (fractions). We will be telling time to the half hour. Feel free to start pointing out clocks your child may have around him/her, and start to practice with telling time. 

• Science: We continue to explore weather and will be weather observers this coming week. 

1st Grade News

With only 8 weeks of school left, there will be a lot we are packing into the weeks ahead to be ready for 2nd grade!

Coming up: 

• Friday, May 7: Neon Day
• Friday, May 12: Early Release Day
• Thursday, May 25: 1st grade field trip (more details coming this Friday - be sure to check your child's folder!)
• June 9: Last day of school

Reading:
We started a new reading unit this week. We are are becoming researchers where we are diving into both fiction and non-fiction books about a single topic. We spent some time this week sorting and organizing our classroom library. We found books specific to animals, and by the end of the week, we all selected an animal to read and learn more about. Ask your child what animal he/she is studying. You may encourage checking out books from the library about their animal, or helping them search online for more information. We will be crossing over from reading about their animal to writing about them in the coming weeks.

Writing: 
We wrapped up our narrative unit, or small moment stories, this week. Students selected one final topic (spring break gave us many ideas!), and spent the week producing their best work. It is so exciting to see the growth students have made in writing!

Math: 
We are continuing to work through unit 6 in math, Comparisons and Data. We are working through comparison story problems currently (identifying more and fewer, etc.).

Science:
Spring is definitely a great time of year to study the weather, and students are always exciting to engage in conversations on the topic! We began our weather unit last Monday and have learned about temperature and clouds. We will focus on precipitation this week and being weather watchers.

Read and Feed Day

Read and Feed day was a success! Students have enjoyed a day full of our favorite thing - reading! They loved building forts to read in. We were able to team up with Miss B's 2nd grade class and read our narrative stories to them. They read opinion pieces to us. We also had mystery readers surprise us - Mr. Lary and Mrs. Hall. We will end our day by partner reading with Mrs. Farrell's 1st grade class. Thank you for the wonderful snack donations. They definitely fulfilled the "Feed" part of our day. Enjoy these pictures of students reading with 2nd graders (some students were too well hidden in their forts!), as well as Mr. Lary reading to us.