Some Project 'Finish Up'

Hopefully, your child brought some of his/her artwork home for you on Friday!  They had a wonderful time adding details to their 'measurement tree' and 3D tree.  We have some incredible artists!

VSO Concert at UMS

Last week we were treated to a performance by three very talented musicians from the percussion section of the Vermont Symphony Orchestra!  They taught us a lot about music and instruments from around the world and were very entertaining while they did it!

1st Graders and Coding!

By now many of you may have heard about our 'hour of code' today in first grade!  We started by inviting Ms. White's class to join us during morning meeting.  We connected the idea of computer programming to writing a strong 'how-to' (procedural) piece of writing.  You can see in the pictures below that Ms. White was following directions from first grade students on how to draw a snowman.  We then had an opportunity to try some coding as a large group and in pairs later in the day.  Some great apps are:  ScratchJr., Kodable, and Lightbot.  I think that students really enjoyed these activities and we will continue to practice more coding as the year goes on.

Hour of Code

I am hoping that many of you have already heard about our new interactive projector!  While the level of enthusiasm and motivation are high I want to introduce our class to coding.  This is the perfect week as it is 'International Hour of Code' week.  If you are curious to learn more please use this link.  I know that you may be wondering why I'll be doing this and the answer is simple.  I want students to know that they are creators and inventors!  Over the next few days ask your child about coding and what his/her thoughts are around the activities.

Daily 5 Choices

Students have been very excited to work at Daily 5 stations during literacy!  These activities happen while I am meeting with 'book clubs'.  Each week there are some new choices for stations which always make it more interesting and fun.  The objective is to keep students engaged in reading and writing activities through a variety of methods. 

Magnet letters for 'red' word practice.

Writing station

Art station

Technology in Room 6!!!

Today students (and Mrs. Hughes) were very excited to begin using our new interactive projector!  Our class was chosen to pilot this new piece of technology.  Along with something called 'mirror 360' we now have the ability to show multiple screens (from multiple sources) all at once!  The boys and girls were most excited about the fact that two people can write on the board at once and it's soooo much easier to write.  Keep watching for all of the things we'll do with this incredible gift!

This was at 8:30 a.m. this morning.  By 12 noon we had a great whiteboard installed which looks fantastic!

Guidance: Bullying vs. Normal Problems

In guidance Mrs. McCleary has been teaching us the difference between a bully and someone who may be mean to us just once.  Ask your child if they remember what a 'bystander' is and how he/she can be a 'helpful bystander'.

Sharing our Writing!

This morning we had an opportunity to read our most recent published 'small moments' to Mrs. Anderson's kindergarten students.  We have been talking a lot about writing for readers so it was great to have new 'audience' members!  I tried to grab photos of each group as quickly as I could (I hope that I didn't miss anybody).

Art and More Art!

Today, we took some time to begin two (yes...two!) art projects.  One is connected to our math unit on measurement (I forgot to take pictures, but will be sure to showcase the final projects) and the other is connected to winter and literacy!  The fun idea for our snowman project came from Deep Space Sparkle!  If you'd like to see what our process will be please use the following link.

School-Wide Meeting

Once a month we have school-wide meetings.  These are run in a similar format to our regular classroom morning meeting.  Each classroom will have an opportunity to share something they've been learning, teach a greeting, or teach an activity.  Today's meeting was primarily led by some kindergarten classrooms, but it was neat to have Mr. Antonicci do the 'share' about his blog. 

Small Moment Publishing

This week students have been hard at work publishing one more small moment (personal narrative) before we begin a new type of writing next week - technical writing!  I have been blown away by these stories, how hard students have worked, and how carefully they edited.  We will be celebrating by sharing our stories with Mrs. Anderson's kindergarten class tomorrow!

Reading Workshop

Today was an exciting day for first graders!  Boys and girls were able to choose which 'Daily 5' station they wanted to go to for the first time today.  This is a literacy time which provides students the opportunity to practice reading/writing in a preferred way as well as allows me to pull 'book clubs' (reading groups).  I got very wrapped up in the Daily 5 today so I forgot to take pictures. Sorry. :(  Pictures will come soon!

Holiday Party

Please use this link to check out our sign-up for our classroom holiday party. Thank you!

Awesome Math Thinkers!

Today's math mini-lesson focused on the importance of familiar numbers (i.e. 5 or 10) and how those familiar numbers can make our math work so much easier.  I rolled six dice at a time under the document camera.  Students had to figure out the total and explain which numbers they added first, second, etc... It was great to see students 'unpack' the number 10 and look for efficient ways to add lots of numbers.  Good work first graders!

Snow!

It is always an incredibly exciting moment when snowflakes start to fall for the first time during the school day!  Today we took advantage of all the excitement and ran outside for a quick moment trying to catch snowflakes!  If your child mentions we did this without our coats and hats...they're right.  Shhh...don't tell. :)

Oobleck!

Today students continued to explore the properties of solids and liquids by creating Oobleck!  The big question was "is it a solid or a liquid?"  The answer is both!  Without pressure the mixture acts as a liquid, but when pressure is applied it shows properties of a solid.  Unfortunately, my hands were a bit dirty and full so I couldn't video/photograph much of our experiment, but I found this video that shows what happened.

The one photo I was able to get!

Ticks

Over the course of the last week our school nurse has removed several ticks from different students.  Hopefully, as the weather begins to cool down this will no longer be an issue.  However, in the meantime Nurse Kelly encourages parents to check their child's skin (especially if they've been playing in leaves or tall grass) and pay attention to areas where your child complains of soreness or pain.

Student Bloggers?!

Yes. You heard it right!  We are now all blogging!  This week first grade students wrote their first blog post.  For right now we are focusing on logging in, creating a title for our posts, and getting our ideas typed.  We hope that you will visit our blogs often (as the year progresses students will add more than just text to their blogs) and leave comments.  Our hope is to really drive home the fact that writers write for an audience.  Please don't worry that there are misspelled words and strange formatting...we'll get there!

Building with Solids

This afternoon as a part of our study on 'solids and liquids' students had an opportunity to build structures using a variety of solid objects.  The purpose was to encourage students to discuss the properties of solids and how those properties would affect what they were trying to build.  The first graders did a great job with both building and scientific thinking!  They also had a lot of fun doing it. :)

Writing workshop

We have worked really hard since the start of school to create a writing environment where children feel confident, successful, and independent.  We still have room to grow, but I think this is a pretty impressive video of first graders hard at work!

Go Noodle!

We take many movement breaks throughout the day in first grade.  Recently, students have become 'hooked' to a site called, Go Noodle.  Although I don't want them to use our class site at home (we are earning points all together) it is very easy to set up an account.  I promised some eager first graders I would provide the link so here it is:  Go Noodle!

Reading Mini-Lessons: Character Traits

First grader readers did an incredible job this week when it came to analyzing character traits.  We read many fun books together and had some great dialogue about whether certain words were truly a character trait or were they simply an emotion that the character had due to an outside event.  I know...major thinking for first graders!

Spelling Choices

Today, students were able to choose from a variety of stations to practice their 'red words'.  These can be tricky (especially since they need to be memorized).  The more students practice these words both at school and at home the faster they will master them!

Math Monsters

Last week we all made 'math monsters'.  This was a fun Halloween activity that really made students focus on place value (i.e. ones place, tens place, hundreds place).  I was very impressed with both the creativity and counting!

Homework this Week

If your child came home and told you that he/she only has math homework this week - he/she was correct!  There is not a new list of spelling skills for this week.  Due to Halloween and a very busy day on Friday we are finishing up our SWR Proficiency test and will then review for the remainder of the week.  Thank you!

Combinations of 10

Students enjoyed working with their thinking partner to show as many combinations of '10' as possible.  They were expected to use their Rekenrek and then record their math thinking with an equation.  Students quickly realized that not only are there many ways to make 10, but they also noticed knowing 'turn around facts' makes addition easier (i.e. 9+1 = 1+9).

Visit with Fire Fighter Jeff!

This morning we joined Ms. White's class for a visit with Fire Fighter Jeff!  This was a great connection to both Community Helpers and Fire Safety Month.  We learned/practiced four important phrases today:

1. Stop, Drop, Cover your face, and Roll

2. Get Low and Go!

3. Get Out and Stay Out!

4. 9-1-1- is for emergencies

Thank you Colchester Fire and Rescue for all that you do for our community!