TALENT

     Today the students put on a talent show.  FANTASTIC!!!!!  I just amazes me how wonderful the children of this school are.  There was singing, dancing, piano playing, super cool stuff.  BRAVO to all that performed!

     We have been watching the eaglets of Washington DC grow.  Boy do they grow fast.  If you haven't checked out the live web cam, you are missing out.  click here for Eagle cam

     In math, we have just started telling time.  Please practice this at home.  One way is to use "time talk".  "We have practice tonight at six o'clock."  "Seven o'clock time to get up."  "Dinner will be ready at six, about 30 minutes from now."

     Next week in science, we will be talking about the states of matter: solid, liquid and gas.  I'm expecting that to be lots of fun. 

March Madness

     It's hard to believe March is already here.  It should fly by if the weather forecast is correct.  Next week is supposed to be nice and warm.  Please keep in mind that although it may be 70 degrees outside it is still cool in the building.  It always seems warmer outside than in during the springtime. 

     Students have been working hard.  We are currently working on map skills.  We've read books about maps and the children drew a map of a room in their house.  They included windows, doors and furniture.  We are currently making a book about some of the "places" we live.....Woburn, Massachusetts, United States etc. 

     This week the PTO had a magician come and perform.  His show had a Dr. Seuss theme which was perfect for Read Across America.  The show was FANTASTIC.  It really was amazing.  I hope you heard all about it. 

     We have completed lots of different writing assignments throughout February.  Students worked really hard learning and writing about George Washington for the district wide assessment.  I was very proud of how well they did and more excited about how motivated they were to write. 

    St. Patrick's day is right around the corner.  I have a fun week of science experiments planned.  I'm really looking forward to it and I hope it's a huge success.  Stay tuned.

Happy 2016

     Welcome back!  I hope everyone had a wonderful and restful holiday because we are BACK IN FULL SWING.  We've had a busy week.

     We started the week by brainstorming and writing New Year resolutions.  We talked about things we wanted to do and learn in 2016.  Many students are hoping to learn how to tie their shoes.  I know everyone is always rushing out the door, at least I am, but the kids are ready to learn.  If your student doesn't know yet, teach them.  I know it takes patience but they'll get it.  They also should be able to zip their own coats, especially now that the weather is COLD.

     In math we have been comparing and contrasting numbers using greater than and less than symbols.  When making the symbols, I tell the students to think of an alligator.  His big mouth wants to eat the bigger number, but "no drawing teeth".  Only I can do that.

     We read an adorable story called Owl Babies.  The little owl was so cute.  He just wanted his mommy.  I love it.  Many students also read Poppleton stories and a book about a family that moved into a new house.  Ask your student to tell you more about these stories.

     Next week we will start a unit on penguins.  SUPER FUN.  I can't wait for the students to meet Tacky.

Scaredy Squirrel

     We have been having lots of fun with Scaredy Squirrel.  Scaredy is afraid of EVERYTHING and we've been reading stories about his adventures.  We created our own squirrels this week and wrote about them today.  I expected at least three sentences that had proper punctuation and capitalization.  I was very please with how they came out.  I hope you had a chance to read about your student's squirrel today.

presents for Scaredy

class of squirrels

     In science we have been learning about living and non-living things and what all living things need to survive.  We also read about the life cycle of frogs.

     Social studies has been lots of fun.  Mr. Larry Guiseppe did an excellent job speaking with our students at the Veteran's Day program.  We have also been comparing and contrasting our lives to that of Pilgrim children long ago.  Ms.  Cotter has invited us to her Thanksgiving play next week which is always a smash hit.  I'm looking forward to that.

     Math is getting tricky.  Finding unknown addends is hard stuff:  ex 5+___=9.  If you are noticing your child struggling,  please give them a little extra support at home.

dice math game

     This week, I had a sight word game focusing on long vowels.  We haven't formally studied them yet but have touched on them a bit, mostly v-e words like "cake".  I knew it would be hard but the students told me they were up for the challenge.  I paired the students up and off they went to play.  They rocked it.  Yes, many were tricked on words like boat (they wanted to make a sound for "a") but after a quick mini-lesson they had it.  I even heard a student who doesn't particularly like new, challenging things say "this is actually fun".  WHOO HOOO.......way to make a teacher's day!!!!!

tricky long vowel fun

     Head over to our edline account to see pictures of our Halloween party.  Freeze dance......so fun!!!

Halloween Fun

     We are having lots of fun spreading the Halloween fun throughout our curriculum.  We can't get enough.  We have been writing up a storm and I'm seeing improvement with each piece.  Children should know what a sentence is, start them with capital letters, and end them with punctuation.  We will be working more on when to use a question mark in the upcoming weeks.

     We played lots of math games.  Smash it subtraction was a huge hit.  Students walked around the room looking for subtraction sentences.  They then used play-doh to build and smash to find the answer.  Super fun.

     We played both an addition and subtraction game with these fun erasers.

     We have also been making fun fact families with halloween cards.

     Bats have been a hot topic this week.  We painted bats using some of our million paper plates.  We will make pumpkins with more plates tomorrow.  We charted our opinions of bats and read both non-fiction and fiction books about bats.  We even gave Miss Sarah and her dad homework tonight.  After reading Stellaluna, Miss Sarah told us that she and her dad LOVE that book.  The students were writing whether or not they thought the birds and bats would remain friends so we asked Miss Sarah and her dad to write their opinions as well.  I can't wait for everyone to share their thoughts tomorrow.  

     Here is a photo I wanted to share last week of our class being invaded by Creepy Carrots.  

  

   I promised the students I would post these pictures from last summer.  They can explain.  What do you think about this bad?  Creepy or cute?

     We will be having our Halloween party/parade on Friday.  Remember to send an extra snack for  your child and his/her costume to school.  Next Tuesday, Nov. 3rd is election day and NO SCHOOL. Please mark your calendars.  

     

     HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!!

Moving Along

     Middle of October already!  Can you believe it?  We are moving right along in first grade. (I  know the title of this blog still says second grade, I'm going to leave it that way for a while simply because it's a lot of work to figure out how to change it and I just do not have the time.  I'm sure you all hear that.)

     I haven't had a chance to introduce to Miss Sarah.  Sarah Kenton is a high school senior/track star who helps out in our class from 11:30 to 12:30 each day.  It's fantastic to have an extra set of hands and she's invaluable in giving students a little extra help they may need to get through a lesson.  How lucky are we?  She is awesome.

     We have been reading up a storm and I cannot believe how far we've grown already.  I hope you are taking time each night to read with your child.  It makes a world of difference.  You reading aloud or him/her to you, it's all good.

     Students have been super busy.  We've been adding by counting up.  Ask your child to explain how they circle the largest number and use their fingers to count from there.  It's working like a dream.   Next stop, subtraction.  I hope it goes as beautifully.

     We learned about Christopher Columbus and made maps of our wing of the school.  Students made fact webs in groups of an animal and have been doing lots of writing.  I'm so proud of them.

     Halloween is sneaking up on us.  What is more fun than Halloween to a child?  The excitement is exhausting contagious and I will tap into it to motivate our little ghosts and goblins.

     Here are some pictures from the last few weeks.

reading CVC words (consonant, vowel, consonant)

sorting short vowel words

reading CVC words with a friend

dice rhyming game
(rhyme at home)

-at word search

     I hope to write again soon......BUSY, BUSY, BUSY

Pete and Clark

     We've had lots of fun with literature this past week.  We continued reading Pete the Cat books.  Do students ever get sick of Pete?  "Goodness, No!!!"  That quote is from Pete himself.  We also looked up some fun Pete videos and songs on line.  Click HERE for Pete's website.   You will find some fun stuff to check out.

     Clark the Shark was a class favorite too.  He's a BIG shark that has started school and wants to do good but sometimes he's just not sure how.  We had fun reading about some of his adventures.

     In math, students have been making lots of partners.  The partners of 6 are 1+5, 2+4, 3+3, 4+2, and 5+1.  We have also been doing some simple addition and subtraction problems.  Practice with your child at home you can use small object (like cereal, paperclips etc) as counters if you need to.

     We also have been writing and reading!  Very exciting stuff.  Children have been writing sentences every day and they just keep getting better and better, longer and longer.  Whoo hoo!

     Reminder, Tuesday is picture day and Thursday is a half day.  Dismissal will be at 12:30.