Introducing.... Fireball! Fireball is our new class fish, and a fan favorite of fourteen 6 and 7 year olds. Her name was decided by a class vote, which connected beautifully to the presidential election that was occurring at the time. The class came up with different names and chose a name through a fair voting process. Other names included, Mark, AZ, Luke, and George. Notice a common trend? The children sure do love their families! Fortunately, a marine biologist donated the fish to each classroom, and took the time to come in and teach our students different facts about Betta fish and how to care for them. The children compared different fish, noticing the size, shape, color, if it was female or male, and the behavior of the fish. They put the fish in order by the color noticing all the different shades of blue and red. On a different day, the children had an opportunity to make formal observations using other class fish, focusing on writing 3 complete sentences that describe the fish. It has been a fun, fishy kind of week!

Above: Evelyn, and Marlo observing the Betta fish. Michael, Andrew, and Melania were in charge of giving Fireball freshwater and food!

For the past week, the authors have been very busy writing for the personal narrative class project. The students have been writing about a nature walk we experienced together. The class project focuses on sequence and true information. Each child is drafting, revising, and publishing a personal narrative on the nature walk. To build on this, the children will soon be working on their own individual personal narrative, where they review the different features of a personal narrative and choose an episode from their own life to write about and draft, edit, and publish their work. Children will have partners who will read each other's drafts and give feedback to improve narrative qualities. Here are some examples of the children's writing thus far:

• "That was a happy day. It was a happy day because I spent time with my friends." (Andrew)
• "There was a daisy garden. I love my grandpa and it reminded me of my grandpa." (Kaydence)
• " I felt chilly and I felt happy. I though that a iceberg was hitting me." (J'Lyn)
• "I was cold. It was so cold my nose was running." (Aaliyah)
• "I saw a leaf plant. It was almost as big as me," (Alexis)
• "When I stepped in the wet dirt it felt squishy." (Sophia)

Happy writers, happy readers, happy kids.

I would also like to mention that the SCOPE Daisy/Brownie Troop 90790 are currently working on a service project that will help a family in need during the holidays. If you can, please donate a canned food or boxed food item by November 15th. There are two boxes located at the front office that are just waiting to be filled! If you do send in the food items with your child, we will make sure the food gets to where it needs to go. Next time you go to the grocery store, perhaps you can bring your child along and have them pick out a food item they think the family would like best.The more involved they are, the better! Thank you very much!

Have a wonderful weekend!



Online Homework

Wow! What a storm! It's exciting when work, school, etc is cancelled....but it's important to remember those people who will suffer true devastation due to this storm. Due to the cancellation, there is online homework for the children:

1. Please read and solve the following number stories. Make sure to tell a parent the strategy you used to solve the problem (use your fingers, count with tallies, count out loud, draw a picture, draw a number model, mental math, use a number line, etc....)

• Melania has 10 shirts. She gives 4 shirts to her younger sister. How many shirts does she have now?
• You have a nickel. You buy 3 pieces of gum for 1 cent each. How much money do you have left?
• You have 8 cents. How much more money do you need in order to buy a crayon for 9 cents?
• An eraser costs 8 cents. Scissors costs 10 cents. How much less does the eraser cost than the scissors?
• Evelyn and Aaliyah were trying to save up for a new ball. They have 2 nickels. The ball costs 15 cents. How many more cents do Evelyn and Aaliyah need to buy the ball?

2. Please write at least 3-4 complete sentences about your feelings about the storm and the effects it had on your neighborhood. What do you observe? Are there more leaves on the ground, fallen sticks from trees, did you lose your power, etc... You can start your piece of writing by saying "The storm made me feel _________ because ________________. I see ______________ outside.  Remember your punctuation and finger spaces!

If you did lose power at some point: Please discuss with a parent what people did when they did not have power. How did they live?

Also, practice your spelling words and the different patterns you notice about each word.

Stay safe, warm, and dry! I will thinking of you!

Hello Friends!

This week, the children completed the first step to winter gardening. They dug out all the dead plants and weeds and took all their stepping stones inside. They pushed the leftovers to decompose in the woods, some using wheelbarrows, and some preferring to carry piles in their arms. Some of the children's job was to rake the leaves that surrounded the garden . They were great at this job, so hopefully this weekend will be as nice as today so you can have them out with you raking your leaves!

Quick note: On Monday, it was one of the best "Read to Self" moments I have ever seen with these children, even in Kindergarten. There strangely was not a peep in the room and all eyes were glued to the books. I just stood there and looked around in awe of the students. I took it all in, and thought how lucky I was to be their teacher.

Report cards are to be mailed on Friday, November 2nd. Please keep an eye out for them. I would be happy to answer any questions that anyone may have about the report cards or your child's progress.

Have a spooctacular weekend!

Good day everyone!

Thank you all for your participation with the Parent-Teacher Conferences. It was so great to sit down with each of you and talk about your child's progress and their attitudes towards school. It is very important to me that your child feels safe and welcomed at school, and that they have a positive outlook on learning. To reiterate, please know I am always available if you ever have any questions, comments, or concerns. I love hearing from parents!

In math, the children's minds are exploding with knowledge about coins. Boy, do they sure love money. They even love it more when they can count it! The children have specifically been focusing on exchanging pennies for nickels. I have found that when I expose the children to higher thinking throughout the day, they understand the concept so much easier when it is formally taught. In this instance, I have been incorporating dimes and quarters into our day in hopes that when I do introduce them to the exchange of the coins with higher value, they will understand better. There are some children who are already being challenged to exchange nickels for dimes. Here is a fun idea you can do at home: Have your child take off the seat cushions from your couch. Have them search for as many coins as they can can! No, stale Cheetos do not count! When they have found all the coins, help them count the nickels and pennies. Are there any exchanges they can do? If your child found dimes and quarters, don't be afraid to expand on the worth of the coins. During Daily 5 math, a favorite activity of the children was making designs out of coins. After their design is finished, they transfer their creation onto a piece of paper. They then have to count the value of their design. Here are a few pictures of the children in action: Jordan, Alexis, and Melania

Taking a look at the weeks ahead, the children will be learning about addition, subtraction, patterns, and higher level counting on the number line.

Regarding the children's reading, they have been working hard at using their schema (prior knowledge) to connect with the book they are reading. Good readers bring information from what they already know or what they have read before about a topic and connect it with what they are reading to increase their understanding of the text and to remember what they have read. I like to tell the children that it is like having a kind conversation with the book. They seem to really like that. The children have also been learning to identify the first and last part of a 1-2 syllable word, which helps them to both read and write the word. I like to cover up the last part of the word and have the children predict what the first part of the word is. The last part of a word is everything after the vowel. For instance, in the word "cat," the last part is -at. It keeps reading exciting, and almost a mystery!

The children have personal journals they write in everyday. Sometimes what they write is based from a specific prompt, and some journal entries are thought of entirely by them. They have been doing so well with the journals, I have to share what the authors have been up too:

The work above was written by Melania, Isabella M., and Kaydence

If you want to get more books based on your child's DRA level, go to:

1. scholastic.com

2. Click on the tab "Books and Authors"

3. Click on "Reading Level"

4. Choose the DRA option, choose 1st grade, and your child's DRA level

5. You now have a large list of well-known books connected to your child's DRA score. Pretty cool, I would say!

It looks like there is going to be spectacular fall weather this weekend--- go outside and wonder with your child!

Sincerely,

Miss Leslie

Online homework for Monday, October 15th, 2012 (due to Parent-Teacher Conferences)

Have a parent give you a handful of coins. Answer these questions:

1. How many pennies did they give you? What is the value of all your pennies combined? (Counting by 1s)
2. How many nickles did they give you? What is the value of all the nickles? (Counting by 5s)
3. How many dimes did they give you?
4. How many quarters did they give you?

Challenge questions:
1. What is the value of all the dimes combined?
2. What is the value of all the quarters combined?

Super challenge question:
1. How much money do you have altogether?

Trace the coins to make a fun design. Bring it with you on Tuesday to share with the class!

Hello scientists! The online homework for Wednesday, October 10th is as follows:

Please go on the Internet and watch this video with a parent. Click on the link below and it will take you to the video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PLZ9a5VgIqo

As you watch, think about the different needs of living things. Here are a few questions I would like you to think about:

• Do all living things have have basic needs to survive?
• What do plants eat for food?
• Do all living things have basic needs to survive?
• How is the environment, or habitat, of a living thing effect it's survival?
• What are examples of living things? What are examples of non-living things?

After you have watched the video, please look out your window and write and draw one living and one non- living thing you see outside. Discuss with your parent what that living thing needs to survive, and how their survival needs may be different then yours (Does it eat peanut and jelly sandwiches like you? Does it sleep in a house?) Please bring your observations to school on Thursday and we will discuss as a class!

Thank you parents for your participation with this!

Remember that the annual Fall Festival is tomorrow! Come for fun, games, and friends!

Ciao!
For the past 3 days, the chef's in Miss Leslie's 1st grade class have been busy preparing for the cooking of  garden tomato sauce. They originally got the idea of making tomato sauce from the abundance of tomatoes we have in our school yard. It would only make sense to  make something that required many tomatoes! On Wednesday, we went out and spent some time in our beautiful school garden harvesting the tomatoes. We compared what ripe tomatoes looked like compared to rotten tomatoes, and talked about why it was healthy to harvest vegetables straight from your own garden. Incorporating math into this scenario, the children thought of different number stories they could tell using the tomatoes and we had a "story share" on the logs. With the small cherry tomatoes, the children demonstrated what skip counting looked like (2 tomatoes, 4 tomatoes, etc...) On Thursday, the children learned the importance of washing hands before cooking, washing vegetables before we eat/cook with them, and what the term "blanching" meant. After the children washed the tomatoes, they put an "x" on it, and dropped it in a slow cooker filled with hot water. Would the tomatoes sink or would they float? The children used their schema from what they learned from COSI day of last year to investigate this question.  Shortly after, the children learned to gently peel off the skin of the tomatoes. They were comparing this cooking skill to brain surgery. Everyone participated, even the children who are not fond of tomatoes!

Above: J'Lyn, Isabella, Melania and Michael eagerly harvest tomatoes from the school garden.

Picture on Left: Evelyn and Kaydence just can't get over how juicy the tomatoes were!
Picture on Right: Sophia blanching her tomato. 

On Friday,  we added the onion, garlic and herbs, creating a delicious aroma throughout the classroom, and making us very hungry! Thank you to J'Lyn's mom for taking time out of her busy schedule to help us with the cooking. Her impressive garden knowledge made the day run smoother. Grazie!

 In math, the children have been exploring all the different ways we use numbers each day. The children discussed different reasons on why we need to be able to "read" and write numbers correctly:
Claire- Speedometers
Aaliyah- Clocks
Kaydence- Microwaves
Alexis- Money
Sophia- The calendar
It was interesting to hear all the different possibilities that the children came up with. We learned about the different parts of our phone numbers (area code, prefix, etc...) and noticed different number patterns found within a number grid. Math Daily 5 is really teaching the children independence, cooperation, and peer-to-peer checking, guiding, and praising.

Your child has been introduced to the accuracy strategy of cross checking. It is important to slow readers down when they come to a word they don’t know and teach them to apply the strategy of cross checking so they are able to fix the meaning and not just skip the word. Cross checking requires a person to constantly think and monitor meaning. It is a strategy for ensuring the words and pictures read make sense and match the letters on a page. To make your child aware of using this strategy, give him or her a piece of paper and tell him to make a tally mark each time he uses the cross checking strategy at home.

** FYI: Danimals Smoothie is giving away $30 000 to 5 schools for a playground makeover! Participants need to collect the codes that are found on the inside of the package, and then register that code under our school name at RallyForRecess.com. Our school has been registered but has not yet been validated, so I will let you know as soon as you can start registering the codes! For now, if you could start a collection of the Danimals Smoothie packages, you can register the codes as soon as our school is validated.

 

 With many thoughts always,

Miss Leslie