IMPORTANT DATES
Monday, October 31st: Halloween! (1MC Fall Festival Centers)
Tuesday, November 8th: No School, Professional Day for teachers
Friday, November 11th: No School, Veteran’s Day
CONFERENCE SIGN-UP is posted outside the classroom. Please sign up for a time slot. This will be a half-hour meeting to receive and discuss the fall conference reports. If the times on the sign-up do not work for your family, please contact me and we can find a time to meet.
EVACUATION DRILL
We had an evacuation drill on Wednesday. Prior to the drill, we discussed reasons we might need to leave the school, such as a water pipe breaking spilling water in the school or the heater breaking in the winter. Our school has two evacuation sites, the Coolidge Corner Library for pre-K through second grade and the Coolidge Corner Movie Theater for the upper grades. Following the Evacuation drill announcement, we walked as a class to the library with the help of Brookline Police officers for crossing streets. The drill was a success. Please let me know if any questions arise regarding this drill.
MATH
We began the concepts of greater than and less than using the number line and the symbols <,>, and =. We learned these symbols through the story of a “Greedy Alligator.” He always wants to eat the number or amount that is more (greater). For example: 3<5 means three is less than five, and 6>2 means six is greater than 2. We learned a new game called Number Line Squeeze to practice these concepts; instructions will be included with this weeks’ homework.
LIBRARY
In order to check out a new book on Fridays, students will need to bring their library books back to school on Fridays (or earlier). Please enjoy your child’s library book together at home, and help your child remember to bring the book back to school every Friday.
WORD WALL WORDS: best, get, went, of
This week our Word Wall Words have a short e sound. We have continued to notice and practice word families (for example, if you can read and spell at, you can also read and spell hat, cat, mat, sat, etc.).
LITERACY CENTERS
This week, we began Guided Reading groups during Literacy Centers time. While students work independently at Literacy Centers, teachers will work with small groups to practice reading strategies with instructional level books. This means that students are getting small group instruction right at their level. We will practice strategies to approach books that are moderately challenging. As children increase their reading strategies, we will switch small groups accordingly, so students are always getting appropriate reading instruction. Due to our busy and interrupted schedule (picture day, evacuation drill…), some groups have not met yet. Ideally, each group will meet with a teacher 3-4 times per week.
COMMUNITY
Following discussion of Rules in different communities, we are thinking about different jobs that we have in our family community and our school community. This will lead us to explore other jobs in our community.
We will continue to focus on these two big ideas:
1. We have rules, roles and jobs in each of these communities.
2. We have different rules, roles and jobs in the different communities that we belong.
SCIENCE
We continued our Liquids Unit this week by identifying properties of liquids. We observed a variety of un-labeled liquids, noting the color of the liquid, the way it moves, and other characteristics. We have guesses about what the liquids might be, but our main focus is describing the liquids. Next week we will further explore the differences in liquids.
HALLOWEEN
We will celebrate Halloween on Monday, October 31st with many fall, pumpkin, and Halloween activities. We will not be sharing candy or bringing in costumes, however, children will have the opportunity to draw their costume and talk about costumes. On Monday, we will address literacy, math, science and community through these Halloween Centers.
RECYCLE CENTER
We have successfully opened the Recycle Center during Choice Time. It has been a huge hit! This center is a collection of scrap papers, magazines, interesting materials (old cards, crepe paper, garland, puzzle pieces, etc.), and old boxes (cereal, snack, shoes boxes, etc.). Children use their imagination and scissors, glue and tape to transform these objects into toys, homes for stuffed animals, books and more. Please feel free to donate clean, empty boxes or other items to our Recycle Center.
WEATHER
We will go outside for recess every day, unless it is raining. As the weather gets colder, please be sure to send appropriate outdoor clothing.
SNACK
Please pack a nutritious, filling, low-sugar snack for your child each day. We eat lunch at 12:40pm everyday, so our snack is very important to keep us energized during our long days.
*Please do not send Halloween candy as a snack. A small piece of candy may be sent with lunch, but we’d like to keep snack time for healthy, low-sugar snacks.
FIRST GRADE WISH LIST
We welcome donations of the following items for our classroom:
• Thick Markers
• Old Legos that your family is no longer using~ we’d like to create a Lego Center for choice time.
ASK YOUR CHILD…
These questions can be conversation starters to discuss the week in school.
• What did you notice about the liquids you observed?
• What are some jobs you do at home? What are some jobs you do at school?
• Can you name some words in the “ed” word family?
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