Weekly News

IMPORTANT DATES

·      Wednesday. December 5^th: Early Release Day, School ends at 12:30,

   Lunch is served.

·      Friday, December 21^st: Winter Vacation begins at 2:20 pm. This is a full school day. Lunch is served.

CHANGES IN THE CLASSROOM

This week, our classroom will look a little different. Based on a PTO grant  from last year, our class was awarded a SmartBoard. This is an interactive whiteboard that hooks up to a computer. We will be able to view presentations and videos on it. And even more exciting: we will be able to create lessons and games for the children to participate with via touch screen! It will be installed this week. So our meeting area will look very empty to make room for the installation. On Tuesday afternoon, the professionals will install the SmartBoard. We may take an afternoon adventure to the computer lab or library to avoid the distraction. Stay tuned for updates!

COLD WEATHER and SLIPPERS

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. This currently includes sweatshirts, jackets, and sometimes rain boots. In the winter, this will include heavy winter coats, hats, gloves, scarves, boots and snow pants.

Also, during the chilly boot-weather months, it is an option to bring slippers (with rubber, non-slip soles) to school. This will make for easy indoor-outdoor transitions, and give a warm and cozy feeling to the day. Your child is welcome to bring slippers (labeled with his or her name) and leave them in the classroom rather than take them home every day. We will have a place in the classroom to store slippers instead of leaving them in cubbies overnight.

   

If your child is missing a jacket or sweatshirt, please check the school Lost and Found, across the hall from the Main office.

MATH

Last week, we continued to explore addition and subtraction through number stories. We are exploring the stories and what they mean in real life. We are using a “Read, Draw, Solve” approach to approaching these problems. We talked about a variety of ways to you’re your thinking on a paper (draw a picture, number sentence, number line...) Stories that are particularly tricky to understand and figure out are ones with a missing addend (There are 10 apples in the tree 4 are red, some are green. How many are green?) and “How many more?” questions ( John has 4 books. Beth has 7. How many more books does Beth have than John?). We will do lots of acting out and drawing of these types of problems.

WORD WALL WORDS:

Last week’s words:      up     us          just          but          fun

These words wrap up our study of the sort vowel sounds with

short u.

This week’s words:          no     come     kick          black     clock

This week, three of our Word Wall Words have a ck at the end. We learned that these two letters stick together to make the “k” sound.  

SCIENCE

On Friday, we began our Science Unit: Light and Shadows. We began by discussing the sources of light and the importance of light. This week, we will explore different materials that light can and cannot shine through. This will lead to a study of shadows and their properties.

COMMUNITY

Last week, we began the Devotion Calendar project. We will work with two other first grade classes, one kindergarten class, one third grade class and one sixth grade class to create a calendar. Our class will be participating in the project by designing the borders for the months on the calendar.  When the calendar is complete, we will sell the calendars for $5 each and all profits will be donated to Heifer International.

Last week, we focused on the designing aspect, and as we move into the holiday season we will take a much closer look at the idea of needs vs. wants and how different communities in other parts of the world live. This week, we will discuss the idea of needs vs. wants. We will define needs as things that everyone should have to live (food, shelter, rest, water, warmth, etc.) and wants as extra things that are nice to have but you can live without them (toys, dessert, tv’s, etc.). We will also read Beatrice’s Goat, which illustrates how giving one goat to one family can impact a whole town! We will discuss the ways that Heifer International helps people all over the world. For more information on this organization, please read the attached letter from Beatrice, the actual girl featured in Beatrice’s Goat, or check out their website: www.heifer.org 

Devotion Calendar order forms will be sent home this week. Order forms can be turned in to the classroom or the main office. If you need additional order forms, just let us know.

VACATIONS and APPOINTMENTS

It is very helpful for us to know ahead of time if your child will be out of school. Please let us know if you will be taking a trip and missing school or if your child will be coming in late due to an appointment.  

ASK YOUR CHILD…

These questions can be conversation starters to discuss the week in school.

·      What did you draw for your page in our Not-A-Box class book?

·      What math game did you play with your partner this week?

·      What month did you design a calendar square for?

Thankful, Doodle Dice, and Thanksgiving Centers

We hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving and long weekend.

Here are just a few of the make things we're thankful for in 1MC:

Elias- Toys

Gavin- That we have PE two times a week

Roy- P.E.

Lihi- P.E.

Katie- Teachers

Rohan- Projects

Anya- Book boxes

Farah- Teachers

Rachel- Teachers

Sasha- Good friends

Naomi- Our classroom

Minti- Teachers

Itamar- That we have a playground

Steph- Teachers

Ben- Art

Ronan- Reading buddies and recess

Therese- That we get to learn, Spanish, and the marbles that we get

Hailey- Reading buddies and recess

Ms. McNamara- That all of the kids in our class are so friendly and kind to each other

Stephanie- For all of the times that the people in 1MC make me smile

Playing our new favorite Math Game, Doodle Dice:

Thanksgiving Projects:

Weekly News

IMPORTANT DATES

·      Wednesday, November 21st Early Dismissal, School ends at 12:00,

Lunch will not be served.

·      Thursday and Friday, November 22& 23rd: No School,

Thanksgiving Holiday

WORD WALL WORDS

       

stop         not     on      saw     are

This week, we continued our exploration of short vowel sounds, learning about words with short i. We also studied the Word Families of og, ox, and ock. For example, if we can read “ot,” we can add a new beginning letter and read more words, like hot, not, and dot. We will use Word Families a lot this year to go along with our Word Wall Words and Literacy Centers.

A NOTE ON THE BLOG…

Some families are having trouble accessing the blog. It might be related to using the original email link to open the site. This link works for your initial login, but for following visits, try going directly to the site: http://devo1mc.blogspot.com/

It may ask for your email or password that you created on your initial visit. Please let me know if you are having any problems logging in or visiting the blog.

MATH

We continue to work with number lines and practice taking jumps on the number line to express addition 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.

COMMUNITY

This week, we discussed the first Thanksgiving in America. We will be reading books about what it was like for the Pilgrims to come to America on the Mayflower and create a new community. We are learning about the reasons that they were thankful. We are also thinking about the many things we are thankful for today.

Following Thanksgiving break we will begin the Devotion Calendar project in which we will make a calendar to sell to raise money for Heifer International. We will talk about needs vs. wants and the ways that we can help people in other parts of the world. More information to follow.

FALL CONFERENCES

Please sign-up for a Parent- Teacher Conference. Sign-up sheets are posted outside our classroom. We will have one conference in the fall and one in the spring, in which I will share a written conference report.

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. This currently includes sweatshirts, jackets, and sometimes rain boots. In the winter, this will include heavy winter coats, hats, gloves, scarves, boots and snow pants.

   

These days, it can be chilly in the morning and warmer in the afternoon, so children often take jackets off at recess. Please label your child’s jacket/ sweatshirt. If your child is missing a jacket or sweatshirt, please check the school Lost and Found, across the hall from the Main office.

1MC WISH LIST

Extra Snack. We are running low on our back-up snack (usually Goldfish or another low-sugar, nut-free snack). We use this snack to fill in if children forget snack or lunch at home.

ASK YOUR CHILD…

These questions can be conversation starters to discuss the week in school.

·     What did you make in your Thanksgiving finger stamping

project?

·      How can a number line help you to figure out an addition or

subtraction math problem like 5+2 or 8-6?

·      What word won when you played “Roll a Word”?   

Weekly News

 IMPORTANT DATES

·      Monday, November 12^th: No School, Veteran’s Day

·      Wednesday, November 14^th: Early Release Day, School ends at 12:30, lunch is served.

·      Wednesday, November 21^st Early Dismissal, School ends at 12:00, Lunch will not be served.

·      Thursday and Friday, November 22& 23^rd: No School, Thanksgiving Holiday

WORD WALL WORDS:

       

it         in      is       did            said

This week, we continued our exploration of short vowel sounds, learning about words with short i. We also studied the Word Families of ig, it, and ick. For example, if we can read “it,” we can add a new beginning letter and read more words, like sit, kit, and bit. We will use Word Families a lot this year to go along with our Word Wall Words and Literacy Centers.

A NOTE ON THE BLOG…

Some families are having trouble accessing the blog. It might be related to using the original email link to open the site. This link works for your initial login, but for following visits, try going directly to the site: http://devo1mc.blogspot.com/

It may ask for your email or password that you created on your initial visit. Please let me know if you are having any problems logging in or visiting the blog.

MATH

Following lots of work with 5 and ways to make 5, we began to explore the Number Line as a tool for adding and subtracting. We defined a Number Line as a line with numbers that increase from left to right and the numbers increase at in steady increments (1, 2, 3...… or 5, 10, 15…...) We will continue to work with number lines next week and practice taking jumps on the number line to express addition and subtraction.

COMMUNITY

This week, we discussed the election in America. We learned about the job of the president and how people vote. We will read about and discuss Veteran’s Day next week.

We will also begin to explore maps by differentiating between ground view (from the side) and aerial view (from above, like what a bird would see). We will explore these different views by looking at pictures and objects. This will help us understand that many maps utilize and aerial view.

FALL CONFERENCES

Please sign-up for a Parent- Teacher Conference. Sign-up sheets are posted outside our classroom. We will have one conference in the fall and one in the spring, in which I will share a written conference report.

WEATHER

We will go outside for recess every day, unless it is raining or very, very cold. As the weather gets colder, please be sure to send appropriate outdoor clothing, including: boots, hats, mittens, scarves, and warm jackets. Your child may bring slippers to wear in the classroom. The temperature in our classroom also fluctuates, so it may also be helpful to send your child with layers for in the classroom.

ASK YOUR CHILD…

These questions can be conversation starters to discuss the week in school.

·      What are some words in the “ig” word family?

·      What is snunch?

·      What did you put in the Map of your Heart? Why did you choose those things?   

Early Release Days

School will dismiss at 12:30 pm on the following Early Release Days:
Thursday, November 8th
Wednesday, November 14th
Thursday, November 29th
Wednesday, December 5th

We will eat lunch at 10:40 am (We call it "snunch" since it is lunch at snack time) and will not have snack on these days.

Extended Day will come to pick up students in the program when school ends at 12:30.

If you have signed your child up for the Half- Day Matinee, your child will also be picked up from our classroom.

*Wednesday, November 21st is also an Early Release for Thanksgiving. School will end at 12pm. Lunch will not be served, however we will eat snack.

Some Halloween Pictures

What a fun (short) week we had in 1MC!