Thank you, thank you, thank you!

Wow! I'm so overwhelmed by the generosity of these students and families! Thank you SO much for the surprise baby shower on Friday afternoon. That was so fun and so thoughtful of everyone to organize such a great event! Here are some pictures that Mrs. Alili, our Junior Achievement volunteer, took during the party! Thank you again - I'm more touched than I can possibly tell you!

Class News - December 7

CURRICULAR NOTES

In reading this week, we’ve learned about words starting with l clusters (gl-, fl-, sl-) and we worked on drawing conclusions in our reading, based on story clues and prior knowledge. We also started a new author study this week. We are reading books by Jan Brett, who writes stories and draws pictures from all different parts of the world. So far, we’ve read Honey, Honey…Lion!, The Umbrella, and The Mitten.
In math this week, our geometry chapter has focused on solid shapes. Students have been learning names and properties of solid shapes such as cube, sphere, rectangular prism, pyramid, cone, and cylinder.
During social studies, we’ve wrapped up our unit on families at home and students made accordion books showing the people in their families. We had our final Junior Achievement lesson at the end of the week. Students enjoyed playing charades to act out different jobs and learning about how people earn money for those jobs and use it to pay for their needs and wants.
In science, we’ve been learning about different types of living things. We have learned about traits of mammals and traits of insects.
In writing this week, students have been working hard on revising their Special Me drafts. First-graders are learning so much about working through the steps of the writing process and producing wonderful final drafts!

SNOW PANTS AND BOOTS
It’s getting to be the time of year when we need to have snow pants! Just to let you know, we do take students out for recess as long as the temperature is above 10 degrees. Students really enjoy sledding on our little hill and building forts when it’s snowy, so if your child wants to play in the snow, he or she will need to bring snow pants and boots to wear outside. (Students are expected to stay out of snowy areas if they are not wearing snow pants and snow boots.) If you would like to leave a set of these items at school rather than hauling them back and forth, that is just fine! The snow pants can hang on your child’s hook and the boots can be stored on the ledge below the hooks. Please write your child’s name inside all pants and boots, as these things tend to get mixed up and many look similar! Thanks in advance!

Class News - November 30

CURRICULAR NOTES

In reading this week, we’ve learned about words starting with clusters (gr-, fr-, tr-) and contractions with the word is (he’s, she’s, who’s, that’s). We also worked on categorizing and classifying information as we read to make sure we’re understanding stories. Finally, we’re just wrapping up our author study of Tomie dePaola. We read some of his nonfiction books this week, including The Popcorn Book, The Quicksand Book, and The Cloud Book. Students are continuing to work on a cross-curricular art project with Mrs. Craven based on another dePaola book, The Legend of the Indian Paintbrush.
In math this week, we started a chapter on geometry. Students have identified different ways to sort objects and shapes and focused on math terms like geometry, side, corner, and vertex.
During our social studies time this week, we’ve had two Junior Achievement lessons. We discussed the importance of jobs that family members do both inside and outside the home and we created a map showing where to obtain our needs and wants within our community.
In science, we’ve started a new unit on living and non-living things. Students have learned terms like trait, necessity, natural, man-made, living, and non-living. We also began learning about traits specific to mammals and listed different types of mammals.
In writing this week, we started a new writing project called Special Me. Students are planning and drafting their stories about what makes each one of them special and unique.

SPELL-EBRATION
Thanks again so much for all your help with our Spell-ebration fundraiser! I’m happy to report that our class spelled a total of 206 words correctly and raised over $890 for our school. What a huge achievement! Our “Breakfast in Bed…clothes” party was a huge success—especially with the addition of a surprise blizzard! Watching the snow and eating pancakes was a fun way to spend the morning, and a great way to celebrate all our hard work!

REMINDER
I wanted to give everyone a heads-up reminder about the dates that I’m planning to be out of school on maternity leave. I’m planning (let’s cross our fingers!) to be here through December 21^st at 1:00 when we dismiss for Winter Break. I plan on returning the week following Spring Break, starting March 24^th. Our 1^st graders are starting to get very excited about the baby coming, asking me for daily updates on how many days until he or she gets here!