Our UVM Intern, Miss Lewis!

We are so lucky to welcome our UVM intern to our classroom!  Miss Lewis will join our class most Tuesday and Thursday mornings as well as a few whole days this fall.

Welcome to First Grade!

Our Rainbow Fish

We read the Rainbow Fish by Mark Pfister and created our very own!  Each child made a scale to show how he or she can share and be a good friend.

Here's the skinny...

Dear Families,

We are in the home stretch of first grade now and the room is full of farms!  The students are deciding how many of each farm animal they want to add to their farms, how much pasture land they'll need, and where to locate them on their farms. It's amazing how much information your children have learned about farm animals and farming! Ask your child what he/she has added to his/her farm.

During our library time the children have learned about the 3 steps of the Super 3 research model: Plan, Do, Review.  They have chosen a "fat" question and have now been researching information to answer it. Ask your student what the difference between a "fat" and "skinny" question is.  Our fat question has to do with the role of horses on farms.

On Tuesday we will be visiting the book sale.  This is a great opportunity to pick up some gently used books for summer reading.  Each book will cost 25 cents.  I hope you are all having a fabulous three day weekend!

Moo!

Dear Families,

We had such a wonderful trip to Shelburne Farms last Monday!  We started our day at the Dairy Barn and learned all about caring for cows.  Check out our pictures of your children milking Starlight, and meeting newborn calves!  Ask your children about what happens in the milking parlor.  After lunch, we spent time at the Farm Barn and were able to hold chickens, but only if we could catch them! We also got to visit with the horses and goats.  We finished up our day watching farmers make cheese - from the milk of the cows we had met that morning.  Thank you to all of the volunteers!  We had such a great day!  

Back at school, your children are all very busy planning and creating their own farms during math and we're reading and writing about farms as well!  We have begun practicing for our first grade play, E-I-E-I Oops.  Please save the date, June 6th at 6pm!  We also enjoyed a performance today by the Vermont Symphony Orchestra! 

I hope you are all enjoying your weekend!  Happy Mother's Day!

Spring has sprung!

Dear Families,

I hope you enjoyed the break with your first graders!  It is so nice that we finally have some warmer weather just in time for the start of our Bridges math farm unit!   This is an interdisciplinary unit that will involve literature and social studies activities, as well as mathematics, including money, place value, mapping, and computation.

We have been continuing to work on elaborating in writing.  We spent a lot of time before break reading mentor texts to discover how authors lead us into their stories.  Then your first graders wrote their own wonderful pieces beginning with a setting,  describing a character, asking a question, a single word, and/or using dialogue.  This week we are reading and writing with a focus on how authors close their stories.

Before break we wrapped up our geometrey unit by making three-dimensional shapes out of toothpicks and spice-drops.  We tested them in bubble solution to see what shapes were formed by the soap film inside the frames and also what shape formed as we waved them through the air.  I was impressed by how well your children listened to me about only using the spice-drops as connectors and not eating them!

Speaking of STAR behavior... A couple of our first grade friends have earned 100 stars!  Way to go!  This is something to be proud of! To celebrate, these star students received a special shirt.  We have many more friends that are working hard and are so close to earning their shirts as well!

We're all looking forward to our field trip to Shelburne Farms coming up soon. Thank you to all of you that have volunteered to chaperone. I will send an email with more details soon to all volunteers. 

Fun indoors and out!

Dear Families,

Happy Spring!  It's nice to have the sunshine warming little shoulders outside at recess and cheeks rosy from running around rather than cold temperatures!

We have been busy here in our classroom!  The children have put the finishing touches on their penguin reports, and they are ready to share them with our reading buddies at some point later this week. Speaking of reading buddies, we had fun visiting them at their Toy Fair on Thursday.  The fifth graders created toys that demonstrated one or more of Newton's Laws of Motion. They were very impressive! 

During reading, our mini-lessons have focused on informational texts and the features authors use within them.  Examples of some text features include: photographs, labels, and captions. We have generated a list of these features, have found examples of them in books and magazines, and have discussed the author's purpose in using them. We will continue to add to this list during the coming week. Your children love this activity as this is a class full of curious readers who love learning new information through reading!

In math, we have continued our study of geometry and have added 3 dimensional shapes to our discussions and our math work places.  

We have an exciting week ahead of us!  We will have a visit from Champ on Monday.  He will be here to tell us about a new fundraiser for HCS which includes selling Lake Monster tickets to a Hinesburg Day at the ball park.  Look for more information to be emailed to you on Monday. On Wednesday, we will have an opportunity to watch our 5th - 8th graders perform "Willy Wonka" in the school play!  We'll also plan to squeeze in a lot of learning in between these activities.

If you give a kid a field trip...

Dear Families,

It has been a pleasure meeting with many of you at parent teacher conferences over the past week!  It is amazing how much progress all of the students have made since the beginning of the school year!  I have loved watching them grow both academically and socially.

We had a great field trip on Tuesday to the Flynn Theater. The production titled, "If You Give a Mouse a Cookie" was a musical that highlighted eight picture books including favorites such as "Martha Speaks," "Amazing Grace," and of course "If you Give a Mouse a Cookie!"  Your children had tons of fun making and eating pizzas, as well as sitting with their friends at Pizzaria Uno.  This was a much deserved celebration as all of our first graders have worked hard to earn over 500 STARs collectively this school year! Way to go, First Graders!!!

On Tuesday, our school will be recognizing Autism Awareness Day by wearing blue! We are doing this in an effort to help students understand what Autism is and how they can be a friend to children with Autism.  For more information about Autism check out this website:  http://www.autismspeaks.org/  

Please remind your child to wear blue on Tuesday!  Thank you!