We've had fun these last two weeks! We did some pumpkin observations that started off with a mystery object. I was able to get a variety of pumpkins from my sister's farm u-pick and one was a very warty pumpkin. I wrapped the pumpkin in a bag with only the stem peeking out. Students then drew what they thought was in the bag and then drew what was actually in the bag. It was a fun reveal! The next day students explored adjectives by describing both the outside of the pumpkin and then I cut open a small pumpkin for them to touch and write adjectives that described the inside of the pumpkin. Conferences
I'll be spending the next couple of weeks updating assessments as I prepare for conferences. Be sure to sign up for a time when we can meet. November 22 & 23 are set aside so we can meet. I sent out a separate email with a form to sign up - if you didn't receive it please let me know. Important Dates Covid Test Kits sent home Monday, November 1 Teacher Planning Day - No School Friday, November 5 Covid Test Kits sent home Monday, November 8 Picture Re-Take Day Wednesday, November 10 Veterans Day - No School Thursday, November 11 Professional Development - No School Friday, November 12 Conferences Monday, Nov. 22 & Tuesday Nov. 23
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Science For science we are working on the process and characteristics of being a scientist. Students practiced their observation skills using a new tool this week, the loupe. First we practiced using the loupe - examining things around us like nametags, pencils and crayons as they learned how to bring an object into focus. We then went outside to select leaves and then used the loupes to observe the details and draw what they saw. Here are a couple of photos of the scientists in action. Math In math we are continuing to review the counting on strategy and using doubles and near doubles to solve addition equations. This week we explored commutative property - adding numbers in any order. We also used a new model called a number bond. Students use this model to identify the part, part, whole structure of equations. In this number bond students could write two different addition equations 5 + 3 = 8 and 3 + 5 = 8. Upcoming lessons will see us using the model for subtraction too. Covid Test Kits The first test kits should be coming home with your child if you submitted a form. See Ms. Clark's newsletter for details. If you have any questions let me know and I will gather information to forward on. Important Dates Covid Test Kits sent home Monday, October 18 Popcorn Friday Friday, October 22 The absolute highlight of the week was Thursday's Rainbow Day! Excitement was high from the time students arrived until dismissal. It is always a fun reminder about how much we enjoy making memories with Spirit Day. First grade was a sea of blue. We had some parent volunteers taking photos of students in small groups of 2 or 3 which will then be combined into an official schoolwide Rainbow Day photo. I can't wait to see it! Here's a little peek out our spirited kids waiting their turn. Growth Mindset
For some of our SEL (social-emotional learning) work this week we focused on having a growth mindset versus a fixed mindset. So often we hear young learners say, "I can't do that". We watched a quick video of a young skateboarder trying and trying to achieve a trick which he finally achieved with many tries. We talked about the Power of Yet. By adding that little word to a statement, we can change our mindset. So, "I can't do that" becomes "I can't do that yet". Everyone then shared something that they cannot do yet but hope to do sometime this year. You can support your child at home by reminding them that some things are worth waiting for and that those things take work. It was wonderful seeing so many of you at our Back to School Night and giving you a quick glance into our first grade world. Let me know if you were unable to attend and would like to view a copy of the presentation.
We have a new school secretary. Her name is Chris Andersons (she goes by Ms. Chris to kids). If you need to communicate with the office about absences, appointments, registration, contact information changes, etc, please email her at: [email protected] Ms. Amanda Shwetzer s no longer at Glencoe so please remove her email from your Glencoe contacts. Technology This week I'll be sending home a letter that gives you some information about the new student portal at https://myapps.classlink.com/home. I will attach a copy of your child's Quickcard which will allow an easy login option at home. (This is how we login at school.) The Quickcard replaces the Clever Badge that was used last year. We continued to work with the Dreambox and i-Ready math apps this week and also logged in to Lexia. Students will be using this app to practice their foundational literacy skills. Math In math our current lesson focus is on Doubles and Doubles Plus One. A letter came home in your child's folder on Friday that gives you more information and suggestions of ways to support your child at home. We are building upon on Counting On practice during this time. If the student does not know the double fact automatically, they figure out the answer using the counting on strategy. Rainbow Day This Thursday is Rainbow Day at Glencoe. Each grade wears a different color of the rainbow. First grade wears blue so if your child has something blue at home they can wear set it aside for Thursday! Dine Out for Glencoe Next Friday, October 8th (in service day) from 8am to 2pm local artisan bakery Tabor Bread will donate 15% of their proceeds to the Glencoe Elementary PTA! Important Dates PTA Meeting Monday, October 4 Rainbow Day (1st grade wears blue) Thursday, October 7 No School Friday, October 8 Dine Out for Glencoe @ Tabor Bread Friday, October 8, 9 am - 2 pm Back to School Night
Our Virtual Back to School Night is this Tuesday. There are two sessions. One begins at 5:30 and the second begins at 6:10. They can both be accessed from this Google Meet link. Your children created a list of activities and other information that they wanted to share with you. My presentation will include reviewing a typical day. I will also have a padlet available for you to list questions that may have not been covered. After the presentation I will review the questions and share information either through an email or on the blog. Here is a link to the padlet. Math This week your child was working on adding two numbers by counting on. When you count on to add you start with one number and then count to find a total. This strategy helps your child find the number of objects in a group without having to count every object. If your child is struggling with this you will see them starting with one and counting all the objects. You can help them practice by putting a group of objects in a cup and placing a few additional objects next to the cup. Have them say the group number and then touch each additional object and counting aloud. You could also have them make a fist and say their starting number and then raise a finger for each additional object. If you are interested, here is an article that explains the importance of children using their fingers in mathematics. Technology We had our first experience with our new Chromebooks this week. We reviewed the proper way to handle our Chromebooks. We used our Quickcards to login. These replace the Clever Badges that were used last year. I'll send a copy of your child's Quickcard home for those wanting to do online activities at home. We explored our new math curriculum's website by completing a Counting On tutorial and then another day we logged on to Dreambox. This program was familiar to some children from last year. We will be reviewing with Seesaw and Lexia next. Important Dates Back to School Night - First Grade Tuesday, September 28 Picture Day Tuesday, September 28 Book Order Due Friday, October 1 Rainbow Day (1st grade wears blue) Thursday, October 7 No School Friday, October 8 Back to School Night The first grade Back to School Night is scheduled for Tuesday, September 28. There will be two sessions, one 5:30 - 6:00 and the other from 6:10 - 6:40. I will send out a Google Meet code in a separate email and you can join at whichever time works best for you and your family. If you are unable to attend I'll share the slides after the presentation. I'm looking forward to sharing with you a bit of what first grade looks like for your child this year. Class Agreements We worked together as a class to decide what our agreements for learning would be. Each student then signs the poster that will hang in our classroom as a daily reminder of how we want things to go. It helps to provide a visual reminder for quick lessons reviewing expectations. I love that the first thing they came up with was that is is okay to make mistakes. Phonics We started our first phonics unit this week. Our program is called Fundations. This is a fairly new curriculum for our district so I will be learning right along with the students! The first few weeks are focused on sound/letter review with an emphasis on handwriting. It has been a bit challenging for some of our learners to transition to writing letters a certain way or adjusting their pencil grip to a more standard position. We review 9 letters this week and will continue next week. After a few more letters I will send home a document that shows the directions and coaching language so you can support your writers at home. One thing you can start now is encouraging your child to write lowercase letters and only capitalize the first word in a sentence and names. Book Order I am sending home our first book order on Monday. You have the option of ordering books online. I will attach an informational letter to the order form but please let me know if you have any questions. Also, I'm including order forms for both September and October so there are more books to choose from. Important Dates Back to School Night - First Grade Tuesday, September 28 Picture Day Tuesday, September 28 I apologize for not posting this sooner. I was away from home this weekend and when I was working on the post Monday night I forgot to save it! So here goes round 2 ... For a 4 day week it sure was busy! Community building continued to be a major focus for us. We are spending time getting to know each other and one way is through interviews. Each student will get a chance to be the subject as the rest of the class takes turns asking questions such as, "What is your favorite color? Do you have a pet? What game do you like to play?" I record their answers and then we read the text together while the interviewee points to the words for us with a special pointer. They then get a special clap or cheer - ask you child to demonstrate one of the claps or cheers for you. Students are enjoying learning what they have in common with each other and what makes their classmates unique. .As part of our writing instruction we are learning more about being illustrators. We find that students write more details in their stories when they have more details in their illustrations. We are starting off learning different ways to draw people. You can see a photo of the proud artists on the Photos page. In science we explored the question, What is a Scientist?. Students shared their ideas and then participated in a Mystery Science activity where they observe something ordinary and think of all the questions or wonderings they have about that object. We chose our hand to trace and add the details that we saw and then think of all the questions we might have. Some of our questions were, How do our fingers bend? Why do our fingers have lines on them? and What are fingernails made of? The best thing we can do (to quote Mystery Doug) is to Stay Curious! This week we will continue with our interviews and begin our math and phonics lessons with our district curriculum. More updates to come!
We are off and running! I appreciated the soft start and meeting the class over two days. We were able to go over some routines and get to know each other a bit before we all came together on Friday. What a wonderful group of students! I know we are going to have so much fun together this year.
These first few weeks will be filled with Getting to Know You activities and learning all of the different routines and procedures for first grade. We take things a bit slowly and grow our practice each day. This year has an added layer of making sure we practice social distancing, wear our masks and hand sanitize. Please double check with your child to make sure their mask fits snuggly and doesn't drop down below their nose. I know this will happen occasionally and students have been really good at responding to reminders. Our specials schedule is in full swing this week. P.E. is on Monday and Thursday. We have music on Tuesday and Friday. Library Checkout is on Wednesdays and Library Skills is on Thursday. Building our Classroom Community is a big part of the beginning of the year (and continues throughout the year). One of my favorite things is to have students make a community circle where we learn about each other, solve problems and learn about the world. Figuring out how to do this while keeping a distance was a challenge. I was able to use some of our classroom supply funds to purchase a speaker and wireless microphone. We tried it out on Friday and it worked great! Students stood in a circle and passed the microphone as they answered our question of the day and everyone could hear each other. We were all so excited that it worked so well. You can see a photo of students in action on the Photos page. You'll also see a few photos from the first few days including from our favorite activity - recess! Well this is all unexpected. I hope everyone is staying safe and healthy as we partake in social distancing. The silver lining for my family is that my niece gave birth to a lovely baby boy this morning! I'm a Grauntie! For now I am enjoying seeing pictures of him and getting updates from my sister but can't wait for the time when I will get to cuddle with him.
As of now the plan is that we are out of school for this week and then we have spring break next week. I sent home some things to help students keep their skills sharp during our time apart. They should have brought home 4 books they selected from our classroom library along with a copy of our anchor chart for Solving and Checking Hard Words. This is a great coaching tool to use with your child as they monitor their reading by asking themselves the three questions - Does it Look Right? Does it Sound Right? and Does it Make Sense?. Depending upon the question, there are tools they can try to read the tricky word. Students also brought home a journal - I just wanted them to have paper for writing but any paper will do! We are currently writing opinion pieces so I sent home a checklist and a copy of the Convincing Your Reader chart to guide their writing. They can write about things at home such as toys, games, food, tv shows, movies and books. If you have Amazon Prime they have episodes of Reading Rainbow which contain book reviews at the end of each segment. This can be a resource to give students ideas. I also sent home the login information for the Clever Student Portal. If you are trying to access this from an iPad you need to download the Clever app and enter that way. I tried it before I left school on Friday and found that students can access lots of different apps. They can continue with Lexia, read books on MyOn, write their own books on Book Creator (have them show you the nonfiction book they wrote), create projects on See Saw and practice math facts with Reflex. If they click on the Room 108 icon they can access more books to read on Epic. I am exploring other resources to support at home learning and have created a new page on this site. I am adding a date next to each link to let you know what new resources have been added. I am especially excited to spend time with author Mo Willems each day at Lunch Doodles with Mo! Check out the Learning Links page! Please don't hesitate to reach out. I am looking forward to seeing everyone on April 1st - no fooling!! |
MS. SCHIADAI teach first grade in southeast Portland where every day brings a new adventure!
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