Room 10 Happenings!

Well the combo of 70 degree days, followed by snow, and soon-to-come vacation has Room 10 humming!  We are working hard to keep our energies contained, but we are indeed doing just that!

A few highlights from the past few weeks include...

• We have teamed up with Mrs. Teany's kindergarten class for Friday K/1 partner time.  We are reading together, sharing our writing and just getting to know the amazing children in each room.  Here are a few highlights...

• "Mr. President and the First Lady", as well as their growing eaglet twins are providing wonderful observations of this wild eagle family and their habitat.  We have watched the eagle parents feed their young, tend to their needs and are observing the growth and behavior of the family.  This is providing a perfect connection to our ongoing study of Organisms (which will be followed soon by our study of gardens, honeybees and other living things).  The children are making some wonderful written, illustrated and oral language observations.  Please login to the Washington DC site to check out our "first family":  DC Eagle Cam

• Thank you for helping your child send in a "collection" for our new writing unit:  Writing Reviews.  The children will be learning how to write opinions about the items in their collections, including explaining their judgments in convincing ways.  Over the course of this unit, the children will learn different writing techniques for persuading others towards their opinion, and how to use catchy introductions, comparisons and conclusions to hook their readers.  If you haven't yet sent in a collection, please try to do so by early next week.

• We were so pleased to be visited by local author, Melissa Stewart this week.  Melissa has written over 150 non-fiction science books for children.  A biology major by training, Melissa uses her background in science to write wonderful books for children.  So far we've read her books No Monkeys, No Chocolate, and Beneath The Sun.  Check out Melissa's website for lots more information about this very talented author - Author - Melissa Stewart,

Please continue to find opportunities to help your child with counting coins and telling time on an analog clock.  We are continuing to work on place value concepts in math, but will also be circling back to addition / subtraction, as well as a unit on measurement.

Lots more information will be coming soon about our garden "opening day".  Things are a bit slower this year given the wacky weather, but we will get there.  More soon!

Read Across America!

The children and I are enjoying our Read Across America celebration this week.  Tuesday we kicked things off with a whole school assembly.  High five to our Ryan H. for stepping up to share a Dr. Seuss fact in front of the whole school!  Do you know Dr. Seuss' real name?

Today, we were excited to learn that our community "mystery reader" was Coach Kevin (Ryder) from Medfield's Park and Rec.  Kevin did an amazing job reading Green Eggs and Ham, an all-time favorite!  

Don't forget to wear your crazy socks Thursday, as well as red and white on Friday in honor of the Cat in the Hat!

Warm Winter Greetings from Room 10!

Winter has surely come, and is quite likely going to bring us some more cold temps and white stuff in the coming days.  Thank you for sending your first grader to school well prepared for recess.  In order for children to play in the snow, they must have boots AND snow pants.  They head outside unless the windchill is particularly cold which happened this week for certain.

Ask your first grader about Higginbotham and Sophie (pictured above).  They've been tucked close to the garden since early December.  We are waiting to see what will happen to them come spring!  So far they are fairing pretty well in the snow.

Room 10 continues to be a VERY busy place.  We said farewell to our Liligrace this week who has moved to New Hampshire with her family.  The children worked together to create a friendship blanket and special book for Liligrace.  We are so sad to see her go, but know she is heading off to new adventures!

Reading, writing, math, social studies... and lots more.  Are days are most definitely full.  The children and I have transitioned from telling "small moment" stories during writer's workshop, to comparing, learning about and writing non-fiction, informational books about a wide range of topics.  We are studying the various text features in non-fiction texts:  table of contents, labels, captions, indexes, glossaries and lots more.  

I'm glad to report that at this point in the year we have a much better handle on our new enVision math program and I'm delighted to see the ways children are thinking about math, particularly the addition and subtraction concepts taught so far.  Children are utilizing a variety of tools and strategies to problem-solve, and are becoming quite skilled at communicating and applying their mathematical thinking in a range of ways, including written, oral and with the benefit of visual, hands-on tools.  

We will continue to practice solving addition/subtraction via word problems, games and rote practice in the days ahead, but we are also moving forward into a new unit  -  representing and interpreting data.  The children and I will explore concepts of data analysis involving three categories of information.  Using tally marks to represent and record data will be one of the key concepts learned. 

Please, as always, let me know how the math homework is going.  I'm happy to troubleshoot areas of need should they arise.

Amazing work is also being done during our center and guided reading time.  Children are practicing a wide range of skills including:  developing a flexible, broad use of reading strategies when tackling a new book, responding to texts to demonstrate comprehension, building greater fluency, expanding vocabulary, comparing types of genres, and most importantly discovering books that they most love to read.  All of this is very much a work-in-progress for most children.  We have lots more learning to do for sure!

Learning to spell our 100 Grade One "Trick Words" (sight words) is also a tall task this year.  I gave out the list of words at November conference time.  Finding time to practice the spelling of these words at home would be greatly appreciated.  We are practicing them here every day, but a double does won't hurt!

We have been studying Martin Luther King, and the many important messages embodied in his life's work, as well as from those that worked alongside him.  The children, as they tend to be every year I teach about Dr. King, are puzzled and dismayed by the climate of that time period.  This fosters very rich, meaningful conversations about where we've been and how far we've come.  As adults, we know issues of race and equality continue to challenge our country.  In our classroom, however, helping young students begin to understand these concepts (in very age-appropriate ways) is one way to begin a conversation about a very important topic that will undoubtedly be part of their learning in the years to come.  I suspect your first graders may be talking about Dr. King at home too.  My hope is that they will continue to gain awareness, think deeply and ask their important questions. 

The 100th day of school is fast approaching, as is our Valentine's Day celebration on February 12.  I will be sending a class list home soon so that children can prepare valentines for their friends.  If you are already thinking about shopping for valentines, please know that it is the school's policy that no food items be given as part of the valentine.

More soon from Room 10....  As always, your questions are welcome at any time.  Stay warm out there!

Attitude of Gratitude!

In the spirit of the holiday season (which, ready or not, is upon us!), and in an effort to focus on reasons we are truly fortunate, Room 10 is starting a project that will take place from now until we leave for the holiday break.  Introducing..... ATTITUDE OF GRATITUDE!

It is true that many first graders by nature tend to be pretty upbeat, optimistic little beings.  That said, I do know that recognizing and celebrating all that we are grateful for promotes greater optimism, feelings of well-being for self and others, and quite simply a greater appreciation about what we can all learn from our peers, teachers, families and community members.   I'm hopeful that it will also bring us closer to the true spirit of the holiday season - giving from the heart in a way that is impactful to others and ultimately ourselves.

This week, we are kicking off our ATTITUDE OF GRATITUDE project.  I will begin, of course, by facilitating a discussion about what gratitude means.  Then, each day we will take time to recognize and celebrate the many ways we feel grateful.  I suspect these will take the form of small, but important, gestures of kindness between friends and teachers, as well as things, actions, people, animals, places, etc., that make us happy and feel thankful.  We will see where our attitudes of gratitude take us!

We will be be creating a bulletin board with an ATTITUDE OF GRATITUDE tree to display our ideas.  We will also have a special ATTITUDE OF GRATITUDE jar setup in the classroom, with small slips of paper, for children to share how they are feeling grateful.  These will be shared every day or so.

The holiday season is often a busy time, and one filled with the pleasures of gifts, parties, food and holiday cheer.  I'm hoping that our ATTITUDE OF GRATITUDE project helps to bring a greater awareness of how truly fortunate and blessed we all are.  It will be exciting to see what ideas and notions pop up for all of us in the days ahead.

Wishing everyone a joyful and gratitude-filled holiday season!

Kathy Ravinski

... Look for a home-school family gratitude project by the end of the week.  With an eye on what a busy time of year this is, I promise it will be simple!

Fall Garden Clean Up Day!

We worked hard last week, while the weather was still warm, to clean up and put the garden to bed until spring.  The children pulled weeds and old plants, gathered planter markers and signs, discovered some lingering carrots and coiled up the hose for winter storage.  Many thanks to Mrs. Crocker for her helping hands.  It was a job well done by all!