A New Year Begins!

I hope everyone enjoyed a nice holiday and a restful (maybe?!) vacation week.  It was wonderful to see the children bustle back into school again.  January always brings renewed energy for all the learning still ahead of  us.  Get ready to learn lots more about...

• Word Study:  Glued sounds (am, an, all, ing, ang, onk, ank, etc.) and base word/suffixes (cat / cats; pond / ponds; block / blocks).

• Science:  We kicked off a new science unit about Sound and Light last week!  In the coming weeks, we will engage in scientific discoveries just like real scientists... thinking, questioning, testing, exploring, observing, discussing and recording our findings.  A unit summary from the FOSS (Full Option Science System) is below.  We are excited!

This module provides experiences that help students develop an understanding of how to observe and manipulate the phenomena of sound and light. They explore these dimensions of the natural world using simple tools and musical instruments. The driving question for the module is how do sound and light interact with objects?

Students learn that sound comes from vibrating objects. They explore how to change sound volume and pitch, and develop simple models for how sound travels from a source to a receiver. With light, students also work with sources and receivers. They find out what happens when materials with different properties are placed in a beam of light, and explore how to create and change shadows and reflections. Students explore how to use sound and light devices to communicate information and compare the ways that animals use their senses (ears and eyes) to gather information about their environment.

• Mystery Science:  We are also accessing some very cool learning videos via MYSTERY SCIENCE to broaden our scope. We look forward to their updates each week!

• Live Bald Eagle Cam!  -  Have you heard from your first grader about the Berry College live bald eagle camera down in Georgia?  If not, take a peek -  Eagle Cam.  The eagle pair have been prepping their nest and should be laying eggs any day now.  We are all crazy-excited to watch this fantastic duo as they begin another nesting cycle.  Fun stuff!

• Writers Workshop:  We will embark upon our new Non-Fiction/Informational writing unit soon which ties in super nicely with our winter science and social studies topics.  Stay tuned!

• Reading Comprehension:  The children are doing an amazing job with their reading, and we are ramping up our work with reading comprehension, including lots more practice with retelling a given story part by part, identifying and discussing character traits, and distinguishing between the important vs. interesting parts of our books, both fiction and non-fiction.

• Math:  We had a BIG lesson today about the = symbol, what it means and how we can use it to determine whether an equation is true or false.  This may sound simple, but it was a brain-stretching discussion indeed!  We continue our work on math story problems, and solving for the missing "unknown" numbers, which includes solving all kinds of addition/subtraction problems while manipulating larger numbers (within 20).  Our discussions have been centered A LOT on understanding the complex language that can be presented in story problems and how that makes our work even more tricky.  It's good stuff!

• Social/Emotional Learning:  We continue to focus on the key themes in our Choose To Be Nice Program  -  kindness, responsibility, acceptance and lots more.  Each day in Room 10 brings us many opportunities to celebrate (and troubleshoot) how we are doing individually, in pairs or small groups and as a whole team.  Our upcoming study about Martin Luther King will open many more discussions and chances for growth.  

• SeeSaw:  We haven't left it behind!  Stay tuned for more SeeSaw highlights soon.

We are excited to have parent volunteers join us in the classroom.  As a reminder, know that your questions are always welcome at any time about any part of our work here in Room 10!

Hello December!

With three weeks to go until the holiday winter break, Room 10 is buzzing with anxious anticipation and excitement!

Trimester 1 has come to a close and with that I've wrapped up our first round of literacy and math assessments.  I am looking forward to meeting with families this week to discuss each child's progress.  Progress reports will come home to you on Tuesday of this week.

Please know that I consider these meetings collaborative in nature so don't hesitate to bring your questions and/or concerns along.  The conferences are scheduled for 20 minutes and I do my best to keep to that timeframe.  Please know that on occasion I may run a few minutes behind.  If that is the case, I thank you for your patience.

At the reading table, the children are learning about a wide range of reading comprehension skills and strategies, including how to orally retell the sequence of events in a given fiction text they've read, or the key information in non-fiction.  We have been exploring "character traits" and how to describe characters based on their actions, behavior and feelings. Additionally, the children are learning how to respond to broader, more complex questions that focus more deeply on "why" and "how" questions.  They are learning how to locate "evidence" in the words and pictures to make predictions and to support their understanding.  Reading comprehension is a long, multifaceted learning curve for all young readers and one we will continue to focus on all year.

In terms of reading fluency and word attack skills, I am encouraging the children to "make it match" and closely attend to be sure what they've read looks right, sounds right and makes sense.  This type of questioning encourages readers to think carefully about their reading, and it raises their overall independence and efficiency in self-correcting their errors.  We use this same language during writer's workshop to be sure our writing reflects the meaning we hope to convey.

During math, we have continued to work on addition/subtraction story problems, including a range of tools and strategies for solving problems in an efficient and accurate manner.  You may not see as many math "papers" coming home, but please be assured that through hands-on learning, games and paper/pencil practice we are doing LOTS of math each day.  I will share the children's math journals with you at conference time to give you a better understanding of where we've been and we're heading with math concepts.    Some key concepts we've focused on for solving addition and subtraction story problems include:

• Understanding the overall concept of Part / Part / Whole
• Use of various tools:  counters, tens frame, part-part-whole mat, counting on/counting back strips, number lines
• Use of various strategies:  counting on, counting back, thinking addition to subtract or subtraction to add, using a "close fact" to solve another one, using "doubles" (4+4, 3+3, etc.) to solve a related fact

We are also continuing to learn about place value and coins during our daily morning meeting time. 

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Last week, we spent time digging into the history and traditions of Thanksgiving.  The children were surprised to learn that Pilgrim children were asked to wear a hat and stand during meals, and they were not allowed to speak unless spoken to by an adult.  We talked about the ways things have changed since then!  I challenged the children to "eat like a Pilgrim" during snack.  Despite lots of quiet giggles, they were eager to give it a go.  

Pilgrim Snack Time

We wrapped up our week with Crazy Hair Day.  It was a silly day all around, despite some of the blank looks on a few faces!

Crazy Hair Day!

Here's to making our way through the next three weeks of growing excitement!  Happy Hannukah to those celebrating this week!

Veteran's Day 2018

Veteran's Day Remembered...

Last week, the children attended a special Veteran's Day program hosted by Chief Wilson and her son Cadet Wilson.  These two amazing people have come to Memorial for a number of years and always do a wonderful, and age-appropriate job of conveying the importance of honoring the men, women and animals who work so selflessly in the armed forces.  

Here are a few snapshots from their program, including images of the children learning how to follow key commands such as attention, about face, and at ease.  The children loved it!

Cadet Wilson and Chief Wilson

Cadet Wilson singing "Proud To Be An American"

Goodbye October! Hello November!

Happy Friday to all!  We made it through a VERY busy week with lots of excitement and festivities all around!

Below you will find a few sneak peaks at the Halloween fun here in Room 10, as well as during music class with Mr. R.  Many thanks to our room parents and other volunteers who joined us for the Halloween party on Wednesday.  The donations of food and supplies were much appreciated.  It was a fun celebration for sure!

We have sent our pumpkins out to the garden and will be wondering, noticing and waiting to see what will become of them over the next few weeks and months.  Our "pumpkin patch" will surely change and we can't wait to see how it all unfolds... rotting, mushy goodness to come!

Next week, your child will bring home his/her Booktime Home Reading Book Envelope.  A detailed letter is enclosed, as well as a print out of the key reading strategies the children have been learning about.  Booktime will take place every Monday and Tuesday night, followed by Poem Notebooks on Wednesdays as usual.  Please take a moment to read through the letter as it explains Booktime in much greater detail.  Your questions / comments are welcome at any time.

I've received several bright, shiny half-dollar coins (thank you!!!).  A few more would be great to have so feel free to send them in if you come across any more.

We are excited to learn about Johnny Appleseed, Veteran's Day, Thanksgiving and LOTS more in the days ahead.  Happy weekend!

Halloween tunes with Mr. R!

Pumpkin Art!

Pumpkin Art in action

Pumpkin Art in action - Part 2

Halloween parade here we come!

Room 10's Pumpkin Garden... what might happen?

Cruising Along!

We've hit a nice rhythm here in Room 10 the past few weeks.  The children are doing a great job managing their weekly centers, both math and literacy.  Their independence with troubleshooting questions about the process of these routines is building too.  Our community of learners and friends is showing growth each and every day.  Exciting!

Last week, we kicked off our Small Moments writing unit.  Thank you for helping your child brainstorm ideas for the writing topics list.  These will come in very handy in the weeks ahead.  These lists generated lots of excitement (and laughs) when we shared our ideas. 

The children are learning how to take a small moment from their life, break it up into parts and tell it across several pages until the whole story is complete.  They are learning how to be in the "driver's seat" of their own writing, learning how to judge when their story need more, and when it is finished.  This is all a long process, and one we will engage with all year.

The concept of Part  -  Part  -  Whole is becoming common, content-wide, language for lots of our learning tasks.  In addition to writing, the children are seeing parts and wholes during math (3 + 5 = 8; part-part-whole), as well as during word study (/sh/ and /ut/ are two parts that make the whole word shut).  We will continue to find ways this concept threads through other content areas such as reading, science, social studies and more.

Halloween is a hot topic of conversation each day.  Information regarding our parade and party on October 31 has gone out from the front office.  If you have any questions, please let me know.  Many thanks to our room parents for coordinating what is sure to be a fun celebration that day!

I am all set on supplies from my last request, with the exception of still hoping for some half-dollar coins.  This week, if you are able, I could use an assortment of pumpkins for a project.  I have one medium-sized orange pumpkin, and one white.  Any other kinds... smaller, larger, lumpy, striped, etc., would be welcome so feel free to send one in or drop it by the office for us.  We are always appreciative!

Enjoy the week ahead!