Highlights of the Week 9-29-17

Hello families,

Thanks for your understanding and well wishes while I was out sick Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. This big change in routine can be difficult on kids but we all did our best to keep things consistent so the kids could feel good and be successful while I was out. They did a bunch of fun stuff too! It's been good to be back, even if it's just a few days before the weekend. ☺

They read, and reread, a book on the SMARTboard, The Big Orange Splot. We designed our own houses to show things that we care about. We made crayon designs and used watercolors to add the house color. They are hanging up in the hall across from our classroom--check them out! They also did a painting that they took home already--hope you enjoyed it!

We also reread The Feel Good Book by Todd Parr and began a fun writing project, "Me, Myselfie, and I" to write about some of our favorite things. It was great to get to know more about each other and see the kids so excited to share their writing, drawings, and connections!

Finally we read Dream Big Little Pig about a pig who dreams of becoming a star. She tries out a few things before she finds the thing she loves the most. It takes hard work, perseverance, and believing in yourself to make your dreams come true. We reflected on our learning Hopes and Dreams for the year and wrote our friendship Hopes and Dreams as well. I compiled all of our learning and friendship Hopes and Dreams onto a poster.
Here they are:

In math we continued working on story problems, not only with addition (putting together) but now also with subtraction (taking apart). Students continue to improve in organizing and representing their thinking on paper using a representation, and equation, and an answer with a label. We learned how to play a game called In the Dog House. We played it with our St. Mike's buddies who came on Friday.

On Friday something else exciting happened--we filled our Heart Jar again! We'll be dumping them on Tuesday Oct. 3 at 8:45. If you're free come cheer us on! Feel free to join us for our morning meeting as well at 8:30 if you'd like! We celebrated today by having a BONUS RECESS on the big playground!

Dates to Remember:
Tuesday October 3 - Heart Monitor Filling 8:45
Monday October 9 - Library 11-11:30
Wednesday October 18 - Early Release for ALL students 12:15 -- No After School Activities
Thursday October 19 - No School
Friday October 20 - No School
Monday October 23 - Library 11-11:30
Monday October 23 - Picture Retakes


Have a great weekend!
❤ Mrs. Fox

Highlights of the Week 9-22-17

Hello families,

We showed a lot of HEART this week! On Tuesday we got to dump our first full Heart Jar of hearts into the JFK Heart Monitor! We celebrated with doll and stuffie day. We played together in the morning. We earned so many more hearts already this week!

We read The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind about a boy named William who dreamed of building a windmill to give his village electricity and water. He worked hard and made his dream come true! We talked and wrote about our own learning goals at school. We also talked about how to support each other in achieving our goals. We brainstormed class rules for ourselves, for each other, and for our place in order to support our learning community.

We read I Am Peace: A Book of Mindfulness. We spoke about mindfulness and what this looks like in our class and how this feels in our bodies. We did a guided meditation practice focusing on our breath and how we can control our breath to calm our bodies. We also did a "mindful noticing" activity with rose petals. We also read The Feel Good Book to talk about things we like and make us happy.

In math we continued adding numbers and representing our thinking. This week we did this with story problems. We practiced showing our thinking on paper, writing an equation to match the story, and writing an answer with a label. On Friday we played Double Compare (an old favorite) and then a game of "I Have___, Who Has ____?

This shows the count all strategy by drawing the 4 and 6 apples and then counting to find the total.

This shows the count all strategy. Labels were added  in the work to prove how they got the total.

This shows the counting on strategy. It leaves one number whole and then counts on the rest.

We continue learning and practicing HEART expectations in different places around the school. This week we practiced going to the Front Office, using the School Grounds for learning activities, and visiting the Nurses' Office.

We will have Library again this upcoming Monday (9/25). We have Library once every 2 weeks. During this time we read a book with Mr. Gile and have the opportunity to borrow up to 3 books total. Please return Library books with your child by Monday morning so he/she can take out new books! 

We all visited the Book Fair on Monday and made lists of books we liked. Many children purchased items from the Book Fair throughout the week. Thanks for supporting the PTO!

Dates to Remember:
Monday Sept. 25 - Library 11-11:30
Monday October 9 - Library 11-11:30
Wednesday October 18 - Early Release for ALL students 12:15 -- No After School Activities
Thursday October 19 - No School
Friday October 20 - No School
Monday October 23 - Library 11-11:30


Have a great weekend!
❤ Mrs. Fox

Highlights of the Week 9-15-17

Hello families,

We've just had our first 5 day week. The Fox Kits are settling into our classroom routines. This week we've focused on how to show HEART in the classroom, during read aloud, during meeting times, sharing ideas in math talks or readers workshop, and while playing together. We practiced expected behaviors during morning arrival, getting and eating breakfast, lining up to go to lunch, eating at lunch, lining up for unified arts, using our lockers, and practicing fire drills.

In math we worked a lot with tens frames this week. We made a public record to show what we know about using a tens frame to organize our number representation. We played a few games with the tens frames and began to write and recognize equations that match the story the numbers tell.

We also have been adding numbers (putting them together) using 10s frames and counting all or counting on. We talked about the concepts of more and less and played a game called Double Compare to practice these combined skills. 

We read Leo the Late Bloomer and Drawing Lessons from a Bear to talk about how we all learn differently and at our own pace. We also like to learn many of the same things but also have our own individual hopes and dreams. We began to brainstorm what we hope and dream about learning in school together this year. We began writing about our academic learning goals.

During our Mind and Body Practices (Mindfulness) we've been noticing how our bodies feel and what we need for our bodies to be ready to learn. Sometimes we need to gain energy and wake ourselves up so we do energizing body practices. Other times we need to calm down our bodies and quiet our minds so we do mindful body practices. This week we also read a book about mindfulness, Charlotte and the Quiet Place. We talked about how we each carry a quiet place with us that we can go to when we need to calm down. We drew pictures about what we our quiet places look like so we can go to them in our minds when the world is noisy and we need some peace and quiet.

We also did another fun art project this week to brighten up our space. We made beautiful sun catchers and practiced some tricky cutting skills. Look at our windows to see our artwork on display!

On Friday our class buddies from the Peace and Justice class at St.Michael's College joined us for a pizza party! We got to know them a little bit and taught them a math game. They will be joining us during math to help out and play math games with us until early December!

Another exciting thing happened on Friday. We filled our class HEART Jar!!! We earn hearts by showing expected behaviors and practicing HEART (Honest, Engaged, Appropriate, Responsible, Timely) throughout our days. The class brainstormed some celebration ideas and then voted. On Monday we'll have our first class celebration: Doll or Stuffed Animal Day! Each child in our class can bring one doll or stuffed animal to school. It must be able to fit in your child's backpack. Thanks for your support of this exciting event!

Dates to Remember:

- Picture Day this upcoming Monday 9/18, 10:00 a.m.

- Monday 9/18 - Class Celebration: Bring a doll or stuffed animal to school day!

- Scholastic Book Fair @ JFK Sept. 18-22

-Follow the link below for information about the food bank dates for this school year. 

http://www.wsdschools.org/vt-foodbank-dates-for-2017-18-school-year/


Have a great weekend!
❤ Mrs. Fox

Highlights from Our First 2 Weeks

Hello families,
We've had 2 great (short) weeks together getting used to routines, beginning some projects, and learning more about each other. Here are some things we did this week.


Guided Discovery: This is a time we explore new materials in our classroom. We learn how and when we use them, where they belong, and how to take care of the materials responsibly.

• Blocks
• Cube Buildings
• Sections of books in our classroom library
• Classroom Jobs
• Multicultural crayons

Math:

• Counting strategies
• We can organize our cubes or drawings in our representations to be more accurate and efficient in our counting.
• We made groups of ten on tens frames and counted efficiently by 10s to 100.
• Writing numbers to 100.

Projects:

• We read The Colors of Us and noticed how just like the people in the book we are all unique and make our community a beautiful and vibrant place. We sang a song on this theme and made self-portraits.
• We made thank you cards for the custodians and facilities staff for working so hard to make our school a clean and safe place.
• We read Pete the Cat: I Love My White Shoes and talked about our favorite colors. Check out our own Petes strolling down the hallway outside our room in a rainbow of shoe colors!
• We also read Pete the Cat: Rocking in My School Shoes. Pete did different things in different parts of his school. We took a tour of our school looking at different parts and talking about what we do in those places. We made a big book, Fox Kits Rocking in Our JFK Shoes!
• We took ownership of our classroom and our fox kit community and decorated our space.

Mindfulness:

• Mindful coloring
• Breathing exercises (balloon breath, rainbow breath, breathing ball)
• Loving Kindness practice for self-compassion

Dates to Remember:

-Early Release this Wednesday 9/13 at 12:15

-Picture Day next Monday 9/18

-Follow the link below for information about the food bank dates for this school year.

http://www.wsdschools.org/vt-foodbank-dates-for-2017-18-school-year/


Have a great weekend!
❤ Mrs. Fox