Highlights 1-26-18

Hello families,
This week I was out on Monday and Tuesday meeting my new niece (born Monday morning) and taking care of my 20 month old twin niece and nephew while their mama was in the hospital. Thanks for your understanding with my absence! The Fox Kits were in good hands with Ms. Claudine while I was out.

We also had a new teacher, Ms. Tessa, join us on Wednesday. She is a junior at UVM in the Elementary Education Program. She will be student teaching in our room from now until April break on Mondays and Wednesdays (mostly half days, some full days). We are so happy to have her join us!

We began a PBL (Project Based Learning) Unit on Sound this week. We have worked this week on gaining background and working knowledge of sound and how it is produced. We observed a bee buzzing in a flower, we noticed sounds in our classroom and sounds in the hallway, we explored with different materials to see how we could make them vibrate or move to create sounds, and we tested out different materials to make the best kazoo. We have done a lot of reading, writing, sharing, talking, listening, and hands-on exploring with sound this week!

We read a few books to go along with our sound learning: Sounds All Around, Max Found Two Sticks, and Charlie Parker Played Be Bop. We listened to a clip of Charlie Parker playing the saxophone.

We worked a lot this week on perfecting our measuring techniques--making sure to go end to end in a straight line and look carefully to see if something is exactly 5 inches or in between 4 and 5 inches (for example). We also used a third object to help us compare lengths of objects--noticing what is shorter and what is longer. We put many things in order, comparing them and lining them up from longest to shortest or from shortest to longest (depending on the day).

Most of us finished writing our first teaching books this week! We learned a lot about writing facts to teach about something part by part. We are ready to teach and write about a new topic. In this next teaching book we will also learn more about writing good beginnings (an introduction with a hook) and good endings (conclusions).

Coming up in a few weeks is Valentine's Day. We will do a valentines exchange with our class. Your child can make them at home or make them in school that week. If your child wants to participate please make sure there is a card for each student, not just a few. I've sent home a class list of names to help you if your child is making valentines at home. We will exchange valentines on Wednesday morning February 14th. Please don't send in any candy or food!

Dates to Remember:
February 5 - afternoon Library times start weekly!
February 6 - Flynn Theater workshop for "Pilobolus Shadowland" 9:45-10:30
February 8 - Scholastic Book Orders Due (online or send in flyer with check by 2/8 at 8:00 a.m.)
Friday February 9 - field trip to the Flynn Theater to see "Pilobolus Shadowland"
Wednesday February 14 - Valentines card exchange
Wednesday February 14 - Early Dismissal 12:15 -- Teacher In-Service -- No After school Programs, all students dismissed at 12:15
Monday February 26 - Tuesday March 6 - Winter Break (3/5 and 3/6 are Teacher In-Service days)
Wednesday March 7 - school resumes

Have a great weekend!
❤ Mrs. Fox

Highlights 1-19-18

Hello families,

This week we began reading books together about famous musicians: Tito Puente: Mambo King by Monica Brown and Duke Ellington by Andrea Davis Pinkney. We learned about Tito Puente and the many percussion, brass, string, and keys instruments in his latin band. We watched a couple of short videos to hear him play the timbales too! Then we learned about Duke Ellington and his career as a jazz piano player. We learned about some other musicians who played brass, string and percussion instruments in his orchestra. We watched a clip of Duke Ellington's Orchestra too.

Check out this fun clip of Tito Puente on Sesame Street!

The Duke Ellington Orchestra plays "Take the A Train"

We also read one last book on light, Me and my Shadow: A Book About Light, to go along with a math/science lesson on measuring cube tower shadows. Pairs of students made 1 tower and used flashlights and experiments with this source of light to see how they could change the shadows to make them long or short, wide or thin. They used inch tiles to measure the shadows.

Many writers are finishing their first teaching books. They used a checklist to see if they had all the parts they need to teach the readers about a topic in their book. This week we focused on writing precise words--using the vocabulary your topic needs. We practice spelling out long words by syllable to help us break down challenging words. We also looked in non-fiction books for good beginnings to get us interested in the topic and good endings to help wrap up our learning.

In math we continue our measurement unit. This week we're measuring sets of paper fish using inch tiles. Students are working on being more accurate. Noticing if a fish is exactly 5 inches or maybe in between 4 and 5 inches long. We practiced building and writing numbers between 100 and 120. We also practiced being math detectives and noticing what the pattern is counting by in order to fill in the appropriate numbers. 
For example:
5, 10, 15, __, __, __. OR 2, 4, 6, __, __, __. OR 82, 81, 80, __, __, __. OR 4, 14, 24, __, __, __. OR  5, 7, 9, __, __, __. OR 70, 80, 90, __, __, __.

On Wednesday our class filled our HEART jar! We celebrated with a hot wheels car/origami celebration on Thursday. Students shared cars brought in to play with. Others did an origami activity with me. It was a great time!

We will have Library on Monday. Please send in any library books you have at home! Mr. Gile's schedule has changed so starting in February we will have library every Monday afternoon! We love checking out new books and hearing Mr. Gile read to us. He uses so many fun voices and hears our many "noticings" about the stories and illustrations.

We've had a lot of sick kids this week--sore throats, tummy bugs, and head aches. Please keep an eye on how your child is feeling. Drink plenty of water and get some rest this weekend!

Dates to Remember:
Monday January 22 - Library 2:10-2:40
Friday February 9 - field trip to the Flynn Theater
Wednesday February 14 - Early Dismissal 12:15 -- Teacher In-Service -- No After school Programs, all students dismissed at 12:15
Monday February 26 - Tuesday March 6 - Winter Break (3/5 and 3/6 are Teacher In-Service days)
Wednesday March 7 - school resumes

Have a great weekend!
❤ Mrs. Fox

Highlights of the Week - January 12th

Hello families,

We've had another heart-filled week. Thursday we earned a whopping 134 hearts! On Friday we will have a guest teacher and I have no doubt these fox kits will show her what HEART is all about!

In math we continue working on Fact Power -- learning addition and subtraction facts within 10 fluently (as quickly as we could read/say our own name). These are grouped into sequential patterns to help children learn then more easily. We have also done more measurement with cubes, tiles, and paper clips. We compared these different units and noticed that they are all different. That's why it's so important to write the unit label when measuring! Something 5 cubes long is very different from something 5 paper clips long! We've also begun to talk about more standard measurement--inches. The tiles we use to measure are actually inch tiles. In first grade we use these tools (instead of a ruler with fractions of an inch) to measure. The key concept we are learning is: measure in a straight line from end to end.

Our informative writers have been hard at work! We continue to add details in words, pictures, and labels to our teaching books. This week we talked about what we would want people reading our books to learn about our topic. These questions help us make sure we are writing all the pertinent information that we want to teach the readers.

We read a few more informational books during read aloud: The Night Sky, Zoo in the Sky, and Martin's Big Words. This final book was also paired with a mini-book writing project about Martin Luther King Jr. We talked together about some of his important work on equality in this country.

As well as reading informational books together students are also reading non-fiction in their guided reading groups during readers workshop. They are noticing the headings, key words, captions, and labels and using them to help them learn more about the topic.

In word study we've begun a new unit on consonant digraphs (consonants that stick together to make one sound). These are the digraphs we are practicing within short vowel words: wh, sh, ch, th, ck.


Dates to Remember:
Monday January 15 - NO SCHOOL - Martin Luther King Jr. Day
Monday January 22 - Library 2:10-2:40
Friday February 9 - field trip to the Flynn Theater
Wednesday February 14 - Early Dismissal 12:15 -- Teacher In-Service -- No After school Programs, all students dismissed at 12:15
Monday February 26 - Tuesday March 6 - Winter Break (3/5 and 3/6 are Teacher In-Service days)
Wednesday March 7 - school resumes

Have a great weekend!
❤ Mrs. Fox

1st Post of the New Year

Hello and happy new year!

We've had a great short week back together again! Here are a few highlights from our week.

In writers workshop we've begun writing "teaching books" within the informative writing genre. Students chose a topic they know about to write facts and real things about the topic to teach others who read the book. This week we chose topics, planned our subtopics, and began writing!

In math workshop we were excited to do more fact power and began a unit on measuring length accurately. This week we worked on measuring strategies and reporting back how long an item was using either exactly or "in between" lengths. As we begin this unit we practice measuring with various "units:" connecting cubes, tiles, and paperclips.

In readers workshop we continue to read nonfiction books and notice the text features that help us learn more from these books. We also read more nonfiction books together during read aloud about the Earth, Sun and Moon.

Dates to Remember:
Wednesday January 10 - Early Dismissal 12:15 -- Teacher In-Service, after school programs available
Monday January 15 - NO SCHOOL - Martin Luther King Jr. Day
Monday January 22 - Library 11 - 11:30
Friday February 9 - field trip to the Flynn Theater
Wednesday February 14 - Early Dismissal 12:15 -- Teacher In-Service -- No After school Programs, all students dismissed at 12:15
Monday February 26 - Tuesday March 6 - Winter Break (3/5 and 3/6 are Teacher In-Service days)
Wednesday March 7 - school resumes

Have a great weekend!
❤ Mrs. Fox