Highlights Before a Long Weekend!

Hello families,

This week just flew by! We've been very busy writing up a storm, still working on our fiction series stories. We also began reading another fiction series about a Siamese cat who thinks he's a Chihuahua and has all sorts of imaginative adventures in his closet. This week we read: Skippyjon Jones, Skippyjon Jones: Class Action, and Skippyjon Jones: Snow What.  Students also had their final "reading check-in" with me to assess their progress in reading skills this spring.

In math we continued our geometry work really focusing on shape attributes this week. We played a game called "Guess My Rule" in which students took turns sorting shapes by an attribute rule (i.e. 4 sides, curved sides, 3 vertices, equal sides) and the others had to guess the rule. Students made shape posters sorting a bunch of shapes into different categorical groups. We also focused on the various types of triangles and quadrilaterals. We also did some more building with pattern blocks. We also did A TON of fact power this week! Students work at their own level mastering addition and subtraction facts. Many students have mastered all the facts within 10 (the 1st grade goal) and have moved on to facts within 20.

Fill the shape in 2 ways.

Fill the shape in 2 ways.

Fill the shape in 2 ways.

Playing guess my rule.

Shape posters with sorted shapes by attribute.

We had a lot of fun with a set of "I can build....Can you?" cards. Here are just a few of our creations!

This week we filled up our own heart jar and celebrated with a toy day playing in our classroom. The school also filled up the heart monitor. On Friday we had a paper airplane celebration--designing our own airplanes and then testing them out in various ways outside with the help of the 4th graders!

Dates to Remember:
Monday May 28 - NO SCHOOL - Memorial Day
Thursday June 7 - 1st Grade End of Year Celebration: Big Blue Trunk (sunscreen and hats recommended) 9:00-11:00 am
Monday June 11 - All School Celebration: Field Day (sunscreen and hats recommended)
Wednesday June 13 - First Grade Fun Day 12:45-2:45 pm
Friday June 15 - Last Student Day - 11 am dismissal

Have a great weekend!
❤ Mrs. Fox

Highlights of the Week

Hello families,

We've had another great week of learning together. The fluctuating spring weather has kept us on our toes. Please make sure to send your kids with a sweater or sweatshirt on chilly mornings--it's often still chilly at recess for us!

This week we began a new math unit about geometry. We are reviewing some shapes and their attributes. These are the shapes we are focusing on: square, rectangle, circle, oval, triangle, rhombus, trapezoid, hexagon. We are learning to describe shapes by their attributes: straight or curved sides; short, long or equal sides; the number of sides; the number of vertices; small, big, or square angles. We are using shapes to compose other shapes and noticing how to fill a shape in multiple ways by decomposing shapes as well.

Writers continue working steadily on their fiction series. Many of our classroom authors have written 3 or more books in a series! We are focusing on using our own life experiences to make our stories exciting and believable. We are also adding transitional words to make our writing sound smooth when read aloud.

We began a new word study unit about welded sounds (or chunks). This week we focused on the -ng chunks: ang, ing, ong, ung. We also practiced a team of 4 trick words: why, by, my, try.

In our readers workshop students continue to dive into fiction books. This week we looked for clues about how the characters feel in order to read expressively. We also tried to find lessons or morals in our stories to learn from.

We also read from the Little Critter series this week. Together we read: Just a Mess, Just Me and My Mom, Just Helping Dad, Just Go to Bed, and Just a Toy.

Dates to Remember:
Friday May 25 - Early Dismissal 12:15 - Senior Expo (no activities)
Monday May 28 - NO SCHOOL - Memorial Day
Thursday June 7 - 1st Grade Fun Day: Big Blue Trunk (sunscreen and hats recommended)
Monday June 11 - All School Celebration (sunscreen and hats recommended)
Friday June 15 - Last Student Day - 11 am dismissal

Have a great weekend!
❤ Mrs. Fox

Highlights of Our Week

Hello families,

What a whirlwind week it's been! The Fox Kits have been working hard and showing so much HEART! We filled our heart jar again this week and celebrated in the lovely weather playing and building fairy houses outside together.

In math we had a few days of "good fit" math practice in preparation for our end of unit assessment on Thursday. Next week we'll begin our Geometry unit that will feed into our final PBL (project based learning) adventure in June.

Writers have been excited by our newest writing genre: realistic fiction. They are working on writing stories that have: a clear beginning, middle and end; a problem with a solution; and a satisfying ending. Many students are working on writing a series of books on the same characters! This week we continued to read from the Henry and Mudge series by Cynthia Rylant. This week we read: The Cold Shivers, Sneaky Crackers, The Forever Sea, and The Tall Tree House.

We had a special event this week -- we saw the 4th/5th grade performance of The Wizard of Oz! It was so fun to see this show. On Friday afternoon we did a special Mother's Day project too-- hope you all enjoy it at home!

Principal Sara also surprised us on Thursday with popsicles for our outstanding behavior during the fire drill on Wednesday! What a fun surprise!

Dates to Remember:
Friday May 25 - Early Dismissal 12:15 - Senior Expo (no activities)
Monday May 28 - NO SCHOOL - Memorial Day
Thursday June 7 - 1st Grade Fun Day: Big Blue Trunk (sunscreen and hats recommended)
Monday June 11 - All School Celebration (sunscreen and hats recommended)
Friday June 15 - Last Student Day - 11 am dismissal

Have a great weekend!
❤ Mrs. Fox

Highlights on a Thursday

Hello families,

We had a wonderful, busy first week back at school! Monday was a happy/sad day though. We were happy to be back together again but sad to say goodbye to our part-time student teacher, Ms. Tessa. We celebrated together and gave out lots of surprise cards and gifts!

We jumped into new reading and writing units about elements of fiction and realistic fiction. We began reading Henry and Mudge: The First Book and Henry and Mudge: The Cat by Cynthia Rylant. These are related stories about a boy and his dog. We also began writing our own realistic fiction stories! This week we focused on creating our characters and setting and following the plan we make about what happens in the beginning, what problem happens in the middle, and how it is solved in the end.

We spent this week in math working in station groups to practice the skills and strategies we'd been learning before vacation: solving story problems, using the find 10 strategy, noticing counting patterns, doing combination problems, working with fact families, and putting in the missing number to make equations true.

We reviewed lots of trick words and words with suffix -s in word study. On Thursday we had a "show what you know" about these spelling rules. Next week we'll move on to our next unit!

On Tuesday we got to visit a Science Fair put on by a St. Mike's class right here at JFK! There were tons of cool science projects and stations to visit and explore. We were sad when our time was up--it was amazing!

Tomorrow, Friday, the first grade will be leading the All School Meeting! Our Fox Kits are excited to demonstrate the butterfly greeting for the whole school! Ms. Jackie will also be with us on Friday instead of Mrs. Fox. I hope to hear that everyone had a HEARTfilled day while I was away! I'll be back on Monday.

Dates to Remember:
Wednesday May 9 - Early Dismissal 12:15 - Teacher Inservice (activities available)
Friday May 11 - Scholastic Book Order Due 8:00 a.m.
Friday May 25 - Early Dismissal 12:15 - Senior Expo (no activities)
Monday May 28 - NO SCHOOL - Memorial Day
Thursday June 7 - 1st Grade Fun Day: Big Blue Trunk
Monday June 11 - All School Celebration (sunscreen and hats recommended)
Friday June 15 - Last Student Day - 11 am dismissal

Have a great weekend!
❤ Mrs. Fox