Friday, October 26, 2018

Highlights of Our Week

Hello families,

This week we added reading groups to our readers workshop routine. While some students make independent choices (read to myself, read to someone, work on writing, word work) other small groups of students meet with me to work on similar reading skills. This week we learned the routines of how to come to group, what tools we use, what we do to warm up our reading muscles, and how to read books 2 times--once for word solving, then again for fluency (to make the reading sound smooth like talking). Our reading groups are working great!


Classroom Wishlist! There are a couple of things that we are in need of--please let me know if you can help! We would like someday to make slime as a class celebration. We have enough glue but need saline solution and baking soda so we can all make some. 


In writing we worked on one last book all about ourselves. We made lists of things that make us us and drew pictures to match. We also read a few books on this topic together: The Smallest Girl in the Smallest Grade, Be Who You Are, ABC I Like ME!, and To Be a Kid.


In word study we continue to practice our letter-keyword-sound routines and practicing writing lowercase letters. 


We also had a parent come in this week to lead us in some yoga and mindfulness practices! It was fun to practice this with someone new.



We had a class celebration this week for filling our heart jar again! On Tuesday we went out in the morning to have a bonus recess on the big playground. It was fun to use a different climber and have so many swings to use!



In math we continue to practicing addition and subtraction strategies. We also learned about a new kind of story problem: combinations. Here we try to figure out lots of ways to make a number. Some students noticed that if they use a pattern it helps them find ALL the combinations!



Next week is Halloween. Please do not send your child to school in a costume. We will be doing some Halloween related activities but we will not be dressing up at school. Thanks!


Today, Friday, there is also a note coming home in your child's folder about my upcoming maternity leave. Here's the same information just in case:



As you’ve probably heard from your child, or observed yourself, I am pregnant and due in mid December. My plan is to be in school and work until the baby is born--babies have a mind of their own about when to show up! I am writing to assure you that your children will continue to be in good hands during my maternity leave. We have hired a long-term substitute, Kate O’Brien (Ms. Kate) who will be filling in as the classroom teacher in room 25 from sometime in December until April. Ms. Kate has taught previously in Canada, California, China and Mexico. Most of her teaching background is within English Language Learning classrooms so she will fit in great at JFK supporting all the students in our room. She is so excited to be coming to teach at JFK!
Ms. Kate has already begun being a guest teacher here at JFK and whenever there is not a teacher out she will be helping in our room, getting to know our students and routines. In early December Ms. Kate and I will have some time to do more co-teaching to ease the transition for the children into having a new lead classroom teacher. She will also work closely with the first grade team to ensure that she is following the first grade curriculum we use at JFK.

Thank you for your support and I look forward to hearing about all the great things the students do and learn with Ms. Kate while I am out!

That's all the news for now. Enjoy the weekend!


Dates to Remember:

  • No School, Friday 11/9
  • 12:15 dismissal, Wednesday 11/14
  • Family Conferences, 8am-8pm Monday 11/19 (more info to come!) (No School for students due to conferences all day)
  • Thanksgiving Break - No School Tuesday 11/20 - Friday 11/23
  • Monday 11/26, School resumes

Have a great weekend!
❤ Mrs. Fox

Thursday, October 18, 2018

Highlights from a Short Week

Hello families,

With the half day Wednesday and no school this Friday our time at school has simply flown by this week!

This week I began meeting with students individually to assess their knowledge of: letter names and sounds, sight words, and reading (decoding and comprehension). I will continue this work next week and will use this information to target instruction to individual needs during readers workshop. The hope is that first graders know their letter names and sounds at this point so we can dive into decoding strategies during guided reading groups in our readers workshop.

We read two books together this week: Alphabet Mystery and Rainbow Fish. Students made their own alphabet pictures and began to decorate a rainbow fish of their own.


We finished up our social studies unit on growth mindset this week. We loved watching the Class Dojo series on growth mindset and applying what we've learned about the brain and learning behaviors to talk about what happened in the episode and make connections to our own learning. We also got coloring sheets of all our favorite growth mindset posters!



In math we continued working on adding and subtracting strategies: representing with pictures and using the number line. We also worked hard to look at different ways to represent the same equations and writing equations to match someone else's representations. This takes a lot of thinking since you have to understand someone else's ideas of how to show their thinking! We also played some games: Roll and Write (to practice writing numbers to 120) and In the Doghouse (to practice adding/subtracting).

Dates to Remember:
  • No School Friday 10/19
  • Picture Re-take Day 10/26

Have a great weekend!
❤ Mrs. Fox

Friday, October 12, 2018

Highlights of Our Week


Hello families,

We are really getting into the swing of things in room 25! The Fox Kits are doing amazing learning each and every day.

Our social/emotional learning target of the week is accepting no for an answer. It can be hard when you want something but you can't do it or have it. Learning to accept no in a calm way is important. We tied this to the concept of want vs. need. We talked about how as different people and different learners, kids need different tools to learn. Some learners might want to use a special tool (i.e. wiggle chair, headphones, heart chart) but other students really need to use a special tool to help them learn.

This week we put all our reading choices into action. In the morning students choose what 3 choices they are going to do during our readers workshop. This week we practiced switching between those choices quietly and independently when I shake the shaker for transitions. We also tried having quiet piano or harp music on to remind us to keep our voices calm and quiet. Readers need a quiet place to read! These are routines that we will use all year!




Together we read books in the individuality theme this week: I Am Human: A Book of Empathy and I Like Myself. We also wrote a book all about ourselves using "I am ___" sentences.

We continued our social studies unit this week on growth mindset. Some of our conversation starters this week were: "it's okay to not know but it's not okay to not try" and "you have only failed if you have given up." We watched a few videos on the concept of growth mindset and started to write about times in our lives where we have tried things that were hard for us.





In math we continued using a number line to help us represent our thinking with adding and subtracting. We had a number talk with Ms. Hamble where we explained different ways to see a number within a collection of dots. We also played a few games: in the doghouse, double compare, froggy on the number line.


This week the JFK Heart Monitor was full! We celebrated on Thursday with pajama day and watched the movie Rio in the performing arts center on the big screen!


Dates to Remember:
  • Early Release Wednesday 10/17 at 12:15
  • No School Friday 10/19
  • Picture Re-take Day 10/26

Have a great weekend!
❤ Mrs. Fox

Thursday, October 4, 2018

Highlights of our Week

Hello families,

What a week we've had! Our social/emotional learning target of the week was saying thank you, which we do often daily. I also want to thank all of you who were able to make it to our family morning meeting on Tuesday. It was great to share this part of the day with you so you could really see what it is all about.

During readers workshop this week we continued practicing read to myself and read to someone for 15 minute chunks of time. We also learned a word work game to help us practice naming and writing letters, and reading and writing words. Our word work game was super fun! During readers workshop students always practice reading 2 ways then make another choice (work on writing or word work) to practice reading in a more flexible way.

This week we read some books with the theme of individuality and what makes us unique. We read: Only One You, The Copycat Fish, You Be You and It's Okay to Be Different. We did some writing all about us too, a fun project called "Me, Myselfie, and I!" We wrote all about our favorite things and shared about what we liked about ourselves.

We also shared our Hopes and Dreams with Principal Sara on Wednesday. She loved hearing about, seeing our writing, and seeing our pictures about what our goals are for this year.




We also began a social studies unit on growth mindset. Having a growth mindset means that you embrace challenges, try your best, and learn from mistakes. We read a few books on this topic as well: The Little Engine that Could, The Girl Who Never Made Mistakes, and Your Fantastic Elastic Brain. We watched this short video about how the brain helps us learn and grow too. Take a look!


In math we continued to work on story problems and focused on telling the difference between "put together plus" and "take away minus" language in these story problems. Once we knew if we were adding or subtracting students wrote equations and represented their thinking. We also began to learn how to use a numberline to add. Many students already had been using the numberline on their desks to help them count all or count on. Now we practiced showing how we add using small hops and big jumps as we practice being a "froggy on the numberline."




On Thursday we were excited to fill our heart jar. We celebrated on Friday by watching a movie, Home, in the afternoon. JFK also filled the heart monitor this week! We will be having our first all school celebration next week--details still to come!

Dates to Remember:
  • Early Release Wednesday 10/17 at 12:15
  • No School Friday 10/19
  • Picture Re-take Day 10/26

Have a great weekend!
❤ Mrs. Fox