Highlights of our Week

Hello families,

This week we wrapped up our opinion writing unit by writing reviews on topics that we each care about. Students wrote about favorite: songs, fruits, movies, games, pets, etc.

We read many books this week in honor of Earth Day and Arbor Day which will take place next week. We read: Earth Day, Every Day; One World, One Day; Recycle Every Day; The Family of Earth; and What Does it Mean to Be Green?

In word study we continue writing words with suffix -s (i.e. shells, walls, fans, chicks, pens) and think about spelling the base word before adding on our suffix -s. We also practiced many trick words: do, does, are, were, have, from, what, who, when, where, there, here.

In math we continued working on story problems, fact families, and fact power. We reviewed an old "Find 10, Add On" strategy and use representations and equations to show how to use this strategy to add two numbers with a sum larger than 10.

We filled up our heart jar again this week and celebrated on Friday with pajama day and watched "Toy Story" in the afternoon!

Dates to Remember:
Monday-Friday April 23 - 27 -- Spring Break - NO SCHOOL
Wednesday May 9 - Early Dismissal 12:15 - Teacher Inservice (activities available)
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

Sunshine Highlights

Hello families,

Thanks to all of you who came to meet with me about your child's progress. It is always great to sit down and check in with each family. To make you smile here are the Fox Kits singing a 2 part harmony of "You Are My Sunshine!"

Dates to Remember:
Monday-Friday April 23 - 27 -- Spring Break - NO SCHOOL
Wednesday May 9 - Early Dismissal 12:15 - Teacher Inservice
Friday May 25 - Early Dismissal 12:15 - Senior Expo
Monday May 28 - NO SCHOOL - Memorial Day

Have a great weekend!
❤ Mrs. Fox

Highlights on a Cool April Day

Hello Families,

We had a wonderful week all back together. Not only did one of our classmates return from a long trip to Vietnam but we will also have a new student join our class soon!

We reviewed how to show HEART while doing reading choices. We also practiced Cross-Checking or Triple-Checking when puzzling through a word to see if the word we are saying is right. We think, "Does it look right? Does it sound right? Does it make sense?"

In writers workshop we dove right into writing about the best or worst pets for us. Students noticed how one pet might be a good fit for one person but not another. We are really working on including all the things we've learned so far about opinion writing: get the reader interested in your topic, tell your opinion, give reasons why you think that, give an example, use sparkly words, wrap it up at the end.

Our read alouds this week were more examples of opinion writing about pet: The Perfect Pet, I Really Want a Dog: My Opinion Essay, Not Norman: A Goldfish Story, and  I Really Want a Cat: My Opinion Essay.

In math we began a unit working on how to use patterns and fact families to solve story problems. This week we worked with standard addition and subtraction story problems as well as missing addend and combinations. Missing addend are the trickiest for us right now but we're learning to read carefully and picture what is happening to help us know what we know and what we need to figure out. We reviewed how to represent our thinking and practiced looking at other people's work to explain their way. This is a great way to demonstrate understanding and learn from each other!

We also began our next unit in word study. It's all about suffix -s and the two sounds it makes, /s/ and /z/. We are adding this suffix on the base words with all of our word knowledge to date: cvc (dog -> dogs), digraphs (chip -> chips), bonus letters (bell -> bells), and chunks (fan -> fans). We were also introduced to a few of the trick words for this unit: from, have, do, does, are, were.

We had a special visitor this week, Officer Jason, the new Security Resource Officer for Winooski schools. He read us two books: Elephant and Piggie: I Will Surprise My Friend and Bone by Bone.

We also filled our HEART jar again! We celebrated with some iPad time. We explored a bunch of new apps. Some of our favorites were the math games, Slide, Slide 100, and Monster Sushi.

This week I sent home a yellow sheet giving you your conference time with me next week (either on Thursday or Friday after the early dismissal). Please return the bottom portion so I know this time works for you. If you can't make it at the specified time please let me know so we can reschedule!

Dates to Remember:
Thursday April 12 -- Early Dismissal 11:00 for Family Conferences
Friday April 13 -- Early Dismissal 11:00 for Family Conferences
Monday-Friday April 23 - 27 -- Spring Break - NO SCHOOL
Wednesday May 9 - Early Dismissal 12:15 - Teacher Inservice
Friday May 25 - Early Dismissal 12:15 - Senior Expo
Monday May 28 - NO SCHOOL - Memorial Day

Have a great weekend!
❤ Mrs. Fox

Highlights at the End of March

Hello families,

This week we continued our Opinion theme in reading and writing. We wrote about our favorite and least favorite colors! We read books on this topic as well -- Red is Best, The Day the Crayons Quit, The Day the Crayons Came Back. We also read In My Opinion, a picture book illustrating how opinions can differ. We noticed the main character forgets to be polite when disagreeing...oops!

In math we began to learn about number bonds. These are different ways a whole number can be made up of parts. Next week we will connect this knowledge with story problems with a missing addend! We also practiced adding 10 and subtracting 10 from any number between 10 and 100!

This week a notice went home about lunch options for the two early releases next month (April 12 and 13). Dismissal will be at 11:00, before lunch. Your child has the option of having a turkey sandwich or a sunbutter and jelly sandwich to take home for lunch. Please send this sheet back so I know what to order for your child! If you'd prefer your child not to take a lunch home that is fine but please let me know that too!

Tomorrow, Friday, I will be out. We've had a bunch of kids out this week. We are all excited to have our whole class back on Monday!

Dates to Remember:
Thursday April 12 -- Early Dismissal 11:00 for Family Conferences
Friday April 13 -- Early Dismissal 11:00 for Family Conferences
Mon-Fri April 23 - 27 -- Spring Break
Wednesday May 9 - Early Dismissal 12:15 - Teacher Inservice
Friday May 25 - Early Dismissal 12:15 - Senior Expo
Monday May 28 - NO SCHOOL - Memorial Day

Have a great weekend!
❤ Mrs. Fox

Highlights of the Week

Hello families,

This week the Fox Kits have earned a ton of hearts! One thing we're focusing on is being timely when transitioning and lining up to go places. This means when getting to line being ready to go (facing the front, not touching or talking to others). This helps us have timely transitions, be able to spend more time on our learning, and get to places on time! We filled our heart jar again on Thursday so on Friday we had a long celebration -- games and art projects!

This week we read a few books to go along with our Opinion writing genre. We read Click, Clack, Moo Cows That Type, Everybody Needs a Rock, and Duck Rabbit. We also read I Want My Hat Back just for fun! On Thursday we also had a guest reader, an athlete from St. Mike's come to read Wacky Wednesday to us. That is a wacky, fun book!

This week we added on to our opinion writing skills. Now when we are writing about our opinions we make sure to: tell our opinion, give at least 2 reasons why, back up a reason with an example, make our writing stronger by saying what other people might think, adding sparkly words to make it more interesting, and wrap it up at the end by restating our opinion. It's amazing to see how quickly these first grade writers are developing these writing skills!

We wrapped up our Place Value and Time unit this week. Mathematicians have been working hard on developing their understanding of place value and using it to represent, add, and compare numbers to 100. They can also tell time to whole and half hours!

We have continued working in word study on spelling words with word chunks (or welded sounds) am, an, all. Spelling this type of word is becoming easy for most students! We are also practicing writing trick words--and this is so tricky! Most trick words don't follow conventional spelling rules so you just have to remember them! We are currently still working on: you, your, they, was, one, said, her, when, where, which, that, then, them, this, with, why.

Dates to Remember:
Thursday April 12 -- Early Dismissal 11:00 for Family Conferences
Friday April 13 -- Early Dismissal 11:00 for Family Conferences
Mon-Fri April 23 - 27 -- Spring Break
Wednesday May 9 - Early Dismissal 12:15 - Teacher Inservice
Friday May 25 - Early Dismissal 12:15 - Senior Expo
Monday May 28 - NO SCHOOL - Memorial Day

Have a great weekend!
❤ Mrs. Fox

Highlights of the Week 3-16-18

Hello families,

This week went by so quickly! It really is hard to fathom where the time went.

This week we read a few more books about mindfulness: Grumpy Bird, Pete the Cat and his Magic Sunglasses, and Mindful Monkey, Happy Panda. We are trying to be like Happy Panda, just being in the present moment and focusing on what we are doing, when we are doing it instead of thinking or worrying about other things. We also read a fun, imaginative book Not a Box.

This week we began writing in the Opinion genre. Sharing our opinions (which are often not the same) and backing up our opinions with multiple reasons can help us convince our readers to agree with us (but it doesn't always work). We also practice how to disagree politely--this is ongoing learning! This week we wrote opinions about a "best fox" contest. We looked at 5 foxes I have in our classroom and students were the judges for the contest. They wrote about which they thought was the best fox and why. They gave out blue ribbons (1st place), red ribbons (2nd place), and yellow ribbons (3rd place) and shared their reasoning in writing and in conversation with others.

We also had 3rd grade writers visit us to share their "expert" non-fiction books they finished recently. It was fun to hear all they'd learned on their topics, especially since we had just finished our own teaching book unit--our 1st grade writers could relate and see how older students also write this kind of book!

In math we are continuing our unit on place value and time. Students are more consistently telling time to the whole and half hour. Students can represent 2 digit numbers with base ten blocks (10 rods and ones cubes) and on paper with sticks and dots. This week we used these tools to help us begin to add and subtract 2 digit numbers by place value (without regrouping). We also continue to compare numbers and practice reading expressions such as 27 < 72, 44 > 14, 56 = 5 tens and 6 ones.

Top row: Number built with base 10 blocks.
Middle row: Number represented with sticks and dots.
Bottom row: Expanded form equation for the number.

On Thursday afternoon we had an All School Celebration because we filled the HEART monitor again! The whole school played BINGO together in the cafeteria. It was hard because not everyone wins this game of chance but it was also fun to play all together!

Today report cards for the second trimester are coming home. Please read and keep the report card. Sign and return the envelope. If you have any questions fee free to contact me. Thanks!

Dates to Remember:
Friday March 16 - Report Cards go home
Tuesday March 20 - Jump Rope for Heart event (rescheduled due to snow day)
Friday March 23 - Fun Fair (PTO event) 4:30-6:30 pm
Thursday April 12 -- Early Dismissal 11:00 for Family Conferences
Friday April 13 -- Early Dismissal 11:00 for Family Conferences
Mon-Fri April 23 - 27 -- Spring Break

Have a great weekend!
❤ Mrs. Fox

Highlights of this Short Week

Hello families,

It's great to be back together again, even for just a quick 3 days. It didn't take long until we'd filled our HEART jar again! On Thursday we had a GoNoodle-athon celebration! 

We also had a visit from the new Tooth Tutor on Friday. She showed us all the important things dentists and patients wear at the dentist's office. We practiced brushing teeth and flossing with big teeth and tools. We got new toothbrushes, toothpaste, and a tooth timer to help us remember to brush our teeth for a full 2 minutes every morning and night!

Some students wrapped up their teaching books while others who had finished already did some free writing. We began to read a few books about mindfulness to build upon the skills we already have to notice and deal with our feelings as they happen. This week we read Breathe and The Blue Day Book for Kids: A Lesson on Cheering Yourself Up.

In math we did an intense three day focus on telling time to whole and half hours. We talked about why time is important and different spans of time (seconds, minutes, hours, days, weeks, months, seasons, years). We practiced setting and reading times on digital and analog clocks. Next week we'll continue this work as a warm-up during math each day. If you can, practice at home! There are some easy, free clock apps you can add to your devices to help them practice reading analog clocks which aren't as prevalent in our electronics driven world these days!

Dates to Remember:
Wednesday March 14 - Half Day - Dismissal at 12:15 for Teacher Inservice - after school activities available
Wednesday March 14 - Jump Rope for Heart event
Friday March 16 - Report Cards go home
Friday March 23 - Fun Fair (PTO event) 4:30-6:30 pm
Thursday April 12 -- Early Dismissal 11:00 for Family Conferences
Friday April 13 -- Early Dismissal 11:00 for Family Conferences
Mon-Fri April 23 - 27 -- Spring Break

Have a great weekend!
❤ Mrs. Fox