Welcome to First Grade!

Hello families,

It's been a whirlwind first week of school. What a fun group of kids we have in our class!

This week we got to know and use some materials and tools in our classroom. In the beginning of the year I use guided discovery as a way to slowly introduce materials and explicitly teach how to use and care for them. Then we practice using them in a meaningful way. To make our hallway decorations we practiced using: pencils, erasers, markers, crayons, scissors, and glue sticks. We also learned how to be responsible with shared materials.

Each morning after greeting the students and getting them setup with breakfast I leave to express milk for my 8 month old baby. Ms. Rafeef is with our class each day during this time to conduct morning meeting and read aloud.

We got to see so many of our Unified Arts teachers already this week! Mr. Gile read us a brand new Pigeon book by Mo Willems in library! We also saw Ms. Holcomb in guidance, Coach B in P.E. and Mrs. Poland in music! Don't forget we have P.E. on Tuesdays and Fridays so make sure your child comes to school with sneakers on those days!

In math we began to learn some routines about playing games, taking turns, having private reasoning time and then using turn and talk to share our ideas. This week we focused on our favorite numbers and counting practice. We learned how to play a fun game called In the Doghouse where we practiced using dice safely and quietly.

We read a few books together this week and did some writing and art projects about them. We read Mouse Paint and Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? It is fun to do projects and see what fine motor and writing skills they learned already in kindergarten!

Please remember that all snacks sent in must be nut-safe. No peanut ingredients or snacks manufactured in a facility that handles peanuts. Please send in the ingredient label so I can double-check when we eat snack. Thanks to those of you who reached out to ask about this or sent in the box or label for me to check already!

For the first couple of weeks I'll be sending home a paper copy of this weekly update as well as emailing out the link to our class blog. If you haven't given me your email address yet please do so you can get our weekly class news electronically!

Dates to Remember:

• September 2 - No School (Labor Day)
• September 16 - Picture Day
• September 18 - Half Day for Teacher Inservice - 12:15 dismissal; activities available for sign-up
• September 27 - All School Morning Meeting 8:15-8:45

Have a great weekend!

❤ Mrs. Fox

Thanks for a Great Year!

Hello families,

It's been a whirlwind of a week! 

On Monday we cleaned out our desks and lockers. We took home some work and our art portfolios. We also organized most of our classroom library. We earned so many hearts we overflowed our heart jar! In the afternoon we watched an episode of Wild Kratts to celebrate. We also read a book "In First Grade..." and then wrote our own to teach next years students all about things we do in first grade!

On Tuesday we had our All School Celebration--field day! We did so many fun things: yard games, freeze tag, paper airplanes, bubbles, KanJam, made banners, played Bingo, played Uno, and had 2 snacks!

On Wednesday we had step up day to second grade! Students went to their second grade classroom to meet their new teachers and see what new friends will be in their class next year. Then we had some time to reflect on our year together. We talked about our hopes and dreams and what we did this year. We looked at lots of pictures we took throughout the year too! 

It has been a really great year. Thanks for sharing it with me! I hope you all have a great summer full of playing outside, enjoying time with your family, and reading of course!

Dates to Remember:

• VT Foodbank will be at the school over the summer distributing produce on the following Fridays: June 21, July 19 and August 16. They will be here from 9-10am on those days.
• Back the School BBQ is Thursday August 22nd  @ 5:30 -- come say hi to me and to your 2nd grade teacher!
• 1st day of 2nd grade is Wed. August 28, 2019!

Have a great summer!

❤ Mrs. Fox

Highlights from Our Penultimate Week!

Hello families,

Well our last full week of school was full of changes to our schedule and lots of special events. On Monday we met with Elizabeth Bleumie, a local author. On Tuesday we learned about water safety with Officer Jason and  Mike Cannon, Team Leader for Colchester Technical Rescue. On Wednesday we had 1st grade fun day where we did a fun activity in rotating stations led by each 1st grade teacher (big playground, chalk & icies, dance party, summer birthday cards). On Thursday we made gifts and cards for Father's Day. On Friday we performed our readers theaters that we've been practicing for the class!

Reading our last free book from the CliF: Year of the Book event!

Here are our Readers Theaters!

Hooray for Spring!

Stone Soup

The Best Pet

We also did a lot of work this week on our geometric memory quilt. Students designed their own representations of favorite first grade memories. They shared their representations with other students and made some changes. Then we made final copies and added color. Next we mounted them to create a "patchwork" design and put our quilt together. On Thursday we shared out with the whole class about our design and memory.

Here's our memory quilt!

Here is a video of most of the first graders presenting their quilt designs!

(Sorry the sound quality is pretty awful--live and learn!)

( https://youtu.be/wyMsHaZTdYg )

We've now had our last Guidance, Library and Music classes for the year. In Library we used Mr. Gile's "Story Selector 3700" to reread a favorite book from the year! If you still have a library book at home please send it in on Monday to avoid late/lost fines!

Here is some information about our last week of school!

On Monday we will be cleaning up around the classroom and sending home a bunch of stuff. Please make sure to have your child bring their backpack (and maybe even an extra reusable or shopping bag)!

Next week we have an all-day all-school celebration on Tuesday. There are indoor and outdoor activities from 8:30-2:30 so make sure your child is ready! Sun screen, hats, water bottles and bug spray are a good idea!

On Wednesday students will learn who their second grade teacher will be and will visit their new class for Step-Up day. Then we'll have a little time together to wrap up our fantastic first grade year before an early dismissal at 11:00. Students will have a bagged lunch to take home next Wednesday.

Dates to Remember:

• Monday 6/17 - Classroom Clean-up Day
• Tuesday 6/18 - All School Celebration (rain or shine)
• Wednesday 6/19 -  Step-Up Day 8:30 am 
• Wednesday 6/19 - Last Day of School - 11:00 dismissal

Looking ahead!

• Back the School BBQ is Thursday August 22nd  @ 5:30 -- come say hi to me and to your 2nd grade teacher!
• 1st day of 2nd grade is Wed. August 28, 2019!

Have a great weekend!

❤ Mrs. Fox

Highlights of the Week

Hello families,

Wow, what a fun week we had! It's hard to believe that we have only one full week and then 3 more days left together. 

This week readers theater groups began rehearsing their plays, working on making their reading smooth and expressive. We wrapped up our narrative writing unit and character focus in our reading. Hopefully your child shared with you the narrative stories they wrote that were sent home late this week!

We began our Geometry math unit and PBL geometric memory quilt project. We read My Two Blankets and began reading Sweet Clara and the Freedom Quilt. We also watched a video short, based on the book, Oma's Quilt. We began to think about how to design our own representations of our first grade memories. This has been a very engaging activity thus far. It’s also been fun to reminisce about some of our favorite times together this year.

We've also been using shape blocks in math and working on composing bigger shapes and designs with the shape blocks. This is good practice for making our own shape designs for our quilt!

Next week we will have 1st grade fun day. This is a time where each first grade class rotates through a fun activity led by each 1st grade teacher! Some activities are outside and some are inside so sunscreen and bug spray are a good idea for Wednesday (or Friday if it's raining on Wednesday).

This week we filled our heart jar again and celebrated with a painting project on Friday!

Dates to Remember:

• Wednesday 6/12 - 1st Grade Fun Day 9-11 am (rain date 6/14)
• Monday 6/17 - Classroom Clean-up Day
• Tuesday 6/18 - All School Celebration (rain or shine)
• Wednesday 6/19 -  Step-Up Day 8:30 am 
• Wednesday 6/19 - Last Day of School - 11:00 dismissal

Have a great weekend!
❤ Mrs. Fox

Big Blue Trunk

Hello families,

Wow, we had so much fun at our first grade celebration today: The Big Blue Trunk! Here are some photos and videos from our playtime this morning. In the afternoon we colored dinosaur coloring books and watched "The Land Before Time."