Highlights of the Week

Hello families,
With 2 early release days this week flew by even faster than usual. Even still the Fox Kits worked hard and showed so much HEART. They filled their heart jar again! This time they chose to watch a movie for a celebration which we'll make time to do next week!

We began reading groups as part of our Readers Workshop routines. While I confer with groups of students working on similar skills the rest of the class does their independent reading choices that we've been practicing all year so far: read to myself, read to someone, work on writing (free writing), and word work (trick word word searches, roll and record letters or sight words). We also learned one more way we read sometimes--Listening to Reading! Students will be able to listen to an audio picture book each week. This helps students access higher level texts than they can read independently. This helps to expand their vocabulary, learn about more complex story structures, and it's fun! On Friday we practiced by listening to a favorite book, Pete the Cat: Rocking in my School Shoes.

We read a few more books this week and did response to literature writing projects about them. After reading Alphabet Mystery we took our own alphabets off on adventures to: Italy, a water park at night, a forest, the beach, prehistoric times, under the sea, and more!

After reading Pete the Cat: 5 Little Pumpkins we practiced writing trick word the and made a picture to match the story.

All the WIN groups are up and running now in the afternoons. Some groups meet everyday and some groups are just once a week. Students do WIN work Monday-Thursday. Students are working in skill-based groups dependent on what area they need extra practice or extra extension. Ask your child what skills they are working on and who their WIN teacher is!

In math we continue to work with story problems, equality and comparing numbers. We began some number line work, thinking about patterns and filling in the missing numbers. On Wednesday we also did an assessment to see what basic addition and subtraction calculations your child can do independently at this point in the year. This is an assessment we do each fall, winter, and spring.

Nurse Liz came in to do a special lesson on germs. We learned about how germs spread and how to prevent them from spreading. The best way is through proper hand washing. We used a special lotion and a black light to practice washing away all our germs. By the end of the lesson all the Fox Kits were germ busters!

Dates to Remember:

• November 13 - PTO Meeting
• November 15 - All School Morning Meeting 8:15
• November 17 - PTO Craft Fair
• November 21- Early Dismissal 11:00; No student activities; Parent/Teacher Conferences 12-8
• November 22- Early Dismissal 11:00; No student activities; Parent/Teacher Conferences 12-3
• November 25 - 29 - No School for Thanksgiving Break

Have a great weekend!

❤ Mrs. Fox

Highlights of the Week

Hello families,

We had a fun week together. We read many books together with the focus on identifying feelings and discussed ways we handle our feelings in appropriate ways. We read: Visiting Feelings, Grumpy Bird, and Mindful Monkey, Happy Panda.

We did one more writing project to get to know each other: "Me, Myselfie, and I." The kids had a lot of fun making these little books and reading them to each other. They loved finding out if they had favorite things in common! 
Did you see it come home? Check it out!

These students noticed that they all chose writing as their favorite school activity!

I finished doing reading assessments this week and next week will begin meeting with groups of kids during our readers workshop to work on individual skills at their level. The whole class will also be working on developing reading strategies and practicing these together.

In math we started to mix things up and solve addition and subtraction story problems. We had to think about what was happening in the story to know if we needed to add or take away. The Fox Kits are really improving in how they represent their thinking in clear and organized ways!

In FUNdations we began using our magnet boards to build CVC words--words with a consonant-short vowel sound-consonant (i.e. hat, mud, lip). We are also practicing how to spell trick words (common words that don't follow traditional spelling rules): a, is, his, of, the, and.

Dates to Remember:

• October 24 - Picture Retake Day
• October 24 & 25 - Early Dismissal 11:00 (activities available with prior sign-up)
• November 13 - PTO Meeting
• November 15 - All School Morning Meeting 8:15
• November 17 - PTO Craft Fair
• November 21- Early Dismissal; No student activities; Parent/Teacher Conferences 12-8
• November 22- Early Dismissal; No student activities; Parent/Teacher Conferences 12-3
• November 25 - 29 - No School for Thanksgiving Break

Have a great weekend!

❤ Mrs. Fox

Highlights from a True Autumn Week

Hello families,

This week in readers workshop we used a new tool to "sign up" for our reading choices and practiced switching between choices more quickly and quietly. Students continued to meet with me to check their sight word knowledge. Sight words are commonly used words that don't always follow traditional spelling/reading rules (i.e. what, was, am). Knowing these words on sight helps students spend less energy decoding these common words so they can focus their brain power on decodable words (i.e. cat, spell, name). Some students also did 1:1 reading with me using the Fountas and Pinnell reading assessments to check on their current levels for reading accurately with comprehension. I will continue this next week.

In math this week our big focus was on story problems. Last week we did some visual story problems together. This week we learned how to read story problems to get the information we need to solve it. Then we made clear representations of our thinking and wrote equations to match.

On Monday we had a special guest reader at JFK, Bill Jameson, so we went to the library to hear him read one of his books! We also read a bunch of books in our classroom: Pete the Cat: I Love My White Shoes, Pete the Cat: Rockin' In My School Shoes, Pete the Cat and the Magic Sunglasses, and The School Book. To go along with our read alouds we wrote a book about what we do at our school.

This week we began to practice meeting with different teachers during our WIN time. WIN is "What I Need." It's a time for students to get more practice with a skill they are developing or receive enrichment in an area where they are consistently demonstrating skills above grade level. During WIN students will work in differentiated groups with any of the first grade teachers, our ELL teachers Ms. Sarah and Ms. L, our reading interventionist Mrs. Weimer, or our math interventionist Mrs. Thomas. This week we practiced moving as a whole class into one of the other first grade rooms to meet another teacher and get used to switching spaces.

We had a great pajama day/toy day celebration on Thursday!

I will be out on Monday but will return on Tuesday! Have a great weekend!

Dates to Remember:

• October 16 - PTO Meeting
• October 18 - All School Morning Meeting 8:15-8:45
• October 24 - Picture Retake Day
• October 24 & 25 - Early Dismissal 11:00 (activities available with prior sign-up)

Have a great weekend!

❤ Mrs. Fox

Highlights of the Week

Hello families,

Well the first six weeks of school and our focus on learning routines and expectations has been hugely successful. The Fox Kits are demonstrating their understanding of how we engage in schoolwork, how to work independently and in groups, and how to have fun and support each other. They are doing a great job! We will continue to develop these skills throughout the year.

We read many books and did writing prompts based on including others and friendship. We read: One, I'm New Here, Who Are You?, Be Who You Are, and  The Invisible Boy. We also had guest readers, Ms. Sarah and 2 students read a story they wrote together last year!

During readers workshop students continued building stamina with read to myself, read to someone, and work on  writing. They also practiced doing these choices independently while kids took turns meeting with me to do some reading.

In the next weeks I will begin doing some literacy assessments to check in on what skills your child already has for reading accuracy/reading comprehension/sight word knowledge/letter-keyword-sound knowledge and what skills they need to work on. This will help me to meet each child where they are at and provide differentiated instruction during readers workshop.

In math we continued comparing numbers and started representing on paper how we know which number is bigger. We also used videos to help us visualize story problems (word problems) and began to work on solving and representing our thinking on this type of math problem.

We finished up our first FUNdations (word study) unit on letter formation of lowercase letters and reviewing the letter-keyword-sounds they learned in Kindergarten. Knowing these cues helps us in reading and writing words!

In social studies we finished up our formal learning about growth mindset though it is something we talk about and practice all year long. We are also talking about our feelings, how to identify feelings in ourselves, and how they effect our bodies using the "How Does Your Engine Run" ideas of "too low, just right, too high." We brainstormed some strategies of what we could do if our engines are too low or too high to get back to the just right state where we do our best learning.

Dates to Remember:

• October 8 - No School
• October 16 - PTO Meeting
• October 18 - All School Morning Meeting 8:15-8:45
• October 24 - Picture Retake Day
• October 24 & 25 - Early Dismissal 11:00 (activities available with prior sign-up)

Have a great weekend!

❤ Mrs. Fox

Highlights on a Thursday

Hello families,

What an exciting week we've had. We enjoyed having many family members join us for our closing circle on Wednesday and we had fun celebrating filling our heart jar with a stuffie day on Thursday! We learned and practiced HEART expectations for a few new places and events this week: using the school grounds, going to the buddy room or SSR (Student Support Room), going to an assembly (like the All School Morning Meeting on Friday morning) and having a guest teacher. As a class we also wrote a morning message together to use with a guest teacher. They will have a chance to practice showing HEART with a guest teacher again tomorrow, Friday, which is why I'm sharing our highlights a bit early this week.

In reading we continued to increase our reading stamina and worked on our volume to make sure we are doing our best and giving a quiet learning space to others. We also kept adding to our stamina graph, trying to be engaged in reading for a longer overall time.

We love to read in the library too after we choose new books!

We finished reviewing all the vowel and consonant sounds and continue to practice lowercase letter formation.

Our read alouds gave us great opportunities to have meaningful conversations about individuality, what makes you you, and what we need to feel calm when the world around us is loud and chaotic. We practiced listening and responding to each others ideas. A few books we read this week are: It Feels Good to Be Yourself: A Book About Gender Identity; Charlotte and the Quiet Place; Angus All Aglow; Neither; and Only One You.

In math we continued working with the part/part/whole concept with teen numbers. In our Ten Frame booklet we started using 2 colors to show the two parts of a whole number and wrote equations to match. Then we started playing a game, Double Compare, to continue to deepen this understanding and work on ways to show our thinking about how we know what the whole number is and how we know which whole number is bigger.

Ask your child, "Who won this round of double compare? How do you know?"

We also continue to develop our growth mindset, watching a few videos to spark conversation and practicing working hard and fixing mistakes in our own work! 

I know the Fox Kits will be kind, flexible and show lots of HEART for the guest teacher on Friday. Check in with them tomorrow to see how they think it went!

Dates to Remember:

• October 2 - Walk to School Day. Meet at the Rite Aid at 7:35 AM to participate in this schoolwide event.
• October 8 - No School
• October 16 - PTO Meeting
• October 18 - All School Morning Meeting 8:15-8:45
• October 24 - Picture Retake Day
• October 24 & 25 - Early Dismissal 11:00 (activities available with prior sign-up)

Have a great weekend!

❤ Mrs. Fox

Hopes and Dreams

Here are the Hopes and Dreams 

we have for this school year!

Highlights from a Great Week!

Hello families,
It's hard to believe we just finished our 4th week of school. The Fox Kits are really remembering our routines and becoming a supportive learning community.

This week we read many books about growth mindset and goals. We read: Happy Dreamer,; Ricky, the Rock Who Couldn't Roll; Drawing Lessons from a Bear; Bunny Cakes; and The Big Orange Splot. This tied into our own writing about our hopes and dreams. We each wrote an academic (learning) goal and a social (friendship) goal. I also sent home a sheet for you to complete for any hopes and dreams you have for your child this year. Thanks to those of you who returned these already. If you haven't yet send it back as soon as you can!

We are building our classroom word wall to help us
spell words we use a lot when we write!

We also sent home invitations to join us next week for a closing circle. This is a daily routine where we reflect on our day and do a game or activity when we have time. If you come for dismissal a few minutes early next Wednesday please join us so you can see what closing circle looks like in first grade. Our closing circle is 2:45-2:55 and then we'll be dismissing as usual at 3:00.

We filled our heart jar again and this time really got to do our slime celebration. Mr. Fox came in as our slime expert to make tons of gooey goodness with the class.

In math we practiced being more accurate and organized in our counting and representations. We noticed how having clear, organized representations helps us know what number is being represented easily. This week we did a lot of work with tens frames to build this organization.

We added onto our reading habits this week. We practiced showing HEART while doing read to myself and read to someone. We learned about picking good fit books that are not too easy and not too hard. Just right books help our brains stretch and grow in their reading skills!

Dates to Remember:

• September 25 - Family Closing Circle 2:45-3:00 pm in room 25
• September 27 - All School Morning Meeting 8:15-8:45
• October 2 - Walk to School Day. Meet at the Rite Aid to participate in this schoolwide event.
• October 8 - No School
• October 24 - Picture Retake Day

Have a great weekend!

❤ Mrs. Fox