Our big question this week is "Where do animals live together?" We will be reading and researching different habitats. If the weather allows, we will be exploring our school garden and some of our school's outside areas. Please be sure your child has appropriate outside gear daily.
Your children loved learning about Plymouth Plantation. We learned about life as a Pilgrim child long ago, and as a Wampanoag child of yesterday and of today. I hope they shared some of their learning with you. I have enjoyed my conference times. If you have not signed up for a conference, please contact me directly, so that we can find a time to meet. We will continue our study of homes and places, by discussing the Pilgrims and their work to build a home in a new place. We are continuing to collect coins for Puerto Rico. If you'd like to contribute, please have your child bring in some change. We have a school-wide Pep Rally on Wednesday. First graders should wear blue...and lots of it! This is always a funny topic, but I'd like to address classroom holiday gifts. Your children are truly the gift, and teaching them is all the gift that I could want or need. Please do not feel it necessary to purchase teacher gifts. Our class could always use supplies, and if you are inclined to do so, wrapping up a gift to the classroom would be an alternative. Our classroom is always grateful for the following: Soft tissues glue sticks fun foam pencil top erasers regular erasers play-doh and play doh tools clay googly eyes construction paper tape - Scotch, masking, and colorful duct tape 50-100 Piece puzzles Sanitizing wipes The children will not be doing a student gift exchange. We will however, be having a class party. Information on this will come out in early December. There is NO Homework or Spelling Words this week. I hope your Thanksgiving is rich with family and moments that make memories. We have been reading many different versions of The Three Little Pigs. We have been reading about buildings and building materials. We created houses out of sticks (spaghetti) and bricks (blocks). We then took photos of our houses, diagrammed the photographs, and wrote about them!
I have enjoyed sharing your child's growth during Parent-Teacher conferences. If you would like to sign up for a conference, please see previous postings for a link to conference sign ups. We are supporting a third grade student's Coin Drive for Puerto Rico. If your child would like to participate, we will be collecting coins until the beginning of December. More info can be found in the school's Thursday notice. Your children learned about this at our recent Community Meeting.
This is our Veterans Day wreath. Mr. Mudrick brought it to the Veterans Home yesterday.
Miss Kim spoke to us about her job as a Marine, and we read about a military family in our Scholastic News magazine. Thank you to all of our Veterans. This week, we will be reading about buildings and the materials that they are made of. We will read some different versions of the Three LIttle Pigs. We are learning about characters and settings. As you read with your child, ask your child to identify the important characters and one or two settings that seem important to the story. Winter is on its way and we are preparing for the transition to winter coats, boots, hats, mittens. Here are some things that you can do to make this transition a successful one for your child. 1. Label everything...including boots! 2. Practice shoe tying with your child. Your child will be changing from boots to shoes 3-4 times per day. 3. Practice zipping, putting on mittens, hats, etc. 4. At school, we put our hats and mittens into our coat sleeve when our outdoor gear is not in use. 5. Teach your child to be flexible...many children have special ways that they like their mittens and boots...tucked in sleeves, etc. Your child will need to do a large majority of getting ready on his/her own, and might not be able to get it "just right" each time. Teach your child that this is a-ok! We have been learning about taking challenges, and that sometimes things are hard, but that we can work through challenges. Winter gear is a big challenge for young children! At school this week, we discussed challenges that were difficult for us in September that now seem easy. It was heartening to hear them talk about how things are comfortable now that were hard then! They are growing! The children love to bring in things from home that relate to our learning. We love seeing things in our science center such as leaves, acorns, homemade books, and books. This shows how much they are processing and connecting, and I do encourage this. These items can be put out to be displayed and should relate to our learning. I have noticed an increase in toys coming to school. This can be problematic, and I'd like to ask that toys not come into the classroom. We have toys here at school that I use in the classroom for specific learning outcomes. For example, we have blocks for building, problem solving, and for learning to work together and to share. We have pattern blocks, games, an art center, and other toys for dramatic play. When toys from home are brought in worries begin that mainly revolve around sharing and toys becoming broken or lost out at recess. Thank you for helping by keeping toys at home. Conference time is here! You can sign up for a conference at: www.signupgenius.com/go/60b0c4cacad28a3f94-conference Families, your children continue to be thoughtful and invested first graders. The Curious Caterpillars are growing and learning daily! This week we will be reading and writing about jobs! Please be sure to discuss with your child the jobs you do.
We will also be learning about Veterans Day. Your child came home with an optional homework assignment. If your child chooses to do it, it is due by Wednesday. This is a short week, so our spelling check-in will be on Thursday. Thank you for your contributions to our Halloween Party. It was a fun and delicious time! Your children filled our big bucket with warm fuzzies! We have been learning about being Bucket Fillers. Each table has a bucket. These buckets get filled with warm fuzzies when we see quality behavior and quality work! Each small bucket gets emptied into a larger bucket! When that large bucket is full, we have a group celebration!
This Friday we will celebrate by wearing our pajamas to school! Your child is invited to wear his/her pajamas to school on that day. (No slippers please...) If you are in the building, be sure to check out our new bulletin board. We wrote about the ways we like to MOVE! |
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