Starfish Gazette- December 12, 2013

Hello Starfish Families,

I hope you are all having a wonderful holiday season.  The three weeks between Thanksgiving and winter break are flying by and the children's excitement is so fun to be apart of! I've enjoyed listening to their stories about their elf on the shelf and decorations at home.

It has been an exciting time in the starfish classroom.  We have accomplished many fun holiday activities and the first grade has traveled to Mexico, Netherlands, Germany, and India to learn about various cultures and holiday traditions.  It has been fun sharing our holiday dolls and learning more about people's family history!  Last Friday Hayden shared about his culture when he was living in Switzerland.  He shared this differences and similarities between Santa Claus and St. Nikolaus. It was very exciting for the kids to learn from Hayden!  Thank you Denise for organizing this for our class.  We will end our week learning about Hanukkah tomorrow!

As we focus on family traditions and celebrate holidays this month, we will read the book, Night Tree by Eve Bunting.   This fantastic holiday story is about a family who hikes into the woods and decorates an evergreen tree for the animals to eat.  On Wednesday next week, we will string our cheerios, orange slices, and cranberries to prepare for our family walk on Thursday. If you have emailed to bring in one of these items, please send the items in by Wednesday morning 12/18.  Thank you so much for contributing to make this event possible,   We will find a tree on the perimeter of the playground to decorate.  The kids always enjoy taking a walk after the holiday break to see if their treats for their animals have been eaten!  (The forecast for next Thursday appears sunny.  If we do not have school, our snow date for the walk will be Friday)  Following the decorating of the tree, we will come back into the classroom and enjoy some cookies and hot chocolate.  All families are welcome to join us.  This activity will take place on Thursday, December 19th at 10:00, and is in lieu of a holiday party.  Please send back your permission form as soon as possible.  Thank you!



Now that the snow has arrived... your child needs snowpants, boots, coat, hat and mittens/gloves in order to go in the snow.  Otherwise, they need to stay on the pavement during recess.  Please also pack your child an extra pair of socks in their backpack and let them know to change into them if their socks become wet.  If your child does not have an extra pair of sneakers in our sneaker bin, it might be helpful to put a pair in the classroom.  With the children coming to school in boots, I find more kids forget to bring P.E. sneaker for P.E. days.  Ask you child about our routine to keep our snow gear organized.  I think we have it down to a science now!  Now we are working on getting our gear on quickly! :)

Have a wonderful weekend.  I look forward to seeing many of you next Thursday morning!
Megan

UPCOMING DATES

Holiday Hike/Party--Thursday, Dec. 19 at 10:00

Holiday Break--December 21-January 1--Back to school on Thursday, Jan. 2

Happy Birthday Hailey

Hailey celebrated a special 7th birthday yesterday! How awesome to have an early release on your special day!

December 20th- Pajama Day

The First Grade Pajama Day

December 20th 

A stuffed friend is welcomed too! 

Please no slippers or nightgowns please 

Holiday Hike- December 19, 2013

The Night Tree Holiday Hike

All families are welcome to join us on our Night Tree nature walk on Thursday, December 19 at 10:00. Our class will be taking a hike at Stratham Hill Park.  We will meet in the classroom and head out to the woods behind the school.  Hot cocoa and cookies will follow.

As part of our walk, we will be decorating the trees with treats for all the animals.  We will be looking for donations:

       2 boxes of cheerios cereal

   2 bags of fresh cranberries

1 1 bag of oranges

Please email me if you are willing to bring in one of these materials.

Thank you in advance,

Megan Rochford

No Homework

Hi Starfish Families, 

We will be having no homework for our shortened week.  Please have your child pack their Thanksgiving shared snack tonight to bring in tomorrow.  You can encourage your child to count out the snack by 2's and 5's.  

I hope your family has a wonderful Thanksgiving!  

Warm Wishes,
Megan

Important Reminder- Celebrating Thanksgiving Tomorrow

Important Reminder!!!

 Celebrating Thanksgiving Tomorrow!

Tuesday, November 26^th, our class will be having a “shared snack” like the Pilgrims and Native Americans.  I am asking each child to bring in “20” healthy items to share.  Examples: carrots sticks, celery sticks, raisins, grapes, pretzels, crackers.  (Please send package in so ingredients can be checked).  We look forward to turning our classroom into “The First Thanksgiving”.

 

Starfish Gazette- November 18, 2013

 Dear Starfish Families, 


            First of all, thank you for taking the time to meet with me for parent/teacher conferences. I appreciate your support and I enjoyed the opportunity to converse with you about your child. The report card that you received in your child's folder last Friday reflects your child's attendance.  It also gives you information about the skills that will be evaluated in February. Please sign the envelope and return it ASAP. The paperwork is yours to keep.

Celebrating Thanksgiving:

Our class is learning all about the First Thanksgiving and the Pilgrims and Native Americans. We are planning to have a "shared " snack like the Pilgrims and Native Americans on Tuesday, November 26. I am asking each child to bring in "20" healthy items to share. Examples: carrot sticks, celery sticks, raisins, grapes, pretzels, crackers (please send package in so ingredients can be checked). We look forward to turning our classroom into "The First Thanksgiving".

Word Study:

This week we are learning about the "h brothers"- ch, th, wh, sh, and ph.  We have many activities planned to learn more about this digraphs.  Learning these digraphs will help with your child's writing and reading. 

Thank you so much for your continued support on your child's spelling homework/ studying.  I was so impressed with the studying with last week's spelling quiz!  Amazing job Starfish! 

Reading Workshop:

We are continuing to learn about our characters in our books.  This week we started reading Mo Willem's Elephant and Piggy books to brainstorm character traits across books.  We have been using post-it notes to document how our character's feelings changes.  

At home, I encourage you to talk with your child about the characters that you meet in the books you read together.    

Math Workshop:

In math, we have been learning about our doubles, doubles +1, and doubles -1.  We have been using our white boards to build our fact fluency.  We made Doubles Dudes this afternoon. (picture coming soon).  The kids really enjoyed this activity to reinforce their double number sentences.  Later this week we are going to begin learning about Penny, Nickel, and Dime. 

Our class just reached 10,000 problems completed on IXL! So proud of our learning accomplishments! :)


Questions to promote "School Talk"?

1. Can you tell me what sound short a, short i, and short o make?
2. What's your classroom job this week?
3. What book are you reading for chapter read aloud?
4. How did you make your Double Dude?
5. Who is your reading partner?
6. Tell me what doubles facts you know?
7. Who is Elephant and Piggy?  Tell me about their characters?
8. Can you tell me the difference between a tall letter and a diving letter?

Have a great week!
Megan 

     

Starfish Thankful Turkey

We started to build our Thankful turkey! It's turning out awesome!

Field Trip Tomorrow!

Hi Starfish families,

We are going to the Portsmouth Music Hall tomorrow morning to see The Junie B. Jones production! The kids are so excited to see Junie's character come to life on stage. We can't wait to see the differences and similarities between the books and the play.

We will not be having snack tomorrow at school so please give your child a hearty breakfast at home before coming to school.

If your child wants to "dress up" for the theater tomorrow, they are more than welcome to! :)

Have a great evening!
Megan

Happy Birthday To Our Favorite Starfish Twins!

Charles and Eleanor turned 7 on 11/11! We celebrated their special day at school today!

Learning about Fire Safety with Stratham Fire Department

We had a great morning learning about fire safety. The kindergarten and first grade classes traveled around the school to different stations. Ask your child what they learned about fire safety this morning. Enjoy some pictures!

Happy Birthday Hayden!!

We had a great time at Fall Festival!

More Pictures from Fall Festival soon!

Thank you to Mrs. Gunnell for helping out this morning during our festival stations.

We had a wonderful snack in the afternoon! A special thank you to Mr. And Mrs. Goodrich for your help with the food and special Halloween treats! The kids loved their goody bags!

Have lots of fun trick or treating! Please have your child bring 3 pieces of candy to graph tomorrow at school!

Congratulations Starfish!

Keep up the excellent job on your homework!

Starfish Gazette- October 24, 2013

Hi Starfish Families,

Here's what we are learning about in our classroom:

• Learning about -ck words in word study
• Learning how to put spaces in-between our words when we write
• Learning about the characters in our books (modeling with Junie B. Jones)
• Telling time to the hour
• Retelling a story (including the characters, setting, and order of important events)
• Learning how to speak up for ourselves when someone is acting "bossy"
• Solving math problems using a number line
• Learning what expected and unexpected behavior looks like, sounds likes, and feels like
• Learning about turn around facts (also referred to as flip flop facts: 4+5=9 5+4=9)
• Learned about rainbow facts to 10

Here are some of the activities that have happened in our classroom:

• Hayden's mom came in to be our Mystery Reader.  She read a great Halloween Story called Crankenstein. Such a fun story to share with your family!
• Played many games including memory, spin a word, and did picture word sorts to help us practice -ack and -ick words
• Reading about Junie B. Jones for our chapter read aloud.  We are reading this chapter book to give the kids a connection to our field trip on November 13 at the Portsmouth Music Hall.
• Added a new class poem: Telling the Time to our Poem and Song Journals

• Played Tell Time and Find Sums on our classroom IPADS during math centers
• Created insect clocks with three body parts, two eyes, two antennae, and six legs
• Made a pumpkin glyph
• Created "stained glass" Frankenstein Creatures for our classroom windows! 
• Had movement breaks to two clock videos on YouTube. 

To view these videos with your family at home click here:
Hip Hop Around the Clock

What's the Time?

Questions to Promote "School Talk" at Home:

1. Can you tell me something about Junie B. Jones?

2. How did you make your Frankenstein in your classroom? 

3. Can you tell me about the math game: The Time Barrier Game?

4. What have you been making in art class?

5. What do you like to play during free-choice time?

6. What's your favorite learning app for the Ipad at school?

7. Can you tell me about "Flip Flop" math facts? Can you give me an example?

8. How many times do we go around an analog clock in ONE day?  

School Updates and Reminders:

• First Grade field trip to Portsmouth Music Hall on November 13, 2013.  We are sorry that we are unable to take chaperons on this field trip. 
• Early Release Days: November 7th and 13th (Parent Teacher Conference)
• Early Release Dismissal Time: 12:50
• No School- November 8, 11,27,28, and 29.  

Volunteers for the Upcoming Week:

Reading Volunteers:

 Lisa Richard and Jill Gunnell on 10/29

Sheri and John Goodrich and Ryan/Holly O'Kane on 10/31

Center Volunteers:

Ryan O'Kane on 10/30

Mystery Reader:

Erica Shaw on 10/31

Fall Festival

The first grade classrooms host a Fall Festival Event in Celebration of Halloween on October 30, 2013.  The Dolphin and Starfish classes will be rotating between 6 stations in the morning.  If you are interested in helping run a station, please feel free to email me. The stations include festive art projects, face painting, card making, and games.  

Thank you for all your support. We truly appreciate all the volunteering that is happening in our classroom and the support you are providing your child at home. Thank you for setting up a November conference time for us to meet.  I am looking forward to meeting with each family in the next few weeks!

Have a wonderful weekend,

Megan Rochford

Happy 7th Birthday Caelum!

We had fun celebrating one of our favorite Starfish today!

The Starfish Set Sail in 2013

Columbus Day Sail-a-thon Tomorrow- Friday, October 11, 2013

Tomorrow the starfish will set sail in celebration for Columbus Day.  Please remind your child to bring the boat he or she constructed to school tomorrow.  We are looking forward to sharing our boats and watching them set sail tomorrow morning.  

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------We have been using two websites in our classroom to access digital books.  The kids have asked that I share these websites with you because they are looking forward to accessing these books at home.

www.wegivebooks.org

Username: SMSLibrary

Password: sms10sms

www.tumblebooks.

(Our school is currently under a trial subscription for this website.   Mrs. Wigode and the Stratham PTO are purchasing the full subscription soon.  Please feel free to use the trail username and password.  I will let you know when we have an official password to this site.)  

This site has a wonderful feature. It gives you the option to read the book or have the website read the book to the child.  A great way to listen to a story.

Username: smsstudent

Password: trial

Coppal House Farm