Starfish Gazette 2/3/13

Starfish Gazette 

February 3, 2013

Happy February Starfish Families!

I have to say I was pretty excited to flip over to the February calendar on Friday because that means we are one more month closer to warm weather and longer days of light.  I enjoy all the seasons but Summer is by far my favorite.  It was an exciting week for the our class.  We found out on Tuesday afternoon that we were getting a new student named Jonathan (Jon) from Wisconsin!  He was supposed to to arrive on Wednesday but ended up not coming until Thursday due to sickness.  Mrs. Griem and I were joking that he already fit in with our group because we all know how much sickness our class had experienced this winter.  I unfortunately was not here on Thursday to meet Jon but Mrs. Griem and our guest teacher did a nice job playing some ice breaking games and getting Jon acclimated to the life of a first grade starfish.  It was pretty amazing when I came in on Friday morning from bus duty.  Jon was already sitting at his seat with his green folder doing morning work.  He just blended in like the rest of them!  He seems to really enjoy playing football with some of the boys in our class out at recess.  The boys welcomed another sport enthusiast with open arms and are already planning play dates!  It's really exciting to watch them show Jon around the classroom.  Even at 6 and 7 they seem so mature at times!  It's really neat to watch them share all of our routines and quirky parts of our day which make our class community a special place to learn! 

Here's some of the learning we did last week:

• Learned about glued letters (ing, ong, ang, and ung).  When we see these letters together in words we read them as one sound as if they are glued together.  ** The kids have been really pushing themselves with practicing their spelling words.  I really appreciate all the support that you are giving them at home because it is truly paying off!!**
• Counting down the days to 100 with our morning calendar and morning message.
• Built the February class calendar together.  It opened up a great conversation this week while building the calendar.  We have working so hard on 10 more and 10 less using the hundreds grid over the past few months.  While building the February calendar, one of the kids noticed that the number directly below on the calendar is not 10 more.  This led to a conversation that a week only has 7 days so the number directly below is 7 more.  It was great.  (We added 100th day on 2/7, Valentine's Day on 2/14, President's Day on 2/18, Jack's 7th birthday on 2/18, and Talia's 7th birthday on 2/25)
• Began learning about the 3 states of matter.  We watched a brainpopjr. video and played some games on the smart board.
• Working on our persuasive commercials.  I really anticipated that this would have been a 2 or 3 day project but the kids are so into it that I'm letting them run with it!  It has been a great activity for collaboration with peers.  
• Used decks of cards to practice fact power.  We worked with partnerships on our doubles, doubles +1, doubles -1, +10 facts!
• Began learning about place value.  We built numbers using our base 10 blocks and place value mats.
• Learned about schema.  This is a comprehension strategy that teaches the importance of making connections to a text.  We discovered as a class that making connections to the characters and the content of a story allows you to understand its meaning better.  We also talked about text to text connections.  While reading a story, we can often make a connection to other books that we have read. We read a few of Kevin Henkes' books to model this reading strategy.
• Learned about Groundhog Day.  We read a few fictional stories about Penxsutawney Phil.  We also tied in some discussion about other animals that hibernate in the winter.
• Started Number of Day morning work again.  We took a break from it for a few weeks to work on some other types of morning work.  The repetition of working with numbers and learning to know numbers upside down, inside out is key to building number sense!
• Played some new games during Wednesday centers this week. We played Uno, Race to a Quarter, worked on our number scrolls, and played sight word bingo!

  Upcoming events:

  
  

  February 6    Public budget hearing in SMS cafe at 7 pm

  February 7    100th day of school

  February 14   Valentine's Day      (We will have a Valentine's Day celebration.  More details to come!!)

  

  
  

  February 15   Visit from the Mad Scientist

                        PTO Father Daughter Dance

  
  

  February 25-March1   Winter vacation

  
  

  March 8       District meeting in the SMS cafe at 7 pm

  
  

  
  

  
  

  
  

  
  

  Valentine's Day

  
  

  

  *We are looking for Shoe boxes to decorate Valentine's day Monster boxes.  I found this really cute idea to to shore and deliver Valentine's cards.  I think the kids will really enjoy making their Valentine's monster!  I do need your help in providing shoe boxes for this activity!

  
  

  
  

  Starfish Class Names for Valentine's Cards:

  Susannah Alther

  Evan Bierman

  Jon Carlson

  Jack Cartwright

  Evan Delorie

  Ryan Dempsey

  Sophie Glance

  Fiona Grace

  Chloe Hall

  Noah Johnson

  Vincent Labroad

  Manit Mahajan

  Camryn Marconi

  Josh McGuinness

  Logan Murphy

  Talia Parmelee

  Topher Peracchi

  Abby Simko

  Ms. Rochford

  Mrs. Griem

  
  

  **If you choose to send in Valentine's Day cards to school, I please ask that your child bring one in for each child in our class.  Thank you!!

  
  

  
  

  Parent Volunteers this week:

  (A huge thank you to Julie McGuinness for organizing our monthly volunteer calendar! You're the best!! We really appreciate it!)

  
  

  February 5th-Sandra B. (Reading Volunteer)

  February 6th- Stacy T. and Kerry G. (Center Volunteers)

  February 7th- Susan A. (Reading Volunteer)

  
  

  I am trying to start a reading sign up for the reading volunteers in the morning for the kids that would like to have listening ears during reading workshop.  So when you come in I can hand you a list of kids that would like to read with you.  I hope you find that helpful! :)

  
  

  
  

  
  

  Have a great Sunday!! Have fun watching the Superbowl.  I haven't decided which team I'm routing for tonight.  I'm just looking forward to some yummy chili and great commercials! :)

  
  

  Warmest Wishes,

  Megan Rochford