Happy 2014! I hope your family had a fun and relaxing vacation. Over vacation I was able to visit my family in Connecticut for Christmas, spend quality time with good friends, Ryan and I had an engagement dinner party with both of our families, read books simply for enjoyment, and spent quality time with my one year old puppy!
We had a great day back today. The kids were very excited to see their 1st grade friends. We set goals for our year together in 2014. The starfish came up with a wonderful list of ideas on how we can come together to improve as learners in our classroom. We also created a class book today for for our wishes for 2014!
This week in math, we will begin a unit on two dimensional shapes. The starfish will learn about the attributes of each shape. The kids will begin to identify sides and vertices of shapes. We played a game called Guess My Rule today with shape attribute blocks. We also read The Greedy Triangle. This math picture book provides concrete examples of shapes in our everyday world. (Examples: Pentagons on a soccer ball, Triangles on sails, Rectangles on movie screens) It also introduced some important math vocabulary: polygon, quadrilateral, pentagon, hexagon, heptagon, octagon.
Teaching Tip: Around the house, encourage your 1st grader to point out two dimensional shapes in their everyday life.
In January, the starfish will begin to learn how to write persuasive letters. (You may notice that your 1st grader will become more persuasive than they already are!) We will launch the writing unit with the book I Wanna Iguana. It's a great mentor text to model persuasive writing for the kids. We will begin by coming up with a a persuasive idea for Mr. Fosher and/or Mrs. Ruel. We will write a letter as a class to one of them persuading something we want for our school. As the starfish start to become more confident, they will begin writing persuasive letters of their own to their family, teachers, and friends. Last year my students really got into this unit and it was the first time they started to become motivated to generate volumes of ideas and writing. I'm hoping it will be equally as successful with this group! We may even make mailboxes for each classroom so that the kids can write persuasive letters to other kids in the 1st grade.
Math Volunteering Opportunities for 2014:
In the fall, we began to incorporate more math centers into our math schedule. This was very successful for our kids to be working in small groups to learn 1st grade math concepts. I would like to have parent volunteers on Day 5 of our schedule to run a math center from 9:15-10:15.
Please email me at mrochford@sau16.org if you are interested in signing up to volunteer with mathematics.
Dates Available: (We will start with scheduling January-March and add more dates as they approach)
January 8, 16,
February 4, 12, 20
March 7, 18, 26
Starfish of the Week
Starting next week, our class will begin Starfish of the Week. Each week one student from our class will have their opportunity to shine! They will also have the opportunity to bring home Sully and Spotty, our class mascots home with them for the week. The week leading up to the starfish of the week, your child will bring home a poster to decorate. I will put a detailed description about starfish of the week and a schedule in your child's blue folder tomorrow!
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| Here is Sully and Spotty! |
To promote Home-School Connection:
1. What is your school job this week?
2. Who are the friends that sit at your table (we will get new seats on Tuesday)
3. Tell me about the Greedy Triangle?
4. What science experiment did you do this week? (we are doing a science experiment about penguin blubber on Wednesday)
5. What's are some of your school goals for 2014? goals for home?
6. What is your new chapter read aloud?
Parent Volunteers For This Week:
Center Volunteer : Erica Shaw- Tuesday, January 7 at 1:30
Mystery Reader Volunteer: Matt Gunn- Wednesday, January 8 at 2:30
Reading Volunteers: Tracy Sharrocks- Thursday, January 9 at 11:00
Upcoming Dates:
1. January 20- No School
2. January 29- Early Release
** Please email me if you would like to volunteer as a center volunteer, mystery reader, or reading volunteer that has not signed up. I know a few parents expressed interest before Christmas break but I failed to write down your names. Thank you!
** Please email me if you would like to volunteer as a center volunteer, mystery reader, or reading volunteer that has not signed up. I know a few parents expressed interest before Christmas break but I failed to write down your names. Thank you!
Have a great week,
Megan
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