Starfish Gazette-September 22, 2017

Dear Starfish Families,

Thank you so much for visiting our classroom last night to learn about your child's learning in first grade.  The kids loved reading the notes you left them this morning at their seats. I have attached my slides from last night if you would like to see the slideshow especially for families that were unable to attend.

CLICK HERE FOR CURRICULUM POWERPOINT

I will be sending out a Sign Up Genius early next week with interest in being a Guest Reader in our classroom.

For families that were unable to come last night, I wanted to post a few pictures of the projects and activities we have accomplished over the last few weeks that fill the walls in our classroom and our hallways.

MARK YOUR CALENDARS
Early Release Wednesday, September 27th- Dismissal is 12:50


Questions to Promote a Home-School Connection:

1. What is the name of the Pigeon Story you are writing?
2. Can you tell me about the greeting that your class does every Friday about the weekend?
3. Can you tell me about the game "Bug Under the Rug"
4. Do you know the name of your 3rd grade reading buddy? What book did you read this week with your buddy?
5. Can you tell me about the Seesaw app...how does it work?
6. What did you choose to do for Free Choice Friday?
7. Can you tell me how to play the card game Top It?
8. Can you show me how to write a lowercase a, c, d, o the first grade way? (Magic C Letters)
9. Can you show me how you read with a partner in your classroom? What is echo reading? What is seesaw reading?
10. What instrument did you play in music class this week?

We Need Your Help!

Our class is looking for STEM materials to allow us to build and create together:

• Newspaper
• Paper towel rolls
• Paper plates
• Any half used boxes of craft supplies
• We can get creative with just about anything! 

The first grade team is working on dramatic play boxes that we will share and rotate for Fun Free Choice Fridays. Some of the boxes that we will be making include a Post Office Dramatic Play Box, Cooking/Baking Box,  Dentist Box, Doctor/Vet box and many more. 

The Starfish Class will be making a "school store" box and "ice cream shop" box.  We are looking for some supplies to make our ice cream dramatic play box come to life.  

Here are some suggestions to help fill our box

-different color tissue paper for ice cream scoops

-Ice cream scoopers

-plastic bowls

-empty can of whipped cream

-red pom poms for cherries

We appreciate your donations in helping to bring the joy and wonder of creative play into our classrooms

Have a nice weekend,

Megan Murphy

Starfish Gazette- September 15, 2017

Hello Starfish Families,

We made it through our first full week of first grade! Woo Hoo! I wonder how tired your first grader was by the end of the week.  We continue to build our independence with classroom routines and are having fun diving into 1st grade curriculum! Below you will see many pictures from our week including information about the learning activities we accomplished.

Readers Build Good Habits

Reader's Workshop is up and running in the Starfish Classroom!  Even within the first few weeks of school, the Starfish are already falling into place with the routines of daily reader's workshop. The kids are working on finding a just right reading spot, setting a reading plan, and building stamina to read independently. Over the next few weeks, the children will continue to develop good habits for before, during, and after reading.  This week we have been working on taking a sneak peek at the cover of books to help make predictions of what might happen in the story.  As we continue, the kids will learn how to check their predictions as they read, revisiting or confirming them.    

Students are turning and talking about their books during a lesson

The kids have also been paired with a reading partner.  Each day the kids will meet with their reading partner to share their books and strategies.  This week we learned how to sit and share a book with a partner.  

 Partners can practice words together

Partners find comfy places to read

Partners share books together

Reading Partners can work as a team

Math Workshop

Mrs. Jolly teaching at a math center

Playing Penny Plate: A great game to practice counting on and building a strong foundation of number relationships

 Some pennies are hiding under the plate. Can she guess how many are missing?

 The Penny Spill Game- Practicing Collecting Data with Tallies

Over the last few weeks, we are learning the components of math workshop. We start each math workshop with a warm up. This may include a mental math component, skip counting, or working on our white boards to practice a specific skill. Following our warm up, we have a short mini-lesson to teach or review a first grade math concept. After our mini-lesson we typically break into small group math centers. Small group learning environments provide opportunities for differentiated learning and hands on practice.

During the month of September, the children are reviewing what they learned about numbers in kindergarten. Children practice rote counting, or reciting numbers in order by 1s, 5s, and 10s. Number stories are also introduced. Number story is another name for what is sometimes called a “story problem’ or a “word problem”. Throughout first grade, we provide exposure to number stories weekly to provide opportunities for children to use a variety of strategies to solve problems.

We have also introduced the children to math tool kits. In our classroom the students have a separate box similar to their book box. We continue to add new materials to our tool boxes and this provides a safe place for the students to get their materials independently.

Some math vocabulary introduced in the month of September includes: number grid, number line, number story, tally chart, tally marks, and toolkit. We have played a variety of games to support their understanding of these math concepts.  I will be sending home a copy of a few games next week to play at home so be on the lookout in your child's blue folder!

The focus of this math center was practice numeral writing with Mrs. Saxton. This would be a great at-home activity to reinforce this skill as well! 

Do Anytime Activities with your child:

• Count orally by 5’s and 10’s while riding in the car. Occasionally count down, or back.

• Count numbers of objects around the house and while shopping. Have your child keep track using tally marks. For example, count the number of doors in your house

What else is happening in the Starfish Classroom?

We have Social Detectives with Mrs. Curry and Mrs. Bick every Tuesday morning at 8:30.  We learned about our social smarts this week.

Mrs. Lafrance read us the story The Girl Who Never Made a Mistake

Some of us chose to play card games during free choice Fridays

We had fun playing instruments during music class

We invited our new Vice Principal Mrs. Belanger into our classroom to read one of her favorite stories.  We get to see Mrs. Belanger all the time since her office is right across from our room!

Pigeon Book Creators

Finished our self portraits

Starfish Birthdays

September

November

December

January

February

April

May

June

July

We ended the week with new seats and new friends to sit next to

Have a great weekend,

Megan Murphy

Important Upcoming Dates to Remember

Hello, Starfish Families! Here is a reminder about important events happening at school over the next few weeks:



September 21st: Picture Day
PTO Reception (6:00-6:30 pm)
Curriculum Night: Grades K-2 (6:30-7:00 pm)


September 27th: Early Release: Students will be dismissed from school at 12:50 pm


October 9th: Columbus Day, No School


October 14th: Family Fun Day at Stratham Hill Park


October 27th: Halloween Howl

Ending the Week in the Starfish Classroom

We had another great week in the Starfish Classroom! It's been so much fun getting to know your child.

I wanted to thank you all for a great start to our year.  Thank you so much for your donations for all our school supplies! It is greatly appreciated.  We had so much fun sharing our family pages this week.  I plan on putting the book together on Monday and each Starfish will have a turn to bring home the family pages to share with you at home.

Here are some activities from the week:

-Created our classroom rules
-Began Reader's Workshop-I filled their book boxes with book and we found Just Right reading spots
-Built our reading stamina.  We are already reading for 17 minutes independently!
-Learned about tally marks
-Practiced how we use white boards for learning in first grade
- Practiced counting on the number line playing a math game called 'bunny hop'
-counted the vowels and consonants in our names
-Did a writing activity to the children's book, Quick as a Cricket
-Practiced writing our first names the first grade way
-Invited Mr. Fosher in to read one of his favorite stories
-Met our 3rd grade reading buddies
-Painted starfish with our handprints
-Found 3 things in common with our friends in the class
-played outside with all the first grade classes
-Played Top-It (a math game with our new decks of cards)
-Practiced skipped counting by 5's and 10's playing Last Starfish Standing
-Played Who Stole the Cookie from the Cookie Jar
-Greeted each other using the formal greeting "Good morning Mr. Cole"  "Good Morning Miss Lauren"



Here are some pictures from our day today...

Good morning from our Starfish Friends

 Mr. Fosher came to read Strega Nona this morning

 Playing Bunny Hop with Partners

 Met our 3rd Grade Reading Buddies

Happy to have another great week of First Grade! Happy Weekend!

Important Upcoming Dates:

Thursday, 9/21: Picture Day

Thrusday, 9/21: Curriculum Night Grades K-2 @6:30 (This is a parent event only.)