Day 2 of Giving Kindness

We opened our next gift of kindness this morning: Show appreciation for your principal, Mr. Fosher.

We decided to make him cards and surprise him in the office.  He's a busy man and kept checking throughout the day to catch him in his office.  We finally caught him right before art class to give him his cards!

We really made his day and filled his bucket! The kids were so proud!

Starfish Gazette- December 11, 2017

Please Mark Your Calendars:

• Early Release this Wednesday, December 13th at 12:50.
• Holiday Hike and Gathering in the Classroom on Thursday, December 21st 12:45 - 2:00.

We will go on a holiday stroll to decorate trees for the animals around the premises of our school.  We will come back to the classroom for cocoa and cookies.  We hope you can all join us! 

What's Raz Kids?

We have an exciting new reading app called Raz Kids. This is a subscription that first grade will be piloting this year.  A few teachers in our school have shared they have loved their own children using this at home to have access to a variety of nonfiction and fiction books that are just right.  Your child can access the app at home with their own username and password. An informational paper will be your child's folder this week.

Your child now has access to just right books at his/her convenience. I have encouraged your child to read the book first on their own, then listen to it being read to them to confirm accuracy. The levels on Raz Kids are slightly harder than the levels they read at school. Hence, there is a range of levels to choose from.

The unique feature to Raz Kids is the comprehension component.  Each just right text gives your child 5 comprehension questions.  This allows your child to practice to monitor their reading for meaning. The comprehension questions really raise the bar for your child!

Both iReady and Raz Kids can be used as homework throughout the week. I am able to monitor their progress at home as well as school.

Please take the time to login to your child's Raz Kid account on your PC or download the app for them at home. This could take the place for a RAH book and please feel free to write down books your child reads to their RAH folder.

Please let me know if you have any questions.



KINDNESS COUNTDOWN:10 Gifts of Kindness


Each morning there will be a new gift for us to open as a class to spread kindness to others during this holiday season. We can't wait to share our gifts of kindness on the blog and see saw over the next two weeks.  

Our first gift of kindness: 

Play with someone new at recess

Here's just a glimpse on what we've been working on:

• Focused on blends at the beginning and ending of words during phonics instruction
• Created addition equation scales to reinforce balanced equations
• Played the math game, Plus What? during math workshop
• Reading "The Chocolate Touch" during read aloud. Mrs. Murphy is using a reader's notebook with the class how to model how to write down important details of the story
• Read holiday stories with our 3rd grade reading buddies
• Learned how to use body movements and an expressive "expert" voice to get our partners excited about our non-fiction topics
• Learning how to share important parts of our nonfiction books with others
• Created nonfiction writing topics, built a table of contents, and began writing across pages about topics we know a lot about
• Did a science exploration with Mystery Doug this afternoon- Learning how to make something less opaque- making the connection why snowflakes look white
• Created a Countdown to the DARKEST day of the year: Today 12/11 We have 9 hours and 4 minutes of daylight.  The kids made predictions of how much daylight we will have on 12/21
  
  
   Snowflake Science Exploration with Table Partners
  
   We used layers of wax paper to make the snowflakes look white
  
   Learning how to collaborate and share ideas with partners
  

Writer's hard at work writing nonfiction books

Sharing ideas during whole group share: Learning that we can lean on other writer's for advice and suggestions

Here are some questions to promote school talk...

1) Tell me about the Japanese game with the slippery stairs that your class watched. How did the players show growth mindset?
2) Tell me something you learned about your new classmate, Lydia?

3) Tell me about this week's mystery with Mystery Doug? 
4) Can you tell me about the main character John in "The Magic Touch"?  What's happening in the story?

5) What did you use rulers for at Mrs. Rosenbleeth's center this week?

6) What was this week's STEAM challenge?  Who did you work with? 

7) What's your topic for your non-fiction book?

8) Can you tell me why snow is white? What experiment did you do today at school?

Thankful Feast

Great Morning at Portsmouth Music Hall

We had a wonderful morning seeing Click Clack, Moo Cows That Type come to life on stage at the Portsmouth Music Hall.  The kids really enjoyed the singing, dancing, and humor throughout the show

Questions to ask your child...
1. Who was your favorite character and why?
2. Which characters played more than one role?
3. What do you think was the funniest part?
4. What's one way the play was like the book?
5. What's one way the play was different than the book?
6. Who did you sit with on the bus this morning?

We are busy getting ready for Thanksgiving in the Starfish Classroom. We just starting working on Thankful books that your child will share with you on Thanksgiving! They are very proud of their work.

Scholastic Book Fair

Thank you for attending our parent/teacher conference. It was a pleasure meeting all of you and having the opportunity to get to know you and your child better! Please never hesitate to contact me with any questions.

The Scholastic Book Fair will be at SMS the week after Thanksgiving! This is a great opportunity to buy gifts for friends and family for the holidays. While we will have the opportunity to go shopping during that week during class, anyone is welcome to come at any time during our shopping hours, which are listed here:

11/27 - 8:30-4:00

11/28 - 8:30-4:00

11/29 - 8:30 - 6:30

11/30 - 8:30-4:00

12/1 - 8:30-11:00

We are looking for volunteers to help with:

Set up on Nov. 21 from 12:00-3:00

Cashiers and restocking shelves during the school day 8:30-12:00 and 11:45-3:10 time slots.

Packing up the fair on Dec. 1 from 11:00-2:30

If you can help at the fair please click here to sign up for a time. The profits we make from the fair go back into SMS classrooms and the library, so the money raised from your purchases will go directly back to supporting your children and their classmates. We hope to see you there. Thank you for all your support!

IXL

OPTIONAL MATH PRACTICE FOR HOME:

Are you looking for more ways to support your first grader in the area of mathematics? In addition to working on IREADY at home, we also have a school-wide subscription to IXL.  This is a website where each student has their own username and password.  There is also an app that you can download on a device at home. 

TO ACCESS IXL CLICK ON LINK BELOW

https://www.ixl.com/signin/stratham

Child's Username: firstinitiallastname ex:mmurphy

Password: sms

Every few weeks I will post math areas of focus for IXL that match what your child is learning in the classroom. Our primary focus during math workshop has been addition and subtraction strategies.  The kids are learning how to use a number line and number chart to help them solve addition and subtraction problems. We are also working on addition more than two addends, mixed operations, and missing addend problems. 

Here are some areas to focus on at home:

Counting and Number Patterns (under first grade tab)

A.9

A.11

A.12

A.13

Understanding Addition (under first grade tab)

B.3

D.5

D.6

Understanding Subtraction (under first grade tab)

F.1

F.2

F.3

Mixed Operations (under first grade tab)

J.1

J.2

J.6

J.7

Subtraction Skill Builders (under first grade tab)

G.1

G.2

G.3

H.1

H.2

If you have any questions on how to log on, please don't hesitate to ask!

Warmly.

Megan Murphy

 

Starfish Gazette-October 28, 2017

Please Mark Your Calendars:

• First Grade Fall Festival is on Tuesday morning. We are looking forward to Lynn Girard, Stephanie Ciccanesi, Danielle Petlick, and Andrea Benson helping us run centers on Tuesday morning.  If you would like to join and volunteer, please send me a quick email.  Fall Festival will start around 9:00.  
• Parent Conferences begin next week. I look forward to meeting with you. I will send out a reminder email with your child's conference time this weekend.
• Early Release on Wednesday at 12:50 pm. (Parent/teacher conferences)
• Early Release on Wednesday, November 8th at 12:50 pm. (Parent/teacher conferences)

Here's just a glimpse on what we've been working on:

• Finished our first Reading Unit-Reader's Build Good Habits.  Celebrated our learning with using Chatter Pix app to share our learning. We are excited to begin our next unit about Nonfiction texts
• Learned about the human skeleton from Mystery Doug
• Played Blind Buddy Sort and Tic Tac Toe during Word Study
• Practiced tapping and spelling words with qu pattern
• Worked on the formation of lowercase e in our handwriting books
• Read about bats in Scholastic News
• mixed our own paint and painted sunsets to tie into our science observations of sunlight
• Read our first chapter read aloud as a class, My Father's Dragon.  We have two chapters to go!
• Continued working on their "Small Moments" books
• Came up with clues about our Halloween Costumes
• Learned how to balance out addition and subtraction equations with the equal sign
• Learned how to determine if a math equation is true or false
• Worked on solving addition and subtraction equations with the number line.  Learned how to draw our own number lines as a tool to solve facts independently

Here are some questions to promote school talk...

1) Who is Mystery Doug?
2) What is the name of your word sorting group?
3) Can you tell me how you played Clap, Snap at morning meeting?

4) Can you tell me about the Chatter Pix app that you used this week?  How did you get your mouth to move?

5) Can you tell me about your STEAM challenge this week?  Did you have to build your structure more than once? Who was your partner?

6) Tell me about your science observations of daylight? What have you noticed so far?