Have a great break!
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Dear Families, February 2, 2010
Our Mexico culture study was a huge success in the first grade. On Tuesdays and Thursdays there was excitement and plenty chatter about their expert groups. The few students who were hesitant to participate came to love this study along with the others and especially the Fiesta at the end. First graders were proud of their work and thrilled to report on what they learned. Chole and her two daughters came to visit and taught us songs, culture, and how to make tortillas. They are Mexican Americans who live in Craftsbury. Now that our study has ended we move into a more regular schedule and a few new units.
Yesterday we made science journals for a Balls and Ramps unit. We will conduct experiments, record data, change variables, and analyze the results. This will begin by talking about measuring the bounce of a ball. First graders have great ideas about balls and ramps. Some of their comments include:
Balls are
Some types of balls include:
Some comments about Ramps include:
We will also learn about the scientific method and try to use a modified version towards the end of our unit.
In Mathematics, we have moved into our third unit: computation and place value. Students will continue to develop a solid understanding of basic operations and place value in the context of problem solving. Games and activities designed for practicing addition facts and sums of money will be introduced as we move through the unit. We will also review sorting, graphing, classifying and comparing later in the unit. Behind much of this work, is counting by 2’s, 5’s and 10’s and understanding the process to solve word problems. Along with this unit we are integrating Mahesh Sharma’s mastery of arithmetic facts effectively. This involves learning doubles (5+5=), near doubles (5+6=) and adding teen numbers (10+3=) orally and then solving on paper. Many children are doing very well mastering their ‘doubles’ facts and using strategies to solve other math facts.
In writing, we are beginning Poetry: Powerful Thoughts in Tiny Packages. The unit contains five parts: creating a poetry museum, putting powerful thoughts in tiny packages, focusing on language and sound, bringing together language and meaning and celebrations. Yesterday your children thoroughly enjoyed poems from A Light in the Attic by Shel Silverstein. I hope this shorter writing unit will inspire the poet within all the first graders.
Onto a more physical note, we are cross country skiing on Wednesday February 10th and 17th. Hopefully we will have more snow than we currently have. I will send a note home closer to the actual date with a reminder and what to bring for skiing.
I hope that Phil groundhog runs like a bandit from his burrow with no sight of a shadow to be seen.
Cheers,
Tiffany
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A few weeks ago a small group of first graders created a Library radio advertisement. If you click below you can hear it.
Tiffany
]]>The leaves are just beyond peek and the cooler weather has really shown its face. It seems as time is flying by and your children are thriving, respecting each other and becoming a small community as first graders.
As the cooler weather arrives to stay, please send mittens and hats for recess. Also, when the snow arrives, please send shoes or slippers in addition to boots so that when your child takes off his or her boots s/he has something warm and dry to put on. Most students have an extra pair of clothes at school and I will send a little note attached to this letter it your child needs to add something to his or her bag.
I was so very proud of the brave boys who spoke about the litter on the playground and on our field trip at assembly. We had a great walk to the center of Lincoln and our mapping skills are coming along. There are many more details in our drawings and the orientation of our maps are deliberate.
We are finishing our garden bed book for the second graders. Our garden map is almost complete and the intention of our garden book is to inform the second graders about what was planted in each bed last year. This will help them to rotate crops in order to plant in the spring. We planted garlic last week and there are pictures on our blog! If you go to our website: www.lincolncs.org click on blogs at the top of the website and then First Grade. I post our school letters, information, thoughts and quotes from the First Grade.
Peace,
Tiffany
Dates to Remember:
Saturday, October 17, 2009 Garden Work Party 12:00pm-3:00pm. Pizza provided!!
October 22 & 23 No School
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We had a very productive day yesterday. First graders planted approxmately 50 garlic cloves in one of the bigger garden beds. We measured the rows, depth of furrows and space inbetween the garlic. We discovered many slugs, bean pods, spiders, and worms. Everyone worked hard and we also dug a row for the kindergarteners to plant too!
A few hours later we walked to Lincoln Center and began drawing important places for our pictorial map of the town. I think the most exciting part was when a construction worker started his chainsaw with a huge blade for cutting metal. When he began cutting there was a colorful spark show. Photos will be posted soon.
Tiffany 
As the cooler weather is beginning to settle in the mountains here in Lincoln, we are settling into our daily rhythm. Children are arriving, greeting each other, deciding on lunch and starting their day with a choice time before morning meeting begins.
During Writers’ Workshop we have been telling stories through illustrations, drawing detailed ideas, and choosing topics pertinent to the writer. We use Lucy Calkins Writer’s Workshop as our model and format for writing. I had the fortunate opportunity to attend a week long writing institute at Columbia University this summer. The institute was part of the Reading and Writing Project that has been ongoing for almost 20 years. I learned the format and tools to teach children how to create authentic writing opportunities. The format is the same as our readers’ workshop: mini-lesson, student work time when we confer with children, and a sharing time. Our first unit, launching of the Writer’s Workshop focuses on learning how to generate ideas, cultivate rich conversations, lots of storytelling and detailed drawings. We have learned the big idea of this writing unit: choosing a topic, sketching it and then writing a tiny bit about the topic. The next step of the workshop is to teach more specific aspects of the writing process. During the first unit, the amount is not the focus, instead writers focus on generating a topic s/he knows enough about, drawing a detailed picture and then write.
We continue to focus on the details of our garden map. We have created a greenhouse, tool shed, two maple trees, a rocky river and garden beds. This week we will create a book to hand to the second graders about the garden and what was planted there last spring and this fall. We are planting garlic on Wednesday. Please make sure your child is dressed warmly and with closed toed shoes. I am also hoping to walk into town this Thursday, weather pending. I could use one parent volunteer. If you are interested please call Olga at 453-3001. I was hoping to go at 11:00am or 1:30pm. We will attempt to draw a pictorial map of the town and hopefully the crane will still be there.
Reading continues to be a very exciting time in our room. Recently we have split up into guided reading groups. In each group, we read a book (words and pictures), talk about the book, and partner read or individually. We also do a word sort. Last week it was the rime –at. For example, if the word studied is cat the onset or first sound is /c/ and the rime or the vowel and what follows is /at/. This week we will work on –an and –ad families. While introducing spelling, these simple rimes create a successful spelling atmosphere. They also help students understand the format for spelling. Once students learn the format we will begin to individualize spelling and vocabulary. We will begin to send books home from our guided reading groups. They will arrive in a Ziploc bag. Please have your child read to you and return the book(s) the next day. I hope to do this three times a week. If you have any questions please don’t hesitate to call.
Some of the strategies we are learning are:
Your child has learned these during our reading mini-lessons and if s/he is ‘stuck’ at home when reading, these strategies may help.
I feel like we are in full swing here in the first grade. I enjoy your children immensely as I get to know them better and we are forming a thoughtful, caring, and respectful first grade community.
We just completed a bulletin board about interdependence, one of our habits of mind. During assembly last Friday, we created a yarn web about how we work together and/or how we are connected. Thank you to Fifth graders Spencer and Andrew who were our voices and congratulations to our brave first graders.
Peace,
Tiffany
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