December 2017

Dear Families,

Decemer has been quite the busy month!  With all your help, we raised $90 to buy Brian his gifts for the holidays.  We were able to get him a xbox 1 game, Celtics pj's and a Celtics sweatshirt, a couple books, a basketball, and a hat and mittens.  Thanks you to all the families that donated!  I greatly appreciate it!  Here is a pcture of all Brian's presents.

The children also worked with Miss H last week writing letters of kindness to peers in the classroom (even the teachers got involved)!  The letters came out so nice and the children were relly invested in the project.  Here are some photos of them working hard on their writing.

We also had a chance to do an author study of Jan Brett books.  We read many of her books such as The Mitten, The Hat, Trouble with Trolls, The Gingerbread Baby, The Wild Christmas Reindeer, Who's That Knocking on Christmas Eve.  We then based many activities around mittens.  Here is a photo of our bulletin board in the hallway.  The children had to design their own mitten and then they did a fun art project of Hedgie the hedgehog (who Jan Brett included in many of her books).  Ask your child what their favorite Jan Brett book was!

Now that December is here, so is the cold weather and snow.  Please make sure to pack your child snow pants, boots, a hat and gloves so that they can play on the playground for recess.  If they don't have these items, they will need to stay on the hard top.

In December, we typically wrap up a few topics in different content areas.  Read below to find out more...

Math-  In math, we have finished Topic 5 which focused on addition and subtraction.  When we return we will begin Topic 6 which focuses on data collections.  We will collect data, represent data and interpret it.

Writing- In writing, we have finished the personal narrative unit and will begin learning about non-fiction writing.  Every year, the children really seem to enjoy this unit.

Reading-  In reading we have worked hard learning what to do when you come to a tricky word.  We have learned to look at the picture and say the first sound.  We also spent a week reading non-fiction books and writing 2 facts that we learned.  These are hanging in our classroom.

I hope all of your families have a wonderful holiday and a Happy New Year!!!!

Heather

Halloween 2017

We had such a great Halloween in Room 24!  Here are some pictures during the day and at our party. Thank you to Mrs. Kranker, Mrs. Friscino, Mrs. Henry, and Mrs. Seitz for a wonderful party!  The children had so much fun!

Welcome Back!

Dear Families,

First Grade is up and running! The children have worked hard the last month to learn the routines in our classroom.  We have done many get to know you activities to build a happy and healthy classroom.

I am pleased to let you know Mrs. Maalouf will be working in our classroom this year!  We also have Miss H. in our room who is doing her student teaching from Framingham State College.  Miss H. will be with us until winter break.

Here's some of the things your child is learning about!

Daily 5

This is the time of the day which is our literacy block.  Each day our literacy block starts with a 10-15 minutes of read to self.  This is when the children find a quiet spot in the room and read books they have chosen at their independent level.  These books are changed each week.  The children love this time of day!!

From there, the children meet with me in reading group and also visit many different centers.  Some of the centers the children will be doing are listening to reading, working with words (usually differnt activities to practice their "trick words" (sight words), Raz-Kids, poems, read the room, etc.

Writer's Workshop

Currently, we are working on narrative writing.  The children are writing books about things they do and things that have happened to them.  On Friday, we finished our first bend of the unit and had a museum of all our writing.  The children got to go around and read each others stories.  They loved it!

Math

In math we have been learning about addition and subtraction strategies, efficient counting and story problems.  This past week we worked on doubles (4+4), and near doubles (4+5).  The children built these problems using cubes and then wrote their equations.  We also talked about turn around facts and how it doesn't change the sum if the addends are in different order (4+5=9, 5+4=9).  Have your child show you an example of a turn around fact!

Fundations
In Fundations, we have reviewed all our letters sounds and have learned how to tap out consonant, vowel, consonant words (CVC).  An example of this would be the word tip.  This week we also learned about digraphs (when 2 letters make one sound).  The children were introduced to the digraphs th, sh, wh, ch, and ck.  We have practiced words with digraphs by tapping, writing on whiteboards and building with magnetic letters.

Classroom News

Last Tuesday, we were lucky enough to go to the star lab presented by the Museum of Science.  The children learned about the stars and even got to go inside a portable planetarium.  So cool!

Upcoming Events

Dear Families,

I wanted to give you a “heads up” on upcoming events that will take place from now until the end of the year.

·          The last day to check out books from the library is May 26^th.  The books are due back in the library by June 2^nd .  Please continue to check for overdue books and return them to the library as soon as possible.

·          The Flag Day performance will take place on June 6^th in the gym at 9:30.  Following the performance, we will have our Open House in our classroom. This is a time to come and see our U.S. symbols slideshow, hear us read some of our opinion writing, and enjoy snack with us.  Please remember that due to the amount of people coming that day, we are not inviting siblings.

·          The Book Envelopes will end on June 9^th.  At this time, all books should be returned to the classroom, so that the book carts can be organized and restocked for next year’s class.

·          The children will participate in Field Day on June 7^th.  Be sure your child wears sneakers, hats, and sunscreen on this day.

·          Our class picnic will be on June 15th from 11:45-12:15.  All families are invited to this.  We will be enjoying lunch outside by the library with Mrs. Elrick’s class.  More to come on this…

·          The book swap will be June 16^th.  This is when your child can bring 1-5 gently used first grade appropriate books to school.  We will trade books in the afternoon and your child will have some new books for the summer!  More to come on this…

·          Transition Day will be June 19^th.  This is when your child will take a bus over to Wheelock to meet next year’s teacher.

·          The last day of school is a half day and is on June 20^th.

I hope that this is helpful when planning any future plans in the upcoming weeks!

Mrs. Herring

Thank you!

Dear Families,

Mrs. McNick and I wanted to thank you all for the beautiful flowers that many children brought in for Teacher Appreciation week!  We are so lucky to be working with such fabulous families!!

Dear Families,

I hope you had a wonderful April vacation!  We have had so many things going on during the month of April...

Curious Creatures
Corey from Curious Creatures came to Memorial with many animals to share.  The children learned about each animal and it's habitat, it's defense, what it eats, and the make up of the animals body.   Here are some of the friends we met...

We also had science afternoon where the children got to investigate 4 different organisms: millipedes, pill bugs, guppies, and snails.  Thank you to Mrs. Blood, Mrs. Costabile, Mr. Lemieux, and Mrs. Dodge who were my brave volunteers!

On Thursday, we also had The Food Play.  The children learned about healthy foods and how many of each food group they should be eating in a day!

Lastly, our class spent a week doing an author study of Kevin Henkes.  We read many of his books such as Lilly's Purple Plastic Purse, Chrysanthemum, Wemberly Worried, Sheila the Brave, and Owen.  Our main focus during this study was to learn about character traits.  We talked about each character and compared them to the rest of Kevin's books.  Most of Kevin Henkes books have mice as the main characters.  The children really enjoyed this study.  At the end of our author study, we made mice during centers and then voted for our favorite mouse!  Owen was clearly our winner!!!

As always, if you have any questions or concerns, feel free to email me at hherring@email.medfield.net

Best,
Heather

Dear Families,

Happy March!  I really enjoyed meeting with all the families to talk about your child's progress thus far.  It was also fun to see many of you at the Winter Carnival!  Here's some things going on in Room 24...

In Fundations, we have been talking about open and closed syllables.  Closed syllables are words that have a short vowel and end in a consonant (example: cat).  Open syllables are words that have a long vowel and no ending consonant (example go).  The children have really enjoyed marking these types of words during dictation.  I have also introduced some vowel teams (ai, ay, ee, ea, ey, oi, oy)  The children are just learning the sound that these teams of vowels make.

In Writer's Workshop, are finishing up our non-fiction unit.  We had our author's celebration today.  The children had a chance to go around and read each other's books.  On Thursday, we will share our books with Mrs. Elrick's and Mrs. Pollock's class.  The next unit of study is persuasive writing.  For this unit the children will need to bring in a collection of things (7-8 small objects)  Children in the past have brought matchbox cars, shells, shopkins, action figures...  Just know that these collections will be kept in school a couple of weeks so please don't send in your child's favorite toys:)  More information to come on this.

In math, we have taken a break from place value and are now learning about measurement.  The children have really enjoyed using cubes, tiles and paper clips to measure an assortment of things.  Next up, we will be measuring fish and tapes on the floor!

In science we have been learning about organisms.  We were lucky enough to have Marla from Stony Brook come in and talk to our class about different habitats we will see when we go on our field trip in May.  We have also been growing plants for the last couple of weeks.  The children have really enjoyed doing weekly observations of their plants.  Be on the lookout for them coming home soon!

This week, we have also built an aquarium and terrarium.  We will be having science day this Friday and next Friday to learn about the plants and critters that will go in each.  For now they are empty and not too exciting but here is what they look like:)



Next week, we are fortunate enough to have David Biedrzycki as our visiting author.  He will show us how he illustrates his books.

Makerspace...The children continue to make many creations with our March makerspace materials. This month we used playdough, cups, ink pads and stamps, and zig zag scissors. Here are a few photos..







Supplies
After a long dreary winter and many stuffy noses, we are running low on tissues.  If anyone could donate a box it would be greatly appreciated:)

As always, if you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to email me:)
Heather