5.25.12//22:14
Another busy week began with a lively videoconference all about Butterflies! The students made their own butterflies and reviewed the lifecycle of our favorite friends in preparation for their arrival in the classroom.
We continued our work on personal narrative writing. The students are developing their writing about memories. We are also working on our Homes and Shelters Unit in preparation for the culmination next Thursday at 9:00 (We hope you can all join us!!) The students are exploring different places around the world and thinking about the types of resources they have and the homes and shelters they build. We also have been fortunate to work with Mrs. Marcantonio for SWES where we have been comparing homes around the world…looking at the wants and needs of others. The students have made soem beautiful connections between themselves and the lrger world.
In Math we are looking at fractions - both as parts of a group and parts of a whole. The students have been having a great time dividing things up and coloring fractions. They are learning the vocabulary and getting a good grip on identifying the fractions.
We have begun our last Science Unit, Organisms. We are learning about Living Things. We started off by comparing plants and animals, and by planting seeds. We planted pumpkin, pea, and bean seeds…soon we should have a nice garden to observe!!
Some of the Books We Read This Week
Living on the Tundra (Rookie Reader)
Living In the Mountians (Rookie Reader)
A House is a House For Me by Mary Ann Hoberman
Planting a Rainbow by Lois Ahlert
A Seed is Sleepy by Dianna Hutts Aston
5.19.12//09:54
Mrs. Marcantonio began her SWES (school-wide enrichment services) push ins this week. We have been looking at houses and families from around the world and comparing them to our own lives and homes to make connections.
We began to write another personal story. This one is based on a memory of when we were younger. The students had a lively brainstorming session the other day coming up with great ideas! Now they are beginning to craft their stories. We also began working on a Rainbow Poem using sensory details to flex our creative muscles!
In Math, we explored attributes of shapes, both two and three dimensional. Next week we are beginning fractions. You can help you child by talking about things in groups using “fractions language” like “Four out of five apples are red. That’s four fifths.”
Our trip to the science museum was delightful as the students learned all about the life cycle of butterflies in preparation for our Science Unit on Organisms. We were able to see through butterfly “eyes”, drink like a butterfly, and learn all about how butterflies use their senses! We hope having your new little caterpiller friends will be a fun experience for the children to watch at home!
Some of the Books We Read This Week
A Sick Day for Amos McGee by Philip Stead
Butterflies (a DK early reader)
Butterflies by Seymour Simon
Living in the Desert (a rookie reader)
Living Near a River (a rookie reader)
5.13.12//20:40
This week the students were very excited as we prepared for our Writing Celebration on Friday. We finished up our projects by using the writers’ statements “Writers use illustrations to make their work more intersting.”, “Writers choose titles that make sense.”, and “Writers create a cover that makes people want to read their book.” Their work was maing and I am sure that you were all able to see that whn you came to the Celebration! We were so proud of how hard they worked to tell their own stories.
In Math, we worked on double digit addition and subtration. We practiced doing problems where both were presented so we had to really look at the operation. (Is it a plus sign or a minus sign.) IF you child is having trouble with this concept, you can try having them highlight the operation sign before they begin each problem. This helps the sudent to slow down and take a look at what they are being asked to do before beginning the work.
We have been continuing our work on Homes and Shelters. We are starting our research on the different biomes around the world. The students are learning that people build their homes and shelters with the resources they find around them.
Some of the Books We Read This Week
Strega Nona’s Harvest by Tomie DePaola
Strega Nona’s Gift by Tomie DePaola
Big Anthony and the Magic Ring by Tomie DePaola
Mother’s Day Mice by Eve Bunting
Tweak Tweak by Eve Bunting
Strega Nona Her Story as told to Tomie DePaola
4.29.12//09:10
These last two weeks have been very busy for the students! They are working on their Personal Narrative Writing pieces and they have been learning about how to make choices in writing, how to add sensory details, how to use quotations properly, and why writers use illustrations. All this and we have been following a different schedule due to the New York State Tests for the 3rd, 4th, and 5th graders! The students did great being flexible and adapting to things being different for two weeks…and now we will finlly be back to our normal schedule again!
In Math we have been learning about the topic of “Greater Than” and “Less Than”. While the vocabulary was a little tricky at first, they are all doing very well.
We also wrote poems about the Spring using sensory details. We have been learning about Homes and Shelters in our Social Studies Unit. The students are exploring how people choose what to build their homes with in different areas of the world.
Mark your calendars because we have some exciting events coming up in May! May 11th will be our Personal Narrative Writing Celebration. May 23rd will be our Homes and Shelters Culmination Celebration.
Some of the Books We Read This Week
Strega Nona by Tomie dePaola
Zoomer by Ned Young
Strega Nona Takes a Vacation by Tomie dePaola
The Art Lesson by Tomie dePaola
Strega Nona and the Magic Lesson by Tomie dePaola
My Little Island by Frane Lesacce
The Gingerbread Girl Goes Animal Crackers by Lisa Ernst
4.15.12//23:18
I hope everyone had a wonderful and relaxing Spring Break. We had a great week to prepare the students for it.
We began the week with our parents coming in for the CREW Read-In. It was so nice to have the parents who were able to join us in the classroom. Thank you both so much! Then we left immediately for Hofstra to see the Paperbag Players perform “Laugh, Laugh, Laugh!” The children really enjoyed this mix of songs, storytelling, and physical humor.
On Tuesday we had our own performance when the First Grade participated with Miss Wolin’s class in Space Boy for the Kindergarteners from Miss Bierweiler’s class. We had a great time. Thank you to Mrs. Van Hoff for organizing the event!
We continued our work on our Personal Narrative Unit, learning about how authors are inspired, and thinking about the things that inspire us. We worked on addition facts using Base Ten Blocks.
We explored the opacity of liquids while dying eggs, which the children really loved doing!
We attended the CREW Closing Ceremony and performed our CREW song! (Ask your child to sing it for you and they will give you a special treat complete with hand motions!) To top off a very special week we had a visit from Mr. Slobodskoy’s class and read books and drew pictures with our fifth grade buddies. What a great way to end the week before vacation!!
Some Of The Books We Read This Week
The Easter Egg by Jan Brett
The Little Red Hen and the Passover Matzoh by Leslie Kimmelman
Hansel and Gretel by James Marshall
The Little Red Hen
3.30.12//23:10
As we continued our Personal Narrative unit this week the students explored writing about special places and special people in their lives. They were very excited to share these special parts of their lives with each other.
In Math we learned about Timelines and how we can use them to look at the past. We looked at our lives on a timeline. We looked at our daily schedule, and we are building a visual timeline of the school year so far on a timeline. It has been fun!
In Science we have been learning about Liquids. We ended the week with an exciting activity called “Liquid Races” where we explored the viscosity of different liquids.
On Friday we had a special Guest Reader come in to visit for the day: Mrs. Guiliano’s son, Tyler! The students really enjoyed having another first grader join us and Tyler had a great day, too!
Some Of The Books We Read This Week
My Big Brother by Valerie Fisher
Do Like Kyla by Angela Johnson
Give My Regards to the Man in the Moon by Ezra Jack Keats
Chicken Little by Rebecca Emberley
3.27.12//20:03
The first week of C.R.E.W. has been a wonderful success! We have enjoyed our exploration of Space as we learn a new word each day and read some non-fiction books on the topic. We are also beginning our new writing unit, Personal Narrative. We have begun to look at how writers write about their own lives and experiences.
In Math we worked on the concept of telling time to the quarter hour. We learned the terms “half past”, “quarter to”, and “quarter past”. We identified them on the clock. In Science we continued our study of Solids. We investigated two mystery solids and found their properties. It was a lot of fun.
The best day of the week was our BOWLING TRIP! Everyone was so excited! We had a fantastic time and all the students really enjoyed playing. We were buddies with Miss Werbeck’s class. It was a huge success!
Some of the Books We Read This Week
My Steps by Sally Derby
Knuffle Bunny by Mo Willems
My Little Island by Frane Lessac
When I Was Five by Arther Howard
Little Nino’s Pizzaria by Karen Balfour
3.11.12//20:52
The Nursery Rhyme Celebration was a terrific success and the Kindergarten students did a wonderful job with their lines and their songs. Their enthusiasm with the line “We will fix it!” for the nursery rhyme “London Bridge” brought a smile to everyone’s face. We were so glad that so many family members were able to join us for this event, see the Photo Story afterwards, and then join us for the adorable Nursery Rhyme Artifact Display in our Library. It meant a lot to the students to have your support.
This week in class we generalized the learning about the story elements we covered in our Fairytales Unit (characters, setting, plot, problem/solution, etc.) to other stories to show how these elements fit into all our fiction reading. In math, we explored measuring with rulers and measuring tapes, and further investigated the inch.
Some of the Books We Read This Week
- Fancy Nancy and the Mermaid Ballet by Jane O’Connor
- Sometimes I’m Bombaloo by Rachel Vail
- Mother Goose
- Princess Pigsty by Cornelia Funke
- London Bridge
3.04.12//20:53
What an AMAZING week for our class! First, everyone had such great vacations to tell about during “Weekend News”. Then we WON the class trophy in the Science Fair for our experiment about “Why Do Scientists Need To Follow Directions?” And to top it all off there was the MAGNIFICENT Fairytale Ball on Friday! We were so happy to have all of you come and visit us and see your children do that beautiful performance and then come read their fantastic writing back in the classroom. They worked so hard to prepare everything and I know they were so proud to have you all there!
In the midst of all that we also learned about non-standard units of measure, continued our reading, finished our own Fairytale projects, and had a lot of rehearsals!! The afternoon after the performance we relaxed with a very fun Humpty Dumpty “Who can keep Humpty from Breaking?” project. The students really enjoyed dragging their Humptys (eggs) all around the school trying to keep them from breaking!!! We are pleased to announce that all the students cars were successful in keeping Humpty in one piece!
2.17.12//17:26
We have had no shortage of activities to keep us busy this week! The students are continuing to work on their Fairytales and Nursery Rhymes Units. We are tying together all the things we have learned so far about characters, setting, plot, moral, problem and solution and seeing how it all fits to make a story work.
In math we started to investigate thermometers, and explore how to measure and read temperatures. In science we worked on our big class project for the Glenwood Landing Science Fair Challenge. Our question was “Why do scientists have to follow directions?” We tried to find out why by making Play-doh first without using the directions, and then using the directions. It was a lot of fun. Come join us at the Science Fair on February 28 from 6 to 7 pm in the GWL Gym.
Tuesday we had a wonderful time at our Fancy Nancy Valentine’s Tea Party! We read the new Fancy Nancy book together during snack. It was delightful to see such gentlemen, sharing and being such good friends to one another all day! Wednesday was another big celebration for us with the 100th day of school! The Kindergarteners made really cool shirts to wear with 100 objects on them. We ended the week with a comfy, cozy pajama day!
Mrs. Guiliano and I wish you all a fantastic vacation…Enjoy your children!
Some of the Books We Read This Week
Fancy Nancy and the Mermaid Ballet by Jane O’Conner
Listen to My Trumpet by Mo Willems
Jack and the Beanstalk by Paul Galdone
Sleeping Bobby by Mary Osborne
Detective Blue by Steve Metzger
Little Red Hen by Ed Emberly
Hickory Dickory Dock by Keith Baker
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