Update March 31st

Thank you for coming in to meet with me this week to discuss your child's progress in first grade.  I've been impressed with the excellent work students are doing to meet term and end-of-year benchmarks.

*Please see the flyer going home today asking for donations of toys, blankets, towels and pet food for the Lowell Humane Society.  The 2nd grade students are working to collect supplies and bring them to the Humane Society over vacation week.

*This Wednesday, April 5th is a 12:20pm Early Release. We won't have lunch at school but we will have snack in the morning.

*This Friday, April 7th, we will travel to Crisafulli to see our 4th grade Book Buddies.  Please dress students for the weather as we will walk the trail to Crisafulli.

*In Math, we will finish up Unit 7 of Everyday Math.  We will begin Unit 8.  Our focus this week will be on building shapes and learning about halves.

*In Writing, we will begin work on our informational pond animal research.   Students will learn to take notes that they'll use later to write informational sentences.

*In Social Studies, we will learn about bird's eye view and locate capital cities (Washington D.C. and Boston.)

Looking Ahead:

Friday, April 14th- 12:20pm Early Release

April 17-21st- No School, Spring Vacation

Friday, May 5th- The first graders will be performing their play called "America: Of Thee We Sing" at 1:45pm for parents and families.  Please mark this date of your calendar now.

Friday, May 26th at 2:15pm- Our class is inviting you to join us for our Excellence Fair.  Students will pick out pieces of work they are proud of to share with parents.  This is a great time to see all of the hard work students have put into first grade.  Please mark your calendar for this exciting event!

Update March 26th

We have a very busy week coming up with many changes to our schedule.

Monday:

No Changes

Tuesday:

First Grade School Store- Less than $2 is enough money to spend at School Store. Please label money for "School Store."

11-12:30 Living Lab

We're traveling to the Day School for Living Lab.  We will be back in time for our regular lunch time.  Please dress students for the weather.  We may be outside for part of our time at Living Lab.

Book Fair- Students will visit the Book Fair during Library class in the afternoon.  They can either bring cash or a check made out to Robinson School.  If you send a check, please put an amount not to exceed in the notes section.  If students do not bring money, they can create a "wishlist" for you to shop during conferences.  Please label money/check for "Book Fair."

Wednesday:

2 Hour Delay- school begins at 11:00am

8:15-10:45 Parent/Teacher Conferences 

Thursday:

No School

2-8pm Parent/Teacher Conferences

Friday:

No Changes

*Student Progress Reports are available to be viewed on the iParent iPortal.  I will also have hard copies of progress reports at conferences. 

*In Math, we will continue using function machines to help solve addition patterns.  We will also learn about reading digital clocks.  

*In Handwriting, we are working hard to finish up practicing our lowercase letters.  At this point, all students are transitioning to using lowercase letters most of the time.  I'm expecting students to be using uppercase letters at the beginning of sentences and for proper names at this point.

*In Social Studies, we will learn about map keys and their function.

*My last day before my maternity leave begins will be Friday, June 2nd.  Mr. LaCoste and I will work together to find an appropriate replacement for the final three weeks of school.  My plan is to have the bulk of the lessons and assessments finished before I leave.  I will also complete progress reports for third trimester before my leave begins.  Thank you for your support during this exciting time for our family.

*Many students shared their "My Famous Person" project at school last week.  We will continue to present this week.  If your child hasn't sent in their project, please send it in as soon as possible.  This is my favorite project at first grade because I love to learn about the most important people in my first graders lives.

Looking Ahead:
Wednesday, April 5th- 12:20pm Early Release
Friday, April 14th- 12:20pm Early Release
April 17-21- No School- Spring Vacation

Update March 18th

**Donations of empty paper towel rolls are needed for math!  Thank you.**

*Please remember to send in "My Famous Person" projects to school any day this week. We will begin to present on Monday and will hopefully get through everyone's project by the end of this week or beginning of next.

*In Social Studies, we will begin our study of Maps & Globes.  Students will learn about the difference between a map and globe.  We will also study cardinal directions, compasses and map keys.

*In Math, our focus will be on shapes and their attributes (color, shape, size, thickness.)  

*We will begin our Informational Writing unit this week.  Students will choose a pond animal to learn about and write a non-fiction book about.  This writing project will take the next several weeks.  

*Last week, EVERYONE got a sticker on their Spelling Check-In.  This means that EVERYONE remembered to put an uppercase letter at the beginning of their sentences and punctuation at the end.  Way to go!

*You will gain access to iParent iPortal on Friday at 4pm to view student grades.

Looking Ahead:

Tuesday, March 28th- School Store

Tuesday, March 28th- Field Trip to the Living Lab at the Day School 11-12:30pm

Wednesday, March 29th- 2 Hour Delay- Conferences in the morning.

Thursday, March 30th- No School- Conferences 2-8pm

Wednesday, April 5th- 12:20pm Early Dismissal

Update March 12th

Good Afternoon!  With the impending snowstorm, many of the items we were planning to work on this week, may be moved to next week.   These are my hopes for this week!

*On Thursday, we have a 12:20pm Early Release.  Students will not be eating lunch at school.  As usual, we will have snack in the morning.

*Please remember to sign up for Parent/Teacher Conferences online starting this week.  Sign-ups will begin on Monday, March 13th at 3:30pm and be open until March 20th.  The sign-up link will be posted on the Robinson website Monday afternoon.

*Last week, began Unit 7 in Math.  Our focus will be on Fact Families.  A fact family is made up of two addition facts and two addition facts.  For example:

2+3=5

3+2=5

5-2=3

5-3=2

We will also begin to work on key math vocabulary the class needs more practice with:

*sum

*doubles facts

*turn around facts

*difference

*number model

*addition

*subtraction

You will notice Fact Triangles going home as homework this week.  Tomorrow you will receive an explanation sheet on how to use Fact Triangles to build fact families.  Please use these Fact Triangles at home to build student's fact family fluency.  They do not have to return these triangles to school.  We have sets we will use in class.

*In Spelling, we will work on words with -ir- in the middle.  We will also review the words "said" and "what."  Finally, this week students will learn my song to teach the power word "BECAUSE."  Ask them to teach you this song on Monday night!

*I hope to finish our unit on Famous Americans this week.  We will learn about Ruby Bridges.  On Friday, I sent home the "My Famous Person" project for students to complete.  These projects are due back to school any day the week of March 20th.  Just a reminder, the person chosen should NOT be a famous person.  Rather the person should be someone your child knows that possesses the same qualities or character traits of the famous Americans we learned about in school.

*Many students are coming home with chapter books at this point in the year. Often, I only give one or two chapters to read each night.  Sometimes, the students have to answer a question or add information to a sticky note if included in the assignment.  It's important that students only read the assigned pages or chapters.  This will give us opportunities in our reading group to make predictions without some students knowing what will happen next.  Also, it's important that students return their books the next day. I'd rather them return their books and be able to participate in our group even if they didn't have a chance to read the night before.  I don't always have an extra book to share if someone forgets their book.  Thank you!

*Thank you to all parents that have sent in donations of materials we need in our classroom.  We will no longer be accepting donations of Clorox Wipes.  The district is in the process of ordering us cleaning supplies that are better suited for the kiddos to use.  We will use our supply of Clorox Wipes through the end of the year, but they will handled by adults only.

Update March 5th

*On Wednesday, we will have our Alice School Safety Drill in the morning.  Leading up to Wednesday, we will be reading I'm Not Scared, I'm Prepared to prepare students for the different drills we will practice.

*On Friday, we will welcome our 4th grade Book Buddies to our classroom to read books.

*This Friday, is when grades will close for 2nd Trimester.  Letters will be coming home early this week will information on signing up for conferences and before school care for March 29th.

*In Math, we will finish up Unit 6 with our math assessment.  We will begin Unit 7 at the end of the week.  

*We will send home our regular spelling list this week.  In addition, the class will be working throughout the week to write the 100 high frequency words for first grade.

*In Social Studies, we will learn about Martin Luther King Jr. and Jackie Robinson.

Looking Ahead:

Thursday, March 16th- 12:20pm Early Release

Wednesday, March 29th- 2 Hour Delay (Parent Teacher Conferences in A.M.)

Thursday, March 30th- No School (Parent Teacher Conferences 2-8pm)