Update September 29th

*On Saturday, along with my girls, my mom and some great teachers from Robinson, I walked in the Middlemiss Family 5k.  The 5k supports the Joseph Middlemiss Big Heart Foundation and the LaCoste Family.  The weather was perfect for the event.  It was nice to see so many Robinson families!

*On Wednesday, we have picture day!  Please send back forms students need to have their pictures taken Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday.  We are lucky to have the first time slot for pictures so the kids will still be camera-ready!

*On Friday, we will welcome our first Mystery Reader.  This year, I'm trying to schedule Mystery Readers on or close to their child's birthdays.  I know many of our students have summer birthdays (I'm one of them) so we can do those any time of the year or closer to the end of school.  If you haven't signed up to be a Mystery Reader, please send me an email. 

*I will be working on getting the volunteer schedule done and schedule any new mystery readers this week!  September really flew by! I hope to start with volunteers sometime next week.

*The second week of spelling homework will begin this week.  This week was are working on words with the short vowels a, o and u.

*The plants that went home on Friday are kidney bean plants.  Students had observed their seeds for two weeks in their original paper towel habitats.  They observed and transplanted them on Friday before going home.  This week in science, we will observe how different animals and plants take in air, food and water.

*In Math, we will continue to practice addition and subtraction number models (facts/equations.)

*In handwriting, we have finished our review of uppercase letters.   The class are now experts! We will begin to practice lower case letters.

Update September 21st

The weather is perfect this weekend.  We spent some time at the Maker Farm on Friday afternoon and then spent this morning at dance class for Arya and Kit.  I can't wait to hear about all of your weekend's on Monday when we work on "Weekend News."

*In school this week, we will take part in "Start with Hello" week.  Over the course of the week, we will participate in activities to increase kindness, make new friends and create a sense of community in our school.  

On Monday, every student and staff member will wear a name tag.  Kids and adults will be encouraged to say hello to someone new.  In our class we will practice, "Hi, I'm Mrs. Conway.  What's your name?"

On Wednesday, students are encouraged to wear their favorite socks, sneakers/shoes. We will talk about where our shoes have traveled.

On Friday, we will wear anything that will bring smiles to others.  Examples include, a smiley face shirt, bright color, emoji shirt, Robinson shirt, LaCoste Strong shirt.  We will talk about small acts of kindness and spread these across our school.

To learn more about "Start with Hello" week, take a look at this website. https://www.sandyhookpromise.org/startwithhelloweek

*Starting this week is Spelling Homework.  On Monday, students will receive their spelling list as well as a Spelling Tic Tac Toe.  Students will have activities to choose from to practice their words.  We encourage two nights of practice each week.  If your child already knows the words, you do not have to do the activities.   New activities are shared each week to work on spelling words.  If you find an activity that works well for your child but isn't on that week's list, please do it!! We will also practice these words in class this week.  On Friday, we will have a spelling check-in.  

* Unit 2 will start on Monday.  Our focuses this week are:

*counting on (starting at 5 to count up 3 more)

*turn around facts (1+2=3 so 2+1=3)

*2 Fisted Penny Addition (combos of 10)

*Subtraction Number Stories

*In Daily Five, we continue to practice Read to Self, Read to Someone, Work on Words and Work on Writing.  We will introduce Listen to Reading (Raz Kids) this week.  Last week we began reading groups (the earliest we've ever been ready since they've been working so well independently.)

Looking Ahead:

October 2nd- Picture Day

October 14th- No School, Columbus Day

October 15th- No School, Professional Development for Teachers & Staff

Update September 13th

*I hope to see many of you on Monday night (September 16th) from 7-7:45pm for Back to School Night.  We will quickly chat about curriculum and spend time learning about important information for all parents to know.  Please note, this session is for parents/guardians only (no students) in order to discuss what to expect in first grade.  If you haven't already, please take a minute to fill out this questionnaire about Back to School Night.  https://forms.gle/eXfMYJQf64ZBW7F98

*Students began taking out 2 books at Library last week.  Please be sure to send books back to school each Tuesday so your child can take out another book.

*September 21st is International Day of Peace.  We hope you enjoy our display of peaceful pinwheels outside when you arrive for Curriculum Night on Monday.

*Students will have a writing ideas homework assignment this week that will be due back to school on Friday.  The paperwork and information about this will go home on Monday.  We will be using these ideas for writing throughout the school year.  Please continue to send it sticky notes on Mondays to help students remember what they did over the weekend. Every Monday, we will write about our weekend and share with our classmates.  Some students get stuck on what to write about and having a reminder from home will be helpful.

*Our Focus in Math This Week:

*data collection

*counting by 1s and 5s

*exploring math materials

*solving simple number stories

*counting larger numbers

*In Science this week, we will explore how animal's body parts help them.  Students will see how animals use their fur, blubber or feathers to keep them stay warm.  

*We will continue building the components of the Daily 5.  Students are building their stamina in Read to Self and Work on Writing.  We will introduce Read to Someone and Work on Words this week.

*In Writing, we will discuss what to do when you think you're done with a piece of writing and how to continue a story.  We will also explore how you can use known words to spell tricky words.

*On Wednesday, Mrs. Boylan will read us a book about Peace.

*On Friday we will begin the first of three guidance lessons with School Counselor, Mrs. Rivet.

Update September 6th

**Last week, we began our routine of doing "Weekend News Writing." Each Monday, students will write about something they did over the weekend.  Often times, students forget what they did over the weekend.  Please recap your weekend with your child on Sunday night or before school on Monday.  If it's helpful for your child, write a sticky note with a couple of ideas to bring to school.

*Homework will begin this week.  We will send home math homework on Tuesday and Thursday only.  Please return the next day.

**We will continue to introduce the components of Daily 5.  Last week students worked on building their Read to Self reading stamina.  This week, we will introduce Work on Writing and finding I-Pick Books.  I-Pick Books are books that students feel they can read on their own and are of interest to them.

**We will continue our Science Unit- Plants and Animal Parts.  This week, we will find similarities between offspring and their parents.  

**In Math, we will focus on 1-more, 1-Less Number Stories, Comparing and Ordering Numbers and Introducing Tally Marks.  We will also learn the rules of some important math games.

**Our classroom tends to get warm throughout the day.  We take frequent water breaks to fuel our bodies.  Please consider sending your child to school each day with a refillable water bottle.

*As a class, we created a long list of rules that will keep us safe at school and allow us to learn best.  We introduced the new elementary core values, SPIRIT to the students.  Later in the week, we put the rules into the core value categories.  We will review these rules this week.

*On Friday, we will celebrate Dot Day.  Students will listen to Peter Reynolds books throughout the week and we will some fun Dot art activities.

Looking Ahead

**Grade One Back to School Night is Monday, September 16th from 7:00-7:45pm. 

These sessions will be for parents and guardians only. This will allow much needed time for teachers to focus on curriculum topics and for parents to ask questions. I hope to greet many of you as I discuss the first grade curriculum.
Please take a minute to fill out this short questionnaire about Back to School Night: https://forms.gle/dGeMSM8r4kPxkp6d7