Update Week of Sept 4th

Hello!  I hope you enjoy Labor Day Weekend with family and friends!  I had such a great time meeting and getting to know the class this week.  What a great group!  We practiced many classroom routines and will continue to practice everyday routines in the coming weeks.  Students will continue to build independent skills with morning, lunch and afternoon routines.  One of our goals in first grade is to foster independence with everyday tasks both at school and at home.

**If you have not returned any important forms to school, please do so this week.  Getting the office updated on important student information is essential.  Forms that need to be returned are: Living Lab Permission Slip, Robifulli Trail Permission Slip, Allergy Information, Student Handbook Info, Dismissal Form and Email Address Sign Up.  Thank you.

**Each week I will update the blog with important information about our week.  When I do update the blog, I will send out an email to let you know.

**I was informed this week that on days that we have a half day of school, breakfast will not be served at the Before School Program.  The reason for this is because there is no staff in the cafeteria on half days.

**Please continue to send water bottles into school.  We take many water breaks throughout the day and I like to have students keep water bottles on their tables while we're in class.

**We will begin our Science unit "Plant and Animal Parts" this week.   This week we will focus on how plants and animals are like others of the same kind.  For example, what makes a dog a dog and a tulip a tulip?

***We will begin Unit 1 of our Everyday Mathematics 4.  This unit will build upon skills already learned in Kindergarten or Pre-1st.  We will play familiar games like Monster Squeeze and Bunny Hop. In addition, we will continue to learn about the math tools that will help us throughout the year.  Students will practice basic counting, skip counting and counting on the number line.

**We will begin to establish the routines of Daily Five.  Please visit the Reading & Daily 5 page on my blog to learn more.  This week we will begin exploring "Read to Self" and the 3 ways to read:

1. Read the words

2. Read the pictures (make up your own story)

3. Retell the story (retell a story you have listened to before)

**Students will practice reading and writing the 25 Kindergarten Spelling Words over the next three weeks.

Looking Ahead:

Monday, September 17th 6:00-6:45pm First Grade Curriculum Night, parents/guardians only please.

August Update

Dear First Graders and Families,

I look forward to meeting and learning about your families this school year! We will have a great time this year learning and creating in Room 3.  

I've attached the back to school newsletter I'll send home on the first day of school for your reference. 

On the first day of school, we will meet our first grade friends in the cafeteria of the school.  Once everyone has arrived, we will walk together down to our classroom to get our day started.  During the first week, we will spend time getting to know our classroom, getting to know our school and getting to know each other.  I love to learn about my first graders and their families.  I hope you'll like learning about my family and me!

I had a great summer at home with my girls, Arya (age 3) and Kit (age 1.)

**If you have not sent me your email address, please do!  I will be updating this blog each school week for information about what we're doing.  cconway@westfordk12.us

Update June 17th

Happy Father's Day to all the Dads!  Thanks for everything you do for your kids!

We have a very busy, fun and exciting last week of school ahead of us.  It is also supposed to be extremely hot tomorrow (Monday.)  Please dress kids appropriately for the weather.  Shorts and a tshirt/tank top are most appropriate for our building that does not have AC.  Also, please send them to school with a water bottle.  They will have many opportunities throughout the day to fill them up if needed.

Our Activities for the Week Include:

June 18th- Bubbles Day- 
We will have fun with bubbles.  Thank you for donations!

June 19th-Game Day

      Bring your favorite board game or card game from home.  Remember to put your name on your game.  We will share our games with friends throughout the day.  Please do NOT bring electronic games into school. 

Wednesday, June 20^th - Movie Day

     Please bring an extra snack to school to munch on during our feature presentation!

Thursday, June 21^st  – Book & Blanket Day & Move-Up Day

      Bring a towel or blanket and your favorite book to school!  We will enjoy the beautiful weather and cozy up with a great book in the front lawn.  Please also wear sunscreen! 

We will also participate in Move-Up Day. Students will meet their teacher and classmates for next school year.  Letters will come home on Thursday telling you who your child will have as a teacher for 2nd grade.

Friday, June 22^nd  - Last Day of School- 12:20 Early Dismissal

      We will enjoy spending time with our friends today.  Our day will finish with a Pizza Party! Please send a drink in for your child.  If you have not sent in $2 for the pizza party, please do by Tuesday.  I'll be making my call with final numbers to Papa Ginos on Tuesday morning.

Thank you again for a great year! I've enjoyed getting to know your 1st grader, their siblings and all of you throughout the year!

Update June 11th

It's hard to believe that we only have 2 weeks left of the school year.  It's also hard to believe that our baby, Kit, will be 1 year old on Tuesday.  A year sure does go quickly!  We celebrated Kit's first birthday with family and friends this weekend.  We hope you also enjoyed the beautiful, summer-like weather with your family.

The Birthday Girl!

*As we count down the final days of school, each student shares one thing they loved about first grade.  Some said "reading," others enjoyed "making new friends."  I've had to wipe the tears from my eyes a few times.  This is truly a wonderful group of kids. You should all be very proud of their accomplishments this year.  We have so many fabulous readers, amazing mathematicians and incredible friends amongst us!

*We will finish up our last few lessons of the Everyday Math curriculum this week.  Our focus will be on reviewing place value, 2D &3D Shapes and measurement.

*Students have done a good job learning about the Sun, Moon and Stars.  We will complete our final Science assessment on Monday.

1st Grade Spirit Week starts this week!  We also have some fun, community events this week.

This Week's Activities:

Tuesday--We will enjoy the Crisafulli 5th Grade Chorus Performance at Robinson

Wednesday- All School Science Show, hosted by PTO

 Thursday- Red, White and Blue Day- wear red, white and blue.  We will learn about the American Flag!

Friday- Art Day- we will do many fun, art projects!

Next Week:

June 18th- Bubbles Day (If you're able to, please donate bubbles for the year.  Thank you for donations I've already received.)

June 19th-Game Day

June 20th-Movie Day

June 21st- Book & Blanket Day

June 22nd-Pizza Party (last day 12:20pm Early Release)

Update June 3rd

*This Wednesday, we welcome parents to join us for Excellence Fair at 2:15pm.  Students are working hard to gather pieces of work they are proud of to share with all of you at the fair.  Students will display their work at their seats.  Please visit your child's seat and see their work.  I'll leave sticky notes and pens on my reading table.  I invite you and your child to walk around the room and leave comments for their classmates on their work too!  I will have a sign-out sheet if you would like to take your child home at the end of the time.  We ask that you try your best to make arrangements for siblings so that you can focus all of your attention on your first grader and their excellent work!  I also understand if this isn't possible...no worries if they need to come!  If you are not able to attend, please let me know.

*With only three weeks left in school, we will be busy this week and next performing End of Year Assessments.  This week, we will focus on the end of year math assessment, which we'll do over 3 days this week.  We will also do the final writing assessment, which asks student's to write a small moment narrative (much like their weekend news!)  We will begin to write the 100 High Frequency Words on Thursday and finish up early next week.

*This is our last week of spelling practice.  We will focus on word endings. 

*I will not be sending home math homework most nights this week since we are assessing.  We do still have a few math lessons to complete later in the week and next week.  There may be some nights the kids have homework and some they do not.

*In Science, we're learning about the pattern of the moon.

*A notice will go home tomorrow with information about our 1st Grade Spirit Week for the end of the year.  Here's a quick preview of our days:

June 14th- Red, White and Blue Day

June 15th-Art Day

June 18th- Bubbles Day (donated bubbles would be great!)

June 19th-Game Day

June 20th-Movie Day

June 21st- Book & Blanket Day

June 22nd-Pizza Party (last day 12:20pm Early Release)

Update May 25th

*I hope you all enjoy a great Memorial Day weekend.  As a reminder, we do not have school this Monday, May 28th.

*On Friday, June 1st, we will travel to Crisafulli for our last meeting with our 4th Grade Book Buddies.  Please have students dress for the weather as we will be walking the trail.

*Thank you to everyone that has helped in our classroom this year volunteering.  Our volunteer dates have come to a close for the year.  The end of the school year is very busy and our schedules change due to special events which makes it difficult to continue with volunteers.  I appreciate all the help you've give to the students and to me this school year.

*In Math, we will continue to work with addition and subtraction facts with two-digit numbers.

*We are finishing up our Pond Animal Research books this week.  I'm so proud of the work students have done to complete these books so far!

Looking Ahead:

Wednesday, June 6th- 2:15pm Excellence Fair

Friday, June 22nd- 12:20pm Early Release- Last Day of School

Update May 21st

*This Wednesday, is our Field Day.  The theme of the day is "The Beach!"  We will be outside for part of the morning and part of the afternoon.  At this time, the weather is looking to be partly cloudy and 79 degrees.  I would encourage students to wear shorts and they must wear sneakers.  We have T-Shirts that the students made at school that they will change into when they arrive.   Please put sunscreen/bug spray on your child in the morning.  We are not allowed to apply sunscreen at school.  Please also send a water bottle, with their name labeled on it, to school for the day.

*This Friday, we will send home the final Distance Learning Bag for this school year.   It will be due back on Friday, June 8th.

 Once again, I was so impressed with the student's creative writing in the 2nd distance learning bag.

*In Math, we will review 2-digit number stories, with addition and subtraction.

*In Science, we will test our amount of sunlight on the model houses we built last week.  Students were expected to build a house with 3 windows, which would allow for the greatest amount of sunlight to enter.

Looking Ahead:

Monday, May 31st- No School, Memorial Day

Wednesday, June 6th- 2:15pm Excellence Fair

Friday, June 22nd- 12:20pm Early Release- Last Day of School