Classroom News January 20, 2016

Dear Parents and Families,

Here’s what we’re up to in first grade:

We have earned 10,000 Champ Cards as a school! This Thursday, we’ll celebrate with a special whole-school assembly at 9:00. Parents and families are invited to join us! We’ll be doing a special version of one of our favorite “body breaks,” Pop-See-Ko! Each grade level will be wearing a special color on Thursday. Our first grade color is green! Send your child in wearing green on Thursday if you remember!

Thank you so much to families who contributed extra money for yesterday’s field trip. This help offset the cost for families who were unable to pay. We really appreciate your generosity! Ask you child to tell you all about the show, Bob Marley’s Three Little Birds.

Integrated Literacy - This week we’re continuing our learning about Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and starting a mini-unit written by Mrs. Haslam on Change Makers. Our learning target is I can explain how people from fiction, history, and our community make change. We started by exploring the concept of courage, making connections to MLK and some of our favorite fictional characters like Swimmy, by Leo Lionni, and The Lorax by Dr. Seuss. Ask you child why it takes courage to make change! Mrs. Haslam is looking for change makers in our community to come in and briefly speak to the class about your role in making your home, neighborhood, workplace, city, or world a more peaceful place. Please email rhaslam@bsdvt.org if you’d like to volunteer.

Math– This week we will be having more fun with our penguin math. We are measuring and weighing ourselves and comparing our data with different penguin species. So far we have talked about the characteristics and attributes of the Rockhopper and the King penguins who vary significantly. Our next two friends will be the Little Blue and the Gentoo penguins. Ask your children to tell you about the stats they have learned to this point.

Science -Our scientific investigations have begun and we are recording all

our data in a booklet of penguin facts. We will begin to explore the environmental impact on the habitat on Antarctica and discuss solutions that we can evaluate for our inquiries on the problems as we delve further into our studies this week and the next.

Just a note to all you wonderfully thoughtful parents and children of this class. I am really enjoying my time with all of you and the mathematical and scientific explorations we are making together. Thank you for your kind words and holiday gifts.What a pleasure to work with all of you!

Word Work – Sight Words are words that students are expected to know by sight because they often contain spelling “tricks” that we can’t sound out, or “tap out.”

This week’s sight words: long down part made any

Next week’s words are: over new take around only

The Fundations program focuses on pattern-based spelling and explicitly teaches skills students can apply to many different words. Unit 9: Closed SyllablesClosed syllables are one-syllable words that start with a consonant, contain one short vowel sound, and end with a consonant. We are continuing to combine the skills we’ve learned this year including digraphs, bonus letters, -ng and -nk endings, suffix -s, and blends. We’ll spend the next 3 weeks on closed syllable words. This gives us a great opportunity to practice applying our many skills in context.

Sample Words: kid, cup, mix, rat, bus, mad, mug, zap, box, cat, yet, hen, fog, test, vent, plug, drill, lunch, lash, pick, path, kick, thick, dash, whip, math, wing, jump, crib, snip, hunt, pinch, pump, self, sing, drags, glass, press, spell, sniffs, stuff, block, flash, chunk, banks, puffs, lungs, rocks

Some other logistics:

● The cold weather is here! Please send your child to school with a warm coat, snow pants, boots, a hat, and mittens every day for recess. The district policy is to send kids outdoors for at least 15 min of recess unless the temperature falls below zero including wind chill. Please also remember to send in shoes for indoors.

Please feel free to contact us anytime,

Sincerely,Rebecca Haslam Sharon Robinsonrhaslam@bsdvt.org srobinso @bsdvt.org

www.haslammcgrath.weebly.com