April News

April is poetry month...but the weather did NOT seem to follow our poem April Showers Bring May Flowers!

So...instead of rain we started April with snow! But no matter what the weather, we are continuing to study shadows and working on our shadow puppet show: The Three Billy Goats Gruff. We will show this in May to the K classes we have yet to visit this year. And speaking of visiting, we were guests to Ms. McCallister's 4th grade class on "Poem in Your Pocket Day" where we shared our poems in pairs. Here are a few kiddos caught up in the poem share about rainforest animals and their animals movements.

  


 

In between the crazy weather we have still made it out to measure our mystery trees. We have looked at bark samples and tried to match these with our tree. Working as partners we are measuring and waiting for some leaf buds! When the leaves finally arrive we will be ready to match them with our leaf samples to name that mystery tree. Here are a few of our budding* scientists at work:
*pun intended

And while we wait for the temperature to reach 75 degrees- we are busy studying the habitats of the rain forest, desert as well as

Writing fact postcards from Mexico

folktales/facts about Mexico. During our last Travel Day- thanks to many parent volunteers- we had our last cultural celebration of the year. Taking our passports we headed down the hall to the sounds of Mexican guitar music and the smell of frying tortillas. Students wrote postcards about what they saw and heard about Mexico, made their own version cascarones (Mexican confetti eggs), put together Spanish counting books with flags of Mexico and made paper poinsettia to accompany the Mexican Folktale about the origin of the poinsettia flower. Many thanks to all parent volunteers who helped with the materials, the set up and the clean up... as well as those who helped out on our big day!

 Counting in Spanish is the easy part! It is making the correct number of Mexican flags to match the number!

"Most Messy Award" went to our cascarones- we used birdseed instead of confetti and covered the eggs in paper mache so they turned out like small pinatas that we broke outside on our mystery trees. Bird food for the birds- while we fried up some corn tortillas and cheese for us. And... figs and hot chocolate too, as they are gifts of the rainforest!
After hearing a folktale from Mexico, everyone began to read more about other stories- both fact and fiction- about habitats in that country as well as fun facts- like the start of basketball or the use of chocolate! 









Both are contributions of our southern neighbors in Mexico. Happy reading and happy discovering to one and all! 
 

March Newsletter

                   March Newsletter

 Ahhhh...spring!  When the snow melts a bit faster than before!

We were lucky enough to see some amazing Irish Dancers from
Stilton School, learn a bit about Ireland and write our own leprechaun stories last week. This week we will focus on things that hatch from eggs...including dinosaurs!

Conference days left=  Thurs. 24^th 4:20-6p.m. 
                                                          and  Friday March 25   8:00am-10:00 a.m.

Reminder : Conferences will again have student work stations like before…two stations of 

20 minutes each. The last station will be the teacher station- and after 5 min. at this station the 

student will be on headphones with a story -so parents and myself can have 20 min. of adult time 

for questions  and recommendations. I have already contacted the parents of students who we 

feel need extra support with work habits, behavior or those who struggle with various aspects of 

either math, reading or writing skills…and March conference time will be a time to review their 

plan. This year report cards go home on March 29.

In the near future we will begin our studies of Mexico. First will be readings about rainforest 

animals in our reading groups- and next we will have discussions about how rainforest animals adapt!  
Folktales as well as a story in the Reading St. program about a boy of Mexican heritage

will round out our reading groups endeavors for the first weeks in April. Hopefully we will be able

to have another travel day event celebrating Mexico, much like we did for Russia, on a Wednesday 
morning before April vacation...or right after...it all depends on how and when parent volunteers are 
available. 
          DEADLINE FOR LAST PARENT TRAINING = TUESDAY APRIL 12 
                                  6:30pm Gorham Middle School Library
                    We NEED you!    Anyone with some time available is most welcome! 

Later we will also start a mini-unit about the country of China. We will a focus on the map, flag, folktale and
Lantern Festival as well as New Year Customs for China. The focus wild animals found there will be:
sun bear, panda, tigers, goats and since it is the Year of the Monkey we will touch on facts of various monkeys as well.) Although this will not be as “in depth” as our Russia study- we will still enter our information in our passports. The study of light and shadows will also be a big unit this 
month- complete with a shadow puppet share of “The Three Billy Goats Gruff".

April 4=   Deadline for our Great Falls silent auction theme basket of "Exercise"

April 8=   Wellness Family Fun Night (See Ms. Fortier’s message included in this newsletter)

Dear 1st Grade Families,

The Great Falls staff have been hard at work planning the next Great Falls family event, the Great Falls Family Fun and Wellness Fair, which will be held on Friday, April 8th from 6-7:30pm.

In order to support future fun and exciting family opportunities, Great Falls is holding a silent auction at the Wellness Fair. We need your help! Each grade level will be putting together a healthy living themed basket that will be auctioned off.

The basket for grade 1 will be all about EXERCISE. We are looking for donations that can be included in the basket. Options can be things such as: water bottle, yoga mat, pedometer, stop watch, jump rope, resistance bands, fitness class gift certificate, weights, swim goggles, itunes gift card, sporting goods store gift card, stability ball, fitness studio gift certificate, exercise journal, hiking guide, trail guide, bike safety lights, ice skating pass, roller skating pass, ankle weights, golf balls and more! Be creative!

We would appreciate any and all donations! Please drop off basket items to the Great Falls main office by Monday, April 4th.

Thank you for your support,

The Great Falls Staff

Using our Groundhog Puppets to explore light and shadows

Using a "shadow stick" to explore and record results

February Newsletter

I want to begin by saying Valentine's Day is second only to the Christmas/ Hannakah holiday

season for first graders; many adults don’t realize the excitement and emotion that comes from

getting mail “just for you” from your peers… but to this (K-2) age it is always very important. I have

had Valentine’s Day fall on a Snow Day and had kids actually cry with worry that Valentine’s

will be canceled…so rest assured it WILL happen!


I try to make it an educational experience; we discuss the mail process and how letters

get delivered etc. We also practice a few “old school” letter writing activities- pretending to write

to a selected character in books they are reading. All students will be expected to include all

other students when sending a valentine- and write their special number on the envelope/card

as this number acts as an “address” in our class. Kids then take turns being “postal worker” to

sort mail into correct mailbox. At the end of the day they will be opened and then home they all go!

A gentle reminder- it is a school rule to never send in candy or food items without prior approval.

If you would like to add something instead of a food treat- a class gift of thick pencils

(see below as these are found online) is another option or another box of Crayola 24 crayons.

Please see me if Valentines’ are a $ hardship as I always have extra in case. 


Retelling a story helps children with sequencing events, organizing their thoughts as well

as learning the order of important story elements: (1) a beginning which includes the main

character and setting, (2) the middle which includes the problem or goal (3) and the solution or

summary of facts to show a conclusion. We will be retelling (from memory) the story of


“The Mitten”. This is a story that was read last year in K but it is not as familiar as most folk tales.

Ask your child what they thought was hard and what they thought was easy about the

story telling experience as it is a good reflective exercise about communication skills- speaking

and listening are big challenges at this age. We have visited several K classes to tell our stories,

including "Bony Legs."



We will continue our biography genre with reading aloud the life excerpts of Abe Lincoln,

George Washington and Mia Hamm. In math we have been starting to tell time to ½ hour and hour

as well as adding a mix of pennies, dimes and nickels. Playing a simple game of “Roll to a nickel”

is a great way to help your child learn important money skills. We played this at conferences.Grab

a handful of pennies and a few nickels. Roll a die (or borrow a game spinner) and take out that

amount of pennies. Each and every time a child gets 5 pennies he /she must trade them in for a

nickel. First person to reach 2 nickels calls out “I made a 10!”) and then wins a dime! Play this

until it becomes too easy …and then move it to “rolling for a quarter”….and finally “rolling for 4

quarters to make a dollar”. Adding 10 to any given number- or removing 10 from a large number

are also the focus of Everyday Math right now. Having your child add some mixed coins as well

as reminding them to “look at the little hand first” when determining the correct time will help

cement these skills learned here in class.


Our study of snowflakes has snowballed since the true arrival of some real snow vs. rain. We

recently measured out 5 cups of snow and wondered if it was the same (or =) as 5 cups of water.

Reading a few snow facts and snow science books fueled our study as we created our own

snowflakes starting with a typical hexagon center for our bulletin board. You can check them out

if you are in the school for an activity or during conferences mid- March! Also check out the

snowflakes.com site to make your own cyber-snowflake to send out to the world.

Speaking of snow….a reminder to all who have black snow pants and black boots. Everyone has

these same items. So if your child’s name is not inside- it is impossible to return items to the

correct owner. For example, last year we had a pair of black boots that had no name on them.

I showed them to each and every student, but no one will admit to owning them.

At the end of the day they were the only item left- day in and day out. So..please go over items with

your child (as well as labeling items) so we can return these to their rightful owner. Right now

we have a set of brown gloves that no one will claim...anyone missing these?



Also…each and every Friday is “Fresh Food Friday”. On Fridays kids are encouraged to bring in

fresh fruit or vegetables. We count up the number and send it in to Mr. D….and winning classes

with ALL students having a fresh snack are announced over the PA. My kids are VERY determined

to win -so I promised I would put in a reminder in this letter.

Last but not least, our mini-unit on China will occur after vacation. We will hopefully have some

gluten free fortune cookies ( I am searching for some anyway.If you see some please let me know!),

music a la Internet, money samples, a few artifacts as well as two folktales from China- so we can

compare/ contrast to the customs studied in Russia. The focus animals for these few days will be the

panda, sun bear and moon bear so we can compare/contrast these with our polar bear study this

past month! 


As mentioned in the last newsletter, all students who did not make grade level benchmark

targets during the current CBM tests will receive a phone call before vacation so parents can hear

how to support their child further- and be able to ask any questions they have regarding next steps

in the classroom. Please visit my "Do at home" section on the right to see how to support your child

(via the internet) with basic skills covered in Reading Street, Raz.kids reading,math and even our

snowflake unit!


I’m hoping that this letter finds you toasty warm, smiling and ready for the big Valentine season

here in first grade. A big thank you for supporting your child and our classroom goals!

See you soon!



- Michelle

January Notes...

We have wrapped up study of Russia and their habitats, animals and customs. We are also finishing up reading about facts on Polar Animals...which naturally led us to the study of ice and snow !



Check out these exciting links to an Ice Festival on the border of Russia and China....and a webpage where you can make your own snowflakes!

Harbin Snow and Ice Sculptures: See photos of building sized ice sculptures
http://www.rtoddking.com/chinawin2003_hb_if.htm


Snow and snowflakes

Learn the science behind snowflakes-and make your own snowflake message to send around the world!
http://snowdays.me/


Since we are studying snow- please remember to bring crocs, sneakers or similar  to wear when we take off our boots.......otherwise we have to sit on a soggy floor! (We are often on the floor when it is math game time or story time etc.)