13 Shopping Days Left Until Christmas....

I'm sorry I had to miss our field trip on Friday. I heard a good time was had by all. I'm glad everyone enjoyed it!

This week, we will be talking about -ing and -ong words. We will also continue reading our many different versions of The Gingerbread Man. We will do a Venn Diagram and discuss the similarities and the differences. We will also graph which book is our favorite.

In Math, we will begin our unit on geometry. We will discuss 2D and 3D shapes. We will find out what shapes stack, roll and slide. We will learn what vertices and faces are and how many our 3D shapes have. This is a great tie-in to our science unit - Rollers. This week we will be making rollers out of cups and seeing if adding weights to the rollers has any effect.

We will continue to practice our addition and subtraction strategies including fact families. Please continue to go over math flash cards at home.

Have a wonderful week!

Mrs. M

Mrs. Cataldo

Mrs. Fiore

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

This has been a very busy week in our first grade classroom! Scenery has been colored, the Mayflower, houses and Plymouth Rocks have been painted and our lines have been memorized. We are ready to perform!! I hope you all enjoy our Thanksgiving Play on Monday!!

In math, we continued working on addition strategies - counting on and doubles facts. We also played some addition games on fun4thebrain.com. We also made Math Turkeys with our 10's facts.

Next week we will take a virtual tour of Plimoth Plantation and discuss a little bit of the history of the Pilgrims and Wampanoags. We will make cornucopias and read a book about the Thanksgiving feast. We will also write about what the Pilgrims did sailing over on the Mayflower.

I wish you all a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Mrs. Muscarella

Mrs. Cataldo

The holiday season is upon us....

I've gotten the orders to make my caramel turtle cheese cake and I've done some Christmas shopping. The holidays must be near. I can't believe a week from Thursday is Thanksgiving. I had WROR playing in the kitchen this weekend as we listened to holiday music - part of me enjoyed it while another part said, "Really? Already? We haven't even carved the turkey yet!!"

Last week was a short week so we took the opportunity to review some things we had been working on in ELA. We wrote about the beginning, middle and end of The Little Red Hen Gets Help from our anthology book. In this story, the cat, the dog and the pig help make the tacos they wanted to eat but wouldn't help clean up. Who helped Little Red Hen clean? Your children will know!

In math, we learned how to count on, use a number line and we began talking about doubles facts. We played some fun games like "doubles go fish" and "Gobble Gobble Doubles".

Looking ahead:

This week is all about play preparation!! We have SO MUCH to do. We have scenery that needs to be colored, costumes that need to be made, songs that need to be learned and lines that need to be practiced! WHEW! We are going to be busy!!

In math: We will continue on with doubles facts and doubles plus one facts. We will play "doubles and double plus one bingo". We will also review our addition and word problem skills.

As it stands right now, we will be putting on our play Monday, November 21st at 10:15. All family members are welcome. It is going to be a great show!!

Enjoy the week!

Mrs. Muscarella

Mrs. Cataldo

Mrs. Fiore.

The time is flying by....

I can't believe Halloween has come and gone and we only have two weeks from this Thursday until Thanksgiving. I actually started Christmas shopping this weekend!! I guess the holiday crunch is upon us.

We had a great week last week! Halloween was so much fun and the kids looked fantastic! Thank goodness the snow happened before our big parade! A very big thank you to our room parents and all of the parents who helped contribute to our Halloween craft and snack. Fun was had by all! We appreciate your time and effort!!

Last week in ELA, we talked about super star short vowel e. We also read Little Red Hen gets Help. As part of our comprehension strategy to compare and contrast we read three other versions of the Little Red Hen including Little Red Hen makes a Pizza. The students did a very nice job talking about how the stories were the same and how they were different. For our writing this week, we wrote about how we could help Little Red Hen. The students had some wonderful ideas! Good job!

In math, we continued on with our subtraction skills learning how to subtract to compare (Who has more? How many more?) and subtraction word problems where we know how many they started with and how many they ended up with, but we didn't know how many they gave away. These are difficult word problems and we will continue to discuss these as we move forward.

As we look ahead:

In ELA - due to our 3 day week, we will do a review of our super star vowels, especially e. We will also continue to discuss the similarities and differences with the Little Red Hen as well as writing about the beginning, middle and end.

In Math - addition strategies of counting on 1 and 2 and doubles facts.

No science this coming week. The following week we will learn about Twirlers!!

As a reminder:

No school on Tuesday due to teacher professional development and Thursday due to Veteran's Day. Enjoy!

Have a wonderful week!

Your teachers,

Mrs. Cataldo

Mrs. M

Mrs. Fiore

Snow? Really?

I'm still in shock about the snow. Thank goodness we got our power back after only a couple of hours. This better not be a sneak peak for things to come. We don't need another repeat of last year's winter!

Last week in ELA we focused on -all family words. The students made balls to put their -all words on and they wrote sentences using their target words. We finished our My Place in the World project. We talked about what maps are, what country we live in, what state and what city. We wrote about "My favorite place in Melrose". We brainstormed and came up with a great list of places. Some friends chose the Hoover or the library, while others chose Liberty Bell and Papa Gino's.
In math, we were still talking about subtraction. We paired off and used two color beans to help us talk through "Who has more? How many more?" We learned that we can compare items to subtract. We will continue with this skill this week as well.
In Science, we made zoomers. I'm sure you heard all about it and I know more than a couple of us had sore fingers! We discussed the forces pull and push and what force we used to make our zoomers work - which was difficult (even for Mrs. M) and I was happy to see the children accept help from others when they reached a level of frustration. If you would like to make a zoomer at home, all you need is a large button (or cardboard disk) and some string. Your child can show you what to do!

A look at the week ahead:
In ELA - super star short vowel e. We are going to compare and contrast different versions of The Little Red Hen. We will also write about how we would help the Little Red Hen.
In Math - we will finish up discussing subtraction for now and we will switch gears back to addition and talk about how we can count on using number lines.
In Science - We will be making different twirlers. These are a lot of fun!

Don't forget the big Hoover Halloween Parade Monday at 1:40!!

Have a Spooktacular week!
Mrs. M
Mrs. Cataldo
Mrs. Fiore

Halloween is Almost Here......

I can't believe the month of October is almost over. We've had two months of school already - where has the time gone??

Last week we focused on super star short vowel o. We took a look at -ot and -op word families and put them on our pots. The story for the week was Dot and Bob. We discussed the three characters - Dot, Bob and Mom, the setting and what they did. The children also wrote about what happened in the beginning, middle and end of the story. We had picture cards to help us and we had sentence strips that helped us figure out what the most important things that happened in the beginning, middle and the end. This is a skill that we will work on throughout first grade. We've only just begun....

In math, we were learning all about subtraction. Word problems can be difficult, especially when you know how many you started out with, and how many you end up with, but you don't know how many were taken away. We will continue with this type of word problem this week as well - they're hard!

In science, we made tops. We used green straws for our axis and red and yellow disks. We learned that a fast top is a more stable top and that the weight needs to be even all around the axis for the top to work. Ask your child about all of the different ways they made a top and what worked best for them. I also tried to show them Spinning-Top Circus on the computer but we couldn't get it to work so I promised I would pass it along to you to try at home. If you go to YouTube and search for Spinning-Top Circus you will find it. All it is is a man and his daughter spinning his collection of tops in a wooden bowl......but it is really cool to see all of his different tops!

Looking ahead -

In ELA: -all family words. "All on the Map" We will be making our own map book....stay tuned!

In Math - more on subtraction. Taking apart 7, 8, 9 and 10. More word problems....

In Science - Zoomers! These are a lot of fun, but can be difficult to get going.

Have a great week!

Remember.....October 25th and October 26th are half days. Dismissal at 12:30. Lunch will be served.

Mrs. M

Mrs. Cataldo

Mrs. Fiore

Welcome to the world William Bruce Flynn!

What an exciting week we had! William decided he wanted to meet his parents a little earlier than planned! Mrs. Flynn and William are doing great and she is going to love the pictures the children made for her on Thursday!!

Lisa Cataldo will be filling in for Mrs. Flynn while she is out on her maternity leave. Mrs. Cataldo lives here in Melrose and is a licensed elementary school teacher. A letter will be sent home soon with more details, but I wanted to mention it because she will begin tomorrow. We are all very excited to have Mrs. Cataldo join our class!!

Last week in ELA we were working on -ick word family words. We read Get up Rick and talked about what happened in the beginning, middle and end. This is a skill we will be working on all year and is difficult for the students to do at first. When you are reading at home, ask you child to talk about what happened at the beginning, middle and end of the story. We also played Tic Tac Toe Phonics on the Smart Board. The students had to answer a phonics question correctly before winning the square for X's or O's. They had a blast and did really well!

In math, we continued to work on subtraction. The students did a wonderful job making up their own subtraction stories. We had fish, ducks and superheroes and the students worked with a partner and came up with a story the other had to figure out. For example, "8 superheroes flew into Melrose to help everyone. 3 superheroes were hungry and left to get lunch. How many superheroes are left?" We learned that the words "are left" are important words and they tell us that we will need to subtract. We also played a new game on fun4thebrain.com where the students fed aliens lunch after they answered a subtraction sentence correctly. It was a fun way to learn our subtraction facts!!

In science, we did our last unit on motion. We made mobiles out of paper clips, straws, index cards and elastic bands. We had to figure out how to make it balance while hanging off of a rope.

Looking ahead:

In ELA - short vowel 0. -op and -ot words. Continuing on with Beginning, Middle and End with Dot and Bob.

In Math - wrapping up with subtraction. Ladybug subtraction and word problems.

In Science - Motion - We will be making tops and we will begin our discussion of push and pull forces.

Have a great week!
Mrs. M
Mrs. Cataldo
Mrs. Fiore

Don't you love three day weekends??

What a beautiful weekend! The weather was great (ok...maybe a little too warm) but it was perfect for sitting outside watching soccer and baseball games! And I really could get used to this 3 day weekend thing.

Last week we were working on our short vowel /i/ and read Miss Jill in our Storytown Books. We "made" short vowel /i/ words using our magnetic letters and play-dough. We went for a fall walk on Friday and wrote about what we like to do in fall during writer's workshop. Everyone is doing a wonderful job in their writing journals. We discuss how to write more than one thought using King W - when, why, what, where?? A lot of friends like to jump in leaf piles with their families! Sounds like fun to me!
In math, we looked at vertical addition working with our dominoes. We played Domino Parking lot and read Domino Addition. We also reviewed our 7, 8, 9 and 10's facts.
In science we continued on with our balance theme. The students had to figure out how to balance a pencil on its tip on a craft stick. The only materials they had were a pencil, a wire and two clothespins. Ask your child how they did it. It was a lot of fun and you'd be surprised how quickly they figured it out!
In social studies we discussed who Christopher Columbus was. We read a book and watched a short video clip on United Streaming from Discovery Education.

Looking ahead:
In ELA: We will be working on -ick word family words. Our poetry for the week will be a fall poem.
In math: We will begin subtraction. We will learn important words and what it means to subtract or take away.
In science: We will do our last balance experiment. We will be making mobiles.

Have a wonderful week!

Mrs. M
Mrs. Flynn
Mrs. Fiore

October is here!

Happy October! I am sure you are all busy picking out pumpkins, mums, just right apples to enjoy and visiting fairs! The First Graders have also had some Fall fun this week. However, We were disappointed we did not have the chance to go on our Fall walk (too much rain). We did brainstorm lots of Fallwords, read lots of Fall stories and learned a new Fall five senses poem. Let's hope to observe a few Fall changes this week.

In ELA, we continued on with short vowel a as our story was The Van. We introduced the an word family. The kids had a great time exploring with word puzzles, building an words, as well as using play dough to manipulate sounds and words. Reading groups are also up and going. The children are having fun using our gel boards creating words, as well as honing in on our focus skills which were making predictions and learning about sentences. We are very pleased with their independence, great job boys and girls! Please continue to review the poetry notebooks sent home on Fridays. The children also made a Fall five senses poem that is hanging outside our classroom. Feel free to stop by and check them out!

Mathematically, we reviewed addition and ways to make 9 and 10. We are working hard on our math fluency playing math games and reading lots of math literature. We have read Seven Blind Mice, 8 Orange Slices and other counting books. Domino Addition for the week ahead. A popular game introduced this week was Fishing for Addition (the children add 2 popsicle sticks to make a sum). We have also been using lots of dice and dice in dice to count on. Please continue to use flash cards at home.

We have lots of Super Scientists in our class! Mrs. M continued on with our balance unit! This week we reviewed the words balance and counterweights. The children brainstormed ways to balance an arch and triangle in a stable position using counterweights. Ask your child what a stable position is? They did a great job experimenting what worked and what didn't. We hope you received the Foss Science site that was emailed to you. Have fun exploring!

Looking Ahead:

ELA - short vowel i and naming part of a sentence
Math - vertical addition and introduction to subtraction
Science - "the pencil trick"
Social Studies - Who was Christopher Columbus?

Enjoy the week!
Mrs. Flynn
Mrs. Muscarella
Mrs. Fiore

Are you ready for some football???

Sundays are great! Whether you spend it at a soccer field, eating dinner with your family or watching the Patriots, Sunday is a great day!

We had a great week this past week. The children are doing a great job with our daily routine and have really done well diving into the first grade curriculum.
In ELA, we have been talking about super star short vowel /a/. What sound does /a/ make? What words have short vowel /a/ in them? We used many different modalities to "build" short /a/ words - we rolled play dough into letters, we used magnetic letters on cookie sheets, we had a Smart Board activity and our new gel boards. We read "Let's Tap" in our anthology and talked about what happened at the beginning, middle and end of that story. The students were also able to listen to it at our listening center.
In Math, it's all about addition. We learned what an addition sentence is. We talked about the important words "in all" and "sum". We learned about adding zero and how to use pictures to help us figure out a word problem. We had many fun hands on math centers where the students were able to play addition file folder games, "Around the Block" dice game, "3 in a Row" spinner game, and some other fun hands on activities that help everyone learn their math facts.
In Science, we began our Foss Science Kit "Balance and Motion". This unit is a lot of fun (as you can see by our pictures). We started off by learning some important science words such as balance and counterweight. The students were able to experiment and find ways to balance a cardboard crayfish on their finger. How will counterweights (clothespins) help us balance the crayfish on it's nose? The students were then asked to do the first grade version of science "notebooking" - our science investigation sheet. They wrote a sentence or two about what they did and then drew a picture. Fun was had by all!!!

Looking forward:
In ELA - continue on with short vowel /a/ -an family words. We will read "The Van". We will also be finishing up on our assessments.
In Math - it's all about making 7 and 8. What are all of the pairs of numbers (number bonds) that will make 7 and 8? We will also begin looking at adding vertically using dominoes.
In Science - continue with our balance theme. This week we will try to balance an arch and triangle on the edge of a craft stick.

Have a wonderful week and GO PATS!!!!!

Mrs. Muscarella
Mrs. Flynn
Mrs. Fiore

Happy Fall!

We hope you all enjoyed your week! As you know, the First Graders had a fun-filled week. The highlight of our week was today....balancing a crayfish (our 1st science lesson). Mrs. M introduced our balance and motion unit. The children did a great job brainstorming what they new about balance etc. We had lots of fun balancing our crayfish with and without counterweights (clothespins). Excellent job boys and girls! Have fun browsing through the photos. More to come this weekend.....

First full week as First Graders!

Hooray for First Grade! The children continue to make a great transition into First Grade. We were busy as bees this week! It was great to see all of you at our Open House...thanks for coming! As you know, we are learning our routine and expectations quite well. I bet one of the highlights for the week would be morning meeting. We have been incorporating different games, greetings, and cheers. Keep up the great work Boys and Girls!

This week we finished reading our Kevin Henkes books. The kids loved Owen, Jessica, and Sheila Rae the Brave. We plan to graph our favorite Kevin Henkes book next week. We also continued making a few class books that you may have had the chance to peek at during Open House (if not, they are in our reading nook in a black bin labeled Class Books). Come in anytime to sneak a peek:) We made a name class book this week. The First Graders also had a glimpse of Super Star vowel a! Did you know a walks on the red carpet? Ask your child why a is so important? More to come next week as we begin our reading program. Our first story will be titled Let's Tap (short a as a focus).

As mentioned at Open House, the children were busy taking assessments this week. We completed the math and writing assessments, as well as most of the DRA's. We will most likely get to the Dibels (phonics based assessment) next week. The kids did a super job! Thank you for your patience!

Mathematically, we did begin addition. The kids had fun exploring counting on using play dough grab mats, games, and the smart board. More addition with basic number sentences next week. We encourage you to practice basic math facts at home with your child.

Exciting news.....Science will begin next Thursday! Our first unit is Balance and Motion. The children will have fun experimenting with a paper crayfish using counterweights etc.

To encourage conversation at home, Ask your child about:
Morning meeting
Math
Super Star vowel a
Lunch Recess (which is at 11:50 ...before lunch)

Keep up the great parenting!
Mrs. Flynn
Mrs. Muscarella
Mrs. Fiore

Off to a great start!

Congratulations to all First Graders! We have made a great transition into Grade One. The past 2 weeks have been all about establishing classroom routine and community. The children have had a great time with our morning meeting activities and greetings. Ask them about their favorite part of morning meeting. We have been doing a "mini author study" on Kevin Henkes. Chrysanthemum opened up our unit. We have also been reading lots of Kevin Henkes books and making our own class books.
During our math block, we have been exploring math manipulatives, as well as learning new math games and making graphs.

Looking ahead: We will be giving our assessments over the next few weeks. Thank you for your patience.
We are so proud of our Fantastic First Graders!
Keep up the great parenting!
Mrs. Flynn
Mrs. Muscarella
Mrs. Fiore

Welcome to First Grade!

Welcome Fantastic First Graders! We are looking forward to our First Day of School Tuesday, August 30th. Please bring your friendly faces and helping hands. We are going to have lots of fun together! Enjoy your last few weeks of summer.
Smiles,
Mrs. Flynn
Mrs. Muscarella
Mrs. Fiore