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