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