The Week of Dec. 9

Winter Concert 

Dec. 16, 2019 @ 6:00 

Students will meet in our room between 5:30 and 5:45. They can leave their coats and boots in the classroom and return after the concert to get them.

W.E.S. Secret Santa Gift Making Workshops

Dec. 17

 We will begin our day by breaking up into small groups throughout our school to make gifts for a friend!  Students will wrap their gifts and make cards. We will exchange our gifts at our party on Dec. 20

Holiday Celebration/Sledding Party

Dec. 20- 12:00-1:30
W.E.S. Families are welcome to attend! We will decorate cookies, exchange gifts and then head outside for a sledding party. 

You are welcome to bring sleds to school and/or drop them off any time during the week. I will keep them in the classroom behind my desk until Friday. 


Writing Celebration

The writing celebration was a BIG success! You could see the excitement and pride on the students' faces! The comment sheets were really meaningful. Thank you to all of the people who went out of their way to attend! 

Wednesdays with Ivy
We really enjoyed seeing Ivy on Wednesday! She is an attentive listener and so gentle with the students. 





 



Healthy Snacks Returns!
Ms. Stephanie brought a delicious healthy fruit for snack on Wednesday! This week we enjoyed fresh pineapple. All students are welcome to try a snack. This year we are fortunate have this amazing resource 2-3 times per week. 

Field Trip to the Llama Farm
The weather was beautiful and we had such a fun time picking out our favorite tree! Thank you to Mr. Towle for setting up our tree so quickly! It is a beautiful addition to our room.





"Elfing Ourselves" 

This week was busy and full of changes. We took some time to make ornaments for our tree and we even turned ourselves into elves! Each elf is adorable! Be sure to check out our tree at the concert on Monday night. 

Poetry Mini-Unit
This week we began a short inquiry into poetry! Students read from a classroom anthology which has a mix of different types of poems. Students chose a poem they liked best and practiced reading it many times. 

In the upcoming week before vacation, we will work on adjusting our reading rate, expression and reading the punctuation. We will get a chance to write some of our own poetry too!  

On Wednesday, Dec. 18 we will have a poetry jam with our Big Buddies to celebrate! Students will have the opportunity to read their poems aloud using a cool microphone and amplifier.

The Week of Dec. 2

Upcoming Events

First and Second Grade Writing Celebration

Dec. 10  from 12:00-1:00

Meet the Author Celebration will be set up in Ms. Thomas' and Mrs. Marcelino's classrooms. Published books will be set up around the rooms. Students and families will move about the two rooms reading and writing positive comments for each child. There will be a "meet the author" photo booth set up for students and families to take pictures! 

W.E.S. families are welcome to attend! 

W.E.S. Annual Trip to Northern Vermont Tree Farm 
Dec. 12 from 12:00-1:00


Winter Concert 

Dec. 16, 2019 @ 6:00 

Students will meet in our room between 5:30 and 5:45. They can leave their coats and boots in the classroom and return after the concert to get them.

W.E.S. Secret Santa Gift Making Workshops

Dec. 17

 We will begin our day by breaking up into small groups throughout our school to make gifts for a friend!  Students will wrap their gifts and make cards. We will exchange our gifts at our party on Dec. 20

Holiday Celebration/Sledding Party

Dec. 20- 12:00-1:30
W.E.S. Families are welcome to attend! We will decorate cookies, exchange gifts and then head outside for a sledding party. 
You are welcome to bring sleds to school and/or drop them off any time during the week. I will keep them in the classroom behind my desk until Friday. 

America Recycles Day 
On Monday, Cormac Quinn a volunteer from AmeriCorps came to talk to the 1-2-3 classes about recycling! He read a great book, sorted types of trash and recycling, and then the students made great Super Recycler masks!

Wednesdays With Ivy
Ivy and Ms. Paulette visited our room on Wednesday! Students read with Ivy and got a chance to spend time with her!  Each week 2-3 students get a chance to meet with Ivy. Every child will get a chance to read with her this year if they want to. 







Writers' Workshop 
In writing, we are working hard to make our fancy copies to share at our writing celebration! Students used a rubric to identify what they are doing well and what they need to work on. We spent time creating detailed illustrations, covers, dedication pages and a cool All About the Author page.

A note on publishing... 
Current best practice around student publishing and editing is that teachers work together with a child to enhance writing. We work together to target age appropriate spelling, use of capitalization and punctuation, handwriting skills, and overarching goals we have learned about.

 We don't fix every single word, grammar/usage and mechanics error that would be only significant to a highly experienced  writer.  You will see that your child may still have misspelled words and/or other errors in their book. Please remember we are celebrating our children's hard work, growth and developmental stage. 

Readers' Workshop
This week in reading we wrapped up unit one! We continue to work on reading stamina, good habits and strategies for solving tricky words. Students also began an inquiry into realistic fiction. We read The Snowy Day, and compared it to the animal fiction books we read earlier in the year. Small group work continues each day. Students will also practice reading their winter poems throughout the weeks ahead. We will have a special Poetry Jam with our Big Buddies the week before winter break.

First Grade Math 
The first graders are working very hard at developing adding and subtracting strategies. This week, we learned two new math games! Cat and Mouse and Fifty or Bust! These games focused on the compare model for subtraction and adding double digit numbers. We also continue to use the chrome books to access prodigy.

In number corner, we uncovered a new pattern on our calendar! 3D shapes are our focus this month. We are also learning about telling time on analog and digital clocks.


















Big Buddies

On Wednesday, we met with our Big Buddies and read some awesome winter poems! Each group selected a winter poem they liked best. We will practice our poems throughout the next few weeks in preparation for our Poetry Jam!

Winter concert

Winter Concert

December 16, 2019

Students are welcome to arrive at 5:45 and leave their jackets and boots in the classroom. The concert will begin @ 6:00.

See you all then! 

The Week of November 22

***Attention Families***
looking for donations of clean glass jars with lids- can be any small size jar such as: jelly jars, pickle jars etc...

Upcoming Events

Early Release Day @ 11:30- Dec. 6

Winter Concert 

Dec. 16, 2019 @ 6:00 

Students will meet in our room between 5:30 and 5:45. They can leave their coats and boots in the classroom and return after the concert to get them.

First and Second Grade Writing Celebration

Dec. 10  from 12:00-1:00

W.E.S. families are welcome to attend! 

W.E.S. Secret Santa Gift Making Workshops

Dec. 17

 We will begin our day by breaking up into small groups throughout our school to make gifts for a friend!  Students will wrap their gifts and make cards. We will exchange our gifts at our party on Dec. 20

Holiday Celebration/Sledding Party

Dec. 20- 12:00-1:30
W.E.S. Families are welcome to attend! We will decorate cookies, exchange gifts and then head outside for a sledding party. 
You are welcome to bring sleds to school and/or drop them off any time during the week. I will keep them in the classroom behind my desk until Friday. 

I will be assigning students cookie toppings to bring and share with the class. Please look in your child's home-folder in the coming weeks. Thank you! 

Old Fashioned School Day 
What a fun day we had on Tuesday! The first and second graders really loved it! We began our day together by warming ourselves by the fire after morning recess. Students toured our classroom noticing our outhouse, bucket and ladle for drinking, dunce cap and, that our classroom had a blackboard with assignments written on it! Students used their quills and ink, made Horn books, practiced poems and sang songs! They loved putting wood on the fire and filling the water bucket! We also had fun playing Red Rover, Game of Graces and hoop rolling at recess time! 





































Lunch in the Classroom
On Friday we enjoyed eating lunch in the classroom together! What an amazing group of students!