Robtoy Farm Field Trip

 Robtoy Farm

Lots of fun was had today on our trip to Robtoy Farm! Students had the chance to interact with chickens, cows, goats and a bunny! The weather was perfect for a day on the farm!! Thank you to parent helpers and to Ms. Meghan for her help with coordinating this trip. 

The Week of May 23, 2022

Upcoming Events 

Tuesday, May 31- Field Trip to Robtoy Farm!

Please pack a snack, water bottle and lunch for your student. Ms. Stephanie will be making school lunches for those who need one. Our plan is to leave WES at 8:30 and return by 12:00. 

This field trip will take place rain or shine.  Please make sure students are wearing appropriate outdoor clothing (sneakers or boots, jackets, hats).

Preview Day- June 2

Students will visit with their upcoming teacher and classmates!

Star Base- 5-6 Rocket Launch- June 7th@ 10:00

6th Grade Graduation- June 9th @5:30

Last Day of School -June 10th dismissal @ 11:30

Morning Meeting Share Time

Series Books Mini Unit Wrap- Up

The first and second graders spent time meeting with their book clubs to talk about their fiction books. We focused on gathering information about our characters, noticing how characters respond to problems and how they work to solve them. Later we used this information to connect to new books in the series. We used our background knowledge to make predictions and compare/contrast books in the series. In the upcoming week, we will wrap up this mini unit with a poster project!

Reading our Favorite Books on Epic!

Preview Day

On Thursday, June 2 your student will get a preview of next year. We call this activity preview day for an important reason. As you all know, most classrooms here at WES are set up in  multi-age groupings. The K-3 team of teachers meet together to plan for the academic and social/emotional needs of students in the coming year.

Some students will be placed in the 2-3 classroom and some will be placed in our 1-2 classroom for 2nd grade. All 3rd grade students will move over to the 2-3 classroom. Please talk with your student and remind them that NO ONE is "staying back" if they remain in our room for 2nd grade. I often choose students who will be kind and helpful to the new first graders coming in our room. 

Your student will get a chance to meet their new classmates, check out their classroom and get a feel for what next year will be like. In our room, we will do guided tour and play a game to help get to know each other. 

Special End of Year Projects 

Some of our most treasured staff will be leaving us at the end of this year! Mr. and Mrs. Towle, Mrs. Wright and Ms. Debbie will all be retiring after this year. Our small school is busy making special gifts for all of them. 

Here are some students creating detailed illustrations for a special surprise! 

Expert Reader Audio Books Read Aloud by the First and Second Graders

Expert Reader Audio Books

When the kindergarten students needed new audio books, we came to the rescue! Each first and second grade student selected a "favorite" small group book from our year together. Students practiced reading their books multiple times, and incorporated all of their decoding and fluency strategies. Then we used our Seesaw app to type the title, photograph ourselves with our books, and record our reading.  This was a fun and useful way to wrap up our last unit in Readers' Workshop. 

Great job to all first and second grade readers! 

All About Snakes Read Aloud by Brayden

All About Sharks Read Aloud by Oden 

The Nose Book Read Aloud by Emma

The Coyote and the Rabbit Read Aloud by Mackenzie

Mercy Watson: Something Wonky This Way Comes Read Aloud by Gabe 

Chapter 1

All About Sharks Read Aloud by Logan

A Surprise for Roxy Read Aloud by Lauren

Houndsley and Catina, Chapter 1 Read Aloud by Jaxson

The Mitten Read Aloud by Lakyn

Planets (pages 4-19) Read Aloud by Scarlett

All About Sled Dogs Read Aloud by Echo

A Picnic in the Rain Read Aloud by Olivia

The Week of May 16, 2022

 

**Please pack a water bottle for your student each day**

Upcoming Events

No School Monday, May 30, 2022- Memorial Day 

Field Trip to Robtoy Farm- Tuesday, May 31, 2022

On May 31 the first and second grade class will be taking a field trip to Robtoy Farm in Jeffersonville, Vermont.  The farm is run by the Sustainable Agriculture Program at the Green Mountain Technical Center.  We will spend the day touring the farm, learning about the different animals (goats, cows, chickens and bunnies) there and how they are cared for. We will also tour the farm gardens and learn about the different harvesting times and techniques that the farmers use.  Recently, a learning pavilion was built at the farm to support Farm to School education. This project was funded by a grant written by our district’s Farm to School committee which consists of educators from across the district.

We will leave school at 8:30 and return at 12:00. Students will eat morning snack and lunch at the farm. Please be sure to send your student to school with a snack, lunch and water bottle.  Ms. Stephanie can pack a bag lunch for students who need it.This field trip will take place rain or shine.  Please make sure students are wearing appropriate outdoor clothing (sneakers or boots, jackets, hats).

Permission slips will be sent home on Monday, May 23 and will need to be returned by Friday, May 27.

Preview Day- June 2, 2022

Students will visit with their upcoming teacher and classmates!

Readers' Workshop

In reading, we wrapped up our last unit of study with an " Expert Reader Audio Book" project. Each first and second grade student selected a "favorite" small group book from our year together. Students practiced reading their books multiple times, and incorporated all of their decoding and fluency strategies. Then we used our Seesaw app to type the title, photograph ourselves with our books, and record our reading.  This was a fun and useful way to wrap up our last unit in Readers' Workshop. 

Great job to all first and second grade readers! 

In the next 2 weeks, I will be conducting end of the year literacy assessments with the 1-2 students. Every single student in our classroom made progress in reading and writing this year despite the crazy year we had! Each student should feel proud of their accomplishments!

We also began a short and fun mini- unit on characters in a fiction book! Students explored books in a series that share common main characters. Students were grouped together based on their interest. We join together throughout the week to talk about our books and keep track of what the characters are doing!  Here are some of the series books we are reading:

Magic Tree House

Digger and Daisy 

Katie Woo

Biscuit

Minnie and Moo

Mercy Watson

Dear Dragon

Writers' Workshop

This week, we finished up editing and revising our favorite opinion pieces, and students worked on typing their pieces. The first and second grade students are learning to navigate the keyboard, use google docs, insert pictures and find fun fonts! 

Spelling/Fundations

We began our last spelling unit last week! We focused on long vowel sounds and learned about the CVCe syllable type. Students practice writing, reading and marking up silent e words along with common vowel teams. 

First Grade Math

In math, we are working on adding and subtracting with double digit numbers. Students are also working with quarters and dollars to help review the  fractions whole, half and fourths. This week, we will review how to identify true and false equations. Students will read and solve a variety of addition and subtraction equations that have the equal sign in various places i.e 10=9+1  T or F  15=10+3+2 T or F.

The Week of May 9, 2022

 

Upcoming Events 

Friday, May 13th- Early Release Day @ 11:30

Monday, May 30, 2022- Memorial Day - No School

Tuesday, May 31- Field Trip to the Robtoy Farm

Chaperones needed! 

Morning Meeting Game Outside

Enjoying Silly Soccer outside this morning! 

Readers' Workshop

This week, we began a final reading project in the first and second grade! Each student created an audiobook for the Kindergarteners to listen to. Students practiced reading their book with fluency multiple times during the week. Reading partners listened and gave feedback to each other. Students used Seesaw to create a audiobook page.

Writers' Workshop

In writing, we are wrapping up our opinion unit with a trip to the editor's desk. Students read over their favorite opinion writing piece and checked to make sure it had a beginning, middle and end. We also checked for proper use of capital letters, proper use of punctuation and used our knowledge of spelling patterns and trick words to write words. Students are beginning to type their pieces in a google doc. We will use our prior knowledge to insert google images and pictures. 

Students will also practice their keyboard skills while working on a fun app called Typing.com. 

First Grade Math 

The first graders are working on adding numbers up to 120. Together we are learning strategies to add and subtract 10 from double digit numbers i.e. 25+10=35 or 47-10=37.

 Students are playing lots of games in class. One game we came up with is called "Flip the Flap". In this game, we find a number on from 120 on our chart, and use the flap chart to add /subtract 10 and 1. We are also solving some fun color by number mysteries. 

Color by Number Mystery Picture

Color by Number Mystery Picture- Each day we flip over a new clue on our May calendar (pictured above), and figure out what number we need to color in.

Flip the Flap Game practicing +10 -10 +1 -1

Poetry Mini Unit 

We have begun a mini unit on Poetry. Here are some of the books we have read together as a class. Our focus is on using our five senses to help us read poetry. We are also noticing how authors use repetition to send a powerful message to a reader. We will begin writing our own poetry soon!