The week of March 12

Upcoming Events 

Here we are singing our class song all about our favorite Habit of Mind. You'll love our song! It is so creative! 

An Evening with Jon Gailmor

W.E.S. concert 

3/19/18
Students should arrive at 5:45 and walk down to our classroom. 

Parent Teacher Conferences 

 3/20 1:20-4:30, 3/22 2:50-6:30

Please contact Debbie in the office to schedule a time to meet

Spring Equinox 

March 20, 2018 

No School 

March 23, 2018 

Readers' Workshop

We began a new unit of study on nonfiction texts. This week we reviewed nonfiction text features and practiced using them to help us grow our schema. This week we practiced using a table of contents, photographs, captions and labels. Here are the kiddos using their nonfiction text features with their reading partners. 

Can you catch a leprechaun?

The first and second graders did a great job planning, creating, revising and explaining how their leprechaun traps work. It was an exciting Monday morning when we arrived at school to leprechaun dust and chocolate coins!! Although we didn't catch any leprechauns this year it was a fun engineering project! Here are some photos from our week.

    

   

States of Matter 

What happened to my ingredients? This was our driving question as we examined our new phenomenon! Students noticed what happened to the ingredients I put into the freezer for supper. We worked on observing what happened to the different ingredients.  Some items came right back to their original texture and looked the same as when I put them in.... some items did not return to their original form. 

Later in the week, we spent time outside exploring the snow. Students worked on forming ideas about matter. We noticed matter everywhere. We even think that matter can be things we can see and can't see! Students took tiny pieces of snow and made larger objects, then broke them down and made something new. 

P.S. I can't wait for the 10 foot snowbanks to melt!! 

The week of March 7

Upcoming Events

Jon Gailmor Workshops

March 12-14

Jon Gailmor School Concert 
March 14 at 6:00 in the W.E.S gym

Parent Teacher Conferences Revised Schedule

3/19 2:50-4:30, 3/20 1:20-4:30, 3/22 2:50-6:30

Please contact Debbie in the office to schedule a time to meet

Spring Equinox 

March 20, 2018 

No School 

March 23, 2018 

Trimester II Report Cards

On Friday you should receive your child’s report card in a yellow manila envelope. The contents are yours to keep, except for the signature form. I’ll need all envelopes back for the last report card in June. Please take the time to talk with your child about their report card- talk about ways they might improve and of course celebrate their growth! We can talk more at our parent/teacher conference next week. Please call Debbie to schedule your conference time if you haven’t already done so.

Catch a Leprechaun....

On Friday, students began planning their own Leprechaun trap. We will begin working on building, revising and explaining how our trap works this week. We need lots of materials. On Thursday and Friday we will work on constructing our traps.  Please help us by sending in lots of recyclable and reusable items. We are looking for small cardboard boxes, paper towel tubes, duct tape and any other things you think would work! 

The Week of Feb. 19

Upcoming Events 

Jon Gailmor Artist in Residence

March 12-16

Trimester II Report Cards

March 16, 2018 

Parent Teacher Conferences 

Tuesday, March 20 and Thursday, March 22 

Please contact Debbie in the office to schedule a conference time 

No School March 23, 2018 

COTS Penny War Winners 

The first and second graders were the winners of our COTS penny war! Thank you to all of the families who donated money or other items. On Friday, we enjoyed our special ice cream treat! Here is a silly picture from our special day! 

Marble Maze Fun

Building our own marble maze was a fun way to learn the engineering process. Students learned about planning to solve a problem, creating, building, revising and sharing with others. This project was more about engaging in the process than building a maze. It was fascinating to watch the kids critique and engage in talk with each other. I also saw many students taking  feedback from others and then going back to the drawing board to change their maze to make it better. 

              

Writers' Workshop

This week, students worked on writing their own reviews! Students chose the item they wanted to write about, and worked in small groups to write engaging leads and endings. Later, students worked on writing detail sentences. In first and second grade, students learn about the idea of elaboration. We think about elaboration in terms of how to write more and how to write specific details using their senses or feelings. 

Patterns in the Sky 

This week, we finished up our Patterns in the Sky unit of study with a sun dial/compass engineering task. The first and second graders created a sundial/compass in our room using their knowledge of the patterns we have observed in the sky. Together as a group, they planned, built and revised their sundial/compass. In our consensus meeting, students explained and agreed that the Sun rises and sets in the same place each day. The Sun's light can also create a shadow. Students discovered that the Sun rises in the east and sets in the west, so they were able to find the other two directions using this knowledge.  Up next, we will do a mini-unit of States of Matter. On Friday, students jotted what they know about matter in their science notebooks! I am SO excited to begin a new journey with these amazing scientists! 

Readers' Workshop 

Readers' Theater Performance
Our readers' theater performance was a big success! The first and second graders did such an amazing job reading their parts with accuracy, fluency and worked really hard to change their voices to match their characters' feelings. I was so proud of all of them for taking a responsible risk and performing in front of an audience! Thank you to all of the families who came out to see our performances! It was so special! 

OLYMPIC GAMES
The Olympic games were a lot of fun! Each classroom created a flag representing a country. The first and second graders created the Australian flag. The classes entered one at a time, and the flags were taped onto the walls of the gym. Mr. Lee did such a great job painting the flags during Art class.  We had a fantastic opening ceremony and we all enjoyed watching Ms. Stephanie light the Olympic torch. The rainy weather didn't dampen our spirits, students thought flexibly and enjoyed the various events set up throughout the school. Events varied from bobsledding to figure skating. Every student earned a medal in an event at our closing ceremony. Later, students enjoyed a special movie treat! 

The week of February 12

Upcoming Events
***WANTED***
Plastic Grocery Bags!! I will take as many grocery bags as you would like to get rid of! Thank you!!

Fairy Tale Readers' Theater Performances

February 22, 2018 

9:30-10:30

February Break 

Feb 26- March 6

100th Day of School Celebrations

We began our day with a special hundred day hash! Students added 100 items each  to our hash, and we ended out having 1500 pieces of snack in our bowl. We sorted our items, and compared which group had the most and which group had the least amount. Later in the day, we had some fun engineering tasks to try. Students worked in small groups to make the tallest cup tower out of 100 cups, then we tried to make the tallest marshmallow tower using 100 toothpicks. During math, the first graders shared their collections, grouped items efficiently by 10s and 20s and then wrote missing number equations with multiples of ten.  Students also did a fun writing and art project. We created pictures of what we thought we would look like when we turn 100! Students created a bucket list of what they want to  accomplish before they turn 100... please be sure to check them out in the hallway right outside our classroom. 

 Last Winter Sports Day 

We had such fun this year during our winter sports program! Here is my skiing and snowboarding group! It is so much fun to spend time with all WES students! 

Valentine's Day

We spent the whole week focused on kindness and friendship. In class we brainstormed things that make us feel loved, and ways to treat others to show our love/friendship for them. I introduced the kindness jar to students on Monday. I invited students to notice when someone did something kind for them. They could write it down and place the sticky note in our jar. At the end of the day, I read aloud all of the notes in the jar! On Tuesday, we read My Heart is Like a Zoo  by Micheal Hall. We modeled our valentine bags after his creative heart illustrations. Students were charged with creating an animal from the book. Each animal had to have at least one heart in it. On Thursday we had fun reading The Peace Book  by Todd Par, and sharing our special valentines with each other. I loved all of my special treats! Thank you all so much!

Engineering in the Classroom 

In preparation for the end of our Patterns in the Sky unit of study, we spent time getting to know the process engineers go through when creating something. We learned the process together, but focused on taking feedback from our friends and changing our design to make our product better.  On Friday we spent time with our Big Buddies and made marble mazes! We planned, built and took feedback on our designs. We will spend time this week changing our  mazes to make them better. 

Readers' and Writers' Workshop 

This week we spent more time practicing our readers' theater plays, and can't wait for our performance on Thursday! We are getting better at reading our plays with expression and fluency. Parent's and family members are welcome to attend. We will begin at 9:30 and will watch a total of 4 fairy tale readers' theater plays. We will have a short intermission and quiz the audience on their fairy tale knowledge!  

We are also working hard at writing our first review! Students are living the life of a reviewer by gathering their information and building their own review. After break, we will move onto informational writing.

The week of January 29th

Upcoming Events 

Winter Sports 2018

   February 7, 2018

Valentine’s Day Class Celebration

Feb. 14, 2018 9:00-10:00

We will have a small Valentine’s Day party in our classroom on Feb. 14th from 9:00-10:00 . If your child would like to hand out valentines this year please make sure you have one for each child in our class. Students will have time to pass out their valentines and enjoy a small treat. I will provide a few treats for the kids this time around! 

Class lists will be sent home in your child's home folder on Tuesday! 

Fairy Tale Readers' Theater Performances

February 22, 2018 

9:30-10:30

Trimester II Grades Close February 23, 2018 

Classroom News 

This week was a tough week for us! Many students were home sick with fevers, flu like symptoms and stomach bugs! The first and second graders wash their hands each morning upon arrival, and I encourage them to wash throughout the day, especially before lunch and snack. Mr. Carlton has a new classroom tool that will help keep our school germ free. He will use his misting wand to spray each classroom once a week in a effort to keep sickness away from Waterville! In happier news, we loved our second winter sports day on Wednesday. The weather was amazing and again I saw so many persistent students LOVING their activities! We have also really liked exploring on Spellingcity.com. Students are getting to be experts at logging in and navigating to our Waterville website. As we get better at using this new tool, I will make our username and password available for practice at home.  Thank you to all of the families who have donated to our penny war! We have filled already! Clothing donations are welcome and appreciated too. 

Readers' Workshop

In reading this week, we continued to read fairy tales. We read Thumbelina together as a class. Together we worked on identifying the challenges that Thumbelina faced in the book and how she responded. Students are really excited to begin practicing for our Fairy Tale Readers Theater Performance! We will be practicing our plays next week. Our learning targets will be: reading with accuracy, making facial expressions and changing our voices to match different  character's feelings.  We will also compare and contrast the different versions of fairy tales. Family members are invited to come and watch our performances the morning of Feb. 22nd .  We will be sending home invitations soon, so look for them in your child's home folder. 

Writers' Workshop 

In writing, we did some fun would you rather prompts! Students practiced sharing their opinions about various topics such as would you rather have hot lunch or cold lunch, do you like summer or winter, or do you prefer video games or board games. Next week, we will begin the LIFE OF A REVIEWER!! Students will begin writing their own reviews about some of their favorite or least favorite things! 

Math 

It was a lot of fun making our class number line! The students worked together to place different numbers on the line. Students shared their thinking and gave feedback to their classmates about the placement of numbers. We even added some negative numbers to our number line.  We were excited to begin a new number corner project for the month of February. We will work on identifying 2D shapes and learning to identify if two shapes are congruent or not congruent.  We will also celebrate our 100th day of school in the coming weeks. We will do some fun activities in class to help celebrate this special day and number!