Day in the Dark

We had a wonderful time on the darkest day of the year! Our entire day was spent in the dark with only our special lights lighting our way. We searched for words and math equations with our flashlights, worked on two art projects, and read books in the dark room. We ended the day with the 3rd and 4th grade chorus performance. Ask your child to tell you more!

Word Detectives

The first graders have had been using their word detective skills to solve tricky words. We have been getting tips daily from a mystery "Word Detective Agency" and Friday we received a final assignment to use what we have learned to solve a series of word clues. The words contained a message that led us to Mr. Hennessey's office for a special reading certificate and bookmark. The children were so excited to solve the clues and complete our word detective work! Great job word detectives!

 

Curriculum Updates!

We have been learning so many things in first grade!

In writing, we completed a mini unit on writing informational "how-to" books. We published one last Friday and will share them with each other tomorrow.  This writing focused on explaining how to do something with clear steps and diagrams. This work will support our next unit on writing informational teaching books.  The children will look at how nonfiction books are organized, and the specific text features that are found in them such as headings, captions, and side bars. They will then use these examples to write their own books. The children chose their first topics today!

In reading, we continue to be "word detectives" to help us solve tricky words. We recently discussed and practiced breaking long words into smaller parts, looking for "vowel teams" (ee, ea, ou, etc.), and breaking the ending off of a word (-ing, -es, -ed). The children are working really hard at reading independently! We continue to build reading comprehension by talking and writing about what we read  independently or listen to during whole class read alouds.

Our math focus has been on building quicker strategies for solving equations such as using doubles and friendly 10 numbers. For example, we discussed how if we know 10 + 5, we can solve 9 + 6 by adding one to the 9, and subtracting one from the 6. We have also been telling time to the hour, and learning about 3D shapes. Today the children had a 3D shapes hunt in the classroom. We took pictures of shapes and labeled them in Seesaw. Be sure to check it out!

All Over Town

Two children brought in their community projects today and had the opportunity to share them with the class. The children then answered questions about the various components of their projects. Please continue to work on them over the holiday break.  They had a great time creating and presenting them!

Police Station Community Visit

Thank you to Officer Matt Knisley for giving us a tour of the Montpelier Police Station! The children were fascinated with the 911 call room, the holding cell, and especially the police car!  Ask your child to tell you more!

Happy Veterans Day!

Election Day

Today we walked to the polls to see voters in action! We were lucky to be present to watch Pascale, our instructional assistant and new United States citizen, vote in her first presidential election! Afterwards, we stopped at the Donut Dude for some amazing donuts. Thank you Donut Dude!

Upcoming First Grade Dates

Week of November 7th

Election Day Community Visit

Tuesday, November 8th - We will walk to City Hall to see voting in action!

Scholastic Book Fair

We are visiting the Scholastic book fair on Thursday, November 10th from 1:30-2:00. Your child may browse or shop at this time. If you would like your child to buy an item, it helps to have a labeled envelope with a note saying if your child can purchase books only or something of their choice.   Families can visit on Thursday or Friday after school and Friday evening at the movie night. I would love some volunteers to assist with our visit on Thursday.   Please let me know if you can join us at the book fair.

Veteran’s Day Parade

First graders will walk with other Union School grades in the Veteran’s Day Parade on Friday the 11th.  The parade begins at the roundabout at 10 am, and continues on to the High School.  Our class will walk as far as the State House, take a class picture, then head back to school.  It’s fun to have parents cheering us on!

Week of November 14th

Police Station Community Field Trip

Our class will walk to the Montpelier Police Department on Monday the 14th to learn about these community helpers.  We will leave at 10:35, and will stay for about a half hour.  Our school resource officer, Matt Knisley will be providing the tour.  Please email me if you are interested in chaparoning this walking trip!

Thanksgiving Lunch

Join us at the classroom at 12:15 on Wednesday the 16th for Thanksgiving lunch.  Our class will walk to the cafeteria together to get our meals, then bring our trays back to the classroom to eat.  If your child chooses to not get a Thanksgiving lunch, then he or she will still join us in the classroom to eat a lunch from home.  This is a great community event!

Birthday Breakfast

We will celebrate Taylor’s November birthday on Friday the 18th.  Please join us from 8:30-9:00 am to get a glipse into our classroom culture!  If you can provide a healthy snack for this event that would be great!

Please let me know if you have any questions!

Linda

lindad@mpsvt.org

Vision Screening

Dear Parents,

The Barre Lions Club is offering free vision screening with a SPOT vision screener.  To date, the Lions Club has screened over 3000 children in all the local schools and many daycares.  They will be at Union Elementary on Monday, Nov 7th to screen the children in grades K, 1,3.

The Spot vision screener is more accurate than school screenings and can be used in very young children.  It’s non-invasive and screens the child at a distance of 3 feet.  The child needs only to look look at the device – bird sounds and sparkly lights attract the child, and it generally takes about 2-5 seconds.

The SPOT screener detects the following vision problems in children from 6 months of age up and provides a written report, if needed, that can be shared with the child’s eye doctor:

·         Myopia (Near-sightedness)

·         Hyperopia (Far-sightedness)

·         Anisometropia (Unequal refractive power)

·         Astigmatism (Blurred vision, eye structure problem)

·         Anisocoria (Pupil size deviations)

·         Strabismus (Eye misalignment, Gaze)           

The Lions Club’s major initiative is to detect visual problems early and reduce the incidence of blindness.  Please call me if you have questions, or don’t want your child to participate.

Thank you,

Sarah Mele, RN

sarahm@mpsvt.org

802-225-8206

Pumpkin Day!

Pumpkin art, pumpkin stories, pumpkin bowling! We did a lot of fun pumpkin investigating today. Ask your child to tell you more!

Highlights From Our Week

We wrapped up several units of study this week including our "Small Moment" writing unit, our first reading unit on building good habits of reading and word solving, and the insect unit. We published our stories with editing and revising, and shared them with each other today. We also celebrated our insect research with a fun costume making activity and parade around the school! The children had a wonderful time creating their insects with all of the specific body parts that insects have.  

The children dove into new learning around an intergrated science and literacy unit about tulips. We will be planting tulip bulbs next week and monitoring their progress through the winter and spring. The classes will participate in the Journey North test garden project, and use the text, Boxes for Katje, by Candace Fleming to support our thinking around change over time. It has been a busy week!

Observing the tulip bulbs and recording what we notice.

Reading our published writing!

An insect celebration!