Careers- Emergency Medical Technician and Hair Dresser

      

On May 17, Miss. Field, an Emergency Medical Technician for Campion Ambulance, and Mrs. Field, a hair dresser, came to share their jobs.  Miss. Field showed all the equipment she uses off of the ambulance and even gave us a pair of gloves to try!  Mrs. Field shared the hair dressing tools she uses on a daily basis and discussed the many hair styles she has performed.  At the end of their presentations they gave each student a 'goodie' bag with bandaids, stickers, and a comb.

Careers- Police Officer

 

                      

On May 16, Mr. Geiger, a Torrington Police Officer visited our classroom to share his occupation.  Mr. Geiger surprised us with his uniform along with all the tools he showed us!  We learned the many ways that Police Officers help our communities.

Careers- Fire Chief/Firefighter

                                      

               

    On May 9, we had the Torrington Fire Chief, John Field, come to our class to teach us about his job!  He answered all of our wonderful questions, discussed his daily schedule and job obligations, as well as showed us his firefighting gear!

Week of May 21-25

Dear Parents,

With only a few weeks left in May, we are finishing up end of the year assessments and beginning to wrap-up what we have learned this year.

                                   

A few reminders:

·         Grades 4-6 Music concert will be held in the gym at 2:30 on May 22.

·         May Sharing Assembly will be on Thursday, May 24 at 9:15 in the gym.

·         No school May 28 in honor of Memorial Day.

           

Here is a look at next week:

Reading: Students have been working very hard learning fairy tale components and started planning out their own fairy tales.  Next week, we will finish publishing our fairy tales and share our masterpieces.  We will work together to evaluate others fairy tales to ensure the main components of a fairy tale are shown.  By the end of the week, we will begin to reflect on books we have read together this year and create a list of books students recommend to the upcoming first grade class!  Students will learn how to complete a book review to share their favorites. 

Word Work/Handwriting: In Buddy Study, students are participating in the routines independently.  Students create their own spelling lists and are learning their words through a variety of activities.  Students also have been bringing home their list of words to share and practice at home.  Next week, we will begin by continuing to work with works that have two consonants sounds, like the hard /c/ in “cat” and the soft /c/ in celery.  We will have our test on Wednesday and then move into words with an ‘-ing’ ending.  Be watching for students to bring home their next spelling list to share!

Writing: We have started our new writing unit and students are thrilled to collaborate with one another during this time.  Students have started exploring their topics with their partners on the net-books and experimenting with different technology tools.  Next week, students will continue to gather information on their topics and begin organizing their information to present.  Further exploring with technology tools will occur whole class and in groups to get students ready to create their final projects.  Digital storytelling tools we will explore include blogs, Wiki’s, VoiceThreads, LittleBird Tales, Voki’s, comics, and StoryBird.  Ask your child to share some of the tools they are exploring! 

Math: Our final unit, Unit 9, focusing on 3-D Shapes, is a great success so far!  Students are very engaged and motivated to explore and build with geo-blocks.   Students are beginning to use vocabulary, attributes, and compare shapes, sizes, and orientations of 3D shapes.   Next week, we will begin with an assessment focusing on shape ‘footprints’ and then will be ready to begin drawing and building their own designs with the geo-blocks.  By the end of the week, students will be introduced to cones and cylinders where they will be able to compare their attributes and size from each other and the other geo-blocks they have been exploring. 

Social Studies: On our trip to White Memorial this week we were able to experience animal habitats in the wild and apply what we learned in Science regarding Amphibians and Reptiles.  Reflections on the field trip highlighted what they learned and how much they enjoyed the day.  This week we also had three visitors join our classrooms to share their jobs.  We learned more about the job of a police officer, Emergency Medical Technician, and a hairdresser.

Next week, we have three more visitors joining our classroom to share their jobs.  Students will generate questions for each guest beforehand and will learn about each career, what skills are needed, and how they help the community. 

Have a wonderful week!

~Your first grade teachers: Miss Field and Mrs. McIntire

Week of May 14 -18

Dear Parents,

We are well into the month of May and we are plenty busy!

                                           

A few reminders for the rest of the month of May:

·         Friday, May 11 is a half session day; students are dismissed at 1:20.

·         K-3 Music concert will be held in the gym at 11:00 on May 14. 

·         Grade 1 and 2 Trip to White Memorial will be on May 15.

·         Grades 4-6 Music concert will be held in the gym at 2:30 on May 22.

·         May Sharing Assembly will be on Thursday, May 24 at 9:15 in the gym.

·         No school May 28 in honor of Memorial Day.

           

Here is a look at next week:

Reading: Students have been enjoying our Fairy Tale discussions!  We have learned what makes a story a Fairy Tale, shared some of our favorites, and even started collected ideas for our own Fairy Tale.  Next week, we will continue to discuss and share Fairy Tales.  We will continue to examine the different elements of Fairy Tales such as “Once upon a time…”, magical powers, good vs. evil, and characters in threes and tie in reading strategies and concepts as much as possible for practice.  We have been exploring several books and websites to help us learn about Fairy Tales and to listen to ones we’ve never heard before!

Word Work/Handwriting: Our Buddy Study has been going very well!  Students are beginning to participate in the routines independently.  Students have created their own spelling lists and are learning their words through a variety of activities.  Students also have been bringing home their list of words to share and practice at home.  This week all of our words have the “bossy ‘r’” or an “r-controlled” vowel.  For example, ‘for’, ‘arm’, ‘art’, ‘farm’, ‘born’, and ‘torn’ are just a few of the words that students were able to choose from and practice.  Next week, we will begin our week by testing our knowledge of the first set of words and then moving into our third list.  For the third list, students will be learning words that have consonants with two sounds or “blends”.  First we will learn about words with consonant blends and then create a list of words together as a group which students can choose their spelling words from.  Gaining independence through this learning process is highly desired. 

Writing:  We have started our new writing unit and students are thrilled to collaborate with one another during this time.  We have reviewed and discussed the theme of our new unit; non-fiction science writing, as well as some science topic to explore.  Students have chosen a partner and have generated a “top three” list of ideas that they would like to research.   From each of their “top three” list, one topic was selected for each group to research.  This will ensure a variety of topics among the groups.  Students have also started thinking about the type of technology tool that they would like to use for their final project displays.  Next week, students will begin researching their topics with the use of the classroom and library tools. 

Math: Students have been doing a wonderful job adding and subtracting larger numbers!  Students are using the tools and manipulative that work for them, such as number lines, 100 charts, and connecting cubes.  Next week, we will begin our last math unit; Unit 9 3-D Shapes.  Students will begin by describing and comparing 2-D and 3-D shapes.  We will explore 3-D vocabulary and attributes and compare shapes, sizes, and orientations of objects.  We will also identify the characteristics of 3-D shapes by touch.  This will be a very fun and hands-on unit that students will really enjoy!  

Social Studies:  In the beginning of the week, we will transition to science as we get ready for our field trip to White Memorial!  Students will make predictions and reflections based on the field trip and what they learn!  Later in the week, as we explore careers during this time, we will have a few guests come in to speak with the classes about their careers!  Students will be able to generate questions for the guests beforehand and will learn about each career, what skills are needed, and how they help the community. 

Have a wonderful week!

~Your first grade teachers: Miss Field and Mrs. McIntire

Animals at the Zoo- Skip Counting!

During math time on Friday, we pretended we were at the zoo!  We chose an exhibit we would see at the zoo and drew it on a large piece of poster paper.  After drawing, with a lot of details to make our pictures look real, we practice skip counting and recorded our counting.  We needed to record how many animals we saw and then figure out how many eyes, legs, wings, and nostrils where in our pictures!
Ask us about our beautiful pictures and how to skip count! 

   

 

Week of May 7 -11

Dear Parents,

May is here and we are looking ahead to a busy month!  Buddy Study has begun and students are eager to participate in the process.

                                           

A few reminders for the month of May:

·        PTO meeting will be held on May 7 at 6:30.  (GCS)

·        Budget meeting will be held May 7 at 8:00 p.m.  (Wamogo)

·        K-3 Concert rehearsal will be held May 8^th at 10 a.m. to 11 a.m. 

·        Board of Education meeting will be held May 9 at 7:00 p.m. (GCS)

·        Cinco de Mayo Celebration will be held May 10 at 2:00 in the gym.  Students will sing and dance to celebrate the Fiesta.

·        Friday, May 11 is a half session day; students are dismissed at 1:20.

·        K-3 Music concert will be held in the gym at 11:00 on May 14. 

·        Grade 1 and 2 Trip to White Memorial will be on May 15.

·        Grades 4-6 Music concert will be held in the gym at 2:30 on May 22.

·        May Sharing Assembly will be on Friday, May 25 at 2:15 in the gym.

·        No school May 28 in honor of Memorial Day.

           

Here is a look at next week:

Reading: Students really enjoyed exploring and discussing Fairy Tales!  We learned what makes a story a Fairy Tale, shared some of our favorites, and even started collected ideas for our own Fairy Tale.  Next week, we will continue to discuss and share Fairy Tales.  We will continue to examine the different elements of Fairy Tales such as “Once upon a time…”, magical powers, good vs. evil, and characters in threes and tie in reading strategies and concepts as much as possible for practice.  Students will also begin creating their own Fairy Tales. 

Word Work/Handwriting: We have started our Buddy Study spelling program and students are very excited to have their own spelling lists.  Students are beginning to participate in the routines independently.  Students have created their own spelling lists and are learning their words through a variety of activities.  Students also brought home their list of words to share and practice at home.  This week all of our words had silent ‘e’ in them, like ‘white’, ‘write’, ‘shine’, and ‘note’.  Next week, we will begin our week by testing our knowledge of the first set of words and then moving into our second list.  For the second list, students will be learning words that have “r” with a vowel.  First we will learn about words with “r” and a vowel structure and then create a list of words together as a group which students can choose their spelling words from.  Gaining independence through this learning process is highly desired. 

Writing:  Our Cross- Genre writing unit is almost complete with only a few students left to publish.  Next week, we will finish up any publishing that is needed and then be ready to start our new unit, Informational Writing about Science.  For this unit, the two first grade classes will come together and review Information writing.  We will explore Science focused Informational text as a group to spark ideas for our own writing.  Then using the net-books, we will have a chance to explore in groups digital storytelling tools that can be used when creating Informational text.  By the end of the week, students will be placed in groups to select topics they are interested in writing about. 

Math: Students have enjoyed skip counting activities, playing new games with combinations of 10, and did an amazing job on the ‘End of Unit’ assessment.   Next week, we will be moving into session four of unit eight.  In this session, students will be introduced to adding and subtracting with 2-digit numbers.  Games and activities will be introduced during workshop time to practice.  Students will be required to do a lot of comparing amounts and apply what they have learned earlier in the year regarding addition and subtraction strategies. 

Social Studies:  Surveys have been compiled and a large list has been created of careers students are interested in learning more about!  Next week, we will continue to explore different careers and the skills needed for each.  We will also evaluate our own talents and likes to think about what career we might like to have when we grow up.  At the end of the week, we will have two visits come in to share their career.  Both first grade classes will come together prior to our visitor attending to compile some questions we would like to ask.  This will not only help us learn more about the careers but also on creating question sentences.  We will give students clues next week on our visitor’s career choices; however their occupations will be a surprise until the day before! 

Have a wonderful week!

~Your first grade teachers: Miss Field and Mrs. McIntire