Newsletter 6/16/17

  Look at us!  We're FIRST GRADE ready!

What a blast we had this week.  Enjoy some of our theme day photos below.  THANK YOU for teaming with me this year!  I am so proud of this class; everyone has grown in leaps and bounds!  Please feel free to have your child keep in touch with me over the summer via school email.  I will be checking it every so often and I promise to write back!  Wishing your kindergartner and you a wonderful summer,

Fondly, 

Sandy Henry

Making Flag Day necklaces

Reading on Beach Day

Collecting Team Autographs on Baseball Day

Newsletter 6/9/17 and Field Day Fun!

We're getting close to the end!  It's a lot of fun and games from here on- along with some learning...

We read a lot of books this week: about first grade, camping and fathers.  We spent time reading our favorite stories and choosing our reading partners. We added a camping poem to our Book of Poetry and read to our stuffed animals on camping day!

Our narrative writing unit is done.  Did you see your child's story come home?  The students have grown so much as authors!  Amazing.  We wrote about camping and made cards for Father's Day.

We are making a Summer Reading and Writing Journal, making plans to keep working this summer.  Look for it coming home and please use it this summer.

In math this week, we learned how to conduct an organized survey.  First, we surveyed the class to see our favorite spring activity.  Then, we made surveys of our own: thinking of a survey question, collecting and keeping track of data (see photos).

In Second Steps this week, we learned some calming down strategies.  When I feel angry or sad or scared, I can use 3 steps to calm down:  stop, name my feeling, and take belly breaths.  This lesson is helpful for everyone!  Look for Second Steps papers that went home for more information.

We visited the first grade teachers on Wednesday and asked them a lot of questions.  Some friends were nervous about going, but everyone agreed that they felt much better after.

We decided to name Friday "Finally Field Day Friday" because we had waited for it so long!  The sun was shining and we had a blast!

News & Notes:

• Please see the Theme Day note sent home to prepare your child for each special day next week.
• Hope to see you at our classroom celebration (project, snack and play) from 2-3 pm next Wednesday.  All parents are invited!
• Next Friday, 6/16, is the last day of school and a half day.
• Please let me know if your child will be leaving any earlier than next Friday.

A student survey about mussels

Recording data in our surveys

Visiting First Grade

Our class survey

Enjoying the Ox Ridge Band

Mr. Warble playing a focusing game

Happy Campers!

Team Henry!

Newsletter 6/2

Our "Character Clubs" continued to meet this week to read series books about a favorite character.  Each club worked together at the end of the week to make a character trait web, which we've hung in our hallway.  Ask your child about her/his character and see the photos below.

In Writing Workshop, our narrative pieces became even better as we worked on elaboration techniques.  Everyone tried to describe small moments within their stories with greater detail.  We were also very aware of needing to end sentences with punctuation and begin new sentences with a capital letter.

In math this week we worked on counting and keeping track of larger quantities, making a representation of a set of data and seeing one-to-one correspondence between that set of data and the representations we made.  We all chose to represent our data using various strategies, so we shared our ideas.

We wrapped up our study of geography by playing the best game!  Mr. Warble labeled the room with north, south, east and west and we used the class map that we made, along with these directions, to guided a partner to a hidden object.  Students were choosing to play this game during Choice Time all week long.  It was wonderful to overhear: "Turn west and walk straight", and then squeals of delight as the objects were found.

We had Infinite Roots, an African percussion group, visit our school on Thursday.  Wow!  They were amazing!  They formed a band of students and everyone danced to the African rhythms.  Reed and Julianne were chosen to be in the band!  See the photos below.

On Zoo Day, we sang zoo songs, read zoo books and added zoo animals.  We even created a zoo animal from the numeral zero!  Finally, we had quiet time reading our favorite books to our animals.  What a fun day!

News and Notes:

• Book sleeves due on Monday.  Please return all books for summer inventory.  
• 6/5 FIELD DAY (hopefully!)  1:45-3:15 pm
• Please check your child's theme day sheet (or post below) in preparation for the next 2 weeks!
• all parents invited to our end of year celebration on 6/13 from 2-3 pm for a craft, a snack, and some free play with your child.

A bunch of clubs' character trait webs!

Character research in a club

Learning an African dance

"Infinite Roots"

Making a representation of a set of data