Dates to Remember
-Picture Day is Today
Monday, September 20th
Please send your picture form to school with your child on the 20th. If your child wants an id card for $1, please write that on the form.
-Scholastic Book Fair Begins This Week
Books can be purchased before and after school. There is a great variety of books at this sale!
-School Open House this Wednesday Night
Wednesday, September 22nd, 5:00-6:30
Come visit the school and see what our students have been up to in these first weeks of school. We'll have a scavenger hunt that will take you all around the school. Then stop in the Barn Swallow classroom to meet your new classroom community!
-Camp Tilikum Canoe Trip Next Tuesday
Tuesday, September 28th, from 9:00-2:15
If you are interested in volunteering on this day, we would love to have you! We will have at least three students in a canoe at a time, with one parent volunteer in each canoe. If we have 6 parent volunteers, the class can go canoeing all at one time for a longer period of time. Please let me know if you are interested in joining us for this water adventure! As of today, we have one parent who has confirmed that she is coming. We need many more of you lovely parents! I hope to hear from you soon. (Please email me at S.Reuter@fgcschool.org)
-Pizza Wednesday Weekly Fundraiser Begins
Wednesday, September 29th
If you are interested in participating in this fundraiser, please visit the school website link above for more information on how to order.
-Teacher In-Service (No School): Friday, October 8th
-Student Conferences (No School): Thursday, October 28th and Friday, October 29th.
Last Week's Classroom News
Community & Classroom Procedures
Last week students continued to build community, learn routines and procedures, and get to know each other through a variety of activities. We practiced greeting each other during our morning meetings with the 'Handshake Hello' greeting where we focus on giving eye contact, having a firm but gentle handshake, and greet with sincerity. Students learned or reviewed the 'Little Bird' song and dance (ask your child to teach you!). We also sang 'Do Your Ears Hang Low' and 'My Bonnie' along with very fast actions. On Friday afternoon we had a great time as students volunteered to either lead the class in a song, OR they sang alone! This class is full of music! Emilee led 'The Itsy Bitsy Spider'. Apollo led 'Little Bird'. Colby san 'Bye Bye Miss American Pie' and Ben enchanted us with his fast folk sining of 'Ol Rattler' and 'Town Hall'.
Last week we started sharing time during our morning meetings. Students signed up to bring in something special to them from home. We have time for one student each morning. Luella shared her shiny dance trophies and medals and Ben shared two amazing rocks that he found outside with his dad. Students share in front of their class and practice presentation and speaking skills. Student presenters begin speaking when their audience is ready to listen, make eye contact with people in the audience, and use a loud and clear voice. The students in the audience are practicing how to be 'audience members' by showing the speaker they are paying attention by looking at them, giving comments, and asking follow up questions.
Our class has also brainstormed and came up with our classroom rules. Students came up with 21 different rules and we were able to condense them into the following four:
-Do your best.
-Take care of each other and all living things.
-Be safe.
-Take care of all things.
Snack
Last week we had a mixture of organic cranberries sweetened with apple juice, sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, almonds, and peanuts. The week before, we had Aussie Bites which have many whole grains and dried fruit.
Student News
Emma lost a tooth at school and the tooth fairy came to her house. Hunter is in the planning stages of a level 1 Warrior Dash! He is also working on a Star Wars comic book. Siobhan's escape hamster was found in the basement and is recovering. Gage found a bean that was in the shape of a 'G for Gage' and he also dug up the 'record winning beet' for our picnic! (Gage wants to be a farmer when he grows up.)
Literacy: Reading & Writing
Some of the books we read as a group last week were, 'The Curious Garden', and 'The Kingdom With No Rules'. Level 1 has had a team of volunteers begin helping teachers with doing individual reading assessments with our students. The reading assessment results offer information on what book levels would be appropriate for students to read independently and in an instructional setting. Our literacy structure will allow for small groups of similar reading levels to meet together and work on various reading skills. The structure this year will also allow for students to work on goals with the teacher within the following categories: Comprehension, Accuracy, Fluency, and Expanding Vocabulary. I am excited to begin working with reading and writing strategy groups as well as be able to individually confer with students!
Last week, students were given daily opportunities to choose and read books, as well as write about any topic. This allowed me to see what books students were naturally gravitating towards, as well as see their comfort level with both reading and writing. I was able to informally help students find books that matched their reading and comfort levels.
Students also began their 'All About Me' books where they fill in information about themselves in a book that asks for a variety of information. In this book, some students are working on sounding out words and writing the sounds that they hear (phonetic spelling), while others are focusing on conventional spelling and neat italic handwriting. Students also created water color self portraits, which will be on display at our open house. They are fantastic!
Physical Education, Art, and Out and About
Students met their 'specials' teachers last week. In P.E. students met their teacher Rick and played 'Sharks and Minnows', 'China Wall', and a fox game. In art students met their teacher Teresa and learned about their classroom. They did a silent partner 'two hands on a crayon' activity and they also did vegetable prints, using vegetables from the school gardens. Students met their Out and About teacher Erin on Tuesday. We went to the new school garden and picked beans, basil, and tomatoes. Students picked, washed, prepared, and arranged their group's vegetables for a class picnic. I saw many kids eating LOTS of vegetables! It was great! On Thursday the Barn Swallow class was able to join the Violet Green Swallow class at the new garden. Students picked and prepared beets, purple lettuce, purple cabbage, beans, nasturtium flowers, and squash flowers. We had a great picnic and I did not know that beets would go over so well! (I saw a lot of purple mouths!) Ask Gage about his 'record winning beet!' After the picnic, students had time to explore the garden. Even though it was sprinkling, I saw a lot of rain-jacket-clad kids laughing, learning about their 'natural world', and having a GREAT time!
Mathematics
Math class started on Tuesday last week. Students have math class by grade. First graders go with Ms. Karen, second graders go with Ms. Rachel, and third graders go with me, Ms. Sherry. We have math class regularly on Mondays through Thursdays. Students have been spending time getting to know their new math classmates as well as their teacher. Please refer to the 'MATH CLASSROOM NEWS' link above every week and click on your child's grade to see his or her weekly math class news. Thank you!
This Week's Classroom News
Community & Classroom Procedures
Students will continue to take turns sharing something that is special to them during our morning meetings. We will learn new greetings and of course, more songs!
Literacy: Reading and Writing
Students will continue to do their reading assessments and this week I am introducing our literacy structure, which is called Daily 5. The five literacy activities being: read to self, read to someone, work on writing, word word (spelling), and listen to reading. Students this week are learning how to 'Read to Self' independently. When students learn how to be prepared and independent readers, I will be able to meet with small reading groups and confer with individual students. I will also give the students a spelling inventory test to find out where they are at on the spelling continuum. This will allow me to match students up with spelling words that are just right. The spelling program that we currently use is called 'Words Their Way'. It focuses on patterns of vowels and consonants within words. Once students understand their pattern, they are able to apply this knowledge to the spelling of other words. For example, the silent 'e' in 'cake'. The silent 'e' in 'cake' makes the 'a' say its name. If students are writing the work 'rake' later, they could apply what they learned with their word work, and spell 'rake' also with a silent 'e'. I will also be introducing our writing structure, which will allow for students to write independently while I work on writing strategies with small groups and confer individually with students.
Out and About
We are not able to go to B Street farm this week so I am hoping to take a walking trip to Gale's Creek. Since we're going canoeing next week, students will design their own miniature canoes in small groups and learn about how different materials react with water. Once the canoes are ready, groups will safely take turns testing them out from the level bank of Gale's Creek. Mini canoes will have fishing line tied on to them so that we can bring them back in and we will have prior tests in a bucket of water to make sure pieces do not fall off into the water. I'm excited to see what the students come up with!
Home Bags
This year each student is going to have a 'Home Bag' that will hold any unfinished or additional school work to do at home. This will look different for each student and I will be able to individually address that through what you will find in your child's Home Bag. Some activities will be having students mark on a sheet how many minutes they read that night. Some students will borrow black and white copied books that are at their level to read as many times as they can. Some students may have math games. Sometimes there may be unfinished work from the day, or work that students want to take home and keep working on that night.
Since this is new, I would like to begin by establishing a habit of bringing the home bag back and forth to school each day, Monday through Friday. For example, Gina brings her Home Bag home on Monday and there is a book inside to read. Gina reads the book at home, puts it back in her Home Bag, and brings it back to school the next day on Tuesday. I am going to get Velcro strips that will attach the handles of the Home Bag to lunch boxes. That way, just as we remember to bring a lunch each day, we will begin the habit of bringing the Home Bag to school each day. This week I would like to do a practice round, starting on Wednesday. This might be too much to ask, but I'd like to try it and see how it goes! I'd love to hear your feedback. Though students might not have something in their Home Bags every day, I thought it would be easier to remember to take it every day with the lunch box as a routine. Let me know what you think and we will adjust this as needed! This Wednesday through Friday there will not necessarily be any work found in the Home Bag. It is mainly to see if this is a routine that we would be able to do with practice. Again, I'd love to hear from you about this and if you think this would work for you and your family. Thank you!
Would you like to volunteer for our canoe trip next Tuesday?
Please consider joining us for our canoe trip next Tuesday, September 28th. We need a few more parents in order to go canoeing, as each boat will have an adult. We will leave the school around 9:00 and come back by 2:15. Please remember to send water bottles, a healthy lunch, layers of clothing, an extra set of clothing in a backpack, rain boots, and a rain jacket with your child. It's going to be a great water adventure!
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