Happy Holidays!

We will begin several new units after our holiday break. We will be moving on from poetry to non-fiction writing during Writer's Workshop and will connect our writing to our new Penguin theme in math. We will continue learning about water and the water cycle and look forward to our field trip to ECHO in a few weeks.
Many thanks to everyone for all the wonderful holiday gifts! I hope all of you enjoy the gifts your children worked hard making for you. Please send me an email if you have problems loading the HyperStudio project. There are directions on the inside cover of the CD that should be helpful.
Wishing all of you a fun and relaxing holiday vacation! See you in 2011!

More Holiday Shares and Lots of Energy!

This has been a week of high energy for Adventurers First Grade.  I think the combination of the first real snowfall and the holidays coming has brought on a wealth of excitement and energy in our classroom!  We have been working hard this week and accomplishing lots of things.

This week we have worked hard on a whale project during math.  We have learned many interesting facts about whales, and have been using whales to help us practice counting.  Whales have two flukes on their tails and we have been using that to help us count by twos.  We have spent the past two days creating different kinds of whales and building a chart that shows whales in a growing pattern.  We spent today looking at the chart and sharing what we noticed about it.  We noticed that there were 28 whales and 56 flukes in our growing pattern.  We will continue to use this chart to reinforce counting by twos during the next few days of school.

We continue to read examples of different kinds of poetry and write our own poetry during Writers' Workshop.  We have also been learning more about comprehension strategies during Readers' Workshop. Today I read Lon Po Po to the class and we talked about all the different text to text connections we could make through this book.  My friends discussed  ten different stories they could connect to Lon Po Po and were easily able to share their connections with the class.  One student even made a connection about the cover.  I never expected them to make so many amazing connections!  We are now using post-it notes to write down both text to self and text to text connections in our reading during Readers' Workshop.  In addition to this, we continue to meet in Guided Reading Groups during Readers Workshop.

We will be finishing up our December shares on Monday.  It has been so much fun to hear about all the different traditions families have.  It has also been great to hear how many traditions we all have in common.  I have included some pictures of our December shares from this week below.

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Another Busy Week!

Last week the Adventurers team went to the Flynn Theater to see "One Green Earth" by the Vermont Symphony Orchestra.  It was a terrific show, beautiful music and great messages to children about keeping our earth clean.  It tied in nicely with the VSO's petting zoo we had visited the week before.

This week we created and solved lobster problems in math.  Most of our class decided to create subtraction problems and I was impressed with how easily everyone was able to solve their classmates' problems.  We also learned a new money game for workstations.  Next week we will learn two more games for workstations and continue to work on problem solving.

We have been reading, listening to, and creating poetry during writers' workshop.  We will continue to learn about poetry until the December break.  We started meeting in our new guided reading groups during readers' workshop.  We have also been learning about different comprehension strategies good readers use.  We have been using post-it notes to write down our connections to the books we are reading.

Our HyperStudio project is done and was a great success.  Every student has created a slide with text and a picture of his/her learning about Native Americans long ago and today.  I have been trying to put this project on the blog, but despite all my efforts there seems to be no way to upload it!  I'm in the process of putting it on a CD and will be sending it home for your child to share with you. 

Henry taught us many new things about volcanoes this week for the science table.  He did a terrific job putting together a great project for this week's table.


This week we also began a new unit in science.  We are now learning about the water cycle.  This unit will continue into January and will end with a trip to ECHO to support our learning.

Many thanks to everyone for supporting our efforts at the Craft Fair.  Although it was a lot of work, it was also a big success. The Adventurers Team raised $1,157.81.  I have no idea where the extra penny came from, but it was there?!  This money will be used for field trips to ECHO, Flynn Theater, Shelburne Farms and Fairbanks Museum. 

Thanks to Kim Stevens for providing us with another healthy Friday snack today.  It was delicious!  And thanks to Holly Whitcomb for sending in a delicious surprise coffee cake for Sam's holiday share.  It has been so much fun hearing about different families' holiday traditions!  I look forward to hearing more next week!

Have a terrific weekend and try to stay warm!!!!!! 

VSO Petting Zoo

Free digital slideshow generated with Smilebox Adventurers had a fabulous time at the Vermont Symphony Orchestra petting zoo this morning.  We learned about the history of different instruments and talked about percussion, string, brass and woodwind instruments.  Everyone had a chance to try out all the instruments in the zoo.  We played the trombone, trumpet, tuba, flute, violin, cello, harp and a variety of percussion instruments.  What a wonderful experience for all of us! On Thursday we will be visiting the Flynn to see the VSO present "One Green Earth".  We will be leaving early in the morning and returning home before lunch.  We look forward to seeing all the instruments we learned about today being played in the performance. It was wonderful to have the opportunity to meet with everyone during conference time and celebrate your child's learning.  We will begin some new units in December.  We will be writing poetry during Writers Workshop and will be learning about the water cycle in science.  We have a field trip to ECHO that connects to our science unit planned for Thursday, January 20th.  Students will need to bring a bag lunch on that day as we will be eating at ECHO.  I will provide more information when we get closer to that date.  If you would like to be a chaperone for this field trip and have had your finger printing done, please contact me sometime before then.  We will be bringing 3 parents per classroom.  The first people I hear from will be able to go. Don't forget this Saturday is the Holiday Craft Fair.  We will need all hands on deck for this event!  Please make sure to come for your volunteered time to help out.  Thank you so much to all of you for your support with this event.  A huge thank you to Elaine Brand for organizing this event! I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Science, Science, Science!

Made by John

 Yesterday we had a visit from "Professor John" who teaches science at St. Michaels College. He taught us about states of matter. We learned about solids, liquids and gasses.We learned that a solid sits still, a liquid pours and a gas floats above ground. We did an experiment that showed us that air has weight.  The desserts on this week's homework menu are science experiments that relate to what we learned from Professor John.

Today we had Hands On Nature and learned about "Pebbles and Rocks". We learned that Igneous rocks, such as granite, are formed from fire. Sedimentary rocks such as limestone, are formed by sediment being pressed and formed in layers. We also learned that Metamorphic rocks, such as marble, are formed by pressure and heat. These are the three ways rocks are formed.  We went outside and searched for different kinds of rocks and played a game.  We also did several activities inside that taught us more about rocks.  It was a fun morning of learning.  Many thanks to our Hands On Science volunteers for another terrific experience with science!

Just a quick reminder that our Craft Fair work day is this Saturday from 9-12. Please check the Adventurers website and go to "Craft Fair Wish List" to see if there are any items you can donate for the Craft Fair. We were also notified today that we were chosen to do the food booth. Please send me an email if you are interested in helping out with the food booth.

I look forward to meeting with everyone next week to celebrate your child's progress this year.  All of your children have been working very hard this first trimester and have many accomplishments to be proud of!

Math Night!

A big thank you to everyone who came to math night and those of you who worked hard to put this event together for the Adventurers team.  It was a great night of fun, learning new games and connecting with the many wonderful families we have on the Adventurers team.

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Readers and Writers Workshops continue to go well.  We have learned about writing the "outside" and "inside" of our small moments during Writers Workshop and started learning about reading journals in Readers Workshop.  We will begin using our reading journals next week.  Guided reading groups are going well.  I'm already seeing a lot of progress in all my friends.  They are amazing readers!

We began focusing on "teen numbers" in math this week.  We have been playing several new games and have been introduced to several new work stations.  Next week we will be creating our own picture problems about sea stars and crabs.

A quick reminder that this Wednesday will be class pictures, picture retakes and Hands On Nature.  Please make sure your child comes to school with appropriate outdoor gear for Hands on Nature.

Learning Our Sign Names

This week Diane came into our classroom to give everyone a sign name so we can all communicate better with our friend Zoe.  Some friends, who were in Zoe's class last year, already had a sign name and were able to remember it from last year.  Diane, who is deaf herself, also talked to us about what it is like to be hearing impaired and how deaf people communicate in both the deaf world and the hearing world. This was a great learning experience for all of us.

This week we have been spending a lot of time making quilts in math.  We have been talking about different things we have noticed about our quilts and I have been amazed by the observations everyone has made.  We have found all kinds of patterns-including growing patterns and have been using our understanding of growing patterns to figure out how many squares and triangles we need to complete each quilt square.  Our latest quilt will be hanging in the hallway outside our Adventurers space.  Please stop by and see it the next time you are in school.

We have continued readers and writers workshop this week in literacy.  In readers workshop we have continued to talk about ideas for partner reading and have been meeting in our guided reading groups. We also talked about recommending books to others and had an opportunity to recommend a book to another friend in our class.  In writers workshop we have continued to learn different strategies for planning our stories before we write them down.  We are looking forward to choosing our best piece to begin publishing next week.

I have been so impressed with the homework that has been coming in every week.  It's great to see so many friends choosing to do the desserts on the menu even though they are optional.  I'm seeing so much creativity and it is giving me an opportunity to get to know each one of my students better.  I look forward to this every week.  Thanks so much for being so supportive of my somewhat  "non-traditional" approach to homework!

 Don't forget this Thursday is Math Night for Adventurers families.  Math night will take place in the Adventurers space from 5:30-7 PM.  Many thanks to all those parents who have been working so hard to put this together for us. 

A quick reminder that Parent Conferences are coming up in November.  Please scroll down to the bottom of the blog to see your scheduled time.  Please contact me if that time won't work for you and we will set up another time that does.

Happy Halloween!

A Short Week

This week we talked about sketching our pictures for writers workshop and learned different ways to partner read in readers workshop.  We also met for guided reading groups to talk about different reading strategies and began reading new books.  Today we worked in partners during social studies to compare Native Vermonters from long ago with Native Vermonters of today.  We compared houses, clothing and food.  We created crabs to make a chart that will help us practice counting by 2s, 5s and 10s in math.  All of our Unit 2  Math work stations are up and running and my friends are working hard at all of these stations.
 Have a terrific long weekend!  We'll see everyone on Monday!

"Trader Dan" and Fried Green Tomatoes

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This morning we enjoyed a delicious healthy snack that Gracie and her family provided.  We had grapes, melon, popcorn and pomegranate.  Many of us had never had pomegranate before and we discovered that we liked it a lot!  Many thanks to Gracie and her family for introducing many of us to a new food.

We also had a visit from one of the "Green Mountain Boys".  His name was "Trader Dan" and he shared a wealth of information with us about life in this area long ago.  We learned about the history of the area and lots of things about the Abenaki s.  He also shared Abenaki stories with us and taught us how to play some of their games.  He brought lots of items from that period of time for us to explore.  It was a great morning of learning for our team.  Be sure to ask your child about this experience.

This afternoon Mr. Molla came down to do some science with us.  He talked with us about many things which included measurement.  He taught us how to weigh things and helped us with our sunflower experiment.

Our team has been harvesting vegetables from the garden this week.  There were many green tomatoes left that didn't have time to ripen yet.  Mrs. KillKelley made one of her favorite treats, fried green tomatoes, and we all had an opportunity to try them. 

New Math Stations and a Visitor From the Past!

We have been learning about growing patterns in math this week.  Today we learned about several new workstations and had an opportunity to try them out.  These new workstations reinforce students' understanding of growing patterns and support their growth in finding different ways to make numbers.  It was great to see how excited and engaged everyone was working at these new stations.

Tomorrow we will have a special visitor from the past. Dan O'Neal will be visiting the Adventurers team in character as a trader from long ago.  This will be a wonderful opportunity for everyone to learn about life long ago and compare it to life today.  We look forward to this visit tomorrow morning.

This week's homework includes a contest from the Flynn Center as one of the desserts.  This is totally optional.  I have included the instructions for the contest and have also included the link to the Flynn website which has further information about this contest.  If your child decides he/she is interested in doing this activity, they do not need to return it by next week.  They can turn it in anytime between now and the due date for the contest.

Hands On Nature

We enjoyed an amazing lesson about erosion for Hands On Nature.  We watched a great puppet show, then split into two groups.  One group went outside and gathered items from outdoors to create an environment that would discourage erosion from taking place on their hill of dirt.  We imagined there was a house on the top of our mound of dirt and we were trying to protect it from being affected by erosion.  The other group participated in three different stations indoors.  Each station taught them more about erosion and different kinds of things that cause erosion on our earth.  When these groups were done we switched so everyone got a chance to do everything.  Unfortunately, I forgot my camera and did not get any pictures of this great morning!  Next time I will make sure to have it on hand.

Today was also Ian's birthday.  He and his mother shared about his birthday and brought in a special birthday snack for the entire team.  We enjoyed pretzels, popcorn, grapes and strawberries.  A big thank you to Ian and his family for sharing this healthy snack.  A big thank you to Jack and his family for sharing a healthy snack with the team last Friday too.  We enjoyed many different kinds of fruit along with pretzels and popcorn.

Today was our first day of reading groups.  Each group joined me at the rainbow table and got their first book to read during this time.  When we were finished learning about the book all of my friends reread the book with a partner from their group during quiet reading time.  Everyone did a terrific job during this first day of reading groups!

October Share!

Today we had a great start to our new week!  We shared about our weekends during Morning Meeting and discovered that the Geocache treasure on this week's homework is no longer where it is supposed to be found.  Benjamin and his family looked very hard for it this weekend, but it is just not there anymore.  This was quite a disappointment, but we will try this activity again sometime soon and hopefully we can find another treasure in the future.

We learned about odds and evens in Math today.  We learned that numbers need a "partner" to be even and we played a game of "guess my number".  I continue to be amazed by the thoughtful questions and ideas everyone is sharing during math time.

We also started Guided Reading Groups today.  Each group met with me today to choose names.  We had some fantastic, creative ideas for names.  The next time we meet we will get our first books for Guided Reading time.

We learned more about birds in science today.  Jordan brought a great book in that talked about "what makes a bird a bird".  We learned that feathers are what makes a bird a bird.  There are other animals that fly, sing, and build nests, but having feathers is the important thing that makes a bird a bird.  Thanks to Jordan and her family for sending in this book along with some others about Native Americans.

We have been enjoying learning about our friends and families during share time at Morning Meeting.  Each family has their own fun and interesting fall activities they love to do together.  The photographs, pictures and other objects that have been brought in have been very helpful.  We've heard about pumpkin painting, apple picking, playing in leaves, hiking and many other great activities.  Thank you for helping your child come to school prepared to share these wonderful activities with our class.

Finally, thank you to all those families who attended our potluck/parent group meeting on Thursday night.  We came up with some terrific ideas for the craft fair and formed a committee to work on this.  We also scheduled two math nights for the school year.  One will be in November and one will take place in May.  We have formed a committee to organize these nights too.  If you are interested in being a part of either of these committees, please contact me and I will give you contact information for these committees.

Native Americans and Birds

This week we kicked off our "Native Americans" and "Birds" units.  We have been reading about Native Americans, discussing what it was like to live long ago and comparing that to how we live today.  I have been amazed by what a wealth of knowledge Pam has about this topic!  We also spent some time practicing walking like Native Americans.  Today we began learning about birds.  Our focus today was geese.  We read a story about a goose and talked about how and why geese migrate.  We will continue to learn about these topics during the month of October.

We are lucky enough to have several parents who have volunteered to do some one-on-one reading during Readers Workshop.  This will be a great opportunity for students to practice their oral language, fluency and comprehension while I am meeting with reading groups.  It is also a great opportunity for children to become more confident readers.  Some parents will also be joining us for Writers Workshop.  This will be a great time for my friends to share their writing and get ideas about how to make pieces they are working on even better.  Many thanks to those parents for this support!

Many of my friends have already handed in their homework.  I have been so impressed with the creativity and effort I have seen with these activities.  It has been great to see many of my friends choose to do the "dessert" options even though they were totally optional.  If you have any feedback or creative ideas for homework, please feel free to share them with me.  My hope is to make homework something that gives them the opportunity to make some of their own choices about how they show their learning and gives them an opportunity to explore their creativiy.

Pesto and Fire Safety!

It was another busy week for Adventurers 1st grade. We spent Monday morning making pesto, had our pictures taken on Wednesday and Fire Safety on Thursday.  It was a week filled with fun and learning.  The Shelburne Firefighters taught us how to call 911 and what to do in the event of a fire.  We talked about tools versus toys and how each is used.  We had a chance to practice "stop, drop and roll" and crawl through a smokehouse.  Finally, we got to explore a fire truck and learn about all the different tools firefighters have and how they are used to help keep us safe.

In Readers Workshop we learned more about what good readers do and what partner reading should look like and sound like.  We practiced partner reading on Thursday.  Assessments are almost done so we will be starting guided reading groups very soon.

We spent some time talking about what writers do when they are finished in Writers Workshop.  We worked together on a piece Miss Claire had done to add details to her pictures and add details to her writing to make it more interesting.  We also talked about starting a new piece.

We will be learning about Native Americans in Social Studies and Birds in Science during the month of October.  If there is something you would like to share with us about either of these topics, please send me an email as we are always looking for "experts" to come in and share their knowledge with us.

This is the first week of homework.  We have spent the last three days talking about homework and everyone appears to understand how it works.  However, there are no guarantees so please feel free to contact me is there is any confusion.  Homework is due back on Fridays.

Have a great weekend!

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More Birthdays!

We ended this week with two more birthdays today!  John's mother came in and shared some pictures and stories about John, and Innogen's family sent in Rice Krispie Treats for our team.  Happy birthday to both of you!  On Monday we look forward to Olivia's birthday celebration.  This will be our eighth birthday celebration this month!

Yesterday we had our first day of Writers Workshop.  We talked about why people write. We learned about what Writers Workshop should look like and sound like and learned how to use our writing folders.  Miss Claire shared a story with the class.  She drew her picture and then everyone helped her write her story down on paper.  We will continue learning more about Writers Workshop next week.

Today was the first day for reading homework.  Your child should have brought an envelope home with a reading record and book inside it.  I'm asking everyone to read for at least 15-20 minutes each night.  It can be independent reading, reading to someone else or having someone else read to him/her.  They should write down their reading information on their reading record and place that, along with their book, back in the envelope.  The envelope should be kept in their backpack and come back and forth to and from school every day.  Hopefully it won't get lost anywhere at home if they follow this routine.

We have been busy doing more assessments this week.  My hope is to finish up all assessments next week and have guided reading groups up and running at the beginning of October.  I have been so impressed with how well everyone has been doing on both their literacy and math assessments.  Some of the math strategies my friends have been using are truly amazing!

Once again, this coming week will be very busy.  We will be making pesto through the FEED program on Monday morning, Innesbrook gift wrap orders are due back Tuesday, Wednesday will be school photos and Thursday we will have a visit from our local firemen to teach us about fire safety.  We're hoping "Shelburne Fireman of the Year" , Mr. KillKelley, will be one of the firemen we see on Thursday!

Have a terrific weekend!

Good-bye Butterfly!

Monday our butterfly emerged during math and we were lucky to see the process it goes through to prepare for its' life as a butterfly.  Yesterday she was ready to be released and we sang a little song and set her free. What a wonderful experience this was for the Adventurers Team.

We have finished up learning about bugs in Math this week and have moved on to sea creatures today.  We have several new games, our favorite has been "There's a Bug In My Pocket".  This morning we sorted sea creatures in many different ways, then counted them on tens frames.  We estimated how many we had, counted by 10's and 5's, and talked about how many "groups" of 10 and 5 we had.  We have been busy learning about coins and number sentences in Number Corner.

Readers Workshop has been going beautifully!  I'm so impressed by how well everyone is remembering our rules for Readers Workshop and following routines.  We have been learning about ways to choose books (easy, just right, hard, by interest), what readers need to read well, how to handle books gently, and how to return books to their "homes".  These are all important ideas and lessons to build a strong foundation for Readers Workshop.  In addition to this, we continue to assess students to determine their strengths and areas for growth. This information will be used to help us set up guiding reading groups.

We have been talking about reading homework and practicing routines for reading at home.  This Friday your child will bring home an envelope with a book and a reading record inside of it.  They should read for 15-20 minutes every night and record the title, author and pages read on their reading record.  The reading record should be returned to school on Fridays with their homework packet.  Next week we will add regular homework and enrichment choices to their homework packet.  We will spend next week learning routines for homework. Homework for the following week will come home every Friday in the Friday Folder.  If you have any questions about these routines, please feel free to contact me.  My hope is that by gradually introducing different parts of homework, students will have a better understanding of expectations for homework.

I encourage you to subscribe to the blog through your email.  Click on subscribe in the upper right corner of the blog.  I subscribed and have been receiving emails each time I post, so it looks like I have it up and running and working well!

Our First Full Week

We had a very busy and exciting first full week of school.  We had a visit from Ms. Wideman reminding us about "debugging",  we celebrated Benjamin, Jack and Sam's birthdays, and we worked hard on some beginning of the year assessments.  We also finished reading our Red Clover books and will be voting on our favorite on Monday.  We have been working hard on different activities in Bridges work stations and created our own problems to solve today.  Look for them on the bulletin board in the hallway outside of the Adventurers space.  I continue to be amazed by the strategies your children have for solving problems in math!  In Readers Workshop we have been talking about what readers need to read well, choosing easy, just right and hard books for our book boxes and what a quiet reading time should look and sound like.  Today we enjoyed a wonderful snack of pretzels, cheese and crackers and apples as a team that John's mother brought in.  Many thanks to Kristen for that delicious and nuitritious snack.
Next week we will have another visit from Ms. Wideman and will continue to learn more about Reader's Workshop.  We will also work hard on finishing up some assessments.  We will begin Writer's Workshop and start talking about homework.
Many thanks to all of you for attending curriculum night, it was great to touch base with all of you again.  If you have any further  questions please feel free to contact me.
Have a terrific weekend!

Hands On Nature

Today was a busy day for the Adventurers team.  We celebrated Jordan's birthday in the morning and read another Red Clover book this afternoon.  Today's book was Button Up!  It was a funny book of poetry.  Some of the second graders read some of the poems.  This morning we had Hands On Nature.  We learned about how animals (people included) find their way.  We listened to a puppet show about how different animals find their way and learned how to use a compass to find our way.  We played a game that required visual mapping and learned about North, East, South, West.  We learned a great way to remember our directions, "Never Eat Slimy Worms".  Many thanks to our Hands On Nature parents for a great morning of learning!  We finished off our day sharing some of our favorite books from home and sketching our favorite reading memories during Reader's Workshop.

Our First Week of School

We have had a fantastic first week of school!  We have been getting to know each other, making new friends, learning some sign language and getting class and team routines down.  Unfortunately we have had some confusion with our Unified Arts schedule and groupings.  Please check the schedule portion of the blog as I have made some changes to the UA schedule.  We have been reading Red Clover books and doing some writing about them.  So far we have read Redwood, Lousy Rotten Stinkin Grapes and Moonshot.   We will be reading Red Clover Books through the end of September. 

I'd like to apoligize for not being here for most of the first day of school.  My daughter was in the hospital and I needed to be with her.  She is home now and doing well.  I'm glad I was at least able to be here to greet everyone in the morning.

Have a terrific weekend!  I'm so excited to be teaching first grade and am enjoying getting to know all your amazing children:)

Welcome To Adventurer's First Grade!

I'd like to welcome all my students and families to Adventurer's First Grade!  I am so excited to spend the next two years as your teacher and look forward to all the learning we will do together during that time.  I have been busy this summer getting our new classroom ready and planning fun and interesting activities for our new school year.  I can't wait to have you join me in first grade!