Pen Pals From Gilford New Hampshire!

Firefly First Grade has had a very exciting week!  We received our first letters from our pen pals in Gilford, New Hampshire.  Our pen pals are students of Brendan's aunt, who teaches first grade in Gilford. Our pen pals' first letters told us all about Gilford, New Hampshire and many of the things they like.  We sent our first letters back this week with a picture of ourselves and all the things we like to do here in Shelburne.  What a fun opportunity this will be for us to make new friends, learn about another community, and practice our letter writing skills!

We will be having a special celebration at the end of the school day on Valentine's Day.  Students are welcome to use the class list sent home in last week's Friday Folder to make cards for their classmates.  If you child is making cards, please make sure child makes a card for every child in the class.  We will be creating bags the week before, so students may bring their cards in anytime after Thurs., February 7th.

Wow!  Firefly First Grade got a huge compliment from Mrs. Nelson, our gym teacher, this week.  She announced that ALL first grade Fireflies completed a 10 minute run without stopping or walking once!  Great job class.

Our class also received many compliments during our third math studio on Thursday!  One of the most meaningful compliments they received was from a teacher who noticed that every student justified their reasoning when responding to a question.  Your children were focused, and consistently used their habits of mind and interaction throughout the lesson.  They were amazing!

I have been absolutely amazed by the projects that have been coming in this week.  Students have been building different kinds of bridges, conducting experiments to share, creating penguin dioramas filled with interesting penguin facts, and creating songs/dances  about their learning.  Thanks so much for supporting this at home.  It's a wonderful way for them to apply their learning to new experiences.

On Monday, February 11th the Firefly Team will be going on a field trip to the Flynn Theater to see "Medicine Bear".  Please make sure your child is dressed appropriately for a field trip that day.

The SCS book fair is coming up in a couple weeks.  Check this week's Friday Folder for the book fair flyer!

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Researching Penguins

This week we learned about King penguins, Little Blue penguins and predators.  We sorted and compared Rockhoppers and King penguins, and created and played a variety of penguin games to practice our addition facts, reading 2-digit numbers and counting by 10's and 1's.  Next week we will learn about Gentoos and Chinstraps.  Tuesday will be a studio day for math, with other K-2 teachers visiting our classroom for math.
We learned about how forces act on structures by experimenting with a one-story structure and a tower.  We also learned about how civil engineers make structures stronger and more stable.  Next week we will conduct an experiment to compare strength of beam, arch, and deep beam bridges.  We will also talk about different reasons a particular bridge type is the best choice to construct.
Last Friday we shared our expert books and have moved on to researching penguins during Writers' Workshop.  We have been using the custom search engine I created on our webpage to do some of this research.  It can be accessed at home by going to the Firefly team page.  It is on the left hand side at the bottom and is called "Penguin Search Engine".  The search engine includes penguin sites that are kid friendly.  We have talked in school about how to skip the "advertisement" sites and go to the sites included with the search engine.  Although these sites are kid friendly, your child will probably still need some assistance reading the information.  We will be choosing a kind of penguin to become an expert about next week, and will begin writing our reports.
Another reminder to sign up for spring conferences on the Firefly webpage.  Class photos are coming home today in Friday Folders along with a a class list for Valentine's Day.

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Sign up for spring conferences

The spring conference schedule is now posted on the Firefly webpage.  Please take a minute to check it out and sign up!