Fire Station Visit

October is Fire Safety Month and this week all four first grade classes are taking walking field trips to the Colchester Center Fire Station just up the street! Our class made the trip yesterday with Ms. Barnett's class and we learned so much! We got to explore different fire trucks, learned about some of the equipment kept in the trucks, and we learned all about the uniform that fire fighters wear when they respond to a fire. We also learned ways to be fire safe and how to make a fire safety plan and practice it at home. Below are some photos from our trip!

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Guidance

Guidance update from Mrs. McCleary

We have just finished up a guidance unit that focuses on some of the necessary skills needed to be a successful student. We have read several really great books! Ask your child about My Mouth is a Volcano which deals with learning how to not interrupt or Personal Space Camp which explores the idea about personal space and not “popping someone’s comfort bubble”. Both of these skills are important in creating a comfortable learning environment where everyone respects the needs of others.

A Bad Case of Tattle Tongue is another great book that we read recently. Tattling is something that lots of first graders struggle with. It is difficult for them to figure out when is it tattling and when is it reporting so we think about the Tattle Rules.
1.) If it is dangerous then you must tell an adult.
2.) Have you tried to solve it on our own first? If not, you need to try two ways to solve it before you ask for help from an adult.
3.) Is it a now or later problem?
4.) M.Y.O.B. Mind Your Own Business. If it is not dangerous and it doesn’t involve you stay out of it.

Hopefully your child will be able to carry this learning over from school to home!

Sylvester and the Magic Pebble

On Monday morning all of the first grade classes at UMS took a trip to the Flynn Theater in Burlington to see the play Sylvester and the Magic Pebble. We had listened to the book Sylvester and the Magic Pebble by William Steig read aloud to us last Friday when we had a guest reader in the room. Listening to the story read before seeing the play helped us build background knowledge about what we were going to see. When we returned from the theater each student thought about what they would wish for if we were to find a magic pebble! Each of us created a page for a class book showing what our wishes would be.

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Updated links

Happy Friday!

Today I added links to the "Literacy Links" and "Math Links" tabs on our classroom blog. I also began teaching the children how to access the school website, find our blog, and click the links to play math games. This is really exciting because if the children play math and literacy games on the blog at school and really enjoy them, they can go home and play the same ones from your home computer!

I also added a link under the "Literacy Links" tab to a website called "Spelling City." This website is fantastic because it enables you to enter the Red Words and word family words (this week we worked on the "-ag" family) your child brings home each week, then play games with them. The website generates games and activities using the words you enter! What a better way to practice the weekly spelling list!

One more fantastic link under the "Literacy Links" tab is Storyline Online. This is a HUGE hit in our classroom (just ask your child!). The site is a collection of popular children's books read aloud by famous actors (such as Betty White and James Earl Jones). Everyday at snack time we use the smartboard to watch/listen to one of these books outloud. Now you can watch them at home too!

Keep checking the tabs for new additions. I will keep adding things as I discover more great learning tools!

Guest Read Aloud

Today our class had a special guest come read to us in class. One of the officers from the Colchester Police Department took some time out of his busy day to read the story Sylvester and the Magic Pebble by William Steig. We are hoping to have an officer come read to us once a month on Thursday or Friday afternoons! This is such a fun way to make a positive connection with important people in our community. It is also nice to hear different voices reading to us from time to time!

On Monday October 17 our class will be attending the play Sylvester ant the Magic Pebble at the Flynn Theater. Reading the book today helped us to build background knowledge about what we are going to see at the theater!

The Colors of Us

Our first social studies theme in first grade is called "All About Me." During this unit first graders learn about themselves, their friends, why we are all special, and how we can all work together! At the beginning of the school year each class read a book called The Colors of Us which shows a child's creative look at how we all look different and are all special and unique. During the month of September we worked hard to create self portraits similar to the ones in the book. We learned that by mixing white, brown, black, red, and yellow paint together in different proportions we are able to make a range of skin colors. We started our project by decorating name plates and painting background paper, then painting paper to look like our skin colors. We cut out heads, necks, noses, and ears from our skin colored paper. To finish we picked the hair and eye color that we thought best suited us and added these along with eyebrows, eyelashes, and lips to our paintings. Our end result was a collection of beautiful self portraits which were hung up in time for open house and are still decorating our wall! Below you will find photos of our process as well as the finished paintings!

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Guidance

Each Tuesday afternoon our school counselor, Mrs. McCleary, teaches a guidance lesson in our classroom. She brings books, posters, and projects to help us learn about important social skills that help us in first grade. So far this school year we have learned about waiting our turn to speak instead of interrupting, and tattling vs. reporting. Below are some photos of children in our class decorating their own "Tattling Rules" to take home.

Anchor Charts

As we establish our learning routines in the classroom the children and I have been creating anchor charts to remind us what to do. We talked about the way an anchor keeps a boat right where someone wants it, and learned that an anchor chart keeps our thoughts "anchored" to the idea we want to focus on while we are learning and practicing. Below are some examples of anchor charts we have created so far this year. We will continue to create anchor charts to help us all year!

Our School Rules

Ways to Read a Book

Guidlines for Independent Reading

What To Do When You Finish Writing

"When I'm done, I've only just begun"

Check Out the New Links On Our Blog!

At Curriculum Night last Thursday I promised updates to our classroom blog, making it more exciting and interactive. Today I began adding tabs to the top bar on the blog. There has always been the tab that says "Home," which shows my regular posts about what is going on in our class. Next to it you will start seeing additional tabs with permanent links, information, and other resources. Today I added a tab called "Math Links" which contains math games children can play to reinforce skills, and a tab called "UMS/CSD Links" which contains links to other blogs such as Mr. Antonicci, the specials teachers, the district spotlight, guidance, etc. This tab also contains a link to the school lunch menu so you always have access to what is coming up.

Please check in on these tabs as I may add new and interesting things to them! I will be adding new tabs as I have time. Be on the lookout for a tab with literacy games! I hope this makes our blog more enjoyable and gets the kids to visit the site as well as the grown-ups!

Our Teamwork Puzzle!

Last week our class read the book, Swimmy, by Leo Lionni, and over the past several days we have been putting together a teamwork puzzle. If you aren't familiar with Swimmy, it is a wonderful book about a group of tiny fish who learn to swim together, looking like one giant fish, so that they can swim through the ocean without being eaten. They chase the bigger fish away! Each little fish is an important piece of the the big shape. We created a giant fish puzzle on poster paper and worked together as a team to put it together. This helped us to work as a team and to see that if any of us were missing, the puzzle would be incomplete. We are all important team members in our first grade class! There is a photo of our puzzle below. Come see it this Thursday at our Open House!