NED

This past Friday November 18 all of the students at UMS got to watch a very cool assembly called The NED Show! NED stands for Never Give Up, Encourage Others, and Do Your Best. The performance was a very funny, one man story teller who told the children a fast-paced, interactive story focused on doing your best, treating others the way you want to be treated, and never giving up until you reach your goals. Throughout the entire story he did some really fantastic yo-yo tricks that complemented the story and showed the children that you can really learn to do some amazing things if you keep practicing! Below are a few photos from the NED show! Be sure to ask your child about the performance. It was a hoot and we all loved it!

Thanksgiving Projects

This past week our class did several projects to get us thinking about Thanksgiving and feeling thankful. We have been working on Small Moments stories during writers' workshop, so this week each child wrote a story about a time when they felt thankful. We also made Thanksgiving trees, where we each colored a tree, wrote things that we are thankful for on paper leaves, then pasted them to our trees to show the many things we treasure in our lives. Many of the leaves said things like "my family," "my home," "my cat," or "my brother." This was a very sweet project! Our class finished the week by making big paper turkeys, which many of you saw hanging outside of our classroom door at conferences yesterday! Below are some photos of us working on these projects.

Happy Thanksgiving!

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Turkey Trouble!

Today our class did the first of a few fun Thanksgiving projects that we will complete over the next week! We read two silly books called Turkey Trouble and Run, Turkey, Run, both about turkeys who find funny ways to escape the farmer who is trying to make his Thanksgiving meal! We finished the day by making cookie turkeys using an oreo, candy corn, and some other little goodies to make a turkey face. Our turkeys did not have a very long life span! You can see our photos below!

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Harvest Party

On Friday October 28 classes at UMS had harvest parties to celebrate the season! Students in our class made black cat and "candy corn people" projects, ate treats, and danced to The Monster Mash! We had a very fun celebration with many parents and a few younger siblings coming to join us! There are some really great photos of our party below.

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Colchester High School Dramatic Performance

The week before Halloween a group of students from the high school drama department paid a visit to UMS! They put on a very funny Halloween skit about using team work. In the play a witch is trying to pick her giant pumpkin for Halloween, but it proves to be harder than she thought! She needs the help of her friends the vampire, the ghost, the mummy,and the bat to help her pick the pumpkin and make it into pumpkin pie.

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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!