November 14th-18th

Hello!

There will be a couple announcements this week:

1. Thanksgiving break will be November 23rd-25th. No school those 3 days. School resumes November 28th.

2. We will be having our "Thanksgiving feast" November 22nd at school. This year we are doing a different kind of feast though! We are asking that each child bring their favorite snack to contribute to the feast this year. It can be anything they want! No nuts of course. Cannot wait to see what this year's spread will be. :) This is for the kids only. I promise to send pics.

3. Gingerbread House Decorating: December 15th 11:00-12:00 Parents are invited! This is a blast, You won't want to miss it. We will need candy, icing and graham cracker donations later. We will also need help gluing the crackers to the cartons. Watch for a sign up genius soon. And save some of that Halloween candy to use if you want!

Thematic Centers:

This week we studied Helen Keller. We could not believe that she was deaf and blind and accomplished so much including attending college. We also learned about braille and sign language. We rotated through 4 centers:

1. Cook "braille bites": take a cracker and spread icing on it. Then, using skittles, spell your name with the coordinating braille symbols. Eat and enjoy.
2. Illustrate the Helen Keller informational book and read it to a teacher.
3. Walk down the hall with headphones and a blind fold using a partner for help. Experience what it would be like to walk without sight and hearing.
4. Write your name in glue then dot the coordinating braille dots with glue dots. Let it dry and then feel what your name feels like in braille. Then find braille in our classroom and around the school and experience what it feels like on a real sign (bathroom, classroom etc.).

Last week we also spelled our name in braille using do-a-dot markers to practice for this week. We went over basic sign language words and phrases as well.

Reader's Workshop:

This week we worked on leveled books and sight words. So sorry I missed a couple groups last week with our short week! Hopefully we got all back on track this week.

Writer's Workshop:

We are still focusing on this month's theme of comics and enjoying every minute. The kids are coming up with the funniest stories.

Math Workshop:
We learned 2 new math games:

We played turkey subtraction match: Match the subtraction equation with the answer and the coordinating ten frame showing the answer.

Roll and cover: Roll 2 dice and add one. Cover up that space. The first player to cover up all their spaces wins. Another concept that we focus on in first grade is "plus 1." As part of our learning about numbers we start with the concept of one more and one less. Then we move into 10 more and 10 less as children learn the connections between numbers and patterns in math. We utilize the tool of the hundreds chart and children can begin to start to make connections with even more advanced patterns of addition and subtraction like 9 more, 11 more etc. That's also why we work at helping the children so thoroughly understand addition facts to 10. So that they can then apply these rules to larger addition and subtraction problems.

Science: We cannot wait to see what Ms. Rachel brings today.

Have a nice weekend!
Mrs. Schultz

November 7th-10th

It has been another great but busy week!

Please remember to send a water bottle with your child every day. We are out of water bottles and cups and many people are forgetting water bottles. If it is your turn to play the math game that is being sent home, please play it that evening and return it the next day. Please also make sure you are checking red folders every night. We are noticing many red folders are not being emptied and notes are not being read. This is one way we communicate each day and it is important. Thank you for your help with these things!

Thematic Centers:

We are still learning about Eleanor Roosevelt and feeling so inspired to give to others in her honor. This week we discussed how happy you feel after you have made someone else happy by doing something kind. We also learned that Eleanor Roosevelt loved hot dogs. She even invited the King and Queen over for a hot dog picnic when she was First Lady. We thought that was hilarious. We  rotated through 4 centers:

1. Make your "no sew scarf" to give to the homeless shelter.
2. With your table, make a replica of the White House out of legos.
3. Write a letter to the new president telling him something or asking him a question. We will be mailing these next week! Maybe we will get a response! :) We learned that Eleanor and her husband were very responsive to letters and visits with the public.
4. With your song lyrics book, listen to the words of the Eleanor Roosevelt song (that we will be singing in our next play) and try to learn the words. Then, highlight all of the sight words in the book. Take it home and review the words with your family!

Math:

We are still studying geometry. We went on a shape hunt around the school and in our classroom. We also played geometry battle ship. Player 1 makes a shape out of a rubber band on their geo board ( a plastic board with pegs). Player 2 has to mimic that same shape in the same exact spot on their board. And then player 2 gets a turn.

Reader's  Workshop:

This week we met with all reading groups, worked on sight words, word study words and even started word sorts. An example of a word sort is in the video below.  This was a new thing this week. We are gluing these in our day books. This student was sorting pictures by their beginning sounds. Each student will be working on a word sort that is needed for their individual reading/writing goals. This week we all did the same word sort for practice. Next week kids will be grouped based on their needs. Students might sort words according to long and short vowels, ending sounds, certain spelling patterns that they get mixed up on etc. Excuse the background noise, we were starting to clean up but I wanted to take this short video because Ella was doing such a nice job saying each word out loud as she sorted.

Writer's Workshop:

This week we are still studying comics. We focused on making speech bubbles in multiple different ways.

Have a wonderful long weekend!

Mrs. Schultz

November 2-4

It is already November! Can you believe it?

This week we all voted at school! We discussed the importance of voting during the presidential election and how cool it is that our country allows us to vote. We also discussed that voting is a very private and personal matter and should be kept a secret. Ask your child about his/her experience at school casting their vote for who should be president. Ms. Alicia and I were blown away with how much information they knew already.

Math:

We started our geometry unit and learned the difference between 2-D and 3-D shapes. We experimented with building 3-D shapes in our classroom and compared and contrasted 2-D and 3-D shapes. We sorted them as well based on characteristics like, how many sides and vertices (points on the shape). The 3-D shapes that we learned about were: cylinder, rectangular prism, cone, pyramid, cube and sphere.

**We finally started sending math games home to play for a night! So sorry it has taken us so long to get these going. When it is your turn to play, enjoy the game for one night and then return it the next day for another student to play. Your child should be able to explain the directions to the game on their own, but we included directions just to be sure.

Writer's Workshop:

This month we will be learning about and writing comics! Today was a blast and the kids LOVED filling in speech bubbles for their very own Elephant and Piggy comics. Some of them were hilarious and they decided to take them home. Check it out! Your kids are so creative. They wrote for over 45 minutes today and were sad when we had to clean up for lunch.

Reader's Workshop:

We did not have word study as it was a short week. We did however get through all guided reading groups and handwriting groups.

Thematic Unit:

We are beginning our new unit, studying heroes. We started studying Eleanor Roosevelt and learned what a marvelous lady she was. She has preformed so many acts of kindness ranging from decorating the hospital for sick babies and families to serving Thanksgiving meals to the homeless and SO MUCH MORE! We are inspired to get out in our community and do acts of service. Tomorrow we will be picking up trash (with gloves) around the school. And next week we will be making scarves to take to the Ada Jenkins center. We will also be making "blessing bags" for people in need. We will need your help gathering all of these materials so look for an email and the sign up genius for next week!

This week we rotated through 2 centers since it was a short week.

1. Create a sculpture out of model magic that represents a good deed that Eleanor did. Write a sentence explaining what your sculpture represents. Let these dry out at home and they will harden without baking them.
2. Create a timeline of Eleanor's life. Cut out and glue the different milestones on a sentence strip. Record the years above. This was great for background knowledge of Eleanor's life and was a great opportunity to introduce a timeline. The kids did great with this!

Admin Blog:

http://csdpowerofwe.org/admin-blogs/

Also see the special note below from our intern Ms. Morgan!

"Hi, I am Ms.Morgan and I’m doing my 8th grade practicum with Mrs.Schultz. I love getting to learn & play with your children. They are kind, creative & so fun to be around!  My 8th grade practicum group is doing a “Pay It Forward” for children at Ada Jenkins in Davidson. We have partnered with the owner of Davidson Pizza Company to give children at the Ada Jenkins Center pizza after school. Some children in need also take home pizza to their families. I want to share “Pay It Forward” with you as an opportunity for your child to help other children in our community. Just stop into the Davidson Pizza Company with a $1 & tell them that you are from CSD and would like to add to “Pay It Forward”. Each $1 buys a slice of pizza for a child. Davidson Pizza Company will have paper to draw a picture, write a word or note & it will be put up on the “Pay It Forward” board. The children from Ada Jenkins will get a slice of pizza & a note from the board that puts a smile on their face. I am also happy to collect a dollar at school & let your child write a note.  I will take these to the Davidson Pizza Company.  If you wish to participate this is a fun opportunity for children to give to others!"

**The opportunity above ties in really well with who we are studying this week. :)

Have a great weekend,
Mrs. Schultz