Peek at the Week of November 5-9

Update:  We are back to school from Hurricane Sandy and are going to pretend that it is still Halloween week!

It's Halloween week, such an exciting week for the first graders. 

We will have a Halloween movie party in our classroom Wednesday afternoon.  Thank you in advance to the Davis family for supplying the popcorn and the juice boxes.  Thank you to the Piersols for providing the fruit snacks.  We will transform our classroom into the Pumpkin Patch Theater for this event.  Some students will be ticket sellers, ushers, popcorn salesperson, etc.

We will NOT be wearing costumes to school, but children are welcome to wear Halloween colors, tshirts, etc.  We will gather in the hallway to watch the Kindergarten costume parade. 

We will also have our First Grade Pep Rally for October.  Two students will be honored for being good classroom citizens.

This week we will vote in a Children's Presidential Election.  It will be interesting to see who wins the Ox Ridge election!

Homework
Monday 10/29
1.  Read for at least 10 minutes
2.  Fall Word Work

Tuesday 10/30
1.  Read for at least 10 minutes
2.  Black Cats & Black Bats (logic puzzle)

Wednesday  10/31
1.  Read for at least 10 minutes
2.  Enjoy trick or treating...be safe & have fun!

Thursday 11/1
1.  Read for at least 10 minutes
2.  Study for tomorrow's spelling test

Have a great week!

Mystery Reader

WD's mom and little sister were our Mystery Readers today. Mrs. D. read some Halloween themed books.

Darien Historical Society Field Trip

We had a wonderful time at the Bates-Scofield House.   We learned about life in Colonial Times.  Some things were the same as today, other things were very different. 

Old-fashioned game like today's "Bayblades"

Writing our names with ink

The ceiling in the back bedroom is very slanted.  This is called a slatbox style of house

Pretending to be Colonial Schoolchildren

Writing with feathers was fun!

Making dolls out of clothespins

This is called a Hornbook.  It was used to teach kids the alphabet.

Making butter

Tracing over pencil with ink

Dried lavendar flowers for sachets

Class Picture in front of the historical house

Patricia Polacco

Today Patricia Polacco came to our school. 

It was an awesome treat!  Mrs. Polacco told us some stories.  She brought a quilt, just like the one from her story, "The Keeping Quilt". 

She also brought a piece of an actual meteor for us to touch. 

After the visit, we went to her website to check it out. 

Small Moment Story Share

This morning a class of fourth graders visited our classroom so we could read our Small Moment stories aloud.

The fourth graders brought their first published piece to read to us.

Force of Motion

We had a GREAT visit by Mr. Chris, a scientist from  the High-Touch High-Tech group.  Today's program was called Force of Motion.


Here's a video clip showing that "an object won't move unless there is a force to make it move".  (quoted by WB)

We also learned about the force needed to stop motion.

Peek at the Week of October 22-26

We are going to have a very exciting week with a field trip, an in-school author visit, and an in-school visit from a scientist!

On Wednesday a scientist from High Tech High Touch will be visiting our classroom to teach us a program called "Force of Habit".

On Thursday we will get to meet Patricia Pollaco, a world-famous author (2 authors in 2 weeks...we are so lucky!).

We will be going on our second trip of the year to the Darien Historical Society this Friday.  Our chaperones will be Mrs. Donzeiser, Mrs. Maniscalco, Mrs. Svedlund, and Mrs. Popson.  We will be learning abour life during the colonial time period.  There are many hands-on activities we will be doing with the volunteers.

Quick Academic Update
Math Workshop:  We will be taking a short break from the regular Growing with Math progra.  This week and next week we will be doing a new unit called "The Double Decker Bus".  This is a unit that focuses on addition and subtraction combinations.  There is a story about a city bus that has many people moving on and off of the bus and also passengers moving up and down the levels on the bus.  We will use this storyline for our math explorations.

Reading Workshop:  We have spend a good part of October working on figuring out "tricky" words (aka decoding skills).  This week our focus will be on checking for understanding by "retelling" a story after reading.  We will focus on using the pictures to help us retell major parts of the story, stopping & thinking while reading to check for understanding, telling story events in order using words/phrases such as first, then, after, in the middle, at the end. 

Read Aloud:  We will finish the 5th and final Clementine book this week and will start a new series called The Doll People by Ann M. Martin (of the Babysitters series).  This series is about the secretive and imaginative world of a doll family who live in a dollhouse in a little girls' room.  There is plenty of action, adventure and mischief, so it will appeal to both boys and girls.

Writing Workshop:  Our Small Moment unit took a few days longer than I had originally planned, but this week we will be ready to do some seasonal writing activities.


Homework
Monday10/22
1.  Read for at least 10 minutes
2.  Fall Word Work

Tuesday 10/23
1.  Read for at least 10 minutes
2.  Apple Treats (ending punctuation)

Wednesday 10/24
1.  Read for at least 10 mintues
2. October Handwriting Practice

Thursday 10/25
1.  Read for at least 10 minutes
2.  Review spelling words

Have a great week!

Mystery Reader

DP's mom surprised our class today! She read a book called When a Dragon Moves In.

Spooky Forest

We made spooky trees out of lunch bags. Look closely. Can you see a haunted house in the middle of the forest?

Highlights of the Week: October 19th

• (SD)  We had our first field trip.
• (GG)  We had gym outside 2 days in a row.
• (LM)  We made spooky paper bag trees with leaves in autumn colors.
• (GM)  We played football in gym.
• (CN)  We made a landscape in art. 
• (GP)  We played Capture the Flag.
• (DP)  We threw the football to each other in gym.
• (MRS)  We went to the Darien Library to meet the Clementine author, Mrs. Pennypacker.
• (RS)  We practiced reading with a smooth voice.
• (AS)  We had a card party this morning.
• (VS)  We are going to have our spelling tests.
• (LS)  We did the tree project this morning before we did our Independent Reading.
• (ES)  RC and BT won the raffle of the Clementine books.
• (BT)  We have our Mystery Reader in the afternoon.
• (BV)  We went to a play called Stone Soup.
• (WB)  We made a spooky forest out of the paper bag trees.
• (JB)  Mrs. Pennypacker read us the first page of her sixth book.
• (WC)  We have library today.
• (RC)  We illustrated the covers for our Small Moment stories.
• (MD)  We have Spanish teachers coming in a few weeks.
• (AD)  We worked on figuring out tricky words. 
• (WD)  In our class, we shop for new books every 3 days.

Sara Pennypacker's Visit!

We had an AMAZING visit with author Sara Pennypacker!  I will be posting pictures from the event very soon.  In the meantime, enjoy our Clementine tribute song.

Stone Soup Trip

Peek at the Week of October 15-19

This is going to be an exciting week! 

On Tuesday afternoon we have our first field trip to the Ridgefield Playhouse to see Stone Soup.  We will be eating an early lunch in our classroom before boarding the buses  at 11:15.  We will NOT be going to the cafeteria so there will be no hot lunch.  Make sure your child brings a lunch to school.  Thank you in advance to Mrs. Ochman and Mrs. Stockdale for chaperoning.

Going on a field trip is exciting in and of itself, but we are so lucky to have an amazing after- school activity.  Sara Pennypacker, the author of our beloved Clementine series, will be having a special meet and greet with our class at the Darien Library at 4:30.  I hope to see many of you there!  If you have anything orange to wear, please do so...it will be fun to show our Clementine spirit. 

Homework
Monday 10/15
1.  Read for at least 10 mintues
2.  Fall Word Work

Tuesday 10/16
1.  Read for at least 10 minutes
2.  Writing:  Field Trip or Clementine 3-2-1

Wednesday 10/17
1.  Read for at least 10 minutes
2.  Math:  Sports Tally Graph

Thursday 10/18
1.  Read for at least 10 minutes
2.  Review words for tomorrow's spelling test.

Have a great week!

Highlights of the Week: September 12

• (WD) We played instruments in music.
• (SD)  We practiced the Clementine song that we made up.
• (GG)  We had Game Day yesterday.
• (LM)  We are going to have a Clementine author party really, really soon!
• (GM)  We played Tumbling Monkeys at Game Day.
• (CN)  We played card games this morning for Fun Friday morning work.
• (BO)  In the computer lab we played Dreambox.  It is a math game.  We earn tokens and learn math facts.
• (GP)  We played Uno on Game Day.
• (DP)  We played basketball in gym.
• (MRS) In Reading Workshop we practiced pointing to the words.
• (RS)  We will take a spelling test in a couple of minutes.
• (AS)   At Game Day we played Chutes & Ladders.
• (VS)  We shopped for new books.
• (LS)  Me and RS and GG played a fun game at recess. 
• (ES)  We made book covers for a Halloween book.
• (BT)  We used blue pens to revise our Small Moment stories.  Revise means you can make your story bigger and better.
• (BV)  In Reading Workshop we learned that sometimes strong readers skip a tricky word and read on.  Then you have to go back and try again.
• (WB)  In gym we played a game where you have to skip around and find your partner. 
• (JB)  We had D-Day in Writing Workshop.  Everyone picked out their best story and put a heart sticker on it.
• (WC)  At recess my brother and me played a fun game with 3 people.
• (RC)  In gym we played Sit.
• (MD)  We put the new Halloween books out.
• (AD)  We will have our 4th Mystery Reader this afternoon.  Everyone wants to know who it is!

Game Day Fun!

Peek at the Week of October 8-12

There is no school for students on Monday, October 8th in honor of Columbus Day.  Enjoy the long weekend.

Game Day
Our first game day will take place this Thursday, October 11th at 2:30.  The class will be broken into groups to play games with a parent volunteer.  Thank you to the following families for volunteering for game day:  Popson, Struk, Donzeiser, Sarsen, Nemec, and Maniscalco. 

Reading Workshop

• We are in the middle of a unit called Tackling Trouble:  Hard Words & Tricky Parts.  During this unit I have been modeling what readers do when they come across words they don't know. 
• Last week we worked on Sight Words, which we were also calling "Popcorn" words because they "pop" up all the time.  Also, we talked about how we want those words to become so automatic that they pop into our brains quickly.  Each child has their sight words in their reading notebook and are given some time each day to practice those words.  These are the same words I gave to you at Open House. 
• This week we will do some strategy work which will include:  using the picture, think about what makes sense, go back and reread. 

Writing Workshop

• We spent the beginning of September learning the routines of Writing Workshop.  Towards the end of September we started our first unit which was on writing Small Moment stories.  These are stories in which your son/daughter is the main character.  It is a story about something that happened to them.  We have written family stories, friendship stories, and neighborhood stories. 
• This week we will (hopefully) be wrapping up our Small Moment stories.  Each child will reread their stories and select one to 'fancy up'.   We will be following the writing process of revising, editing, and publishing.  At this point in the year revising will be adding on one more detail to make your story even better.  Editing will be checking for capital letters at the beginning of every sentence.  Publishing is rewriting our stories using our best handwriting.  I will share the Small Moment stories at our November conference.

Math

• We will begin Unit 2 of the Growing with Math program.  This Unit is called Understanding Addition and Subtraction.  We will show addition and subtraction in many ways.  Using mathematical language and terms is a part of this unit.

Second Steps (Social & Academic Success)

• This week's lesson is called Listening to Learn.  The 4 components are:  Eyes watching.  Ears listening.  Voice quiet.  Body Still.  We will be using that phrase as a reminder of expectations during all lessons. 

Homework
Monday 10/8
No School/Columbus Day

Tuesday 10/9
1.  Read for at least 10 minutes
2.  Fall Word Work

Wednesday 10/10
1.  Read for at least 10 mintues
2.  Columbus Math Problem

Thursday 10/11
1.  Read for at least 10 minutes
2.  Review word list for tomorrow's test

Have a great week!

Mystery Reader

We were so lucky to have 3 readers today. BO's grandmother read a funny book to us. She came all the way from Florida! Mrs. O and her little daughter also came to visit!

Highlights of the Week of October 5

• (AD)  We have a spelling test today. 
• (WD)  We learned a strategy called "Look at the Picture".  Strong readers do this when they are stuck.
• (SD)  We made up our own words to the "Oh My Darling" song.  We are going to sing it to Sara Pennypacker.
• (GG)  In gym we played a new game called Sit.
• (LM)  We are going to have a Mystery Reader today.
• (GM)  We are making landscapes in art.  We will paint them.
• (CN)  We learned that "Pointing to the Words" is something strong readers do.
• (BO)  We put our Halloween books out on the shelf.  They are fun and scary!   BOO!!!
• (GP)  In gym we played a new game called Four Corners.
• (DP)  We did the Pacer Test in gym.
• (MRS)  We went to the Computer Lab.  We are playing a fun math game called Dreambox.
• (RS)  We used red & yellow chips for a math game. Miss Dineen calls them ketchup & mustard chips. 
• (AS)  We learned new songs in music. 
• (VS) In music we sung lots of songs.
• (LS)  We played some new games at recess.
• (ES)  We played on the playground.
• (BT)  In music we played instruments.
• (BV)  Some kids played at Overtime Athletics.
• (WB)  Miss Dineen liked how we worked in Reading Workshop.  Our stamina is getting better!
• (JB)  We did a new game called Clue in Rainbow Word Work Groups.
• (WC)  During snack time we started the fourth Clementine chapter book.
• (RC)  Miss Dineen gave us fun pages about Johnny Appleseed and Christopher Columbus.
• (MD)  We are going to a Clementine party in 11 days.

How To Make a Caramel Apple



Step 1
Pick an apple.



Step 2
Wrap the caramel circle around the apple.

Step 3
Push a stick into the core.



Step 4
Bake for a few minutes in the oven so the caramel can drip down the sides.  Let it cool off and then enjoy!