November 2 - 6

We are still recovering from all the excitement of Dress Like a Book Character Day last week! On Friday we did a lesson using the Patterns of Thinking in which we made distinctions between the characters of Miss Nelson and Miss Swamp, and then studied the relationship between them and how that relationship ("dressed up as" or "pretending to be") was the same between me and Miss Swamp that day! Students were making good connections across the three books about these characters that we read last week. We are in the process of creating a Voicethread that will showcase their ideas:



YOU can add comments! Click on the picture above and you'll see a pop-up asking you to log-in or register. Registering is free and just requires an email address and password. Please try it out and show our students that there is a real audience reading/listening to their work.

This week we have been giving students individualized reading goals to guide them on which strategies they should be practicing during independent reading time each day. A copy of those will be coming home soon! With the whole class we have been talking a lot about using our schema to understand a story better. In other words, making connections between the text and our personal experiences to activate prior knowledge and relevant vocabulary. We're also using poetry to develop fluency (reading smoothly, like we talk):

In math we have been studying ways to make 10 with addition and subtraction, making and continuing patterns, and counting by 2s and 5s. Next week we will continue to work with the "tens facts" (0+10, 1+9, 2+8, 3+7, 4+6, 5+5) and begin to talk about reasonable magnitude (for example, which of these could be your age: 8 or 800). We also made a variety of graphs when we voted on names for our classroom fish! With Election Day this week I wanted to demonstrate the democratic process with something meaningful to the students. After many nominations and a close run-off, the results are in: Cinderella, Hannah Montana, and Michael (as in Jackson). They will live in our classroom library where they will enjoy hearing students read them stories.

In writing we have been building on lessons from our school counselor about problem solving, responsibility, and ways to be a kind friend at school. Before writing/drawing dialogs between characters demonstrating these concepts, we used the Patterns of Thinking method to break down the various places within school (playground, classroom, library...) and then the parts of those places (benches, swings, monkey bars...). This activity led to much more detailed illustrations and a wider variety of examples than I've seen in earlier discussions.

Enjoy these pictures from the classroom this week. Look for our new fish friends, someone's FIRST lost tooth, and TWINS (same shirt).

October 26-30

This week we had two birthday girls, wear red day to show support for making healthy and safe choices, and dress like a book character day!

We started many new reading and math centers. Students began by drawing and writing about the beginning, middle and end of stories we listened to together. This will help them to retell stories with more details. We read three books about Miss Nelson and Miss Viola Swamp, and students enjoyed trying figure out the mystery of just who Miss Swamp really was.

In reading we are also starting to record our reading goals and keeping those with us during independent reading and center times to help remind students what they should be focusing on. I'll be sending a copy of those goals home every few weeks so you can help your child practice those at home, too.

We have started studying addition facts to 10 and making puzzles with number equations. We are also continuing to develop our spatial reasoning and problem solving skills with shape puzzles and pattern block designs.

Thanks to the parent volunteer who came in this week and helped out in the computer lab where we've been making art designs and just started saving our pictures. Next week we'll begin doing more typing and using an online program called Voicethread to record student comments and read alouds. I'm really excited to get that up and running.

October 5 - 7

We got to see children's book author and illustrator Mo Willems talk about how he makes books and read his newest book online this past Tuesday! We have read several of his books in class and students love looking for the pigeon in each one. Special thanks to the teachers at our school who arranged for us to be one of only 200 elementary school sites in the country to get to participate in this exciting event.

During this short week we continued to practice our reading strategy of re-reading a sentence when we don't know a word. We also did a variety of activities with the words on our word rings.

In writing we published our first mini-books which will be in the class library for a few weeks before they come home. Students have really enjoyed reading each other's books and have been learning the importance of making their writing neat enough for someone else to read!

In math we continued to come up with creative ways to make a number using addition, subtraction and pictures. We also practiced counting by 5s to 100 and putting numbers in order through many of the online math games linked on this page.

We went to the Strategies Lab again and learned a new game: Shape By Shape. We will continue to play Sudoku Jr (4x4) after intersession as many students were still unsure of how to play (they were only using the colors to determine where the missing numbers could go instead of checking each column and row). Through these games students have been building stamina for problem solving and learning how to articulate their thought processes.

Thanks to everyone who has been coming in to school for their conferences this Thursday and Friday. Please remember there is no school on Monday (October 12) and then intersession runs October 13 - 23. Students do not need to bring a backpack to school during intersession. I sent home students' reading books and word rings for them to work on at home and then return to school on October 26.

Finally, we welcomed a new student to our class on Wednesday! He did a great job learning our schedule and everyone was a kind friend and good helper to him. We look forward to learning more about him after intersession.

September 28 - October 2

This week we opened up two new centers during reading and math time: computer and Smartboard. At both centers the students have been able to choose from the reading or math links on this website and take turns playing the games. This has provided a lot of practice in not only the reading and math activities, but also in using technology and taking turns. We also went to the computer lab this week where we practiced logging in and started experimenting with Pixie (an art program we will use to create an image for later use on Voicethread).

In reading we practiced the strategy of rereading a sentence when you don't know a word. Students called this "starting over" and we talked about how you may have to read a sentence 3 or 4 times before you can figure it out.

We introduced 5 new sight words we will continue to study next week: we, can, like, is, you. We learned how to do a new word study center that involves using sight words to make mini books, rhyming with sight words, looking for sight words in our books, making sight words with alphabet stamps, making and solving puzzles with sight words, and writing the sight words in many colors. I see some families have kept the copy of the 100 first grade sight words in their child's agenda book or homework folder for extra practice. Let me know if you need another copy of that!

In math this week we practiced making a number in many different ways (addition, subtraction, drawing a picture, tally marks, writing the word...). Students caught on quickly to the patterns and enjoyed thinking creatively to come up with as many different combinations as possible. We also worked on the logic games from the Strategies Lab and discussed more strategies we are using: make a guess then check if it is right, check in more than 1 way, rule out what it can't be, and look for a pattern.

Important Dates:

• Progress Reports will go home on Tuesday, October 6
• Conferences will be next Thursday, October 8
• No School on Thursday, October 8 or Friday, October 9
• Intersession is October 12 - 23

* CONFERENCES *

I sent home a confirmation sheet on Friday with your conference time. Please sign and return the bottom half of that page ASAP. Conferences will take place in our classroom and typically students do not attend but it is OK if you need to bring your child with you. We have a tight schedule so please arrive on time. I look forward to meeting with you to discuss your child's progress during the first quarter of the school year! As always, feel free to contact me with questions or updates about your child anytime via email, phone call, or note.

September 21 - 25

What a busy week! We started out with Field Day on Monday which had first graders rotating through 7 different activities outside and in the gym. Many of these are games you could adapt to play with your family or at a birthday party. Discussing the rules of games is a good chance to talk about how to be a good sport, how to take turns, and how to recall a sequence of steps (first, next, then, last...). Ask your child to explain how to play each of these games:

1. Hungry Hippo (beanbags in the gym)
2. Parachute Play (in the gym)
3. Car and Driver (one person with eyes closed being led by a buddy)
4. Hoop Pass (stand in circle holding hands and move hula hoop around everyone)
5. Ecology Circle (run so fast that newspaper sticks to front of shirt)
6. Pizza Delivery (make circle around someone who is collecting pizza boxes)
7. Ecology Pick Up (relay race collecting "trash" with a buddy)

We studied the following word wall words: the, I, see, me, go and practiced the following reading strategy for what to do when we don't know a word: Think about what makes sense (in the sentence and in the pictures), then check your guess with the letters you see.

In math we played several games that involve number ordering, number sequences and place value. Next week we will work on the concepts of 1/2 and 1/4 with pictures.

This week we also had a visit from one of the school counselors who gave an important lesson about bullies. We learned that bullies do mean things over and over again and they make the other person feel bad. We learned to tell the person to STOP and to get help from a grown-up.

We had our first visit to the Strategies Lab where we learned how to play 3 problem solving games (Clever Castle, Soduko Jr., and Bricky by Brick). I hope students will transfer the problem solving strategies they practice in the games to other situations in reading, math, writing, and playing with friends. We will be making a longer list next week, but so far the students have come up with the following strategies that helped them play the games successfully:

• Don't give up
• Don't worry about what level other people are on

We ended this week with Pajama Day! Thanks to all the families who participated. Students really enjoyed the chance to get dressed up and make it a special day.

September 14 - 18

This week we have been working on using quiet voices during reading and math centers so that I can work with small groups. The class came up with many ideas to help them remember to stay quiet, including playing soft music (if you can't hear the music, you're too loud), having a picture of me going "Shhh" that I can show them, and having to leave the center for a few minutes if it takes more than 1 reminder.

At the reading centers students have been making words with magnetic letters, listening to books on tape, reading a variety of books in the class library, reading and illustrating a color poem, and playing alphabet games.

In the math centers students have been counting to 100 by 2s, 5s, or 10s on a laminated 100 board with a dry erase marker, playing a card game where they look for numbers that add up to 5, making and writing numbers 0 - 10 with paint, and regrouping 1s into 10s and 10s into 100 with base ten blocks.

In writing we have been building our stamina to write and illustrate stories for up to 30 minutes. It has been really interesting to learn about the students' lives through their stories. We also made a class book using "ing" as in "What are you doing?" "I am coloring." Learning to identify chunks of letters that make a sound like that will help the students to become more independent readers.

September 7 - 11

This week we have used the Smartboard to play many interactive games online. These are all linked on the right side of this blog but for easy reference we played these games this week:

1. Spelling Match Game (we did long vowel sounds)
2. Picture Match Game (we did unit 3, higher unit = harder concepts)
3. Piggy Bank (this was too hard for most of the students)
4. Concentration (we did numbers 1-20 with shutters down)
5. Storyline Online (picture books read aloud by members of the Screen Actors' Guild. Turn the captions on!)

In reading we worked on taking a "picture walk" with new books, which involves looking through the illustrations to get an idea of the story and relevant vocabulary before reading the words. We also worked on how to be successful working independently in reading centers while I am working with small groups on guided reading lessons.

In math we learned a card game where students look for a number's "next door neighbor" (a number one more or one less). We also practiced writing and reading number words, and counting up from a number other than one.

In writing we worked on giving a title to a story, on adding words to our illustrations, and on using the alphabet actions chart we made to help us find the right letters for the sounds we hear. You can use the copy of that your child brought home to help with reading and writing activities at home.

Thanks for your support in using the school's agenda books each day. Most of the time your child's homework will simply be "read with family" (at least 20 minutes) and "be in bed by 8:00." Starting next week your child will bring home books from school to read and return the next day, and I will continue to send home a math or sight word activity once or twice a week.

President Obama's Speech to Students

On Tuesday, September 8, 2009 we watched the President's address to students at the end of the school day. Afterward, I recorded a few students' impressions of what they had heard him say and they picked up on a lot of the points he made.

I don't have the fancy software to combine the video clips into one movie and Picasa isn't cooperating with my file formats, so you have to click each clip below to hear the students!

August 30 - September 4

This week we started the poetry center where students will be working on reading poems with fluency and looking for sight words in the poem. Students were excited to start their own 3-ring binder of poems we have studied in class and they did a great job reading together and listening to each other
read.

We also opened the classroom library after discussing how it was the same/different than the school library. Students did a good job taking turns on our little rocking chair, sharing the books, and putting books back where they found them.

Later this week we will introduce the listening center, where students will listen to books on tape. We will learn some new math games that involve counting by 5s (0, 5, 10, 15, 20, 25...). We will be working on counting up starting from a number other than one (7, 8, 9, 10) and counting by 2s to 20 (2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 14, 16, 18, 20).

The student's alphabet actions pictures are complete and each student will be taking home a hand-out showing them all on Friday! Please use this as a reference when your child is reading and writing to help give prompts about what sounds each letter makes and what sounds they hear in words.

August 24 - 28

This week we introduced math and reading centers. The students are doing a good job learning how to work in a small group and stay on task for up to 20 minutes. Math centers included exploring the 100 pocket chart, playing two math partner games, counting objects and recording the totals, and coloring in sets of 10 on a 100 grid. Reading centers included making words and names with magnetic letters, writing words we find around the room, matching pictures of classmates with their names, making an alphabet book, and reading classroom books on the carpet.

We are also working on becoming independent writers who write down the sounds we hear in words and who can show a story in words and pictures. We have used ThinkBlocks to practice telling and listening to the different parts of our stories. Many students have been enjoying going to the library before school starts to enjoy browsing and checking out new books.

We have started sending homework folders and agenda notebooks home this week. Please take a moment to look in both the folder and the notebook each night and remind your child to bring them back to school each day. In addition to any math worksheet or note in their homework folder, students are expected to talk about their day at school and read for at least 20 minutes with someone at home.

We are very sad to say good-bye to two special friends this week who will be going to new schools for the rest of first grade! We wish them luck and hope they will stay in touch.

 

From ATES 2009-2010

Back to School!

We have been very busy these past few weeks of school. We have been learning each others' names, the classroom and school rules, and how to take care of each other and the materials in our room.

We are working on reading by ourselves using the pictures in the book, the words or letters we know, and our memory or imagination to fill in the story.

We are also working on reading and writing numbers, finding patterns in numbers, counting groups of objects accurately, and putting numbers in order.

Here are some of the tools in our classroom that we have been exploring:

  

We have used ThinkBlocks  to discuss what makes us happy and doesn't make us happy, what helps us learn and doesn't help us learn, and the parts of an apology (I'm sorry for ______.  Are you OK?).  We have also used them to retell the parts of a story and to represent the sounds we hear in words.

 

We have played math games with dice and counters to practice writing and counting numbers to 20.  These games have helped us learn about taking turns, communicating with and helping a partner.

 

We have been using magnetic letters and alphabet books to learn about the sounds letters make in each others' names and to make our own alphabet chart for the classroom.  We also learned a motion for each letter (more pictures and video of that coming soon).

  

 We have been learning how to speak in front of the class and how to listen to each other.

 

Enjoy this slideshow featuring more pictures from the past few weeks.  I will try to update this each week with more detailed information about what we have been learning.  Thank you for your patience!

End of the year accomplishments

We have had a wonderful year together.  I have really enjoyed getting to coach, encourage, and guide your children as they made step-by-step progress throughout the year.


Below is a list of improvements I have seen. It is not meant to include everything; it just highlights the dynamic, complicated, and diverse nature of life in the classroom.


The students can now:
• Write longer stories
• Show their classmates they are listening
• Slow down to complete work more thoroughly
• Use a variety of reading strategies
• Offer and ask for help politely
• Read independently for an extended time period
• Explain problem solving strategies to a classmate
• Make eye contact when greeting someone
• Apologize for mistakes
• Stay focused on an activity
• Be more patient
• Work with anyone in the class
• Feel comfortable speaking in front of a group
• Include more details when telling a story
• Use technology to share ideas and practice skills
• Communicate feelings and resolve conflicts with peers
• Demonstrate what we know to different audiences
• Follow directions the first time they are given
• Make a choice and stick with it


Thank you for all of your support and reinforcement of these skills and many more. It has been an honor to be your partner in your children’s education.


Have a wonderful summer and stay in touch. I’ll be visiting Ithaca in mid-December, if not sooner!


Love,
Ms. Provan

June 15 - 19

Next Wednesday (June 24) is our last day of school!  We will be at Stewart Park from about 10:00 - 12:15 that day.  All family members are invited to join us there.  If you want your child to play in the sprinklers at the park, please send him/her to school wearing a swimsuit under his/her clothes and pack some underwear for him/her to change into afterwards.  Please apply sunscreen at home and pack a towel, too.  Keep your fingers crossed for sunny weather!


All report cards were sent home on Monday in a 4x6 brown envelope.  Let me know if you did not receive your child's report card and if you have any questions or concerns.


This week we took a tour of the big school and saw an imovie all about what reading is like in second grade made by Ms. Thompson's second grade class.  We learned that in second grade you spend a lot of time learning how to pick books that are not too hard and not too easy.  We also saw that they study many of the same reading strategies that we have learned this year.  The video is not online yet but here is the video (in two parts) that they made last year:







We got to ask the second graders a lot of questions like what lunch is like in the gym with all the second and third grade classes in there, what choice time is like, what they are studying in math, and how much homework you get.  We learned that many things are the same between first and second grade, and that the second grade teachers will spend a lot of time explaining the parts that are different.  One of the most exciting parts was learning about making the morning announcements from the office.  Many students expressed interest doing that next year.


We have been working on writing and illustrating our First Grade Memory Books that should be ready to take home on Monday or Tuesday.  We have also been playing a lot of math and literacy games in small groups and on the Smartboard, practicing our best handwriting, reading science books and answering questions about the information we read, and reviewing our word wall words.

Thank you so much for the amazing good-bye party and gifts on Thursday!  I was really touched to see and hear from so many families.  I have really loved working with each and every one of you and your children this year.  You are making it very hard for me to leave....  I plan to keep this website up next year so you can continue to use these links and view the pictures in older posts.  Please keep in touch: alisonprovan @ gmail.com

Next week I'll post a list of accomplishments we have achieved this year and

some ideas about summer enrichment activities.  

June 8 - 12

We had a busy week between end of the year assessments and two field trips!

On Wednesday we went to Taughannock Falls State Park with our Kids Discover the Trail partner class from Northeast Elementary School. Thanks to all the family members who volunteered at the park that day! We hiked the trail to the falls, noting many caterpillars and even a snake. We had lunch by the lake and then played on the playground and enjoyed bubbles and fruit.

On Thursday we went with the Pre-K, K and first grade classes to the Hangar Theater to see their production of Really Rosie.  There were many other elementary classes there and we even saw our buddies from NE!  We got to see some of the backstage area as we exited the theater and we got to meet some of the characters outside after the show.  The students were a very polite audience and they really enjoyed it.

 

In math we continued to study place value, story problems with coins, and adding double digit numbers (without carrying).  In writing we worked on more pages for our book about first grade, including a map of the playground.  In reading we practiced picking books that are just right (not too easy or too hard), building our stamina to read independently for 15-20 minutes, and reading a nonfiction (science) text for information.  We also got in some handwriting practice and played a variety of educational games (linked to the right) on the Smartboard.

We introduced the new sight words of the week: day, zoo, how, sister, favorite

Please look around your house for any Belle Sherman Library books and send them back to school. 

Next week we will take a tour of the big school and get to learn more about second grade.  Ms. Thompson's class will also show us a project they made using iMovie in exchange for teaching them about Voicethread. 

Please remember that Wednesday, June 24th is the last day of school. We will go to Stewart Park for most of the day and all family members are invited to join us. 

Students will have the option of playing in the fountains at Stewart Park.  Please pack/bring a bathing suit, towel and sunscreen for your child if you'd like them to play in the fountains that day.

June 1 - 5

*** Spring Fair is this Friday (June 5th) 

from 6:00-8:00 at the main school ***

Last Friday we had a visit from Crossroads the clown who showed the kindergarteners and first graders how he transforms from a normal looking guy into a real clown!  He entertained them with jokes and balloon animals.  Sophia then brought in some balloons and we had a special choice where she helped people try to make balloon animals.   Thank you to Jill for organizing this special event!

We had to say good-bye to Ryan this week.  We made him a class book about things we enjoyed doing with him and questions we had about Japan and China.  We wish his family safe travels this summer and we look forward to seeing him in second grade!

We have been reviewing many concepts in math this week, including place value in 3-digit numbers, making change with coins, and showing fractions in different ways.  Next week students will get to take home their math journal (or workbook).

Our concert was a big success! 

In writing we began working on a book about first grade that we will continue to develop until the last day of school.  This will be a real treasure for you and your family to enjoy!  We also began studying the following word wall words: why, can't, school, his, people.  The class has really gotten into playing games with these words on www.spellingcity.com (especially "hangmouse").

Special thanks to Cindy, who let us borrow a National Geographic video about endangered animals and who came in to help Seneca make a presentation to the class about cheetahs.  He showed us many pictures of cheetahs and talked about why cheetahs are endangered.  He also talked about the Cheetah Conservation and we saw videos of cheetahs on www.cheetah.org.  Cindy stayed during choice to help capture what students had learned about cheetahs on voicethread:

This Friday afternoon Mary Jo will be coming in to help the class make some nature-based craft projects that she and Sophia picked out of a craft book from our own Annex library.  I will post pictures of the creations here next week and you can look for them to come home on Friday or Monday.

Last Friday our field trip to Taughannock Falls State Park was rained out and we took a (muddy) nature walk behind the school in the afternoon to practice writing about interesting things we noticed in our explorer notebooks.  Please let me know if you can join us at Taughannock on Wednesday, June 10th, and be sure your child is wearing good walking shoes that day!  All families are also welcome to attend the end of year picnic at Stewart Park on Wednesday, June 24th.

Next week:

• Monday: Jay will be with the class as I'll be in northern VA filling out HR paperwork for my new job and house hunting - wish me luck!  
• Tuesday: Richie will be with the class while I will continue the end of year math and reading assessments.
• Wednesday: We go to Taughannock Falls State Park with our partner class from NE.
• Thursday: Pre-K, K and 1st grade classes from Belle Sherman will all be going to the Hangar Theater to see their production of Really Rosie.
• Friday: Amy will be with the class while I complete the end of year assessments.  

May 25 - 29

This week I began conducting the end of year phonemic awareness and writing assessments.  Over the next two weeks I will be continuing with the reading and math assessments.  I will try to send home the final report cards on June 15th.  Typically there are not parent-teacher conferences at the end of the year, but I'm happy to discuss your child's report card or any other questions/concerns you have.  Next week I will post a schedule of times during the last two weeks of school that I'll be available to meet with you.

In math we have continued to make and compare fractions using a variety of visuals.  We also practiced reading the minutes on an analog clock and determining the number of minutes between two times.  For the remainder of the year we will be doing a review of the many concepts addressed in the Everyday Math curriculum this year, focusing on explaining and trying out a variety of problem solving strategies.

In writing and reading we've been studying how authors can begin and end their stories.  Students noticed that authors often begin stories by introducing the characters or establishing when the story takes place.  They also noticed that stories often end with characters coming home or at night/bedtime.  We tried using some of these ideas in our stories.

We used the Smartboard a lot this week to play more online interactive math and literacy games.  I've linked the games we're using under Reading Resources and Math Resources in the sidebar of this blog.  I opened the Smartboard as an afternoon choice and I was impressed with how independent the students were with it!

On Friday our field trip to Taughannock Falls State Park with our Kids Discover the Trail partner class from Northeast Elementary School was cancelled due to the threat of rain.  We are in the process of rescheduling it for sometime in mid-June.  I will let you know when we confirm the new date!

Our music concert will be Thursday, June 4th at 10:15 in the Annex gym.  Everyone is invited to stay for lunch (10:45-11:15) in the classroom.  In addition to the songs Ms. Nelson has taught them, our class will be sharing a poem in English, French and Spanish that we've been learning this week.  I'll include a copy of the words to it with the homework so you can help your child practice at home.

Remember the Spring Fair is next Friday, June 5th!  Please email Connie, Karen or Serenity with how you can contribute by volunteering your time and/or donating a strawberry/lemon dessert item.

Here are a few fun shots from choice time this week:

The American Library Association has a list of notable books from 2009 for younger readers that can be a great resource to have with you when you go to the library or book store with your child.  I'm sending home a hard copy of this, too.  It can be tricky to find early chapter books that have content appropriate for 6 and 7 year olds, so feel free to consult our librarian or your local public library staff for assistance in picking out books.