Hello, families!
Brrrr!!!!!  It certainly feels like winter!  Thanks for making sure we have nice warm clothes for recess!

We spent our chilly week writing nonfiction chapter books; learning how to make snowflakes and reflecting on the challenges/solutions for that STEM activity; hosting Mrs. Koutalakis, our Mystery Reader; walking up to the high school to practice for Monday's concert; estimating and doing some graphing work in Math; and continuing to practice our reading!

Next week will be realllly busy!  It will be WPS Spirit Week!

Monday: Movement Day (and our concert that evening)...we'll have some extra motor breaks :)

Tuesday: Radiant Reading...I will have a "bright" surprise for the kids to enjoy during our reading time!

Wednesday: Holiday Sock Day...I am extending this for our class to be Holiday Hat day as well
                     Project Day-please be sure to send in a smock/old shirt, if your child does not already
                                         have one here :)

Thursday: Ugly Sweater Day...I am extending this for our class to be Holiday Wear in general

Friday:  Pajama Day...with a surprise after lunch :)

🎄Please don’t feel that you have to go out and buy special clothes for Spirit Week! We can find ways for your first grader to participate. 🎅🏻

Have an awesome weekend! I have a lot of wrapping to do, which I actually enjoy 🎁 . I hope your holiday preparations are fun for your family, too!
Becca

Hello, everyone!  Happy December!

Wow!  A full week of school! 😀  It was spent working on our literacy skills, getting better and better at computation, doing some great engineering work in STEM, enjoying our Mystery Reader, saying goodbye to Miss Mooradian and Mr. Carrigan (though they promise to come back and visit), and practicing for our concert during music class!  I can't believe it's less than 2 weeks away!  We also earned another 25 Caught You Being Good cards and celebrated with a special crafting time.

💗

Our Mystery Reader this week was Mrs. Cole's friend, Pat Phillips!  She is from England, and grew up in South Africa and The Netherlands.  We had a lot of fun finding those places on the globe and looking at some of Mrs. Cole's vacation photos of London.

We continued learning about engineering this week during STEM by using clay and straws to make the tallest structure we could.  It was super challenging!  

Don't forget to check the Upcoming Events tab! :)

On Monday, we will be walking up to the High School to rehearse for our concert on Dec. 17th.  Please help us remember to wear shoes that are comfortable for walking up the sidewalk to WHS and back, as well as standing on the risers for 45m-1h.

I wish you all a marvelous weekend!  I am going to try to finish my Christmas shopping and tackle the mountain of Amazon boxes that are accumulating in my dining room, gift wrap and tape in hand!  I hope you get to enjoy a restful pre-holiday weekend!

Becca

Hello, families!  Goodbye, sNOw-vember!

Well, it was certainly an exciting month for lots of reasons-the weather being one of them!  Fingers crossed that December is a little less stormy! ☃️

We read many books about the first Thanksgiving, practiced our computation and reasoning skills, got more and more independent with the laptops and iPads, finished our first writing unit (personal narrative) and started a new one (nonfiction),  enjoyed learning more about reactions and trying out some new thinking with an engineering project during STEM, guessed the number of bears in the Estimating jar...not to mention sharing stories about the snow days and Thanksgiving!  Whew!

Don't forget to check out the Upcoming Events tab as these days leading up to vacation get busier! :)

Thank you for returning reading books in the folder on Monday each week!

Thank you for making sure we all have the right outdoor gear!

Thank you for the contributions for Miss Mooradian's teacher tote!

I hope you get a chance to enjoy Saturday before another wintry mess on Sunday!  I have meetings for the Maine Education Association Board of Directors tomorrow and Sunday, but am hoping to squeeze in some seasonal fun too.  Have a marvelous first weekend in December! ❄️
Becca
PS...
Here are some images from the past few weeks:

 Biddeford City Theater Artistic Director,                                                                                                  Linda Sturdivant

Our Perky Turkeys!!

Attorney for the Maine Public Utilities Commission, Jody McColman

 

STEM: Engineering Challenge #1 !

 

                                          More STEM: physical and chemical reactions

Real Estate and Business Attorney Jaimie Schwartz

Hello!
I hope you all had a great week! We enjoyed being back to our usual routine after all of the excitement last week!

Some of the fun we had in first grade over the past few days...

-TWO Mystery Readers- Ms. Oliveri, a counselor and professor at USM, and Mr. Schwartz, an attorney, who are both theater buddies of Mrs. Cole's.  We loved hearing about their work and enjoying some fun stories with them :) .

   

-STEM!  This week we explored chemical reactions using water, lemon juice, vinegar, and baking soda.  Check out the lab report in our Eagle News!

-Veterans' Day-we read a Scholastic News about this important day and wrote letters to some local veterans.  Thank you, veterans, for your service!

-Windham Police Officer Andrews came to read to us during Library as well!

Thank you to everyone who turned in their homework folders, library books, Silver Graphics, etc. on time.  It makes the days run smoothly when we have everything organized! :)

A couple of friends have already finished their Turkey in Disguise projects and brought them in!  We can't wait to see everyone's creations!  They will be posted on the hallway bulletin board for others to admire as well.

Our next Project Day will be on Tuesday the 20th from 2-2:40 PM.  Please let me know before November 16th if you will be participating so that I can plan the activity according to how many helpers we will have and purchase materials. :) . Thank you!

Book orders went home today and are also due on the 16th.  I do not send book orders in December because they sometimes don't make it back to us before the holidays.  Please let me know if your book order contains a gift and I can hold it aside until you're able to pick it up at school.  Thanks!

There are a LOT of new items in the Upcoming Events calendar!

Thank you for marking your child's Reading Incentive calendar with his/her name and for jotting down the total books read. :)

I hope you all get to have some fun this weekend!  I have a first reading of the new play I'm in and a gathering of extended family to attend.  Enjoy your time with your loved ones, too!
Becca

Happy November!

What a busy week!  Between the World Series, Halloween, guest speakers, and our assembly, there was a lot going on!  We also had our first Project Day, Sharing on Friday, and our first lockdown safety drill of the year.  Whew!
 Officer Matt Cyr came to talk with us about being                                                                                   safe on Halloween!

We had a really fun assembly with Dr. Quinton Quark,
who taught us Newton's 3 Laws of Motion!

                                                                                   

Project Day was a success!  Special thanks to Soren's mom and Kai's grandmother for coming in to help!

                                                  
Our Mystery Readers this week were AJ Dukette from WHOM and Kathleen Jordan from WMTW!  They told us a lot of fun facts about working for a radio station and a TV station!
                                       
Thank you for sending warm gear for recess!

Please be sure to return library books no later than Thursday.  The librarians have double classes and duties, so they need books back early in order to check them in before our library time.  Thank you for your help!

Have a terrific weekend!  I'm going to work on building the set for "A Christmas Carol" at Biddeford City Theater and spend some time here at school.  Whatever your plans, have fun and stay dry!
:)
Becca

Hello!  Happy almost-Halloween!  There is a lot of excitement in the air!

This week, we shared several seasonal books, practiced writing with "craft moves", and continued working on writing two-digit numbers in expanded form.  We've solved 2000 problems on IXL and several of us moved up to the next guided reading level.  Thank you for helping us practice at home!

Our Mystery Reader this week was Mr. Mitchell Thomas.  He is an actor, director, musician, singer,  college professor, and the director of the Franco-American Heritage Center in Lewiston!

                                           

In STEM this week, we began to learn about the difference between physical and chemical changes.  We also learned all about bats-ask us some of our favorite facts!!

Thank you for helping us remember a peanut-free snack and any needed utensils every day!

Thank you for sending a written note in the morning if your child will be picked up on a day when they normally ride the bus-I am supposed to send a written note from the parent with each child who is not usually picked up on a given day.

Project Day will be on Wednesday the 31st from 11:45-12:30.  Please let me know if you plan to come so I can plan an activity/materials/groups/etc. :) . Be sure you have filled out a Volunteer Form if you plan to come and help out.  See you then! :)

Also-just a reminder that we don't wear Halloween costumes on October 31.  Your child is welcome to wear orange in support of anti-bullying. :)

Congratulations to Darius and Kai for earning the privilege of taking home Darla and Kola!

Congratulations to our class on earning 25 Caught You Being Good cards!

Stay warm and dry this weekend-maybe you can do GoNoodle to have some indoor fun ;) Don't forget about the Fall Festival at WPS tomorrow from 1-4PM!
                                        
Have a great weekend!
Becca

Brrr!!!  This week's weather was quite a change from two weeks ago!  Thank you for sending warm gear for recess!

Our days were very full this week, with Fire Safety, Picture Day, and TWO Mystery Readers!  The first one was Mr. Quinn, a friend of Mrs. Cole's who is an optician.  He told us how he helps people get just the right glasses so they can see better.  Our other guest was Dr. David Jefferson, who has been the veterinarian for Mrs. Cole's horses for many years.  He told us all about how he takes care of animals and teaches their owners how to care for them too.
 . In STEM we did some leaf investigations and read about how and why leaves change color in the fall.  Ask us about chlorophyll! :)

 .          
We're doing a great job with place value and decomposing numbers/writing them in expanded form!  Thanks for helping us find other opportunities to practice this at home-it's big thinking!  I am also hearing kids skip counting by 2s, 5s, and 10s!
                                         
Thank you for keeping our reading books in our reading folders, and returning them on Mondays so we can swap them out. :)

Homework folders (the green folder with the homework menu and blank reading calendar) are due on November 5th.  Thanks for helping us complete squares on our menu and tally our books!

Congratulations to Jacy and Shyanne on earning the privilege of taking Darla and Kola home for the weekend!

Congratulations to Kai for doing Quality Work, which we posted in the Quality Work Showcase!

I hope everyone has a fun weekend planned!  I am going to a teachers' conference in Rockport and hoping to complete outdoor fall cleanup at home.  Enjoy your family time!

Becca

Hello, families!
I hope you got a chance to enjoy that last burst of summer earlier this week-wow!

We had a blast with place value math centers, our first WIN time (intervention time) rotations with Mrs. Stover's and Mrs. Bernier's classes, and continuing our work in literacy and writing.  This week's STEM lesson was all about rainbows, and we even made our own rainbows using a flashlight and a prism.  I am sending home a prism on Monday for each child to use/keep-see if they can explain how white light enters a prism and the colors disperse and refract to make a spectrum. :)

Book orders were submitted and should be here in ten days or so.  Thank you for ordering!

School shirt order forms were sent home last week-proceeds benefit our Cultural Arts Committee's work and provide opportunities for cultural experiences for our students.

Thank you for sending a written note in the morning if your child's dismissal will be different.  I am supposed to send a written note with children to the cafeteria if they are not usually dismissed on that day, per school policy.  Thanks for your help!

We're bringing home several pieces of writing to review with our families.  Things to look for are:

-complete thoughts
-correct use of upper/lower case letters
-beginning to use punctuation consistently
-multiple thoughts/sentences per page
-carefully formed letters
-sight words spelled correctly
-all sounds in a word are represented (even if the word isn't spelled correctly)
-no scribbling; colorful, detailed illustrations

Our Mystery Reader this week was...Mr. Joe Swenson!  Mr. Swenson is an actor, author, and consultant.  He is also a dad of two little boys and friends with Maine author Chris Van Dusen!  We enjoyed his reading and hearing about how he goes about writing his books. 

Congratulations to Rosie, Amelia, Clemmie, and Aubrey for earning the privilege of hosting Darla and Kola for the past 2 weekends!

We are close to earning 25 "Caught You Being Good" cards!  I wonder what the kids will choose as their celebration???

I hope you all had a fantastic weekend!  I had a meeting all day on Saturday in Augusta, but I did manage some outdoor time on this beautiful October Sunday, visiting friends on their farm in Union, Maine and spending a few hours at the ocean.

:)

Becca

Hi, everyone!
I hope the kids are enjoying the start of their extra-long weekend!  I'm at school today but hope to get outside tomorrow and go for a hike!

We packed a lot of learning into our short week!  Our first STEM experiment was a success!  I encouraged the kids to tell you all about it.  The colorful results of our work were sent home in Eagle News on Thursday.  We're working on answering our Big Question, "Why DO leaves change color?", by doing some chromatography experiments.  This Wednesday, we'll be using prisms to learn about how colors can be separated, just like with our coffee filter experiment.  :)

Thank you for helping us with our homework!  I have had several children share that they practiced skip counting, worked on place value, and did some reading!  Awesome!

Mr. Chris Howell was our first Wednesday Mystery Reader!  He shared some books with us and told us about his job as Assistant Superintendent here in RSU #14.  I wonder who next week's surprise reader will be...? ;)

Our first Project Day will be the morning of Halloween, October 31st.  I haven't attached a time because we have a guest coming from Windham PD to talk about Halloween Safety, and he is checking his schedule for the day.  I will let you know ASAP!  The November Project Day will be on Tuesday the 20th from 2 to 2:40 PM.  To help out on Project Days, please be sure to have completed and submitted a Volunteer Form two weeks prior to the event.  You can find the form on the WPS page.  Please also let me know if you are planning to come so I can plan groups/etc.  Thank you so much!

I attached the Class Directory to the email that was sent earlier today.  Please do not share families' contact information without their permission.  Thanks!  Just as a reminder, school policy does not allow us to have invitations distributed at school-please use the contact list.  Also, if your contact information is not correct, please let me know ASAP so that I can fix it and resend the document.  Thanks!

 

We love Estimating on Wednesdays!

Thank you for all you do to help us! :) Have a great rest-of-the-weekend!
Becca

Happy Weekend!  Happy (almost) October!

It's been another terrific week!  We finished our Leader Books, started our Daily 5 literacy routine, got everyone logged onto our laptops at the same time, had our first STEM lesson, and learned how to make revisions in our writing.  Whew!  We're looking forward to a great four-day week-we'll meet our first Wednesday "Mystery Reader", do some more observations and an experiment for our STEM question, and continue our work with place value and comparing numbers, as well as continuing our awesome work in writing and reading!

 We learned about hypothesis, observation, and conclusion this week, and formed our own hypotheses about why leaves change color in the fall.  We'll be making more observations of "our" tree in the next few weeks and doing some reading and experiments to find out the answer!

We also read several versions of The Three Little Pigs as we learned about text-to-text connections.  Ask your first grader which one was his or her favorite!

Thank you to everyone who ordered books last time-we earned enough bonus points to get over 20 new books for our classroom guided reading library!  The next set of book orders went home today and are due on October 9th.  Our classroom code is H63NZ.

The kids really enjoyed some of our math games this week-you can find links to some of the sites we use in the Links bar to the right.

Homework folders are ready to go home on Monday!  I will send a cover letter explaining how our homework system works, and you can use the First Grade At a Glance document I sent home earlier to see what is due and when.

 Short Vowel Bingo!

Congratulations to Ella and Molly on earning the privilege of taking Darla and Kola home for the weekend!  We can't wait to read all about their adventures!

Congratulations to Elliott for earning a spot in the Quality Work Showcase!  Her careful work and many details in her writing and her illustrating are impressive!

Be sure to check the Upcoming Events list for some additions!

I'm looking forward to finishing my fall cleaning and visiting my horse at his boarding barn this weekend!  I hope you have a wonderful end-of-September!

:)
Becca

Hello!

Happy Autumn!  I hope you all had a chance to enjoy the beautiful weather this weekend!

We enjoyed another busy week in first grade!  We met our student intern, Miss Mooradian, who will be with us twice a week until December.  Mr. Carrigan was another guest who is learning how to be a teacher.  He will visit us for 2 more Friday mornings.

Parent volunteers will be scheduled starting in mid-October.  We will be in need of extra hands on Wednesdays for our STEM lessons and Project Days.  I will be finalizing this schedule and sending it out in next week's blog.  :)

I am still waiting for homework folders to be laminated...in the meantime, please encourage your first grader to read at home and tell you about his/her learning.  When we do have homework, it will be a menu of 20 different activities from which your child can choose 15/month to complete.  Homework menus go home the first week of the month and are not due back until the beginning of the next month.  Reading folders go home weekly and are due back the following week.  The directions for each can be found on the front of the folders.  :)

Congratulations to Molly for having 2 pieces of work in the Quality Work Showcase this week!

Congratulations to McKenzie and Jordan for being selected to host Darla and Kola this weekend!  A few families have asked about Kola's name...it isn't Ko-A-la.  Rather, "Kola" was the name of a bear in a story I used to love as a little girl in the anthology pictured below.  Kola is also the name of a tree. :)  I will try to find time to read the story to the kids this week.

The Upcoming Events page has been updated-be sure to check it for information about the teacher workshop day/holiday weekend, fall pictures, and other dates to remember.

Thank you for returning Eagle News on Mondays and library books no later than Thursdays. :)

Thank you for sending a spoon or fork if your first grader needs one to eat his or her snack.

Thank you for sending a written note if your child will be picked up-I have to send the note with the child to dismissal if s/he is not usually picked up on that particular day.

Thanks for reading the blog!  Have a terrific week!
Becca

Hello, all!
Thanks for your patience this weekend-I had to turn in my new school laptop for some routine updates, and my home one just doesn't like to do anything fancy these days :)

Homework folders will go home as soon as they come back from being laminated.

We had a blast watching and learning about monarch butterflies this week!  Alistair the caterpillar and Sasha the chrysalis spent time with us.  Our guest teacher, Mr.Carrigan from UNE, helped us look at them with a hand lens while we worked on our butterfly life cycle models.  Sasha eclosed (hatched) this weekend, and Alistair has formed his chrysalis.  My daughter took some samples of Sasha's wing scales to check their health before releasing her, so I will bring those in and we will look at them under a microscope later this week!

We reviewed short vowels, addition and subtraction, and our classroom expectations last week!  We're adding a little more each day to our classroom routine...it's a gentle process and I am happy with our progress!  Thank you for the support you offer at home!

Thank you also to all who contributed book orders-with the bonus points we earned, I was able to order several new books for our classroom guided reading library!  These are the books we will bring home each week for homework.

  Jack, showing us how to do Read to Self

Jacy and Darius show us how to Read to Someone


Thank you also to everyone who returned Eagle News on Monday and library books on Thursday!  I know that we have library on Friday, but our library time includes a story and discussion time with the librarian, plus time for her to help the children to choose their books. If we turn our books in on Thursday, they can be checked in before library classes on Friday and none of our library time has to be spent following up on that.  Thanks!! :)

Congratulations to Damon and Kendall for earning the privilege of taking Kola and Darla home this weekend! :)  Thanks for making good choices and helping to make our classroom a place where our friends can learn!  We can't wait to hear all about their adventures with Damon's and Kendall's families!

Thank you to everyone who has helped make dismissal go smoothly by...
-sending a written note that your child would be picked up and by whom
-making sure that the person picking up is on the "approved" pick-up list and has a photo ID
-giving me as much notice as possible when your child will be leaving early
:)

I hope you had a great weekend!  I spent the weekend in Augusta, working on the Maine Education Association Board of Directors, and enjoyed the last performances of the play in which I was acting.  I'm looking forward to a super week here in first grade, including a fun STEM activity this Wednesday and meeting our intern, Ms. Mooradian, tomorrow!
I hope you all have a wonderful week!
Becca



Hello, all!
It was another busy week here in first grade-completing assessments, learning routines, and adjusting to our schedule!  Thank you for helping us at home as we get used to it all!

Congratulations to Elliott and Jack-they are taking Darla and Kola home this week! :) Great job following directions and helping your friends do their best work!

We completed Leader Books for Darius, Damon, Aubrey, and Jordan!  We enjoy this fun activity to help us get acquainted with each other.

Thank you for sending back the forms-I know there are a lot of them (and, I have to process all of them for each child before sending them to the office, so I know just how many there are :) ), and I appreciate your sending them all back together.

I can tell that several children did a lot of practicing this summer with sight words/reading and working with numbers-great work!

Today we got to use the Smartboard to do a couple of math activities that had us comparing numbers, putting them in order, and finding numbers from 1-120 on a number grid.  We also learned the expectations for Read to Self and Read to Someone times.  Our first visit to the Library was today as well-thank you in advance for returning your library books in the special library bags no later than Thursday so that the librarians can have time to check them back in before our next library session.

We also had fun with our first Sharing Day!  Our next one will be on Friday, October 12, as there is a Teacher Workshop Day on Friday the 5th.

Be sure to check the Upcoming Events calendar in the menu on the right-hand side of the blog!

Have a great weekend!  The play I'm in opened this week, and I am hoping to get our kayaks in the water at least once more before it gets too chilly-I hope you have some fun plans too!

Becca

Happy First Weekend of the School Year!

We have had a very busy first week!  Thank you for the supplies, communication, and everything you do to help your child come to school ready for the day! :)

Eagle News envelopes are in the kids' backpacks.  A folder with all of those wonderful forms is included :)...thank you in advance for filling them out and returning them on Tuesday!

There are also a couple of book order flyers and a sheet explaining how book orders work-this first book order is due on September 10.

Two friends are taking home our classroom bears today-Darla and Kola.  Thank you to Soren and Brielle for working so hard and making good choices this week!  I wonder who will earn the privilege of taking the bears home next weekend? :)

As soon as I have all of the forms back, we'll post photos and other images of our week here on the blog! 😄

Have a terrific long weekend!  I'll see all my friends on Tuesday!

Becca

Welcome to our classroom blog!  This will be the place to check each week for photos, information, updates, and celebrations about our work in first grade!  Thanks for checking it each week! :)