Student Reporting

Last Friday we were so busy, so we’re reporting today about last week.

In Gym, we have been practicing for field day which happens this Thursday!

The weather has been very, very cold!

In Readers Workshop, we’ve been learning about some different types of poetry.

As writers, we finished revising and editing our hard copy stories.  Then, we started typing our stories so they can look like some of the books we see in bookshelves and libraries!  We thank the moms who helped us get them started typing:  Olivia’s mom, Ben’s mom, Charly’s mom, Nicole’s mom, and Jeremiah’s mom!

In Math, we can count by twos and threes really well.  Then, we started working with equal groups.  Here’s a secret:  Equal groups are really:  multiplication!

In science, we studied the butterfly life cycle. It has 4 stages:

1. eggs

2. larva (caterpillar)

3. pupa (cocoon)

4. butterfly

We started in class with the larva stage because our caterpillars arrived on Friday! We each gave 2 or 3 of them their own little cabin. We feel very excited to see what happens next!

Student Reporting by:  Katelyn, Charly, Jacqueline, Madden, and Mia

Student Reporting

It finally feels like Spring!

We have been very, very busy, so we haven’t reported in a long time!

We had our class character celebration and loved seeing all of the story puppets our classmates made!

We learned about the main parts of a plant and loved watching ours grow. Plants need:
water, sunlight, soil, room to grow, and care.

Here’s a poem to help you remember what living things need:

Food, water, shelter, space
Habitat is a beautiful place!

We are learning about another life cycle now. We had a scientist visit from the Bruce Museum and tell us all about butterflies. We can’t wait until our eggs arrive next week!

In math, we learned what a “mirror image” is. This is called symmetry. We practiced with a half of a picture from a magazine. Try it at home. It works best if the picture has a front view instead of a side view.
We had a cleanup day around school on Arbor Day to celebrate Earth Day which happened over vacation.

This week we had a great Book Fair. We also had Barbara McGrath visit. She’s a real author with published books in stores and libraries! We are working hard on our stories.

In reading, we are learning types of poetry. We will soon start writing some of our own poetry.

First Grade is going by super fast.

Student Reporting by Chase, Jack, Jack, and Jeremiah

May/June McMonthly News

May will be filled with many spring-time activities, and we will still be working hard!  We will have several rehearsals to prepare for our Let’s Pass It On  play later at the beginning of next month.  We are excited about our roles!

LANGUAGE ARTS

Our reading challenges have been exposing us to larger vocabularies and comprehension strategies that help add deeper meaning to the stories we read. We continue to review short and long vowels, blends, digraphs, and sight words. Learning about different types of poetry will be our focus soon in Reading and Writing Workshop.

MATH

We will soon begin to make sense of “multiplication” by putting together groups that contain equal parts. Likewise, we will soon make sense of the big-kid word “fractions” by splitting bigger groups into fair shares. As always, it is beneficial to encourage your child in math by using real-life examples or everyday objects to help understand these tricky concepts.

SCIENCE/SOCIAL STUDIES

The class scientists have enjoyed learning about the plant cycle. Soon, we will learning about another cycle and will be hatching our own butterflies! As we travel throughout this busy time in June, we will be enjoying geography concepts and locating places on maps (although we’ve used our classroom map throughout the year!)

TECHNOLOGY
We are very busy whenever we’re able to get to the Computer Lab. We have become adept at trying some Smartboard templates, locating letters on the keyboard, manipulating objects and words on the screen, and using educational websites. We have also been lucky to have Penguin Cold Cash and Gold Medal Math on our classroom computers, programs that were actually created by a former Ox Ridge student! We soon hope to start typing our final Writers Workshop stories!

MAY REMINDERS
Wed., May 4:                Butterfly “Bruce Mobile” (In-school enrichment)
Mon. 5/9 – Wed 5/11:   Book Fair, “The Hunt for a Good Book”
Tues., May 10:              Barbara McGrath, Author Visit
Fri., May 20:               Summer Library Visitors
Fri., May 20:               Scholastic orders due (Will be sent home 5/16)
         *** Part of the Scholastic News proceeds will go to Japan!***
Thurs., May 26:           Field Day, 12:45-2:15  (Come, all family members!)
Fri., May 27:               Raindate for Field Day
Fri., May 27:               School Spirit Day, Patriotic Day (Wear red, white, & blue)
Mon., May 30:             Memorial Day, no school

MAY BIRTHDAYS

Thursday, May 12:       Jack Wilber

Friday, May 27:         Madden Hart

JUNE REMINDERS

Fri., June 3:                Music Performance, 10:30 for 1-Mc & 1-D
               ***(Families, come early for good parking & seats!)***
Wed., June 8:             Ice Cream Celebration Author & Memory Share,
                                  1:30-3:00 Mrs. Mc’s Classroom
Fri., 6/17:                   Shortened Day, Last Day of School

JUNE BIRTHDAYS

Sat., June. 4: Nicole Bolger

JUNE/SUMMER BIRTHDAYS

July 18: Charly Covello

July 19: Josephine Williams

July 22: Austin Peck

July 28: Matthew Lia

July 30: James Durkin

OTHER IMPORTANT NOTES
What a busy time of year! I am hoping you can all come on the afternoon of Wednesday, June 8th. We will be having our Author and Memory Share combined with an ice cream celebration. We will meet in the classroom first, and weather permitting, head outside after that. Feel free to bring other family members with you for this exciting, culminating activity!

Our last Spelling Test will be right before Memorial Day weekend. We will be having an informal spelling bee early in June for fun! We learned so much!

Thank you for your generous contributions to Pennies for Patients, Box Tops, and the other numerous school fundraisers. The last day to collect box tops for this year’s class contest will be Friday, May 20.

Make Change for Japan fundraiser will continue until Friday, May 27.

Thanks also to those involved with the scenery for the Let’s Pass It On play to be performed in June by all first graders.

Thanks to the hard work during March Math Madness!

All volunteers, continued thanks to you!

If your child has borrowed some of our classroom library books or materials, please return them to school by the last week of May. Thanks!

SIGHT WORDS

after

again

always

around

as

ask

because

been

before

best

both

call

does

don't

draw

found

goes

had

him

its

just

pull

read

sing

their

then

these

us

very

walk

wash

were

which

why

would

your

Student Reporting

We had a very interesting April Fools Day!

We finished our All About stories. We can’t wait to read them to another class!


We are working hard on our character puppets in Readers Workshop and will celebrate next week!

In math, we did tricky stuff with tens and ones with really big numbers.

We learn about a lot of expressions and know what it’s like to be a “Good egg!” Our classroom is in “mint condition” Friday afternoon too!

On April Fools Day, we dressed up all miss-matched.

The weather feels like an April Fools joke, but we are glad we didn’t have a snowstorm!

Student Reporting by Charly, Mia and Jacqueline

Miss Patti and Mrs. Mc!

April McMonthly News

IN LIKE A LAMB, OUT LIKE A LION


Wow, the weather expression was a little opposite this month with the flurries and cold weather we’ve been having!

LANGUAGE ARTS


We are focusing on comprehension strategies in our stories, as we continue to review short and long vowels, blends, and sight words. We have also been enjoying paying more attention to the characters in our just right reading. Next week, we will have our "All About" project celebration that follows our non-fiction writing unit! Our next writing unit focuses on Realistic Fiction where stories are true to life, but may not have happened. With our Word Study, please remember to keep practicing our old spelling patterns as we keep learning new patterns.

READING HOMEWORK INFO


In addition to our “paper” homework that we do almost daily, we should be reading approximately 15 minutes on our own, so that we can continue to build fluency and understanding – even on the weekends! (Thanks for encouraging your children.)

MATH


We soon return to shapes, attributes and measurement, and we anticipate some cool activities working with symmetry. To help us understand bigger math problems, we are also using counting strategies in a much more advanced way than we did earlier in first grade!

BIRTHDAYS

Thursday, April 21: Freddie Persia

Monday, April 25: Andrew Popson

Tuesday, April 26: Peter Durkovic

REMINDERS

Friday, April 1: Class Spirit Day, Clothing Clash day

April 1 – May 31: “Let’s make change for Japan” fundraiser

Wednesday, April 6: Character project due

Thursday, April 7: Scholastic orders due

Friday, April 15: No School, Staff Dev.

April 18 - 22: School closed, April vacation

April 25 - 29: After-Earth-Day Week, save energy by keeping lights off as much as possible

UPCOMING DATES

Wednesday, May 4: In-school enrichment, The Bruce Mobile (Bruce Museum)

Mon – Wed, May 9-11: The-Hunt-for-a-Good-Book Book Fair

(Scholastic orders will go home the next week)

Thursday, May 26: Field Day, 12:45 - 2:15

Friday, May 27:Raindate for Field Day

Wednesday, June 8:  Memory Share/Ice Cream Celebration

Friday, June 17: Last day of school for students

The Springtime gets so busy at Ox Ridge with a myriad of activities. Please be on the lookout for schedule changes and additions.


Our class reporters have been such hard workers and have been doing their best to blog our class highlights weekly. Keep an eye out on our class website!

A TON OF THANKS


• Thanks for encouraging your child to participate in March Math Madness!

• Thanks for your support for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society with the "Pennies for Patients" fundraiser!

• Keeping in mind the importance of every penny, we will continue collecting spare change through May. Student Council will send along the proceeds for Japan-relief efforts. Thank you so much if you’re able to contribute. Every penny does really count!

• Thanks for your support for "Box Tops for Education!"

• Thanks for your support with the Daffodil Drive!

• Thank you, Volunteers, at school and with your home support!

• We are one very lucky classroom.

MONTHLY WORDS

could

every

get

good

her

how

look

once

ran

round

start

thank

that

them

there

think

under

warm

when

white

Student Reporting

We are drafting our All About story books in Writers Workshop. We listened to Miss Blake’s fancied-up stories. They did awesome!

We have been paying close attention to characters in Readers Workshop and found traits that we like and don’t like.

 

In math, we keep figuring out new strategies for hard problems. We even learned tips to use when the number is missing from the middle.

 

We reminded ourselves what we can do when we are finished.

 

Pennies for Patients are still being collected through March 31st.

 

The weather was bad and snowy on the first day of spring!

 

Student Reporting by Ben

 

 

 

Mrs. Mc wants families to know of some upcoming dates that were not on the original calendar:

• Next Friday, April 1st: CLOTHING CLASH DAY(for some April Fool’s Fun)

• May 4: Butterfly program at Ox Ridge by the Bruce Museum

• May 9-11: The-Hunt-for-a-Good-Book Book Fair in the Library

• May 26th: Field Day, 12:45 – 2:15 (for families!)

• May 27th: Field Day raindate, 12:45-2:15

• June 8th: Memory Share and Ice Cream celebration, afternoon (for families!)

 

**Be on the lookout for the Musical performance dates…..

 

 

 

FIRST FULL DAY OF SPRING?!?