Nature Cat Adventures 9/6-9/9

Below are some highlights of the week:

Home/School Folder: 

Our Green Folders come home on Friday.  Please help your child remember to get it out of their bag and unpack it.  Please send it back by the following Friday.  

Communication: 

Our Nature Cat newsletter will go out every week.  If you have a question or concern please feel free to call or email us anytime.  If you send an email to us after 4:30 we will try our best to get back to you by the end of the next school day!

Early Release: 

A reminder that next Wednesday is the first early release day of the year.  Students will be dismissed at approximately 12:15 and buses will leave approximately 12:30.  Lunch will be provided as usual.

Volunteers:  

If you would like to volunteer in the classroom you must first fill out the volunteer sign-up form on the UCS Website.  The link can be found under the Families tab.  This form must be updated every 5 years.

 Learning highlights from the week:

• Math- We began transitioning to our math classes this week.  Ms Jones and Mrs Eakes will be teaching second grade math.  All of our 2nd Graders will have Mrs. Eakes.  Mrs. Ferreira and I will be teaching first grade math. Our class will have 7 of Ms. Jones’ students come into our class and join us.  This week first graders explored counting collections and 10 frames while second graders explored ways to get to 10 with multiple addends and filled in pattern block shapes.     

• Reading- We worked on Reader’s Workshop routines.  We are working on Reading to Self and Word Work.  On Friday we added Read to a Stuffed Friend.  This was a highlight for our learners.  

• Community- We read several new social emotional books this week.  We learned about how we have thoughts and feelings and we give others thoughts and feelings. We talked about the type of thoughts we can give people. In addition we learned about the Group Plan!  Ask your child to tell you all about it!

• Celebrations- We have 1 chrysalis and 1 caterpillar to observe!  Thank you for sending them in! Reminder- if you find any at home and want to add to our collection we would love to care for them! 

Some of our self portraits!  

Reading with a stuffed friend!

 

Welcome UCS 1st and 2nd Graders

 

Welcome to our first Nature Cat News of the 22-23 school year!  We have had an amazing first week of school filled with lots of fun and learning.  We worked on some projects to make our room feel like our own, we spent time outside and we explored what it means to be a first and second grader.  I can already tell it’s going to be a great year!

Below are some highlights of the week:

Communication: 

Our Nature Cat newsletter will go out every week.  If you have a question or concern please feel free to call or email us anytime.  If you send an email to us after 4:30 we will try our best to get back to you by the end of the next school day!

Toys:

Please have students leave all toys at home.  This includes stuffed animals and trinkets.  If your child would like to share, we suggest collections, pictures of family activities and pets.

Home Folders:  Home folders will go home every Friday.  Please send them back to school on each Monday.  

 Learning highlights from the week:

• Math- Students enjoyed a guided discovery of our math tools. We used geoblocks, snap cubes, domino math and pattern blocks.  Students worked on learning in cooperative groups with puzzles and following our classroom expectations and routines during math.  

• Literacy- Students began their literacy time by learning the routine of our Reading Workshop.  This time is broken down into 4 sections, Work Work, Read To Self, Read Aloud Comprehension, and a listening to reading or tech piece. This week students explored word work and read to self. 

 

• Science-  We are interested in watching and learning about the life cycle of the Monarch butterfly.  We would love some help finding some Monarch caterpillars to have in our classrooms to watch and observe.  If you would like to help us out and look for some caterpillars or eggs to bring into our classrooms we would GREATLY appreciate it! A note is in your child’s home/school folder with a picture of milkweed and the caterpillars. 

• You will only find the Monarch caterpillars on MILKWEED plants because they only eat milkweed leaves.

Game Day Reading Celebration and More!

 

This week we celebrated our 1st Graders and their incredible job reading 120 hours.  Students brought in games from home and shared them with our class. It was fantastic to watch our learners teach each other how to play their favorite games!  We also shared our Reader’s Theater scripts with our 4th Grade buddies.  Everyone did a fantastic job!

Here are a few things we worked on this week:

• Suffix -ing and -ed

• Understanding characters and their traits

• Game Day Celebration!

• Adding punctuation to our writing

• Fluency and expression with our reading

• Counting by 10 off the decade

• Adding and subtracting multiples of 10 from any 2 digit number 

• Learned about the Moon- Earth’s only natural satellite 

• Learned about the phases of moon

Next week we will:

• Select a favorite book and write a review of it

• Add contractions to our phonics and spelling

• Complete our reading assessments

• Continue our work on character traits and problem/solution with our fictional texts

• Adding and subtracting with 120 using place value

• Writing 3 digit numbers

• Explore patterns in the day and night sky

Fun with 4th Grade Buddies and More!

Here are the things we worked on this week.

We learned:

• The difference between a fact and your opinion

• How to share your opinion with others- Convince your reader!

• Read books with our 4th Grade buddies

• How to use story elements to improve comprehension

• Keep track of the time and setting while reading

• Long vowel pattern CVCe

• Counting, Adding and Subtracting Groups of 10

• Learning to understand the Base 10 System

• The Sun is 93,000,000 miles away

• The Sun provides light and warmth to the Earth

Next week we will:

• Continue with Opinion Writing

• Learn to use reasons and examples to support our opinions

• Learn more about predicting in fiction books

• Practice keeping track and retelling important parts of a story

• Continue with long vowel pattern CVCe- u has been really tricky for us

• Practice our sight words - here is the list

• Focus on Place Value and how it use it to add and subtract

• Learn about the patterns in our sky- the sun rises in the east and sets in the west

Keep up the reading at home!  We are almost at 120 hours!  Sight word practice can be very helpful for a young reader to help them progress.  We are working on the first 50 sight words.   If you are interested, here is a website that has games you can make and play at home. 

 

Puzzle Challenge, Lunch in the Cafeteria, 4th Grade Buddies and More!

 

This week our learners worked on:

• True or False Math Equations

• Missing Addend Problems

• Magic e makes the vowel say its name

• Completed our habitats and animals for or nonfiction celebration

• Learned about our Solar System 

• Explored the sizes of planets and stars in and out of our solar system

• Worked on partner reading and how to share a story

• Added making mental images to our reading strategies

• Choice time with our 4th Grade Buddies!

• Lunch in the cafeteria 

• Learned the Planet Song and the Dwarf Planet Song

Next week we wll:

• Share our nonfiction work with families

• Have our UVM interns for full days instead of half days

• Continue our work on missing addend problems

• Learn more about space and patterns in the sky

• Begin learning about how to share and write our opinions with persuasive writing

• Look closely at the endings of words when we are reading

• Continue to try a different strategy if the first one doesn’t work when solving unknown words