Elder and Child If you were to pass by the first grade suite on certain Wednesdays from December through May, you might see adults paired up with first grade students, chatting happily as they work together on a project, share family news, or munch on a snack. The adults participate in a program called Elder and Child, an intergenerational partnership where elder and child pairs are actively engaged in service learning activities. The Elder and Child program began at Wilmington Friends School in 1999, and spread to include many of the Friends schools in the Delaware Valley. It has been part of Penn Charter’s first grade program since the 2004/05 school year. Older participants are drawn from among community members: grandparents, alumni, current and former administrators, faculty, staff, and special friends. The Elders visit with their partners for one hour a month. Many arrive early in order to attend Meeting For Worship with their partner before the start of their classroom time. Elders have been matched with a partner from each section of first grade. The Charters (Durso/Schilling students) met with their partners December and January and will meet again in February before escorting Elders to the Penns (Netter/Gould students) for gatherings in March, April, and May. First graders share their Elder partner with a friend from the other section, and Elders have the pleasure of establishing a relationship with two different children over the course of one school year. If your child is in the Durso/Schilling classroom, please ask him/her about his/her Elder friend and the activities and personal information they’ve shared. If your child is in the Netter/Gould classroom, you can look forward to hearing all about your child’s Elder partner in the months to come!
Reading WorkshopOur focus in Reading Workshop has been helping our young readers learn how to have meaningful conversations about the "just right" books they are reading. Their talk may begin with a picture walk through the pages. They may retell their stories, describe the characters and the setting, sequence the important events, and/or share their favorite parts. Another approach to book discussions is for the readers to mark certain pages of interest with post-it notes. While reading, either a fiction or nonfiction book, they put different symbols on post-its to either indicate a page they want to share, some content that contains ideas that they have a question about, or a connection that was made in their thinking about that page. The children enjoy sharing in groups or in partnerships. Either way, all of this thinking and conversation gives them practice with a comprehensive approach to reading while sharing their excitement with each other!
Writing Workshop
First graders are writing up a storm in Writing Workshop! It is hard not to feel completely awed when comparing their writing from the start of the year to the pieces they are currently producing. The growth is so evident and truly amazing! Our current focus is writing both personal narratives and poems. Students may be: taking "small moments" in their own lives and turning them into whole stories, which ultimately entails expanding their writing by adding more detail and going into more depth; attending to mechanics such as punctuation, capitalization and making sure sentences are complete; and/or engaging in creative poetry writing. Students are essentially examining composition in an ongoing way, learning how to expand, revise, and put their own stamp on their work.
| Service Learning in First Grade As a Quaker school, service learning is an integral part of our curriculum, bringing to life the Quaker commitment to peace, justice and social change. First graders know this well, as we regularly talk and read about how we can lend a hand to help make this world a better place. From recycling paper, plastic and aluminum in our classrooms, to engaging in intentional and concrete service projects, our students know that they are making a difference, and feel very good about it.
Our most current project has involved raising money to purchase basic items for people in need. As you know, your children were doing chores at home before the break to earn money for this purpose. Given how full our “chore jars” were by the end, it was clear that this activity was taken very seriously. We have now embarked on our next phase of the project, which is counting all that money (a great way to build our math skills!). We have been in contact with Cradles to Crayons (http://philadelphia.cradlestocrayons.org/), an agency that serves low-income and homeless children, providing them with the basic essentials they need to be safe, warm, ready to learn and valued. As we begin to learn about how this organization serves the community, we are also beginning to make plans for “putting our hard-earned dollars to work”, so to speak. We hope to also arrange a site-visit of sorts, but have yet to work out those details. So as you can see, it is an exciting time in first grade! As our project unfolds, we’ll continue to keep you posted.
Social Studies What do school buses, cars, boats, skis, stilts, helicopters, roller skates, sleighs, jet skis, and subways all have in common? They are all ways to get from here to there! During this next Social Studies Thematic Unit, "From Here to There", we will be studying many different ways of travelling . In the coming weeks, we will explore different types of transportation and how they function, mapping, and geography. Some examples of activities that the students will engage in include: sorting/categorizing different modes of transportation; studying different maps where the concepts of landmarks, legends, and sequencing present themselves; creating three-dimensional models of places as well as paper maps; and playing games with friends using the maps they created. Students have already brainstormed a list of all sorts of ways that people can travel. Their lists are long, creative, comprehensive and impressive!!! We clearly will be having fun getting from here to there!
Math in the Classroom In mathematics, first graders continue to study counting, computation and patterning. Through independent, small-group and whole-group activities, children explore the processes of addition and subtraction, learn how these processes are symbolized, and understand how smaller numbers fit together to make larger numbers. Students continue to think and work in 2s, 5s, and 10s, instead of counting by ones, to solve problems. Furthermore, they are taking a closer look at 2-digit numbers and breaking them down into groups of tens and ones, hence beginning the study of place value. By sharing problem solutions and strategies, all students have the opportunity to construct greater understandings of operations and counting patterns. Other recurring investigations include geometry and probability. We often approach these studies through games, a fun way to engage in important mathematics work. Family Fun Night! Friday, January 29, 2010 6:30 – 8:30 pm in the Field House Lower School Valentine's Day Bake Sale Friday, Feb. 12, 2010 in the Lower School Lobby
School Closed for Presidents' Day Monday, Feb. 15, 2010
Breakfast with Your Child (LS) Thursday, February 18, 2010 7:30 – 8:00 am in the Dining Hall
First Grade Meeting for Worship (Parents invited) Wednesday, February 24, 2010 8:30 - 9:00 am
|
