Highlights
HTeCV Year 1: 2011 - 2012
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Take A Peek Into What's Going On In Our Classroom...
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June 15, 2012
This week some of our highlights were...
* doing a fun activity about the forces of gravity and lift with Ms. Anne.
* visiting Ms. Tara's 5th Graders and their Time Capsule Exhibition.
* putting the finishing touches on our final kite designs.
* assembling and testing our final kites.
We can't wait to celebrate our learning with you at our Kite Exhibition on Monday from 4:00 - 5:00. It will be quite informal, starting with some sharing in the classroom then out to the grass field for some kite flying and treats!
We hope to see you all there!
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June 8, 2012
Spirit Week was a lot of fun! So many kids (and adults) participated in the themes for the week. We also met with our 4th Grade and Kinder Buddies, and accomplished so much on our kite project. Don't forget... our Kite Festival is scheduled for Monday, June 18 at 4:00... we can't wait to share our work with you!
This slideshow tells the story of the week:
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June 1, 2012
This was a short, but busy week! Here are a few things we worked on...
We used information learned last week to build our second test kites, then flew them and made observations about which ones flew and why. We also began designing the decorations for our final kites with help from our friends who critiqued our first drafts. Then, Ms. Anne (who is working on this project with us) began teaching us about symmetry which will help us with our kite construction and design.
Another treat this week was reading with our 4th Grade Buddies - that is always a good time! We also met with Kindergarten Buddies from Ms. Danielle's room. They are very excited for next year and wanted to find out from us what it's like to be a First Grader! We answered their questions then enjoyed popsicles with them!
Finally, a group of 5th Graders visited us to tell us about Spirit Week! Next week (5/4 - 5/8), everyone at HTe is invited to join in on Spirit Week by dressing in a different theme each day...
* Monday is Pajama Day - wear your favorite (school-appropriate) PJs! (make sure to wear regular shoes, no slippers).
* Tuesday is Sports Day - wear any kind of sport or team gear!
* Wednesday is Twins Day - find a friend (or two) and come to school dressed alike!
* Thursday is Mismatch Day - create a crazy outfit that doesn't match!
* Friday is Crazy Hair Day - style your hair in a weird way!
Everyone (students and adults) is excited for a fun week - we hope to have lots of participation!
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May 25, 2012
Highlights from the week...
* Project Work: This week we flew and discussed our observations of the store-bought kites; began to learn about the forces of gravity and lift; and built our test kites! Then we flew them and made observations about what happened to them - this will help us decide on revisions to make for our next test kites. Only a couple kites flew well and most eventually broke, but what I'm most proud of is that none of the kids got discouraged or flustered! Instead, they kept trying, questioned what was causing their kite to fail, and thought about what they learned from this to make it better next time. This is exactly the kind of mindset we want our students to have in all aspects of life, and it is very rewarding to see our first graders beginning to take on these important characteristics!
* Math: We have started to learn about measurement (through our kite construction), and how to tell time to the hour and half hour.
* Talent Show: HTe's first talent show was a big success and so much fun to watch! Our class was honored to have a few performers in the show - Natalia N. and Celena each sang solos and Kamryn danced with a group of older kids! I felt so proud to see their confidence and admired their bravery!
* Staff Appreciation Week: A great big THANK YOU to everyone who made this week extra special with kind words and lots of gifts and treats! I can't express how grateful I am to work with you and your children this year!!!
Have a great weekend and remember, no School Monday for Memorial Day!
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May 11, 2012
The big news this week was the launch of our final project! The students discovered what their new project would be after a "Mystery Hunt" led them outside where kites were waiting for them. They had a great time trying to fly the kites while observing and recording what was happening, in writing and with photographs (as real scientists do!). Throughout this project, we will be investigating how kites fly - weather conditions, size, shape, weight, and more.
We will also learn some of the history behind kites. Then, we will design and build our own kites! These experts will then share their knowledge (and enthusiasm) with you at a kite festival, tentatively scheduled for June 18th at 4:00 (so mark your calendars!). I hope you enjoy the slideshow highlighting the first 2 days of our investigation (note: many photos were taken by the students!).
Have a great week and HAPPY MOTHERS DAY!
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May 4, 2012
This week I was away from school to attend the Expeditionary Learning National Conference! I was fortunate to spend 3 days sharing and learning ideas and strategies to improve our work with students here at HTe. I gained a deeper understanding of planning projects developmentally appropriate for primary students, and got more ideas for service learning projects and strategies for teaching students how to produce the highest quality work. It was great to finally spend time exchanging ideas with other elementary teachers from project based schools since most of our models so far have been from our middle and high schools. Hopefully, we will be able to visit some of these schools in the future to continue learning from each other!
I'm looking forward to being back at school with your kids this week! (By the way, they did a great job with my substitute, Mr. Wes, while I was away!).
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April 27, 2012
This was a very special week with our second round of SLCs! All the kids did a great job sharing their strengths, challenges, goals, and work samples with each of their families. Parents, you also helped make this a successful experience by asking your children thoughtful questions - thank you! Once you have received and reviewed your child's progress report, please let me know if you have any questions.
Thank you for your continued support!
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April 20, 2012
This week we focused our work on:
* Math: practicing the counting-on and counting-back strategies for addition and subtraction. I have encouraged all the kids to use the IXL math website (found on the "For Kids" page), as well as ST Math, for more practice at home. Please let me know if you have any questions about this.
* Writing: publishing new stories - making sure they have a beginning, a middle with some details, and an ending. We also made sure to use capitals in the correct places and punctuation marks at the end of sentences.
* SLC preparation: we reflected on our academic and social strengths and challenges, then wrote about them. The kids are all looking forward to sharing these reflections with you next week! As you may remember, SLCs are not like traditional Parent/Teacher conferences. This is a time for students to lead the conference and share their work, with the teacher there to support the conversation between the student and their family. Something that will be different this time around, though, is that all HTe teachers have prepared a written progress report for each student that will be mailed home on Friday. This will allow for teacher input on student progress without interfering with the SLC process. We hope this will be helpful to you and welcome any feedback you would like to share!
* Remember: Tuesday, April 24 through Friday, April 27 will be minimum days for students with dismissal at 12:30.
* I look forward to seeing you all next week at your scheduled SLC time!
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April 13, 2012
We are back in full swing after a 2 week vacation and all the kids seem excited to be back! We shared our Spring Break stories, reviewed and practiced key math skills, and worked on our reading and writing. We even got to read with our 4th Grade Buddies which was really exciting because we haven't done that in a while!
One of our fabulous Kindergarten teachers, Cate Hoff, would like me to share some information with you.... She is coordinating a monthly CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) Produce Box delivery to HTE from Suzie's Farm. Each box will contain organic produce grown and selected by Suzie's Farm, an organic farm in Imperial Beach. Cate will collect the names and contact information of people interested in receiving boxes each month (participation is on a month to month basis). If you would like to receive these boxes, please send her your name, email address, phone number, child's name and teacher, and $25 one week prior to delivery day. A portion of the cost will be donated to our garden fund to purchase plants and materials for our school's garden. The first delivery will be on Thursday, April 26 and boxes can be picked up by 5:00 pm from Cate in room 140. If you have any questions, please email Cate at cahoff@hightechhigh.org or stop by her room.
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March 23, 2012
The big news this week was, of course, our Festival del Sol Exhibition! The kids were so excited to share their knowledge and to inspire others to make small changes that will help keep the habitats they studied healthy. I hope you all enjoyed the experience as much as the kids and I did!
I look forward to seeing you all back at school in 2 weeks!
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March 16, 2012
* Many thanks to all of you for coming to our Performing Arts Exhibition! It was so fun to watch all the kids dancing and singing their hearts out!
* We have been working hard to prepare for next week's Exhibition Night. Our PSA's are nearly complete and our First Grade classrooms are transforming into a rainforest, the savanna, and an aquarium! We can't wait to share what we have learned with you, other HT students and families, and community members. Please make sure to read the email sent last week titled "Festival del Sol" for important information regarding pick up and parking procedures for this special event.
*Reminder: We are collecting donations for our Game Night themed basket for the annual Faces of the Future Gala. Thank you for the items that have come in so far. If you would like to support this event, you still have time to send in items (games, snacks, gift cards, cash) - we will collect donations until Friday, March 23.
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March 9, 2012
* Project work this week started with an informative presentation for our "Ocean Explorers" by Ms. Whitney, a marine biologist. The students really enjoyed learning new information, seeing photos and video from her field work in Australia, and sharing their own knowledge with this expert!
* All of the habitat groups are working on researching animals, ways to represent their learning for Exhibition Night, and the creation of their main product - a PSA (public Service Announcement) about the problems facing their habitats.
* Our class has been working hard to get ready for their Performing Arts Exhibition this Thursday, March 15! Ms. Latanya sent out an email to all of you last week with more information, if you did not receive that, please let me know so I can forward it to you. It's going to be a great show, so I look forward to seeing you all there on Thursday evening!
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March 2, 2012
Highlights from this week:
* Our Night Light Exhibition with our 9th Grade Buddies was a big success! It all started with an interview and ideas from the 1st Graders, then after several drafts and models, and critiques by the 1st Graders, the final products came to life. The High Schoolers worked so hard on their project and took a lot of care to create really beautiful work for their Buddies! I think everyone involved really benefitted from this collaboration across our schools!
* We enjoyed Read Across America Day, which celebrates the love of reading on Dr. Seuss' birthday. We wore our pajamas, read lots of Dr. Seuss books, played with rhyming words to made our own mini version of Green Eggs and Ham, and watched The Lorax which ties in nicely with our habitats project because of its' message of conservation (we had a great conversation about how the story relates to our own world!).
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February 24, 2012
This week we celebrated our 100th day of school (Wow! Can you believe it?) with lots of fun activities. We read a book called 100th Day Worries, shared our own collections of 100 things (like in the book), wrote a story about having $100, drew a picture of ourselves at 100 years old, put 100 Fruit Loops into groups of 10 and strung them on a necklace (hopefully they made it home before being eaten!), and we had a relay race transferring 100 M&Ms from 1 bowl to another using only a spoon with Ms. Leahy's and Mr. Romo's classes (so fun to watch!). It was a great day!
All of our First Graders had a fun and informative field trip to the Birch Aquarium this week! They took a class about sharks where students learned about shark bodies, their senses, and they even got to pet a baby shark! They also viewed the aquarium exhibits and explored the tide pools, where they were able to observe and touch sea stars, sea anemones, sea slugs, and more! It was a great trip. Thanks, again, to all of you - without your support, this day would not have been so successful!
PLEASE MARK YOUR CALENDARS for these IMPORTANT EVENTS:
* March 1, 5:30 - 7:00: Night Light Exhibition with our 9th Grade Buddies!
* March 15, 6:00: Our Performing Arts Exhibition with Ms. Latanya!
* March 22: Exhibition Night for HTe, HTMCV, and HTHCV (more info later)
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February 17, 2012
What an eventful week! First, we celebrated Valentines Day with fun activities and lots of cards and treats! The kids were all so excited to share their special treats with their friends, they could hardly contain themselves!
Then, we had our first field trip! It was such a successful and enjoyable day at the zoo. Thanks to everyone for helping to make the day go so smoothly - from everyone being at school on time, to everyone having their lunches and booster seats (I was really worried about that one!), to the parents who gave their time as driver/chaperones - we couldn't have had such a great experience without ALL of your help! (I'll add pictures from the day to this page as soon as chaperones are able to share theirs with me.)
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February 10, 2012
This week...
* Our Habitat Explorers continued learning about food webs, animal classification (vertebrates, invertebrates, herbivores, carnivores, omnivores), and endangered species. The Ocean and Savanna Explorers met to play "Mingle, Mingle" - where everyone shared something cool they've learned so far about their habitat with a partner, then switched to a new partner each time the bell rang.
* Our 9th Grade Buddies finished the night lights they have created for us! I had a sneak peak at a few and they are fantastic! We have planned an Exhibition for them to present their projects. This will be the first time the 1st Graders will see, then get to take home, their night lights. It's really important for us to support the 9th Graders and this great partnership within our HT family, so please save the date of March 1, 5:30-7:00, for this special event (the 9th Graders are creating a flyer that will be sent home next week). We hope to see you all there!
* Field trip note: Thank you to everyone who has returned completed permission slips and donations. Please remember to drop off your child's booster seat with them Friday morning for our trip to the zoo (without it, they will not be permitted to go with us). If you have any questions about this, please let me know.
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February 3, 2012
Here are some highlights from the week....
* "Wild Wes" and two zoo experts started us off with a fun and informative presentation on wildlife conservation. We sang songs and got to see a beautiful great horned owl and an armadillo curled up in a ball - some lucky students even got to touch the armadillo!
* Our Habitat Experts learned about what living things need to survive, food chains, and food webs.
* In math, we learned about odd and even numbers, and we have started using a great online math program called ST Math. You should have received an email with additional information and an activation code so that your kids can access the program from home - if you have any questions about this, please let me know.
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January 27, 2012
* Our "Habitat Experts" have begun to learn about the important characteristics of their habitats - make sure to ask your kids about the layers of the rainforest, ocean zones, or savanna grasses and watering holes.
* We met with our 9th Grade Buddies to see the progress they're making on the night light project. They are nearly finished and their creations are really looking good! They are hoping to present the finished products to our 1st Graders in the next couple weeks at an Exhibition that you will all be invited to attend! Be on the look out for more information on that soon!
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January 20, 2012
This week, we launched our new project! Each First Grader will study one of three habitats - tropical rainforest, ocean, or grasslands. They will learn about some of the animals that live there, how the animals affect each other, and how people affect them. The First Grade Team is excited to mix up our students during this project - some students will go to Mr. Romo to study the rainforest, some will go to Ms. Leahy to study the grasslands, and others will come to me to study the ocean - this is a great opportunity for the kids to continue to learn about working collaboratively and making new friends! This is going to be a fun project, so stay tuned for more info as the weeks unfold!
A few photos from the week......
Notice all the teeth we are losing! :-)
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January 13, 2012
Here's a peek into our week (sorry, no pictures this time):
As mathematicians, we've started comparing numbers using our new knowledge of place value and the symbols < (less than), > (greater than), and = (equal to). As writers, we published our first stories since learning about the organization of writing (mentioned in last week's update). We will continue to work on this and, specifically, the inclusion of describing words to help the reader get a "picture in their mind". As social thinkers, we learned about the work of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. through readings, great discussions, and a video from Brain Pop Jr. - click on the link to check it out (fyi: this is a free video, others on this site require a subscription).
On a side note: Ms. Amber, our fabulous art teacher, has announced that she is going to publish HTe students' artwork to an online kids' art museum called Artsonia - it's a really cool site! She will send home specific information about this soon, so be on the look out for that. In the meantime, she mentioned that she could use the help of parent volunteers in photographing and uploading the artwork... if you are interested in helping out, let me know or email her directly at ageorge@hightechhigh.org.
* Reminder - no school Monday in observance of the M. L. King Holiday!
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January 6, 2012
Welcome back and Happy New Year!
Here's what we worked on this week:
* In math, we've started learning a new concept - place value! First graders are learning how to show numbers by breaking them into groups of tens and ones (for example, 67 is made of 6 tens and 7 ones).
* In writing, we are focusing on organization. In case you'd like to work on this at home, the main idea is that the beginning of their stories should "set the scene" for the reader by telling who, what, where, and when (for example, "On Saturday, I went to the zoo with my family."); the middle of their stories should tell just the most important events (not everything they did at the zoo) and include details/describing words; and the end of their stories should tell their feelings or opinions about the event.
* We enjoyed drawing and writing about one of our favorite story characters, "The Pigeon" from Don't Let The Pigeon Drive The Bus.
* We ended the week with fun activities with first graders from Ms. Leahy's class - strengthening our relationships with friends from other classes is always a good time!
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December 16, 2011
What a great week! We've just met another milestone here at HTe with the completion of our very first Exhibition! The kids were so excited all week and worked hard to complete our project and prepare to share their learning with visitors. It was so cool to see how they communicated with so many adults, you could see their confidence growing. Thanks to all of you for coming out and being so supportive - I hope you enjoyed this event (and their weather book) as much as I did! I'm very proud of what we've accomplished so far and look forward to what the rest of the year has in store!
Here are some pictures from the week - enjoy!
Happy Holidays! I'll see you all back at school on January 3, 2012!
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December 2, 2011
* Project work filled a lot of our time this week! We continued drafting and critiquing illustrations with captions for our weather book. We used each others work and examples from books to decide what was important to consider for our own pictures (ie. neat, careful drawing, colored completely, labels, and not too busy). The final drafts are now ready for publishing and they look great!
* Our 9th Grade Design Partners visited us to get our approval on their final drafts of our night lights. The 9th Graders seem to be just as excited about this project as the 1st Graders - it's fun to see them interacting together!
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November 18, 2011
This week's events:
Student-Led Conferences
Thank you so much to all families for helping to make our first round of SLCs a big success! All students did such a good job sharing their learning - I hope you enjoyed them as much as I did!
Weather Project
We started drafting and critiquing illustrations for our weather book.
New Project Partnership
Our class and Ms. Leahy's class began a great partnership with HTHCV 9th graders who invited us to work on a project with them! They are designing and building night lights for each of the 1st graders! They interviewed us to find out what kind of night light we would like, then, later in the week, they presented their first design drafts for our critique. Their designs looked fantastic (and ambitious!) and we are all excited to see their creations!
HAPPY THANKSGIVING! See you all back at HTe on November 28th!
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November 10, 2011
Wow, this week really flew by! We continued gathering information for our weather project and formed "expert" groups for each of our 4 weather dangers (heat waves, tornadoes, hurricanes, and blizzards). We also began to prepare for next week's Student-Led Conferences (SLCs) by thinking, discussing, and writing about our strengths and challenges academically and socially (not an easy task for 1st graders, but exciting to see them on their way to becoming the reflective learners and effective communicators that will serve them well as they continue through the High Tech system - and in life!). Finally, we ended the short week with some fun and games with Ms. Leahy's class out on our grass field - here are a few pictures..
I look forward to seeing you all next week for SLCs! :-)
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November 4, 2011
This week started with a fun Halloween celebration! Everyone dressed in great costumes and participated in a whole-school parade and danced in a surprise flash mob... so fun to watch!
Here are some other things we worked on this week:
* In math, we introduced subtraction into our story problems and learned a new activity called "Snap and Hide" - a fun way to practice the counting-on strategy with a partner.
* In reading, we've been discussing and practicing how good readers think about their reading (comprehension) and figure out new or tricky words (decoding) at the same time.
* We have also begun a new project! All three 1st Grade classes are working together to create a book that will educate other students about weather. Each class is in charge of a different section of the book - our part is all about weather dangers. So far, we have gathered information about heat waves, tornadoes, and hurricanes.
* Hope you enjoy this slideshow of pictures from this week!
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October 28, 2011
Take a look at the video we created to help everyone act more responsibly in our bathrooms. We are sharing it with the entire school and are very excited about it!
We also read with our 4th Grade Reading Buddies, and discussed why it is important to buddy read and how to be a good buddy. Then, Ms. Jacobsen made this great video. Now we have helped everyone at school know about buddy reading, too!
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October 21, 2011
This was a short week for students but it was still a busy one! We continued discovering parts of numbers (up to 12 now) and learned a new math activity called "Combo Toss". We also introduced the practice of using writing partners to help us make our writing better during the revising and editing process. We had a great time reading with our 4th Grade Buddies, and we continued practicing working cooperatively with others.
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October 14, 2011
We have finished another exciting week in 1st grade and here are just a few of the things we focused on:
* Writing with spaces and stretching out the sounds for words we don't know.
* Breaking apart numbers to 10 using a "part-part model" and solving story problems.
* Working respectfully together and solving problems independently. We decided that if someone is bothering us, we will:
1. Use our words to kindly tell the person that they are bothering us and to "please stop _____".
2. Ignore the behavior.
3. Move away from the problem.
Also, this week we started a new lunch schedule. We are going to lunch a bit later to help alleviate congestion on the playground. If you don't already do so, you may want to send your child to school with a snack.
Reminder: Monday is an All Village Day, so no school for students.
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October 7, 2011
This week we have worked really hard on several things. As Mathematicians, we started looking at parts of 5, 6, 7, 8, and 9 (ie. 7 can be made from 3 and 4) and we began using math journals to record our work. As Writers, we wrote letters to our new 4th Grade Reading Buddies (we can't wait for them to come back and read with us again!). As HTe Community Members, we noticed that there has been a problem with students leaving messes in our bathrooms, so a mini project was born! Along with Ms. Leahy's class, we brainstormed ideas on how to solve this problem and decided to make posters and a video showing students how to use bathrooms correctly. We are looking forward to sharing this work with the rest of the school soon!
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September 30, 2011
Thank you to everyone who was able to come to our first HTe Open House! The night was a big success with children showing off the work they have done so far. This slide show was supposed to be playing while you visited our classroom but, due to technical difficulties, it kept stopping (grrr!). Hopefully, you can now enjoy seeing your children at work!