Embedded Files
Week 6
PBL this week will be out of this world! Finally, our conversations and learning will be about other planets. This will begin with the inner planets of Mercury, Venus, and Mars. Earth is also one of the inner planets but we have already spent so much time discussing our very special planet. Now it's time to leave Earth and search for other places that could support life. Will any of these planets have air, water, soil, or the right amount of heat? Mercury was our first stop on our journey through the other planets. We spent a day looking at books and videos to fill out information in research journals. Did you know that Mercury has ancient water ice hidden deep within craters that never see the sunlight? Then students made a scientific drawing of the planet. Finally, the class helped create a realistic fiction story taking place on Mercury. We will follow this same format for each planet so that students will gain a deep understanding of each planet and how it compares to Earth.
1st graders were introduced to a fun app called AR Kid Space. A robot buddy leads you through some activities and looks like they are right in the room with you! Look above for some photos of this iPad exploration.
Nice job working on the red home learning journals! Math in 1st grade includes loads of opportunities for student-led discussion. It is so important for kids to develop a healthy relationship with math early in life. Nowadays math is taught in a way that empowers students and allows them to creatively find a way to the correct answer. Very often in our classroom you will hear students explaining or writing down their math thinking. These opportunities allow students to slowly grow comfortable with math concepts which create the base for what they will build upon in the future.
Math at Étude consists of 3 parts: number corner, daily math lessons, and work places. While it doesn't happen every day, a vital part of our math curriculum is work places. Think of work places like math games that are directly related to daily math lessons. Students learn the special rules of these games then freely move about the room to complete each one. Some work places may involve partners as you see in the pictures above. Home learning this coming Friday will include a work place that your child is familiar with, which coin will win? Enjoy playing this at home and keep making math connections with your child!
Our class will be tie dying shirts on Tuesday, October 28th and we will need all the help we can get! From 8:30-11, all 1st graders will be creating a one-of-a-kind shirt that captures their topic of choice in the solar system. Whether you have tie dyed before or not, I welcome you to join us on that day for an unforgettable integrated art project. Consider volunteering for an hour or the whole time. Please use this sign up sheet if you plan to attend!
Home Learning
Reading 5 minutes a day
Important Upcoming Dates
October 15th, Picture Day
October 24th, No School
October 27th, No School
October 28th, Tie dying from 8:30-11am
Best Wishes,
Mr. McLaughlin
Week 5
1st graders are getting closer to exploring other planets! Before beginning this massive adventure, we will answer a couple of questions: what else is in the universe and what tools do scientists use to learn about places we've never been? This will lead us into discussions about space telescopes, rovers, and much more!
Red home learning journals were sent home this past Friday. Keep working with your child through the questions to help them build upon the math skills they are learning at school. We have been working hard on memorizing what numbers add up to make 10. 1st graders have also been exploring how to estimate length before measuring. An estimation is simply defined as a good, well-thought-out guess. We have measured with popsicle sticks and unifix cubes. Enjoy some pictures of students working together to estimate and measure different classroom objects!
An exciting part of our week included students creating classroom jobs. This allows them to take responsibility around school. These jobs rotate each day so everyone gets a turn to do the different jobs. Some class jobs they came up with include a line leader, greeter, captain quiet , tablet helpers, door holders, etc. Those jobs started last week and have been going well so far!
Students have had the exciting opportunity to enjoy art class this year! Mrs. Held provides some unique, messy, and wholesome experiences for the kids to explore art through different mediums. The student-made creations will be on display at the Exhibition of Learning coming up in November.
The final thing I'll say this week is about an exciting volunteer opportunity. Our class will be tie dying shirts on Tuesday, October 28th and we will need all the help we can get! From 8:30-11, all 1st graders will be creating a one-of-a-kind shirt that captures their topic of choice in the solar system. Whether you have tie dyed before or not, I welcome you to join us on that day for an unforgettable integrated art project. Please use this sign up sheet if you plan to attend!
Home Learning
Reading 5 minutes a day
Pages 7-10 in the Red Math Journal due 10-3
Important Upcoming Dates
October 15th, Picture Day
October 24th, No School
October 27th, No School
October 28th, Tie dying from 8:30-11am
Best Wishes,
Mr. McLaughlin
Week 4
Our PBL unit will tilt towards physics concepts: rotation and revolution. Rotation refers to the Earth spinning around on its axis. Revolution refers to when Earth orbits or circles around the sun. This will launch us into discussions about how these movements affect us directly through weather patterns and seasons. These are pretty incredible things to be talking about in 1st grade!
Completed or not, make sure the home learning binder is brought back to school this Monday so we can have class discussions about what was sent home.
Since the first week of school, students have been practicing their literacy skills through various activities such as Heggerty phonics, Lexia on the iPads, handwriting practice, hunting for phonics patterns, and reading games. 1st graders will soon put all those things together as the 1st grade classes merge during literacy time. During this litreracy switch, some students may be swapping classrooms if they are part of Mrs. Shimenettos's reading group. Either way, all 1st graders will be engaged in literacy activities and rotating through 4 activities each day. This heavy daily exposure allows students to grow in their reading skills at their own level. Mrs. Shimenetto and I plan to begin these rotations in the next couple weeks to help your child's reading skills take off!
With that being said, reading outside of school is vital to your child's academic development. Each week if not every day, make a point to set aside some time for reading. This could be reading a book to your child before bed or independent reading time if your child is ready for it. Any form of reading will help connect what they are learning at school to the real world outside of school. So even on weeks that home learning binders are not due, read with your child!
We will not have library this week since school is not in session on Friday.
The final piece of information this week is from our secretary, Mrs. Madajewski. 1 in 4 school-aged children has a vision problem, and it is not always easy to detect. Sometimes children have trouble seeing and don’t even realize they are seeing the world differently than others. Healthy vision is important for learning and success in school. For most children, 80% of learning happens visually. Vision problems can make it hard for children to read and learn, and unfortunately, many fall behind in school or show behavioral problems. To make sure your child is vision ready for success in school, we have scheduled a vision screening for students in 1st, 3rd and 5th grade at E’tude Elementary School. If your child wears glasses, please make sure they bring them to school on this day.
If your child does not pass the screening, we will send a letter home asking that you schedule a complete eye exam for your child. If no concerns are detected, you will not receive a letter. If you have any questions or concerns about the vision screening, please contact your school nurse.
Home Learning
Reading 5 minutes a day
Important Upcoming Dates
October 15th, Picture Day
October 24th, No School
October 27th, No School
Best Wishes,
Mr. McLaughlin
Week 3
As we head into Week 3, academics will begin to surge forward while we figure out some final classroom culture pieces. PBL will finally begin to take shape as we dive into solar system learning. The ultimate goal is for students to discover the answer to our essential question: Why do we need to understand that the Earth is unique? Beyond this discovery are worlds of facts and information to uncover! Some students requested that I send home the link to a states of matter website they did on their iPads. Here it is! You can manipulate the temperature to see how molecules act when in a state of solid, liquid, or gas. Since students should now have an understanding of solids, liquids, and gases we will begin exploring our solar system. This will start with Earth, our moon, and the sun. What is the sun made of? Is it a solid, liquid or gas? Does Earth's surface have more water or land? In addition to that, students will learn about the importance of our star which gives us heat and light to survive. The sun puts the solar in solar system! Our research then takes us to our planet which allows us to survive for several reasons. Figuring out these reasons will be of utmost importance not just for this week but for the remainder of the trimester!
In the past week, the class worked together to create class expectations. This is another key part of what makes Étude unique. Rather than the teacher telling students strict rules of what they can and cannot do at school, students generated a list of rules that will help us (and other classes) achieve our hopes and dreams. Students then sort the ideas to find connected categories that ultimately result in a list of class expectations. Now the students have a personal connection to the expectations and are more willing to follow and enforce them.
Our first trip to the school library was this past Friday. Each Friday, our class will visit and get the chance to check out a new book. Return the book by Friday morning for the chance to get a new one each week!
From just the first 2 weeks of school, I can already tell that this group of students strongly engages with math in the classroom.Students have worked together to solve a problem about having enough twin pops for everyone as well as voting on favorite flavors of popsicles. These math opportunities provide a time for students to solve hands-on problems together and explain their math thinking to others. I also want to state that every single day we take part in a math session called number corner. I don't include this in the weekly plan because it is a daily occurrence. Number corner varies every month as we learn different math skills such as graphing, counting money, adding/subtracting, searching for patterns, symmetry, telling time, and so much more! It is a part of our daily routine that pushes students thinking forward in a profound way that connects with the other math lessons being taught.
Students will now take math home with them! Home learning was sent home last Friday and is due this coming Friday. Refer to the Friday email for in-depth directions. In addition to math home learning, I encourage all families to incorporate 5 - 10 minutes of reading into your daily routine. This could mean your child reading independently, reading with them, or reading to them before bedtime. Any positive exposure to reading will help your child tremendously!
I have made the students aware that I will not be at school this coming Friday meaning there will be a guest teacher. I will do as much as I can on Thursday to prepare the class for my absence. The hardest thing for students is that the guest teacher will do things differently and that's okay. I talk with them about being patient and helpful when the teacher asks for help. It is also helpful for you to have a conversation with your child before Friday about proper behavior at school. This will not only ease my anxiety but allow the guest teacher to be their best! Thank you!
Home Learning
Reading 5 minutes a day
Pages 1-6 in Red Math Journal due 9/19
Important Upcoming Dates
September 26th, No School
October 15th, Picture Day
October 24th, No School
October 27th, No School
Best Wishes,
Mr. McLaughlin
Week 2
As each school day came and went during the first week, students became more comfortable with their new 1st grade setting. So far it has been a true joy getting to know and teach every student. After knowing these kids for 4 days, I can see how kind and hardworking this group of students are. I look forward to the incredible learning that will take place with this special class of kids! Enjoy some photos from the first several days.
A word that has been used majorly at school is expectations. Students have so far been encouraged to think about what is expected in different areas such as the lunchroom, playground, bathroom, and take a break area. After being in school for a week, classroom expectations can finally be created too. We had a collective discussion on Friday about what rules students think they need to have in order to accomplish their 1st grade hopes and dreams. This allows them to have a voice in what is expected therefore more likely to hold themselves and others accountable. The coming week will include finalizing that list of expectations before creating their own hopes and dreams for the school year. Each student will be prompted to think about what they want to achieve during 1st grade. The creation of these hopes and dreams sets a clear goal for our purpose at school. They serve as a reminder of why we attend school every day. Students will also form strong bonds as they try to help each other achieve their hopes and dreams. This sense of community and collaboration is what we try our best to achieve at Étude.
PBL stands for Project-Based Learning. This type of learning is a building block of our school and drives what we do each trimester. This trimester, 1st grade students will explore the question "Why do we need to understand that the Earth is unique?" We began last week with answering why our planet is unique and allows us to survive. The class came upon some important characteristics of Earth including water, air (or atmosphere), heat, and soil. These answers will fuel our research in the coming month as we make connections with states of matter this week and eventually expand to searching the solar system for places that could also have those important characteristics. This is just the beginning of a very exciting trimester of learning!
Another note from the first week of school is pickup and dropoff time. Mr Hamm has asked that all dropoff before school happen in the parking lot or on Pershing Ave. Do not use the bus circle before school. Pickup in the circle after school is always a bit slow in the first week so hopefully the process will smooth out. The staff appreciates your patience as we work through the process of building routines with students, families, and staff.
The final piece of information this week is about volunteering. I am always happy to have help in the classroom! It helps out the students and therefore myself with another set of hands and eyes to keep students occupied and on task. Please let me know if you are interested in volunteering your time. This probably won't start for a few more weeks. If you cannot donate your time, there is a classroom wishlist you can purchase from to give supplies to the classroom. You can follow this link to Amazon where the wishlist can be found.
Important Upcoming Dates
September 26th, No School
October 15th, Picture Day
October 24th, No School
October 27th, No School
Best Wishes,
Mr. McLaughlin
Week 1
I want to start this weekly update by expressing my appreciation for everyone who came to Great Start. It was an amazing turnout and we now have a nicely stocked classroom to hopefully last until June! I enjoyed meeting each family and interacting with the new 1st graders! Let's get this school year started!
As always at Étude, we spend the first 2 weeks of school getting comfortable with classmates and the Étude community. This allows the students to make connections with each other and sets a precedent for the rest of the school year. This week will include warming up to classmates through icebreakers, exploring our classroom and school campus, team building activities, discussing expectations new and old, and much much more! After a couple days, we will begin to ease into academics but first we need to create a classroom community that will allow each student to have a voice, understand peers, and ultimately thrive in their learning!
On the first day, you will see the staff outside on the blacktop to welcome students and walk in with their class at 8:05. Arriving earlier will allow for a 1st day of school picture or to greet friends before school starts. Drop-off anxiety for students is common on the first day. The best suggestion I can give you is to guide them to the playground or classroom and, after a final goodbye, let them line up their own. I promise you that once they are in the classroom they do perfectly fine! Just like getting into cold water, they will acclimate and get used to it.
Remember that voluntary breakfast for students begins at 8:05am with the official school day starting at 8:15. Following the first day of school, a supervisor will be outside at 7:50 while students play and then line up by class to enter the building at 8:05. In short, students eating breakfast should arrive no later than 8:05. Students not taking breakfast should arrive no later than 8:15. Contact the Étude office if your family is running late in the morning.
Any lingering questions you have about school and our procedures can most likely be answered by reading the general school/classroom info page of this website. I also had parents ask me about providing extra supplies the classroom may need. If you feel inclined, purchase anything from the class wishlist! Otherwise I will reach out if we are getting low on any essential classroom materials. Thanks in advance!
Welcome to 1st Grade!
Look again at the very first word in the title. I don't want to understate the importance of that crucial word. I truly want to make your family feel welcome at school. Lockers and seats are labeled, materials prepped, and classrooms cleaned. Étude teachers are ready to warmly welcome each child to Great Start on August 26th and 27th! Please use this document sent by Ted Hamm to sign up for a time if you haven't already.
Great Start is new this year and will allow me to better interact with your family and to keep from overwhelming your child in a busy classroom. Keeping the visit at 15 minutes in the classroom will provide plenty of time to find table-spots, drop off materials, explore the classroom, ask questions, and ease first day nerves.
Visit the general school/classroom info under the parent resources tab for any clarification about materials to bring, birthday treat protocol, parent drop-off/pickup line, home learning expectations, classroom wishlist, and more! There is a lot of information on that page but it will be worth the read when you have 10 minutes to give it a look. I hope this can answer most of your school-related questions!
The page you are currently reading, weekly updates, is where I post every week. I typically update on Sunday.. Each post will include information about the learning that is happening in our classroom, candid photos, and lay out upcoming dates that are important to know. The purpose of this is to keep you informed so that you can stay involved with the adventure that is your child's learning. You may pick up tips on how to help your child with math or reading, learn language that is consistent with what they learn at school, or have a conversation about the pictures that are posted here. Every time I post a weekly update, I will send you an email linked to this page allowing you to give it a quick read!
Finally, feel free to take a look at the photos below that I have left from last year's blog posts. The images provide your child with something to look forward to as they will be having similar experiences over the next 9 months!
I look forward to meeting with you at Great Start!
Best wishes,
Logan McLaughlin
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