Goodbye Jupiter and Saturn! Here we come Uranus and Neptune! While I would love to spend a whole week on each planet and dive deep into detail, the EoL is speeding towards us on November 17th. The final planets will be covered this week as we continue our search for places that might have water, oxygen, soil, animals, solid land, and heat. These ice giants each boast their own interesting moons and rings among other facts. We also have a special VR experience on Thursday provided by SASD. Students will get to use a virtual reality headset to get a closer look at planets and moons! Following this, our class will immediately begin prepping for the Exhibition of Learning. This will involve collaborating with their group to research their subject before planning and creating a group project. Étude students are sure to be busy in the coming weeks!

Our time at the John Michael Kohler Arts Center was filled with vibrant and colorful art, much like the universe we have been exploring in the classroom. The workers were amazingly accomodating towards our project and made connections between the Arts Center and school. As you saw from the projects they brought home, each student was able to use their imagination to create a planet or moon inspired by our current research. The art seen while walking through the exhibits were out of this world in their own right! If you are interested in seeing for yourself, I encourage you to use this free community resource and check it out on your own time.

With Halloween coming this weekend, the big question is: Are costumes allowed on Friday? The answer is yes! Students may dress up if they wish as long as it's school appropriate and can be taken on and off easily but the student for the purposes of using the bathroom throughout the day.

Thank you for taking the time to read these updates each week. I hope they are helpful to you! You doing this is a sign that you care for your child enough to sacrifice a few minutes of your day to be involved with their schooling. It may seem minimal and it's easy to shrug it off and think to yourself "It's no big deal. I can't be the only one. It's what any parent would do!" The time you are sacrificing matters and makes a world of difference. Take a second to acknowledge how you are helping your child and give yourself some credit. Your child and teacher appreciate the effort you put forth!

Home Learning

• Red math journal pages 23-28 due back 10/30

Important Upcoming Dates

• November 4th, Tie Dying

Sincerely,

Mr. McLaughlin

It is difficult to believe that our class has been together for a month and a half. That's half a year on the planet Mercury! This week in 1st grade, the inner planets are behind us as we say hello to the gas giants, Jupiter and Saturn! While the planets themselves are not solid enough to explore, the special moons that orbit them will draw our attention. Thanks to recent discoveries, some of these moons show strong evidence of liquid oceans under the surface. One exciting moon, Titan, boasts it's own thick atmosphere along with liquid rivers and lakes. Students will discover much about the composition of these gas giant as well as their incredibly unique moons and rings. Will we find any other places suitable for life?

Save the date for our Exhibition of Learning on November 17th. The exact time will be released soon. On that day, you will witness the climax of this 1st grade unit where your child will share Movement, Music, Art, and project pieces based on the essential question "Why do we need to understand that the Earth is unique?" I hope to see you all in-person for the 1st grade Exhibition of Learning.

Tie dying is in a couple weeks! Use this document to sign up for tie dye volunteering! A background check is required.

1st graders were visited on Friday by the Sheboygan Fire Department. Students were taught how to stay safe during a fire and in the rare case that your clothes catch on fire. An engaging stop, drop, and roll activity was part of this experience.

There is no library this week since we don't have school on Friday.

Lastly, we will be taking a bus to John Michael Kohler Arts Center on Thursday afternoon. This will happen after lunch, so nothing different is needed on your end for that day. Email me if you are interested in being a chapperone for the field trip.

Home Learning

• 4 read aloud books due back 10/22

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Important Upcoming Dates

• October 26th, No School

• November 4th, Tie Dying

Sincerely,

Mr. McLaughlin

There are a couple important days this week related to dressing appropriately. On Monday, our class will have a pajama day and Wednesday is picture day.

During the past 2 weeks, we began an exciting planetary journey through our solar system. These in depth dives into each planet include a ton of facts, a scientific drawing, and checking for vital characteristics that support life. The inner planets consist of Mercury, Venus, and Mars. Our class will take a look at temperature, revolution and other facts that make each planet unique in their own way. Do you think you could survive on any of these inner planets? Like Earth, do any of these places have air, water, soil,  animals, solid land, or the right amount of heat? 1st graders will know these answers soon enough! This week will also see our PBL journey continue past the asteroid belt and into the outer planets.

Each day the class meets in number corner to discuss topics such as days in school, creating a collection, expressing data on a graph, and finding patterns. Our October collection is comprised of shapes including the triangle, rhombus, trapezoid, and hexagon. Number corner is an engaging and ever-present part of how we learn math. This month's pattern is far from the predictable September cards meaning that math should begin to challenge and draw interest from students.

Math lessons have been focused on adding fluency. Lots of our activities have included dominos which allow students to practice adding strategies. Rather than counting each dot 1 by 1, the class has been working on faster strategies such as counting on from the bigger number or using doubles facts. These connections are also made at home in the red math journals. In math class, we created double flap cards to quiz each other as you can see in the photos above. They were encouraged to bring these cards home and quiz family members. I hope that happened! Students are working on building a strong base of adding strategies which will allow for problem solving in future math lessons.

Tie dying is coming up! I fixed the link for the background check if you needed it. Use this document to sign up for tie dye volunteering!

Finally, make sure you sign up in Skyward for permission to go to the JMKAC next Thursday!

Home Learning

• Red Math Journal pages 11-18 due 10/16

 Important Upcoming Dates

• October 22nd, Field Trip to John Michael Kohler Arts Center

• October 23rd, No School

• October 26th, No School

• November 4th, Tie Dying

Best Wishes,

Mr. McLaughlin

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 oxygen, water, soil, animals, land, or the right amount of heat? Mercury was our first stop on our journey through the other planets. We spent a few days 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 will help 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.

On October 22nd, our class will be going to the John Michael Kohler Arts Center. Action is needed from you to fill out a permission slip in Skyward. When you log in, you should see a notification for this class trip. While at JMKAC, students will check out art related to the space unit and they will make art inspired by planets or moons. Each student will be coming home on October 22nd with their art project.

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!

Hike Night at Étude is this coming Friday. See the flyer above for information about this opportunity outside of school hours.

Our class will be tie dying shirts on Wednesday, November 4th 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

• 4 Read Aloud Books due back by 10/9

 Important Upcoming Dates

• October 9th, Étude Hike Night

• October 14th, Picture Day

• October 22nd, Field Trip to John Michael Kohler Arts Center

• October 23rd, No School

• October 26th, No School

• November 4th, Tie Dying

Best Wishes,

Mr. McLaughlin

1st graders are getting closer to the exploration of 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 Thursday. 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!

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.  During Art Class, 1st grade students will be tie dying shirts on November 4th 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. A current background check with the school district is required.Please use this sign up sheet if you plan to attend!

Home Learning

• Pages 7-10 in the Red Math Journal due 10-2

 Important Upcoming Dates

• October 9th, Étude Hike Night

• October 14th, Picture Day

• October 22nd, Field Trip to John Michael Kohler Arts Center

• October 23rd, No School

• October 26th, No School

• November 4th, Tie Dying

Best Wishes,

Mr. McLaughlin

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!

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, carpet cleaner , mini McLaughlin, door holders, etc. Those jobs started last week and have been going well so far!

Since the first week of school, students have been practicing their literacy skills through various activities such as Heggerty phonics, Raz Kids 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!

Our first trip to the school library was this past Friday. Each Friday, our class will visit the library in school and get the chance to check out a new book. Return the book back to school by Friday morning for the chance to get a new one each week!

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. This includes the states of matter celebration from this past Wednesday. The student-made creations will be on display at the Exhibition of Learning coming up in November.

Home Learning

• Coming home this Friday..

 Important Upcoming Dates

• October 14th, Picture Day

• October 22nd, Field Trip to John Michael Kohler Arts Center

• October 23rd, No School

• October 26th, No School

Best Wishes,

Mr. McLaughlin

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!

An important piece of information this week is a state of matter celebration happening on Wednesday afternoon. Mrs. Held will be hosting an art exploration with a foam machine. Students will be getting wet and messy so bring a change of clothes and a towel on Wednesday, September 16th!

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. 

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.

Home Learning

• Pages 1-6 in Red Math Journal due 9/18

Important Upcoming Dates

• September 25th, No School

• October 14th, Picture Day

• October 23rd, No School

• October 26th, No School

Best Wishes,

Mr. McLaughlin

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 just 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. The rules that the class creates will help us achieve our hopes and dreams for the school year. Each student was 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, oxygen (or atmosphere), heat, soil, solid land, and animals. 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!

Important Upcoming Dates

• September 25th, No School

• October 14th, Picture Day

• October 23rd, No School

• October 26th, No School

Best Wishes,

Mr. McLaughlin

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 line up 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 on their own. I promise you that once they are in the classroom they do perfectly fine!

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!

Important Upcoming Dates

• September 7th, No School

• September 25th, No School

• October 14th, Picture Day

• October 23rd, No School

• October 26th, No School

Best Wishes,

Mr. McLaughlin