GCS First Grade 24/25

First graders have had a great couple of weeks to start the year. They have been learning routines through our First Grade "Boot Camp" where we talk about what we can and can't do with school tools like pencils, crayons, scissors, markers, glue and paint. Then students practice using them and we finish with a challenge. Once students completed the challeneges they were given an award to add to their award rings.

First graders have also begun to dive into our writing program, EL. They are exploring different tools and what their best use is. We will continue this work through September.

First graders have also begun their Fall Benchmark Assessments. This will give us a baseline to see what students already know and what we need to work on.

Students feet got wet during Forest Friday, please send in clean, dry socks to replenish the wet ones that went home. Thank you and have a great weekend!

Hello Families!

First graders have begun the hard work of getting into a whole week of school. They did great! We have a lot to learn this year.

First graders began their phonics/reading instruction using a program called UFLI. It is backed by research on the Science of Reading and slowly progresses through each letter sound gradually building on to different spelling patterns that make similar sounds. We are beginning with a review of short vowel sounds where students practice reading consonant-vowel-consonant words, as well as writing them and reading a short passage.

First graders also dove into our math program, Illustrative Math. We begin with counting, sorting, and adding and subtracting within 5. This first unit is a shorter one, in unit 2 we will begin to hear math stories and pull out the information to add or subtract within 10.

In first grade this week students also participated in our first All School Meeting of the year. The first graders were an amazing audience, demonstrating kindness and respect by listening and singing along or clapping when appropriate.

Friday was spent mostly outside. We began our day with our usual morning meeting to let everyone know the schedule for the day. Then we went and played out at the pavillion, many of us are working on using kind words when playing with friends. At snack time kindergarten came out and joined us. After snack Ms. Hansen read a book about trees and how they change throughout the seasons. Once the story was over students were paired up and given the challenge of building a fairy house. Everyone worked great with their partners and had fun!

To end our week we went out back to the pumpkin patch and picked all the orange pumpkins we could find. Last spring, as kindergarteners, these first graders planted pumpkin seeds. They were so excited to be able to pick them for our classroom!

Important Dates:

September 20th - Picture Day

September 25th - Open House 5:30-6:30

September 27th - Early Release for Teacher Inservice

Important Links

Link for All School Menus

https://www.fdmealplanner.com/

Link for Guilford Central School Calendar

https://calendar.google.com/calendar/u/0?cid=d3Nlc3Uub3JnX29nbXJkNDZ1a3NtZ2p1bDFzanZyOXRtdGowQGdyb3VwLmNhbGVuZGFyLmdvb2dsZS5jb20

First Graders have been very busy!

During our reading comprehension and writing lessons students are learning some great vocabulary words such as initiative, collaboration, perseverance, and magnificent. Students had to complete challenges while learning how to communicate with one another using kind words such as "I agree because" or "I disagree because". The first challenge was a cup stacking challenge and proved to be very hard, but we reflected on what went well and what we could have done better. Our second challenge was making shapes with jump ropes while working with a group, there was much better communication. The final challenge was working together to pass a ball to the same person but to do it faster each time. All these challenges helped the first graders grow and really demonstrate their habits of character of perseverance, initiative, and collaboration.

In math students are working sorting, categorizing, counting, and adding. First graders have been playing different cames to add and subtract 1 or 2. We will continue to work on adding and subtracting within 10 to become fluent.

Forest Fridays have been a lot of fun. First graders and kindergarteners eat snack under the pavillion together. We learned about sit spots and have been using our senses to become more mindful and grounded when in our outdoor classroom. Some students chose to do a fall scavenager hunt while others tried leaf and bark rubbings. We als have been reading stories about trees and the changing season to kick off our activities.

Before Open House first graders made pesto and were able to sample it with Farmer Sarah. We will continue to have Farm to School every Friday for the next 10 weeks.

Important Dates:

October 11th - Apple Picking Field Trip

October 14th - No School: Indigenous People's Day

October 15-16th - No School: Teacher Inservice Days

It's been another couple of busy weeks.

First graders have been identifying emotions of characters by looking at body language and the texts while do a focused read aloud of The Little Red Pen. They have also been drescribing how the characters are demonstrating habits of character. We saw the characters show initiative by coming up with a plan to solve a problem in the story. Then we identified a character who showed perseverance by not giving up and coming up with another plan when the first plan didn't work, and at the end we saw the characters demonstrating collaboration by working together to solve the problem. First graders have also been earning Eagle Awards for demonstrating collaboration, perseverance, and initiative, as well as being kind, responsible, and safe. We will be putting our knowledge of tools and habits of character to use to create a magnificent thing for our outdoor classroom in the upcoming weeks.

During our UFLI lessons we are practicing sounding out, blending, and writing consonant-vowel-consonant words with suffix -s when it has the sound /s/. We will continue to practice this skill while adding words that have the suffix -s when it spells the /z/ sound this week. Students have really settled into the routine of our whole class phonics lessons and our break out skills flexible skills groups. This past week was the first time we switched some friends from one group to another based on skills that students have and need.

First graders continue to work on adding within 5. Students are working on counting on using the larger addend and looking for relationships within expressions that they already know to help them solve unknown equations. First graders have also been collecting data and working through which is the easist way to read the data that has been collected.

The River Gallery School of Art came in on our first Fun Friday. Students learned about painting tools and then created their own paintbrushes using non-traditional materials. Once they were able to test out the newly made paint brushes, the class discussed which brushes worked the best.

Our trip to Allyson's Orchard was a huge success, we picked and ate some delicious apples, had a fun wagon ride, fed the goats, played on the playground and tasted Allyson's cider. First graders were great role models for the Kindergarteners! 😊

Important Dates:

November 7th & 8th Early Release for Parent/Teacher Conferences (sign-ups coming soon)

November 11th No School Veteran's Day Observed

November 25-26th No School Teacher Inservice

November 27-29th No School Thanksgiving Break

First Graders had another great week!

We are finishing up our unit on The Most Magnificent Thing. The class came up with two projects that we will be working on this coming week. One thing they decided our outdoor classroom needed was a new stop sign, that way everyone knows where our to line up. They also decided that we should have a swing or two. Mr. Baker will be helping us cut the wood needed and the rest is up to us. After we have created our magnificent things, students will write about the process.

Math has brought us to a new unit. We are going to be focusing on math stories and pulling out the information needed to answer the question. While we are using our critical thinking skills to gather information, we will also be adding and subtracting within 5 and gradually making our way to 10.

In the afternoons first graders have been alternating between Labs, where we are working on engineering, drawing realistically, imaginative play, and being creative with different materials, and math skills.

First grade began a new class system where students are recognized for careful listening, sitting safely, having a safe body, and participating. We have two scheduled "cash in" times, where students get to choose a special bin to play with for 15 minutes before recess and 15 minutes before the end of the day. First graders have been very flexible and the new system is working very well, plus who doesn't love some extra play time?!

Thursday was pretty special this week, we were able to carve pumpkins that they planted last spring. Farmer Sarah, Ms. M. and Ms. Jenn all did the actual carving, but students either worked independently or with a partner and created their own faces. They all came out great!

First grade continues to go out to the woods with Kindergarten. This week we had more of a focus when we went out. The book Roxaboxen by Alice McLerran was read to both classes. This book is about children who, through play, create a town with their own law and economic system. Both classes will be working together to turn our outdoor space into their own town.

Important Dates:

Thursday, October 31st Costume Parade 2:00-2:15

November 7th & 8th Early Release for Parent/Teacher Conferences (sign-ups coming soon)

November 11th No School Veteran's Day Observed

November 25-26th No School Teacher Inservice

November 27-29th No School Thanksgiving Break

First graders have been busy during this exciting week!

During our EL lessons we continue to talk about habits of character. This week we began talking about responsibility. We defined responsibility as taking ownership of the choices we make with what we do, say and our learning. First graders talked about how we take ownership by saying "yes we said that or did that" and trying our best at school. We will continue to talk about and practice modeling all our habits of character (responsibility, perseverance, initiative, and collaboration). First graders also had help from a special guest this week, Mr. Baker. Mr. Baker helped students choose wood for our magnificent things, measure, and mark where to cut the wood. First graders loved seeing the table saw and watching Mr. Baker cut their wood with his circular saw. We are hoping to finish our magnificent things next week.

Math has been all about math stories. We have begun to take apart math stories to find the important information. First graders did an amazing job writing equations that match each story. Right now we are working on math stories that add with in 10. We are also practicing counting starting at any number both forwards and backwards and knowing our partners that make 10.

First grade has added a new tradition to our list of known traditions. Dia de los Muertos, Day of the Dead, was explored through a comparison of a tradition that all the students know about, Halloween. First graders learned about offrendas, sugar skulls, and how families celebrate their loved ones who have passed by decorating cemeteries.

Friday we had time with River Gallery Art. Students learned how people print on cards, shirts, and papers. First graders were all given plexiglass to draw something that reminded them of fall on. Then they got a piece of paper, misted the paper with small spray bottles of water, gently dabbed some excess water off the paper, and then placed the paper on their plexiglass drawing. We learned that if you put words on the plexiglass you have to write them backwards, otherwise the words come out backwards on your picture.

It's been another busy couple of weeks in First Grade.

We continue to work on our habits of character while using real tools to create our swings and stop signs. We've also been reading different picture books where the characters are imagining and creating things. Students have had great discussions using the text to point out when the characters are showing initiative, collaboration, and perseverance. Students have also been caught showing these habits of character all throughout our day by showing initiative when a movement break is over and moving to the next activity without any direction, collaboration by working together on math posters and playing games, and perseverance when reading, even when it may seem impossible.

During math we continue to practice adding and subtracting within 10. Students have done a great job identifying what the math stories are about and what information we have or are missing. They even came up with their own math stories this week to have a partner solve. They really love making math posters to show their thinking!

Last week we celebrated Diwali, The Festival of Lights, celebrated by many families all over the Southeast Asia. First graders hopped on Moorhouse Airlines and flew all the way to India. We got some quick facts about India and then dove a little deeper in Diwali. We learned that it is a time where light has triumphed over dark, which is why they celebrated by lighting oil candles called diyas (dee-yas) and sharing food with friends and family. We will continue exploring different traditions around the world as different traditions approach.

Thursday we had an all school celebration. We got together with third graders and played games at the end of the day. The first graders were great at sharing the games from our classroom and playing the games with kindness.

Important Dates:

November 25th-29th No School -Thanksgiving Break

December 20th Early Release

December 23-January1st Winter Break

First grade has been busy doing wonderful things these past weeks!

We finished painting our magnificent things. I'm hoping to get them to our outdoor space over the winter break. Students worked hard on all parts of this project using real tools and habits of character.

In EL we have begun a unit on why authors write about the sun, moon, and stars. We will be continuing this unit after break as we take a pause to explore different parts of the world and the winter traditions that are happening. So far we have explored the Netherlands and the legend of Sinterklaas, St. Nicholas. Students were surprised to learn that he is not Santa. Next week we will learn about Germany, Australia, Israel, and Kwanzaa.

The Guilford Fire Department came the Friday before Thanksgiving break. Students were able to see firefighters in their gear, hear what they sound like when the oxygen is on, and then were able to feel some of the gear like the helmets and gloves. We were also able to get a tour of the truck and even sit in it!

First graders and kindergarteners got together and read "Turkey Run". After hearing the story students were paired up and asked to create a marble run to help the turky escape. Everyone had a great time and came up with some clever marble runs.

In math students are learning that there can be more than one way to solve a math story. We've worked with the unknown number in all the positions of an equation (unknown addends and unknown totals). This past week we specifically worked on math stories where we were comparing quantities and deciding how to make the quantities equal.

River Gallery School of Art came and did a lesson with resistance painting. Students practiced drawing snowflakes on blue paper with white crayons. When they felt ready they were given white paper to draw on with thier white crayons. Then they painted using water colors to make the design appear.

In P.E. students had a challenege to make a snowman out of P.E. equipment. They were very creative and made some great snowmen!

We ended the week with some benchmark assessments, this is the first time first graders are given a short story and timed for a minute to see how many words they can read. Everyone worked hard. We will continue our other benchmark assessments the first full week of January.

We also braved the cold and enjoyed some extra play time out in our outdoor space.

Please make sure you are sending your student in with a waterbottle, inside shoes (not winter boots), and warm outerwear for recess. Thank you!

Important Dates:

December 20th Early Release for Winter Break

December 21st-January 1st Winter Break

January 2nd Return from Winter Break

January 20th No School in observance of Martin Luther King Jr. Day

First graders have been busy the past month.

Before December break First Grade traveled around the world learning about different traditions that were happening. Some of the traditions we learned about were St. Nicholas's day, Hanukkah, Christmas in Australia, Kwanzaa, and where gingerbread houses originated. We will continue to learn about other traditions around the world such as the Lunar New Year and Ramadan, as well as others.

First graders have begun to learn about the sun, moon, and stars. While learning how they move, we are also learning why authors write the books that they have written. We have discussed how some authors write to teach us something, while others write to entertain, and still more authors write to both entertain and teach us something. We will continue this unit over the next few weeks.

In math we are moving to adding and subtracting within 20. While we practice our math facts, we are looking at equations and deciding if they are equal or not equal. Students have loved playing team games where they all have to agree on the answer their group gives and explain why they have chosen their answer. We also have been practicing math while we are solving the mystery of the Super Bad Super Hero. We've solved 3 clues using our counting, adding and subtracting skills. It has been so much fun!

Before break we got together with our buddy class, the third grade and learned a little about the winter solstice. The third graders taught us a song and we read The Shortest Day by Susan Cooper. After the song and story students worked in pairs to create a popcorn, orange, and cranberry garland that we put out front in a tree as both a decoration and food for the birds. It was great to see the teamwork of the olders with the youngers.

We also have had extra art time with Kate from the River Gallery School of Art. We have worked with resistance paintings, drawing winter things with white crayons and then painting over it with water colors. Last week we explored textures with clay and different tools.

Farmer Sarah came and talked about the harvest of the month with first graders. We talked about how we eat the root of some vegetables such as beats, potatoes, and carrots. Students were given chopping tools to chop up root vegetables. Then Farmer Sarah made a fire and roasted the veggies. Once they were done cooking, everyone was able to do a taste test. While the veggies were cooking, students played in our snowy outdoor classroom. It felt great to be out!

First graders continue to be busy growing as learners.

We had a very short week after Martin Luther King Jr.'a Day and an exciting snow day last week.

First graders are working on adding and subtracting within 20. We began by talking about teen numbers and what makes a teen number. Then we moved on to adding 3 numbers. They are great detectives for friends of ten. They have found that adding the two together that equal ten makes it easier to add the final number.

First graders continue to read books about the sun, moon, and stars. After reading we discuss why the author has written the book, what are the major events, who are the characters, and what is the setting. We've also begun to discuss the central message of a story, or what the story is telling us/teaching us. First graders have done a great job talking in small groups, with partners, and as a whole class. They use respectful words, even if they disagree.

Fridays we have joined up with kindergarten to complete a marshmallow and spaghetti building challenge. Students listened to a book about an architecht and tools. Then they drew their own designs with a partner one Friday. The following Friday they looked at their plan with their partners and were able to build using only 20 marshmallows and 20 spaghetti noodles. The first graders were great role models with their careful listening and sharing materials. We will have one more challenge this coming Friday.

First graders have done a lot of growing this past month.

In EL we continue to learn about patterns in the sky. Ask your first grader what makes day and night, about the patterns that we see with the moon or stars. We will begin writing a narrative poem to demonstrate our knowledge of adjectives and prepositions.

In math we've been working hard on adding and subtracting within 20. Students are trying out different strategies such as counting on, counting backwards, crossing out to show subtraction, making a ten.

In Farm to School students have taste tested maple granola, had paper airplane flying contests, and were chemists seeing what happens when you mix acids and bases together.

Tattling has become quite a thing with first graders. We are working on only telling if someone is going to get hurt, someone is hurt, someone is sick, or we've already tried our own words with friends and it didn't work. We have worked with students on what to say when someone is doing something that we don't want them to do or say to us.

We had our first every Potato Olympics, first graders had a great time decorating potatoes and having them compete in different events such as the high dive, ski jump, weight lifting, and running.

First graders also chopped and roasted carrots over a fire with maple syrup and helped Farmer Sarah tap a maple tree in the second grade's outdoor classroom.

First graders have done a lot of growing.

In UFLI, we are reviewing all our short vowel sounds and consonant blends. We have also been reviewing heart words, or words that don't follow the sound rules that first graders have been taught. Heart words that we know are: and, as, are, a, the, is, said, to, do, of, see, he, be, me, from, look, book, are, was, you, what, and have.

Math time has brought us to addition and subtraction with tens. There have been great discussions about when you add ten the ones place doesn't change. First graders have also learned a new game, race to 100 where they practice their friends of ten and regrouping to make a ten.

We have had a lot more time outside time. We have brought reading and writing out in the afternoons during out skills time, and then just stayed outside to play for the last 15 minutes of every day that hasn't been raining. We've also enjoyed setting up our Roxaboxen village in our outdoor space.

First graders have also been working on poems about what the moon sees and what the sun sees. We looked at other first grade student work to discuss what makes something high quality work. Peer feedback is a hard skill, but first graders have done a great job using sentence starters to give kind, specific, helpful feedback to help their peers create high quality work.

Important Dates:

May 16th Field trip to BMAC

May 26th - No School Memorial Day Observed

June 18th - Last Day of School (early dismissal)

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