Grade 1-2

Dear Families,

We had a wonderful trip to the Berkshire Botanical Garden. We went there to study evergreens. The first part of our experience was outside among the frosted evergreens at the gardens. We learned about the four varieties of evergreens; Spruce, Fir, Pine, and Juniper. There is a poem that we learned to help us identify which is which. The children brought home a copy of it on Wednesday. At school each child drew and cut out an evergreen, which has a fact pasted on the front of it. They are displayed on the board, with fresh evergreens surrounding the drawings. It smells really great in our room. After our outdoor exploration we went inside to make paper. The children made slurry (paper pulp), added bits of nature to the screen then padded the pulp dry with a sponge. They are quite beautiful and drying in our classroom. Please take a moment to come in and look at the paper and the display. Enjoy the pictures below.

We continue to write poetry. We compared a poet’s notes to a scientist’s notes when looking at the same object. They wrote several poems about weather. Then selected one to illustrate with pen and watercolor. They had to edit and rewrite the published poem. These are also on display in the classroom. We spent one day writing “terse verses”, which are very short rhyming poems. They are beginning to understand that poets can write about anything at all. On the day it snowed we wrote snow poems.

In math we started a unit on money. I didn’t realize how difficult it was going to be to find a penny and a picture? I guess the culture of paper pictures is gone. Digital has changed how we record time passing. In any case the children did learn what year they were born in and also that coins have a ton of information on them. Now we learn to combine different coins together to get a variety of sums. They are also learning their math facts quickly. I compared it to reading. We can read some words “in a snap”, without too much thought. Well we have to learn some math facts in the same way. They need to be quick and accurate. To make if fun we play “Beat the Calculator”. Your child should be able to explain the game.

Thank you for bringing in the gifts, the Book Fair form, pillows, and manila envelopes. It is a lot to remember and I appreciate all your efforts.

Happy Birthday to Bronly and Everett!

Have a great weekend! Let’s hope it snows.
Fondly,
Miss Milani

Families,

It was a delight to meet with all of you during Parent/Teacher Conferences. I learned so much from you and hopefully you got a glimpse of your child’s experience thus far in first grade. Thank you for your support!

We have been incredibly productive in the last few weeks. We finished our story “The Fairy Rebel” and the event was celebrated by Ms. Milani dressing as the main character, Tiki, who was a pink, rosebud fairy who wore blue jeans. The children were sad when the story was over. That is a sign of a good story.

The children are all really enthused about reading. They eagerly practice every day during Read & Rest. It is a quiet, focused time for everyone. We have finished all vowels except u and we are on to digraphs next week. We call them “H brothers”. We finished Personal Narratives and the children published their pieces on Grandparents. I hope you have an opportunity to share them with your family members. We started Poetry this week. They are learning to write poetry about any object or thought. We say that “poetry is powerful thoughts in tiny packages”.

We started our unit on local Native Americans. We collected lots of information and data on both of our field trips. We read Native American tales and legends, learned songs, made instruments, and compared our lives to the lives of children from tribes long ago. My good friend and colleague, Mrs. Delmolino, came into the class to help us make Indian apple head dolls out of our dried apples. We made talking sticks and recreated the village in Washington, CT in miniature, in our classroom. We are preparing to present much of what we are learning about Trees and Woodland Indians to you on Monday, November 25th at 2:00. Be prepared to learn something from your children.

The children are working hard on reading and solving word, math problems in subtraction and addition. They have also been asked to write their own word problems based on Halloween or Native Americans, Then they share them with classmates and solve each others’ problems. This is hard work and they have greeted the challenge willingly.

We have been talking about cooperation, which is the fist unit in our Values curriculum. In order to earn a pom pom they all need to cooperate and listen to the teacher. They have done very well in the last few months since we stated the pom pom jar. They have earned a day of ice cream sundaes and most recently they earned a movie and popcorn. Bravo!
They are now working on a Pajama Day. There are 4 pom poms in the jar.

Enjoy the crisp, cool, days!
Best,
Miss Milani

Our trip was really wonderful. We had a Native American male guide who was 21 years old. The children were so attentive and he was incredibly knowledgeable. The children learned a great deal and we will share this with you at our presentation on November 25th. As far as the children were concerned the trip was smooth and easy. They were really fantastic!

Enjoy the small glimpse of our experience in the pictures below.

Today in the library, First Graders were greeted by a chicken (me in my chicken costume!). Though the Halloween decorations have been removed from the library, it’s still fun to dress up and act like a bird. We shared my two favorite poultry tales today: Louise, The Adventures of A Chicken by Kate DiCamillo, and Interrupting Chicken by David Ezra Stein. These are two of my absolute favorite stories because of their humor and ability to capture both the real and the fantastic!  We concluded with book browsing and checkout. Please be sure to send in all those long overdue library books! Happy Reading!