I hope you all enjoyed your Thanksgiving and the time spent with your families.  Just thought I would update our blog with a few pictures from the past few weeks and with new information about  upcoming academic units, etc.  Please feel free to either call or email me should you have any questions. 

 Here we are making beaded bracelets as we listen to a Thanksgiving story.  Each color of the bracelet had significance.  Ask your child to share the bracelet and story with you.

The Thanksgiving Feast

 Singing our songs with Mrs. Russo.

 Enjoying the food! Yummy:)

Learning to read in partnership with one another.

What's coming up in First grade...

Math: We will begin Chapter 4 in the Go Math program.  This unit will focus on using strategies to add and subtract, learning about related facts, and problem solving.  

Writing: We are finishing up our "Small Moments" writing unit and will begin a "How To" unit next.  

Reading: Short and Long vowel work, choosing the "just right" book, and partnership.

Social Studies: Finishing up the Block Buddy Atlas program & reading weekly Scholastic News.

Science: On hold waiting for the district Science Kits to arrive.

Caring Companions (4th grade buddies): We made "We are Thankful" signs for Westmere that were hung throughout the building.  They looked terrific!! We made Thanksgiving cards for the residents of the Mercy Care Nursing Home on Western Avenue.  We are certain that receiving the cards brightened their day.  Getting ready to introduce the Men's Homeless Shelter project to the students for late December and early January. 

Winterfest: The annual tradition of gathering the first graders to make crafts and enjoy treats will continue on Monday, December 22nd.  More specific information will follow later this week. 

Have a wonderful week! 

11.18.14

Thanksgiving Feast...

On Tuesday, November 25th all four first grade classes will be having a Thanksgiving Feast beginning at 11:00 am. in the small gymnasium.  Tomorrow you will receive a letter and a lunch order form for your child.  My sincere apologies for the late notice to our class.  I photocopied these notices for all four first grade classes, but neglected to send ours home.  Oh my!!  Until today, I had thought I sent this information home to you via your child's backpack folder! Now it makes sense to me why I haven't received any lunch menus back from you:)

Lauren Schreiber and Rose Catalfamo, our two room moms will be taking care of the necessary shopping that we will need for all the food items. We will be feasting on turkey sandwiches, bagels, tortilla chips, fruit and a cookie.  As described in the letter, the kids will be dressing up in a few holiday related costumes that we are making in class.  Additionally, our incredible music teacher, Mrs. Judy Russo is teaching the first graders a few songs to sing at this event.  

If it all possible, please send in your child's lunch order form and the $4.00 cash payment by Friday.  This way Rose and Lauren will have a chance to get what we need over the weekend.  If you can't send in the order form by Friday, please send it by Monday. 

Charlotte's Web...

This Friday, November 21st our class will be watching the children's movie Charlotte's Web as a culmination to reading the book as a read aloud each day.  Charlotte's Web is my favorite children's book and each year I really look forward to sharing it with the children.  So many wonderful themes and messages about friendship.  In all likelihood, we won't be able to finish watching it Friday, so we will continue watching it on Monday as well. The children are very excited about watching this movie together.  I will be providing some snacks to enjoy during the movie. 

A few notes:

Thank you so much for all your effort put forth on the Thanksgiving Turkey Disguise project.  The turkeys came out FABULOUS!! So incredibly creative.  

Important dates to remember... there will be no school on Wednesday, 11/26 - Friday, 11/28 due to the Thanksgiving holiday.  Classes will resume on Monday, 12/1. 

Thank you very much for all the wonderful donations that made our class Halloween party such a big success.  The kids had a great time playing the games and enjoying all the treats.  I hope everyone had a safe and fun evening trick or treating.  

This Tuesday will be our last Fall conference day.  This Tuesday, November 4th is a full day of conferences so students do not have school.  I will be meeting with the Conboy, Boguslavskiy, Hayes, Provost, Yafayeva, and Stryker families. I look forward to our time together.  

This Friday, November 7th is the PTA Family Fun Night from 6-8.  It's a great night filled with fun activities for the kids! 

There will be no school on Tuesday, November 11th due to Veterans Day.  All district and school offices will be closed.   

Our next big celebration in first grade will be the Thanksgiving Feast.  This is a time when all first grade gathers in the small gymnasium to feast with one another as our Native American and Pilgrims did with one another.  We will be wearing costumes, singing a few songs, and enjoying lunch.  More details will follow about the date and time.  

Thanksgiving recess is Wednesday, 11/26-Friday, 11/28.  Classes resume on Monday, 12/1.  

We are moving right along academically...

During Writing Workshop, we are in the midst of a narrative unit.  We are connecting personal experiences with books (mentor texts).  These books contain themes such as "a time when the relatives visited", "a time when you learned something new", a "time that you were worried about something",  and a "time that you were in danger".  The goal is for the students to explore with writing in a more in depth way zooming in on a small moment in their lives.  This has been a fun writing unit and the students are definitely writing some wonderful pieces.  

During Math, we are in Chapter 3 of the Go Math program.  We are learning about both addition and subtraction.  The students are progressing quite nicely in math.  They have learned the importance of reading the language rich directions with purpose and intent in order to proper answer the problems/questions they are faced with in their math journals. New vocabulary words such as adding to, addition and subtraction sentence, fewer than are all words that your child is becoming very familiar with each day.

During Reading Workshop, we are working in small guided groups learning about strategies to solve unknown words and patterns within words.  This past week we learned about the -ot and -ig word families.  Using strategies such as "lips the fish", "stretchy snake", or "chunky monkey" will be helpful to you child while trying to decode (figure out) unknown words.  Encourage your child to looks for patterns within a word.  Look for one of the "H brothers" ie. TH, SH, WH, or CH rather than trying to sound out each letter individually.  Each night your child should be bringing home a book in a bag to practice reading with you. 

During Word Work, we continue to work on five new sight words a week.  I didn't get a chance to correct the Friday Try-It on Friday with all the afternoon Halloween activities, but I do have them done now to give to the students tomorrow at school.The students are doing a great job on this weekly task.  Developing sight word vocabulary is an essential way to help build your child's reading skills.

During Social Studies, we are working on the Block Buddy Atlas program as well as reading our weekly subscription to Scholastic News learning about current events.  Once the Block Buddy Atlas program is complete our science kits will in all likelihood arrive for us to begin Science each day.  The students will love the hands on experiences in Science.  We will form partnerships and conduct experiments and journal our observations.  

As the air becomes much more cooler, please pack hats and mitten/gloves, and a warm coat.  We will go outside for recess each day to get fresh air and exercise as long as the temperature stays agreeable.   Since Winter is such a long time here in the Northeast, I like to take the students outside for recess for as long as I can.  Otherwise, we will have indoor recess.  During the winter months we will plan several outside recess times so that we can enjoy the snow! 

As always, please don't hesitate to reach out to me should you have any comments, questions, or concerns.  

Have a great week!

Take care-

Stephanie Brennan

Welcome to our class blog!

We're off to a great start in first grade.  My apologies for the delay in getting this year's blog up and running.  We've been quite busy the first few months!!

It was so nice to meet all of you at our Open House.  I hope that you enjoyed hearing about first grade and what your child's day will be like this year in my class.  Thank you kindly for all the "Wish List" items that have been sent in for our class.  We really appreciate your generosity as these are items we use daily.

Essie Rogers mom, Rose Catalafamo and Leah Schreiber-Romeo's mom, Lauren have graciously offered to be our Room Moms for the year.  They will be in touch with details of the upcoming Halloween Party soon.

We had a terrific time at Indian Ladder Farms on our first grade field trip.  The kids enjoyed seeing this working farm.  They especially enjoyed seeing all the animals and learning about the apple growing process.  I hope you enjoyed the delicious apples that were sent home in your child's back pack.  We really enjoyed the cider doughnuts and apple cider!

How wonderful it was to have Brady's grandmother, Shirley Arnsberg, come in to do an activity with the class.  The students loved making Goldilocks puppets and learning a new, fun song. We were also treated with delicious cookies as well!

We've already had several "What's Up at Westmere" assemblies.  What's Up at Westmere is an all school assembly where the students come together in the large gymnasium once a month.  Different activities take place during these assemblies.  Often times we get a wonderful preview of the talented musicians we have at WES.  We are very lucky to have such talented music teachers at WES who guide our students so beautifully.

We started October with our annual Schwest run/walk.  What a great day for the whole school to come together to exercise simultaneously.  For those of you that are new to WES.. Schwest is a combination of our two PE teachers names, Tom Schwan and Anne Reed-Best! It was a beautiful fall day and the students had a fun time cheering on the other students in our school.  Big thanks go out to Tom and Anne for all their hard work.

Every other month throughout the school year we will have a Bus Evacuation Drill that we call Peaceful School Bus Drill.  The students board the school buses at 9:00 am and listen to the drivers about bus safety.  When the students evacuate the buses they go to an assigned classroom for a lesson with teacher leaders.  There is a theme with each evacuation drill that the whole school works on at the same time.  It's a super way to talk with the students to assist in problem solving strategies on the bus and safety.  The drivers also attend the lessons with the teachers.

Last week the Kindergarten and First grade classes participated in Fire Prevention week activities with several of our local fire departments.  Several trucks came to WES and we listened to a fire safety presentation, viewed several fire trucks, and even got to climb on one of the trucks.

Our Parent-Teacher conferences will begin this Thursday.  Don't forget that it is a half day for your child.  We will dismiss at 11:30.  I will be meeting with the Rogers, Fanning, Hook, Manga, and Rizvanovic families on this conference day.  Next Monday, October 27th I will meet with the Nelligan, Scully, Bailey, Allibert, O'Brien, Stryker, and Townsend families.  Students will dismiss at 11:30 on Oct. 27th as well.  On Tuesday, November 4th our students do not have school at all.  I will be meeting with the Conboy, Boguslavskiy, Hayes, Provost, Yafayeva, and Stryker families.  I look forward to meeting with all of you to discuss your child's progress in first grade.

The PTA Scholastic Book Fair will be held this whole week.  Children will be able to purchase books during our regularly scheduled library time on Thursday afternoon. If you'd like your child to purchase books, please send the money in a marked envelope.

Our Halloween festivities will begin at 12:00 on Friday, October 31st.  A flyer was sent home severe l weeks ago in your child's take home detailing the plans for the afternoon.  If you need another flyer, please just send me an email and I'd be happy to share another copy with you.  Thank you in advance for all your donations to help make our parties so successful.

My posts won't be this long all the time:)  Just trying to catch you up on a few things that have been happening in first grade since September.

I hope you had a wonderful weekend with your families. Enjoy the week!
Stephanie

                  Learning a new math game called "Subtraction Slide" and working in partnerships.  

                                                               

                              Indian Ladder Farm Field Trip

                                                                 

                                         Fire Prevention Week