Leverett School Grade 1 Joyful Learning For Young Children 

Thank you to all families who were able to join us for Open House!  I look forward to talking with you more about your child’s progress at Parent Teacher Conferences coming up soon.  Here is a quick snap shot of our week at school in First Grade!

A few important things happening at school next week:

*Picture Day is on Monday!

*We will also be starting homework on Monday.  Please look for more information coming home in your child’s backpack.

*Open House is on Wednesday, September 26, from 6-7pm.  Please come in to visit our classroom and see some of your child’s work.  I look forward to meeting you!

We have been creating classroom rules and routines together.  We talked about what makes a great classmate and how we can work together to make our hopes and dreams for First Grade come true.

We continue to learn about the materials in our classroom like the tubs of books and ABC games.  We are slowly getting to know all the teachers who will be working in our room this year.

This is our new quiet calming corner that children use when they need a break.  Sometimes, children also use these headphones when the room is too loud and they want to have a quiet space to work.

Today we were able to watch a caterpillar emerge into a butterfly!  Oh, the excitement!!  The kids sat down and wanted to be “scientists” by writing and/or drawing what they saw.  It was very inspiring to see.

This fit in perfectly with our new science word this week:  metamorphosis.  

Come check out the pretty bulletin board the kids made, hanging right outside our classroom.

 

We also went outside for Forest Fun today.  I wish I brought the camera!  The kids went in search of three interesting things in nature and brought them back to our circle of rocks to share.  The whole group was so excited to listen to their friends and did a really beautiful sharing on the important treasures in nature that are all around us.

 

Keep sending in those bugs if you find them!  We will make insect dioramas next week.

 

Have a great weekend!!

We’ve had a busy, hot week at school this week!  Much of our time has been spent getting to know each other, our classroom, and the routines of First Grade.  We have a wonderful group of kids who have been doing a fantastic job at this.

One new thing we are planning on implementing this year is something we are calling “Forest Fun”.  It’s when we will take our science curriculum outside and use the beautiful forest around our school to learn about nature and the environment.  This week we went out to the circle of rocks on our playground to gather together and learn about the goals of Forest Fun.  Then we were off on a bug scavenger hunt to kick off our study of insects!

We also explored some of the fun tubs of books we have in our classroom library.

We learned how to play some new math games and ABC games.

  How do you like our new yoga ball chairs?  They are a big hit with the kids.  One of my goals this year is to create more flexible seating for children to choose from when doing their work.

Also, a quick note on birthdays that I forgot to add to the back to school newsletter. We have a general school policy against sending in birthday treats because so many children have food allergies and food preferences here at school, which means many of our kids can not participate in special snacks so they end up being excluded.  However, we still do celebrate birthdays!  On your child’s birthday, we will give out a special certificate, sing a song, let your child choose a small prize, and announce his/her birthday over the morning announcements.  Sometimes families send in non-food items with their kids to share with the class on birthdays like stickers or pencils. Those are always welcome!

Hope you have a wonderful weekend, and we look forward to more fun in First Grade next week!