Jefferson School PJ Day tomorrow! Have your child wear PJ's and bring a blanket/stuffed animal to snuggle up and read with!

Secret Sight Words!!!!

As a fun way of practicing sight words, the class painted holiday lights which "revealed" mystery sight words! They loved the activity!

Movement Breaks

We work hard. We focus. We learn. Movement breaks are essential in helping us do our best. My favorite websites are Gonoodle.com and Calm.com for fun activities for kids. Check them out! Here's a video of our class from earlier this week!

All About Recess-Interactive Writing

Over the last few weeks, we jumped right in to a new writing genre-nonfiction! We started out by brainstorming what we were "experts" in. As you can imagine, first graders are all about what they know and are very eager to share! We generated quite a list of topics and then I modeled how to break down their topic into categories. From there, I showed them how to take notes and eventually turn those notes into paragraphs that teach the reader new facts about their topic. While paragraphing and exciting leads are not technically a first grade standard, coming from third grade, I felt compelled to challenge them....and they rose to the occasion! Once they saw how writers go through steps to put together an all about book, we decided to write one together. This time, they did most of the work! Recess was chosen as their expert topic & they came up with rules, what to wear, playing & equipment as their categories. It took a solid week, but they wrote their own piece on chart paper, with interesting leads & supporting details!!!! Today, we edited it (with our magic editing glasses) & tomorrow it will be published! They have also each written an all about on a topic of their choice. This first attempt will be coming home next week for you to enjoy! So proud of my little munchkins! 

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving! I hope you are surrounded by family, friends and good good food!

Sharing Writing with Kindergarteners

Practice Reading Fluently with Our Published Writing

What better way to practice fluency than with our own writing...and with a captive audience-a quiet stuffed animal! To make this author celebration a fun & exciting time, I had the students practice reading their story to a Beanie Boo, modeling good expression, loud, confident voices & showing off the pictures! Tomorrow, they get to practice again & then read to small groups in a Kindergarten classroom...pics to follow!

Paper Pass Back Fridays

Just a reminder that I save all papers for our Friday paper pass back. This means that your child will have A LOT of things in his or her folder on Fridays. Please make sure you go through each item with your child because it shows hard work & a lot of effort! Thank you!

Book Fair tomorrow at 9:20!

The Scholastic Book fair is here this week and our class is going tomorrow at 9:20. You are more than welcome to join us at this time or you can send money in with your child. This is completely OPTIONAL! Kids who don't have money  still be able to browse the books & get excited about reading!!!

Look at our little pumpkins!!!

Things that make me laugh....

I just cut 8 inches off my hair over the weekend & the kids were surprised when they saw me this morning. One student said, "I love your haircut, Mrs. Marks! You look like George Washington, only he died!" Out of the mouths of babes😜

Thank you, Mrs. LeClair

Magic editing glasses make the writing process way more fun!

Guest Reader

Guest Reader-Thank you, Mr. Boucher

Building Stamina & Recording Our Thinking

Our Morning Message:Incorporating Math

Our First Guest Reader

Thank you, Mrs. Vallee

Bottles, Cans & Tabs

Bottles, Cans & Tabs

Our first collection for the year will be this FRIDAY, OCTOBER 2ND! Please send your child in with an clean and counted bottles/cans. The bag should be labeled with the total amount on the front. Tabs can be sent in too, but DO NOT need to be counted. Please put them in a small, ziploc baggie. Thank you!

Curriculum News

Fundations

Unit 2 packet will be coming home tomorrow! Included in it are the first 6 "trick words" to practice, as well as reference sheets for what we are reviewing. Feel free to cut them out, play games with them, read them as flashcards and have your child practice, practice, practice! There's no need to send anything back into school unless your child wants to share his/her work!

Topic 1 Math

We just completed topic 3 in math and are moving into topic 1. The district math specialists changed the order of the topics to meet the needs of students....I'm not going crazy and yes, you are getting the right papers! I am holding onto all their tests until conference time, but if there's an issue I will certainly get in touch with you! For their first test, they did really well!

Cultural Enrichment Today!