Welcome Back! Can you believe it's already December?

It was so nice to be back today!  
There were lots of smiling faces ready for December!

I have finally decided on a craft for our Craft Fair.  

This year we will be making popsicle stick

SNOWFLAKES!

A model snowflake.  The ones that the students will make will look much better than mine!

We will be selling our snowflakes for 50 cents each after the Holiday Concert on Wednesday, December 10th.

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Book Orders are also coming home today!

They will be due on Friday, December 5th in order to arrive before vacation.

You can click on the link below to order online.

If you would like to order books as a gift for your child, I can put them aside when they come in.  You may then pick them up in the front office.  Please email me if you are ordering the books as a gift.

Book Order Information

Scholastic Book Orders
You can order ANYTIME 
using the steps and link below

Dear Parents,

Now it's easier than ever to find the perfect books for your child by shopping on the Scholastic Bookclub website!

By registering, you may order books directly from the website at anytime.  You do not need a flyer, but can browse books on the scholastic website.

Here's how it works:

• Simply sign up at  https://clubs2.scholastic.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/LogonForm?fileName=get-started
• On the Parent Page, click the Register button in the "First Time Here" section.  Register for your own username and password.  When prompted, enter the one time Class Activation Code H3X42.  This unique code ensures that your child's order is sent to me.

• Select the books you'd like to order.  There are many more books available on the website than in the flyers that get sent home.

• When you order online, I will get an email from Scholastic letting me know that you have placed an order.  I will place your order as soon as I get it!  Your order should arrive at school in approximately 2 weeks.

Happy Reading!

November

What a busy month November has been!

The snow is falling and December is almost here!

We had our first Four Winds Class!
We learned about Sunlight and Shadows!

Just a few odds and ends as the weather gets colder...

Yes, those are snowflakes!
Time for winter clothing everyday!

Please be sure your child comes to school everyday with snow pants and boots and hats and mittens or gloves.  It may seem nice in morning, but as you know, the weather can quickly change!  Our playground is very windy, making it seem colder than the air temperature.   We go out everyday unless it is raining steadily or the wind chill is below zero.Children should also have indoor shoes everyday.  Children may keep their indoor shoes in their cubby over night and on the weekends.   I also highly encourage all students to have an extra set of clothes and chap stick.  I will be sending all clothes and shoes home the Friday before all long vacations (December, February, April).

Our Annual Adopt a Family Craft Fair is coming!

Our annual Craft fair and Winter Concert will be Wednesday, December 10th.   For those of you who are new to our school, every year Underhill ID adopts a family in need.  Each classroom makes small homemade crafts.  We then have a Craft Fair following our Winter Concert to sell our crafts.  The next day  several students from each classroom go shopping for our adopted family.  We then wrap the gifts and enjoy the spirit of giving and helping those less fortunate than us!  Last year our class made cinnamon ornaments.  I'm not sure what we're doing, but it'll be fun!  

Just a reminder... 

No School - Monday and Tuesday (November 24, 25) for Teacher Inservice and November 26-28 for Thanksgiving!
Report Cards will be sent home with your child Friday, December 5th.

In math, both first and second graders have been learning about Geometry.  First graders have been focusing on identifying and describing triangles and rectangles by counting sides and corners as well as composing shapes from other shapes.  First graders finished up Unit 2 with the end of unit test Friday.
Second graders will be finishing up their Geometry unit this week.  We have been identifying characteristics of Quadrilaterals, Rectangles, and Squares.  Ask your second grader what properties quadrilaterals need in order to be Rectangles.  Finally, second graders created rectangles using inch tiles and described the rectangle by  how many tiles in each row, and how many in each column.  Ask your child the trick we use to  remember which way columns and rows go!  

Please read the note below for important information about Fasttmath to be sure your child's lessons are being completed.

1) Students should ALWAYS click the "QUIT & EXIT" button within the game console when they are done with their session. They should never click the red 'x' in the top right corner to exit the program. When students do this, it doesn't always save their user data from the lessons they just completed and doesn't "log" the session.

2) If a student quits the lesson before playing a game they will be asked to redo the lesson. The first portion of the lesson is learning the focus facts. The game portion of the lesson is "practicing" the new facts integrated with prior facts learned. 

3) If a student takes longer than 15 minutes on a single lesson, the program assumes the student was highly distracted during the lesson and will ask them to repeat it. This is built in so that students won't play with the TV in the background or chat with a neighbor while playing. It's meant to be quick and focused.

Just a reminder that Fasttmath is part of 2nd grade homework and that your child should be completing 3-5 lessons a week.  If your child is unable to complete lessons at home, they will need to do them at school during Explore time.

We celebrated our Writers on Thursday with our Story Sharing!  Students shared their favorite small moment story with their desk groups and guests.  It was so nice to have so many families attend! The finished books will be sent home in December. Our next writing unit will be learning how to write informational pieces.  We will integrate this with our next Science unit, Motion!

We had a full house for our Writers Share Day!

For Social Studies students identified important places in our community and important people (that would be everyone!).  We are in the process of making a small model of the Underhill-Jericho community that will be displayed in our classroom soon!  We will soon be learning about the different roles in our community and how communities work together.

Some Important Dates!

Mark Your Calendars!

A Writers' Celebration

Thursday, November 13th

11:00-11:30

(right before our annual Thanksgiving lunch)

As you know, the children have been very busy writing Small Moment stories.  We will be finishing up this unit soon.  To celebrate, we would like to invite families as our writers share their finished books.  We hope to see you there!

Ms Coulombe will be at a Beth Moore workshop Friday, October 31st to learn more about teaching writing!

A Trip to the Flynn Theater!

On Tuesday, November 18th, the Kindergarten and 1-2 classes will travel to the Flynn Theater in Burlington to see the performance Lilly's Purple Plastic Purse.   Due to limited seating, we are not be able to have parent chaperones for this trip.  Be on the look out for the permission slip soon!

Social Studies

Our Community

Our Classroom Community
works together to create.

We have finished up our unit on Life Cycles and Organisms.  We are beginning our first Social Studies unit, Our Community.  We will learn that there are many different types of communities but that a community  is a group of people that have something in common, work together, have similar needs, or live in the same location.  As a class we will be exploring and identifying what makes Underhill-Jericho a special community as well as identifying other communities, such as our family, school, scouts,  that we may be a part of and the importance of different roles within a community.  We will also learn beginning map skills.  Please follow this link for more information about this unit.  

Our classroom community
 works together to create.

My favorite Picture from recess

First and Second Grade Curriculum Summary

Grade 1-2 Reading and Writing

In our work with students,we help them become readers and writers in the fullest sense. In this unit, we will be establishing student habits as readers and writers and teach them to use a whole repertoire of strategies to read, write, and comprehend text. We will also be setting up the structure and expectations for a balanced literacy program that includes read aloud, shared reading, guided reading, independent reading. In this unit children produce small moment stories and move with independence through the writing process by sketching, writing, revising, and editing.  In this unit writers work towards writing narratives in which they recount 2 or more sequenced events, including details, using temporal words to signal event order and to provide some sense of closure. Children work in partnerships to respond to questions and comments from peers to add details to their writing. This unit should take from 5-6 weeks.

Math

Grade 1  Unit 1 Students will learn, practice and know... How to use strategies to accurately count a set of objects by 1s. The relationships between and among numbers including understanding the magnitude and position of numbers on a number line. How to compose numbers up to 10 with 2 addends How to make sense of and develop strategies to solve addition problems with small numbers How to use manipulatives, drawings, tools, and notation to show strategies and solutions. Grade 2  Unit 1   How to use strategies for accurately counting a set of objects by ones and groups. The magnitude and sequence of numbers up to 120. How to make sense of and develop strategies to solve addition and subtraction problems with totals up to 45. How to use manipulatives, drawings, tools, and notation to show strategies and solutions Addition combinations to 10 + 10. Understand what it means to double a quantity. Demonstrate fluency with the Plus 1, Plus 2, and Make 10 addition combinations. Have at least one strategy for solving addition and subtraction (as removal) story problems. Interpret addition and subtraction story problems (read a story problem and determine what needs to be figured out). Determine the difference between two numbers (up to 45) Count a set of objects up to 60 in at least one way. Science Organisms The focus of this unit is to observe and collect data on the changes that happen in life cycles, and then record that information accurately with pictures (scientific representations) and words (labels). The focus should guide students to understand that ALL organisms have a life cycle (even the ones that don't go through metamorphosis) and the female adult organisms reproduce and die. The cycle begins again with a NEW organism (the baby). For additional Grade 1 and Grade 2 Curriculum Information, click on the link below. CESU K-12 Curriculum

Fall Hike

What a beautiful day for our

Fall Hike!

Thanks to all the parents who were able to hike with us!

 

 

Fall Hike!

Next Friday, September 26th, is our annual Fall Hike at Mill's River Park!  We will be leaving the classroom at 12:30.  If you are able to come, please let me know ahead of time, so we can plan groups. Please arrive by 12:20 if you plan on volunteering.   I hope to see you next Friday!

A Day of Butterflies!

Today when we got to school four of our butterflies had emerged from their Chrysalis.  We soon noticed that another chrysalis was clear signaling that the butterfly inside was also ready to emerge! We set up the ipevo camera and projected the chrysalis on the Smartboard.  All of a sudden, the butterfly started to emerge!

The kids were very excited to see the four butterflies this morning!

A close up look!

So cool!

Here comes our 5th butterfly!

It's so exciting!!!

We greeted each other at morning meeting with the Butterfly greeting!

At the end of the day we brought our butterflies outside to let them go.

There were 3 girl butterflies, and 2 boy butterflies.

Good-bye, Butterflies!  Have a safe journey!