Important End of the Year School Dates

June 2, 2011
Dear Parents and Families,
The end is near! As I am getting overwhelmed with the entire end of the year hoopla I thought you might be feeling the same way. In an attempt to organize myself I made a list of important dates and thought it might be beneficial to all of you as well. There is a lot of going on. So here are some important dates for you as we wrap up our school year.

June 8th- Dance Recital for all my little dancers

June 9th- Enrichment

June 10th- Anthony Crossman birthday celebration & Yearbook Signing

If you bought a yearbook for your child they will get the yearbook that morning. The children will have time to have friends from all grades to sign it. Please don’t let your child keep bringing in the book after that day as it is a distraction.

June 14th- Book Swap in 1st Grade

We will have our own book swap in our classroom. Each student may bring books to trade with their classmates. If your child does not bring in books they may not participate. Each student who does participate will go home with the same amount of books as they brought in for the exchange.

June 17th- Summer birthday celebration & Sound Waters Visits

We will be celebrating Madeline Maxfield and Kaarlo Serrano’s birthday since their birthdays fall during the summer months when we are not in school.
Sound Waters will visit our first grade classroom with some cool creatures. Students will get the chance to see all the creatures up close. Students will also get the chance to go out and explore at the beach with the guidance of the Sound Waters teachers. Please have your child wear an older pair of sneakers as I know some of them have fancy sneakers (Twinkle Toes) that we don’t want to get ruined.

June 21- End of Year Celebration & Beach Party

End of Year Celebration will be in our 1st Grade Classroom at 9am. We would like to invite our parents in for a special wrap up of the year. We hope that you can all join us. I will also be giving students their moving up certificates that day Refreshments will be served.

Beach Party – see extra beach note. Students should wear sunscreen, gym uniform and sneakers to school. Students may bring a brown bag lunch, water bottle, a towel, a hat, beach toys, and beach shoes in a bag.

June 22-Awards Ceremony for grades K-4
10:45am in Gym/Auditorium

Students will be given a certificate by Mrs. Serafino and Sr. Anne Landry for completing their school year. Students will also receive an ice pop at lunch to celebrate.

June 23- Last Day of School (½ Day of School)

Unfortunately, I will not be here for the last day of school. About a year ago, my best friend from California asked me to be her Matron of Honor. She then asked me when school would be out so she could pick her wedding date and to make sure I would be out of school. Well, it was a great plan until we hit the month of January and we had ALL that snow. The snow came and kept coming! So there is my story. Mrs. Bigelow will be here as my substitute. I am so sorry for missing the last day.
Hope this agenda helps and I thank you for your support all year. Please let me know if you have any questions about any of the events. You can email me at cserafino@diobptedu.org or send a message in your child’s folder.

Warmest Regards,

Caroline Serafino
1st Grade Teacher

Field Trip

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What's Been Going On In 1st Grade??

Alot has been going on in first grade when it comes to Math. We have been working hard in Math on fractions, probability concepts (possible, impossible, certain, more likely, less likely, equally likely) and money. I encourage you to help them at home practicing with coins. They already have a good amount of knowledge about money since they study it in Kindergarten and because we work with it during our Morning Meeting each day. Have them tell you what coins they would use to make a certain amount.

In Language Arts, we have been working with antonyms, synonyms and homophones. We did a lot of fun excercises on the SmartBoard to practice these concepts. I have listed some websites below to practice these skills below. We also read a great book together called Tops & Bottoms in which we learned about antonyms and other new vocabulary.

Word Frog http://www.arcademicskillbuilders.com/games/frog/frog.html

Opposites Attract http://school.eb.com/lm/games/GE_4_4/GE_4_4.htm

Synonym Toast http://www.scholastic.com/wordgirl/synonym_toast.htm

Walk the Plank http://www.firstschoolyears.com/literacy/word/other/synonyms/interactive/synonyms.htm

Synonyms Sam's Lab http://pbskids.org/lions/games/synsam.html

In Phonics, we have been practicing reading, writing and spelling with words that have l blends and s blends. We also have been reading words that end in y. Y is a tricky letter. It is sometimes considered a vowel. This week we called it the chameleon letter or Tricky Y the Robber Guy because it takes or steals the sound of 'i' like in try or 'e' like in the word funny.

Prayer Leader Schedule

It is 1st grades turn to start leading Morning Prayer with Sr. Anne. We say prayer over the loud speakers on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays. If you would like to come watch your child say prayer you may. Please make sure your child practices the script that will be in their folder today. They need to be here in school before the 8am bell rings as Sr. Anne starts prayer right after it rings. If your child is tardy they will miss their chance at prayer as Kindergarten still needs to get their chance at prayer before the end of the school year. Your child can either write their own intention for the school to pray for or they may pick one out of the collection in school. The student must also decide if they are going to say the Hail Mary or the Our Father. Please practice! Schedule is as follows: May 3: Jules May 4: Anthony May 5: Olivia May 10: Nicole May 11: Madeline May 12: Tristan May 17: Courtney May 18: Kaarlo May 19: Charnelle May 24: Molly May 25: Ean May 26: Sean June 1: Gaby

Weekly Wrap Up

First Graders are learning about fractions. After talking about equal/unequal and parts of a whole, the kids modeled the concept in a book. We also made Fractionpillars (Fraction + Caterpillar) to practice our new skills. Students chose 3 different pom poms and created a caterpillar. After creating their caterpillar, students recorded the fraction for each color. These are displayed in the hallway for all to see. We also figured out fractions for our friend's names.

In Reading this week first graders worked on comprehension lesson to review text to self connections, new vocabulary and retelling. We read the story The Relatives Came by Cynthia Rylant. The story is about a bunch of relatives who take a long journey to visit their family. The relatives hugged and ate and stayed for weeks, tending the garden and fixing around the house. And when they left, the house was too quiet, and the family and the relatives dreamed about their next reunion. First graders also worked in guided reading groups on non-fictional texts. They have been working on Comprehension Go Charts which help them organize all the new information they are learning. We discuss the vocabulary, our predictions, what we notice or wonder, what we make connections to and then we work on summarizing our new findings. I am very proud of the work they have been doing.

First Graders have also been growing dirt babies (our version of chia pets) our window sill. They will be coming home to you soon.

Spring break starts this coming Friday. Please let me know if your children will be missing any school as some of them have told me they are departing for vacation early or wont be here the following week when we return. Thank you.

CHECK IT OUT!!!! Live Decorah Eagles Webcam!

Amazing website!!! My husband and I are obsessed with watching this. The Raptor Resource Project brings you the Decorah Eagles from atop their tree at the fish hatchery in Decorah, Iowa. There are two eagles (male and female) who have been together since 2007-2008. They have had 8 eaglets in past 3 years and now are tending to their 3 new eaglets. http://www.ustream.tv/decoraheagles

Weekly News for March 21-March 25

Reading:

First Graders worked on choosing Just Right Books.

Students need to learn how to make good reading choices. Book matching strategies helps students select appropriate books independently. Students also explored the different purposes readers have and how to determine what their purpose for reading is. Students also learned how to evaluate whether a book is at the right reading level and length for their abilities.

http://www.readwritethink.org/files/resources/lesson_images/lesson916/right.pdf

First Graders worked in Guided Reading Groups on Non-fiction texts, old schema, new schema, finding facts and wondering. Students also worked on different skils in centers.

Religion:

Lent is a special timefor prayer and to thank God. Celebrating Lent helps us grow as followers of Jesus. We are taught to treat one another as he treated people.

Social Studies:

First Graders learned the symbols that represent the state of Connecticut.

We also talked more about mapping and learned the directions. Students learned a trick to remember how to place the directions on the compass rose. "Never Eat Soggy Waffles"

Test on Unit 3 on 3/31/11

Language Arts:
Contractions are a shortened form of one or two words. An apostrophe takes the place of the missing letter/s.

http://www.vocabulary.co.il/contractions/#primary

Writing:

First Graders are working their own stories, editing them, conferencing, and adding details. Students are finding their own voices and really enjoying seeing how much they can write.

Math:

Students worked on comparing numbers, place value, patterns, skip counting and adding up to 14. Please have them practice with flash cards or games at home.

Junior Achievement started a few weeks ago with Mrs. Hayes (Molly's Mom). She has been coming once a week to discuss mapping, needs and wants, jobs, communities and life skills.

Dont forget to vote on an OLSS Star Teacher: www.thedailystamford.com

Our school could win $5,000. The teacher wins $100 gift card to Staples. You have one vote a day!

Get Your Hands on a Good Book!!

webaddress: scholastic.com/bookclubs

activation code: GQ8X9



Please take time to explore the book club flyer either online or the paper copy previously sent home. Online ordering is fast and easy. If you order online, we earn a free book for the classroom library.



Some recommendations include:

Lucky April Book Club Order
*You will notice I have included a lot of chapter books in this list because I think at this point in the year the children could/should be challenging themselves a little more. We have discussed finding "just right books" which are not too hard and not to easy for us. JUST RIGHT! The Lucky Book Order form are for grades 2 and 3 and I would definitely say we have some great readers in this class that are up for a challenge.
30. Geronimo Stilton Save the White Whale
37. HOP The Chapter Book
67. Rainbow Magic: Emma the Easter Fairy
48. Magic Tree House Research Pack
19. Cam Jansen Pack
74. Scooby - Doo! Reader Pack
13. Black Lagoon Pack
70. Ready Freddy! Collection

Spring Gift Books Order:

80. Silverlicious

66. The Olivia Pack

48. Junie B. Jones Complete Collection

1st Grade Needs!! :)

Weekly Rap Up March 14-March 18

Hi All-
I decided to start a blog for our class so that you could stay up to date with all of our information. I am hoping you find it as useful and as informative as our weekly newsletter as I would like to phase that out and replace it with this blog. I hope that you will enjoy reading the parent tips and reading tips from Reading Rockets. We will see how this goes...fingers crossed.

• Reading/Language Arts/Phonics: We did a lot of writing this week and read a lot of stories themed around St. Patrick's Day. Students are working on spelling, reading and writing with long vowels in phonics. Mrs Hajjar brought in a reader for us from the high school who read us a book for Read Across America. He read a book to us about Jimmy Hendrix. We also worked on fluency. Fluency is having the ability to read with speed, accuracy, and proper expression. Children who do not read with fluency sound choppy or awkward. Children time eachother while reading a passage to figure out our words per minute.
  
  
  
  Reading and Timing our Partners

• Social Studies: We worked on understanding our place on the map. Thank you for sending your children in with their addresses. They worked on knowing their addresses, town/city, state, country. We even worked onn working on our continents. Students also learned abour types of land and water that make up our beautiful country and resources we use including wood, gas, water, and soil.

"Me on the Map" mapping projects on bulletin board

• Religon: We took our test on the Good Samaritan story. Tests will be given back on Monday. Please remember to send back the text book if it has not already been returned.

• Math: We worked on place value (tens and ones), comparing numbers and ordering numbers. As a St. Patrick's Day treat students graphed lucky charms cereal.

Our First Grade Classroom is in need of donations! We need paper towel, clorox wipes, tissues and antibacterial hand sanitiezer. If you did not donate in the beginning of the school year please think about donating now.

Please see our school website for up to date calendar information. We have a half day next Friday! http://www.ourladystaroftheseaschool.org/

Go to the Daily Stamford and vote for your favorite OLSS teacher so that our school can win a $5, 000 dollars and the teacher can win a $100 gift card to Staples. Voting continues until April 11th and you have one vote each day until voting ends.