Thank you

Thank you all for an amazing year in first grade.  You are an incredible group of families and we have so enjoyed our time together.  We love our students and we are going to miss them so much!

We wish you a wonderful summer and look forward to seeing everyone again in the fall.

End of Year Party

Our End of the Year Party is next Tuesday, June 24th at 8:45 am. We look forward to celebrating!

EVCS Picnic - Tomorrow!

Hope to see you all tomorrow for our school picnic! If you have any questions, please let us know.

For all you out there feeling the end of school year craziness!

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jen-hatmaker/worst-end-of-school-year-mom-ever_b_3378480.html?utm_hp_ref=fb&src=sp&comm_ref=false

Family Share - Date Change

Join us for our family share featuring our Community Activism work on Thursday, June 12th at 8:45 am. We hope to see you all there!

Important Dates - UPDATED

Monday, June 2nd: Trip to MFTA

Tuesday, June 3rd: Half Day - Dismissal at 11:30

Wednesday, June 4th: Trip to NY Botanical Gardens

Thursday, June 5th: No School for Students

Monday, June 9th: Half Day - Dismissal at 11:30

Thursday, June 12th: Family Share at 8:45 am

Friday, June 20th: School Picnic at Tompkins Square Park

Monday, June 23rd: Fifth Grade Graduation

Tuesday, June 24th: First Grade End of Year Celebration

Thursday, June 26th: Last Day of School

Math Fluency Practice

Town Meeting

Join us for town meeting first thing this Monday morning (May 12th).  Our very own Lucien will be performing skits around respect for all with his Friday club!

Social Studies Unit - Community Activism

Last week, we launched our new social studies unit, "Community Activism." In this unit, the first graders will consider questions such as, "What is an activist?" "How can we peacefully and creatively solve conflicts in our community?" and "How does activism relate to community building?"

We started our unit by referring to community activists we've already studied, like Martin Luther King Jr, Cesar Chavez and Dolores Huerta.  We also started learning about Wangari and the janitors from Los Angeles who went on a strike a few years ago. We will also study Alia Muhammad Baker, Rosa Parks, Gandhi and even more! Ask your child to tell you what they've learned so far.

This week, the first graders listed problems they see in our community - problems they would like to try and fix. Issues we listed included: pollution, smoking, racism, respect for all, free to be you and me, and more. The first graders shared personal stories and had a lot of questions! Next week, we will select an issue to address as a class and create an action plan.  More to come on that soon.

Meanwhile, in writing workshop, we are writing opinion books - books that state our opinion about something and give supporting reasons. For the last two weeks, we wrote opinion books on favorite places, food, activities, pets, etc.  Next week, each first grader will start an opinion book about an issue that's close to her/his heart.

When we visit MFTA, we will even engage in an art project tied to community activism.

At our family share on Monday June 9th, we will celebrate the culmination of this project, from our opinion books, art work and activist work!

Important Dates Coming Up In June

Tuesday, June 3rd: Half Day - Dismissal at 11:30
Thursday, June 5th: No School for Students
Friday, June 6th: School Picnic at Tompkins Square Park
Monday, June 9th: Half Day - Dismissal at 11:30 and Family Share first thing in the AM
Monday, June 23rd: Fifth Grade Graduation
Tuesday, June 24th: First Grade End of Year Celebration
Thursday, June 26th: Last Day of School

Upcoming Class Trips

Monday, June 2nd - Museum for the Arts
Wednesday, June 4th - NY Botanical Gardens (Bronx)

Let us know if you'd like to chaperone! Permission slips to come at the end of May.

Next Family Share - Art of Persuasion

Save the date for our next family share on Monday, June 9th first thing in the morning. The first graders will share their opinion books and community activist project!

Math Fluency Practice

Spelling Practice

Below you will find some sentences for spelling practice.  Dictate the sentence to your child and have her/him write it.  Then, go through the sentence together and correct any mistakes (including punctuation).

I got a chill from that bad draft.
Peg swept the rug with the brush.
Did you have any shrimp?
He slept in the tent.
She has many red plans.
I will print on the pad.
Jack felt his leg twist.
Russ slept on the cot.
The blimp did not go fast at all.
Ben twists off many lids.
They can rest and get some drinks.
Should I get stamps now?
You can chop the stump down.
The tot crept to her dad.
How did the skunks smell?
The skunk stinks!
I sat down on the clump of grass.
How many pranks did they do?
She printed our tests.
Frank is swinging on our swing.
He drifted out on the pond.
I am thinking about my class.

Upcoming Date Changes

We had to change the dates of our MFTA field trip and next family share. We will have the new dates sometime this week.  Thanks for your patience and sorry for any inconvenience!

Trip to MFTA

On Tuesday, May 13th, the first grade classes will go on a field trip to Materials for the Arts.

Materials for the Arts collects unneeded items from businesses and individuals, and make these donations available for free to its recipients: nonprofit organizations with arts programming, government agencies, and public schools.

A permission slip will go home soon. Let us know if you would like to tag along :)


Click here to go to MFTA's website

Dance Share

Dear First Grade families,
The last few weeks, your child has participated in five 45 min sessions of a FREE dance residency generously offered by Movement Research which is a well known organization located in the East Village that supports contemporary dance. This is their website if you are interested in seeing what they do: http://www.movementresearch.org/

Bessie, the Movement Research teaching artist, and I would like to invite you to visit the EVCS dance studio for an informal showing of the movement ideas our young dancers have been working on.The sharing is scheduled on Thursday, April 24th at 11:00 am. We hope you can join us.

Best,
Ana Nery Fragoso, East Village Community School
Dance Specialist

Farmers Market Share

Permission Slips

Thanks to those of you who already sent in permission slips for Friday's trip to the Union Square Farmers Market. Please get the slips to us by Wednesday! Thanks.

Practice spelling at home!

Here are some sentences from our current word study unit.  This unit, we are studying syllables and vowel teams.  Dictate these sentences to your child and have them write independently. Go through the sentence together and correct any mistakes. Remind your child about punctuation and uppercase letters!

The kids dug in the soft sand.

Did the ball swish in the net?

Gram did say, "I will get lunch."

Jill will get the doll in her crib.

Do not dump that stuff on my bed!

Tom sets up drums for the band.

Did she bump her leg?

You can put on this mask.

Math Fluency Practice

Important Dates

Here are some important dates coming up in the next two weeks!

Monday, March 31st: Town Meeting first thing in the morning in the auditorium

Friday, April 4th: Class trip to the Union Square Farmers Market, 9:30-11:30

Friday, April 11th: Farmers Market: Drama Share 8:30 am in our classroom

Math Fluency Practice

Set those timers once again...

New Class Schedule

This week, our prep schedule changes. Instead of having Sing-a-long with Bradley, we will have Dance on Fridays.

Strategies for Subtraction

Here are three different subtraction strategies that the first graders learned this week. Most of the first graders are either using 5 group drawing or counting on.  The last strategy - pull out 10 - is the most abstract and challenging, and it's the strategy we'd like to see most first graders using by the end of our math unit (still a few more weeks to go).

When solving subtraction problems, you can prompt your child to use the most efficient strategy - the strategy that makes most sense. Show your child these charts to help them remember what they learned in school!

Tomorrow's Writing Workshop

Tomorrow during writing workshop, the first graders will perform an "on-demand assessment" - they will write for 20-25 minutes with no teacher help.

We usually do something like this at the beginning of a writing unit so that we can see what our students know, and where they need to grow. (We usually call this kind of work a "show what you know" with the kids.) Then, at the end of a writing unit, the first graders perform another on-demand assessment - this time, we will be able to see how much our students learned.

Anyway, we wanted to give our first graders a heads up about the assignment tomorrow. If you get a moment, you can tell your child something like this:

"Tomorrow you are going to write all by yourself in writing workshop, so that you can show what you know about writing information books - writing nonfiction. Think of a topic that you've studied or that you know a lot about. You are going to write a book that teaches others interesting and important information and ideas about that topic."

You can help your child brainstorm topics by thinking about: places they go, things they know a lot about, things they do often, etc...

Thanks for your help!

Town Meeting

Join us tomorrow in the auditorium at drop-off for Town Meeting.

We will sing This Land is Your Land, This Little Light of Mine, Where Have All the Flowers Gone?, This Pretty Planet, and Peace Like a River.

See you in the morning!

Reading & Writing Non-Fiction

Last week we launched our non-fiction reading and writing units, and boy, were the kids excited! After having a brief discussion about what nonfiction texts are and why readers read them (to learn about the world around us and teach others about what we've read!) the kids were able to explore our nonfiction library in an engaging way. Ask them if they read about creepy insects or learned more about farm animals. We are about to learn so many fascinating things! Stay tuned for those nonfiction reading strategies your kids will soon learn and practice...


In writing workshop, we will write information books. The first graders will learn how to write different kinds of facts, how to organize information, and how to elaborate in their writing. Some first graders will also use research to add details to their books. First graders are experts on so many topics - from soccer to Star Wars to play dates - we are looking forward to learning lots of information from them :)

Gail Gibbons

Our students have developed a love for non-fiction - and they especially love non-fiction author Gail Gibbons! Look out for Gail Gibbons' books in the library or bookstores!

Some titles include...
Bats
Pigs
The Milk Makers
Apples
Horses

Math Fluency Practice

As usual, set the timer for 60 seconds...

Current Class Schedule

More math fluency practice!

Set the kitchen oven timer for 60 seconds and have your child try to solve as many of these problems as possible!

Word Study Practice

We are starting a new unit in word study this week that focuses on consonant blends and digraph blends.

A consonant blend contains two ore more consonants and can come before a vowel (f l i p) or after a vowel (p a s t).

A digraph blend is a digraph blended with another consonant such as n and ch in the word lunch or sh and r in the word shred.

Here are some sentences you can dictate to your child so that she or he can practice spelling.  Say the sentence aloud twice. Then, have your child write the sentence using her or his best spelling - remind your child to remember capitalization and punctuation.  Then, go through the sentence together and fix any mistakes.

My belt is on the shelf.
Did Beth step on that frog?
This clock is the best gift!
Bill fell in the sand.
Stan must dump in the sand.
Come to the pond and swim.
Could mom mend the rip in this dress?
I wish that Kim would not brag.
Could Tim get the cloth on the shelf?

Happy Spelling :)

Welcome back :)

We had a wonderful first day back with the first graders! We heard about ski trips, snowboarding falls, time spent with family & friends, movie dates and broadway shows! We hope you all had a restful break and we welcome you back!

This week in school....

• Trip to the Poets' House tomorrow! We are looking forward to this - we've never been but have heard amazing things about the program.  Who knows - we might happen upon a book or two written by Sylvie's mom or dad!
• We start our drama work with Kelli! Today, we launched our next Social Studies Unit: From Farm to Table - "Where does our food come from?"  On Thursday, Kelli will begin the drama residency in our class.  We will work with Kelli for 7 weeks and you are invited to the classroom on April 11th for our share. 

Practicing fluency with our math facts

Set the kitchen oven timer for 60 seconds and have your child try to solve as many of these problems as possible!

Have a great break!

Happy Valentine's Day & 100th Day of School!

Hope everyone has a restful and enjoyable break!  See you Monday the 24th :)

Post Office Share

Thank you for your support and participation in today's Post Office Share! The smiles on our first grader's faces were priceless - and we've been delivering mail all morning! 

Our next family share is Friday, March 14th - a Poetry Slam! We started writing poetry this week and we must admit, it's our favorite writing unit - and the kids are really surprising us with their unique perspectives. The Poetry Slam is sure to be a treat!

Thanks again for coming this morning!

Random Acts of Kindness

We started our "Random Acts of Kindness" project on Monday.  Every day, we have a new kindness mission to complete! Yesterday, we brainstormed all the ways we can help an adult at home :)

Be sure to ask your child about the day's kindness activity!

Homework

This month's homework packet will be sent home by the end of the week! In the meantime, please have your child read independently for 15-20 minutes a night.  

Also, we will review the January homework packets and get them back to you soon. 

Mindset by Carol S. Dweck

"Everyone is born with an intense drive to learn. Infants stretch their skills daily. Not just ordinary skills, but the most difficult tasks of a lifetime, like learning to walk and talk. They never decide it's too hard or not worth the effort. Babies don't worry about making mistakes or humiliating themselves. They walk, they fall, they get up. They just barge forward." ~ Carol S. Dweck (Mindset)

We've just started the book Mindset:The New Psychology of Success - How We Can Learn to Fulfil Our Potential" by Carol S. Dweck and already love it. It's a highly recommended book for educators and parents on how to foster self-esteem, motivate our kids, and help them improve in school - and life.

Let us know if you pick it up! If you have any other recommended books (for parents/teachers --- or just for fun and pleasure), post here!

How to Draw Books

The first graders in room 401 LOVE to draw! Ed Emberley has some fantastic "how-to draw" books and most of our students love using the books during quiet time or choice time.  Here are some of his popular titles....

Make a World
Little Drawing Book of the Farm
Animals
Fingerprint Drawing Book
Book of Faces

Visit edemberley.com for more!

Family Share Update

Just a reminder that our Post Office Share is coming up - it will be on Thursday, February 6th.



We have also changed the date for our following Family Share - Poetry Slam - now we will host our Poetry Slam on Friday, March 14th.

Indy Kids

Looking for a great non-fiction resource that focuses on current social justice news events? Check out Indy Kids - a newspaper written by kids for kids.  We use some of the articles for Newsday Tuesday - they are interesting, thought-provoking, and engaging. Have fun reading!

Spelling Practice - Word Pyramids

Word pyramids are a fun way to practice spelling at home. (Thanks Erica, for the tip!)

Let's say your child is practicing the word "think"

Here's how the word pyramid works:

t
th
thi
thin
think

Then - write the word in a sentence!

We think spelling practice is really important. :)

Writing in secret code!

Today during our Post Office work, some of us tried writing letters in secret codes! We had so much fun using symbols and numbers instead of letters.  Here are two of the codes we tried today. Maybe some first graders will want to try this at home! Or...make a code of their very own!

Math Assessment

On our recent math assessment, all of our students showed us how much they know about addition and solving story problems.  It was a really difficult math assessment, and our students did really well!  They worked really hard and persisted even though the problems were tough.

Here are two problems that caused confusion amongst some first graders.


There were five boys at Jake's party.  Some more came after basketball practice.  Then there were 9. How many boys came to Jake's party after basketball practice? Draw a picture to help you solve the problem. Draw a complete number bond that goes with this story. Write an addition sentence to match this story.




Monica says when the unknown is 4, it makes this number sentence true: 5 + 3 = ___4__ + 4.
Terry says she is wrong.  He says 8 makes the number sentence true.

a) Who is correct? Explain your thinking using pictures, words or numbers.

b) Monica says that 3 and 5 is equal to 5 and 3. Terry says she is wrong again.  Explain who is correct, using pictures, numbers or words.

c) Next, Monica tells Terry 8=8. Terry says she is wrong one more time.  Explain who is correct, using pictures, numbers or words.

d) Terry decided to share 8 carrot sticks with his friend Monica.  Monica put 5 carrot sticks on her plate and some more in her lunch box. How many carrot sticks did Monica put in her lunch box?

Post Office Study

We launched our post office study through drama last week. Our students met Post Office Polly - she used to work at a post office until it was closed due to budget cuts! After listening to Post Office Polly, our students decided to help her by opening up a post office here in our school! After reading an article about post office closings and reading "The Post Office Book" by Gail Gibbons, we came up with a list of things we will need to build and make to sustain a working post office. We are so excited for this work!

Solve & practice math facts

Thank you from Maggie

January's Homework

We are so pleased with all of the writing the first graders did over their winter vacation! This weekend, we will take the journals home and give them back with feedback next Monday.  We are really impressed so far!

This month's homework packet will be available on Wednesday, January 8th. In the meantime, make sure your child is reading their book baggie books at home. 

Reading to Understand

In our current reading unit, "We Can Be Our Own Reading Teachers," first graders are learning strategies around self-monitoring during reading -- this can be really tricky! Today, we talked about the importance of really, really understanding what we are reading - and what to do when we realize we aren't getting it!

Here are some strategies your child can use at home around monitoring for understanding.
Happy reading!

Parts of a Letter

Today in writing workshop we learned about the parts of a letter. If your child writes a letter at home, make sure to point out these important parts!

Habits of Mind

In our classroom, we have been teaching "Habits of Mind" - created by the Metamorphosis Center for Cognitive Coaching.  Habits of Mind are dispositions displayed by people in response to problems, dilemmas, and enigmas, the resolution of which are not immediately apparent.

Here are some of the Habits of Mind we have coached into so far.  Habits of mind take time to develop, so it's a good idea to reinforce these habits and use similar language with your child.

Post Office Opening Date Changed

Please note, our Post Office share will be on Thursday, February 6th (instead of Tuesday, February 4th), at 8:45 am.

Thanks for your flexibility!

Letter Writing & Post Office Study

This month, the first graders will study letter writing during writing workshop (in alignment with our post office study). The first graders will learn lots of things about letter writing.  They will explore the different reasons people write letters (friendly letters, persuasive letters, etc), learn to write a letter with a particular reader in mind (using voice and asking specific questions), learn to use writing conventions associated with letter writing (and addressing an envelope), and will learn about the overall process for sending a letter.

Students will also design their own stationery, post cards, stamps and envelopes during project work. In social studies, they will learn about different post office jobs and machines, and will discuss reasons behind the current post office closures. In the block area, students will create sorting bins & mailboxes.  The first graders will also design flyers and posters advertising the opening of the post office to classes in our school.  Come the beginning of February, we will have established a fully working post office for EVCS.  Our first graders will deliver mail to classrooms in EVCS for the remainder of the year!

Stay tuned for updates about this work!

Meet our new student teacher - Caroline!

Caroline is excited to join 401’s vibrant classroom community as a student teacher. She is studying general and special elementary education at Teachers College at Columbia University. In addition to her passion for education, she enjoys practicing yoga and making art. She is looking forward to teaching and learning with first grade as we embark on this New Year.



Caroline joins us tomorrow and we are looking forward to collaborating with her! She will be with us Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays & Thursdays (full days MTR, half day on W) through the beginning of May.

Happy Snow Day!

Have a safe & fun snow day, first graders!

Word Study & Spelling Practice

We are studying bonus letters in word study.

The bonus letters in our language are f, l, s, and z. Bonus letters are letters that double up at the end of a word when the word contains a short vowel sound.

Here are some sentences you can dictate at home to encourage correct spelling and punctuation.

Did Chet get the red shell?
Beth sat in the den with Bill.
Tim will fill up the dish with fish.
We had to mop up the mess.
The bug fell in the web.
Jack had to sell his pig.
The hall is a mess.
Mom did not miss the mud at all.
I fell on the path.
Toss the ball to Kim.
Can you call the pup?

Meet our New DOE Chancellor - Carmen Farina

De Blasio Names New DOE Chancellor! (click the text to read NYTimes article)

We are quite excited that a career educator is finally in an important leadership role. Carmen Farina makes us proud to be NYC public school teachers - let's hope she'll be able to make some changes!

Welcome back!

We hope everyone had a restful and enjoyable break.  It was so great to see the first graders today - some with new haircuts, some who grew a few inches, some with newly missing or grown-up teeth, yet all with the same sweet smiles!

As of now, we have school tomorrow and it is most likely that schools will remain open. You can check the NYC Department of Education website for updated information. (Most of the first graders are hoping for a snow day tomorrow!)

We will have library tomorrow, so please remember to send in any library books!