September 24, 2021

Good Evening,

I hope you all have had a great week.  Hopefully the week had your children talking about science and writing and collaborating like scientist, writing books across several pages, reading groups, and some math to round out the work from the week.  The students also had music, guidance, library and PE this week.

Our first writing unit this year has the class focusing on writing narratives or small moment stories.  In order to help kids come up with an idea, they follow the steps of:

1.Think of an idea (something you have done or that has happened to you
2. Plan your story out by touching each page and telling what you will write about
3.  Sketch your story out
4.  Write across each page (write details)

To help students think about a story that doesn't get to big or to difficult to write about, we talk about stories being like a watermelon.  There are big moments like the first day of school and then a seed inside the watermelon would represent a small moment form that first day.  To gain a better understanding, you may want to watch the following video. It explain the language I am using with the kids fairly clearly.

This week each child worked on two different narrative stories that he/she is working on.  You will have a chance to see your child's writing during our 1st parent conference.

Science class has had us looking at how scientist collaborate, how and why they work with engineers, and how they record their findings.  Today the students were introduced to science notebooks.  We had a discussion about what an observation was and the purpose for making observations.  The students were then each given an apple and some time to observe it and record their findings.  I then gathered the class and kids shared out how they documented their learning.  There were great examples of diagrams, labels, use of senses to describe the apple (in writing) and the use of comparisons.  I finished the session by giving each student a magnifying glass and asked them to zoom in on specific parts or areas and record their findings.  We will share these out when we have science again next Thursday.  

First grade math had students continuing to use the counting on strategy and/or the known fact strategy to solve addition equations.  We continued to focus on writing numerals the correct way and practiced filling in missing numbers on a number line. Some of the students worked with sequences up to 30 while others were working on sequences between 90-140.  This proved to be a challenge as some of the kids tried to write the transition number from 109 to 110.  At this point you typically see attempts (for 110) looking like 10010 or 1010.  Ms. Figdor reports that "in second grade math they worked on becoming more fluent with our double, and double plus one facts (4+4= and 6+7=). The second graders made several mathematical conjectures about double facts. First, they found that when adding doubles (7 +7=), the sum will always be even. Students found that it didn’t matter if the factors were odd or even. The sum would always be even. Next, they determined that when adding two odd numbers the product is always even. Towards the end of the week students began solving problems involving finding the difference between two numbers."

This week we introduced the concept of "take a break."  This is the 1st of three logical consequences we will use when a classroom rule is broken.  This is not take a break like you may remember from your time in school or even the take a break you may use in parenting your own child.  "Take a Break in a Responsive Classroom is a positive, respectful, and supportive teaching strategy used to help a child who is just beginning to lose self-control to regain it so they can do their best learning. An equally important goal of Responsive Classroom time-out is to allow the group’s work to continue when a student is misbehaving or upset. Giving that child some space from the scene of action where they can regroup while still seeing and hearing what the class is doing accomplishes both of these goals."  The important thing to take a way from all of this is "take a break" is not a punishment or a "wrong."  Rather it is a chance for a kid to demonstrate their own ability to identify what they were doing, what they should be doing, and then rejoining the group when they are ready.  

NOTES:

*As I mentioned last week, the students had the story Not A Box read to them.  They then used their own imagination to turn a box into something spectacular.  Here is the picture I promised to post this week.

*Kids have been arriving, for the most part, right around 7:40.  Thank you all so much in your efforts to get your kids to school by 7:40.  I really appreciate and it makes everything so much easier for both your child and for what I am trying to accomplish with our morning routine.

*The PTA runs an annual ski and skate sale that generates revenue that funds so many things in and around our school.  The success of this sale is because of the generous volunteers.  I hope you can find time to donate a shift and help out with this year's sale. Please use this tool to register for your shift(s): https://signup.com/go/MFDtAbL. The sooner the better! Volunteers registered by Friday, September 24th will receive exclusive early access to register for Volunteer pre-sale shopping! Admission may be limited this year, so register early to ensure your access!

*Does your child want to play basketball this winter?  Please check out the brochure below and sign you child up or click here.  Please let me know if you have any questions. 

That is all for now.  I hope you all have a great weekend.  

Peace,

Mr. Young

September 17, 2021

 Good Evening,

  I hope you all have had a great week.  We had quite a packed week in the classroom.  I hope this week in review catches you up on everything and gives you specifics to talk to your child about their week.   So with out further ado I give you the week in review.

We have rules!  Well, I like to call them norms, not because I liked Cheers as a kid but rather because they represent the normal expectations for all of the students and teachers in our classroom.  We started with a conversation about what each student would need in order to accomplish their Hope and Dream (their goal) that they set to start the year.  The class came up with over 50 rules that they wanted.  I asked them if they thought they could remember 50 rules or if there was a better way to do it where we still kept everyone's needs in place.  A first grader suggested that we combined them and another child added that we should put all of the similar ones together.  After doing that we came up with 5 Classroom Norms.  Then the students each signed a sticky note and fastened it to the poster.  By signing, they agreed to follow these norms to allow everyone to learn and achieve their academic goals.  This week we will introduce logical consequences.  Look for more on Friday's post.

Grade 1 Math: This past week the 1st graders worked on the skill of counting on, using known facts and using known facts to solve two digit addition.  The counting on skill is something that I hope all of the kids are efficiently using by the end of November.  The students also took our districts Star 360 assessment.  The results of this assessment help me determine for instruction and to design booster support for those that need it.

Grade 2 Math:  It has been a busy week in second grade math. This week we took the star 360 screening test during math. This assessment is a short diagnostic test that is given to all students at WES. The goal is to help teachers drive their instruction to support students' needs. In addition, we have been working on using equations to show mathematical thinking, solving problems with unknown factors, and have been developing strategies for solving problems more efficiently. -Miss Figdor

On Wednesday we read the book Not A Box by Antoinette Portis.  "A box is just a box . . . unless it's not a box. From mountain to rocket ship, a small rabbit shows that a box will go as far as the imagination allows. When pretend feels so real that it actually becomes real—when the imagination takes over and inside a cardboard box, a child is transported to a world where anything is possible."

After we read the story, the students were each given a white cut out of a box and a piece of construction paper.  Their job was simple,  Use these two items and their coloring tools to create what he/she would turn the box into.  The students were really creative and created some beautiful pieces of art.  They are hung up on the bulletin board at the end of the hall, by our classroom.  I will try and remember to take a picture of it and put it on next week.  

This week we also started our first science unit.  The first unit will focus on what a scientist is, learning about the scientific process and the term inquiry, and to learn to record and write like a scientist.  This unit will go through the month of October and then we will switch to a social studies unit on geography.  We will then jump back to a science unit in December that focuses on coding.  Mr. Mongeon will join us for that.

Did you hear about Cheez Its this past week?  On Monday the students started a piece of writing about their summer.  I wanted the students to describe an event that was just spectacular for them. We talked about the writing process of sketching pictures on each page, then writing about the sketches and then editing.  On Tuesday, I introduced the idea of Spicy Cheez It words (a.k.a. adjectives).  I explained that their words they wrote on Monday were like Regular Cheez Its.  They did the job and created a story.  I had each student then try a handful of Cheez Its.  Then I had them try Spicy Cheez Its.  I asked them to describe the difference and it was AWESOME!  The words the kids used got to my goal.  I explained that in writing, you have to use Spicy Cheez It words to capture your audience, make your writing more interesting and to paint a picture in the readers mind.  The students then helped me add words to my writing and then went off an added to their own.  

NOTES:

*Last week to order from the book orders.

*Please pack your child's bag and book each night.

*As a reminder, your child should be at school by 7:40.

*This weeks residency special is Music with Mr. Hill

That is all for now.  I am sorry I din;t get this out Friday.  I had a couple of meetings during my prep times and then my daughter had a game Friday night.  I hope nobody spent the weekend waiting by their computer for this post to come through.  😀

Have a great weekend.

Peace,

Mr. Young

September 10, 2021

 Good Morning,

  I hope this finds all of you well.  Another week is in the books and if I were a ship captain I might say "smooth sailing as far as the eye can see."  What a great start to the year.  This week the students each identified an academic/classroom goal that they each want to achieve as we start this school year.  The students then illustrated their goal, colored them in and they are will be displayed in the classroom.  These will also be used in helping create our classroom rules next week.  I am working on a way to share these out digitally.  I have some ideas but want to see what our open house looks like.  

The students have continued working on modeling expected behaviors in both social and academic situations.  The students have been practicing their reading group rotations and we have been building stamina by adding the amount of time each day.  Before we start we talk about our roles during Lexia and Read to Self.  After we practice, we gather to discuss all the good things that happened during that time.  Again this is all part of the Responsive Classroom approach and helps build a cooperative classroom with shared ownership and understandings.  

This week the students also finished their all about me books.  We will share these over the next two weeks and then they will come home for you to see.  I will ask that they are sent back because they will be kept in our classroom library.  This way kids can check out a book about another student and bring it home to share with you.

In math the 1st graders have been working on fact fluency, number bonds (part, part, total) of an addition equation and numeral writing.  I am really hoping to fix any reversals by November.  I also had a discussion with the students about addition, approaches used, and how to be efficient.  Learning to add follows 4 progressions.  The beauty of 1st grade is you will have a class with students each at one of the four.  If you would like to learn more about the general idea, this article may be of interest.  You will hear your child discussing strategies such as counting all, counting on, known facts, using a known fact to solve another.  

Ms. Figdor sent this note along regarding 2nd grade math.  Hello, my name is Alison Figdor and I will be teaching your second graders math this year.  I previously taught in the Harwood Unified School District as a 3rd/4th grade teacher at the Brookside School. I’m excited to teach your children math, and I’m looking forward to an enjoyable and productive school year. The past few weeks in second grade math have been busy. We have been learning routines and talking about what we need from each other to be a community of learners. At the same time, we have been exploring how to understand and analyze data. Our first step was to create beetle glyphs, pictures that represented who we are. For example, the color of the glyph represented our favorite season. Then we used these glyphs to explore how to sort and organize data. As part of the data analysis we created Venn diagrams, pictographs, and bar graphs and wrote observations about the data on these graphs. Our next focus will be working on becoming more fluent on our addition facts to 20. Being fluent with the basic facts will be extremely important as we move towards working with larger numbers.

The class has also been working on letter formation and we practice 2 letters each day until we get through them all.  Again, the idea here is to teach correct formation and eliminate reversals as quick as we can.  This will take longer than fixing the numeral reversals.  

NOTES:

*Please remember that book orders are due 09/27/21 Shop Our Class Page: https://orders.scholastic.com/K3277 Shop Digital Flyers for Our Grade with Your Child: https://clubs.scholastic.com/grade2 Please share the Class Page link to extended family and friends. All orders also earn FREE Books for our class.

*Homework bags Overall the class has been doing a great job with this.  Please help your child come up with some kind of routine where he/she backs the book in the bag and puts it in his/her backpack before going to bed.

That is all for now.  I hope you all have a great weekend.  The Harwood Varsity Soccer team has a game at 11:00 this Saturday (at Harwood).  My daughter is one of the starting center backs.  If you want to see a bunch of hardworking athletes, come check out the game Saturday.  

Peace,

Mr. Young

YOUR CHILD'S NEW TWITTER POST.  This is what they liked best last week.

September 3, 2021

 Good Evening

  I hope you all had a great week.  We have had a fantastic start to school and the class is already settling into a few routines.  I hope this post informs you of the week gone by, gives you a heads up on some nuts  bolts of the classroom, and gives you talking points to engage your child in conversation about their classroom.  

 This week we introduced some of our reading routines.  During reading instruction, I will have 4 stations.  One will be meeting with me for direct instruction, a station where kids read books to themselves, one will be vocabulary and phonetic instruction, and one will be reading fluency/other language arts activities. This week the students were introduced to the read to self routine and we practiced it and talked about what makes it both successful and educational.  Next week we will introduce the same routine in Lexia.  We also started math this week.  We worked on partner games,setting up Zearn math, some number writing, and played some counting games.  The students have also been working on their all about me books.  It has been a great way to start some initial writing.  These books will be shared at open house as well as be available for kids to take home.  The thought being that kids took take other kids' books home and share about their classmates.  

  I wanted to give you an full picture of the first 45 minutes of the day.  The doors open at 7:30 and if your child rides a bus, he/she gets to school by 7:40.  If your child is dropped off, please have them to school by 7:40 too.  When the students arrive, they return their homework bag and book, sign up for snack & lunch, and then eat snack.  When they are finished they have until 7:55 to interact with their friends and choose from a variety of free choice activities.  I want to give them a chance to socialize before we get into the academics each day.  I think it is important to give them this social opportunity.  At 7:55 we start our Morning Meeting.  This is an important part of our day and offers strong social and academic opportunities.  If you would like to learn more about Morning Meeting, click here.  With all of this being said, it is important that your child is on school by 7:40 to access this first 45 minutes of the day.  Thank you in advance for your support with this.  

NOTES:

*Today your child brought home (in their homework bags) a sheet of paper that has all of their log in information for a variety of the tech tools we use throughout the day.  There is no expectation that kids work on these things at home but rather have it as an option of they are looking for something to do.  

*Yesterday your child brought home a few flyers from Scholastic.  I will do book orders in September, November, and May.  This book club is a great way to get good literature at a fairly cheap price.  Here is the information: Dear Family, You can choose to have your books shipped to your home or delivered to me with our class order. With a $25 order, you can pick a FREE $5 Book (use code: READS). Class Order Due Date: 09/27/21 Shop Our Class Page: https://orders.scholastic.com/K3277  Shop Digital Flyers for Our Grade with Your Child: https://clubs.scholastic.com/grade2  Please share the Class Page link to extended family and friends. All orders also earn FREE Books for our class.

*Wednesday will be school picture day.  We are scheduled to go at 8:00 and the class picture will be taken then.  Please do your best to be at school that day.

*This week we have read a variety of read a loud books all focusing on the concept of "me."  The books celebrated our individual qualities and how special each person is and can be.  Some of the books we have read were I Like Myself by Karen Beaumont and Only One You by Linda Kranz, 

That is all for now.  I hope you all have a great long weekend and find some time to relax and enjoy your family.  

Peace,

Tommy