1B Classroom Update 7
January 19, 2018
Happy New Year!
We can't believe that we are almost at the end of January! We hope that everyone had a nice break and happy new year! In 1B the new year means more learning and fun going on. Please read till the end to check out what we've been doing and for some important reminders.
Important Dates
Tuesday, January 23 - ELA & Math Family Workshop (more info below)
Thursday, January 25 - ELA & Math Family Workshop (more info below)
Friday, January 26 - Anytime/Anywhere Jamaica
Monday, January 29 - School Closed - Faculty Professional Development
Friday, February 9 - 1st Grade Field Trip to Queens Museum of Art
Monday, February 19 - School Closed - President's Day
Tuesday, February 20-23 - School Closed - Mid-Winter Break
Tuesday, February 20-23 - Mid-Winter Break Camp
Announcements and Reminders
- We will be beginning our new Inquiry unit on "Maps and Geography" soon. We would appreciate if you have any type of maps (e.g. subway, museum, world, etc.) that you could donate or lend us for the unit. If you would like us to return the map, please label it so along with your child's name. We thank you in advance!
Welcome Mr. O!!!
Njeri is very excited to join the 1st grade team at Brooklyn Prospect Elementary Charter School. Njeri has taught for the last five years in the Washington D.C. metro area with DC Public Schools and Prince George’s County Public Schools. He has experience teaching a range of students from 1st through 3rd grade. Njeri earned his bachelor and master degrees from the University of Maryland and Howard University respectively. Njeri is from the Bronx and is thrilled to be back in New York City and is looking forward to working with the students and families of Brooklyn Prospect. He enjoys spending his spare time with family and friends, and exploring the restaurants of the city.
ELA & Math Family Workshops Reminder
This is a friendly reminder to sign up for the ELA & Math Family Workshops being offered to our ES families. The workshops are for all grades K-4, and will focus on grade specific content and strategies. On each night there will a 1 hr ELA & Math workshop. Childcare will be provided for all school aged children and siblings. A pizza dinner will also be provided for parents and children. Please see below for dates and times the workshops will be held.
Tuesday, January 23rd
G: K-2:
- ELA & Math Workshops from 6-7pm
G: 3 & 4th:
- ELA Workshop 6-7pm
- Math Workshop 7-8pm
Thursday, January 25th
G: K-2:
- ELA & Math Workshops 7-8pm
G: 3 & 4th:
- Math Workshop 6-7pm
- ELA Workshop 7-8pm
Here is the link to the form: ELA & Family Workshops Registration Form
Schedule Change
Schedule change
Beginning January 30th, First Grade's schedule will change until the end of the school year. 1B will no longer have Art and Dance. Instead, we will have Science, Music, or P.E. Please send your child to school with sneakers on Tuesday and Thursday since we will have PE on those days. Thank you!
Upcoming Field Trip - Friday February 9th
Here is a brief description for our upcoming trip. More information will be sent to our class parents this weekend in order for parents to sign up as chaperones for our trip.
The Panorama of the City of New York
The crown jewel of the Museum’s collection, this 9,335 square foot architectural model includes 895,000 buildings in all five boroughs. Through guided museum experiences, gallery activities and studio workshops students engage in the panorama as a jumping off point to explore New York’s geography, landmarks, bridges, parks, communities, history, and city planning. As is the case with all our tours, additional connections will be made to highlight the local and International contemporary art works that are also on view.
Building Blocks, guided experience and activity
Grades: Pre-K to 1st grade
Duration: 1.5 hours
This tactile building project gives students the opportunity to examine the interconnectedness of the city through learning the key components of each borough. They will collaboratively design and construct temporary three-dimensional communities using wooden blocks on fabric outlines of the five boroughs.
Bringing in the New Year!
Reading
In reading, we have officially launched our Non fiction unit. In this unit, students identify nonfiction text features, their purpose, and how they help the reader to better access and understand nonfiction text. Students will apply questioning and summarizing strategies to better understand nonfiction text. Thus far, we started the unit by comparing fiction and nonfiction books. Our 1B friends went on a scavenger hunt to look for nonfiction text features and let us know how it helped them as readers. In order to strengthen these skills, have our friends look through nonfiction books and identify nonfiction features (e.g table of contents, labels, captions, etc). Ask them how it helps them as readers. In the next weeks students will utilize their prior knowledge and identify the most important details in the text to summarize a nonfiction book by writing new facts about a topic.
Writing
In writing, our friends began talking about how authors who write nonfiction books are experts about the topic they have chosen to write about. Our 1B friends went on a scavenger hunt and asked friends around the classroom what they were experts on. Some friends mentioned they were experts on taking care of animals, being a big brother/sister, doing chores, etc. This past week our friends chose one topic and made a list of things they knew about their topics.
Math
In math, we learned a brand new way to represent our number stories and it's connected to our exploration of number bonds - the tape diagram! The tape diagram is another representation of the parts and whole in a problem but the quantities are represented one-to-one rather than numerically. We use the tape diagram in problems that ask us to compare so that it helps us visually see the amount we are comparing. Learning the different ways to represent the numbers we work with better prepares us for when we work with more sophisticated number stories and higher numbers. In addition, we have kicked off our exciting unit on data where 1B will be learning how to represent data in picture graphs, tally charts, and bar graphs while also analyzing and comparing the data we collect. At home, you can ask your child questions such as "How many more apples do we have than oranges?"
Inquiry
These past couples of weeks our 1B friends have been exploring different homes and figuring out what is different and the same. Our inquirers looked over what was the same and different and used a venn diagram to show their work. Before this activity our friends looked at a suburban and urban areas.
Urban
Venn Diagrams
Our 1B friends using their "eagle eyes" to see urban homes
Learner Profile of the Month: Thinker
As an IB World School, BPCS strives to foster the growth of students both academically as well as internationally minded citizens who are aware of the world outside of their local environment. To do this, the school incorporates the IB Learner Profiles into the classroom. The IB Learner Profiles describe a broad range of human capacities and responsibilities and, in turn, embody traits of a well-rounded individual. The Learner Profiles are: Inquirers, Knowledgeable, Thinkers, Communicators, Open-Minded, Caring, Risk-Takers, Balanced, and Reflective. Throughout the year, we will be discussing the Learner Profiles in the classroom as a way to bring to life the traits.
For the month of December, our school focused on how a person demonstrates they are thinkers. Here are three Thinkers of the Month!
Authors in Action
1B friends figuring thinking about where to sign their names
Nonfiction Authors
Excuse me what are you an expert on?
Experts in Action
What are you an expert on?
Fiction or Nonfiction
Our Authors selecting their topics
Green Table looking great!
Making a list about their topic
Everybody loves Math Time!
Tally O'Malley - Our friends analyzing their data
Our friends looking for different number combinations
Number Story Time!
Math Time!
How many number sentences can you make?
Our mathematicians practicing their Tape Diagrams
Math Block
Hola Familias de 1B
¡Feliz año 2018!
1B is full of great energies this New Year. They are more eager than ever to learn more Español. They started the year by leaning about El día de los Reyes Magos. On January 6th, in Mexico, Spain, Puerto Rico and other Spanish speaking countries, families celebrate El día de los tres Reyes Magos or the Three Wise Man day. They learned about how it was a holiday that was part of their culture and was not only a religious celebration. To join the celebration, 1B made a Rosca, a type of bread made in Mexico in honor of this special day to celebrate with their families and members of their community.
1B is looking forward to a very successful year full of learning and new adventures in the Spanish class.
Gracias,
Maestra Nivia