1A Classroom Update 1
September 15, 2017
Dear 1A Families,
The past week and a half has been truly wonderful at BPCS and many great things are yet to come! We are so pleased with your continued support and interest in being involved with our first grade learning community. We have been striving to create a warm and caring community where our friends feel comfortable learning as well as taking risks. We are also getting to know each other by playing games and reading books. We have also begun the first units of all academic subjects. Please read to the end of the newsletter for some important updates and announcements.
Academics Update
Writing
In writing, our students learned the habits of good writers and the routines of their classroom writing community. We have been learning how to move around the classroom quietly, retrieve supplies independently, and use classroom resources to assist us in spelling and writing conventions. In the next few weeks, we will begin to practice how to select relevant topics to write about, plan sentences before writing, as well as give and receive feedback on their work through partnerships. In order to reinforce these skills at home, have your child share a story using three fingers to represent beginning, middle, and end at home!
Reading
We are kicking off reading by exploring what it means to be a reader in First Grade! So far, we have agreed upon what our reading environment will look and sound like and how to care for the books in our classroom. Students were also introduced to the components that make up Readers Workshop (mini-lesson, independent reading, partner reading, share). In order for our students to better understand each component, we correlated each component with how a runner can get ready for a marathon. For example, our mini-lesson represented a warm up where we get ready and warm up our muscles for learning and then we end the marathon with a share where all of us come together and share our ideas and skills that we learned. Ask your child who enjoys a good running during Reader's Workshop! In these next couple of weeks our friends will learn how to determine if a book is JUST RIGHT for them as readers.
Math
Our mathematicians started off the school year with an exploration of how to use and care for math materials in our classroom. With these materials, they've practiced making different shapes as well as writing and counting up to 120 through various games! Moving forward, we will also begin Number Stories, a math curriculum focused on Cognitively Guided Instruction, where students solve word problems by utilizing a variety of strategies including counting unifix cubes or drawing pictures. This is a great way for students to openly explore strategies and then be able to share their strategies with their classmates, learning from one another and advancing their mathematical thinking. To support your child at home with their formation of numbers, we encourage kinesthetic activities such as making numbers with playdough or shaving cream.
Phonics
We have been assessing student's knowledge of letters and sounds. We have built a repertoire of stories, songs, rhymes, and chants that our friends have enjoyed and at the same time heightened their awareness of language sounds and written symbols. In the coming weeks, students will be working on recognizing beginning, ending, and short vowel sounds. Slowly we will be introducing Phonics centers where students work with teachers to build on these skills and also work independently to practice building words, matching and sorting to pictures to word combinations. To practice these skills at home, have your child identify sounds of items around the house and use their fingers to tap out each sound they hear.
Social Emotional
At BPCS we always want to make sure we are creating a community where students come together and work with others to strengthen their academic as well as social emotional skills. In order for us to start getting to know one another along with the classroom expectations, we created a classroom contract that described how they wanted their classroom to be. Students distilled their ideas down to being caring, respectful, clean, helpful, trying their best, etc. Each member of 1A signed the contract and have been trying their best to fulfill those qualities. Our classroom culture is becoming cohesive as we work to establish friendships and express how we feel in a positive way. One way this occurs is through giving someone a "shout-out" for demonstrating that they are caring for their community. We reinforce the message that we are a team and we are here to work together to make our community strong and successful. In the next couple of weeks, we will be showing our friends how to problem solve with read aloud, power talks, and letting others know how they feel in a positive manner.
Important Dates and Announcements
Tuesday, October 3 | Back to School Night | K-2
Tuesday, October 10 | Professional Development Day - No School
We will be a NUT-FREE classroom. Due to allergies in our classroom, we wanted to inform you that 1A will be a nut-free classroom. Please let us know if you have any questions, and thank you for your support in making sure that all our students remain happy and healthy.
- We are outside at MetroTech for recess on Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays from 1 - 1:30pm.
- If you have not already, please send in an extra change of clothes for your child in a Ziploc bag.
1st Inquiry Unit: Family Diversity
We are excited to announce that our first inquiry unit of first grade will be Family Diversity! Inquiry is a time in which students ask questions about a teacher-selected topic and work together to answer them through a variety of hands-on activities. Our goal for this unit is to have students recognize that families have many differences and similarities across cultures. We hope to have them do so by identifying different family structures through comparison of their family or those of their friends to other families in our own community or even the world. We will also allow students to share some family story-telling with the class either through writing or other forms of communication.
To start the unit, we ask that you please send in or email a family photo to dtes1a@brooklynprospect.org for your child to share with the class. Please email if you have any ideas for our class’ exploration of family diversity. This could include suggestions for great books to read, visitors to come to our classroom, or activities or videos. Thank you for your support.
1st Grade Birthdays
Starting in first grade, students celebrate their birthdays as a collective group. To do this, we will have a once-a-month classroom celebration for ALL students with a birthday occurring in that month. Besides promoting the idea of community, we feel that this will allow us to meet and better manage the diverse dietary needs, schedules, and cultural backgrounds of our school families. We, of course, will still recognize your child’s birthday on his or her special day with a small token from the teachers and singing from the class.
This monthly birthday celebration will take place on the last Friday of every month. The celebration will usually occur at 2:30 - 3 PM; however, teachers will email to inform you if there is a change due to specials or school closings. Teachers will reach out to you with an invitation and to ask if you will be bringing any food items. Families are welcome to bring in treats. While sweets are allowed, we encourage the size of them to be kept small and also encourage healthy snacks, such as pre-washed fruit or fruit snacks. If you do bring in sweets, mini cupcakes are a great option as well as cookies (one per student). We have 29 students in our class. Other items, such as goodie bags or balloons, are not allowed. Please reach out via email if you have any questions or concerns about the first grade birthday policy.
First Day of School: Playdough Fun!
Choice Time
Literacy
Math
Self-Portraits
Specials Update
¡Hola Familias de 1A!
Bienvenidos to another exciting school year! I am happy to start my second year at BPCS as a Spanish teacher! This year the students, parents, faculty, and staff will experience 100% Spanish Immersion. Our goal this year is to keep exposing students from Kinder to 4th Grade to the Spanish language (oral, visual and written) all the time. The Spanish immersion will be supported by theater, TPR (total physical response), storytelling, music, games, dance, art, and cultural exploration. I am super excited to see how our bilingual brains grow and develop!
There are plenty of ways you can support our learning experience and encourage your student to grow her/his interest in Español by reading books at home and listening to music in Español. Participate in a cultural events in your community that expose your student to the Spanish culture, such as plays, concerts, and festivals.
Spanish Course is looking to expand its BOOKS collection and resources. We would be very thankful for any Spanish book donations.
Muchas gracias,
Maestra Nivia
Please feel free to contact me with any question at: nmarrero@brooklynprospect.org
Dance with Ms. Siby
Greetings BPCS families! I am truly excited to share the joy of dance with our elementary students, for the third consecutive year. I began dancing as a child and can attest to the power of finding expression through movement at a young age.
This year, students will have dance classes during the first half of the school year. They will explore dance-making, the basics of various dance techniques and what it means to think like a choreographer. Our dance curriculum will also loosely align with IB themes, adding a kinesthetic connection to inquiry units of study. By the end of the term, BPCS dance students will see movement everywhere in their world.
“To sing well and to dance is to be well-educated.” - Plato
Best,
Rohiatou Siby
(Specials Department Head)
Here's to a Great Year in ART!
Picture: Paintings on the walls, sculptures hanging from the ceilings, students knitting at choice time — and more. Aloha! You’ve arrived at BPCS!
ART is a verb! BPCS artists will explore a wide variety of materials this year — as we make individual and group projects in alignment with IB grade level themes. For inspiration, we’ll look at the work of artists from around the world. Emphasis will be placed on problem solving, experimentation and risk taking. Please look for our projects on display around the school.
Questions? Want to volunteer to work with us? I’m available at awalsh@brooklynprospect.org.
Many thanks!
Anita Walsh
Contact Us
Email: dtes1a@brooklynprospect.org
Phone: 718-722-7634