Saying Goodbye to 2013

Can you believe it's almost Christmas?! That means there are many special things happening in first grade. On Tuesday, December 17, we will be comparing and contrasting the movie and the book of The Polar Express. Students are invited to wear warm pajamas and robes as we climb aboard The Polar Express. We will enjoy hot chocolate and cookies on our journey! Then we will read the book by Chris Van Allsburg and complete a Venn diagram to show the similarities and differences.

On Wednesday, December 18, our therapy dogs will be in to visit. We are making special holiday greeting cards for them, and we will read our books that we have practiced. We can't wait to see them in their finest clothing for the holiday!

On Thursday, December 19, we will share our latest writing, opinion pieces, with other classes. The students brought in a collection from home and judged the pieces in the collection. They wrote about each one, trying to persuade others to see how amazing their collection was. We are excited to share our hard work with others.

On Friday, December 20, we will have a 1:00 dismissal. Our class party will be from 10:00-11:00. Students will bring in a snack and drink from home for themselves (not to share) and a board game or card game. We will eat snack, then play games. together. Parents are welcome to attend. Please remember to bring a board game or card game from home that day.

I hope you all have a wonderful holiday and a healthy 2014!

Happy Thanksgiving!

We are very busy learning about the Pilgrims, the Native Americans, and how different their lives are from the lives we lead today. We will make Friendship Soup next week. Each student has volunteered to bring something in for the soup and the celebration, which will take place on Monday, Nov. 25.

We also spent a lot of time learning about veterans. The students made pictures for veterans, made collages about Veteran's Day, learned some songs about the military, and followed up with a lesson in Family Life. I enjoyed hearing about all the veterans in their families.

Please continue to practice addition facts. We are adding to 12 now, and students should be able to solve basic problems quickly and accurately. I appreciate the effort at home on handwriting. The students are showing much improvement in handwriting in all of their assignments.

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Happy November!

Thanks again to all the parents who helped make a memorable Halloween party for the first graders! There was a lot of yummy, healthy food, fun games, a cute craft, and a great time for all!

I look forward to meeting with all of you at conference time and sharing your students report card with you. Please be prompt for your conference, we are on a tight schedule. If you are running late, or need to reschedule, please contact the main office.

The therapy dogs will be visiting us twice during the month of November, on the 13th and the 26th. The students really look forward to their visits, and practice reading their books so they will read perfectly for the dogs.

The Oxford Volunteer Fire Department will be here on November 11 to teach us about fire safety. Please sign and return the permission slip so your child can participate in this great learning event.

October Fun

October is all about Christopher Columbus, Fire Safety, Red Ribbon Week, Pumpkins, and Bats. We will be learning a lot about each of these topics, creating some great displays, and sharing our knowledge with others.
Our Halloween Celebration will be on October 31, with a parade at 1:45, rain or shine. Thank you to all who have donated items for our party. I know the students are very excited!
We are beginning Unit 2 in Scott Foresman, focusing on short vowels. We have started spelling lists and will have a spelling test each Friday, along with a reading comprehension test.
In math we are learning about odd and even numbers, patterns, and telling time to the half hour.

Apples Everywhere!

In Science we have been learning about the life cycle of apples. We will be observing, sorting, and graphing apples. We will also learn how apples can change as they are heated. Your child should bring in an apple on Wednesday, Oct. 2. An email will come shortly asking for other donations to help us with this Science activity. The students made awesome flip books to show the apple life cycle. They are on display across from our classroom. Thanks for your support from home!

Please be sure to practice addition facts. This week we will begin our Facts Test, starting with addition to 5. A parent letter will come home on Monday. We will also be learning about pennies and nickels next week and counting by 1s and 5s.

We have worked on short a, short i, and short o. Please be sure to sign the bookmark for the Book in a Bag.

Have a great week! Enjoy the fall!

The first graders are settling into the new routine. This week we are finishing our first math unit and will have our first official math test on Thursday. Our next unit will include time to the hour and pennies, nickels, and dimes. We are always working on basic addition facts. A parent letter about our Everyday Math Unit 2 will come home on Thursday.
The students are doing very well in Guided Reading Groups. Thank you all for reading the books they bring home with them and signing and returning the bookmark and book. They always have a smile on their face when they say, "I read to Mommy!" or "Daddy read with me last night!"
We have been spending a lot of time learning about what it means to be a good friend. Our author study of Kevin Henkes is a great way to learn about friendship, worries, fears, and new experiences.
Writing Workshop is quickly becoming one of our favorite times of the day. The writers are learning where to get ideas for stories, how to spell words they don't know, and how to write complete sentences. Soon we will begin making our own little books!
Everyone will get a turn to be the Someone Special. This is how we get to know each other. After everyone's initial turn, then we begin all over again, without making the poster and bringing things in for show and tell.
Have a great week! I am looking forward to meeting all of you at Back to School Night on Tuesday, September 17 at 6:00 pm.

Welcome to First Grade!

Hello All First Grade Families!

I am so excited to begin a new school year with your children. An important letter came home yesterday in their blue homework folders. We have Family Life on Monday, Art on Tuesday, Phys Ed on Wednesday, Music on Thursday, and Phys Ed and Spanish on Friday.
Please remember to wear shoes that cover the toes everyday. Please send a water bottle and nutritious snack each day.
Important forms are located on the school's homepage. They need to be printed, completed, and sent in.
I am looking forward to seeing you all at Back to School Night on Sept. 17!

Mrs. DiRenzo

May 2013

Our class trip to the beautiful State Theater in Easton, PA will be on May 7. We will see Junie B. Jones. We have been enjoying reading the books in class and can't wait to see the live theater production!
We finished our science unit on insects. The students did a terrific job on these lessons and brought in many insects for us to observe. A few students have brought in ticks from recess, please be vigilant in checking your children after playing outside. It seems to be a bad year for ticks. Our next science unit is our MARE unit. First grade studies the Rocky Seashore. We learn all about tide pools and the amazing plants and animals who live in them. Each student will create a MARE project, which is due June 7. Information will come home about the specifics of the project. This year we are having an Ocean Week at OCS. We will buddy up with other classes to teach each other about our area of the ocean. We are very excited!
The Book Fair will be the week of May 20. Our class will go on Monday, May 20 from 11:18-11:48. The Spring Concert will be on Wednesday, May 22. DRA testing will be on Friday, May 24 and DIBELS testing will be on Tuesday, May 28.
We are finishing our poetry unit in writing workshop. The students have each created a beautiful poetry book, featuring a collection of their poems. Special thanks to the fifth graders and the seventh graders for their help with the poems. I hope you enjoy them when your child proudly shares them with you.
In math, we are learning about place value and adding and subtracting 2 digit numbers. Please continue to practice addition and subtraction facts to 18.
Happy Mother's Day to all of the amazing Mom's out there! The students are so excited to make a special card for you for Mother's Day. I hope you all have a wonderful day.

March 2013

March will bring us Read Across America, St. Patrick's Day, and the first day of Spring. We will celebrate Dr. Seuss's birthday by performing fairy tale plays for other classes. The students are very excited to do shows of Chicken Little, The Three Billy Goats Gruff, and Little Red Riding Hood. We will also share the narrative stories we wrote. It will be a fun day, celebrating literacy with our friends.

During the month of March, our whole school is continuing the character education work out. We are spending time with lessons on courage, optimism, respect, responsibility, empathy, citizenship, and trustworthiness. We work with our 8th grade buddies during phys ed time to complete related activities.
This month I will travel to Columbia Teachers College for their Reading and Writing Project Saturday reunion. This is an amazing event, free to all teachers, and thousands of teachers will be there. I can't wait to try all of the new things I will learn there with my group of first graders.
We will conduct a science unit on Balance and Motion. We will use the FOSS kit to explore balance, motion, counterweights, rolling, spinning, axles, wheels, rotation. This is a fun, hands on unit using various manipulatives. Look for a parent letter to come home. Students will want to share all we are doing in class with this unit!
In math, we are beginning Unit 7. This unit is on Geometry. Key concepts include sorting attributes blocks according to attribute rules, extending familiarity with polygons, identifying 3 dimensional shapes, and exploring symmetrical shapes. Please continue to practice basic addition and subtraction facts.
Writing Workshop will focus on informational texts. The students will choose a topic that they are "experts" on, then write about it. I can't wait to start this unit!
Castle projects are due on March 19. Please use recycled materials. The students have been learning about castles and their purposes. They should have good ideas to contribute to this project.
Report cards will come home on March 28. There is no school on March 29, as this begins our Spring Break. I would like to wish everyone a very happy Easter and spring!

Happy 2014!

The new year brings us to the half way point of first grade. Students will be tested for mid-year progress in math, DIBELS, and DRA at the end of January and beginning of February. Look for report cards to come home at the end of the month. The students are growing and learning so much each day, it is very exciting!

Writing Workshop this month focuses on persuasive writing, or opinion writing. We will start by writing a list of things we really love, and would love to persuade others to like. The students have been able to write on their own for longer periods of time, and are becoming very convincing in their writing. Watch out parents! This can be a powerful tool!
Our phonics lessons will reinforce short vowels, hard and soft c and g, r,l, and s blends, and contractions. We are doing an author study of Jan Brett. We are also reading about snow, ice, and polar animals.
Social Studies will focus on Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. We will tie this in with our character education lessons and discuss how it feels to be excluded and what we can all do to be part of a solution to the problems of prejudice and stereotyping.
Math skills to focus on this month include basic addition and subtraction facts, and a review of temperature and time to the hour and half hour. Please keep working on basic facts. We are up to subtraction to 6. Students should be very fluent in all addition facts (to 20) and subtraction to 6.
In Science, we will be discussing how the weather affects us and how animals adapt to their environment. We will do some experiments with ice, snow, and water. We will make frost and compare that to how snowflakes are made.
There is no school for students on January 20. Our therapy dogs will visit on January 15. We will have our Spelling Bee on January 13. Our school wide Spelling Bee will be on January 17.
A special thank you to the PTA for the Lenne Lenape Assembly on January 14. It was fantastic! The students learned so much and were interested in everything Mr. TwoSteps had to say.
I am looking forward to a great month with these awesome first graders! Stay warm and healthy!