American Education Week

I have chosen this Thursday, November 14th to have parents visit the classroom from 12:00-1:00. A pink note went home from Mr. Spencer a few weeks ago with information, but I will also send home a notice tomorrow to remind families too. This is an informal opportunity for you to come in to see our classroom and for the students to show you what they have been working on. I hope you can make it!

Veterans Video- Thank You Mrs. Winsper!

Mrs. Winsper, our AMAZING computer teacher, took time before school yesterday to take pictures of our soldiers and put them into a video slideshow with music and everything. She is so awesome and we are lucky to have her! I just had to share the video with you to watch. Enjoy and please show your first grader too!

Thank You Veterans!

Thank you to Mrs. Brooks-Mackinnon for coming in and hanging our soldiers!! Along with all the work Mrs. Campbell, Mrs. Walker and Mrs. Egan did to set up the background, and all the cutting Mrs. Novak and Mrs. May did to prep the paper pieces, our tribute to the soldiers is incredible!

A few students were inspired to make cards or write letters to veterans they knew. Some students also brought in pictures or articles of clothing from their papas and uncles that were veterans to share with the class. One student even shared a song that was very special to his family because it reminds them of a loved one. It was so sweet to listen to many of the students talking about the veterans they know with so much love and pride!  My heart was completely touched this week.

Thank you to Veterans everywhere! We love you!

Owls and a Sneak Peek!

Today we finished up our unit on owls. We worked hard all last week making our owl fact books filled with new information we learned from reading and researching these amazing birds. I hope you learned something new when your first grader brought home their book to read to you today! 

 We also worked on some interactive writing during our owl week. This is hanging on our classroom door so that if other students walk by our room and want to learn more about owls, they can stop and read the paragraph we wrote!

And then, just few other updates about what we've been up to:

• In reader's workshop, we started our new unit on characters. We are noticing what our characters do in stories to get to know more about them. 
• In writer's workshop, we are choosing one small moment piece of writing from our writing folders to revise, edit, and "publish". 
• In math workshop, we are working on our double facts and practicing strategies we can use to quickly find the sum. 
• Finally, given that November 11th is just around the corner, we started learning about veterans today in social studies. I want to say a huge thank you to Mrs. Campbell, along with parents from Mrs. Morgan's class, who came in to set up the backdrop for a mural our classes are going to create. It looks amazing! This mural will be our tribute and way of honoring veterans. Tomorrow we will be making paper soldiers and writing about why they are special. The soldiers will be added to look like they are "marching" along our scene, as if they were in a Veterans Day parade. Here's a sneak peek!

I can not wait to share more pictures with you tomorrow after we hang our soldiers up. Stay tuned!!

Candy Graph!

Happy Halloween!

Here's a bunch of pictures from our awesome day! This morning, we wrote about why we love Halloween and decorated spooky houses.

This afternoon, we had our craft and game workshops! Thank you to all the parents that prepared materials and came in to make our day even better.

As I was walking around snapping pictures, this group said, "Miss Waterman, take a picture of us giving thumbs up to the Red Sox for winning the World Series!!" How could I say no?! :)

Happy Halloween and Congrats to the Red Sox!

Tomorrow and Friday News

Tomorrow is black and orange day. I told everyone they can wear these colors to celebrate the day (if they want to). We are very excited for our parent-run craft workshops in the afternoon too. Our day will be filled with lots of fun activities for sure!

A student also wrote a persuasive letter to Mr. Spencer asking if students could wear their PJs to school on Friday. In the letter, this older student insisted that everyone will be tired from trick-or-treating and a cozy outfit on Friday will be a must. The letter was very sweet and convincing- and Mr. Spencer said yes! Therefore, I would love to support this! If anyone would like to wear their PJs, slippers, or extra comfy clothes on Friday, our classroom will be participating in PJ day. :)