April 25

Storyline:
The frieze is up with only a few details to complete. It is a wonderful piece of art. I am continually amazed at what the children are creating. Storyline is truly a gift to the teaching profession in so many ways! Most of the children have finished their autobiographies. They are located in the hall outside out classroom. Please take a moment to read them. The children wrote and illustrated their books and edited their own writing. This means that you will find mistakes in the spelling or grammatical errors. This is truly their writing. As you read these autobiographies, notice how the children have become school children in Venice! Again, another gift of storyline.

This week we will begin exploring sound, as it will become a very important part of our storyline. Remember, we will be going to the Bend Science Station this Thursday and Friday. Please make sure your child returns the permission slip that went home last week.

The Great Venetian Reading Race:
Our race is off to a great start. It has come to my attention that some children are feeling some pressure with this event. It is VERY IMPORTANT that this does not become a burden for your child. If this occurs PLEASE contact me. I will make accommodations for your child. Please help me emphasis it is not a race against other children, so there are not winners or losers. If I hear "Stella" putting another child down or criticizing a child's efforts, Stella's gondola will have to go into the gondola repair shop for one or two days.

Cooking on Thursday!
WOW! What a fun (and exhausting) afternoon. The combined the three first grade classrooms and divide them up into three groups. This children when through three cooking stations. They made pizza, pasta and watched learned how to make gelato. After going through the rotations, the children went out to recess while the parents cooked and set up the cafeteria downstairs. The children came in and had a feast! They ate their pizza, some pasta and desert. Some characters from the Gabriella's song came to visit as well. Luigi, the singing Gondolier and the Signor Pagliani, the happy baker came to visit! It was a great time for everyone. I want to thank Susan Cunningham, Shanna Laherty, Jenny Cornutt, Janet Chase, Tami Hatfield and Nicole Wood for helping with this event. Please let me know if I missed anyone!!!!

I would also like to thank Mark Cunningham for making the Realto Bridge for our classroom. It is a great hit!

On Friday another character from the book came to visit. Widow Santucci came for a few minutes. She is a very sad woman who's husband passed away many years ago. We will be learning more about her in the future.

Reading Logs -
Please excuse the long message, but it is important.
To piggy back on the Venetian reading event, I would still like children to turn in their reading logs. For the past two weeks, I have been having some children stay in for part of the morning recess to complete their weekly reading homework (As I mentioned I would in a past newsletter). The homework is to read at least 10 minutes a night for 5 nights a week. Reading 50 minutes in one night is good, however, reading fewer minutes over more nights is better.

If your child does not turn in their reading log or does not have five days checked off on their reading log, they will owe me time during recess. For example, Stella read three nights and turned in her reading log. She has not put down the amount of time she read, so I have no way of knowing how long she has read. Stella will owe me 20 minutes of recess time, which would be two days(10 minutes per day). Caterina read seven nights and she did not write the times down. She does not own me any time because she met the five night requirement. The children that stay in and make up reading homework will be able to use that time for the Great Venetian reading event starting this week.

Why am I doing this you may be asking. I feel like that the children need to be held accountable for the homework assignments. I feel reading is one of the most important academic subjects in school and just as important in our lives. Children will not improve if they do not practice. Please contact me if you have any questions about this.

I hope you have had a restful and enjoyable weekend!
Becky

April, 16, 2010

Storyline:
This week we have been working on our frieze, autobiographies and characters. The frieze is ALMOST complete! There are still a few details to finish. The children are writing autobiographies from the point of view that they are school children living in Venice. The writing is amazing and they are truly taking on their characters.

Next week is going to be a bit busy (what's new). On Monday, the first grade team will have a professional development day, so we will all be out of school. Patty Neumann is going to be the substitute for me.

Ancestroy Worksheet:
If you did not get it completed, please try to do so by Tuesday. Also, if you can be looking at work completed by your child's famous Italian ancestor over the next few weeks, that would be great as well.

On Thursday we are going make some Italian treats. All the first grade classes will be divided up and will be rotating to three different cooking stations. We will be making pizza, pasta and gelato. After all our hard work the children will be able to enjoy the tastes of Italy! Thank you to all the parents who contacted me about helping. I think this will be a very fun and exciting experience for the children.

We have been working on "Venice" vocabulary: The words we have been working on so far are ~
Canal
Lagoon
Ancestor
There is one or two more, but I can't remember what they are! I will make sure I write them down for next week.

Bend Science Station
On Thursday, April 29 and Friday April 30 we will be going up to the Bend Science Station. We will doing some science experiments on sounds and vibrations. This will be directly related to our storyline which is very exciting! Half of the class will be going up on Thursday and half the class will be going up on Friday. Transportation is being provided by the Bend Science Station (they have a 16 passenger bus and David Bermutez is a certified bus driver and teacher whom I have known for 17 years! HE IS AN AMAZING SCIENCE TEACHER!). If I need parent volunteers, I will send out an email. We will be leaving at 9:20 AM and returning to school around 10:45 AM

Reading, math and writing are all coming along quite well. I am really pleased with what the children are doing in all the subject areas. Today I was in awe watching the children reading on the carpet. They were 100% engaged. All were reading independently or buddy reading. It was wonderful. I think we are getting to the point where they are really beginning to enjoy the process of reading, as it is not so much work. They are beginning to read for content and comprehension. What a joy!

I hope everyone has had a wonderful weekend! What a day today! The sun felt so warm and lovely!



Becky

Sunday, April 11

STORYLINE:
Last week we worked on our frieze, picked our Italian names and the children were put into families. This week the students will be assigned their family name, which will be famous Italian composers, scientists and artists. Once they get their last names, students will begin to do a research project on their "ancestors". This paper will not be as extensive as the animal research papers the kiddos did for the last storyline (WHEW). We will also be working on our characters for the frieze and biographies.

WRITING: We are working hard on our writing. I am impressed with the work the kiddos are doing. I started a new format which seems to be working with the organizational aspects of their stories. We continue to work on adjectives to describe our nouns. We are working on using "Big Words" and synonyms. Using words other than good, pretty, cool nice, fun etc. when we are talking and writing make everything much more exciting!

Homework: Please make sure you correct your child's Homelinks for math. Also, remember to fill out the reading logs.

The Great Gondola Race: We will be starting a reading event at school associated with our storyline. Students will be riding on their gondolas through the canals of Venice and earning prizes along the way! More information will be coming home later this week or early next week!

I hope you had a great weekend. I just got back from Portland at 6:00! It was a one day up and back event. One nice thing was that was the last trip to Portland for soccer for a while!

Becky

April 4, 2010

Storyline:
This week we will begin working on our Frieze of Venice as well as our characters. As I have mentioned earlier, our children will become school children living in Venice, Italy.
They will be taking on Italian names. Some children have come up with some names that are not really Italian, so they will not be able to use those names. I have a list of names at school that children can use. If the your child wants to find a name, Google Italian baby names. You should be able to find some great lists. If your child picks a name at home, please make sure they know what the word means in Italian.

We will begin writing our picking names and biographies on Wednesday or Thursday.

The Rialto Bridge...
The children would love to have the Rialto Bridge in our room. Are there any parents out there that work with building and would be willing to build a small bridge for our classroom? The kiddos want to put it in our doorway, so they can walk across the bridge when they enter and exit our classroom. Let me know if you are interested!! It would be a simple bridge......

Scholastic Book Orders:
Remember to look at the link to scholastic books orders with your children. The orders are due on April 7.

I hope you had an enjoyable weekend!
Becky