End of year approaching fast!

So much is happening in the next few weeks! We have been practicing our play, E-I-E-I-Oops! The kids are very excited! The songs are short and easy to learn, so it's going very well! I think we've made our final adjustments to the parts and so your child will bring home a slip of paper next week with his/her assigned part and costume suggestions. No worries, though! The costumes are easy: all animals will wear jeans and a colored shirt. Chicks will wear yellow shirts, pigs will wear pink shirts and sheep will wear white shirts. We're making headbands here at school for each animal. The farmer parts should wear denim overalls, jeans, or skirts and plaid shirts. Maybe a straw hat? They'll look great! We plan to have dress rehearsal during the day with an evening performance for families on June 7th at 6:00 in the gym! If your child will NOT be able to attend the evening performance, please let me know! We have set dates for end of the year events! Move Up Day (where students visit their assigned class for the following year) is scheduled for June 8th. June 11th we'll have our annual field day! That morning students will participate in a variety of events like balloon toss, tug-o-war, and the water slide. For lunch we'll have our school picnic with a concert on the green to follow. June 13th is the last day of school! Our last math unit is well under way and students are learning about Farms! The math topics are area and perimeter, but in an informal way. While children buy fencing for their animals, they are actually calculating the perimeter of their field. We don't use the words perimeter and area, but when the children are formally taught about area and perimeter, they will have a deeper understanding! And they're also learning to count money! The farmhouse they bought this week cost $30 which was easy to calculate using ten dollar bills. However, the silo cost $27 and the goats cost $8 each. Each time they buy something for their farm, they have to "pay" using the Farm Bucks they cut out on the first day. They even pay for land! They really want to buy everything TODAY, but we'll finish the year with this unit! We are assessing students for the very last time this year! We'll have a reading level by the end of the month and each child will take the end of year math assessment before the end of May. I also have to give them an end-of-year spelling assessment as well. This information helps us with placement and also with forming instructional groupings for the beginning of the following year. Please let me know if you have any questions!

Busy, busy, busy...

Such a busy time of year right now and until the end of first grade! Right now we're meeting to talk about report cards and accomplishments! Such wonderful little children you have shared with me! They are reading anything they can get their hands on! They love to hear stories, too! Today we read some books about sheep in preparation for our field trip to Shelburne Farms on Wednesday! Our writing unit is "fictional narrative" which is very appealing to youngsters with vivid imaginations! Our geometry math unit is short and coming to an end...the big farm unit will begin not long after vacation. The spring is full of science...properties, states of matter, plants...lots to do and learn!

The farm unit also brings with it the first grade production of "E-I-E-I-Oops", a play about some farm animals. I've introduced the play to the class and they've heard a CD of the entire production to give them a sense of what to expect. There are some talking parts and some singing/dancing parts. All four first grade classes are participating so we've split the parts amongst four classes. We have tentatively assigned parts and will send home the speaking parts to be learned over vacation. (No part is more than a few lines!) NO COSTUMES ARE NEEDED YET! Some confusion on Friday led a few students to ask, "Do I need my costume for Monday?" NO! When it gets closer to the actual event, we will ask for your help finding costume parts (for example, farmers will need denim overalls and even if your child isn't a farmer, you may have overalls to lend) and making props. We're hoping to perform for you the first week in June...still confirming with Mrs. Cianciola and Mrs. Fay (music teachers).

Don't forget our field trip Wednesday...kids need a lunch and outdoor gear appropriate to the weather-warm or cold or rainy! Have a wonderful week!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Rumor has it a leprechaun visited our classroom? It's true! A little, green fellow came by...well, not so little! In case you don't recognize him...that's Mr. O'Hara!