Masks and Marine Life

We've been working hard to prepare for our plays on June 13th!  This week we constructed, painted, and glued our character masks.  Next week: set design!

Our other big focus has been the ocean!  We're not only writing informational texts about ocean creatures, we're also researching  the variety of living and non-living parts of the ocean and creating individual ocean murals to showcase our learning.  Students have to think about size, location, and food sources when adding elements to their posters.  Of course, this is all preparation for our Crescent Beach trip on Tuesday!  We're looking forward to exploring and sharing our learning on location!

*IMPORTANT DATES!*

We have SO much to celebrate as the year winds down!  Here are a few special events to put in your calendars for June:

Rowe School Beach Day is Tuesday, June 3!  We will spend the day at Crescent Beach as the culmination of our school wide science unit on the ocean.  Blue permission slips must be filled out and returned in order for your child to attend.  PLEASE consider being a chaperone for this special event!  
 
Our student led portfolio celebrations will take place after school on June 9th and June 10th.   At your scheduled time, you and your child will meet with me to go over the continua.  Your child will then share with you his or her first grade portfolio packed full of amazing first grade learning.  A date/time confirmation was sent home with your child on Thursday.

******On JUNE 13th, the Falcons will perform 4 plays for YOU!  Students will spend the next couple of weeks reading and practicing scripts, making their masks and constructing all the props for the performances.  Our performance will be in our classroom on June 13th at 11:00 a.m.  We look forward to seeing you in the crowd!

Please note that students will be practicing lines here in the classroom.  They do NOT need to memorize lines or buy costumes.  Your job is to simply show up and enjoy!

Upcoming Events...

Portfolio Conferences are June 9th and 10th!

This is a time for you and your child to spend time together looking over your child's first grade portfolio.  I will meet with you briefly to talk about the end-of-year continua as well.  These first graders are VERY excited to show you how they've grown as learners throughout this school year!  Please look in home/school folders today for sign-up sheets.  Send me your top 3 choices no later than May 22.



It's time to make raffle baskets for the ice cream social!

Our classroom's basket theme is "Field Day".  We will be accepting donations for the basket through Friday, May 23.

Some donation suggestions from the PTO for our basket are:
Hula hoop
Jump rope
Water bottle
Balls
Frisbee
Beach towel
Sunscreen
Whiffle ball set


Happy Mother's Day!

This Week's Happenings

Our first week back from vacation was jam-packed!

We experimented with wheel and axle systems in science.  The goal was to design a wheel and axle system that would go far using a downward slope.  The students had a blast and were very creative with their designs!

In readers' workshop, we started a new unit that focuses on character dramatization.  Students are putting themselves in the character's shoes and focusing on tone of voice, facial expressions, and feelings.  We've even done some acting!

In math we continue to work on number grid patterns, fractions, adding and subtracting 2-digit numbers, and fact fluency.

In writers' workshop it was all poetry this week!  Students revised poems and published their favorites in anticipation of our first grade poetry celebration with Ms. Honan on Monday.  The Falcons' 2014 Poetry Anthology is going home in backpacks today!

We have a classroom full of spring and summer birthdays.  If your child has a summer birthday and you have not received an email from me regarding scheduling an alternate day to celebrate in the classroom, please let me know and I will touch base with you.  We want to celebrate everyone's special day before school wraps up for the year!