Small Moments Writing Celebration

We finished our study of personal narrative writing ("Small Moments") on Thursday. Some goals for this writing unit were: 

• "Zooming in" on an event that happened in our lives
• Describing what happened in story form with a beginning, middle, and end
• Making our writing easy to read by including letters for most sounds in words and using appropriate spacing
• "Unfreezing" our characters by including action words, dialogue/speech bubbles as well as feelings and thoughts characters have
• Understanding the writing process:  thinking of an idea, planning (verbally and through sketching), writing, rereading, revising, editing, and publishing

We celebrated by sharing our stories with friends in other TAISM first grade classes. I am so proud of all the 1MW students have learned!

         

Water Usage Homework

As part of our Rights of a Child unit, we are beginning our conversation about water. We are learning why water is so important, all the ways in which we use it every day, and how some people do not have access to clean water. 

Today, your child will come home with the sheet pictured above for homework. Please set aside one day between Thursday and Sunday to help your child track household water usage. Once all sheets are returned, we will use the information to compare our water usage with a child in Kenya. Please return the sheet by Monday. Thanks for helping to make our learning in 1MW relevant and meaningful!    

Swimming

As you know, SAISA's swim competition is being hosted at TAISM this year. Students will not be using the pool today, but they will be able to swim on Sunday. I apologize for not sending a blog post to remind families. My days were mixed up in my head and I thought we had P.E. tomorrow, not today. (I'm sure you can understand the confusion around what day it is!) So, if students brought their swim gear today, it will be brought home clean and unused. Just have them bring it on Sunday!

Also, I have had questions around when we have swimming. Typically, we have swimming each P.E. day (Days 1, 3, and 5) during our swim unit which is currently October 27 - November 19.

Thanks!
Ms. Michelle

Thank you!

A big "Thank you!" to Ellen's mom, Amanda, and Lenny's mom, Monika, for decorating our classroom door for the Fall Festival.

Take a look...

Swimming starts this Thursday!

The P.E. swimming unit with Miss Effie begins this Thursday, October 22nd. Please send your child to school prepared and ready to participate.

Students need to bring a bag with the following items in it:

1. Swimsuit (Girls need one piece suits)

2. Towel

3. Goggles

4. Swim Cap (Only students with long hair)

5. Sandals/flip-flops

The unit will last until November 19th. If you have questions, you may email Miss Effie at stonee@taism.com.

Needs and Wants

As a precursor to our Rights of a Child inquiry unit, we have been talking about needs and wants. We identified wants such as candy, cell phones, toys, televisions, cars, schools, and junk food. We identified the following as basic needs: air to breathe, water, and food. Up for discussion were things like doctors, medicine, money, shelter, and clothing. While our bodies do not need these things for basic survival, we discussed how: clothing and shelter keep our bodies safe and protected; medicine and doctors help us live longer and they can help people with ongoing illnesses; and some societies use money as a means to purchase things like food and water. There was a lot of deep thinking during this lesson!

The following pictures show the healthy foods our bodies need for snack time so we can do our best learning...

 

    

Reading Buddies

We love our fourth grade buddies from Mr. Lang's class. We meet with them each Day 6 and have a wonderful time learning together! We read with them, play math games, share our writing pieces, and work on the iPads. Check it out...

Half-Day Tomorrow

Just a friendly reminder that tomorrow (Tuesday) is a half-day. Students will be dismissed at 12:00. 

Also...there is also no school this Sunday, October 11th, for elementary school students only. When we return on October 12th, it will be Day 2.