Monday

Welcome back after a very long weekend!!

I was out for the day at an Open Circle workshop. When I got back to school this afternoon, I looked at some of the kids stories from this morning. Looks like a lot of kids had fun playing in the snow this weekend!

Tomorrow we will start to get ready for Valentines Day. If your child is bringing in Valentines, please send one in for all of the kids on Thursday.

We will now celebrate the 100th day on Tuesday after break.
I look forward to seeing the kids tomorrow :)

Video: Week of 2/4-2/8

Check out what we did this week!

http://youtu.be/8z3ORC6ZSGw


Hope everyone had fun in the snow...Daisy did! :)

Jan Brett contest!

Stratton School shot up to number 27 this week (out of over 100 schools) in the Jan Brett author visit contest! But we still need many more votes. Tell all your friends to vote for Stratton:
First "Like" Jan Brett's Facebook page and then complete the Contest form. Votes will only be counted if the contest form is completed. Thank you!

First grade: Money games

A few online math games I found that help reinforce counting coins:

http://www.hbschool.com/activity/counting_money/

http://illuminations.nctm.org/ActivityDetail.aspx?ID=217

There are many free apps you can buy for iPads/iPhones.  Counting Coins looks pretty good!

You can play "store" at home.  Your child can count out the correct amount of money to give you so they can "buy" things.

Educreation Retells 2/6

The first graders worked on their first independent Educreation on Wednesday!! They are still working on some of the logistics but I think they came out great!!

Click on the links to view their retells:

Jasmyn: http://www.educreations.com/lesson/view/jasmyn-the-duckling-gets-a-cookie/4608337/?s=QDsWk3&ref=link

Charlie: http://www.educreations.com/lesson/view/charlie-penguins/4610200/?s=xW3QFh&ref=link

Dylan:  http://www.educreations.com/lesson/view/dylan-curious-george/4608247/?s=1vn4GT&ref=link

Anna-Sophia: http://www.educreations.com/lesson/view/anna-sophia-pirates-past-noon/4608123/?s=gQtvm1&ref=link

Jeremiah: http://www.educreations.com/lesson/view/jeremiah-penguins-swim/4608100/?s=3S2nQf&ref=link

Noah:  http://www.educreations.com/lesson/view/noah-cat-and-the-hat/4607865/?s=lQSfM9&ref=link

Zachary: http://www.educreations.com/lesson/view/zachary-there-was-an-old-lady-who-swallowed-a-shel/4607778/?s=N3J3b6&ref=link

Erica:  http://www.educreations.com/lesson/view/erica-the-silly-snowy-day/4607651/?s=3fM52c&ref=link

Zoe: http://www.educreations.com/lesson/view/zoe-tacky/4607628/?s=DbiKl8&ref=link

Jane: http://www.educreations.com/lesson/view/jane-harry-potter/4607548/?s=mWvQv0&ref=link

Ivan:  http://www.educreations.com/lesson/view/ivan-tacky/4607397/?s=rLbwHH&ref=link

Monday 2/4 & Tuesday 2/5

In Open Circle we have introduced the problem-solving steps. We will be learning how to use the traffic light. Ask your child what the red light reminds us to do. The children will be bringing home their own problem-solving traffic signal. Please see the latest parent newsletter below.

The kindergartners have begun their study of the rainforest in anticipation of reading the next Magic Tree House book, Afternoon on the Amazon.

We have brought the iPad cart into the classroom twice this week and through guidance the first graders have been exploring a few apps.

Today we broke into grade level groups for math, with the kindergartners playing a bingo game and making scrolls that will help them with skip-counting, and the first graders working on money and number sense.

Dear Family:

In Open Circle this week, we began a multi-lesson unit on problem solving. In the coming weeks, we will be learning to use a three-step process for solving people problems. We began by talking about what a problem is. A problem is something that goes wrong, makes us feel worried or upset, or is a situation in which we need to decide what to do. We all have problems at school — in the classroom and on the playground. We even have problems as a whole class.

To help us learn and remember the problem-solving steps, we use the colors of a traffic signal: Red = Stop. Yellow = Think. Green = Go. In problem solving, we do the same three things that a traffic signal tells us:

RED LIGHT:

• First, we have to STOP.
In problem solving, that means we have to calm down. Then we tell ourselves the problem and how we feel.

YELLOW LIGHT;

• Second, we have to THINK.
In problem solving, that means we have to be careful and think of many different ways to solve the problem and what would happen if we tried them.

GREEN LIGHT:

• Third, we can GO.
In problem solving, that means we make a plan and try it.

The problem-solving traffic signal will be sent home this week in your child's home school folder. Please post it on your refrigerator or someplace in your home where you can see it often as a reminder to both you and your child to use the problem-solving process to solve problems that come up outside of school. Problem solving is an important skill that your child can use throughout life, not only in school but later on in the workplace and the community.

Friday 2/1

We were SO busy during finish-up this morning!!

We spent much of our day learning about Groundhog Day!
A video about the history, Time for Kids, graph, puppet craft and a story.