Mystery Reader

Thank you to Mrs. M for sharing with us as our mystery reader this past week!  We had a great time and loved the silly rhymes in the Weird Al book!

Sad News

I wanted to share some news that has happened in our classroom.  On Friday, our beloved bearded dragon, Rosie, passed away.  For the last few weeks, Rosie had been eating less and she became sick in the last few days.  Unfortunately, even with an attempt to hand-feed her, she died Friday morning.

As the children noticed that she was not moving, we had a discussion about the possibility of her having died that day.  We talked about how she had been loved by many different classes over the years and we had taken very good care of her this year.  I also explained that she was 11 years old, which was typical for a bearded dragon.  Her tank mate and sister, Amarillo, had passed away this summer as well.

I told the children that I would check on her after school to know for sure, and would email their families this weekend to keep them updated in case any families wanted to discuss this with their children.  If you would like to talk about this with your children and have any questions or are looking for resources on this topic, please let me know.

Goodbye, Rosie.  We will miss you!

Family Pictures

Please send in a 4x6 picture of your family for our Room 112 Family Tree!  The picture can include anyone you and your child consider part of your family.  The pictures will be displayed in our classroom and returned at the end of the year.

Please let me know if you have any questions.  Thank you in advance!

"We are a family, like a giant tree, growing stronger, growing wiser."

Schedule for the Week of 10/31 - 11/4

Monday (D) - PE
Tuesday (A) - Art & Music
Wednesday (B) - Media Center
Thursday (C) - Music
Friday (D) - PE

Please remember to return library books on days we visit the media center and bring gym shoes on days we have PE.

Monday, October 31
NO SCHOOL IN AFTERNOON

Halloween Parade - 10:40am
Halloween Party - 11:00am

Dismissal - 12:05pm

Readers and Writers Workshop

We are continuing to work on both our decoding and comprehension skills in Readers Workshop, as well as our conventions, narrative structure and ideas in Writers Workshop.

Here we are with our writing partners as we read our stories and offer suggestions to each other to help develop and add details such as showing a feeling rather than telling it and including dialogue.

When reading, we have the opportunity to read wth a partner to demonstrate how the day's lesson could be used in our books.  This may include showing how a strategy was used on a tricky word or retelling our books to check for comprehension.

Mystery Reader

Thank you so much to Mrs. S for sharing the books Creepy Carrots by Aaron Reynolds and The Gruffalo by Julia Donaldson!  We loved both books and were even able to make a connection between them during our question time.

First Grade on the Farm!

We had a great time recently at Bowers Farm!  We were able to see many different types of animals, from horses and goats to chickens and ducks!  We also learned about the different parts of a corn plant and had a chance to explore a corn maze!  Finally, we were able to take a hay ride through the farm and pick our own pumpkins.  The children all loved their word of the day - peduncle!  It is what the stem of the pumpkin is called.

It was a beautiful day to visit the farm!

Schedule for the Week of 10/24 - 10/28

Monday (C) - Music
Tuesday (D) - PE
Wednesday (A) - Art & Music
Thursday (B) - Media Center
Friday (C) - Music

Please remember to return library books on days we visit the media center and bring gym shoes on days we have PE.

School Pictures

Your child should have brought home their school picture packets this afternoon.  If your child did not, and they had their pictures taken, please let me know and I will locate them for you.

If you are interested in taking additional pictures, Picture Retake Day will be on Thursday, Oct. 27.

Schedule for the Week of 10/17 - 10/21

Monday (B) - Media Center
Tuesday (C) - Music
Wednesday (D) - PE
Thursday (A) - Art & Music
Friday (B) - Media Center

Please remember to return library books on days we visit the media center and bring gym shoes on days we have PE.

Field Trip Reminder

Harlan’s First Grade Had a Farm…

E – I – E – I – O !

Who:  Mr. Kefgen & Mrs. Cooper’s First Grade Classes

What:  First field trip of the year!

Where:  Bowers Farm

When:  Friday, October 14     12:30-2:30pm

Gentle Reminders

·        Please remember to dress appropriately for the weather as we will be outside

·      Wear your class t-shirts on Friday

Snacks

·        The children will be given donuts and apple cider provided by Bowers Farm.  If this is not safe for your child, please send an alternative snack and drink

Chaperones

If you have volunteered as a chaperone, please meet us at the farm by 12:20pm on Friday

Bowers Farm

1219 E. Square Lake Rd.

Bloomfield Hills, MI  48304

Scientist with a Twist

Last week, our class welcomed in our first Scientist with a Twist!  Thank you to Mrs. S and her family for doing such an amazing job!  Mrs. S and her child presented the Aesop fable The Crow and the Pitcher.  This is the story of a crow who is thirsty, but is unable to reach the water in the bottom of a pitcher.  He then begins to find a way to make the water come to him by placing pebbles into the pitcher and watching the water rise, demonstrating water displacement!  Here are our Scientists with a Twist reading the story and performing the experiment!  A rubber band was placed at the pitcher's  original water level to show how it had changed and a stuffed bird was used to see if the water had reached the point where it could drink!

We discussed ways we could try this experiment at home and decided the best way was to watch the water in your bathtub rise after you get in it.  This way you are what is causing the water displacement while observing it at the same time!

 Thank you again to Mrs. S and her family!

Mystery Reader

This past week we were treated to a wonderful reading of The Balloon Tree by Phoebe Gilman by our Mystery Reader, Mrs. S!  Thank you so much for joining us in Room 112!  The children had a great time!

Farm Field Trip

This is a gentle reminder that our class will be joining Mrs. Cooper's class this Friday, Oct. 14 at Bower's Farm for our first field trip!  I will be contacting all families that volunteered as chaperones with more information soon.

Fall Frolic

Our annual school carnival, the Fall Frolic, will be held this Friday, Oct. 14 from 6-8pm.  Raffle tickets will be on sale every day at lunch this week to win the amazing baskets on display in Compassion Plaza!  Each raffle ticket costs $0.50.

The baskets are:

Girls Get Up and Go - everything to keep a girl moving, including a $40 gift card to Ivivva.
Mini Folic - all you need to have your own Frolic at home, including your very own SnoCone and cotton candy machines!
Family Halloween - contains all the makings for a spooktacular family night.
Gamer - a fun basket of gamer goods including Piccachu and Pokemon game cards.
Emoji - this basket contains tons of emoji fun including a fun backrest with all your favorite emojis!
Mystery - we can't tell you what's in it, but we can say it has something everyone will love!

Raffle tickets will also be available for purchase at the Fall Frolic.

If you have any questions about purchasing Frolic tickets or bracelets, please let me know.

I will be working at the SnoCone machine, and I hope to see everyone there!

Spirit Week

This week is Harlan's Annual Spirit Week!  Please see the below schedule for the daily themes!

Monday - Pajama Day - Get comfy, and wear your jimmies and slippers too!
Tuesday - Mismatch Day - Wear your plaids with your stripes, mismatched socks and mismatched shoes!
Wednesday - No theme in observance of Yom Kippur 
Thursday - Wacky Hair Day - Mousse it, gel, tease it, curl...just don't cut it without permission :)  How wacky can you get?
Friday - Harlan Spirit Day - Wear your class shirt, your Husky wear, or just some blue and white to show you're proud to be a Harlan Husky!

Schedule for the Week of 10/10 - 10/14

Monday (A) - Art & Music
Tuesday (B) - Media Center
Wednesday (C) - Music
Thursday (D) - PE
Friday (A) - Art & Music

Please remember to return library books on days we visit the media center and bring gym shoes on days we have PE.

Musical Call and Echo

Mrs. A Cooper recently upload a recording of each first grade class using instruments to create a call and echo sequence.  The children had a wonderful time exploring the different instruments!  Please use the below link to visit the Harlan Music website to listen to the recordings

http://harlanmusicroom.weebly.com/1st-grade-creations.html

Farm Field Trip

If you have not signed and returned your child's farm field trip permission slip, please complete and return this in your child's yellow folder.  Please let me know if you need another copy of the form.

Small Moments

Today we learned about writing small moment stories.  We talked about how a small moment is a true story that happened to you that was just a little piece of your day.  Our mini lesson focused on pretending our stories were watermelons.  A whole watermelon is a very large idea that has lots of little stories inside.  A slice of the watermelon discusses one of the topics from the big idea.  One seed of the slice represent one small moment from your big idea.  Here is our anchor chart to help us remember how to take a big idea and find a small moment from it to write about.  Notice how the idea became smaller each time!

Constitution Day

In September, all children across our country learn about and celebrate Constitution Day!  As part of our learning, our grade level created our very own First Grade Constitution!

Exploring Solids

This past week we been our first science unit - Solids, Liquids and Gases.  We have been learning all about the properties of a solid, or ways to describe solid objects.  Words we have learned and used include flexible, rigid, rough, smooth, flat, pointed, hard, soft and has color.  Each of the children began with a Discovery bag for them to explore.  The bag consisted of a verity of different solid objects that represented the properties we are discussing.

On Friday, we became engineers and used our new knowledge of solids to design and build structures using materials such as screws, rubber bands, paper cups, straws, fabric, plastic tubing, Popsicle sticks, tin foil, cardboard and wire.  Here we are building before we entered the Kefgen Museum of Engineering to observe how others used the solids to construct.

We are really looking forward to exploring the properties of liquids this week!