Chief Wilson

Chief Wilson and her son, Cadet Wilson, came back to Memorial on 11.4.16 in honor of Veterans Day. She discussed the meaning of the holiday and showed photos of some jobs you might have if you were in the military. We learned about the 5 branches of the armed forces, their uniforms, and their songs. Chief Wilson and Cadet Wilson sang and played the piano with us. They also taught us some army commands - Attention!

Happy Halloween!

Many thanks to Room Parents Claire Shield and Jen Mynahan for planning and orchestrating a fun Halloween party in the classroom. Rome 13 had a blast!  Here are some photos of us in our costumes after the parade. 

Preschool Parade

We had our very own parade of preschoolers come through our classroom for Halloween.  Some of our classmates had younger sisters in the parade!

Names!

We continue to work hard each day to learn our classmates' first and last names. Each morning we greet each other in good morning circle. Ask your child about the greetings we have learned so far - Hickety Pickety; Apples,Peaches,Pears,&Plums; Good Morning; All About Me!; Formal. We also interviewed each classmate and played Name-o with their name. We shared the job of writing on the chart paper and on our whiteboards. Look for our class interview charts on display at parent conference time. 

Group Learning Time

We spend lots of time each day learning together as a group. Here are 2 examples of our efforts - a name sort (1 of several ways we sorted names as we got to know each other) and a math strategy chart illustrating several ways that we approached and solved a problem. 

P.I.N.

What a photogenic bunch!

Math Centers!

We spent a lot of time at the beginning of school learning the routines for math time. Here we are exploring the math buckets while Mrs Paget conducted counting assessments. 

Where do you like to read??

Summer is a great time to kick back with a good book!  Here are some pictures of my family reading together and alone.   We read at home, on beaches, in the car... Where do you read?  Maybe you listen to stories or read them on a device or snuggle up on the couch with a good book - you can read almost anywhere!

I would love to see pictures of you reading throughout the school year!  You can email photos to me at school or print them and bring them in to display in our classroom library. Maybe the pictures are new or maybe you have been reading books since you were a tot - all photos are welcome!  Each time a photo comes in, we will share it with the class. Send in one or send in many over the course of the year and we will find a place for them. I can't wait to see where you like to read!

In the top photos, my sons Jack (L) and Nick (R)are reading Dan's HS yearbook with him. In the bottom photo Jack is reading to his younger cousins.

In these photos I am napping with my favorite beach read and reading on a deck overlooking the ocean in the OBX. 

The Best Thing About First Grade Is...

Hi Parents,

Here is our last post of the year!  We made a video for the incoming kindergardeners of all the best things about first grade.  Our charge was to try to convince the kindergardeners that first grade is a great place to be.  We wrote our opinions, supported them with details, added video and sound via the "Book Creator" app and....voila!  What do you think???

Happy Summer!

Chris Paget

Stony Brook Field Trip!

We had a great trip to Stony Brook!  The weather was fantastic. We explored meadow, pond, and woodland habitats.  We learned about the animal and plant organisms that live within each habitat. Our guides taught us how to locate poison ivy, differentiate bird calls, and identify different evergreen trees. They helped us discover how each organism survives in its habitat but offering us a peek into their "lunchbox"!  Our day was a great culmination to our organisms unit. Many thanks to Melissa Moore and Misha Kilmer for sending me some great photos of our trip. 

Trick Word Practice!

We have been working hard to learn how to spell all 100+ trick words for our upcoming teacher check in. Here we are doing trick word aerobics!  Ask me to "cheer" for some of my trick words at home by their tall, small, and fall letters. 

Collections!

Thank you for sending in the collections for writing workshop. Here we are judging our collections by lining objects up from favorite to least favorite. We have learned how to write our opinions and support our ideas with reasons. Some of us even assigned booby prizes to our least favorite items!  We have shared our collections with others as well. 

Learning About Time

We are learning to tell time on both digital and analog clocks. Here we are building a clock with classroom supplies. Ask me to show you the parts of a clock - face, hands, minute marks, 5 minute marks, hour numbers. 

Curious Creatures

We had a great visit with Corey from Curious Creatures. He brought all sorts of animals and told us of their habits, personalities and other cool facts!

Rusty the corn snake. 

Yes that is Rocky the flying squirrel going down Corey's shirt!

We loved watching Sonic the chinchilla taking a bath in his dust bowl!

What do you know about presidents?

We worked in groups on a "write around" activity.   We shared what we knew about presidents and wrote our thoughts on chart paper. Each person in turn added their idea to the write around chart.  When we compared our ideas to the poster about what presidents do, we realized that we knew a lot! 

We will be researching presidents on the Pebble Go site and then moving on to 2 presidents in particular - George Washington and Abraham Lincoln. We will connect our new learning to upcoming holidays (Patriots Day, Flag Day, July 4th...), units of study (American Symbols) and past learning (MLK).     

There is still so much learning to come and Room 13 is up for the challenge!

 

Welcome Stony Brook!

Ms. Marla from Stony Brook came to visit our classroom on March 31st.  We were really prepared for her visit and eagerly shared our knowledge of habitats around Medfield and what organisms need in their habitats to survive. Go Room 13!  

Ms. Marla brought stuffed animals for us to draw habitats for. We made sure our habitats had food, water, shelter, space and safety. Ask your child which stuffed animal they drew a habitat for - a praying mantis, beaver, mouse, frog or squirrel.  Ms. Marla also brought a real turtle for us to look at!

Exciting News

Did you hear???  We are the proud guardians of 7 baby guppies, possibly more!  We first noticed a pregnant female a week or so ago. We quickly put her in a separate tank and kept close watch. Our guppy friends were born Tuesday afternoon. Here is a picture of 1 baby below. They are quite small as you can see and difficult to locate in the tank. 

Habitat Central

We have found 2 spots in our classroom to house our new pets. The children are really enjoying the aquaria and terraria during free time. They are keeping a close eye on things to ensure our organism friends are getting everything they need in their temporary home. 

Millipede Excitement

As it turns out, millipedes are just as exciting as tales of leprechaun sightings!  Each table had a guard who was responsible for keeping the millipede out of harms way. They are quite the acrobats!

Guppy Thoughts!

We have spent some time learning the difference between writing what you see vs writing facts about what you learned. Here we are writing our observations about male and female guppies. 

True or False?

We have been learning a lot about each organism!  Prior to observing and writing about them, we participated in a true/false activity.  The children paired up with a friend to determine whether a fact about their organism was true or false. Majority ruled when we voted as a class. We then read mini organism books about each critter, confirmed whether our facts were true or false, and wrote facts in our own words. Here are some pictures of our true/false charts and our class voting about each fact. 

Snail Science

We observed and wrote about our snails today. Tomorrow we will read and write facts! Enjoy these picture of science in action in room 13. 

What can you learn about Dr. Seuss from the Pebble Go data base?

We have spent some time learning about Dr. Seuss from the Pebble Go data base. We are writing down our facts on post its to share with the class. Ask your child what they learned. 

The organisms have arrived!

As you may have heard, Room 13 has been hard at work building suitable habitats for some plant and animal organisms. We will be caring for them in our classroom until the April vacation break so it was important for us to ensure that the habitats had everything the organisms might need - food, water, shelter, space and safety. We have built 5 aquaria and 5 terraria. This week the plants arrived so we spent some time observing them before writing and drawing about them in our science books. Here we are observing the moss and tree seedlings. We also observed elodea and cabomba (freshwater) plants.  Stay tuned for the animals!  The energy in Room 13 is high as we wait for their arrival!