More Posted/Updates/Author Sandra Dodge

There are so many important dates coming up.  Please make sure you have marked them all on your calendar.

• Early Release this Wednesday, May 23rd at 12:50
• Memorial Day- NO SCHOOL Monday, May 28th
• Friday, June 1st-Wiggin Memorial Library visits our students to kick off their summer reading program.  You can bring your child to the town library to sign them up.
• 1-2-3 Fun Run- Friday, June 1st
• Grand Luncheon- Monday, June 4th
• June 6th-Retirement Reception (After school in the library)
• First Grade Mall- June 7th.  Details were sent home last Friday.  We would love donations to supply our mall stores.  Some items will be made by the students as well.  This is an all student led event!
• Field Day- Friday, June 8th Volunteers will be needed.  Bring water bottles, sneakers, towel, and an extra change of clothes
• Monday, June 11th- The Ultimate Treasure Hunt will take place for first grade in the afternoon.  Please have your child wear sneakers this day and bring a water bottle. We won't need volunteers.  
• On Tuesday, June 12th (am only) END OF YEAR CELEBRATION AT STRATHAM HILL PARK.  All first grade students will hike to Stratham Hill Park to celebrate a great year together. We would love for you to meet us there anytime from 9:15-11:00.  Permission slips were sent home. Please send in $2.50 for the Kona ice truck, if you haven't done so already.
• Thursday, June 14th...Community Service Day in First Grade-The first grade has planned three community service centers to tie nicely into our musical, Friendly Neighborhood Helpers. We are going to make thank you cards for people in our community, book marks for our local town library, and make special treats for the animals at S.P.C.A. We will be looking for a few volunteers for our centers. I will send out an email as the date gets closer if you are interested in joining in on the fun! 
• June 15th...Parent/Community Appreciation.  We would love you to join us in the cafeteria at 8:45 to appreciate you, our volunteers!
• Last day of School Celebration- Monday, June 18th-  We will have breakfast with you and play a few of our favorite math games in our classroom.  All families are invited to join us at 8:45. Please look for a sign up genius from Mrs. Carter in the coming weeks if you would like to contribute a breakfast treat! 

Here's just a glimpse on what we've been working on:

Began writing our fiction series books
Discovered why butterflies are so colorful AND why tornadoes are so difficult to predict
Played the math game SPIT
Practiced time to the hour and half hour

Learned 2 dimensional and 3 dimensional shapes and how to break them into halves, thirds, fourths, and eights to learn about fractions.
Received new reading partners

Here are some questions to promote school talk...
1) How do you play Spit?

2) Can you explain to me what halves, thirds, fourths, and eights are?
3) Tell me about the character you're writing about.

4) What's flexible seating?

5) How does a Math Menu work during Math Workshop?

Our class book has arrived at the publishing company.  Here is a video explaining this process.  Your child saw this link last week.  Take a peek at the publishing journey 


Here is a class photo you may enjoy from our Friendly Neighborhood Helpers!

Author Sandra Dodge came back to show us how she incorporated the students ideas into her new book, The Great Peguinis Said Red.  She demonstrated how she writes the words and illustrates the pages in the book.  She even dedicated the book to our students.  It will be ready for purchase in September!  Her coloring page book is available now.  It's called The Great Penguinis.  The students received a few sample pages from her coloring book to color now.