Crocker Highlands Elementary School

Hello Families,

 We had a wonderful field trip to Green Gulch Farm, as you may have heard! 

 Looking forward, we are all getting ready for you to visit this Thursday at 6:30.  It’s Open House!  The way I explain things to my students, the September Back To School Night is MY turn.  I talk directly to you, without students attending.  Open House is the opposite: the students are in charge and I sit back and smile.  The students are your guides throughout the multitude of schoolwork on the desks.  It is their night to shine and my night to brag about them!  I do add a little performance right at the start, from 6:30-6:45ish, just for a fun celebration.  Otherwise, they are your experts.  Please ask them detailed questions about how they did their work—they’re not allowed to say, “I don’t know!”  We’re going to rehearse how to be the experts.  Ask them to read their work to you.  I imagine this night as interactive between you and your child.  Your child will stay with you as opposed to play with class friends.  There will be a brief questionnaire for your child and you to complete to record special growth over the year.  I’m looking forward to seeing you!

 Minimum day this Thursday to set up for Open House.

 No school this Friday nor next Monday.

 FIRST GRADE END OF THE YEAR PICNIC—next week on Wed., June 2

The three first grades have a potluck lunch on the playground to celebrate our time together.  Six students, two from each class, sit on a blanket to share lunchtime.  Each class provides 6 main dishes, 6 side dishes (kid friendly food), 4 blankets, and 30 juice boxes.  This is our only potluck for the rest of the year.  Are you able to provide one of these things?  We also need 2 people to help set up at 11 and 2 people to help clean up at 12.

 Would you email me if you can help with any of this?  Thanks!

 Off to practice my guitar for my second parent recital this Thursday!  Remember the first day of school?

Hello Families,

We have a sink!  After 25 years of asking, evidently, room 8 has a sink.  I am very excited as we garden, cook, and paint frequently.  It’s been a task without running water!  Yeah!

A big thank you to Chris Fee who brought in his trip-to-Haiti pictures.  Chris is a doctor and shared his experiences there after the earthquake.  We talked about concepts such as empathy, sharing and giving, and preparedness.

A field trip is on the schedule:  May 18.  We are going to Green Gulch Farm, the Zen Center in Muir Beach.  It is a fantastic field trip where we tour the farm and compost heaps and then walk to the beach.  It is a trip to supplement our own gardening and composting efforts at Crocker.  Permission slips will go home tomorrow.

This week in class we will test phonograms, learn contractions, guess the item in the Mystery Box, continue publishing our first books, write about the worm box, count coins, bake chocolate buns, and use our Special Person Interviews to practice comparing and contrasting.  Busy and full as usual.

Happy Early Mother’s Day!

Hello Families,

This week will be a choppy one.  Sun, rain, and strike.  The situation is unfortunate for all of us.  I am uncomfortable with the disruption but I believe in the goals.

We are having a lot of fun this week with our learning projects: publishing our first books, recognizing homophones, meeting with 4^th grade buddies, observing the germination of our vegetable seeds, and spending money at the “art store” to make a picture.  Behavior and engagement are excellent—this is such a wonderful time of the year.  We are a well-oiled learning machine!

It is mandatory for the 4^th and 5^th grades to participate in the Science Fair.  The rest of the school is invited to participate voluntarily.  In my classroom we do not do a formal project.  If your child would like to participate, send me an email and I will send home the packet of instructions and guidelines for participating.  This would mean that you are working with your child on this project at home.  The Science Fair is on May 20 in the multi-purpose room.

Kristin

Hello Families,

This is Earth Day week and we are continuing to beautify our Crocker courtyard.  All of the 10 or so different vegetable seeds are planted and this week we will set up our worm composting bin.  Thank you to all the adults who braved the elements and planted with the kids!  My favorite children’s book is Ms. Rumphius which is a book about a woman spreading tons of lupine seeds.  In honor of Earth Day we will read this book, paint lupine flowers and set goals as to how we can make the world “more beautiful.”

Duncan Moran donated a large bowl of lemons from his tree last week.  Because of this, I thought it would be fun to have the students respond to the quote, “When life gives you lemons, make lemonade.”  This quote is tomorrow’s writing prompt.  After we write, we’ll juice the lemons and make lemonade!

Monday night’s homework will probably require some support from you.  We are writing secret pal letters to Mr. J’s class and I’m asking the students to come up with 8 factual clues and 4 fictional clues about themselves.  Have fun!

That’s all folks–

Kristin

Hello Families,

At circle time today I heard all the fun the kids had over spring break.  Hope you did, too!  We took it early today to ease into the routine for our final chunk of first grade.  Hard to believe in one way but the students have matured, learned, and excelled so much that it seems right on target in others.

I spread out all of the projects I want to complete by June and it is a lot:  vegetable gardening, worm composting, book publishing, rocky seashore diorama and report, pen pals, wordless books, knitting, portfolios, etc!  In the completed pile, we have done everyone’s “special person” interview and we have learned all of the phonograms.  Our future units in math include money, time, patterns, and place value. Earth week is coming up soon and we will continue to celebrate spring.

I’d like to put together one or two more field trips.  There are so many wonderful choices so I’ll let you know when I decide!

Have a nice week–looks like we get sun.  I”m ready…

Hello Families,

Although last Saturday was the first day of spring, it seems we’ve skipped it and gone right to summer!  We in room 8 are going to try to celebrate spring by replanting bulbs which were dug up during our new-garden work days the past Saturdays.  We have one more work day scheduled–this Saturday, March 27, from 9-12.  Irrigating and planting are the main jobs if you can come join us.

This week in class we are polishing our 3rd trimester learning goals.  Tomorrow night’s homework will be to read the goal to you and participate in a discussion with you about what the goal means.  In math we are starting a unit on measurement.  In first grade the standards are primarily about nonstandard units of measurement but we will also include inches and centimeters.  We will work with weight and volume as well.  

After spring break we will start a unit on money.  So, you can take some time whenever it feels natural to look at coins, learn their amounts, and count pennies, nickels, and dimes all mixed up.  I would start with small amounts like 12, 15, or 18 cents and see how your child does before going higher.

Thank you for lending all of the wonderful ocean books.  Our collection is impressive and the kids are really enjoying it.  At Open House, you will see the culmination: a class diorama of a rocky seashore with a habitat key written by the students!

To the students’ delight, we will see our fourth grade buddies this Friday.  We will have a relaxing time reading to each other and enjoying each other’s company.

Not surprisingly, friendship issues are arising on the playground.  This is a normal occurrence and it is important work that the students do.  In educational jargon this work is called “social/emotional growth.”  I believe it’s as important as everything else we do at school.  Both boys and girls are struggling with changing friendships, joining games, hurt feelings, and anything else you can think of!  We are having a “friendship circle” each morning this week to address this reality.  My message today was that I do not have “answers” like I do for 10 + 5 but that I have experience with friendship and with listening to people work through friendship conflicts.  You might want to ask your child if he or she wants to talk about anything like this. We are going to make a big “friendship chart” to post outside our class that you can view next week.

Lastly, announcements:

No school next Monday.

Please return the empty report card envelope if you still have it.

Participate in the Use Your Voice campaign to share what you like at Crocker and what could be improved.  Paper forms are in the office or it can be completed online at our website.

Our classmates are performing this weekend in the Sound of Music!

3/27 at 5:00 are Mia, Ava, and Lily

3/28 at 1:00 are Jackie and Isa

Tickets are $7.  The shows are at Kids and Dance in Oakland.  You can get tickets online (kidsndance.com) or at the door.

Break a leg!