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?

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!

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

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

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…

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!

I have very exciting news to report from the school auction.  We raised all the money we need to build a special edible garden right outside our classroom!  We have been working for several weeks to demolish the old structures and we have another work day this Saturday, March 13, from 9 until the job is done but not later than 2.  If you can come out for any portion, we could use the hands.  We hope that students will be planting vegetables as early as mid April!

Those of you who could not attend the auction, I have your child’s pillow in the classroom.  You can write a check to the Crocker Highlands PTA or send $25 cash with your child to buy the pillow.

Plan ahead:  we have minimum days on Wednesdays and we are adding one on Thursday, March 18 so that teachers can complete report cards.

Several of our classmates are performing in the play Sound of Music.  I’d like to send out the day and time of performance so that friends can attend and applaud!  Would anyone who has this information send it to me?

I am sending home the words to the 4 songs we sing in the classroom, the four songs I know how to play on the guitar (remember “Hello to _____, so glad to see you,” on the first day of school?!).  I told the kids that they have to sing them to you!  The phonograms we’ve learned have been highlighted so you can ask about those, too.

I asked the students to write down their new learning goals.  We’ll be polishing those and you’ll get a copy so that you can support whatever goal your child has selected.

We’re getting to the end of our “wool unit.”  We explored cotton last week and we will be weaving with ribbons this week. I’m thinking of offering to teach any interested student to knit as a finale!

Thanks to one of our room 8 parents, Laura Yee, mother of Will, we are kicking off Earth Week a little early.  She has arranged for Crocker to participate in a program called Cool the Earth.  We are having an assembly this week (I think I am Mother Bear).  The website is cooltheearth.org if you are interested in getting a sense of what the program is all about.  Basically, the theme is climate change and the goal is to inspire this new generation to take actions, big or small.  Crocker, as a school, is implementing several of the actions already, like no waste lunches, low flow toilets, edible garden, composting, and recycling.  Thank you, Laura!  

Have a good week–

We had a terrific time at the SemiFreddi Bakery last week.  I’m sure you got to sample part of the gigantic goodie bag your child brought home!  In celebration, we tried our hand at baking cinnamon buns last week.  The kids thought they were quite good.  Those students who want to try to bake them at home might bring home the recipe tomorrow.

The students voted to create an ocean habitat as a culmination of our unit on habitats/living things.  Duncan Moran’s father is going to put together a presentation for us before we start working on our class diorama.  Several of the students mentioned that they have “ocean books” at home.  I would love them to bring these books to class!  Do any of you have ocean expertise?!  Field trip ideas?

I am extremely excited about the progress to create our courtyard edible garden.  I have been meeting with 2 parents for almost a year now to get things off the ground.  At a previous school I built the garden with my first graders and loved every minute of integrating the outdoor and indoor classrooms.  We are so lucky to have one of our 3rd grade parents, Tyrone Perry, leading us in this project.  We have had one work day so far and I wanted to pass on the next work dates in the event that you’d be able to come out and lend a hand.  We are scheduled to work on Saturday, March 13 and Saturday, March 27.  The times are from 9 am to when we finish that day’s task.  We could use you as little or as much as you can spare.  No garden experience needed!  So far, we have weeded, removed benches, and planted the front section.  We have hired help to remove the rotting railroad ties and bad soil–this will be finished next weekend.  We will be installing new vegetable beds and perennials.  If you are as excited about this as I am, raising the necessary money is a “Pops” item at next weekend’s auction.  Hope to see you there!

Speaking of the auction, each student sewed a beautiful pillow which will be available at the auction for $25.  If you are not attending the auction, you can buy the pillow from me directly.  A BIG thank you to all the adults who helped me with this amazing project.  I have always wanted to sew with students and you made one of my dreams come true!

March Book Orders–I’ll send home the catalogs tomorrow,  The deadline for online ordering will be March 10.

We had so much fun with Officer Fred last week, Tyra’s dad.  We were instructed to learn our address and phone number, we got to sit in a police car (hopefully the only time for the kids!), and we were treated to a canine officer who played hide and seek in our classroom.  Thank you Officer Fred!

Kristin

 Because the week is half over, I will write a newsletter for this week and next.

 ***An important change is that our field trip to Semifreddi Bakery has been rescheduled for the day before previously planned.  Now we are visiting the plant on Monday, 2/22, from 12:00-3:00.

 Another timely message is that tomorrow is our library day so return those Crocker books if you have them!

 Two fun assemblies this week.  Tomorrow, Chinese Lion Dancers and Friday, Black History Celebration with yours truly.  Yes, in absentia, I was nominated to be the lead singer of the Chantels.  With some other silly adults I will lip sync to “Maybe” in front of the student body…keeps me grounded!

 We’re stuffing our pillows tomorrow.  Are any of you capable of hand sewing the small open enclosures together to finish them off?  Send me an email!

 Next week we have our bread field trip as well as a visit from Tyra’s father, one of the City’s finest.  He will talk to us about his life as a police officer!

 We’re making great progress moving through the phonograms for spelling and reading and in reading groups the students are just devouring those stories!  In math, we’re about to launch into an addition and subtraction phase where students devise strategies and practice these strategies to work with numbers to 20 instead of 10.  In science, I’m thinking through a way for all of us to create one beautiful habitat diorama after the students take a vote on which of the many habitats to choose.  This will be another way to collect data, tally the data, and graph the results.

That’s it–have a good one!

This is a big week.  We touch upon President’s Day, Valentine’s Day, and the 100th Day of school.  Chinese New Year begins on February 14th and we host a special guest on Friday for the African American Read-In, part of Black History Month.  Very fun, special, and important stuff!  We are making great progress sewing our pillows for the auction on March 6 (many thanks to those who have been able to come in.).  Many of the kids are loving the hand-sewing–an idea for something to do with idle little hands at home!

****Homework this week*****

On Friday we will be exchanging Valentines.  Your child’s homework this week is to complete a Valentine for each student (homemade or store bought) and to design a container to hold the Valentines he or she receives.  In other words, a bag or box.  The bag or box can be simple or ornate–whatever works for your life this week  On Friday, for math, we sort these containers and describe their attributes.  Very fun!

A big thank you to Mike Hoffman, Marina’s father, for inviting us last Friday to a nearby house he is remodeling.  We got to see the “innards” of a house before they are all covered up.  The kids loved it and we made many connections to how our bodies work, we learned new vocabulary, we discussed going into “the trades” when we grow up, and we compared Mike’s blueprints to our drawings of our terrariums.  I love first grade!

That’s it–just a last reminder that we are off from school next Monday for President’s Day.  Have a good one,

Kristin