TODAY WE MADE A BAND! 4-29-20

This was so much fun and totally student lead!

Each day the kids have a chance to share something. 

Many have been sharing instruments.

We decided to form a band and today we did!

We had real, homemade instruments and a rapper to keep the beat.

It was amazing!

There is a video at the end showing 

three short clips of our first rehearsal.

We are currently voting on a band name. I'll keep you posted.

Here's a few clips of our first rehearsal. Enjoy :).

PARENT EMAIL 4-26

Hi. I hope you all are doing well and had a great break. I have been busy getting another student work bag for you to pick up tomorrow or Tuesday. It should be the last time you have to come to school for a first grade pick up. There is a tied bag inside the reusable bag that I packed everything in. PLEASE hide this bag from your kids. Inside it are six wrapped and labeled Guess Box treats. We will do Guess Box every Thursday. It is one of their favorite class games that develops problem solving skills. It can only work if they do not know what is in the "box". After we play each Thursday they will come ask you for whichever week number we are on. That's when they can open and have their surprise. 

I also have a clear ziploc bag packed with cards, dice and letters. These will be used for lessons, games and assignments. They will also find some of their classroom name tags and decorations I thought they might like to keep.

For work I put in a math folder with lots of extra math practice. They can use this for assignments and/or whenever they want some extra math. There is also a theme, writing and reading folder. This has two play scripts, animal reader theatre scripts (like the fairy tale ones) and Earth Day work. We will be using this in Zoom and assignments. We will also continue to use the old packet that was sent before.

Zoom lessons will still be at 10:00 each school day. I will post assignments on Sundays at 3:00 and then weeknights at 8:00 for each following day. I will put links to Zoom and morning messages on the Google Classroom Stream as before. 

I'm in hopes you have passwords saved on the chrome books. If you need any, email me. I have them all saved.

Reminder: I need to see your child at Zoom OR see them marked as done on one or more assignments OR get an email from you about what s/he are working on for me to be able to mark her/him present for the day. Of course the more that your child can accomplish, the more s/he'll grow. You have all been doing an amazing job at this so I'm not worried...just thankful :)! 

A FEW OF OUR AWESOME PROJECTS!!

So impressed with all of the presentations!!

Great job, First Grade!!

A Flat Stanley response!

LOTS of books read!!

THE CRUNCH TEST!!

HAPPY VACATION!!

MEET HAZEL

Mrs. Saucier had her baby!!!

Welcome Hazel Rebecca!

Isn't she beautiful!

I can't wait to meet her!! She'll visit us on Zoom sometime in May!

PARENT EMAIL 4-12-20

Hello! We have a fun week up ahead as we near our April break. Much of the assignments this week have to do with a rainforest project that the kids are going to create/research to share on Friday. There are lots of ideas in the Writing Workshop part of Google Classroom. Don't go out and buy things. Use things you already have at home and just let the kids be creative. Old cereal or snack boxes turned inside out work well for art projects. This can be very simple or more involved depending on where your child chooses to take it. Each project must have some writing with it such as labels and information. 

A couple of cool space shares for those that have time:

1. Monday at 1:20 Maine astronauts, Jessica Meir and Chris Cassidy, will answer recorded student questions from the International Space Station. This is a wonderful opportunity for our kids to see/hear two astronauts that are from Maine! The link to see this is:

Maine Astronauts Speak Monday at 1:20 Link

2. Another interesting item is the Emera Planetarium (where we went for our field trip in March) has made a video of things to see in the night sky right now in our area. They use the planetarium so it mimics our night sky. This video can be seen anytime at:

Maine's Night Sky Planetarium Share

We will meet for Zoom each day at 10:00. The link for Zoom is:

Zoom Link

Stay Healthy and I'm here if you have any questions!

A FEW PICS FROM SPIRIT WEEK 4/6-4/10

SPIRIT WEEK 4/6 - 4/10

NEWSLETTER 4-3-20

Good Afternoon!

We did it! We survived another week at home and our first week of mandated learning. ​Our class had 100% participation.​ Excellent work!! Thank you families for all of your support and participation! I couldn’t be more proud and thankful for all of you! Speaking of being thankful...I would like to take this time to give a HUGE​ ​shout out of appreciation​ to all you parents and family members that are essential workers. I know we have quite a few in our classroom. Thank you so much for putting yourself at risk daily to help us in the time of need! I know I for one couldn’t be more thankful. I hope and pray you stay healthy and safe. I can’t wait for the day when we can think about all this as a remember when story!

A FEW REMINDERS

Please make sure you or your child checks the ​Mark as Done box​ in Google Classroom. You get to it in the same place you find each assignment.
Just click the words View Assignment that you will see underneath the pictures of the links. Then you will see a black box on the left that says Mark as done. Click that and I will know you did that part of your assignment. I can also check on the actual programs (like Epic or Raz-Kids). I get information each time you use it. However, I like using Google Classroom because it keeps everything in one place. The state is making us keep track of who does what. This will be my “proof” of what is getting done and how I keep attendance each day. I only need to see you participating in one way to mark you present: attend a zoom meeting, do a Google Classroom assignment or send me an email with a picture or note that says what you did at home. I will say though that the more you are able to participate in, the more learning opportunities your child will have. Like I said above, our class is 100% involved! Awesome job!

SPIRIT WEEK

VCS is having a Spirit Week beginning Monday. Don’t stress over it. Just tell your child(ren) what the day is and let them figure it out. It’s supposed to be fun not a stress builder. Also, it’s not mandatory. Monday, our level is 70s day. I’m just wearing a tie-dye t-shirt. I’ll remind you each day and this flyer is also in our Google Classroom.

ADDED TO GOOGLE CLASSROOM

I’ve added a subject to our Google Classroom called ​Weekly Extras​. I’m going to put things in it weekly that I think you might want to check out, watch, do, make, read...you get the idea. ​This entire area is OPTIONAL. I’ve just been finding some cool things that I know some families would like but I don’t want to give too much work. I will add new things to it each Sunday. You can check it out. You might find something one week and nothing the next...it’ll be like shopping at T.J.’s ;).

I also added a topic called Easter. I know not everyone celebrates the holiday so I added it as an ​optional​ extra for those looking for some holiday read alouds, games, crafts, how to draw videos and/or printables. This section will disappear after the holiday. :)

ZOOM SESSIONS

I feel like our Zoom Sessions get better each day. I’m trying my best to make sure everyone can hear and is heard. Remember, we meet each day at 10:00. It will always be the same link. The school upgraded our accounts

so we will not have to worry about time. However, lessons will be one half hour to one hour long. Thank you for helping your child get to our meetings. I love seeing their smiling faces each day!
I think that’s it. I know I’m long winded. Please, know you can email me at any time with questions/comments/concerns. I will try my best to help. Have a great weekend!

Laurie

P.S. Don’t forget to ​communicate each day​ by: Attending a Zoom session, Mark as Done on assignments in Google Classroom and/or email a quick note or picture.