October 2019 Fundamentals of First Grade Room 3 Newsletter Mrs. Desrochers Second Edition of The 2019-2020 School Year

October 2019 FUNdamentals of First Grade~ Room 3 Newsletter~ Mrs.
Desrochers
Second edition of the 2019-2020 school year
Warm Autumn Greetings, Burrell Room 3 Families! I thoroughly enjoyed meeting many of
you last month at our Open House event. Thanks for coming out that evening to meet me
and see your child’s classroom. I can’t believe the students already have five weeks under
their belt here in First Grade! We’re really working on our community building in the
classroom and have loved adopting the Morning Meeting philosophy here in Room 3 where
each child feels heard, greeted, and validated. The students are continuing to get
acclimated to the First grade schedule and our routines, and are practicing their reading
stamina, and overall daily academic endurance.
Thank you to the PTO: for funding our field trip to Carlson Orchards out in Harvard, MA
at the end of last month. We had a picture-perfect day weather-wise and the First
Graders were on their best behavior as they took a tour of the facility to learn how apple
cider is made and to learn how apples are packaged and shipped to other local retailers.
The students loved taking a hay-ride down to the orchard and picking several apples to
bring home. They loved sampling an apple and apple cider on site too! Thank you to our
chaperones: Mr. Alshara, Mrs. Mercier, Mrs. Varetimos and Mr. Zabbo for joining us!
Classroom Cleaning Supplies Needed: Specifically, we are in need of Tissue Boxes and
Rolls of Paper Towels. Thank you to those families who donated these items the first week
of school. If you’d like to donate, please know these items are frequently used in our room.
Clorox Wipes or Lysol Wipes are also greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance!
No School: this Fri. 10/11/19 (due to district-wide Staff Development Day)
No School: Columbus Day ~ Mon. 10/14/19
I hope students & families enjoy the “Extra” Long Weekend!
Curriculum On-goings: Daily 5 rotations and our Guided Math times/Workshop are coming
along.
During our Daily 5 block, the children are building stamina in Read to Self, Word Work,
Listening to a Story, Reading to a buddy or Teacher, and Writing. We have been learning
that the more we read the better we read. The reading strategies we have practiced are:
Look at the picture for clues, get your mouth ready, does it make sense, and does it sound
right.
In our Math Workshop block we have learned how to be a good sport if we play a partner
game, how to get right to work and clean up, and using a level 1 or 2 voice during our learning
times. (At times a Level Zero voice is needed.) During the month of September and ongoing
now in October, we began our addition and subtraction unit with concrete objects (using
rekenreks, counters, ten frames, unifix cubes.) We continue to build our flexibility with
numbers and will have frequent Number Talks throughout the year and use Number Bonds
for part-part-whole. Fact fluency will be continuously worked on throughout the school year.
Explicit practice reinforcing addition and subtraction to 10 with a focus on strategies for
adding/ subtracting zero is our big focus.
In Science, we have explored the life cycle of an apple tree and parts of a plant, discovering
the characteristics of living and non-living things.
We Wrote how to properly pick an apple from an orchard. We are now “apple experts.” We
enjoyed a biography in the form of a poem about Johnny Appleseed’s “larger than life” and
humble persona.
In Social Studies we’ll be studying the Explorer Christopher Columbus around the holiday,
and students will also be exposed to map skills and the sailing route C. Columbus took with
his fleet of ships when he ventured to the “new world.”
*Our Halloween Room party* is set to take place on Halloween- Thurs. 10/31 from
10:30-11:50 a.m. Our Room Mothers are coming in to the classroom that day to help run
the party. Thank you in advance to Deirdre Kenny and Julia Mercier for all your help in
coordinating this fun-filled event for the students. Students are welcome to wear their
regular school clothes that day and pack their Halloween costume to change in to. If it’s
easier to wear most of the costume to school and then add on any necessary accessories
that they pack, that’s fine too- whichever is most conducive to your child’s needs. You
should be receiving a memo from the Room Mothers soon with more information about
our first classroom party!
*Please remember we are strictly a peanut/tree nut free classroom and all party snacks
(healthy snacks) must be store-bought and have a clear label denoting that donated food
items are to be peanut and tree nut free, to ensure all students can safely consume the
snacks while in our classroom.
SAVE the DATE: Please note that due to district curriculum reasons, the Music Concert
led by Burrell Music Teacher, Ms. Annette Kerner will not be taking place the day before
Thanksgiving this year. Instead, it is taking place during the second trimester of the
school year, set for Wednesday February 12, 2020 from 9:45-10:30 a.m.. The First
Graders will be on stage this year with the Fourth Graders. (that means they’ll be on stage
with their Fourth Grade cross-age Buddies in Mrs. Washburn’s class)
Cross-Age Buddies: We enjoyed hosting our first cross-age buddy gathering with the
Fourth graders last week. We have another one to look forward to in 2 weeks. Mrs.
Washburn’s class will come to us in Oct. and Nov. and then we’ll go to their classroom in
Dec. and Jan. and we’ll continue to rotate as so for the year.
Homework Reminder: As we continue to work on class routines, it is important that

families are reinforcing strong work habits at home as well. Please help your child
to check over his/her homework to be sure that it is complete. We have had some
homework assignments passed in tardy, or not turned in at all. Good reading habits
are developed with frequent practice, so please remember to have your child read
at least 10-15 minutes each night (Monday –Thursday filled out on the weekly Log).
Please be sure you and/or your child records the date, the Title & Author, and the
Genre code. Please be sure to play the Math Game (2 versions of Bump for this
month) at least twice a week at home and encourage your child to write a
Mathematical “I Can” Statement on the homework log, showcasing the wonderful
math strategies they used to play the provided games. Your support at home is
greatly appreciated.
Parent-Teacher Conferences: I look forward to meeting with you next month for
our November Parent-Teacher Conference to discuss your child’s Progress; which is
taking place the Mon. and Tues. of Thanksgiving week. Several of you signed up in
person at Open House, or have emailed me. If you need to schedule a conference,
or need to re-schedule last minute, please reach out via email to coordinate with
me. I still have several openings available on Mon. 11/25 and Tues. 11/26.
As always, if you need to contact me for any reason, feel free to reach out via
email or phone call, or send in a note in your child’s Communication Folder. Email is
always my preferred method of contact, as I can typically respond in a timelier
manner to an email than a phone call. I check email routinely throughout each
school week.
Happy Autumn!
Sincerely,
Mrs. Brigid Desrochers
[email protected]
check out my classroom Weebly page: mrsdesrochersgradefour.weebly.com

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October 2019 Fundamentals of First Grade Room 3 Newsletter Mrs. Desrochers Second Edition of The 2019-2020 School Year

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October 2019 FUNdamentals of First Grade~ Room 3 Newsletter~ Mrs.

Second edition of the 2019-2020 school year

No School: this Fri. 10/11/19 (due to district-wide Staff Development Day)

No School: Columbus Day ~ Mon. 10/14/19

I hope students & families enjoy the “Extra” Long Weekend!

Homework Reminder: As we continue to work on class routines, it is important that

Mrs. Brigid Desrochers

check out my classroom Weebly page: mrsdesrochersgradefour.weebly.com

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