Dear Families,

We are very excited about our musical, “Friendly Neighborhood Helpers” and the big performance on Tuesday, May 8th at 6:30 pm. Today we begin practicing on the stage!
In preparation for this event, we could use your help. Each child will need a costume for the role they are playing. These costumes need to be simple and are best if designed by your child’s imagination. Here is a list of some possible ideas for costumes. We have some costumes at school so please reach out me if you need some help.

STORYTELLER: Wear your finest clothes!

CROSSING GUARDS: A bright orange vest, a hand-held stop sign, and a whistle hanging around their necks.

MAIL CARRIERS: Light Blue Button Down Shirt, Navy Blue Pants (We will take care of mail carrier bag and hats at school),

FIREFIGHTERS: Yellow or red raincoats and boots would be close enough, fire fighter hat

PLUMBERS: Could wear overalls with some small tools attached, unused plunger

CHEFS: Chef hats might be great but only if they fit correctly. (If they are too big they will just keep falling in the actors’ faces.) White clothing makes the best sense.

DENTISTS: White lab coat, scrubs, stethoscope, surgery cap, gloves

GROCERS: An apron would be perfect. Perhaps some foods made out of paper and taped onto the apron for color and variety. (We will take care of grocer hats at school)

LIBRARIAN: glasses, favorite book, dress

VETERINARIAN: White lab coat, scrubs, stethoscope, small stuffed animal (beanie baby size)

RECYLER: White t-shirt, jeans (we will take care of recycle signs at school)

GARBAGE TRUCK FANS: Baseball caps and jeans (we will take care of the t-shirts in school)

Costumes need to be at school NO LATER than Friday, May 4, 2018. (Please label all costumes and props with your child’s name.) Thank you for your support. See you at the SHOW!

Thank you so much for your support!

The First Grade Team

April 20

Some things we did this week:

• Performed our Readers' Theatre plays with our reading groups
• Continued work on writing reviews 
• Learned about why animals come back after migration
• Spent time talking about recycling and conservation, with emphasis on what we can do as a class and what your families could try
• Practiced our math fluency to 10
• Jump for Heart fun
• Earth day activities: Raptor show, simulated oil spill and clean up and water walk in which we learned how tough it is to carry water the way kids in Burkina Faso have to. Your kids should sleep well after all the activities! 

Some things to ask your child:

• Any big "Loon News" this week? (Spoiler alert: the loons are back in NH!!!!) 
• How can we help take care of earth? 
• What was the best thing you did this week? (I heard a few "this is the best day of my life!" comments on Friday 😆)
• How do animals get cleaned off after oil spills? 
• What kinds of birds did you see at the raptor show?
• What play did your group perform? 

Important Dates:

• Mark your calendars! First Grade presents...
• FRIENDLY NEIGHBORHOOD HELPERS on Tuesday, May 8th at 6:30 pm on the cafeteria stage.  Roles were sent home on Monday. 
• Monday June 4th Grandparent Lunch
• END OF YEAR CELEBRATION AT STRATHAM HILL PARK.
• On Tuesday, June 12th (am only) all first grade students will hike to Stratham Hill Park to celebrate a great year together.  We would love for you to join us! Specifics of the field trip will be on the permission slip and sent home next month.

Click the link for a thank you note from Georgie 

Georgie's Thank You

Check out The Georgie Badiel Foundation's recent Facebook post! She included a picture of the kids and even sent a card this week thanking each Loon by name! 

THANK YOU💧💧💧MERCI to these precious first graders from Stratham Memorial School in New Hampshire for raising an astounding $2025 for the Georgie Badiel Foundation! After their amazing teacher, Lindsay Rowley, read The Water Princess with students, she called to action Curriculum Coordinator, Kathy Bates, colleagues Ms. Jessie Caldwell, Ms. Jennifer Hackett, Ms. Diane Atherton, Ms. Megan Murphy, and parents to see if they could help create a project to raise funds for the @georgiebadielfoundation

Staff and students embraced the challenge with open arms. Students learned about the global water crisis and created a third world style market in which they crafted their own “artisan goods” such as pictures, jewelry and books to sell. The project generated such excitement in the community that an article was featured in their local paper.

The @georgiebadielfoundation is sincerely grateful for the efforts of Stratham Memorial School in helping to provide access to clean and safe drinking water to their brothers and sisters in Burkina Faso.

“If we are to reach real peace in this world… we shall have to begin with children.” — Mahatma Gandhi💧 #waterislife #waterisfirst 

April 13th

Some things we did this week:

• STEAM Challenge with the Koala class
• Learned about allergies
• Made props for our upcoming readers' theater
• Learned about 3D shapes and their attributes
• Worked on writing reviews of restaurants
• Read the book Hector and Hummingbird and learned about expressing emotions before "exploding"
• Sent out or book to be published
• Practiced songs for our upcoming Friendly Neighborhood Helpers play

Some things to ask your child:

• What are some attributes of a sphere? cube? pyramid?
• What was your STEAM challenge?
• What did you work on in IXL?
• How did the classroom change this week? (My cabin fever is kicking in and the room gets rearranged almost every other day)

Important Dates:

• Mark your calendars! First Grade presents...
• FRIENDLY NEIGHBORHOOD HELPERS on Tuesday, May 8th at 6:30 pm on the cafeteria stage.  Stay tuned more details in the next few weeks.
• END OF YEAR CELEBRATION AT STRATHAM HILL PARK.
• On Tuesday, June 12th (am only) all first grade students will hike to Stratham Hill Park to celebrate a great year together.  We would love for you to join us! Specifics of the field trip will be on the permission slip and sent home next month.

The garden committee is still looking for rinsed gallon milk jugs! Please send in any empty containers to school during the next few weeks. The garden committee is looking to plan some earth friendly activities for Earth Day on 4/20. One of the stations was inspired by our Water Princess market. They are planning a water walk where students will practice walking with water as a group and learn how difficult it can be to move clean water from one place to another.

March 30th

Some things we did this week:

• Continued reading Clementine in preparation for our play
• Learned defining attributes of shapes
• Started working with partitioning shapes 
• Finished up working on our class book to be published
• Explored our new classroom involving flexible seating options like bean bag chairs, stools, scoop rockers and cubes
• Discovered why birds lay eggs in Spring 
• Practiced reading plays in our reading groups
• Enjoyed the Mad Scientist visit

Some things to ask your child:

• What's your new favorite seating option?
• What did the Mad Scientist do? 
• What was your STEAM challenge this week? 
• Can you tell me what happens in the book Clementine?

Important Dates:

• Field Trip April 3rd to Portsmouth Music Hall
• Conferences/Early release April 4th & 11th 

Please return your signed "Student Treasures" book order form even if you are choosing not to order. If all are returned we get a free copy of the book for the class! We're still missing a few. 

Please send in gallon jugs for an upcoming Earth Day project!

March 23rd

We have spent a full week using our "Character Clip Chart." I am absolutely LOVING this! The kids' empathy is through the roof recently. When your child comes home instead of asking "how was your day?" You can ask "What color did you clip to?" and "How did you earn that?" It has been so motivating for them and each of them are beaming when it comes time to move their clips.
Some things we did this week:

• Learned about responsibility, perseverance and trustworthiness 
• Began working on measurement
• Worked on bringing our characters to life in reading
• Listened to recordings to figure out the importance of tone of voice 
• Learned about how deep the ocean can be
• Started creating our own comic books
• Began working on our published book final drafts
• Practiced typing on the website Typing Pal

Some things to ask your child:

• What color did you land on today for the clip chart? How did you earn that?
• Who did you work with on your STEAM challenge? Did your plan work?
• What does it mean to persevere? 
• What is the book "Salt in his Shoes" about? 

Important Dates:

• March 27th Mad Scientists 
• Field Trip April 3rd to Portsmouth Music Hall
• Conferences/Early release April 4th & 11th 

Please return your signed "Student Treasures" book order form even if you are choosing not to order. If all are returned we get a free copy of the book for the class! 

Our STEAM challenge successful teams!