Here are a couple of reminders for next week! I hope you enjoy the beautiful weather and our long weekend!!
Memorial Day Parade
First graders will be walking in the Zeeland Memorial Day Parade! We have made special hats to wear in the parade so don’t forget to bring them! New Groningen will be lining up on Centennial to the south of Main St, just look for our class! The parade starts at 9:00 am sharp so try to be there by 8:45. If you would like to walk with your child, you are welcome!
Please pick up your child right after (not during) the parade on the east side of Cityside Middle School near the parking lot. If someone else will be picking them up, please let me know that when you drop them off. The parade is optional of course, but a lot of fun! Don't forget to wear your red, white, and blue!
Fredrick Meijer Gardens Field Trip
Tuesday, May 29 is our last first grade field trip! We will be leaving by 9:00 am and returning at 2:00 pm. Please make sure that your first grader dresses for the weather and wears appropriate shoes for lots of walking! We will be eating lunch outside as a picnic. If your child did not order a sack lunch from the school last week (pink sheet that came home in folders), please be sure to send a sack lunch (no lunch boxes!) Thank you!
We are looking for two additional parent volunteers to go on our walking field trip to the Howard Miller Library on Thursday afternoon. We will leave right after lunch (12:30ish), spend about an hour at the library, then walk back to school with a quick stop at Captain Sundae on the way! We will be back to New Groningen before 3 pm. Please email me ASAP if you're interested in coming with us; first come, first served!
Also, we are in need of two donations as we finish out the school year: snacks, and gum! We need a few more boxes of snack (cookies, crackers, fruit snacks, etc) to get us through the next few weeks, and we also need packs of bubble gum for a special writing project with our fifth grade buddies. If you have any bubble gum that you wouldn't mind sending in, we would love to chew it on Wednesday!
Thanks so much for your continued support as we head into the home stretch...
I couldn't do this without you!
We have been learning about personal narratives during Writing Workshop and the kids are doing a great job! Each child has written at least two stories so far, and many are working on their 3rd or 4th! Many of our topics have come from books that we've read together (Mentor Texts) and it's been fascinating to see the connections and listen to the kids' stories about their own lives.
As the school year comes to a close, we are focusing on completing each step of the writing process -- including editing/revising and publishing. Once a student finishes a piece of writing, he/she completes the following steps:
1. Read it to Mrs. Nelson then edit and revise it (for content and conventions) together
2. Make some of the suggested "fix ups" independently
3. Read it to Mrs. Nelson or a friend/classroom helper again
4. Get a final copy book and re-write the story with excellent handwriting then work on adding illustrations
5. Find a quiet place around the room to read the finished product out loud and begin thinking about how it sounds to the audience while also working on fluent reading
6. Read the story to the class* and record on the iPad
7. Place the final copy of the story/book in the "Mrs. Nelson's Favorites" box for classmates to check out and re-read during read-to-self!
*When a child reads his/her story to the class, we all practice being respectful listeners and then provide the author with "three stars and a wish." The author gets to call on three students to offer compliments on the piece and 1 student to give a helpful suggestion for next time.
Here is Anna reading her personal narrative, A Time I Was Scared. Enjoy!
To hear more recently published personal narratives, head over to the "Recently Published Authors" tab and select "Video Publishing" from the dropdown menu.
Our class has been working hard at learning how to use a new publishing website (littlebirdtales.com) over the past couple of weeks!
First, we read the story The Great Big Enormous Turnip, then we did a shared re-write together to come up with our own version! The kids learned about the writing process and each step that goes into publishing a story, then they divided up the work. Different students worked on the planning, drafting, writing, revising, typing, recording, illustrating, and editing and I could not be more proud of the finished product!
Click here to check it out!
We have such a talented group of writers!
You may have heard your child talking about "Ms. M" recently...here she is!
Marcella Mascorro is a fabulous guest teacher who has helped us out in the frog room lately. Marcella did her student teaching at New Groningen last year and has been back in our building many times since then. She is amazing with our first graders and it has been so comforting to know that the classroom is in good hands when I have to be out of the building!
The kids LOVE Ms. M and I am so thankful for her willingness to come in when I need her; the consistency and excitement that she brings are so valuable! If you see her around the halls, be sure to give her a warm welcome!
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