WELCOME TO GRADE ONE AT OUR MAGNET SCHOOL!
A special 'Hello" to our classmates who are traveling! We miss you but we hope that you are having wonderful trips.
Following this earthly communication, have a look at our school's connection with MARS:
As a NASA Explorer School, we are excited that the Phoenix has landed on Mars! Have a look at the wonderful pictures at NASA Phoenix or
NASA. gov
With our science, technology and global studies magnets including Japanese language instruction, there is also exciting news about the Japanese space lab. It has been connected to those of NASA and the European Space Agency on the International Space Station. This is another exciting opportunity for multi-disciplinary studies: The new lab is named kibo which means hope. In first grade also we never forget our phonics! The International Space Station has made the 'tion' sound even more amazing!
Upcoming events on Earth :
June 12 Boat Regatta at 12:40 p.m.
Our first graders will test the boats that they designed and built to see if they are buoyant in even choppy water, can carry heavy weights and demonstrate in many other ways that they are superior vessels!
Parent volunteers are most welcome for this grand launching!
A very warm thank you for your terrific work at Undokai, for all your beautiful, thoughtful generosity during Teacher Appreciation Week, for our Poetry Celebration and all during the year!
Thank you, too, for your help on our fieldtrip to the UCONN Farm. This is part of our unit on life cycles. We observed the horses, pigs and many calves and lambs with their mothers, as well as a visit to the milking shed. In class there is great excitement as we record daily the changes in our tadpoles.
A VERY SPECIAL THANK YOU TO OUR STUDENT TEACHER, MISS KINSLEY WHO HAS MADE AN INVALUABLE CONTRIBUTION TO OUR LEARNING. Miss Kinsley has graduated. Congratulations, Miss Kinsley! You are a wonderful, caring teacher!
Welcome to the ONE-derful year of first grade at the East Hartford Glastonbury Magnet School! With our year long, school wide focus on Systems and Communities from the National Science Standards, this is a very exciting year. Using our Responsive Classroom curriculum we create a caring community within our own room and with others. First graders visit a local Senior Citizens' Home during the school year to read to the seniors and to make presentations about their learning. In addition, in the spring we collect school supplies for children with disabilities in Haiti. The Connecticut State science standards for grade one focus on 'the development of wonder about the natural world and the ability to observe, describe and to apply basic process skills.'
Grade one is a year of wonderful changes as the children become amazing readers and writers, the foundation for all learning. We learn how systems help us to communicate with one another and with people around our world and beyond ........ in English, Japanese and in the language of mathematics. In science and global studies there is much to discover about life needs and life cycles, "Take Apart Lab", inventions, recycling, water and ocean animals, dinosaurs, Earth in space, the seasons, our woods, the pond and the orchard.
Our first fieldtrip was to Mystic Aquarium. Our young scientists observed how the Beluga whales, seals, sharks and other ocean animals moved with "Fins, Flippers or Feet!" In October we 'studied geography and science with the soles of our feet' with a walk around beautiful Belltown Orchard in Glastonbury. Apple and peach trees, raspberry and blueberry bushes, a wind machine and a pond for irrigation are all parts in this fruit farming system.
A week later we had an opportunity to compare the human-made orchard with the natural woodland environment at the Audubon Nature Center. Venn Diagrams are wonderful tools to see the similarities and difference. For example both areas have ponds but while the fruit farmer created her pond, it was even more exciting to see at the Audubon how one of their ponds was built by beavers!
Later in the fall each child planted a tulip bulb outside our classroom windows. We have sent our measurements and observations to the Journey North website. This is part of a global study of the coming of spring in the Northern Hemisphere. There are so many reasons to read, write, measure and to wonder!
In December the children visited with the Seniors again to perform a Global Studies Concert and to read to individual residents.
Again the Seniors, parent helpers and staff were most impressed with the children's beautiful singing, reading and excellent behavior. They certainly brought much joy to the residents and to everyone in the audience.
Congratulations, Grade One!
As a NASA Explorer School, our students have had wonderful opportunities to learn more about space exploration from NASA astonauts and educators. A multi-media presentation included role playing the space shuttle with its booster rockets. An investigation about how astronauts survive on the International Space Station supports our learning about life needs on Earth. Everyday we observe, measure and record the position of the sun in relation to objects on Earth and the length and direction of shadows.
During our year in grade one we have experienced the Winter Solstice and the Spring Equinox. Now the Summer Solstice will occur on
June 21 just after our school year finishes. Continue to go outside and / or look in the newspaper or Internet (Almanac.com) to find out when sunrise and sunset is each day. How many hours of daylight and how many hours of darkness?
What do you notice about the length of hours of daylight now?
What do you notice about the length and the direction of your shadow?
I am available to meet with parents before or after school on most days. Please email me at lmroz@crec.org or call the school at 622-5400 for an appointment. It was great to see you again at our Parent Teacher Conferences. Thank you for all the ways that you support our school.
Lesley Mroz
