Conferences

Thank you so much to everyone who joined us for home-school conferences in the last week.  I appreciate all the work you do to support your child at school and at home.  Have a wonderful Thanksgiving weekend with your friends and family.

I can't believe the next time we see each other will be December!  Wow! 

Happy Thanksgiving

We've spent a lot of time this week discussing what it means to be thankful and how to show appreciation.  Our first graders have done a fabulous job and showed just how much they were thankful by writing Thankful Books which will go home in folders today (along with report cards)!  We celebrated their hard work with an Author Share during poetry cafe.  Everyone was able to read their book.  We enjoyed hearing how many things we are thankful for.

Have a wonderful weekend, I look forward to see you next week!

Home-School Conferences

I am looking forward to meeting with many of you next week.  Please check our conference sign-up to see when we are scheduled to meet!
Thanks!
Mrs. Hershman's Conference Sign Up

Number Scrolls and Venn Diagrams

We had a busy day in first grade today!  In math we worked hard to complete number scrolls.  If you look closely, you can see that almost everyone used a different strategy when completing their scrolls.  Some students went by ones, some by 10's some by number pattern- it was really fun to learn from! 

We learned that once we get to 100, we weren't really sure exactlly how to write the numbers.  We will practice writing 3-digit numbers and looking at the number patterns and place value in our scrolls. 

Remember, it is cold, cold at recess.  Please be sure to pack your child with everything they need to be outside for 25 minutes at a time. Check out these first graders perfectly dressed for a wonderful time at recess:

In literacy we have been working to compare and contrast.  The first graders enjoyed trying it on their own today.

In writing we learned that every syllable in a word must have a vowel (or more!).  We are working to make sure that we have enough vowels in every word that we write.

Quarter 'til, Quarter Past

We've added two (really FOUR!), new ways to tell time.  Quarter after (and :15), and Quarter 'til (and :45).  The first graders did a fabulous job counting minutes around the clock and writing times.  It is still tricky for us to remember to write the hour first and then minutes, like this hour:minute.  Any support at home would be great.  As you are eating dinner, getting ready for bed, or preparing to leave the house for the day, talk to your first grader about the time and how much time is left before the next event.

We are learning to compare and contrast characters in a story.  To start, we are analyzing Charlotte and Wilbur from Charlotte's Web.  We are having a lot of fun noticing how they are similar and different.   

Snowy Day

Wow!  What a great day we all had together.  We learned to measure with a tape measure in math, and worked hard to respond to Charlotte's Web in literacy.  We also worked on a special book at writing. 

Today, at recess, it snowed the whole time!  We loved making huge snowballs and running around in the snow.  It is important that your child come to school every day with boots, snowpants, mittens, a hat and a coat.  Please also make sure they have a change of shoes to help keep our school and classroom clean! 

Dream Box

We have exciting news!  We have an additional online tool that students can access from home- Dream Box. Your child has accessed Dream Box for the first time here and school and is ready to try it from home! 

Here is a letter from Principal Carolyn Milham about Dream Box.

Porters Point School has purchased DreamBox Learning's Math Program, an online, Intelligent Adaptive Learning(tm) program that helps all students achieve better, faster math proficiency. Adaptive learning programs pay attention to which questions students are answering correctly and how long it takes them to answer. The program uses this information to select material that matches the student’s learning needs.

Your student can access DreamBox Learning from any computer, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week by using the DreamBox link found on the Porters Point School website: http://www.csdvt.org/pps/

DreamBox is an online program - there's no software to download! All you need is a high-speed Internet connection and Adobe Flash. Adobe Flash is free and is included with many Internet browsers.

Students will get the most benefit from DreamBox by using the program for at least 60 to 90 minutes per week. Games that are marked with a gold coin represent the concepts that students need to work on the most. Once a concept is mastered, the game will stay on as a “practice” lesson for students to review. New games are added once concepts are mastered.

Your child should need little adult help to use DreamBox. Each lesson has a tutorial that can be viewed at any time before and during the game. If your child asks for your help often, remind him/her about the tutorial and resist the urge to take over the mouse and answer the questions yourself. DreamBox will adapt to your level of math proficiency, presenting material that is more difficult than your child can do independently.

You may review your student's academic

progress by setting up a DreamBox Parent

Account. Please follow these steps to create

your free Parent Account:

1. Go to https://play.dreambox.com/login/5spm/porterssps

2. Have your student login to their profile just as they would at school

3. Click Setup Parent Access at the bottom of the page

4. Follow instructions to create a new login and password

5. Read Terms of Use and Privacy Policy

6. Click "Submit"

7. Make a selection under What do you want to do now? and begin exploring!

A video walkthrough of this process can be found at: http://www.dreambox.com/parent-how-to-videos/school-plus-home

Log into your home account after set up:

1. Go to http://play.dreambox.com

2. Enter your email address and the password.

3. If you would like to see your student's progress, click the "Parent Dashboard" button.

Using an iPad for DreamBox:

1. Download the DreamBox app from the App Store.

2. Open the app and select “School.”

3. When prompted, enter the school code: 5psm/portersps

4. Your child will select his/her teacher’s account and log in to play.

If you have any questions, please contact DreamBox Client Care by calling them at 877-451-7845 (weekdays 7am and 5pm, Pacific Time), or email support@dreambox.com.

Sincerely,

Carolyn Millham, Principal

Porters Point School

Feet, Feet, Feet, Feet

We measured with a standard foot today which was a little confusing because we all have feet on our bodies too.  We practiced measuring from end to end and always lining up the ruler as close as we could. 

Check out these first graders using excellent measuring strategies. 

Measurement and Point of View

Our new unit in math is all about measurement.  Today, we learned different ways to measure with our bodies.  We measured with our digits, hands, feet, paces, hand-spans, arms and arm-spans.  We discussed things that are taller and shorter than us.  

Our focus in literacy this week is point of view- who is telling the story. We are learning about how that effects what we read.  As you read with you child, help them identify who's point of view they are reading about. 

We were so lucky to have Four Winds today.  We learned about erosion. 

Walk to School

Wow!  We had an awesome walk to school day!  I enjoyed visiting with many friends on our walk to school. 

Today we learned a new math game with 10's frames.  Ask your first grader to tell you about it tonight!  We also took our end of the trimester SWR test.  We did a FABULOUS job! I couldn't believe how well the first graders could spell, write, and read.  WOW! 

Check out these first graders responding to literature with graphic organizers.  They are really proud of their work.  Can you tell?

Halloween and a Few Updates

Wow!  We had such a great celebration on Friday.  Thank you to everyone who joined us for the party and helped with our snacks.  We really appreciate it.  So many of us were sick on Friday that we saved a couple of Halloween activities for today so everyone could participate.  

Updates:

• The PTO fundraiser books need to be turned in ASAP unless you are planning to purchase them. Books can be purchased for $20.

• Our school social worker, Maddie Sivo, often meets with students during their lunchtime. She sometimes allows students to invite friends to join them so they can all work on social skills and building positive friendships. If you are not comfortable with your child being invited for these small groups, please let me know or contact Maddie directly – sivom@csdvt.org or 264-5918.

• On Tuesday November 18th, PPS and Union Memorial are hosting author and parenting coach Vicki Hoefle at Mallets Bay School from 6:00-8:00pm. Vicki Hoefle wrote the book Duct Tape Parenting, which gives parents a new perspective on what it means to be effective, engaged parents and to enable kids to develop confidence through solving their own problems.

• If you haven't signed up for a Fall Conference yet, please visit Fall Conference Sign Up to do so!