March 20-24

Hello Families!
Our last week before spring break was a fun one! We really loved the opportunity to see The Music Man right here at Stormonth! If you didn't get a chance to come by on Thursday evening to see it, here's a link to it: https://youtu.be/tviSGnfqSDE It was spectacular! A HUGE thank you to Mrs. Murn, Mrs. Grambow and Miss Otto for all of their work with Stormonth's incredible actors and stage crew.

We finished up our poetry unit by heading to the computer lab to word process our favorite poem. Each poet then created a watercolor painting to accompany their poem. 

 

During Math Workshop this week, we were busy reviewing and extending place value concepts and spent Friday enjoying math games with partners. 

David was quite proud when he beat me in a game of Ten Frame Top-It!

During Science Lab this week, we explored garlic bulbs. Our focus question was "How Does a Bulb Grow?" We planted garlic on a bed of wet cotton and can't wait to see if new plants will be growing when we return from spring break!

We had a close look at garlic bulb.

After putting stretched cotton balls and water in our cup, we placed our garlic cloves in, pointy-side up. 

Then we wrote about our process.

On Friday afternoon, we did a little bit of spring cleaning!

When we return from spring break, we'll begin our character units in Readers' and Writers' Workshops. We'll also begin a new math unit where we'll be learning about representing, organizing, and interpreting data. 

I hope you all have a safe and enjoyable spring break! See you all on April 3rd.

Until then...

Michelle Mullen

Mark Your Calendars!

Monday, March 27-Friday, March 31: Spring Break

Wednesday, April 12: Early Release Day

Friday, April 14: NO SCHOOL

Monday, April 17: NO SCHOOL/Teacher In-Service

Wednesday, April 26: Early Release Day

Thursday, April 27th: Field Trip to Growing Power 9-11:45am

Monday, May 8th: Field Trip to the Milwaukee County Zoo 9am-2pm

Wednesday, May 10: Early Release Day

Thursday, May 11th: Guest author Lester Laminack 

joins us at Stormonth!

Wednesday, May 24: Early release Day

Monday, May 29: NO SCHOOL

June 1: BMS Musical "Into the Woods"

Tuesday, June 6th: SAVE THE DATE!!! 

Annual Family Picnic! 11:30-12:40

Thursday, June 8: Last day of First Grade! 

See you later, Second Grader!

March 13-17

Happy St. Patrick's Day, first grade families!

What a wonderful week we had! The kiddos LOVED the snow and a visit from Beglan's Irish Dancers who performed for us on Tuesday morning. What a talented group they are, and we were thrilled to see some familiar Stormonth faces! 

Here's a sneak peek at the rest of our week:

In Writers' and Readers' workshops, we continue to learn about poetry and write our own poems. Each first grader chose a poem to learn by heart this week. These were sent home on Wednesday. They will each recite their poems this Monday and Tuesday. We also chose a favorite poem to write about on Friday. Another focus this week was thinking about the poet's big message or feeling in a poem, and we continued to add to our anchor chart of "Amazing Words vs. Ordinary Words" anchor chart. Our Scholastic News issue this week supported one of our first grade objectives: identifying the main topic and key details of an article.

Jump Rope for Heart was held on Monday. Thanks to everyone who helped their child raise money for this amazing event that supports cancer research. You make our hearts very happy!

During Science we learned more about plants and supported our learning with this week's issue of Scholastic News where we learned about the life cycle of clover. We observed our stem cuttings and noted changes. We aren't seeing a lot of evidence of new root growth, however, we did observe new leaves and what appear to be the beginnings to new leaves right near the nodes in the stem. Ask your scientist what a node is. 

During Math Workshop this week we learned about Doubles +/- 1 and +/- 2. We also worked more with adding/subtracting tens from 2-digit numbers. 

We were all busy with new sorts during Word Work this week. One of our activities was to do a blind sort with a partner. This is where the partner says our word, and we have to point to the column that it belongs in. This way we're not seeing the spelling of the word but rather thinking about the sounds and using that to determine placement. 

We enjoyed chicken soup with rice on Thursday and learned our March poem, and on Wednesday our grade level was in the Stormonth Spotlight during our PBIS assembly. We shared about our opinion writing unit. Thank you to our main speakers for representing us and to their grown-ups for helping them to practice at home!

I enjoyed speaking with many families this past Wednesday and Thursday evening during conferences and am looking forward to speaking with more of you this upcoming Wednesday evening.

Next Wednesday we'll get to see the musical production of The Music Man - we're so excited!

Until then...

Michelle Mullen

Mark Your Calendars!

Saturday, March 18th: Rolling on the River event

Wednesday, March 22: Early Release Day

Parent-Teacher Conferences 3-7:00PM

Thursday, March 23: Musical (2pm & 6:30pm)

Monday, March 27-Friday, March 31: Spring Break

Wednesday, April 12: Early Release Day

Friday, April 14: NO SCHOOL

Monday, April 17: NO SCHOOL/Teacher In-Service

Wednesday, April 26: Early Release Day

Thursday, April 27th: Field Trip to Growing Power 9-11:45am

Monday, May 8th: Field Trip to the Milwaukee County Zoo 9am-2pm

Wednesday, May 10: Early Release Day

Thursday, May 11th: Guest author Lester Laminack joins us at Stormonth!

Wednesday, May 24: Early release Day

Monday, May 29: NO SCHOOL

June 1: BMS Musical "Into the Woods"

Tuesday, June 6th: SAVE THE DATE!!! 

Annual Family Picnic! 11:30-12:40

Thursday, June 8: Last day of First Grade! 

See you later, Second Grader!

March 6-10

Hello families!
We enjoyed another speedy week in first grade! Here's a sneak-peek...

During Writers' and Readers' Workshops, we began our poetry mini-unit. It is one of my favorite units of the year! I LOVE seeing the amazing creativity that poetry brings out of first graders and have been so impressed this week with the poems they've written. 

We each spent some time with a shell, writing some notes about it. I then took all of their ideas and created a group poem. You'll see this poem at our family picnic in June when we share our poetry anthology with you!

We explored our shells using our senses!

Later in the week, we selected new items to write about from our Poetry Museum.

We read poems together during Readers' Workshop and experimented in small groups with line breaks in poems. 

During Math Workshop this week we reviewed for our unit 5 assessment then showed what we know on our assessment on Tuesday. Wednesday and Thursday were spent on math rotations while individuals worked on test corrections/review with me. On Friday we continued to review place value concepts in small groups.

During Science, we completed our final wheat observation. We then began a new investigation: How can we make a new plant from an old one? We learned a new word: node. Ask your first grader what a node on a plant is. 

Ask your first grader what s/he thinks will happen to our plant cuttings.

Darius was our Star of the Week, and for his talent he shared his knowledge about volcanoes. What a special treat it was when his mom brought in volcanoes for all of us!

 

Due to the power outage this past Wednesday, many of you will need to reschedule your parent-teacher conference. An additional day and extended hours on the two existing conference days have been added to the online signup which can be found at http://www.foxbay.k12.wi.us/els/. If you haven't rescheduled yet, please visit the site to do so. Thank you so much and my apologies for the inconvenience.

Please remember to sign and return your child's conference envelope. the report card is yours to keep.

Next week we're looking forward to welcoming some of Beglan's Irish Dancers to Stormonth!

Until then...

Mark Your Calendars!

Monday, March 6th: Report Cards some home. Please remember to sign and return the manilla envelope. Thank you!

*Monday, March 13th: JUMP ROPE FOR HEART! 

*This is the corrected date. 

Tuesday, March 14th: Irish Dancers performance

Wednesday, March 15: Parent-Teacher Conferences 4-6:30

Thursday, March 16th: Parent-Teacher Conferences 4:00-8:00PM

Saturday, March 18th: Rolling on the River event

Wednesday, March 22: Early Release Day

Parent-Teacher Conferences 3-7:00PM

Thursday, March 23: Musical (2pm & 6:30pm)

Monday, March 27-Friday, March 31: Spring Break

Wednesday, April 12: Early Release Day

Friday, April 14: NO SCHOOL

Monday, April 17: NO SCHOOL/Teacher In-Service

Wednesday, April 26: Early Release Day

Thursday, April 27th: Field Trip to Growing Power 9-11:45am

Monday, May 8th: Field Trip to the Milwaukee County Zoo 9am-2pm

Wednesday, May 10: Early Release Day

Thursday, May 11th: Guest author Lester Laminack joins us at Stormonth!

Wednesday, May 24: Early release Day

Monday, May 29: NO SCHOOL

June 1: BMS Musical "Into the Woods"

Tuesday, June 6th: SAVE THE DATE!!! 

Annual Family Picnic! 11:30-12:40

Thursday, June 8: Last day of First Grade! 

See you later, Second Grader!