Miss Hutchison's Class Blog

Notes for Parents:

• Your child is welcome to wear their Halloween costume to school all day on Friday, October 30! We will also be having a day full of fall-themed fun. If you would like to sign up to send in something for our class party, please sign up at this link. Thank you!
• Thank you so much for sending in your child’s amazing pumpkin book characters! I will write a separate blog post all about their characters next week. 

---

CELEBRATIONS

Top Frog – We had four “Top Frogs” (star students) in our classroom this week. Each student hung out with Rasheed or Little Penguin, was our door holder, and was the line leader! 

Quote of the Week – Each week, our class learns about a new quote and spends the whole week trying to embody that quote. At the end of the week, Miss Hutchison awards a friend from our class who really shined with that quote’s energy from throughout the week. This week’s quote will go to someone on Tuesday (we were at the “pumpkin patch” all day on Friday!)

Virtual Mystery Reader – Joshua’s mom was our mystery reader on Wednesday! She read us a book called Cyril and Pat. We love having mystery readers! 

---

OUR LEARNING:

Reading– We are building strong reading habits in first grade! This week, we learned how to help our reading partners use strong habits, too. We wrapped up our reading unit by taking pictures with our “Reading Builders” hats and our favorite books we’ve been practicing with.

Writing – In writing this week, we wrote our final small moment stories! Students used everything they learned this unit to write fancy and detailed stories to publish for our friends and family.

 

Math – We continued our math stations this week! We learned how to SUBTRACT this week. We start with the total, cross of circles to take away, then count how many circles are left. 

Word Study – This week, we reviewed when/how to use capital letters and punctuation marks. 

Social Emotional – This week, we read a story about Little Penguin facing a challenge. We learned about the difference between having a fixed mindset and a growth mindset, and we learned how to have a growth mindset even when we make mistakes.

---

Upcoming Dates:

• Monday, October 26 – No School
• Tuesday, October 27 – STEAM
• Wednesday, October 28 – MUSIC, Library
• Thursday, October 29 – PE
• Friday, October 30 – ART, Costumes may be worn! 

---

Books We’ve Read Together:

We had a BLAST today with our “visit” to the VanderHutch Pumpkin Patch this morning! Here is a glimpse into the fun of our day. All of these pictures can be found in this Google Drive folder if you want to download/save any.  🧡

---

Classroom Transformation

Before/After

Classroom Pictures

Tickets for Admission into the Pumpkin Patch

---

Pictures with Pumpkins

---

Pumpkin Mazes & Coloring

---

We “explored the pumpkin fields” of our school to each find the pumpkin that was just right for us! 

---

We read Spookley the Square Pumpkin and then designed a fence to keep our pumpkins from rolling out of our garden.

---

“Mini Pumpkin” Volcanoes

---

Pumpkin Pie Tasting & Graphing

 

---

We “carved” pumpkins and estimated / counted how many seeds were inside each pumpkin.

 

This special “pumpkin patch day” was only possible because your children are AMAZING! This was my way of saying “thank you” to them for all of their hard work, positivity, and love for their classroom family that they show every day.❤️

Notes for Parents:

• Your child is welcome to wear their Halloween costume to school all day on Friday, October 30! We will also be having a day full of fall-themed fun. If you would like to sign up to send in something for our class party, please sign up at this link. Thank you!
• Pumpkin projects are due back at school by Friday, October 23! Please let me know if I can send home any supplies for your project The kids have been loving these!

---

CELEBRATIONS

Top Frog – We had five “Top Frogs” (star students) in our classroom this week. Each student hung out with Rasheed or Little Penguin, was our door holder, and was the line leader! 

Quote of the Week – Each week, our class learns about a new quote and spends the whole week trying to embody that quote. At the end of the week, Miss Hutchison awards a friend from our class who really shined with that quote’s energy from throughout the week. This week’s quote went to ZOE for always showing kindness to her classmates! 

First Grade Family Time – Every Friday, all of the first graders at Georgetown get together for a little assembly! At the assembly, we celebrate our learning, give awards for the quote of the week, along with awards for lost teeth, shoe-tying, & birthdays from the week. Here are our “award-winning” first graders from our family time.

Virtual Mystery Reader – Hailey’s grandma was our mystery reader on Wednesday! She read us a book all about Australian animals. We love having mystery readers! 

Stuffed Animal Reward – We enjoyed bringing in our stuffed animals for our special reward day on Friday! We read to our stuffies, too. 🙂 

---

OUR LEARNING:

Reading– We are building strong reading habits in first grade! This week, we learned how to try different vowel sounds in words if the sounds don’t make sense. 

Writing – Students continued writing their own small moment stories. We spent this week editing our stories to make sure they include uppercase letters, punctuation marks, and lots of details!

Math – We continued our math stations this week! We learned how to COUNT ON this week. We GRAB the bigger number, then count on the second number to find the total. 

Word Study – This week, we learned about POWER words, which are snap words that help us make LOTS of other words. We can add other blends, digraphs, and sounds to the beginning and end of power words to make new words! We also graduated from Unit 1 of Word Study on Thursday – Rasheed brought us a gift of a book with lots of snap words in it, and he gave each of us a diploma.

Social Emotional – This week, we read a story about Little Penguin facing a challenge. We learned about the difference between having a fixed mindset and a growth mindset. 

Extra Pictures:

 

---

Upcoming Dates:

• Monday, October 19 – STEAM
• Tuesday, October 20 – MUSIC
• Wednesday, October 21 – PE, Library
• Thursday, October 22 – ART
• Friday, October 23 – Early Release @ 12:15 pm, Bring Back Pumpkins, SUPER SECRET SPECIAL DAY in our classroom!

---

Books We’ve Read Together:

Hi families! We miss seeing your faces in our classroom as visitors, volunteers, mystery readers, and party helpers! ❤️

I know all of our mystery reader slots filled up quickly for this fall, so I have another option for you. If you have a few free minutes to make a little video of yourself reading aloud a book, please email it to me and I will show these to the class as some “extra special” read alouds!

Here is a little sample of what your video could look like:

This opportunity doesn’t have an expiration date, so if you’d like to make a video and send it to me in December, I would love that, too! Thanks so much for supporting our little readers.

Your child is coming home with a pumpkin today for our special pumpkin book project! The directions for this project are in your child’s folder. 🙂

Please email me to let me know if there are any supplies that I can get for you (paint, glue, markers, etc.) Thanks so much!!

Notes for Parents:

• Your child is welcome to wear their Halloween costume to school all day on Friday, October 30! We will also be having a day full of fall-themed fun. More information will be coming to families about this soon!
• Please remember to send your child to school with TWO snacks each day – our first graders have hungry bellies during our long school days! 

---

CELEBRATIONS

Top Frog – We had five “Top Frogs” (star students) in our classroom this week. Each student shared an “All About Me” page, was our door holder, and was the line leader! We also started a new round of top frogs on Thursday. Each firstie will get to choose to keep either Rasheed or Little Penguin at their desk with them all day! 

Quote of the Week – Each week, our class learns about a new quote and spends the whole week trying to embody that quote. At the end of the week, Miss Hutchison awards a friend from our class who really shined with that quote’s energy from throughout the week. This week’s quote went to MACON for always being himself! 

First Grade Family Time – Every Friday, all of the first graders at Georgetown get together for a little assembly! At the assembly, we celebrate our learning, give awards for the quote of the week, along with awards for lost teeth, shoe-tying, & birthdays from the week. Here are our “award-winning” first graders from our family time.

Virtual Mystery Reader – Keegan’s mom and grandma (along with her puppet friend, Benny) surprised our class as our Mystery Reader this week. The kids absolutely loved the surprise of seeing a loved one read to us on Zoom! ❤️ Also, Zoe’s dad is a fellow Hudsonville teacher, so he was approved to sneak to our classroom for a few minutes to read us a book, too. 🙂 

Donut Reward – We enjoyed a special donut treat on Friday morning as a reward for being one of the top participating classes in this year’s Walk-a-Thon!

Ben’s birthday – We celebrated Ben’s birthday with our class on Friday, but Ben’s actual birthday is today (Sunday, October 11). Happy birthday, Ben!

---

OUR LEARNING:

Reading– We are building strong reading habits in first grade! This week, we learned the importance of double-checking our reading to make sure it LOOKS RIGHT & MAKES SENSE. 

Writing – Students continued writing their own small moment stories. We are exploring the mentor text, “The Night of the Veggie Monster” to learn more about special craft moves the author uses. We tried using ellipses (…) and exact actions in our stories, just like George McClements. 

Math – We started MATH STATIONS this week! Students are split into smaller groups during math time, and they rotate through a set of stations included my teacher table, independent practice, MobyMax, and math games with partners. They are LOVING the independence and fun nature of math stations! We learned about using circle drawings to solve addition equations this week. 

Word Study – This week, the students wrote a letter back to Mr. Waldie (he wrote us a note, first) telling him about the snap words we have learned with Rasheed! We also had a “special news reporter” come to the classroom to interview our class about all of the things they’ve learned so far in word study (they were pretty impressed by my disguise, haha). 

Social Emotional – This week, we read a story about Little Penguin facing a challenge. We began learning about what it means to persevere and not give up when we face something tough!  

Extra Pictures:

---

Upcoming Dates:

• Monday, October 12 – ART
• Tuesday, October 13 – STEAM
• Wednesday, October 14 – MUSIC, Library
• Thursday, October 15 – PE
• Friday, October 16 – ART

---

Books We’ve Read Together:

Notes for Parents:

• If your child participates in a fall sport, please email me their schedule! I LOVE supporting our first graders outside of school, too, if sports seasons are happening and/or allow spectators. ❤️
• Please remember to send your child to school with TWO snacks each day – our first graders have hungry bellies during our long school days! 

---

CELEBRATIONS

Top Frog – We had five “Top Frogs” (star students) in our classroom this week. Each student shared an “All About Me” page, was our door holder, and was the line leader! 

Quote of the Week – Each week, our class learns about a new quote and spends the whole week trying to embody that quote. At the end of the week, Miss Hutchison awards a friend from our class who really shined with that quote’s energy from throughout the week. This week’s quote went to JOSHUA for his happiness and joy that he shares with our class! 

First Grade Family Time – Every Friday, all of the first graders at Georgetown get together for a little assembly! At the assembly, we celebrate our learning, give awards for the quote of the week, along with awards for lost teeth, shoe-tying, & birthdays from the week. Here are our “award-winning” first graders from our family time.

Virtual Mystery Reader – Reese V’s mom surprised our class as our Mystery Reader this week. The kids absolutely loved the surprise of seeing a loved one read to us on Zoom! ❤️

Fort Day – We earned another 10 Star Prize for showing great behavior and kindness! The class loved building forts with their beach towels AND eating lunch in their forts. 🙂 

Congratulations – Miss VanderKolk, our student teacher, got engaged this past Tuesday! She read a little story to the class to tell them the news!

Picture Day – We got a class picture on picture day while everyone looked so nice! And…Miss Hutchison and Miss VanderKolk accidentally matched on picture day – the kids thought this was hilarious! 

---

OUR LEARNING:

Reading– We are building strong reading habits in first grade! This week, we learned the importance of checking the picture, breaking tricky words into parts, and getting a running start by looking at the first letter of the word! 

Writing – Students continued writing their own small moment stories. We learned how to bring our stories to life by making characters move, talk, and feel! Students loved “Cozy Writing” on Friday! 

Math – We reviewed Unit 1 before taking our first math test this week! The class did such a great job showing what they know!!

 

Word Study – This week, we compared each others’ names to find blends, digraphs, and vowel sounds! We also added 30 snap words to our word wall (all words we learned in kindergarten). Students looked at snap words with “o” in them to notice how “o” makes different sounds in words.  

Social Emotional – Little Penguin helps us talk about our feelings. This week, we journaled about things that make us feel different emotions: happy, sad, mad, excited, and scared. 

Extra Pictures:

---

Upcoming Dates:

• Monday, October 5 – PE
• Tuesday, October 6 – ART
• Wednesday, October 7 – STEAM, Library
• Thursday, October 8 – MUSIC
• Friday, October 9 – PE, Celebrating Ben’s birthday (10/11)

---

Books We’ve Read Together:

Notes for Parents:

• Walkathon was on this past Thursday, and the kids had so much fun! I took LOTS of pictures, and they are all at this link for you to check them out! 
• If your child participates in a fall sport, please email me their schedule! I LOVE supporting our first graders outside of school, too, if sports seasons are happening and/or allow spectators. ❤️
• Picture day is this Thursday, October 1. Please return your child’s picture order packet to school on Thursday. 

---

CELEBRATIONS

Top Frog – We had five “Top Frogs” (star students) in our classroom this week. Each student shared an “All About Me” page, was our door holder, and was the line leader! 

Quote of the Week – Each week, our class learns about a new quote and spends the whole week trying to embody that quote. At the end of the week, Miss Hutchison awards a friend from our class who really shined with that quote’s energy from throughout the week. This week’s quote went to REESE M for always trying her best! 

First Grade Family Time – Every Friday, all of the first graders at Georgetown get together for a little assembly! At the assembly, we celebrate our learning, give awards for the quote of the week, along with awards for lost teeth, shoe-tying, & birthdays from the week. Here are our “award-winning” first graders from our family time.

Virtual Mystery Reader – Logan’s mom surprised our class as our Mystery Reader this week. The kids absolutely loved the surprise of seeing a loved one read to us on Zoom! ❤️

Elijah’s birthday – We celebrated Elijah’s 7th birthday on Friday! Happy birthday, Eli!

First Day of Fall – We celebrated the first day of fall on Tuesday by reading a story about autumn, and then we made a fun fall craft for the hallway! 

---

OUR LEARNING:

Reading– We are building strong reading habits in first grade! This week, we learned the importance of using every moment of our reading time to read more & more, set goals, reread to smooth out our voices, and scoop up words in phrases. We are trying to read like we talk, not like robots! 🙂 

 

Writing – We learned how to zoom in on a small moment during writing this week! We took a “watermelon” topic like school and turned it into a small moment seed story about soft start. Our class all worked together to write a collective story about soft start. 

 

Math – We practiced writing equations for the partners of 9 and 10 this week, then we enjoyed playing some math games to review all of the number partners we have learned during Unit 1. 

Word Study – This week, we learned lots about the most important letters in the alphabet: VOWELS! We made vowel shields to show off our vowel power. Then, we began exploring blends (two letters that blend together but keep their sounds) and digraphs (two letters that make one new sound). Rasheed sent us some digraph riddles to solve! 🙂 

Social Emotional – Little Penguin helps us talk about our feelings. This week, we learned that people’s facial expressions can show their emotions, too. We also learned that people may have different feelings about the same thing (Such as snakes: some may be excited to pet a snake, while others may be terrified). 

Extra Pictures:

---

Upcoming Dates:

• Monday, September 28 – MUSIC
• Tuesday, September 29 – PE
• Wednesday, September 30 – ART, Library
• Thursday, October 1 – STEAM, Walkathon donations due, Picture day!
• Friday, October 2 – MUSIC

---

Books We’ve Read Together:

Our class is climbing up the leader board! We are now in 5th place out of all the classes at Georgetown. Even if your child does not collect any donations this year, by simply registering your child on the website (for free!), our classroom participation is boosted. Thank you so much for supporting our school during this Walkathon fundraiser!

 

We are so excited to welcome Miss VanderKolk into our classroom this fall! Josie VanderKolk is a senior at Hope College, and she will be student teaching in our class this year. Josie has been coming to our classroom one day each week for the past 4 weeks, but starting tomorrow, she will be here ALL DAY EVERY DAY! Josie will be co-teaching with me (as a student teacher) in our classroom through December – we will truly be a team, so hopefully your child will enjoy having two teachers love and support him/her. ❤️

Josie has already worked so hard to build relationships with our students, and the first graders absolutely love her! I have been very impressed by Josie’s professionalism, willingness to learn and try new things, and passion for teaching. I’m looking forward to a great semester with her in our classroom.