Miss Hutchison's Class Blog

Notes for Parents:

• We only have one more “surprise days” left this school year – where did the time go?! Our final surprise day will be a Safari day on Friday, May 6. If you are interested in donating supplies to help make this fun day possible, please check out this sign up.
• As part of our upcoming social studies unit about schools past vs. schools past, please email me any school pictures, yearbook photos, or mementos from your school years. We will be looking at these this week to kick off our new unit!
• A yellow permission slip for our John Ball Zoo field trip came home in your child’s folder on Friday. Please complete the permission slip and return it to school by Wednesday, April 27. A big thank you to all the parents/family members who volunteered to chaperone. Due to the overwhelming number of volunteers, not everyone was able to be selected. However, we are so excited that ALL parents who want to attend can come along as guests to walk alongside your child and participate in his/her group. Looking forward to seeing those of you who can make it on May 17!
• If your child plays a spring sport, please send me their schedule! I’d love to come support your first grader. 

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CELEBRATIONS

Family Time– At the assembly, we celebrated our learning and birthdays from the week. We also give awards for the quote of the week, lost teeth, and shoe tying.

This week the quote was- “Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better. It’s not.” Since everyone in our class earned a quote, we gave our class’ quote to Mr. Rob for his continuous care for our school!

Mystery Reader–  On Friday morning, Cameron’s dad surprised us a mystery reader. Then in the afternoon, Sam’s dad surprised us and read us a funny book. Two mystery readers in one day – the kids thought this was a special treat!

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OUR LEARNING:

Reading– This week we focused on paying attention to the characters in our books to see how their feelings change, how they talk, and what they like. We learned how authors leave clues to help us understand what a character is feeling or how they say something.

Writing – This week was the end of opinion writing.  The kids had the opportunity to create their own persuasive letters.  We saw many great ideas ranging from “We should get to bring pets to school, We should get more recess, I should get a dog/bunny, to we should get to pick our own seats.” The students came up with many great reasons and showed how convincing they can really be. 

Word Study –  We started a new unit all about BLOOPERS! Bloopers are common mistakes that writers (and even adults) make. We are learning to be extra-careful writers by thinking about the spelling patterns we already know when we spell words. We also started learning about Bossy R and the sounds that r-controlled vowels make (ar, er, or).

Math – This week we took the Unit 6 test all about comparing data. We also started our next unit which teaches how to tell time to the hour. The two lessons we did this week focused on time and how we progress from the morning to afternoon to night. We learned about digital vs. analog clocks and how to tell when it is an “o’clock” time on both.

Social Studies – We wrapped up our Maps unit by practicing our address. When your child can write their complete address they’ll be able to share the birds-eye view of their house on Google Maps. 

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Upcoming Dates:

• Monday, April 25 – ART
• Tuesday, April 26 – STEAM, library
• Wednesday, April 27 – MUSIC
  • Field trip permission slips due
• Thursday, April 28 – PE
• Friday, April 29 – ART
• Friday, May 6 – Early release day, Miss Conely’s last day & Safari surprise day

We had so much fun spending the day as Hollywood movie stars on the red carpet! Thank you so much to those of you who donated items to help make this day possible. 

To see all of the pictures from our Hollywood day or to download any of them, click here.

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Classroom Transformation

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Soft Start & Red Carpet Pictures

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After morning meeting, we each got a chance to be in the spotlight and walk the red carpet!

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Next, we learned about cursive by practicing our autographs. We traced our names in cursive a few times to practice. Then, we autographed each classmate’s walk of fame star. 

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We enjoyed a yummy snack of movie popcorn, red carpet ropes (licorice), and fancy punch. 

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For writing time, we designed our own movie posters! We added unique titles, catchy slogans, and details.

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We used our math knowledge about comparison bars to solve story problems with movie stats. 

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We played a fun Kahoot game to review main characters and supporting characters in books and films.

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After lunch, students each got to pick a movie-related book to read during cozy reading time.

 

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Students decorated their own “Walk of Fame” stars.

   

Notes for Parents:

• We only have two more “surprise days” left this school year – where did the time go?! Our next surprise day will be a Hollywood Red Carpet day on Friday, April 22. If you are interested in donating supplies to help make this fun day possible, please check out this sign up.
  • Please have your child dress up “fancy” on Friday (if they’d like to) for our surprise red carpet. 
• Sweetheart Swirl will be held on April 30 from 6:30-8:30! Mark it on your calendars! This is for Georgetown girl students only and their special guest of choice. See this flyer to check out all of the details! Use this link to sign up: https://forms.gle/7Ufa59YZWLFD8AZY7  Please make checks payable to Georgetown PTC.
• It’s time to celebrate our creative school community once again! The Art Department is excited to host an in-person art show featuring artwork from Kindergarten students all the way up to High School artists. Drop in during Georgetown’s Reception Night, or any weekday between April 18th through the 26th. More details below:
  • Hudsonville PS District Student Art ShowHudsonville City Hall – 3275 Central Blvd.Open Weekdays from April 18th – April 26th; 8:00am – 5:00pm

    Georgetown Elementary Reception – Tuesday, April 19th from 5:30pm – 7:30pm

• A note came home Friday about our school field trip. We will be going to John Ball Zoo on May 17.  Students will need to bring a sack lunch from home.  We are greatly appreciative of our GES PTC, they will be covering the costs for all students and chaperones. Please look for the yellow note and return it by next Wednesday, if you are interested in chaperoning. All chaperones will need to drive themselves and meet us at the zoo.

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CELEBRATIONS

Family Time– At the assembly, we celebrated our learning and birthdays from the week. We also give awards for the quote of the week, lost teeth, and shoe tying.

This week the quote was- “Be somebody who makes everybody feel like a somebody.” – Kid President. Avery was the student who showed us what this quote means this week.

Mystery Reader–  Ellie’s mom surprised us as mystery reader! She read us two very funny books! We loved them and laughed so hard!

 

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OUR LEARNING:

Reading– This week we began a new unit called “Meeting Characters and Learning Lessons”. We focused this week on how readers can get more out of a story and remember more when they retell parts of the story and predict what will happen next.

Writing – We are continuing with opinion writing but taking a new turn- persuasive letter writing. We had an introduction to what persuasive writing is, how to still include our opinion and reasons, and how to conclude with a closing and our signature.  Get ready for lots of letters home convincing you of allowance raises and pets. This is also how the students found out about their field trip! The first grade teachers wrote a letter to Mr. Waldie convincing him the first graders needed to go on a field trip and Mr. Waldie wrote back! The students loved his response! 

Word Study – We wrapped up our vowel teams unit this week by creating our own “Vowel Towns!” We worked in small groups to create town maps filled with lots of labels, places, and signs with vowel teams. (For example: “Beach Town”). It was so fun to see students’ think creatively for this project!

Math –   We began learning how to compare within a story with the help of comparison bars this week. These are very similar to math mountains, but instead of trying to figure out a total or partner we are comparing to see who/what has more or less and how many more or fewer. We will be taking our test for this unit next week.

Social Studies – This week we are starting a social studies unit.  We are learning about maps and globes. We will learn about our world, continent, state, city and begin practicing our address.  Any support you can give with this at home is greatly appreciated. This went along great with their vowel team maps!

Spring Fun– This week a duck made a nest and laid some eggs on our playground! The students have been so intrigued. This went along so well with our spring activity. On Friday, the students “adopted” a peep. They picked out an egg and hatched to see their peep.  We are learning about maps and globes. We will learn about our world, continent, state, city and begin practicing our address.  Any support you can give with this at home is greatly appreciated.  Students will start practicing their address next week. Students who wrote spring break journals also shared those this week!

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Upcoming Dates:

• Monday, April 18 – PE 
• Tuesday, April 19 – Art, library
  • Georgetown Elementary Art Show Reception (details at top of blog post)
• Wednesday, April 20 – STEAM
  • Chaperone slips due
• Thursday, April 21 – Music
• Friday, April 22 – PE & Surprise Red Carpet Day

Notes for Parents:

• We only have two more “surprise days” left this school year – where did the time go?! Our next surprise day will be a Hollywood Red Carpet day on Friday, April 22. If you are interested in donating supplies to help make this fun day possible, please check out this sign up.
• Sweetheart Swirl will be held on April 30 from 6:30-8:30! Mark it on your calendars! This is for Georgetown girl students only and their special guest of choice. See this flyer to check out all of the details! Use this link to sign up: https://forms.gle/7Ufa59YZWLFD8AZY7  Please make checks payable to Georgetown PTC.

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CELEBRATIONS

Spring Fling– We also enjoyed swapping teachers during the morning before we left for spring vacation.  We did a directed drawing with Mrs. Cooley, Tech games with Mrs. Blauwkamp, Spring Bingo with Ms. Hutchison and movement activities with Mrs. Diniz.

Mystery Reader– Kenzie’s brother surprised us as mystery reader! We loved having a mystery reader even on a shortened week! 

Blue Reading Calendar Winners– Sam, Ella, and Katie were our class’ top three readers this month. They logged the most reading minutes in their blue March Reading month logs! They each won a book! 

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OUR LEARNING:

Reading– On Monday we watched our friends’ flipgrid videos! We loved listening to all the stories our friends had to tell and we loved listening to them read like reading superstars. On Tuesday and Wednesday, we read using our sandwich reading retell pieces that we learned about on Pizza Day.

Writing – This week we finished up our book reviews. As a class we voted to find our book bracket winner. Our class book winner was The Book With No Pictures, which just so happened to be the school’s book bracket winner as well.

Word Study – Our vowel team chart is filling up! This week we learned about aw and au, which make the same sound (claw, faucet). 

Math – This week in math we focused on looking at data sets. We created data sets with data we have collected as a class or grade level such as voting for our favorite spring flower or for our favorite pizza. 

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Upcoming Dates:

• Monday, April 11 – music
• Tuesday, April 12 – PE, library
• Wednesday, April 13 – Art
• Thursday, April 14 – STEAM
• Friday, April 15 – music

We had so much fun spending the day as Hollywood movie stars on the red carpet! Thank you so much to those of you who donated items to help make this day possible. 

To see all of the pictures from our Hollywood day or to download any of them, click here.

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Classroom Transformation

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Soft Start & Red Carpet Pictures

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After morning meeting, we each got a chance to be in the spotlight and walk the red carpet!

---

Next, we learned about cursive by practicing our autographs. We traced our names in cursive a few times to practice. Then, we autographed each classmate’s walk of fame star. 

---

We enjoyed a yummy snack of movie popcorn, red carpet ropes (licorice), and fancy punch. 

---

For writing time, we designed our own movie posters! We added unique titles, catchy slogans, and details.

---

We used our math knowledge about comparison bars to solve story problems with movie stats. 

---

We played a fun Kahoot game to review main characters and supporting characters in books and films.

---

After lunch, students each got to pick a movie-related book to read during cozy reading time.

 

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Students decorated their own “Walk of Fame” stars.

   

Notes for Parents:

• As a reminder, we will be having a pizza lunch on Tuesday. If your child does not like pizza, please send a lunch from home.
• March is Reading Month is in full swing! Every Monday, your child’s blue reading log can be returned to school to earn a raffle ticket for a free book from the book fair! Every Wednesday will be a dress up day, and Fridays we will receive a special snack from our PTC.
• If you are planning on leaving early for spring break, please send me an email to let me know which days your child will be gone. Thank you!

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CELEBRATIONS

Quote of the Week – Last weeks quote was- “Everything has its beauty, but not everyone sees it yet.”  Our winning student was Isabelle Moore. This week the quote was- “If it doesn’t challenge you, it won’t change you.”  Skylar was the student who showed us what this quote means this week.  

First Grade Family Time – Here are the photos of our award-winning students from Friday’s first grade family time.

Mystery Reader -We had two days of mystery readers this week. On Thursday, Katie’s mom surprised our class as our mystery reader. And on Wednesday, we had three of Miss Hutchison’s old students who are now second graders read to us. 

 

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OUR LEARNING:

Reading– Our reading focus this week was all about putting all that we’ve learned into a final reading celebration. We learned that Readers Have Big Jobs To Do like reading with expression, fluency, and understanding the story. We celebrated our learning by using Flipgrid to record ourselves reading a “just right” book out loud.

Writing – We started the end of book reviews this week.  We focused on our introductions and conclusions and all the other important parts we have learned.  We have loved tying this together with our class book bracket. 

Word Study – Our vowel team chart is filling up! This week we learned about oi and oy, which make the same sound (coin, toy). We also learned about ew and ue, which both say /oo/ like in stew and blue.

Math – This week in math we focused on looking at data sets with three categories. We also compared only two topics at a time using the terms more and less. This can be a tricky skill for students when they only are supposed to compare two of the categories at a time. 

Read Aloud– We finished our class read aloud, Charlotte’s Web last week and watched the movie this week. After watching the movie we compared the movie and book. We started our new read aloud Thursday, The Mouse and the Motorcycle. 

PTC– On Friday, the PTC gave our school red & blue jello to celebrate “Team USA” for March is reading month! 

Other!– Our class created March Madness brackets when we learned how to use Google forms last week! We have loved looking at them for fun in the mornings. Also we have been building our skills in having a growth mindset. Mistakes are great, and they help us grow!

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Upcoming Dates:

• Monday, March 21 – PE, Return Reading Calendars
• Tuesday, March 22 – Art, Library, Pizza Parlor Surprise Day – Pizza lunch
• Wednesday, March 23 – STEAM, Wear PJs for comfy reading day!
• Thursday, March 24 – Sunday, April 11 – Spring Break!!

Notes for Parents:

• Please join our PBIS team on March 24th from 6:30 for a Family Charter Night. During this time we will introduce you to and guide you through the creation of a Family Charter. Please RSVP here if you plan on attending. 
• March is Reading Month is in full swing! Every Monday, your child’s blue reading log can be returned to school to earn a raffle ticket for a free book from the book fair! Every Wednesday will be a dress up day, and Fridays we will receive a special snack from our PTC.

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CELEBRATIONS

Quote of the Week – This week the quote was- “Everything has its beauty, but not everyone sees it yet.”  Our winning student was absent on Thursday, so they’ll receive the award next week.  

First Grade Family Time – Here are the photos of our award-winning students from Thursday’s first grade family time.

Mystery Reader – Second grader Melwyn surprised our class as our mystery reader this week.

Compliment Cupcakes – All year long, our class has been working to earn compliment cupcakes. We get to add a cupcake to our chart each time a teacher gives us a compliment outside of the classroom (lunchroom, hallways, etc.). Once our cupcake wall had enough cupcakes for each student in the classroom, Miss Hutchison brought in cupcakes for the class! Students enjoyed oreo and cookie dough cupcakes on Monday. 

 

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OUR LEARNING:

Reading– This week we continued to build on our independent reading skills and focus on asking ourselves, “What’s happening?” and “What might happen next?” so we can understand the book as a whole. 

Writing – This week in writing we are focusing our review writing on book reviews.  This is a great tie into March is Reading Month because we have a school-wide book bracket and we are voting for our favorite books.  We are really focusing on adding details and making our writing exciting and convincing.  We worked to introduce the characters, use conjunctions, and made sure we told our book title and author. Students write one review each day for their favorite book between the two choices on our bracket.

Word Study – Our exploration of vowel teams continued this week with some sounds that have multiple different spellings. For instance, ‘ou’ and ‘ow’ both say the same sound (couch, cow). We also learned that the spelling ‘ow’ can make two different sounds (cow, snow). Plus, we practiced reading and writing words with the two sounds made by ‘oo’ (book, spoon).

Math – We learned a lot of new vocabulary words to help us be stronger mathematicians for this new unit! Students learned words like: data, sort, compare, more/most, and fewer/fewest. We started the week by sorting bugs into groups like legs vs. no legs and colors. We then used that data to compare and see which group had more or fewer bugs in it. The remainder of the week was spent strengthening this skill through the use of various categories.

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Upcoming Dates:

• Monday, March 21 – Music
• Tuesday, March 22 – PE, Library
• Wednesday, March 23 – Art, Wear a shirt with words
• Thursday, March 24 – STEAM 
• Friday, March 25 – Music

We had a BLAST spending the day as basketball players! Thank you so much to those of you who donated items to help make this day possible. The excitement and wonder on these kids’ faces when they walk into the classroom on these “surprise days” are truly amazing!

 

To see all of the pictures from our March Madness day or to download any of them, click here.

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Classroom Transformation

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Soft Start & Basketball Pictures

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Introducing our teams as they ran onto the basketball court: Conely Comets & Hutchison Hoops! All throughout the day, students got the chance to shoot a basket to earn points for their team. We checked the final score at the end of the day!

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Watching behind-the-scenes videos from REAL basketball players. Miss Conely’s friends are Hope College women’s basketball players, so we watched some of their highlight reel from this season. (Hope’s women’s basketball team is headed to the National Championship this weekend!)

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We made our own March Madness bookmarks for March is Reading Month! 

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We had some “halftime” snacks from our concession stand! We enjoyed some clementine and cheese puff basketballs & gatorade. 

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After PE, we read basketball books about Michael Jordan: “Salt in his Shoes” and “Dream Big.”

 

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Next, we checked out our book bracket. We’ve been writing book reviews all week long, and our bracket is narrowing down to the Elite 8. Students wrote a book review for one of the two basketball books we read today.

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Students learned how to use Google Forms for the first time today as they filled out an NCAA March Madness Basketball Bracket. We’ll be tracking these in our classroom throughout the tournament (just for fun 😊). 

Take a peek at our St. Patrick’s Day fun in first grade!

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First graders are “CEREAL-sly lucky!” We made a writing craft for the hallway that shares why we’re lucky.

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For math, we did some lucky charm graphing. We sorted our data (lucky charms) by shape, and made a graph to model the data. Then, students wrote questions for another student to answer about their data using words like “most,” “least,” and “total.” 

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We took some time to learn about gratitude on St. Patrick’s day by thinking about why we’re LUCKY to have each person in our classroom family. Students picked another classmate’s name from a basket and wrote them a super secret letter about why they’re lucky to know them. We shared these in a big circle later in the day. “Lucky” is an understatement for my gratitude for teaching these kids!

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We enjoyed our toy day celebration this afternoon, too. 🙂