Reading
It is a week of fresh starts! First Graders began a new reading unit studying the work of beloved author Ezra Jack Keats. His award-winning book, The Snowy Day was one that almost all students were familiar with, but Keats was a prolific author! We had so much fun exploring his lesser-known works, all of which are TCS favorites. Have you heard of Jennie’s Hat? Or Pet Show? Or Goggles? We can’t wait to discover much more about these magical books during this author study!

Writing
We transitioned out of poetry writing this week, and fell right into fiction writing! Students have been eagerly awaiting the fiction unit all year, because they have so many imaginative stories to tell! We begin this unit with realistic fiction. This week, our young writers learned how to create characters, give them names and backgrounds, choose a setting, and create a problem for their character(s) to encounter. The youngest character someone created was six years old, and the oldest? Twenty-seven years old! I can’t wait to see what kind of trouble our first grade author creates for that character!

Movement + Empathy
It was a return to an old favorite this week in Movement: Castle Ball! First Graders adore this fast-paced, competitive game and it has become a school-wide phenomenon. However, something interesting happened this week at the intersection of Movement and our empathy study. Our students used what they had learned about empathy to celebrate with the winning team and console the defeated team. It was beautiful to watch them use the empathy tools they have learned in the classroom and apply them to a new situation. It made our game more fun than ever.

Important Dates
•   Monday, April 10 – Monday, April 17 – Spring Break, No School
•   Tuesday, April 18 – School Resumes
•   Thursday, April 20 – TCS Silent Auction, Stars Rooftop, 5:30pm (Buy Tickets Here)