Mrs. Bilangino's Fantastic First Graders!

As part of our maps and landmarks curriculum we visited SoundWaters at Cove Beach and then Soundwaters came to our classroom! We learned about Connecticut, Long Island and the Long Island Sound. The teachers at SoundWaters taught the kids about different animals living in the sound, brackish water, the food chain and even helped the kids look under microscopes at the plankton they caught in the Sound. Here are a few photos:

On October 31st we had a harvest party and did math and science with pumpkins. It was so much fun! We estimated the weight of our pumpkins, we weighed our pumpkins, we predicted if our pumpkins would sink or float, we measured our pumpkins and we counted the seeds in groups of ten. Here are a few pictures of the fun: During Integrated Literacy we have been talking about the different seasons of the year. We then picked our favorite season and wrote opinion essays giving reasons to support our opinion. We created trees of the four seasons to go with our writing. The wonderful essays and artwork will be in the hall this week.  We took our unit 2 math test this week. I will grade them and send them home later this week. In unit 3 we will focus on number stories, adding, subtracting and solving missing addends.  We have been working hard and I'm so proud of the progress all of my kiddos are making.  Thank you for all of your support! ...

Hi Everyone! I'm sorry I haven't posted in the last few weeks. I have so much to share with you! We have been having the best time here at school. Here is an overview of what we have been doing: Reading: We have our Daily 5 up and running. Students are choosing reading jobs, listening to reading on the tag readers or iPads, working on writing, reading to someone, working on word work, reading to self and working with a teacher. The reading time is going really well and I'm loving meeting with all the kiddos in their reading groups! Phonics: During phonics we have been reviewing our digraphs (sh, ch, th, wh, qu and ph). Some students have been practicing mage e words as well! We have three centers during phonics everyday. One job is independent work which might be a game, Headsprout on the tablet or a worksheet, and two centers with adults, one with me and one with another adult. Each group is differentiated based on student needs. Math: We had our first math test...

This week we really got into our math centers and I wanted to share a few photos of the kiddos hard at work. These photos were of Wednesday's math centers. One group was working on Dreambox, one group did a math journal page and then was playing an independent game to practice tens frames and tally marks, and in my center we went over counting by 5's or by 2's and then the students practiced putting numbers in order with a partner. The children go to every center during math and they work on differentiated skills at my center and the independent center.  The kiddos had so much fun and learned a lot! Here are a few photos from Wednesday: On Wednesday we also had our first Pep Rally. Our class was announced for earning 50 and 100 paws! We also learned a lot about our school matrix and how to show respect in school, outside and on the bus. Here is our class and many others listening to Mrs. Beldotti at the pep rally: 

Hello Families, I put up a Donor's Choose Project for headphones for our classroom. If you would like to share the link to friends and family I would really appreciate it. Here is the link:  Headphones Donor's Choose I will also be sending home login information for students to play games on the EM4 Website. Each child has an individual password. Here is the website:   EM4 Games Thank you, Mrs. Bilangino

Thank you to all of the families who were able to come meet with me at Open House last night! It was really nice to meet all of you and go over the upcoming school year. For anyone who missed last night or would like to look at the slideshow I am attaching it here. Open House Slide Show I also sent two sets of papers home in your child's folders. There is an acceptable use form for the internet as well as school compact. If you could please fill these forms and return them if you did not already do so at the Open House. Thank you! This week we had our first full week of school and it went very well! We have continued to work on learning our routines and rules. We are up to 13 minutes of independent reading, 10 minutes of writing as well as 10 minute of buddy reading. I'm so impressed with all of the kiddos. We also began doing math centers. In the math centers I meet with one group of students while other children are on the iPads playing math games and one group play...

Hi Families, We had a great four days last week in school! We worked on building our reading stamina. Students in class were able to pick a special spot in the room to read to self. On our first day we could only read for 3 minutes without anyone stopping, but by Friday we were up to 8 minutes!  Here are a few pictures of the kiddos reading to themselves. This Thursday, September 14th, is our Open House. First grade will be from 6:00-6:25 PM. A flier went home in your child's folder on Friday. I hope to see all of you there!

We had a great two days in first grade. We were so busy learning the new rules and routines that I forgot to take any pictures! Sorry about that. Here are a few things we learned/reviewed from Kindergarten: - three ways to read a book -classroom rules -how to transition through centers -how to fill in our math calendar and charts -how to line up -how to walk through the hallways -how to clean up after ourselves at lunch -how to use the behavior chart (hopefully you saw your child's behavior chart and the letter in their folder) -how to use the big playground safely -how to use our markers and glue sticks so they last! We learned a lot new routines, but also had fun! We did an activity comparing walking in the hallway to having marshmallows on our toes. We then talked about our 5 senses and actually had a marshmallow. The kids really liked that activity. Next week we will definitely get into more of the curriculum and start Daily 5 (reading), we will do more math as...

Hello Families, I wanted to give you some updates on what's been going on in the classroom! So I have been going in to set up the classroom and get everything ready for your kiddos for the last week. Here is a picture of what the room looked like when I arrived (I forgot to take a picture before I put the tables down, they were all on their sides at first!) After spending a few days in the classroom it looks a lot better! Here are a few sneak peaks... We have an elephant theme this year. I went on a safari this summer for my honeymoon and fell in love with elephants. They are such beautiful, smart animals.  I am also attaching first grade's schedule and our classroom special schedule.  I am so excited to meet all of my first graders next week! Also, if you are checking this please send me an email with your child's dismissal information. Please send your child's name, their bus number and bus stop and if they w...

Hi New Families! Welcome to my blog! I have started the blog from scratch as I was married this summer and changed my last name. I figured I would give the blog a new look and a new name! (Just in case anyone is wondering how to pronounce my new last name it is  said "Bill an gino" ☺) I wanted to share a little bit about myself. I have been teaching first grade at Toquam for 7 years and I absolutely love it. I went to Fairfield University for my undergraduate degree and then received my masters in education from University of Bridgeport, while simultaneously working within the Stamford Public Schools. I live in Stamford with my husband and our two dogs, Bailey and Jackson. When I am not at school I enjoy walking our dogs, cooking and baking, and reading, lots of reading! This summer I was lucky enough to do a lot of traveling and can't wait to show my new class all of the animals I saw in Safari in Africa! I am very excited to meet all of you and your children! I...