Week 16 - December 22, 2017

Thank you for all of the very generous gifts and the kind notes.  I really appreciate it and hope you all have a wonderful break and holiday with your families!

Curriculum

Reading

The students practiced retelling and answering questions about their reading this week.  We also began exploring syllables and identifying how many syllables are in a word.  After the break, we will continue these skills.

Book Baggies:
Students have 6 books in their bag (two below their reading level to help them work on fluency, two at their level to focus on good reading skills, and two above level to continue to push and grow as readers).  These bags will stay at home all week for students to practice reading.  It is good to encourage reading and rereading of these books!  We will exchange books on Fridays, so please have students return these books next Friday.  (Just FYI, Library books are sent in on Thursday.)  If a student forgets or is absent one week, they will need to return them the following Friday. 

Writing
We finished our How to book about Seesaw.  The students all worked together to create a book to share with Kindergarten to help them begin using Seesaw!  After the break, students will have an opportunity to make a how to book on a topic of their choice.

Math
Due to so many students being absent this week, I will wait to have the students take the Unit 4 Assessment until after the break.  After the break, we will begin Unit 5.  You can see the skills for this unit below.

Unit 5 Skills
o I can use a number grid to find 10 more and 10 less than a number.
o I can identify true and false addition and subtraction number sentences within 10.
o I can identify 2-digit numbers represented by base-10 blocks.
o I can use <, >, and = to compare numbers.
o I can answer questions about data in a tally chart or bar graph.
o I can measure a path using base-10 cubes.

Unit 5 Study Guide - You may use this to guide you in helping your child study for this Unit 3 Assessment.

Unit 5 IXL Skills - If you would like to, students may use IXL to help them practice these skills.

Social Studies
As a whole first grade the students have been meeting and discussing how Deerfield is a family and how we can make Deerfield a better place.  January is our 1st grade team's month to be in charge of a community service project for the school.  The students have decided that we want to help the school be a kind, caring place.  When we return from the break, the students will be sharing their ideas with their cabins.

Purposeful Play
Students are really enjoying the opportunity to be creative and use their imagination.  I enjoy seeing the problem solving and collaboration that happens. Ask your child what he or she created!

Please see the Purposeful Play tab on the blog to learn more about our weekly Play Time and donation items we could use for it!

Homework

• Read every night
• Work on a math skill (i.e. adding and subtracting to 20 - play a board game for this, telling time, counting coins, measuring - length and volume -  have your child cook with you to practice this, talk about shapes - 2D and 3D - find items around your house, etc.) 
• December Homework - This is all "Play based" to encourage the students build fine/gross motor skills, creativity and imaginative skills.

Important Dates

December 25 - Winter Break Begins
December 25-January 7 - No School - Winter Break
January 8 - School Resumes