Week 16 - December 21, 2018

Special Winter Week

Thank you for all your help in making our last week a blast!  I think the kids enjoyed it!

Curriculum

Reading:
As readers this week, we read and learned about snow, the Grinch and how he changes, and about Gingerbread and Gingerbread Men.  When we return from the Winter Break, we will continue learning about reading strategies and reading fluently.

Book Baggies:
Please help the students remember to bring their book baggies every Friday.  I would like them to have an opportunity to read different books.

Writing:
As writers, students reviewed writing a how to book by writing How to Build a Snowman.  We also wrote about the Grinch and how he changes over time.  When we return from the break, the students will be writing How To books.

Math:
In math we practiced adding and subtracting within 20, identifying/representing numbers to 100, and addition fluency within 10.  When we return from the break, we will be working on adding 10 to any number and subtracting 10 from any number.

IXL Skills - Use these activities as you wish to help your child with the skills we will be working on throughout this first trimester.

Science/Social Studies:
After the break, we will continue to learn more about sound.  The students will be reading and doing experiments to learn about volume, pitch and how sound is made.

Purposeful Play
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 (you can read with your child, listen to them read or read to them - all of it helps).  Then talk about the book - who are the characters, what happened, why did it happen, make connections, what's the main idea, why did the author write the book, how did the author give you information, what features did the author use to help you as a reader
• Work on a math skill  
• counting forwards and backwards within 120 (and skip counting)
• adding and subtracting to 20 - play a board game for this
• telling time (What are the hands on the clock? How is a clock set up?)
• identify and count 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.) 

Specials Schedule

Monday: P.E. (Wear tennis shoes)
Tuesday: Art (Bring an Art shirt labeled with your child's name)
Wednesday: Music
Thursday: Media/Library
Friday: Rotates (See the back of your child's OWL folder (everyday folder) for a schedule.)

Important Dates

December 24-January 6: No School - Winter Break

January 7: School Resumes
January 21: No School - MLK Day
January 31: Multicultural Night (6:00-8:00pm)

Week 15 - December 14, 2018

Special Winter Week

To help make our last week before the Winter Break special, we will be doing some themed days to guide our learning.  

Monday (12/17): Snow Day - Learn and read about snow, play in the snow and make projects with snow!

Tuesday (12/18): Grinch Day - Wear green or grinchy attire!

Wednesday (12/19): Gingerbread Day - Gingerbread Playdough: See sign up genius to donate items for the playdough and/or to volunteer

Thursday (12/20): Holiday Celebration - Wear festive attire- green, red, gold, silver, etc. The party is on 10:30-11:15 AM. If you are able to volunteer for this event, please arrive 15 minutes early to check in and receive directions for the station you signed up for. Also, please plan on staying about 15 minutes after to help clean up. **All volunteers must have a current background check form on file.** Thank you so much in advance!"

https://www.signupgenius.com/go/60b0e4aafae22a0f58-1stand1

Friday (12/21): Pajama Day

Curriculum

Reading:
This week, the students have been learning about blends and how to decode words with blends (bl-, cl-, sc-, sn-, fr-, cr-, etc).  They've also learned not to read too fast or too slow, but to read at a good pace so that they can understand their reading.  Finally, they've learned to back up and reread if they find that they are not understanding their reading.  Next week, we will get to do reading related to our themed days (snow, the Grinch, and gingerbread men).  We will also continue to practice decoding words with blends.

Book Baggies:
Many students forgot their book baggies today.  Please help them remember them next week Friday.  I would like them to have an opportunity to read different books.

Writing:
As writers, we took a short break from How to...books to work on another book this week.  Next week in our festive week, we will practice writing how to's about making playdough and snowmen.

Math:
As mathematicians this week, we learned several different strategies to help us when solving addition and subtraction problems within 20.  The students learned to use friendly numbers and helper facts to help them solve harder problems.  We will continue to work on adding and subtracting within 20 as well as building our fluency within 10.  The students have been loving practicing facts with flashcards!

IXL Skills - Use these activities as you wish to help your child with the skills we will be working on throughout this first trimester.

Science/Social Studies:
In science this week, we had an opportunity to explore sound more in a reading and in an experiment.  The students were given a cup, rubber band and tongue depressor.  They did an amazing job of exploring and finding ways to make sound with these materials.  They are really starting to understand that sound comes from vibrations, that it travels in waves, it can travel through different types of matter, that it can be loud or soft (volume), or high or low (pitch).  These last two, volume and pitch, we sometimes get confused on!

Purposeful Play
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 (you can read with your child, listen to them read or read to them - all of it helps).  Then talk about the book - who are the characters, what happened, why did it happen, make connections, what's the main idea, why did the author write the book, how did the author give you information, what features did the author use to help you as a reader
• Work on a math skill  
• counting forwards and backwards within 120 (and skip counting)
• adding and subtracting to 20 - play a board game for this
• telling time (What are the hands on the clock? How is a clock set up?)
• identify and count 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.) 

Specials Schedule

Monday: P.E. (Wear tennis shoes)
Tuesday: Art (Bring an Art shirt labeled with your child's name)
Wednesday: Music
Thursday: Media/Library
Friday: Rotates (See the back of your child's OWL folder (everyday folder) for a schedule.)

Important Dates

December 20: Holiday Celebration (see above)

December 24-January 6: No School - Winter Break
January 7: School Resumes
January 21: No School - MLK Day
January 31: Multicultural Night (6:00-8:00pm)

Week 14 - December 7, 2018

Special Winter Week

To help make our last week before the Winter Break special, we will be doing some themed days to guide our learning.  We are asking for some volunteers and for some items.  Please see the following sign up link: https://www.signupgenius.com/go/20f0945a5a62da1f58-first5.  There is also another separate sign up below for the Holiday Celebration on Thursday.

Monday (12/17): Snow Day - Learn and read about snow, play in the snow and make projects with snow!

Tuesday (12/18): Grinch Day - Wear green or grinchy attire!

Wednesday (12/19): Gingerbread Day - Gingerbread Playdough: See sign up genius to donate items for the playdough and/or to volunteer

Thursday (12/20): Holiday Celebration - Wear festive attire- green, red, gold, silver, etc. The party is on 10:30-11:15 AM. If you are able to volunteer for this event, please arrive 15 minutes early to check in and receive directions for the station you signed up for. Also, please plan on staying about 15 minutes after to help clean up. **All volunteers must have a current background check form on file.** Thank you so much in advance!"

https://www.signupgenius.com/go/60b0e4aafae22a0f58-1stand1

Friday (12/21): Pajama Day

Curriculum

Reading:
As readers, we've continued to learn different strategies to help us with tricky words.  We've learned to skip the word and come back (Skippy Frog), to get our lips ready to say the first sound (Lips the Fish) and to flip the letter sound (Flippy Dolphin).  In addition, we reviewed the short vowel sounds and worked on identifying which sound goes in different words.  We will continue to build our decoding skills next week.  Plus, we will begin learning about blends as a spelling pattern.

Book Baggies:
Many students forgot their book baggies today.  Please help them remember them next week Friday.  I would like them to have an opportunity to read different books.

Writing:
As writers, we've been reading How to...books.  As we read them, we looked at the features that How to...books have.  The students noticed many things.  We also then tried to write a class How to Draw a Snowman book.  We learned the importance of using details and pictures to help our readers.  Next week, we will continue to practice writing by writing about ourselves.

Math:
In math, we've been learning to add and subtract within 20.  We learned about doubles and doubles +1 strategies to help us solve problems.  Next week, we will continue to practice using strategies to help us solve addition and subtraction problems within 20.

IXL Skills - Use these activities as you wish to help your child with the skills we will be working on throughout this first trimester.

Science/Social Studies:
In science this week, we began our unit on Light and Sound.  We started by asking the students what they already knew about sound, sound pitch, sound volume and vibrations.  Next week, we will continue to explore these ideas through reading, experiments and other research.

Purposeful Play
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 (you can read with your child, listen to them read or read to them - all of it helps).  Then talk about the book - who are the characters, what happened, why did it happen, make connections, what's the main idea, why did the author write the book, how did the author give you information, what features did the author use to help you as a reader
• Work on a math skill  
• counting forwards and backwards within 120 (and skip counting)
• adding and subtracting to 20 - play a board game for this
• telling time (What are the hands on the clock? How is a clock set up?)
• identify and count 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.) 

Specials Schedule

Monday: P.E. (Wear tennis shoes)
Tuesday: Art (Bring an Art shirt labeled with your child's name)
Wednesday: Music
Thursday: Media/Library
Friday: Rotates (See the back of your child's OWL folder (everyday folder) for a schedule.)

Important Dates

December 12: Holiday Shop (4:30-8)
December 20: Holiday Celebration (see above)

December 24-January 6: No School - Winter Break
January 7: School Resumes
January 21: No School - MLK Day
January 31: Multicultural Night (6:00-8:00pm)

Week 13 - November 30, 2018

Curriculum

Reading:
In reading this week, we learned about the short u sound.  Students identified words with short u and wrote words with the short u.  In addition, we learned more ways to help us decode words.  We talked about covering part of the word and slowly sliding our hand across the word saying the different sounds.  We talked about getting our lips ready to say the first sounds.  Next week, we will continue learning to decode words by reminding students to look at the beginning and end of the word, skipping a word and coming back to it or flipping the vowel sound to see what makes sense.  In addition, we will review all of the short vowel sounds.

Book Baggies:
Many students forgot their book baggies today.  Please help them remember them next week Friday.  I would like them to have an opportunity to read different books.

Writing:
In writing we finished our personal narrative unit.  We will have another personal narrative unit later in the year to help the students build more skills.  However, next week we will begin our How to...informational writing unit.  We will begin by reading mentor texts.  We will notice and wonder about them to see what we might do in our own writing.

Math:
This week we reviewed more skills.  We practiced adding and subtracting within 10, solving number stories within 10, and counting and representing numbers up to 60.  We also worked a bit on skip counting by 2s, 5s and 10s.  Keep working on this at home.  Next week, we will begin working on using strategies to solve addition and subtraction problems to 20.  Students should continue to work on building fluency with addition and subtraction within 10.

IXL Skills - Use these activities as you wish to help your child with the skills we will be working on throughout this first trimester.

Science/Social Studies:
This week we learned more about maps.  Students identified the continents, we looked at different map features and learned about what an aerial or birds eye view is.  Next week, we will begin our science unit on Sound and Light.  We will begin just by finding out what we already know.

Purposeful Play
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 (you can read with your child, listen to them read or read to them - all of it helps).  Then talk about the book - who are the characters, what happened, why did it happen, make connections, what's the main idea, why did the author write the book, how did the author give you information, what features did the author use to help you as a reader
• Work on a math skill  
• counting forwards and backwards within 120 (and skip counting)
• adding and subtracting to 20 - play a board game for this
• telling time (What are the hands on the clock? How is a clock set up?)
• identify and count 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.) 

Specials Schedule

Monday: P.E. (Wear tennis shoes)
Tuesday: Art (Bring an Art shirt labeled with your child's name)
Wednesday: Music
Thursday: Media/Library
Friday: Rotates (See the back of your child's OWL folder (everyday folder) for a schedule.)

Important Dates

December 12: Holiday Shop (4:30-8)
December 20: Holiday Celebration (more information to come)

December 24-January 6: No School - Winter Break
January 7: School Resumes
January 21: No School - MLK Day
January 31: Multicultural Night (6:00-8:00pm)

Week 11 - November 16, 2018

Multicultural Feast

To celebrate Thanksgiving and to honor our diverse and rich cultural traditions, Deerfield will be holding its annual Multicultural Feast on Monday, November 19th during lunchtime. Please sign up (by grade) to bring a dish to share or volunteer at the event. Please make sure you have completed your background check. If your child has allergies, please send in a lunch for him/her to eat as we can not guarantee that foods will be nut free.

Kindergarten: https://www.signupgenius.com/go/30E084EACA72CA0F58-2018

1st: https://www.signupgenius.com/go/30E084EACA72CA0F58-20181

2nd: https://www.signupgenius.com/go/30E084EACA72CA0F58-20182

3rd: https://www.signupgenius.com/go/30E084EACA72CA0F58-20183

4th: https://www.signupgenius.com/go/30E084EACA72CA0F58-20184

Curriculum

Reading:
This week, the students learned more about Chunky Monkey.  We learned to use our word study lessons, to look at blends and digraphs and to look at the beginning and ending sounds when trying to decode new words.  Next week, we will continue learning more strategies for decoding words.

Book Baggies:
Many students forgot their book baggies today.  Please help them remember them next week Friday.  I would like them to have an opportunity to read different books.

Writing:
This week, we focused much of our work on writing good endings to our personal narratives.  In addition, we learned to elaborate on the middle of our writing by including dialogue, actions, thoughts, feelings and sense.  Students went back into their writing and tried to make their writing better by using some of these ideas.

Math:
This week, we reviewed a lot of the skills we've been learning this trimester.  In addition, the students had opportunities to build and represent numbers up to 60.

IXL Skills - Use these activities as you wish to help your child with the skills we will be working on throughout this first trimester.

Science/Social Studies:
This week, we have been reading books about cultures and families.  The students had an opportunity to share about their families and we talked about similarities and differences.

Purposeful Play
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. counting forwards and backwards within 120, 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.) 

Specials Schedule

Monday: P.E. (Wear tennis shoes)
Tuesday: Art (Bring an Art shirt labeled with your child's name)
Wednesday: Music
Thursday: Media/Library
Friday: Rotates (See the back of your child's OWL folder (everyday folder) for a schedule.)

Important Dates

November 19: Multicultural Feast

November 21: 1/2 Day
November 22-23: No School - Thanksgiving Break
November 30: No School
December 12: Holiday Shop (4:30-8)
December 24-January 4: No School - Winter Break
January 7: School Resumes

Week 10 - November 12, 2018

Curriculum

Reading:
This week we learned to use Stretchy Snake when we come to words we don't know.  Students stretch out the sounds and then blend the word back together.  In addition, we worked on the short e sound.  Next week, we will do some more lessons on how to chunk words into pieces we know and to use our word study knowledge to help us decode new words.

Book Baggies:
Many students forgot their book baggies today.  Please help them remember them next week Friday.  I would like them to have an opportunity to read different books.

Writing:
Students learned to add transition words to their writing this week.  We also discussed different types of endings.  We will do more with these endings next week and then learn to revise and edit.

Math:
Students learned how to build numbers with pennies and dimes this week.  We are trying to connect how pennies and dimes are like tens and ones.  Next week we will build numbers higher than 20.  This is helping to build a foundation to learn about place value.

IXL Skills - Use these activities as you wish to help your child with the skills we will be working on throughout this first trimester.

Science/Social Studies:
The students have been doing a wonderful job reviewing all of our learning from this first science unit.  We will wrap that up next week and then move on to our next social studies units.  Students are bringing home some work to do on these units to help get them started.  Please talk with your child about your culture and traditions.

Purposeful Play
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. counting forwards and backwards within 120, 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.) 

Specials Schedule

Monday: P.E. (Wear tennis shoes)
Tuesday: Art (Bring an Art shirt labeled with your child's name)
Wednesday: Music
Thursday: Media/Library
Friday: Rotates (See the back of your child's OWL folder (everyday folder) for a schedule.)

Important Dates

November 13: Conferences (1-4, 5-8pm) - If you haven't already, please sign up for a time - https://www.signupgenius.com/go/10c0a44a4a92ea5fe3-2017

November 14: Picture Retakes
November 19: Multicultural Feast
November 21: 1/2 Day
November 22-23: No School - Thanksgiving Break
November 30: No School

Week 8 - October 26, 2018

Halloween

For Halloween in First Grade this year, we will have a celebration following the parade from 10:00-11:30.  

If you haven't already, please make a choice from the sign up genius for Halloween.

The session choices are:

• Ms. Schumaker's DIY No Carve Pumpkins. Come join us and get creative decorating and designing your own pumpkin using googly eyes, paint, sparkles, fabric and other neat materials! Please note that this session has a $2.00 Fee.  If your child signs up for this session, please send in $2.00 cash labeled with your child's name. 
• Ms. Sauchak's Spooky Dance Party! Come learn some spooky dance moves with Ms. Sauchak! We will spin like spiders, float like ghosts, shake like skeletons, fly like bats, walk like zombies and smile like jack-o-lanterns! Let's BOOgie! 
• Mrs. Lussier's Let's build! Come build towers with candy corn pumpkins and catapults for candy corn. Measure how tall your tower is and how far you can send the candy corn flying. Work with others to make the tallest tower you can or to send your candy flying!
• Ms. Walthall's Sensory Project! Are you ready to feel and discover gross and slimy things? Come challenge your senses with a mystery box and surprisingly slimy sensory project!
• Mrs. Pintar's "Spooky" Read Aloud!  Do you love listening to stories and creating projects?  Come enjoy a fun and relaxing Halloween read-aloud and craftivity!
• Game Time Fun!  Do you love to play games and have fun?  Come join first grade parents and play some exciting and spooky games!  

Curriculum

Reading:
This week, we learned to look and listen to the characters in the books we read.  When we do this we can tell what kind of character they are.  We can give them traits to describe them.   Next week, we will learn more decoding strategies.  Our focus will be on Chunky Monkey.  This is a strategy encourages the kids to find chunks they know in a word to help them decode it.

Book Baggies:
Many students forgot their book baggies today.  Please help them remember them next week Friday.  I would like them to have an opportunity to read different books.

Writing:
We worked hard as writers, planning and drafting stories this week.  Our focus was on how to organize stories with a beginning, middle and end.  Next week, we will take those stories and make them better when we learn to write strong leads, and endings and to use transition words. 

Math:
Students learned to solve missing addend type addition problems.  They also learned that number sentences can be written horizontally and vertically.  Finally, we continued to build fluency and number sense within 10.  

IXL Skills - Use these activities as you wish to help your child with the skills we will be working on throughout this first trimester.

Science/Social Studies:
Students learned about the seasons and sun this week.  They learned why we have seasons and how it relates to the sun.

Purposeful Play
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. counting forwards and backwards within 120, 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.) 

Specials Schedule

Monday: P.E. (Wear tennis shoes)
Tuesday: Art (Bring an Art shirt labeled with your child's name)
Wednesday: Music
Thursday: Media/Library
Friday: Rotates (See the back of your child's OWL folder (everyday folder) for a schedule.)

Important Dates

October 31: Halloween Parade (9:20 AM), Fall Celebration (after the parade around 10:00 AM-11:30 AM)

November 6: No School
November 14: Picture Retakes

Week 7 - October 19, 2018

Fun Run

We had our Fun Run today!  The kids had a good time and enjoyed some cider and donuts afterwards!

Halloween

For Halloween in First Grade this year, we will have a celebration following the parade from 10:00-11:30.  

Your child will have the choice of two sessions during the celebration.  A sign-up genius e-mail will come home on Monday, October 22nd at 8:00am.  You will need to sign your child up for two  sessions.  

Please look over these session choices with your child this weekend.  Sessions are limited to 20 kids each.  

The session choices are:

• Ms. Schumaker's DIY No Carve Pumpkins. Come join us and get creative decorating and designing your own pumpkin using googly eyes, paint, sparkles, fabric and other neat materials! Please note that this session has a $2.00 Fee.  If your child signs up for this session, please send in $2.00 cash labeled with your child's name. 
• Ms. Sauchak's Spooky Dance Party! Come learn some spooky dance moves with Ms. Sauchak! We will spin like spiders, float like ghosts, shake like skeletons, fly like bats, walk like zombies and smile like jack-o-lanterns! Let's BOOgie! 
• Mrs. Lussier's Let's build! Come build towers with candy corn pumpkins and catapults for candy corn. Measure how tall your tower is and how far you can send the candy corn flying. Work with others to make the tallest tower you can or to send your candy flying!
• Ms. Walthall's Sensory Project! Are you ready to feel and discover gross and slimy things? Come challenge your senses with a mystery box and surprisingly slimy sensory project!
• Mrs. Pintar's "Spooky" Read Aloud!  Do you love listening to stories and creating projects?  Come enjoy a fun and relaxing Halloween read-aloud and craftivity!
• Game Time Fun!  Do you love to play games and have fun?  Come join first grade parents and play some exciting and spooky games!  

On Monday morning, watch for the e-mail with the sign up genius links.  Your child will need to choose two of the sessions.  We look forward to a fun and spooktacular Halloween day with your child!

FYI's

This week your child should have brought home an FYI sheet as well as a goal setting sheet.  The students filled out the FYI themselves first and then I marked them and added notes on the back to help you understand how your child is progressing with their Learning Skills so far.  These are the same strands from the report cards that students will be marked on.  I also sent home a goal setting sheet so that the students can make goals for themselves to improve these learning skills.  Please make sure these get signed and returned as soon as possible.  I would like to keep them in their leadership notebooks, so we can see how they grow in their learning skills throughout the year.

Curriculum

Reading:
This week, the students learned to use their "Eagle Eyes" to help them when they come to words they don't know in their reading.  Students learned to look at the pictures to see if there are clues to help them with difficult words.  In addition, the students were able to separate and blend words using their onset and rime.  Next week, we will continue working on decoding skills by thinking what would make sense when we come to unknown words.   

Book Baggies:
Many students forgot their book baggies today.  Please help them remember them next week Friday.  I would like them to have an opportunity to read different books.

Writing:
This week, we generated personal narrative story ideas.  The student can continue to add to their lists as new stories come up.  We also began planning one of the stories to write about it.  We are focused on planning a beginning, three middles and an ending.

Math:
In math this week, the students continued to build addition and subtraction fluency within 10.  We also discussed several strategies for solving math problems such as number lines, pictures, using fingers, etc.  Students are then encouraged to explain how they used that strategy to help them.  Next week, we will continue to build addition and subtraction fluency within 10 by solving missing addend problems and learning to write number sentences (equations) vertically.   

IXL Skills - Use these activities as you wish to help your child with the skills we will be working on throughout this first trimester.

Science/Social Studies:
This week, the students had an opportunity to make kites. They then explored with their kites to learn more about what air and wind can do. 

Purposeful Play
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. counting forwards and backwards within 120, 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.) 

Specials Schedule

Monday: P.E. (Wear tennis shoes)
Tuesday: Art (Bring an Art shirt labeled with your child's name)
Wednesday: Music
Thursday: Media/Library
Friday: Rotates (See the back of your child's OWL folder (everyday folder) for a schedule.)

Important Dates

October 26: Trunk or Treat (5pm)

October 31: Halloween Parade (9:20 AM), Fall Celebration (after the parade around 10:00 AM-11:30 AM)
November 6: No School
November 14: Picture Retakes