Week 8 - October 25, 2019

Curriculum

Reading:
As readers, we've been focusing our learning on how to decode words we do not know.  Students have learned to use the pictures to help them as well as use chunks or parts of words to help them decode unknown words.  Next week, we will learn to get our mouths ready to say the first sound as well as look all the way through the word to stretch it out.

Book Baggies:
Students brought home six books.  Two books below their level so that they can practice fluency, two books on their level to help them practice decoding strategies and other skills we're learning in class, and two books above level to help students push themselves as readers.  Books will be taken home and returned every Thursday.  If your child feels the books are too easy for them, that is okay.  They can build their fluency and confidence as readers.  Levels will change throughout the year, but they will NOT change weekly.

Writing:
Students have been working really hard to revise their writing and make it better.  This week, they learned to use sensory details and transitions in their writing.  Next week, we will learn to show not tell and to edit for capitals, punctuation, commas and spelling.

Math:
This week and next week, we have and will continue to practice our counting skills through counting collections.  Students work with a friend to count items in as many ways as they can.  The tricky part for them is learning to show their thinking in writing, which they are practicing.  In addition, they've been practicing solving addition and subtraction word problems.  They work together with partners to solve problems and again show their thinking (their strategy).  They are also working on then sharing out their strategies orally.

Science/Social Studies:
The students looked at the patterns they noticed from the weather last week.  We also began looking at the moon phases as this was something they had observed in the sky a few weeks ago when we did our air, wind, sky, weather observation walk.  They are learning that the moon orbits over the course of the month and that the reason there are phases is because that is the part of the moon we can see based on its position and relation 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 25: Trunk or Treat (5pm)
November 5: No School - Election Day
November 12: Conferences
November 13: Picture Retakes
November 15: Bagels with Buddies (8:15 AM-8:45 AM)
November 25: Multicultural Feast
November 27-29: No School - Thanksgiving Break
December 6: No School - record's Day

Week 7 - October 18, 2019

Curriculum

Reading:
This week, we began our reading workshop.  We are still working on the transitions from one station to another, but it is coming along.  Students also learned about two of our decoding strategies.  We learned to use our Eagle Eye by using the picture to help us when we come to words we don't know and to look for chunks in the word that we know (Chunky Monkey).  We will continue to learn about Chunky Monkey next week.

Book Baggies:
We started book baggies this week.  Students brought home six books.  Two books  below their level so that they can practice fluency, two books on their level to help them practice decoding strategies and other skills we're learning in class, and two books above level to help students push themselves as readers.  Books will be taken home and returned every Thursday.

Writing:
As writer's this week, we went back into our writing and worked on revising.  Students learned to revise by making sure their story tells who, what, when, where, why and how.  We also learned about adding adjectives to make our stories more descriptive.  Next week, we will continue to learn some revision strategies by learning to add sensory details and transition words.

Math:
This week, the students were able to continue to practice their counting.  They practice counting by 1s, 2s, 5s, 10s; whatever they choose.  In addition, they learned to solve story problems and show their thinking.  Next week, we will continue our counting practice as well working on solving word problems and showing our thinking.

Science/Social Studies:
The students have been tracking the weather over the week.  Next week, we will look at the journal to see what patterns we notice and how those patterns can help us to predict the weather.  We will also look at the moon phases to see how that may/may not affect the weather.

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 25: Trunk or Treat (5pm)
November 5: No School - Election Day
November 12: Conferences
November 13: Picture Retakes
November 15: Bagels with Buddies (8:15 AM-8:45 AM)

Week 6 - October 11, 2019

Curriculum

Reading:
This week, we learned about our last few stations of our reading workshop.  Next week, we will be learning about decoding strategies to help us when we read.

Book Baggies:
We will be starting book baggies next week Thursday.  Students will bring home six books.  Two books will be below their level so that they can practice fluency, two books will be on level to help them practice decoding strategies and other skills we're learning in class, and two books will be above level to help students push themselves as readers.  Books will be taken home and returned every Thursday.

Writing:
This week, we have been writing personal narratives, building our writing stamina and learning about writing workshop.   Next week, we will begin our revision unit.  Students will be learning how to make all the writing they've been doing better.  We'll learn to add transition words, ways to elaborate and add more details.

Math:
Students have been practicing counting in many different ways this week.  We also began practicing making 10.  Next week, we will continue our counting collections as well as begin solving word problems and explaining our thinking.  

Science/Social Studies:
In science, students have continued to learn about air and wind.  They've used parachutes and bubbles to help them understand different ideas such as, air takes up space, air can move things, and air resistance is the reason that parachutes fall down slowly.  Next week, we will begin tracking the weather in order to help us better predict weather patterns.  We will also begin looking at the moon and moon phases.  If you notice the moon at home, please talk with your child about what he/she is seeing and observing!

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 18: Color Fun Run - https://app.99pledges.com/fund/colorrun2019 (Please send in white shirts if you haven't already)
            1st Grade Schedule:
                 2:10-2:40 - Warm up, Color Run, Playtime
                 2:40-2:50 - Clean up/shirt removal
                 2:50-3:05 - Refreshments outside
October 25: Trunk or Treat (5pm)
November 5: No School - Election Day
November 12: Conferences
November 13: Picture Retakes
November 15: Bagels with Buddies (8:15 AM-8:45 AM)

Week 5 - October 4, 2019

Curriculum

Reading:
This week, have continued to work on launching our reading workshop.  We've been practicing reading to self, we've learned to use some parts of Seesaw, and we've done some reading to someone.  We've also been working on rhyming and identifying words that rhyme.  Next week, we will learn more about listen to reading and word work for our reading workshop.

Book Baggies:
We will be starting book baggies soon.  If you are interested in helping us to put our book library together, we would love volunteers.  Please let me know if you are interested.

Writing:
This week, we began writing personal narratives.  The students have learned that stories have 5 parts (beginning, middle, middle, middle, end).  They practiced telling their story across their hands and then planned their story on sticky notes.  From there, they were able to take their plan and begin drafting a story.  Next week, we will learn about transitions and elaboration as writers.  Students will continue to write as many personal narratives as they can and make them better by using transition words and elaboration ideas.  

Math:
In math the students learned to solve word problems using any strategy they wish (tens frame, pictures, number line, number path, hundreds grid, counting up/back, etc.).  It is our hope that when given a problem, they are able to choose a strategy that works/makes sense to them and that they can explain their strategy.

Science/Social Studies:
In science, we have continued to learn about air and weather.  This week, we learned that air is all around us.  We learned about air pressure and how air can make things move.  Finally, we explored parachutes to learn more about air.  Next week, we will continue to explore air and weather.  Part of our unit is also exploring moon phases.  It would be helpful if you notice the moon at home that you talk about it and what they are seeing/wondering.

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 9: Walk to School Day
October 18: Color Fun Run
October 25: Trunk or Treat (5pm)
November 5: No School - Election Day
November 12: Conferences
November 13: Picture Retakes
November 15: Bagels with Buddies (8:15 AM-8:45 AM)