This week in First Grade...

December 17-20

Reminders:

Monday, December 17^th  Cultural Unit Fair

Wednesday, December 19^th  Winter Parties

Thursday, December 20^th Polar Express Day – PJ Day

Winter Break: December 21^st- January 7^th (Students return on the 7^th)

Reading Workshop:

In Reading Workshop we will continue exploring holiday traditions from around the world.  We will celebrate cultures and countries on Monday during our Cultural Unit Fair!  Thank you to all of our volunteers! 

Writer’s Workshop:

During Writer’s Workshop we will continue writing facts about the holidays and countries that we research.  We will finish our Elf Around the World book.  We will reflect on what we’ve learned and our favorite parts of the unit.

Math:

In math we will work on problem solving this week.  We have may holiday situations that need good problems solvers to fix the issues!    

Social Studies:

We will finish our unit on cultural celebrations this week with The Elf on the Shelf: Holidays around the World.  We’ve enjoyed learning about countries and their holiday traditions.  Our room will be embellished with all of our holiday projects!

**Polar Express Day: Thursday, December 20th**

Every year in First grade we celebrate the end of the semester with Polar Express Day.  We focus all of our learning on The Polar Express.  Please send your child in their pajamas (appropriate for school).  They may bring a blanket, stuffed animal and slippers in their backpack for our movie viewing.  We will read the story of The Polar Express by Chris Van Allsburg and admire the beautiful illustrations.  Then we will have our own tickets to hop on The Polar Express.  We will watch the movie as we make Hot Chocolate in our classroom.  After the movie we will compare the book and the movie and talk about the differences between them.  We will also write a “How to make Hot Chocolate”.  This is such a fun day for our students!

This week in First grade...

December 10-14 Reminders: Thursday, December 13th Family Art Night Wednesday, December 19th Winter Parties December 21st- January 7th (Students return on the 7th) Last week you received an invitation to view our Caraway Cares Adopt a Family Sign Up on signupgenius.com. We are excited to share with you that 4 out of the 6 items listed are already being purchased by first grade families. Thank you so much for your generosity during this holiday season! Don't forget, if your family would like to donate you can send $1-$2 with your child. There will be an envelope in each first grade classroom for donations. The link to the actual sign up is http://www.signupgenius.com/go/10C0A4EAEA72AA64-caraway Calling all parents!! We are learning and discovering new holiday traditions from around the world each day in our classrooms! We would like to have parents present (see last week's email) your family's holiday traditions in the form of a booth on Monday, December 17th or Tuesday, December 18th. Please email Mrs. Caballero at erin_caballero@roundrockisd.org or your child's teacher to sign up and help! Reading Workshop: In Reading Workshop we will be exploring holiday traditions from around the world. This unit will correlate with our Social Studies unit on Culture. We will learn about holidays in other countries as we travel around the world with our elf. Writer’s Workshop: During Writer’s Workshop we will be writing facts about the holidays that we research. We will record our learning in our Elf Around the World book. We hope to gain an understanding of different traditions and cultural celebrations. Math: In math we will continue our unit on Patterns. The students will create and extend patterns with pictures, numbers and concrete objects. The students will learn about even and odd numbers and how they are a pattern. They will also identify rules of patterns. For example a shape pattern that is square, circle, square, circle is an ABAB pattern. Social Studies: We will continue our unit on cultural celebrations this week with The Elf on the Shelf: Holidays around the World. Our very own Elf has been busy traveling to different countries and reporting back to us what he learns about their holiday traditions. We have been keeping track of his travels on the map and in our Elf file book. Where will he go next?

Look who came to our classroom today...

Our Elf, Frisbee!!

This week in First Grade...

December 3-7

Reminders:

Wednesday, December 5^th  Early Release at 12:45pm

Thursday, December 13^th  Family Art Night

Wednesday, December 19^th  Winter Parties

December 21^st- January 7^th (Students return on the 7^th)

Reading Workshop:

This week we are focusing on making predictions.  As students make predictions they are using their background knowledge to help them comprehend what they are about to read.  We will talk about how good readers make preconditions by envisioning the story, they use the text to make predictions and they make connections with the story.

Writer’s Workshop:

During Writer’s Workshop we  will be focusing on our Giving Unit.  We will begin by discussing the meaning of giving and philanthropy.  We will talk about what it means to give and how we can help others in our community and beyond.  We will read stories about Giving and discuss their meanings.  We will begin with The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein.  We will discuss how the tree gave to the boy as he grew.

Math:

In math we will being a unit on Patterns.  We will build on student’s prior knowledge of patterns by creating patterns with concrete objects such as cubes and ask students to label their patterns.  We will design pattern blanket and have students elaborate on how they began with a pattern and continued it.    We will use numbers to make patterns.

Social Studies:

We will begin our unit on cultural celebrations this week with The Elf on the Shelf: Holidays around the World.  Our very own Elf will come to our classrooms each day and teach us about holidays that are celebrated in countries all around the world.  We will learn about traditions and read stories that give us information about various holidays.

Field trip to the Zach Scott Theater

What a great time we had! The play we saw was called Holiday Heros. It was a play about different holiday Celebrations around the world. The production incorporated holiday songs and a lot of interaction with the audience! It was perfect for our first graders! Here are some pictures from our adventure!

This week in First grade...

I hope everyone enjoyed the Thanksgiving Holiday!  It was a much needed break for the Caballero family!  The weather was lovely and we were able to spend time with our family.

Reading and Writing Workshop:

Our reading and writing will incorporate friendly letters. We will learn about the structure of a friendly letter such as the heading, the body (text), and the closing. We will read stories such as I Wanna Iguanna, Dear Mr. Blueberry, and letters to Mrs. La Rue and write our own friendly letters to family, friends or relatives. Our guided reading groups will continue.

Math:

This week in math we will be doing our unit on money.  Your child will be able to identify a penny, nickel, dime, and quarter by name and value.  Your child will also be able to describe relationships among coins, such as trading five pennies for one nickel.  We will be making coin books as we introduce each coin.  This is a fun unit, all kids like money!

Social Studies:

With our study of maps and globes continuing, we will be learning about cardinal directions and the compass rose, map keys and legends, human characteristics, and natural characteristics of maps. We will each be making part of the map of our school, and then putting the big map together. After that, we will each be making our own map in its entirety from start to finish. We will include a writing component with our maps that focus on relative location.

REMINDERS
Wednesday, November 28th: Field trip to Zach Scott Theater.
Family Spirit Night at Corner Street Bakery.
Picture Re-Takes: Nov. 29th.

**For the Field Trip on Wednesday, November 28th**

1. Please encourage your child to choose a Caraway shirt to wear. 

2. It will be cold so a jacket or coat will be needed as well.  

3. We will be having a picnic on the Zach Scott grounds.  Please feel free to join us around 12 o'clock if you would like to eat lunch with us.  Your child needs to bring a completely disposable lunch. 

4.  We will eat a snack before we leave school.  Please send your child with a snack.  We will be eating lunch an hour later than normal.  They will be hungry. 

Pilgrim dolls

The Pilgrim Doll project was a huge success! It was so neat to hear about my student's ancestors! I'm so impressed with the amount of effort that was put into this project!