This week in First grade...

Writing Workshop

This week in Writing Workshop we will continue working on planning, sketching and writing stories with a beginning, middle and end.  We will work as a whole group to put stories in order. The concept of beginning, middle and end can be hard for some students to grasp.  We will also continue talking about the writing process.  The children will start circling the kindergarten (with red) and first grade (with blue) word wall words during the editing process.  I’m so proud of their writing this year.  Our writing workshop is a serious time in our classroom and the progress I’m seeing is tremendous already……I can’t wait to see all the writing by the end of the year.  Our publishing party on Friday was wonderful.  The students were so excited to finish a story, conference with me and make a cover.  After our publishing party the students shared their work with their classmates in the "Author's Chair".  They voted as a class to read their stories under the document camera so that everyone could see their illustrations.  I write each of the students that share their work a "love" note.  I tell them something I "loved" about their work!  After they share their story, it goes in their blue folder so they can share it with their family.  We will have a box in our classroom library for our work so we can share it with our classmates.

Math

As we enter our second week on addition and subtraction concepts and prerequisites for learning basic math facts we will focus this week on counting on and counting back.  We will do a fun lesson using calculators (which the children always love) for two-more-than.  We will also focus on using five and ten frames to build numbers.  It is important for the children to learn how to identify a quantity without counting each one.  These strategies will be encouraged to be used as we continue with our problem solving which is ongoing throughout all our units in first grade.

Science/Social Studies

We had a great time exploring matter, changes in states of matter, and mass of matter this week. 

During this upcoming week in Social Studies we will be learning the difference between rules and laws and the purpose for them in the home, school, and community. We will examine some ways that rules and laws establish order, provide security, and manage conflict for us.  

READING:

This week we are going to practice retelling stories in our own words.  We will sequence the events of the story in correct order and retell the stories that we read with beginning, middle and ending.  We will also add to our comprehension strategies and learn how to slow down, go back, and re-read a part in the story that we might be confused about.  Strong readers read with expression and use all the clues such as words and pictures to understand the story better.   As part of media literacy, we will listen to stories on line and learn how words, images, graphics, and sound work together to impact the meaning of the story. 

This week in First grade...

September 24th-28th 

This week is Education Go Get it Week!  We will explore higher education, beyond high school, and careers!  Please refer to the blue half sheet note that came home last Tuesday for the theme of the day.  I've also included a schedule for theme days on the left side bar. 

Writing Workshop

This week in Writing Workshop, we will talk about how authors write stories that have a beginning, middle and end.  We will practice this by learning how to tell our stories on 3 fingers.  We will also look at different picture books, and talk about how the author wrote their story across several pages.  We will work on writing a story across 3 pages to show the beginning, middle and end.  We will also discuss the revising and editing portions of the writing process.  Revising is when we reread our story and decide what we need to "fix".  Sometimes, we might add words to our story, and other times, we might take out some words.  Editing is when we reread our story again to make sure all of our sentences begin with capital letters and end with a punctuation mark.  This is also the time that we will find all word wall words and make sure they are spelled correctly.  

Reading Workshop

Reading is thinking, and this week we will learn how to be active readers by making thoughtful connections to the text.  Making connections will help us to understand the text better, enable us to predict based on what we know, and make inferences.  Making connections is more than just, “This book reminds me of…”  It is about understanding the story and the characters better.  We will learn how to make connection between the text and ourselves, text to another text, and text to the world.  These are comprehension strategies that we will continue to work on throughout the year.

Science:

Wow, Last week’s unit on National Symbols was a huge hit! The children had a great time learning as they crafted symbols and wrote important facts about each one.  Our hallway is filled with fantastic facts and artwork.  I hope you will take the time to look next week or during your conference time.  Now it is time to get back to the business of studying matter and energy. As we focus our attention on using what we have learned about the properties of matter, combined with what we will be learning about mass, the students will be investigators who solve a mystery. Be sure to ask them what questions scientist‘s ask!

Math:

This week we will start our addition/subtraction unit.  This unit will last for several weeks.  The children will practice and demonstrate their ability to subitize, or instantly recognize sets of objects (such as dots) in patterned arrangements and to tell how many without counting. They will continue to develop their conceptual understanding of the relationships between the numbers 1-10 and the anchor numbers of 5 and 10 and will use five-frames and ten-frames in problem solving. They will count on and back one from any number, from 4 to 5, and will connect this with the concepts of “more than” and “less than.”

The children will continue to develop their ability to conceptualize a number as being made up of two or more parts and their understanding of the part-part-whole model and related number relationships. They will also continue to explore in this unit and throughout the year, a variety of addition/subtraction problem solving situations.

This week in First grade...

September 17th – 21st

We just completed our 3rd week of school!  Next week is another exciting week and in

all the first grade classrooms we will learn…..

Math:

We will finish up our unit on place value with building sets of 10’s and

1’s using manipulatives. We will also look at sets and determine the

value. There are several games we will play to reinforce arranging

numbers from least to greatest and comparing numbers more and

less than. An assessment will be given at the end of the week to

make sure your child understands this unit. Place value is a concept

we will continue to reinforce and practice throughout the year.

We will also continue our CGI problem solving and move more into

sharing and comparing our answers with our classmates. We will begin

making our “Math Strategies” chart that will be used every day in our

classroom.

Writing Workshop:

This week we will focus on the concept of translating sounds into print.

Some words in our writing we already know because we use them a lot

(like the kindergarten word wall words). For unknown spelling words,

we will learn how to stretch out the words, listening carefully to the

sounds and writing the sounds as we hear them. This helps your child

to quickly get their ideas down on paper so they can move on and

not get caught up on the spelling of one or more words. We will also

discuss how to use our writing tools like the first grade word wall list

and our personal alphabet charts.

It has been delightful to watch my students sit in the Author’s Chair

and proudly read and show their completed writing assignments!

Reading Workshop:

This week we will learn that strong readers can read the pictures

as well as words. When we read the words, we follow along with our

fingers, slow down and think about what we are reading. We will also

learn the value in revisiting familiar books, books that we enjoyed

before, but still can go back and re-read it. Each time we re-read a

book, we will notice new details, and surprises. We will also learn to

use our voices in different ways, such as sad, excited or creepy to

learn to read with expression. We will revisit and enjoy a variety of

great children’s authors such as Cynthia Rylant, Mo Willems, and Tomie

DePaola.

Science Workshop:

We practiced using our 5 senses to observe the properties of matter. Next week we will be

celebrating our freedom in social studies by learning the meaning of

the word “symbol”, as well as lots of important facts and history that

go along with them. This unit is packed full of national symbols and

learning. You will want to visit our hallway toward the end of the week

and next week to see all the art work displayed to celebrate Freedom

Week in first grade!


Reminders:

The students may bring a water bottle to class.


Thursday: Library Day

Open House

Thanks to everyone for your hard work at Open House! You were great listeners, workers and participants! Here's what we worked on!

This week in First grade...

Week of: Sept. 10th – 14th Thank you for my beautiful Lilies! I've enjoyed them all week! The students were so sweet to me on my birthday! I can tell it's gonna be a great year! READING: We have been investing time in the past couple of weeks to learn about the procedures of Reading Workshop. Reading brings joy to our lives and in order to become strong readers we need to practice every day. Whether we are using the classroom library or the school library, we have discussed how to choose a good-fit book that matches our reading level and our interest. We have also learned that strong readers talk and think about the books that they read. This week as we continue to read independently for a little longer each day, we will share our favorite reading memories, our best- ever reading moments and times when reading felt good for us. We will also learn how to protect our classroom library by using the books carefully and responsibly. Our read alouds will include a variety of fiction and poetry. WRITING: This week in Writing Workshop, we will be learning about the importance of illustrations and how to make our illustrations match our words.  We will look at many different picture books and discuss how illustrations can enhance a story.  The students will have independent writing time where they will be conferencing with the teacher and working on what has been taught thus far. MATH: We will continue our unit on place value this week. Our focus will be to learn how to compare and order numbers up to 99. We will continue using our problem solving skills as we investigate different strategies to help us become problem solvers. The students are already sharing their thinking with the class and it has been so fun to watch them “teach” each other! SCIENCE: We will be starting our Matter and Energy Unit in Science this week. During this first week of this unit, we will learn about matter and its properties. This unit will include conducting experiments where we will predict the outcomes, illustrate and label what is happening and journal our observations. We are looking forward to having a lot of fun while we learn! IMPORTANT REMINDERS: *Parent Orientation is on Monday, September 10th at 6:30 followed by PTA meeting at 7:00.  *Please return signed Tuesday folders every Wednesday morning. *Please make sure you check your child’s Take Home Folder each night and initial the box to show me you saw the information. Thank you!

This week in First grade...

Week of: Sept. 3rd-7th We survived the first week in first grade! All the students have worked very hard learning the “first grade” expectations for our classroom and getting to know all our new friends. This week the focus will be to follow our schedule and start our normal routines for the year. I fully believe children function better when they know the routines and understand the expectations during a given time. Our biggest challenge in first grade is learning how to work quietly without disturbing the learning of others around us and managing our time to get our work completed. If your child has to move his/her clip this week, more than likely it will be for the reasons stated above. Remember this is a transition time for your child. I will give several verbal reminders since it is the beginning of the year! READING: We are launching our Reading Workshop. We will learn how to read independently to ourselves for a few minutes at a time. Each day we read for a little longer period to build up our stamina. We will learn that strong readers read every day. We will also learn how to choose a good fit book. Starting this week, we will begin our DRA (District Reading Assessment). This is a one-on-one reading assessment to determine your child's reading level for the beginning of first grade. The results will be shared with you during our conference time. WRITING: We will begin our first lesson: Introducing the writing tools (papers, pencils, markers and crayons, tape, glue, scissors), and resources such as the classroom word wall, the alphabet charts and the prints around the classroom. . I will first model how to brainstorm, sketch, and write about my own story. The students will then begin writing a true story about themselves, something that they have experienced or has happened to them. Word Work: Last week we began assessing students’ spelling. This assessment is a way for us to group them based on their spelling abilities and strength. I will share the result with you during our conference time. MATH: Our focus in math is “Place Value”. We will talk about the vocabulary “tens” and “ones” and make our own 10 sticks with beans to be used for problem solving. We will have lots of hands on activities building numbers using manipulatives. We will work with partners this week with our problem solving centered on place value and learn how to explain what strategy we used and how we solved our problems in front of the class. SCIENCE: Our theme this week is “What is a Scientist?” The students will be introduced to science journals as each child sets up his/her own journal. Students will learn science safety; how to ask questions about science; make predictions; record observations and data about investigations; and explain their thinking about what they have learned. IMPORTANT REMINDERS: *Parent Orientation is on Monday, September 10th at 6:30 followed by PTA meeting at 7:00. *If you have not returned the forms from the Tuesday Folder, please return ASAP. *Please return signed Tuesday folders every Wednesday morning. *Please make sure you check your child’s Take Home Folder each night and initial the box to show me you saw the information. Thank you!