This week in First grade...

April 8^th -12^th  

Reminders:

The Eggs will hatch in 2 days!

Friday, April 12^th  Family Fun Night

**STAAR testing on April 23^rd, 24^th and 25^th.  No Parents allowed in the building!**

Friday, April 19^th  First grade Field Trip to Elgin Christmas Tree Farm

Monday, April 22^nd Earth Day

*Please remember every child in my class has access to IXL Math and Raz Kids online.  The links are posted on the Caraway website under students.  I receive an activity email each week that shows me our class progress as well as which students utilize these practice activities.  A big THANK YOU goes to our PTA for providing the funds to pay for these programs!

Reading Workshop:

In Reading Workshop we will begin our unit on Poetry.  We will read and examine different forms of poetry.  We will begin by discussing Rhyme in poetry.  We will think about how poets see the world in different, fresh and unusual ways.  The students will make inferences with poetry as a strategy to comprehend the poem.  We will also discover sensory language in poetry and understand that sensory images help us visualize the poem.

Take Home Reading homework this week incorporates our Animal study in Science.  Each student has a bookmark that outlines the expectation for the homework each day during the week.  This week we are going to have each group return their reading bag each day.  Ms. Mann and I will be monitoring the progress of each student on a daily basis this week.  

Writer’s Workshop:

In Writer’s Workshop we will begin our Poetry writing unit.  We will “See with Poets’ Eyes” as we begin writing about ordinary objects in different ways.  We will hear the music in poetry as we discuss how to write a rhyming poem.  We will learn that poems are big thoughts in little packages.  Our poetry writing unit will last for three weeks.

 Math:

In math we will review our math facts and math fact strategies by playing games and solving problems.  We will be “Digit Detectives” as we relate numbers to things like quarters, sides on a hexagon and number of items in a pair.  We will play a game called “Rolling the Facts”.  The students will use dice to make facts and solve them with a partner.  They will discuss whether the fact they rolled could be a Count on 1, 2 or 3 or a Double Fact. 
Math Homework this week we will be a problem solving activity.  Math Homework is usually optional but I would like all of the students to complete it this week.  It will come home in the Tuesday folder.

Science:

As we continue to learn all about animals this week, we will investigate where different types of animals live, and how their colors and body parts help them survive. We will also be taking a couple of days to turn our focus back to the life cycle and celebrate the hatching of our baby chicks!!