The Last Week of First grade...

Today I am hopping on a plane to Phoenix, Arizona to attend my brother's graduation.  I will return tomorrow evening.

Our end of the year party is scheduled for Thursday, May 30th from 10:00am-12:00pm.  We will be celebrating our year and preparing for second grade.  Your child will need...

1. Extra clothes, shoes and socks.

2. Clothes to get wet in or a swimsuit and cover up.

3. sunscreen applied at home.

4. towel

Families are welcome to attend.  Please sign in at the office when you arrive.

I look forward to seeing everyone on Thursday and spending the last couple of days with your children.  It's been a wonderful year and I'm going to miss this group.  You are all very lucky parents!

This week in First grade...

May 20^th -24^th

^{Next Tuesday and Wednesday I will be attending my brother's graduation from Midwestern University in Arizona as he becomes a Doctor of Dentistry!  I will return late Wednesday night and we be at school on Thursday!}

Reminders:

Thursday, May 30th 10:00am-12:30pm End of Year party

Friday, May 31^st Last day of First grade

*Cafeteria note:  As of April 29^th students will not be allowed to charge their lunch.  Lunch accounts must have a balance that will pay for their lunch purchase each day.  Cheese sandwiches will be served to students who do not have enough money in their account.

Reading Workshop:

In Reading Workshop we will continue our unit on Fiction.  We will enjoy reading and thinking about what we are reading.  We will explore all of the things we’ve learned this year while we read!

Writer’s Workshop:

In Writer’s Workshop we will begin working on our First Grade Memory books!  We can’t wait to share them with our families!

 Math:

In math we will begin finish our unit on Probability.  We have some fun activities to help us think about the changes of something happening.  We use vocabulary such as most likely, least likely, certain and impossible.

Social Studies:

This week we begin our last unit.  We will study Economics!  Career day helped us learn about different jobs!  We will talk about wants versus needs, good and services and careers!! 

Happy Mother's Day!

Thank you...

I feel very appreciated!!

This week in First grade...

May 6-10

Remember to scroll down past this post and view our Field Day pictures!!

Reminders:

Friday, May 17^th  Career Day

Thursday, May 30th  End of Year party

Friday, May 31^st Last day of First grade

*Cafeteria note:  As of April 29^th students will not be allowed to charge their lunch.  Lunch accounts must have a balance that will pay for their lunch purchase each day.  Cheese sandwiches will be served to students who do not have enough money in their account.

Reading Workshop:

In Reading Workshop we will continue our unit on Fiction.  We will identify the elements of fiction and explore a variety of literary genres.  We will discuss sequence of a story and character traits.  Students will respond in their Reader’s Response notebook as we read books as a class, independently and with partners.

Writer’s Workshop:

In Writer’s Workshop we will continue the process of editing and revising.  As a class we will learn strategies of revision such as adding dialogue, revising by adding to the middle of our stories and revising by taking things away from our stories.  We will continue to write a variety of stories and use the writing process. 

 Math:

In math we will begin our unit on patterns.  At this time of the year we look for patterns in all of our math processes, from skip counting, to making a graph and addition and subtraction.  We will use concrete models to show our thinking and record our ideas in our math notebooks.

Science:

This week we will finish our unit on plants.  We’ve observed seeds, learned about their parts and planted seeds.  We will learn about the parts of a plant and it’s functions as we wrap our unit up.  We will begin our Texas Unit for Social Studies later this week.  We will learn about the symbols of Texas and why it’s great to be a Texan!! 

Field day pictures!

Seed planting!

Today my students planted lima bean seeds independently by following directions!!  Here's what they did!!

This week in First grade...

April 29^th- May 3^rd    

Reminders:

Wednesday, May 1^st  Early Release

Friday, May 3^rd Field Day  8am-10am

Friday, May 17^th  Career Day

*Cafeteria note:  As of April 29^th students will not be allowed to charge their lunch.  Lunch accounts must have a balance that will pay for their lunch purchase each day.  Cheese sandwiches will be served to students who do not have enough money in their account.

Reading Workshop:

In Reading Workshop we will begin a unit on Fiction.  We will review the elements of fiction and explore a variety of literature.  We will discuss main idea, plot, problem/solution and the sequence of a story.  Students will respond in their Reader’s Response notebook as we read books as a class, independently and with partners.

Writer’s Workshop:

In Writer’s Workshop we will finish our poetry unit and discuss the process of editing and revising.  As a class we will learn strategies of revision such as adding dialogue, revising by adding to the middle of our stories and revising by taking things away from our stories.  We will continue to write a variety of stories and use the writing process. 

 Math:

In math we will continue our unit on Doubles Subtraction.  We will “think addition” as we learn strategies for quick recall of basic facts.  We will use visual strategies such as making cube trains and using dominos to show facts and solve them.  We will play math games to reinforce our new skills and practice all of the fact skills we’ve learned this year.  Here’s a quick list of the skills we’ve learned…

Addition: Count on 0 (4+0=4), Count on 1 (4+1=5), Count on 2 (4+2=6), Count on 3 (4+3=7)

Subtraction “think addition”:  Count on 0 (4-0=0), Count on 1 (4-1=3), Count on 2 (4-2=2), Count on 3 (4-3=1)

Doubles Addition: 1+1=2, 2+2=4, 3+3=6…12+12=24

Doubles plus one: 1+2=3, 2+3=5, 3+4=7…12+13=25

Doubles plus 2: 1+3=4, 2+4=6, 3+5=8…12+14=26

Doubles Subtraction “think addition”: 2-1=1, 4-2=2, 6-3=3…24-12=12

Science:

On Friday we began our study of Plants by learning about a seed.  We examined a seed and talked about it’s parts.  We drew a diagram in our Science Notebooks and labeled it with vocabulary we are learning.  We will plant a lima bean and watch it grow.  We will examine it’s parts as our little plant grows and learn about the functions of the plant’s parts.