This week in First Grade...

December 14-18

This week is a special week for us as we wrap up this semester.  We will be completing a few assessments for report cards and middle of the year instruction planning.  On Wednesday we will have Polar Express Day.  For years the First Grade at Caraway has enjoyed immersing ourselves in everything Polar Express.  We read the book, discuss the beginning, middle and end.  We create a Hot Chocolate recipe and even have a Hot Chocolate Tasting! We will watch parts of the movie and compare the movie to the book.  At the end of the day we will act out a part of the book! 
We will also be wrapping our Book Drive Project up! The students have been so excited to bring books in, count the books we are receiving and add then to our graph.  We've even separated the books into categories, K & 1, 2nd & 3rd, 4th & 5th. So far First grade is in the lead! We can't wait to hear how happy the students and teachers at Palm Elementary will be when they get our books!


This week's Homework:
None!! Enjoy your family time!!  

 REMINDERS
Monday: No Homework! Please encourage your child to read over the winter break and take advantage of on-line resources such as Razkids, BookFlix, and PebbleGo.  The student's usernames and passwords are in your child's daily folder.

Tuesday: Tuesday folders come home. Please return signed Tuesday folders on Wednesday morning. No Math Optional Homework- Have the kiddos work on IXL math for at least 10-15 minutes.  ( Areas of focus: subtraction and addition facts, graphs, and problem solving)

Wednesday: Pajama Day!  Have your child come to school in their PJs if they like to for Polar Express Day!

Thursday: Last day of this semester. Winter Party! 1:30-2:25- Hope you can join us.

Dec 18- Jan 4: Winter Break! I wish you all a safe and peaceful holiday break!

Save the Date: We will be having our Annual Fairy Tale Parade when we return from our winter break! Friday, January 8th. 

FIRST GRADE PBL (Project Based learning) PROJECT:
Our PBL project has been a huge success so far! Our first graders did a great job making posters and advertisements and using other forms of media such as TV broadcast to inform the public about a real life problem.  So far, we have been able to collect over 200 books and we're hoping to collect and add more to our Book Drive bar graph this coming week.  Once all books are collected, we will deliver the books to Palm Elementary and record our interview with teachers.  These books will be used by students and teachers that lost many of their books during the flood.  What a great difference our first graders have been able to make! 

THANK YOU!

Thank you for stuffing the folders, and being willing to help in the classroom or outside the classroom. Your helping hands and hearts are greatly appreciated!

More than anything, thank you for supporting your child's learning at home.  Your child's success and education is a result of, us working together! So thank you for being a partner in your child's learning!

This week in First grade...

Dec 7-11

I have GREAT NEWS!! The project I posted on Donors choose was fully funded!! We will have stability balls in January!!  If you are interested in helping me air them up please let me know!!
Check out our Field Trip pictures below this post!

It's going to be a lovely week! Please make sure your child's coat has his or her name in it!  The lost and found is very full and if we find coats with names they can be returned!

IMPORTANT REMINDERS

Monday: Field Trip to the Austin Nature and Science Center

Tuesday: Tuesday folders come home. Please return signed Tuesday folders every Wednesday morning. 
Please make sure you check your child’s Daily Folder each night and initial the day to show me you saw the information.

           We will go to the Book Fair today to look at all of the books.  You are welcome to send money or come with your child before or after school this week.

           *Homework folders will come home on Tuesday.Thursday:  I will be out for a meeting.  I will be on campus for my meeting.  Mrs. Barnes will be my sub.

Friday:Homework folders are due.



This week:

FIRST GRADE PBL (Project Based learning) PROJECT:
We are so excited to start our first PBL project this year.  Project-based learning is an active and engaged learning in which our students explore real-life problems and challenges.  In doing so, they will obtain a deeper knowledge of the subjects they are studying. 

In the spirit of Holiday, giving to the community, and helping our community, we will focus on the flood that happened  on Oct 30th this year in South Austin. Twenty-two classrooms at palm Elementary school were damaged.  Many teachers lost classroom books and many other supplies.  What can we do to help? How can we help? What is flood and what is the effect of flood on people and their properties? 

Our students will get inspired to think deeply about these questions,  brainstorm, discuss, and come up with different ways, and ideas. One idea, is to hold a book drive donation.  Our first graders will inform the public (caraway community) through media (school broadcast, fliers and posters) and ask for gently used books to be donated.  They will set up empty boxes around the school and each day, collect and count the donated books. We have set up a big graph in the first grade hall and our students will mark the graph to show the progress.  They will work cooperatively and collaboratively towards a common goal and a good cause.  In the process, they will practice writing letters, and making fliers, learning about graphs, different types of weather including flood, good citizenship and helping community, and much more. 


SPREAD THE WORD AROUND AND HELP OUR FIRST GRADERS TO HELP THE COMMUNITY
If you have any gently used books at home for elementary ages especially kindergarten, or first grade, please consider donating it to our book drive.  Our first graders will be collecting the books and send them to Palm Elementary school.

Field Trip

This week in First grade...

Nov. 30-Dec 4

What a wonderful, glorious week of family, friends and sleeping in!  We hope you enjoyed your time last week as much as the Caballero's did!  We have 14 days of school until the next break! We're going to make it great!

Remember to sign up on Seesaw to see your child's digital products they create on their iPads!
Early Release Day

Tuesday, Dec 1st- Library Day! Please remind your child to return their books by 8:00am.

                                       Family Art Night 6:30pm-7:30pmWednesday, Dec 2nd - Early Release Day.  Dismissal is at 12:45

Thursday, Dec 3rd - Mrs. C off campus at a NextGen Training

                                Miss Lee's last day with us!

Monday, December 7th- Field Trip to the Austin Nature Center
FIELD TRIP
Our first field trip to the Austin Nature Center is on Monday, December 7th. Thank you all for sending back the permission slips on time.  Your child will need to bring a lunch for our picnic after we return to school.  This will be after our regular lunch time. 


IMPORTANT REMINDERS

Tuesday: Tuesday folders come home. Please return signed Tuesday folders every Wednesday morning. 
Reading bags will come home this week.  We are reading 2 stories (one fiction and one nonfiction) from RAZ Kids.  There will be a small strip of paper in the Reading Response Notebook. 
Wednesday: Early Release Day 12:45pm

                     Field Trip permission slips due today. 

Thursday: 
Friday:


This week:

READING
This week we will dive deeper into fiction. We will read a variety of fairy tales and learn about the elements in fairy tales. Fairy tales are stories that contain many unique elements. They usually start with "Once upon a time" and end with "They lived happily ever after". There are good vs. evil characters and good always defeats the evil. Another definitive element of fairy tales is the royalty and magic.  We will look at the plot of the story and retell the important events in the story in the order in which they occurred. We will also determine the setting of the story (where the story takes place). We will determine the main characters and try to understand their emotions and actions in the story. 



WRITING
 In writing, we will make our own expert list, things that we are really experts at and have lots of information about. We will pick a topic from our expert list to write about. Our purpose as expository writers is to inform others about what we know. 

MATH
We will review subtraction and then move on to a new strategy for addition called doubles.  Knowing the doubles will help us to do addition faster.  We will practice the doubles from 1-10. We will then apply our strategies in math problem solving.

SOCIAL STUDIES
As we approach the holidays, we will learn about cultures, customs, traditions, and celebrations. This week we will focus on the celebrations of Diwali, Christmas, and Hanukkah.  

This week in First grade...

Nov. 16-20

It is that time of the year when we give thanks and count our blessings. I could think of so many things that I am thankful for, my health, my children, my family, many wonderful friends, this great community that I am part of... But I am especially thankful for all my wonderful 22 students.  Each special, sweet, bright and talented in their own way.  I am also thankful to you! You, the wonderful parent for sending your child to school well prepared each morning, for supporting his/her learning at home and for teaming up with me to make a difference! I am thankful to all of you!


FIRST GRADE FIRST FIELD TRIP
Our first field trip to Austin Nature Center will be on Monday, December 7th.  This week in your child's Tuesday folder, you will receive a Field Trip Permission Slip.  More detailed information are included in permission slip.  Please sign the permission slip and send it back by Monday, Nov. 30th.  Thank you!

Our technology goal this week will be to upload a few of our digital learning products to our SeeSaw Digital Portfolios!  Please look for the letter that will come home in the Tuesday folder.  It will give you directions on how to log in to your child's account and view their work. I'm really excited about this because it will give you, as parents, the ability to see our amazing learning in real time without having to come to the classroom!

IMPORTANT REMINDER

Monday: Reading Bags will come home.  This week the students will have a Time for Kids that we read in our small groups last week.  Each group selected their own magazine according to their interests!

Tuesday: Library Day! Please remind your child to return their library books by 8am!

Tuesday folders come home. Please return signed Tuesday folders every Wednesday morning. 
Wednesday: 

Thursday: Phil's Family Social Night @6pm
Friday: Reading folders are due!
Nov. 23-27: Holiday break


This week:

READING

This week, we will read a variety of non-fiction and fiction stories about Thanksgiving.  In non-fiction, we will dig deeper into important information vs. small interesting details.  When writers write non-fiction, they include a lot of details to make the writing interesting. A detail is a bit of information about something.  These details make the book or article more interesting, but the details are not the most important information.  When we are learning about something, we can't remember all the information that we come across.  We have to try to figure out what information is the most important.
In Fiction, we will review the elements of fiction such as the plot of the story, the beginning, middle and ending, and the characters. 

WRITING
We will continue to tell and write the story of Thanksgiving in our own words. The students have written about the pilgrims.  This week, we will write about the Native Americans, and the first Thanksgiving feast as well as how they worked together.  As we write, we will be emphasizing on neat and clear illustrations, neat writing, and following the writing rules: Correct letter formation, starting with capitals, end with correct punctuation, and leaving one finger space between the words.

MATH
This week in subtraction we will work on the concept "part-part whole".  Addition is adding the parts and subtraction is taking away a part from the whole to find the other part. We will work on problems that involve finding a whole, or a missing part. we will also re-visit the number line and use number line to solve the problems that involve subtraction.  I have attached a  youtube link about part, part, whole.  Please sit with your child and have your child watch this youtube. It is a good practice.

Part-Part- Whole Video

SOCIAL STUDIES
This week in social studies, we will learn about the concepts of time and chronology.   We will describe and measure calendar time by days, weeks, months, and years and create a simple classroom calendar and timeline.  We want our students to understand and distinguish among, past, present, and future.

This week in First grade...

Nov. 9-13

Wednesday, November 11th is Veterans Day! For all the brave men and women who have served in military, we say thank you! You are our heroes! We've been discussing the branches of military and how people choose to serve our country.  What noble and honorable profession!

Thank you to Wyatt's Grandfather for joining our celebration! We are so glad we were able to honor him!

IMPORTANT REMINDER

Tuesday: Tuesday folders and homework bags come home.
Wednesday: Counselor Lesson

Thursday: 
Friday: Reading folders are due today or Monday.

This week we have a technology goal of trying a Kahoot in every subject during our day.  Kahoot is a great online tool used to assess learning.  Teachers from all over the world make quizzes and post them!  We love using Kahoot.

This week:

 READING

We will continue learning about non-fiction/expository texts.  Since we are getting closer to Thanksgiving, we will focus on Thanksgiving books for the next two weeks. Strong readers activate their prior knowledge or think about what they already know when they read a non-fiction.  They also ask questions, think about author's purpose and identify important facts.  And in addition to all these, strong readers confirm things that they thought they knew and clear any misconceptions.  We will practice doing all these things as we learn about this important tradition: Thanksgiving.

WRITING
As we learn about the story of Thanksgiving, we will record  the information in our own words so we could teach others about history and this important tradition.  We will go back to the time of pilgrims, who they were and where they came from.  We will write about the Mayflower ship, the Plymouth Rock, and the Native Americans. As we write, we make sure we go over the writing conventions: Starting with capital letters, forming the letters correctly, leave one finger space between the words, write sentences with corrects grammar and structure and put punctuation (periods, exclamation points or question marks) at the end of our sentences.

MATH
This week we will start the subtraction. Subtraction names a missing part by taking away, removing or comparing to find a difference. We will use concrete and pictorial models including ten-frames, math racks, Base Ten blocks and other manipulatives to represent word problem situations involving separating or comparing sets of whole numbers up to 20 where the unknown may be start, change, or result of separating problems.

SCIENCE
We will continue learning about energy.  We will explore the objects around us and observe different kinds of energy that these objects use or produce.  We will discuss the importance of energy and saving energy.  Last week we made a pic collage using PicCollage Kids to show different types of energy around our school.  We are also experimenting with Google Classroom to share our digital products and collaborate.

Social Studies

Today we read about a Hindu celebration called Diwali.  PebbleGo, along with the friends in our class, taught us about their celebration that starts Wednesday.  We compared Diwali to other traditional celebrations that are celebrated by students in our class.  The students who celebrate Diwali were so excited to teach us about their family's traditions.  We also listed to a story on our Reading Rainbow Skybrary app called The Diwali Gift.  

This week in First grade...

November 2nd-6th 


IMPORTANT REMINDER

Tuesday: Tuesday folders come home. Please return signed Tuesday folders every Wednesday morning. Report cards for the first 9 weeks will come home.  Please keep the report card for your reference but sign and return the envelope on Wednesday.
                       Library this week! Please help your child remember their books!
Wednesday: Reflections project are due (see PTA website for more details)

Thursday: No Field Trip after all- we will keep you posted about another.
Friday: Reading bags can be returned Friday or Monday.


This week:

 READING

We will continue our study of expository/nonfiction text. As a class we discussed the features of nonfiction such as real photos, table of contents, glossary, caption, labels, index, diagram, and maps. We concluded that the purpose of reading nonfiction text is to learn! We also learned the differences between fiction and nonfiction. This week we will learn about the main idea in a book vs. the most important information in the book. When we read nonfiction, the cover, the title and the pictures in the book will help us to understand the main idea of the book.  The important facts and information are related to the questions that we might have before or during reading the book. 

Last week we learned about Bats.  The story Stellaluna is read by Pamela Reed on Storyline Online.  Here is the link if your child wants to listen! It's a great way to compare what we've learned about nonfiction to a fictional story! 

WRITING
We will continue writing nonfiction.  We are learning how to draw careful diagrams like scientist and label the parts. Our goal is to write important facts that we learn after reading nonfiction texts and write them in our own words.  We are writing facts so we can teach others about what we have learned.  We will also ask questions before, during and after our reading.  We will look for the information we need to answer our questions!  We will record our answers on our chart!

MATH
So far, we have been working on place value.  The children have learned  the place of a digit in a number matters and depending on its place.  A digit can represent tens, or ones.  This week we will continue learning about building numbers to 99 using ten sticks (base ten blocks) and ones. We will also compare numbers, or finding 10 less, or ten more than a number using number line or hundred chart and review the vocabulary, greater than, less than or equal to.  We will apply our knowledge of number line and number comparison to solve everyday math problem.

SCIENCES
This week in science we will learn about different forms of energy such as light, heat and sound.  We will discuss the importance of energy in everyday life and how scientists use energy to invent objects that improve our daily lives.  We will use our iPads to learn more about Energy and record our learning.  We're even trying to post what we've learned in Google Classroom so we can collaborate! 

This week in First grade...

October 26th -30th

Wasn't Harvest Fest fun? I enjoyed seeing the kids and parents there! Way to go for those of you who volunteered!  It's such a great event for Caraway! 


EARLY RELEASE DAY: Wednesday, Oct. 28th is ERD! Dismissal is at 12:45.


RED RIBBON WEEK ACTIVITIES

This week is Red Ribbon Week.  We will talk about a healthy life style, eating healthy, exercising, and staying away from all the harmful things that could hurt our bodies. As a whole school, we will do a different activity each day to show our support for a healthy and happy life. 

Monday:  Come to school in red! Wear as many red items as you can! The class that has the most red wins a prize!
Tuesday: Wear your Super Hero shirt.

Wednesday: Wear your Caraway Owl shirt.

Thursday: Wear crazy hats or socks.

Friday: Wear your pajamas!

IMPORTANT REMINDER

Monday: Reading Bags are due!

Tuesday: Tuesday folders come home. Please return signed Tuesday folders every Wednesday morning.
Please make sure you check your child’s Daily Folder each night and initial the day to show me you saw the information.
Wednesday: Counselor Lesson and Early Release! 

Thursday: 
Friday: Family Social Night at Phil's on 183@ 6:30pm! If it is raining we will reschedule!  


This week:

 READING

We have been learning about the features of Nonfiction/Expository texts and this week in the spirit of the month of October and Halloween, we will be focusing on bat books! We will be asking questions about bats, think about information that we already know, and find new information or hopefully, the answers to our questions in non-fiction texts.  The kids love this unit!  We will become experts on bats by the end of the week, and your child should be able to tell you some very interesting facts about bats. 

WRITING
This week we will shift our writing from small moments/personal narratives and learn to write other ways: we will learn to write like scientists.  Scientists have very attentive lives, noticing interesting things, and recording what they see.  We will draw and sketch, but this time emphasize on the importance of capturing details with precision. As we read and learn facts about bats, we will record and write these facts so we can teach others about these amazing night flyers. 

MATH
This week we will introduce place value.  We will use number tracks and make numbers using our 10 sticks (10 blocks) and ones.  We will emphasize that the place of a digit in a number matters.  Depending on where the digit is, in tens place or in ones place, the digit has a different value (example: compare 17 and 71).  So far, we have worked with teen numbers.  This week we will work with 2 digit numbers greater than teens. When studying 24, we will see that 2 is 2 sets/groups of 10 which makes twenty and the 4 is just four ones.  When comparing the numbers, we will think about both tens and ones in a number.  24 is greater than 22.  The number of 10 sticks are the same but the ones are not.  24 has 4 ones and 22 has only 2 ones.  We will emphasize the vocabulary such as greater than, less than, before and after.

SOCIAL STUDIES
We have been learning about some very important historical figures and inventors such as Alexander Graham Bell,  and Thomas Edison. We learned about their contributions and how they changed our lives with their inventions.  We also learned about John Venn and used his method of comparison (Venn diagram) and compared the two inventors together and learned about the similarities and differences.  This week, we will learn about Garrett Morgan and Richard Allen who also influenced our nation by their individualism and inventiveness. We are going to study an extra individual that is close to our hearts, Steve Jobs!  We are going to think about his creativity and how he changed the way we learn in our classroom! 

Have a great week!

This week in First grade...

Oct. 19-23

IMPORTANT REMINDER

Monday: Reading bag Homework comes home

Tuesday: Tuesday folders come home. Please return signed Tuesday folders every Wednesday morning.
*Library Day! Please help your child remember to bring their library books.
Wednesday: 

Thursday: 
Friday: Reading bags and homework are due!
Saturday, Oct 24: Harvest festival 4-7 pm. See you there!

This week:

Out of the Box Homework: This week in math we are going to learn about telling time.  With help from a parent write a short story to share on Friday about a schedule you have.  For example, "We get home at 5:00pm.  We make dinner and eat at 6:00pm.  Then we read a story, brush our teeth and go to bed at 8:00pm."  If you want to video record your story you can, then email it to me!

 READING

This week we will read expository/non-fiction books.  Writers of nonfiction books are experts in an area and therefore they write the expository text to teach us about that subject. We will learn that the purpose of reading expository books is to get information. We might have questions before reading a non-fiction book, or questions during reading the non-fiction book, or even after reading it. These questions will help us to read more and find out more. We will learn about the features of non-fiction such as: table of contents, index, glossary, real photos, labels, and captions.  

WRITING

We will continue revising our stories for one more week.  Ask your child what revising is and what is the purpose of revising.  They should be able to explain it to you.  We are learning to reread our stories carefully a couple of times to make sure that our stories make sense.  In the process, we are learning to add some more words or take off a few that are not needed.  We are checking for sight words misspelling, neat writing and correct punctuation.  Some of us are even adding dialogues in quotation marks to make our stories more interesting. I am so proud of my young writers!  

MATH
This week we will learn to tell time.  We will learn to tell time to the hour using a digital and an analog clock.  We will learn about the hands, the hour hand (the short hand), and the minute hand(the long hand) and how they move: The minute hand makes one full turn while the hour hand moves slowly from one numeral to another. Later on in the year, we will learn to tell the time in half-hour.

Photo by Hazel

SOCIAL STUDIES
This week we will learn about a few historical figures such as Alexander graham Bell, Thomas Edison, Garrett Morgan, and Richards Allen who influenced our nation by their individualism and inventiveness. We will learn about their inventions and the contributions that these important people made to our lives.

This week in First Grade...

Oct. 13-16

We had a great week last week!  We are getting setup to use Google Classroom so we can do more activities on our iPads then turn them in digitally!  Parents will be able to view their work as well!

Books Orders are due this Thursday, October 15th.  I will submit the order after school that day so we will receive the books by Halloween!  Scholastic is a great way to get new, leveled books for your child to read at home for reasonable prices!  Your orders earn points for our classroom so we can add new books to our Cowpoke Library!  We get super excited about new books!

IMPORTANT REMINDERS

Monday: No School - Student Holiday

Tuesday: Tuesday folders come home. Please return signed Tuesday folders every Wednesday morning.
Please make sure you check your child’s Daily Folder each night and initial the day to show me you saw the information.
Wednesday: 

Thursday: Book Order Due!
Thursday, October 15: Science Night at 6:00
Friday: Reading bags are due!

No Out of the Box Homework this week!

GROWTH MINDSET
Albert Einstein said, " I am not a genius, I only stay on a problem longer".  Perseverance is the key to success. Our children will learn in time that is is not a matter of luck, or being smart that makes us successful.  It is our hard work, consistency, and perseverance that make us successful.  We will read some wonderful children's stories such as " Whistle for Willie", "Ruby's Wish", and " A chair for My Mother" and see how the characters in these stories all wanted to achieve something.  It took a long time for each to get their wishes but eventually they all got what they wished for with their hard work.  


This week:

 READING

We will continue reading some of our favorite children's stories and practice thinking while reading.  Strong readers constantly think about what they read, They put the clues in the story together and make thoughtful predictions.  They think about the characters and not only try to remember the characters' names, but also think about their personalities.  What kind of a character is my main character? Is this character, funny? generous? friendly? scared? Thinking about the characters, setting and plot of the story will help us to have a better understanding of the story. 

Reading bags will come on Tuesday.  Remember, repeated readings help build confidence and comprehension as children practice the skills they've learned to become fluent readers!  Record the titles of the books your child reads on their Reading Log as well as the number of minutes they read! Our goal is 10 minutes each night! 

RAZ-Kids will be available for at home, leveled reading as well!  I will put your child's login information in their blue agenda folder on Tuesday! 

WRITING

We have been writing great stories/small moments about our lives.  This week, we will learn how to reread and revisit our stories and make any changes that would make our stories much better before publishing it.  We will learn to read our stories carefully to make sure our stories make sense.  In the process, sometimes we need to add to our stories and sometimes we need to take off from our stories.  We will learn to fancy up our stories, by adding to our pictures, coloring neatly and writing neatly and then publishing our stories!

MATH

This week, we will be learning about length and measurement.  We will talk about longest and shortest and longer and shorter.  In First Grade we will not use rulers to measure but instead use non-standard units of measurement such as pencils, cubes, paper clips, and etc.to measure.  We will even have a small history lesson to learn what a cubit is.  You can help your child with this skill at home by letting them measure different objects around the house.  How many steps is it from the front door to the couch?  How many pennies long is a fork?  Have fun!

SOCIAL STUDIES
This week in social studies, we will learn about life in the past and present.  We will learn how technology has changed our lives comparing to the past.  People communicate differently, have different ways of transportation, entertainment, and hold different jobs comparing to the past due to technology. 

This week in First grade...

Oct. 5-9

IMPORTANT REMINDER

*Library is TUESDAY*

Tuesday: Tuesday folders come home. Please return signed Tuesday folders every Wednesday morning.
Please make sure you check your child’s Daily Folder each night and initial the day to show me you saw the information.
Wednesday: Walk and Bike to School Day! Check in at the flagpole to help our class earn a treat!

                      PTA Dinner Night at Newk's

Thursday: 

Friday: Please return the Reading Bag and the contents today.  Homework is due today.

Monday, October 12: Student Holiday
Homework Assignment: We've been learning about types of change in Science.  We've learned and seen how heat can change a Popsicle and how taking heat away from water can make ice. Find a type of change at home and record it like a Scientist by writing about it, drawing a picture of it, making a video (upload to Google drive Homework folder) or taking a picture and email it or upload it.  

Reading Bags: They came home today with one book and a spiral notebook. 

1. Our goal is to read aloud to an adult for 10 minutes 5 nights a week!

2. Have your child read the book I selected 2-3 times aloud this week.

3. They also get to choose a book at home to read.  Free Choice! This may be one that you read together!

4. Record the title of what the child read and the number of minutes they read for on the At Home Reading Log that is glued into their notebook. 

5. At the bottom of the reading log there is a comprehension activity for the week.  Your child can complete it anytime during the week, except for this week! The activity is related to making predictions!

5. Return the bag, book and notebook on Friday!
GROWTH MINDSET
This week in growth mindset, we are going to talk about the importance of showing persevere, and being persistent.  Sometimes, when we are trying out something new, or taking a risk, things won't go our way.  We might feel we have failed and for this reason, we are afraid to try again. Starting today and for the rest of our lives, we are going to be persistent, and don't let our failures prevent us from trying again and again.  We will keep moving forward!

This week:

 READING

Reading is thinking and as we read, we will learn how to think about the story or the information we are reading about.  Readers make connections between the story and themselves.  The story might remind them of something in their own life.  We call this text to self connection.  Sometimes we can make connection between one story and another story, meaning one story reminds us of another story that we previously read.  This is called text to text connection.  And sometimes we can make connections between text and the world or something that has happened in the world.  We call this text to world connection.  These comprehension strategies will help us to understand the text better. 

WRITING

We will continue writing stories about our lives.  Last week we learned how to "zoom in" on one thing and write about a small moment in time, something in our life that happened over a small few minutes.  This week, we will practice stretching one small moment across several lines or several pages.  We will read stories or part of stories that have those moments in them and see how famous authors stretch a small moment over few pages.

MATH

This week we will continue working on addition and count on strategies.  We will use a number track and show what happens when we jump from a number one step, two steps, or zero step (count on zero).  If we jump from 13, two steps further and land on 15, the matching number sentence will be 13+2=15.  We will apply these strategies in problem solving. We will also look at the "turn around" and see that 13+2 is actually the same as 2+13.  It might look different on the number track as far as where to start, but it lands on the same number.

We've been exploring new apps for math practice after we complete our math assignment for the day. If you use some fun apps at home for math feel free to share the name of them with us! It's fun to be an "expert" and teach our friends something new!

SCIENCE

This week we will be continuing our discussion on physical changes to materials.  We learned this past week, that adding heat and removing heat cause materials to change. We will be doing more experiments this week to observe those changes first hand! We will do an experiment this week with Miss Lee where we get to observe the change in pancake batter!  We will get to taste our experiment as well!  We plan on making a video about our learning on our iPads.

Lastly, if you plan to place a Scholastic order please use the classroom code: GX2LM.  This allows me to earn points toward the purchase of new books for our classroom! THANK YOU!

This week in First grade...

Sept. 28- Oct. 2

What a week! I'm so grateful to Mr. Sparks for keeping our classroom rolling so the students could learn! I was so happy to see their sweet faces this morning instead of the boxes in my house!  The Caballeros are officially moved in and have about 7 boxes left in the house!  Now we can get back to school and concentrate on learning!  The boys and girls worked really hard last week even with our little hiccup with the technology in our classroom! We have individual pictures tomorrow!!  I placed a sticker on each child as a reminder.  If you plan on purchasing the pictures please do so by tomorrow (Tuesday).

Homework this week: We are learning about Count on Strategies.  Find an example of how you used a count on strategies at home.  An example might be when you are making dinner.  You start with 2 tablespoons of water and add 1 more (2+1=3).  You can take a picture, make a video or write it on paper! We will share our strategies on Friday during math!

IMPORTANT REMINDER

Monday: Tuesday: Individual student photos
Tuesday folders come home. Please return signed Tuesday folders every Wednesday morning.

Please make sure you check your child’s Daily Folder each night and initial the day to show me you saw the information.
Wednesday: Counselor Lesson with Mrs. Reyes

Thursday:

Friday:

Monday,October 12: Student Holiday

GROWTH MINDSET
This week in growth mindset, we are going to practice how to give each other constructive criticism.  What is the best thing to say to each other in order to improve each other's work? We will learn how to start with something positive, saying something nice about each other's work. Next, we'll say something that can be improved and then end our talk with something positive again.  " I really like how your picture and your words match in this story, you could add more words to make your story more interesting, you are such a great story teller!" 


This week:

 READING

This week we will work on a comprehension strategy; making predictions.  Reading is thinking.  As we start to read a story, we will look at the picture on the front cover, read the title and try to guess what the story is about based on the title and the picture.  When we read stories, we stop from time to time and predict what might happen next.  Sometimes our predictions are correct and sometimes they are not.  We will learn how to use all the clues in the story and things being said so far, to make the best prediction possible.

WRITING

We will continue writing stories about our lives.  This week we will learn how we can "zoom in" and write about a small moment in time with details.  Our job from here on is to discover those small moments in our lives.  A small moment happens over a few short seconds or minutes.  For example, it could be about a moment that I was riding my bike and I fell into a mud puddle and hurt my knee, or about a time that we were in the car, coming back home and we had to stop the car in the middle of the street, because a deer was standing there and wouldn't move.  We will learn how we can expand our small moment with details and write it over a few lines.  We will also use our fingers and tell our small moments across our hand so we can record the beginning, the middle and the end of our small moments.

MATH

We have been practicing how to use the number line/number track to find specific numbers and find out one more or one less.  This week, we will take that knowledge and apply it in addition. The strategies that we work on are "Count On Addition Strategies for Basic Facts". It is essential that all students are able to successfully calculate both mentally and with paper and pencil their basic facts. Count On strategies include Count On 1 (+1 facts), Count on 2 (+2 facts) and Count on 0 (+0 facts).  This week we will focus on Count On 0, count on 1 and turn around strategy.  If 12+1=13 then 1+12 is also 13.  We will apply this Count On strategies in problem solving.

SOCIAL STUDIES
We will continue learning about our state's symbols: The flag, Texas motto, Texas song, and the Alamo.

SCIENCE
In science we will continue learning about properties of objects.  We will also make some observations and see what happens when objects are heated or cooled.