This week in First grade...

January 25-29

Congratulations to Hazel our Science Fair winner!  She worked very hard on her project! We are proud of you!

Homework this week: 
The student's homework came home on Monday.  Due to the nature of the homework this semester it works best to send it home on Mondays and have it returned on Fridays.  
In the student's Tuesday folder there will be work samples from our week.  Every week we will try to send home a math skill practice sheet, a math problem solving activity, an academic writing sample and a science/social studies activity.  There may also be items in the folder that your child has not finished.  We are working on completing our work and being responsible. 

 REMINDERS
Tuesday: Tuesday folders come home. Please return signed Tuesday folders on Wednesday morning. 

Wednesday: Counseling Lesson
Thursday: 
Friday: All homework is due.

 READING and WRITING
We will continue on our guided research.  This week, we will learn how to pick a topic that we are interested in, think about what we want to know about our topics, look at different resources such as books, pebble go, and on-line encyclopedia to find the information.  We will also learn how to jot important information in an organized way so we can use the information to answer our questions.

MATH 
This week, we will use a variety of strategies to solve real world math problems involving addition and subtraction or finding differences.  We will use, make 10 strategy or bridge to ten, number line, and counting up.  We will draw a picture to represent the important information in a problem with pictures, or tens and ones. Using addition or subtraction number sentences, we will find the answer to our problem using numbers and words.

SCIENCE
In science, we will learn that our natural world is made up of rocks, soil, and water. We will learn that we can observe these resources in cycles and systems. We will learn that there are many uses for natural resources and therefore it is important to reuse and conserve them. This week we will focus on earth materials and products, rocks and soil. We will observe different kinds of soil and describe the properties of rocks and soil.  We will explore and see what useful products we can make with rocks, soil and water.

This week in First Grade...

Jan 19-22

Wasn't our Fairy Tale Parade so fun! Tonyia Cone, Hazel's Mom, added the pictures she took to our Shutterfly account!!  Thanks for helping your child with their costume! They loved it and we had a fantastic day!

 REMINDERS
Monday: MLK Day. No School.
Tuesday: Library

Tuesday folders come home. Please return signed Tuesday folders on Wednesday morning. 

Wednesday: 
Thursday: 
Friday: 

*No homework this week because of a short week! We will start back with books, a reader's response and math homework next week!  Encourage your child to read a book of their choice for 10 minutes each night this week! RAZ Kids is available for on level reading as well!

 READING and WRITING
This week we will begin our guided research unit.  We will learn how to do research to find about information that we are interested in.  Researches choose a topic they are interested in and they think about what specific information they want to know about their topic.  Researches look at different books or resources to find information and they record important information in an organized way. We will record things that we have learned and things that we still wonder about.  We will also notice the important and main ideas vs. interesting details. 

MATH 
This week we will work with addition that involves single-digit addends that are beyond ten (eg: 9+4).  We will learn a different strategy called Make-ten addition Strategy or Bridge to 10 Addition Strategy to solve these problems.  We will work on different number combinations that total 10.  We will learn that in addition, 3 numbers can be added in any order.  Students will use their idea of the make-ten addition strategy which involves an addend that is close to ten (7, 8, or 9).  For example when adding 9 and 4, some students may count up from 9 to get to 13. Other strategy would be to say 9+1 is ten and 10+3 is 13.

SCIENCES

We will continue learning about force and movement and move on to Magnets.  Magnets can pull or push certain objects.  The push and pull caused by magnets is also a force. We will do different experiments to observe what happens when a magnet is placed near another object or predict weather a magnet will push or pull an object.

This week in First grade...

January 11-15

*If you are interested in helping out with Tuesday folders I need a volunteer for January! 

 REMINDERS

Monday: Reading Folder with Social Studies book comes home for homework.  There is a note about the assignment stapled to the book.

Tuesday: Tuesday folders come home. Please return signed Tuesday folders on Wednesday morning. Report cards for the second 9 weeks come home.  Please sign the brown envelope and return, but keep the report card for your reference.

Wednesday: Counselor's Lesson

Thursday: 

Friday: Fairy Tale Parade @9:00

I have fantastic news! We are going to host a student teacher from The University of Texas.  Ms. Hughes will be with us everyday! The students are anxious to meet her and I am so excited to have her with us! This will mean more small group and one-on-one instruction in the classroom!  We love all of the help we can get!

 READING
This week we will learn about fables. A fable is another type of story passed down from generation to generation and told to teach a lesson about something.  Fables are about animals, plants, or forces of nature like sun or wind that can talk and act like people or cause things to happen in the story because of their strength.  The most famous fables were written by a man called Aesop and this week we will read a variety of Aesop's stories. 

We have been looking on Book Flix, RAZ Kids, Epic, Reading Rainbow and Speakaboos for Fairy Tales, Folktales and Fables! 

I will be working on Reading Assessments for the next three weeks.  My goal is to test 2-3 students per day so as not to disrupt our instruction/ learning time.

WRITING
In writing, we will continue writing expository texts.  The children have made a list of things that they are expert at and can teach others.  This week, they will write about their subject with details.  Their goal is to teach others about something they are expert at and know so well.  We will share these with our classmates.

MATH.
We will review place value in 2-digit numbers.  We will work with tens and ones and compare 2-digit numbers.  When comparing the two digit numbers, we will look at the digits in tens place first.  If those are the same, then we will move to the digits in ones place.  We will also examine the numbers in hundred chart and notice the patterns in numbers.  For example, all numbers in one row have the same number of tens and all numbers in one column has the same number of ones.  We will order the 2-digit numbers from least to greatest or greatest to least.

We've been using Kahoot to practice our skills! 

SCIENCE

This week in science we will learn about force and movement.  Energy causes force and force causes motion/movement.  Force can be defined as a "push" or a "pull" which causes objects to move in different ways such as straight line, zigzag, up and down, side to side, round and round, fast and slow.
Today we talked about movement with a partner.  The students worked together to come up with a small poster to show types of movement.  We did a Gallery Walk to look at everyone's work and give constructive feedback to our classmates. 

This week in First Grade..

January 5th -8th
Happy New Year! I can hardly believe it is 2016! Wow, this year is flying by! I hope everyone rested and enjoyed family time together!  We went to movies, out for dinner and celebrated with family! 

It's going to be cold during our outside recess time so please send a warm coat with your child!  Make sure it's labeled with their name!

 REMINDERS

Monday: No school for students.  No homework this week.  I encourage the students to read nightly.
Tuesday: No Tuesday folders. We sent everything home before the break.
Wednesday:  
Thursday: 
Friday: 

Our First Grade Fairy Tale Parade will take place on Friday, January 15th at 8:50am.  We will begin parading around 9:00am.  Remember to bring your camera to take pictures of our Fairy Tale Characters!  I will send an email reminder next week!

 READING
This week in reading we will continue reading Fairy Tales and Folktales.  We will review the features of Fairy Tales and Folktales and discuss the characters, the problem and the solution, the plot of the story, and the beginning, middle and end of the story.  We will also review how to retell (tell the events from the beginning to the end in our own words) and to summarize( tell the important events in one short paragraph). This week we've concluded that Fairy Tales have magic and royal characters and Folktales have animals acting like humans and teach a lesson. 

WRITING
In writing, we will start writing expository texts.  We will make a list of things that we are expert at and know a lot and choose from our list to write about a topic.  Our main purpose is to teach and inform others.  We made our lists and can't wait to get starting teaching someone about our passions through our writing!

MATH.
This week in math we will review place value in 2-digit numbers.  We will work with tens and ones and compare 2-digit numbers.  When comparing the two digit numbers, we will look at the digits in tens place first.  If those are the same, then we will move to the digits in ones place.  We will also work on math problem solving that involves representing, comparing, adding and subtracting 2-digit numbers.


SCIENCES
We will spiral review some of the science and social studies concepts in first semester such as weather and cultures and celebrations. 

Have a great week!