This week in First grade...

October 3-7

      Wow! It's already October! On Monday we will have our first Spirit Assembly.  It will begin promptly at 7:40am (for K-2).  We will drop our backpacks off in the room and head down to the cafeteria.  This is going to be a great time for our school community as we share good news and celebrate our accomplishments!
     On Friday we will begin Caraway Academy.  This will also begin promptly at 7:40am.  We will drop our backpacks off and head to the classrooms where our academies are located.  There will be a note that will come home in the Tuesday folder for more information about Caraway Academy! We are all very excited to share our passions with students and help them develop their passions!
    This is going to be an amazing week at Caraway Elementary!

Reminders: 
Monday: K-2 Spirit Assembly 7:40am-8:00am
Tuesday: Tuesday folders come home.  Please sign them and return them on Wednesday.
               *We do not have Library this week.
Wednesday:
Thursday:
Friday: Caraway Academy 7:40am-8:30am

*If you have not signed up for a conference please do so as the slots are filling up.  Email me if you have any questions.

This week in Writing Workshop...
     We will be reminded about all we have learned as writers so far this year.  We will review the steps of the writing process as we lead up to our Celebration on Friday.  Writers begin a story by sketching an idea, matching their words to their picture, then rereading our story to make sure it makes sense.  We also know that a writer's work is never done.  When we finish a story we can add to our picture, add to our words to make them fancy (revising and editing).  We will celebrate by sharing our stories at our very first Author's Chair Celebration!

This week in Reading Workshop...
    We will be thinking about how good readers make connections.  When we read a book we can think about how readers make a connection to something they know (text to self), something they've read (text to text) and/or something they've experienced (text to world).  "That reminds me of..."

This week in Social Studies...
    We will be exploring how the leaders in our community are good citizens.  We will discuss responsibilities of our community leaders from our school to our country.  We will also begin exploring our national symbols.  We will learn about the American Flag, what it represents and why it is so special to us.

This week in Math...
    We will continue our unit on addition.  We have learned to count on (5..6,7,8) when we add. We will learn that basic facts have things in common.  For example 5+4 = 9 so, when you turn it around 4+5 = 9 you know two facts just by thinking about what the problem has in common.  We call these facts Turnaround Facts.  Research shows that students who learn strategies to acquire basic fact knowledge will become better problem solvers! At home you can use concrete objects to add together such as beans or pieces of fruit or vegetables! "I see on your plate you have 5 peas and 3 carrots.  How many veggies do you have!" Try it at dinner some time this week.

Growth Mindset:
    We've been talking about our Fantastic Elastic Brains! We know that if we make a mistake it can help our brains grow! This week we will learn a little more about how our brains grow when we read The Fantastic Elastic Brain.

Have a great week!