This week in First grade...

September 11-15

This will be our 4th week of First grade! I can hardly believe it!  We've been working so hard on following our 4 agreements and learning to be a cooperative group of students!

First grade will begin our first Project Based Learning activity! We want to help the people effected by Hurricane Harvey! We are going to hold a Coin Drive!  We will need your help! Please find a time to sign up with your child to collect coins.  Our collections will take place before school!

Please see the sign up below!

Coin Collection Sign up

Reminders:
Sunday, September 10th 3pm-5pm Sunday Funday- PTA fundraiser and social

Monday 9/11:
Tuesday 9/12: Tuesday folders will come home.  Please unload them and return on Wednesday.
Wednesday 9/13:
Thursday 9/14: Library Check-out.  Please remind your child to bring their library books.  We will check out every 2nd and 4th Thursday of the month unless it's a holiday.
Friday 9/15:

This week in Reading Workshop...
We will learn all about Partner Reading (Read to Someone)! We will practice the right way to partner read.  We will talk about how partners plan when they read together.  We will discuss how partners learn to talk to each other about the books they are reading.  We will think about how partners have to cooperate and find ways to solve their problems when they read together.
This week we will be reading all about Symbols in our Community.  We will learn about symbols such as the American Flag, Liberty Bell and the Statue of Liberty.  We will discuss why these symbols are important to our country and their meanings.

This week in Writing Workshop...
We are building our stamina as writers! This week we will focus on writing in complete sentences so our stories make sense.  We will also discuss strategies to help us spell words we may not know how to spell.  We will think about how writers stretch out sounds and do their best to spell words that are hard! We will even discuss what to do when writer's have "hard to draw ideas".  Writing is hard work so we have to take small steps!

This week in Science...
We will continue to look at objects like scientists do! We will observe objects and describe their properties with our 5 senses.  We will discuss with our groups the properties that are the same and different.

This week in Math...
We've been building our number sense and exploring teen numbers.  Now we are going to order numbers from greatest to least and least to greatest.  We are also going to compare numbers using words like "less than" and "greater than".  We will add symbols in a later unit.  We will learn how to solve problems like mathematicians in First grade!

The Life Skill of the week is...
Integrity: To act according to a sense of what's right and wrong.

We will also continue our learning with Growth Mindset.  We've been watching short videos to give us examples of the ways our brain grows! "Watch it Wednesday" has been a hit and a great way to discuss having a growth mindset!

Here are the clips we've seen so far!

Have a great week!

This week in First grade...

September 5- 8

We had a great second week of First grade! We began learning all about our routines such as Read to Self, Word Work and Work on Writing (Writer's Workshop). All of this hard work made us feel so tired! We are happy that we had a three day weekend to recuperate!

Reminders:

Monday (9/4): No School- Labor Day
Tuesday (9/5): School begins at 7:40am!
                        Tuesday folders will come home! Please unload and return on Wednesday.
Wednesday (9/6):
Thursday (9/7): Parent Orientation Night
                          6:00pm-6:30pm K-2 orientation in classrooms
                          6:30pm-7:00pm PTA meeting- all invited Please sign up for a PTA membership!
                                                                                                                                     Only $7.50!
                          7:00pm-7:30pm 3-5 Orientation
Friday (9/8):


This week in Reading Workshop...
We will continue to build our stamina as readers as we read independently in our classroom.  As teachers we are completing beginning of the year assessments to share with you at conference time.  We will discuss Reading Conferences and how they work.  We will create expectations for this time and how we can be respectful of our classmates as they meet and discuss their reading with a teacher.  We will integrate our social studies skills during our Language art time.  This week we will focus on Citizens in our Community.  We will read and learn about our leaders such as our Principal, Mayor, Governor and President. We will discuss their jobs and how they are important to our community.

This week in Writing Workshop...
We will continue to build our writing stamina as we write stories about our experiences and continue to practice our writing routines.  We will learn that all writers think about their stories, sketch a picture then write words to match.  We will also practice stretching the sounds in words as we write them in our stories.

This week in Science...
We will begin our first unit study of Investigating our Materials. We will remember how scientists record their thoughts and observations.  We will complete an experiment and record our finding in our science notebooks just like real scientists! We will also observe objects and discuss their physical properties.

This week in Math...
We will continue building number sense.  We will begin to count objects and group them in ways that make sense to us.  We will count with patterns to help us count things quickly.  We will think about how numbers are made (10 beans is 10 or 12 beans is 10+2) as we make sense of place value.  We will practice counting real life objects and grouping them.  We will also begin solving math problems and remind ourselves about how we show our thinking on paper!

Our Life Skill of the week is EFFORT.  We will discuss how we use effort everyday!

Have a great 4 day week!

                       
                       

This week in First grade...

August 28-September 1

We had a fantastic first week! We learned about our 4 Agreements! They are Active Listening, Appreciations/No Put Downs, Mutual Respect and Right to Pass/Right to Participate.  These are part of a management system for positive behavior reinforcement called TRIBES.  We created the anchor charts to discuss what each agreement sounds like, looks like and feels like. Our goal is to form a community of learners that respect each other's differences and needs.  Our little first grade family will be kind, caring and compassionate!

Reminders:
Monday (8/28): Late start! The tardy bell with ring at 9:40am.
Tuesday (8/29): The tardy bell rings at 7:40am each day! Tuesday folders will come home.  Please unload then and return them on Wednesday.
Wednesday (8/30): Fall Scouting Meeting 6:15pm
Thursday (8/31): Get a good night's rest! We will be tired!
Friday (9/1): Have a great 3 day weekend! No school on Monday!

**Please help your child remember to bring a snack everyday.  With an early lunch times their little tummies are so hungry by our 1:15pm snack time!

This week in Reading Workshop...
We are beginning our work as readers.  We will discuss 3 different ways to read a book, the expectations of read to self and how we can build our stamina as readers.  We will continue to learn how readers set themselves up for success during our workshop time!

This week in Writing Workshop...
We are beginning our work as writers in first grade!  It's so exciting to think about all of the things we can do as writer's.  We will set up the expectations for Writing Workshop.  We will create a Heart map and write things down that we care about so we can come back to them later.  We will learn about the tools we will use during workshop as we explore new stories in our minds.

This week in Social Studies...
We will begin to discuss Being a Good Citizen.  We will talk about the things we can do at home, at school and in our community to show good citizenship.  We will be integrating our Social Studies and Language Arts time as we read stories and discuss them during our shared reading and interactive writing time.

This week in Science...
We will think about safety as a scientist.  We will discuss how to use science tools safely and how we will work with others.

This week in Math...
We will begin our first unit.  We will be reviewing numbers 1-20 as we apply number sense to our everyday life.  We will discuss ways to represent numbers and how we can count in different ways.  We will use manipulatives to get our hands on numbers and change the numbers to different numbers. (Ex. I have 4 cubes.  If I take one away I have 3.)

**If it is raining at dismissal our plan is...

• 2:50- Bus riders will be dismissed from their classrooms and meet a staff member by the main door on the playground side.
• 2:52- YMCA students will be released to the cafeteria.
• 2:52- Day Care students will meet a teacher in the 2nd grade hallway
• 2:55- Parents who meet their students on the blacktop will be invited into the gym. Please look for Coach Madland to welcome you into the gym through the Kinder/Art hallway door close to the gym and playground.
• 2:55- Car riders and flagpole walkers will stay with their teacher and head to the designated area. There will be teachers with walkie talkie to dismiss the children to their parents.

Have a great week!