This week in First Grade...

January 9-13

    Our Fairy Tale parade was so much fun! I will post more pictures on Bloomz soon! A second grade teacher took pictures as we walked down the hallway!

   Last week we learned how to use a few new things on our iPads.  We logged in to Google Classroom.  This is a great Google Product where the students can go to find assignments, post comments about things happening in our classroom and get links to activities we are doing.  There are many uses for Google Classroom.  We will learn more as we go through this semester.  You should have received an email inviting you to follow your child in Google Classroom. Look for the Google Doc they created with their "Goals for 2017".

   We also learned how to use NearPod.  This is a great program that has interactive lessons that we can go through as a class.  The students type in a code to get to the lesson.  Then I "drive" the lesson on my computer.  The students answer questions, type responses and interact on their iPad during the lesson.  I am able to see their answers and can plan our next steps of instruction appropriately.  It is a neat tool to use with our iPads.

Reminders:
Monday (1/9):
Tuesday (1/10): Tuesday Folders come home.  Report cards come home.  Please remove the paper report card to keep for your records then sign the envelope. Please return the Tuesday Folder and the Report Card Envelope on Wednesday.
                          Library Lesson - No checkout
Wednesday (1/11): Counseling Lesson with Mrs. Amiri
Thursday  (1/12):
Friday (1/13): First day of Caraway Academy

Looking Forward:
Monday, January 15: No School- MLK Holiday
Wednesday, January 18: Science Fair and Science Night

This week in Reading Workshop...
We will begin our unit on making inferences.  We will practice making inferences like, "This boy is wearing a coat, mittens and a hat.  I can infer that the weather is...COLD!" We will transition to making inferences about the stories we are reading together as a class when we introduce Literary Nonfiction.

This week in Writer's Workshop...
We will learn about different types of letters we can write.  We've been writing Friendly Letters.  We will learn about Thank you letters, apology letters and persuasive letters.  We will talk about when you use each type of letter and practice writing them!

This week in Math...
We will begin our unit on Doubles.  We will play games, sing songs and learn strategies to help us memorize our doubles facts (2+2=4).  Then we will apply what we've learned and use our doubles to help us solve problems and other math facts (if 2 +2 = 4 then 2 + 3 = 5 it's just one more).

This week in Science...
We will begin our study of Objects in the Sky.  We will learn about the objects we see in the sky during the day (sun and clouds).  We will learn about the night sky features such as the moon, stars and planets).  We will focus on how the day and night skies change.  We will continue our learning when we begin our guided research unit in reading and writing workshops.

The weather looks like it will warm up again this week! Enjoy some time outside before it gets cold again!