This week in First grade...

Week of: Sept. 10th – 14th Thank you for my beautiful Lilies! I've enjoyed them all week! The students were so sweet to me on my birthday! I can tell it's gonna be a great year! READING: We have been investing time in the past couple of weeks to learn about the procedures of Reading Workshop. Reading brings joy to our lives and in order to become strong readers we need to practice every day. Whether we are using the classroom library or the school library, we have discussed how to choose a good-fit book that matches our reading level and our interest. We have also learned that strong readers talk and think about the books that they read. This week as we continue to read independently for a little longer each day, we will share our favorite reading memories, our best- ever reading moments and times when reading felt good for us. We will also learn how to protect our classroom library by using the books carefully and responsibly. Our read alouds will include a variety of fiction and poetry. WRITING: This week in Writing Workshop, we will be learning about the importance of illustrations and how to make our illustrations match our words.  We will look at many different picture books and discuss how illustrations can enhance a story.  The students will have independent writing time where they will be conferencing with the teacher and working on what has been taught thus far. MATH: We will continue our unit on place value this week. Our focus will be to learn how to compare and order numbers up to 99. We will continue using our problem solving skills as we investigate different strategies to help us become problem solvers. The students are already sharing their thinking with the class and it has been so fun to watch them “teach” each other! SCIENCE: We will be starting our Matter and Energy Unit in Science this week. During this first week of this unit, we will learn about matter and its properties. This unit will include conducting experiments where we will predict the outcomes, illustrate and label what is happening and journal our observations. We are looking forward to having a lot of fun while we learn! IMPORTANT REMINDERS: *Parent Orientation is on Monday, September 10th at 6:30 followed by PTA meeting at 7:00.  *Please return signed Tuesday folders every Wednesday morning. *Please make sure you check your child’s Take Home Folder each night and initial the box to show me you saw the information. Thank you!

This week in First grade...

Week of: Sept. 3rd-7th We survived the first week in first grade! All the students have worked very hard learning the “first grade” expectations for our classroom and getting to know all our new friends. This week the focus will be to follow our schedule and start our normal routines for the year. I fully believe children function better when they know the routines and understand the expectations during a given time. Our biggest challenge in first grade is learning how to work quietly without disturbing the learning of others around us and managing our time to get our work completed. If your child has to move his/her clip this week, more than likely it will be for the reasons stated above. Remember this is a transition time for your child. I will give several verbal reminders since it is the beginning of the year! READING: We are launching our Reading Workshop. We will learn how to read independently to ourselves for a few minutes at a time. Each day we read for a little longer period to build up our stamina. We will learn that strong readers read every day. We will also learn how to choose a good fit book. Starting this week, we will begin our DRA (District Reading Assessment). This is a one-on-one reading assessment to determine your child's reading level for the beginning of first grade. The results will be shared with you during our conference time. WRITING: We will begin our first lesson: Introducing the writing tools (papers, pencils, markers and crayons, tape, glue, scissors), and resources such as the classroom word wall, the alphabet charts and the prints around the classroom. . I will first model how to brainstorm, sketch, and write about my own story. The students will then begin writing a true story about themselves, something that they have experienced or has happened to them. Word Work: Last week we began assessing students’ spelling. This assessment is a way for us to group them based on their spelling abilities and strength. I will share the result with you during our conference time. MATH: Our focus in math is “Place Value”. We will talk about the vocabulary “tens” and “ones” and make our own 10 sticks with beans to be used for problem solving. We will have lots of hands on activities building numbers using manipulatives. We will work with partners this week with our problem solving centered on place value and learn how to explain what strategy we used and how we solved our problems in front of the class. SCIENCE: Our theme this week is “What is a Scientist?” The students will be introduced to science journals as each child sets up his/her own journal. Students will learn science safety; how to ask questions about science; make predictions; record observations and data about investigations; and explain their thinking about what they have learned. IMPORTANT REMINDERS: *Parent Orientation is on Monday, September 10th at 6:30 followed by PTA meeting at 7:00. *If you have not returned the forms from the Tuesday Folder, please return ASAP. *Please return signed Tuesday folders every Wednesday morning. *Please make sure you check your child’s Take Home Folder each night and initial the box to show me you saw the information. Thank you!

Welcome to First Grade!!!

Hello All!! Welcome to Mrs. Caballero's Cowpoke Corral!!