This week in First grade...

September 21-25

As I'm updating the blog this evening I realized that I did not send or post an update last week!  I'm so sorry for not updating everyone! I hope some of your questions were answered at Open House last Monday night.  I know many of you were unable to come so I'm going to post the Prezi here for your viewing pleasure!

This week we will be a fun week for the Cowpokes!  They will have a substitute Tuesday through Friday this week.  The Caballeros are closing on our new home and moving in.  I'm just an email away so please don't hesitate to send your questions.  Mr. Sparks will be teaching the students this week.  They had the opportunity to see him last Friday during PE when he was subbing for Coach Cavazos!

IMPORTANT REMINDER
Tuesday: Tuesday folders come home. Please return signed Tuesday folders every Wednesday morning.

Please make sure you check your child’s Daily Folder each night and initial the day to show me you saw the information.

*We will have Library this Tuesday.  Please return all Library books by Tuesday at 8:00am.Wednesday: Early Release Day- Dismissal is at 12:45


GROWTH MINDSET

We will continue to instill the attitude of "perseverance, embracing challenges, and giving our best effort", in our daily activities.  When something is a little more challenging, the children naturally say, "I can't do this".  We want the children to change their thinking and mindset: "I can't do this YET, but I will try and give my best effort, until I can".  Please help your child to change their mindset.  Use the same language at home when they feel defeated by modeling it yourself.

 Here is what we will be doing next week:

READING
This week we will learn about fiction and elements of fiction.  We will learn about 

the setting; the place and time where the story takes place, the main characters; the important people or animals that do or say important things in the stories, and the plot which is a series of important events in the stories.  We will learn that just like the stories we write, fictions have also a beginning, middle and ending.  We will also discuss the author's purpose in writing fiction.

WRITING

We will continue working on our stories.  The children have done a great job illustrating and writing about some real events in their lives.  This week, they will practice planning their stories across their hand using the first finger to tell the beginning and the next finger to tell the next event.  This will allow children tell their stories with a beginning, middle, and ending.  We will continue to work on reading our stories to make sure they make sense and check for capitals, periods, and sight words.

MATH

This week in math we will review some of the concepts that we learned earlier this year in order to make sure the children have a strong foundation before moving on to count on addition.  We will work on reciting numbers forward and backward from 1-20, skip counting by 2's, 5's, and 10's and tell or record instantly the number of dots or other pictures that are in various structured arrangements.  We will practice counting on strategies.  Counting on will allow us to count and recognize numbers faster.  It also allows us to do addition faster. For example, we will start from 5 and count 2 more and we know that's seven, instead of counting from 1 and going up to 7.

SOCIAL STUDIES
We will continue learning about our state and national patriotic symbols.  Last week we learned about the Liberty Bell, the Statue of Liberty, and the United States Flag.  This week we will learn about our state's flag, Texas motto, and the Alamo.

SCIENCE
In science we will continue learning about properties of objects.  We will also make some observations and see what happens when objects are heated or cooled.

This week in First grade...

Sept. 8-11

Our students had some really awesome learning happen last week!  I'm excited to see what this week will hold!  They will have some awesome things to show off at Open House on September 14th.

IMPORTANT REMINDERS

Sept 14th: Parent Information Night is on Monday, September 14th at 6:30 (location: our classroom, 306) followed by PTA meeting at 7:00. Please refer to the Kathy Caraway website for more details.

Please return signed Tuesday folders every Wednesday morning.

Please make sure you check your child’s Daily Folder each night and initial it.

Sept 23: Early Release

Sept 22-25: Mrs. Caballero will be out and Mr. Sparks will be my sub.

READING

We have started 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" or "just right book".  These are the books that have only a few unknown words in each page and we can read with fluency and ease. As we teach comprehension and thinking skills, it is also important that we can understand the book we are reading. 
This week we will continue to read independently for a little longer each day. We will also learn how to protect our classroom library by using the books carefully and responsibly. We will talk about the importance of respecting everyone's reading time and using kind reminders when we are being disturbed.  On Friday please have your child bring a stuffed animal to school!  The student's job will be to teach their stuffed animal all about Reading workshop and our first grade procedures! 


HOW CAN YOU SUPPORT YOUR CHILD'S READING AT HOME?
Please make sure your child has access to a variety of "just right books" at all times. Public libraries offer a great selection of leveled readers as well as easy-to-read chapter books.
Make the reading time a special time where you and your child can sit together comfortably.  Pick a time in the day that you know your child is not too tired to read. Maybe your child likes to read after school, or before bedtime.  You know when it is the best time.  Sit beside your child, turn off the TV and have your child read to you.  If your child is stuck on a word, read the word to your child quickly so she/he won't lose the flow.  It is also important that you read to your child every night.  Children need to hear the fluent reading with expression from a parent.  Do a picture walk together before reading.  As you read, stop periodically and see if your child has understood the story so far.  Read together, laugh together and make this special time, as joyful as possible!

WRITING

In writing, we will learn about two skills: One is the importance of illustrations in our stories 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 other skill is to say the words slowly (stretch the words), listening for the sounds, and writing down all the corresponding letters. Your child will have independent writing time where he/she will be conferencing with me and working on what has been taught so far.

HOW CAN YOU SUPPORT YOUR CHILD'S LEARNING AT HOME?

Provide a writing journal at home.  Your child can decorate the front cover however she or he likes to.  Have your child think of a memory, a place that they have been before, a time they could remember, an activity that they did.  Something true that they have experienced.  It could be just a short ride in the car to HEB, when you both saw a deer on the street!
Have your child draw a picture of that memory first, and then add words to write about it.  When writing, remind your child to start the sentences with capital letters, put one finger space between the words, and end their sentences with a period or exclamation mark. Show excitement, encourage and celebrate every attempt! Share their writing with family members and friends! Let them see that they are real writers!

MATH
We will work on grouping items such as cubes and beans in groups of 10. With any given number, we will discuss how many groups of 10 we can make and how many items are leftover (meaning they are less than ten and can't be grouped as 10). While working with groups of tens and ones (the leftovers), we will discuss the placement of digits in numbers and how each digit has a different value based on its place in a number. We will compare the teen numbers and apply our knowledge in problem solving activities.

Homework for this week: Use sidewalk chalk and make a hopscotch using numbers from 1-10.  Together practice tossing an object on to a number, hopping to that number, pick up the object and hop back! Don't forget to count while you hop.  Take turns doing this activity. Take a picture of yourself and your family playing hopscotch and post it in the comments section of the blog. 

Our "homework" this year is going to be more "out of the box".  Homework will focus on an academic skill while incorporating collaboration with family members and physical activity!  I read an article this morning about young children and a decline in "play".  While our little people are no longer pre-schoolers they are still young and need many different experiences to become  well rounded adults! 

SCIENCE

This week in Science we explored and discussed what scientists do. The students were introduced to science journals and we discussed the importance of recording scientific observations. We learned about science safety, how to ask questions about science, make predictions, record observations and data about investigations, and explain our thinking about what we have learned.  
Next week, we will learn how we use our five senses to explore the world around us. We will also learn about some tools in science that could help us to extend and protect our senses such as hand lenses, goggles, stethoscope, ear plugs, mask, and gloves.

SOCIAL STUDIES
In social studies we will learn about the leaders and authority figures in our community of school, city, state and country.  We will learn about the important jobs of our principal, mayor, governor and president.

Have a great week! 

This week in First grade...

Aug 31-Sept. 4

Welcome to our weekly update on the Blog!  My overall goal for the blog is to have the students write it each week!  Hopefully we can start that in a few weeks!  For now we are learning procedures and expectations! I was so impressed with how quickly they caught on to our morning routine!  This week will be 5 whole days so they will be super tired by Friday!  

Thanks for sending the "Me Bags" in.  The students enjoyed learning about each other and I enjoyed learning something new about each of them!

This year we are going to include " Growth Mindset" lessons in our daily activities.  We want the children to understand and believe that their most basic abilities can be developed through dedication and hard work. This mindset, creates a love of learning that is essential for great achievements.  Last week we learned that there are things we can do very well and things that we may not be able to do YET, but we know with motivation and hard work, we will be able to accomplish anything.  We are learning to change our words in order to change our mindset.

IMPORTANT REMINDERS:
Monday, Sept. 14th: Parent Information Night 6:30 pm in our classroom.  (Room 306)
Hope to see you all then!
Tuesday: Tuesday folders come home.  Please sign and return the folders the next day.
Tuesday, Thursday and Friday: P.E. days.  Please have your child wear tennis shoes.

This week:

READING

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. A picture is worth a thousand words and we can read the pictures as well and retell the story through pictures.  We will talk about our favorite reading memory, when reading felt so good to us.  The children will practice using the classroom library correctly and responsibly.

WRITING

We will begin our first lesson: Introducing the writing tools (papers, pencils, markers and crayons, tape, glue, scissors), and resources such as the alphabet charts, first grade words,  and the prints around the classroom. . I will first model how to brainstorm, sketch, and write about my story, something that I know and care about. The children will then begin writing a true story about themselves, something that they have experienced and has happened to them. On Friday we will try out an app called Educreations for write a story on our iPad.  

Word Work: 

We will think about finding patterns in words so we can spell more words! We will remember that letters are written in upper case and lower case.  We will also review a few of our kindergarten sight words as we engage in Word Wall Wednesday. 
MATH:

This week in math we will explore numbers.  Numbers represent different and specific quantities.  We will think about things that we can count and different ways that we can find the answer to the question, "How many?"At this age some children count individually and some can count by 5 or 10's.  If asked to show 6, some children count one by one and some can show 6 in one move. Our goal this week and forward is to push children to use the benchmarks of 5 and 10 to determine the total amount vs. counting one by one.  We will work on recognizing instantly the quantity of structured arrangements.  I am especially excited to get engaged with our interactive white board.  It is up and running and will be great for our math lessons this week!

SOCIAL STUDIES:

This week we will be discussing rules, and laws at school, home and in our community. What is the difference between a rule and a law? Why do we need rules and laws? We will discuss the characteristics of good citizenship at school.  We will also identify the leaders/authority figures at school, home, and in our community. We are going to use an app called Quiver this week after we illustrate what a good citizen  might look like in a community. We will draw on a paper called "The Dot" then we will use the app to make our picture come alive (4D)!  I think this will be a huge hit! Students will get a chance to "tell a story" with their picture while they use their iPads.

SCIENCE:

In science we will learn about who a "scientist" is and why do we need to learn about science? Science helps us understand the world around us.  Scientists ask questions, make observations, record data, and communicate their thoughts.  We will learn how to follow safety procedures during investigations in order to keep people safe and healthy.

Thank you for sharing your little people with me!