We had such a fabulous day in first grade!!! I have changed a couple of things about our reading program and I have to say the students did great and adapted very well.
Reading: This week we are focusing on the sun and Earth and how they impact one another. We will be reading text about activities that happen during the different seasons as well as continuing to study the reason for the seasons. We have different sight words that I will be sending out tomorrow so you can study those at home.
As far as the phonics, we have four different groups studying four different skills depending on what your student specifically needs.
Writing: We continue to study nouns and proper nouns during class. Students are starting to notice both in everything that we read. Please encourage your students to look for these words in their reading at home!
Math: Numbers to 20, numbers to 20, numbers to 20!!! Once again we continue to look at the fundamentals of our numbers up to 20. Our focus is on place value and what truly makes up a number. Last week I included a website to help students master their place value skills. Take some time to look at this website with your student.
**Reminders**
-DEARABBY and math logs due Friday
-Celebrations of Success from 12:00-12:30 on Friday, November 4th
10.31.2011
10.28.2011
Friday, October 28th
Here we are again at the end of yet another week. I have many, many items to share with you all today as well as some reminders for the following week.
Creative Writing: Today we had a writing workshop where we focused on the writing skills we have learned this year. The important skills we worked on included capitalizing all words at the beginning of sentences and including punctuation at the end of a sentence. We have been studying nocturnal animals and today we read a fictional story about a baby bat and her journey to find her mother. On the way she finds a family of birds and tries to live with them but notices quickly that birds and bats are very different. After we listened to the story, the students were asked the following question: Would you rather be a bird or a bat? Why?
Listen to the podcasts to find out what we thought!
Pretty cool, huh?!
Friday Spotlight: This is something new that I am going to implement in order to share out some of the great things your students are doing and learning in class. Each Friday I will choose 3 students to share something they have learned with the class. Students may choose to read a page out of a challenging book, they may choose to read some sight words, they may choose to read the shared reading, they may choose to complete a challenging math problem, etc. I will be video recording these Friday Spotlights and posting them on our classroom website. Be on the lookout-your student could be the star!!!
**Reminders**
-DEARABBY, Math Log, and Spelling Words went home today in O.W.L binders
-Report Cards will be coming out soon-stayed tuned to find out when!
-Celebrations of Success will be on Friday, November 4th at 12:00
Creative Writing: Today we had a writing workshop where we focused on the writing skills we have learned this year. The important skills we worked on included capitalizing all words at the beginning of sentences and including punctuation at the end of a sentence. We have been studying nocturnal animals and today we read a fictional story about a baby bat and her journey to find her mother. On the way she finds a family of birds and tries to live with them but notices quickly that birds and bats are very different. After we listened to the story, the students were asked the following question: Would you rather be a bird or a bat? Why?
Listen to the podcasts to find out what we thought!
Pretty cool, huh?!
Friday Spotlight: This is something new that I am going to implement in order to share out some of the great things your students are doing and learning in class. Each Friday I will choose 3 students to share something they have learned with the class. Students may choose to read a page out of a challenging book, they may choose to read some sight words, they may choose to read the shared reading, they may choose to complete a challenging math problem, etc. I will be video recording these Friday Spotlights and posting them on our classroom website. Be on the lookout-your student could be the star!!!
**Reminders**
-DEARABBY, Math Log, and Spelling Words went home today in O.W.L binders
-Report Cards will be coming out soon-stayed tuned to find out when!
-Celebrations of Success will be on Friday, November 4th at 12:00
10.27.2011
Thursday, October 27th
I can not even believe tomorrow is Friday! This week has gone by faster than any other probably because we have been so busy in the classroom. I have had such a great time meeting with all of you to discuss your student's progress. It has been so nice to get the opportunity to talk about next steps together as well as talk about all of the wonderful things your little ones are doing in class.
Day and Night: After meeting with some of you this week I have realized that our "trip to outer space" was a big hit this week. Earlier this week we took a trip in our imaginary spaceship to view the Earth and the Sun from outer space. Together we discussed how the world turns, or rotates, on its axis and how this movement creates day and night. Today we discuss the different seasons and touched upon the reason we have our seasons.
Powerpoints: We continue to work on our nocturnal animal powerpoints. The students are really working hard and have really taken ownership over their projects. I can not wait to share this project with everyone- I think you will be very impressed!
Math: Right now we are really diving into place value and number sense. We are looking at numbers from 10-20 and discussing what each digit actually means (ex: in the number 17 we have 1 group of ten and 7 ones). What an important concept to understand! Check out the following website with your student to practice place value: http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/starship/maths/games/place_the_penguin/big_sound/full.shtml
Wishlist Item: I would like to start sending some books home with your students that I KNOW they can read. I would greatly appreciate any gallon size plastic bags to help me with this project. More to come on this...
Tomorrow is Friday!!!
Day and Night: After meeting with some of you this week I have realized that our "trip to outer space" was a big hit this week. Earlier this week we took a trip in our imaginary spaceship to view the Earth and the Sun from outer space. Together we discussed how the world turns, or rotates, on its axis and how this movement creates day and night. Today we discuss the different seasons and touched upon the reason we have our seasons.
Powerpoints: We continue to work on our nocturnal animal powerpoints. The students are really working hard and have really taken ownership over their projects. I can not wait to share this project with everyone- I think you will be very impressed!
Math: Right now we are really diving into place value and number sense. We are looking at numbers from 10-20 and discussing what each digit actually means (ex: in the number 17 we have 1 group of ten and 7 ones). What an important concept to understand! Check out the following website with your student to practice place value: http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/starship/maths/games/place_the_penguin/big_sound/full.shtml
Wishlist Item: I would like to start sending some books home with your students that I KNOW they can read. I would greatly appreciate any gallon size plastic bags to help me with this project. More to come on this...
Tomorrow is Friday!!!
10.25.2011
Tuesday, October 25th
What a beautiful couple of days we have had recently. The kids and I have been enjoying the weather and the incerdible changes taking place just outside our window...Fall is such an intersting season. Speaking of seasons, this is our unit of study this week.
Reading: This week in reading we are focusing on asking and answering what, why, where, when, and who questions before, during, and after we read. We are reading a variety of fiction and nonfiction texts on changing seasons and the things that occur during different seasons. Today we read a book, Time to Sleep, and discussed "hibernation" and what animals hibernate during the winter season.
Our phonics study this week is the silent e, long vowel combination (made, gave, gate,etc.) We are noticing these words everywhere! As you read with your student at home be sure to incorporate looking for words with this pattern.
We are still working on our powerpoint presentations on nocturnal animals. The students are doing such a fabulous job- I just can't wait to share their work with all of you. Coming soon!
Math: We took the pretest for Numbers to 20 today in math. Make sure you are continuing to work on the addition and subtraction facts to 10 as this will help students greatly during this unit. Today we played a number memory match game using words and numbers.
Reminders:
*DEARABBY, Math Log, Spelling Test Friday
Reading: This week in reading we are focusing on asking and answering what, why, where, when, and who questions before, during, and after we read. We are reading a variety of fiction and nonfiction texts on changing seasons and the things that occur during different seasons. Today we read a book, Time to Sleep, and discussed "hibernation" and what animals hibernate during the winter season.
Our phonics study this week is the silent e, long vowel combination (made, gave, gate,etc.) We are noticing these words everywhere! As you read with your student at home be sure to incorporate looking for words with this pattern.
We are still working on our powerpoint presentations on nocturnal animals. The students are doing such a fabulous job- I just can't wait to share their work with all of you. Coming soon!
Math: We took the pretest for Numbers to 20 today in math. Make sure you are continuing to work on the addition and subtraction facts to 10 as this will help students greatly during this unit. Today we played a number memory match game using words and numbers.
Reminders:
*DEARABBY, Math Log, Spelling Test Friday
10.24.2011
Sight Words
Our sight words for this week are the following:
made
green
gave
five
don't
its
goes
found
first
fast
Please make sure you review these words at home with your student! If your student is having trouble with sight words, I suggest making flashcards at home and placing them around the house; a place that is easily accesible by all. Some places to think about posting the words: on the wall by your student's bed, on a mirror that your student uses, on the refirigerator in the kitchen, etc. The more your students sees these words, the quicker they will learn them.
Along with using flashcards, familiarize yourself with the words as well! This way when one of the words comes up in text you can point it out to your student.
made
green
gave
five
don't
its
goes
found
first
fast
Please make sure you review these words at home with your student! If your student is having trouble with sight words, I suggest making flashcards at home and placing them around the house; a place that is easily accesible by all. Some places to think about posting the words: on the wall by your student's bed, on a mirror that your student uses, on the refirigerator in the kitchen, etc. The more your students sees these words, the quicker they will learn them.
Along with using flashcards, familiarize yourself with the words as well! This way when one of the words comes up in text you can point it out to your student.
10.21.2011
Friday, October 21st
Reading: Today we continued our study of fiction/nonfiction books. We discussed features that are usually found in nonfictin text such as photos, captions, and vocabulary words. We read a nonfiction article on owls and learned a lot of cool new information.
New spelling words were sent home today in your students take home folders. Study these over the weekend- the pretest will be on Monday. If your student receives a 100% they do not have to take the test again on Friday!
Math: This week we have really focused on the relationship between addition and subtraction through fact families. Overall, the students have done very well. The only fact family that continues to confuse students is any with a 0 (5,0,5: 5 + 0 = 5; 0 + 5 = 5; 5 - 0 = 5; 5 - 5 = 0). I try to send home a short graded assessment each day- check this to find out how to help your little one!
Science/Writing: We have been working sooooo hard on our nocturnal animals research projects. Almost every group is done with the writing portion of the project so now we are one to creating the powerpoints-FUN! I will be posting the projects as students finish.
Reminders:
**Spelling, DEARABBY, Math Log due on Friday
New spelling words were sent home today in your students take home folders. Study these over the weekend- the pretest will be on Monday. If your student receives a 100% they do not have to take the test again on Friday!
Math: This week we have really focused on the relationship between addition and subtraction through fact families. Overall, the students have done very well. The only fact family that continues to confuse students is any with a 0 (5,0,5: 5 + 0 = 5; 0 + 5 = 5; 5 - 0 = 5; 5 - 5 = 0). I try to send home a short graded assessment each day- check this to find out how to help your little one!
Science/Writing: We have been working sooooo hard on our nocturnal animals research projects. Almost every group is done with the writing portion of the project so now we are one to creating the powerpoints-FUN! I will be posting the projects as students finish.
Reminders:
**Spelling, DEARABBY, Math Log due on Friday
10.20.2011
Nocturnal Animals
This week we have been reading and writing about nocturnal animals. The students have begun a special research project that will be finished within the next week or so (hopefully)! Each student was given a partner and a specific nocturnal animal. The students have been using books and the internet to research and answer important questions on their animal. Once the research is done, the students will be creating powerpoints/podcasts on their special animals. I will be posting the projects as the student finish...so keep an eye out for them on the blog!
Reminders:
**DEARABBY due tomorrow
**New spelling words go out tomorrow
Reminders:
**DEARABBY due tomorrow
**New spelling words go out tomorrow
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