Welcome to first grade
CHECK OUT WHAT WE'VE BEEN DOING! ITS PRETTY AWESOME.
And just like that, we're moving into October! Fall here has been beautiful so far and I hope you all have been enjoying the weather and the last of these later sunsets as much as possible. I know I have! and.. to be honest.. I'm hoping that we can hang on to this Fall weather for a little while longer:) Update on Kickboard: your child should have the same login information as last year- sweet! If you have trouble logging in or need the access code again, please let me know and I will re-print it and send it home. As for the "Kickboard Dollars," in order to participate in our End of the Month Celebrations, they need to have earned 20$ for the month (so 5$ each week). Also, in our class, if they earn their 5$ by the end of the week, I always give them a little "Friday Fun" Celebration in the afternoon (usually a little extra recess, craft time, or games). Unfortunately, if they do not earn their 5$ by the end of the week, or their 20$ by the end of the month, then they are not able to participate in the "celebration." I really try and "pump up the positives" with Kickboard dollars, though, and look for them to change their actions around quickly so I can give them back their dollars right away if they happen to loose one:) In Reading... As our comprehension unit shifted from story elements to sequential retell, we practiced combining what we knew about story elements to drive our retell. We focused on being able to retell a story, in sequence, by finding the most important details that happened in the beginning, stating the characters names, then summarizing the problem and supporting details in the middle of the story, and finally to state the solution and its supporting details in the end. We started by recording our retells verbally, then we transitioned into writing a short summary, listing these important parts. Our verbal retells were great! But now, we need to persevere through the writing in order to translate what we are thinking about our stories into a summary format. This is an ongoing process throughout first grade;) In Writing... Our Small Moments Writing Unit is still going strong! We started by having a rich discussion about what a small moment even is and how we find these in our lives. We shared stories with one another and planned out how we were going to write about these stories. Our stories are off to a slow start because we have been really pushing ourselves to write in our best handwriting, as we are incorporating handwriting lessons throughout the week. Our biggest focus in writing right now is taking our time- slowing down to write neatly, organize our thoughts, and stretch out our letter sounds to form phonetically correct words. This week we will be working on editing our writing to add more detail. Our stories are short right now, but I know that we have so much more to say about these moments! If there is ever time at home, I've been encouraging our class to write some stories at home (their choice on what type of story). I tell them to work independently on this and if they do not know how to spell a word, it's best to encourage them to stretch their sounds out slowly, versus telling them how to spell the word. This will not only help reinforce writing skills we are learning at school, but also promote their problem solving skills in reading. If your child has time to write at home, have them take our their yellow handwriting sheet to remind them to practice correct letter formation. I also have writing paper that I will send home! Let me know, or have your child let me know if they need more. In Math... We are about half way through Module 1. We will be taking a "Mid-Module Assessment" on Monday next week that will assess the skills we have been working on thus far. Before moving forward in Module 1, we need to make sure that we have the necessary foundational skills to build upon throughout the rest of the unit. We have been working hard at counting on to find totals within 10. We have also been working a lot with number stories that ask us to find the missing part or to find the total. When we work with number stories, we are asked to prove our thinking by drawing a picture and writing an equation that matches our picture and the number story itself. As we practice developing our pictures and equations, we start to incorporate more discussion with math buddies as to how we solved, explaining our pictures and thinking and then moving into writing sentences that prove "how we know we are right." In Inquiry (Social Studies Unit 1)... Our "Good Citizens" unit has been going really well. After having great conversations about different communities and what communities we are a part of, we moved into discussing our roles as citizens in these communities. We used a lot of comparing and contrasting skills, which was a great connection to reading. This past week we were able to explore community roles further with some research and then we got to do a small project on our "dream role/job!" This week, we are talking about the leaders in our community, their responsibilities/roles, the characteristics that good leaders possess, and relating this to being a positive role model. Next, we will dive deeper into leaders as we research and explore famous leaders from the past and the present. This will set us up for our Summative Assessment (final project) for our Good Citizens unit, which will be a "poster-esque" project. For this "poster" the first graders will each get (picked out of a hat) a famous leader to research, using a research outline/graphic organizer to help them guide their research and answer important questions, then they will be making a "life-size" poster of their famous leader and present their leader to the class! Important Dates... Thursday, October 3rd: Fire Prevention Presentation Friday, October 4th: Reading Log Celebration (Winners TBD tomorrow morning) Tuesday, October 8th: Chris Anthony Youth Initiative Assembly
0 Comments
The month of September is definitely a challenge for us due to all the testing that needs to take place at the beginning of the year. I am so proud of these little ones for trying their best and staying strong to work through the long tests! By the end of next week, we will have finished all of our testing- yay! These tests include: NWEA math and reading test, which is taken on the computer and tests skills from K-2nd grade, DRA, which is an individual reading test that focuses on fluency and comprehension using a physical book, and the FAST reading test, which focuses more so on phonics skills at the first grade level. Phew- that's a lot, but we're almost there. Wish us luck!
Also, thank you all for making time on Wednesday, the 11th, to get your child to their scheduled testing time. I appreciate your flexibility and to whoever helped you out if help was needed:) In Reading... Our first reading unit is underway! This unit focuses on the comprehension skill: story elements & key details. Last week we introduced what the story elements are (characters, setting, problem and solution). We used various read aloud texts to find these elements together as a whole group. Then, we practiced listening to a read aloud and independently finding these story elements. Moving forward in the unit, we will be introduced to key details and how we determine what was "the most important thing that happened at the beginning, middle and end. This skill helps to build our retelling skills, focusing on and engaging with the story, as well as the beginning steps of summarizing. If there are opportunities where you are reading with your child at home, it would be a great extension to what we have been practicing here at school to ask them to identify who the main character/s are, the setting, problem + solution, and/or asking them to retell the story, starting at the beginning! In Writing... Last week we officially started our first writing unit: Small Moments. This unit will go for about 4 weeks (give or take;)). During this unit, the first grade authors focus on writing a story that we consider a "small moment." For example, a "big moment" would be a story all about what they did over the summer, where a "small moment" would be just a weekend away camping. Being able to hone in on a small moment story sets us up for better success with our goals during this unit. Those goals include: adding more detail to make our stories more exciting and stretching our stories across multiple pages. And, on top of those specific unit goals, our overall goals as first grade writers, is to slow down so that we can write neatly and stretch our sounds out to best spell words we don't know. In Math... Last week we finished Topic A, which was working on put together number stories (adding) to find totals to 6,7,8,9, and 10. and now we are moving onto Topic B! In Topic B, we still continue the work with put together number stories to find totals to ten, but we will be extending our thinking by using number bonds and number expressions to help us see the connection between composing and decomposing numbers. We are also working on using drawings to help us "prove our thinking" and to help us count on accurately to be more successful. The expectation is that our drawings match the story problem and can be understood and are organized. This is a big step for us because it will eventually lead to our math discourse procedures. During the discourse procedures, our class pairs up with partners or in groups and they are expected to explain their thinking and/or work together to share ideas on how to solve the problem at hand. In Inquiry... This month, our inquiry unit is a Social Studies unit and will take us into the first week of October. Our PYP theme is "Who We Are: Good Citizens" with the central idea being "Everything we do affects the world around us." The essential questions we explore this unit are "How do you know if you are a responsible team member?" "How do you know if you are a responsible leader?" "How can individuals make a difference in their community?" and "What qualities do responsible leaders have that create change." To start the unit off, we looked at what communities are, the features of different communities we find in our country and around the world, and then we discussed the types of communities we belong to and how they are different than others. Next, we will be talking about what our roles are in the communities we belong to. Important Dates!... Friday, September 13th: Bulldog Bootcamp (review of school wide expectations) Thursday, September 19th: Bulldog Shuffle (more details to come) Thursday, September 26th: Bus Safety & our End of the Month Celebration (Water balloons- weather permitting) more information about this day will come as we get closer. Friday, September 27th: No school- teacher professional development day |
Hi, families!
|