Happy New Year

Happy New Year Families,

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and that you're ready to begin 2014! We will take the first 2 days back at school to review procedures for everything. Please help out by reminding your child to turn in papers each morning. I do not look in their folders on a regular bases. This is one of the many procedures we will be revisiting. We will begin our new math topic on Geometry. This should be a fun unit, and we want to keep practicing our adding and subtracting too. :-) We will be working on making connections to text in reading and reviewing our word families.

I'm looking forward to seeing everyone on Thursday!

Weekly Update

Hello  Families,

We had an exciting week filled with many fun activities. See my previous blog updates for our photos!  I will update our blog with academic information in the upcoming week or so. Two practice packets were sent home. The packets are intended to be a little each day or so to help prevent regression over the time off. Please continue reading, and practicing addition facts and sight words daily.

I wish you all a very merry Christmas and happy New Year!

Happy Birthday

Happy Day After Christmas Birthday,

Sawyer!!

 

 

 

 

Oh What a Morning!

We had a jam packed morning of fun! First our Mystery Reader (Miss Grimes's dad) was revealed at 9:30. Then we celebrated Emma's birthday. Finally, we were able to make our beautiful snowflakes! Thank you to all of our parents and grandparents that were able to help us today! We couldn't have done it without you!

Mystery Reader reading Twas the Night Before Christmas.

 

Happy Birthday Emma!

 

 

Snowflake Making

 









Mystery Reader

I missed you today! I did not forget about our 2nd Mystery Reader clue. The clue is, "My name is spelled the same way forward and backward." You will get the 3rd clue in the morning and our Mystery Reader will arrive at 9:45.

Weekly Update

Hello Families,

Thank goodness for warmer temperatures! We were finally able to get out for recess on Thursday and Friday this week. We’re working hard at getting ready quickly for recess and at the end of the day. Please help your child by practicing at home in this order: snow pants, boots, jacket, scarf, hat, mittens. We keep scarves and hats inside of the jacket sleeve and mittens in the baskets above the hooks.

Math

We are working hard on our basic subtraction facts. Fewer than by 0, 1, and 2 has been tricky for some. Please use “fewer than” in your daily conversations at home if possible. For example, “I have 2 fewer oranges than I need. I need 5. How many do I have?” Remind that fewer is that same as less and it is the number taken away in a subtraction problem. We learned how addition and subtraction is related and that knowing our addition facts can help us figure out a subtraction problem quicker. This concept is tricky for some also. You can practice this at home with actual objects like marbles, candy, coins etc. We will have the assessment on Wednesday and begin a unit on geometry when we return from winter break.

Reading Workshop

This week we learned how our schema helps us understand non-fiction text. We know that good readers think about the schema they have on a topic before reading, and they keep track of the new schema as they read. Good readers also read over and over and over when reading about something which they have no schema about. Good readers also realize then they have misconceptions in their schema and they delete those files and replace with the correct information.

Good Fit Books

Most children at this age have trouble identifying good fit books independently. Please be sure your child is reading good fit books at home. If they are hard to find the little books that come home every few days are perfect! J

***Look for the following characteristics when helping your child find a "just right" book: It is read not too fast, but not too slow. He/she knows all or most of the words. The topic is age appropriate.***

Writer’s Workshop

Everybody should have turned in their first draft of their personal narrative story. Each student worked with me on the beginning of their story. As they dictated I wrote the first part for them. They then needed to copy that and add the middle and ending independently. These will be edited and final copies will be written sometime in January. We’ve come a long was as writers! J

This Week I Really Learned!

I hope you’re enjoying your child’s T.W.I.R.L. journals. We love reading your letters each week.  Students are more motivated to write when they know they will receive a letter back. Even a short letter is better than no letter at all. Thank you for taking the time to write each week. J

Word Workshop

We worked on 3-letter beginning blends this week. Help your child notice words that use 3-letter blends like street, stripe, squint, scrap, skip.

Grammar

We learned that days of the week, months of the year, and holidays are all capitalized all of the time. Encourage your child to transfer this information into any writing they do.

Special Events

Next week we will enjoy some festive activities. Wednesday we will make a special project that your child will bring home to you on Friday. Thursday is our snowflake making morning. Thank you for to everyone who is able to join us. I will send a letter home with the exact time and information early next week. Friday is our Polar Express day. Your child is welcome to come to school in jammies and we’ll enjoy hot chocolate while we watch the movie. J

Enjoy your weekend!

 

Happy Half Birthday!

Alexis!

 

Weekly Update

Hello Families,

I hope you’re all surviving the cold! We’ve had two consecutive days of indoor recess, and we’re feeling a little restless. Hopefully some warmer weather will come our way next week, so the kids can enjoy the new snow. J

Math

We reviewed topics 1-4 and had an assessment on all of the material. These will be coming home next week. An “M” means your child has a solid understanding of the material and is on target for understanding upcoming math skills. A “P” means that your child has a partial understand of the material. A “D” means your child is struggling with the concepts in these units and does not meet expectations. While I work with small groups daily, I’m not able to get to every child every day that needs extra help. You can help at home by: reworking missed problems on assessments and in class work, making up similar problems, add, subtract, and compare numbers in everyday situations, and use math academic language. (greater than, less than, in between, subtract, addition, addend, difference.)

Reading Workshop

We are learning about our schema and how good readers use their schema to help them think about and understand what they read. Our schema helped us understand a story about a little girl trying to deliver a package in a winter blizzard. We know that we were able to imagine how Irene felt in the story, because we have a thick schema file on snow and winter! J We always want to be building our schema. This is best done by reading, reading, reading!

Good Fit Books

Most children at this age have trouble identifying good fit books independently. Please be sure your child is reading good fit books at home. If they are hard to find the little books that come home every few days are perfect! J

***Look for the following characteristics when helping your child find a "just right" book: It is read not too fast, but not too slow. He/she knows all or most of the words. The topic is age appropriate.***

Writer’s Workshop

We are working hard on our drafts of our stories. We’re still working on identifying a story instead of something we like to do. Practice telling stories at home about funny, sad, or scary things that have happened.

This Week I Really Learned!

I hope you’re enjoying your child’s T.W.I.R.L. journals. We love reading your letters each week.  Students are more motivated to write when they know they will receive a letter back. Even a short letter is better than no letter at all. Thank you for taking the time to write each week. J

Word Workshop

We reviewed beginning and ending blends last week. Ending consonant clusters were difficult for many children. Watch for words ending in nk, ng, ft, lp, lt, and mp when reading with your child. Ask him/her to say the ending cluster with and without the vowel before it. Next week we will start learning about three letter beginning clusters.

Grammar

We learned how to identify and capitalize proper nouns. This is a skills that needs to transfer to real writing. Encourage your child to write letters and thank you letters and challenge them to capitalize all proper nouns.

Volunteers Needed

If you have a super duper pencil sharpener at home and are willing to sharpen classroom pencils for us, please let me know, and I will send them home with your child. There is no hurry, and would help us out a lot!

I would like to do a 3-dimensional snowflake project. The snowflakes are easy to make once you learn, but would be difficult for first graders to do it all by themselves. I’m wondering how many parents we could get to come in on Thursday, December 19 from 10:00 – 11:50 to help our little hands cut, fold, and tape. Please let me know if you could help out. It would be great to have one adult per child if possible. (Aunts, uncles, grandmas, and grandpas are welcome to, but please no other children.)

Enjoy your weekend!

 

Birthdays

Happy birthday Anahi,

 and happy half birthday, Xavier!

 

 

Weekly Update

 

Hello Families,

I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving and enjoyed the time with family and friends. Five days seems like a long time to be away from school. I’m excited to be back with the kiddos tomorrow. J

Math

We finished our introduction unit on subtraction. The assessment was given on Wednesday before break. Because it is the end of the trimester, we will be reassessing this topic and changes will be shown in trimester 2 on the report card. It’s important that students be able to add and subtract based on the information in story problems as well as pay attention to the addition and subtraction signs.

Reading Workshop

We have finished with our retelling unit. This is a skill that should be practiced every time a child finishes a book; whether it is read to him or her or read independently. A fiction retell includes characters, setting, problem, solution, beginning, middle, and end. A non-fiction retell includes the main idea and facts that go with the main idea.

We are beginning our unit on schema this week. Our schema is a file cabinet in our brains that holds everything we know and all experiences we’ve had. Reading comprehension can be directly related to the amount of schema we have. We always want to be building our schema. This is best done by reading, reading, reading!

Good Fit Books

Most children at this age have trouble identifying good fit books independently. Please be sure your child is reading good fit books at home. If they are hard to find the little books that come home every few days are perfect! J

***Look for the following characteristics when helping your child find a "just right" book: It is read not too fast, but not too slow. He/she knows all or most of the words. The topic is age appropriate.***

Writer’s Workshop

We are working on drafting our personal narrative story. This week we will record our characters, setting, beginning, middle, and end on a story mountain.

 

This Week I Really Learned!

I hope you’re enjoying your child’s T.W.I.R.L. journals. We love reading your letters each week.  Students are more motivated to write when they know they will receive a letter back. Even a short letter is better than no letter at all. Thank you for taking the time to write each week. J

Word Workshop

We reviewed beginning and ending blends last week. Ending consonant clusters were difficult for many children. Watch for words ending in nk, ng, ft, lp, lt, and mp when reading with your child. Ask him/her to say the ending cluster with and without the vowel before it. This week we will start learning about three letter beginning clusters.

Grammar

We continued talking about plural nouns. Regular plural nouns add an s to the end of the word; dog = dogs. Nouns that end in s, x, ch, sh, and z require es to be added to the end; church = churches. Nouns that end with fe need to be changed to ve and add an s: knife = knives. Some nouns don’t change at all: deer = deer, and some nouns completely change: die = dice. Watch for these when reading with your child and point them out.

 

Volunteers Needed

If you have a super duper pencil sharpener at home and are willing to sharpen classroom pencils for us, please let me know, and I will send them home with your child. There is no hurry, and would help us out a lot!

I would like to do a 3-dimensional snowflake project. The snowflakes are easy to make once you learn, but would be difficult for first graders to do it all by themselves. I’m wondering how many parents we could get to come in on Thursday, December 19 from 10:00 – 11:50 to help our little hands cut, fold, and tape. Please let me know if you could help out. It would be great to have one adult per child if possible. (Aunts, uncles, grandmas, and grandpas are welcome to, but please no other children.)

Enjoy your week!

 

Exciting Day in First Grade

Today we had an All School Meeting and two special visitors.

Mrs.Thomson read us a story called, "My Mouth is a Volcano." We learned why it's important to not interrupt others or blurt out during class. We also made reminder cards with a red and green side. The red side says, "button up" and the green side says, "Speak for a reason."



Our Mystery Reader was also revealed. Mr. Sonju took time out of his busy day to read us a fun Thanksgiving story called, "The Ugly Pumpkin." We promised him that we would read every day over Thanksgiving break.



Our Mystery Reader is Coming tomorrow!

Our Mystery Reader will be coming at 1:00 tomorrow. Here are all 6 clues from this mysterious person:

1. Always go double!
2. GSL has the greatest students of all time!
3. "Get to"
4. I'll see you at the bus.
5. I love to play golf.
6. I have 3 children.

Weekly Update

We've been reviewing and assessing most of the week. I will send out a detailed weekly update at the end of next week, which is also the end of the first trimester! Have a fantastic weekend!

 

Our Mystery Reader's 5th clue is:

"I love to play golf."

Mystery Reader Clues

Our first 3 clues from our November Mystery Reader are:

 

Students are GSL are the "Greatest of all time."

I have 3 children.

"Always go double."

We're a Thankful Bunch of Little Turkeys!

Weekly Update

Hello Families,

We’ve had a great week in 1^st grade! We are becoming better readers, writers and mathematicians each day. Thank you for doing all you do at home to support our learning at school. We are officially over halfway to the 100^th day of school! J

 

 

Math

Subtraction is being introduced by finding the missing part of a number. We have learned to find the missing part of 6, 7, 8, and 9. We call the sum “the whole” and the number shown is the “part I know.” Next week we will learn to write subtraction number sentences. We are also making progress with our daily math facts. Students should be able to pass + 0, +1, and +2 by this time in the year. Please practice at home if adding is still tricky. Soon we will be practicing 50 mixed addition problems in 5 minutes. Students will only be responsible for sums as  high as 12 on these assessments.

Reading Workshop

Our readers are struggling bit with identifying the main idea in non-fiction books. This is a tricky, but very important concept. I’ve found it helpful to identify the title, the topic of the book, and then identify the main idea after reading the book. For example: In a book titled “Spiders” the title is “Spiders”, the topic is spiders, and the main idea was “Spiders are amazing.” This is because all of the facts in the book tell amazing things about spiders.  

We will finish our retelling unit next week and begin our unit on schema the following week.

Good Fit Books

Most children at this age have trouble identifying good fit books independently. Please be sure your child is reading good fit books at home. If they are hard to find the little books that come home every few days are perfect! J

***Look for the following characteristics when helping your child find a "just right" book: It is read not too fast, but not too slow. He/she knows all or most of the words. The topic is age appropriate.***

Writer’s Workshop

We are making a transition from telling a sentence to telling a story. Ask your child about their heart list of people, places, and objects. J Our writers are now using personal spelling dictionaries during writing time. They can use  it to find words that are already in it, or ask for help during their small group and we’ll add word to their books.

This Week I Really Learned!

This week we brainstormed what we learned in a T.W.I.R.L. web. Each student was required to write at least one sentence on his/her own and show evidence of the learning. We also are following the friendly letter format. Each week your child’s letter should have the date, a greeting, a sentence or 2, a closing, and a signature. We’ll work on placement later. For now we just want all of the part of the friendly letter in the letter. J From now on the line leader of the week will be taking our class T.W.I.R.L. chart home. J Thank you for taking time to write to your child. Please try to write back to your child whenever possible. They love hearing your letters during snack time.

Word Workshop

This week we worked with words with final s blends. We practiced 3,4, and 5 letter words. Our 5 letter words began with a blend and ended with an s blend. Examples are crisp and blast. Students are doing well with our phonics program.

Grammar

We learned about plural nouns this week. It is important that your child knows and can use the word “plural.” We also learned that nouns that end is s, x, ch, and sh need an es instead of just an s to make it plural.

 

Enjoy your weekend!

Breaking News

 

I've just confirmed our November Mystery Reader. This person will visit on Tuesday, November 26. Who could it be this month? Your first clue will be given on Tuesday, November 19. This Mystery Reader gave us 6 clues!

Happy Birthday!

 

 

 

 

  David!

 



Weekly Update

Hello Families,

I hope everyone is enjoying the snow! Thank you for sending snow pants, boots, hats, mittens, and shoes to change into when the boots come off! J

Math

We finished our unit on adding facts with sums up to 12. Topic 5 assessments will be coming home next week. We will launch into subtraction next week! Please keep practicing addition facts at home.

Reading Workshop

We are now working on retelling fiction books. Finding the main idea can be tricky. We are practicing with simple non-fiction books. Your child should be able to tell you that a non-fiction retell includes the main idea, facts, new words, and new learning.

Good Fit Books

Most children at this age have trouble identifying good fit books independently. Please be sure your child is reading good fit books at home. If they are hard to find the little books that come home every few days are perfect! J

***Look for the following characteristics when helping your child find a "just right" book: It is read not too fast, but not too slow. He/she knows all or most of the words. The topic is age appropriate.***

Writer’s Workshop

We are making a transition from telling a sentence to telling a story. Ask your child about their heart list of people, places, and objects. J

Word Workshop

This week we worked with words with s blends. These words are referred to as CVCC words. This means the vowel (V) says the short sound. The first CV blend together. Each individual sound is heard, but the words should be decoded saying the blend together.

This Week I Really Learned!

This week we brainstormed what we learned in a T.W.I.R.L. web. Each student was required to write at least one sentence on his/her own and show evidence of the learning. We also are following the friendly letter format. Each week your child’s letter should have the date, a greeting, a sentence or 2, a closing, and a signature. We’ll work on placement later. For now we just want all of the part of the friendly letter in the letter. J From now on the line leader of the week will be taking our class T.W.I.R.L. chart home. J Thank you for taking time to write to your child. Please try to write back to your child whenever possible. They love hearing your letters during snack time.

Practice Packets

I apologize for the incorrect answer on one of the math pages in last week’s packet. Thank you for noticing and bringing it to my attention. I appreciate your attention to these weekly review packets. Grammar and word work is now being included each week. These pages are practice from the skills taught that week in school. The math is a spiral review which covers material from kindergarten up through our current skills. Because we skipped a topic occasionally there is a subtraction problem. Students should try is, but not worry about it if it’s too difficult right now.

Enjoy your weekend!

Weekly Update

Hello Families,

Welcome to November! The year is going quickly. We’ll be reaching our 100^th day before we know it! Thank you for attending your child’s conference. If you need to make up your child’s conference please contact me as soon as possible. Also, please remember that if your child was on target at conference times, it doesn’t necessarily mean they will be at the end of the trimester. We were using beginning of the year data, and expectations jump quickly in first grade. Please contact me if you ever have any questions.

Math

Our focus is ADDING. We are learning different strategies for learning our facts to sums of 12. If your child doesn’t understand one of the strategies, it is okay as long as they have a different way to find the sum accurately. Some strategies work great for some, and not so well for others.

Reading Workshop

We are becoming retelling experts. Your child should now be able to retell any story using a 5-finger retell (characters, setting, beginning, middle, and end), and do a SWBS summary (someone, wanted, but, so). A SWBS summary helps children identify the problem and solution in a story. For example in the story Cinderella, Cinderella wanted to go to the ball to meet the prince, but the evil step mother and step sisters stopped her. So, her fairy Godmother came and turned her into a princess. The but is the problem and the so is the solution. A good retell will include the problem in the beginning or middle, and the solution in the end. Next week we will learn about sequencing events and retelling non-fiction.

Good Fit Books

Most children at this age have trouble identifying good fit books independently. Please be sure your child is reading good fit books at home. If they are hard to find the little books that come home every few days are perfect! J

***Look for the following characteristics when helping your child find a "just right" book: It is read not too fast, but not too slow. He/she knows all or most of the words. The topic is age appropriate.***

Writer’s Workshop

We are making progress on taking risks with our spelling. Now we’re getting stuck thinking of ideas to write about. One strategy we used was to list important people in our lives and think of times we have spent with them. We are working towards telling stories instead of writing one sentence about something we like to do. Just like reading, we’re all in different places with our writing. Each child is being pushed and instructed at his/her own level during their group time once per week.

Word Workshop

This week we worked with words with r blends. These words are referred to as CVCC words. This means the vowel (V) says the short sound. The first CV blend together. Each individual sound is heard, but the words should be decoded saying the blend together. For example, frog should be segmented: fr og, because they know the fr blend and they know the og wrods family. Children should be spelling these words the same way.

This Week I Really Learned!

This week we brainstormed what we learned in a T.W.I.R.L. web. Each student was required to write at least one sentence on his/her own. We also are following the friendly letter format. Each week your child’s letter should have the date, a greeting, a sentence or 2, a closing, and a signature. We’ll work on placement later. For now we just want all of the part of the friendly letter in the letter. J From now on the line leader of the week will be taking our class T.W.I.R.L. chart home. J Thank you for taking time to write to your child. Please try to write back to your child whenever possible. They love hearing your letters during snack time.

Practice Packets

Grammar and word work is now being included each week. These pages are practice from the skills taught that week in school. The math is a spiral review which covers material from kindergarten up through our current skills. Because we skipped a topic occasionally there is a subtraction problem. Students should try is, but not worry about it if it’s too difficult right now.

Enjoy your weekend!