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!