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!