We had a great week in first grade!
In reading we learned that readers don't just read words, they use strategies to understand them too. We also learned that readers use everything they know to get the job done. We plan to record our voices and make books on tape to share with the kindergarten students. We are really excited! In Fundations, we started Unit 9. We learned all about closed syllables. We know a closed syllable... has only one vowel the vowel sound is short and ends with at least one consonant We also learned the trick words, say and says. In Math, we finished up our unit on place value. We practiced new stations and learned how to show a number in lots of different ways. We are looking forward to starting Data and Probability tomorrow! We had two special visitors last week! Mrs. Rains visited our classroom to share her ukulele skills. She played Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star. We also had a storyteller come to teach us about folktales and fairytales. She told wonderful stories and was quite captivating. The children loved listening to her tales. In the afternoon, students were taught how to plan a true or made up story. Thank you to all that made this visit possible! Please remind your students collections are due: Wednesday, March 27th. Thanks! Below is the notice that went home last week with more details. We are excited to start our Opinion unit! Have a great week! Mary:)
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Hi all!
We had a great week in first grade! We changed our desk arrangement. The groups worked together to decide on a group name. They came up with... The Scorpions The BIG listening club The Bubblegums They really enjoyed naming their groups! In reading we learned that readers make movies in their minds as they read. We practiced during read aloud. I read a story out loud without showing the illustrations. We stopped frequently to share what our movie looked like. We also learned that keeping track of who is talking is really important. We can understand the story even more, if we pay attention to the characters and what they say to each other. During math, we are working on adding and subtracting using the number line with larger numbers. We are practicing using 4 stations that we rotate through during math. Most of the activities are hands-on. The students enjoy the tasks, as well as the responsibility of working together in small learning teams. In writing, we have chosen our teaching book to publish. We are just putting the finishing touches on our cover pages. We will share this week with friends from other classrooms to celebrate. In Fundations, we took our Unit 8 assessment on Thursday. We are experts at finding blends in our reading! On to Unit 9 today. Check your child's folder for information and suggestions for at home practice this afternoon. A big thank you to Michael (Caleb's dad) and Linda and Carlos (Reagan's parents) for coming in to be awesome mystery readers! Please let me know if you are interested! We are looking forward to a great week together! Hi everyone!
We are very busy in first grade! Below are some highlights! Mrs. Sullivan came into our classroom to share about her trip to China. We had three mystery readers! Thanks Jeff Engle, Emma Kenneally and Caryn Manning for coming in to read to us. Please feel free to email me if you would like to come in and be a mystery reader. In writing, we are starting to publish our teaching books. Today students worked on making covers for their stories. Next week, we will send home all of our teaching book writing. Also, we will share our teaching books with a few other classes. It's so fun for the children to celebrate their hard work! In math, we are continuing to learn about place value. This week we connected tens and ones to dimes and pennies, as well as to telling time to the half hour. We learned several new math games including:
We are having lots of fun in our math groups working and learning together. In reading, we are learning to be the Boss of our Reading. We are learning new habits for solving hard words. We are working on asking the following questions as we read:
In Fundations we learned that words that have blends include four sounds. We are practicing tapping words using all four fingers. We added would, could, should and over to our massive trick word pile. Have a wonderful weekend! Mary Hi everyone!
Our week was great in first grade! Below are some highlights: In reading, we wrapped up our nonfiction unit. To celebrate our success, we invited a second grade class to come and listen to our reading. It was awesome! All of the kids were proud to share their skills and read like an expert to an older student. In writing, we continued to work on our teaching books. Students worked on adding details to their writing. We also practiced using keywords, just like the ones we see in our reading. I introduced an editing checklist which they practiced using on one of their finished pieces. In math, we are working on place value. We are learning how to build numbers using base 10 blocks. Today I gave the students a value and they would build the number and then make a design with the blocks. It was so fun! We also learned all new games for our math centers! In Fundations, we learned the -nk glued sounds this week. We also added the trick words put and two to our growing pile! We practiced through our center work and learned several new games. We used magnifying glasses to find teeny, tiny trick words, -ng words and -nk words. We walked around the classroom to find fill in the blank sentences. The students had to pick the best trick word to complete the sentence. We played trick word BINGO, which was definitely a favorite. We made silly sentences and we played Four in a Row with -ng and -nk words. We also had Leslie, Lily and Abby as mystery readers! Thank you again for coming in to visit! Everyone is working so hard and we are having lots of fun! I hope you all have a wonderful weekend! Stay warm and GO PATS! Mary :) Hi everyone!
First grade is a busy place these days! From center work to math must dos our classroom routines are in full swing. I have to apologize that notices for our new math unit on cross number puzzles and Fundations unit 6 didn't go home during our transition to one classroom teacher. I will send home the unit 6 practice packet with the corrected assessment tomorrow. I'm so sorry about that mix up! We have started a new kindness project in our classroom and the children are very excited about it! It all started when we read a book called, Kindness is Cooler, Mrs. Ruler. The main message of the story is, "A slice of nice makes a mile of smiles." We are noticing acts of kindness throughout our day and recording them on hearts to hang them up in the classroom. You also may have received a notice home about the act of kindness you child did. Kindness and treating each other well is definitely something to be celebrated! Other things we are up to... We learned a new song and added it to our poetry binder. It's a peaceful and fun song about the moon. It's called Moon Moon Moon, by the Laurie Berkner Band. In Math we learned about cross number puzzles. We practiced our addition facts and strategies for adding efficiently. We also learned how to use the number line to figure out a missing addend. Our trick words for this week are: try, why, by and my. We are reading and writing nonfiction right now and loving it! We learned how to plan and write teaching books. We learned that we have to think about questions our readers may have about our topic. We are working on teaming up with a partner to get some new ideas about writing. We learned that good partners, listen carefully, allow their friend to speak and comment when they are finished. They are doing a great job practicing these skills. In reading we learned that nonfiction readers pay attention to key words and work hard to figure out the meaning. We don't give up on tricky key words and we use different strategies to try to word solve. In Fundations, we learned about the suffix-s and how it can make two sounds at the end of the word. In Fundations, we just started to learn new glued sounds. This week we are working with -ng glued sounds. (ang, ong, ing, ung) Next week, we will learn the -nk sounds. (ank, onk, ink unk) Hoping everyone is having a great start to the New Year! We are looking forward to our 100th day celebration on Friday, Feb. 8th. I can't quite believe it is just around the corner. Enjoy the rest of the week and I'll be in touch soon! Mary We hope everyone enjoyed the Thanksgiving break! It's always nice to take some time to reflect on what we are thankful for.
We are thankful for all of your lovely children! They are a pleasure to teach each day! We had a busy week in first grade! Here are some of the highlights... In reading we learned... Word Detectives... -pay special attention to the beginning of words -break off the endings of tricky words...ed, ing, s -notice when two vowels are side by side -use word parts they know to solve tricky words We also started center work in Reading Workshop and the kids are super excited! Ask your child to share with you their favorite activity. We hope everyone had a chance to explore the math games we sent home last week. We use math games during our station work each day to help practice and reinforce important skills. Ask your child if they have a favorite. We learned the parts of a clock and the following vocabulary... -analog -digital -hour hand -minute hand -face We also learned to tell time to the hour. We read Mrs. Rumphius and retold the story as a class using pictures. We wrote about our favorite part and drew a picture. Later in the week, we wrote about how we can make the world more beautiful. We also read, How to Babysit a Grandpa and How to Babysit a Grandma in preparation of our upcoming mini-unit on how to writing. The kids really enjoyed these stories. We are preparing to wrap up our personal narrative writing unit. The children chose their favorite writing piece to publish. This week they will make cover pages and on Friday we will invite the other first grade classes in to read our stories and celebrate all of our hard work! Let's have another great week! Hi Everyone!
The past few weeks have been filled with fun and learning in first grade! We enjoyed an awesome Fall Solstice party. Thank you again to all parent volunteers! We also participated in the Understanding Different Abilities program. We hope that everyone enjoys the Thanksgiving break with family and friends! Here are some highlights from the past few weeks... We had a Fall Solstice party. We learned to Try it 2 Ways in our reading. If the short vowel sound doesn't make sense when solving a tricky word, try the long vowel sound. In Writing Workshop, we learned the difference between a watermelon story and a seed story. The students have a partner for buddy reading time. We have learned some different ways to talk about our reading with a friend. We practiced introducing our book before reading. We learned the parts of a seed and studied the life cycle of a plant. We learned different ways to practice our trick words like, rainbow words, and roll and write. We worked with number bonds and ten frames. We created fall leaves and wrote what we are thankful for. We learned to be word detectives. We even got our own word detective badges! Some ways we can be word detectives include: -Notice problems and stop to fix it -Look CLOSELY at ALL parts of the word -Read words in a snap -Scoop up words to make their reading sound smooth We learned to unfreeze are characters in our writing. Make them move and talk. We learned to tell our stories in Itsy-Bitsy steps. In Math, we learned to compare two numbers using greater than, less than and equal to. We learned the digraphs, ch, sh, wh, th and ck. We learned two new math games. We introduced our center ticket for reading workshop. We started bonus letters in Fundations. We made a Friendship Fruit salad-it was delicious! Thank you Stacey Nathanson for sharing your terrific photos from the Fall Solstice party. We really appreciate it! Here is the link... https://photos.shutterfly.com/story_invite/5e50404c-70a9-4433-9e00-11c85f10edfe/full/54171033727 Hello all!
We hope you are having a great start to the week. Just wanted to update you on what we have been up to in first grade. We learned about sharing at morning meeting. Please encourage your child to sign up to share. If students choose to bring an item in, we would ask for it to be something made, a photograph or a favorite book. We can't wait to hear from your child! Mrs. Sullivan visited our classroom to teach us how to think about how other people are feeling. We learned and practiced using strategies to solve tricky words in our reading. We learned to check the picture, look at all parts of the word, check if it makes sense and looks right and trying it two ways (the short vowel sound and the long vowel sound). We used OSMO on the Ipads in the computer lab with Mrs. Martell. It was fantastic! The students explored tangrams and did a wonderful job working cooperatively. We are wrapping up Unit 2 of Fundations this week. The students continue to tap and blend three letter words. We will be sending home the assessment on Friday. We worked with number bonds in math. We are using number bonds to create addition and subtraction number sentences. Students learned about the commutative property. We continue to write stories about our lives. We learned how to stretch out words and write the sounds that we hear. Hi everyone! The last couple of weeks have been filled with fun and learning! Below are some highlights from our time together...
We made fall leaves on the IPADs. We are learning how to read with a reading buddy. How can we grow our understanding together? We are working on rereading to smooth out our voices. We learned two October poems and Make New Friends. Ask your child to sing you the Months of the Year poem. We are working on reading with our eyes to scoop up more words. It helps us read more smoothly and with better expression. This helps us understand our books even better. We learned a strategy to plan our stories. It is touch and tell, sketch then write. Ask your child to tell you what they are writing in writing workshop! We had our first Fundations check in. We started Unit 2 in Fundations and we are learning to tap and blend to read and write consonant vowel consonant words. We learned to how to pick up good habits and drop bad habits in reading. We learned to use the picture and all parts of the word to solve tricky words in our reading. We reached 20 minutes of independent reading on our stamina chart! This is a HUGE accomplishment! We learned the Five Little Pumpkins poem. We observed our caterpillar and now the chrysalis. We are crossing our fingers that all goes well and we have two butterflies to release some time this week! We also watched a cool time lapse video of a caterpillar transforming into a chrysalis. We switched jobs. Ask your child what their classroom job is. We learned about number bonds and practiced different ways to build and take apart numbers over 10. We learned two new math games to practice math facts. Hope you all enjoyed your weekend! We are looking forward to another great week in first grade! We had a wonderful week working and learning together. Here are some highlights. Have a great, restful weekend!
Molly-We got up to 11 minutes on the stamina chart. Maya-We shared our writing workshop folders. Jayden-We had art this week and we finished our self portraits. Lucas-We have new math games. Myles-We had P.E. Shepard-At P.E. we balanced feathers on our fingers and palms. Rhys-In P.E. we played hot potato. Aaron-We went to Spanish and we played four corners. Daniel-We had a visit from the Needham Public Library and they gave us vouchers for McDonalds. Cianne-In P.E. we played knock down the cones and some of us picked up the cones. Paige-We read up to 11 minutes for reading. Micah-We opened three new reading boxes. Ben-We did gonoodle during morning meeting. Reagan-We did the Cotton Eyed Joe in music. Caleb-In Music we learned a new dance. Isabella-In Music the dance was so fast. Karen-We had a read aloud called, Have Fun Molly Lou Melon. Teddy-In Fundations we practiced v and w. Matthew-We got our folders for reading. Emily-We took two books out at Media Siddharth-Mrs. Mullin read us a story. Eliana-In Media we read a book called Show and Tell Bunny. Akhil-In the morning we have morning journals and we have name tags and a space for pictures. |
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