I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving Break with their families. I enjoyed meeting with each of you during conferences and sharing all that your first grader has learned and their goals for the new trimester! I know you're as proud of their hard work as I am.
It was a quick week with the snow day on Monday and our playground here at school is much more tempting now that it is covered in snow! To support your child with all of their snow gear please make sure you remember to send your child with the following 5 items so they can play in the snow: hat, gloves, coat, snow pants, and boots. If they are missing one of these items they have to play on the blacktop to ensure they don't get too wet. Also, students should be able to independently get into their snow gear in about 5 minutes. Time your child for fun and have them try to beat their time for practice at home. Additionally, our class ends the day with P.E. or Music 4 days of the week. We need to haul all of the winter gear along with our packed up backpacks to those locations at the end of the day so we can be on time to our dismissal location. It would be extremely helpful if your first grader kept a large reusable bag in their backpack to move their stuff to these locations at the end of the day. (Think reusable grocery bag size.) I am worried that some of the kids' items will get lost if they don't have a place to put them. The paper bags are ok, but with wet stuff they are beginning to tear. Thanks for your support with this!
Before break we were able to have Mrs. Kaiserman come in as our mystery reader to share a story with the class! The class enjoyed guessing who was coming in and hearing the story.
It was a quick week with the snow day on Monday and our playground here at school is much more tempting now that it is covered in snow! To support your child with all of their snow gear please make sure you remember to send your child with the following 5 items so they can play in the snow: hat, gloves, coat, snow pants, and boots. If they are missing one of these items they have to play on the blacktop to ensure they don't get too wet. Also, students should be able to independently get into their snow gear in about 5 minutes. Time your child for fun and have them try to beat their time for practice at home. Additionally, our class ends the day with P.E. or Music 4 days of the week. We need to haul all of the winter gear along with our packed up backpacks to those locations at the end of the day so we can be on time to our dismissal location. It would be extremely helpful if your first grader kept a large reusable bag in their backpack to move their stuff to these locations at the end of the day. (Think reusable grocery bag size.) I am worried that some of the kids' items will get lost if they don't have a place to put them. The paper bags are ok, but with wet stuff they are beginning to tear. Thanks for your support with this!
Before break we were able to have Mrs. Kaiserman come in as our mystery reader to share a story with the class! The class enjoyed guessing who was coming in and hearing the story.
Literacy
This week we were introduced to a supporting text titled Hunter's Money Jar. We focused on close reading questions and finding text evidence to support our answers. We also worked on several different comprehension strategies with this text including describing character traits. Students are still learning the difference between outside traits (things you can see like hair color) and the inside traits (things you know based on how the character acts and what they say). Below is a graphic organizer we filled out as a class to practice identifying character traits. To reinforce this skill at home ask your child to describe the characters in the stories they are reading at home by both their inside traits and outside traits. Have your child begin to make a list with all the adjectives they can think of that would describe a character (kind, friendly, brave, thoughtful, lazy, sneaky, wild, etc.).
This week we were introduced to a supporting text titled Hunter's Money Jar. We focused on close reading questions and finding text evidence to support our answers. We also worked on several different comprehension strategies with this text including describing character traits. Students are still learning the difference between outside traits (things you can see like hair color) and the inside traits (things you know based on how the character acts and what they say). Below is a graphic organizer we filled out as a class to practice identifying character traits. To reinforce this skill at home ask your child to describe the characters in the stories they are reading at home by both their inside traits and outside traits. Have your child begin to make a list with all the adjectives they can think of that would describe a character (kind, friendly, brave, thoughtful, lazy, sneaky, wild, etc.).
Additionally, we worked on the following vocabulary words during the story: Hunter's Money Jar Vocabulary PDF.
Writing
This week students were eager to engage in personal narrative units connected to our supporting text Hunter's Money Jar. Students learned that it is important to focus on a "tiny seed" topic instead of a "big watermelon topic". We are also calling these "small moments". Students identified that when a writer stretches a "tiny seed" moment over several pages of the book many more interesting details can be added to the story. With a "watermelon topic" the story either goes on and on or provides very little detail to make the story interesting. Our class discovered he was able to do this by adding lots of details to his story. First graders were challenged to choose to write a story about a time they had to make a choice (just like the character did in Hunter's Money Jar) but to focus on a "small moment" from their story when writing. They practiced planning before they began writing by "touching the pages and telling out loud their plan", then doing a sketch on each page so they remembered what they planned, and finally writing it down. You can reinforce this skill at home by having you child zoom into a moment and tell all the details in sequence.
This week students were eager to engage in personal narrative units connected to our supporting text Hunter's Money Jar. Students learned that it is important to focus on a "tiny seed" topic instead of a "big watermelon topic". We are also calling these "small moments". Students identified that when a writer stretches a "tiny seed" moment over several pages of the book many more interesting details can be added to the story. With a "watermelon topic" the story either goes on and on or provides very little detail to make the story interesting. Our class discovered he was able to do this by adding lots of details to his story. First graders were challenged to choose to write a story about a time they had to make a choice (just like the character did in Hunter's Money Jar) but to focus on a "small moment" from their story when writing. They practiced planning before they began writing by "touching the pages and telling out loud their plan", then doing a sketch on each page so they remembered what they planned, and finally writing it down. You can reinforce this skill at home by having you child zoom into a moment and tell all the details in sequence.
Math
This week students continued working on addition strategies to improve their fact fluency. Students have started to learn the relationship between addition and subtraction during our math games this week and by using the number rack as a visual. Students have also learned how to compare two different numbers by subtracting to find the difference (ex: 5 red crayons, 7 blue crayons- there are 2 more blue than red 7-5=2). Additionally, our class began working on the following math common core standard:
1.OA.D.8 Determine the unknown whole number in an addition or subtraction equation relating three whole numbers. For example, determine the unknown number that makes the equation true in each of the equations 8 + ? = 11, 5 = _ – 3, 6 + 6 = _.
Student Friendly Objective: I can find the missing number in an addition or subtraction equation no matter where the missing number is.
In small groups, students practiced finding the missing number in an equation at their instructional level. Students practiced different strategies such as subtracting, counting on, and adding the parts to find the whole to identify the missing number.
This week students continued working on addition strategies to improve their fact fluency. Students have started to learn the relationship between addition and subtraction during our math games this week and by using the number rack as a visual. Students have also learned how to compare two different numbers by subtracting to find the difference (ex: 5 red crayons, 7 blue crayons- there are 2 more blue than red 7-5=2). Additionally, our class began working on the following math common core standard:
1.OA.D.8 Determine the unknown whole number in an addition or subtraction equation relating three whole numbers. For example, determine the unknown number that makes the equation true in each of the equations 8 + ? = 11, 5 = _ – 3, 6 + 6 = _.
Student Friendly Objective: I can find the missing number in an addition or subtraction equation no matter where the missing number is.
In small groups, students practiced finding the missing number in an equation at their instructional level. Students practiced different strategies such as subtracting, counting on, and adding the parts to find the whole to identify the missing number.
Science
Students enjoyed engaging in some air activities with a syringe and tubing. We explored to answer the focus question: What happens when air is pushed into a smaller space? We will continue to explore this concept with the same materials early next week.
Students enjoyed engaging in some air activities with a syringe and tubing. We explored to answer the focus question: What happens when air is pushed into a smaller space? We will continue to explore this concept with the same materials early next week.
Upcoming Events
Friday, December 21st- Monday, January 7th: Winter Break, No school
Friday, December 21st- Monday, January 7th: Winter Break, No school