Weekly News!

I cannot believe another week of first grade has flown by and we are almost to October! These first graders have been working hard and are starting to take more and more responsibility in the classroom, which is fantastic to see! Here are more details about what we have been up to, and what’s coming up next week:

Reading:
Our theme in Treasures this week was, “Ready, Set, Move!”. Our reading strategies focus was on analyzing story structure and identifying sequence of events. The word pattern for our spelling words and making words lessons consisted of short /a/ words. We began our Guided Reading groups this week and we came through with flying colors! The students were focused during their independent work time, and I was able to meet with small groups to work on reading strategies and comprehension at each child’s level. The students also did an excellent job of remembering to read and discuss their books at home and return them the following day, so thank you for your support with this! As an added bonus, we created a digital class book at the end of our Treasures week this week about movement. We read the book, “From Head to Toe” by Eric Carle at the beginning of the week, about various animals and the ways they can move. The book follows a pattern, and we used the same pattern in our book showing off various ways that our students can move! Our students used our class camera to record one another demonstrating their movement. I know the children are excited to share it with you. I will post a link to the video on our blog when it is up! Next week our Treasures theme will be “Growing Up”, with our reading strategies focusing on text structure and identifying sequence of events. Our word pattern for spelling and making words will be short /i/ words.



Writing:
Our first grade authors have been working hard to publish their autobiographies this week! They copied each of their four rough draft pages in their nicest, neatest handwriting and added color to their illustrations. We published one page each day, and today we created a cover and an “About the Author” page. Next week, we will have a special sharing session with the other first graders in Mrs. Coyle and Miss Bandur’s classes so that we have the opportunity to share our autobiographies with others. We have been working diligently on our handwriting, and finished the letter Vv today. Next week, we will finish our handwriting book with the letters Ww, Xx, Yy, and Zz. We will begin our October handwriting book as well, where we will put all of these correct letter formations into practice with a fun Halloween themed story.



Math:
This week, we learned about complements of 10 (number pairs that add up to 10), unit labels for numbers, analog clocks, and telling time to the hour. Yesterday, your child brought home a clock with an hour and minute hand that you can keep handy for time practice and home links throughout the year. Encourage your child to start looking at an analog clock and telling the time to the hour independently! Next week, we will begin the week with Explorations, followed by pennies, nickels, and spending some time reviewing time and counting pennies and nickels in combination.

Social Studies:
This week in Map Skills, we explored directions on a map, identified the continents, learned about the countries within our continent, and the states within our country. We also introduced landforms as we wrapped up our Map Skills unit. Next week, we will finish up with a flip book illustrating our continent, country, state, and city before moving on to a short focus on Christopher Columbus in preparation for Columbus day the following Monday.

Have a fantastic fall weekend!

☺ Mrs. Glaser

¬Upcoming Events:
Monday, 10/3: School Picture Day
Wednesday, 10/5: Walk to School Day
Friday, 10/7: School Improvement Day- No School
Monday, 10/10: Columbus Day- No School