Weekly News!

What an exciting week in first grade! We had our in-school field trip yesterday, when a scientist from High Touch High Tech joined us to do some fantastic experiments related to Matter. I was so impressed with how much the students retained from our unit on solids, liquids, and gases. They had a blast with the scientist, and even brought home a special crystals experiment that they can do again and again! *Please keep these crystals in a safe place, as they are not safe for pets or little brothers and sisters to ingest! Please visit our classroom website to view the photo album showcasing our scientific morning.

Reading:
Our Treasures theme this week was “Where Animals Live”, and we read stories about animals in the everglades, a red eyed tree frog’s home, ants’ living quarters, a koala’s habitat, and a prairie dog home. We practiced spelling words with the /sh/ and /th/ blends. As we read the selections for the week, we really focused on summarizing and identifying the main idea and the details of the story. During grammar instruction, we learned about irregular plural nouns, along with a review of checking to make sure all sentences have a capital at the beginning and an ending mark at the end. When we return from Thanksgiving, our Treasures theme will be “Sing and Dance!” Our word work and spelling words for the week will have the short /u/ sound. As we read the selections for the week, we will focus on visualizing and retelling. Our grammar lessons will focus proper nouns.

Writing (and Social Studies!):
This week, we tied much of our writing into our latest Social Studies project based on the Pilgrims, the Wampanoag tribe, and children today. We have been comparing and contrasting the daily life of these three groups, and we created flip books that focus on the similarities and differences in our homes, food, clothing, and games. This would be a wonderful opportunity for your author to share what they have learned and written about as you celebrate Thanksgiving next week! When we return from Thanksgiving, we will begin the letter writing unit of our Writing Workshop. Our Social Studies theme will focus on holiday traditions.

Math:
In math this week, explored various ways of collecting and examining data, and made a line plot to compare our data. We began using dominoes to practice addition facts, and played the game, “Domino Top-it”. This is similar to the card game Top-It, except you only need one set of cards (dominoes). You turn all of the cards face down, and Player 1 chooses a card at the same time Player 2 does. Each player counts the domino dots, and whoever has the highest number wins both dominoes. Continue playing until all of the dominoes have been picked up, and whoever has the most dominoes is the winner. The domino cards that the children cut out from their math journals came home in a plastic bag, and are yours to keep! Enjoy practicing Domino Top-It at home! The week after Thanksgiving will bring the start of Unit 4. We will begin by learning about reading thermometers, then explore measuring objects with nonstandard linear measures (fingers, hands, feet, etc). Next, we will learn about the difference between measuring with our feet versus a standard foot. Finally, we learned about measuring by the inch.

Progress Reports
Yesterday, progress reports came home! The students have so much to be proud of. When looking at the report cards, please do not be alarmed if your child does not have I’s. The Kindergarten report card is very different from the first grade report card, so if they were marked as Independent in Kindergarten categories and are now at the Beginning level for some first grade concepts, do not be alarmed. Many of the concepts we introduce in the first trimester of first grade will be spiraling through our curriculum and will continue to be part of our lessons as the year goes on, so mastery is not necessarily expected right away. The same can be said for behavior goals. First grade brings more responsibility, so the students will continue to grow into more independent first graders as the year progresses!

Have a nice weekend, and I look forward to sharing more about your child’s progress with you at conferences!

☺ Mrs. Glaser

Upcoming Events:
11/21-11/22: Parent Teacher conferences (No school for students)
11/22: LILY’S BIRTHDAY!
11/23-11/25: Thanksgiving break (No school for students)