Weekly News!

We had another thrilling week in first grade, with many exciting activities!

This week, Emilia was our class photographer, and she captured so many great moments! We had a lot to take pictures of this week, and she did an excellent job keeping up! Here are a few of her photos, along with her captions:


Luca and Mick were acting out how to play football for Mick’s How-To book.



We were graphing who predicted if he would see his shadow or not.



This is one of our papers we used to graph our predictions.



We were making groundhog hats for Groundhog Day!




We were using the Mimio vote to get ready for our math test.

Reading

This week our Treasures theme was “Family Time”. Our spelling and word work lessons focused on triple consonant blends (spl-, str-, scr-). As we read this week, we focused on identifying the characters and setting of each story. We also asked questions as we read both for clarification and for further thinking (What do we wonder about?). We also practiced these strategies in our guided reading groups, along with practicing our fluency, expression, and decoding skills. During grammar instruction, we learned about contractions with the word “not” (hasn’t, isn’t, can’t, etc.). Next week will be a Treasures review week, so we will have no spelling lists or grammar packets coming home. We will take our Unit 3 assessment using the Mimio Vote system. The students will have the opportunity to perform surgery on a set of contractions to make their two word parts as good as new! I am confident that these first grade doctors will be effective healers for these contractions after all they have learned this week! We will also be conducting our OLSAT test next week, which you should have already received a letter explaining the test. If you did not, please let me know and I can send home another copy! We will continue our guided reading groups throughout the week like normal.

Writing

This week in writing, we continued to publish our How-To writing about our individual topics. The students finished typing their writing using the StoryKit app. Next, they partnered up to take photographs of one another using the camera on the iPads to demonstrate each step in their book. Once the students’ books were published, they emailed me a link to their book so that I could compile all of the links for you. Check the post below this one to find the collection of links!

Math

Our main objectives in math this week were to check in and see how we have been doing with all of the new concepts that have been introduced recently. We began the week with a Unit 5 review, which we completed using the Mimio Vote system. Next, we took our Unit 5 test, focusing only on the most recent unit. Those were sent home on Wednesday. Then, we took our Mid-Year assessment to see how we are doing with all of the concepts that should be mastered at this point in the year. Those tests will be shared with you at spring conferences. On Thursday, we began Unit 6 with a lesson on the addition/subtraction facts table. We also played “Addition Top-It” with our Top-It cards. You can play this at home with cards or by using the online version at the Everyday Math Online games site. (There is a link on our class webpage! Please let me know if you need a reminder of your child’s login information!) When you get to the site, it will be under 2 player games. Click the drop down menu for Top-It and you will see “Additon 0-5”. After our regular math work was completed this week, we continued to use the iPad apps to practice our skills! This week, we focused on time, using the following apps to work on telling time: Clockmaster, Clocks4Kids, and KidsTimeFun. Next week, we will begin the week with a lesson on equivalent names. This is thinking about how many ways you could write the same number. For instance, if you selected the number 10, you might write the word “ten”, make 10 tallies, draw a long to show 10 in base ten blocks, draw a domino with 6 dots on one side and 4 on the other to show a total of 10, draw a dime to represent 10 cents, write the addition fact 5+5, or write the word 10 in another language. Next, we will introduce fact families by using dominoes. For example, if a domino has 3 dots on one side and 4 dots on the other, the fact family would be:
3,4,7
3+4=7
4+3=7
7-4=3
7-3=4
This will tie in with the lesson on the following day-fact triangles. These are basically triangles with one of three numbers in a number family on them, and they help the students to generate fact families for those numbers. On Thursday, we will have a special 100th day of school celebration, so we will not have a regular math lesson. Instead we will focus on games, writing, and other activities all about the number 100. Don’t forget to dress up like you are 100 years old on Thursday! I can’t wait to see all of my first grade friends as little 100 year olds!

Science & Social Studies

Focusing again this week on living things, the first grade scientists dissected celery to learn about stems. We used the proscopes to get an up close and personal view of the xylem, which are the tubes inside the celery stalk that carry water and nutrients throughout the plant. During our experiment, we also learned that a cross section is the surface that you see when cutting through an object. So scientific! We wrapped up our study of living things with a discussion and video about mold rather than a hands on experiment to avoid any issues with allergies. We also learned about Groundhog Day, and made predictions leading up to the big day. Surprisingly, our class was split almost exactly down the middle when students voted on whether or not the groundhog would see it’s shadow! So about half of our class was excited to find that Punxsutawney Phil did see his shadow on Thursday morning!

Next week, we will switch gears as we move begin our February Social Studies focus on the Presidents (specifically Washington and Lincoln) as well as what it means to be a good citizen. We will kick this study off with a few activities focusing on US symbols before diving into Presidents and citizenship in the coming weeks! We will of course be celebrating Valentine’s Day as well on the 14th, so don’t forget to make your box to collect the Valentine’s from your classmates! You should have received a note about this with a list of the students’ names in our class on Wednesday. If you didn’t, please let me know and I will send home another copy!

This week also brought another session of Art Appreciation! Today, Mrs. Colias joined us to teach us about Henri Rousseau. The students made observations about his painting, "The Waterfall", and then created their own jungle scene!



Have a SUPER weekend!

Mrs. Glaser ☺