What a terrific week we had here at school!
We are working on publishing our first books of the year. This week the authors will become the illustrators of their published books! During shared reading time, we are learning about characters and how they are an important key detail in a story. We enjoyed reading Click, Clack Moo and other books by Doreen Cronin. Duck was certainly an interesting character! During science, we again focused on being observers and experimenters. Our observations of apples lead to many questions. These questions lead to many hypotheses and conclusions. We floated apples, dissected apples, and one of us even found a tiny little worm! This week we start our first reading unit. We will read about schools in different parts of the world, and think about the rules of our school. We will connect our school rules to our country's rules...The U.S. Constitution. I sent home your child's reading and math password card again. For some reason, there are two sites listed for me. Either one of these should work. I am also aware that when you click on math, my name appears twice again. This seems to be a technical glitch that I have not been able to solve. Either choice will get you to the math. The children really enjoy the math games! On the reading platform, you will find the weekly letter, comprehension activities and decoding activities in the the "School to Home" section. Spelling words will also be on here, but I will also send home a hard copy list of spelling words. Children will practice reading and spelling these patterned words and other words with the pattern here at school. They should also make time to practice at home. We will assess your child's spelling understanding of these words each Friday. Tomorrow is school picture day! I am also out of the classroom tomorrow. Mrs. Macdonald and my friend Miss Kim will be running the day! Your children have a great day ahead! Thank you, thank you, and thank you for all of the help with apples, soft tissues, the Family Contact list, and all of the supplies. Your investment in our class is noticed, and appreciated! Your child is bringing home his/her first reading celebration book tonight. Please be sure to take the time to read this book with your child, sign the paper, and return it to school tomorrow. It is essential that the book come back each Thursday, as your child and other children, will need to use them.
Great turn out once again on Math homework. We had a few missing names, so be sure to have your child write his/her name on the homework. Please be sure to have your child use pencil for written work. The September Bingo homework has started to come in. Please be sure to have your child's name on this. I received one Bingo paper on Friday without a name. The kids haven't claimed it, but if you sent your child in with this paper on Friday, please let me know. THANKS! We are making a poster/chart with the September memories, so if you and your child could jot a sentence about a favorite September memory on the back of the paper, that would be GREAT! Tomorrow, we begin our investigation on apples. We'll be doing some taste testing on Friday. If you have some red, yellow, or green apples to spare, we could use 3 or 4 of each. Thanks in advance. I am so VERY proud of your children! They are taking risks with their learning. They are learning to not be afraid to try out tricky words or concepts! Our STEAM challenge this week is a wrap up of our study of insects. We read Effie, a story about an ant who has trouble making friends due to her REALLY loud voice. At the end, Effie saves the day and makes some friends too.
Our challenge was to make a model of a playground for Effie and her new friends. Using only a certain amount of materials and having a criteria for height and width, the engineers went to work. They brought home their models today. These are pretty fragile. We discussed how they may break, but that we have the ability to fix and make changes to them at home. Great job on our first week of homework families. This week we will have math homework on Tuesday (that will be consistent), and your child will bring home their first "Reading Celebration" book on Wednesday. Details of what to do will come home on Wednesday. Families, you have terrific children who are becoming independent learners and curious thinkers! We had our first full week of school!
On Friday, your child came home with his/her first completed STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, Math). The challenge was to use only the materials available at our materials table to show the Butterfly Life Cycle and how caterpillars and butterflies protect themselves. They had lots of creative ways to show their understanding. This past week we released several Monarch butterflies. We are observing Painted Lady caterpillars. During our Math time we are using number lines and hundreds charts to practice moving forward (adding) and backwards (subtracting). We are practicing our 5's pattern, and using our memory of the 5's chant to now attach the visual number to the count and its location on the Hundreds Chart. Reading time this week focused on being engaged with a text through the modalities of seeing, hearing, touching, and speaking. I am looking right now to see that children can follow a common shared text by pointing to each word, saying each word, and being a part of a shared reading community. We focus a lot on being engaged learners. Engaged learners are learners who can listen with their whole body. At this point in first grade, some children have acquired these skills and others are working towards acquiring them. You can work on these skills at home, by cueing your child to be a whole body listener when interacting with family members. Whole body listening includes:
On Tuesday, you can expect to see our first Math Homework assignment. Please make sure your child uses a pencil to complete homework assignments.
I'm looking forward to a great week! We are becoming a community of learners! Your children are learning about their classmates, their classroom, and their school. We have done many activities to learn about each other. During science time, we learned about being OBSERVERS. We observed and colored with accurate details the colors and stripings of a Monarch caterpillar. We then learned why butterflies are so colorful. We used this information to use color and markings to create a butterfly that would be protected in nature! Great science work! We will continue to be scientific observers this week! We will begin our reading program. This part of the program reviews Kindergarten and Readiness skills, and begins to introduce the routines of the first grade program. Our Back to School Night is tomorrow, September 9th. It will begin around 6:05 pm. This is a night for Parents and Guardians only. I will share a typical day in our first grade, and review classroom and homework learning expectations. I hope you can make it. Your children handled the day beautifully! They had lots of new things and a long day! I am sure they are tired.
Thank you for having them so prepared with snacks, lunches, folders, and dismissal plans! It made the day run smoothly. Tomorrow is filled with stories, some math games, and some science observations! Please tell your child that I am very proud of them! I'm very excited to see your children tomorrow. Please see my previous post for what your child will need on the first and every day of school.
If you have not let me know your child's dismissal plan, please be sure to include this in your child's folder tomorrow. If your child is riding the bus, it will be essential for me to know the bus number. I have a fun day planned for your children, and I look forward to seeing their smiles. |
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