This week we celebrated the promise of spring! We are writing memoirs (memory writings) about our memories of spring. We are learning to zoom in to our writing and use strong word choices to help our readers feel that they are experiencing what we remember! This is BIG stuff for first graders!
Our Animal Dance writings are up and being displayed in the hallway. If you are in the building, be sure to check out your children's work! Your children are writing and reading, and applying these skills daily. We are learning to be thoughtful spellers, not just for a test, but for a life time! This week we will be reviewing the long vowel a pattern. In our classroom, we use resources to support our spelling. The Word Wall, our Spell Check cards, and our reading resources are all ways we help to be accurate or make "close approximations" with our spelling. If your child asks "How do you spell _______?" Ask them to stretch out the word and put in as many sounds as they can. Then, use that as a spring board to helping your child learn about the parts that they are uncertain of. Does your child have the beginnings of the word, but having difficulty with the endings? Is your child leaving out the middle sounds? Help your child to notice the parts that they DO know, and then support them in figuring out the tricky parts. Our Spelling Check Ins will be adding a sentence dictation component. When practicing spelling with your child, ask your child to write a sentence with two or three of the spelling words. Your child will be expected to capitalize and punctuate sentences correctly. Ways to help children become a life time speller... READ - READ - READ Notice print in our Every DAY world. Practice spelling patterns in multi-sensory ways.
Our big idea today was to discover how we are more alike than different. We connected this with our selves, our families, nature, and our communities.
We did a design project based on our study of animal behavior. Your child will come home with a "Secret Box". Inside the box they have written or drawn something that they are protecting. They then had to think about ways animals protect themselves and design a way to protect the box based on these animal features. Please have your child share the box with you. Be sure to ask them to show you how their design works and what animal(s) inspired the design. Your children continue to amaze and inspire ME! We enjoyed a visit with Jagger, Sundance, and their training families. We think the dogs and their families are Super Heroes! Be sure to ask your child about the visit.
We are almost done with our Animal Dance writings. Your children are learning to organize their writing. We learned about "revision" too. This means that we are "seeing our writing again" and deciding if we need to make changes by adding on, deleting, or reorganizing our sentences. This is BIG work! We have started using Xtra Math as a way to practice our addition facts. You received a letter about this on Thursday. Children have the optional opportunity to practice at home too. We are also practicing our facts with Fact Triangles. Your child will bring home more Fact Triangles on Monday. We have lots of snow on the playground. Please continue to pack winter gear for your children! There is a lot to explore in the snowy areas! Just a reminder that children should bring in a stuffed animal by tomorrow. This will be used for our book, Animal Dance. For information about this and the criteria for stuffed animal selection, please see my previous post.
We will have a visit with the Service Dogs in Training and their training family. A notification slip about this came home on Friday. If you have not done so already, please sign and return it by tomorrow. Mrs. Fillion's class has asked the school to join her class in celebrating World Down Syndrome Day on March 21st. That day we will be wearing crazy socks. For more information about World Down Syndrome Day, you can visit https://worlddownsyndromeday.org Parents, I'd love an opportunity to conference again with you either in person or via phone. Please contact me if you would like to set up a conference. Please let me know whether you'd like a phone call or to set up a meeting time. I am looking forward to sharing your child's growth with you! A notification slip regarding our future visit with a service dog in training came home today. Please sign and return indicating that you have read it. Please note if there are any concerns with pet allergies. The date is TBD. We will be reading about service animals in the upcoming weeks.
Today we started a new writing. We are writing non-rhyming poems based on the book Water Dance. Our book will be called Animal Dance. I have asked your child to bring in a stuffed animal by Wednesday. This will stay in the class for a few days. I've asked that the animal be a realistic animal. No Mickey Mouse, unicorns, animals with clothes, Pikachus, etc. Today we learned the attributes of polygons. We used multiple polygons to glue and create a design! We are learning about Main Idea. We are also working on using clues in the text to decide how a character may act. Have a wonderful weekend! Just wanted to send a reminder that the PTA is hosting a Free movie night this Friday from 6-8pm in the school gym. They will be showing the movie “Wonder”.
The book fair will be set up on the other side of the gym. It will be the last time for parents/teachers/students to shop for books. Your children came home today with their reading book(s). Please remember to have your child read these books to you and sign and return the books and paper. As a reminder, math homework is given out on Mondays. It is due back on Wednesdays. Please remember to check out our digital platforms for reading and math. If school is delayed or cancelled tomorrow, exploring these would be a great way to reinforce reading and math skills. Your child will be coming home with some book titles. We visited the Book Fair today, and they wrote down books that interested them.
Also, the PTA asked us to send out the following in the event that the snow that we have heard about happens... The PTA would like to inform everyone that if there is a snow day on Thursday, the Read-A-Thon/Pajama/Favorite Character Day will take place on Friday…same time, same place! We have had a wonderful start to our week!
Today we learned about attributes of shapes. We sorted shapes by their characteristics of size, shape, color, and thickness. We related our attribute work to our study of animal features. Animal features are animal attributes! We are learning about how animals survive in nature. We will be learning about biomimicry. Using features of plants and animals to help solve human problems. I hope you enjoyed the Chatterpix Report that your children created! They did a fantastic job researching, writing, drawing, reading, and animating! |
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