Reading: Our sight words for the week are to, said, was, for, his, and they. Please take a few moments each night to review spelling these words, finding them in texts and using them in sentences. This past week we wrapped up Read to Someone and Word Work. The students were SO excited to get their hands dirty with some of our more fun tools for making words. Please note that the students are doing spelling/word work activities each day, but much of their work is logged in their Daily 5 notebook which stays in school. If you would like to see some of your child's word work, I am happy to show you before our conference or after. This week we had a lot of fun with syllables. We worked with the Smart Board to sort words and even sorted words in our notebooks. The students also had fun making words with stamps, wiki sticks, lego letters, letter cubes, letter tiles, IPad/keyboard programs, rainbow writing, magnetic letters, abc stencils, bumpy road, etc. Our supply of word work activities will extend as we branch out into our spelling program. More of this work will be pencil/paper activities and will be sent home when completed. In the week ahead, we will focus on short a word families. We will also begin our "informal" spelling program. All students will take a pre-test on Monday and a post-test on Friday. During the informal stages, all students will be given a pre/post test with the same list of words. The purpose of this design is to teach them how to prepare for a spelling test (getting their notebook ready and practice these words in class). Once we get through all short vowels (maybe sooner, depending on how we do), our "formal"/individualized spelling program will begin.
Also during Reader's Workshop we will begin a short unit on fluency. We will use the chart below to guide our reading. Please feel free to use this chart to help your guide your child when reading at home. I find it is often to helpful when the same language is used at home and school.
Writing: My writers have learned how to read our writing like we read our books. As writers we have learned to ask ourselves, "What else would my partner want to know?" and how can we incorporate those answers into our questions. My "firsties" have also have become familiar with the "1st Grade Checklist" which they will use to guide their writing and I will use to as a rubric to grade their final personal assessment piece. In the latter part of the week, the students learned how to unfreeze their characters and their writing. We compared this to the movie "Frozen." In the movie, Elsa was able to freeze all of Arendelle, yet the characters still showed movement, emotion and dialogue. This week we learned how to unfreeze our characters by making them move and talk. The students did a GREAT job of making their characters move in their illustrations and talk using speech bubbles. They are starting to use movements in their texts along with dialogue. Some writers have even tried using quotation marks - Yes! Even in 1st grade!!! What a great accomplishment! Next week we will learn how to tell our stories in tiny steps. The goal of this is to bring the inside out and make the characters think and feel.
Math: We will continue with our subtraction unit this week. We will continue to focus on missing addends. We are slowly figuring out how addition and subtraction are related. We have been working hard to identify missing part by naming the whole and the part we know. Our part-part-whole model is continuing to help us along with beginning subtraction. For example, if we know we are given 8 counters but know we have 5, how many are unknown? We have started this concept by using concrete objects and drawing pictures. Our goal is to move to a more complex addition/subtraction mindset. Some students are able to see that 8-5=3, while other students have used a "lock it in your pocket" strategy to take to part (5) and count on to the whole (8=3). We will continue finding missing addends and writing subtraction expressions next week.
Science: We had a GREAT time exploring seeds this week! Although our applesauce was a fail, we succeeded in having fun as scientists! Boy, to these kids love science - who doesn't?! We began our study of seeds by studying seeds in various foods we eat. We identified foods and predicted the size, color and number of seeds within various foods. We had MANY misconceptions which added to our learning! My scientists explored the seeds (shapes, sizes and amount) of pea pods, avocados, apples, peaches, melons, peppers, and lemons. Just ask them - they are experts! In the week ahead we will explore how seeds grow and how they travel.
Thank you for sharing your special first grader with me! They are a great group!
Have a great weekend!
Kerry
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