Here's a sneak peek at this past week...
During Writer's Workshop we continued on with our opinion writing and even assisted our writing partners in selecting their best piece of opinion writing about their collections! Partners awarded each other a first place ribbon and told them all the reasons why they thought that particular piece was the best one.
Now we are busy at work on review writing! Thank you so much for compiling a list of review possibilities. The kiddos have taken to this writing right away and are hard at work convincing their readers! One of our friends is convincing her readers not to go to McDonald's because the only thing healthy there is the water, while another is convincing his reader that they should download the Minecraft app. Many of our writers are talking right to the reader by asking questions right at the beginning...
"Do you like to have fun? Do you like to roller skate? Then you should head right out to Ozaukee Skateland!"
In Reader's Workshop, we are continuing our focus on strategies we can use when we come to tricky words. This week we talked about reading across a word part by part, flipping the vowel sound, trying other sounds for the letters, and thinking about what is happening in the story. With all of these strategies we are sure to be sure that it not only looks right and sounds right, but that it makes sense. Comprehension should always be the focus!
In math we played 2-digit addition games, then prepared ourselves for our unit 4 assessment on Thursday. On Monday we'll begin unit 5. In this unit first graders will use tens and ones to add, subtract, and solve story problems to find teen totals and unknown partners. They will continue to add with tens and also learn to subtract with tens and add three numbers. I strongly encourage you to have your child practice his/her addition and subtraction math facts within 10 daily. There are many great apps that you can download for free to help your child become fluent with his/her facts. We did another fact fluency check this past week. This particular assessment had the unknown in various positions. This was a bit trickier for some. Be sure to include these types of problems when practicing at home. Examples: 4+__=7
___ = 8+1
We learned about Abraham Lincoln and about Chinese New Year through our Scholastic News magazines. We found a lot of root words in our "All Aboard, Abe!" issue and highlighted them in a separate activity. This was one of our reading strategies from last week, so we were really able to put it to practice!
On Tuesday we spent a lot of time discussing bullying: what it looks like, how we can help someone who is being bullied, what to do if we see or hear about someone being bullied, and what to do if we are bullying others. I hope you were able to discuss the bullying pamphlet that came home with your child.
In art class, first graders painted their snakes. Aren't they fantastic?!
In science we separated our solid/liquid mixtures. We discovered that we could separate the gravel and the kleenex from the water, however, we still didn't see our salt. Now we have our salt/water mixture in in petri dishes. I think the kiddos are going to be very excited when they see those petri dishes in the morning!
Mark your calendars:
February 26: Jump Rope for Heart event during PE classes
March 2: First graders will be celebrating Dr. Seuss' Birthday and Read Across America by wearing red and white and bringing in their favorite book and a stuffed animal.
March 9: Ivy and Bean play at the Sharon Lynne Wilson Center
March 10: Book Fair/Cake Walk Event
March 28: Spring Break begins
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