First Grade News Week Ending 1/14/22

 Hello! We have been SO busy this week. I know I say that a lot but I really mean it. The kids must be exhausted. We are doing two different science units. We started space last week which will continue until February vacation. We are currently on Mercury heading toward Venus. Our other unit is through Go2Science. It's an awesome program that lets the kids help real scientists find data for their hypothesis. We are looking to see if the kangaroo population is still thriving in Australia even though there are more houses and people around. We even get to ask questions to Beth and Curtis each Tuesday and Thursday as they zoom with us and share their videos. It's awesome. Ask your child about it.

READING AND LANGUAGE ARTS

We started non-fiction writing. We have Space Journals called The Family of the Sun. Each time we visit a planet, we write down facts and draw a diagram. This will help us when we write our own non-fiction books.

We read the book, The Snow Child, and then stuffed socks to make snow babies. We wrote stories to go with them.

We started Spelling Tests this week. Six words focus on a specific sound. Four words are sight words. On the back of the test I give the kids two sentences to write. I am looking for how many words they spell correctly out of sixteen, how their handwriting is and how many conventions they get out of six. They get two points for capitalization, two points for punctuation and two points for spacing. I did remind them that I use spelling words for the sentences so if they can spell it correctly on one side, they should be able to spell it correctly for the dictation. :)

MATH

We are working with place value and the equal sign. It is important for them to have a good understanding of the equal sign for when they get into harder math. For example: 3 + 2 = 5 and 5 = 3 + 2. It just has to be the same on each side. Another example is: 4 + 2 = 3 + 3. This was tricky. Many wanted to add all four numbers or say no it is incorrect because it wasn't a turn around fact (4 + 2 = 2 + 4). We will continue to work on this. In place value we are practicing making numbers different ways with base ten blocks. For example: 25 = 2 tens and 5 ones but it can also equal 1 ten and 15 ones or 25 ones.

Our Level Up math is going great. The kids are working really hard for four minutes to get as many addition problems done as they can. I encourage them to use strategies they know. For example: say the big number and count up or use doubles (2 + 3 is like 3 + 3 - 1) or make tens (5 + 8 = 5 + 5 + 3). Any tricks you know to help your child know their facts quick, would be awesome. We're always looking for new ways!! :)

ITEMS OF INTEREST

* No school on Monday, January 17. 

* Thank you Natalie for donating prize box treats and a box of disposable masks!!

* We are doing our play for PreK and K on Wednesday at 8:45. We will tape it on Thursday to hopefully get it out to our families soon after! They are doing a great job remembering their lines and movements.

Happy Long Weekend!

Stay Warm!